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GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Latest revision: 09/2020



Welcome to the PC Sim Racing Thread. Here we are all about the right kind of pretend racing. Preferably on really expensive hardware.

Discord

Other threads






Post 1: Sims
  • Introduction
  • Current Sims
  • Older Sims
Post 2: Hardware
  • Wheels
  • Pedals & Shifters
  • Cockpits / Seats
Post 3: Setting Up
  • Force Feedback
  • Steering Rotation/Ratio/Lock
  • Field of View
Post 4: The Rest
  • State of VR Support
  • Links
Post 5: Mods
  • Misc Tools
  • Conversions & Mod Packs
  • Cars & Tracks



So what's the difference between sims and other racing games?

Extremely broadly speaking:
  • A more authentic driving and/or racing experience with cars feeling as true to their real counterparts as possible, on accurate representations of real world tracks.
Chances are you're particularly interested in a comparison to console sims, i.e. Forza or Gran Turismo:
  • No singleplayer progression or career mode (worth mentioning).
  • There's only setup, no tuning/parts swapping.
  • Less cars in general and an emphasis on actual race cars (in the official content, mods are of course another matter).
  • Designed to be driven with wheels, controller support might exist but is often (always?) a sub par experience.
  • IT'S NOT A GAME MOM
A personal opinion about physics:

I don't talk much about the physics of any of the sims listed here, the reason being that for any sim you'll find people calling it the best thing ever as well as people calling it utter crap because this other thing is obviously the best ever. Plus when people talk about physics a big part of what they're actually talking about is the feel of the force feedback, which is dependent on hardware, setup and personal preference, all further muddling the issue. The truth is none of these games truly recreate real world physics, they all have different philosophies on how to approach a reasonable approximation. Within some basic criteria the way they present the driving/racing experience qualifies all of them as sims in my opinion, and the only way to really find out if you'll like how one of them feels is to try it out. Spend time looking at the features and get a demo if possible, don't waste your time reading endless discussions about physics. I found that for pretty much any sim, once I set up my wheel correctly and gave it some time to get into the particular language of the game, I was able to find cars and tracks I love to drive.

And a short remark about AI:

AI always be AI, so good means good in the context of what's available. The better ones still have plenty of quirks and fuckups, and even within the same game it can vary wildly from track to track and car to car.



"Current" is a flexible definition, some of these have started many years ago, some might be based on older tech, for some "being in development" seems a bit of an eternal state.

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER




Assetto Corsa is the unquestionable number one choice right now if you want lots of mods (You'll find 99% of the good ones on Racedepartment). If you want to drive a wide variety of cars on a wide variety of tracks, vintage and modern, Assetto Corsa is your best bet. Multiplayer is active but mostly public races of varying quality. The vanilla game is a bit anemic in features and has a terrible UI, so it is advisable to spend an additional 5 bucks to get Content Manager+CSP, a mod that adds night racing, lots of graphical improvements and a vastly superior UI to the game. Not even Kunos understands how one crazy russian added night racing to a game that they designed with only one light source. Add the Sol mod for dynamically changing weather and light conditions to essentially turn Assetto Corsa if not into AC2 then at the very least into AC1.5 (Check down in the mod section for an effort post by GutBomb on how to install these).



Assetto Corsa Competizione is not Assetto Corsa 2. Instead it is a completely new game on a new engine, focusing on simulating the cars, tracks and rules of GT3 racing, officially licensed drivers and teams and all. Multiplayer is pretty active and comes with an iRacing-like safety rating system to encourage clean racing. If you're looking for GT3 (or GT4) this is arguably the best game to get right now. Unlike Assetto Corsa, this one is not mod-friendly.



Automobilista 2 is the odd one out. Being done by a brazilian studio the series historically has an emphasis on brazilian content, although these days you'll find a lot more than that and more importantly a lot of unique stuff not done anywhere else. From several decades of (unlicensed) F1 cars over australian V8s and souped up beetles to actual trucks there's probably something in here you'll never knew you would love so much. It's a very acclaimed series that so far has failed to make inroads into the mainstream so don't expect an active multiplayer community. A lot of additional content is coming and most sims are years-long projects, so at the time of this writing and having just been released it's hard to tell where this one will go.



The sim-leaning companion series to the arcade-leaning DIRT series and well received by rally fans, aside from reselling most of the DiRT Rally 1 content repackaged as DLC for DiRT Rally 2.



