iRacing

[manering]

ive ran a 26.9** but consistently in high 27's did my first race last night after about 50 or so practice laps...... that is on a stock set up with only fuel amount changed

started at back of the pack quickly gained 5 or 6 places through people not using cold tyres properly however lap 3 couldn't avoid a 2 car road block damaged my car spend 6 mins in pits and it still didnt steer straight was gutted as i felt i could have had good pace through good tyre management..
i will probably take part in the 10.45 race as the wife is at the big brother studios watching a load of wannabes and no doubt the kids will wanna wait up for her to get back lol

 

[Muska]

I should be in the 8:45 & 10:45 tonight.

 

[PaulC2K]

Paul, how do you rate the obutto? I'm looking at solutions for a rig, it's perhaps not the cheapest but it looks like it offers lots of options, and screens mount separately, so no vibration issues.

The Obutto, im very pleased with. I still look at it and think theres things i woudnt mind modding, particularly if i knew someone who'd be able to do a load of the welding that'd go with it.
My biggest gripe with it is the length of the main frame. I feel like i could strip a good 20-30cm off there without losing anything. This mainly stems from the fact that it sticks out further than i'd have liked, and the size & width of my monitors makes it very wide, so it couldnt actually go exactly how i'd planned, its rotated 90' CW, cos you'd knock the left monitor as you came into the room. The back of the monitors are over 65cm from the wall, they could go back about 30cm but i want them closer because of where the chair is, but if i could trim that 30cm off the front of the frame, and then push everything 30cm towards the wall, i'd be a lot happier.

Another issue being that while the monitors are free from FFB vibration, im yet to figure out how to use a buttkicker on it without it making a racket downstairs (im directly over the living room) and you really cant live with it. Those are more my issues though, certainly not faults with the design or something.

The build quality is really solid, i did have a couple of issues with the parts, one of the main frames legs were manufacturer wrong, so the runner didnt align with the leg (got a replacement without any hassle) and the other problem was with one of the optional acrylic tabletops, the point on the frame where this bolts into, just needed some encouragement so that it became level, otherwise it was wonky.

Everything has been fantastic though, i bought all the addons (havent got the speaker addon, which im guessing he's got in stock now) but im quite tempted, although i do most of my gaming with headphones on, but for music it'd be a convenient way of having a 5.1 system, which i havent had in years cos theres nowhere to put the rear speakers.
I also bought the Obutto for Star Citizen, and im able to have the wheel there, the keyboard where i'd need it to be (for KB&M stuff) and the HOTAS items where they're comfortable. Nothing needs to be removed, no compromising, no messy wires (good wire management helps) etc. Im planning on CNC'ing some aluminium to make mounting plates to fix to the Obutto HOTAS stand, and the only thing i do after using the HOTAS is lift the mount i have in a 'center stick' position and put it into a mount position i have on the side, so that its out of the way.

For a while when racing i genuinely had this odd sensation of feeling like i should have my seat belt on. Was nothing to do with the gaming really, probably just the seat making it feel right/wrong, but ive been very impressed with it, and its great as it is, but i'd still like to try a few things in the future to try and get around a few issues with my situation.

 

[Muska]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate the detailed response, when we move house I should have a whole double bedroom for use so hopefully the frame length will be fine. I can't see me getting away with a but kicker type thing!

My last 2 races at Road Atlanta went better than expected, 3rd & a hard fought 2nd. I have found this track very unforgiving compared to Charlotte Raceway. I've learned a lot about the car, especially once turning the breaking help off. I have the G27 brake spring mod coming in the next day or so, hopefully it helps as I still lock up occasionally. I had a go on RA last night with the Track version of the RUF, what a difference, it proves how responsive the C spec is to a good stop and driving it correctly. I still push my tyres too hard also and find my temps creeping over their optimum.

Barber looks like it might be aa tricky one for me, lots of blind crests and corners, not many age leading places. I might skip this one, do some gt3 and road warrior for the longer endurance race.

 

[manering]

really struggled on road atlanta last night so didnt enter the 10.45 as planned didnt want to wreck my sr or anyones race for that matter so decided to race mx5 round laguna.... started 10th let them have it out first corner then picked my way through to 2nd although i hated being in the mx5 in rookie licence its a good fun car to drive i suppose

 

[Muska]

Well, I managed to pick up an Obutto Rev a little quicker than I intended. Browsing eBay and one had appeared relatively local with all the accessories apart from the speakers. A little haggle over price and a deal was done. I don't have the room to set it up in the house till we move but looking it over in the garage is a great but if kit. I can't wait to get it all setup, I think I'll be adding a fanatec seq shifter when they're in stock and a DSD button box.

My RUF cup is going better, I'm still nowhere near Alien fast but I am to hold my own and qualify near the front of the grid consistently for the lower split and turn clean enough races to see a decent gain on ratings. I'm currently sitting at 13th in my division, hoping for a top 10 win.

