(Topic ID: 280229)

Anyone into sim racing?

By Vdrums

3 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 89 posts
  • 25 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 21 days ago by FatPanda
  • Topic is favorited by 11 Pinsiders

You

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

9FEA7662-8AAF-4CAF-9E8A-C592B573A365 (resized).jpeg
IMG_9123 (resized).JPG
IMG_9139 (resized).JPG
IMG_9120 (resized).JPG
66452041952__3F250CFB-A6CC-4846-B75E-1ACF1E612F0F (resized).JPG
image (resized).jpg
20220107_103852 (resized).jpg
IMG_8480.JPG (resized).jpeg
20220103_211910 (resized).jpg
20220103_211917 (resized).jpg
20220103_131109 (resized).jpg
20220103_130157 (resized).jpg
20220103_130217 (resized).jpg
pasted_image (resized).png
51A9D076-7859-47E2-BE3B-C5C57CB12E48 (resized).jpeg
3286C41B-526B-4844-B305-A23882A580B4 (resized).jpeg

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider FatPanda.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

#20 2 years ago
Quoted from bigduke6:

Reviving this thread to see if there are any pinheads in Iracing. Upgraded my set up recently and planning to jump backing as the winter closes in.

I'm toying with the idea of doing VR racing. I'm very early in the process. Set up includes VR capable laptop and Oculus Quest 2 connected to it via Airlink. I just bought Asseto Corsa during the Steam sale, and now I'm looking at a wheel, pedals, shifter and seat/rig setup.

I'm tempted to go balls in a get a Fanatec set up, but I wonder if I should start off with a Logitech or Thrustmaster belt driven wheel instead. One other thing is space, so I'll have to get a rig that can fold up and be stored away when not in use. The only thing that I see that is capable of that is the Playseat Challenge...Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on what wheel/pedal set up to go with, as that would be the next purchase.

#22 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

A lot of the higher end gear really benefits from a more solid setup. I haven't really looked into rigs since I got my obutto rev years ago, but if I were going to do it again I'd probably take my time building something out of 80/20. You might be able to get creative with some ways to break that down with a little effort. Some friends had playseats, and while they were serviceable, the amount of movement really started to bother them.
The Fanatec gear is great. I've used the logitech, but not the thrustmaster, though I believe them to be similar. There's nothing wrong with the logitech, and it's going to suit most of the racing games well. When you start to get into the real hobbyist stuff, you're likely going to want an upgrade. It gets even nuttier than the Fanatec stuff if you can believe that, but I personally think that's a really good place to enter and stay.
The other thing I'd recommend from an immersion standpoint is a buttkicker gamer 2. VR plus rumble seat is a pretty convincing experience for a relatively modest additional cost.
Here's my setup, it tucks slightly under my desk, and sits next to my desk chair. It's not ideal, and I'm thinking once thunderbolt becomes a bit more affordable maybe I can run something into another room or even in the closet under the stairs to get it out of the way a little. I swap out that flight stick for an H-Shifter as needed, but almost all series in iracing are getting out of that anyway, which annoys me. I decided not to renew iracing for now, I'll grab it month to month if I get the itch, but it seems like Assetto Corsa offers a pretty great experience for the amount of time I have right now.[quoted image]

Thanks for the thoughts Dave! My biggest problem is I dont have a dedicated playspace. My situation is, my router is in my living room, and in order to have a solid internet connection, my laptop has to sit near my router hardwired, which allows me to go wireless from my Quest 2 to my laptop. Without that...well, I haven't tried, but I doubt the VR experience would be smooth.

As far as 80/20 goes, I've never worked with it but I can see why you'd want to use it. I wouldn't be opposed to building one out of 2x4, but again, not having the dedicated playspace is kind of a hindrance. My original thoughts were to go with a logitech, since I dont know if it's going to be a hobby that will stick around or just be a fart in the wind. At this point, I think it'll be more to satisfy an itch I don't know that I have? I mean, just the thought a cruising around in Germany in some car that I would never be able to drive in real life, in VR, sounds pretty appealing to me, right now, but who knows if it'll get old to me or not?

so I guess at this point, I'm just looking to get started, at not a crazy price point. I don't want super cheap, but something that'll be a good entry point but not be a complete loss if I decide it's not for me. Looks like overall, the Thrustmaster T300 RS is the way to go, since it is belt driven and smoother, vs logitech being gear driven and more "grainy".

