My first SimRig build!

[DrRob]

Gents,

after playing on a wheelstand setup for quite some years, I decided to upgrade to a proper rig. I was always hesitant to litter the living room witha full blown rig, so made do with a GT Omega "Classic".

The whole journey started for me with a PS3, GranTurismo 5, a 100" front projection home theater setup and a Thrustmaster T500RS with TH8A. Later I switched to a PC with R3E and AC, modified the pedals with stiffer Mardo Media springs, upgraded to a TM Sparco 383mod, added a Nextion display and braced the wheelstand including Sofa hook-up.

Now playing mostly ACC and got a taste of what it is like with a proper rig and DD wheel which left me wanting.
I guess it is time for a radical change....and even got permission from the missus.

 

[JohnnyV]

@DrRob Amazing pics, makes the wheel look so much better than in my pics

Enjoy

 

[DrRob]

Its past 1:00 am now and I'm still watching the Rolex Daytona24 coverage in dim light while fiddling with the Nextion Simhub dash.
Just had to take a few shots of the new fab AMR wheel and share...

 

[M D Gourley]

I'm not jealous,no of course not...LOL...awesome.
Nice exposure on the monitors, could have lite the Wheel with a small hand held LED Touch with a narrow beam to take out the Tungsten light bulb yellowish color on the wheel.

 

[DrRob]

I'm not jealous,no of course not...LOL...awesome.
Nice exposure on the monitors, could have lite the Wheel with a small hand held LED Touch with a narrow beam to take out the Tungsten light bulb yellowish color on the wheel.

The lamp has what they call "edison bulbs". It is very dim and very orange-ish. I actually quite like it it the evening. Normally I would have chosen different lighting for the shot and put a scond light to illimunate the wheel (as you proposed), but specifically went with the available lighting to capture the mood.

 

[Nicoboks]

hi dr Rob,

I m building excatly the same rig as yours, by the way very nice build to follow.
I have a question regarding the screen i'm hesitating between 32/9 and triple.
I hesitate mainly because in ACC all the vids i saw in 32/9 the image looks way stretch but in this pic above everything looks prefect in your FOV and mainly the mirrors who looks perfectly dimensionned.
How do you achieve that ? any tips ?
thanks for your answers..

 

[DrRob]

hi dr Rob,

I m building excatly the same rig as yours, by the way very nice build to follow.
I have a question regarding the screen i'm hesitating between 32/9 and triple.
I hesitate mainly because in ACC all the vids i saw in 32/9 the image looks way stretch but in this pic above everything looks prefect in your FOV and mainly the mirrors who looks perfectly dimensionned.
How do you achieve that ? any tips ?
thanks for your answers..

@Nicoboks I hope I can follow your build thread then.

For me the choice was clearly against triples for three reasons:

• I wanted to stay with my "old" GTX1070 and I tested ACC with 4K before buying with acceptable FPS (4K telly). Higher pixel count (7K to 10K) would have meant to buy a new GFX card and I'd like to wait for at least the next gen after the 2xxx series. Even the 2xxxx struggles to stay above 60FPS with 4K on all epic settings.
• My rig is situated in the living room. It is massive as it is, but would be even more with 3x 27" or 30.5" monitors.
• I've seen ACC on this monitor before I bought and was satisfied with what it delivers

In hindsight the choice against triples was not a mistake. It has its drawbacks, but so has the triple-setup. In the beginning I was experimenting with EdTracker and head movement to have an even broader field of view, but found in unnecessary. My brother uses it now with his 32:9 screen and is really happy with it.

In ACC you have actually two methods of getting a non-stretched image. Either use the distortion correction slider (is that the correct name?) in the graphics options and set it from 0 to 1. Or use the triple screen option with just the ultrawide, same effect. Matter of fact both with the same image quality and FPS on my system.

In older ACC builds (pre v.1.0) both options were non-existent and therefore the image was stretched.

 

[Nicoboks]

thank you !
As for my build rig have to wait for 3 weeks, i can't order p1 X before 2 weeks no more stock grrr...
but pull the triger on :
- simicube 2 pro
- heuskiveld sprint
- and ... cube controls sparco gt pro ...my dream wheel

i will go 32/9 you convince me
don t know yet if 1440 P or 1080 P
still on the fence about upgrading PC which will be mandatory for 1440 P, may wait the graphics card series too ....
i have now GTX 1070 and I7- 6700 K does acc will run well with this config ( at least 90 FPS medium / high settings) ?.. for 3840x1080

 

[DrRob]

Really seems you are going for a very similar setup! The cube control wheels indeed look impressive.

I still have the GTX1070 and had an i5-6600K before. I could run on high-medium settings, 25 KI cars at stable 60FPS. The odd stutter on race start maybe (short drop to 45-55 FPS).
There is an engine-hack on the forums "how I got my FPS back", which improves performance a lot at the cost of rain effects and shadows mainly. Ran buttery smooth with this.
In practice I had 90-100 FPS. I lock FPS to 60FPS normally (vsync also).
I upgraded to the current i7 to race against a full field of KI cars on Spa mainly.

With the i5 the bottleneck was the CPU, now with the i7 it is the GPU.

 

[DrRob]

APEX racing has some really nifty looking dash pods perfectly fitting into the front mount cut-outs of the P1!

SimLab P1-X Dash Board

Start your engines... These custom-built button pods will fit in your Simlab P1 Small / Large Mige wheel mount. Real 2mm Twill Carbon Fiber Face plate with 3d Printed Enclosure Includes 2 mounting Brackets per side and 3 breakaway shims Includeds One standard USB cable and 1 RJ45 cable to...

www.apexsimracing.com

I think this is a great idea, but not so keen on what they made of it though. I would rather see one right side pod with a 4-way USB hub and ideally a industrial screw-in connector for a steering wheel cable!
Couldn't find these as a 3D-print template on Thingiverse for example.

