"How the Right Video Game makes you a Faster Driver"

[Furinkazen]

I'll wade in here, by pointing out no video game or simulator can EVER simulate the rush of air around you, noise, smell, and atmosphere. Also racing drivers don't play in daytime clothes but fireproof layers, full helmets, and games cannot simulate still a lot trackside changes - track temperature, air pressure, none of this can be or has been simulated.

I've never even driven a car or seen a racing event barring an A1 GP street demo event in manchester, but nothing beats reality. Fact.

 

[USARMYCOMBATVET]

I've driven Karts several times. It was fun. Yeah, it was physical. It was 10 times easier than driving a kart on GT5. I'm shrugging my shoulders right now.

 

[Bigbazz]

I'm at a loss how anyone can compare sim racing with guitar hero. The above example is an actual working guitar that can hook up to the computer game, so it is a guitar, not a standard guitar hero controller

Your arguements are

1. Fear - Fear is fear regardless of anything it has nothing to do with the skills learned or used, personally fear is nothing I've ever had an issue with so long as I felt I had control, and that was always the case, when I was karting, skateboarding or riding my bike down the side of a mountain risking serious injury. This depends on the person and is a psychological thing some people need to overcome, other people don't have an issue with.

2. Smaller steering wheels and FFB - The "Smaller" wheel depends on the wheel you're using in the real car, it depends what you use at home. The wheel in a DTM car or Formula 1 car is no larger than your average sim racers wheel. FFB - obviously it isnt fully correct but its a pretty good opproximation, its good enough to give you information that can teach you enough that you can addapt to the real thing pretty quickly when you're in a real car

3. Pedals - No they don't have feedback but you can learn pedal control, throttle and braking techniques, heel toe. Pretty much all the techniques you use in a real car can be learned to a natural level using a sim with a cheap wheel like a G27, when you go into the real car you adapt to it, using the skills you have learned, you will have to adjust but the muscle movements and technique is basically identical.



The point is that all of the techniques and movements are the same, they can be taken into a real car and a driver can quickly adapt to the situation with a good knowledge and confidence of what to do. The sim doesnt need to be 100% accurate, that isnt really even possible, driving a Kart in any of the sims I own is nothing at all like driving a real Kart, its completely different. But if you can run 10 really fast clean laps in a row in the sim then you have a really good chance of translating that to the track once you have adjusted to the real thing.


Guitar hero on the other hand - The standard game is just that, it does not in any way have similarities to the real thing, you cannot become a pro at guitar hero and expect to pick up a guitar and be able to do anything. The real guitar pictured above is an exception in that it is a real guitar, and if that is the way the technology is going then awesome, but the average person would not be able to play the game.

 

[Ealirendur]

Just to proffer a couple of discussion points...

On balance, I wouldn't attempt to argue that practicing driving in a sim would make you faster than doing the equivalent amount of practice in real life. I'm not, nor in all likelihood will I ever be a "fast" driver in either.

That said, it might be useful to consider the following:

1: Brain Chemistry.

Practice makes you better. Better practice makes you better-er.
Let's say, for argument's sake, your son/daughter wants to become Ayrton Senna/Lewis Hamilton (or someone as good that's also likeable? /runs). Let's assume that their motivation is equal, somehow, but the finances aren't; you can't give them constant Karting from age 4. Would you say sims to fill in some or most of the balance would be a bad idea?

Assuming equivalent motivation, practice methodology, fitness/conditioning elsewhere, and coaching, but unequal access, I'd bet on the sim rather than entirely random non-domain training. Racing X2010s backwards and crashing .... not so much, obviously.

If you did an analysis of a long-term sim racer, and showed significant myelination or other brain development via FMRI, or the lack thereof, that would be a slam-dunk yes or no.

Additionally, I'd like to think that sim driving, or indeed other games like it, isn't hurting my brain as it ages.

2. Confidence and Fear.

Stress equals bad (but is probably good for practice); confidence is good. Having a lower heart rate, stress level and higher confidence in the real situation, and racecraft achieved through hours unachievable elsewhere - for you might have access to better competition through sims - are unlikely to be a hindrance, shall we say.

The fear factor is partly to do with confidence levels also. No, sim driving certainly would not prepare you adequately for your first time in a very fast car with significant G-forces. But little else would.... and having a methodical approach to finding the limits couldn't hurt.

As an aside/example, I don't think David Coulthard's laps in the Mercedes event were at all significantly affected by physical fear - brake fade, tire wear, etc, certainly, but the TGTT place is basically a skid pad, and a driver of his skill level would have to do something Really Quite Dumb to place himself (as opposed to the car) in much danger. I seem to recall his main problem was brake fade, wear or weather, being time/attempt limited in that way. A contender in the Racer X challenge would be roughly as apprehensive about cones/disqualification, I'd imagine, given limited attempts.

...

So, on balance, I'd say that the right video game and practice mindset would make you a faster driver, unless you had the cash and willingness to take it to the real track the whole time.

Even then - if you had the chance to practice against a higher level of rivals or peers you otherwise would not have access to - wouldn't you do that as well?

 

[Pezzarinho17]

Regret ever mentioning Guitar Hero now, was just a loose comparison of practicing something that isn't the real thing will never replace practice on the real thing.

 

[niky]

Nothing will ever replace the real thing, but a good driving simulator, like a good flight simulator, is good enough to supplement real experience, keeping running bills down.

 

[homeforsummer]

Regret ever mentioning Guitar Hero now, was just a loose comparison of practicing something that isn't the real thing will never replace practice on the real thing.

