Gaming Sim Racing

[jackal&hyde]

Got myself a Sim Racing setup and am now in the process of understanding this whole thing while I feel totally addicted.. Any body else in to sim(simulation) racing?

Started by getting the F1 game and now I am gridding my teeth at Assetto Corsa. Must say it is fascinating going from arcade games like NfS and GT to actual sims.

My only experience is in F1 and Assetto Corsa but I understand there are large communities in ACC, iRacing, rFactor etc. Any posters here in to sim racing and if so, where do you race?

 

[VeevaVee]

Any posters here in to sim racing and if so, where do you race?

@Rado_N isn’t

 

[Ajr]

Assetto Corsa is great but I am so bad.

I have a t150

 

[Rado_N]

@Rado_N isn’t

Prat

 

[jackal&hyde]

Assetto Corsa is great but I am so bad.

I have a t150

Took me a couple of days to even do a lap without crushing I am very proud of myself now that I can take the FIAT around Vallelunga and staying on the road. The sense of progression in this game I've never felt since Stracraft 2 multiplayer 10 years ago. It's amazingly rewarding.

I have one of the new Logitech rigs, g923. Best thing I've ever bought.

 

[VeevaVee]

Took me a couple of days to even do a lap without crushing

Should it not be quite easy if you can drive?

 

[jackal&hyde]

Should it not be quite easy if you can drive?

Not been driving much at speed with a FIAT Abath 500 Essee around the circuit. I'm mostly used to stick to 50km in my Renault around town.

 

[Ajr]

Took me a couple of days to even do a lap without crushing I am very proud of myself now that I can take the FIAT around Vallelunga and staying on the road. The sense of progression in this game I've never felt since Stracraft 2 multiplayer 10 years ago. It's amazingly rewarding.

I have one of the new Logitech rigs, g923. Best thing I've ever bought.

What I don't find enjoyable is it feels very disconnected or kind of lonely maybe for someone used to playing multiplayer games with a mic

 

[VeevaVee]

Not been driving much at speed with a FIAT Abath 500 Essee around the circuit. I'm mostly used to stick to 50km in my Renault around town.

But you could probably drive one round a track faster than you would on the road without crashing, I would think. Doesn’t sound much like a sim to me, sorry

 

[jackal&hyde]

But you could probably drive one round a track faster than you would on the road without crashing, I would think. Doesn’t sound much like a sim to me, sorry

It's a video game at the end of the day and, I am new to it. Also, doesn't sound like you've been trying a race sim either. Driving fast and driving are very different things.

 

[hobbers]

Get started with iRacing, it's much better than anything else.

 

[jackal&hyde]

Get started with iRacing, it's much better than anything else.

I've heard it's fantastic. I see it's a bit on the expensive side though so I'll put it off a while while I get more used to sim racing with Assetto Corsa.

Have you been playing iRacing for long? What would you say makes it so much better then other options?

 

[C3Pique]

I keep looking at treating myself to a sim rig but can't decide what to get... Will probably start with a fanatec wheelset and playseat. But do I really need to drop £2k plus on a gaming PC and monitor? I already have a Series X and the graphics are already as good as my middle-aged eyes can appreciate. The next Forza Motorsport is supposedly quite highly touted so is it worth waiting for that rather than dumping a months salary on a PC?

 

[hobbers]

Have you been playing iRacing for long? What would you say makes it so much better then other options?

Mainly how realistic it is. Which is why it's the choice for every racing driver from F1 to Nascar. The progression system is good as well, feels properly rewarding to keep practicing and go from racing amateurs in MX-5s to racing against ex-pro drivers in GT3.

Also the servers are the best you'll get, that's the main reason why it's so expensive and where the money goes. And it's well optimised so it runs fine even on older PCs.

I keep looking at treating myself to a sim rig but can't decide what to get... Will probably start with a fanatec wheelset and playseat. But do I really need to drop £2k plus on a gaming PC and monitor? I already have a Series X and the graphics are already as good as my middle-aged eyes can appreciate. The next Forza Motorsport is supposedly quite highly touted so is it worth waiting for that rather than dumping a months salary on a PC?

