Sim Racing Chat

If you liked the first one the second is just more of the same, but prettier.

Both great. Especially in VR.
 
No mention of Raceroom, I only really play against AI and R3E has some of the best out there. They are also ramping up the online side if you want to do that. Biggest caveat being R3E is one of those games where you buy cars and tracks individually or in packs but its alot cheaper than iRacing. I’m currently swapping between AMS2, Raceroom, ACC and AC.
 
So for the total beginner who plays forza and need for speed (with a xbox controller) - which game would you recommend as a starting point ?

Tempted to get a quest 2 just to try out vr - but do any of the games have a good single player career to start off with ?

Thanks

Matt

Are yyou sticking with using a controller for now?
If you are playing on a controller I’d suggest going on the forums or discords for some of the titles mentioned here. Some of these are terrible on a controller or require a shed load of faffing about with settings to get cars to feel driveable. On a controller these can be very different games.
 
both assetto corsa's are really cheap in the humble sale and well worth buying. I am in love with Assetto Corsa Competizione at the moment
 
both assetto corsa's are really cheap in the humble sale and well worth buying. I am in love with Assetto Corsa Competizione at the moment
Picked up AC ultimate edition for about £5 from cd keys and project cars game of the year for £2.60
 
So for the total beginner who plays forza and need for speed (with a xbox controller) - which game would you recommend as a starting point ?

Tempted to get a quest 2 just to try out vr - but do any of the games have a good single player career to start off with ?

Thanks

Matt
Definitely Project Cars 2.

I have tried lots of them, including RaceRoom, Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Dirt Rally 1 and 2, Pcar 1 and 2, F1 2019, KartKraft, rFactor, plus lots of others i cant remember the name of.

Now Pcars2 isn't my favourite (but you didnt ask for favourites), ACC is (and AC, Dirt Rally 2). I just wouldn't recommend them for a total beginner.

Pcars 2 - Great graphics, great game play, easy to pick up and play, works well with VR, handling not too bad (but more simcade than sim), great career mode, runs really well. Very cheap.

Raceroom and rFactor - a little too focussed and not as easy to get into. not for a beginner as you will get frustrated (or should i say other racers will), last gen graphics, great handling, user interface not great.

AC - probably the most well known sim out there and still going strong 7 years (?) since released. Great graphics, great handling. It has a HUGE following, including thousands of user content from tracks, to different cars. Everyone should have this sim permanently on their PC.

ACC - class leading handling, class leading graphics. the best sounds in any sims, very focused sim (so not great for beginners). Needs a VERY powerful PC (especially in VR). Only GT racing.

iRacing - perhaps the industry standard, slightly older graphics, great sounds, a little 'too' focussed, fantastic userbase where you will never be lost for a game, bit of snobbery (especially to newbies), you rent the game each month, so if you stop paying you lose the sim and unable to play it. You have to buy cars and tracks which you also wont be able to use if you dont pay your monthly subs.

Dirt Rally 1/2 - obviously only rally (plus rally x), great graphics, great sounds, great handling (some mixed reviews but i like it). can be frustrating to newer racers.

All the above will work in VR. There are others that don't run in VR, but the only recent one i have is F1 2019 as i cant play on a flat screen any more.

The other question is, how beefy is your PC, as this will affect what we can/cant recommend (especially in VR).

IMG_6184.jpg
 
I'm afraid to buy any PC race sims. No doubt if I do and dust off my G29, I'll not be long going down the VR road!
 
Definitely Project Cars 2.

I have tried lots of them, including RaceRoom, Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Dirt Rally 1 and 2, Pcar 1 and 2, F1 2019, KartKraft, rFactor, plus lots of others i cant remember the name of.

Now Pcars2 isn't my favourite (but you didnt ask for favourites), ACC is (and AC, Dirt Rally 2). I just wouldn't recommend them for a total beginner.

Pcars 2 - Great graphics, great game play, easy to pick up and play, works well with VR, handling not too bad (but more simcade than sim), great career mode, runs really well. Very cheap.

Raceroom and rFactor - a little too focussed and not as easy to get into. not for a beginner as you will get frustrated (or should i say other racers will), last gen graphics, great handling, user interface not great.

AC - probably the most well known sim out there and still going strong 7 years (?) since released. Great graphics, great handling. It has a HUGE following, including thousands of user content from tracks, to different cars. Everyone should have this sim permanently on their PC.

ACC - class leading handling, class leading graphics. the best sounds in any sims, very focused sim (so not great for beginners). Needs a VERY powerful PC (especially in VR). Only GT racing.

iRacing - perhaps the industry standard, slightly older graphics, great sounds, a little 'too' focussed, fantastic userbase where you will never be lost for a game, bit of snobbery (especially to newbies), you rent the game each month, so if you stop paying you lose the sim and unable to play it. You have to buy cars and tracks which you also wont be able to use if you dont pay your monthly subs.

