Simracer = One Man Army

[Koen Verlinde]

I try to race with as little HUD as possible when I can read the clocks and mirrors directly from the field of view. Otherwhise I would run virtual mirror or a small rev counter. Laptimes, distance to next AI/player, pit strategy speed all comes second.

I like my screen to be clean I mean. At least for simracers, for games like Redout I don't mind there's more HUD on the screen, you basically have no time to really look at them anyway.

 

[Tberg]

Well, something good did came out of Project Cars...CrewChief. I'm glad it will be standard in ACC.

I use the 4 HUD pages in AC, using VR:
1 clean, for driving in general.
1 for race info: sidekick, delta, realtime.
1 for seat position, fps, sound settings.
1 for misc apps.

So I use crewcheif, while mostly driving with clean HUD, switching to race page now and then.

 

[wombat999]

I don't have anything but my regular instruments in my RL cars so I don't need anything other than the same in a sim.

 

[Oldzeb]

What do you think? Are drivers getting excessive with their HUDs? Is it a necessary evil? What is needed to be a top simracing driver? Which future scenarios might open for E-sports in the future?

I don't like HUD too full it breaks immersion, we talk about simu and some would like HUD like on the old game arcade 15 years old or pcars, I prefer to choose the info like on assetto, the best would be a spotter activable by voice

 

[MarcG]

When I used to race on a Flat Screen I'd always run with the bare minimum of HUD information possible, any Track Maps, Positional Indicators, Gear/Rev stuff was always turned Off before I even left the Pit Lane. In cases where the Seat Position & FOV meant the in car display was obscured or hidden completely then I'd have Gear/Revs visible and when League Racing I used Virtual Mirrors, more as a safety feature so I didn't unintentionally drive other people off the road!

Then VR came a long and it's fair to say any sort of "on screen" HUD just completely ruins the immersion, so now I run with absolutely nothing showing during Races and solely use the excellent Crew Chief App for information, it really is the only way to drive in VR and it makes the experience that much more Real without the clutter of HUD Apps all over the place.

 

[Davide Nativo]

Lads, no (sim)rally driver giving his 2 cents? Arrows, gear indicator, progression bar, crono?

I'm disappointed

 

[RobertR1]

With VR on AC, I like being able to put non critical info to the side that I can reference on a straight. The only things I like to see at all times are my pedal inputs, FFB clipping and time delta. Even those are at the left corner of my eye and generally just a glimpse of green/red is all I need to know.

I put race position at the bottom so I have to look at it and it doesn't take up my attention. The only thing I see are the track and what's in the cock pit/instrument panels.

 

[Rui Santos]

As i usually race to win i need to have all info i can to feel confortable and focused on the racing itself. It helps me relax, maybe because i can see if everything is ok... Guess all those infos are needed if you're not "ass feeling" the car or smelling burning tires or brakes!

 

[Turk]

I only run apps during setup, once it comes to a race I'll turn it all off. They are a distraction, I don't really need most that information during a short race.

I found I have less spacial awareness of other cars using VR than I did with a monitor (in Assetto Corsa.)

I noticed that too, most race cars have terrible rear viability and the mirrors are crap. I still don't use any spacial awareness apps, you can get used to judging what guys behind are doing you just have to pay more attention to what little information you have. Quite often in online races I'll just stick to my lines and if the guy behind whats to try and find a way past good luck to them.

 

[Schwud Nelsh]

As a vr sim racer I like to use HUD’s in practice but when it comes to qualifying and the race I turn it of other than helicorsa as I find them to be distracting I need my full concentration to help with my consistency

 

[Andy-R]

I only run apps during setup, once it comes to a race I'll turn it all off. They are a distraction, I don't really need most that information during a short race.

I noticed that too, most race cars have terrible rear viability and the mirrors are crap. I still don't use any spacial awareness apps, you can get used to judging what guys behind are doing you just have to pay more attention to what little information you have. Quite often in online races I'll just stick to my lines and if the guy behind whats to try and find a way past good luck to them.

I feel much more comfortable with Helicorsa in those cars, if someone sends it up the inside you can tell and not turn in to the apex, it's that or glance at the inside mirror at every apex which is distracting, I do that quite a lot anyway but it's nice not having to every time I turn in. I'm surprised by the amount of VR users saying the opposite. Maybe they play other games or didn't make use of look behind/left/right on a monitor.

 

[Turk]

I feel much more comfortable with Helicorsa in those cars, if someone sends it up the inside you can tell and not turn in to the apex, it's that or glance at the inside mirror at every apex which is distracting, I do that quite a lot anyway but it's nice not having to every time I turn in. I'm surprised by the amount of VR users saying the opposite. Maybe they play other games or didn't make use of look behind/left/right on a monitor.

