Send help, I developed a simracing addiction

[Great Deceiver]

Curratum I have been bitten hard by the bug. Already ordered a T300 RS GT to replace my G29 that I bought... 4 days ago. Send help.

 

[anvi]

I don't like how you can't feel the gforce obviously and you can't feel the tyres start to lose traction, or the weight shift or whatever. It just always feels gamey to me. I need to try with a wheel, preferably one that rumbles.

 

[Curratum]

Curratum I have been bitten hard by the bug. Already ordered a T300 RS GT to replace my G29 that I bought... 4 days ago. Send help.

Deceiver, my good man, you're in for a world of sexiness.

I only used that VERY old Logitech Driving Force Pro, but people online keep telling me that all Logitech wheels, G29 included, are consistently notchy and don't feel as snappy and smooth on the feedback and self-centering as the Thrustmaster.

I only playtested the second-hand T300 RS GT I got for an hour, because I need to permanently mod my desk with an extra piece of wood below so the clamp holds nicely, but even in that 60 min of testing, I was shocked how much better the T300 is.

It's a "to the moon and back" world of difference, the power, the crispness, the feeling of the force feedback, the smoothness of it all, the larger wheel rim size...

Be aware that you can also replace the rims of the T300 without changing the wheelbase with the motor, which is great for when you really dive in the deep end.

The brake mod with the rubber cone that comes bundled with your T300 RS GT I found altogether too stiff. I always wanted a progressive and generally stuff brake but this is way too much. You can set the brake saturation and pedal potentiometer range in Assetto Corsa so you get like 60% braking when you hit the rubber tip a short way in the real pedal's travel, then modulate pressure for the remaining 30-40% but it's very taxing on the angle and leg.

I've found this softer foam rubber brake mod, which I will be buying this week, hopefully it's durable. If all else fails, people say to just put a squash ball between the pedal arm and the inside of the casing :D

You really do need to add me on Steam so we can do some friendly racing some day! I'm not very competitive but it's always a lot of fun.

 

[Curratum]

I don't like how you can't feel the gforce obviously and you can't feel the tyres start to lose traction, or the weight shift or whatever. It just always feels gamey to me. I need to try with a wheel, preferably one that rumbles.

You can mostly feel the tires losing traction with a decent wheel. You know how you load the tires into a corner and the wheel would start stiffening? Then at some point, when you start losing traction and overcook it and grip drops, the wheel suddenly gets a lot lighter, so you have a tick of time to either correct before you slide or do some throttle or angle corrections or whatever you need to to stop the slide.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Curratum I have been bitten hard by the bug. Already ordered a T300 RS GT to replace my G29 that I bought... 4 days ago. Send help.

Deceiver, my good man, you're in for a world of sexiness.

I only used that VERY old Logitech Driving Force Pro, but people online keep telling me that all Logitech wheels, G29 included, are consistently notchy and don't feel as snappy and smooth on the feedback and self-centering as the Thrustmaster.

I only playtested the second-hand T300 RS GT I got for an hour, because I need to permanently mod my desk with an extra piece of wood below so the clamp holds nicely, but even in that 60 min of testing, I was shocked how much better the T300 is.

It's a "to the moon and back" world of difference, the power, the crispness, the feeling of the force feedback, the smoothness of it all, the larger wheel rim size...

Be aware that you can also replace the rims of the T300 without changing the wheelbase with the motor, which is great for when you really dive in the deep end.

The brake mod with the rubber cone that comes bundled with your T300 RS GT I found altogether too stiff. I always wanted a progressive and generally stuff brake but this is way too much. You can set the brake saturation and pedal potentiometer range in Assetto Corsa so you get like 60% braking when you hit the rubber tip a short way in the real pedal's travel, then modulate pressure for the remaining 30-40% but it's very taxing on the angle and leg.

I've found this softer foam rubber brake mod, which I will be buying this week, hopefully it's durable. If all else fails, people say to just put a squash ball between the pedal arm and the inside of the casing :D

You really do need to add me on Steam so we can do some friendly racing some day! I'm not very competitive but it's always a lot of fun.