Dont buy a wheel and playseat for junk like Forza. It was a good console racing sim about a decade ago, not any more.

 

[C3Pique]

Dont buy a wheel and playseat for junk like Forza. It was a good console racing sim about a decade ago, not any more.

I read that the next iteration has been quite extensively improved physics wise to take advantage of the power of the new console. And it will probably have hundreds of road cars at launch. Is an expensive PC that much better?

 

[hobbers]

I read that the next iteration has been quite extensively improved physics wise to take advantage of the power of the new console. And it will probably have hundreds of road cars at launch. Is an expensive PC that much better?

They say that stuff every year, but Forza 7 was shocking and I'd expect nothing different from 8.

You dont need an expensive PC to run most racing sims. Assetto Corsa, iRacing etc will run fine on a £500 prebuilt. As will stuff like Dirt Rally, and of course any racer on xbox is also available on PC.

 

[C3Pique]

They say that stuff every year, but Forza 7 was shocking and I'd expect nothing different from 8.

You dont need an expensive PC to run most racing sims. Assetto Corsa, iRacing etc will run fine on a £500 prebuilt. As will stuff like Dirt Rally, and of course any racer on xbox is also available on PC.

Ok thanks I'll take a look at some prebuilt PCs, I haven't dabbled in PC gaming since the original CounterStrike days. I have a space in my office/man-cave loft crying out for a driving sim having sold all of my 4-wheeled toys before my boy was born last year. But looking at the price of some of this stuff it might be cheaper to buy an actual car!

 

[jackal&hyde]

I keep looking at treating myself to a sim rig but can't decide what to get... Will probably start with a fanatec wheelset and playseat. But do I really need to drop £2k plus on a gaming PC and monitor? I already have a Series X and the graphics are already as good as my middle-aged eyes can appreciate. The next Forza Motorsport is supposedly quite highly touted so is it worth waiting for that rather than dumping a months salary on a PC?

While I think a PC is the way to go, I understand Assetto Corsa is also on consoles. So a wheel setup (that also works on PC) can be used there before making a big investment in to a PC (you might not like sim racing as it's a bit different from arcades like Forza or GT). I understand that the online community is much smaller on consoles compared to PC in sim racing but the game itself is still great. So maybe try it on the console and see if you like it before committing to a major investment in a gaming PC.

 

[jackal&hyde]

Mainly how realistic it is. Which is why it's the choice for every racing driver from F1 to Nascar. The progression system is good as well, feels properly rewarding to keep practicing and go from racing amateurs in MX-5s to racing against ex-pro drivers in GT3.

Also the servers are the best you'll get, that's the main reason why it's so expensive and where the money goes. And it's well optimised so it runs fine even on older PCs.

Sounds great and it's probably the place to be. I feel it's a bit scary to go in to such an expensive game though.

I've seen F1 drivers play the F1 game (Charles Leclerc has streams, Rosberg has a series about teaching tracks) and even Ferrari has the Assetto Corsa F1 car as part of it's sim. So for my level, I feel like I need to learn a lot more before getting in to more serious competition and expensive options.

How often do you race? Are you part of a league? A set time per day/ week where you need to race?

 

[hobbers]

Ok thanks I'll take a look at some prebuilt PCs, I haven't dabbled in PC gaming since the original CounterStrike days. I have a space in my office/man-cave loft crying out for a driving sim having sold all of my 4-wheeled toys before my boy was born last year. But looking at the price of some of this stuff it might be cheaper to buy an actual car!

I missed that you already had a Series X.

Yeh if you wanted to get a wheel then you could get Assetto on Xbox, and I think Dirt Rally 2.0 and Wreckfest are both on gamepass. Would be a good trio of games to try with a wheel.

 

[hobbers]

Sounds great and it's probably the place to be. I feel it's a bit scary to go in to such an expensive game though.

I've seen F1 drivers play the F1 game (Charles Leclerc has streams, Rosberg has a series about teaching tracks) and even Ferrari has the Assetto Corsa F1 car as part of it's sim. So for my level, I feel like I need to learn a lot more before getting in to more serious competition and expensive options.