The official Formula 1 sim from Codemasters releasing yearly since 2010. The only game with all the drivers, cars and tracks of the F1 season. The whole range of F1 rules is in, tires management, weather changes, in terms of the representation of a full race career mode the F1 series is probably the best on the market. The series had its up and downs but reception since 2016 has been pretty universally positive. In typical Codemasters fashion it blends simulation and arcade elements, arguably with a bent towards simulation. F1 2020 features game elements not generally found in PC sims such as the aforementioned career mode and car upgrading via upgrade points earned for performing tasks and reaching targets.



iRacing bills itself as a subscription-based service, as such it comes with high costs for the subscription itself as well as for content packs, but if you're serious about proper online racing this is really your only choice. Here you will find managed racing series and leagues and even the possibility of driving against real drivers from the amateur and professional racing world. At the core is a license system that constantly tracks your on-track behaviour and calculates a "safety rating" which in turn gives or takes away access to different classes and events. iRacing is as close as you can get to being a real race car driver. iRacing is very much its own thing, and the thread here on the forums is very active, so it's advisable to go there for more in-depth information.



First released as a demo in 2002 Live for Speed is developed by a three man team independent of a publisher, keeping it both cheap and focused, but sometimes slow to update. The game focuses on online gameplay making it very easy to just pick up and race, though lacks some of the bells and whistles featured in newer titles. The game features a mix of fictional and licensed content, fully supports the Oculus Rift, and has a time-unlimited demo. Because it is still under development the game is not open to adding in community made cars and tracks, though applications can be made to connect to LFS for data manipulation and server administration.
this information brought to you by pik_d




Slightly Mad Studios previously developed the "Need for Speed: Shift" series under the boot of Electronic Arts, for the Project CARS series they went their own way with a self-funded/crowd-funded model. Owning probably to its cross-platform nature Project Cars 2 has an actual career mode, something you don't normally see in PC sims, and also better gamepad support than most PC centric titles. There's a good amount of tracks and cars, with an emphasis on current and classic race cars. Project Cars 2 also added a rallycross to the mix. AI was the big complaint about Project Cars 1, and kept being a point of contention for Project Cars 2 (although admittedly I didn't keep up with the title).



RaceRoom is Free-To-Play (with three tracks and half a dozen cars it would have been called Demo back when demos were still a thing) with purchasable content packs generally build around specific racing series. R3E as a whole is very much geared towards being able to play full race seasons with a proper field of cars and a good selection of fitting tracks. The AI is very capable of giving you a good racing experience and is, together with exceptional sound design, one of the standout features of R3E. If you buy all the content this is one of the more expensive sims around, but to be fair there is a lot of it done in good quality. Be aware that despite the strong "offline" racing R3E does not have an actual offline mode, you need to be connected at all times.



The sim with a pedigree. rFactor 1 (or rather it's underlying isiMotor2 engine) was the platform for years. rFactor2 started development in 2009 and had a lot of trouble getting off the ground and finding some kind of identity. Official content was a bit meager and greatly varied in quality, the AI is pretty good (some will say the best) and the tire model is commonly accepted as the most sophisticated one out there. At the end of 2016 rF2 as a whole has been sold to newly created Studio 397 which has been working on improving the engine/game and releasing content packs around specific racing series (GT3 mostly). Probably the least newcomer-friendly, but a favorite of endurance/league racers. Very moddable but the community hasn't embraced it as much as rFactor 1 and it's fallen way behind Assetto Corsa.






Technology improves, not only in terms of presentation but also in the kind of physics a home PC can handle. Nevertheless most of these should still drive very well and you might find cars, tracks or series you like that you can't find in current sims. Some might be added more for their place in racing sim history.

FROM NEWER TO OLDER



Automobilista 1 is mostly surpassed by Automobilista 2, having a lot of the same content in a better looking engine. But if you don't like how the Madness Engine drives and prefer rFactor-based physics/AI or are just looking for a cheaper alternative this is still great sim.



Released 2007 by SimBin - well regarded for their previous work on GT Legends, GTR and GTR2 - Race07 is one of the many games developed on the isiMotor2 (i.e. rFactor1) engine. Race07's features good racing AI and a host of expansion packs turning it into a pretty comprehensive racing collection. A collection of Race07 including some of the expansion content was released under the name Race Injection, however it's missing some beloved cars and tracks and is thus considered inferior despite slight upgrades.
  • [no official site]
  • Developer: SimBin Studios
  • Available on Steam



Another SimBin isiMotor2 joint, GTR2 from 2006 is one of the classics of sim racing. The emphasis lies on GT/Touring Car racing but some open wheelers are included as well. A kinda sorta remake of it made it to Race07 in the from of the GTR Evolution expansion, but I think the consensus is that GTR2 is superior.
  • [no official site]
  • Developer: SimBin Studios
  • Available on Steam



And again we have SimBin on isiMotor2. And again it's a classic. GT Legends was released in 2005 and is based around GT cars from the 60s and 70s. Somewhat rare in PC sim racing, GT Legends has a career mode and unlocks. There are two big mods (Historic GT & Touring Cars for rFactor and Power & Glory for GTR2) taking and improving GT Legends within (somewhat) newer engines, since you need GT Legends to install Historic GT & Touring Cars you might want to pick it up for that alone.
  • [no official site]
  • Developer: SimBin Studios
  • Available on Steam



rFactor was released in 2005 and became the racing sim platform for years, used for several commercial products and approximately one bazillion mods. The visuals are obviously showing it's age, the UI is archaic as is the configuration, but in terms of content it'll keep you busy for ages.



