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PC Racing Sims

S

Seanspeed

Banned
littlegrasshopper said:
Hello, fellow PC racing sim enthusiasts!

I have a question. My first real racing sim experience was Forza 5. I bought it at launch and loved it. Now I am looking for the same type of experience on PC. Obviously Project Cars is the go to choice but it wont be out for a few months. So what game can you recommend me? Money is not an issue.

I was looking at GRID Autosport but the reviews on Steam are pretty rough and everyone is saying to go with GRID 2. Are there any other games out that are better than these 2? Also, any thoughts on Assetto Corsa? I would prefer a game that has amazing graphics. Thanks all! :)
Click to expand...
There really isn't anything that matches Forza/GT on the PC in terms of the scale of those games.

This also depends on what you loved about Forza. Assetto Corsa would be a great choice if you're big on the driving simulation aspects. But most more hardcore PC sims don't really do great career modes or anything, if that's what you like. They are mostly dedicated to making the driving/racing as good/realistic as possible.

If you want something with a good single player career mode and aren't too fussed about having the best physics, GRID Autosport is probably a good bet. Reading the official topic, it seems like most people actually playing it are enjoying it.

I would also safely ignore the opinion of anybody who recommends GRID 2.

Shaneus said:
I believe Seanspeed plays exclusively with a 360 pad, so he may have some input.
Click to expand...
Got a G27 now, actually! And yea, AC is playable, but not brilliant, with a pad.
 
J

Juicy Bob

Member
GRID 2 is a really fun game for what it is – a deliberately over-the-top arcade racer.

Obviously, that means you can't even begin to compare it with Autosport or any of the PC sims that are mentioned in this thread, because it's an entirely different game with an entirely different purpose.

If you like Forza 5, I'd say GRID: Autosport sounds like it's exactly the sort of thing you should be going for, although I haven't actually got it myself.
 
B

Branson

Member
I like how not even two days after my sub expired iracing already sent me a $50 yearly sub code.


They know how to get me.
 
L

LilJoka

Member
Assetto Corsa Porsche 997 GT3 RSR mod

Screenshot_porsche_997gt3rsr_nurburgring_3-7-2014-22-32-2.jpg


Showroom_porsche_997gt3rsr_3-7-2014-21-40-3.jpg


Screenshot_porsche_997gt3rsr_nurburgring_3-7-2014-22-33-49.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h09UvZ4bEI
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Mascot said:
Modders can rip cars. Can they rip whole tracks?
Click to expand...
Modders can indeed rip just about anything and and everything from other games. This is nothing new although some websites such as RaceDepartment won't allow such mods to be linked to on their website.
 
littlegrasshopper

littlegrasshopper

Member
Thanks for all the tips/suggestions to everyone who chimed in. I ended up going with GRID Autosport. I am really enjoying it for what it is. It is not as sim heavy as Forza, but the game looks great and i'm loving the diversity in the difference race classes. My only gripe with it so far has been the online. I had 2 matches where people were driving like total dicks. Reminded me a lot of Forza and playing with the low level "driveatars" were everyone was cutting and slamming each other off. I was planning on picking up Assetto Corsa too but from what I have read on the forums, the game has a lot of bugs and performance issues even with high-end PCs. I will definitely pick it up later on when my Oculus Rift DK2 ever decides to arrive. One thing I do want to invest in when I can later down the road is on a racing wheel setup. Seriously would kill for one of those with the multi-monitor setups. lol.

I think its funny how when I was way younger I hated all sim racing games but loved the fake arcadey racers like Burnout and Need for Speed series. Now I am the exact opposite. lol
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
So I've been using a Fanatec CSR wheel for a couple of years now and I decided to dig out my old PWTS out of the storage room just for kicks. Still works great but it feels so weird after using a CSR for so long lol.

I wonder if I'd have any luck putting it on craigslist... I don't have any standard pedal set and I'm keeping my CSP and my shifters.
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
Pro-Tip, if you have any old racing hardware laying around that you don't know what to do with, check on Craigslist if there's anybody looking for it...

