What Was The Best Thing Added to Sim Racing in 2021?

Don't forget fholgers FSR mod for openVR games that can be used in many steamVR titles like AMS2 and ACC to gain more fps and lower frametimes. It is so much better than ACCs original DLSS or FSR option because you can define the render area and reduce the quality outside the sweetspot. A gamechanger for VR simmers!

Happy new year!

There can only be one, the CSL DD. It has brought DD to the masses and almost completely wiped out any reason to buy the other mid tier wheels from Logi and TM. It has revolutionized simracing from a hardware point of view.

Union Island

E: I forgot that double precision physics on Assetto came in 2021 - truly a game changer.

Bremgarten for me. Spent far too much time on that track!

Also the improvements to AMS2 have been most welcome. I’m playing that more and more these days, particularly the historic stuff.

I was quite perplexed when the whole historic weather thing was introduced though, couldn’t see the point. Now I don’t use anything else. Yesterday I picked a random date, set up a P4 race at Cadwell Park, started the race, dry track, no rain but on hammering down the hill towards Mansfield there appeared to be a huge pond at the bottom where the tarmac should’ve been. The same happened when approaching the low point of The Mountain - it must have been pouring down before the race. It felt so realistic and made the track come alive, plus it certainly shook things up a bit order wise, it was a total thrill!

Moorea said:

Union Island

E: I forgot that double precision physics on Assetto came in 2021 - truly a game changer.

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Yeah, double precision is huge and not just for big tracks - seems to make racing/driving on all tracks more accurate.

The Fanatec CSL DD was a fantastic concept, yet people seem to forget you have to pay additional customs/VAT/shipping.
You have to purchase a Fanatec wheel rim, because the FFB won't work with any aftermarket one.
If you want the full torque, you have to purchase the severely overpriced power brick, pardon, boost kit.
So in the end, it is not a "steal", oh no.
It hasn't brought the DD concept down to the masses.
We're talking 800 plus euros, which is still way out of reach for many people across the globe.
For me, this is the game changer nobody talks about:
A 15Nm base with buttons that is compatible with every aftermarket wheel out there for 650 dollars, shipping included!

Likely the Cadillac DPi and the GTEs in AMS2 along with FH5 that is enjoyable to drive.

2021 was a pretty **** year for racing games. I do not really remember anything notable released the last of whole year.

And dont´t forget the whole simracing community, all you guy who work arround on RD and all modders and other crazy folks.
Happy New Year to all of You...
Whishing you a sane and lucky 2022.
Cheers

Leynad777 said:

For me this was probably BeamNG together with it's Nordschleife and other improvements. It's just the needed Dark Souls of Sim Racing in the sea of games with decreasing difficulty in handling.

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Have to agree that the wheel support and overall presentation of BeamNG took massive leaps in the last 1-2 years, also there's just something about hotlapping with the constant fear of totalling your car that makes it more exciting than the the big sim games where you can just disable mechanical damage. Though I'm torn on the Nords mod, as it's the ripped 3D mesh from AC you're driving on. My go-to hotlapping track in the game is the Lakeside Park mod, the guy has since joined the dev team. Oh, and there's a LIDAR Pikes Peak which is great, too

Hi folks!
Was nice to read your different points of view.
For me the top thing of 2021 was simracing.gp.
I really enjoy to have all these amount of possibilities in one site. Really looking forward for the integration of AMS2.

Also a good thing that AMS2 has came up to the scene. I'm really enjoying that game.
All together with the ACC update, Raceroom online and the fact that AC still being alive thanks to the modding community.
I only miss to have more possibiloties to enjoy the new mods on simracing .gp.

The bad thing of 2021 is that we have many good sims.. sometimes hard to decide... Damn harious!

Have a nice 2022.

In general:

The major AMS2 progress during the entire 2021.

Just less than a year ago (2 days from now) I acquited AMS2, and by first hand I dumped it due to inconsistent FFB-feedback of my G27. But after some scrutineering I was quite impressed, but sadly felt a hit and miss of car + track combo (just like Mike have written about PC2 in his fresh article). But returned in june 2021 after the extensive update and I was not exactly dissapointed.

Now with even more limited time, AMS2 have become my primary sim of which sim to pick for a drop in time slot (which is a big thing, since I before alternated between typically 15-20 sims during a quater or six months with confusion).