#25 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

That's a fair route. The Playseat may work well for you for that purpose. The wheel should be fine too. It really comes down to immersion the higher up you go. As you might know, one of those iracing Nascar televised events was won by a guy that had a g27 (or similar) simply clamped to his desk. You should be able to sell the t300 should you decide you want to upgrade.
If you have a problem with the playseats wobble, you could build out a simple support structure out of 2x4 or something to help reinforce it. If you can just sort of slip it in and wedge it, you should still be able to store the whole structure. My cousin did something like that, a really crude packing tube stuffed strategically in place to offer some reinforcement. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

Good idea adding additional bracing if needed. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the playseat's design, but the reviews are generally positive. Wish I could test it out before I buy. I wasn't aware about the iRacing Nascar guy...but if it is Nascar...well...

Quoted from FlippyD:

Although it can appear intimidating and has a subscription model you should check out iRacing. It's a very mature platform and the VR is very good and it's very easy to dive into racing with real people. I've been using it for 10 years and love it

I'm not a fan of a subscription, so I might not do that for a while. I'm looking forward into digging into Assetto Corsa, and it seems that there are some super great mods from the community! It seems like it has a good mix of racing and cruising, which I can see myself just cruising around in VR and doing street light races lol. Reliving my teen years all over again, except with way nicer cars

#27 2 years ago
Quoted from Ricmaz:

Before I switched to my current rig, I was using a Playseat Challenge. For the money, not a bad seat. I was able to sit in it for several hours at a crack.

Thanks for the feedback! It's between that and the F-GT Lite.

https://nextlevelracing.com/products/f-gt-lite/

Seems like the Playseat can fold up into a thinner profile than the F-GT Lite though.

And...I put in my order for a Thrustmaster T300RC GT Edition. Which is great because I can use it on my PS5 as well. Haven't dug into a Gran Turismo since GT2 way back...

#29 2 years ago

Getting set up with a Playseat Challenge in the next couple weeks. Got a buddy of mine to pick one up second hand, but they're about 400 miles away, so gotta wait before I can really dig in. I think for now, it'll be a good, portable setup that I can stow away when I'm not playing, or move it around if I find that my wireless connection will work well.

Quoted from pcprogrammer:

We made a custom setup. I'll post some pics when I get home. Been a lot of fun.

Are you just starting or have you been playing for a while now?

#30 2 years ago

Also, if there are games that anyone wants to play online with after I get setup, let's race together!

Deaconblooze What games are you playing on your Quest 2? Any multiplayer games?

#34 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

I'm really bad at sticking with games a lot of the time, so I've been floating around a lot. I was pretty into eleven table tennis for a bit, really need to get back into that one. Otherwise alyx (pcvr), pistol whip, lone echo, star wars squadrons (pcvr). Let me know if you want to give something a try!

Ive hrard good things about Eleven. Alyx is amazing. I've got about 4 hrs into it. Need to get back in soon. I also have pistol whip. Super fun, and I get really sweaty on harder difficulty. Lone Echo is on my wishlist and I think Squadrons would make me vomit...so pass on that lol.

As far as multiplayer, I've been playing After the Fall on PCVR...and that's about it. I've got some mitary style games I've been meaning to get into like Pavlov or Contractors, but just haven't made the jump yet.

Quoted from PokerJake:

Here's my setup. I mainly race the F1 series, occasionally Nascar Heat. I've tried it in VR but the ultrawide monitor is superior in every way, higher res, buttery smooth at 120hz max settings. Seemed like there was lag between the headset and pc/wheel and the lower res was brutal to look at. Although I had to use Vorpx for F1, so not sure if native VR racers have less lag. The rig is ran by a 3080.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Nice setup! I've read that VR racing is the way to do it vs flat screen racing, but definitely do what you enjoy most. I'm hoping VR racing is enjoyable. The wheel and rig can't get here soon enough!

#41 2 years ago

My couch/coffee table VR setup until I can pickup my rig

I'm getting sick doing VR yet, but man, it's pretty amazing. I can imagine a motion rig kicking up the immersion factor big time.

20220107_103852 (resized).jpg20220107_103852 (resized).jpg
#45 2 years ago
Quoted from Anony:

VR is so good but such a pain to use. I use the index these days and the resolution is awesome, it looks so good but it heats up and is so uncomfortable after a while. I don't have a dedicated sim setup so it takes time to get everything set up and just ends up being a pain.
I can't wait until VR headsets are like wearing glasses. Virtual pinball is actually amazing in VR too but looking down for any amount of time with these things on your head is brutal.

I've got it set up now with the Quest 2 and it isn't too bad. The only one thing that I would change is that any menu navigations have to be done on my laptop, so that means I have to lift up the head unit, do my menu navigations, then I'm ready to go. Can't wait to get my seat...but it might be a while as my buddy in MN bought it for me, but not sure when the next time I'll be heading up there or him coming to my area.

Quoted from Anony:

That's a little weird to be honest. Most sim games tend to be easier with a wheel while the more arcadey ones tend to be easier with a controller.
If you don't have a lot of experience with the really realistic ones though it can take a lot of changing of habits to get used to keeping it on the road.
I'd be interested to hear what your experience level is with sim racing and what you were finding the hardest part. Most people overestimate how fast they can take corners especially using a normal monitor since the sense of speed is so bad. Braking early and doing slow, fast out on the corners is a good piece of advice for getting used to the sim games. You'll find that playing it careful and going a little slower than you think you can often ends up being faster.

This is true! Completely overestimating the speed when heading into a turn and spin out. Getting a sense of how much to brake and when you can start accelerating again is key, I feel. I've played enough controller console racing (Forza 3 on X360 was the last game that I spent a considerable amount of time on) and you'd think that some of it would translate to a FFB wheel, but nope. Feels like I'm learning from scratch! It's so fun though. Still get a little sick in VR, but I'm hoping that my threshold increases each time I use it.

#47 2 years ago
Quoted from Anony:

VR sickness does go away over time. I basically get none from racing games, but space sims still make me want to hurl. Remember you can close your eyes if you spin or roll the car, that will help avoid those nauseating moments from getting to you.
Something else you can do to help is put a fan in front of you. The breeze on your face can help trick your brain into thinking you're moving. Plus it adds to the immersion and keeping cool always helps with nausea.
Another piece of advice is not to push through it. Don't give up right away but if you feel something is making you feel sick or it's getting worse just take a break.
Before they added checkpoints to Boneworks I actually made myself puke because I kept playing despite feeling so bad to try and finish the level. Having a big meal just before doesn't help either lol...

I can play room-scale games without a problem. The sitting/driving-but-not-actually-driving-motion is doing me in right now. i don't even want to think about space sims lol. Squadrons seems like fun, but I'd probably want to die after about a minute. Played Walking Dead S&S, and working through Half Life: Alyx right now (and a handful of other games, Boneworks is on my list too). Sooo good!!!

#49 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

Squadrons is worth the hurl!

I'm not sure man. Been dealing with motion sickness my whole life. It takes me out for a day, or more if it's really bad. I would love to try it though.

1 month later
#53 2 years ago

Finally have gotten to spend some time in a racing cockpit (Playseat Challenge). Been playing with the paddle shifters but really want to get a shifter.

I've played my fair share of racing games with the controller, but for heaven's sake, cannot for the life of me, maintain control of the car at high speeds with the wheel. This is really the first time I've played with a FFB wheel, so it's pretty new to me. Hitting higher speeds of 90+ mph, and the car wants to swerve out of control, even on easy sweeping turns. Playing Forza 5 on PC right now. AWD, RWD, FWD, they all handle differently, that I know, but I just can't get a handle on it!

I'm going to keep spending more time, and it's still fun, but I'm always dead last, and by a mile, during races.

Any tips or things I should keep in mind?

#58 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

Looks to be a really solid deal here for a bunch of games, and includes 3 months on iRacing (for new members). Great opportunity to give that a try, and pocket a bunch of other titles while you're at it:
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/ultimate-racing-sim-bundle?hmb_source=search_bar

How does Humble Bundle work? I've seen it around but never looked into it. It literally looks like a package deal, but they give some money to charity?

#60 2 years ago
Quoted from DudeRegular:

Ya pretty much. At the bottom they have a place where you can even adjust what amounts you want going to dev/charity/humble.

Looks like a super good deal, unless I'm really missing something. I'll have to keep it as an option when looking for games.

#62 2 years ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

I've bought a lot from Humble Bundle. You get the keys and can add the games to your steam library. Normally there are tiers, so pay $3 get the games in this tier, $8 this tier and below, and pay some very specific number or greater and get everything. In this case it's just a minimum of $13 to get everything.
Pretty killer, especially if you don't have ACC, and have any interest at all in starting iRacing.

I've got regular AC, and playing on Forza 5, which I'll probably spend a lot of time on But I'll use it for other games too. Seems like it's too good to be true tbh.

