So there has been some ground swell regarding some racing 'round here. I am keen

So I thought I'd start a thread to gauge interest, talk about potential sim options. Thing is, even if there are a number of interested parties the sim(s) we race would have to be agreed upon, and we wouldn't want to lose participants by choosing titles that drive them away. So I'm hoping to determine which ones would draw the biggest crowd. I'm a realist and I know that things aren't like they were, and even a handful of willing and active drivers would be a win.

What I would want to do is run a league, where we choose a sim, set a schedule and keep a tally of the results to determine a SimHQ champion at the end.

So if you have even cursory interest in such a venture please post your thoughts, nominate the titles you'd like to race. Post anything you think is relevant.

As for me I'm open to just about anything. Open wheel, F1, GT, whatever. I'm willing to buy any sim that emerges as the top contender.

This is just to gauge interest and if there is some, to give us some direction.

League racing is a commitment, you sign up to show up. Maybe we run a race every Saturday night in the US. Aside from getting the crew together, agreeing on a time convenient to all is the biggest challenge, especially if we have entries from the US, Europe and down under. I am not naming myself commissioner, although I am willing to take that on, but anyone can as well. I have some experience running Grand Prix Legends Leagues. But the duties are minimal, just organize things and keep the drivers informed.

So this is just the first step, the initial investigation in to whether a racing league is viable at SimHQ in 2022. Let us know your thoughts.

As a plan B, if there's just one person here who wants to race, I have an open spot in the F1 2021 Co-op Career mode. See the world, meet interesting people. Win a world driver's championship. We could do same team or rival teams, doesn't matter to me but I'd prefer teaming up.

Definitely interested in some casual, friendly SimHQ racing action.

Hard to commit to a weekly league schedule from my end working shifts though.

Last sims I used to race online some years ago apart from iRacing were RaceRoom, Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2.

All of those titles have a ton of content and worked very well in those club racing events I participated in.

I have interest. But Saturday nights are for hockey in my house.
I am however retired, and fairly flexible.
Spring time is busy with yard clean up, and I have a 7 month old puppy demanding quite a bit of attention.

Interested, depending on time frame. Although I just started In sim racing so most likely I´ll be chasing most of you!

I would do some training sessions for those who are either new, need a refresher, or want to start from scratch In sim racing. That would be good as to get more people Involved. Just a suggestion as you can´t expect to have a lot of people jump In for a league, or have that kind of level of the bat from the get go.

Hey Frank. I never gave iRacing a go, despite it's Papy heritage. But I see that is popular with F1 drivers so it might be good enough....

Project Cars 2 is one I've been looking at since it seems to have a decent career mode. AC, I have. Thanks for naming a few and if more respond we can focus in on one or two of them.

Maybe the league thing isn't the best approach, but I like having standings and results and stuff. Everyone would miss events, and it would be cool just to see how everyone did with the ones participating the most near the top.. But if that isn't popular then yeah, some pick up racing is the next best thing. In about a week I'll have a racing pit haha and it will take another week at least to get comfortable with all this new kit. And then another week or two to get accustomed to whichever sim seems most likely around here.

Race Room seems like a good idea, as it gets a good nod from many, and it's free right? I've been out of the racing game too long, aside from F1, and things like connectivity, how easy it is to set up and find the server, and that side I've not caught up with yet. I'm a massive Ferrari mid-engined V8 fan myself, so one of those would be nice to race. Which sim has 458, 488 in the lineup? I'll need to look in to this stuff now. But you know me, and I'll race anything aside from electrics.

Good points Red. I should be using league in the most casual of ways, a collection of people, countries, or groups that combine for a particular purpose. Just a framework that provides a schedule and results. I said you sign up to show up, and I'll just scratch that straight away, until or unless it proved so popular we are turning them away haha.

Anyway we would have to start somewhere and I need a sim to start to learn that would be popular. Have you guys raced Race Room much? That's ten years old nearly right? I see it's unlimited trial? The site says

We allow you to test all cars for an unlimited time before you decide to purchase or not.

But you buy it to race?

Anyone that's even a maybe, post up a few titles you'd be interested in so we can so we can zoom in.

I think I'd be in to any of Assetto Corsa Competizione, Project Cars 2, Automobilista, rFactor 2. And of course I like F1. I'd go for iRacing too, but if that's still pay to play I'd want to explore these others first I think.

iRacing may be where everyone is, but yeah, no.

It is still pay to play, and expensive! Monthly sub costs US$13 per month. With that you get 26 cars and 21 tracks. That's a decent amount of content, but only scratches the surface. Any additional tracks you want to add will run another $12-15 and additional cars are yet another $12 per pop. So this could quickly run in to several hundred just to have a quarter of it. There are 68 cars and 80 tracks that are not free. Some quick math and that's nearly $1600 to get everything and you still pay every month. On top of that, everything that isn't the racing and driving seems so janky. I'm sure the physics are amazing and the driving top notch. In Kaemmer I trust. But there are so many other options that iRacing just doesn't make sense for me unless Max personally invites me to race.

