Racing Sims General Discussion / Chat Thread

I know this question comes along all the time but what would people consider the bare minimum to get started? I'm looking at iRacing (like the idea of organised events etc.) so I'm guessing my laptop would be good enough. In terms of wheel and pedals is there a worthwhile setup for under €150 all in?

PopePalpatine

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I know this question comes along all the time but what would people consider the bare minimum to get started? I'm looking at iRacing (like the idea of organised events etc.) so I'm guessing my laptop would be good enough. In terms of wheel and pedals is there a worthwhile setup for under €150 all in?

Your best bet is a used G29, but I'd say the supply of those has dried up since the lockdown.

Dcully

Im trying to source a G29 currently for AMS2 , no luck whatsoever.

Titzon Toast

Set my rig up tonight for the first time in months.
I jumped in with my old league friends and we ran some races sound classic Monza in some old F1 cars.
It was so much fun, made me realise how much I miss it.

kellier180

Do many people play iRacing on here?

Was thinking of signing up as it seems to be the only online sim racing game I can find with organised leagues. See they have an offer on there site now for one for $6.50 but then on steam it's €10.99 is there any difference where I sign up with?

Dcully

While iracing is the online racing king , it is flawed and lacking in the physics and ffb departments compared to more modern sims.
Race department amongst many others have leagues and club fun clean races for all other sims so dont feel it has to be iracing for online racing.
ACC is the closest thing to iracing in terms of online racing.

Remember the monthly sub only gives you bare minimum content, you will need to buy further cars and tracks to run a specific series.
Then there are seasons where they are always adding new tracks to the roster that you will want to buy to be able to keep racing in a specific series and more for other series, some overlap but in general iracing is seriously expensive.

Having said all that i done it for years and had a blast,it really is the premiere online racing sim.
It all just got too time consuming and expensive for my liking personally.

tipp_tipp_tipp

I'm not a current iracing member but have tried it a few times including earlier this year to try the new AI. I've only ever accessed it straight through the iracing site. Not sure why your seeing a difference in price, maybe check if VAT is included in both.

I presume that price is a new members offer (probably for 3 months membership???). After this period, you'll be paying the full price which is somewhere around 90 - 100 euro for 1 year. I doubt very much if there's a difference between steam and the iracing site for this price given the whole iracing model is designed to extract as much cash as possible from each user. Someone else may know for sure though.

SmashingPilot

I'd happily recommend some leagues with active websites/discord. The covers games such as iracing, ACC, gran turismo, project cars 2.
Currently playing in a PC2 league that runs weekly until October. A lot of the top tier ACC races are streamed too.
I race over on Actrollvision.com, found it by luck but love it there.

kellier180

So signed up for iRacing last night. Only got into a couple of races.

Seems very well run with races every hour. I'll give it a go for the month anyway and then maybe try ACC I had AC before but didn't really like it that much and found ti hard to set the car right. Probably not helped that I'm using an Xbox one controller. Hoping to get a Logitech g920 in the next week or 2 so.

ctlsleh

SmashingPilot wrote: »

I'd happily recommend some leagues with active websites/discord. The covers games such as iracing, ACC, gran turismo, project cars 2.
Currently playing in a PC2 league that runs weekly until October. A lot of the top tier ACC races are streamed too.
I race over on Actrollvision.com, found it by luck but love it there.

Would be interested in ACC sites, thx

RonanG86

kellier180 wrote: »

So signed up for iRacing last night. Only got into a couple of races.

Seems very well run with races every hour. I'll give it a go for the month anyway and then maybe try ACC I had AC before but didn't really like it that much and found ti hard to set the car right. Probably not helped that I'm using an Xbox one controller. Hoping to get a Logitech g920 in the next week or 2 so.

iRacing is not designed with controllers in mind. They do function, and some people claim to be quite competitive with them, but the game's physics are intended to be completely accurate to real life with no deference to anyone not having the full movement range of a steering wheel and ffb to work with.

If you do decide to persist with it beyond your month, just remember the racing isn't going to be perfect. It's a lot better than pick up races on other sims, but even with the series organisation, SR system and protest facility, you still get people doing stupid things. And stupid is not protestable.

kellier180

RonanG86 wrote: »

iRacing is not designed with controllers in mind. They do function, and some people claim to be quite competitive with them, but the game's physics are intended to be completely accurate to real life with no deference to anyone not having the full movement range of a steering wheel and ffb to work with.

If you do decide to persist with it beyond your month, just remember the racing isn't going to be perfect. It's a lot better than pick up races on other sims, but even with the series organisation, SR system and protest facility, you still get people doing stupid things. And stupid is not protestable.

Yeah after playing for a few hours I definitely need to get a wheel. See logitech are bringing out a new G923 so hopefully the G920 might go on sale in the next week and i'll get it

Doge

So Project Cars 3 confirmed to being a **** show then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqUyKhUHjqY

All I can say is bring on Assetto Corsa 2!

