Armaroli Design is a Brazilian company that utilizes
highly-evolved technological solutions specifically aimed at
the simulator market. Producing state of the art simulators and
cockpits in various classes such as Formulas, Rally and Touring
Cars, they stormed into the mainstream this month after
releasing their Armaroli SimRacing WorldCup (ASWRC) beta-mod
for rFactor, which features not only a very sturdy open-wheeler,
but a concept that is as unique as it is inspiring.
AUTOSIMSPORT had the chance to speak to Luciano
Armaroli (Technology and Graphical Development) and his
brother Marcelo (airplane pilot and former race driver, in
charge of Development of Product and Research) who, along
with their father Jaldo Amorim (Administrative and Financial
Director), are the core of Armaroli Design.
Their unique brand of quality and innovation-they
describe their simulators as "new, interactive, technological,
dynamic and emotive media," (which a glance at the product
range on their site amply demonstrates) has seen them carveout
a solid and respected reputation in the simulator market;
an improbable outcome when one considers the physical
evolution of the Rio-based studio.
It all started way back in September of 2003 when the
Armaroli brothers, like many before them, realized that, while
sim-racing's simulators were improving hand over fist with
every release, the hardware and peripherals available to run
them were, for reasons they could not quite fathom, lagging
far behind and unable to make use of the resources at their
disposal. Frustrated, they decided that the only solution
available to them was to design their own product.
The problem, however, was that this product existed solely
as a caricature that Luciano had sketched portraying brother
Marcelo's various activities and hobbies (plants, planes, and
cars!).
"As funny as it is," Luciano says now, three years on, "we
looked at it and wondered if we could mix our skills to make
this drawing come true!"
With the caricature as base, and from an old Ford Formula
chassis lying around in the garage of their house in Cosme
Velho, Rio de Janeiro, along with the aid of the "laminating
Master Sassá", the two brothers initiated development of their
"dream" product with ingredients that, "included aluminum,
fiberglass, iron, screws, sanders, and sweat."
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| Amaroli’s project in the Amoroli’s garage. |
Nine months later, in June of 2004, the project would
conclude with the first prototype from the Armaroli Design
studio; they called it the Simulator FA1 Formula Armaroli 1.
"We started showing the FA1 to some professional pilots
like Tony Kanaan and Felipe Massa," says Marcelo, "and they said
it was the best simulator they've ever tried. So we were really
surprised and happy."
Even better, though, was that the FA1 enjoyed an excellent
response not only from the drivers and guests that tested
it at the motor shows, but by their customers as well as the
specialized press. Their site is visited by people from more than
50 countries every month and their page rank at Google is, "30
percent, which is actually very good considering the short time
of our existence," says Luciano.
Their goal, like many in this community, is to "professionalize
virtual motoring". This, they believe, can only be secured by
obtaining financial resources that will see the continuity of
their projects. They are, "actively searching for new investment
partners for capitalization of resources that {will enable} the
development and innovative exploration of products and
ideas," explains Luciano, "such as the production of the Station
Cobra, specially designed for use in LAN Houses.".
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| Tony Kannan after his BAR test. |
They are also seeking to initiate the production of their
new model, the FA2 2006 . and to this end, they have built
their rFactor mod around their actual cockpit.
Yes, you heard right.
What makes this Design studio so successful is the sheer
scope of their vision; a point that is amply made when Luciano
explains that they are, "also focused, for instance, on exploring
the possibilities of developing projects with base motion,
smells, smoke, as well as popular simulators of aviation and Star
Wars, {along with} the RC Armaroli and simulators for physicists,
the training of pilots and for driving schools."
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| Schumi Brasil and Armaroli simulator |
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| Armaroli Cobra Station for gamer. |
Their current project, however, and the area in which
the brothers' focus has shifted, is online racing and modding.
Through an agreement with ISI, and using rFactor as their base,
Armaroli Design is getting into the world of online sim-
racing
and their mod the ASWRC Armaroli SimRacing WorldCup has been met with largely positive feedback since the beta
release mid-March, and now available for download
here.
