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PC Racing Sims

I asked this in the Euro Truck Sim 2 thread but it makes sense to ask here too:

This is probably a stupid question because I'm probably the only person dealing with it. I bought this stand for my wheel months ago:

For the most part it works perfectly for my wheel. The one problem is, I play on a hardwood floor and out of the box there is nothing keeping it from just sliding (that foot on the back is hard rubber, almost like plastic and does nothing). Now my solution has been to use non-skid bumpers that I bought, which absolutely do the trick, except the adhesive can't take the force over more than a few hours and the pull off. I just took 2 of the used pads that pulled off and sanded the back smooth and applied them to the bottom with super glue. The adhesion seems stronger but I'm not full convinced it will hold long term.

I think a perfect solution would be some kind of non-skid tape that I could apply across the entire length of each side but I have yet to find something like that. Has anyone else solved this problem?

Try getting a pair of castor cups. Big enough ones that'll take the feet, but small enough that they won't float around. No adhesive used, so provided it works, it'll work long term.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
So I really want to get into more racing sims, but I feel like I need to invest in a wheel. Does anyone have any thoughts on what wheel would be the best bang for my buck? And more importantly, are there good options to get them at a little less than retail? They can get VERY expensive it looks like.
 

Addy

Neo Member
The Logitech Driving Force GT is a really good bang for the buck wheel, can be had for under $100 at times.
 

Shaneus

Member
The Logitech Driving Force GT is a really good bang for the buck wheel, can be had for under $100 at times.
Pretty much. If you can find a Logitech G27 I'd recommend that too, but it's around twice the price. For what you want, I'd say a DFGT would be a good start, let you test the waters a little. It's more than adequate.
 

_machine

Member
167756-500x490.jpeg

Damn that looks sexy, but at 100€ on top of the base price of T500 (which is a nice 300€ at best) is probably a bit too much for me so I'm still leaning towards the G27. With the delayed release of pCARS, AC and GT6 on PS4 (we don't even know what wheels are supported on the PS4) I think I'll delay buying a new wheel to next year and get a PS3 finally.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
I had heard the DFGT was a good intro wheel, but the peddles were pretty terrible. Is it worth upgrading to a G25/G27 for the peddles alone as a newbie to wheel driving, or will the GT be adequate?

And I've ALSO heard of these magical cheap sales on that wheel. Is there any rhyme or reason to sales on them? I'd like to pick one up sooner than later if possible!
 

Darkdeus

Member
I had heard the DFGT was a good intro wheel, but the peddles were pretty terrible. Is it worth upgrading to a G25/G27 for the peddles alone as a newbie to wheel driving, or will the GT be adequate?

And I've ALSO heard of these magical cheap sales on that wheel. Is there any rhyme or reason to sales on them? I'd like to pick one up sooner than later if possible!

You can always buy better pedals later. I still use mine though and after modding them with bungee cords they are much better. They do lack a clutch pedal though.
 
Man, it's been a long time coming, but my body is ready. I'm going to throw a big wad of cash at them today for the L49 and a whole bunch of tracks.
 

bee

Member
think it's due to come back online for 6pm UK time, which is handy cos that gives me time to get home and set up the wheel and rift :D will be buying montreal for sure aswell
 

bee

Member
i'd paste them but it's too big tbh (26k chars), site is really slow at the moment, 2700 online already though, montreal and lotus 49 are good to go, got montreal myself, gonna test the oculus rift support shortly

edit: 3800 online now
 

Megasoum

Banned
i'd paste them but it's too big tbh (26k chars), site is really slow at the moment, 2700 online already though, montreal and lotus 49 are good to go, got montreal myself, gonna test the oculus rift support shortly

Found them

http://racesimcentral.com/2013/07/iracing-release-notes/


lol...

The Splits/Delta system has been expanded to be able to show a transparent car representing your currently selected reference lap. We call this a Reflap Car.

...It's called a Ghost, it's been called like that for 20 years, stop pretending you just invented something new and amazing lol.
 
...It's called a Ghost, it's been called like that for 20 years, stop pretending you just invented something new and amazing lol.
It's called 'ref lap' because it integrates with their delta system - basic ghost cars generally don't instantly switch between these modes:

All-time Best Lap – Your fastest lap ever recorded

All-time Optimal Sector – your fastest sectors even if they were not part of the same lap

Session Best Lap – best lap this session

Session Optimal Sector

Session Last Lap – the last lap you drove
 

bee

Member
oh wow, getting the rift working was super easy, it asks if you want to start it full screen then you just tap any button whilst on the load screen to centre it. took me a good 2 mins to work out where the join button has vanished to (look up stupid) , turned off the hud and did some laps. what can i say really, was gonna sell the rift and wait for the consumer model but now i don't think i will, it's really REALLY good. the piss weak resolution makes it kinda hard to work out what's in the distance but that's my only issue with it so far, otherwise this is the only way to play from now on :D
 

bee

Member
it's really weird how quickly you get used to it, looking into apexes naturally , looking left and right when overtaking cars, funniest is when i just instinctively looked behind me whilst driving to check out a crash 2 guys were about to have haha, really feels like this is the way you've played forever, although maybe that's because i've come from 3d surround and an occasionally borrowed trackir

not even tried the ntm 5 on the skippy yet (not got the lotus) montreal is great though, not too sure why the big grandstand isn't there though at the hairpin

in terms of speed though, you're certainly not gonna be breaking any records with the current rift, the resolution is too low, you really do need to know the track and whats coming up cos it's difficult to make out, similarly cars that overtake you turn into about 30 pixels when about 30m in front of you, i'll certainly be keeping my surround setup until a high res rift is available

edit: the added immersion really does make up for the poor resolution, has the drivers body always been there? i know the arms have but its weird/good to look down and see your body and the wheel moving as you move your own wheel

4.5k online now
 
Great impressions, bee. Keep 'em coming.

