PC car games VS reality
Discussion
Evening all
I'm not sure if I'm going crazy, or if I'm starting to see a pattern.
For number of years I have been transfixed by RWD Manual cars. In particular BMW.
Fairly recently, I bought a Logitech G920 and Forza Horizon 4. I have played around with stock cars, and modified cars in the game (hot hatches to super cars). After unhealthy amounts of time playing the game, I have a tendency to like 500bhp, AWD, Front Engine lightish cars (1300kg ish). Not for racing, but having fun messing around. I also play around with the diff settings and various other things (suspension / gearing / tyre size etc) to get to my liking.
It has come to my shock that actually my favourite set up is AWD, 500bhp, and a general bias to 70% power the back in comparison to a 100% RWD configuration.
I have tried a few other games, and I'm finding similar outcomes. I'm starting to think that is my inner hooligan driving stance, as you can drift really nicely but also control the car quite well (4 wheels spinning). The RWD I find at the power is just too much even at stock and often results in dizzy spins.
I have a M3 in real life (340bhp) and generally find it to have loads of grip, so not a problem. Also, 99% of my driving is very safe, so to be honest who really cares.
But when it comes modifying / potentially tracking a car. Should I shift over to AWD? I'm thinking a Scuby.
Am I going crazy, or have I just found what i can find manageable when it comes to loosing grip?
FYI of the times my RWD cars have gone out, it has been under control and very minor as I can really tell the grip levels, often at lower speeds. That being said, going down a muddy B road, I doubt i will have the skill to stop a RWD swinging around, but maybe an AWD could give me that advantage.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar?
Thoughts welcome.
Best
T
I'm not sure if I'm going crazy, or if I'm starting to see a pattern.
For number of years I have been transfixed by RWD Manual cars. In particular BMW.
Fairly recently, I bought a Logitech G920 and Forza Horizon 4. I have played around with stock cars, and modified cars in the game (hot hatches to super cars). After unhealthy amounts of time playing the game, I have a tendency to like 500bhp, AWD, Front Engine lightish cars (1300kg ish). Not for racing, but having fun messing around. I also play around with the diff settings and various other things (suspension / gearing / tyre size etc) to get to my liking.
It has come to my shock that actually my favourite set up is AWD, 500bhp, and a general bias to 70% power the back in comparison to a 100% RWD configuration.
I have tried a few other games, and I'm finding similar outcomes. I'm starting to think that is my inner hooligan driving stance, as you can drift really nicely but also control the car quite well (4 wheels spinning). The RWD I find at the power is just too much even at stock and often results in dizzy spins.
I have a M3 in real life (340bhp) and generally find it to have loads of grip, so not a problem. Also, 99% of my driving is very safe, so to be honest who really cares.
But when it comes modifying / potentially tracking a car. Should I shift over to AWD? I'm thinking a Scuby.
Am I going crazy, or have I just found what i can find manageable when it comes to loosing grip?
FYI of the times my RWD cars have gone out, it has been under control and very minor as I can really tell the grip levels, often at lower speeds. That being said, going down a muddy B road, I doubt i will have the skill to stop a RWD swinging around, but maybe an AWD could give me that advantage.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar?
Thoughts welcome.
Best
T
Forza Horizon 4 is good fun, but it's more of a UFO driving simulator IMO.
Assetto corsa is pretty good in terms of realism IMO, but it can be frustrating at first as the car is going much faster than it feels - so you tend to understeer everywhere until you've adjusted your perception of speed.
Assetto corsa is pretty good in terms of realism IMO, but it can be frustrating at first as the car is going much faster than it feels - so you tend to understeer everywhere until you've adjusted your perception of speed.
While the best games and wheels give you an approximation of driving, in the end, it's still not exactly that realistic to me. For a start, the knowledge that you're not going to die in a fireball has a definite influence on how brave you are, and the lack of physical sensations makes it difficult to drive truly accurately. I definitely wouldn't buy a car on the basis of what it felt like in a game.
TameRacingDriver said:
While the best games and wheels give you an approximation of driving, in the end, it's still not exactly that realistic to me. For a start, the knowledge that you're not going to die in a fireball has a definite influence on how brave you are, and the lack of physical sensations makes it difficult to drive truly accurately. I definitely wouldn't buy a car on the basis of what it felt like in a game.
This. So much this. I like playing driving games but to me, regardless of how realistic the graphics and physics engine, even if you have a VR headset and a seat/wheel/pedals set up, it's far from realistic due to lack of physics on the driver plus the knowledge that a mistake will cost you a few minutes of time at worst.
theog87 said:
Evening all
I'm not sure if I'm going crazy, or if I'm starting to see a pattern.
For number of years I have been transfixed by RWD Manual cars. In particular BMW.
Fairly recently, I bought a Logitech G920 and Forza Horizon 4. I have played around with stock cars, and modified cars in the game (hot hatches to super cars). After unhealthy amounts of time playing the game, I have a tendency to like 500bhp, AWD, Front Engine lightish cars (1300kg ish). Not for racing, but having fun messing around. I also play around with the diff settings and various other things (suspension / gearing / tyre size etc) to get to my liking.
It has come to my shock that actually my favourite set up is AWD, 500bhp, and a general bias to 70% power the back in comparison to a 100% RWD configuration.
I have tried a few other games, and I'm finding similar outcomes. I'm starting to think that is my inner hooligan driving stance, as you can drift really nicely but also control the car quite well (4 wheels spinning). The RWD I find at the power is just too much even at stock and often results in dizzy spins.
I have a M3 in real life (340bhp) and generally find it to have loads of grip, so not a problem. Also, 99% of my driving is very safe, so to be honest who really cares.
But when it comes modifying / potentially tracking a car. Should I shift over to AWD? I'm thinking a Scuby.
Am I going crazy, or have I just found what i can find manageable when it comes to loosing grip?
FYI of the times my RWD cars have gone out, it has been under control and very minor as I can really tell the grip levels, often at lower speeds. That being said, going down a muddy B road, I doubt i will have the skill to stop a RWD swinging around, but maybe an AWD could give me that advantage.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar?
Thoughts welcome.
Best
T
Logitech G series uses really old tech. Try something like t300rs & tspa pro pedals like I've got or up to the likes of Fanatac etc and you'll find the overall feel is much much more like real life. I've never really gotten into forza but play assetto corsa, competitzione, pcars & GT sport. Recently I've been using a BAC mono around a number of tracks and despite being swb and high power to weight it's controllable oversteer with decent pedals and wheel. Always found 4wd cars to understeer too much on sim gamesI'm not sure if I'm going crazy, or if I'm starting to see a pattern.
For number of years I have been transfixed by RWD Manual cars. In particular BMW.
Fairly recently, I bought a Logitech G920 and Forza Horizon 4. I have played around with stock cars, and modified cars in the game (hot hatches to super cars). After unhealthy amounts of time playing the game, I have a tendency to like 500bhp, AWD, Front Engine lightish cars (1300kg ish). Not for racing, but having fun messing around. I also play around with the diff settings and various other things (suspension / gearing / tyre size etc) to get to my liking.
It has come to my shock that actually my favourite set up is AWD, 500bhp, and a general bias to 70% power the back in comparison to a 100% RWD configuration.
I have tried a few other games, and I'm finding similar outcomes. I'm starting to think that is my inner hooligan driving stance, as you can drift really nicely but also control the car quite well (4 wheels spinning). The RWD I find at the power is just too much even at stock and often results in dizzy spins.
I have a M3 in real life (340bhp) and generally find it to have loads of grip, so not a problem. Also, 99% of my driving is very safe, so to be honest who really cares.
But when it comes modifying / potentially tracking a car. Should I shift over to AWD? I'm thinking a Scuby.
Am I going crazy, or have I just found what i can find manageable when it comes to loosing grip?
