The sense of speed in car games.PS4

[imported_rik19]

First off I truly love car games today, they are superb, I just think the REAL world speeds when playing dont seem to feel or look as fast as in real life, so many times Ive gone off a track into a corner simply because I thought I was going a lot slower than the speedo reads...

Just recorded both project cars 2 and gran turismo sport at 70mph, they dont look that fast when playing...70 in real life is fast especially into a corner..

Hmmm anyone else feel this?, maybe thats why all the crashers are bumping people off the tracks online into corners etc..

Both of these are my favorite games..

 

[Downhill Dino]

Arcade games, both cabinets and ported to consoles, feel frighteningly fast at least.

 

[VBR]

Driveclub had the most awesome sense of speed I've ever experienced in a racing game, in fact sometimes it was a bit too much for me!

This video has a short comparison of the sense of speed between Forza & GT Sport, & Forza wins by a contry mile.

 

[imported_rik19]

I know driveclub is fast when i used to play it, cant anymore with it only being 30 frames per second, proper jerkovision compared to a 60 frame game..

 

[Morgoth_666]

Both of those look like you're going plenty fast to me. It's tough to estimate your speed just by your eyes even in real life though, as your brain adjusts to the speed you're going at. Driving at 80mph on the highway for 3 hours can make driving 30 through a town when you near your destination pretty awkward. You feel like you're barely moving, look at the dash and you're speeding by 15mph.

The biggest issue with games is that you don't feel anything with your body and your inner ear so part of the simulation is missing. Not really any way to reproduce those effects. "Head movement" helps a little, but everyone seems to perceive that differently so what makes it more immersive for one person makes it look totally fake to someone else.

 

[Wolfe]

@imported_rik19 -- The sense of speed greatly depends on a game's field of view setting. Some games like Project CARS 2 allow you to adjust the FOV, so you can set it to a higher value for a greater sense of speed.

I definitely have trouble judging braking distances if the sense of speed is too far off. If I recall correctly, I run an FOV of 85 for PCARS2.

 

[MeanElf]

...It's tough to estimate your speed just by your eyes even in real life though, as your brain adjusts to the speed you're going at. Driving at 80mph on the highway for 3 hours can make driving 30 through a town when you near your destination pretty awkward. You feel like you're barely moving, look at the dash and you're speeding by 15mph...

James May back in the old Top Gear days test drove the Veyron and experienced exactly this - slowing down after attaining maximum speed on a test track in Germany, he thought the car was doping 30 and was ready to unlip and pop the door open...until he noticed he was still doing 70mph.

Go to 8:45

 

[Sick Lenny]

Like others have said, you aren't feeling the motion AND the field of view in a game is limited so you are missing the high speed movement in your peripheral vision (which is keyed in on sensing movement).

 

[eran0004]

A wider field of view gives you a greater sense of speed along the longitudinal axis, but a lesser sense of speed along the lateral and vertical axis. Basically it makes the car seem to go faster, the world to be flatter, corners to be less sharp and objects to be further away.

A smaller field of view makes the car seem slower, but the road will appear bumpier, hills will appear steeper, corners will appear sharper, etc.

So you need to pick a balance between the two. Unless you have VR glasses (or multiple screens), in which case you get the best of both worlds

If you have problems with motion sickness while playing, a wider field of view may help, since it decreases the impression of vertical and lateral movement.

 

[lancia delta hf]

In Assetto Corsa, set FOV to 30 then do a speed run. Then set FOV to 70 or higher then do a speed run again. Makes a huge difference. Also try it on highlands short and the sense of speed is improved due to objects being close to track. If you put blinkers on going down the motorway at 70 mph it looks slow as there's nothing flash9ng passed. Same as a 500mph plane in the sky looks Like its going 20 mph.