#RFACTOR 2 BEST ELEVATION CHANGE TRACK DRIVER#
#RFACTOR 2 BEST ELEVATION CHANGE TRACK SIMULATOR#

Even more 'sim-cade' type titles such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport have a realistic chassis physics simulation at their core, they typically just have a more basic and forgiving tire model. Most aspects of chassis simulation have been well understood and modeled accurately for quite some time now and other than the occasional bug, any true simulation most assuredly gets this right. Not only are tires a huge part of this equation, but also the hardest to simulate. It's important to understand the crucial role of tires in not only overall car performance, but how they feel to drive. We'll come back to that in a bit, but first let's talk more about the cars. Even the very basic, wheel clamped to the desk setup I started with still simulates the most important aspect of driving quite well, and if you learn to focus on it, can provide a great training tool. I think that freedom to experiment without consequence is where simulators really shine. Thankfully I've been lucky enough to avoid any major wrecks in real life, but I couldn't even guess at the number of times my sim-self has bought it. Even the best simulators can't, and personally I'm glad don't, replicate the feeling of going into a turn at 120 mph wondering if that vibration is just an out of balance tire or a broken suspension bolt about to come off.

#RFACTOR 2 BEST ELEVATION CHANGE TRACK DRIVER#

Cars & Tire ModelsĮven if a sim provided an accurate atom by atom recreation of a real life car, it still wouldn't completely prepare a driver for the real thing. Some sims even have a calculator built in that sets your FOV correctly based on monitor size and view distance. Most default settings are way too high, and while a realistic setting might feel claustrophobic at first, it allows a driver to better see changes in rotation rate which is very important for car control. Make sure you are setting your field of view (FOV) appropriately. Due to the accuracy of today's laser scanned tracks as well as the realistic immersion of VR, I would feel very confident taking to a new track in real life that I had only ever driven in a simulator.īefore moving on I wanted to offer a small, but very important tip to enhance the track realism in a simulator. Where previously going from the real world 3D environment to a flat screen was always somewhat jarring and required an adjustment period, with VR the transition became seamless. The inclusion of virtual reality support in sim racing brought yet another leap forward in realism for me. More information about the pros and cons of horizon locking can be found here. This mimics the way the brain experiences a track in real life, and allows a driver to see elevation and track camber changes. This has become known as horizon locking. Overall the tracks feel incredibly real though.Īnother big development in track realism for sims came when they started to incorporate the ability to lock your view to the angle of the track instead of the car. We'll talk more about tire models shortly. This could be the way the tire model in the sim handles smaller bumps however, not any inaccuracy in the track model. For example, the exit curb of 10b at Road Atlanta appears to be smoother in sim than in real life and this alters my line from one to the other. The only differences I have noticed have been with smaller rippled surfaces such as curbs. Of the laser scanned tracks I have driven, the claims of fraction of an inch accuracy appear to be true. I would always be eager to load up the sim as soon as I got back from the track to do some comparisons.

#RFACTOR 2 BEST ELEVATION CHANGE TRACK SIMULATOR#

Rather than what often felt like a repeating bumpy surface texture, it had the varied undulations that a real track does.Īs more laser scanned tracks starting coming out, I eventually got to start driving several of the same tracks, with the same car, in the simulator and in real life. I think it was the detail in the track surface that made it feel more real. It was some little known track in Australia I had never heard of, but it quickly became one of my favorites to drive. I first drove a laser scanned track in rFactor. Once we started getting laser scanned versions of tracks however, the realism took a big leap forward. Even with the best ones, you could learn the basic layout, but the details would generally be off. Most of the earlier sim racing tracks could best be described as 'artist rendition' versions.

Rfactor 2 best elevation change track