Buying advice please - Next Level v3 Motion Platform

[MarkR]

I'm looking for some advice and thoughts of other owners or people with good knowledge of the product, please.

I always said I'd buy myself a motion simulator if I could afford one and had the room available. Well, that day may have arrived. I'm impressed by what I've seen of the Next Level v3 Motion Platform

This seems to meet all my criteria:

+ Limited space requirements, I don't have room for a huge sim rig but this seems compact enough to work.
+ Works with Oculus Rift VR, that fixed head position setting solution is impressive
+ Great support and regular updates from the developers
+ Available in the UK
+ Works with my current Thrustmaster wheel and accessories.
+ Sub £3k for the full setup, I'm not a pro racer I'm not looking for a practice simulator this is just for fun so the cost/fun balance has to be right.

So help me do the man maths! Is it worth it?

Is there another similar product I should also look at? It would need to be reasonably compact, work with VR, available in the UK without too much hassle and in the same £3-5K price range.

Is there anywhere I can try one or even better several of the systems in the UK?

 

[Steve D]

@RobertR1 , @Mascot

Here you go chaps.

 

[RobertR1]

Just wanted to give some credit to how good the customer service from Next Level Racing is.

One my favourite features of the V3 is the "Rev limiter on motion platform." This allows me to focus on my driving and when I mess up or do well, I can judge by when the rev limiter comes on. Couple that with when you're dicing with someone and you're offline/drafting/messing up, this is my favourite feature to keep me driving consistently.

The problem with this feature is it's harshness. You not only get slammed back n' forth in the seat rapidly and violently! but it overrides the other motion elements that are happening or supposed to occur during that time.

So I wrote to Matthew from NLR support asking for an option for this to be adjustable. Matthew not only acknowledged my request but sent it straight to engineering. A couple of days later, I have a beta link to download and test.

Now there's an intensity slider for the rev limiter and from my testing just now, it works amazingly well! Now I get a nice smooth indication that I'm at the rev limiter while still being able to feel the other motions of the car. No more jarring shaking.

I hope others can try this feature out in the near future. It's a very usable feature now and immediately increased my harmony with the platform. There are three things that I value in any transaction; transparency, quality and customer service. So far, NLR have been knocking it out of the park on all of it.

 

[blanes]

I visited Next Level's new showroom on the Gold Coast last Thursday and spent nearly an hour driving the new GT Track Cockpit mounted to the V3 Motion with the new Traction Plus addon. It is really good and actually much better than I imagined - I tried a couple of cars and tracks on Assetto Corsa and the feeling of the car moving laterally both front and back definitely adds another dimension to the sim driving experience which felt immersive and natural. I didn't adjust anything but just drove the setup Brendan had already tuned but you can definitely tune it to the same degree as the V3 motion platform using same software.

It felt like the added movements really makes the road come to life enhancing the driving experience significantly. Brendan travelled to Germany for the ADAC Sim Racing Expo in Germany last month and Hess told me that a number of real life racing drivers were extremely impressed and preferred it to other motion rigs that were way more expensive by comparison so I thought that was real interesting. It is planned for a January release with retail price of AUD $9000 so it is out of reach for the casual sim racer including many of us here unfortunately but Hess did say it is aimed more at the really hardcore users and professionals and there is nothing like it on the market currently with both front & rear traction loss. It does look pretty awesome and of high quality with cool led lights in the running tracks.

I was really happy to bring home an early prototype of the GT Track cockpit (Thanks Hess!) which I have just completed setting up after swapping out my GT Ultimate rig which has done me great for past 4 years. The GT Track is definitely a much more solid rig with absolutely no flex anywhere and reminds me more of the solid feel my old Obutto cockpit gave me before I bought the GT Ultimate plus motion. The seat is smaller and lighter than the GT Ultimate seat but actually really comfortable though it may be a tight fit for anyone much larger than me and I am no lightweight at 110kg. The final retail version will have a few adjustments and enhancements based on feedback from users who tried it out at trade shows in Europe and the U.S. My AccuForce wheel mounted easily using 2 x screws but if I wish to use my Ascher mount, which raises the wheel up a little, I will need to drill some holes. So far it feels pretty good without it though as the wheel mount on the frame has some adjustment to tilt the wheel upwards and I have it at max.