How often do you race? Are you part of a league? A set time per day/ week where you need to race?

It's not that expensive to start off with. Since it's subscription you can just pay for a month to trial it. Or about $20 for a 3 month trial.

For the base subscription fee you get access to the car and courses to drive in the Mazda MX-5 rookie series, which is where everyone starts off. There's no leagues for that just a different track each week and hourly races that you can dip into, and try to build your driver ratings.

If you enjoy that and want to compete in faster cars against better drivers, that's when things get pricey. Because you have to pay to licence cars and tracks to compete in things like GT3 or the GT sprint series, or to join weekend racing leagues

 

[Redlambs]

The last decent Forza was 2.

Even on console, add in a feedback wheel and pedals and your experience will improve infinitely. I can't use controllers for racing games now, it just feels horrible.

 

[jackal&hyde]

Ok thanks I'll take a look at some prebuilt PCs, I haven't dabbled in PC gaming since the original CounterStrike days. I have a space in my office/man-cave loft crying out for a driving sim having sold all of my 4-wheeled toys before my boy was born last year. But looking at the price of some of this stuff it might be cheaper to buy an actual car!

High end PC stuff can be super expensive but you don't need it IMO. My wheel was 400 euros and is good enough I understand (and it is expensive because it's a new model, many have much cheaper stuff and are 1000x better then me). There is little point to get multi thousand euro stuff while still learning.

In general in PC gaming there is a bit of a snob attitude to peripherals and while they might be a bit better, they rarely are actually needed. I know this from Starcraft where a simple mouse and keyboard can beat the most sensitive mouse and high refresh rate monitor ever; it's about the actual skill rather then the PR "high end" marketing of peripherals. Youtubers and websites tend to be sponsored by companies that promote expensive shite but actual performance can be had in decent to mid level hardware.

A bit off topic here but PC gaming has a bit of a bad reputation for price due to scum youtubers that promote sponsored crap that is not needed 99% of the time. Rather then listen to any sponsored youtuber or site, better to actually see what most people are actually using in Steam surveys. The old 1060 GForce is still super popular and a Skylake 4 core still good for most titles. PC gaming even in sims (I also do fighter jet sims (DCS)) is not actually expensive at all to get in to. It's just some people online that promote a certain image.

 

[mariachi-19]

To properly learn how to race, Iracing is your go to as it has the safety rating etc which seriously reduces player contact and ramming.

The only downside to Iracing is that their physics are not the greatest at the moment. They have an issue with loss of control with 4 wheel spin outs but otherwise it is a very good sim. Also, its expensive... real expensive.

Personally I think Assetto is the best sim on the market, but it doesn't have the same setup as iracing to teach you how to race.

I do miss Live For Speed which imo, had the best tyre model in sim racing when it was in its prime. I've ridden and driven on track a lot in real life, it has been by far the best replica of tyre contact and feel through a wheel that I can remember. Especially the process of the tyre warming up to temperature and beginning to bite into the tarmac.

 

[jackal&hyde]

To properly learn how to race, Iracing is your go to as it has the safety rating etc which seriously reduces player contact and ramming.

The only downside to Iracing is that their physics are not the greatest at the moment. They have an issue with loss of control with 4 wheel spin outs but otherwise it is a very good sim. Also, its expensive... real expensive.

Personally I think Assetto is the best sim on the market, but it doesn't have the same setup as iracing to teach you how to race.

I do miss Live For Speed which imo, had the best tyre model in sim racing when it was in its prime. I've ridden and driven on track a lot in real life, it has been by far the best replica of tyre contact and feel through a wheel that I can remember. Especially the process of the tyre warming up to temperature and beginning to bite into the tarmac.

Thanks for the input. What you say is very similar to what I felt while trying sims. iRacing being great (I heard) but for a big cost... and for a beginner the last thing you want is high cost.

I've no idea how good or beginner friendly iRacing is (given the cost I'd say it's not at all...) but in Assetto Corsa you do start with some lower power cars and the beginner missions are ok. Though, I did feel like I needed to watch youtube videos about driving and set up.

Do you still race now? Is it iRacing or any other game?