sim rig is not easy to set up!

[G30M]

bought a Next Level Racing GT Track something rig and a NLR GT Track seat, and NLR seat mover

bought Fanatec GT DD Pro base with X box compatible wheel

lucked in on a PS5 drop

rig - ok that's the easy part

seat mover - only works on PC, it's ok, adds a bit of movement but nothing special, infinite adjustability - seriously i don't have time to tune the seat mover!

GT Track seat - the most uncomfortable seat for me. made for hunch backs. it has the most negative lumbar space of any seat ever made!

Fanatec GT DD Pro + CSL Load Kit / Pedals + WRC Elite Wheel
- takes a million years to tune it to every single &^% PC game


I think I'm just going to give up on this and buy a real car

*sigh

/rant over

[E93_Savage]

I got into sim racing 1 year ago, yes all the setup takes time. Same with a real car you have to set it up to perform at its max. Still working on gathering parts for my OSW DD setup (big mige). I will be going through something ive never done before. Im planning for it to take me a week or two before i can even turn the thing on.

There are also base* setups you can download and drop into the file system to get you started depending on which game(s) you play.

Also for the seat i got a NRG bucket seat because that's what i actually drive in. 6'2 210lbs... comfy for 3 hours then it hurts and its hard to get up lol.

[kring]

Like many advanced hobbies… the barrier of entry is complexity and learning curve. It’s not a simple plug and play. But that’s the power of it, is that you have customization and personalization so as you get better you can fine tune it and get more out of it.

The biggest thing for me was not over-powering the force feedback which causes clipping in the forece feedback… basically going around a corner it goes from feeling all the road surface and grip of the tire to all of a sudden just boring smooth resistance. I had a hard time with the DD getting it to give good force feedback and not clip.

Check out fanatec forums, in there ever game has a recommendation for the DD from Fanatec… those were pretty darn good settings to start with. In most cases I lower the turn radius, e.g. instead of 720 degrees I do 540. And I like a little more resistance using the dampener so there is always a bit of sporty tightness to steering.

It’ll take some time to fine tune, but honestly you should be able to be up and running in 30 minutes on every game if you follow fanatec’s recommended settings in the forum.

[G30M]

ok will take a read of the fanatec forums. so the recommended settings are fanatec's settings?

how do you know you are (or aren't) clipping the FFB?

[G30M]

meanwhile ... Gran Turismo 7 license tests here i come!

[G30M]

Originally Posted by E93_Savage

I got into sim racing 1 year ago, yes all the setup takes time. Same with a real car you have to set it up to perform at its max. Still working on gathering parts for my OSW DD setup (big mige). I will be going through something ive never done before. Im planning for it to take me a week or two before i can even turn the thing on.

There are also base* setups you can download and drop into the file system to get you started depending on which game(s) you play.

Also for the seat i got a NRG bucket seat because that's what i actually drive in. 6'2 210lbs... comfy for 3 hours then it hurts and its hard to get up lol.

ok, slow and easy it shall be!

the amount of time i have to set things up i won't be doing any racing for a while! can't even keep the car on the track.

i think i need to find a way to get the feeling of speed right. FOV it is ...

[kring]

I was all over the place for many many hours before I started to develop the feedback feel in the wheel and brakes to what is the road feel vs tire grip/slip in turns or under braking. I don’t think there is any kind of tutorial for it you just have to experience it and it will click at some point.

I found Assetto Corso CZ was the best force feedback for learning the feelings of the car, GT7 not so much, however GT7 license is the best way to learn driving techniques by going for gold… it’s a really tight margin to get gold and it’s pretty darn hard.

What helped me the most early on was sticking with a single track and running it over and over trying to beat times (AC CZ is still best for this). My biggest mistakes were trying to turn while braking, and over turning the wheel. There is a hint of force feedback you are sliding - you have to sensitize yourself to when that is occurring… it’s when feelings smooth out that you have to ease out of your turn or off the brake. The last tip for braking is learn turn markers, the 100m 50m… and how much braking to apply at each turn and what MPH you can take each turn at… that will give you a baseline to build on and then when you start completing clean laps that’s when you will begin to notice the “feel” more of the limits of the car and how that comes through the wheel as grip or slip.

Drive61 youtube has some great 5-8min videos on learning skills after you get the basics down, watch those after you can get a few clean laps. It’s all about apex, trail braking, gaining times, etc.. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJp...NdWTWAEHWiVTNQ

Clipping is something you will feel, all of a sudden in a tight turn the wheel goes from feeling something to feeling nothing but flat linear resistance. With the Fanatec DD settings you won’t see much of it in my experience.

after you get the basics down, and clean laps then lower or Turn off ABS and TC so that isn’t preventing you from learning the limits and feelings of the car…

During the learning process I began to wonder if all of this is me just learning a game and not learning how to race a car in a way that would be transferable to real-world… Once I started getting decent lap times on a few courses… it became apparent that while I understood driving I really was terrible at it. I knew what an Apex was, but I didn’t know how to go into it with the right braking and come out of it with the right acceleration… so it’s not a game, you will understand driving much better as you build the skills. It’s primarily a lengthy period of learning the feel and how to approach a track. Now I can go to any track, even a new one and bang out a half-decent lap time on first try.

Here's their forum, at the bottom is each game has a topic, and the first post in each is from Fanatec on their recommended settings... find the DD in that post and you should be good. ignore everyone's comments... I've found after trial and error that most of those people have poor setups or they like certain things to be oddly set as a personal preference. https://forum.fanatec.com/categories/Fanatec_Forum

maintain patience; it gets better and like me, I think you are coming in with expectations of it being easy/quick to learn, it will take time and to give you an estimate, likely 40 hours or so of time in the seat to get you there, not 2-4 hours.

[G30M]

i've golded every licence in all prev GT so GT7 licence isn't an issue

it basically taught me how to drive on the road

racing on the limit, that's a whole different matter if the sims are have me to believe. but i think (hope) the issue is i don't feel how fast i'm going and i don't feel the grip on the sim. not that i've ever raced on a track but i know when my car is oversteering and understeering on the road (by accident not on purpose!)

will spend time in ACC, AC, rF2 with the DD settings thanks

[Humdizzle]

this is why im getting a PS5 and not building another computer. just plug and play with the csl dd wheel. i dont have time to mod games and settings like i used to.

anyway yes... the game does not give you the full immersion because you can't feel the speed (unless you have a triple or curved monitor setup in your peripheral vision). But in addition to that you don't feel the g-forces.

but it is fun experiencing how different car layouts handle. sitting back to wait for an overtake on a long straight for the draft effect, performing switchbacks, getting into a game of chicken with braking into a corner, etc. racing is like chess in that way, easy to learn basics, impossible to perfect.

[G30M]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

racing is like chess in that way, easy to learn basics, impossible to perfect.

i'm into both and i think for me, most things are like that. took up skiing at 36 and ... what do you know the same. mountain biking at 34.

i think sim is useful as i don't have access to a race track and i don't want to go to jail. but yes it's not the same unfortunately.

[G30M]

getting there, setups about 80%, just managed to drive a few cars around Nurburgring in rFactor 2 in under 8 mins without crashing .... no stability control ...

[Brazilian_BAMF]

Originally Posted by G80M4

ok will take a read of the fanatec forums. so the recommended settings are fanatec's settings?

how do you know you are (or aren't) clipping the FFB?

You can install fanalab, it comes with the recommended settings for your base.