AC - I don't understand the hype!

[trolimago]

So, I've just started SIM racing and have tried out AC for about a month now. It is supposed to feel realistic, but it doesn't ... not at all! Hence, I really don't understand the hype about this game.

The cars are much too sensitive; even a very light touch on the steering wheel is making the cars wobble and they all lose grip much too easily in the curves. I regularly drive fast on country roads and over 200km/h on the German autobahn and this is not at all how cars behave. In reality they are much more stable than shown in AC.

(1) Is there a quick fix to make the cars less sensitive in the steering and less prone to losing grip in the curves?

(2) Is there another SIM racing game, which you think I'd be happier with?

Thanks!

 

[Ho3n3r]

So, I've just started SIM racing and have tried out AC for about a month now. It is supposed to feel realistic, but it doesn't ... not at all! Hence, I really don't understand the hype about this game.

The cars are much too sensitive; even a very light touch on the steering wheel is making the cars wobble and they all lose grip much too easily in the curves. I regularly drive fast on country roads and over 200km/h on the German autobahn and this is not at all how cars behave. In reality they are much more stable than shown in AC.

(1) Is there a quick fix to make the cars less sensitive in the steering and less prone to losing grip in the curves?

(2) Is there another SIM racing game, which you think I'd be happier with?

Thanks!

This has to be a joke, right? It doesn't even sound like the same game the rest of us are playing.

Check that your contoller mappings are correct and that sensitivity isn't set to maximum. Also check that wheel rotation is 1:1 in-game compared to your actual wheel.

Which games did you play before AC1 that was so much easier?

 

[trolimago]

This has to be a joke, right? It doesn't even sound like the same game the rest of us are playing.

Check that your contoller mappings are correct and that sensitivity isn't set to maximum. Also check that wheel rotation is 1:1 in-game compared to your actual wheel.

Which games did you play before AC1 that was so much easier?

No, it's not joke. I find Gran Turismo 7 much easier for instance. Note however that I am not comparing with OTHER games, but comparing with driving IRL.

Compared to real driving, I find AC super-nervous and not at all forgiving. Constantly sliding out in corners although the AI cars are exactly the same model and driving faster than I am.

 

[Elaphe]

AC is realistic but you need good peripherals to feel the car, the inmersion, etc. I actually find AC too easy and forgiving now, after many years practicing. I can get a Radical and drive it really fast at Nords with no problems, catching slides, etc. and I wonder if I would be able to do so in the real world.

 

[Neilski]

No, it's not joke.

OK, but did you try these steps yet:

Check that your contoller mappings are correct and that sensitivity isn't set to maximum. Also check that wheel rotation is 1:1 in-game compared to your actual wheel.

...because I think that's quite possibly the problem here.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

So that’s a harsh title, only there is no any hype about AC.

I would start with the “free to try” things you find at Steam for the Raceroom game.
Alternatives would be ACC, AMs2, maybe iRacing.
For truck, rally racing etc I do not know.

 

[trolimago]

AC is realistic but you need good peripherals to feel the car, the inmersion, etc. I actually find AC too easy and forgiving now, after many years practicing. I can get a Radical and drive it really fast at Nords with no problems, catching slides, etc. and I wonder if I would be able to do so in the real world.

Thanks for your reply. I'm using Moza R12 Wheel Base and Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals V2.

 

[trolimago]

OK, but did you try these steps yet:

...because I think that's quite possibly the problem here.

Thanks. I've set up the Moza R12 Wheel Base using the Moza instructions video. To make sure I understand you correctly, are you talking about making adjustments in the Moza app or making tweeks in the AC settings? If the latter, where exactly should I look?

And you are talking about fixing the steering, right? I suppose this will not fix the issues with bad grip. I'm driving exactly behind the AI cars and exact same car model and still losing grip although I'm driving slightly slower than them.

 

[trolimago]

So that’s a harsh title, only there is no any hype about AC.

I would start with the “free to try” things you find at Steam for the Raceroom game.
Alternatives would be ACC, AMs2, maybe iRacing.
For truck, rally racing etc I do not know.

