Ideal VR wheel[s]?

[blekenbleu]

I used my G29 with monitors only a few times before understanding that
slight changes in distance between my eyes and screen threw off judging apexes.
Fortunately, Samsung released their WMR Odyssey HMD then,
and with VR never again used most G29 controls,
since unable to quickly find them by feel.

Mostly driving older cars, lack of wheel controls is less of a problem,
but it would be nice to find some wheel with:

• no displays
• no knobs
• 4 thumbwheels and buttons, all within reach
  • without changing grip on rim

Size, shape, feel and weight of Fanatec McLaren rim are fine, IMO,
but many of its controls are useless in VR.
Not sure whether being able to overlay a green screen of the "real" rim into VR would help..

Does anyone know of rims truly suited to VR?

 

[BrightCandle]

This was something I was looking into a lot last year when the CSL DD first went on order as I was considering a VRS direct drive instead of a CSL DD. The Polsimer F74 for example is nice and cheap and quite button rich while being quite usable for those OSW wheels. But I ended up getting the CSL DD in the end as the price of wheels outside of Fanatec's ecosystem is quite a bit more, and the McLaren is what I use. I find all of the buttons, flick switches and rotaries are usable in VR with a bit of practice. The rotataries are fine because they are nice and big and easy to find, the switches are just OK for the thumbs or to reach across and find due to the big rotaries and across the top the big shrouded buttons are very distinct from the little buttons.

Its actually the round wheels I am little more concerned with. Fanatec pretty much universally puts ever more expensive screens on high button wheels and its an expense a VR user just doesn't need, there are no cheaper high button count round wheels unfortunately. But the Formula wheel looks fine as well.

 

[cnhoff]

Maybe not 100% suiting your style or system, but I have the Fanatec Formula V2 and the 911 GT3 wheels and both are excellent in my opinion for VR. One of the key features in my opinion is, that the buttons, dials etc. should be close to the rim, so you don't have to move your hands much.

The 918 RSR i had for a while fell behind in that respect because, albeit being a great rim overall, the buttons were close to unusable in VR because of the distance to the rim.

Although my hands/brain seem to adapt very quickly to what i see in VR (basically every physical rim feels like the one I am seeing after a while if the differences are not gross), driving the 911 Cup in ACC with the matching wheel feels divine.

 

[blekenbleu]

Fanatec Formula V2

At least for the Formula V2.5, 270mm is too small for me, although thumbwheels are tempting,
and USB conversion is needed. Beyond that, only controls within reach of thumbs,
not including funky switches, would seem convenient.
After letting go of the rim, locating a control becomes unlikely...
Having to buy an upgrade for clutch paddles also seems gratuitous.

Why do not more wheels have controls, other than paddles, on the back, for use by fingers?

 

[sunaurus]

I drive in VR exclusively, I agree with everything you said. I've recently started looking for wheels with 6 paddles - they seem like great options, as the top paddles would be pretty impossible to miss, so you can bind some important functions to them. Although 6 paddle wheels seem quite expensive, and all I've seen also include screens, which is completely useless in VR.

The only non-DIY option I've found so far is https://rexing.eu/rexing-formula-wheel-mayaris/, I'd be interested to see other options if anybody is aware of any.

 

[blekenbleu]

non-DIY option

Do DIY options already exist? Not that I care to build one,
but some builders can be incented to produce duplicates...

This Rexing is new to me and first that I have seen with enough thumbwheels,
but with a lot of cost presumably tied up in superfluous display and illumination.

 

[blekenbleu]

Polsimer F74 for example

If its rotary encoders were thumbwheels, a F74 with clutch paddles could be tempting;
cars I drive with round wheels mostly don't need other controls, after sorting VR perspective.
While there are cars with paddle shifters and foot-operated clutch pedal,
that combination seems weird to me..
Never having used a 290mm rim, 270mm definitely feels too small.

 

[Callsign BH]

In VR, there are a couple things I've noticed as being valuable/logical along the way (also drawn on my my long flight sim cockpit experiments):

1. No screens, because it's a waste of your $ and just vanity -- obviously you won't see it while driving anyway, but it does look cool
2. Buttons with different feel to them -- whether that be difference in shape or size, or difference in the button housing around them.

Regardless, muscle memory will come over time and I've rarely hit the wrong button bc it's pretty easy to learn where everything is. If you will require clutch paddles, you're likely to also then get more buttons as those are the "higher tier" wheels, and often times a screen -- the Ascher F-64 would be a sweetspot of 1) having clutch paddles, 2) not having a screen, 3) having buttons with different feel to them as you slide your fingers around.

