Obsessive hobbies....

[Robert D]

Historically iRacing hasn't had bad weather. They are preparing to release rain.

Ok. I bet that will feel interesting with your setup. I only slid a couple of times on the track while a bunch of guys slid off the track. I think my all wheel drive helped and I did not have on track tires. I was just using my Michellin Pilot Sport 4S. I havent gone the track tire route yet, probably wont because Im not that serious.
https://www.michelinman.com/auto/tires/michelin-pilot-sport-4-s
Im going to guess that Iracing allows you to change tires? Do the tires exist in the real world, or are they just generic?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

iRacing allows the setup of your car and for longer races there are pit stops. I haven't seen options for the tires.

iRacing has a physics based tire model. It's actually gotten to be quite good, however it has been much maligned over the years. The biggest issue was how they behaved at the limit. There used to be a serious issue with them working up to the limit and just letting go with no warning making it very hard to recover and frustrating for many people. They have improved quite a bit and there is generally more room to recover from traction loss now.

I have a tactile effect that helps me feel when the tires are starting to slide. There is a normal amount of sliding near the limit and this effect let me know that I'm getting close to the limit. Technically this is something you can dial in like a crutch, but I've heard many people say that on a track you feel this the G forces in your butt rather than feeling the tires sliding.

 

[JonFo]

Without motion most people get nausea in driving sims in a short period of time especially in something like a Rally game.

That has been my experience, as I'm a big rally fan, but can only drive the sim for 30 to 40 minutes before I have to go do something else.
Good to hear a motion platform improves the experience. I also expect my own 'gut' / seat-of-the-pants feedback to improve the driving experience. On the real track, I unconsciously process the G-forces and such as much as I see. Sim has always been a letdown, because, without that, I'm so much slower, and slopier.

One of the days I'll get an iRacing rig with motion, as they have a map of my local track (AMP)

 

[RCHeliGuy]

There is something called a G-Seat built on a metal Kirkley seat.
It is supposed to help you to feel the G-forces while driving a sim.

I haven't gotten one of these because I love the comfort of my current seat and I understand the actuators are a bit noisy, but I do know people who have a rig "similarly" equipped to mine that have one of these seats as well.

https://www.simxperience.com/shop/sx-gs5-001-gs-5-g-seat-711#attr=

 

[Robert D]

iRacing allows the setup of your car and for longer races there are pit stops. I haven't seen options for the tires.

iRacing has a physics based tire model. It's actually gotten to be quite good, however it has been much maligned over the years. The biggest issue was how they behaved at the limit. There used to be a serious issue with them working up to the limit and just letting go with no warning making it very hard to recover and frustrating for many people. They have improved quite a bit and there is generally more room to recover from traction loss now.

I have a tactile effect that helps me feel when the tires are starting to slide. There is a normal amount of sliding near the limit and this effect let me know that I'm getting close to the limit. Technically this is something you can dial in like a crutch, but I've heard many people say that on a track you feel this the G forces in your butt rather than feeling the tires sliding.

I feel it in the butt and the tires slip. Listening for the sounds the tires make also gives you feedback. Once you get the tires good and warmed up, you gain quite a bit of traction.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I feel it in the butt and the tires slip. Listening for the sounds the tires make also gives you feedback. Once you get the tires good and warmed up, you gain quite a bit of traction.

That is how the tire models work in the sims as well. You have to warm up your tires before you can push them hard. In the rolling start races, which is most of them, you will find some people slightly riding their brakes and weaving to warm their tires up more.

The track temperatures change during the race as well. There is some marbling on the track from left over rubber as the race goes on and the tires wear during a race. For the longer races with pit stops, learning how to conserve your tread is a factor and people who are running hot laps at the beginning of a long race may end up needing an extra pit stop giving back all the time they may have gained and then some.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

In terms of G-forces I can say the having the G-Belt pulling on me while I'm braking does give me good feedback especially if I accidentally lift early and don't finish my trail braking. It also pulls on the outer shoulder during a corner and it pulls during shifts which is very noticeable during down shifts in a corner and makes you aware that you can unsettle your chassis losing traction.

 

[Robert D]

That is how the tire models work in the sims as well. You have to warm up your tires before you can push them hard. In the rolling start races, which is most of them, you will find some people slightly riding their brakes and weaving to warm their tires up more.

The track temperatures change during the race as well. There is some marbling on the track from left over rubber as the race goes on and the tires wear during a race. For the longer races with pit stops, learning how to conserve your tread is a factor and people who are running hot laps at the beginning of a long race may end up needing an extra pit stop giving back all the time they may have gained and then some.

Lots of realism. I like how they factor in rubber on the road. It's like that on the track. The track is most slick in the morning ,and by late afternoon it's much better. The first lap we run is a slower speed, so as to warm up tires. You can see the race line on the track, it's covered in rubber. Each car runs a bit of a different path, but there is an average where more rubber is deposited.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

My name is Brandon and I'm a recovering project car addict. At one time I think I had 6 cars at my shop, maybe 1 actually ran? I still have the Fit, CRV, Speed 6 and Z06

Highlights are:
2007 Mazdaspeed 3
2007 Mazdaspeed 6
2001 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V
1989 jaguar XJ6
1999 Honda CRV
2011 Honda Fit (I needed a car that ran)
2001 Corvette Z06

I currently can't find any other photos of my other cars on this phone. I will look on the weekend for the others.

this is my Z06, the greatest thing I've ever owned. It's very modified with a road racing NA setup done with lightweight drivetrain components, big cam, big brakes, short rear end gears. I drive it almost every day and don't ever want to sell it.

