Community Question | Your Favourite Shifting Method

[Leonardo Chaves]

Since i'm still playing at a desk and not a proper rig i find the H shifter positioning very uncomfortable, very painful if i have to do more than a couple of laps.

Maybe because of this i never got good on the quick footwork of heel and toe (i drive a manual in real life but i don't heel and toe).

This and most simracing cars are paddle shifter anyways.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

H-pattern shifter (TH8A) and heel/toe (double de-clutch shifting when the car requires it). I only ever drive for fun, not to win races.

 

[Helldriver]

I have them all on my Rig, Paddle, H-Shifter and sequential.
I´m always using the same shifting method, which the simulated car has.

 

[Deleted member 217114]

I am able to shift with all the styles except the heel & toe. CSL Elite pedals do not have the correct plates to heel & toe. Also my ankle isn't that flexible. But I think if I buy Sprints and modify the plates a bit it becomes easier to heel & toe. I've tried a different method of heel & toe aka using my side-feet, but still .. CSL elite LC pedals plates aren't made for toeing.

Anyway. My preferred method is probably my HE next to my rim, but I love all the options, tho. Just depends on said car and transmission.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Ever since owning a Subaru Justy, I like CVTs. Unfortunately CVTs aren't modeled in simworld, so... paddle shifter is my favorite. I have an H-shifter and use it more often than the paddle shifter as I'm fond of historic cars.

Actually the CVT thing got abandoned in F1 (and I guess in most other racing series) when Williams together with the dutch CVT manufacturer VDT(Van Doorne Transmissie) tested a CVT F1 car in 1993.
Rumour says that David Coulthard was able to lap 1-2 sec under the Silverstone official laprecord when he tested the car.

I have owned some goofy CVT cars (DAF/Volvo) back in time - where the belt was made of rubber
My friends was calling it rubber band transmission - but it worked (somewhat).

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: When I was an iRacing member I painted my L79 as the orig blue VDT test car - which now are resting in some dutch auto museum.

 

[JonnyCombat]

I really love H pattern with heel and toe. You can get into such a great rythm. I can never control the speed as well with paddles as I can with manual shifters.

Just bought a Fanatec shifter (the old one was the crappy G29 shifter), and wooo boy what a difference.

 

[Cote Dazur]

I can't select any of the options above. A sixth selection should have been added: Use exactly what the real car has

exactly, same here.
I have no favorite, I like them all, but I do not like to use, driving in VR, the wrong shifting method that would not match the car i am driving.
When using h-shifter, I also like to match the pattern, like dog shift pattern.
In PCars2, the driver mimic the different shift pattern, which is great. In AC with CM, specific shift pattern can be assign to specific cars which is great as well.
All methods of shifting bring their own level of satisfaction and I like variety.

 

[Jack Sargent]

Whatever the real cars uses mirror that.

It's called sim racing. To simulate the experience of driving a particular car. Not to use paddle shift regardless because you can't heel and toe or want to save some 0.01s!

 

[Erudain]

Whatever the car I'm driving in game uses in real life, I use paddle shifts for F1 games, real automatic for Eurotruck since most trucks now only come in automatic, sequential stick for rally cars or racing cars that use that setup and H for street cars.

I use a G29 shfiter with a pretty basic mod to make it sequential, just some rubber bands in the side bolts, so to go from sequential to H I just have to remove those rubbers

 

[AccAkut]

I agree its whatever the car actually has. Only thing I can't quite tolerate is full automatic shifting

I didn't built this for no reason years ago (pic is rather old, but I still use this)

 

[takeyan]

If EV will be common, shifting will be extinct.

 

[Dave Thayer]

Never had the time to invest in getting a stick shifter for my Nascar stuff , so just use the paddles on the wheel for shifting. Plus I do allot with F1 open wheel cars, so the paddles are good enough at this time.

 

[Andy-R]

Ever since owning a Subaru Justy, I like CVTs. Unfortunately CVTs aren't modeled in simworld, so... paddle shifter is my favorite. I have an H-shifter and use it more often than the paddle shifter as I'm fond of historic cars.

Edit: and while I'm on the H-shifter subject, I sure wish it were easier to emulate the different shifter patterns (Porsche vs. everybody else vs. sequential-H of Ford GT-40 vs. reverse being up & left vs. reverse being right & down vs. etc.). I mean you can load a couple of different control mappings, but I think only the ancient TSW H-shifter had plates that would drop over the shifter & could lock out the gates you didn't need. Hmm, looks like TSW no longer makes the one I remember: https://thomas-superwheel.com/shifters.

Your post made me have a daydream into the future of an H box for sims with led gear number display for each gate and sims that provide the correct info so the hardware has the correct pattern for each car and handy LED display if your new to the car to check what pattern it uses.

 

[Bill Marburger]

I use whatever the car I am driving in the sim uses, which is to say I mostly gravitate towards the classic/vintage stuff with proper manual gear boxes. Much more immersive in my opinion.
True it takes some skill to master and you are never going to be as quick as someone using flappy paddles, but it is all about the satisfaction of rowing a car up and down through its gears that cannot be matched using modern paddles shifters.
I appreciate modern cars and tech, but for immersion factor in in sims there is nothing like manual shifting with a good quality shifter to take your experience to the next level. $150.00 for my TH8A shifter and $200.00 for my CSL Elite LC Pedals is the best money I've spent on gear by a wide margin.

 

[Ryan Soucy]

G25 for the win!! That's what I LOVED about the Logitech G25. Need flappy paddles? You got em! H-box? No sweat! Wait, sequential too? Gotcha covered!!

Back in my rFactor days when I would bounce from mod to mod I loved being able to match the right shifter to the right car. That ingenious little shifter was and still is my favorite piece of sim gear. Now I bounce b/w paddles (TX base) and an H-box (TH8A).

 

[Koen Verlinde]

My favourite?
The one that is realistic for the car of course. That can be full auto, H-pattern, sequential, flippers, you name it.

So can't really vote in this poll as that option isn't there.

 

[STP]

Paddle shift, until developers work out how to make telepathy work without any bugs (distraction, uncertainty etc...).

 

[Neawoulf]

While paddles are of course quicker, easier and "better" for pure racing and hotlapping ... nothing beats the driving experience in a classic race car with h-pattern and heel and toe.

*edit* Just for cruising/public roads automatic is okay too. Not challenging or fun, but comfortable.

 

[67JTM]

I've driven Paddle shift and Automatic Cars in real live, but with my own Car and also in Sims I prefer H- Pattern.

 

[passenger]

H pattern shifter, as older real cars used. A manual shifter asks for more interaction, so it lets you feel more what you are doing, lets you feel more the car.

Secondly, sequencial shifter. And I don't like the paddles at all because just touching a paddle is not driving a car. And automatic shifting is no driving anything.