Ever wished you could follow the WRC stages from the comfort of your own PC. Want to get access to timing data, stage maps and produce your own in car footage.Now you can with virtual spectator from VSL

Simon asked the moderators to test it out for a while, and here are my thoughts on it - he's not paying me for this BTW

Firstly you download the program from http://wrvs.virtualspectator.com/ and install it.

After it's installed you can view data, maps, stage times and produce your own WRC footage from a number of sample stages.

By registering and purchasing(very cheap!) access to the most current rally(in this case Argentina) you can obtain all the info any rally fan could want on a stage by stage basis.

You can look at an overview map of all the legs


And then drill down into each stage.




Then comes the fun part, by clicking on the various drivers and camera views you can control and create footage of the stage, and so see exactly where someone lost or gained time. The lines they took around the corners and their relative entry and exit speeds too.



This feature is worth the money all by its self

In summary, if you are fed up with poor WRC rally coverage, why not create your own, as you would want to see it. There are loads more features I could mention but I need to go and play with the 'in car' view some more.


This is a stunning bit of software and recommended to anyone with an interest in the WRC


[Edited by Neil Smalley - 5/18/2002 11:43:04 AM]

 

Couldn't agree more Neil, having used the software for the last two rallies I have been really impressed.

By far the best feature is the ability to run a number of cars on the stage at the same time and compare the drivers.

Virtual Spectator was hoping to get the scenary in for Argentina, the survey of the stages had been completed, but alas looks like it didn't make the rally. Oh well something to look forward too in a later rally (not that my computers got enough poke to render it anyway).

The other great thing about VS is that the data for the rallies you pay for stays on your computer so it can be replayed as often as you like.

Nigel

 

So how much £££ we looking at here? Looks fun
Si

 

It works out at just under £7 per rally, which compared to the £12 for F1 on Sky Digital (which is only available when the race is live), is pretty decent value for money.

The software itself is free, as are the upgrades, it is only the GPS data that is paid for.

The software periodically connects to VS to check for upgrades and stage data.

Nigel

 

Really comes into it's own when the action is this close.

Tomi and Marcus posting times 1.5 seconds apart but much quicker than the rest of the field. You can see where they make up the time over the others over the whole stage, rather than the brief glimpse you get on C4.

 

Do u get a good view of Tommi rolling over?
Si

 

Runs like a dog on me laptop, was thinking about getting a new desktop machine.

Si

 

i was running it last night on the new PC i built specifically to get the most out of this and the damn thing blew up!!!!! LOL

Have to say this software is fantastic, i found a few enhancements that are great, you can superimpose the stage times as a graph on the screen and can see the point at which the driver sudenly starts to lose time.

For example on stage 2 (first stage run) Burns went through a ford and went onto 3 cylinders. You can tell where that was on the graph by his suden dip in pace and then just drill down to that area of the stage and take a look.

I did the same on the last event where tommi spun losing a place to burns. It's pretty cool stuff.

The incar stuff is good as you can see well how the road goes up and down and where the jumps are, thats going to be brilliant come Rally Finland.

I was lucky enough to meet some of the guys from VS and see the car tracking system used by the FIA live when i was in Monte Carlo, they are making fast progress on the software, things get more advanced every event. For the money its fabulous and if your into the sport it adds an extra dimension to the whole event.

So far very impressed.

Now to fix my PC.