Anybody of you guys got a source for 3D data for such P1 front plate pod housing?

Cheers.

 

[EsxPaul]

@DrRob there is a .DXF file for download on the SIM Lab site but I'm not sure whether it'll need some converting to get the 3D data from it.

 

[Nicoboks]

Really seems you are going for a very similar setup! The cube control wheels indeed look impressive.

I still have the GTX1070 and had an i5-6600K before. I could run on high-medium settings, 25 KI cars at stable 60FPS. The odd stutter on race start maybe (short drop to 45-55 FPS).
There is an engine-hack on the forums "how I got my FPS back", which improves performance a lot at the cost of rain effects and shadows mainly. Ran buttery smooth with this.
In practice I had 90-100 FPS. I lock FPS to 60FPS normally (vsync also).
I upgraded to the current i7 to race against a full field of KI cars on Spa mainly.

With the i5 the bottleneck was the CPU, now with the i7 it is the GPU.

thanks for your answer helped me a lot. 60 fps is somewhat manageable.
i imagine you have no problem hitting 100 + fps for I racing / automobilista.
i will settle on this and then upgrade GPU/CPU for next generation VR then

 

[DrRob]

thanks for your answer helped me a lot. 60 fps is somewhat manageable.
i imagine you have no problem hitting 100 + fps for I racing / automobilista.
i will settle on this and then upgrade GPU/CPU for next generation VR then

I play ACC exclusively at the moment. I do not have iRacing or AMS, but R3E and AC. Both run much much better than ACC of course. I also will look at the next gen GPUs when they come out and decide to upgrade then. The current lineup is a too small step up from my GPU to consider (imo).

 

[DrRob]

@DrRob there is a .DXF file for download on the SIM Lab site but I'm not sure whether it'll need some converting to get the 3D data from it.

WOW! I have never seen that link, but visited that page a few times before. Thanks you very much!
Will have a look. I would need somebody to do the 3D wizardry and 3D printing though.

 

[Nicoboks]

I play ACC exclusively at the moment. I do not have iRacing or AMS, but R3E and AC. Both run much much better than ACC of course. I also will look at the next gen GPUs when they come out and decide to upgrade then. The current lineup is a too small step up from my GPU to consider (imo).

we re on the same boat then
GTX 3080ti 10K VR here we come

 

[DrRob]

Ah...btw....new parts incoming.

Will dip my toe into the tactile pond.
Just a basic setup, but looking forward to it!
Stay tuned.

 

[Alvaro de la Orden]

Ah...btw....new parts incoming.

Will dip my toe into the tactile pond.
Just a basic setup, but looking forward to it!
Stay tuned.

I don´t think you will regret it
Looking forward to listening to your impressions, sir!

 

[DrRob]

Received all the bits and pieces and started to play around with the set. I already had some surplus cabling lying around and used that one.
Did not mount anything yet, just a basic initial test and get a feel on how it performs.


Actually I am really impressed by the bang for buck. The Aura unit, which was introduced to me by the community here, is a rather sturdy and heavy unit. The initial impression on actual performance is really good. I can compare that to my I-Beam VT-200 which is 4 times the cost and said to be slightly above the big ButtKicker unit.
Initial feeling is a quick response, being able to give quick punches without loosing the ability to simultaneously deliver deep bass vibrations. Really impressed here!

The small 100 Watts Nobsound G2 amp doesn't feel stressed by powering the Aura. Seems like the cheapo, but high quality feeling amp can keep up with the good initial performance feel of the tactile transducer.

The whole lot will be mounted in the extrusion part of the rig below the seat. Transducer will be mounted/bolted to the GRP below my bum, the rest of the electronics will be going on a aluminium shelf-type mounted to the extrusion. Additional 10" power strip will also be bolted to the rig.

Don't expect a fast progress here, but will update also on the first fiddling with SimHub, which I will be using to power the package. I may ask for advice, too.


I also bought a new Headset by the way. Decided on the Logitech G Pro-X, which is on discount now over here and am quite satisfied with its performance so far. Did a quick multiplayer race in ACC and used the Pro-X with Discord. No complaints so far, but changed the faux-leather ear cushions to the supplied mesh ones. Much better.

 

[Alvaro de la Orden]

Right on time to enjoy Barthurtst real life event

 

[DrRob]

Right on time to enjoy Barthurtst real life event

Exactly! Watching the live stream now. Love to watch the supporting series. SC atm.

 

[DrRob]

Finally I found some time and motivation to mount the Aura pro the the bucket seat. Pretty straightforward: Remove cushions, place transducer to desired spot and drill through the GRP of the seat. Then some M4 bolts, washers and locknuts and fasten. Done!

I already mounted the second power strip to the frame below the seat, but not the amp and power supply. I plan to have a piece of aluminium sheet bolted to the frame under the seat and place the amp onto it. Cables cleanup afterwards.
Will come up with something the upcoming days....

I use Simhub to control the shaker and did a first effects setup. Fiddled around with the settings, did a few short races in ACC and am pretty happy so far.
Will share my settings if anybody is interested. Nothing fancy really, just basic stuff.
I begin to understand why you would want a more elaborate setup with maybe 4-8 shakers on the rig. I am still resisting to upgrade at the moment.

Simple as this setup might be, tactile adds so much depth to the experience! In conjunction with my new Logi G Pro-X headset and installed DTS-X headphones it is truely immersive. Enjoyed every minute.

Note to myself: I still suck on Bathurst and Laguna Seca though.