Dirt Rally 1/2 - obviously only rally (plus rally x), great graphics, great sounds, great handling (some mixed reviews but i like it). can be frustrating to newer racers.

All the above will work in VR. There are others that don't run in VR, but the only recent one i have is F1 2019 as i cant play on a flat screen any more.

The other question is, how beefy is your PC, as this will affect what we can/cant recommend (especially in VR).

View attachment 1449611
Iracing certainly isn't cheap if you stay around, you can subscribe for 3 months for about £5 and there's plenty of free cars and content to be getting on with in the rookie leagues. Iracing simply wins for me over the others due to the fact I can go on at any time of the day and get a online race against other people, this is where most other sims fail for me. ACC is OK but doesn't have enough variety to keep me off iracing, the original Assetto corsa if you can find a forum have organised races and a good mod community. Haven't tried any of the others yet but plan to have a bash on most going forward.
 
The other question is, how beefy is your PC, as this will affect what we can/cant recommend (especially in VR).

So I would be using a xbox controller to start - I would need to get hooked before getting carried away...

Sounds like Projects cars 2 and AC are places to start with a low cost of entry...

In terms of Vr I could use the laptop or main rig

I7 10th gen
2080 super max q
16gb

Main rig
Ryzen 3700x
RTX 3090
32gb ram

Cheers

Matt
 
So I would be using a xbox controller to start - I would need to get hooked before getting carried away...

Sounds like Projects cars 2 and AC are places to start with a low cost of entry...

In terms of Vr I could use the laptop or main rig

I7 10th gen
2080 super max q
16gb

Main rig
Ryzen 3700x
RTX 3090
32gb ram

Cheers

Matt
Both systems will be ok for vr, I'd personally try and get a cheap wheel and pedals if possible, racing in anything sim like is terrible on a pad, project cars will be ok with a pad as it came out on console, same with the assetto corsa games, but again they won't be great.
 
Certainly playable with a pad.

Could way to see if you like them without spending loads. If you plan to race long term, then a wheel and pedals are a must.
 
Pc2 it is then - if i get a vr headset then I can try it out !
I got the quest 2 from Very for £270 with a £30 new customer discount
 
Big mention for AMS2, which is basically the Project CARS 2 graphics engine with some much enhanced physics. It's not massively popular so there's not much going on with online racing, and its single player is pretty basic (custom championships to come) but the driving experience is very intuitive and rewarding for me. And great in VR too.
 
big fan of AMS 2 too. lots of rarer cars as well (including trucks, vw racing, mini coopers, historic gp cars) and rare tracks (e.g. lots of brazilian traccks, old versions of hockenheim and imola...etc). It is getting better with the features like custom championships but the driving is a blast.
 
I did buy AM2 but refunded it again.
It was ok, but lacked certain cars and appeared to have a strange assortment of other cars due to licencing. The user interface was very similar to Pcars1/2, so easy enough to use, but it didnt add anything extra to me, but lacked more than it give. It just didn't seem polished.
I must admit, that was upon release, so it might be different now.
 
AMS2 is still a work in progress but I think they've made a bunch of improvements since release and added content (admittedly some of that is paid DLC).

Despite it's routes in the PC2 game engine I think they've significantly improved on it it, although you will still find some cars that still haven't had that PC2 snap oversteer tuned out of them. Once you get past the fact that you don't recognise some of the cars and tracks you'll find some cracking cars and tracks in there. Love the Sprint Cars and the older of the two lots of Brazilian Stock cars. GT3's are getting better and the GT1s are cool. You can re-skin all the open wheelers so if you want that to look more like F1 you can.

As someone who normally does 10 or 15 lap races against AI this and Raceroom are my two go to sims at the moment, bit bored with ACC. AC is great but I spend too much time faffing about in content manager and custom shaders not racing.
 
Resurrecting an old thread (as it's pretty much the only sim racing one).

Just taken the plunge with 3 months of iRacing for $5. Looking at the various things required it seems I should definitely get irFFB (and install with vjoy or something).
Anything else I need to install or is it good to go (with VR as well)?
 
Resurrecting an old thread (as it's pretty much the only sim racing one).