I was randomly browsing Kijiji (Canadian wanabe Craigslist) on friday and noticed a dude was looking for a H-Pattern Fanatec shifter... Turns out I got a shifter set when I bought my first Fanatec wheel almost 5 years ago now (first bought a PWTS and changed to a CSR since). I only ever used the sequential shifter and never cared for the H one. It's been sitting in a drawer for 5 years.... Easiest 50$ I even made in my life! Haha.
 
M

Mascot

Member
Megasoum said:
Pro-Tip, if you have any old racing hardware laying around that you don't know what to do with, check on Craigslist if there's anybody looking for it...

I was randomly browsing Kijiji (Canadian wanabe Craigslist) on friday and noticed a dude was looking for a H-Pattern Fanatec shifter... Turns out I got a shifter set when I bought my first Fanatec wheel almost 5 years ago now (first bought a PWTS and changed to a CSR since). I only ever used the sequential shifter and never cared for the H one. It's been sitting in a drawer for 5 years.... Easiest 50$ I even made in my life! Haha.
Click to expand...

With a few DIY mods (noise reduction, cable entry position, a heavier shifter knob) the Fanatec H-pattern is perfectly good, and (with a decent clutch) much more involving than a simple sequential shifter.

Change the cable socket to this rear-entry position so you don't keep knocking it with your knee (it was a terrible design having it originally enter from below - what were Fanatec thinking?):

cablemod1_zps519f5083.jpg


Change the shifter knob for a heavier real one (I used a solid aluminium/carbon Ripspeed one from Halfords, around £15 I think. Epoxy resin on to the shaft). Makes shifting a lot more 'solid' and the knob just feels a lot better in the hand than the standard Fanatec one.

psmod2.jpg


psmod4.jpg
 
D

Dilly

Banned
Virtual-R is full of posts about mods coming to Assetto Corsa, while rFactor 2 only has a handful of mods.

It's obvious what's going to be the go to sim for mods I guess.
 
TJP

TJP

Member
Dilly said:
Virtual-R is full of posts about mods coming to Assetto Corsa, while rFactor 2 only has a handful of mods.

It's obvious what's going to be the go to sim for mods I guess.
Click to expand...
Indeed. However QUALITY mods are most important to a sims longevity. The last thing AC or any sim needs is a heap of poorly converted content, content ripped directly from other sims or 'scratch made' mods that are of dubious quality.

AC modding will also live or die on the modding tools Kunos provide; the proposed tools do look to be excellent. ISI have been rather slow to document their tools hence the lower mod numbers. That said, there are many quality tracks for rF2 available now (and a few cars e.g. the paid for URD cars are very good).
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
Mascot said:
With a few DIY mods (noise reduction, cable entry position, a heavier shifter knob) the Fanatec H-pattern is perfectly good, and (with a decent clutch) much more involving than a simple sequential shifter.
Click to expand...

No doubt but I just never liked playing with a H shifter. I'm more of a sequential kind of guy.

Since that shifter was collecting dust in a drawer for the last 5 years or so, it was an easy decision to sell it when I saw the ad on Kijiji. The guy was offering 40$ but his ad was up for like 3 weeks and obviously that's a really rare item so I went in at 50$ from the get go and he agreed. It's pretty much like if I had found 50$ on the sidewalk on my way home lol.
 
M

Mascot

Member
What's the popular monitor of choice these days for a triple-screen racing rig? I guess thin bezels are important, but what else is? I wouldn't want to go smaller than 30" really. 1080p would be fine.
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
Mascot said:
What's the popular monitor of choice these days for a triple-screen racing rig? I guess thin bezels are important, but what else is? I wouldn't want to go smaller than 30" really. 1080p would be fine.
Click to expand...

Going bigger than 27" essentially means going with TVs rather than monitors. If you are going to sacrifice the refresh rate/latency/dpi of a monitor for sheer size of a TV, then make it count with 40"+.
 
M

Mascot

Member
Big Takeover said:
Going bigger than 27" essentially means going with TVs rather than monitors. If you are going to sacrifice the refresh rate/latency/dpi of a monitor for sheer size of a TV, then make it count with 40"+.
Click to expand...

I've got a single 32" TV mounted on the rig at the moment and reckon 39"-42" as a replacement would be OK before screen dooring gets noticeable. I'm all for immersive field-filling view so 42" triples would be pretty amazing.

Mmm. Food for thought. I've got 5-6 months before the build so there's still plenty of time for research, and Oculus Rift might be a viable alternative by then too.
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
Mascot said:
I've got a single 32" TV mounted on the rig at the moment and reckon 39"-42" as a replacement would be OK before screen dooring gets noticeable. I'm all for immersive field-filling view so 42" triples would be pretty amazing.

Mmm. Food for thought. I've got 5-6 months before the build so there's still plenty of time for research, and Oculus Rift might be a viable alternative by then too.
Click to expand...

Oh then by all means pick up a couple more 32s. If you were starting from scratch, I'd say do something differently, but you already have a setup. The layout for a couple more TVs shouldn't be too bad. I can't believe how cheap they've become.

I'd call that a reasonable and worthwhile stop-gap purchase until retail Rift comes out, which seems by my estimation to be 12-16 months away still.
 
M

Mascot

Member
Big Takeover said:
Oh then by all means pick up a couple more 32s. If you were starting from scratch, I'd say do something differently, but you already have a setup. The layout for a couple more TVs shouldn't be too bad. I can't believe how cheap they've become.

I'd call that a reasonable and worthwhile stop-gap purchase until retail Rift comes out, which seems by my estimation to be 12-16 months away still.
Click to expand...
The current set is ancient. 720p with 2" frame.

Edit: found this pic to illustrate

IMG_20140307_121700.jpg
 
A

Azure Wolf

Banned
To add another opinion regarding Assetto.

It's true that it's still only barebones, but what little it currently offers is of the absolute highest quality, it's high end Italian craftsmanship with one of the best driving experiences (with a wheel) in the history of gaming.

I suspect it'll be a long, long time before it'll be finished, but even now it offers one of the best driving experiences of all time.
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
Mascot said:
The current set is ancient. 720p with 2" frame.
Click to expand...

Ah, then yeah, time to move on :)

Triples are great, and would have the greatest impact on your enjoyment of all the things you'll buy for your build. That said, VR is the future of race sims. No doubt about it.

I'm not going to say you shouldn't pursue an all new triples system, but that's a big splash out for something whose days are numbered as soon as they come out of the box.

Retail Rift is at least 12-16 months out, so there is time to kill. A DK2 and a single g-sync/21:9/nice 1440p ips monitor could keep you occupied until the future arrives.

If not, no one would really blame you went triples...
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
Welp....well I just ordered a Thrustmaster TX wheel... I'm officially leaving the Fanatec familly (well except for the CSPs lol)
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
Mascot said:
Anyone here use a Buttkicker when racing? Just wondering if they are worth it and what they add to the experience.
Click to expand...

I don't personally use them, but they are cool. I think done up right with Sim Commander and multiple transducers it'd be pretty wicked.

Megasoum said:
Welp....well I just ordered a Thrustmaster TX wheel... I'm officially leaving the Fanatec familly (well except for the CSPs lol)
Click to expand...

Couldn't fix it, huh? That's too bad. The TX should treat you well however.
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
Big Takeover said:
I don't personally use them, but they are cool. I think done up right with Sim Commander and multiple transducers it'd be pretty wicked.



Couldn't fix it, huh? That's too bad. The TX should treat you well however.
Click to expand...

Well the CSR works fine. The issue I posted earlier is really just when I boot it. Once I enter PC mode it's fine. More an annoyance than anything.

The TX is the first step toward going back to Forza (5 and H2) tho.
 
P

Pops Maellard

Member
I've been trying to get back into racing sims over the summer, so I picked up Grid: Autosport and F1 2013 (I do recognize that these aren't actually sims). I'd already been messing around with Assetto Corsa as well, which I've found incredibly fun.

