Simracing With A Gamepad

[Andy_J]

This thread is designed to bring out the elitists.

They are games end of. Use whatever you like to play them. Obviously if you want to spend money, then do so and simulate it some more. I started racing games in the 80's on an Amiga or C64 and progressed to PC's in 1990 and played racing games with keyboard and then progressed to a cheap joystick for the Grand prix Microprose games and the Papyrus Indy car games. Then when I can afford it I got a cheap wheel when they came out and eventually I got a T500.
Just use whatever you like and enjoy it. They are just games for enjoyment.

 

[Thombike]

Two word from me.
First - Sim is the key. If Ypu wanna drive SIM racing You can't use a gamepad .
If You not agree - try to drive with Your own car without wheel, gas and brake pedals. Try to imagine how You can drive Your own car with a gamepad? I'm sorry but to drive people still useing a wheel and pedals not a gamepad. So Sim is short name of simulation. SIMULATION man! Means - You drive with a car, you use a wheel and pedals, if You fly with a F-16 or something You use Joystick with throttle controller, if You play Mario Kart use gamepad. The end of story

 

[apex11]

Two word from me.
First - Sim is the key. If Ypu wanna drive SIM racing You can't use a gamepad .
If You not agree - try to drive with Your own car without wheel, gas and brake pedals. Try to imagine how You can drive Your own car with a gamepad? I'm sorry but to drive people still useing a wheel and pedals not a gamepad. So Sim is short name of simulation. SIMULATION man! Means - You drive with a car, you use a wheel and pedals, if You fly with a F-16 or something You use Joystick with throttle controller, if You play Mario Kart use gamepad. The end of story

In fact it's simulating a the car movements, how you chose to drive the car is up to you.
I use a full sim rig and would not want to use a controller ever on a driving game. But i play Mudrunners with a controller and its a blast.
If someone wants to use a controller what business is it of yours?
I don't give a crap about someone using a controller...so what? Why does it offend you so much?

 

[RobertGracie]

I am so glad I have a driving licence so I can use what I learned in 2015 to be adaptable with either a gamepad or even a wheel so, I can use both in a sense but I noticed all the wheels that I had were set up in the Left hand drive configuration I would have preferred to have a right hand drive style with the shifter on my left side but that would have cost more money and I am a bit tight on money for now so I cant do much

 

[Matthew Allington]

I'm one of those crazy ones who races with a pad. (Why? Because I blow all my "racing" budget on karting. I used to have a wheel but I had to give it up a couple of years ago )
I will agree that a wheel is better in every way, but I think it's still possible to race cleanly (albeit not as competitively) with a pad.

Before I even got the pad, I gained immense enjoyment out of trying to master DiRT Rally with a keyboard and I feel that I actually learnt a lot about using the visual and audio feedback from the car/game to improve my driving whenever I did get my hands on a wheel.

A note on Assetto Corsa with a pad - having no speed sensitivity option, as a pad user, is awful - I have to compromise between being insanely twitchy on fast straights and having stupidly slow turn-in in slow corners and direction changes I'm a lot more comfortable with rF2 given that it has SS. EDIT: I'm an idiot

 

[Andor]

I play with a keyboard and mouse!

 

[Davide Nativo]

A note on Assetto Corsa with a pad - having no speed sensitivity option, as a pad user, is awful - I have to compromise between being insanely twitchy on fast straights and having stupidly slow turn-in in slow corners and direction changes

Matthew AC does have speed sensitivity!! I use 60% and its good for me try and fiddle around with it

 

[Alan B]

I started with a controller on PlayStation. I think what caught my eye and gave me the bug was Gran turismo, I remember the competion they ran something like faster gamer. The wheel users were usually faster.
I then wanted a wheel and some time later got an official Xbox wheel which I loved.
I came to pc and bought the trusty G27 and again was loving it.
Today I have a G29 mainly because I find it the most cost effective solution and best of both worlds. I can afford the better wheels but then the cost versus a nice holiday or similar I will lose the battle with the wife, so a pleasant compromise I find.
I have had alot of fun in both camps

 