So rewarding speaking strictly sim-wise on all levels for me racing AMS2.
So though I've been a primarily "mod-driver" through +20 years, I've not exactly missed anything in that direction with AMS2 - since so many things are very well put together now, also due to Reiza have inherited some of their content from Copa Petrobras de Marcas and Stock Car Extreme.
And the online part there are surely some hardcore lobbies with very clean driving. Did not quite expect that.
Reiza deserves IMO the sim prize of the year for the progress during 2021.
Just looking forward to more Reiza improvements on AMS2!

Nota bene:
I did not renew my iRacing membership, which expired mid September, so I can not say anything about the latest work here, but just been watching Youtube videos, where latest progress looks very promising (not just thinking of the new F1 toy).

More of the serious sim youtubers have turned towards BeamNG. Have to admit that it's just been my personal 'hibernation sandbox', not doing much about it, so might take a new look on the game.

On a personal sim level:

Getting in gear with my own sim gear upgrade have been a wonderful stimulating and learning journey.

A few days into 2021 my G27 FFB electro motor broke down on three consecusive occations after 2 times total separation&reparation of my wheel. Then in panic aquited the G923 Trueforce - but never got the G Hub software work properly with my huge inheritage of sims, where it lacked proper FFB for my older sims.

I took a quick decision of returning my G923, replacing it with the T300RS GT and the T8HA 8-H gear - including Sequential shifter with easy remount, so thoughtful! And at same time aquiring the T3PA pedals and ordered an add-on loadcell from Ricmotech - but broke down, so right now racing with my G27 pedals of which are still splendid.

Though this Trustmaster solution may be 1½ times entry level economically speaking, I can warmly suggest this setup for starters! Not just due to the almost doubled torque strength , but the details in feedback is just a whole other level than my old beloved G27. Speaking torque, my GTR2 PnG3.2 installationthe torque is by far exceeding the theoretical 4Nm, more like double force (just like old G27 of which might've been the cause for break down, when I forgot turning down FFB-force switching from other sims).

But my "entry level +1" setup, attached to my large solid hight adjustable table and my office chair fixed with solid belt straps - as a convenient solution for quick shift between work officeposition and sim position - I was now hooked on a real sim seat which had to be a flexible one due to my quite tiny work office/sim room.

And Karl Gosling's splendid in-depth 1hour review it was a no-brainer:
The Next Level F-GT Lite flexible seat.
in the beginning it may require a little gymnastic exercises, but once you have it under control, it is really easy to gather and unfold in your desired race position. And the best parts when sim-ready

• WAY more seat positions than the two of which Next Level is marketing for ('F' and 'GT' positions), due to the huge amount of DOF's due to the convenient joint positions.
• very solid solution - far more solid than I would have ever expected for a flexible seat. Just remember to tighten joints properly and at last to tighten the strap, expecially for outer positions.

And now with AMS2's Racin' USA I've had very much sim fun racing racing this combo
1998 CART Lola T98 Ford @ Cleveland
with my
Next Level F-GT Lite in near formula position
extended length to G27 pedals in upright position
T8HA in sequential mounting (and mapped in AMS2 as such, cancelling paddle shift), and FFB torque strength near max.

This feels just SO right!

Next investment in 2022:
Handbrake for all my rally games (new, old, classic as well as an ancient one) - just figuring out for most handy method for my flexible seat gear platform, so a bit of a thinking box right now.

Happy Newyar!

For me personally, I received my Fanatec McLaren GT3 V. 2 wheel a week ago. I simply love it!

For simracing in general, I would say the big improvement of AMS2. It has become an excellent sim. The USA DLCs are simply brilliant. The CART cars are huge fun but let's not forget the excellent DPI and GTE cars, just as great. And so is the Daytona road course.

Speaking of AMS2, they released an end of the year dev. update yesterday. Among the features they are working on: full course yellows! Obviousy, that will be part of the oval racing DLC pack. So, lots to look forward to in 2022.

Gotta give a shout out to chrisi2174’s beyond fabulous:

CART 1998 Skins F-USA Gen2 24-Skins + Custom Driver AI​

for AMS2. Thank you Chris

The emergence of AMS2. Competition between sim games is good for all sim racers.

