In Which Joey Builds a Pretend Race Car

[SlimKlim]

So I've had this idea of cobbling together a racing simulator setup on a shoestring budget for quite a while now, and kinda like when you go down a weird-porn rabbit hole, I got to the point where I wasn't going to be able to get it out of my head until I bought the goddamn thing and gave myself some release, even if I regretted it later.

My initial idea was to build a decent PC that could support 3 monitors and build a dedicated rig in the basement so I could play it without irritating Lauren, but because I don't have much PC equipment to speak of I was looking at at least $1200 no matter how I sliced it. So I decided to throw something together to work with my PS4 and if I end up getting really into it I can always go nuts later on.

Anyway, it all started when DJ had 2 1/2 black E36 seats taking up space in his garage that he couldn't get someone to buy. Most of it was trashed, but one of the front seats was in decent shape, just a bit dirty, so I took the torn up shit to the dump for him and kept the decent one for myself.

I gave it a decent cleaning, and stuck it on some 3" heavy duty furniture casters with brakes. Then I bought an AC-to-DC power converter for $18 that outputs 12V @ 7.5A, snipped the car plug off of it and soldered it to the power leads for the seat so I can adjust the height and angle just by plugging it into the wall.



Selecting a wheel became far, far more complicated and expensive than I expected, largely thanks to planned obsolescence fuckery from Sony. Basically, the darling budget-friendly choice of most sim racers, the Logitech G27, is not an option for PS4 users because the PS4 has some little piece of software that requires a chip in the controller which the G27 does not have. The G29 does, but it is essentially the exact same model as the G27 with a $260 price hike. Because fuck you, video gamer.

There's a company that makes a converter to get around the software chip but after shipping and getting a wired controller that it needs to work properly you're spending over $100 for it and the end result isn't going to be very good because it's filtering your inputs through a regular controller with some sort of black magic coding.

So my two options simmered down to dropping $460 for the G29 + Shifter (because it comes with a clutch pedal but no shifter standard?!?), which I couldn't make myself do on principal because it's just a $200 G27 with a special chip in it, OR I could go for the $350 Thrustmaster T300RS, which is widely regarded as the best sim wheel for the price, but it doesn't include a clutch or shifter, because that's a $250 add-on, why wouldn't it be.

After reading some reviews I went for the T300RS because if this does become a big hobby for me, I shouldn't ever need to upgrade the unit itself because it also works with PC, and I can get different wheels, a shifter, and a different pedal box if I want, so there's "room to grow".


Now I just needed something to bolt it too. I looked at some cheap, <$100 ready-made wheel stands but I really didn't like the bulkyness of them and it seemed like you really needed to spend $150+ to get something decent. I poked around to see what other people did, and PVC seems to be a favorite construction material for it's price, lightness, ease of assembly and relative strength. So I got about 40ft of PVC, plenty of fittings, some PVC solvent cement, a 2x2 piece of particle board, some furniture grippers and a nifty racheting cutter tool to easily cut it down to size.

I started by putting together a basic frame with a raised support for the pedal box that could be hinged up for storage.



Then cut the particle board to size and made mounting points for the wheel/pedals.



This sort of worked but it was rickety and slid away from me every time I hit the brakes, even with furniture grippers on the bottom of it. So I added 2 horizontal crossbars for strength and made two braces to come off the pedals and rest against the TV stand.



There's still a little bit of flex in it, but it's not really noticeable when you're actually playing, and I still haven't glued it all together. I think the cement will help give it some rigidity in those t-fittings on the sides of the base, which seems to be the only place it wiggles. I might also try flipping the rear verticals so the horizontal bar is a little closer to the base and see if that makes it a bit stronger before I glue it all up.

But, that's pretty much that! Getting the wheel properly configured for the game is a lot more trial and error and math than I expected it would be, but someone pointed me to this site with specific configuration profiles for every car in the game as well as recommended global FFB settings and I've got it to a point where I'm pretty happy with it.

I'm doing a career campaign in a cute little Renault touring car with a penchant for ridiculous lift-off oversteer. The FFB is more convincing than I expected it would be. You can genuinely feel the tires go light over a crest or that disappointing scrubbing feeling of understeer.