Made this, just need to think of a sponsor for it to finish it off.

 

[Devlish]

Colt.

 

[PaulC2K]

Congrats on joining the Obutto club, cracking piece of kit like you say, absolutely rock solid, not one of the novelty flimsy frames you see out there. Theres someone over on the bit-tech forums who mentioned they'd just bought one, and i think i'd accidentally stumbled upon their frames a few wks earlier purely through curiosity, and his post pushed me into buying it once i'd figured it'd be feasible. He's unable to use his till he moves too

Oddly, it was Star Citizen which pushed the purchase, i've always loved sim racing, and never had any interest in space or flight sims, and yet thats what convinced me, crazy really, but that seemed the ideal solution for the mass of controllers i'd use in SC (HOTAS & KB+M), the wheel can stay mounted, and i can work from it without doing all the swapping & changing.

On my BMW Z4 & Ford GT skins, i went with UK&I decal and Obutto, i'd normally use fictional logos, but having started with club & logitech decals on my basic scheme, i figured i'd stick with club and add Obutto. Wasnt fussed about adding Logi, only used it as there wasnt a 2nd logo i liked from their selection.

Silly forum doesnt resize, had to paintbrush resize as im in bed and dont have anything better on here

 

[Muska]

I'm about in the same boat as you, setting up the wheel stand every race and switching back for other games. I also want to get back into DCS so having an option to mount a HOTAS also will be nice.

I also bought SC, I'm not sure on the flight physics at the minute.

 

[SKILL]

I want an Obutto, but my 3 monitors don't have a vesa mount, technically there was a bracket that replaced the base mount and added vesa but not available anywhere, so on top of the cost of the Obutto I'd need 3 new monitors as well, ouch

Probably be more tempted once the CV1 version of the Occulus Rift is out, and supported, really like the sound of it although yet to try either of the DK's.

 

[Muska]

I watched this earlier, I think I was already sold on OR but like you I think I'll hold off till a public release, I'm hoping as they've used Note3 screen for Dev kit2 they'll use the newer Note4 QHD 2k for a public version.

 

[cuffylad]

I watched this earlier, I think I was already sold on OR but like you I think I'll hold off till a public release, I'm hoping as they've used Note3 screen for Dev kit2 they'll use the newer Note4 QHD 2k for a public version.

Did I not read somewhere that the next build in Iracing will support the DK2? Hope so as I dont have project Cars and am dying to try it out!

 

[SKILL]

I'd imagine it will, if not released as a minor release earlier than then, they were fairly quick with the DK1 support but not sure if that came during a week13 release or not...

I actually hope they use the FB money to get LG/Samsung to create a 'bespoke' screen, mostly for the refresh rate. The Note 3 screen is supposed to be 60Hz but they're running it at 75Hz which is about it's limit apparently. I'm assuming the Note 4 screen will also be 60Hz so have the same issue, seemingly they need/want 90Hz+ which will likely need a more custom set up.

 

[PaulC2K]

I want an Obutto, but my 3 monitors don't have a vesa mount, technically there was a bracket that replaced the base mount and added vesa but not available anywhere, so on top of the cost of the Obutto I'd need 3 new monitors as well, ouch

Probably be more tempted once the CV1 version of the Occulus Rift is out, and supported, really like the sound of it although yet to try either of the DK's.

I had similar issues, had been looking for a 3rd matching monitor, and fortunately before i purchased one i realised that due to the limitation of 2 monitors outside of DisplayPort (not got) my only option was to buy an adapter, but i found out that their limitation in resolution was 1920x1080, and mine were 2048x1152. So if that was true, and not just lazy 'Full HD is the best anyone can get' thinking, then i'd have been forced to run them at a lower resolution, either stretched (ugh) or 1:1 with excess pixels around it (double ugh).

The 24" monitors felt like i was spending £450-600 on smaller resolution and only gaining 1 monitor on what i'd got, a lot of money for adding 1 monitor, and only going up 1" in size. In the end it cost me £960 for the 29" monitors in my sig, far more, but £600 vs £960 i felt like there was a proper justification and gain for the extra outlay.
If the 4Ks were a month or 2 sooner, i'd probably have gone with 3 of those, and ran them as 1080p for gaming, 3x4K for desktop.

Certainly hurts when you realise its not as simple as buying 1 monitor, and ends up needing a small fleet of them. I want a Rift, im just hovering undecided, as to whether the idea doesnt quite meet expectation. I want to try before i buy, so hopefully they'll have them in Dixons/John Lewis types around release and i'll see for myself, see if theres any motion sickness issues. I also wonder how easy it'd be driving without a fixed camera. Might be more realistic, but might also take a long time to get used to equally.

