GTS has made me a better driver, how about you?

  • Thread starter CliveH
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CliveH

85
United Kingdom
Forest Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne
I've been racing video games for years, and I mean years. Anybody remember Revs on the BBC Micro?

However with the rating system on GTS I feel I've put a lot more effort into improving my driving skills with this game. Driving with no TC etc. and putting a lot of effort into learning the tracks and improving my qualifying times.

Do other people feel the same?
 
I've had my first ever car accident since playing GTS since I didn't do a proper shoulder check on a lane change. No radar in real life :/ Not SR.S anymore in RL. Luckily very little damage, nobody got hurt, was only going 45kph at the time, slowed down carefully not to create a bigger mess. So nope, don't feel the same!
 
Sven Jurgens
I've had my first ever car accident since playing GTS since I didn't do a proper shoulder check on a lane change. No radar in real life :/ Not SR.S anymore in RL. Luckily very little damage, nobody got hurt, was only going 45kph at the time, slowed down carefully not to create a bigger mess. So nope, don't feel the same!
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Sorry to hear that! Did the other guys SR drop? :-)
 
As far as gaming, yes. I definitely work harder to be better than any other driving game that I've played. (Although, I'm more of a Gran Turismo player than a gamer.)

In real life, yes. On the street, it's not about driving faster, but being aware of my surroundings and understanding car handling. It's my belief that people who play racing games generally know where other cars are and are better at predicting what they are going to do. For example, when there are 2 turning lanes and the car on the inside lane turns in too early, I can expect them to go wide at corner exit and I will be cautious if I'm in the outside lane. I know a lot of people don't recognize that and are forced to react much later.

I'm not trying to imply that GT Sport will teach people how to drive in real life and I do see the consequences of it possibly making people drive too fast. But, I feel more competent as a Driver compared to a person that operates a car.
 
Yes it made me a little better. But I really got better at sim racing with Project Cars 1. GT sport helped tighten up my skills a step further though.
 
Simracing in general can really help you improve some aspects of your real life driving - but not all. Even when the physics aren't completely perfect, if you're really fast in game, you're most probably at least competent with the basics. But real life has a lot more things going on, and some of them you just can't reproduce them in a game.

I know for one than studying my telemetry in GT6 made me realize a few things wrong I was doing in real life as well, such as bringing too much brake to the apex. But even GT Academy winners need some real life training to be competitive on real tracks, so I'd say : use sims to spot what you're doing wrong, not what you're doing right ;)
 
Depends what you mean, better on a racetrack or on the road. Absolutely no way it makes you a better/safer driver on the road e.g. when commuting. I have found myself driving too close to cars recently! Funny moment this morning though, was on the motorway and I saw a yellow Megane coming up fast in the rear view mirror, had to think for a moment whether to block them or move over! Then remembered I was on the road!!
 
It used to be the faster the car, the faster I was. But now in GTS, I'm faster in slower cars and I have no idea why.


Jerome
 
Voodoovaj
The basics are there. Following lines and markers and such.

What's missing is the fear when you go into a corner at those speeds.
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very true, i've done some amature track days with friends. and even though we're on professional circuits with safety cars and personnel, it's still very nerv wrecking coming up to a corner and shifting down while slowing for the follow and out.

Whenever I race, in any game or in real life i keep the porches mantra in my head. "Slow in, fast out" :)
 
PrinceAsh7
I don't think GT Sport can make you a very competent driver in real life.
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You'd be surprised the things it can do for you. For example, if you use a wheel and need to be careful on the throttle to avoid spinning high powered RWD racecars you can use that on the road in your daily driver, especially in inclement weather situations. That throttle control also can make you more fuel efficient. :D

It can definitely make you better, just need to be careful it doesn't make you cocky and stupid.
 
DigitalBaka
You'd be surprised the things it can do for you. For example, if you use a wheel and need to be careful on the throttle to avoid spinning high powered RWD racecars you can use that on the road in your daily driver, especially in inclement weather situations. That throttle control also can make you more fuel efficient. :D

It can definitely make you better, just need to be careful it doesn't make you cocky and stupid.
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Throttle response on a driving sim rig, will never properly emulate a real throttle reponse from a good performing car.
also weather control in real life is much MUCH diffirent than in games. i find driving in the wet in games much harder to control than in real life.

I feel if driving games could give anything, it would be, pay attention to blind spots and possibly driving lines. thats it.
 
thestig911
Depends what you mean, better on a racetrack or on the road. Absolutely no way it makes you a better/safer driver on the road e.g. when commuting. I have found myself driving too close to cars recently! Funny moment this morning though, was on the motorway and I saw a yellow Megane coming up fast in the rear view mirror, had to think for a moment whether to block them or move over! Then remembered I was on the road!!
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Now what you're talking about is just a matter of behavior, not skills / technique. But having a better knowledge of car physics and better control over your vehicule will make you a better driver on public roads, if you drive them with the right mindset. Just a few weeks after getting my license, I was driving a canyon road in the alps during winter at night. The road being next to a river, a blind right hander just after a left kink ended up being way more slippery, the rear started to slide but I didn't panic and just kept a bit of throttle with little countersteering (FWD car) and got away with that like it was nothing. I doubt I'd saved it if I never played any simracer before that.
 
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PrinceAsh7
Throttle response on a driving sim rig, will never properly emulate a real throttle reponse from a good performing car.
also weather control in real life is much MUCH diffirent than in games. i find driving in the wet in games much harder to control than in real life.

