How realistic is Sim Racing?

[Skybird]

Good reasoning from a pro.

[Threadfin]

I'll need to watch the video later. Is it Max giving the opinion?

I can't know what he goes on to say, but yes, sim racing is awesome. I've been a sim racer since the early 90s. My first real racing sim was Papyrus' Indy Car. Then Indy Car 2, then Grand Prix 2, on to GPL, GTR, the EA F1 games (like F1 Challenge 99-02), Papy's NASCAR games (especially NASCAR 2003).

I've skipped a few popular ones like iRacing and rFactor, and now my sim of choice is Codemaster's F1 2021. I love it and run a couple races a week in career modes. The genre has come so far, and seemingly simple things like the ability to use voice to communicate with your pitwall and dynamic weather have a dramatic effect on the experience.

I've been simming for a long time now. Two things in all those decades stand out as the best experiences I've had in this hobby. One is my time in Falcon 4, especially MP campaigns with my friends and squadron mates. The other is running online GPL leagues. For a number of years I ran Frugalsworld's GPL leagues, and there's been little in my life that I have approached with as much dedication and commitment as I did with GPL. If I had put just a fraction of that much effort in to say, my marriage, I would probably still gotten divorced but it would have lasted longer! haha

The memories, the competition, the camaraderie from those leagues were fantastic and I miss it to this day. Great people, and great times.

It was about a year ago Tuesday that I found F1 2020. I documented my experience in a thread over at SimHQ. If anyone is interested in my take on all aspects of this sim, particularly the career modes, you can read it here


F1 2020/21 Thread @ SimHQ

[Skybird]

Falcon 4, Frugalsworld, I hear you. My serious time with Falcon was the RP series, espoecially 3-5, and then a revivla some yars later with allied Force. Some of my best PC sim experiences. Later then, both Steel beasts Pro and sim racing took ovr from my sim flying (FS2002, 2004, X).


My racing sims of choice are Assetto Corsa, AC Competizione and Raceroom. I use VR exlcusively, and mid-range Fanatec wheel and their pro pedals. No VR, no drive - once VR, always VR. No way back. Competizione at night in thunderstorm and VR is frightening, an experience second to none in PC simming. Only seeing is believing.


Other highlights of my sim racing career were Grand Prix 1 Amiga and Gran Prix 3 PC, Nascar Season 2003, GTR2. There were more, but these stand out.

[Threadfin]

You've got good gear. I've been using the red Momo wheel for nearly twenty years now. I bought three of them actually, so that if one ever went down I'd have a backup so I wouldn't miss that week's GPL race

Aside from Raceroom and the civie flight sims (never did get in to them) I've played all of those too. GP1! That's starting at the ground floor haha.

Yeah, I was on Frug's staff from the start, back when we were known more for XCom than Falcon 4. But it didn't take long before F4 became the thing Frug's was best known for, the center of the F4 community if I may be so bold. Too bad it's gone now.

I started my MP racing with a great group at a little-known site called Crash Test Dummies. We did GPL and the first GTR sim mostly. But then we migrated it all over to Frugs and I set up our GPL leagues. We ran the '67 and '65 cars.

We had drivers from all over the world. Austraila, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland, United States, and it was a truly remarkable that we could all come together on Saturday nights (Sunday morning down under). To be in with such a global group blew my mind. The fastest driver was a German, a man named Frank Steinbach. In those days we used the term 'alien' to describe drivers whose ability seemed out of this world. Frank was the apex alien haha. So fast in fact that he would intentionally handicap himself and drive the Cooper or the BRM or the White Whale while the rest of us drove Lotii, Eagles and Ferraris. The Eagle was my weapon of choice, because as we all know it was the finest Formula 1 car of all time. The Brabham was my '65 car for league racing.

So yes, now it's F1 2021, which I have a blast with. The reasons are all spelled out in the thread I linked to above so no need to repeat it. I'm a massive fan of the sport, never miss a race, and I love having my own Formula 1 fantasy world to live in, where I feel like a rising star on the biggest stage in motorsport. And by the way, Codemasters has recently released both Portimao and Imola as free DLC tracks since they were not ready in time for July's game launch.

Yeah, sim racing is good

[mapuc]

Realisme isn't only what's in the game-such as graphic a.s.o it's also what things the player has.

Playing a race sim with your keyboard isn't exactly fun.

Markus

[Skybird]

Threadfin, you should try out Raceroom. It has gone a longer way than any other sim out there, maybe. After SimBin' collapse the sim wea spoicke dup and redone froms cratch by suriovivors of that desaster. I came to it when that happened, and I never regretted it.

The best sim for GT3 and GT4 class, is Competizione. In these domains, Competizione reigns, is second to none. Cockpit immersion is overwhelming, too (talking from VR perspective).

Assetto Corsa Classic is still a superb platform and has one overwhelming argument in its favour: modding, tracks. When they released their tech demonstrator with the Lotus Elise, I think, in 2013, I was hooked from day one on. It was lightyears ahead of any driving sim I had tried until then.


