Time to get Serious!

[John Deering]

Hello everyone, I have been sim racing for about a year and a half now. I started with a make shift wheel stand and a pedal platform with a monitor stand and a common office chair. Then moved in with my (EX) girlfriend and was forced to use my desk as my rig which sucked but I didn't have the room to do anything else.

So after leaving her I now have the space and time to put something together for my first sim pod.

I am currently using the DFGT wheel and pedals but next week I am going to place an order to upgrade. I am torn between the G27 and the Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 V2 with clubsport peddles and shifter.

The Fanatec route is more money but I read great things about the CS peddles and the belt driven FF. Although I have also read that the costumer service is horrible at Fanatec and the parts are not always available when ordering. Such as the shifter in the US.

The Logitech G27 all comes together for one and I am certain that using on my PC wont be a problem because my DFGT works flawlessly with the driver and profiler. But it seems there is no support for the G27 in GT5 which I enjoy playing from time to time. There might be a patch up coming for that issue however.

Any input on which setup to go with is appreciated!

So now I am coming up with a plan for my pod and ran to the junk yard today and scored a seat for $35 bucks. I am trying to do the pod so it's not to BIG or heavy where it would have to sit permanently. Luckily I am a Carpenter by trade so putting something together shouldn't be to tough on me. Plus after upgrading with the new wheel/pedal/shifter setup I don't want to spend to much more right now.

This is the bucket seat I grabbed today and will post progress pics as I get things together. Its in great shape and fully functional with recline and slider front to back. Not the color I was hopping for but it's in such great shape I'll take the good with the bad.

 

[Kris Vickers]

Hi John, glad to see your taking the plunge into sim-ism

With you saying you dont want your rig too big or heavy, do you have any ideas in mind as to what your going for?

i.e. something Gamepod/Gameracer like? Something OmegaGT like? or a true custom build?

If your going for something enclosed, you might want to take the route of building a wooden frame and covering the gaps with perspex, to keep the weight down while keeping that in-car enclosed feel.

Lets get some ideas bouncing around and get you all built and ready to race

 

[Derek Speare]

Make something like this:

http://www.gamepod.co.uk/gt2.asp

Don't get a Fanatec - I read daily on the iracing forums another poor chap who got burned by them. Get a G27. I have a momo, though, and I love the thing Here's my setup:

My girl loves me and puts up with my madness! I'll never leave her!!!

Anyhow, I like the design of the game pod - you can make one a lot cheaper than the cost to buy one.

d

 

[John Deering]

Hi John, glad to see your taking the plunge into sim-ism

With you saying you dont want your rig too big or heavy, do you have any ideas in mind as to what your going for?

I am looking for something similar to the Obutto perhaps. I do not want a center mounted wheel like a playseat design! I would like to move my legs freely without a support between them. I have decided to go with a wood build since it's cost effective and I am a carpenter after all. I want to build a solid base for the bucket seat. A surface to mount my wheel and monitor, a side mount for the shifter and a nice angle design for the peddles so they are more realistic to how peddles are in a real car.

I noticed a lot of guy's flip them up side down for that effect. I would like to sand and paint the pod as well as long as my patience doesn't get the best of me.

 

[John Deering]

My girl loves me and puts up with my madness! I'll never leave her!!!

Hey Derek, that's a great thing and I wish I could say the same really!!! Thanks for your input and right now I am using a Hanns.G 28" 1920X1200 Monitor but am hopping to save up for the triple monitor setup some day! I am running GTX SC 460's in SLI that would have no problem handling that configuration! Just need to save up the money! I was looking at these actually. http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com/Trio_22DX.php

 

[Brian Clancy]

Hi John

Lots of info here in the forum, but if you cant find the right things, just ask, somebody always has the answer!

I have recently gone triple monitor with the new Eyefinity 6970 card. It's worth all the effort / money for sure! But I tried to box clever and used 3 secondhand Dell 17" 4:3 LCD's Reasons :

1) Cost, got all 3 monitors for well under £100

2) Space, even 17" 4:3 (non-widescreen) monitors get pretty wide in groups of 3 LOL!

3) Frame rates, at 1280x1040 your pretty much full HD but the GFX Card has alot less pixels to push out, giving a big improvment in FPS.

4) 3x4:3 is still VERY wide and to my taste, 3x widescreens is too damn wide, like looking through a slit lol!

All taste and personal opinions tho

I would seriously consider building your rig with 3 screens in mind from the beggining, much easier than 'modding' for it after

 

[Derek Speare]

I agree with Brian that there are a number of considerations to going three wide. You have cost, performance and space considerations, all of which require careful thought. Speaking of massive, take a look at this one!

http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com/Spectrum_27D.php

I bought all three of my 28" monitors for 750 $US total. They are i-Inc 28" screens and are sold at Compusa in the states for 250 each. They're really good and not too pricey given that they are so big. They do require a bit of space to accommodate them, but you can go to ikea and get a decent corner desk to accommodate them for 60 bucks:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S79887464

In may opinion, you could get three 25" inch screens for 170 each and focus your investment in CPU and GPU power. I'd recommend a crossfire 6950 system with an intel i7-2600k CPU...that will eat anything you can throw at it.

d

 

[John Deering]

Hi John

I have recently gone triple monitor with the new Eyefinity 6970 card. It's worth all the effort / money for sure! But I tried to box clever and used 3 secondhand Dell 17" 4:3 LCD's

I would seriously consider building your rig with 3 screens in mind from the beggining, much easier than 'modding' for it after

I have been doing some research into the triple monitor setup. I am currently running a built PC with a rock solid OC'ed Q6600 @ 3.15Ghz and 2 Evga OC'ed 460's @ 830/1660/1995 in SLI with Win 7 pro and 4 Gigs of patriot RAM.