#63 2 years ago

Anyone have any suggestions on a (magic unicorn) "budget" 4k 120hz+ monitor? Something that's on the larger size in the 30" range?

1 week later
#64 2 years ago

I've put in several hours into Forza 5 with my current setup. Turned on Traction Control and ABS, and have been getting a much better feel for how cars handle and what they do at their limits and I'm getting much better at negotiating turns and whatnot. There are still times where I take it too aggressively and spin out, but for the most part, can hang with the racing bots on "Normal" difficulty.

I've put in an order for a SHH shifter, and will be getting an ebay handbrake this week. I have to build a bracket to attach to my seat, but I'm looking forward to getting both things in and set up! My TV setup isn't ideal, but that's another WIP on figuring out space and placement. Unfortunately, it might eat up a pinball spot...

#68 2 years ago
Quoted from DudeRegular:

Limited space is probably reason number one for me not to get more into this. Pinball spots are already at a premium. I had one of the obutto three screen setups at one time, but play pinball more. Also in VR dirty rally really did a number on me.

Yeah, as much as I thought I would like VR, I'm not sure if it's for me. Assetto Corsa doesn't do VR menu controls really well...but then again, I wasn't using an optimal setup. Forza 5 has been very fun on my TV. My kids enjoy free-roaming around in that game. I haven't tried AC on my TV yet though, so will have to do that when I want to race on tracks.

as far as pinball goes, I haven't been playing pinball much either. I wouldn't be selling a game for racing, but I could see me swapping in/out if/when racing starts to go stale.

#70 1 year ago
Quoted from Kevin_LHeureux:

I recently installed Forza Horizon 5 and while its fun in the arcade sense the cars don't have any personality or link to realism in driving from what I have seen so far. Not that it's not fun but ACC, Automobilista, etc. really get your heart going on a track. I wish Steam had the regular Forza series which is much more sim focused.

I got in on the racing sim humble bundle that Deaconblooze posted up before.

Also built a shifter mount to hold an e-brake, and a SHH shifter that is coming eventually. I'll dig into the more realistic sims once I get that stuff set up. I would love to learn how to drift IRL and the more realistic sims seem to be the best place to start. Can't wait to get everything together. The setup has been in progress for 4-5 months now...almost as bad as waiting for a NIB pinball machine!

10 months later
#78 1 year ago

Oof. Quiet in these parts. Just wanted to share that I'm taking steps to change out of my Playseat Challenge and move into an 8020 rig that I bought secondhand over the weekend and got a Samsung G9 monitor that I'll be using in place of a 3 screen setup. It'll be another month or so probably before I can get everything set up, but it's some exciting news to say the least. I've been playing a lot of Assetto Corsa, but I still suck lol. I'm trying to get the basics for drifting but just can't get a handle on it.

I know the new setup won't magically make me a better driver, but I'm excited nonetheless.

4 weeks later
#82 1 year ago

I enjoyed that part of the process as well, despite buying a second hand aluminum rig, I still had to assemble and adjust it to my liking. I use it for racing, but also use it to game. Not as comfy as sitting on a couch, but the monitor is stunning to look at and the ultrawide makes it that much more engrossing.

Plus, despite my comment about the setup not making me a better racer, I do feel like I have improved due to better depth perception and being able to see a corner as I curve around it. It's allowed me to better adjust my steering wheel to make the turn smoother. I'm still getting my ass kicked on "average" setting in FH5, but it's way more fun than my previous set up. Plus I miss driving a manual, and I get my little fix this way.

11 months later
#89 21 days ago
Quoted from Deaconblooze:

I got a month of iRacing just to get everything back together and running again. My config gets pretty complex to get everything started in the right way (wheel, pedals, shifter, buttkicker, hmd, button box). I got my transducers on all 4 corners now, and did some cable management to get things tidied up.
I'm just hanging onto a C road license right now with a terrible irating. I'm going to focus on the Porsche cup and really try to get in some practice time before getting into an actual race. I also plan to try out the arca class in oval.

It's been about 6 months since I raced anything. Baldurs Gate 3 made me move my laptop to the TV (away from my rig) and it's been unused since. Been playing the shit out of BG3 lol. I also need to buy a copy of Forza Horizon 5 since I was playing to on Game Pass and have since canceled it. So soon! Just gotta do it!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider FatPanda.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/anyone-into-sim-racing?tu=FatPanda and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.