The last entry developed by Papyrus in the once famous Nascar series and apparently still the only Nascar game worth playing. Since it was released back in 2003 NR2k3 has been modded to include a host of oval racing series ( Indycar, dirt ovals, legends, sprint cars etc). One of the founders of Papyrus later went on to make iRacing, which is based on the Nascar engine.



If you're looking for good rallying, there is was only RBR. (Now there's Dirt Rally too!) Released in 2004, it was the only real rally sim for a whole decade and it keeps on being excellent to this day. RBR is always there for you. RBR is eternal. RBR is also very very hard. The game is abandonware and you can get a full install including improved physics, new tracks, new cars and an integrated multiplayer system from Rallysimfans.hu
  • [no official site]
  • Developer: Warthog Games
  • Available only used



If you're talking about a true classic of a game genre, this sim from 1998 is it. GPL has a bit of an unfair reputation as being unrealistically difficult to drive due to the demo car being set up idiotically and the full release not allowing any aids during actual races which made it hard for people to ease into the sim. Not that it isn't really hard, just not undriveably so. GPL has a surprising amount of mods as well as a big unofficial patch (start here).
  • [no official site]
  • Developer: Papyrus Design Group
  • Available only used

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 21, 2022

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GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.



Thrustmaster T2, "force feedback" was generated by two bungee cords pulling the wheel back to center. It was amazing.

Force Feedback...

...is essentially a motor that turns a wheel left and right at different strengths depending on the signals a game sends. Aside from general differences in build quality and the strength of the motor, the major difference between FFB technologies is the way in which the motor shaft and the wheel are linked:
  • Gear Drive
    Used mostly in entry-level wheels: The motor shaft is linked to the wheel via gears. This means the FFB is more direct than belt drive wheels, but you might be able to feel the notches in the gears, and without a pulley system and the smaller motors available at this price range the overall force is on the weaker side. Also known for being noisy.

  • Belt Drive
    Used in most consumer-level wheels today: The motor shaft is linked to the wheel via belt and pulley system. This allows for relatively strong FFB despite smaller motors, but hampers acceleration and thus fine detail/directness to a certain extent. How much of that - though a fact of engineering/physics - can actually be felt is debatable I guess. Depending on build quality the belt system may wear out and develop slack/slippage over time.

  • Direct Drive
    The best solution: The wheel sits directly on the motor shaft. Requires a very strong and expensive motor but the FFB is as direct and detailed as it gets. No real wear other than the bearings in the motor itself. If there is a downside (aside from the high price) it's that they seem to require a bit more time to set up and configure. And of course there's no reasonable way to use them in a non-permanent setup.

What to buy then?

I think in general you should go for a belt-drive and avoid gear-drive, unless you really just want to dip your feet in or maybe if you're going to do mostly drift racing. My impression is that drift racers like the gear-driven Logitechs a lot for the directness and less mechanical base resistance.

A more expensive wheel will probably not make you a better driver, in terms of usable informational content there's probably not too much of a difference between the FFB in a $200 and a $1000 wheel. There are a lot of fast people on pretty cheap wheels out there. Then again, if you're not an alien to begin with then maybe a better wheel does make it easier and faster to become quicker. And of course there's the whole immersion thing. Anyway, when it comes to price translating into actual driving performance putting money into pedals is a much more straightforward proposition.

The three big names in consumer-level FFB wheels are Logitech, Thrustmaster and Fanatec - in that order roughly having their focus on the entry/mid-level/high-end market. Be aware that Fanatec is a relatively small company from Germany, and for quite a while they had problems with reliability and maybe more importantly customer support, especially overseas. That image still sticks to them though my impression is that they mostly sorted that out.

Some wheels you'll find commonly used and liked, ordered by price:

  • Logitech Driving Force Pro
  • Logitech G25/G27
  • Logitech G29/G920
  • Thrustmaster T300
  • Fanatec CSL
  • Thrustmaster T500RS
  • Fanatec Clubsport (CSW)

Starting at somewhere around $100 with the Driving Force Pro (only available used) and ending at around $800 (depending on rim) with the Clubsport, direct-drive wheels (>$1500) not included. Some come with pedals and/or shifters, for some you have to spent extra. The more high end wheels have separated base and rim so you can switch out (and pay for) different wheel rims.





