What's Your Most Played Racing Sim in 2022?

Cote Dazur said:

Just a surprise, somehow, that in this poll, so many members of this forum/thread are claiming AMS2 is the most played title for them. Not the first time that RD as a distorted perspective on what the majority of people prefer and play.

Click to expand...

"Prefer and play" the majority of people never heard of Automobilista 2. The opposite is true about AC/ACC/F1/DIRT/RF/iRacing/Forza/GT/NFS.

People don't know what they prefer if they never played it because they never heard of it. The racedepartment crowd DOES know about AMS2 and a big chunk of them even seem to prefer AMS2 over most other titles (by this poll it even surpassed ACC, which is in all honesty a big surprise for me too! It's an impressive achievement of Reiza). For the rest I agree.

gamma123152 said:

People don't know what they prefer if they never played it because they never heard of it.

Click to expand...

Sim racing is a niche genre with the number of titles available that can be counted on one hand with still fingers left. Release of anything at all is a big deal and doesn't go unnoticed among simracers.
I am sure most sim racers tried it at some point to form own opinion, if AMS2 did not impress many on release or still fail to impress in some areas even today is a different story.

Over 400 hours in AMS2 this year. Plus a 5 day working week, 2 babies and a dog! Easily my most played SIM. Second place is Raceroom, and third ACC. But RF2 is probably my second most played over last 3 months after AMS2.

GT7, easily. Though it didn't last very long for obvious reasons. Besides that, I finally picked myself up a wheel stand last month and I've been playing AC pretty consistently since, meaning I don't have to fasten the wheel and everything else to my desk anymore.

I can sit in front of my TV and get down with my PC sims to my heart's content.

Andrew_WOT said:

Sim racing is a niche genre with the number of titles available that can be counted on one hand with still fingers left. Release of anything at all is a big deal and doesn't go unnoticed among simracers.
I am sure most sim racers tried it at some point to form own opinion, if AMS2 did not impress many on release or still fail to impress in some areas even today is a different story.

Click to expand...

Exactly and all serious sim racers come together on racedepartment. Not on steam or consoles. So this poll really represents what real sim racers like because they know what's on the market. AMS2 impressed(or better: surprised; since it had such a bad start) the sim racing crowd in 2022 that's exactly what this poll proves.

Would you have thought that AMS2 surpassed ACC in the end of 2022 in terms of popularity on RD? I wouldn't, and I was a believer of AMS2 longer than most others here but I would never have expected this outcome this year.

gamma123152 said:

Exactly and all serious sim racers come together on racedepartment. Not on steam or consoles. So this poll really represents what real sim racers like because they know what's on the market.

Click to expand...

I understand the excitement of seeing higher number of pollers clicking AMS2, but do you really believe 189 votes for ACC and 205 for AMS2 (16 votes diff) is really representative of overall sim racing population or that only "serious sim racers" come to RD to see that poll.
Statistically that small traffic RD gets is insignificant to be in any way a gauge of real world situation.
Steam stats on the other hand are, so is representation of titles in e-sport or events like SimExpo, where the most used titles where AC and ACC and not a single booth using AMS2.

1. AC
2. DR2
3. BeamNG

Offline Solo driver here, mostly in AC. Currently learning about suspension/alignment adjustment for "good handling" of street cars on touge and SkidPad. Spent much time driving and tweaking AW11 to be responsive yet forgiving on Usui.
I added BeamNG to my collection but have not spent enough time to feel connected to it. So back to AC.
Got my old favorite BRB back operational through Rallysimfans. The experience has been a very deep and vast car and tracks. Still like it a lot, but again simply had not spent enough time to really get into it. Need to invest more time to relearn and get better at listening to the note and handling on the gravel.

Actually bought DR2 before AC, but somehow RBR spoiled me with the "feel". Just watching replay on DR2 turned me off. Reading some of the post here, makes me wonder if VR experience will change my mind.

AC is .. like a sandbox for me. There are so much one can do here. For a tinker, who has a mechanical engineering degree and motorhead, I get to reconnect my curiosity about the car's suspension and how cars handle. This is a very deep rabbit's hole. I watch the engineer and suspension app and wonder why some cars spins out out of control on a crest or bump, and some other cars can fly through them without difficulty. I tried to tune that out or sometimes edit the geometry to improve the response.

And then there is drifting.. that is another world. Now why is that drift cars, after tuning all goes quicker on touge than my other small JDM cars? Well, their tires has more grip, even the used ones. And although little negative camber on the rear, the rear does not actually snap out?? There is still a lot to learn..

