from Assetto Corsa to reality! how big is the difference..?

[Mike85]

I've never driven a real car.... but I love simulation and Assetto Corsa! will it help me in the future once i will have to turn my sim experience into real driving (normal, non GT cars of course)?

How big is the difference between real driving and simulation ? (I use Assetto Corsa + Logitec G27 + Oculus Rift DK2 and sometimes 3D Vision, everything maxed out, no latency) How much will it help me once i will start to drive a real car??

please write your thoughts and advices!

 

[Radu Oros]

Solo lapping in sim racing games may not be much related to real life/city driving. But when you enter a race vs A.I/Online, that awareness you learned or experienced in real life driving is quite needed for races in sims against other drivers. Especially when you take a street car/manual car in the game in a race against similar cars.
Bad technique, low experience, and lack of preparation can screw you up in sim races because it also affects your awareness. So you need to have all these points in ready mode to drive/race safely in games.
So in conclusion I think races in sims can also help you out in real life to maybe drive safely and react better in abnormal situations. And same can be said about real life driving experience applied to moments in sim races. But a single screen with bad peripheral view is quite a big handicap. Apps like helicorsa, or the iracing voice spotter help you out a lot to race safer in these games.

 

[Dave Fox]

imo,
I think technology is now getting to a stage where it can be very beneficial to have virtual experience before trying the real thing.
Using the Oculus will give you ALOT more benefit too.....Spatial awareness, getting used to glancing at mirrors, counter-steering etc...
Pilots have been learning to fly in simulators for many years without the physical feedback of being airborne, there's a massive amount of knowledge you will gain from a sim compared to somebody that has no experience at all.

But jumping into a real car on a real road with real lives at stake and thinking you are ready based on your sim-racing ability would be a very big mistake.
(You don't have to face oncoming articulated trucks sharing tiny roads with you in racing sims)
Get a good instructor, and enjoy the experience.....You'll be a good safe driver in no-time.

Being a good driver in sim-racing is all about speed and getting to the line without causing a wreckfest.
Being a good driver for real is all about keeping you, your vehicle and all other road users safe/////Speed does not come into the equation for public road use.

 

[Bernd Graf]

The forces that come from other aspects than the wheel. Some petal sets vibrate to simulate brake lockup, or rumble from rough tarmac, but forces through the seat, G forces, etc caused through cornering, acceleration and deceleration are difficult to simulate, especially if you don't have a motion simulator. Also, a sense of the actual size of the car, esp. if you are racing on a screen smaller than 27." Even on triple screen set-ups, you never quite understand the blind spots in a real car. Simulators have yet to model correct rear views and how restricted they are in race cars...fortunately , road cars are not plagued by this, so not much of an issue.

 

[Bernd Graf]

It's nothing like driving a real car on a real road.
A sim may be good but it's still a game.

On the road you have to be aware of so much more as the consequences are far greater if you get it wrong. You have to respect other drivers, pedestrians and other things that can and do happen in front of you (like animals, footballs, appearing from nowhere). You have to think about the weather, time of day, road conditions, deposits on road (debri, diesel, potholes, painted markings, speed humps. Chicanes, parked cars, kids running from behind ice cream vans etc). You have to consider weight and weight transfer and how it can effect braking, acceleration, cornering etc. You have to be aware of rules and laws in regards to speed limits, traffic lights, signs, vehicle condition.
I regularly drive VERY fast on public roads (legally I might add) and it is worlds apart from driving fast on a sim).
You drive a car with your body, you feel what the road is doing through your hands and senses and feel inertia and how to play the clutch. In real life driving you have to be far more aware of your surroundings.
A driving sim/game may sharpen reflexes, but so will playing Call Of Duty.

Having said that, it's still the closest thing you can get to driving whilst sat at your desk in your computer room.

As for people who play driving sims being better drivers, could that be because they have an interest in driving (or they wouldn't have bought a driving game in the first place) and therefore if you have an interest the chances are you are going to be better than someone who doesn't have an interest at all?

It's the same the other way. I am a very good driver on the roads but mediocre on a sim.

Also, I would add a sense of fear. When I hit over 100 on the road, it is a far more nerve racking experience even after 780 hours in AC driving at speeds well over 170. The little changes in suspension and direction the car makes as it follows the road at these speeds is very unnerving, keeps you quite alert and focused, far more nervous then in a sim because there is no danger to your life or vehicle. Awareness of these things really amps up the fear unless you know your car well and have driven it on track to know it's limits.

