Good news, my G27 arrived today.

Plugged it in and immediately lost control in Flatout2 since I am used to always turning full lock.

In short, the G27 is awesome. The H Shifter is fantastic. The better steering and power control makes rFactor much easier to play now.

Got some practice to do!

Turn the steering lock up in your wheel settings in Windows, Commander (if not already). It allows for a much smoother drive.

I run at 360, most of the time. It's the maximum effective turning I can do without getting too tired, and keeping the ability to use two hands on the wheel most of the time (gear changes on the shifter excluded).

Games like GT5 default at 900 degrees... takes some getting used to, but it's a smoother steering experience overall. The default (180?) it's set to on PC is terrible.

@Tak - Good to hear, will you be joining in for some F1 at Respawn?

Hmm, that's weird, I cannot find a copy of GTR 2 for sale on Steam or Gamesplanet. Guess I will go with GTR Evolution.

So at this point in time I have:

• rFactor (note: I own only the three default cars - dunno how that affects lan play)
• F1 2010
• DiRT2
• GTR Evolution

Cheers

Yeah GTR2 is hard to find anywhere nowdays. It's okay though, GTR Evo has a mod which brings over all the GTR2 cars, and there's tons of tracks ported over as well.

If you want the ultimate test of patience and concentration, try Richard Burns Rally, with the RSRBR 2010 mod. It also has the best FFB in a racing sim, up there next to GTR Evo. Amazing (and ridiculously hard -- I've played it for over 60 hours and I'm still average at it and struggle to finsh most tracks without crashing) if you can look past the dated visuals.

I have all the required things for it, so if you want to take a look, just grab it all from me at Respawn.

Haha, Commander! You never came back to let me know you wanted to race!
I went to see if you were at your PC once or twice, but once you were in the Flatout comp (I think?) and the other time you weren't there and your screen was turned off (and what a nice screen it was... lolz).

Ah yeah,

Sorry about that - two things happened:
1. OpenTTD
2. Flatout comp

I spent far too much time in OpenTTD unfortunately. Then flatout dragged on forever. By the time that was done at 3am I'd had it.

I did play F1, DiRT, GTR Evolution and what I discovered was I am still very much new - you cannot just jump in and play without practic. I would have been zero challenge:)

Did anyone else play? I.esus?

I.esus is myself... I went with a name change 'cause it's too much of a pain to say when I rock up.

That's all good, though... we spent tons of time in Minecraft. My first time playing it, and actually found it enjoyable when playing co-op, helping build something (a castle, for us).

But yeah, practice is good, though it doesn't matter if you're not much of a challenge. It's all good fun. I generally slow down when racing with others who are kinda new. It's more fun when I'm racing alongside somebody. Plus that way I can watch how you drive and give tips/feedback later on.

Maybe next time, eh?
Try and gather up some more interest too, I hope.

Aha, I wondered I.esus stopped posting

Righto, hope you were not too disappointed at the lack of turnout. Though I am surprised no-one else at all played.

If I may suggest, what about some racing outside of respawn lan, organised through this forum of course.

Yeah, I'm down for that.

You can find me on Steam, search the community for Ezkaton, and you'll find me under h.IV+[Ezkaton]!

I actually asked on DC once if anybody was interested in playing F1... but nobody responded to me...

There is usually so much spam in dc++ that it probably would have been a drop in the ocean.

Righto, give me a little while yet, I have work to do on my car this week. Also, I am just getting used to GTR Evo and Dirt2. Believe it or not, I am finding the latter to be quite challenging.

I am liking the Koenigsegg CCX, it handles and sounds great and cruises very nice. Special mention though to the Lister Storm for having a 7L V12

Downloaded Flatout 2 and Grid at last respawn but not blur . Really into grid atm, im thinking of buying the steering wheel and pedals etc.

Guni, i love GRiD. It's totally amazing. As you might see though at the start of this thread some people who think they know it all dont think GRiD is a good racing sim/game. They would probably suggest you're wasting your money if you're only playing those two games. however GRID IS AMAZING

gg yo.

I do not think the quality of the game was questioned. I understand the issue was centered around whether the game was in the category of sim racing or arcade racing. GRiD is mostly in the latter category of arcade. But it is up to the player if they want realism or not.

I find I enjoy both forms of racing games. As they say, each to their own.

GRID hurts my brain. The car physics are retarded. Don't bother using a wheel for GRID or Flatout 2, Guni. It's a waste, as the games play HORRIBLY with one. Rangers, GRID isn't even CLOSE to a sim. It's most definitely an arcade game. If it's good or not is entirely subjective, and it all comes down to what you want out of a racing game. If you want a boring career, and sub-par arcade-style car handling... GRID is for you. If you want realism, and proper car physics, look in the direction of the GTR series, iRacing, Richard Burns Rally, rFactor, Live For Speed, and so on.