Overall the CSL DD was the best thing for sim racing, but for me personally it was the Merc W12: turned out better than I expected (especially in its first season) and it was long overdue for a good up-to-date F1 car in iRacing. It's unfortunate they simplified the MGU controls so much, but overall it's probably the best version of a current gen F1 car in sim racing (even compared to AC's RSS Formula Hybrids).

bozakn said:

The Fanatec CSL DD was a fantastic concept, yet people seem to forget you have to pay additional customs/VAT/shipping.
You have to purchase a Fanatec wheel rim, because the FFB won't work with any aftermarket one.
If you want the full torque, you have to purchase the severely overpriced power brick, pardon, boost kit.
So in the end, it is not a "steal", oh no.
It hasn't brought the DD concept down to the masses.
We're talking 800 plus euros, which is still way out of reach for many people across the globe.
For me, this is the game changer nobody talks about:

A 15Nm base with buttons that is compatible with every aftermarket wheel out there for 650 dollars, shipping included!

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1. 650€ ($740) vs. 800€ ($910)...once you're in either price range you're past the budget friendly zone.
2. Although I agree the powerbrick is overpriced, it's not necessary to use the wheel and can be bought later if saved for.
3. For those on a budget, you can get one of the lowest priced Fanatec wheels for slightly over $100 (under $100 if bought used). With the base price of the CSL DD at $350/350€, that's approximately $500.
4. Customs/VAT would apply to the Cammus DD as well, no? So not really a point of argument.
5. If the Cammus breaks down, is there Euro or North/South American customer service reps to work with, or are you SOL because it's straight from China?

Please note, I'm far from a Fanatec fanboy, as someone who sold nearly all of my Fanatec gear as I've been burned a few too many times...but at least they have customer service that responds fairly quickly and shipping addresses for various regions for RMA's.

BearWalken said:

Don't forget fholgers FSR mod for openVR games that can be used in many steamVR titles like AMS2 and ACC to gain more fps and lower frametimes. It is so much better than ACCs original DLSS or FSR option because you can define the render area and reduce the quality outside the sweetspot. A gamechanger for VR simmers!

Happy new year!

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any info on this in RD Forums or elsewhere?

Ghoults said:

Has to be the fanatec csl dd for me. I think the raceroom ranked racing is done very well though. They clearly went against the norm and having constant rotation of races works very well compared to rigid schedules and waiting in between. If I was an avid raceroom player and already had a dd wheel then this would be my pick from this list. I don't really see iracing's w12 or ams2's usa dlc being anything spectacular tho.

I think live for speed's modding should at least be worth a mention if a dlc car or pack is worthy... That being said I can easily understand why it isn't mention. Very few play lfs and it is easy to forget single updates like these. I have forgotten probably all of the other big things of this year which is why my list is also so short! Another thing I do remember is rf2 ranked system but are people playing it?

So from this list for me it is the fanatec csl dd. I was looking at buying a dd wheel at some point but couldn't really justify the easily over 1000€ price tag for that. Not to mention I really like the fanatec's wheel settings where I can adjust things like steer lock straight from the wheel. And at that price for dd wheel it was an easy purchase for me.. Especially with graphics cards prices going totally crazy it was easy to spend that money elsewhere. I wonder if my penny pinching persona can ever justify a gpu upgrade...

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LFS has got modding now?! That's great, its the only VR sim I can run without getting sick and graphically it still holds up well somehow

Naliport Halulam said:

Live for speed mods support.

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Maybe now thanks to the modders we can finally have the legendary Scirocco and we can put the meme to death.

In regards to the main theme of this thread the best thing has to be the CSL DD hands down, it's revolutionary. Not because of the technology but because it has shattered the artificial crystal ceiling that the manufacturers built over us simracers in regards of affordable direct drive wheels.

Even if most probably I will never own one, it is game changer in the regard that it lits a fire under the ass of every other wheel manufacturer and forces them between releasing their own affordable DD wheel or lower their greedyness. This is a tide that will raise all the ships for simracers in the mid to long term.

In the field of software this was a transition year with only incremental improvements, nothing really revolutionary happened.

Don't even need to think about it, for me, personally speaking was Dundrod for rF2 in 2021 and Isle of Man in 2020