One frustrated sim racer with no home

[IFLATLINEI]

Its been probably two years since Ive been involved with a real sim racer and its starting to get rediculous. Ive been a console gamer my whole life starting with the Atari 2600 and have always had a love for cars with dreams of working with them and maybe racing them. Well I did work in the automotive field for quite some time but I never got much a chance to race. This is why I was drawn to sim racers and I got my first taste with Gran Turismo.

When I upgraded my console from the PS2 to the PS3 I was racing with Toca 3 because for the PS2 it was the only title worthy of the sim name that had multiplayer online. Since owning the PS3 I have tried to get my racing fix with GRID, Ferrari Challenge, Supercar Challenge, and the latest Need For Speed Shift. All of them were and still are completely junk. Nothing sim about any one of them I dont care what the reviews say or whats written on the case.

Recently I upgraded my workhorse PC. Its a entry level Compaq desktop with an Athlon XP x2 4400+, 1 gig of ram and a 250 gig drive. I installed a Geforce 220 GT card to get a little more oomph for watching fullscreen movies. I purchased this card because it didnt need that extra power adapter that the more powerfull cards need, which meant I could most likely run it on the original 250 watt PSU, the GPU is 40nm therefore power efficent and cool running, and it only cost me $80.

Now I never expected to game on this PC. Im a console gamer but my frustrations with the lack of real driving games for the PS3 forced me to download a demo and try it out. I thought I would download something older so as to not overwhelm my pc too much and I found GTR2. Wow pretty cool!!! The cars drive like cars should, theres damage, fuel consumption, Pit stops, tire wear, multiplayer online, and much more. Whats even better is that with this cheap PC I can crank up all the graphics settings and play smoothly at 60FPS no problem. But theres a whole bunch of options for sim racing. Ive seen iRacing, RFactor, GTR, Race 07, and many more.

Now it comes down to choosing one ill be happy with atleast till Gran Turismo comes out. I need one that has all the features a sim should and more. Im not interested in making monthly payments, I have enough of those. I would also like to get involved with a sim that has a decent size modding community. So the research continues. I need to make sure I pick the right games because these days money os really tight so if anyone has any suggestions im all ears.

 

[Aldo]

Welcome to the 'Planet!
If you want a good sim, for cheap, with a great modding community, get rFactor!

 

[Jump_Ace]

GT Legends is what I would recommend for you. At least try the demo, it's definitely worth your time.

Jerome

 

[tyl0r_r]

No monthly payments, sim quality, healthy (probably the best) mod community, fairly easy system requirements?

rFactor!! I'd like to comment on Jump_Ace's recommendation of GT Legends but I have Windows 7 so I can't play the copy of GT Legends that I actually own.

I have GTR 2 and I like it like you did, and if you believe that cars drive accurately in GTR 2 (I agree with you) then you will probably have a similar opinion of rFactor. It is similar to GTR 2 but with far more mod options and it actually runs better on my computer than GTR 2 does.

I just spent the last 90 minutes or so on rFactor with a Renault Clio on the full 20 + km layout of Nordschleife loop of the 'Ring. It was heaven, and my computer isn't even that good. That track is a mod. The car is a different mod. High quality mods are everywhere and they're free, so it's really like you're getting awesome expansion packs pretty much whenever you want. I can't recommend enough that you get rFactor.

As for me, I am passing the time until GT5 with rFactor, Nascar 2003, and just a tiny bit of GTR 2.

edit: if you want to save cash, I bet almost all the tracks / cars from GT Legends are in an rFactor mod somewhere!

edit: 100th post, w00t!

 

[BroncosXR8]

Hi, I've just started up (again) on GTR2. Didnt get into it much initially, however this time im putting the time into learning how to get those laps just right. I agree its a good game, and has plenty of mods too - try the WSGT mod its probably the best out there for GTR2. I have GTL aswell and thats just as good, albeit with the older cars and therefore slower speeds and increased braking distances. Although a couple of guys I know at work play rFactor and swear by it, I havent tried it as of yet. But it seems to have the largest (current) modding and playing community.

 

[IFLATLINEI]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Looks like RFactor is the favorite but before I buy it I better try out GT legends as well. Im guessing it should work on Vista. I guess Ill find out. I also need to see about getting my PS3 controller to work on the PC till I get a new wheel. Ive been using a Logitech controller to play the demos but it has a lazy left joystick and none of the buttons pressure sensative so the gas and brake pedals are tough to deal with.

Anyways thanks again and hopefully I get to race with you guys sometime.

 

[Aldo]

Just plug the PS3 controller in with the USB cable and you'll be sorted mate!

 

[Sharky.]

Not quite. You need a special driver to use the DS3 on a PC

 

[IFLATLINEI]

Yeah I now have my PS3 controller working. It was quite the ordeal because theres a driver /software download that apparently is quite popular but an absolute nightmare. It requires you to disable a feature in Vista that from what I understand makes sure drivers are authorized and secure. This didnt sit well with me not to mention I couldnt get it to work.

After more searching I found a driver that you just unpack and run the installer, hook up the controller with the USB and its all set. Ill find the link later and post it just incase someone needs it. Now my only problem is with the gas and brake pedal. I usually use the L2 button for brakeing and the R2 for the accelerator because they are both pressure sensative. The problem is though that GTR2 or Rfactor just recognized them as regular buttons giving me either no throttle or full throttle and the same with the brake pedal. This sint the end of the world but will be a problem if I wanted to turn off any and all assists. If anyone has any knowledge of the subject and can provide a solution id again be gratefull. Im going to contune playing around with it and if I figure it out I will post.

 

[tyl0r_r]

After more searching I found a driver that you just unpack and run the installer, hook up the controller with the USB and its all set. Ill find the link later and post it just incase someone needs it. Now my only problem is with the gas and brake pedal. I usually use the L2 button for brakeing and the R2 for the accelerator because they are both pressure sensative. The problem is though that GTR2 or Rfactor just recognized them as regular buttons giving me either no throttle or full throttle and the same with the brake pedal. This sint the end of the world but will be a problem if I wanted to turn off any and all assists. If anyone has any knowledge of the subject and can provide a solution id again be gratefull. Im going to contune playing around with it and if I figure it out I will post.

Glad to see you'll be giving rFactor a test lap! 👍

Maybe some of the games will let you play like in Gran Turismo 4 where you could use the right thumbstick as the accelerator / brake (up/down respectively)? That's what I did before I had a wheel and it wasn't bad for getting throttle control. I'm not sure because I don't use a pad but maybe it'll help, some of the games let you adjust the controls pretty in depth...

 

[ASH32]

Welcome to .

 

[Watchman]

Welcome to !