I feel if driving games could give anything, it would be, pay attention to blind spots and possibly driving lines. thats it.
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Let me see if I can clarify my statement a little.

I'm not saying that you'll know exactly how much throttle to give a Viper to shred corners on your commute. Having watched a great many family and friends from the back seat I feel like most people have 3 maybe 4 foot positions on the go pedal: completely off, halfway for normal cruising and full on when passing. If that was how it was meant to be used it would be a button or toggle.

Speaking for myself, I know that I have learned to use many more of the innumerable positions available, based on situation of course. I know if I feel that I'm not getting grip on accel in my FF daily (like on the wet, salty, slippery roads this morning) that yanking my foot off the pedal like most do when the car does something unexpected is not necessarily the best way to go. You can flip that around on the brakes as well; it's not just off and on and half, not even in a single maneuver.

Do I use "race knowledge" every day? Not really. Does it help all the time? Certainly not. However, the more you race, the more you drive the more you see and experience and learn from GTS or PC or Forza in a conceptual way doesn't do nothing for you out on the road.
 
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I fully believe that online racing makes you a better every day driver as long as you don't start driving faster because of it.

If you could run an experiment and find out how accurately drivers could describe the traffic around them, I feel confident that people who race online will do much better. Having a better awareness of the cars around you makes you a better driver. Most people are clueless to the traffic around them, they only see what's directly in front of them. Racers, even online racers, should be trained to keep an eye on mirrors and look much farther ahead.
 
Personally I find all sims, using a wheel and gearbox, have improved my hand/ eye/feet coordination as well as reaction times. I find I'm more sensitive to lateral movement and grip too making smoother quicker corrections. Used to less grip in the rain on sims. Just have to keep the 'Macho attitude' in check, as the consequences suck IRL.
 
I tend to think it improves coordination, but online you don't have the feeling of speed and heft of the car that you get in a vehicle. I tend to think owning sports cars and autocrossing IRL made me a little better at GT in general.
 
Irl? No. Irl I ride a motorbike pretty much all year round. That has made me a better driver, far better than any game or sim could. Plus, they don't have a sugarbeet and lumpy tractor mud avoidance license test on GTS. :D
 
Well OP, you asked a question so I'll give you an honest answer.

GT Sport has in no way made me a better driver.

The physics are absolutely ridiculo... I mean questionable, and do not accurately model how a real car interacts with tarmac.

The game is tremendously good in other areas, and hopefully is leading the charge in the future of matchmaking.
 
CliveH
I've been racing video games for years, and I mean years. Anybody remember Revs on the BBC Micro?

However with the rating system on GTS I feel I've put a lot more effort into improving my driving skills with this game. Driving with no TC etc. and putting a lot of effort into learning the tracks and improving my qualifying times.

Do other people feel the same?
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I'll assume you mean better driving in games. And I must say, that I certainly feel this is the case. If I get the chance, I'll fire GT6 back up and see if I can finally gold those Senna time trials. If I can, my answer will be a definite yes.
 
Corsa
Well OP, you asked a question so I'll give you an honest answer.

GT Sport has in no way made me a better driver.

The physics are absolutely ridiculo... I mean questionable, and do not accurately model how a real car interacts with tarmac.

The game is tremendously good in other areas, and hopefully is leading the charge in the future of matchmaking.
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Due to the simplified handling physics in GTS I feel the same, it will not make me a better driver, I became a better driver from gt4,5,6. The handling in GTS is a compromise for esports to normalize the game to controller inputs. I use a t300rs ffb wheel and the handling depiction of car rotation is nerfed when you use real life techniques and the steering controls required in a ffb steering wheel has been simplified to require you to steer the ffb wheel to create inputs that mimic the limitations of the ps4 controller, as of this current Version 1.10 . Honest opinion and Im an avid gt fan of the series, makes me sad to be honest here because I've been a fan of gt. the steering wheel controller has been compromised for esports.
 
GT5 was perfect to train the steering technics for drifting a 2013 mustang for me.
(A car that doesnt do the steering for you in real life like for example a bmw or nissan 350z when you just give the impulse)
 
Voodoovaj
The basics are there. Following lines and markers and such.

What's missing is the fear when you go into a corner at those speeds.
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What's missing is quite a bit more than that.


DigitalBaka
You'd be surprised the things it can do for you. For example, if you use a wheel and need to be careful on the throttle to avoid spinning high powered RWD racecars you can use that on the road in your daily driver, especially in inclement weather situations. That throttle control also can make you more fuel efficient. :D

It can definitely make you better, just need to be careful it doesn't make you cocky and stupid.
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GTS uses a throttle map that is both nonlinear and unlike any road car I've driven, as such muscle memory from it will not help you out in that regard.

Nor would it under braking, as GTS doesn't well recreate how a car moves around and needs correcting under heavy breaking on road tyres.

However it's the third pedal that GTS gets most wrong, don't try learning to drive a manual with GTS or expect that to be a transferable skills. With a biting point that is 100% of pedal travel the only thing it's recreating is an undrivable and very broken clutch.

That's just what's wrong with the pedals.

It's an enjoyable enough game, but in terms of transferable skills in comparison to other titles, it's low on the list (and don't try it with loose surface driving whatever you do).
 
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I’ve been driving cars, and motorcycles for 20 years now, experienced a few track days with my Speed Triple as well. I sincerely hope my real life driving skills affect the way I play GTS, and not the other way around.
 

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