RonanG86

I'm not a sim-physics snob, it's very possible they'll make a perfectly decent game in the Forza / Forza Horizon bracket. I probably won't be bothered with it personally.

But even then:

1) It's probably not going to be as good as the current Forza titles.

2) Why have they made it seemingly look and sound worse than PCARS 2? Is all that arcade overlay after generating a load of spaghetti code so they had to cut the detail so there isn't a performance hit?

3) What is Project CARS as a series meant to be?
PCARS 1 was sort of trying to be a sim, but watered the physics down a bit and had wooden, uninformative ffb. Whether this was limitations with the engine or coding, or just trying to widen the net to catch the non-sim crowd, I don't know, but it ended up feeling like an awful middle ground between a full sim and something like Forza. Said a lot for me that they announced PCARS 2 about five minutes after PCARS 1 was released.
PCARS 2 was much more towards full sim and really only fell down in that the cars were inconsistent. Some had great ffb, some felt awful like in PCARS 1. Also having my car aquaplane and spin out through standing water in a straight line whilst the AI, who I can obliterate in the dry, keep full throttle was annoying.
PCARS 3 seems to be abandoning any serious attempt at being a sim to capture the Forza crowd.

So based on that highly confusing history, PCARS 4 could be anything between a full sim and Mario Kart.

Dcully

Im just delighted Ian Bell and SMS are far from the sim scene now, Reiza are making holy show of them with AMS2.
I get all my simracing fix from rfactor2,ACC and AMS2 these days.

Darwin

Yes PCars3 is a surprise, a rather unpleasant one at that. I must say I enjoyed PCars2 overall, the career mode was good fun and VR performance was excellent. These days it's ACC, AMS2 and also R3E for me. I wonder if GTR3 by Simbin is ever going to see the light of day or is it another Duke Nukem in the works!

Doge

Okay not really a Sim but us simmers need some casual games for a break sometimes right?

Enter Art Of Rally, from the makers of Absolute Drift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDq59aNRyU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocZ_sXLt_X0

Even the engine sounds sound better than on some sims! :pac:

Just looking there and there and the Logitech G29/920 is back down to around 250 quid after being silly money at the start of restrictions and all. Probably won't be pulling the trigger in a hurry but is it still the default recommendation at the lower price end?

Doge

Deleted User wrote: »

Just looking there and there and the Logitech G29/920 is back down to around 250 quid after being silly money at the start of restrictions and all. Probably won't be pulling the trigger in a hurry but is it still the default recommendation at the lower price end?

Yeah for sure. Unless you live in the states, they're ridiculously priced over there so the thrust masters are what people go for.

donspeekinglesh

So after saving up all year and building a new gaming PC, I take my G25 (lightly used, still in the original box and all) out of the attic where it's spent the last decade since my last gaming pc died. And it won't power up. Stone dead. Ah well. Controller for a while longer until I can afford a new wheel.

tipp_tipp_tipp

Tough break. I have a logitech DFGT that i bought in 2010! Still going though the force feedback is a bit weaker these days. Hoping to get a new gaming pc like yourself sometime early next year. Will pickup a new wheel too.

Doge

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

So after saving up all year and building a new gaming PC, I take my G25 (lightly used, still in the original box and all) out of the attic where it's spent the last decade since my last gaming pc died. And it won't power up. Stone dead. Ah well. Controller for a while longer until I can afford a new wheel.

Might be a silly question but did you plug in the power supply as well as the Usb cable?

I've made that mistake before and wondered why it didn't power up.

donspeekinglesh

I did. Both with the original European power lead (with adapter) and an Irish lead. Didn't try with a different socket though, must try that before I pack it up.

Darwin

New update dropped this weekend for AMS 2, some pretty tasty GT3 and GT4 cars. The audio is great for the new cars, especially the 911 GT3 though I think the exterior modelling of the Merc looks a bit off, particularly in comparison to ACC. Overall very happy with this sim, we really are spoiled for choice these days.

ctlsleh

Doge wrote: »

Yeah for sure. Unless you live in the states, they're ridiculously priced over there so the thrust masters are what people go for.

I’m selling my G29 with brake pedal mod if interested

https://www.adverts.ie/21635611

Doge

ctlsleh wrote: »

I’m selling my G29 with brake pedal mod if interested

https://www.adverts.ie/21635611

Pop it into the dedicated thread and more people will see it probably.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057442437

donspeekinglesh

Is the Thrustmaster T150RS a good alternative to the Logitech G29/G920? it's cheap on Amazon.de at the moment.

gizabeer

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

Is the Thrustmaster T150RS a good alternative to the Logitech G29/G920? it's cheap on Amazon.de at the moment.

The Logitech would be a better wheel and worth paying a bit more for , they go down to about €190 with a shifter on black friday

donspeekinglesh

gizabeer wrote: »

The Logitech would be a better wheel and worth paying a bit more for , they go down to about €190 with a shifter on black friday

Not far off! £190 with the shifter today.

Doge

This is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IHexdiiL3c