Essential racing game hardware?

Combat squirrel

Combat squirrel

Combat squirrel

Soldato
Joined
7 Aug 2004
Posts
11,260
Hey all, so iv lately been really getting into my racing games (F1 2011 and Dirt 3 etc), and got a G27 on the way :D, I have also been looking at racing chairs, however they are expensive.

Bit of a weird question, but is there anything available such as a mat you can put on a normal chair that would transmit the sensations of driving through the seat? (Engine vibration, bumps in the road, etc)

Queue any jokes :P, but yeah seriously is there anything? Or have I misunderstood that gaming chairs do not do this?

What hardware is there available to make racing games as realistic as possible ?
 
If you want to make them as realistic as possible I think its best starting with a realistic racing game first :p Maybe rFactor 2 or iRacing?
 
bla dont bother with the buttkicker i have the gamer 2 strapped onto my obutto and i never use it it just annoys me now when i use it, i liked it at 1st but ive just stopped using it now, also its very loud and annoys other people in house...

best thing for racing games/sims is 3 screens imho...
 
A while back on a racing froum someone was selling his buttkicker because a neighbor below his flat complained about the ridiculously loud noise and vibration lol It seems a bit gimmicky to me.

G27 is definately a good starting point. Next for me is a load cell braking mod and a sequential shifter. Triple screen would be next but it's too expensive to justify right now.
 
GraveYard said:
bla dont bother with the buttkicker i have the gamer 2 strapped onto my obutto and i never use it it just annoys me now when i use it, i liked it at 1st but ive just stopped using it now, also its very loud and annoys other people in house...

best thing for racing games/sims is 3 screens imho...
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weyland yutani said:
A while back on a racing froum someone was selling his buttkicker because a neighbor below his flat complained about the ridiculously loud noise and vibration lol It seems a bit gimmicky to me.

G27 is definately a good starting point. Next for me is a load cell braking mod and a sequential shifter. Triple screen would be next but it's too expensive to justify right now.
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Interesting thanks, 3 screens would be ace...but....lol, my gaming screen is a 50" plasma :D , which is awesome, so yeah 3 would be silly expensive...lol, even with one though, I find the 50" really great for racing because its so big.

Hmm, not loooads I can really do then unless anyone else has any ideas ?
 
50" screen aint no were near as good as 3 smaller screens mate...

i have clubsport pedals with my g27 there great but not reliable, i also have a frex shift + sequential shifter which i love...
 
GraveYard said:
well yeah id say so lol, but you would want to be too close to them...
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Yup have a dedicated gaming room that they would *just* about fit in....hmmm could be interesting,lol :D

Would 2 smaller screens either side of the 50" still be viable ? if so how would it be setup ? Or is it much better to have 3 screens of the same size ?

Across the house I do have a 30" Monitor, and 2x 32" TV's......obviously these run at different res's
 
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theres a guy on the iracing forum who has 3 55" tv, its pretty impressive.

i have 3x 24" 120hz screen so i couldnt get tvs as it would mean moving back to 60hz and thats a no go for me now...
 
Technically I believe as long as they're the same resolution (on ATi at least) then you could use mismatched monitors, it would look quite odd really so not sure how well it would work...

3x 27 (or even 3x 22) would be better than a single 50, if you can afford 3x 50's then it'll be impressive if nothing else :p but then why not go 3x 1080p projectors for no bezel? :D

As said though, really should get into the more serious sims if you want realism, iRacing is (imo) top still, rFactor 2 was ok last time I tried it but I can't seem to shake my iRacing addiction :p
 
I was wondering about triple screens, is that all I need three screens?

Do I need this matrox triplehead thing, can I not just plug the screens into my 6870 and it will work?

Someone told me you need two graphics cards, is that right.

Also do you need a excellent spec for gaming across three screens to be smooth as I imagine the resolution is very high? If you have 3 1080p screens is it like 1920x1080 x 3?

I have a q6600 @ 3ghz and a 6870 would I be foolish to even consider triple screens with that spec.

I guess I could turn off the side screens for demanding games, for racing I play Race 07.

Thanks if you answer my questions.
 
Pretty much based on what you said, with ATi/AMD there is the caveat that at least one screen has to use the Displayport output, so if the screen doesn't support that then you'll need an active converter.

The nvidia setup used to require two graphics cards (or a dual-gpu single-card setup like the 590) but from the Kepler series (670/680) they've 'fixed' that so you only need a single card, with ati since the 58xx series you've only needed the single card (I used a 5850 initially, now a 6950)

It is high res so performance depends on the game, I pretty much exclusively use it in iRacing which isn't too bad but with a 6950 (with 6970 shaders) and an E8400 @ 4GHz I can't run it completely maxed out, some other games will stuggle to run at all I'd imagine. Although on the other hand lots of games have very poor support for triple screens, iRacing is excellent, few others works ok/decently, but then lots of other games just simply don't work or require a hack/workaround.

With the profiles/presets in the CCC you can easily switch between running eyefinity or just extended desktops etc, I've got 3 setup, one eyefinity and 2 with the windows taskbar/'main' window on different screens depending what I'm doing.

Your spec should be ok for some things, Race 07 is fairly old, I don't play it but I'd imagine your system should cope with that ok...
 
bit pointless buying a wheel and other hardware when you're only going to go and waste it on arcade titles like F1 2011 and Dirt 3, both of which have been optimised and design for joypad users and basically feel terrible on a wheel.

Get some better software like Iracing, Game Stock Car 2012, GTR2 etc so you can actually appreciate your wheel.
 
Word of warning with 3 screens and GTR2, it doesn't work online unless you put the res right down. I stopped using 3 screens and went for a 42" HD telly instead as a result.
 
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