Hello everyone -- Long time lurker, rare poster. This post really isn't about anything particular, just my thoughts and some general questions to the community about RRE and some of my options. A little about me. For years I was an avid flight simmer. Thousands of hours behind various flight sims (combat and GA, mostly GA). I had the full setup, multimonitor, yoke, pedals, throttles, TrackIR and hundreds of dollars worth of addons. Then, once I completed my private pilots license and bought into a real plane, my interest in flight simming wanned a little bit and I moved onto Xbox gaming. I'm also a huge motorsports fan and of course started messing around with Forza. This prompted me to purchase a Fanatec ForzaIII wheel and pedal set, joined a couple of online leagues and had a really good time pretending to be a race car driver. Two years ago, my 360 crapped out and I moved to the Xbox One, which of course my FFB wheel wouldn't work with. So, I plugged it into my older PC (iCore 7 940 @2.97ghz, 8 gig ram, Ati R7 340 video card, Windows 10) and started looking around for racing sims. I tried our rFactor 1/2, found a copy of GPL, and even played Simraceway before it kind of died. I installed Steam one afternoon, because why not and discovered RRE. I quickly found myself spending all of my free gaming time racing RRE, so much so that I decided I needed a bigger screen and 5.1 surround speakers. Now, I've got my Fanatec Forza wheel mounted behind a Samsung 36" 1080i TV and RRE is about the only thing I do anymore, simracing wise (I still have to goto work and raise my family, and mow the lawn and do all the honey do stuff). I sit in a nice office chair, tilt it back and slide the screen as close to the body of the wheel as I can and race from the cockpit view. My PC can push RRE fairly well at 1080i and for now I'm okay with things. However, I give myself a $300-$400 Xmas tech present each year to spend on what I call my man-child addictions (gaming, airplane stuff, Jeep/off roading stuff). What would you guys suggest for "upping" my sim racing? A dedicated racing cockpit? Updating the computer? New/better FFB wheel set? Should I just go buy Scotch with it and play with what I've got? Just curious what you guys would all do. I can't talk enough about how much I enjoy RRE when I'm really into it. When you get the determined feeling and you really feel like your in a car whipping around Leguna Seca trying to beat your best times.....man, this sim can take you to a different place. Pieter
Looking at that i would say mobo\cpu\gpu, if your happy with your setup as it is then what the hell go for a dedicated cockpit, altho, CSR\L Elite wheel and Elite pedals is a huge upgrade to what you have and would probably come in around your price point, i think that would be my prefered upgrade to that system. I went from kitchen chair n crappy little desk, admittedly with an ok wheel and pedal set to an obutto revolution, absolutely no going back, its like playing a racing game with an xbox controller then getting a wheel, you will never want to go back. Its much more comfortable & immersive, when i can be bothered that is, a much nicer overall experience.
Hi @mtbiker70 , the biggest improvement I made, when i recieved my Fanatec CS V3 pedals. Highly adaptable, can be plugged to pc via usb directly and within your Xmas-budget! You are able, to dose brake exactly.
Oops, sorry, it is a Fanatec Forza CSR with the elite pedals. I like it quite a bit, but I know there is "another level". As I said, my PC, while old, seems to push RRE fairly well, probably about 75% settings. Graphics are awesome and all and give you the wow factor in replays and videos, but I find that when I'm engaged and simply trying to catch the guy in front of me, I'm not really paying attention to the graphics that much. I'm focused on getting the guy in front of me! That being said, I'm not going to argue much about better graphics. The more realistic it looks, I suppose the more realism.
Wouldn't feel right to recommend going VR just yet, same goes for a better gpu and such, what you got should be fine until you decide to go VR. But my mind's been stuck on PCI-E SSDs (f.e. Samsung's 960 EVO) for the past few days. If you're using your PC on a daily basis, that might be a worthwhile investment, the speed is insane, even compared to SATA SSDs.
Well,that ATI is a really old dog,so maybe use about $/€150 for a GTX1050ti will give you some eye candy without killing your budget.If you don't want a GPU,consider buying a Playseat wheel base + bucket or maybe a DIY base with a seat from a real car and wood/metal panels.No reason to get a new wheel.Keep us updated.
Didn't think about updating a video card. What I don't want to do is over upgrade the video card. Do you guys think the above card would be a pretty decent upgrade? I suppose I could take the remainder and buy a shifter instead of using the paddle shifters. Of course, the idea of better pedals is tempting as well. I mistyped when I mentioned what pedal set I have, just the CSR pedals, not the elite.
If you dont use H-shift i recommend the new CSL elite pedals at 80$ and in your price range you can also take the nvidia 1060 at 250$ or the ati rx470 at 200$ and you will be at the next level With that combination you will afford the scotch too Merry Christmas
I always get a little twinge in my neck when someone recommends a component whose value is as much as the entire PC it is going into Sure they are insanely fast, even for an SSD... but their price (at least in the US) is still quite outrageous As for what to spend someone else's money on... Kind of tough to say without knowing priorities. How much do you value immersion, how much do you value performance, how much do you value graphics, etc. I would say, get some booze, and then fill out your collection of racing sims Steam has some nice deals going on right now. Otherwise, a shiny new FFB wheel might be in order. Thrustmaster T300/TX are good values.
Ach, you and your worthless monnies. Prices for the 500 GB one are actually ok here. Plus it's the definition a man-child tech present to self.
I only have 1 thing to say about that... Whoops, only read through the first post and didnt see the wheel name listed, soooo.... scratch the wheel upgrade
Well I'm in exactly your situation spec wise but I do have a rig and couldn't go back, so would recommend either seat unit for immersion or Fanatec V3 pedals to overtake that chap at Laguna Seca, I know where I'm spending your money! Seasons greetings to one and all.
yeah. Fanatec CSP v3. Bought them some months ago and it's a whole new level of brake control. recommended.
Thanks for the recommendation everyone. Right now I'm leaning towards a newer/updated video card (ATI rx470/80) and maybe the updated pedals. On the pedals, will the fanatec csr elite plug into my Forza CSR wheel, or do I need the USB adapter? What can I expect with the new pedals? What will feel different? The until I get everything sorted, I just picked up the WTCC 15 series, so I'm going to teach myself some new tracks! Thanks again for the suggestions!
Yes the CSR Elite pedals plug into the Forza wheel or you can plug them directly in a usb port on your PC. The difference in feeling will depend on what you have now. Load cell pedals take some getting used to but feel much better.
Just keep in mind that RX470 and especially the 480 aren't going to reach their full potential with that i7.
How limited would it be? I've tinkered around with updating the CPU, even considered starting to piece together a whole new PC. Would the run at 60% 80% potential? I'm only pushing a 1080 TV, would I be able to max out RRE settings at that res? I've only got 8 gig of ram as well. I don't remember the speed, but when I updated it several years ago, I bought the fastest the mobo could handle.
RRE for now is DirectX9 based.So,except for shadows/reflections/motion blur and AA,with an RX470/480 you should be able to run every other setting on full.
Hmm, so those items (motion blur, shadows etc) are not capable in DX9? Sorry for the rookie questions. My CPU would limit those things? If DX9, the options are in RRE, but the gfx engine isn't capable?