I blame the Playstation Generation

I mean I do, but I don't actually have any issue with the general hoonery that this is...

In Assetto race news this week we'll be doing some class based racing - so those faster than the rest of us (Ace, that's you that is) will get a slower car, or at least that's the plan....

Don't forget Assetto Night!

So tomorrow night is Assetto Night.
If you've got it, come and race - friend me, psn me, call me, stalk me, err no, just join me online for some racing....

Sweeping up the dirt

I got this in my video feed this morning:

He's an enjoyable fellow to listen to, and I have to admit, I'm liking the look of Dirt4 - but then I have Dirt Rally and am no where near completing that. Hmmm.

Precedent set though, as I also have Dirt3 and never completed that either....

Got to remember why I stopped playing this!!

Challenging Cars

Here's a challenge...
I'm going to assume that you like cars, that you have a sim or other current gen racer on your PCBoxPro and some good speakers.
So, the challenge? Watch this and don't go and fire up your sim and race something red and fast. This is a fantastic bit of automotive pornography...

Aspirational Footwork

Go check out the Assetto "vote for a Ferrari" page - INFO HERE. One of the cars I would vote to see in the game is the F50.

The reason? Well, that game has reasonable sounds (so a V12 is going to be good), great physics (so carbon tub and stressed V12 subframe stuff mmmkay) and above all, is a manual gearbox. And this I love about this game.

If you have a H pattern gearbox, do go for a highland spin in a Lamborghini Miura - I think they've simulated the somewhat shitty gear change perfectly. Don't believe me? Go try an E30 at Brands and see if the change is as fickle as it is in the Lambo...
And if there's any doubt, simulation became reality last night for Ace my racing buddy as following a particularly major fence shunt declared a broken gearbox. Good sim... better sim as it was in fact his G29 shifter that had dropped second and third.

Anyway, of the F50, and this post title, I want this car, and I want to drive it like this...

In other news, that's not a ramble, it seems we have a quorum for Assetto now, so next week I'll message everyone and we'll race on in a private lobby! Time for me to figure out car classes!

I might be done with GT6

It's been a few weeks since I've raced on GT6.
I think that perhaps it's time to hang up the gloves for the PS3 and await the agonising decision of PCars2 or GT Sport to come to a head as release dates approach.
I suspect I'm the only person on the planet hoping for another six month delay to GT Sport, it'll give me justification to buy PCars2 first and follow with Sport.

Am I over Gt6? I think I am. The cars feel the same, the tracks, despite feverish development of new ones, feel a bit stale and if I'm brutally honest I've become a bit of a recluse in the evenings thanks to work and life pressure - I've been running Thursday nights now for something like over a decade across both Gt5 and Gt6, and I think that very few folks will really miss the Thursday night boost on racing that we have, "it's all about the race and not about the win" and all that...
So perhaps until GT Sport is out I'll call a hiatus and enjoy my other racers for a bit.

And in that meantime Evan and I are loving Assetto Corsa, it's such a good sim for consoles (thankfully on PS4 so we get the updates). The uniqueness of the cars and having to learn them is fantastic, this week we ran a GT3 RS back to back with a RUF RT12R. I think I'm safe in saying that Assetto may well be the last game to feature both Porsche and RUF in a game - a shame, but at least both marques are done justice in this game.
Despite ludicrous power in the RT12R the cars were surprisingly well matched, in part thanks to the ludicrous grip of the GT3 RS. If the sim is accurate then I learnt a few things...
a. I'm never buying a RUF - I'll die on the outside of the first serious corner.
b. On the other hand, power is very habit forming!

GT3 RS:

RT 12R

Source: http://www.assettocorsa.net/cars/

But this isn't in fact the reason for this post, the reason is because I've had a lot of fun this week with a $20 dinosaur for the PS4 - Driveclub.

This game really is a gift that keeps on giving, and this week I set a challenge around Sinclair Pass in a Ferrari F50 (not to be confused with the Ford F50, god no!)

Anyway, to cut to the chase, we're using Hardcore mode, so no assists and a manual gearbox, which I think is really how it should be in this game.
First up I set a 1:50 round there, pedestrian as it turned out as Daniel the racing buddy set a 1:48 a couple of nights later. Now I've reset the bar with a 1:47. I can see another half second being trimmed, and I think that'll be it - and I think that it'll not be me. Sniff.

Why am I going on about this racing, because it's ace. I can set a time, share it and at their leisure my mates can prove just how slow I am. And also because I recorded my lap...


And this game (as you'll see) has stayed fresh, it still looks great, and thanks to a PS4 Pro and SSD drive it loads like a cartridge games console (remember that!). Do I notice the PS4 Pro bit? Maybe, it's a solid 30fps rather than peaking as it does on the normal PS4, but I'm not fussy, I think my head only works around 25fps...

So for the price of a few beers you too can humiliate my driving ability... you owe it to yourself!

Finally some replays...

Without any further chat, and any fanfare here's a bunch of replays that I finally got to uploading.
You'll need to have a look to see if you're featuring in them, I know I am...

550PP V8s at a Custom Track

GT350R Racing at Trial Mountain - OldSchool's room for this race...

500pp at a Custom track

500pp Racing at Deep Forest

Another Custom track race - this one at 500pp

---

And there we have it. Finally!

Semi-Pro

It's easy to get into the spirit of meddling and fiddling until something is broken. I think being a parent is the ultimate expression of that in fact. But in the instance of my steering wheel I think I know where to stop and that's about now.

It all started with a GT Force Pro...

But what of the "Custom Sim Rig" that I've ended up with - lol!

First came a slipped disk, which meant that I had to raise the wheel, no biggie, it was like I'd been racing a dodgem car for a while anyway...