A title like ACC is just $40 and that's more in my financial wheelhouse considering all the cash I just dropped to get here!

Not so fast! ACC is just GT3, and to get the rest would set you back another $70. That's way less than iRacing, but still dropping a Benjamin+.

Yeah, I say the league thing because that most likely will scare anyone who Is a casual, or newb to racing sims. The league thing will come on It´s own as people get more envolved If we are lucky enough. Not saying we can´t have something In the lines but I would encourage users first by learning as we go. People also get frustrated when they don´t meet expectations which would cause people to drop out and/or not attend meetings. It´s understandable and If we want to have this group grow a different approach Is needed.

We wont know the level people have until we start doing things, which brings up another approach of dividing the sessions into two parts, say first half a beginner friendly with the more experience on another track, and the second half altogether on the same track. This would motivate those who want to keep up with the more experienced drivers (2nd. half) but also motivate them to keep coming to the sessions to get better as they would be driving with others that are at there same level (1st. half). We could also have some theoretical clases somewhere In the time span of a session(s).

All in all It´s giving a propose to be In the group aside from just racing. Anyone who wants to race against can always join a online session, so It´s a matter of making It different for those who are In the group, as well as having a good time socially!

With regards to platform, I already stated RaceRoom In another thread. I only tried It out a bit some weeks ago but I uninstalled It because I needed the drive space on my old PC. But like I said, It´s free, all you have to do Is subscribe. Once done that there´s some free tracks and cars, and there´s the paid content which also Includes bundles. You can effectively try out any car before you buy it (time trial) , I think they give you half hour to try. There´s events and all that good stuff, I just don´t know how private sessions work.

As for other sims...

- Assetto Corsa Competizione Is GT only.

- Formula 1 2021. F1 Formula only.

- Project Cars 2, I rather play AMS or AMS 2. After the fiasco of Project Cars 3 I think this platform has lost Interest for most.

- Automobilista 1 & 2. Both are the same In terms of what they offer at there core. 1 uses the rFactor game engine (ISI) and Is a finished product, It also benefits from a wealth of mods. 2 uses the Madness game engine also used by Project Cars 2 although It´s quite more evolved then PC-2 physics wise among other things, the sim Is still being worked on. It recently received a free Formula Gen 2 car. Very Immersive and engaging sim IMHO.

- rFactor 2. It uses proprietary game engine. Has great physics and FFB, my fav. But most content Is paid DCL´s although It has a fair amount of free content. It´s still being worked on and although some pretend to degrade It, It´s still a staple among the sim racing world.

For diversity, It´s obviously the two titles last mentioned, AMS 1 & 2, or rFactor 2. We then have RaceRoom who also fits In this cat. iRacing well as I see It, unless you want to be competitive, pay for everything and be the cool guy who plays iRacing then I would discard this last because I doubt anyone new to sim racing will want to jump on that bandwagon unless "hey I am cool and have money to spare". iRacing could be something to come along In the future, I just don´t see It make sense now unless your very good at this, or want the glamour of being part of the iRacing platform.

These are just my thoughts/opinions, and maybe some guidelines. I believe In team work so I am all eyes and ears!

Edit: Personally I buy a lot from Instant Gaming unless the price Is right else were (Steam etc.) and never had a Issue with them and been doing so for many years now. Or did you think I am rich

Good post and thanks for your thoughts.

I think a starter area is a good idea, but I wonder if we'll attract anyone that isn't already in to this stuff. Like recruit a flight simmer and this is his first sim racing experience. That would be great if we did! So yeah, I'm all for that. On the other hand I would say that no one should concern himself with relative pace. I mean, Frank will be there sometimes and we'll all be mere mortals in the presence of an alien.

So even the slowest guy should feel comfortable getting involved, or I would hope so. It's down to the experience and camaraderie in my view anyway.

Great run down of those titles Red. I personally would prefer GT over AMLS/LMP and that sort of prototype cars, but honestly while I have my favorites, I will race anything. Except electrics. I will be away on those race weekends haha. If I can drive a Ferrari I'd be especially pleased. I've been looking and most of these have the 458, 488, 360.

I think Assetto Corsa Competizione is the one I'm most interested in to start, but we're still early in the process and anyway I'll end up with most of these before too long I reckon.

Another vote for ACC. I don't want to have to by dlc for RaceRoom or rFactor.

I am good with what you all decide too as I have these sims already.

We're flying by the seat of our pants so let's see what happens. One of the reasons I'm looking at ACC is the offline/single player side. Looks to have good endurance racing bones to it. Day/night cycle, weather, dynamic track temps. I've watched a couple of in-car videos and that's great racing. Like the spiritual successor to GTR which I spent so much time in. Race Room is the actual successor, but ACC fits the bill.

My new seat is due Wednesday, so I think I'll start with F1 2021 of course, and also Assetto Corsa (non-Competizione). My son and I used to mess around with it a few years ago, using the Momo. Something about it didn't quite click with me, but it was just a father and son sharing a common interest, having fun. Wasn't diving too deep. The attraction here is there are a lot of different cars and racing classes. I watched a video of the 2022 F1 cars and that looked great. Frank once shared a video of maybe '66 F1 cars? That looked great too. And AC has 700 achievements, of which I have three. This sim is a drag on my completion percentage lol, and they'd be coming quick. Like one is drive 50km in a session. Most of these must have been added later because I've certainly done that!