[Matthew Allington]

Matthew AC does have speed sensitivity!! I use 60% and its good for me try and fiddle around with it

Guess I'll have to try and register my XBox 360 controller as a Custom Controller, then, as AC options only has SS for wheels/custom EDIT: I'm an idiot

 

[Davide Nativo]

Guess I'll have to try and register my XBox 360 controller as a Custom Controller, then, as AC options only has SS for wheels/custom

Not at all mate! Its standard x360 setting, look

 

[Davebrave]

As long as the gamepad has analog inputs for throttle, brake and steering, you could "in theory" play the games and get up to a certain level of proficiency provided that the game has some kind of aids for gamepads. Well, even with no aids you can still drive fast I guess, but it will take you much longer to get there.

I have enjoyed quite a lot of games like GP2 or GP500 with gamepads, both gave me that sense of inmersion that a simulator is supposed to have. However, the day I tried RBR with my joystick I realized that a wheel was the way to go.

 

[Matthew Allington]

Not at all mate! Its standard x360 setting, look

View attachment 249550

How the **** did I keep missing that

My AC experience is about to get 100x better

 

[Turk]

I see sim racing/driving as learning the theory of racing and driving. Even though I've got a good setup it's still simulation and all I can do is learn best practices, styles, physics, etc.. But it's all theory until I sit in a real car and do it for real.

From that point of view I think you can still learn all those things on a game pad, using a pad isn't going to stop someone from learning every thing I'm learning with my wheel. The wheel makes skill learning more relevant to the real world but I think the real learning is about techniques and knowing what's going on with the car at any given moment.

I think some people just want to mess around with cars in a game, Sitting into a cockpit is another level of involvement and I think it's becoming more of a hobby in it's own right separate from gaming once your buying gear and reading books to gain more knowledge.

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

The article starts with the wrong premise. The GT Academy is just a huge marketing ploy in typical Nissan fashion. Those are the same douches that had the guts to celebrate a triple retirement at Le Mans in their lone attempt with the LMP1 car (one of the cars eventually finished, but it was 23 hours and 30 minutes behind the leaders, or a couple hundred laps) saying that it was "mission accomplished" even though they were laughed out of WEC for that disgraceful showing.

Back to those that won the Playstation competition, almost none of them was a "pure" gamer. Most, if not all, of them all had previous experience in real racing at various levels. But of course Nissan conveniently forgot to say this and brag about their achievements because they think that people are too stupid to do some research. Ordonez, the first winner, for instance was a kart racer and had years of experience prior to becoming a Nissan driver. The same can be said for some of their other winners.

With that said, it's not impossible to play a simulation with a pad. I, for one, move around a lot because of my job and can't bring with me a gaming pc and gaming rig everytime so I don't have either. I play on a laptop and use a rare PS1 dualshock (most of the PS1 pads didn't have the analog sticks, but some of the late ones built shortly before the launch of the PS2 had them aswell). 20+ years later it's still working perfectly and with an usb adapter it works good with the pc. It is not the ideal way to play a racing game, but with some adjustements in the options menu it delivers a satisfying result, to the point that people never knew that I would drive long distance races on my own (without teammates and/or driver swaps) with a pad and be competitive at that too.

You can enjoy the game more with a wheel+pedals, but you can't enjoy it less with a pad.

 

[ClimaxF1]

To me it's all about preference, budget and how if your lifestyle allows one or the other.

Sim racers have this perception that by racing with a rig makes them more superior.
We all still human playing the same game and yes they are still games.

Respect each one's one choice and reasoning, some would love to own a rig and maybe just don't have the budget for one, does make them less human or normal than you, no we all the same.

I use both for different reasons, if I just want to race I use a rig and yes the experience is different.
Then I also use a game pad because of all the skins and mods I work on.

It's allows me to switch quickly between design and game. I still find myself racing a extra few laps for fun because I still enjoy racing with a game pad.

These days you can tweak your settings and feedback to get the most out of your controller.

Yes it will never be the same as a wheel but my only point is that both offer great entertainment and respect the persons choice because there's a real life story as to why yes and no.