Pedals

Being able to properly control gas and brake obviously makes a huge difference, as such the importance of good pedals can not be overstated. Cheaper pedals often have very little resistance and brake power is directly relative to pedal travel. This makes it difficult to get a good feel for how much brake you're actually applying. In a real car brake power is relative to brake pedal resistance: The harder you push, the more you brake. In racing sim pedals this is realized by using load cells. You're looking at upwards of $200 for pedals that incorporate that kind of technology. Something similar goes for clutch pedals: A real clutch has a specific point of resistance, this is not represented in cheaper pedals.

Using a clutch (in cars that require it in real live) gives you a bit of an advantage in most sims but requires advanced foot techniques (google "heel and toe").

The cheapest pedals with a brake load cell for the are the Fanatec CSL Elite pedals. The next step up are the Fanatec Clubsports, which also have a clutch bite point.

Shifters

Again Fanatec is a popular choice for standalone shifters. Nothing much to say otherwise, when it comes to pure driving performance using the paddle shifters coming with pretty much every wheel is probably the best choice, separate H or sequential shifters are more of an immersion/realism thing. Having no shifters at all however is a disadvantage, as most games punish you somewhat for using fully automatic transmission (in cars that don't have it IRL) by increasing shift times a bit.






General Advice

Make sure all the parts are fixated properly, especially the pedals. If you have a hardwood floor you probably need something to prop the pedals up against or an anti slide mat. Your seating position should be comfortable so you don't end up with a sore back/neck or stiff legs, that ruins the fun quite quick. Mouse and keyboard need to be in reach too.

Permanent / Temporary

An important question to ask yourself is if you want to go with a temporary or permanent setup. In the latter case you need to dedicate some space just for sim racing, and you will most likely need a separate monitor and probably mouse and keyboard as well. Then of course a seat and mount for your wheel, either bought or DIY. I personally (and I heard the same from others) found that with a temporary solution I didn't drive nearly as often as I wanted just because of the hassle of setting everything up, even if it was only 5 or 10 minutes. Of course, once you go with a permanent setup, you pass the threshold between "playing racing games" and "having a hobby".

Single Screen / Triple screen / VR

Another question is what display solution to go for. A single screen is the easiest and cheapest to set up and requires the least performance out of your PC, but you lose a lot of peripheral vision and immersion compared to the other options. Triple screen and VR both require much higher resolution and VR also requires a high stable framerate to not make you puke all over the place. Plus of course both come with additional cost, a VR headset isn't cheap and neither are three monitors and a mounting solution, and maybe new PC hardware to drive those things as well.

Some recommended products


Wheel Stand Pro, a temporary fold-away solution.



Fanatec CSL Seat and Playseat Evolution, both simple seats with wheel/pedal mount and still (somewhat) moveable.


Obutto Ozono, a full triple screen solution including keyboard & mouse tray.



GhostDog fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Sep 9, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.


If you spend god knows how much on a wheel it's a good idea to also spend some time digging into how to set it up correctly. Every sim handles FFB differently so there's sadly no all-in-one solution to be found, a little time investment is necessary. Plus, especially for older games, you might end up having to open the odd INI or CFG file.

Here is a guide for rFactor2, but the general gist of it applies to other sims as well. I'll try to give you a short version of the important points, from my admittedly limited understanding of the subject:

Clipping
    The big one. Damper and Spring might be debatable as personal preference, but clipping really isn't. In short, your wheel clips when the game demands more force to be put out than the motor can handle. You end up with a constant (that is your wheel's maximum) force and any information the game tries to give you beyond that is simply lost, cut off.



    Ideally you would never want that to happen, however if you turn down the FFB strength in the game to such a level that it never ever clips, not even when you smash over a curb at high speeds, then the force range left for normal driving situations might end up being very small and the resulting FFB feeling very weak. In order to dial this in you need an app for the sim that shows you the forces, this generally comes as a pedals app with four moving columns which show clutch, brake, throttle and the current force feedback state. Then it's a matter of driving around adjusting force feedback strength so that it doesn't "get into the red" too much. You might also want to deliberately drive with clipping for a while to be able to recognize how it feels, this is going to help you dial in FFB in sims that don't have a way of measuring it.
Deadzone
    Most (affordable) wheels due to their construction have a certain deadzone before FFB picks up, making them feel somewhat dead if only little forces act on the car. Newer sims have a workaround for that by way of a minimum force setting. This just means small amounts of force that your wheel couldn't have produced get increased enough to overcome the deadzone so they don't get lost.
Spring & Damper
    Spring is not used by PC sims as far as I can tell, it can be set for some wheels in the driver configuration and adds a return-to-center force. This of course ends up masking some of the actual FFB coming from the game and the general advice is to turn it off, unless you have a very good reason to turn it on (for example older games where the FFB doesn't create enough self-aligning force).
    Damper is a resistance-to-turning force. There is some personal preference here and it might help with center deadzones (for games without a minimum force setting), add some overall weight to the wheel, or reduce oscillations. Most consumer-level wheels have some natural dampening due to the resistance inherent in their construction, direct drive wheels however seem to need some amount of software dampening. It's something to play around with, but I think should still generally be avoided if possible since it too tends to mask detail in FFB.
Caster
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle
    Not an FFB setting, but something you can often adjust in the car setup and which heavily influences FFB. Essentially, a higher caster means the FFB builds up quicker/more during cornering, so the FFB gets stronger but more compressed into a smaller range. I find it sometimes helpful for cars with a lot of grip difference between low and high downforce situations, mostly open wheelers that go too light for my liking in slow corners.





