Hosted AI racing coming to iRacing in 2021 Season 4 build

iRacing is continuing to improve their AI product for members on the service. We already know that more content is getting the AI treatment and the existing content will be more optimized in 2021 Season 4’s build.

On Thursday, iRacing snuck in another update about the AI over on their website. Starting next week, AI Hosted sessions will be a thing where multiple drivers can race the same pack of AI drivers online together.

It seems like every day, we step closer to bringing back some of the best features from NASCAR Racing Season 2003. Yeah, the online multiplayer and offline championships were cool, but some of my favorite memories were spending time with friends racing through hoards of computer cars, a great mix between offline and online racing.

Many other online racing games already offer a service like this. As iRacing was originally based as an online racing platform, it’s really neat to see some of these elements coming together.

The procedure from the release is bulleted down below. I’m going to go see if my NR2003 friends are as excited about this as I am. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

AI HOSTED PROCEDURE, PER IRACING:

• Create an AI Hosted session the same way you would create any other Hosted session. We recommend that the iRacer with the best connection serve as the host. Only AI-enabled tracks will be eligible for AI Hosted sessions.
• iRacers register for, and join, the AI hosted session. While the AI drivers will only be able to compete in AI-enabled cars, the host may create a session that allows other iRacers to run in cars that aren’t AI-enabled.
• The AI roster in the session will be linked to the iRacer who creates the AI Hosted session. This roster may be generated on the spot, or selected from rosters that you’ve already built. When the host joins the server, the AI cars join; if the host leaves the server, the AI cars leave. If the host returns, the AI cars return as well.
• When the host joins the server, the AI roster they bring will fill as many open grid spots as possible. As with real iRacers, these grid spots are not released once they’re claimed by the AI cars, even if the host leaves the session. If the host is bringing a large AI roster, they may still register immediately, but hold off on hitting the button to actually join the session—we recommend that the host join last so that no real users are locked out!
• If the AI roster is not big enough to fill all remaining open grid spots, new iRacers will still be able to join.