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| Armaroli FA1 simulator. |
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| Above and right: Armaroli FA2 real car. |
"Everything started when Déthan Rootring, from Holland,
saw our A1GP mod {that we} designed specifically for the
A1Grand Prix," explains Luciano, a mod that, "didn't go through.
Déthan asked if we could release it as our own championship,
and we explained that we didn't have the rights to use it. But,
since we have our own full-size designed car that will be our
next cockpit called the FA2 we decided that we'd make a
mod of our cockpit for use 'specially with rFactor!
"That was the grand start," continues Luciano, and from
there, Déthan, "called his friends Petros Mak from Australia,
CJ Marin from the U.S., and Fernando Oliveira from Brazil and
together, we launched the
ASRWC."
The idea is to create what the brothers call a "Virtual World-
Wide Championship," and is, Marcelo explains, "the development
of the virtual Armaroli Formula, with the new 2006 model all
ready for production."
In other words, a series based around their own cockpits...
The intention, they explain, is to commercialize the
spaces on the cars, both virtually and real. To achieve this, the
championship will feature live broadcasts as the 24 represented
nations do battle in the series scheduled to begin at Zandvoort
on April 22, with the top five drivers being invited to Brazil at
the end of 2006 for a final competition on board of the FA2
cockpits. This, they hope, will be televised and broadcast live.
The simulated cockpit simulated for an online virtual series
meets the sim-racers-in reality. The concept really does take a
little getting used to .
All of this is geared toward fulfilling their goal which is, "to
transform the virtual world of car racing into a professional one."
Marcelo, of course, comes from the hard world of real-worldracing,
and knows a thing or two about how to operate in this
cut-throat environment. "We are today directing all our efforts
to attracting major sponsors to this first world championship,
in order to finance the structure of the event, the teams and
sim-racers," he explains, adding that, "if everything develops as
planned, {they will} be able to promote demo' competitions
such as this in other countries ."
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| Marceolo Armaroli and Ayrton Senna |
A unique concept, this, and one never before seen
in sim-racing; a cockpit manufacturer developing a virtual
series molded around their physical cockpit with the hope of
broadcasting the online sim-racers racing the virtual series in
the real cockpits for a live, real audience . proof, if any more
was needed, that sim-racing remains in its infancy with so many
possibilities yet to be explored.
With Armaroli Design, sim-racing has taken yet another
evolutionary step toward its destiny which, as yet, has not even
been conceived, much less seen.
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| Armaroli touring station. |
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AUTOSIMSPORT got hold of Petros Mak, ASRWC Public
Relations Director, to find out more about this unique virtual
championship.
Mak, who is the Manager for Team Greece, is a grizzled
veteran of the real-racing world, having competed in the
inaugural 1998 Australian F3 Championship (before it was
bought-out by the FIA).
"The 1998 F3 Championship was privately made by an
Australian company and was bought by the FIA after a major
accident had occurred," he explained, before revealing that he is
in the process of 'talking'-that is, negotiating-for a ride with
Scud Racing in Australia.
Mak's goal is to move on to the U.S. in 2007, "to race in
F3 or NASCAR depending where I'd get picked up," he said.
Money, Mak confesses, has been a major stumbling block
in his career so far; "it became a lot more expensive after the FIA
bought the championship," he says, and "it virtually costs over
$50-60,000 for the car alone now-back then, I bought my car
for $28,000. So yeah, the price had risen considerably. Now I
have sponsors paying for my ride and, well, I am looking to get
into the Australian Series this year."
Mak has used his real-world experience to help with the
ASRWC mod in terms of both settings and physics.
He also races for Hyperstimulator in Australia where,
"you can see my results on the site's standings page." He also
finds time to manage his own real and sim-racing team at
Mak-Racing.
Ample experience then, for Mak to act as one of the main
managers of the Armaroli Brothers inspired ASRWC.
AUTOSIMSPORT sat down with Petros Mak and Luciano Armaroli and we began by
asking them how the whole thing got started. .
Mak: The league idea was first created by Déthan. He had
envisioned a league that emulated the real-life A1GP. We've
seen leagues of NASCAR, F1, and many other motor-sports in
the world, and it was time that an A1GP Online League was
created for all the fans.
