Story by J.G Pasterjak • Photography Courtesy the Manufacturers
It’s no surprise that interest in online racing platforms is booming at the moment. With tracks around the country–and around the world–shuttered, events rescheduled with best-guess dates for fall, and people stuck at home, online racing can provide a convenient and accessible outlet for everyone’s competitive juices.
But what if you’re …
"For an apples-to-apples comparison, he says, look at the base core speeds and boost core speeds. “Maybe the best way to think of these is idle speed and full throttle speed,” he says."
I think a better comparison would be regular full-throttle power vs. scramble-boost power.
To think, I felt pretty good when I sold my G27 control set in September for almost the cost of what a new G29 went for at the time...there was no way to know, but it was terrible timing.
best tag line ever
I wish any of these graphics card prices were available right now.. so sick of this crypto mining bubble and the silicon shortage..
"One of the factors that keeps iRacing’s on-track carnage to a minimum is a strictly enforced driver progression model."
HA! No, it doesn't.
In reply to RadBarchetta :
also so true
RadBarchetta said:"One of the factors that keeps iRacing’s on-track carnage to a minimum is a strictly enforced driver progression model."
HA! No, it doesn't.
"attempts to keep"?
But, yeah, when this story was written almost a year ago, it was ramp-up of the Corona rush. This past summer was definitely frustrating in a few public lobbies. Still better than the free sims, though.
Motion rigs are getting way cheaper. I bought my DOF Reality H3 rig for $2400 shipped. I'm extemely happy with the results in VR.
I bought in this year, a couple books suggested it, and y'all seemed to be having so much fun doing it...
I scored a G27 with shifter, pedals, and stand for $200. Played iRacing at 35 fps for a few weeks on my old computer before selling it and my other PCs to buy a single gaming laptop that runs iRacing at around 80 fps on high detail at 1080p even at tracks with lots of trees.
The next step is getting a better seating setup, getting tired of the wooden kitchen chair. I am looking at one of the folding rigs from Next Level like the F-GT Lite.
It's pretty pathetic that companies like iRacing haven't fully embraced multithreading.
As a former game dev specializing in that sort of thing, the companies I worked for had fully multithreaded engines back in 2007.
Everyone has known that more cores were the future since the Pentium4 failed.
Ben Jolly said:The next step is getting a better seating setup, getting tired of the wooden kitchen chair. I am looking at one of the folding rigs from Next Level like the F-GT Lite.
Pedal box stiffness is probably the most important factor in a sim rig. Whatever you get, make sure that pedal box is stiff, or have a plan to reinforce it if it isn't. Especially if you have a load cell brake pedal.
spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:I wish any of these graphics card prices were available right now.. so sick of this crypto mining bubble and the silicon shortage..
Yep. I've got my triple monitor stand here now, but haven't bought anything else. Don't really want to buy monitors, wheel/pedals, etc, until I hook everything up and make sure it works.
I have a simple playseat challenge with some plywood enhancements and it works fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone for an entry level ish solution.
In reply to Ben Jolly :
Hey! I got the F-GT Lite for Christmas from my wife. On amazon its the 299 dollar one. If I had to do it over again, I might have gotten the 231 dollar one that the seat back is not adjustable. I do like the seat though and would reccommend it.
Honsch said:It's pretty pathetic that companies like iRacing haven't fully embraced multithreading.
As a former game dev specializing in that sort of thing, the companies I worked for had fully multithreaded engines back in 2007.
Everyone has known that more cores were the future since the Pentium4
iRacing is based on code from like 2003, and has been dual threaded for a while now - one for physics and one for rendering. Since this article was written they've added additional threads for the new damage model.
ProDarwin said:I have a simple playseat challenge with some plywood enhancements and it works fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone for an entry level ish solution.
Yeah, I had a pretty basic setup back in the day when I spent probably 20 hours a week doing iRacing. Fanatec seat, entry level Fanatec Porsche wheel and pedals, and 3-27" monitors sitting on a 6' collapsible picnic table.
My old computer isn't worth upgrading the video card again as the Mobo/CPU is from 2009.
So the plan now is a Trak Racer TR8 rig, the triple monitor stand from Trak Racer that is already here. The now entry-level Fanatec wheel/pedals, a new fresh computer that is way more powerful than iRacing needs but that keeps heat down and makes stuff last longer, all pushing 3-32" 1440p monitors.
ProDarwin said:I have a simple playseat challenge with some plywood enhancements and it works fantastic. I would recommend it to anyone for an entry level ish solution.
Love this. I might have to make some changes/modifications to my Obuto rig.
Maniac0301 said:Motion rigs are getting way cheaper. I bought my DOF Reality H3 rig for $2400 shipped. I'm extemely happy with the results in VR.
How much more processing power/memory do you need to control that?
Asking for a me. Although it also looks like your rig is worth more than the three cars in my garage... Yowza.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Thank you PD. For the motion rig its almost no processing power the big calculations occur at the sim level for the forces so those calculations are happening any way to make the sim work. The sim spits out telemetry data based on these calculations and the only extra processing is a translation of that telemetry into motion. My PC is home built but its nothing crazy. Its a previous gen i5 9600k, 16gb ram, and a 2060 super. Basically dead on for what the original article recommended for a VR setup. Cost breakdown is:
VR Ready PC - $1200
Fanatec Wheel and Pedals - $850
Motion Rig - $2400
Oculus Rift S VR headset - $300
In the past I've used a single wide monitor, triple monitors, and VR for sims. I by far prefer VR. Its more immersive and the overall setup is way easier and takes less space. It also means I can keep my cockpit to the side of my desk and not compromise the computers usability for games or work.
FWIW, I would ballpark my setup around this:
PC Build $1000 ballpark? (3600k, 1070, 16gb ram)
G920 $245
Playseat Challenge $220 + $10 in plywood
Its hard to determine true cost because in most cases a PC racer is sharing their PC with other duties.
Maniac0301 said:
In the past I've used a single wide monitor, triple monitors, and VR for sims. I by far prefer VR. Its more immersive and the overall setup is way easier and takes less space. It also means I can keep my cockpit to the side of my desk and not compromise the computers usability for games or work.
I've wanted to try VR, but didn't want to just jump in and not like it.
I also want to try some endurance racing, and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable wearing one of those for hours at a time.
z31maniac said:Maniac0301 said:
In the past I've used a single wide monitor, triple monitors, and VR for sims. I by far prefer VR. Its more immersive and the overall setup is way easier and takes less space. It also means I can keep my cockpit to the side of my desk and not compromise the computers usability for games or work.I've wanted to try VR, but didn't want to just jump in and not like it.
I also want to try some endurance racing, and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable wearing one of those for hours at a time.
I'm in that same boat. I used to work in the field of flight sims. Every time I put on a VR headset I would ralf like 20 minutes later. That was prior to the recent improvements in that field. Refresh rates and screen door effects were a huge killer of the early VR headsets. I built a PC capable of doing VR and have a nice monitor in the event I hate the VR experience.
red_stapler said: iRacing is based on code from like 2003, and has been dual threaded for a while now - one for physics and one for rendering. Since this article was written they've added additional threads for the new damage model.
That's still really late to the party.
In reply to z31maniac :
I'll happily spend a couple hours in VR doesn't bother me much although one of the reasons I use the comparatively older Rift S is because its one of the most balanced and lightest headsets around. Then again some people just can't handle VR and you don't really know until you know. You can and do build up a sort of tolerance and sit down experiences with a grounding element like wheels and pedals are amongst the most tolerable at least until you roll the first time or weirdly enough drive in reverse.
When using monitors, distance to your eyes and field of view are incredibly important for driver consistency. Get it wrong one way and it feels like your trying to drive from the trunk get it wrong the other and it feels like the hood ornament. You can certainly be fast if its wrong but its always a bit off when compared to a real life experience. This is one of the biggest reasons people don't think that skills developed in Sim can transfer to the track. Get it right and your window "aka monitor" into the sim world shows proper perspective but your FOV is going to be small even if you move the monitor to right in front of your wheel. VR eliminates all this while giving you a FOV that almost perfectly matches what I see from my real helmet.
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