 

[SKILL]

Yeah, mine are DVI (plus HDMI/VGA but no DisplayPort), so one uses an adaptor, in theory an active adaptor can do >1920x1200 but they're expensive, the cheap passive ones like mine are limited to 1920x1200 which, luckily, my monitors are

At the time I didn't even consider a cockpit as I had a single room in a house share, now I have the room I'm 'stuck' with 3 unsuitable monitors, first world problems and all that

On the Note 4 screen subject, been announced today and even with a VR headset thing, but confirmed it's only 60Hz so be interesting to see what the CV1 does...

 

[PaulC2K]

Its gone all quiet in here

GT3 is at VIR, and despite buying it, i still cba driving around it (WSCS was there 2wk back too) and instead ive focused on the WSCS. Bizarrely, both times a series has gone to VIR, the other series is doing its longer length week, GT3 was at Road America (75min), and this week its Watkins Glen (70min) for WSCS, so its worked out perfectly because i do enjoy the longer races and fitting in a couple of those and doing the other series too gets a bit much.

Had 4 races, the first i was the only Ford GT, the rest were HPD and 1 Riley. So that was rather dull, and what i didnt realise is that i could have done 1 lap and got the same race pts, 0 IR (nobody to gain/lose it with) and whatever SR i'd get from that lap. Instead i spent 70min just staying out of the HPD's way, and getting just 0.10 SR from it and the 85pts.

Race 2 was a 7:45pm split Wednesday, 5 of us in there, decent enough race, finished 3rd.
Race 3 was same time today (Thu), 3 started, 2nd left just as i'd got past him and the leader was miles clear.
Race 4 was 1:45am, 4 started, 4th got the ice tyres, got a tow and left, and having spun trying to pass 2nd, i had to close down the 10sec gap, which i did before pitting, and despite pitting 2 laps earlier 5sec behind him (car was sliding like a mofo and caused a long drift and couldnt bring it back) i ended up 10sec ahead of him when he pitted 2 laps later. Finished 2nd.

So thats 1/1, 3/5, 2/3, 2/4 for the 4 races... my best scoring race... the one on my own! How f*^&ed up is that?
The last 2 was beat by the same guy, 4000 IR, to my 2600. He gets 167 & 122pts, i get 83 & 81. Takes the biscuit.

Had fun in them though, the last race actually had a really good mix, 3 HPD, 3 Riley, 4 FGT, 5 RUF.
Typically its 80% HPD, and usually half of those are poor IR drivers. Had one in the first race where for the first 3 laps i was genuinely racing against him, didnt make a single mistake all race, but his iR was 433! He was in the last race too, this time trying the Riley, but seems he left midway.
Its so much nicer with a decent mixture, the HPD's just destroy your rhythm, they're 15sec/lap faster, so after the first 5-6 laps or so, you've got them flying past every lap, so you feel like you're spending almost as much time looking in the mirror as you are looking forward.

 

[barmyllama]

I've been away on holiday for two weeks.

Back to work this week.

Did a few practice laps of VIR, but not keen on it at all. It looks very dated compared to other tracks in terms of graphics. Might do a race over the weekend. Mid Ohio next week, again, I'm not keen on that track either.

The last two races I have done, one at Motegi and one at WG I got taken out by numpties.

SR in the low 2's from a high 3 and over 100 points in IR lost.

 

[Doggie2k]

Ha yeah VIR needs a total update hell that big tree fell down a year ago.

Personally I'm giving Iracing a rest until they sort out the cold tyre issues. I've lost 300-400 Irating points mainly due to people spinning out around me at the start in the last few weeks. Getting a little tired of it now.

 

[Marshstyles]

I've done such limited racing the past 2 weeks, gaming in general even.

I've got a brilliant replay I want to share with you all. It was such an exciting race with a great bunch of drivers but it is 100mb. Where is the best place to upload it? I have an uploaded account I can use but you lot will be limited to 50kbps if you are a free user.

 

[Muska]

Over the weekend I decided to do a few races, I had a couple of bad ones at Mid Ohio in the C-spec having my race ended for me, one guy after spinning out T1 decided to cross the whole track right to left to reach to pit lane and try and enter it the wrong way, I was going too fast to avoid him. After that I decided to give WSCS a try at Watkins Glen, 70min race, mix class. And damn, those HPD drivers, for the most part, are complete dicks. During the warm up not pushing that hard I was wrecked 4 times by them dive bombing or simply running into me. I never completed a warm up lap, decided to wait for the rolling start and the whole race was pretty much the same. They simply act like they have to pass you exactly where you meet, hairpin, apex, doesn't matter to them. One guy even spun me on a straight, me keeping well to one side and signalling to pass right. I honestly don't think I'll bother with the WSCS again, being a simulator you expect people to take things seriously, it reminded me of the one time I ever tried Forza online. Never again.

I'm now up to 9th in my Division (5) in the RUF cup, hoping I can make it to a top 5 win by the seasons end. I managed to talk the Mrs into me setting up the Obutto for the last few days and it has been excellent, well worth the money.

I just finished my first proper paint, something I had an idea for and took me quite a bit of time, as I'm really no artist!