Wheel Noob

[mik]

So as reported in the Christmas thread - after about 5 years (?) wanting a wheel - Santa got me a Thrustmaster T300RS wheel & pedal set, Project Cars 2, and now a stand.

Fuck me it’s pretty immersive .

I see how people can lose hours / days doing this…..

[Matty]

Fuck me it’s pretty immersive .

Get yourself a VR headset too and prepare to enter....the twilight zone.

But seriously, do it. VR racing is next level incredible (although a little pricey, I'll admit).

[mik]

Fuck me it’s pretty immersive .

Get yourself a VR headset too and prepare to enter....the twilight zone.

But seriously, do it. VR racing is next level incredible (although a little pricey, I'll admit).

Have tried that at https://vr-simulators.com/ and yes. But can’t justify for home shizzling.

[dan]

PC2 is fun and has some mega visuals. Don’t get a pc and start iRacing though, that shit gets addictive and you can get a bit carried away…



Oh and I can confirm, VR is amazing. I can’t race on a screen any more, it’s just wrong.

[mik]

Matrix glitch - I am unable to see @dan ’s post. MOVE ALONG.

[Mito Man]

VR is god tier. You can nail every braking point every lap, always found braking tough on a 2D screen before that.

[Nefarious]

Thrustmaster T300RS wheel & pedal set, Project Cars 2, and now a stand.

Exactly the same as my setup.

As I prefer the single seater side of things, I built a wooden frame to take one of my old seats out of the FF. If you ever fancy it, you're more than welcome to pop by the garage and I'll mould you one to fit your backside.

[Foz]

Tried VR on Bathurst and was going to be sick in under a minute, do you just have to power through?

[mik]

Thrustmaster T300RS wheel & pedal set, Project Cars 2, and now a stand.

Exactly the same as my setup.

As I prefer the single seater side of things, I built a wooden frame to take one of my old seats out of the FF. If you ever fancy it, you're more than welcome to pop by the garage and I'll mould you one to fit your backside.

Cheers. Currently just using an IKEA chair with the stand, as i didn’t want to add an additional seat to the room. And as at least one miklet will play it too, that might not work (?)

[scotta]

Thrustmaster T300RS wheel & pedal set, Project Cars 2, and now a stand.

Exactly the same as my setup.

As I prefer the single seater side of things, I built a wooden frame to take one of my old seats out of the FF. If you ever fancy it, you're more than welcome to pop by the garage and I'll mould you one to fit your backside.

Have you got that amount of spare foam at the garage?

[mik]

Thrustmaster T300RS wheel & pedal set, Project Cars 2, and now a stand.

Exactly the same as my setup.

As I prefer the single seater side of things, I built a wooden frame to take one of my old seats out of the FF. If you ever fancy it, you're more than welcome to pop by the garage and I'll mould you one to fit your backside.

Have you got that amount of spare foam at the garage?

Exactly - cos I have lost weight recently - hence moh foams would be needed. I noticed Scott checking me out last time we met up.

[scotta]

Exactly the same as my setup.

As I prefer the single seater side of things, I built a wooden frame to take one of my old seats out of the FF. If you ever fancy it, you're more than welcome to pop by the garage and I'll mould you one to fit your backside.

Have you got that amount of spare foam at the garage?

Exactly - cos I have lost weight recently - hence moh foams would be needed. I noticed Scott checking me out last time we met up.

I was only looking at you to see what snacks you were stealing out of my fridge.

[mik]

[KiwiDave]

Tried VR on Bathurst and was going to be sick in under a minute, do you just have to power through?

Yep I tried VR on a mate's setup last year - the F1 game IIRC and I was ready to chuck after one race.

[mik]

Getting better.

Championship race - GroupC at Zolder. I’m piloting a 720bhp Sauber C9. AI competitors set to 100% speed now to keep things interesting.

Thought I was in free practice, but I was actually in Quali. So I closed that unnecessarily early when I’d only managed to reach 10th on the grid. Balls.

So the race was always going to be tough. But it’s also pissing down with spray everywhere. Oh fab.

After around 20 restarts (just like real life) I managed to get up to 5th on lap one, and upto 2nd at the start of the final lap. This thing pretty hairy - the ground effect hoovers it down at speed and it is grippy and neutral. Zolder has several slow bends however - and when the downforce disappears you find it has awful front end grip and you really need to wipe the speed off to coax it into them. And you then need to be quick with the oppo as you try and build the speed back up. Intense focus.

4 corners from the end of the lap the pup comes into the room and inexplicably noses the PS4, and puts it in sleep mode.

All race progress lost. Cocks!

So after probably another 30 restarts I either crash at the first bend, or get tapped / spin on the last lap.

Just managed another 2nd place finish. Awesome fun, but feckin mentally knackered.

[Mito Man]

The Dirt Rally games will give you a proper sweat. So much so I barely bother these days as it's just unpleasant after a while

[mik]

I posted this tweet a while back in the Random thread, but given that I don’t (imho) get enough time to play this thing, I’m quite surprised at the frequency with which I am choosing to play in this mode….

I’ve even created a snow/ice setup with springs, dampers & arbs softened, lower tyre pressures, and - crucially - the steering ratio whapped up so you don’t need to mash and saw quite so wildly.

Annoyingly PC2 won’t allow you to choose “snow” as the weather for some of the tracks which are further south (although you can do Bathurst), but Spa is a particular giggle with wide tarmac and some loooong corners.

[mik]

I regret to inform readers that my wheel developed a fault. At just 20-months old, it's still - thankfully - within warranty, so it (or the servo base unit specifically) has just been picked up by a nice UPS man who will ensure it's safe and expedient return to the Thrustmaster* service & repair centre en France.

I can't say I really noticed the force-feedback levels dropping off over time, but it did occur to me a couple of weeks ago that it was feeling pretty "light". Tried tweaking the settings, but whilst the feedback was definitely still there, it remained rather muted. It almost immediately then started struggling to complete it's start-up calibration, cycling to the lock-stop in one direction, but then failing to reach the lock-stop in the other direction. It would then re-attempt the same startup calibration ad-infinitum, until I gave it a little helping hand to reach said lock-stop. In-game the wheel re-centering was then fast (as you'd expect) in one direction, but very sluggish in the other - presumably due to the calibration being out of whack.

With mains power switched off, the wheel still rotates very easily and smoothly (ie no undue mechanical resistance), so the helpdesk remote diagnosis (TBC) is that the motor is dying, and they will stick a new one in. Helpdesk guy seemed quite excited at this prospect, as it "will be like a brand new wheel".

Lets see.... hopefully it won't take long, as it's very much become my go-to when I have 30 mins to spare.

* I find it impossible to say this brand name without my mind immediately taking me to Lord Flasheart in Blackadder

[Simon]

On this subject, I bought a Tobii Eye tracker a few weeks ago. Only had 20 minutes with it so far, because newborn, but very much looking forward to trying Project Cars et Al as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Luckily the newborn means the wife hasn't noticed it sitting beneath my monitor either.

[mik]

> Faulty unit picked up by courier last Monday.
> Arrived at their repair centre en France last Wednesday.
> Shipped back to me last Thursday evening (with a confirmation email that they had replaced the motor).
> Arrived just after mid-day today (Monday).

And it even works!

As I suspected - I reckon the power of the motor must have been reducing for some time, as a quick check confirms the feedback feels rather chunkier than it has done for some time.

Great customer service. Great repair turnaround. Happy customer. Kudos to Thrustmaster.