Purists racing in cockpit view vs exterior views

[DesertPenguin]

I've driven plenty of cars in real life over the last 30 years, cockpit view with a single screen is a long way from crap or unrealistic, if you get your FOV right.


Perfect excuse for a bigger screen

Trust me, I have many excuses, pretty much all gaming related. Enemies at longer ragnes in BF1 are harder to take out with iron sights so I usually stay close to mid. Third Person games are almost always off the table but I can't not play Batman: Arkham Knight. I'm currently unemployed though so while a TV is not in my near future it's certainly on my list of first things to buy when I get some savings in my pocket.

 

[Rinsky]

it’s just making it more difficult for no reason.

It's making it more challenging that's the reason. If it was easy then everyone would be using it.
I'm just as fast using cockpit view as I am with bumper cam and can race just as clean with it. I can turn off the HUD and race using the in car gauges.
When your racing in lobbies with like-minded people its one of the most enjoyable views to drive from.

 

[Paulzx]

Absolutely disagree. I get that you are saying it is more realistic but it's so restrictive in comparison to being in a real cockpit where you can see 3 mirrors and have a peripheral vision out of your side windows, can quickly glance etc. I use chase cam as I need to see what and who is around me, as well as the angle of the car. Being a pad user, you get basically no feedback as to what direction the car is in and if it is losing traction. In cockpit view it's basically like trying to drive a car looking through a postbox.

Fair enough if you want 'cockpit only' lobbies, but forcibly restricting Sport Mode races would be unfair.

I didn't actually suggest doing it in sport mode, I was more talking about private lobbies really. You're right, cockpit view is restrictive, just like it is in real racing, so you have to use your wits a bit more. Chase cam does give a good surrounding view I agree, but a real driver never gets that view, they have to be just as expert from inside the car.

 

[Paulzx]

Just give it some practice and you'll be able to be just as fast in cockpit view as in external view. No need to restrict it.

It's not that simple. I have 20 + years practice which is why I can be competitive in cockpit view, but when you get to the top drivers who are squeezing every last tenth out of the track, you won't beat them or stay with them if the are using exterior views because they have a better view of each apex whereas inside the car you're having to judge it more, and that is frankly, the skill of racing.

 

[user3392345]

Started with a 24" monitor, then 40" plasma, then 27" tripple setup(gt5/6 also supported multiscreen, that was fun^^), then a rift cv1, and now back to a single 55" 4k hdr display.
Single screen is cool and easy if you sit close as posibble
I dont know if you should use the calculators result as forced value. Its more a reference value. I think everyone have a slightly different reallife fov.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Wanting to be able to see properly out of the car and see what’s around you isn’t taking the easy way out and isn’t avoiding challenges, nor does it make you a worse driver. Driving blind and overly safe because of cockpit view isn’t teaching you anything about racing, it’s just making it more difficult for no reason.

Again, not true. The only view that offers you more awareness is third person. Other than that, so long as a game gives you the proper tools, there is nothing more difficult about a cockpit view.

 

[PirateAlan8]

I've driven plenty of cars in real life over the last 30 years, cockpit view with a single screen is a long way from crap or unrealistic, if you get your FOV right.


Perfect excuse for a bigger screen

Id go as far as saying that single screen is crap compared to triple screen or vr. There’s just isn’t enough width to the image... no peripheral vision, no sense of speed.

And a bigger screen just makes it worse. Either you need to sit miles away and its like your bonnet is 10 feet long, or you sit close and get big car syndrome. Either way you’ll still not have any width to your vision.

 

[Scaff]

Id go as far as saying that single screen is crap compared to triple screen or vr. There’s just isn’t enough width to the image... no peripheral vision, no sense of speed.

And a bigger screen just makes it worse. Either you need to sit miles away and its like your bonnet is 10 feet long, or you sit close and get big car syndrome. Either way you’ll still not have any width to your vision.

Once again not true if you can adjust your FOV.

VR and triple screens of course gave big advantages, but they also still have drawbacks.

Personally I've never had any issue with a good size single screen and a well setup FOV.

 

[Brzlav]

I use cockpit view exclusively and I would like to have the option to enforce it in private lobbies just as I was used to in GTR Evolution. I have no problems with Gr. 3 and Gr. 4 cars, I am just as fast in cockpit as in bumper cam (actually faster as I am used to it). The fact that I am only a midpack B/S driver stems from lack of time and lack of talent.

Problematic are the real life Gr. 1 cars. The restriction of view is quite realistic for LMP cars. But you can avoid that by using the vision Gr. 1 cars, so I needed the option to exclude them as well ;-). I am staying clear of Gr. 1 sport mode races because I don't want to use the bumper cam or vision cars.

Being a pad user, you get basically no feedback as to what direction the car is in and if it is losing traction. In cockpit view it's basically like trying to drive a car looking through a postbox.

