Sim racing is about trying to replicate the experience of real racing. "Trying" is the key word here. You will never match the experience of real racing no matter how realistic your force feedback is on your steering wheel or how amazing the graphics are on the racing sim of your choice. We made peace with this long ago and focused more on improving our experience mainly with the aim of going faster as well as improving our enjoyment of sim racing.
How we improved our sim racing experience
Our biggest step forward in improving our speed, consistency and enjoyment was to move to a load cell brake pedal. This made a huge improvement overall and led to the next upgrade which was a direct drive wheelbase. The improved detail from the direct drive wheelbase help us understand what the car was doing and made it much easier to feel when the car wanted to let go.
We also acquired a steering wheel that had magnetic paddle shifters for perfect shifts with rotary encoders and various knobs and switches that were not only very responsive but had raised edges that helped when playing in Virtual Reality (VR).
We coupled this with a GPU and CPU that was fast enough to drive our existing 43" 4K display to high frame rates. This big screen was amazing but was a stepping stone to VR.
Our final upgrade was purchasing a VR headset that was recommended for sim racing. This headset had good resolution and a wide field of view so that the in-headset display was relatively crisp and didn't feel like you're looking through a pair of binoculars.
So, is sim racing better in VR? We'll have to give you a quick list of pros and cons before answering that all-important question.
Pros of sim racing in VR
- It feels like you're really in the car
- You can spot an apex earlier
- It's easier to race side-by-side and overtake
- Our pace and consistency improved
- You can see across corners to spot hazards earlier just by turning your head
Cons of sim racing in VR
- It's not cheap
- You won't be able to see your rear steering wheel
- Some sims need a lot of tweaking to get good performance
- You need a very fast computer
- Doesn't always work so nicely with spectacles unless you buy custom VR lenses
- Some overlay software won't work
- It can become uncomfotable during long sessions
Is sim racing better in VR?
Yes. It is. In fact, it's absolutely amazing! For us, it's a literal game changer. The cons are an issue but we overcame the spectacles problem for example by ordering custom lenses from VR Optician. They have excellent prices and can deliver within one week from the time of ordering.
The overlay software issue isn't so bad if the car you are driving has an in-car display on the dash or steering wheel. Overall, it took a bit of time to get used to racing in VR but to us, it felt the same as wearing a helmet when riding a bike or racing a go-kart.
The video below is a capture of us driving in VR. It gives you some idea of what it's like to drive in VR but not anywhere as close as putting on the headset yourself. What you can see though is the ease at which we turn our head to see the apex. Its so much more of a natural way to drive and completely changes the way we approach corners when compared to driving on a flat screen.
Final thoughts
Sim racing in VR isn't cheap and won't be affordable for many sim racers. However, we think that it's worth upgrading to if you want to improve your driving and raise your enjoyment of sim racing to a whole new level.