 

[twich54]

My name is Brandon and I'm a recovering project car addict. At one time I think I had 6 cars at my shop, maybe 1 actually ran? I still have the Fit, CRV, Speed 6 and Z06

Highlights are:
2007 Mazdaspeed 3
2007 Mazdaspeed 6
2001 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V
1989 jaguar XJ6
1999 Honda CRV
2011 Honda Fit (I needed a car that ran)
2001 Corvette Z06

I currently can't find any other photos of my other cars on this phone. I will look on the weekend for the others.

this is my Z06, the greatest thing I've ever owned. It's very modified with a road racing NA setup done with lightweight drivetrain components, big cam, big brakes, short rear end gears. I drive it almost every day and don't ever want to sell it.
View attachment 23244

View attachment 23245
View attachment 23246

Brandon, from one ZO6 owner to another , welcome ! I assume yours is a 'wrap' ?

IMO the C5 ZO6 represents one of the best performance bargains out there

Mine ......

 

[Ronin]

Agreed. I have since moved on to other track types and always will have a spot for Vette and Mustang

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Ugh... cars in real life? Go virtual or go home!

 

[Robert D]

Ugh... cars in real life? Go virtual or go home!

What GPU are you using now? Rtx 3090?

There is supposed to be a press release later this month about the 4000 series. I'm using a 3080ti and figure I may just skip the 4000 series and pick up with the series after that.

When I was using the gtx 1080 I was easily able to skip the 2000 series. These new top end cards are going to require a minimum of 1000 to 1200 watt power supplies. My new pc I built with just 850 watt because of the supply chain issue. I wasn't able to find any psu with more power. I built it back when covid really had things screwed up. The video card was $1900 too. Glad that's over, at least for now.

I'm reading now that the war in Ukraine has taken out 50% of the supply of Neon used for lasers needed in the production of chips. Things may get bad again for chips.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I'm on the 2080Ti and skipped 30 series.

Intel 13th gen releasing around October.
ATX 3.0 Power Supplies coming soon.
NVidia cards to be officially announced Sep 19th. Higher end 40 series will require ATX 3.0 power supplies.

I need a new VR headset to be announced before any additional upgrades make sense.

 

[twich54]

Ugh... cars in real life? Go virtual or go home!

Mark, like ***, I prefer the 'real thing'

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Mark, like ***, I prefer the 'real thing'

It's hard to disagree with that!

To be fair, I'm in such a weird place with cars, it almost defies logic. I have a 10 year old car I purchased new that collects dust in my garage and is like new. I literally don't care about cars past utilitarian use. My next car will be electric, but I'm in no hurry at all. I'd be fine if it were self driving. If I had an exotic sports car it would sit in the garage collecting dust and then drive 10-15min in city traffic to go shopping or to get to a mountain biking or hiking trail. I have zero outlets to drive a car fast enough to care about performance.

I've also driven an electric car and they have more torque available at any speed than anything I've ever driven. In fact I felt like the acceleration was WAY WAY WAY over the top, just slamming you back into the seat. This acceleration is a serious neck snapping event so I already know my next car will likely outperform most exotics at least in straight line acceleration and I could care less about that.

I also don't watch auto racing and never have. I don't watch any sports either.

Yet I find myself with a fairly serious sim racing rig. The realities of the situation are that I will never drive a Rally B car around the mountains of Greece or go airborne driving Rally in Finland and I would never actually make it to a track to drive a real car. But I can safely experience a reasonable simulation of racing on a track in rally or aerial combat.

So for driving and flight, I'll enjoy the simulation where I can crash, roll down a cliff, or otherwise do things that would kill me in real life and yet still give me some excitement on my terms in complete safety.

I know we are all kidding around, but even though I like the "thought" of owning a Superperformance GT40 or a Lister Bell STR, I know the idea of owning one is much better then the reality of owning one. I wouldn't know what to do with it other then pull it out to clean and polish it.

But about ***, we are in absolute agreement

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Just built a more full sized flight stick for better control.

Because my profile rig is fixed and I am limited to where I can mount the base, I was fortunate that I could adjust the height well enough with stock parts that bolted together and then slide the seat just shy of where the stick would hit the seat shell. It feels very good, but rests a bit back from center so I'm printing a counterbalance that accepts calibration weights to get a perfectly neutral stick hands off.

You can see that the base is as far back as I can mount it. There is just no room to put it anywhere else.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

The "test" counter balance to help it rest in a neutral position. When my heavier weights arrive, I'll achieve a 0 degree neutral stick.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Brandon, from one ZO6 owner to another , welcome ! I assume yours is a 'wrap' ?

IMO the C5 ZO6 represents one of the best performance bargains out there

Mine ......

View attachment 23247

Very nice, they are indeed a fantastic bargain. I got mine before the pandemic pricing made them crazy.

Mine is wrapped, it's not the cheapest but it lets you get pretty creative.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I've always had a really hard time with racing sim games, the lack of feeling in the wheel, pedals and just the absence of real G-force makes me miss all the turn ins and braking points.

Maybe someday when VR really gets good and I'll have proper depth perception I'll try it again. Until then, I'll gladly pay my $85 to drive a few hours on the local racetrack after work on a Wednesday night.