Building Up a Top Notch Car Sim Cockpit
Discussion
Cant believe I missed this thread until now, hello fellow sim racers. My name is Simon, and I race on my computer...it feels good to say it and not be ridiculed 
Anyway, joking aside my setup is VR now although I haven’t got around to selling my triple monitors.
Thrustmaster T500rs with pro pedals and th8a shifter
Gt Omega Pro rig
Oculus Rift (just awesome).
The wheel, and rig were picked up off gumtree a couple of years ago for £450...had Logitech wheels previously but the T500rs is a big step up.
If you want to build a rig, xsimulator forums are the place to go...
My aim is to have one of these bad boys or similar in the next 12 months (www.dofreality.com), and the boss hasn’t said no...as a VR addict I’ve also backed a kickstarter for a new VR headset called Pimax 8k which promises much improved resolution (not 8k or even 2x4k but a lot better than Rift or Vive).
If you are willing to take a risk, there is a kickstarter coming up for a direct drive wheel called feelvr. I’m probably going for that as well, a dd wheel for less than $400!?!?!
I love doing proper track stuff, but I can’t justify the money involved or the weekend time away from the family. The convenience of racing at home is brilliant, with VR you get a similar buzz to real life without risking your neck or wallet.
Another recommendation for www.stoopidchallenges.com from me, started here in PH as a Project Cars time trial, now moved on to Project Cars 2. PH thread here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
No cost involved and as it’s time trial based and default setup you just turn a lap when it suits...brilliant fun and you find car and track combos that you probably wouldn’t try otherwise. I’m kicking a55 right now so come catch me if you can
Games at the moment:
Assetto Corsa is also brilliant
IRacing provides the best online ranking and matchup system but is hugely expensive compared to the other options.
Raceroom is good although I haven’t played it much as they started down the IRacing pay for every car and track route...
Dirt Rally is the best vr Rally game at the moment, I just can’t do Rally though. Project Cars 2 has rallyx which seems good.
F1 2017 has come a long way from the low point a few years back from what I hear but I don’t play it, I prefer tin tops.
Anyway, joking aside my setup is VR now although I haven’t got around to selling my triple monitors.
Thrustmaster T500rs with pro pedals and th8a shifter
Gt Omega Pro rig
Oculus Rift (just awesome).
The wheel, and rig were picked up off gumtree a couple of years ago for £450...had Logitech wheels previously but the T500rs is a big step up.
If you want to build a rig, xsimulator forums are the place to go...
My aim is to have one of these bad boys or similar in the next 12 months (www.dofreality.com), and the boss hasn’t said no...as a VR addict I’ve also backed a kickstarter for a new VR headset called Pimax 8k which promises much improved resolution (not 8k or even 2x4k but a lot better than Rift or Vive).
If you are willing to take a risk, there is a kickstarter coming up for a direct drive wheel called feelvr. I’m probably going for that as well, a dd wheel for less than $400!?!?!
I love doing proper track stuff, but I can’t justify the money involved or the weekend time away from the family. The convenience of racing at home is brilliant, with VR you get a similar buzz to real life without risking your neck or wallet.
Another recommendation for www.stoopidchallenges.com from me, started here in PH as a Project Cars time trial, now moved on to Project Cars 2. PH thread here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
No cost involved and as it’s time trial based and default setup you just turn a lap when it suits...brilliant fun and you find car and track combos that you probably wouldn’t try otherwise. I’m kicking a55 right now so come catch me if you can
Games at the moment:
Assetto Corsa is also brilliant
IRacing provides the best online ranking and matchup system but is hugely expensive compared to the other options.
Raceroom is good although I haven’t played it much as they started down the IRacing pay for every car and track route...
Dirt Rally is the best vr Rally game at the moment, I just can’t do Rally though. Project Cars 2 has rallyx which seems good.
F1 2017 has come a long way from the low point a few years back from what I hear but I don’t play it, I prefer tin tops.
born2bslow said:
Hoofy said:
G29s with gear stick just £149 on Currys. Are these any good?
Great starter wheel, can’t fault mine although it is my spare now.It's a pretty decent starter setup, seems well made and looks good. The feedback is notchier than I had hoped but for the price I'm very happy. I my upgrade to something else at later date but to test the water at £149 you can't go wrong.