Déthan approached quite a few people back then to
help him create the project. I can't say that I was the first, but
I was one of the first few people who supported his idea and
wanted to see this project come to life. The Armaroli brothers,
Luciano and Marcelo, also joined in on the project {by} taking
up the creation of the mod. The league began to be worked on
slowly, and recently I myself quit my job as Racing Director of
another league to join full time in helping ASRWC in their quest
of building up their league.
ASRWC is a league built on a lot of hard work and
dedication by the people involved. We all have worked very
hard on getting this league started and feel that it can become
a great success.
Luciano: I would like to thank everyone involved in the
ASRWC project that took me lots of weekends and nights without
sleeping, dreaming with counting polygons, UVmapping,
painting textures and so on.
Renato Simioni (Brazil) physics, Frank Alexandre
(Brazil) track editing, Frederico Gentil (Brazil) painting all nationcars'
liveries, Marcelo Melo (Brazil) rendering the cars in MAX for
beautiful presentations, Ben Harbur (US) polishing the MOD,
Kinho Iglesias (Brazil) general help, Marcelo Pinto (Brazil) helped
on serving the races, Rodrigo Jabour (Brazil) general help, Ant
Carlos (Brazil) brought us confidence and experience, and
all drivers from different countries who tested and gave their
statements about it-Leandro Schimidt (Brazil) sim-racer. And,
the most important person who is indirectly responsible for
all this is GJon Camaj {who}, together with his team (Image
Space Incorporated), created this amazing game concept-
Customize, Control, Connect in rFactor-so we can build and
customize our cars, and make it run in any famous circuit we
can think of ... so we owe him much respect in all this.
AUTOSIMSPORT: As for the mod itself, which can be
downloaded here, can Mak share in its evolution?
Mak: The ASRWC mod was made by the Armaroli brothers.
Marcelo designed and created the full version of the FA2 Formula
Armaroli, and Luciano designed the mod himself, shaped the cars,
edited tracks, and painted the liveries of all the nation cars. Luciano
and Marcelo have been the strongest point of the group, creating
the most necessary aspect of the league and, without their hard
work and dedication to the league, all this would not have been
possible. They have achieved extraordinary work in this mod and
those who participate within the league will see this.
AUTOSIMSPORT: How were the Team Managers for
each nation selected?
Mak: When the registrations came up, we advertised the league
to various simracing sites like FSR, RSC, and many others. It
was basically first come, first serve. The first person to apply
for their nation seat was given the seat holder position of that
nation. Our aim was to bring as much interest into ASRWC as
possible. By allowing these first comers to take up the seat of
their nation, it allowed word of ASRWC to spread as they tried to
find drivers. These seat holders posted in their own forums and
other sites which made other nation members want to check
out the league and become interested. In my case it was fairly
easy. I've known Déthan for many years and, when I heard of
the project, I had asked to have the seat for Team Greece, seeing
as I am one of the rare sim-racers from Greece. The seat holder is
responsible for finding his own drivers however, so the league
only takes care of seat holder positions.
AUTOSIMSPORT: Will the nations represented represent the
same nations that are featured in the real-world A1GP?
Mak: The first season will see a select amount of countries racing
in the championship. The amount is undecided yet, but to give
you an example-if we have 20 nations racing this year, then
the first 20 nations that registered will receive the first option to
race this year, whilst the others will compete in a hotlap season
to prepare them for drafting in the next season.
Only the top 14 teams can carry over to next season's
championship, which leaves the remainder having to fight a
shootout with the outside nation teams {in order to} qualify
for next season's championship. It is a process devised to bring
more competition between the nations and make it fairer when
choosing which nation goes in the following season-rather
than just choosing a select few from the amount, we offer them
a shootout which gives everyone a chance to qualify.
It is a more equal session for everyone. The reason we have
also allowed so many non-real-life A1GP participating countries
is due to the fact we {had} hoped that the real-life nations may
become inspired from our league and look into the real-life A1GP
series. In this form of publicity, we try to boost the real-life A1GP
series' popularity in countries that have not participated in it.
AUTOSIMSPORT: This league is a long one in terms of time
with a significant summer break-usually online series tend to
be far tighter schedule-wise. Is there a reason for this?