I've also dicked around with some of the really high powered cars and decided that my brain isn't fast enough for even a digital F1 car yet (I hit the brakes for a corner when I think it's time and come to a full stop 100ft from the apex), and an Ariel Atom V8 on the Nurburgring is really scary. :lol:

When I get some time on a weekend I'm gonna throw a coat of black paint on my little stand so it doesn't look quite so ghetto, and zip tie my wires a little bit so I don't freak out any cord nazis that visit the house.

If you have a PS3/Xbox 360/Decent PC lying around, add a G27 to your Christmas list and I highly doubt you'll regret it. If you've already thrown out your older console in favor of one of the Xbone or PSwhore, you're kinda screwed into buying a more expensive one like I was but hey, for $350 I can race a digital car in my underwear on a saturday morning and crash as much as I want to. Hell of a lot cheaper than a real track habit. :thumbup:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Awesome! Glad to hear you actually got to use the seat. I really really do want to make a setup for IRacing but don't really have a computer that can handle it.

I do have a spare Sparco Evo and a C5 Z06 passenger seat that ill have to decide which one to use. You will have to let me come over and use it. But not when you are in your underwear.

[JPolen01]

That's pretty sweet. You have a place to keep that monstrosity or does the girlfriend not mind it in the middle of the floor all the time? And what game are you playing?

[SlimKlim]

Yeah man, you should definitely come over and try it soon. I'd love to see what you think of it given your level of experience in actual cars, I'll even put on pants. ;-)

[SlimKlim]

That's pretty sweet. You have a place to keep that monstrosity or does the girlfriend not mind it in the middle of the floor all the time? And what game are you playing?

She's.... reluctantly tolerant of it. I can fold the pedals up and shove it against the wall, but when company comes over I'm probably going to have to put it in the basement. :lol:

The seat just happens to fit snugly in the little useless landing area between my stairs so that works out well, it's gotta weigh at least 70lbs so carrying up and down stairs frequently is a no-go.

EDIT: Oh and Project Cars is the only game I'm playing with it now, there's still not a lot of good racing games for PS4 out but Pcars is about as hardcore as iRacing in terms of realism so I think it'll keep me busy for a while.

[*insertusernamehere*]

I got to play with this last weekend it was awesome. Especially when joey has a tv as tall as he is it just sucks you right in. I really wanna make one too but...that's for later on. The physics of the game is really surprisingly accurate. Get on the gas too soon coming out of a turn and the rear starts to kick out and you gotta be ready with that counter steer or its all over. Even in the amount of correction, you just have to do a little 2-5 degree flick and it comes right back, keep your foot in it like you all always say and the car goes. I was like "WOAH LOOK THAT I JUST DID IT". It's so much fun. Just makes me want to start real driving even more haha.

Did you get the thing figured out where we ended up having to cross arms? Or were we just understeering like my hunch was? Also you should see if there's a setting to turn up tire noise so you can actually know when you're losing grip or if you need to turn the wheel more or slow down or what. That's the one thing the game can't translate (yet?), engaging your senses like in a car.

[SlimKlim]

In the more normal car I'm using you can hear what the front tires are doing more, but I haven't picked through the audio settings.

What I ended up doing was using this guy's setting recommendations: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://pcars.oscarolim.pt/cars">http://pcars.oscarolim.pt/cars</a><!-- m -->, leaving the steering sensitivity at the standard 50 value because according to people online that's linear, and reducing the wheel itself to 360* lock-to-lock and re-calibrating in the game. Some internet people are still calling me crazy because 360* is less than a real car and therefore it must be wrong, but if I leave it at 900* like it comes out of the box I approach a sweeping corner well below the grip limit of the tires, input 90* of steering and soar off the outside of the track like I didn't even turn the wheel. Small inputs have literally zero effect on the trajectory of the car, I can saw at it and stay in a straight line. I'm wondering if these armchair racers have experience in a real car and think having to turn hand-over-hand in a 4th gear sweeper is normal or something.