FYI of the times my RWD cars have gone out, it has been under control and very minor as I can really tell the grip levels, often at lower speeds. That being said, going down a muddy B road, I doubt i will have the skill to stop a RWD swinging around, but maybe an AWD could give me that advantage.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar?
Thoughts welcome.
Best
T
Had a long line of of rwd cars with last two being m140i and mustang v8 and a few meaty 4wd cars like an RS6 and much prefer the overall feel of rwd both in life and on sim.
Haltamer said:
Forza Horizon 4 is good fun, but it's more of a UFO driving simulator IMO.
Assetto corsa is pretty good in terms of realism IMO, but it can be frustrating at first as the car is going much faster than it feels - so you tend to understeer everywhere until you've adjusted your perception of speed.
Yeah, FH4 is fun enough to play but is quite far from a simulator. As for the feeling of speed, it helps a lot to get the field of view correct, but without the jiggling and shaking of a real car there is definitely some perception missing.Assetto corsa is pretty good in terms of realism IMO, but it can be frustrating at first as the car is going much faster than it feels - so you tend to understeer everywhere until you've adjusted your perception of speed.
TameRacingDriver said:
For a start, the knowledge that you're not going to die in a fireball has a definite influence on how brave you are,
I'd like to go on Dragons' Den with a computer chair that as well as delivering vibrations and having built in speakers, also delivers a taser style electric shock to any kids crashing their car in a driving game. Catapulting them across the room, so they soil themselves and can't move for 20 mins. That way, when they turn 17 and get a real car, they might not drive like such t
ts. A kind of Pavlov's dogs for the 21stC
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'd like to go on Dragons' Den with a computer chair that as well as delivering vibrations and having built in speakers, also delivers a taser style electric shock to any kids crashing their car in a driving game. Catapulting them across the room, so they soil themselves and can't move for 20 mins. That way, when they turn 17 and get a real car, they might not drive like such tts.
A kind of Pavlov's dogs for the 21stC
ts. A kind of Pavlov's dogs for the 21stC
genuine lol there 
Afternoon all
So I got myself a 2006 wrx sti.
Extremely impressed with the car and I have to say it's extremely similar to how I thought it was going to be!
As said it's very hard to compare the feel, but I will say the following similarities / dissimilaritys.
- awd provides excellent grip in small / sharp / fast corners. In RL (real life) and sims, this high speed / sharp turns sketch me out, so awd really provides confidence.
- a feeling I wasn't expecting was the 'crabbing' feeling you get with AWD when going around corners
- understeer is felt a lot more in RL than sims, so power into the apex with AWD isn't great.
- with AWD ploughing through roads with uneven surfaces is really confidence inspiring
- from what I understand you have to tread wrx sti pretty brutal to get tail happy -(not played with diff settings yet)
- 1st gear suddenly feels very short when off the line speed is so fast!
- as a father, awd gives a lot of confidence on muddy back roads
I guess you could play around with rear suspension stiffness to encourage backend play, but tbh the stock setup on the sti is just incredible. I think just engine mods would be nice.
So I got myself a 2006 wrx sti.
Extremely impressed with the car and I have to say it's extremely similar to how I thought it was going to be!
As said it's very hard to compare the feel, but I will say the following similarities / dissimilaritys.
- awd provides excellent grip in small / sharp / fast corners. In RL (real life) and sims, this high speed / sharp turns sketch me out, so awd really provides confidence.
- a feeling I wasn't expecting was the 'crabbing' feeling you get with AWD when going around corners
- understeer is felt a lot more in RL than sims, so power into the apex with AWD isn't great.
- with AWD ploughing through roads with uneven surfaces is really confidence inspiring
- from what I understand you have to tread wrx sti pretty brutal to get tail happy -(not played with diff settings yet)
- 1st gear suddenly feels very short when off the line speed is so fast!
- as a father, awd gives a lot of confidence on muddy back roads
I guess you could play around with rear suspension stiffness to encourage backend play, but tbh the stock setup on the sti is just incredible. I think just engine mods would be nice.
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