Sim Discussion Monday – The Best Bits of Everything

[gambolmaker]

GTR2
- mainly the ability to save races... I don't know why this is a feature no new sims have, but for me it's the only way to be able to do an endurance race.
- Amount of mods, tracks
AC
- The look and feel
Automobilista
- The actual racing experience, including AI. Why this is being bashed so constantly is beyond me, I've had some of the best races against the AMS AI.
- Supertrucks. FTW

 

[Steve Worrell]

GTR2
- mainly the ability to save races... I don't know why this is a feature no new sims have, but for me it's the only way to be able to do an endurance race.
- Amount of mods, tracks
AC
- The look and feel
Automobilista
- The actual racing experience, including AI. Why this is being bashed so constantly is beyond me, I've had some of the best races against the AMS AI.
- Supertrucks. FTW

I think the AI is great when it is settled in to a race and not lapping backmarkers. It can then do some pretty bizarre things. Having said that I haven't touched in about a month and I know there has been some updates to it.

 

[shimon.ifraimov]

Assetto corsa: ffb, car handling, great selection of cars, mods.
RaceRoom: Full racing series packs, competition with rewards, sounds.
Project cars 2: graphics, live track 3, different types of weather and rallycross.
Live for speed: best public multiplayer, easy car setup sharing, lfs world.

 

[Rob Every]

For me I mainly play AC for feel and the quality of the race cars, no at all fussed on the road based content.

RF2 felt ok initially, but last few versions feel awful. Think physics and game engine are probably the best, but let down by everything else.

PCARS I have only dabbled in, great visually, great car selection, better than AC in that way.

Dirt Rally Best physics in any of these games, rwd in particular, awesome driving model, great stage designs and overall the best sim I have played for years.

Raceroom Great car content, interesting model sort of wane be Iracing. Not sure on playing as I have never really played it for long.

Rfactor The best overall for me, best contact, best modders, easiest to navigate through and the best community initially before it got divided to hell.

 

[Nick Hill]

This is already the best thread in quite some time! So many thoughtful (and some very funny) answers!

I'm reading through like "oh, he nailed it...no, HE nailed...actually, this next guy nailed it!"

Speaks to the current state of the sim racing landscape. Such an amazing experience on the whole, but most people (self included) are regularly playing 3+ sims to get there. No one sim is truly the whole package.

 

[Deleted member 113561]

So rather than focus on one particular title as we have done recently, this week I would like you to have a think about the different good bits from each sim, and explain to us why you like the feature and why you think it better than its immediate rivals.

I won't go into which is the most realistic one ... only real racers can tell this ... not some keyboardwarriors

rFactor 2

• FFB [best and most consistent FFB of all]
• Modding [modding very easy, most moddable and great results possible]
• Liveries [most easy to do here with a lot of extras]
• Netcode [most stable and best netcode, even with 300+ pings from across the world]
• Liveweather plugin [even this is a mod, no other sim has it properly]

Project CARS 2

• Graphics [this is obvious]
• Day/Night-Cycle [only rF2 has that too, but here is it most beautiful]
• Dynamic Weather [most weather choices and most realistic temperatures]
• Dynamic Track [incl. real rain flow and puddle buildup etc., no other sim has that so well done or detailed]
• Content [most cars / tracks and those are all high quality]
• Tire model [most advanced - note: doesn't mean it is most realistic]
• General physics [ie. most advanced differential physics]
• Best setup system [even though annoying setup saving, ingame easy sharable and a lot of options, all well explained ingame - last point makes it better than in iRacing]
• Audio [imo most realistic of all sims, from an artistic point of view it would be R3E]
• Price [you get best price/content here]
• Damage & Collisionphysics [iRacing is not bad aswell, but too much warping into each other and illogical damage (driving over small bumps with Merc GT3 = huge front aero damage), other sims have inconsistent or unsensitive damage]
• Best Pitstops [All animated and you have the option to change strategy during driving]
• Best stock user interface and HUD options [most easy to navigate and adjust, with a good look - not saying it is the most beautiful, as this is dependant on taste]

iRacing

• Driver Swap system [easiest to use with small fail rate]
• Multiplayer match making [you can have 24/7 good races here]
• Tracks [most detailed tracks, all laserscanned]
• Worst prices

Race Room Experience:

• Server- & Gridsize [biggest of all iirc]

Automobilista & Assetto Corsa:

• You can influence what the content of the next DLC is

 

[tlsmikey]

AC: graphics
iRacing: VR, track selections, multiplayer racing, FFB (only with irFFB app...otherwise it's terrible)
AMS: FFB
PCars2: Day/Night transitions, car selections, sounds
rFactor2 and R3E unfortunately don't interest me anymore

 

[Matheus Machado]

AC: driving feel, content, accuracy of cars and tracks and great modding platform.
rF2: the platform as a whole, driver swaps properly implemented, physics and ffb on most content. Finding physics exploits is fun as well.
iRacing: Online structure and attention to detail.
AMS: Unique content (Brazilllll), has my local track.
Pcars: Graphics and somewhat good physics. Amazing entry level sim.

 

[Andy_J]

My preferences in order of merit:

1. AMS. Just the evolution of the sim. The best at the moment. It has everything I want except for a sanctioned GT3 class.