Harsch title, maybe ... but you know what it's like, it's all about getting those clicks and getting people to read your posts ;-) I am genuinely disappointed with the AC experience though. Hopefully there is a fix to it. Thanks for recommending other PC games. Hopefully, they will feel more realistic and the cars less 'nervous'.

 

[guidofoc]

Harsch title, maybe ... but you know what it's like, it's all about getting those clicks and getting people to read your posts ;-) I am genuinely disappointed with the AC experience though. Hopefully there is a fix to it. Thanks for recommending other PC games. Hopefully, they will feel more realistic and the cars less 'nervous'.

There are many people playing AC, they cannot all be wrong.. but of course AC has a learning curve. Here are a couple of things you need to set up properly:

1. Steering lock: the result you need to obtain is that the steering wheel on the screen rotates the same amount as the real wheel you are rotating. It is rather simple to achieve: rotate your wheel 180 degrees: if the wheel on the screen also rotated 180 degrees you are fine, otherwise you need to go into your wheels steering angle settings and adjust until the wheel on the screen is rotated 180 degrees. The less steering angle you set on the wheel, the more reactive (but also nervous) the steering.
2. Force feedback: you can adjust the FFB on the fly (while driving) for each individual car you are driving by pressing the "+" and "-" keys on the numeric keypad or by opening the FFB app. The settings are saved and kept for your next drive on that car. This is great because for each different car you can have the right amount of force, and that can vastly change your driving experience. You want the right compromise between "weight" and reaction speed.
3. Tires: on cars with no tire warmers you will start driving with cold tires, which have little grip, so you need to drive a bit before they warm up. Also, you need to dial in the right tire pressures. Open the tires app, or use apps like Sidekick which help you with that.
4. Traction control: on cars that have traction control, with Ctrl+T you can adjust the traction control level. The lower the number the higher the level of traction control. Once you are confident with the car, you can reduce it and enjoy driving on the limit which is particularly fun in AC.
5. Driving technique: make sure you do trail braking, which is keep braking a little when you start steering the car into the corner, this will bring the weight to the front wheels and give you more grip. To do this well I recommend learning to left-foot brake, which will unlock more performance in your cornering. Trail braking in AC helps a lot.
6. Setup: on road cars, increase the camber all around to give you more grip when cornering. Of course race cars have many more settings you can adjust. If you use Content Manager, you can also find setups available for download directly in the setup menu.

To enjoy your driving experience I also recommend you to download LA Canyons. There are multiplayer public servers when you can go drive the Canyon and also observe people's driving style. If you do racing, start with shorter circuits that you can learn fast, like Vallelunga Club or Brands Hatch Indy. AI are not great in AC but they can be a good sparring partner while you prepare for multiplayer. Once your racing skills are good enough you can try things like LFM, or races here on Racedepartment (now Overtake).

Besides that, Content Manager with CSP is a must-have and Pure is highly recommended to give you the best looks. Enjoy.

 

[RasmusP]

I'll send you all my R12 settings tonight mate

I totally get what you mean. Road cars especially are just wonky and feel weird.

You don't have that super tight powersteering/servo feel when driving in a straight line, like you have in real life.

But you can adjust the R12 to some "crazy" settings, that to me, feel similar to reality.

You need to boost the weaker parts of the ffb and then add lots of friction and "speed dependent damping" to calm down the wheel, while it has lots of ffb in the center.

Also the feeling of speed is completely lost when driving on a single monitor. 200 feels like 50.

The AI is basically "cheating" by driving exactly at the grip limit by code.

They aren't smooth and they don't drive the fastest line, so good drivers are way faster than the AI.

But when starting out, you have no chance of following them.

Reducing the AI skill level sadly makes them no going full throttle on the straights.

So you still can't really follow them through turns, but then overtake them all on the straights.

Anyway, please also share your controller settings and your moza settings.

I will post mine tonight, but it would be interesting if there's something completely wrong right now

Last words:
For me, the GT3 cars feel similar to a real road car in terms of speed and grip. (If you ignore the speedometer).