Which brings up a very important matter to mind (not hijacking thread): IMHO, every person learning to drive should be taught in a closed course as part of their training, where they are allowed to learn a car's skid limits, grip levels, speed, suspension behavior, etc. All the road driving in the world does not build understanding and confidence in any driver on what to do in bad situations. This is where simulation trumps real driving as you will learn. I can honestly say I am a better driver after playing AC. The game, coupled with extra-curricular investigations in actual performance driving have made me aware and confident about matters I knew nothing about having passed my driving exams.

 

[William Levesque]

Driving a real car at (and over) the limit in real life was the easiest thing ever after a few years of highly competitive simracing.

First time I got sideways IRL (in a car) was the first day I got my MX-5, lift-off oversteer in an off-camber corner was more pronounced than I had expected and ended up having to counter-steer about 1/2 rotation. Felt much too easy, haha. Granted I was going only about 50kph, but yeh, when you have the basics down it's not hard at all.

The real things you have to watch out for are the other knobs on the road, idiots on bicycles, kids, etc... Possibly unfavorable road conditions too, including oil. Oh, and cops

 

[Burke Wells]

idiots on bicycles

Careful, now. Some of us sim-racers are also cyclists. Please don't run us down.

I would counter that the true idiots are the countless drivers I see messing with their phones while driving. Please don't do that.

 

[William Levesque]

Careful, now. Some of us sim-racers are also cyclists. Please don't run us down.

I would counter that the true idiots are the countless drivers I see messing with their phones while driving. Please don't do that.

Hey, if you're a non-idiotic cyclist you should be fine

Also, f*** phones

 

[mclarenf1papa]

I've been on the road for almost 30 years so here it goes.

Don't go all yahoo on the road if you're good on a sim. Always remember that weight transfers are virtual when playing but crucially real on the road, at the limit/with bad tires/poor road surface/first rains after a dry spell/could go on forever.

Has seen in the episodes of GT Academy Challenge wannabe racers, some kids just learned how to play the game, not idea whatsoever about weight transfers and how tires (or even cars) work.

Learn to drive properly and practice/enhance your skills in the sim(s). Transfer that knowledge to the road and you'll be a much much much faster and SAFER driver.

Some kids that just learned how to play the game yet currently have jobs driving the new Nissan LMP1 car....pretty sure they're better drivers than you (note: I'm not saying that Gran Turismo can teach you to race a car alone, but it can certainly be a starting point)

 

[TheBlackVanMan]

"Some kids that just learned how to play the game yet currently have jobs driving the new Nissan LMP1 car....pretty sure they're better drivers than you ".

And better drivers than you?

Sure they are, the German fellow was a taxi driver - see what I mean - a professional driver with lots of experience.

It's seems you guys haven't seen the episodes when those kids that never ever entered/driven a car failed miserably. I've learned a lot from GT, BECAUSE I already knew how to drive (or so I thought), but no sim will teach you how do drive a car or even to drive a stick shift. They will massively improve your skills if you already know how to drive.

Is this so hard to understand or you guys don't yet have a driving license/experience and don't have a clue what I'm talking about?

Simulator stands for simulation of a perceived reality, it's not the real thing and it will never be.

 

[William Levesque]

I learned to drive a stick on rFactor before I even had a license, instructor found quite weird that his random student was heel and toeing the driving school's Sentra.

 

[Anindo]

It depends where you drive. Driving in a dense city is a total other discipline as driving countryside. I learned driving in the area of the Nordschleife and the roads are often like Nordschleife. This was before sim racing and i could have learned some things from that instead of starting from the scratch, but the rules are still more important for passing the test. After two or three years driving in the country even earning money with car services i moved to cologne and wow, WTF So many cars and lanes and the streets are so narrow, to many signs and lights, parking into tiny slots. Sim Racing can provide just a few percentage of the skills that are needed in this environment

 

[TheBlackVanMan]

Thank you Anindo for bringing some real life perspective into this discussion.
Track racing and road racing are different things and so should be treated.

You learn how to make love by making love with a woman/man (hey, it's century 21) not with a dummy.

F1 pilots learn from young age starting karts at 3 years old. Simulators are a great add that speeds up the learning curve and gives you more experience. But you have no real weight (mass) transfer on your body or oil/cracked pavement and a million other things that dictate how you drive that piece of tarmac that day at that time. We're driving on public roads, remember the OP.

Having said that, simulators are not as fun as sex but it surely last longer... much longer.
And they are great fun and teaching tools. Cheer up guys.

 

[ThugUK]

You learn how to make love by making love with a woman/man (hey, it's century 21) not with a dummy.

What you really mean is 'your right hand is ok, but its not as good as the real thing', its like driving sims.