2. AC. Beautiful graphics, great physics. Wonderful FFB.

3. RRE. Just feels right. Love it. But I don't like always connected to internet regime.

4. RF2. This has the best AI bar none. The physics are the most realistic. It's getting better all the time.

5. RBR 2016 mod. It's still the best Rally sim. Play it regularly.

6. Dirt Rally. Nearly as good as RBR. Nearly.

7. F1 2016 (I don't have 2017 version) Best single player F1 experience.

8. Nascar Racing 2003. Love it to bits. It gives me my Oval racing fix.

9. GTR 2. It was the complete sim and I still on my hard drive.

10. Race 07. Fantastic in it's day. Again still on my hard drive.

11. Dirt 2. I still have this on my HD and it is still the best for desert runs and crash physics and great fun.

12. Moto Gp 2014. This one gives me my biking fix, which I do need. Once you learn how to apex properly, this game shines.

13. Project Cars 2. I am still assessing this one. At the moment I like it for hot lapping and looking at the beautiful weather changes. The FFB seems ok to me. The AI is the worst I have ever encountered at this time. But it has promise and I hope the future patches fix this and then it might go up my list.

 

[bsmooth]

Best reason of all, and its any sim that does it well. I can drive almost any car, on any track and have a blast doing it.
A great quote":
“I didn’t do it for the money. I did it for the cars. Gleaming in marina blue, sunfire yellow, Marlboro red, begging to be plucked, and I’d do it. I’d boost her, and just blast to Palm Springs. Instantly feeling better about being me.”
Ok I don't have to steal them, but I get to drive them like I did !
On on any track anywhere in the world, even The Green Hell itself.

 

[scrawley82]

I would take:
iracing for online ability, the feeling of lining up on an oval with 49 cars knowing there’s no restart is amazing.

AMS for the sim model how races are run, flags and how it uses its content

AC for its handling model

And the leftfield one NASCAR heat for career mode making you work your backside off to drive for a backmarker and making you earn your drive in motorsport

 

[leseb64]

RRE: Sounds, dtm series, nice for dx9!
AC: nice looking...nice demo for generating money!
rF2: Physics, FFB,dynamic environment, IA
AMS: ffb, exotic series, nice dx9
iracing: laser tracks, online
PC2:

 

[ronniej]

Assetto Corsa - 1) For being created in the first place 2) Car selection, licensing, offlline play, Physics, FFB, modding capable. (car and track selection as result)
Rfactor 2 - 1) For being created in the first place 2) FFB, Physics, offline play, modding capable
Automobilista - 1) FFB, championship racing, offline play, modding capable

**Carrera4 for F1 1988 mod for Rfactor 2
**ASR for open wheel cars for AMS,RF2,AC
**VRC for open wheel cars for AC
**Peter Boise for GBW for AC
**Patrick G. for AMS tracks

 

[Isaac Chavira]

What game is that where the pit crew is featured?

 

[Wexodius]

AMS: for its championship creator, its wonderful AI, its compatibility with mods from GSCE. Just extends the life of this wonderful racing-sim even more.

RF2: Endurance racing, dynamic weather (of course this still needs more work but Studio 397 will take care of this). Also has some of the best AI, next to AMS.

 

[Andy_J]

What game is that where the pit crew is featured?

If you mean the pic in Pauls opening post, that is Pcars 2. I think..........?

 

[Emery]

Cars: AC models & AMS breadth, but with rF/rF2/AMS-style tuning options (e.g. can select long/short tail, engines, high/low downforce, etc.)
Tracks: AMS breadth x3 (or iRacing), R3E's trackside details, pCARS 2 palette, rF2's realroad & flaggers, plus pCARS 2 Long Beach
Racing rules & variety: rF2, but with AC's point-to-point capability for drag races & hill climbs
Driver swaps: a slightly more reliable version of rF2 that also included AI driver swaps including talent files
Tire model: rF2
Pit lane: AMS & rF2 with voice control of pit stop actions (fuel, tires, repairs)
AI: combination of AMS & rF2
Weather & Day/Night cycle: pCARS 2
FPS: AC (while AMS has best fps, it comes at the expense of not having VR-ready detail)
FFB: not going there as they're all too complicated to configure properly and there are many plusses/minuses to each variety
Replays: rF2's resume from replay
Visual damage: rF1 or Wreckfest (did I really write that?)
Sounds: R3E
Intro music: pCARS 1 (haven't listened to pCARS 2... is it better?)

[I've now edited this about 6 times to add more categories, LOL]

 

[Patrik Marek]

let me add Gran Turismo Sport amazing TRACKS !!
in the sense where you see a lot of people around ( mechanics, crew, pit board guys, marshals, photographers)

they all nicely move,
flags are being waved, LED screens are illuminated for the flags as well, .. it all just feels so alive and realisitc

I don't think any other game has it done on this level, maybe F1 2017, but sims are quite behind with this, especially some ...

also visually Gran Turismo is imo the best ( not even talking about the photomode that pushes it to whole another level)

 

[Nevini]

AC + VR + Motion rig = Orgasmic heaven. So many times after I fire up my http://www.prosimu-shop.com/en/simulator-t1000/53-t1000.html I nearly spooge my pants, despite being on a hair trigger with my wife

 

[Ben Scullion]

I often think of this very topic so here goes...

Rally sim:
The physics and FFB of Richard Burns Rally. The graphics and weather effects of a Dirt Rally or a PCars. The Sounds of Assetto Corsa or Automobilista

Racing sim:
The physics and FFB of Automobilista or rFactor 2. The graphics Of a PCars or a F1 201x. The Servers and netcode of iRacing.

Road car sim:
The physics of Assetto Corsa. The graphics and weather effects of a Dirt rally or a PCars. The sounds of Assetto Corsa.

That's my 50p's worth for today. Not going to go into the UI experiences etc because I can't be arsed!