You can use cockpit view just as well with pad, it's probably just that you are not used to it. A friend of mine changed to cockpit view completely after trying it out for 2 days as suggested by me (also pad user)

Have you tried driving the 919 in cockpit view? Each time you turn the wheel, the hands block your view completely.

That is what the height adjustment is for. The 919 is actually one of the easier LMPs in cockpit view and I enjoyed the mission challenge 30min race.

 

[Veinz]

There’s just isn’t enough width to the image... .

I play on a 65" when I can move the fov backwards like in Pcars 2, it becomes pretty good.

 

[Hallitrd]

As a former die hard chase cam user, I recently started using the bonnet cam, and it took the racing experience on a whole another level, the feel for the car is better and the sense of speed now became scary.

I've tried the cockpit view, but I'm not so much fan of it, sure it is cool and nice to try once and once, but it's not for me. Maybe there's too much of useless things there in the cockpit view, moving hands, airvents and other stuff, that has nothing to do to make be better driver or cutting the apex inch perfect.

JUST GIVE ME REAR VIEW MIRROR IN BONNET VIEW, AND I'M ONE HAPPY MAN.

Ps. I think its just a matter of taste .

 

[super_gt]

Awesome. I'm using a 32" screen and my eyes when in rig are also 45" away. I wonder what my FOV should be. I can't use the site becuase my computer can't use the version of Adobe it needs.

Your FOV for Assetto Corsa is 20,for Project CARS is 35.
For example, I also have 32" monitor but my eyes are 20" away and my FOV for Assetto Corsa is 43,for Project CARS is 70.

 

[polizei]

sometimes i find cockpit view gives me better times. Haven't tried it in all cars on all tracks but just messing around with the Dodge VGT car i was way better in cockpit than any other view. Not that the VGT car any kind of benchmark.

 

[Pedinhuh]

The cockpit view needs a lot of improvements before this could be a option:

-Make the camera less rigid and fixed in place, if you let the demo start in the pause menu, the gameplay you see has a cockpit camera view rotates on corners with the car wobbles a bit with the track elevations, they should implement that in the game;

-More adjustable FOV, the current settings are a bad joke and even with the sliders all the way to the back, you still have a vision of someone who sits too close to the steering wheel.

-Place the "radar" in the middle of the screenat the bottom, customizable HUD is another necessity too.

 

[tofuhero]

The only reason I stopped using cockpit view is safety when racing with other drivers. Cockpit view needs the "shadows" from bumper cam which appear when another car is close.

 

[iamjajo]

I enjoy driving in cockpit view. But, from a purist perspective an exterior view predates a cockpit view by years and would probably be considered truer to the genre of racing games.

 

[soundtiger95]

It's making it more challenging that's the reason. If it was easy then everyone would be using it.
I'm just as fast using cockpit view as I am with bumper cam and can race just as clean with it. I can turn off the HUD and race using the in car gauges.
When your racing in lobbies with like-minded people its one of the most enjoyable views to drive from.

It’s making it more challenging simply because you can’t see though. That’s literally the only difference between the views. Otherwise, every view would be seen as equal, which they obviously aren’t.

It just seems really elitist imo. I race in a league with great drivers and use the hood camera simply because it’s the most realistic representation for me. That doesn’t make me a better or worse driver nor does it mean I don’t like to be challenged.

Again, not true. The only view that offers you more awareness is third person. Other than that, so long as a game gives you the proper tools, there is nothing more difficult about a cockpit view.

How so? You can’t properly look in your mirrors therefore you can’t properly see who’s beside you or coming up beside you. You can’t take a glance over your shoulder. Not being able to look around you is a huge disadvantage when it comes to racing. I can easily drive laps around a track in cockpit but when it comes to racing against other drivers where you need to have situational awareness, it’s simply not a view that offers enough freedom to race safely.

 

[tofuhero]

I enjoy driving in cockpit view. But, from a purist perspective an exterior view predates a cockpit view by years and would probably be considered truer to the genre of racing games.

Test Drive II (1989)

 

[Brzlav]

How so? You can’t properly look in your mirrors therefore you can’t properly see who’s beside you or coming up beside you. You can’t take a glance over your shoulder. Not being able to look around you is a huge disadvantage when it comes to racing. I can easily drive laps around a track in cockpit but when it comes to racing against other drivers where you need to have situational awareness, it’s simply not a view that offers enough freedom to race safely.

Try looking over your shoulder or to your sides with a HANSS on.

 

[DriftMethod]

Test Drive II (1989)

I completely forgot about this game! Looks to have a decent mirror too.

 

[eran0004]

It's not that simple. I have 20 + years practice which is why I can be competitive in cockpit view, but when you get to the top drivers who are squeezing every last tenth out of the track, you won't beat them or stay with them if the are using exterior views because they have a better view of each apex whereas inside the car you're having to judge it more, and that is frankly, the skill of racing.