Steering Rotation is the amount of rotation the steering wheel has from far left to far right (lock to lock). Modern wheels generally have 900° or 1080° max and can be adjusted via driver and/or on the wheel itself.

Steering Lock is the amount of rotation the front tires can turn from center to either side (generally, sometimes it's given as lock to lock, but not in any of the sims here AFAIK).

Steering Ratio is the amount of degrees you have to turn the steering wheel so that the front tires turn one degree.

Steering Ratio = Steering Rotation / ( 2 * Steering Lock )

For example: 540° Rotation with 20 Lock gives you a Ratio of 13.5 to 1.

Or, if you like pictures, I found this somewhere:


The important thing about steering ratio is that the game and the wheel should be synched up, i.e. the wheel in-game should turn 1:1 with your actual wheel. In older games you might have to set this up yourself, but in most of the newer games you just tell them what your maximum wheel rotation is and they will set up your wheel to be in synch with the car. Most of the time that should be all you need to do, but sometimes you might want to change the steering ratio in the car's tuning menu to your personal preference: A low steering ratio means having to turn less in sharp corners and quicker counter-steering at the expense of precision and twitchiness, and vice versa for a high steering ratio. Some people adjust steering ratio on a per-track basis.

Real world values for most cars seem to be within the 12 to 16 range, open wheelers often have lower values and Karts the lowest.






This is a touchy subject because it goes into "let me tell you how to play this game right" territory. Just consider this my personal opinion, you're obviously free to play the game the way you see fit.


Using the correct FOV is important. I didn't think so at first, in fact I even thought that a higher FOV gives me a better sense of the "true" speed and a better view of things around me, thus might be of advantage. However what it comes down to is that you're actually getting a fake sense of speed by warping perspective and spatial dimensions. Think of your monitor as a window into the world (your brain does when it interprets distance and size) and install it in your car at the exact same distance as in your sim setup - there's only one correct FOV so that what you see on your monitor fits the rest of the world:

    Monitor at ~22" distance from the eye.
Here are two screens from Assetto Corsa:

    My correct FOV of 37

    AC standard FOV of 54
Let's say my brake point is somewhere at that signal light on the right side, shortly after the 200m sign. I'm the same distance away in both pictures, travelling at the same speed, and it's going to take me the same amount of time to get there. But in the high FOV scenario my brake marker will seemingly come up much quicker, from a smaller starting size, giving me less time to react. That's what you're really doing with a too high FOV: shortening your reaction times to "less then real".

Hitting brake points, hitting apex, judging width of track, judging distance to other cars - all of that improved drastically for me after the simple change of setting the correct FOV. Getting used to the "slower" sense of speed took me about an hour or two.

Of course, if your mathematical FOV is very small (say less than 30vFov/60hFov) you might want to fudge the numbers a bit.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Oct 6, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.



Visit his Cojawfee's VR thread for more up-to-date information.

Assetto Corsa: Fully supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (menus only show up on the monitor).

Automobilista: VR support was planned, but currently it looks like it's not happening.

Dirt Rally: Fully supports Oculus Rift (HTC Vive support via Revive?).

iRacing: Fully supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Live For Speed: Fully supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Project Cars: Fully supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Raceroom Racing Experience: Fully supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.






How to drive fast
General sim racing sites
Youtube channels

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Jul 17, 2017

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
always work in progress




Crew Chief

Real Head Motion for Assetto Corsa

Content Manager for Assetto Corsa (Payware)

Dashmeter Pro (Payware)







RSRBR 2015 for Richard Burns Rally

Power & Glory for GTR2
    http://www.gtlw.co.uk/
    Improved/Enhanced version of GT Legends for GTR2. Does not require a copy of GT Legends any more (they got permission from SimBin because they're porting content between SimBin games).

