VR racing of choice?

Associate
Joined
26 Aug 2016
Posts
561
Good choice. PC2 just works with VR, no faffing about. If you can stretch to it, get the deluxe version. There's plenty to keep you busy in there for months, if not years.

The G29 is a fine piece of kit - I have the G920 (same wheel, just Xbox-oriented rather than PS). One day I might get a direct drive wheel and a full racing rig, but for the money I really can't complain.
 
Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2009
Posts
2,008
How realistic would a g29 wirh VR feel? Haven't owned a gaming wheel since xbox 360 and forza and the realization was poor, felt harder to drive than a joystick despite knowing how to drive.

I did try pc2 wheel at a touring cars meet this year and again it didn't feel real, dont know if environment and a flat screen tainted the experience. I guess it's the lack of feeling for the cars weight shifting for me. Is your brain fooled by immersion to compensate for the feeling you presume the cars dynamics will be?

For example initiating a drift, you need to catch the weight of the car then tweak it from there. I know there's force feedback in wheels but how well does that relate nowadays?
 
Associate
Joined
26 Aug 2016
Posts
561
For me, it's a learned response to the loss of grip, rather than a natural one because as you suggest, you don't get any sensation through your buttocks of what the rear is doing. It took a little practice, but I can now catch or correct a slide by sensing it somehow through the wheel. Every car tends to feel different though.

VR certainly helps, especially when you increase the world movement setting - you visually sense every twitch, shake and bump in the road along with the feedback of the wheel and it really does come together quite convincingly.
 
Associate
Joined
11 Jun 2013
Posts
1,219
You can get a decent 4 transponder setup for around £250 which helps a little with the immersion, kerb hits, gear changes, road bumps and engine vibration. Not sure how much rear slip is transmitted, but more than a year on from getting my Rift I'm pretty tuned in now. Don't expect to be instantly quick if you haven't used a wheel before. When I moved from a pad to a wheel I was slower to begin with...the key to getting the hang of it is seat time, familiarity and practice.
 
Associate
Joined
3 May 2018
Posts
604
How realistic would a g29 wirh VR feel? Haven't owned a gaming wheel since xbox 360 and forza and the realization was poor, felt harder to drive than a joystick despite knowing how to drive.

I did try pc2 wheel at a touring cars meet this year and again it didn't feel real, dont know if environment and a flat screen tainted the experience. I guess it's the lack of feeling for the cars weight shifting for me. Is your brain fooled by immersion to compensate for the feeling you presume the cars dynamics will be?

For example initiating a drift, you need to catch the weight of the car then tweak it from there. I know there's force feedback in wheels but how well does that relate nowadays?

You don't feel weight transfer with the wheel in a real car. You feel it with your body. On the drifting comment, the force feedback, when set up correctly will tell you about the slip angle of the car because the front wheels will still try and track the direction of the car, not it's attitude. So when the tail slides the steering tries to turn into the slide, so you feel that and decide to steer with it, or against it.

What I found VR gives you, relating to this, is the ability for your head/eyes to track the apex. So when the car rotates, your head rotates to track the apex to compensate. At first this had me over correcting and under correcting as my hand eye coordination was used to a flat fixed screen. However as the VR experience is more "real" my brain only took about 2 laps to "click" and suddenly my lap times plummeted. Awesome feeling when you get in tune with it.

But the best VR bonus is a little unexpected (was for me). Distance perception. The first WOW! was the cockpit. On a monitor it just look like a flat, 2D, image with no sense of depth. In VR it pops out at you, you can see the wheel is closer, the dash behind it and the window even further back. It's so immersing/ convincing that I still have to stop myself from reaching out to touch things in the car. This distance perception also makes following and driving close to other cars so much more intuitive. You really can rub paint with the car in front and have a perception of exactly where he is. Same for the sides.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
8,232
Location
Near Cheltenham
You don't feel weight transfer with the wheel in a real car. You feel it with your body. On the drifting comment, the force feedback, when set up correctly will tell you about the slip angle of the car because the front wheels will still try and track the direction of the car, not it's attitude. So when the tail slides the steering tries to turn into the slide, so you feel that and decide to steer with it, or against it.

