Direct comparison between iRacing & AC. I like iR's road textures a lot better. Scenery looks more lush. Lighting looks better too. Very impressive for such an old engine.
it's remarkable how similar the video is on both sides, and I did not see a single re-sync done with editing the video, unless they were very good at hiding it. That means the two sims have almost identical accuracy of physics, which would be expected when both are striving to get closer and closer to the real thing. It'd be like if we were both racing to a common point, but started on opposite ends of the track. As we both approached the finish, we'd naturally have to also get closer to each other.
I do agree that IR's road textures look a little better - but also noticed that some of the effect seems to be a more accurate sheen on the road when hitting the sun's rays at the best angle. On the AC side, the road looks especially good coming down the final straight, for instance, because time of day is different. There is still an edge that IR has on the road ,even with conditions the same... But, it would be better if both videos were taken from same sky type and time of day (even season if it is modelled). There is even a point in the back stretch of AC's Nord where the trees look a lot better than IR's IMO. However, most of the time IR's looked better at least as far as appearing most natural looking. AC's branches and more complex foliage appears to have finer detail to it, though, especially around the edges.
Also, I noticed there was some graffiti on IR that is missing from AC