I bought a Wheel stand pro to go with it, great build quality and folds up quite small.
G series wheels are a great starter and will serve you for several years. Good buy and good 2nd hand sell too.
Decided i'm going to have change round. Currently using an Obutto Revolution with all the extras. Whilst a great rig for racing it's not as good at multi use as they proclaim. I've just ordered a small desk with the intention of moving the monitors and doing general computer use there.
I'll keep the rig in situ and use it with the Oculus (PHENOMENAL)
Longer term plan is to move the bed out and make it a dedicated entertainment room. Couple of decent speakers for music and a larger Oculus play area.
When cash permits a P1 chassis, DD wheel and HV Pedals.
Expensive but this is a great hobby and the time you spend doing it makes the cost worthwhile. As said above just as much of a buzz without the risk and with doing a trackday now being realistically £400-500, 2 or 3 TD's a year buys a lot of sim gear.
Decided i'm going to have change round. Currently using an Obutto Revolution with all the extras. Whilst a great rig for racing it's not as good at multi use as they proclaim. I've just ordered a small desk with the intention of moving the monitors and doing general computer use there.
I'll keep the rig in situ and use it with the Oculus (PHENOMENAL)
Longer term plan is to move the bed out and make it a dedicated entertainment room. Couple of decent speakers for music and a larger Oculus play area.
When cash permits a P1 chassis, DD wheel and HV Pedals.
Expensive but this is a great hobby and the time you spend doing it makes the cost worthwhile. As said above just as much of a buzz without the risk and with doing a trackday now being realistically £400-500, 2 or 3 TD's a year buys a lot of sim gear.
Santa brought me a TH8A, I handily had a spare Hurst ball shift knob spare (same as in my Monaro 
) and managed to bodge it on to my existing rig.
Then managed to bodge the old g25 shifter on the side in sequential mode to work as a handbrake.
Needless to say, loving the TH8A, there are very fancy alternatives on the market, but for the money it feels lovely to use.
Bit of a wirey mess at the moment, but you can't see them in VR so who cares right?
) and managed to bodge it on to my existing rig.Then managed to bodge the old g25 shifter on the side in sequential mode to work as a handbrake.
Needless to say, loving the TH8A, there are very fancy alternatives on the market, but for the money it feels lovely to use.
Bit of a wirey mess at the moment, but you can't see them in VR so who cares right?
born2bslow said:
Retail will be double the kickstarter offer pricing roughly. Admittedly there are no guarantees with kickstarter, but if they deliver it will be a cracking deal.
'If' being the important word.I did a bit of research, there is little that has been seen in public it seems a seat/motion sim in development has disappeared. Right now this is sitting in the too good to be true category. And it seems I'm not the only one with these concerns.
Even full retail is much cheaper than any other DD wheel.
I've signed up for notifications and will see what emerges in the NY. I have a good record on KS, all except one of my projects has delivered so far. A few I considered but didn't back failed or didn't deliver. I think pimax will deliver, they have demos in the wild and a track record, this lot, not so sure.
Bullett said:
'If' being the important word.
I did a bit of research, there is little that has been seen in public it seems a seat/motion sim in development has disappeared. Right now this is sitting in the too good to be true category. And it seems I'm not the only one with these concerns.
Even full retail is much cheaper than any other DD wheel.
I've signed up for notifications and will see what emerges in the NY. I have a good record on KS, all except one of my projects has delivered so far. A few I considered but didn't back failed or didn't deliver. I think pimax will deliver, they have demos in the wild and a track record, this lot, not so sure.
Indeed the "if" bit is the important part. I'm not getting into it until I've seen a demo at a public event, it's the same approach I took with Pimax. I missed out on the better early deals by doing that. I might pledge early then withdraw it before the deadline if I'm not happy with the information that's coming out. They've covered some of the concerns with a Q&A response via e-mail, but that doesn't prove anything at this stage. One to keep an eye on though.I did a bit of research, there is little that has been seen in public it seems a seat/motion sim in development has disappeared. Right now this is sitting in the too good to be true category. And it seems I'm not the only one with these concerns.
Even full retail is much cheaper than any other DD wheel.