Even though I've downloaded all of these sims I didn't get them on Steam, if you know what I mean - except for Assetto Corsa, which I got on sale yesterday with all DLC for half a McDonald's meal. I'm waiting for the next sale so I can buy all the Truck Simulator games/DLC for a good price. They're really my favourites at the moment. What are your favourite games to play?

Have you tried BeamNG.drive? It's a very fun sandbox but quite rough around the edges as it's only in Alpha. The driving model is superb. Another game I tried recently and that I really liked was Snowrunner. The only problem with it is that the gear shifting is kind of wonky.

These driving games have given me much more fun (orders of magnitude more) than something like Elden Ring, which I would never have expected. So I think the price to pay is relatively low for a renewed breath of life into my enjoyment of videogames.

Regarding the wheel, have you considered a wheel stand? You can get one for not too much money and I think (at least in my case) it's incomparably better than desk mounting - and my stand is pretty bad.

My next purchase will be one of those USB adapters for the Logitech gearbox so it can function independently on the PC. I'd like to get the Thrustmaster shifter but it's incredibly expensive.

I don't like how you can't feel the gforce obviously and you can't feel the tyres start to lose traction, or the weight shift or whatever. It just always feels gamey to me. I need to try with a wheel, preferably one that rumbles.

It's a common misconception to equate force feedback on wheels to "rumble" on controllers (I also had that misconception), but FFB has much more to do with the actual pull on the wheel giving you more complete information about the physical adherence of the car to the track, the car getting much heavier with gforce (as the wheel pushes back against the centre of the track), etc. The bumps (from kerbs, crashes etc) are just icing on the cake and very often quite distracting, especially on a gear mechanism such as the G29's.

 

[Curratum]

That's my library:

When it comes to buying games and pricing, I haven't bought a single game on Steam in at least 5 years. I do all my shopping here, and usually get day-one releases at 40-50% off, anything older is at least 75% off.

https://www.allkeyshop.com/blog/

For wheelstands - I don't have the space for one, next step would be getting a Playseat with the whole cockpit setup and the seat.

For shifters - both Logi and TM shifters are a bit crappy. Do look into the Aliexpress options. They seem to have much better clickiness and tactile feedback and come with an adapter for "forward-back" rally style sequential sticks.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003101845322.html

 

[Great Deceiver]

I actually don't mind the Logi shifter too much - will probably just end up buying an aftermarket shaft and call it a day. It's alright. TM charging 200 bucks for theirs is a bit ludicrous, but then again the sky's the limit for this stuff.

On the T300, what do you think of the plastic rim as compared to Logi's faux leather? Is it a problem?

 

[Curratum]

The Aliexpress link doesn't open for some reason, something about the forum messes it up. It opens fine in Steam chat when I sent it to a friend.

Maybe try this one.

Great Deceiver

As for the rim itself, it's not plastic. The T300 is rubberized all over its rim surface and it's ok honestly. Not as good as the leather on the Logi, but definitely not plastic-y feeling. You can also go full autist and get a pair of mountain bike gloves for better grip.

Mountain bike gloves have very similar grippiness to racing ones, but a pair of Sparcos costs 35 dollars and a pair of bike gloves costs about 10.

 

[Great Deceiver]

If I ever get as faggy as using gloves to use my toy racing wheel you can safely run me over with a bulldozer.

The first Aliexpress link you posted opened fine for me.

Rubber is a lot better than plastic, I must have misread it then, or the article was referring to an inferior model like the T150 or something. Re: the brakes, this is something I really dislike in the G29. The rubber stop feels very artificial and braking in games doesn't feel realistic at all - not sure if it's due to the pedal or what.

 

[Curratum]

I hope you don't run ME over with a bulldozer, but man...

I am hoping to get a new motherboard and CPU for Christmas, then a new GPU in summer 2023 and then ultimately a VR headset for Christmas 2023. Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2 are both immensely good in VR, or so every soul online claims. Assetto Corsa has options for looking towards the apex of the corner even on a screen, but it's definitely not the same.