Have a fun year!

markie44 said:

AC 97%

In 2023, I'm going to TRY to get AMS2 and RF2 configured with my rig (both installed but unplayed since day 1). I've failed the last 2 years while AC is the gift that keeps giving where everything 'just works'

Don't get me wrong, very happy with AC - just a bit of FOMO

Click to expand...

I don't know what your actual issue is with with AMS2 or RF2, but I had difficulties with AMS2 too. Almost gave up. Graphics did not look good. But something happened, maybe Nvidia drivers, maybe AMS2 updates. Now my AMS2 looks great. But my RF2 still look like grap, can't seem to figure out what is the issue with it. AMS2 is so enjoyable, tracks look good, VR menu works great. Driving with my DD1 feel really authentic. No complaints, other than there's not that many tracks. Or roads to drive.

gamma123152 said:

So this poll really represents what real sim racers like because they know what's on the market

Click to expand...

I command your enthusiasm, but this is speculation at best. AMS2 is not such a new player unknown from the masses.
It has nice features, legacy from SMS, a very decent content variety, both tracks and cars, thank you again to the SMS legacy and Reiza huge work, But AMS2 still has to grow on the driving side to get to a higher plateau.

gamma123152 said:

AMS2 impressed(or better: surprised; since it had such a bad start) the sim racing crowd in 2022 that's exactly what this poll proves.

Click to expand...

I share your opinion about the progress AMS2 has achieved, to some it is already quite good, to other it needs to keep progressing, but at least now, it is enjoyable if not on par with other title yet.

gamma123152 said:

Would you have thought that AMS2 surpassed ACC in the end of 2022 in terms of popularity on RD?

Click to expand...

Again, I command your enthusiasm, ACC has 10 times the amount of players AMS2 has.
I will join your enthusiasm, if we make a poll here, on RD, with a simple question. Like, what is your favorite sim (or top 3) and if AMS2 tops ACC, I will agree.
In December, after buying some DLC, I spent more time in AMS2 than in ACC, mostly with the classic Lotus 72 at Old SPA and with a Cart 1995 at Cleveland.

I really discovered rFactor 2 this year. ACC was only the beginning of the year actually. And AMS2 I'd love to love it but can't get a hold of it. Raceroom is my second go to sim atm

Also GTR2 , Race 07,AC, ACC, Rfactor1 and F1 22
Outside Steam my most played racing games are:
F1 Challenge 99-02
Richard Burns Rally (Czech puglin and Sim rally fans)
Nascar Racing 2003 Season
I know this game isn't a Sim but I would like to include my most played game in Nintendo Switch
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Still AC with Content Manager for me. The playground is endless with quality content, and RSS' recent pack has really outdone itself. The GT-One is absolutely amazing and racing it on Portimao this past week has been a delight.

AMS2 is still my secondary sim and I'm on it a lot. There's a few physics tweaks and QOL things it could improve, and the amount of content is limited due to the lack of track mods, but what's there is still very impressive and the "in-car" feel is second to none. The online is still atrocious and multiple league races I had this year had desync issues so substantial that 1 or 2 people would wreck per instance. From my understanding, the quality of hosting is far better on a dedicated PC rather than through the in-game option - unfortunately, this requires using the absolutely inscrutable, zero-GUI Dedicated Server app which might as well be written in Assembly. It still has some ways to go, but I really do enjoy it and don't regret buying the entire package at sale price.

I continue to struggle with attaching to ACC.

Point 1 is still the poor performance - I simply can't believe that a racing game, with a focused scope at that, is so software-bound by lack of optimization. I have a 9900K 5 GHz, a 3080 Ti and 32 GB of DDR4-3600 and getting anything resembling a 100 FPS lock at 1440p DLSS Quality, particularly in the first few corners, requires essentially potato settings for LODs and number of cars on screen - so much so that cars literally pop in and out of existence. An Afterburner readout is even more damning - none of my components are even close to full utilization and my GPU is the most stressed at around ~60% (still a high number for a ~900p render res). And the lack of acknowledgement of this obvious issue by Kunos makes me think they've abandoned work on the engine completely and we're never going to see any improvements. That's a very off-putting first impression. I'm not really interested in 60FPS in a latency-bound racing simulation - especially since its competition delivers 100 FPS or more so effortlessly.

