New To Racing Sims

[RakeWorm]

I searched for a topic like this but didn't see one. If I missed it, sorry.

I am new to racing sims and I am just looking for general advice on a good or efficient way to progress and learn? Stick to one car? One track? Avoid messing with car setups, or jump in right away? Those sort of things.

Thanks!

 

[Chris]

I used to play with a game pad.
Then I bought a wheel. It felt really strange at first and took me about a month to get comfortable with it.
Now I can't even imagine simracing without one. Even the thought of racing with a gamepad seems foreign.

Once you've got a wheel, you'll never go back. It just makes everything 10x better.
The cheapest wheel is better than the most expensive gampepad.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

The cheapest wheel is better than the most expensive gampepad.

I can't agree with this....I think a person is better off with a gamepad than with any wheel cheaper than a DFGT........Cheaper wheels either have next to no degrees of rotation or no FFB and are guaranteed to have pedals that are far more frustrating than gamepad triggers. IMO a really cheap wheel will only remind you that you wish you had a better one.

If scraping together $40 to buy the game was a struggle then getting together a hundred or so for a DFGT will be extremely hard; but it will be worth it if you enjoy driving and racing.

 

[RakeWorm]

(The video of the Queen)

That was awesome. Has definitely inspired me to stick with the GT# cars in the game as I am learning since those are what interest me the most in real life.

Edit: to make it clear what I was referring to as awesome.

 

[RakeWorm]

I can't agree with this....I think a person is better off with a gamepad than with any wheel cheaper than a DFGT........Cheaper wheels either have next to no degrees of rotation or no FFB and are guaranteed to have pedals that are far more frustrating than gamepad triggers. IMO a really cheap wheel will only remind you that you wish you had a better one.

If scraping together $40 to buy the game was a struggle then getting together a hundred or so for a DFGT will be extremely hard; but it will be worth it if you enjoy driving and racing.

It may be possible after a few months. Due to a pretty busy hectic life that has quite a bit of unexpected expenses, I keep myself on a pretty tight budget for extraneous expenses. That and I might be moving internationally soon, at which point I have to consider ease of travel, etc.

But yes, I will certainly keep an eye out for used wheels as I try to get a handle on the game with a pad to see if sim racing is for me. Right now, going from what I can do in arcade racers to my lack of skill in AC feels like being sent back to primary school.

 

[Georg Siebert]

A piece of encouragement, GlitterBomb - I've started with the Gran Turismo series aswell, got my first wheel just this Spring and now I'm competing for podium positions in our Club Races.
So as the saying for Gay Rights goes:
"It gets better!"

 

[RakeWorm]

A piece of encouragement, GlitterBomb - I've started with the Gran Turismo series aswell, got my first wheel just this Spring and now I'm competing for podium positions in our Club Races.
So as the saying for Gay Rights goes:
"It gets better!"

That's impressive progress. As with most things, I assume it will be about managing dedication and frustration at the same time. I will probably spend half of my time learning AC and the other half playing F1 2013 that someone sent me that just came in the mail today. I recognize that spending 100% of my time in AC would probably develop me faster so my reflexes and muscle memory aren't confused between the two, but I have heard you can race for Marussia in F1 2013 so I must check it out at least a bit.

And the club/league concept seems pretty awesome, but since it requires a real name I will have to stick with a list of friends if I get to the point where being on the track in multiplayer wouldn't ruin it for everyone else due to erratic driving. And I certainly understand why the licenses require that, I think it is awesome people have found a way to minimize jerk behavior in multiplayer - just something I can't do since I try to make Googling my name only hit certain results.

 

[Turk]

It's pretty hard to stick to just one car and you'd be denying yourself a lot of fun not racing the other cars. What you learn in one car can make you better in others and trying to control some of the less grippy cars like the lotus 49, Ferrari F40 or BMW M1 will improve your driving when you go back to a car that sticks to the road like the BMW Gt car.

I have decided to specialise in one of the GT cars though, (my heart says McLaren but my head and lap times say I should be driving the BMW). It's looking like the GT series is where AC will have the widest diversity of cars so I'd expect most racing to be in the GT class.

 

[Ernest Aubert]

I find I prefer the open view of a roadster or an open-wheel car. I like being able to see more of the track and the world.

 

[yusupov]

gt is definitely hip right now.

i can't recommend the f40 with a pad, but the 458 is a lot of fun. i would say the lotus 49 is a bad idea for similar reasons (just way too high on the power:grip ratio, though i think it should be easier to control if you dont push it hard). the 1M seems like a good idea. tbh...havevnt even driven it yet :I.

if you want to mess around with less grip on eg the 458, ofc you can lower stability control to whatever you want (if youre using it) & tires. particularly if not using stability control, you can toggle thru 4 settings of traction control in the 458 with ctrl+T, 1 is most TC, 4 is least. i find it helps to have the electronics displayed so i know what assists (abs, TC) are enabled.

 

[Georg Siebert]

[...] 1 is most TC, 4 is least. [...]

Don't higher TC settings increase the effect of traction control? Is this bahavior similar to all other cars with TC?

 

[yusupov]

yes, in AC higher settings reduce TC. ive basically had to quadruple check this bc its counterintuitive, to me anyway. so if its off (no indicator in the electronics app is one way to tell), ctrl+T will enable it at maximum setting.

of course everything is in line with the real life equivalent so some older cars don't have traction control, & theyll have different steps...the 12c road car has only 2. meanwhile gt3 cars have 12 steps i believe. im not actually sure if different levels of ABS are implemented (again im thinking of gt3 cars here), but id assume so.

