Well this winter I decided to spend a ton of time in sim to stay sharp. I think it was worthwhile. We’ll see if all the stuff I worked on in sim translates to the real world at all.
Anyone here train using sim have any feedback on wether it’s useful? Does anyone have any clue what the pros do in sim? I’m assuming they are just testing virtual setups and the like, not really racing or anything.
I added the sim racing/esports tag to this. It’s a good topic. https://forums.kartpulse.com/tags/simracing_esports
I think what you use it for is individual depending on what your key areas of improvement are.
So what I found useful was two fold:
Practicing overtaking. You only learn how to pass by passing, and, you don’t get a million passing opportunities in real life. Sim allows you to pass 23 cars, pit, and do it again. And you can rewind your passes and try a different approach as well if you want to try alternatives.
Really getting granular about technique. You can really “work” the track and learn variations of how to take each corner as you work towards whatever spot in the leaderboards you think you can get to. You can try things that IRL might be a bit too risky to learn. You can also really mess around with weight transfer and braking/turning in a consequence free way.
As to how long-term simming sets you up for the real world, here’s an indication.
Gregor Huutu is an online ‘alien’ who in this article has his first run in a race car. The pace was there, the conditioning not.
Like you, I’m convinced that my time spent in rFactor has made me a better kart racer due to the reflexes you can hone and the experiments you can run. Both are worth something on track.
I dial up the AI and aggression settings to levels I can’t drive, and then learn to drive them. With full damage settings, lest one develop habits one doesn’t want in the real world …
How you guys finding your VR visors?
I just got the vr working a couple nights ago. It’s a whole new thing. Hard to explain but it’s very realistic feeling. Very odd sensation as you are going through a turn and you can feel the back end trying to come around. Hitting a wall scared be so bad I almost fell off my seat and nearly sprained my wrist as the car’s wheel got jammed into the wall.
Over the past two nights I’ve alternatively laughed, cried and generally have been amazed. I caught myself yelling “eat shit” to one of the ai as I finally beat him to take the race and I really meant it!
That doesn’t surprise me too much that he was able to hoof it around the track in 1:24, 3 off the pace. I bet if he could get up to speed pretty quick. I run around road Atlanta in sim in the skippy type cars in 1:28. 3 secs is the delta between a fast lap and one with a gigantic off with a fair amount of time spent getting off the grass.
So, if he’s out of the box running that time, that’s probably the equivalent of him coming out and running a 1:29 in his first session in the car I’m familiar with. I bet his iracing road Atlanta time in the car I drive would be around 1:26.
Running a 1:29 first session Is pretty impressive in my book, particularly for someone who has never even sat in so much as a go kart.
That’s Korsasport’s training at work right there folks!
passing emotions
I think it really depends on what you’re using your sim for, and the level of sophistication of your hardware.
Some use it just for mental imagery practice to help them get better focusing doing laps, noticing setups, working on race craft, etc. You can even use Forza for something like that, because most of the training is in your head.
Other more sophisticated, ‘proper simulators’ are used for setting up cars, and etc, but your hardware and running needs are much greater.
I remember hearing something to the effect that the f1 teams simulators require a full cpu/GPU per wheel just for tyre data.
Wouldn’t be surprised. The computing power for an F1 simulator is insane.
at least.
“Banks of servers are required to run and store the programs and their data. Simply keeping the server rooms cool enough for optimum operation is an effort.”
source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/sports/autoracing/f1-simulators.html
Cool article, thanks.
I’m toying with the idea of only getting on track Sunday race days. All other practice in sim. See how that works out.
Ha! That’s gold. I see you in your living room swearing at a guy who doesn’t exist and trying to run him off the road.
Can you point me to where you bought your VR visor please? And what sims are you playing?
Thanks Dom.
Interesting.
It intrigues me that these guys spend 50 million bucks building a virtual car as real as possible to then have a driver drive it without a helmet.
Seems counterproductive.
Well, how “hip” to pc talk are you? Do you have vr capable setup?
I run a late model Mac Pro with Bootcamp. 16GB, 3.7Mhz 6 core, HDMI and USB3.
Not cutting edge but pretty solid.
So hit me wid yo pc ghetto talk, homie.
Cool. Unfortunately my blindside is mac stuff so I can’t be useful about min req for that.
That being said, over the past few months, b+h photo and others have recently sold the Lenovo’s for 200, more recently the Samsung osysee plus for 300. These are more or less half off prices. These are windows mixed reality devices.
Does beg the question which work for Mac.
Bootcamp likely means he’s got Windows running on that setup - in addition to Apple’s OS