Point 2, to a lesser extent, is the wooden FFB. I understand the value in simulating the exact forces of the steering rack, but most people don't have a motion simulator to add in the missing bits. I have a high end profile and full transducer setup, and it often still feels like I'm driving a boat rather than a Lamborghini. I've heard there's a "break-in" period to adjust, though, and I'd be willing to keep an open mind if the game's performance wasn't so awful. Still, I simply prefer driving RSS cars in AC to ACC, which says a lot.

I will never pay for iRacing as long as all content, offline and online, is permanently gated behind a subscription. Perhaps in the future if there's a means of getting around this (legal or no) where I can play my content in AI races and Free Drive while not being subscribed to the online ladder, I'd consider. The quality of simulation is still pretty good, albeit not my favorite of the bunch.

I don't expect this hierarchy to change for me. Rennsport doesn't look particularly great and its heavy inclusion of NFTs (poor timing, the world weeps) has me at a very hard no. Assetto 2 likely won't be here until 2025, and that's being generous. AMS2 will have a new "season pass" for more content - TBD on whether it will be worth it past the content already on offer.

Perhaps I'll try RaceRoom this year.

XAGMNINETY said:

I have a 9900K 5 GHz, a 3080 Ti and 32 GB of DDR4-3600 and getting anything resembling a 100 FPS lock at 1440p DLSS Quality, particularly in the first few corners, requires essentially potato settings for LODs and number of cars on screen - so much so that cars literally pop in and out of existence.

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound right at all, have the same CPU and GPU, 16Gb of slightly faster DDR4-4000 and at native res on G9 (5120x1440) with HDR all Epic, Shadows High, it's 90-120 fps. Switched to x2 DLDSR with Quality DLSS recently for better AA and it's still lugging around 85-100.

GTR2 by a long shot. After ditching AC because big grids were impossible to make due to the lack of a good PC, I found myself fully into GTR2. It's impressive how you can make full 2022 IMSA & WEC grids thanks to mods. Pair this with CrewChief and Simhub and it's still one of the best experiences in sim racing.

knarrenheinz_ said:

GTR2 by a long shot. After ditching AC because big grids were impossible to make due to the lack of a good PC, I found myself fully into GTR2. It's impressive how you can make full 2022 IMSA & WEC grids thanks to mods. Pair this with CrewChief and Simhub and it's still one of the best experiences in sim racing.

Click to expand...

I'm sure I remember from 'No Grip' days when Durge Driven would post piccies of GTR2/GTL with 100 cars on various tracks including Nordschleife, personally I have 'many' dozens of cars on various tracks with races of an hour or more, with an i5 3400 and 1050 card, my favourite by far.

Andrew_WOT said:

That doesn't sound right at all, have the same CPU and GPU, 16Gb of slightly faster DDR4-4000 and at native res on G9 (5120x1440) with HDR all Epic, Shadows High, it's 90-120 fps. Switched to x2 DLDSR with Quality DLSS recently for better AA and it's still lugging around 85-100.

Click to expand...

That's about what I'm seeing - with standard High-Ultra settings, no DLSS, and a 20 car field, I'm in the high 70's to low 80's at the start, mid to high-80's for the first half of the lap, and then finally a 100 lock as the field spreads. Higher FPS if I add DLSS, drop the car LODs and a few other settings, and the "see-able" cars down from 19 to 12-14, which is what I always do now. My guess is for some reason the cars themselves are creating the issue - I've read that each opponent car is using the full physics engine, but my CPU never goes above 35% utilization on any core.

Perhaps I'll try 1080p to see if it can get me closer, and if it's doable - the image quality is poor in this game as well even at native. The stutter below the native 100 Hz is really distracting and annoying. Maybe down the line when I get a receiver that supports HDMI 2.1, VRR will clean this up enough for me to not be bothered.

Spinelli said:

GTR 1.

I don't know how/where to view those Steam stats (Steam's options, settings, features, DLC, stores, mods, etc. is an absolutely convoluted, unorganized mess) but I'm pretty sure it's GTR1 for the past year, no joke.

Click to expand...

Why GTR1 and not say GTR2?

XAGMNINETY said:

My guess is for some reason the cars themselves are creating the issue - I've read that each opponent car is using the full physics engine, but my CPU never goes above 35% utilization on any core.

Click to expand...

Opponent cars physics is multithreaded, so any modern multi core CPU should handle it no problem, rendering these cars on the other hand managed by the same single rendering thread, more cars, more things to render and they all are high poly detailed models.
There might be something else going on in your system, like stutter you mentioned, that's not normal, fps is also on a low side for whatever reason. Did you enable XMP profile for your memory, as default for DDR-4 is just 2133Mhz?
Better to move this discussion to ACC subforum.