 

[Tonoppa]

YES! Make simulators arcade again!!

 

[Nico]

I live in a country with high inflation and little job opportunities. If you're not wealthy, it's really hard and expensive to get imported stuff here. People who were able to play with a wheel since the beginning may not be able to understand this.

My family is composed of four people and we live in a two-room apartment. Not two bedrooms, two rooms. My parents sleep in the dinning room using a sofa bed, and me and my brother do so in the only bedroom with bunk beds. Why I am saying this? To let you know that space isn't abundant for me either. My PC is mounted on a very 90's piece of furniture designed for the computers of its time. It's probably the only gaming setup in the world where the mouse is placed under the PC case. I can't really place the keyboard much farther out, thus I can't see it from my seating position, I must type using my "computer experience", knowing where the keys are.

I began playing racing games with a keyboard, because back when I started gaming we couldn't even afford a gaming console. If I'm using a DS4 gamepad now -shown in the picture- it's because we purchased an additional pad when my brother got his PS4. Even if I could purchase and configure a wheel setting, where I should place it? I can't afford having a "gaming only" PC, I need this computer to do everything. Can't really have the steering wheel placed in front of the monitor at all times. Plus, I use an old, wooden-made, uncomfortable chair for my PC. Yes, I can't even afford a proper PC chair, let alone a chair for sim racing. I use aging SONY headphones meant to be used with a smartphone, thus I can only adjust the volume on the Realtek sound manager. I hate to admit it, but we are poor. Simple as that. I wish I had a job, I wish I had my own bedroom, I wish I had a much better PC, I wish I had a steering wheel with pedals, and so on.

TLDR, to the people who play with wheel and still can't understand why we use pads, we do so because we can't afford anything better. Nobody plays with a pad because they want, we do so because is the only way for us. So, if you had more luck than me, be grateful that life has been kinder to you instead of bashing people who didn't have the same chances as you.

 

[apex11]

YES! Make simulators arcade again!!

This soundbite under more scrutiny simply does not add up as if you took the F1 standard sims you could still use one on a controller.
Its very simple, if you tell a driver sat in a real car "hey this controller, press your thumb left, to go left, and right to go right... press top button to go and other to stop....."
I think it would be totally possible...

Not how i'd want to do it, but i could do it... go see what Billy Monger has had to do to drive again...

Maybe because i have been driving legally for over 20 years and could drive from age 10 and also raced karts and driven racing cars, i fine the actual process of "driving" extremely simple so i could do it with anything pretty much..

 

[motoliser]

When using a gamepad the only thing you can carry to real world driving is basic car theory.
If you become a racing alien using gamepad you cant expect to jump into a real car and replicate 10% of your skills.
On the other hand if you become an alien using a realistic simulator you will be able to perform way better and use much more skills on a real car.
That's why I don't consider any gamepad user a simracer. There's a very distinct line between both gaming and simulating.
Simracers improve hands and foot coordination not their useless thumbs!
Agree that everyone should use whatever they are happy with but let's keep the terminology clear shell we.
A so called simulation game will no longer be a simulator for the user when ditching real car controls.

 

[bsmooth]

Why can't we have the advantages of both. XBox had the speed wheel http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/10/12/xbox-360-wireless-speed-wheel-review
which although is old did a half decent job of doing both Gamepad and steering wheel at the same time. Ok I can hear you scoffing from here, but it did a half decent job and could be improved upon If someone wanted too.
I've used both and have been racing since the days of pong, so I've been doing it awhile.
The speed wheel was great and every once in awhile I still use it, So how come someone hasn't improved on it, when it comes down to it money, That aspeed wheel was relatively cheap compared to a dedicated wheel and pedals, so naturally they sell you something more expensive.
Holding a wheel in front of you is pretty strange, but not much different than seeing only arms around a steering wheel. I'm sure eventually you'll use VR and you'll actually get in the car and use its steering wheel and pedals, but we'll have to do with what we have for now.
I can have a blast using a gamepad ,speed wheel or my old trusty TSW2 which has seen its share of upgrades over the years.