What I found VR gives you, relating to this, is the ability for your head/eyes to track the apex. So when the car rotates, your head rotates to track the apex to compensate. At first this had me over correcting and under correcting as my hand eye coordination was used to a flat fixed screen. However as the VR experience is more "real" my brain only took about 2 laps to "click" and suddenly my lap times plummeted. Awesome feeling when you get in tune with it.

But the best VR bonus is a little unexpected (was for me). Distance perception. The first WOW! was the cockpit. On a monitor it just look like a flat, 2D, image with no sense of depth. In VR it pops out at you, you can see the wheel is closer, the dash behind it and the window even further back. It's so immersing/ convincing that I still have to stop myself from reaching out to touch things in the car. This distance perception also makes following and driving close to other cars so much more intuitive. You really can rub paint with the car in front and have a perception of exactly where he is. Same for the sides.

I've only just got in to VR myself and love racing games. I've had nothing but amazement the moment I fired up Asetto Corsa and was plonked in the car, the whole depth perception/immersion and visual 'feeling' of being there is unbelievable.. 10x better than a flat screen.

In terms of affect on my driving 'skills', for me (A reasonably proficient wheel user) it's been positive, I've found braking points, turn in and general corner control that next step up in VR simply as its that much closer to reality. The only negative is the very small disconnect with a lack of motion, but it's minor. After a couple of sessions I've not had issues with nausea (except for replay cameras) so all is good!
 
Associate
Joined
11 Jun 2013
Posts
1,219
Thanks for the replies.

Whats a 4 transponder?

Bass shakers / tactile transducer / transponders / body shakers ... they have many different names but all do the same thing. They provide some feel of your pants vibrations to improve immersion. You can buy the Buttkicker kit with 2 mini LFE for around $350 after discounts, but I preferred to have 4 (one at each corner and run in chassis mode).

Dayton Audio TT25-16 Puck Tactile Transducer Mini Bass Shaker (Sound Exciter)
A cheap 5.1 sound card and a spare PCI(-e) slot
Then you need 2x Lepy 2024a Amps
audio cables to the amps and some speaker wire from amps to bass shakers.
+software (I use sim commander 4) and you're away...
 
Associate
Joined
17 Oct 2005
Posts
1,186
Location
Southampton
Dirt Rally.

If anything can give you the sheer terror of flying along a Greek mountain track, a Swedish snowy forest, or the mountain passes of the Alps in a 500bhp Group B monster, this game is it.

You’ll drive cars from the 60s, 70s, 80s, Group A, Group B, and the 2010s, as well as howling up the gravel tracks of Pikes Peak.

The immersion is quite unlike any game I’ve ever played before, and I don’t even have a wheel. Truly staggering.
 
Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2009
Posts
2,008
Bass shakers / tactile transducer / transponders / body shakers ... they have many different names but all do the same thing. They provide some feel of your pants vibrations to improve immersion. You can buy the Buttkicker kit with 2 mini LFE for around $350 after discounts, but I preferred to have 4 (one at each corner and run in chassis mode).

Dayton Audio TT25-16 Puck Tactile Transducer Mini Bass Shaker (Sound Exciter)
A cheap 5.1 sound card and a spare PCI(-e) slot
Then you need 2x Lepy 2024a Amps
audio cables to the amps and some speaker wire from amps to bass shakers.
+software (I use sim commander 4) and you're away...

Sounds like an unreal experience but expensive when you factor in chairs etc.


Dirt Rally.

If anything can give you the sheer terror of flying along a Greek mountain track, a Swedish snowy forest, or the mountain passes of the Alps in a 500bhp Group B monster, this game is it.

You’ll drive cars from the 60s, 70s, 80s, Group A, Group B, and the 2010s, as well as howling up the gravel tracks of Pikes Peak.

The immersion is quite unlike any game I’ve ever played before, and I don’t even have a wheel. Truly staggering.

Is this just dirt rally pc? it's on cd keys for 5.99 but not sure if its the VR version? 2015
https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/dirt-rally-pc-cd-key
 
Back
Top Bottom