Frank 993 C4S

I bought the kit but adding and removing fluid makes no difference in pedal feel. It stays rock hard with little travel. What am I doing wrong?

ProCoach

alexaqui

My buddy took his crummy laptop and G27 setup to a rather high iRacing rating (top 25 in the world for Mazda racing) and "worked around" the limitations. His perspective is that the pedals are the worst part of the unit, which I see ProCoach echoing here. I have a G27 as well and for me the complete lack of feedback from the wheel along with the numb center completely turns me off from using the sim. When my friend transitioned to racing, all of that Sim time really helped him and he achieved podium finishes in his first season of racing.

Unfortunately, the upgrade from the G27 level to something much better is a huge gulf. The Fanatec stuff seems like marginal improvement with some drawbacks for a fair bit of money. The direct drive route + pedals moves things very quickly into the $4k range (not including PC, monitors).

What other sims are there that you recommend ProCoach?

matt33

Many options depending on budget and how much realism you are willing to pay for.

Strongly recommend a 80/20 style rig as you can infinitely adjust in the future. Several good manufacturers from the cheaper 4play rig to the HE setup and beyond.

HE Pro pedals (now replaced by the "Sprint") are amazing for the price point of 750 (then several great options at around $1200) and direct drive wheel is a must for realism (1000-1500) Sim-vibe+butt kickers for road feel/revs etc is really good (though setup getting more complicated now).

You should be able to go triple screen or VR (vr cheaper as required less graphics card and just single screen) depending on your preference. If you go triples.. do your research as there are 3 or 4 monitors that are the “accepted right answer”.

PM me for more detail and I can direct you to some good sources and a build thread of mine.

Ballpark numbers: (10k will build a very good static rig, don’t even think full motion at that number). Of course can go cheaper in lots of ways - back to the first point of how much realism are you willing to pay for.

Rig 1000
Wheel 2000
Pedals 1000
Triple screen 2000
Shakers/amp 500
PC 2500 (1000 on the GPU with 144mhz 27” triples)
Other peripherals/stuff/software 1000

hope this helps

Matty

mmuller

This is the last one I built for a client. Was an awesome rig to use. 3 x 43 inch screens, Fanatec control and a Ricmotech chassis.

I am going to build one like it now for myself

ProCoach

mmuller

No pedal mods. It was the client's first Sim and they just needed some time to get up to speed on using a Sim before they embarked onto the next step.

This Sim was super imersive because of the big screens I was used to my Sim with 27" screens.

I am not a fan of the Porsche wheel to be honest. I prefer alcantara on a wheel and like the gear display the BMW wheel has. The flat bottom also helps with the bigger guys in the Sim. Helps that its $100 cheaper than the Porsche wheel to.

ProCoach

brake dust

think 27 inch screens is the sweet spot - would not want to go beyond that by much. Beyond that the the size screen, the track/cars become unrealsitic big. Like VR better. Capture elevation changes perfectly

Horus2000

I went a different direction that most. I have a very small single monitor as I use an Oculus Rift VR exclusively. The caveat here is that I really only use iRacing for learning tracks and rarely have actually raced. The vr takes some getting used to and some people just can't get over the motion sickness, but I love it. It's extremely immersive.

I started from scratch. Here's my rig and an estimate of cost:
Obutto Rev 3 cockpit - $800 or so
Fanatec Clubsport V2 PC/Forza wheel with force feedback &
Fanatec Clubsport V3 pedals - This was a bundle deal that runs about $1300
PC - Best Buy iBuyPower Oculus ready - about $1450
Oculus Rift bundle - about $350 these days

I'm very happy with the set up overall. Only thing I've never used is the optional stick shifter that I purchased. That was an extra $2-300 that was wasted.

Good luck

MSWNCity

I find this thread very timely. I have been searching for information on racing sims for a few months now and I feel I have an idea where I want to go. Looking at a very stable chassis, direct drive wheel, high quality pedals (want to be able to mimic the unboosted brakes on the CS MR), triple monitor and a high end PC that won't need to be replaced anytime soon and one that has the power to minimize latency as I tend towards motion sickness. I am guessing this is a $10-15K project.

So I am getting all excited and then I read ProCoaches advice to not build a system like this yourself. It sounds like the build, and more importantly, the tuning of the components is complicated beyond most peoples skill set. OK, I am willing to pay a professional to help me build and install the system but where do I find a true professional to work with me on the project? I am in Idaho so already I am geographically challenged. Boise and SLC are the two big metro areas within a 4 hour drive.

Any thoughts on where to begin? Is this something I could have built, tuned and then shipped and I can plug and play at my site?

Thanks in advance for any guidance,

Mark Williams

ProCoach

Mark, I think people can certainly assemble a sim from individual components, I just don't think that without a significant amount of experience and knowledge, that person can leverage close to what it's capable of. In the case of motion sickness, which is prevalent in about 30-35% of the people that use even static, multi-screen sims (far less in single screen, jury is out on VR but somewhere in between), proper calibration and setup can make the difference between triggering motion and not.

I think there are plenty of folks that can help, whether they will do that without a hardware purchase remains to be seen. Ricmotech, SimExperience and Sim Seats are all pretty common turn-key suppliers. I would speak to Mark Lutes in the Atlanta area, also. Not impressed with Main. Still think Sim Seats hits the sweet spot in terms of power and value, and they're in your budget. Crimson Simulation, recently relocated from CT to Mooresvillle NC. They make some nice stuff.

MSWNCity

RobertR1

Gotta disagree here Peter. I know it was complicated in the past but as someone who built a rig a few months ago, everything is straight forward.

- Simlabs P1 rig
- OSW 20nm direct drive wheel
- Odyssey+ VR (rift before)
- Heusinkveld ultimate pedals. If you're in the US, get HPP pedals.

Outside of building the rig everything is plug and play. Then there is a library of information out there for tuning the forcefeedback to your preference. I'm hard pressed to think what a 3rd party would add.

Cyril

I am building a Rig right now. I did some research on this and here is my build:
I am still questioning about the wheel/Button plate/Paddle options.

i7 8th Gen 8700K 3.70 GHz (4.7GHz Turbo), 1080 Ti (try to avoid the 2080 Generation for now), 16GB, SSD,...
Oculus Rift + Samsung Ultra wide 49" monitor (144Hz, 1Ms,...)
JCL V2 Cockpit with accessories + OMP Bracket and Sliders
Simracing Bay OSW Direct Drive 20NM
Heusinkveld Ultimate + Base-plate
Manufactory GT3 Cup Seqential shifter

Still questioning about the wheel and button plate options: SMC, OSR,...
Paddle shifter: Ascher Racing if not included with the button plate.