Historic GT and Touring Cars (aka Historx) for rFactor 1

njsykora's mod list for Nascar Racing 2003






Short lists of tracks and cars that reach my completely arbitrary and inconsistent standard of quality.


Automobilista

Tracks
  • Patrick Giranthon is your man (look under "Downloads"). He's doing official work for Reiza now, and the tracks he releases/released as mods are for the most part indistinguishable from official content in terms of mesh and visual quality.
  • Here is his megapack with 28 tracks including Barcelona, Bathurst, Laguna Seca, Monza, Road America, Road Atlanta, Spa and more.
Cars


Assetto Corsa


How to modernize Assetto Corsa

Just want to add to the post below that the full version of Content Manager has Custom Shader Patch included, you can just one-click install any version of it, auto-update, the works...

GutBomb posted:

How to modernize Assetto Corsa

Assetto Corsa is still being developed for by the modding scene and they've done a great job at making it look a lot nicer and adding new features like weather, day/night cycle, animated track objects, etc. You'll need 4 things for this:
1. A copy of the game ($20 on Steam or $40 with all the DLC)
2. Content Manager (a new launcher / mod installer / server browser https://assettocorsa.club/content-manager.html )
3. Custom Shaders Patch (this enables new shaders and lights and lots of new mod tracks don't work without it)
4. Sol (this is a pretty good simulation of the sun and different skies, it's really cool)
5. Optional extras (things that get rid of some annoyances)

1. First install the game. I'll leave that up to you.

2. Then install Content Manager. I highly recommend the full version but you won't need it for this. The full version is a pay what you want donation. I unzip it to c:\accm and run it from there.

Fire up content manager and if it doesn't find AC, point it to where it's installed. It should just find it though.

3. Download the custom shaders patch ( https://acstuff.ru/patch/?get=0.1.49 ) and drop it's zip on top of the running Content Manager window.

The hamburger button menu in the upper right will turn green. Click on that and find the mod at the bottom of that menu and click install.

4. Download Sol ( https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/sol.24914/ )

Open that zip and go into the MODS\Sol 1.5.1 folder. You should find 4 folders (apps, content, extension, and system) along with a description.jsgme file. Ignore the jsgme file and drag those 4 folders into your Assetto Corsa install directory (usually c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa) and choose to overwrite all files.

In Content Manager go to Settings->Custom Shaders Patch->Lighting FX and change brightness to 100%.

In Content Manager go to Settings->Assetto Corsa->Video and in the Post Processing section change the filter to __Sol

This is the bare minimum to get it up and running and it will look much better than it used to, and the Content Manager UI is much better than the regular game's UI. To take it for a test drive in Content Manager go to Drive->Single, and then select a track and a car. Change the time to whatever you want. Change the weather to any option underneath the Sol entry. Then click Go! in the lower right. If everything was installed right you should be all set.

5. Now some optional stuff.
First, get this. It changes the texture for broken/cracked windshields to look less lovely
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/hd-windshield-damage.10965/

There's tons of visual things to tweak under Settings->Custom Shaders Patch. First I recommend downloading car and track configs which will make things look even nicer.

You do that with the Cars Configs, Cars Textures, Cars VAO, Tracks Configs, and Tracks VAO sections. Just go to each section, click the 3 dots in the upper-rightish and there should be an entry in that menu for "Download ## items." Click that and it will download the stuff for all of the cars and tracks you already have installed. Do that with each of those sections and I also recommend having "install automatically" checked too for those so if you ever get mod cars and tracks you won't need to download these again, it will automatically download them the first time you use the car/track. These configs do a lot of things but since Sol/Custom Shaders Patch has tweaked the Assetto Corsa engine to display multiple light sources instead of just one, these configs tell AC where the new light sources come from (like turn signals, dashboard lights, trackside lights, etc) and also generally make things on tracks and cars look better.

Underneath those options are all the extensions like Lighting FX, Grass FX, etc. These all add new effects to the game like way better smoke, lighting, grass, etc. Each one takes a little bit of performance so find the right balance.

If you want to install mod cars or tracks it's super easy with content manager. You just download the mod, drag it's zip file on top of the running Content Manager window and go to the hamburger menu to install it. It can detect whether it's a skin, car, track, or plugin, so it knows what to do with it automatically.

To play online in Content Manager there is a server browser you go to by going to Drive->Online. This should list all of the active servers that are connected up to the Kunos matchmaking server and you can filter on all kinds of stuff to find the right server.

This should be enough to get started!


rFactor 2

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Sep 5, 2020

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Still planned for the OP is a section with selected noteable mods and maybe general modding advice. Not going to happen for a while though. Jehde, if you still want to do something regarding AC modding, drop me a PM and I can put it in. Don't hurry though, the next revision is end of April at the earliest.