Anyway my initial impressions of the Traction Plus was very good but of course it would be much better to have one at home to tune and test on other sim titles and I hope to get a chance to trial one next year. Just wish the price was not so high !

Oh and the new Next Level Racing showroom at Nerang on the Gold Coast is really big and totally awesome in design and layout. Hess's Next Level team are still getting everything setup as it was a big move from their old location but it is very nice & looks highly professional with their trademark signage, colours and logos adorning building - it catches your eye straight away as you drive upto it. Cheers mark

 

[Kranky Pantz]

blanes, that's a great insight into the new traction loss add-on.

It's unfortunate that Next Level Racing has chosen not to have any local representation, and more importantly service/support in the form of a North American branch.
It makes it very difficult for those of us located here across the pond to feel comfortable, should something go wrong with the hardware.

Even though I've returned & refunded mine due to such an incident, I still enjoy reading the thoughts, opinions & experiences you folks have with the NLRv3.

It was a LOT of fun when it worked, and a very sad day when it died on me.
I still have the software installed, and I've recently had a look at the log file and can pinpoint the moment it died.
Unfortunately there isn't any obvious info other than the exact time it shut down, and then just kept trying to reconnect afterwards.
I was hoping for a blatantly obvious error message in the log, but didn't see anything, which is concerning from a support perspective.

As far as the fun factor, I'm hoping to get a similar experience from my DIY rig once it's completed...fingers are crossed.

I'll always have a soft spot for the NLRv3, it's frikken awesome when it works!

 

[anton_Chez]

Thanks for you feedback Blanes I'm sure many here will find it useful. It certainly is an interesting bit of kit, that's for sure. I'd love to try it out one day. I'm in Vic so probably a little far out of reach for me for a casual visit. It's great to see new alternatives on the traction loss side of things, too. Will make other comapnies think of better ways of doing it to compete.

I think it's defnitely on another level to the V3. The V3 is probably the best value for money motion platform you can buy today, in my opinion. Very hard to beat. I'll most likely pass on the traction loss addition but it's still nice to see Next Level pushing the boundaries.

 

[Ecstreme]

Hey guys. I recently reported some issues in post 971. The disconnect issue hasn't happened since but I do still have a very noticeable harsh rattle when riding kerbs in rF2. This is only on the left side, the right hand side feels and sounds great. I've spoken to Matt at NLR support and he's been very helpful however. He gave me a beta software version so that I could adjust the kerb rumble effect which whilst useful doesn't fix the issue. Have a look at my youtube video

to see what I mean. Forgive the camera work, it looks a little shaky as it's balanced on my P1 but if you go to 01:20 you'll hear the noise and the rig is barely vibrating. I today took the seat off and double checked all the bolts to the seat slider etc - they were all solid.

Matt also said that the engineer thinks the sound could be from the e-brake clutch disc and has given me a link on how to adjust it but I've not done this yet. I'm waiting for some loctite glue to arrive tomorrow. Have any of you experienced this issue? Anyone adjusted their e-brake? I've only had the unit since June.

 

[anton_Chez]

Nothing that I've had to do regarding vibration. I've had a few things happen that I've needed to attend to myself but not that.

 

[Steve D]

@Ecstreme does that only happen when riding left hand curbs and only in RF2?

Does it happen if you go off track, i.e past the curbs so that your left wheels are on the grass? Also what happens if you stick your right wheels on a left curb, if you get what I mean?

Have you tried other sims in an attempt to replicate the behavior?

If it's unique to rF2 and your platform performs perfectly elsewhere, or when not touching those curbs, then that's an odd one indeed. And whether coincidental or not, a few of us have noticed that since the last V3 update, the directional feedback, (felt down the left and right hand sides of the seat), when touching curbs in rF2 specifically, is a great deal more noticeable but in a good way as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Kranky Pantz]

Has anyone been able to confirm if these new rFactor 2 curb sensations are due to updated in-game telemetry settings by the dev's, or is this something specific to the NLRv3 engineers tweaking the settings?