Just taken the plunge with 3 months of iRacing for $5. Looking at the various things required it seems I should definitely get irFFB (and install with vjoy or something).
Anything else I need to install or is it good to go (with VR as well)?
Make sure you download the correct vjoy as the newer versions don't work with irffb.
As to iracing you'll start off with a rookie license and can only race in the mx5 or formula vee, i personally preferred the mx5.
The only advice I'll give you is do alot of practice sessions to get consistent before jumping in a race, and when you do a race start from the back and just stay away from the carnage to get your safety rating up, i guarantee you'll always finish top half of the grid just by staying away from the carnage on lap 1, it gets better once out of the rookies and you can start racing in other series, any questions drop me a pm and I'll happily answer
 
Make sure you download the correct vjoy as the newer versions don't work with irffb.
As to iracing you'll start off with a rookie license and can only race in the mx5 or formula vee, i personally preferred the mx5.
The only advice I'll give you is do alot of practice sessions to get consistent before jumping in a race, and when you do a race start from the back and just stay away from the carnage to get your safety rating up, i guarantee you'll always finish top half of the grid just by staying away from the carnage on lap 1, it gets better once out of the rookies and you can start racing in other series, any questions drop me a pm and I'll happily answer

Thanks. Yeh saw on a video which version of vjoy to use.
I'll be taking it very slowly as stretched between waaay too many games and I do have ACC and Raceroom as well.
The cheap offer for iRacing is what tempted me to at least try it even though I probably won't be putting much more money into it :)
 
Thanks. Yeh saw on a video which version of vjoy to use.
I'll be taking it very slowly as stretched between waaay too many games and I do have ACC and Raceroom as well.
The cheap offer for iRacing is what tempted me to at least try it even though I probably won't be putting much more money into it :)
The online side of iracing is much better than any sim I've tried, so if you're competitive you'll end up buying tracks/cars like I did, to be honest initially it seems quite expensive but I haven't bought a track or car for months now, this season in the radical season I do I'll have to buy 2 tracks I don't own as the schedule changes per 12 week season, spending £20-30 everty few months for content I want to continue racing isn't too bad I don't think
 
Has anyone tried the new FFB update for Raceroom?

It’s a game I’ve had for years, and purchased some content, but I have never put proper miles on it because there was always another game taking my attention.

When I got a direct drive wheel, I could never get it tuned to anywhere acceptable with regards to the FFB.

That’s changed. Big time!

I did the update the other day, and first thing which must be praised is the new layout of the UI, particularly the FFB settings. Before it was just a ridiculously long list of options, with vague to no explanation of what each slider did, making it impossible to tune.

This has now been not only simplified, but each slider not only clearly explains what it does, it also gives a best setting depending on the torque of your wheel.

So I tried the settings out, along with a profile from Simucube, and it feels fantastic now. It’s really amazing what a phenomenal transformation this game has undertaken for me now.

Now with great FFB, amazing content, and a good online multiplayer ranking system, this is now my go to game after hammering ACC, which whilst it’s been fun, the tracks are starting to get ‘samey’.

The tracks in Raceroom are really diverse with loads not really found in other games.

Purchased the premium pack for around £40. Absolutely worth that price now.

For anyone on the fence, any car and track combo can now be tried for free, so I’d urge you to give it a try.
 
Yep agree on the Raceroom updates. Much improved on the Direct Drive wheels. Loved it on my T300 but just couldn’t get it to a place I liked on my DD1 so had been waiting for this update for ages. It drives really well, good variety of tracks and cars, the AI is pretty good and if you like online they are doing alot of work on that side.

Its one real failing is that it just looks ancient and it doesn’t make use of modern hardware. Its great that it will run on a toaster but it’s definitely in need of a spruce up.

On there discord rumblings of a sale on the way as well.
 
Has anyone tried the new FFB update for Raceroom?

It’s a game I’ve had for years, and purchased some content, but I have never put proper miles on it because there was always another game taking my attention.

When I got a direct drive wheel, I could never get it tuned to anywhere acceptable with regards to the FFB.

That’s changed. Big time!

I did the update the other day, and first thing which must be praised is the new layout of the UI, particularly the FFB settings. Before it was just a ridiculously long list of options, with vague to no explanation of what each slider did, making it impossible to tune.

This has now been not only simplified, but each slider not only clearly explains what it does, it also gives a best setting depending on the torque of your wheel.

So I tried the settings out, along with a profile from Simucube, and it feels fantastic now. It’s really amazing what a phenomenal transformation this game has undertaken for me now.

Now with great FFB, amazing content, and a good online multiplayer ranking system, this is now my go to game after hammering ACC, which whilst it’s been fun, the tracks are starting to get ‘samey’.

The tracks in Raceroom are really diverse with loads not really found in other games.

Purchased the premium pack for around £40. Absolutely worth that price now.

For anyone on the fence, any car and track combo can now be tried for free, so I’d urge you to give it a try.

I installed the trial the other night and had a brief play and though it was pretty decent. Going to compare it to iRacing and see which I prefer, driving feel, choice and cost of cars and tracks as well as online and being able you jump into a quick race etc…
Have to say the VR in Raceroom is very good and it was actually so much easier driving in VR.
 

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