There are some modding groups that feels the same and created the cars that are used on the "NoHesi" servers. A Japanese tuned Nissan Skyline, that drives 400 kp/h and has more grip than the F1 2004.

But it's great fun and honestly, doesn't feel unrealistically, if you ignore the speed number.

In VR, that's completely different though. So AC is pretty good, but it highly depends on your settings and massively on the viewport (single 16:9 monitor at 60 Hz vs 57" 32:9 120 Hz monitor etc).

 

[Michael Krone]

The lower the number the higher the level of traction control.

Is this really how it is or is that a typo? Lol Ive been playing for years and thought 1 would be the lowest but Ive never actually used it so I wouldnt know.

 

[RasmusP]

Is this really how it is or is that a typo? Lol Ive been playing for years and thought 1 would be the lowest but Ive never actually used it so I wouldnt know.

Yes, 99% of the cars are like that.
0 = off
1 = maximum
Everything higher = less TC.
Same for ABS.

However I've driven some 1988 Mercedes CLK LM the other day and that car is the opposite..
Standard TC was already too much, so I raised it to the maximum value and it still was too much.
Then I switched it to 1 by accident and did some massive drift at the next exit haha.

The tooltip still shows 1 = maximum TC though.

 

[Stereo]

Depends on how it's defined, on cars with lots of options (10+) usually each one is a percent of slip allowed, 1=1%, 2=2% etc. (so higher is more permissive) But ones with a few values might have 0 10 5 or something.

 

[Michael Krone]

Yes, 99% of the cars are like that.
0 = off
1 = maximum
Everything higher = less TC.
Same for ABS.

However I've driven some 1988 Mercedes CLK LM the other day and that car is the opposite..
Standard TC was already too much, so I raised it to the maximum value and it still was too much.
Then I switched it to 1 by accident and did some massive drift at the next exit haha.

The tooltip still shows 1 = maximum TC though.

Depends on how it's defined, on cars with lots of options (10+) usually each one is a percent of slip allowed, 1=1%, 2=2% etc. (so higher is more permissive) But ones with a few values might have 0 10 5 or something.

Well thats interesting, to say the least. Been playing this game for years and never knew that.

 

[Johnny Speed]

Also try to set the race conditions to "optimal", maybe you are running on a "Green", or "Dusty" track. That would make it slippery. Not at my rig right now, but from memory, those are the settings you can choose from.

 

[RasmusP]

Moza:


AC:

Session for a good baseline:

 

[guidofoc]

..I totally get what you mean. Road cars especially are just wonky and feel weird.

You don't have that super tight powersteering/servo feel when driving in a straight line, like you have in real life.

..
I agree that not all road cars feel great in AC, but when they do they are awesome. For example I can certainly recommend the Ferrari 488 GTB. I drive with the CSL DD and the ClubSport RS wheel, FFB at around 50-60% in game, steer ratio at 720 degrees, TC off. The front is razor sharp, the car nimble, huge amount of power, the rear wants to step out but you can learn to counter it and "dance" on the limit. I can drive it for hours at LA Canyons with a smile on my face.

 

[replicaz1427]

Also try to set the race conditions to "optimal", maybe you are running on a "Green", or "Dusty" track. That would make it slippery. Not at my rig right now, but from memory, those are the settings you can choose from.

That has a huge impact on tyre performance and how much you slip. Changing it to optimal makes the game feel great. Anything below kinda feels like you've not got the tyres up to temperature. I wonder whether the OP has CSP and content manager? If they don't then it's a good idea to get both as for the most part they improve the game considerably.

 

[trolimago]

Hi all, sorry for reverting late. It has been a busy month. Thanks all for your help.

I have tried all the settings you recommended and I can definitely notice some improvements. Not quite there yet though. Steering is still a bit nervous ... better than before though. I found that adding some 'speed dependent damping' helps, but still not great. As for grip, this too is better now. Setting to 'optimal' was a good improvement. Competing AI cars can still drive faster than me through the curves though which is incredibly annoying.