 

[anton_Chez]

Has anyone been able to confirm if these new rFactor 2 curb sensations are due to updated in-game telemetry settings by the dev's, or is this something specific to the NLRv3 engineers tweaking the settings?

This is what I'm thinking. I use rFactor2 weekly and the last V3 update was a while ago. Nowhere that I remember mentioned anything hardware related changing. There was a firmware update I think as well with the update, perhaps this was something that came from that? It still should have made the patch notes. I can ask in the rF2 Discord, I visit the server regularly and it is quite active with both devs and dedicated rF2 users.

Wherever it came from, it's awesome. I mean I have tactile but it gives such a convicing feeling for curbs that you would think your rig had just had tactile added to it if it didn't already have it. Just another lovely addition to help increase immersion levels.

 

[anton_Chez]

Not sure if this refers to the bass shaker part of tactile or what we're feeling on the platform.

 

[Ecstreme]

@Ecstreme does that only happen when riding left hand curbs and only in RF2?

Does it happen if you go off track, i.e past the curbs so that your left wheels are on the grass? Also what happens if you stick your right wheels on a left curb, if you get what I mean?

Have you tried other sims in an attempt to replicate the behavior?

If it's unique to rF2 and your platform performs perfectly elsewhere, or when not touching those curbs, then that's an odd one indeed. And whether coincidental or not, a few of us have noticed that since the last V3 update, the directional feedback, (felt down the left and right hand sides of the seat), when touching curbs in rF2 specifically, is a great deal more noticeable but in a good way as far as I'm concerned.

Good point mate, not sure why I haven't tried other sims to be honest - I'll check AC later but I feel like it's hardware related, not the sim.

Yes, it only does it on left hand side when riding kerbs. No rattle on the grass. No rattle riding kerbs on the right hand side at all - it feels fantastic. If I ride the kerbs on the right enough so the left tyres touch then that nasty virabtaion is felt down the left side again. It's bloody annoying!!! I hope to try the e-brake fix tonight.

 

[RobertR1]

Adjusted my pedals for left foot braking and realized how much I use my left foot for bracing under braking. This will take a few day to get used to!

Spacing out my pedals go kart style is a lot more comfortable for long run though.

 

[anton_Chez]

Can't space them too much, remember heel and toe..... ?

 

[RobertR1]

Can't space them too much, remember heel and toe..... ?

#2pedals

If I had a shifter my kids would have it removed and in my hand daily (in parts).

 

[anton_Chez]

Lol yeah fair enough. It's getting like that now with the newer cars anyway. Clutch on the steering wheel and one foot for each pedal. Can't say I hate it though, makes races a much more pleasurable experience.

 

[Mascot]

#2pedals

If I had a shifter my kids would have it removed and in my hand daily (in parts).

I simply couldn't continue without my clutch and Clubsport shifter. One of sim racing's greatest pleasures is banging up and down through gated gears and H&Ting every downshift. In A3DR's 512TR at LAC it's simply heaven in a headset.

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

Hi guys,
RFactor 2: Is there anything you need to specifically do to get this working on NLR V3? Any plugins required? Or a specific beta version? I cant figure it out...

Thx

 

[Steve D]

Hi guys,
RFactor 2: Is there anything you need to specifically do to get this working on NLR V3? Any plugins required? Or a specific beta version? I cant figure it out...

Thx

Have you run the Game Integration for rF2?

If not click on the Games Integration tab on the right of the Motion Systems software Profiles screen, scroll down to rF2 and install. (The software should already know where the game is located)

Once installation is complete, the rF2 profile will appear on the main page for you to tweak if you require. Click on Activate to set it live for the game.

Should then be good to go.

Hope you sort it as the V3 works really well with rF2.

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

I think you could be right... I swapped the steam file location of RFactor 2 to D drive. Platform Manager was still looking at C drive (I think). Problem is I now have to wait for the 11gb open beta dx11 to download again... I seem to have lost that when I was trying other versions.

Thanks