Oh, and by the way, do make sure you are running Content Manager and Custom Shader Patch + SOL for Assetto.



I promise you, the 30 minutes of autistic installation and setup is so worth the payoff.

No idea why he made the video this way. You can install Custom Shader Patch from inside the Content Manager.

 

[Curratum]

As for the brakes, I've never driven a real race car, obviously, but people who have say that the brakes on them are extremely stiff, incomparably stiffer than regular road cars like the ones you and I drive.

However, I feel that even on the T300 RS GT, the brake rubber cone is too stiff. It effectively prevents you from getting 100% pedal / potentiometer travel, no matter how hard you press down. I want SOME resistance halfway into pedal travel, and more as you reach full pedal throw, but this is just too much.

Hopefully that softer orange rubber brake mod I linked on Ebay will fix it, people say it's a lot nicer and softer, while still offering resistance.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Although I've also never driven a race car, the problem I have with brakes in these games is that it just doesn't feel like proper braking behaviour, even accounting for the dinkiness of the pedals. It takes too long to come to a full stop and the curve is too smooth. I haven't seen a single game in which stomping on the brakes (at relatively low speeds) feels even marginally physically accurate. Even altering the braking curve to compensate for the toylike potentiometers of these pedals seems to do jack shit.

But I'm not going to invest in load cells or anything like that for now, so I guess I just have to live with it.

 

[Curratum]

Although I've also never driven a race car, the problem I have with brakes in these games is that it just doesn't feel like proper braking behaviour, even accounting for the dinkiness of the pedals. It takes too long to come to a full stop and the curve is too smooth. I haven't seen a single game in which stomping on the brakes (at relatively low speeds) feels even marginally physically accurate. Even altering the braking curve to compensate for the toylike potentiometers of these pedals seems to do jack shit.

But I'm not going to invest in load cells or anything like that for now, so I guess I just have to live with it.

You need to play some Assetto Corsa

 

[Great Deceiver]

Although I've also never driven a race car, the problem I have with brakes in these games is that it just doesn't feel like proper braking behaviour, even accounting for the dinkiness of the pedals. It takes too long to come to a full stop and the curve is too smooth. I haven't seen a single game in which stomping on the brakes (at relatively low speeds) feels even marginally physically accurate. Even altering the braking curve to compensate for the toylike potentiometers of these pedals seems to do jack shit.

But I'm not going to invest in load cells or anything like that for now, so I guess I just have to live with it.

You need to play some Assetto Corsa

I've played a little bit of it, but I suck terribly. I also thought the default launcher was a bit shitty but the Content Manager makes it a lot better.

 

[Curratum]

Although I've also never driven a race car, the problem I have with brakes in these games is that it just doesn't feel like proper braking behaviour, even accounting for the dinkiness of the pedals. It takes too long to come to a full stop and the curve is too smooth. I haven't seen a single game in which stomping on the brakes (at relatively low speeds) feels even marginally physically accurate. Even altering the braking curve to compensate for the toylike potentiometers of these pedals seems to do jack shit.

But I'm not going to invest in load cells or anything like that for now, so I guess I just have to live with it.

You need to play some Assetto Corsa

I've played a little bit of it, but I suck terribly. I also thought the default launcher was a bit shitty but the Content Manager makes it a lot better.

Don't forget to install the custom shader patch from inside CM if you haven't, and grab Sol for weather: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/sol.24914/

 

[Curratum]

Assetto Corsa definitely takes some getting used to, but once you feel out how the tire model works, how cars react and handle, you get a very good grip on it as a whole, for all cars.

I can't seriously get into any other simracing game now. AC Competizione is cool but expensive and only does 2 types of cars, and they're kinda boring, even if the physics are a little better.
Automobilista 2 has a lot of physics issues for me. The cars never feel connected to the road, you always feel like you're just about to slip and spin.

Take a look at this guy's wheel setting suggestions for various driving games, they're pretty good:

https://www.briankoponen.com/simracing.html

 

[anvi]

How is it compared to Project Cars and I think a sequel?

 

[Curratum]

How is it compared to Project Cars and I think a sequel?

