Racing simulator?

[Brucepts]

Ok, so for my birthday last year my daughter and wife bought me a Wii (secretly think it was for them and they used me as an excuse). Anyways I've never had a game console before and find it quite entertaining and started giving some thought to a racing simulator.

Was wondering if anyone else out there has one and what it would take to build something? I found lots of discussion online about this already. Now, I'm not looking for a Mario Brothers type of simulation but something realistic possibly or close to realistic. A built console with a seat etc . . .

Anyone?

[jfholm]

Bruce,
Take a look at this one. The reviews look good.
http://catalog.ebay.com/Need-Speed-ProS ... op%3D2%22}
It is on ebay.
John

[Brucepts]

Let me clarify . . . I'm not looking for one to work with my Wii, I was thinking more of a dedicated simulator using a PC or game machine?

It's all new to me, just thought some of the forum members might have something. Course it would have to be a DIY project

[MrHijet]

Bruce,

Do me a favor: get a decent "racing wheel", download the demo of "Live for Speed" ( www.lfs.net ) and drive the demo tracks which are included.
If you are getting better in LFS, you will laugh about all these "arcade" games, which are called Simulations, but they aren't

I would suggest to buy a logitech G25, but it's pretty expensive. A cheaper alternative is the "Logitech Driving Force GT", it is officially a PS3
wheel, but works like a charm on the PC (as Logitech writes the drivers for all USB-wheels at the same time).

I was driving in race sims since 2003 and there are just some real good simulation products on the market. LFS is one of the best. The
developers are a 3 people independent software group and they are optimizing and developing the simulation since years. A good example
is the addition of the BMW Formula 1 car in the game. BMW made a deal for their trainingcenters and so the developers got all details
of the physics to built into the simulation. BMW allowed them after all to publish the car to all race sim fans, so it is included in the game
now.


Cheers,

Daniel

[blaktopr]

Hold the phone! I know what bruce wants for his WII!!! He wants to have a hand grinder used by the joystick while porting virtual heads. Then flip them over (enter cheezy Wii sound effects) and do a valve job. Ah-Oh, dont move the joystick too much or you will mess up the seat! Then put the head on the virtual PTS flowbench. Look, you can even see the guys hands...WOW. Press one button while rotating the joystick to lift the valve. Press another and rotate to get your depression. Then you get points when they are within a cirtain parameter.

You start out with a Briggs head, and keep doing them all the way up to the pro rank heads.

We will call it the PTS porting simulator.

[Brucepts]

Here is one is found?

http://www.rfactor.net/

Thanks Daniel! You get what I'm looking for, the others sucked down to much porting dust

Just what I need is another addiction . . .

[jfholm]

Bruce,
The way you worded it I thought you wanted something for the Wii. I have NASCAR Racing 2002 and 2003 full versions. They were originally by Papyrus Software and then Sierra bought them out. I don't think it is available anymore, I will PM or email you.

The 2003 has force feedback so if you have a force feedback steering wheel, which I do, you feel the driving forces on the wheel and if you go off track it shakes in your hand etc. It is a very real simulator in which you can change all the suspension settings tire pressures etc.

John

[MrHijet]

rFactor is great too. The rFactor Game itself is (more or less) a playground kit, where you can get other modifications to the game to get other tracks and other cars. Thats really great, but often you end in endless installations and track try-outs and so on.

With LFS you have a limited (but balanced out) car set and a limited set of race tracks which are fantasy tracks, but extremely well designed.

Back to rFactor: The engine of the game (so the core game set) is used for other games, which are made by simbin ( www.simbin.se ). These games are similar to rFactor (ofcourse), but have a nice preselection of cars and racetracks. Really great at GTR2 and GT Legends made by simbin. Both Games are already "budget-games", so you can grab them for 10-15 bucks.

I would stay with LFS first, as it really really is absolutely perfect for hard-core simulation friends.

Cheers,

Daniel

PS: By the way: Driving Force GT from Logitech is available for 80 US$ at amazon.com

[Brucepts]

Ok . . . official second addiction now!

Thanks to Daniel for helping me get my "fix"!!!

Built my own sim cockpit and have it up and running LFS. Here are a few pics of my build

[Hotz]

very very good Bruce congratulations

attention with curves