Anyway, Grid has been delightful as has Assetto Corsa as I previously mentioned, but I'm completely terrible at F1 2013 and I have no idea why. Does anyone have any basic suggestions about how to learn it effectively? I think my biggest problem is that I really haven't figured out how the cornering is supposed to work. Initially I tried braking early and then slowly accelerating out of the corner, but I almost always end up understeering and going off the track.

Oh, and presumably it doesn't matter but I'm using the Microsoft wheel I had from my 360 days, which admittedly isn't great but I don't want to invest in a real setup so early on.
 
D

DD

Member
Pops Maellard said:
I've been trying to get back into racing sims over the summer, so I picked up Grid: Autosport and F1 2013 (I do recognize that these aren't actually sims). I'd already been messing around with Assetto Corsa as well, which I've found incredibly fun.

Anyway, Grid has been delightful as has Assetto Corsa as I previously mentioned, but I'm completely terrible at F1 2013 and I have no idea why. Does anyone have any basic suggestions about how to learn it effectively? I think my biggest problem is that I really haven't figured out how the cornering is supposed to work. Initially I tried braking early and then slowly accelerating out of the corner, but I almost always end up understeering and going off the track.

Oh, and presumably it doesn't matter but I'm using the Microsoft wheel I had from my 360 days, which admittedly isn't great but I don't want to invest in a real setup so early on.
Click to expand...
Have you tried to use a X360 pad? I honestly think that Codemasters's games are meant to be played with a pad, not with a wheel. I haven't tried F1 2013 with my wheel, but F1 2012 felt really weird with it, whilst with a pad I can play perfectly fine.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
Cross posting this from the Elite Dangerous thread because it applies here too:

I'm such a consumer whore. I said I was going to wait a while on a buttkicker, but here I am, having just ordered the parts to a kit. Soi-Fong asked me to let him know what buttkicker I eventually went with after doing some research, so I'll just post it for the entire thread instead.

Primer for those unfamiliar with buttkickers: a buttkicker is a brand of transducers built to strap to chairs. These are essentially the magnets from very powerful subwoofers. Instead of vibrating the air to make bass, these things, when strapped to your chair, rumbles your body. This does a couple of things - first, it gives the impression of enormous amounts of bass, one of these things is supposed to make it feel like you have an impressive sound system even if you're just wearing headphones (and side benefit: these things are silent outside of the chair, so others don't hear/feel the bass). Second, and more relevant to VR and games like Elite Dangerous - it'll essentially translate all the low frequency noises in the game (so, for example, stuff like the warp engines or the sound of your ship accelerating) into full body rumble within the chair you are sitting in. This is supposed to be amazing, especially in Elite Dangerous and Assetto Corsa.

So, after reading a bunch of reviews and opinions and articles, and shooting off some PMs to people, here's what I've found: Buttkicker Gamer2 appears to be sold out absolutely everywhere. These things are kind of like the transducer to buy, but they've been hard to find for over a year now. Supposedly a new batch is coming at the end of august. These things apparently go for about $300 when actually sold according to some guys on reddit, although looking on google I found some stores that list them at about $150 (although they haven't had them in stock for over a year apparently).

Beyond that, buttkicker isn't the only option. A poster on Reddit put together a list of parts for a kit he bought and assembled that apparently performs as well as these $300 buttkickers, only for less than $100. For those who can't be bothered to dig through the reddit thread, here's the parts list:

AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker Tactile Transducer by Aura Sound

Lepai LP-168HA 2.1 2 x 40-Watt Amplifier and 1x68W Sub Output by Lepai

12v 6a Adapter Power Supply for LCD Monitor with Power Cord by LCD AC Power Adapter

I saw some people vouching for this kit, and sent some PMs and got positive feedback, so I went ahead and ordered these parts. After shipping, the thing came out to less than $90. These parts should arrive on the 14th (!) so I'll post a quick guide on how I affix it to my chair and my impressions then.
Click to expand...
 
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