I'd also like to add a short overview/tips section about triple screen (and later VR) support, though with triples especially I'd like some input since I'm a single screen guy myself.

And maybe some other random crap, like AI setup for ISI games and the like, though that's already maybe a bit too in depth. Gotta see.

track day bro! posted:

Is a G25 for 100 euro a good deal?

Sounds like a good deal to me, though I have never had a Logitech myself.

Edit:

njsykora posted:

Gonna write a thing about mods (specifically NR2k3 mods, I'll leave the AC mods to Jehde) here later.

I can either link your post if you want to update without me as a middleman, or I can copy it to the OP.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Feb 8, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

njsykora posted:

Link it in the NR2k3 bit as it's going to be a bit of an effort post, since tater's post in the last thread is gonna fall into the archives we should have something linkable in this thread.

Done.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Hi, welcome to the PC Sim Ra - oh, you're already gone :(

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

Cojawfee posted:

You could at least state which games have good VR support. Pretty much just iRacing, Project Cars, Dirt Rally and Live For Speed have the most up to date support.

Is what you wrote in the last thread still up to date? I might just copy that in again then.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

Cojawfee posted:

I don't know remember what I wrote. I'll just write something new today.

Thanks.

Ziploc posted:

I think the heavy hitters all picked the GTR because they wanted to compete with each other. I know I picked it because Ohsh was all high on the B12h. None of us knew if it was the overdog or not.

According to the server record board the C6R, BMW, and GTR were all capable of 55s during qual.

I think I saw a discussion somewhere on the official forums discussing a spread of about 2 seconds across the different GT3 cars and collected data of a few thousand laps across several tracks. The only thing I remember is the two Mercedes bringing up the rear and the Lambo being fastest.

Also
Edit: gently caress, I misspelled brakes, that can not stand.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 8, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
It's a bit too wordy for the Setting Up post IMO but it's alright, I'm gonna put it under its own heading in post 4, something like "State of VR support".

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Don't sweat it. I'm gonna do another update on Friday, if you have shortened it by then good, if not also good :)

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

IceAgeComing posted:

was just wondering if yous could check the assetto corsa server

Its currently set to Peugeot 504s at the Nordschliffe; people were mentioning it as a potentially good combo last week so I set it up that way but we could change it to something else. I think I'm going to do the spreadsheet thing in the future but I thought I'd pick for this week

Seems to be working just fine. You should probably choose the sport version of the 504 though, that one moves at least a tiny bit :)

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Isn't there a separate rendering mode and FOV app for triple screen? I think I read something like that when I looked into triples for a second. Maybe you're using the wrong one?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I was thinking in the Assetto Corsa graphics options you could select resolution but also rendering mode single or triple, and then the FOV app switches to something with several values instead of a single FOV slider. I saw that somewhere in the AC Steam community or forum.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
A GT Legends sequel is announced by a new studio around a former Simbin guy. Apparently making that possible has been in the works for some time, which makes me hope this is the mystery project to license the rF2 engine Tim Weathley was talking about a while back.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

njsykora posted:

Historic cars aren't a rarity in sim racing now and the FIA historic touring car and GT championships don't exist any more so what can it offer beyond just being GT Legends HD?

pCars is really the only one that some of those old GT cars, but pCars is no fun in single player. What exists for AC/rF2/SCE is mostly (and often bad) conversions afaik. Other than that you have to go back a generation to rF1 based games and mods, which at this point I'm kinda over tbh.

Edit: GT Legends kinda deserves a spot in the OP though now that I think about it.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 11, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

Tony Montana posted:

I'd like a fully fledged career mode too, I want to drive against Jim Clarke and Graham Hill. I want Colin Champan to approach me midway through a season and talk about some flimsy, crazy thing he's developing and do I want to test drive it? The sound effects could be amazing. So much of Fallout 4's charm is the retro styling, right down to listening to music from the era as you're walking around in power armour.

I recently ended up on pretendracecars which one probably shouldn't, but in an article about Race07 they had a part I agree with that racing sims today are too obsessed with tire models to the exclusion of anything else. The games drive fine, you have to drive the cars properly, when are we getting to the actual race (weekend) part? The traffic of cars and people in the pits, the crowds, team chatter, rivalries and press interviews. Codemasters, for all their faults, tried to do something like that. The current crop of sims have good enough driving models, they should stop spending 100% of their time tinkering with them endlessly and pick that other thread up again. And of course AI, AI hasn't made a substantial improvement in a decade.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I wouldn't expect much in the way of modding for pCars.

I need to reiterate again though how poo poo a lot of the conversions for AC are. The old rFactor track meshes just don't work in AC with a lazy port job, staircases in every corner.

SCE actually has the most track mods that reach the quality of the official content.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Hey guys, quick heads-up on the AC server. Apparently they don't just withdraw the monthly via PayPal, I have to pay manually. Which is a problem since I'm on the other side of the world without access to my regular phone number to do the two-step auth for PayPal. I didn't think that far. I'm still trying to find a solution, but if I don't the server might be gone on Saturday.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Update on the AC server: If someone else would be willing to paypal the money with the invoice number they sent me that would work. It's €6.50 (once now and another in a month), I'll pay you back once I'm home in April. Anyone willing to do that PM me.

Edit: Or post here, the PMs on the Awful App don't seem to refresh.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Thanks Goetta for keeping the AC train running.

Also, the Automobilista impressions sound good so far. How long's the Beta supposed to be?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Oh they increased the FFB frequency? Is it now like rF2 where some curbs feel like you're damaging your wheel unless you apply some generous smoothing?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Thanks Goetta.

IceAge, you're a lazy bum ;)

AC racing will start again in 3 weeks, gonna give it another try in making it regular. Maybe switch weekly between AC and AMS once it's out proper.

Regarding AMS: Do flatspots influence FFB now? And did we finally get an FFB meter?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I'm thinking about going widescreen as a stop gap until VR is beyond its growing pains (if it does). Anyone use a 21:10 (or is it 21:9?) monitor and can elaborate on which games do it well and if it's worth it as an upgrade from 16:9?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.


:woop:

You can only drive 60kph though.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Finally got to test out AMS and I'm loving it. The FFB improvement in particular suprised me a lot. Gonna replace SCE in the OP soon, although until CART Extreme comes to AMS I'm keeping SCE installed.

Also looking for car/track suggestions for AC this weekend. Sunday 20 GMT as usual.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I'm a bit short on time to test and upload mods, so this weekend we're doing standard content.

Assetto Corsa, Sunday 04/17, 20:00 GMT
Formula Abarth at Imola

As always, server info here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3761771

Edit: Server is not currently set to that combo, probably tomorrow. From next week on I'm gonna put it on hotlap mode during the week on a track/car combo separate from the weekend event.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Apr 14, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Should I move it to 19:00 GMT? Or is it preferable to have AC+iRacing closer together so people can just stay behind their wheels?

Edit: The BES ends at 20:00 GMT? In that case 20:00 GMT for AC seems right, the race itself generally starts at 20:30.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Apr 14, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Man, I love the Dissenter. So weighty and slidey.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Reminder:

GhostDog posted:

Assetto Corsa, Sunday 04/17, 20:00 GMT
Formula Abarth at Imola

Practice: 19:45
Qualifying: 20:20
Race: 20:30 , 15 laps

Double Tire Wear and Fuel Usage, for the Abarth that means 1 pit stop is necessary.

As always, server info here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3761771

Server is online for practice.

Edit: For additional information.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Apr 17, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Hi, I'm an idiot and failed to realize that we're currently on daylight savings here in Germany and thus GMT+2, so no AC race today. I'll do better next weekend.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Okay, let's try again.

Next race:

Hotlap setting until next race:
    Ford Escort RS1600 at Tor Poznan
    Fixed setup, no fuel usage, no tire wear, no damage, fixed track conditions. Just drive, every lap has the potential to be your fastest.

Server Info: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3761771

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Apr 19, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
GMT. So qualifying should start after BES is over, and the race should end with still 30+ minutes of training for iRacing gooncar left. Right?!?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
How did the iRacing thread get that sweet race tag?

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I bought the classic rim for my universal hub (I only had one rim for it after all and that's a waste, right?), and driving the Shelby Cobra just feels so right. MY IMMERSION

Edit:

Cojawfee posted:

I've been messing with project cars since it's the only sim that supports the CV1 that I own. Driving the lotus 25 makes me wish there was a new grand prix legends. I just want to mess around with AI in really old F1 cars on all the historic tracks.

Does that mean the bit about VR support is outdated? I haven't been paying attention since I decided to not be an early adopter for once.

GhostDog fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Apr 21, 2016

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

Goetta posted:

How is Tor Poznan? I've never tried that track before in any game and am thinking of doing some hot laps on the AC server this evening.

I like it a lot, though the environment could do with a few more unique objects. It's one of those tracks where the first few laps I got lost a lot, but once you get it down it's a very good drive.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJcQvXuHxkg#t=610s

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
I just loaded up R3E for the first time in ages since people kept saying good stuff about the news cars and FFB. Bought the Formula Junior and loaded up Mid Ohio. Spent about 5 laps tuning the FFB a tiny bit from their default setup and then just drove laps for over an hour. This feels way better than before to me. The old cars also seem improved but still have some of that boaty feeling left, which I guess means they're getting benefits from the FFB but still need physics updates?

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GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Also, reminder:

GhostDog posted:

Next race:

Server Info: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3761771

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