I never really liked looking left and right on a single monitor, I found it very jarring, it threw me altogether and I avoided it. But I would use helicorsa and sometimes I feel like I had better awareness with a single screen and helicorsa, I didn't find helicorsa as useful in VR. I felt like it almost took more effort to look at it in VR.

You do have to keep an eye on the car behind you in VR so that when it disappears from view you know it's either on your left side or right side, usually they're on the inside anyway. I find in VR it's easy to just have a quick look with my eyes rather than moving my head. If I keep my head pointed towards where I want the car to be I can flick my eyes over without the car wandering in that direction too. In real life the car tends to go towards what your looking at, so if I look out my right side window the car starts to wander to the right. So in real life and sims I'm fairly strict about what I look at, for how long, and how I position my head, I always try to point my head in the direction I want the car to go and flick my eyes to look out for other things that aren't directly related to my line. So in real life that's side roads, pedestrians, other cars, etc.. In sim it's much easier, it's just the other cars that can interfere with where I put my car.

 

[tr1v1um]

Even if I am not the fastest guy and no matter if I race online or offline, I try to follow the less=more approach. Checking your mirrors and some common sense does the job in most cases, even when using a single screen. If there is a blind spot and I know there could be a car, I simply don't pull into that spot. In that sense I have the feeling, that this isn't just more realsitic but it also trains your awarness more instead of getting distracted by a bunch of apps cluttering your vision.

 

[Case_]

I'm honestly surprised how many people mention "getting distracted" as something that's pretty much a given when having more information available on screen. Like I've mentioned, to me it feels really easy to just completely ignore all that stuff unless I need/want to look at it. I got distracted by annoying and useless messages that suddenly pop up on screen (looking at you, Raceroom...), but certainly not by track map, tyre widget or splits somewhere in the corner of the screen. I don't even know it's there most of the time.

BTW, regarding Crew Chief - a somewhat funny thing I've noticed in the past is I can race more or less fine without him (though I obviously have to be a lot more careful around others), but the realization and subsequent worrying about "oh no, I forgot to start Crew Chief!" has ruined more than one race for me in the past Funny how your mind sometimes works.

 

[Jason Mullin]

Crew chief is great but not perfect.

Running multi class sitting in a GT3, I can't say how many times a LMP 1 comes flying by the right only to have CC say "Right Side" as I'm watching tail lights fly off into the distance.

I think there's a lot of room for improvement with giving an earlier warning, but I don't know how close a car has to be before CC recognizes it's there .

 

[Turk]

I'm honestly surprised how many people mention "getting distracted" as something that's pretty much a given when having more information available on screen. Like I've mentioned, to me it feels really easy to just completely ignore all that stuff unless I need/want to look at it.

I can't ignore things in front of me though, I'm the kind of person that will stare at a TV even though I hate broadcast TV and ads infuriate me. That's why I just got rid of my TV at home, a pointless distraction. If the tyre app is open (or any app) I'll keep looking at it, even though it's not telling me anything I need to know. Once I have the tyres working right I don't need the app any more so I might as well get rid of it. Really none of it is relevant anymore once your racing, you can do nothing to change your tyres, suspension, or any of the rest of it, so it's pointless having that distraction there.

To get the best times you need complete and undivided focus on driving. Any little thing can cost you time. I just think some people are better at ignoring distractions than other people.

 

[Slowdive]

Crew chief is great but not perfect.

Running multi class sitting in a GT3, I can't say how many times a LMP 1 comes flying by the right only to have CC say "Right Side" as I'm watching tail lights fly off into the distance.

Most LMP drivers would probably consider this a good thing.

 

[Mr Deap]

I'm honestly surprised how many people mention "getting distracted" as something that's pretty much a given when having more information available on screen.

Maybe a relation between the FOV, HUD & 3d spatial awareness?

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

Sometimes you get used to drive /race with some hud or apps (like in AC) and even if you use them if you hide them you don't feel the same like something is missing. I love ptracker's way to show the drivers list, gap between them, delta, etc but then I end up getting distracted or loosing pace.
But personally try to get minimum stuff, gear, rpm, small delta and some sort of drivers list.

 

[Rui Santos]

In my opinion people get distracted with info on screen because they're not focused enough, when i'm in an intense battle, trying to beat my best time or qualifying for an event i can't see anything except the track... i look at those info's with the blink of an eye, really don't get why they "distract" people...