The cheaper option would be the F-28, which is just a nicer version of the rim above, but it doesn't have clutch paddles...it does have more buttons though.

 

[Elaphe]

A round steering wheel with no screens, no buttons, no paddles, no cables.

 

[blekenbleu]

cheaper option would be the F-28

Knowing my limitations, I could expect to reliably use neither the lower 4 buttons nor 2 knobs

 

[blekenbleu]

A round steering wheel with no screens, no buttons, no paddles, no cables.

Those are what I currently use:

... which suffice not at all for some cars

 

[Jason Chamberlain]

I only drive in VR and I just added a button box to my rig. I have things spaced out enough that I can find them pretty easily. I used big toggle switches for the headlights and wipers. Check out Chris Haye's video for how to build one. That may be the answer to your problem here.

 

[blekenbleu]

button box

I already have a Korg nanoKONTROL2

When not in my home studio, it gets used for tweaking SimHub tactile effects
(via Voicemeeter Banana, VSTHost and a level plugin),
harness tension (and hopefully soon G seat) adjustments,
but e.g. the right-most knob, slider and 3 buttons could be fairly consistently
accessed while driving.

 

[Deleted member 1066209]

Never having used a 290mm rim, 270mm definitely feels too small.

If you have a slight interest in driving formula cars, I would highly recommend a 270mm. Granted, my T300 doesn't have phenomenal FFB like your wheelbase, but I noticed a distinct improvement in FFB when upgrading to a metal 270mm rim from a carbon-fiber 280mm plate. Slides have been much easier to catch, and my racing experience has been greatly improved.

I have no suggestions for your original question, though. I apologize for side-tracking your thread.

 

[blekenbleu]

highly recommend a 270mm

Thanks, but no; I began sim driving with a 270mm rim,
found it unpleasant (too much tension in shoulders),
while Fanatec McLaren's 300mm is comfortable
and plenty responsive enough for my aged reflexes.

I consider AccuForce's FFB adequate, rather than phenomenal
but aspire to nothing better.

The real C modified sports racer that I owned in the late 1970s
had a steering wheel probably not much larger than 270mm,
but was problematic in so many other ways that wheel was never a focus.

 

[crooksy]

A rim "truly" suited to VR is one that replicates exactly to the wheel in the sim (minus the display) - it's fantastic immersion if you can do this. I've built and bought about 6 different wheels over the years that have done this.

If you have a favorite go to car I would go with that approach and then get a second good all round wheel.

For my all round wheel I went with the Turn Racing Button plate and Rim, it's great value, high quality and the functionality and button layout is perfect for VR IMO.

The wheel makers really do need to start thinking about building affordable replica wheels just for VR users with no bells and whistles like displays. It doesn't need to look good it just needs to "feel" good

 

[GeekyDeaks]

I have had similar thoughts due to the location of the rotors on my Simagic GT1-R as I have to lift my hand off the wheel to use them. It's sort-of ok since I don't really use them for in-race adjustment, but even so I'm considering making something myself and recently saw someone post their own design on reddit which piqued my interest:

I like that there are two rotors at the top similar to the Formula style wheels. I haven't seen a wheel button plate with this before. I'm also thinking about having buttons on the back of the box so I can operate them with my index finger. Essentially I'm hoping to have buttons/rotors in the upper half only. I'm still looking to see if anyone sells anything like this, but no joy so far.

The design for the above is available for a small fee: https://pokornyiengineering.com/collections/diy-designs/products/gt2-plate-diy-files

 

[blekenbleu]

A rim "truly" suited to VR is one that replicates exactly to the wheel in the sim

I contemplate the opposite: inserting a green screen of the wheel into VR;
my muscle memory is far too lame to handle multiple control configurations..
I eventually backed away from dedicated track cars to minimize ergonomic confusion.

I'm still looking to see if anyone sells anything like this

Please share, if/when you find such!
Pokornyi also has a 300mm GT wheel with 4 thumbwheels:

https://pokornyiengineering.com/products/gte-pro-diy-files
...that could presumably be fabricated less display and front knobs.
I wonder whether they have a designated fabricator...
The notion of dialing e.g. brake balance and differential lock among corners
is highly intriguing (to me).

 

[blekenbleu]

I would much rather have all thumb rotary encoder reachable without changing grip, as on e.g. Simagic FX Formula Extreme Wheel Dual Clutch

Sadly, I'd need someone to reverse engineer their wireless protocol,
finding their wheel bases uncompelling.

Also Asetek Forte Formula Sim Racing Wheel:

 

[Deleted member 197115]

New Ascher F64 V3 looks slick.
Support analogue clutches AND works wirelessly with Simucube, they use new wireless module from SC.