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.

 

[Morbid65]

I haven't played GT7 specifically to compare, but have played the others and Forza and all that stuff on controller. If you are a fairly competent driver on a controller on something like that, then with a little time to get comfortable, deliberate effort, and some thought put into to how you go about learning, you will likely figure it out. It won't be something you can just drop into in even an hour or two though, and what you experienced is exactly what most people who made the "simcade" to sim switch went through.

One thing that is much more complex on the real sims is weight transfer, particularly when balancing the car with the pedals. Often people think of throttle and brake as "go faster and slow down" with little thought to how it impacts the balance of the car, and when learning a new track or car or title or wheel or whatever it's particularly likely to be a struggle. The issue compounds itself a bit as well, as people go out, have a few spins, quickly lose confidence, and now are lifting in weird places and unsettling the car on entry, or are on and off and on and off the throttle as they hesitate and each time they do that the balance of the car changes.

Pretty much all the controller oriented games dampen the feel of weight transfer. Controller inputs are often not as progressive, especially depending on what kind of controller or controller layout people are using, so they have to soften them to make the games a bit more friendly for players so they have more casual appeal.

As for the feel of things, you can't expect to pick that up in a few minutes on a trial. Just like when you learned to use the controller, you have to learn to use a new input device and adapt to it and grow into it, as well as learn what that specific title wants.

Another factor, at least when compared to Forza, is that most car types in the "real sims" have much more pronounced differences in handling. In a game like Forza you can generally hop from one car to another and be up to speed in 3 or 4 laps as the recalibration your brain needs to go through is nowhere near as dramatic.

Also GT3 cars are terrible cars to learn in, but they are trendy mainstream appeal things so sadly they are often the focus. With the assists and mechanical grip, they are piss easy to drive when they are underdriven which can instill a false confidence and make people start pushing too hard. On the flip side though, they are a lot of car, so they are easy to get into trouble with and they feel pretty awful when overdriven. Because of the assists, character of modern slicks, and (relatively speaking) higher weight, they feel kinda muted and aren't very playful, which means you don't learn much about the sensations of things like slip angle and mid-corner balance changes and such as you start pushing closer to limit, making it less clear where the limit is and therefore easier to overstep while learning.

A lighter, lower powered car with no/very little assist intrusion like an MX5 Cup or something does a better job teaching you about the sensations and feedback a car will give you as approach the limit, making them a bit more intuitive. Unfortunately, you might not have much choice of what to drive at demo things though, but you could certainly have a better experience with more freedom of choice.

As I said, your experience is pretty normal. I went through basically the same struggle, and I race with lots of people who went through it too, and lots that are still struggling with the transition.