Am I just bad?

[Wilsonson]

I went to a sim racing center recently and couldn't run a proper lap for the life of me.

I don't have a rig at home. Therefore I play GT 7 on a controller and would claim that I am reasonably good. At least I am able to do reasonably fast and somewhat consistent laps.

Now at the sim racing center things are obviously different. Assetto Corsa, wheel and pedals, triple screen.

I was hot lapping a GT3 Huracan on Nürburgring GP track. I lost the car under breaking. I sometimes understeered into oblivion. I sometimes lost the rear. And the car felt like it was wobbling on ice all the time. I felt like the biggest racing noob on the planet.

Could anyone please give me a reality check here? The AC user interface was overwhelming. Therefore I have no idea about settings like TC or what not.

I was wondering whether GT 7 really is that far from reality and far too easy and a GT3 car is just that hard to control and yes I really am just bad? (I don't use assists in GT 7 and you would lose the rear there as well when flooring it in a GT 3 car but there I can handle it). Was AC and or the Lambo just terribly set up at the sim center I was racing at?

Is the learning curve for wheel and pedals that steep? Is it that hard to learn? I never felt comfortable with the pedals at any point. Never had any feel for how much throttle or breaking I was applying without eyeing the indicators on screen.

I would be glad for any pointers because I really like driving on a rig but my experience was no fun at all.

 

[charlieciplin]

I think the best way to describe this feeling is like trying to re-learn the controller somewhat, i.e you being used to applying forces differently (e.g using your legs instead of your fingers for throttle/brake, or using both your hands for the steering wheel) it's one of those things that's more loosely connected to muscle memory rather than "skill"

So no, personally it's more of a matter of getting used to the feeling inherently of how well you do on track, i'm sure that if you do more laps with a rig you'll eventually be able to get to the same comfort that you have with a controller

And btw, not really related, but don't feel bad about not doing great, especially considering if it's your first time and you've still got plenty to learn

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Sounds like you were putting too much steering input and not slowing the car in a controlled way. It may not feel like fun but I think transition part to wheel is actually the most fun. It gets boring once you get more the hang of it IMO. You will get the hang of it with more practice so keep at it. If there are people good on that sim, observe their inputs and learn from it if you want to speed up learning. There is probably a lot of help you can find online on videos too nowadays.

I went to drive on Renault 5 Turbo 3E public simulator this year which was using Assetto Corsa and majority of people kept spinning and losing the car like literally every second so I think majority of people struggle (Seen the same happen on GT rigs too in the past). Took forever to get a go as most people seemed to be like over a minute a lap off the time to beat, I think some of them even had say experience on games like Gran Turismo but still was struggling a lot.

It even had me worried as I hadn't used a wheel for over a year but fortunately I was able to adapt and beat the time by over 4.7 seconds which was enough to win a prize, never lost the car to oversteer too as it seemed quite planted to me but maybe I was driving too tentative knowing it was my last lap and had to make it count. Even for me though, I haven't used an ActivePedal brake before so getting used to that was tricky as you only get a couple of laps to drive at a time but about 1.5 laps in, I seemed to get towards a reasonable level with it.

You will naturally find settings and even different wheels can have a big impact even playing the same game so concentrating on getting a feel for driving on the limit will stand you in good stead. Develop good habits that would work in real life driving and it will make you level up quicker on all racing games.