Just give it some practice and you'll learn exactly where you have your car. You're always going to have to judge it anyway, since by the time your car reaches the apex it's too late to do anything about it.

The best view to use is always the view that you are used to. If you want to use cockpit view, just keep practicing in that view until you nail it.

 

[Johnnypenso]

.How so? You can’t properly look in your mirrors therefore you can’t properly see who’s beside you or coming up beside you. You can’t take a glance over your shoulder. Not being able to look around you is a huge disadvantage when it comes to racing. I can easily drive laps around a track in cockpit but when it comes to racing against other drivers where you need to have situational awareness, it’s simply not a view that offers enough freedom to race safely.

I'm not sure what you are comparing here. You can't look at your left and right mirrors in any view other than cockpit with an extremely narrow field of view or with triple screens or VR tech. The way to overcome these things of course is with the proper tools. A radar or proximity application goes a long way toward being able to know what is happening around you without having to look at various mirrors or pressing a button for a rear view.

 

[ScottPuss20]

As we've already discussed here before, people have their own opinions about what view is best. To suggest that one view has an advantage over another is stupid because it's subjective. Only the user can determine what view is best for them.

 

[tofuhero]

I completely forgot about this game! Looks to have a decent mirror too.

Yeah, the mirror is surprisingly good. Even has a shifter. I spent way too much time as a kid playing the European Challenge disk. Getting into the 911 cockpit in GTS for the first time gave me flashbacks. Perhaps that's where my love of a cockpit view came from.

 

[Macboyilija]

Remember that in cockpit view you can change the camera position up/down and front/back.

How about you let people play the game they paid 30+ € how they want to?

How about respecting people that did not pay €30 to play an arcade game like need for speed ?

 

[Sven Jurgens]

I'll gladly sacrifice resolution, car and track detail to race sport mode in VR in cockpit view naturally. However on a screen, not a chance. It makes me feel like it sit in the back seat with blinders on. Bumper cam is not ideal, yet much better than restricting the small window with more useless crap.

The view being so close to the ground in bumper cam is restrictive enough, but it does have the advantage of better relaying the speed. I can't drive in external cam as it doesn't give me enough information of speed to corner efficiently.

VR is obviously the way to go, although PD needs to fix a few things first. Your view doesn't tilt with the car on banked turns and if you move your head too much in some cars the screen blacks out. Fun getting greeted with blackness while doing a shoulder check.

Anyway drive however you like. Wheels, Racing seats, DS4, Assists, 4K HDR, 1080p, 20" monitor, 200" projector, as long as you respect others on the track it's all fine.

 

[ColinNZ]

Seems to me that the purists just need to get together and open a lobby (like the rest of us do when we want to race using specific parameters). As for me, I'll continue to play the game using the bumper cam, as I have since 1998.

 

[Joe-dogs]

This is possibly the one thing that takes the shine off this game for me, because I'm more of a sim racing purist (and I know there are some others on here too), I drive every car from cockpit view. It's authentic, immersive, and this game in particular offers probably the best visually modelled cockpit views. I've been racing cockpit view for many years so it's quite instinctive. I know I sacrifice a small amount of time against others this way but generally I can hold my own easily. When it comes to the faster players out there, it does become a bit uncompetitive though, and most of the opposition do not race in this view because the general online mentality is to gain maximum advantage over any other factor.

People I race with have said they have tried cockpit view but can't get used to it. This is probably because too many alternative views are offered. I know GT Sport isn't exactly a hardcore sim but back in the day when Geoff Crammond released his F1 games, there was ONLY cockpit view, and everyone had to use it. That may be too much to deal with for todays gamers but very least we should have an option to lock the view in a lobby like Project Cars does, and offer bigger rewards to those who use this view, to encourage more people to play the way it should be played.

I know some will say they want to be allowed to use what ever view they want etc etc but frankly it's way too easy with an external view but because most people use that, it eventually forces us all to, if you really want to compete, and that is unfortunate I think because it kind of renders the cockpit view as pointless.

It's just my personal thing at the end of the day because I feel that cockpit view isn't really catered for, for players that want to use it - against other players using it because the masses are all using bumper view or the dial view. How many real life racing drivers sit on the bonnet of their cars or on the roof to drive...of course you would get a better view, but it's bit bogus really, it just feels like an acrcade game to me in those views.

If you could lock it, or there were lobby's just for cockpit view, you would know everyone has the same deal. I know the more sim orientated players will sympathise with me on this.

YESS YESS! God Post!

 

[bokimoto]

I have to laugh aloud every time a cockpit view user calls themselves a 'purist'.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Inigo Montoya

 

[Senna52]

I have to laugh aloud every time a cockpit view user calls themselves a 'purist'.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Inigo Montoya

Yeah, it’s weird, when I drive my car I don’t see two steering wheels.