You just knew it could turn out to be something very special for racing sims, and it's great to hear it works so well. I fought myself hard to wait for retail rift, and I'm glad I did. I've never used anything but a single 2-D screen, so I'm looking forward to having my mind blown some time next year.

I bought lots of content. L49, Montreal, Long Beach, and several other tracks. Looking forward to turning some laps in a bit.
 

bee

Member
had to stop because of the heat lol, that's one of the downsides, wearing a big foam padded thing on your head with what feels like 90% humidity it soon turns into a right sweat fest. also if you have an evil mrs she'll take a photo of you mid game and post it to facebook for laughs (yes i do look a twat love :p)

the radical sounds really good now when spectating, big step up. only drove the skippy for 5 or so laps but the lift off oversteer seems to be much improved, need more time with it though yet
 

Shaneus

Member
it's really weird how quickly you get used to it, looking into apexes naturally , looking left and right when overtaking cars, funniest is when i just instinctively looked behind me whilst driving to check out a crash 2 guys were about to have haha, really feels like this is the way you've played forever, although maybe that's because i've come from 3d surround and an occasionally borrowed trackir

not even tried the ntm 5 on the skippy yet (not got the lotus) montreal is great though, not too sure why the big grandstand isn't there though at the hairpin

in terms of speed though, you're certainly not gonna be breaking any records with the current rift, the resolution is too low, you really do need to know the track and whats coming up cos it's difficult to make out, similarly cars that overtake you turn into about 30 pixels when about 30m in front of you, i'll certainly be keeping my surround setup until a high res rift is available

edit: the added immersion really does make up for the poor resolution, has the drivers body always been there? i know the arms have but its weird/good to look down and see your body and the wheel moving as you move your own wheel

4.5k online now
I knew that out of all the game genres it could be used for, it'd be perfect for driving games (well, all games where you're a stationary character in a moving vehicle). Moving and looking on two separate control things like with an FPS was always going to be awkward with the Rift, but with all driving games... my body is fucking ready.

I mean, if I want to play a racing game I don't even have to setup my wheel near a TV. I could put it *anywhere* in my house, as long as the cables reach for the rift and headphones (I assume it doesn't have audio, just video?).
 

Shaneus

Member
To be honest, I'm surprised they didn't have some basic (but decent) cans that fit in there. Audio streams are small enough that they can be piped over pretty much anything (my mixing desk/USB soundcard thing runs quite fine as USB 1.0) but maybe they didn't want to over-complicate things at this point in time (especially when most people would probably rather use their own anyway. Still, might be a good idea to maybe whack a headphone jack on the device or something)
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
how expensive is iracing to dip into? Want to try it with the rift and wheel. Also, can you play offline practice laps (don't want to annoy serious online racers with my messing about)
 

bee

Member
how expensive is iracing to dip into? Want to try it with the rift and wheel. Also, can you play offline practice laps (don't want to annoy serious online racers with my messing about)

there's usually some voucher codes for a free trial or whatever and yeah you can test on your own on a track, although you've still gotta be online

i did forget to mention though last night that the sim is currently experiencing issues with win xp, they traced it down to the rift integration so they're removing rift support temporarily, fixing it properly then re-adding the support
 
Oh man, the Lotus 49 is so good. It really feels like modernized GPL. It's certainly not going to be for everyone though. It will bite you. It's a hand grenade at high revs. For example, you need to lift on the backstraight at Mosport because it's hilly and isn't really straight at all. Don't lift and you slew all over the place. The default setup isn't terribly hot, but the car has wonderful balance as you slide it around.

Here's a quick and dirty video of the first three laps of the race I did last night. I'm sporting a nice Matra paint job from one of the guys on their forums. #77

http://youtu.be/WO8zH81QxtY

I cut the video right before the second place guy spun off as the only other people I saw were on the side of the road :) The rate at which the names fell of the board was kind of hilarious. Rather ominously, the only two finishers were me, and another guy one lap down. lol. I hope people stick with it!
 

bee

Member
wish it was the same resolution as the monitor in that vid :( not tried it today yet but i think they may have switched off rift support as my game just updated

the $99 for 2 years is back for existing iracing members, makes it £32 a year for me, still got plenty of sub left but i may bite again
 

IMACOMPUTA

Member
I got a DFGT from amazon warehouse (used? seemed like new) for $65.
Fuckin' sweet.
I had heard the DFGT was a good intro wheel, but the peddles were pretty terrible. Is it worth upgrading to a G25/G27 for the peddles alone as a newbie to wheel driving, or will the GT be adequate?

And I've ALSO heard of these magical cheap sales on that wheel. Is there any rhyme or reason to sales on them? I'd like to pick one up sooner than later if possible!
 

Megasoum

Banned
Haha Drew just said that Giantbomb is doing an iRacing quicklook in a couple of hours. Can't wait to see them drive (or try to)
 

Shaneus

Member
Haha Drew just said that Giantbomb is doing an iRacing quicklook in a couple of hours. Can't wait to see them drive (or try to)
Is that the first sim (or even driving game) that GB have done? I wonder what made them choose that now, as opposed to any other sim at any other time.

Hopefully they're not as bad as Schrier when he demoed Driveclub :lol
 

Megasoum

Banned
Is that the first sim (or even driving game) that GB have done? I wonder what made them choose that now, as opposed to any other sim at any other time.

Hopefully they're not as bad as Schrier when he demoed Driveclub :lol

They did all the Codemaster stuff...that's probably the closest they got to a driving sim... And I think most of those quicklooks were with Ryan playing in Chase cam lol.
 
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