So I bought one, one that folded, one that never got folded. But if you're at all into basic engineering you'll know that the 'hinge' was always doomed to failure, more on that below.

Time flowed, and so did the money, as along with a PS4 purchase I had to get a new steering wheel.

So along came a G29, the haters hate, but it's really not a bad wheel at all, and the smell of dead cow stretched across the wheel is always welcome!

It could have ended there, but there are a few issues with the basics of my setup of PS3/PS4 and a G29 on a less than stable wheel stand:

1. Switching PS3 - PS4 meant USB unplugging, and they don't like being unplugged all the time (and I kept forgetting).
2. The bit at the bottom of the wheel stand was getting worse, only I knew not to put any weight onto the wheel, anyone else just stuffed the half arsed clamp.
3. Cables. So many cables.
4. And for good measure, my headset didn't work on my PS4, and was mostly flat in any case...

Queue the A-Team music...

First up was the switching, see the post below, but the addition of a USB source switch meant that at the click of a button I could switch four USB ports between PS3 & PS4, which meant....

I could get a cabled USB headset (got one of these: https://shop.turtlebeach.com/us/recon-60p-2071). 

Probably not to everyone's tastes (especially the over-ear thing) but these have a USB plug for audio that works with PS3 & PS4 so no need for charging. They also have inline volume and mute, which I've actually found very handy indeed occasionally. Ultimately they tick all the boxes!

Next was the wobbly wheel. I had visions of some heavy gauge steel affair, but the typical crushing defeat that is a visit to Bunnings actually became my salvation...

A much lighter, and frankly better solution to time with Mr Welder was a threaded rod that I could attach to a couple of bits of bent right angle brackets. At the top I just bolted it on with a capped nut (Tidy see!) and at the bottom I used some wing nuts and washers so I can adjust it if I want to..

Overall a total success actually. In doing this I've "built the triangle" so it's pretty rigid, but there's enough give that I'm not stressing the wheel if things do get a bit messy. It might fail at some point (hard to see how) but if it does another $10 at Bunnings and I'll be sorted.

And the eagle eyed amongst you will have noted that in doing this I've been able to route my cabling down the bracing rod, there's plenty of foot room and so few cables now in the way. Much tidier!

And that's where it ends?

Nope.

If you've got a G29 you'll know that the brake feel consists of a rubber wall that you have to push into at around 80%. What this transpires into is never actually getting full brakes.

So I removed it.

If you're racing bare foot then I recommend doing this, you lose end travel feel but you can at least get full brake travel without imprinting a Logitech logo backwards on the ball of your foot...

But there's more...

In my quest to get perfection, or indeed break something every expensive I did a bit of research and I found this:

http://www.gteye.com.au/

This is a progressive spring for the G29 (and friends). What it's done is made my racing exceptional.

The best example I can give is that in Assetto Corsa I used to have ABS turned on as it was next to impossible to get the feel of the lock up point. Now I don't.

I also spent up and bought the set of three, and whilst I can't say the clutch and accelerator have made a monumental difference I think both feel more weighty now, I can't believe that Logitech didn't make all three springs (especially the brake) like this in the first place!

And that pretty much is it. Though I'm tempted by this:

It can be found here: https://www.3drap.it

Not sure it's the best idea I'll have, and even they say it's a beta test, and in effect it would be installing an Italian gear box!

Still, got to be worth a couple of thou' on the track eh....

Final word - Race Vids on the way, left the drive at work!

Lazy Product Review

Maybe some of us have the carbon tub of an ex championship winning F1 car in our gaming room, but I suspect not. I doubt we've got the full force feedback multi-monitor gaming "rig" that many of our PC brethren have, no - I suspect that many of you are in the same space as me, a gaming set-up that's at best a dedicated seat and monitor and more likely if you were to describe your gaming pit as a car interior it would be velour interior & bench seat of a mid-western old GMC pick-up, or a couch as we call it.

Anyway, like a few of us I have a PS3 and a PS4, and funds for one wheel, a G29. What's more with the two systems I have a USB keyboard and had bluetooth headset for one and the PS4 cheapo single line earpiece for another. All in all more wires snaked across the living room than a mad scientists laboratory.

But I’ve solved it I think!

Behold, a USB four into two switch box:

Aten 2 Port USB Peripheral Sharing Device

What’s good about this, pretty much everything actually…

With this, I have four USB ports available, that with the push of a button on a long cable switches between two sources (four if you go large). And so, now I don’t have to be pulling cables out left and right to switch consoles, I’ve plugged in my steering wheel, keyboard receiver and now a USB cabled headset to the box. And now I can flick between PS3 and PS4 with ease, and no risk of damaging plugs.

Personally I can’t tell of any delay caused by using this, I’m just as bad at racing now as I was, so for now it’ll stay.

Of minor note, the other thing I did was get some cable tidy stuff like this:

And with this the plethora of cables coming out of the steering wheel are kept nice and tidy and away from my legs. All up less mess, and a lot less cable management as I switch between consoles...

More DriveClub

It's true I should be spending more time in Assetto Corsa, if my peers are anything to go by I'll certainly be the one at the back, and stay there thanks to a sim level of boosting - i.e. none...

But that's OK, because I have my happy place, and that's somewhat sideways in a game that compliments my sloppy driving whilst giving enough realism (a lot in the visuals) to make me feel like I'm playing a grownup game.

And they've just released another 15 track configurations - not 15 actual tracks, but close enough....
Here's one of them;

I do love ragging around in this game, and there's enough to make it worth comming back to fairly regularly - I've not even tried the bikes around these new tracks yet!

Oh yeah, and slow as I might be (nearly 10 seconds off the fastest run) I'm running in hard-core mode with manual gearbox. So no traction control, no auto braking, no steering help - all of which is on by default (bleh!).