Advice needed: cobbling together a cheap simulator to train brand new drivers - have Logitech G27

Advice needed. Our charity is trying to put together a simple, cheap driving simulator to help a few refugees from Afghanistan learn how to drive. These ladies have never been behind a wheel, so they have no connection yet to how inputs translate into motion in a vehicle. I tried to do a couple parking lot sessions with them in a cheap car I have on hand, and they hit a LOT fo curbs. So I'm trying to piece together something using my Logitech G27 wheel and pedal set and a spare monitor I have. 

First attempt is a PS3 with Gran Turismo 5. It's working ok, but the PS3 overheats frequently even after cleaning and with a huge fan blowing through it (with case cover off). This is the 2nd PS3 we've had donated to us and both suffer the overheating red-light-of-death thing. I've got some thermal paste on order to try to rebuild the better of the two and see if it'll stay running for more than 20 minutes. But even if it does, GT5 is still not idea for drivers ed. It's a racing game. I also picked up GT6, but it won't even load (runs infinite updates that never install properly). I would prefer software that involves city traffic and basic turns, braking, accelerating, etc. But note, no GTA or other game simulating illegal activities. That would not be helpful here as these are practicing Muslim women from Afghanistan who will not be ok with violent games or anything they'd consider "immoral." I would not be opposed to ditching the PS3 and going with something else, but the G27's only work with PS up through 3 and with PC's. 

So... any suggestions? 

I have a G27 I use with Assetto Corsa on a PC ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/244210/Assetto_Corsa/ ).  AC can be had for very cheap and I have actually used it to help train someone to drive a stick.  There are a number of street driving "tracks" available, but not city type driving.  It's not super easy to setup (check out the 2nd post in the AC thread in Sim Central).

One thing you might look at is BeamNG  (https://store.steampowered.com/app/284160/BeamNGdrive/).  I don't have it though so I don't know if it has any city / traffic situations (I kind of expect it does).  The preview video does some stuff similar to that (they tend to focus on the crashing of course). Maybe someone here with experience with it can comment.  I am not sure if it has stick and clutch emulation (I would think it does though), if that matters.

The G27 can be made to work with a PS4, but it needs an adaptor ( https://www.drivehubnow.com/ ), which is still available, but is $90, so it might be hard to justify.

BTW - for some reason if you need a set of pedals for a G27 (I have an extra set from a G27 that burned out on me), let me know, you can certainly have them for free.

I don't have any input, but thank you for doing this.

In reply to aircooled :

Setting up Asseto Corsa now. Should be up and running tomorrow. Thank you for the suggestion! I'll try this out on my sons's computer to make sure it works well. If it does I'll look to see if we can buy an expensive gaming PC to run this thing. I'm about ready to kick the PS3 to the curb.

Duke said:

I don't have any input, but thank you for doing this.

 

Kind of you to say. It's actually been pretty fun trying to figure this one out. 

If you want join up on discord as noted on the Assetto Corsa thread and join us on Wednesday night and I am sure the brain trust there can help you out. Track suggestions and if needed custom cars for you to better simulate a street car. In short I will gladly take a Wednesday off from our racing to help.  
 

I have somthing like 500 cars and a hundried tracks on my MS OneDrive.  
 

The Targa Floria track may be a track you can use. It is based on a road course in Italy in the 1950s. It is basically a country drive (or it could be). 
 

Here is a video of it I made. Note that I am going as fast as I can in a mini but you could easily slow it down and practice street driving as it is all in streets of Italy. 
 

Since you are trying AC, there are some more open world "tracks" available which can be setup with traffic.  I know there is one of the roads near Malibu CA, and the hills around LA and there seems to be some in Japan.  I have not looked into them too much, but if you need some help / suggestions, let me know.

Here is a video that shows how to setup / work with traffic.  It looks like you will need Content Manager and CSP (shown in the AC thread).    I doubt you will find anything in AC that deals with cross traffic, but at least it's something.  If you need anything off of Race Department (a lot of tracks and cars are there) and don't want to make an account, I can download them for you and put them on the share drive we use for AC racing.

We can certainly find you some more pedestrian cars for you if you want (the stock AC cars are mostly race cars and some fast street cars).

Here is a video that goes over some of the open world tracks.  Click the "show more" below the video to show the links to the tracks.

"City Car Driving" for PC would be a good candidate for "rules of the road" and less emphasis on physics:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/493490/City_Car_Driving/

BeamNG is an online driving physics simulator. Can be used as auto or manual. Lots of environments and scenarios. 

I have two driving rigs in my DE classroom. I use STISym educational DE software. Provides post drive reports to use for later comparison. Not cheap however.

Want more info? Contact me at my school email,

grooney 

AT 

acsdvt 

Dot org

Do they know how to ride a bike? I'd start there. Learning movement through an actual environment, balance, braking, scanning and searching, and situational awareness. 

We've, most of us, grown up riding bikes, skate boards, roller skates or blades, etc so have the benefit of our bodies learning this stuff over time. They most likely haven't 

Thanks for doing this, great idea.  Try some local indoor karting tracks, see if they will donate an hour of track time to help them understand.  Learning in a moving vehicle is easier than on a computer screen.

Thanks everyone for great feedback and advice!

dean1484 - unfortunately I'm out on Wednesday evening. But if the AC braintrust comes up with anything, please let me know! I do like the Targa Floria idea.

aircoooled - very cool video links. Mulholland drive with cross traffic looks like a great tool!

barrowcadbury - good find on City Car Driving. It took me a while going through their help files to clarify that it CAN use my G27. So that's good to know. Looks worthwhile to try alongside AC.

vwcorvette - thanks for the idea on BeamNG! I'll add that to the list, too. As for bicycles - that's an interesting idea to consider. I believe the answer is no, but I will check.

porschenut - yep... if only we had a karting track nearby. Closest is an hour and a half away and I can't make the logistics work for that due to significant restrictions on their travel and who they can be accompanied by

Maybe Forza Horizon 1/2/5? The open world roaming has traffic at speeds that you'd expect for traffic, although I don't think there are stop lights or anything like that.  Can't use 3 or 4 because they're set in Australia and England, respectively, so the traffic drives on the wrong side of the road. It's also available on Xbox Cloud Gaming so as long as you have a fast internet connection you wouldn't need as epic of a gaming PC.