 

[Georg Siebert]

GT3 cars have 12 settings for TC, ABS is only on or off for all applicable cars.

 

[RakeWorm]

It's pretty hard to stick to just one car and you'd be denying yourself a lot of fun not racing the other cars. What you learn in one car can make you better in others and trying to control some of the less grippy cars like the lotus 49, Ferrari F40 or BMW M1 will improve your driving when you go back to a car that sticks to the road like the BMW Gt car.

I have decided to specialise in one of the GT cars though, (my heart says McLaren but my head and lap times say I should be driving the BMW). It's looking like the GT series is where AC will have the widest diversity of cars so I'd expect most racing to be in the GT class.

I haven't figured out what car I like best, yet. If there were Citroën models or an Audi R8, I would go with one of those. But right now it is pretty much just trying to get the very basics down. Someone suggested one of the BMW's as a good starter car, so I will try that when I get a chance to play later today.

 

[Ernest Aubert]

I now consider the Lotus 2-Eleven with full stability control to be the best starter car.

 

[RakeWorm]

I now consider the Lotus 2-Eleven with full stability control to be the best starter car.

I'll keep rotating through cars and see how things feel. So far, I have been the most successful with the BMW Z4. I was able to stay out of last place in the Nurburgring Z4 challenge up until the very last lap - for me, that is a pretty huge deal since all of yesterday I couldn't even stay on the track.

 

[yusupov]

nurburgring is arguably the most difficult GP track in the world, so thats not shabby ;D

you will of course find gt3 and even formula type cars easier to handle, esp with a pad. racing them competitively is ofc another matter. honestly even if you aim to race mostly gt3, i would recommend starting with a good street car or older race car (the bmw m30 group A i think is the only one that qualifies right now). gt3 takes less skill to get in & drive, but in terms of really having to hit the basics, instead of just feeling like youre going fast (eg in the t125), but in fact driving like a buffoon (i am talking from my experience ) i would suggest a car that isnt as sharp or easy as gt3. once you feel like youve gotten a grasp of the basics, driving a gt3 car youll fe el like a master...until you check your times anyway ;D

--maybe the lotus 2-eleven is also a good car to start w. yet another one ive yet to drive :S

 

[RakeWorm]

nurburgring is arguably the most difficult GP track in the world, so thats not shabby ;D

you will of course find gt3 and even formula type cars easier to handle, esp with a pad. racing them competitively is ofc another matter. honestly even if you aim to race mostly gt3, i would recommend starting with a good street car or older race car (the bmw m30 group A i think is the only one that qualifies right now). gt3 takes less skill to get in & drive, but in terms of really having to hit the basics, instead of just feeling like youre going fast (eg in the t125), but in fact driving like a buffoon (i am talking from my experience ) i would suggest a car that isnt as sharp or easy as gt3. once you feel like youve gotten a grasp of the basics, driving a gt3 car youll fe el like a master...until you check your times anyway ;D

--maybe the lotus 2-eleven is also a good car to start w. yet another one ive yet to drive :S

Okeedoke, I can try learning something out of the GT series. I did notice that after using the Z4 for a while that getting into a McLaren or Ferrari was a bit horrifying.

 

[Connor Caple]

Yep, I did purchase it today. Having a heckuva time controlling cars. I'm not sure how much is controller setup or just my ineptitude.

Right now I am at the severe basic level of just trying to be able to drive a car reliably with the controller. Steering either seems to be way under or locked, very little room in between. But again, this could just be my ineptitude.

Controller driving is an art and needs a very soft touch, which I never had. What I did when I was forced to use a controller for a while was buy Kontrol Freeks to fit on top of the sticks of the controller.

They almost double the length of the stick which gives you much finer control for steering.

See if you can track down the longest ones they make and use them. Normally about 8UKP a pair.

Video about them here. Even though he's talking about 'aiming', it applies equally to steering

 

[RakeWorm]

Controller driving is an art and needs a very soft touch, which I never had. What I did when I was forced to use a controller for a while was buy Kontrol Freeks to fit on top of the sticks of the controller.

They almost double the length of the stick which gives you much finer control for steering.

See if you can track down the longest ones they make and use them. Normally about 8UKP a pair.

Video about them here. Even though he's talking about 'aiming', it applies equally to steering

Ah, that looks interesting. I should try that, the precision is very frustrating at the moment. My driver's arms looks like a seizure is happening every time I try to turn.

I am getting better, though. I can do several of the challenges on easy and not come in last. So I can at least drive now, just very poorly.

Trying out the BMW M3 E30 like someone mentioned earlier seems to have helped some.

 

[Juris]

It may be possible after a few months. Due to a pretty busy hectic life that has quite a bit of unexpected expenses, I keep myself on a pretty tight budget for extraneous expenses. That and I might be moving internationally soon, at which point I have to consider ease of travel, etc.

But yes, I will certainly keep an eye out for used wheels as I try to get a handle on the game with a pad to see if sim racing is for me. Right now, going from what I can do in arcade racers to my lack of skill in AC feels like being sent back to primary school.

Glitterbomb sorry if you've said it already but where are you based. If you're in the USA you could grab an SRW-S1. I know its not a dedicated fixed wheel but they are relatively cheap (one company on ebay is selling them for $45 with free US shipping) and if you are moving you can just throw it in a suitcase as its really just a rim. They can also be converted to use with other wheels later on. If you check youtube there are loads of people who have modded them.