Project Cars 2 is an INCREDIBLY content-rich game and has a more structured "career paths" than ACorsa.
PC2 also has the only big-boy simracing engine that does rain and wet driving conditions, you get loss of grip, aquaplaning in puddles, the works.
The roster of cars and tracks, with all DLC / season pass is incredible.

However, not all cars have received the same amount of love when it comes to the physics sim. Some are a bit wonky, some are a bit too sloppy and weird, some are a bit too understeery when they should not be, I think.
Despite all of this, overall, it's an incredible game.

You also will need a custom force feedback settings file if you use a wheel, because the FFB in PCars 2 isn't the greatest. I used a custom one before and it was immediately, obviously better. I think they recently released YET another new and improved one, somewhere on Racedepartment.


On the other hand, AC just has even more STUFF to it than PCars 2. You will need to mod it, of course, because PCars 2 has MANY more tracks out of the box compared to AC which has just over 20 I think. But if you are willing to mod AC, it just has more tools, options, bits and bobs to tweak, knobs to turn and tweak, and the force feedback and physics are both better, in my opinion.

However, if you are not willing to dive in the deep and and download mods, or are playing on a controller and aren't ALL THAT fussed about the physics accuracy and simulation, Project Cars 2 (with season pass) is IMMENSE value for your money and an incredible, sufficiently realistic / simmish game.

I just chose to allow autism to take over and modded AC to the point where nothing ever produced anywhere can compare in terms of breadth of content, cars, tracks, liveries, locations, hillclimb, F1 generations through the years, classes of motorsport etc etc.

I just opened up AllKeyShop and PCars 2 with the season pass and paypal fees included, comes to just around 15 EUR. That's insane value for the content you're getting.

 

[adddeed]

I don't like how you can't feel the gforce obviously and you can't feel the tyres start to lose traction, or the weight shift or whatever. It just always feels gamey to me. I need to try with a wheel, preferably one that rumbles.

With a force feedback wheel and with the game supporting you can feel all kinds of effects inlcuding loss of traction. No g force unless you buy an expenive seat that's moving around.
You can get something like buttkicker, so you feel the vibrations and sound coming through the car.
You can do lots, sim racing is awesome.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Pulls up hood and puts hands in pockets

If one were to ask what the best modern day car sim on PC is, what would this theoretical answer be?

And the closer to Gran Turismo, the better. The good GTs I mean.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Pulls up hood and puts hands in pockets

If one were to ask what the best modern day car sim on PC is, what would this theoretical answer be?

And the closer to Gran Turismo, the better. The good GTs I mean.

I would say Assetto Corsa (I think AC's driving model is way better than the last GT I played), but the career mode is very barebones in comparison. As Curratum wrote, modding is a must but there's a deluge of very high-quality content out there.

The feeling of driving an F40 in AC is just incredible, even on an entry-level FF wheel.

 

[Curratum]

Just wait for that T300, man. You have no idea how much sexier it feels. I wasn't buying into the hype TM fans were throwing at me, but feeling it your own hands is just nuts.

I wish I could get the wheel set up and fixed to the desk sooner so I can try WRC 9 and Project Cars 2 with it!

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

How is Forza like? Never played a Forza before but I hear it's the most "GT-like" and in ways even better.

 

[Great Deceiver]

How is Forza like? Never played a Forza before but I hear it's the most "GT-like" and in ways even better.

I've only played the recent Horizon games (4 and 5) and found them to be awful. Spergy announcers, "festival vibe", YOU'RE AWSUM, shitty moon physics that were designed for controllers and don't translate well to the wheel, etc. Racing is the last thing you do in these games. I can't speak for Forza Motorsport as the last one I played was the very first one on the original Xbox.

I'm still waiting for my GT7 disc to arrive, the last GT game I played was 4 on the PS2, but I recently replayed it on PCSX2 (it has great wheel support now) and it's pretty great. Incomparably better than contemporary console games like Grid, Forza Horizon, etc.

 

[anvi]

Time to buy a wheel! Do you guys get pedals as well? That would be cool...