What is the most important piece of simracing hardware to you?

Car racing simulator SBR Racing Construma.jpg
Wheel bases, sim rig chassis, bucket seats, handbrakes, wheel rims and the list goes on. There are so many bits of hardware one can buy for a racing simulator. But which is the most important to you?

Image Credit: Kunos Simulazioni

Now as popular as ever, simracing has reached a point where thinking of something that doesn't exist on the market is becoming increasingly difficult. This is especially true for the hardware industry as companies are constantly innovating and finding new gaps to fill.

Just a few years ago, a steering wheel and a set of pedals was the most accurate simulation one could imagine let alone dream of. But today, racers sit in their carbon fibre bucket seats, surrounded by displays, button boxes and levers, all playing a part in the immersion. In fact, without even counting the number of rivals creating similar pieces of tech, there is seemingly an infinity of objects one can add to a rig.

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Whilst that's all well and good for the experienced racer, it can be daunting to newcomers. There are many that race with a simple wheel and pedals setup but are in search of more. The big question they have is, what is the most important piece of hardware to get your hands on? What is the logical progression step after getting the most basic simulator items?

An immersive simracer's opinion​

In my opinion, this is a question of what a simracer is looking to get out of their hobby. In my case, I race cars in a virtual setting with the aim of feeling like a racing driver. I want to sit behind my wheel and pretend to be a Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Nick Tandy or Ben Keating-esque fella.

As such, my idea of the most important simrig purchases may differ from someone that's looking to create content or compete at the highest level. Furthermore, being a fan of VR racing, I may avoid purchases that focus on aesthetics, instead going for something that feels immersive.

With that in mind, I would say that the most important part of a simracing rig for me would have to be a seat. This is the thing one touches the most whilst racing and will most heighten the sense of immersion, besides the wheel and pedals. A quality seat will obviously help with comfort and make you feel cocooned in a racing car.

20230420131303_1.jpg


However, with time I am noticing that I can see the attraction of button boxes. Being in VR, it is very difficult for me to find the correct buttons on my keyboard. One minute, I'm reaching for the pause button, the next I may have turned off traction control in a thunderstorm and am spinning towards the end of my race. So if I'm allowed another option to answer this very broad question, I would say that a button box seems fairly important to my style of simracing.

Have your say​

So that's what I think. But I'm dying to read what you have to say. Make sure to comment what pieces of simracing hardware are the most important to you. Also, give us some context and mention why you think your choice is so important.
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

Premium
Aluminium rig where its all installed and ready for use.
Was an absolute PITA to mount everything on the desk every time.
 
Premium
LOL all that stuff just to be satisfied with 1080p and 60fps ?? no way

Its like having a Porsche 911 with a 1.9tdi engine in it.
The article asks rank of importance. 1080p 60 is just fine for immersion for 98% of people, and can be quite low latency if set up correctly. High refresh and 4k are nowhere near as important as a load cell brake pedal, transducers or a DD wheel. The difference between a Logitech brake pedal and a proper load cell is 5x the importance of the difference between 1080p and 4k.

And I play on a 65 inch LG OLED, at either 1440p or 4K depending on the sim and 120 Hz on a 9900K/3080 Ti machine. They are great, but 1080p 60 is totally doable if someone wants to start out, particularly in AC or RF2. That PC is probably only a few hundred dollars on a used marketplace now.
 
Last edited:
Premium
The article asks rank of importance. 1080p 60 is just fine for immersion for 98% of people, and can be quite low latency if set up correctly. High refresh and 4k are nowhere near as important as a load cell brake pedal, transducers or a DD wheel. The difference between a Logitech brake pedal and a proper load cell is 5x the importance of the difference between 1080p and 4k.

And I play on a 65 inch LG OLED, at either 1440p or 4K depending on the sim and 120 Hz on a 9900K/3080 Ti machine. They are great, but 1080p 60 is totally doable if someone wants to start out, particularly in AC or RF2. That PC is probably only a few hundred dollars on a used marketplace now.
So i think you was not clear in your first post and i have misunderstood it ;)
I thought you have all that expensive, modern stuff and use ot to play @10 years old fullHD 60pfs standards.
 
The brake pedal
I've been reading, watching video for years, and I still hesitating to buy a replacement for my Thrustmaster T3PA Pro : load cell or hydrolic ?
But for sure, the TM potentiometer are bad for my lap times
 
my wheel base : simucube 2 pro
my wheels : ascher
my pedals : Heusinkveld sprint
my triple screen : triple asus 144hz native gsync
my PC : 4090/13900K

edit : it's basic rig if you work
Millions of people all across the globe work for nothing and can only dream of that rig you're calling "basic."
Don't take anything for granted buddy, appreciate what you've got.
 
The article asks rank of importance. 1080p 60 is just fine for immersion for 98% of people, and can be quite low latency if set up correctly. High refresh and 4k are nowhere near as important as a load cell brake pedal, transducers or a DD wheel. The difference between a Logitech brake pedal and a proper load cell is 5x the importance of the difference between 1080p and 4k.

And I play on a 65 inch LG OLED, at either 1440p or 4K depending on the sim and 120 Hz on a 9900K/3080 Ti machine. They are great, but 1080p 60 is totally doable if someone wants to start out, particularly in AC or RF2. That PC is probably only a few hundred dollars on a used marketplace now.
Have to second on that one, very much.

Though myself using either VR 5408x2736@90Hz, 65" LG C2 OLED 2560p/4K@120Hz or 32" curved monitor 1440p@165Hz, I still regards all graphics marmelade as 'nice to have'. Even though 'really nice' now with modern day more powerful RX 6800 XT graphics card and CPU, it's still nowhere 'need to have' compared to core sim hardware as e.g. FFB Wheel, LC pedals, H-shifter, handbrake, flexible simrig, or even just keyboard/mouse when keyboard driving.

A very good example is waking Grand Prix 2 back to life with my modern day FFB wheel/LC pedals and simrig it's still a heck of a sim experience, though '90s graphics.

So for my personal pecking order, graphics marmelade belongs to the buttom list speaking 'most important', even though I'm having it all here.
 
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Premium
Definitely the tennis balls I cut in half and put over the wheels of my office chair, to stop it from rolling back while braking.
I have course sand paper round a block of wood on the carpet... yeah I need a rig but have nowhere to put it.
 
Amazing how people drift of on to something else..like my whole rig is the most important...

Anyway....As much as I love VR, my most important hardware is my pedals.

Ever since I upgraded to Heusinkveld ultimate, I've seen a massive jump in car control giving me consistency that has translated to racing in real life Karting.
 
Millions of people all across the globe work for nothing and can only dream of that rig you're calling "basic."
Don't take anything for granted buddy, appreciate what you've got.
Dude is a humble brag troll. He can barely make any comment without mentioning some high end equipment.
 
Moving past the obvious wheel etc...

An old 9 inch tablet that's so old it won't even update and hasn't in years (probably 10+ years old).

This old android device runs the software from https://www.stryder-it.de/simdashboard/ which coupled with the minor app on the desktop has given me a virtual dashboard that's easy to run, accepts button presses (it was my first button box until I made one) and on an old sony phone is my gear indicator or lap timer depending on the screen I use.

As many have said here it's about the immersion, and in this it's allowed me to shunt all the onscreen stuff to this tablet, and also allowed me to easily create my own dashboards and edit community ones to suit my racing.

If it failed tomorrow, I'd buy another tomorrow - just to use it as a dash screen.

And I live in fear that the app is discontinued as it doesn't have a huge following...
 

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