However using the settings from that site and 360* of rotation gave me a pretty good feel. The track I was doing last night was a combination of really complex, wide open 4th/5th gear corners that subtly change radius and two 1st gear hammerheads that require going from lock-right to lock-left really fast, and after some practice I was actually able to get it with those settings, having any more rotation to deal with I just don't know how you'd shuffle the wheel quickly enough or find the upshift paddle on exit.

[ScottyB]

sweet! i love seeing people engineer some fun ways to build these setups. bummer about the wheel, but i think in the end you'll be glad you can piece-in the shifter when the time comes...sounds like you've got your hands full enough getting used to the interface as it is.

[SlimKlim]

Yeah, and unlike the Logitech the Thrustmaster shifter is a sight to behold.



It uses magnetic switches or something for each gear so theoretically it can never wear out like the Logitech will, and the limited gate is sexy. I always wanted one of those in a real car, I guess I can settle for it in my video game car.

[Mike]

This makes me smile because I did the same thing (PVC rig) eight years ago

Unfortunately, photos are gone, but it more or less looked like yours. I sat on my bed and had a more vertical position to the pedals so I didn't need to brace them like you did.

PVC rules.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iammike.org/index2.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&id=1180244601&archive=&cnshow=news&ucat=2&start_from=">http://www.iammike.org/index2.php?misc= ... tart_from=</a><!-- m -->

[SlimKlim]

This makes me smile because I did the same thing (PVC rig) eight years ago

Unfortunately, photos are gone, but it more or less looked like yours. I sat on my bed and had a more vertical position to the pedals so I didn't need to brace them like you did.

PVC rules.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iammike.org/index2.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&id=1180244601&archive=&cnshow=news&ucat=2&start_from=">http://www.iammike.org/index2.php?misc= ... tart_from=</a><!-- m -->

"Release of Forza 2 rapidly approaching" :lol:

So after a week of being brow-beaten by sim-racers on the internet for being an empty-headed moron for daring to reduce the steering ratio on the wheel itself, someone finally explained to me that you can adjust the steering ratio in-game for each car somewhere deep in the car setup menu, so tonight I'll try it at it's default 1080* or 900* mode and play with the in game slider to see if that gives me better control.

[Senor_Taylor]

Wow. This looks so sweet. I definitely need to try this out some time.

[Mike]

f yeah.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I hate you.

Just ordered this, now scrounging around black friday deals for a 3-monitor setup and then gotta figure out how to mod my computer to be able to handle it all.

[SlimKlim]

Muahahahaha

[Jake]

Man, these setups make my "G27 hooked to my desk using a crappy dining room chair" look like child's play.

Did some laps of Road Atlanta last night in practice for next weekend. Maybe once I'm better at keeping the car pointed the right way (I have a hard time with not going full throttle, full brakes, etc as most video games in the N64-era could handle) we can get some races going.

[SlimKlim]

Back from the dead!!

So I ended up pushing this thing off to the side and forgetting about it for a while, I never got the thing calibrated right and attempts to further troubleshoot the issue devolved into members of the P.cars forum telling me I didn't know what a car was supposed to feel like and me assuring them I very much did.

I suspected there was a software problem screwing things up, and sure enough when I checked the notes on the most recent updates to the game, something along the lines of "Improved support for Thrustmaster racing wheels" was in there. I downloaded the 4GB (?!) update, made some structural and cosmetic improvements to my wheel stand and started playing again, and it was everything I hoped it would be when I first got the thing.





I still haven't gotten too much "seat time" in, but the cars I have driven feel like I think they should. I'm doing a career campaign with a FWD Renault and the FWD behavior seems very true to life, you can play with the alignment to make it trail brake more easily, and being too heavy handed with the throttle coming out of an Apex will push you to the outside of the track.

The combination of P.cars and the force-feedback of this wheel is pretty remarkable. I've tried older wheels with comparable sim games and the feeling through the wheel didn't compare at all, nor does a more arcade-y game with this wheel. ( I tried to play "The Crew" with it because monster trucks.) If you have the FFB settings cranked all the way up to 100% it will absolutely tear the wheel out of your hands when you spin out, I keep it around 75% and its still pretty frisky. You can "feel" the camber of the road and the wheel bind up if you try to turn while braking, you even get a little nudge when you run up on the red & white curbs.