That both Raceroom's and Assetto Corsa's physics gurus both hold eal world racing licenses and have experience (Raceroom's Alex Hodgkinson logged his first training laps in courses together with a certain David Hamilton...), and also studied the physics and engineering aspect of the business, unites for both sims practical driving experience and mathematical background knowledge. And this shows. Better it does not get: theory meets practice, practice meets theory.

[Threadfin]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have Assetto Corsa, the original. It's good, but never quite lit my fire. I think the reason is I get the most enjoyment out of robust career modes, which a sim like F1 2021 does well.

I like sports cars, GT cars and that sort of thing fine. But having a compelling career mode is the most important thing for me, it's the same as flight sims or anything really.

Even a game like Combat Mission which is great, I only play campaigns, never single scenarios. This carries over through most of my simming. And unfortunately perhaps, some games get ignored as a result. DCS is a victim, as the devs never have understood how to give the player the proper playground for their amazing models. On the other hand I still fly Falcon 4 and maybe always will. I can easily wave aside fidelity issues in exchange for good career modes in all of these sims.

[Skybird]

You can define your very own seasons/time tables both in ASC and RR. Length of seaosn, circuits, cars, race lengths, pitting or not, all can be set by you. Or join a seaosn table when preferring online. For the latter dont ask me, i don't play online much. Competizione has a championship mode, too, but I never tasted it. But hey, Competizione is the official title for the Blancpain series, so... go figure.


I did complete season championships in Grand Prix 1 ( ), and years ago i did two DTM seasons in Raceroom.

[mapuc]

I've tried this Raceroom, playing it with the keyboard isn't fun.

On my wish list this Christmas is steering wheel and pedal.

Markus

[Skybird]

A G29 already gets you started. Quality pedals are priority, especially brake pedal, for the reasons explained in the video. Good wheel does not make you faster (but raises immersion and enjoyability), good brake pedal does.



It seems we had this conversation some months ago? Or was it somebody else?

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Skybird

A G29 already gets you started. Quality pedals are priority, especially brake pedal, for the reasons explained in the video. Good wheel does not make you faster (but raises immersion and enjoyability), good brake pedal does.



It seems we had this conversation some months ago? Or was it somebody else?

No it was you and me who had this discussion.

Since my mom and my sister ain't rich I can not wish for some expensive equipment.

Markus

[Threadfin]

Your mom and sister?


For many years I've been in to racing sims, as mentioned above. I have a good wheel and pedals set. Works great. But it's bulky, and in the way when I'm not actually racing. The pedals must displace my Crosswinds. Logistically, it's inconvenient (what a struggle eh?) So in a sense it's a bit of a pain in the rear to keep setting it up and putting it away when I'm done racing.

When I bought F1 2020 a year ago I thought I'd just see if I could get on with a controller. I didn't expect I'd like it. I watched a comparison video of a split screen between a driver using a wheel and one using a controller, and I could not tell which was which. I expected the wheel driver to be smooth, and the controller to reveal itself with hesitating movement as the driver makes constant adjustments with digital instead of analog input.

It took some time and number of laps to tweak the settings to find the right ones for me. And that was that. I've raced F1 2020/21 with a controller since. I know from experience it does not translate so seamlessly in all racing sims, but in this one it works marvelously well. I'm using a USB X Box controller that cost like $20. So, depending on the sim, you might find you don't need an expensive wheel/pedal setup to get started. YMMV.

It's really a comfortable way to go for me, not only avoiding the peripheral dance, but I also don't need to maintain any particular seating attitude, I never would have guessed I'd be racing a sim this way, but I do.

[Skybird]

If a gamepad controller, then one where not the ministicks must be used for steering, but where, like on the PS4 with Gran Turismo, the pad gets held like a wheel and moved alltogether for steering, they call it motion control I think (and the PS game must be coded for using it). I found it to work surprisingly well in GT Sports. Not as good as a wheel, but way better than those fiddly titsy tiny microsticks. Their movement range is so small that you notoriously overdose the input.

[Skybird]

Black Friday, here I come. Its time to start wrecking them in style, and so I placed an order for this:



By Fanatec standards its entry level. With 200 coins, the price is acceptable, more I would not pay for a wheel rim. Also, its light and thus matches well with my CSL wheelbase. Another point is I can use the functionality blindly and must not waste sexy looks for which i nevertheless have to pay - I drive with a VR mask on, so i do not marvel at the wheel during the ride, I see a photoreal virtual wheel instead.

[mapuc]

Going to uninstall my Race Room.

Having these 5-7 sec. black screen before and after having played, is something I don't like. Made me remember the problem I had with Farming Simulator 17 and 19-Here I also had these 5-7 sec. black screen and often I got the message No-Signal on my monitor.

I'm not an computer expert-But it looks like the computer has problem hocking on the game and after release and hock up on ordinary computer(don't know how I else shall explain it.

So far it's only ETS2 and ATS I can play without any black screen.

Sad, even though it wasn't that fun to play Race Room It was interesting to play I'm planning on buying a Steering wheel(If I don't get on for Christmas) and pedal to my ETS2 and ATS.

Markus