Seems reasonable to me! ACC would be good because frankly GT3 cars are in a great spot for online racing. Not the fastest, most powerful or aerodynamic. On the heavier side, not open wheel so they get along well side-by-side. As we found when our GPL league swapped to the '65 cars, the lower power translates to more consistent laps and better, closer racing with your mates. That's obvious I suppose, but at least our experience bore it out. The faster the cars, the faster the fastest drivers are.

If this proved popular around here there's no reason why we couldn't switch up sims and car classes as often as we want.

Whatever we race, it needs to have the ability to create a private server. I imagine they all do (does iRacing?) but that will be key. I would probably do like I did in those GPL days, any time I want to turn some practice I'll put up a server and if anyone's about and keen to turn a few they can hop right on in.

Chassis setup is one of the things I like most about sim racing. I like dialing in setups to suit me. I'd think all of these titles are good in this department?

Red2112, I saw you were running rFactor 2 today, are you running any mods ?

Timely thread! I just visited for the first time in months (years?) as I've recently re-built my simrig. I used to run SimHQ leagues here that were run by Magnum (former mod) on consoles. (Anybody know how that dude is doing these days, btw?)

I'm now exclusively pc and getting back into racing. VR has really made a big difference for immersion, making it all new again. Just added bass shakers to the rig and I'm there, in the car, at the track. Such a huge difference to flat screen racing.

I think just setting up some casual race times that work for many, and picking a sim or two that most have interest in is a great place to start. Once we have a solid group and nailed down a timeframe or two, then putting a league schedule together should be a smooth transition.

For me, weeknights on EST are probably best, followed by Sunday evening. Other weekend times are usually spent on outdoor activities particularly in spring/summer. Saturday morning could be good though, and I think that's when we ran most of the console leagues here that had decent turnout.

As far as titles, I think I have them all. Here's my breakdown of the majors that have been discussed so far:

F1 2021/2022 - to me, this title is more simcade than pure sim, and no vr support so I have no interest personally

iRacing - too pricey

AC - a bit long in the tooth. Great mod support though, but for league racing I think we have much better options below.

ACC - limited to GT cars, poor optimization and VR support.

rfactor2 - great feel, probably my favorite for FFB effects, good car and track selection. Cheap title, usually 7 bucks on sale. Solid sim all around.

Automobilista 2 - also very solid ffb, newer title, great optimization, tons of content, though the season pass for all dlc is 100 bucks. Plenty of content on the standard version though.

Raceroom - this is my current fav for ffb feel, vr support, online racing and content. You can buy all tracks and cars in one package for 65 bucks, iirc, though it's confusing and you have to buy VRP points on their store and then buy the package with the points. Its surely doable but not intuitive.

For very solid FFB feel, various racing disciplines and good vr support, I like the last 3 titles listed best.

Yep, I was just on there trying to get some clean laps! But I am a bit stubborn so I keep on trying.

With regards to mods not many, here they go...

Cars:
- Acura ARX-05 DPi
LINK
- ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1
LINK (awesome mod)

Tracks:
- Road America 2019
LINK

HUD:
- SHQM_HUD
LINK

Along with all the free official s397 mods that download when you first Install the game.

Will be downloading F1 2021 skins for the Formula Pro (payware) In short.
Formula Pro Custom skins

If your running the recent release candidate, you might have some Issues with the none s397 modded cars as there seems to be some Issues with the new sound engine with the none TEST cars. Full release will be next month along with the Q2 content drop so no need to try out the RC If you don´t want. I am also using CrewChief for onboard pit comms, works great and I love It when he calls out my name, makes me feel I am not alone!

Magnum is still active on Xbox.

I'm open to any of the titles that we've been discussing. My plan though is to start with ACC. Get the packs that add the 488 and the GT4 cars. No Nordschleife is a big miss. I want some solid single player content, racing the AI, and I think ACC will do fine there.

I added this and RF2 to the wishlist. Maybe there will be a sale in the next three days?

The GT4 cars seems perfect to kick this thing off for me, even if there is no GT4 Ferrari evidently.

No reason not to give Race Room a go too.

rFactor 2 is less attractive in some ways, not least is the pricing. But it looks to have really good car physics and maybe the best actual driving, not necessarily racing, if you know what I mean. Looks like it feels better, and the FFB is stellar, or so they say. You guys would know.

Good to know! Last I heard he was going to tour the country on a bike and gave up all gaming. I figured he'd come back around.



rFactor 2 is on sale for under 5 bucks at indie gala, a solid retailer, steam key:
https://www.indiegala.com/store/game/rfactor-2/365960?ref=itad

Only 6 more hours though, so grab it quickly.

rFactor 2 Is also on sale at Fanatical which Is also oficial Steam key dealer. In case you miss the sale. I posted it in the Racing Sim Bundle thread.