If I had any complaints, it's that P.cars is a little *too* serious, it would be fun if they had a few more street cars and/or classics available and allowed some customization, but I get that's not really the focus of the game. I'd also love to see more track options, they have TONS of European tracks but only the major USA ones, I know Summit Point is a bit of a moonshot but I'd love to see VIR in there.

Future Plans:

1.) I need to design a way to keep the seat from scooching around while playing, the locking caster wheels I put on it keep you from going too far, but they still swivel if you get too excited with the brake pedal.

2.) I'd like to add the shifter and upgraded pedal set eventually, paddle-shifting a vintage race car seems wrong.

3.) VR. Sweet Baby Jesus VR. P.cars already supports the Occulus Rift and it. looks. amazing. Unfortunately it looks like the cost of entry is about $2k because I don't have a PC powerful enough to support VR (or a PC at all, actually), so I'm gonna have to play in regular-reality for the time being.


But seriously, check this shit out.

[youtube]XMgw9Lhw4Mo[/youtube]

TLR; If you asked me 6 months ago whether I'd recommend a T300RS + Project Cars for sim racing I'd say no, now I say yes.

[EclipseTurbno93]

VR is going to bring these things to the next level for sure. My issue with these set ups is that they never felt all that more immersive than a controller , but with VR... That might be a different story

[SlimKlim]

VR is going to bring these things to the next level for sure. My issue with these set ups is that they never felt all that more immersive than a controller , but with VR... That might be a different story

There's a huge variation in the types of feedback you get from different wheels, and your seating position and size/distance of the screen all have pretty big impacts on the sense of immersion. I'm sitting close enough to a 60" that it fills most of your vision and makes it pretty easy to concentrate, but adding 360* video and head tracking will definitely take it to the next level. I am definitely going to either buy the VR headset coming out for the PS4 this fall or move over to a PC setup with the OR after they've had a bit more time to get established.

Also, going with the wheel was definitely not as plug and play as I expected to get fairly realistic feedback back through the wheel. I've spent more time reading spreadsheets and trying to understand what "Fy+SOPLateral," "Scoop Knee" or "Steering Gain" mean than actually playing the game. Its a combination of every wheel's software being a little different, the "out-of-the-box" settings for some cars being a little half-baked, and personal preference. Maybe some wheels and games are better about this, but it's possible that the setups you tried just weren't calibrated as well as they could've been.

In this game you've got 3 areas of configuration to dick around with, the global FFB settings affect how your wheel interprets the data from the game, the car FFB are more specific FFB parameters to control how sensitive the wheel is to certain forces, "Fy" = lateral forces, "Fz" = vertical forces, (i.e., changes how the wheel reacts when you run up on the curb). Then you have the actual car setup where you have full control over tires, alignment, rebound, etc.

Luckily there is a pretty big community out there for this game so I've been able to find a pretty aggressive/realistic feeling configuration without needing to have a doctorate in physics, just by copying the profiles people have posted with descriptions that sound like I want, and then gently tweaking them from there through trial and error.

Having such a detailed level of control is a blessing and a curse though, I'm still not convinced my steering input is as dialed in as it could be, and I'd like to give the wheel a little bit of deadzone because it's more "nervous" than it should be on fast straights right now. There's at least three different parameters that control each of those things, add in loading times and that's probably another full hour of trial and error. I also feel like there could be a better sense of the car's weight on initial turn in but I'm not sure if it's this specific car, the way it is tuned, or the FFB settings, and if I want to try another car for comparison's sake, I have to manually punch in the modified car-FFB profile first.

Kind of a pain when you just want to relax and play video games, but also pretty rewarding when you get it dialed in right, and way more engaging when you get it dialed in right. You know there is a decent sense of immersion when you're "scared" to punch the throttle.

[SlimKlim]

Some magician made an app that turns an android device into an AIM/Telemetry display via wifi, kinda gimmicky, but I was home yesterday so I made a stand for the phone out of some left over aluminum I had kicking around.