I've signed up for notifications and will see what emerges in the NY. I have a good record on KS, all except one of my projects has delivered so far. A few I considered but didn't back failed or didn't deliver. I think pimax will deliver, they have demos in the wild and a track record, this lot, not so sure.
Just to say thanks for the advice on here. Now got my setup all working and it's fantastic (Oculus Rift, Playseat Challenge. Thrustmaster wheel and pedals). Not got the gear shifter yet but will do.
If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
Northbloke said:
Just to say thanks for the advice on here. Now got my setup all working and it's fantastic (Oculus Rift, Playseat Challenge. Thrustmaster wheel and pedals). Not got the gear shifter yet but will do.
If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
This is good to learn the ropes on Project Cars 2...If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Lots of telemetry so you can see where you are losing time to the faster guys and because it's time trial based you can do it as you please. Just sign up at www.stoopidchallenges.com. Don't worry if you're new, there is a handicapped league which levels the playing field as well. Highly recommend it.
Northbloke said:
Just to say thanks for the advice on here. Now got my setup all working and it's fantastic (Oculus Rift, Playseat Challenge. Thrustmaster wheel and pedals). Not got the gear shifter yet but will do.
If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
There's a lot of good advice in here too If anyone is thinking of doing this, just do it, well worth it.
I'm just doing solo laps currently and it's a lot harder than it looks but a great challenge to get your lap times down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZlOkt1oU2k&li...
SturdyHSV said:
There's a lot of good advice in here too
Brilliant set of videos, thanks. He's got a good name for a racing driver.Sadly I'm not bad on the theory, it's the execution I'm struggling with, need to concentrate for the whole lap!
Practice makes perfect though so we'll see, some new things to try from those vids.
Meant to add, thanks to b2bs as well. Currently on Assetto Corsa but if I have time yes that's the sort of thing I would like a go at, love looking at telemetry data. May turn up in there in future when I have time to do it justice. Ah, I see you are currently top dog, we need to find someone to challenge you!
Edited by Northbloke on Thursday 18th January 18:09
Well those videos worked!
Having been stuck for a while with no improvement, I've just knocked over 2 seconds off around Spa (in AC) default Mclaren P1, 2:25.3, well chuffed. Still a duff sector in there so maybe a bit more to come. Struggle to get Eau Rouge right more than 1 in 4 though.
Main difference for me was to change view to the next apex a lot earlier, got much better at hitting it. Simple really!
Don't know how I'll manage with a Shifter to work as well with so much going on, presume times will get worse compared to flappy paddles?
Having been stuck for a while with no improvement, I've just knocked over 2 seconds off around Spa (in AC) default Mclaren P1, 2:25.3, well chuffed. Still a duff sector in there so maybe a bit more to come. Struggle to get Eau Rouge right more than 1 in 4 though.
Main difference for me was to change view to the next apex a lot earlier, got much better at hitting it. Simple really!
Don't know how I'll manage with a Shifter to work as well with so much going on, presume times will get worse compared to flappy paddles?
I've been sim racing online since the days of GPL, even co-run a marquee at the 2002 FoS, with the hillclimb made for the event. From there I bought my BRD Race frame Pro V2 cockpit which I still use.
I currently run an i5 4670K CPU with 16Gb ram and a Zotac 1070 Amp Extreme GPU driving 4 screens. At Christmas I upgraded my wheel and pedals for the final time (hopefully), I bought a set of HE Pro's and Simtechracing OSW wheel + converted a Fanatec BMW GT2 rim to USB.
I mainly run with iRacing, I have AC, rfactor 2 and Project Cars2 too. PC2 is giving problems with the Fanatec rim at the moment though.
This is the rig from 3 years ago.
I currently run an i5 4670K CPU with 16Gb ram and a Zotac 1070 Amp Extreme GPU driving 4 screens. At Christmas I upgraded my wheel and pedals for the final time (hopefully), I bought a set of HE Pro's and Simtechracing OSW wheel + converted a Fanatec BMW GT2 rim to USB.
I mainly run with iRacing, I have AC, rfactor 2 and Project Cars2 too. PC2 is giving problems with the Fanatec rim at the moment though.
This is the rig from 3 years ago.
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