Using the nVidia CP I could utilize the 3D Surround feature but from my understanding all 3 monitors have to be the same resolution and all 3 must be connected via DVI.

I will make sure to build my pod with the 3 monitor setup in mind for the future but my 28" Hanns.G is going to have to do for now because money is tight right now.

 

[John Deering]

Speaking of massive, take a look at this one!

http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com/Spectrum_27D.php



I bought all three of my 28" monitors for 750 $US total. They are i-Inc 28" screens and are sold at Compusa in the states for 250 each. They're really good and not too pricey given that they are so big. They do require a bit of space to accommodate them, but you can go to ikea and get a decent corner desk to accommodate them for 60 bucks:

I just took a look at those I-inc monitors and they are very economical for sure! Hopefully I can do the triple mon setup sooner than later. Im sure once one starts using a trip screen setup you wonder how you ever did it with only one!!! lol...

 

[Will Currington]

Im sure once one starts using a trip screen setup you wonder how you ever did it with only one!!! lol...

You don't know how true a statement that is. I had to give up GTR2 as it doesn't support threes screens online and I couldn't handle using just one

 

[Derek Speare]

I've run GTR2 online plenty of times and not had problems because I run three monitors. That's unusual And yes, when you run three, you can never return...you will be forever corrupted.

d

 

[John Deering]

I managed to get things going with the seat! The mounting holes where not square or level due to the way the seat mounted in the car it came from. I pitched the seat back a bit to give it a more sporty feel and it sits in the base nice and square. Tomorrow I will get started on the rest.

And I still haven't decided which wheel and pedal combo to go with yet! lol... Clubsport pedals with a GT3 V2 wheel and a SST Shifter is sounding good today! lol... I don't know I'll figure it out...

 

[John Deering]

Well I did the other half today. Got to let it sit until tomorrow when I can put it all together.

I will have the finish product pics tomorrow I would think. I tilted the wheel surface so the wheel sits on a more natural angle that I'm used to in my real car.

I made the pedal surface big enough so I can easily add CSP or the G27 pedals. Also I did do a shifter mount next to my seat but I removed temporarily until the stain drys. And it's easier to get though the door ways with it off and tomorrow I will be putting it where it goes in the house.

 

[Derek Speare]

:f1:

 

[John Deering]

I have been told that by using separate pedals with my DFGT would give me more bits of resolution which I am unfamiliar with what that means exactly. I am now thinking though to keep using my DFGT and purchasing the clubsport pedals from Fanatec and a SST shifter.

Instead of getting a new wheel. The 2 would run me about $400.00 without shipping.

Hmmm... what to do...lol

 

[John Deering]

Well here is my brown pooper! lol... It's more like a piece of furniture than a true pod I think but I got a little nuts with trim and stain. Although it's very very comfortable and feels like I'm sitting in my real car! Which is a lincoln btw...lol

Anyhow I have some wire management and hardware upgrades to do yet but I wanted to get this thing rollin.

You will notice one of these pics is just a piece of plywood with 4 screws in it. That is my piece that slides right into position to except inverted pedals. The clubsports are in my cart over at Fanatec, I just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

A HUGE difference in something pretty major with this setup. 2 things actually.

First, my favorite sim to date and the one I use most often is the simbin series. race 07/STCC/GTR Evo ect.. I have always used 270 degrees of rotation but now that my arms are in a much more natural position and the wheel is at a better angle it feels like the full 900 degrees of rotation feels WAY more natural and realistic. Wasn't expecting that at all and am very pleased with that result.

Second is throttle and brake control. Grated the DFGT pedals stink I still have WAY more control now with my feet in a much more natural driving position. Surprised there to and loving it!!!

Still a work in progress on the setup though and will post back as I fine tune and upgrade some stuff.

 

[Jeremy Loveland]

Looking pretty good john, and the best bit about it is now that uve got the setup u can keep adding to it bit by bit.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

Well here is my brown pooper! lol... It's more like a piece of furniture than a true pod I think but I got a little nuts with trim and stain. Although it's very very comfortable and feels like I'm sitting in my real car! Which is a lincoln btw...lol

dont laugh but the 1st time i used my new racing seat, which is a Recaro from an old Cosworth sierra. the thought to faste my seat belt actualy crossed my mind lol

 

[Jeremy Loveland]

dont laugh but the 1st time i used my new racing seat, which is a Recaro from an old Cosworth sierra. the thought to faste my seat belt actualy crossed my mind lol

I wont laugh as i actualy have a cheap 4 point harness on my racing sim, originaly put on there for a novalty because i got $50 back on the seat i bought.
tho i was suprised when i used it how much my driving changed as i never noticed just how much i moved my body turning into corners! something you cant do when straped down in a racing car.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

tho i was suprised when i used it how much my driving changed as i never noticed just how much i moved my body turning into corners! something you cant do when straped down in a racing car.

i used to lean that much when using my old office chair that you would think i was riding a bloody :bike: