What Would You Consider to be the Perfect Simulation?

[RowanZa]

i have not played all the sims out there, started in GTR2 and now AC since it came out - these are some of my ideas (some already mentioned, some not?)

1. Dynamic track linked to dynamic weather including wind effects.
2. Day/night transition effects and light beams
3. Track debris build up ie 'marbles' etc with consequences if you go off line?
4. Pit stop strategy editor prior to starting race (mainly for endurance races)
5. Better endurance racing support ie driver swap (with ai co-driver able to pit using predefined strategy)
6. Ability to save game progress during qualifying and race sessions (sometimes the real world calls - don't want to puke! inside my full face helmet!!)
7.........
8.........
?

 

[bsmooth]

As has been said the "perfect " sim will never probably exist, but then again the military and Air traffic control sims aren't perfect either, but there used everyday to train.
I've tried al lot of air combat and racing sims and theres a few that come pretty close; Automobilista has to be in the top five anyways, its an everymans racing sim, its not the best graphically, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but its fairly accurate, its graphics do the job well enough and it does convey a sense of speed very well. That and it doesn't need a top line PC to run, like I said and everymans racing sim. It sort of seems to run under the radar as well, a lot of people have never even heard of it. I sure am glad I did though !

 

[Joerg Baermann]

What about stuff like in season testing in championship mode? A setting where you have say 3 hours at a track and have to run through a programme of activities in order to develop some new parts? If you crash that's testing over, or if you cant meet a consistent target time the data might be useless or produce some iffy upgrades?

F1 2016 has something going that direction.
As for sponsors, GRID series included something.
But it can of course be done much more realistic.

 

[Metalogic]

Take iRacing. Give it Assetto Corsa graphics and car/feel handling. Ban those who constantly wreck people. Lower the price. Perfect!

Apart from no single player vs AI...

As has been said the "perfect " sim will never probably exist, but then again the military and Air traffic control sims aren't perfect either, but there used everyday to train.
I've tried al lot of air combat and racing sims and theres a few that come pretty close; Automobilista has to be in the top five anyways, its an everymans racing sim, its not the best graphically, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but its fairly accurate, its graphics do the job well enough and it does convey a sense of speed very well. That and it doesn't need a top line PC to run, like I said and everymans racing sim. It sort of seems to run under the radar as well, a lot of people have never even heard of it. I sure am glad I did though !

I like Automobilista a lot, I just wish it had official support for a wide range of GT3 cars and nicer liveries out of the box (the latter is less of an issue, due to modders, but I never quite trust non-official modded cars)

Offline racing
- An absorbing career mode, something like F1 2016
- Entire series included as in RRE, not just 1 car here and there AC/RF2 style
- RF2 AI

I'm with you on the first two points at least...

 

[Alex Townsend]

Bit late to the party so a lot of its been said already
But.
Would love gravel traps that are exactly that. Traps. How many people overcook it knowing they can just drive through it? Real world penalties would promote real world driving. As would kerbs in the wet etc.
Pit lane being more active. People rushing to repair other cars. Actually having repairs carried out. Have a slight nudging with another car? You may need a bit of taping up or bodywork pulled out to stop it rubbing on your tyres.
Don't come in after a slightly hard hit on another driver or the wall, team can see the issue and you can see the smoke from the tyres. You come in and they ferociously pull the bodywork out from the offending corner and change your tyres.
Tyre blowouts. From cars that didn't pit due to issues above.
Random fires in the pits from refuelling.
Marbles really affect you going off line. Although I think AMS does this already?
Tracks have real camera positions.
Opportunity for other things to do. Teamspeak is great for this but imagine on a driver change or even smashing your car up with another driver you get back to the pits and can have a chat or walk around and watch the race from the garage or the crows nest? I mean. So many times your race is over or you know repairing will take too long and you just want to sit back and watch the others race. This could be a great option, especially in long but not crazy endurance races.
Cars that are damaged throwing up bits of itself. Sparks and smoke etc.
Brakes during pits bursting into flames as we've seen before.
Brake dust billowing out when wheels are taken off for tyre change.
Active roadsides. People waking about. Buying food and drinks. Checking out different parts of the track.
Flags being waved by marshalls
Cars that have literally been trapped in the gravel being towed away or pushed back out on track with waived yellows or safety car.
Could go on and on and I already have, sorry. I think I want a heavily increased weekend of motorsports like F1 2016 has done fairly well but more of it. And with higher simulation like rF2 or AC
Just thought that the pit garage could become user based. People watching the race could have access to your pit garage and give you tips and hints advising of issues that they can see on the main monitors. Not sure how that would work. But for team endurance it would be awesome. I'm going to bed...
Hope it all gets sorted.

 

[Skidmeister]

Looks like a picture from Racing Legends at the top of this thread, kinda peculiar considering the topic...lol
But I think a lot of good ideas have been said, and there seems to be a popular notion that bits and pieces from existing sims could be implemented into one "perfect sim". That may or may be possible using existing tools already implemented. But I believe any major code re-write can bring about major bugs at first effort. Hopefully these guys can learn from each other and continue to improve and write these sims for us to enjoy. With that in mind my personal list of top 10 things I need or want in a good sim, basically in the order of importance to me.

1) Error free code that isn't crashing on modern high performance PC's.
2) Good online racing that provides a good link, with a easy to setup dedicated server .
3) Realistic physics with emphasis on raceability vs outright accuracy to reality.
4) Ability to easily adjust controllers like wheels for good FFB and map buttons for any in game function.
5) Good graphics and sound without compromising frame rates too much (both have been done already)
6) Some sort of code checker, lets all run apples to apples and have an honest race.
7) A good selection of cars and tracks, with multiple series of racing cars ( not interested in racing street cars )
8) Support for triple screens and VR (AC does a good job with this)
9) Ability to tweak and exchange setups easily, with multiple setups per car and ability to share them (pcars is terrible at that)
10) Ability to run data to gauges, or telemetry screens, tablets etc. without becoming an IT tech.

 

[Andy_J]

1) Error free code that isn't crashing on modern high performance PC's.
2) Good online racing that provides a good link, with a easy to setup dedicated server .
3) Realistic physics with emphasis on raceability vs outright accuracy to reality.
4) Ability to easily adjust controllers like wheels for good FFB and map buttons for any in game function.
5) Good graphics and sound without compromising frame rates too much (both have been done already)
6) Some sort of code checker, lets all run apples to apples and have an honest race.
7) A good selection of cars and tracks, with multiple series of racing cars ( not interested in racing street cars )
8) Support for triple screens and VR (AC does a good job with this)
9) Ability to tweak and exchange setups easily, with multiple setups per car and ability to share them (pcars is terrible at that)
10) Ability to run data to gauges, or telemetry screens, tablets etc. without becoming an IT tech.

Most of, if not all the good race sims already have all that mate.

 

[paracletus]

First post Lotus 69 looks incredible (AC in the garage i guess).
Many say graphics don't matter, but they make a big difference when done well imo. Helps when you can get a good depth perception from the visuals -- more realistic with your braking points etc.
Physics is no.1 priority though, obviously.

 

[Adrian5601]

It's a shame to marvel at Assetto Corsas graphics and physics but be let down by the AI.

 

[Vapir]

What I always find important is having a wide selection of cars and tracks. Of course, I do want my favourites to be among them (Bathurst! ). I'd think the best example, at least vehicle wise, would be AMS currently. You can race Brazilian V8's, Trucks and Dirt/Rallycross all within the same sim.

Also: Modability. The modding community is only going to make your sim better. Help them out

• variety of tracks (with different/historical layouts if available), not the usual bog-standard ones.
• licensed series, not AC bullcrap of one car from that era, one from that
• weather, day-night cycles
• proper damage model
  
• free configuration of race weekends
  
• AI which actually is intelligent
• proper online functionality
• moddable if no further content is provided via DLC, else at least own liveries for league racing
• the usual stuff, i.e. FFB, physics, graphics

That sums it up very nicely.

 

[hitm4k3r]

i have not played all the sims out there, started in GTR2 and now AC since it came out - these are some of my ideas (some already mentioned, some not?)

1. Dynamic track linked to dynamic weather including wind effects.
2. Day/night transition effects and light beams
3. Track debris build up ie 'marbles' etc with consequences if you go off line?
4. Pit stop strategy editor prior to starting race (mainly for endurance races)
5. Better endurance racing support ie driver swap (with ai co-driver able to pit using predefined strategy)
6. Ability to save game progress during qualifying and race sessions (sometimes the real world calls - don't want to puke! inside my full face helmet!!)
7.........
8.........
?

The sim you are looking for allready exists and is called rF2. The only two points that are not included are wind (wich is a shame) and light beams are limited. Other than that everything else is allready there. There is no need for a pitstop strategy editor though, as you can adjust your pit stop settings on the fly, same as it was in rF1. You can still set the tires and fuel as you like prior to the race.

When I think more about features, I allways loved some aspects about older titles that we don't have in new sims, such as limited and savable tyre sets or the need to save your car, even in practice. In F1Racing Simulation from 1997 you didn't have the possibility to hit Esc and get back to the pits iirc and when you crashed your car in practice or had a mechanical failure you were done and had to skip to next session. Driving school as in GTR2 would be cool as hell too.

 

[Skidmeister]

Most of, if not all the good race sims already have all that mate.

My point exactly Andy, just take the best of what's already out there and put it all in one sim. That's all we really need. I don't need or want the ability to put chrome gas caps on the cars etc., just make it all work great and fix what doesn't. Pcars could have been great if it wasn't for the controller setup, high graphics load, and constant crashing. We stopped using AC years ago because of lack of content, and the antiquated dedicated server setup that required changing router settings, opening up ports, picking not only each car but the graphic for each car, etc. No need to have to jump through all those hoops in a modern sim when it's already been proven there is no need to make it complicated for the user. Maybe guys have written code to get around all that now but the dedicated server in AC was junk when released. F1 2015 was a huge let down I never got it to run right, but F1 2016 addressed many of those short comings and seems pretty good. R3E seems to have gotten a lot right from what Iv'e seen so far, but I am new to it, and from what iv'e seen you still need a site like justrace to setup a dedicated server without a lot of fuss. Variable weather was done well in GP3, where it could change or be raining on one part of the track and not another. No reason for it not to be implemented now along with other stuff like proper damage models, and dynamic tracks etc. I think modern sims are like ice cream, there are plenty of flavors and most people will always like one flavor over another. To me the bottom line is does it offer what I want to race as far as tracks, cars, series, etc.? And does it work well right out of the box. I ran GPL on day one and it was good for it's time, but it became much better when it got modded and the graphics really started to shine. Unfortunatly the modding also introduced a lot of cheating which ultimately ruined it for everyone. I prefer to have a product that isn't redily modded for that fact unless there is software in place to check for obvious anomalies. Just like the Field of dreams, make it and they will come, make it right and they will come in groves to buy it.

 

[AndrewBo]

What are you folks doing here.....6 pages and no hate and flamming ??
I'll loose my job here at RD damnit.....
Jokes beside: It's realy cool to see that we all can talk about different games without going Off-Topic.

Still proud of you all.

 

[David Wright]

While it seems many people are looking for that one perfect sim, with a wide range of cars and tracks, this isn't the approach for me. For me perfection is when a sim focuses one one area and does it brilliantly. So I'd prefer separate sims that focus just on modern F1, modern GT, modern touring car, endurance racing, NASCAR, historic tin tops, historic F1, or rallying.

Although I'm not an online racer I think this will benefit online racing. At the moment fans of GT racing are spread between iRacing, AC, rF2 and R3E while if sims focused they would just be racing the GT focused sim.

 

[samasama76ddd]

I wanna racesim that like
AC's graphics(for comfortable performance) ,FFB and modification
iRacing's online ranking system
GranTrusmo's kind of cars and turning performance
Forza's car quality
Need for Speed's customize
rFactor's driving style

 

[Metalogic]

Always R3E's sound!

 

[Captain_Johann]

More *complete* games in the sense that GTR2 and GTL are all encompassing for their one subject. For example:

• Main focus on one series or era
• Tutorial ala GTR2
• Tuning sliders for new players ala GTL
• FFB and controller settings that just work
• decent Quality Assurance

If something doesn't work, don't include it. I'd rather RRE's total lack of tyre pressure options than PCars tire cooling issues or a camber exploit.

 

[F_B]

• Iracings online structure (races every 1-2 hours), incident system for clean racing, online championship points
• Assetto Corsa/rfactor 2/Automobilista physics / car feeling / FFB
• Assetto Corsa graphics (though I also like Automobilistas graphics)
• modable
• better AI than rfactor 2 for decent single player experience
• dedicated servers
• every racing rule integrated and customizable

 

[Metalogic]

More *complete* games in the sense that GTR2 and GTL are all encompassing for their one subject. For example:

• Main focus on one series or era
• Tutorial ala GTR2
• Tuning sliders for new players ala GTL
• FFB and controller settings that just work
• decent Quality Assurance

If something doesn't work, don't include it. I'd rather RRE's total lack of tyre pressure options than PCars tire cooling issues or a camber exploit.

Well put!

 

[Spinelli]

Simple: way better physics.

- Every sim-engine has areas and situations of grip/slip where they act better or worse relative to eachother, and sometimes just flat-out wrong from how vehicles behaves on planet Earth.

- When are devs gonna start focusing more on audio? Fmod is overrated, or, at-least not there yet. It's results are still too simplistic digital/videogamey and so are iRacing's and Racerooms', it's sad that these 3 are the best of what we have in current simracing. Richard Burns Rally, Driver Republic, Netkar Pro (pre-v1.3), and Live for Speed had it right with much more real-time physics modelling of audio and audio-to-vehicle-physics connection. This much more advanced audio-physics style is what the simracing scene could have been developing and advancing for over a decade now

- Every developer supporting 3D out of the box. 3D is the single biggest game changer and "wow" factor I've experienced in 25 years of videogaming (2nd would be simracing hardware, 3rd would be triple screens with 1:1 FOV). No amount/quality of graphics, resolution, contrast ratios, refresh rates, screen sizes, amount of screens, etc. can compete with 3D. 2D is like staring at a piece of paper, 3D is like a real world the game turns into a real, living, physical world.

- Using torque-based FFB rather than position-based which, sadly, all games as-well as wheels use..and this combined with a way for the game to do a better job with FFB so wheels like OSWs don't behave so unrealistic and harsh but this is difficult since our wheels have a TON less inertia and mass / rotational mass (???) to deal with (tyres, suspension, steering column, etc.).


- I can deal with current audio and FFB though. I'd be extremely satisfied with much improved physics but devs just keep focusing on eye-candy and, even more frustratingly, pumping out a seemingly never-ending barage of cars/tracks/packs.