Have Your Say – Missing Features in Sim Racing

[FeltHat]

I'd like a better sense of death at any moment. Maybe set up the game to crash the system and set your pc on fire if you hit a wall.

hire someone to stand next to you with flamethrower

 

[AyeJayGee]

I just posted this in another forum and it sums up a few things which I think are missing.

The most realistic sim I have ever played came free with a packet of cereal:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...layed-came-free-with-a-pack-of-cereal.143248/

Oh man how did I forget about this game?!

Loved this as a kid

 

[Andre Gaida]

Engine sounds generally could be better. AMS is probably the best i've heard in this regard, but watch any good onboard video on youtube and it's clear that we're nowhere near that yet.

Would make a huge difference if someone is able to achieve something that sounds more realistic.

If you like distorsion, than you are right. I hate it. Youtube sounds are so far off

 

[BenCollins]

I've been wanting proper collisions for quite some time. All SIM developers fail at this as far as I know. What I think needs to be implemented is a "mass" & "COG" field so that we can get more proper collisions than we get now. Spinning out from getting a small bump on my fender is so rage-quit-inducing it makes me want to punch the developer(s) in the face for not having proper collisions.

There seems to be two types: the sticky type as implemented by LFS and AMS, where your car gets tangled up in the other, or the magnetic one, where you get glued to the other car until you spin out, as implemented by AC and rF2.

 

[kimbo]

Engine sounds generally could be better. AMS is probably the best i've heard in this regard, but watch any good onboard video on youtube and it's clear that we're nowhere near that yet.

Would make a huge difference if someone is able to achieve something that sounds more realistic.

"nice and smooooooth" i love the Jim Pace's on board cams

 

[miy1925hassun]

As some people have already said, saving mid race. Having the option to race for 24H and not giving us the ability to save in the middle of a race is just illogical in my opinion.

 

[cr4wl3r0]

IMHO the most missing feature is software optimization: nowadays Hardware is much more ahead than software and it is a shame the we just can' t squeeze out every single cpu/gpu cycle to obtain best results, "only" because the code have not been polished by developers.
More missing features could be implemented if only the code would be more efficient.
The reason: it is easier to produce thounsands gpu than to produce a simulation, also for economic reasons.
Also, we consumers must change attitude because is a non sense that someone spends 800 euros for a gpu without esitation and then has something to complain if a software sim costs more than 50............

 

[M D Gourley]

Adjustable mirrors. In triple screen side mirrors often useless.

Absolutely agree on this one...as personally when my seating position has been adjusted so I can use the dash instrument read out, I like to drive using the mirrors.. (like you do in a real car)...and very often you can not get the cockpit rear view mirror, the left and right side mirrors all aligned nicely to do this.....having said that, some cars in most Sims do get it right.
LFS is the only Sim I have that enables you to move the cockpit rear view mirror, although slightly limited movement...this is still a great feature.

 

[b)b]

What's missing is a dedicated sim game studio with the manpower of a Polyphony Digital (Gran Turismo) or Turn 10 (Forza) team and unlimited budget. Imagine for example what Reiza could build if they had that. That will of course never happen. True sims as envisioned here are way too niche for that, and AAA car games mentioned have no reason to make things super realistic. The closest we have to this is SMS and PC2, and look at the disappointment it is. So we're not close to see the ultimate AAA dream hardcore sim anytime soon. Instead, the current situation that we have now will continue, with sims produced by smaller teams, that can excel in one or several area but not all.

 

[BenCollins]

Proper collisions. A whack of a car against yours.
They are never quite right.

The problem with inaccurate collision physics it that you never really know how aggressive to charge. A glancing blow can spin you out of contention (AC, rF2) or have no effect (AMS, LFS).

 

[Emery]

There's little in the way of features that aren't out there in some sim. Unfortunately, none of them have everything!

However, there are some features that I know are missing, mainly in the modeling:

1. Torque converters
2. Continuously Variable Transmissions
3. FFB H-pattern shifter
4. McPherson strut suspensions (currently only emulations via doublewishbone)
5. DeDion suspensions (currently only emulations via doublewishbone)
6. Hydrolastic or the Citreon alternative
7. Active suspensions (have you driven a Jaguar F-Type? Wow!!)
8. Old fashioned pit boards (GTL had theirs, but it was a HUD rather than some guy hanging over the pit wall)

 

[ShredatorFIN]

$$$
thats why

But is this really the case? I mean, because it hasn't been tried...

Some degree of realism in driving genre seems more appreciated these days. Even on consoles. More people have wheels and want (semi)realistic stuff instead of shallow arcade. Nobody has been happy about NFS series in ages. pCars been pretty popular on consoles, Dirt Rally, games like this. It seems to me people don't want shallow handling.

If it has never been tried, who knows how well it might sell. Sure it would be risk, but same can be said about every game that broke some boundaries.

At least hope TDU3 will have improved physics. It might be developed by Kylotonn who did pretty good job with WRC7 physics so there is some hope.

 

[Emery]

and the ability to swap fronts to rears

Requires front and rear tires be the same size. Most (not all) racing series have larger tires on the rear.

 

[Akra]

• Proper offline career mode
• AI that aren't terrible
• Fully simulated actual series, rather than just a random bundle of cars and tracks
• Beta Testing

pCARs came remarkably close. Has a really good offline career mode. Unfortunately the career mode doesn't simulate real series, so you end up doing LMP1 10 minute sprint races, and racing LMP2 around the full Nurburgring. So all attempt at realism flew out the window at that point. AI were completely hit and miss - sometimes great, sometimes terrible. In pCARs 2 they appear to be almost unuseable at times

I'm going to assume pCARs has absolutely no internal testing program either, or they just ignore the testers. There's no way any game with proper testing procedure would be released in the states they are released in.

For me (X1 user now days), pCARs was almost the perfect racing sim. Drove well, sounded great, had rain, night racing, class racing, good amount of cars and tracks, and a great length career mode. It fell at the final hurdle with some ridiculous career design choices, holes in the series schedule, and bugs which destroy careers.

People can say sim racers would never use night racing or rain or whatever. I did. Loved racing in the rain in pCARs. Unfortunately, most sims have gone backwards in the amount of features they have, and we continue to excuse it with "yeah but who'd use that?". It's a pretty depressing state.

Edit: Oh and realistic damage. I'm not talking about visuals, I want mechanicals. I want a slight loss of engine power, or hitting a kerb to break something, or a puncture caused by stones, etc.

 

[Emery]

As far as I know you cant upload your own skin to a server. And make it downloadable for other participants.

Dude! rF2 has this.

[I'm so used to it that I thought every sim was doing it now.]

 

[FeltHat]

But is this really the case? I mean, because it hasn't been tried...

Some degree of realism in driving genre seems more appreciated these days. Even on consoles. More people have wheels and want (semi)realistic stuff instead of shallow arcade. Nobody has been happy about NFS series in ages. pCars been pretty popular on consoles, Dirt Rally, games like this. It seems to me people don't want shallow handling.

If it has never been tried, who knows how well it might sell. Sure it would be risk, but same can be said about every game that broke some boundaries.

At least hope TDU3 will have improved physics. It might be developed by Kylotonn who did pretty good job with WRC7 physics so there is some hope.

majority of players dont like whats even close to being realistic
your vision is something massive, truly grand scale- needs a lot of dosh, would need to sell more than pcars+2+ac+dirt combined on all platforms :3
Uhh, i see u presented few ideas, i meant open world game with huge cities, realistic damage, traffic, handling, chases etc. By real collision consequences you meant something like beamng?

 

[Shap]

Dude! rF2 has this.

[I'm so used to it that I thought every sim was doing it now.]

I have RF2 didn’t notice it. Will check it soon. Thanks for the information

 

[Filip Carlén]

Weather and time. I want to drive around the green hell in pissing rain, at 01:43, or timing a pit stop prefect going from wet/inter to dry tires, seeing the break if day, getting blinded by the sun.

It is in some games, like the rFactor games, but AC, R3E, iRacing etc is missing some/all of weather and time features. And no, Kunos, cloudy weather doesn't count.

 

[Andy_J]

I want nukes. I want to be able to outrun a nuclear explosion in my V8.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

majority of players dont like whats even close to being realistic
your vision is something massive, truly grand scale- needs a lot of dosh, would need to sell more than pcars+2+ac+dirt combined on all platforms :3
Uhh, i see u presented few ideas, i meant open world game with huge cities, realistic damage, traffic, handling, chases etc. By real collision consequences you meant something like beamng?

Well the damage model isn't that important, current NFS games barely have damage if I recall correctly, some minor cosmetic damage. Main thing would be using "sim skills" in totally different, less serious environment. Or even simcade physics, not that "Press X to drift, arrows point where to drive" gameplay.

But yeah maybe it's impossible, maybe I'm biased as sim racer, overestimating the amount of ppl who enjoy good handling.