Mak: We understand that many simracers around the world
have a real-life to handle and cannot spend each weekend
racing online. We've tried to make a calendar that is not only
convenient for the members, but also good enough to satsfy
their season of racing. The break we have is during a period
where most of the members have holidays or go on holidays
with their families, and the league wanted to accomodate this
time of the year so that the drivers do not miss out on races. The
league really cares about how their drivers react to the timetable
and wants to have a timetable that suits all members.
AUTOSIMSPORT: The tracks are, as far as I can tell, also made
specifically for the series-who made them, and how accurate
are they? In other words, what was the process involved and could
you also explain the cars and their accuracy in a similar fashion?
Mak: The tracks ASRWC will be using are pre-made tracks from
the track modeling community of rFactor. We have asked for
permission from the track builders to use their tracks within our
league, in addition to making several changes ourselves, such
as graphics, textures, and any sponsor/investor logos that need
to be placed on track billboards or signs.
Of course in our first year, we are more reliant to the track
work of others, but we are planning ahead on changing that
and having our own track modelers create our own tracks from
Season 2007 onwards. We are in talks with MMG (Mak Mod
Group), the creators of F1 1950-2006 Mod for rFactor which is
still in production, on creating solely new tracks from scratch
that will be used for this league. We are very confident that a
deal will go through as the manager of MMG is also an admin
at ASRWC known as Petros Mak!
AUTOSIMSPORT: Prizes?
Mak: As we are trying to get sponsors to support this
championship, we are asking them to give us some computer
equipments (Processors, Video Cards, Input Devices) that we
can offer to the winning nations...
AUTOSIMSPORT: What are the most important features of this
series, and can you explain a little about the vision of giving sim
racing a 'sporting' profile, as opposed to a 'video game' stigma
which many in the community believe is an obstacle to simracing's
growth.
Mak: We had wanted to portray a professional setup to show
to the sim-racing world and the real-life potential sponsors and
investors, that this league is a serious league.
But those that see the league must bear in mind that, for the
first year, our aim is mainly to have fun and see how the season
pans out. We try to emulate the real-life A1GP series, bringing
along most of its rules, and we offer to sim-racers a chance to
represent their nation in the World Cup of Sim-Racing.
To give the league a sporting profile rather then a video
game profile, we have devised nation team websites that will
be sub-directories from the ASRWC site, and each nation team
will have one and be responsible for keeping it updated. Not
only does the nation team have to provide drivers in each race,
they also have to work on promoting their team to a real-life
audience that will follow the league, and also work on the
media department of their nation team site to keep their nation
fans happy.
Each nation site will also have two language options,
English and the respective nation's language. So as you can see,
the league places great emphasis on promoting the nations all
over the world. The caliber of drivers is extraordinary and they
all have an immense amount of skill. We have many drivers in
this league that all the best sim-racers from around the world
should come and test their skills against.
The level of racing will be high by any standard, with the
competition against drivers expected to be at its absolute
highest. ASRWC may be a new league, but all things have a
beginning just like the real-life A1GP did. Whilst our first year will
be more of a fun year, we are hoping ASRWC will grow into one of
the biggest sim-racing leagues out there as the years progress.
AUTOSIMSPORT: Are the starting places all filled up? How did
you assign the drivers, and explain a little about the selection
process for drivers.
Mak: We are not filled up. We accept seat holders of nations
that have no current seat holders to register even during the
season. Nations may have four drivers registered to their nation
team at any one time. However, there is nothing stopping the
nations having more drivers on back-up and having them race
if any of the others can't. It just takes a driver switch process to
do that, so it's quite simple.
The nation's seat holder has the right to choose whoever
he/she likes to race if they choose to; however, if a nation has
more then one driver, we have a race qualification where every
driver from every nation participating in the current season has
to attend. The drivers of each nation with the best time will be
selected to run the race whilst the others will sit out. So it's more
of a battle between the drivers to qualify. This is the process
held in order to give all the nation drivers a chance in qualifying
for the race. Whilst one driver may be faster on some tracks,
another may be faster on another, so the nation would want to
initially produce the best driver they have for the given track. If a
nation only has one driver, then they do not need to participate
within the qualification session.
AUTOSIMSPORT: We wish you all the best guys!