@Commander: I like the Audi R8, in the (I think) GT Pro car category. It's a nice drive.

Actually Ezkaton, I have been playing Flatout2 with the G27, and all things considered it is still quite playable. If anything, having the wheel and accelerator allows precision cornering. Just got to be quick at turning the wheel!

Otherwise, unfortunately Flatout is not able to take full advantage of the G27 (clutch and H-Shifter), so buying one to play Flatout would be a waste of money, when a sub-$100 one will do the job just as well.

(Note: this opinion goes against an earlier opinion I had that Flatout is harder to play with a wheel. I suppose I just had not practiced enough. I am still undecided whether it would be fair of me to enter the Flatout2 comp with a wheel or not)

Yeah, I'm just not a fan of the game physics, so it's a pain in the ass for me to play it with a wheel, as I always try to apply real-world physics (ie: how a real car would react) to it, and that doesn't go down so well. Guess it just comes from too many years of sim racers.

Strewth, entered a race in GTR, in the Mini GT Rules Competition just to keep it simple.

Perhaps because I am an idiot, but I set it to 'Pro' to make sure things like Automatic Clutch, ABS etc are turned off.

At my best lap - that is if I go any faster I start losing control - the AI were a clear 10 seconds faster than me!

And watching them revealed quite slow cornering. Only thing I can guess is they've mucked with the drive train to make them accelerate to top speed quicker hit a higher top speed on the long straights. The map does have lots of straight sections. I suspect they have also changed brake settings to make them stop quicker. I'll back with my results...

Edit 1:
Okee dokee, in time attack mode, my findings: I increased 2nd through to 6 by two 'notches' (sorry I did not note down gear ratos), but kept 1st gear as is to allow quick take off acceleration. Took me down to being only 3 seconds slower. Still need to perform a run on default just to make sure I didn't get better at cornering.

Edit 2:
Confirmed: at the point of losing control, I was doing the Porto lap in 2:27 seconds, two seconds slower than when I had mucked with the gear ratios. So, car configuration makes a lot of difference!

It is probably these sorts of things, having to worry about brake bias, tyre pressure, gear ratios etc that turn regular racers off sim racing. But while it may be daunting to look at all the settings, fear not! For it would seem the good people at SimBin have included configuration files for each car, for each track. Load those and you are good to go.

Now I just have to figure out why I keep losing badly at DiRT 2...

Yeah, the AI are fine in GTR (minus the whole "we don't know how to drive around you 90% of the time so we'll just slam into you" thing). Not really any magic AI cheating, most likely it all just comes down to your car setup, racing line, braking confidence, acceleration control/points, etc.


If you're not too confident with doing the car setups yourself, you can always load the Simbin setup, or go "online files" and download car setups on there. People can upload their personal setups and others can download and rate them.

As for DiRT 2... that game is ridiculously easy. Semi-arcadey car physics, so the driving part is easy. You just gotta be a little aggressive when racing AI, and keep it clean and fast in rally/trailblazer.

Look up at the track map often, too... it helps a lot.



You still didn't add me to Steam (as far as I know)!

EDIT: Which car were you using for the 2:27 at Porto?

I was driving the Mini.
2:25 for Mini with taller gearing (2nd to 6th gears "+2" notches, everything else stock)
2:27 for Mini with stock settings.
2:32 for Mini with (apparently) very tired Driver.

"Losing badly" was probably dramatic - simple fact is I have a very hard time getting around the AI in the Baja maps - they don't like it when you hit them so I figured "agressive" style was discouraged - not that I am agressive anyway, I hate causing other drivers to crash.

Rally Cross I can't even keep up with them! I think I am too slow with gear changes. Also took me a long time to figure out there is no clutch in DiRT2. Whoops.

Actual rally is good because I don't have to worry about AI getting in the way.

I have not added you to steam yet as I would just like a little practice first. Keep in mind I've had the wheel less than 2 weeks

Knocking into the AI in DiRT2 is nowhere near as dramatic as the game makes it out to be... doesn't really affect much at all.

Also yeah, clutch, haha... I think it works as a brake in DiRT2?

As for Steam, you don't have to race me right away, haha... plus it's all for fun anyway. Not competitive or anything. Just be good to get the whole adding thing out of the way so I don't forget.

Did some driving around Zandvoort today in the 2007 BMW E90 WTCC car (not the 'extreme' one), playing around with Fraps. Just racing 93% difficulty AI. Might upload it soon for fun. Didn't record an entire race, just two or so laps of fighting to get to pole... I almost had it and I went too hard into a corner and come off the track and spun on the last lap.

EDIT: Does this forum have some kind of video embedding feature/option?
Link for now... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3SOWzziNAQ

I slept about 3 hours last night, so I can't really concentrate on racing at the moment, but it's fun to make videos anyway.