I can see what you're getting at, but Guitar Hero/actual guitars are about as relevant as using Farmville on Facebook to practice running an actual farm At least the racing games being discussed have some bearing on reality and transferable skills...

 

[niky]

Makes me wonder... Are there any games as instructive as driving and flight sims?

 

[Ealirendur]

Well, Chess.... maybe Thermonuclear War?

In at least one sub-field, the "sim" now _is_ the real skill. Would driving ever go the same way?

 

[USARMYCOMBATVET]

Makes me wonder... Are there any games as instructive as driving and flight sims?

From what I've heard, Rocksmith uses an actual guitar, plugged into the XBOX 360/PS3/PC and shows the gamer, for lack of a better term--tablature or tab which for a person who plays by ear or memory would equal playing a real guitar and could very well improve his/her skill level on the electric guitar.

It also allows the gamer to purchase effects pedals. I have not had a chance to try it but it sounds legit.

 

[Ardius]

I'm at a loss how anyone can compare sim racing with guitar hero. The above example is an actual working guitar that can hook up to the computer game, so it is a guitar, not a standard guitar hero controller

No, neither is a force feedback wheel. What is a "standard" controller for driving games? Oh thats right there isn't a standard, its either use a pad or start spend increasing amounts of money.
How is that any different to spending increasing amounts of money on more realistic guitar peripherals?

Your arguements are

1. Fear - Fear is fear regardless of anything it has nothing to do with the skills learned or used, personally fear is nothing I've ever had an issue with so long as I felt I had control, and that was always the case, when I was karting, skateboarding or riding my bike down the side of a mountain risking serious injury. This depends on the person and is a psychological thing some people need to overcome, other people don't have an issue with.

Indeed and there is no fear in guitar playing, so thats one less thing any guitar simulation has to worry about. Whereas fear definitely prevents someone taking a driving game and trying it on the track.

"Depends on the person" - er yes and I'd probably say a very small percentage of people are able to take a corner 100mph in a game and not even think twice about doing it in reality. I'm pretty sure fear is a much bigger issue than you are suggesting.

2. Smaller steering wheels and FFB - The "Smaller" wheel depends on the wheel you're using in the real car, it depends what you use at home. The wheel in a DTM car or Formula 1 car is no larger than your average sim racers wheel. FFB - obviously it isnt fully correct but its a pretty good opproximation, its good enough to give you information that can teach you enough that you can addapt to the real thing pretty quickly when you're in a real car

The FFB is nothing like the real thing. When I say FFB I don't refer to just the wheel. The entire car is giving FFB in reality. In a racing car with stiff suspension your vision becomes so shaken about you have no idea how far away video games are from it. Its not something you get used to pretty quickly, it takes practice and experience - which kind of makes the video redundant then doesn't it? (in this respect)
But even the wheel FFB is far from reality. Its good, good enough to teach the concepts. But its not so good you can jump on it, and then take it immediately and apply it to the track.

The fact you admit its different and people keep saying "well, you do need to practice" suggests that you can't translate it to the track, no?

3. Pedals - No they don't have feedback but you can learn pedal control, throttle and braking techniques, heel toe. Pretty much all the techniques you use in a real car can be learned to a natural level using a sim with a cheap wheel like a G27, when you go into the real car you adapt to it, using the skills you have learned, you will have to adjust but the muscle movements and technique is basically identical.

The muscle movements are not "identical" but similar. I'm not arguing against this at all. I've been saying in every post that racing games (and guitar games) teach concepts. The concept of adjusting your braking and controlling the pedals is put across to varying degrees of detail in different games.
Its still a very major problem though that there aren't many FFB pedals (if any?). How on earth can you learn real braking techniques or clutch control when can't feel anything through your feet?

The point is that all of the techniques and movements are the same, they can be taken into a real car and a driver can quickly adapt to the situation with a good knowledge and confidence of what to do. The sim doesnt need to be 100% accurate, that isnt really even possible, driving a Kart in any of the sims I own is nothing at all like driving a real Kart, its completely different. But if you can run 10 really fast clean laps in a row in the sim then you have a really good chance of translating that to the track once you have adjusted to the real thing.

This doesn't make sense. If the techniques and movements are the same, why is driving a kart in reality completely differnet to the sim then?
The answer is that they aren't the same.

Guitar hero on the other hand - The standard game is just that, it does not in any way have similarities to the real thing, you cannot become a pro at guitar hero and expect to pick up a guitar and be able to do anything. The real guitar pictured above is an exception in that it is a real guitar, and if that is the way the technology is going then awesome, but the average person would not be able to play the game.

You cannot become pro at Gran Turismo and expect to jump in a real car and be able to do anything either.
Take someone who has never driven a car before or even got a license. Does a driving game teach them everything they need to know? Nope.

I'm also pretty sure the average person can't play iRacing either. Typically they would tend to crash immediately and find it quite frustrating to understand. How is this any different to the guitar?

Regret ever mentioning Guitar Hero now, was just a loose comparison of practicing something that isn't the real thing will never replace practice on the real thing.

Why? I think Guitar Hero is an excellent equivelant example. I can't say I'm surprised that a motorsport forum would generally have people being over-protective of comparing "their" game with what they see as a toy guitar. I did expect some people to be a bit more open-minded though.
I wonder if its simply just because music games are still in a early age...perhaps people are still stuck thinking like people used about the old F1 games in the late 80s/early 90s i.e. "ha, that looks like a game, how can you possibly transfer anything to reality". Personally I see this as a lack of foresight and not seeing the bigger picture. I wouldn't be surprised if the era of Guitar Hero/Rock Band has had a major effect on the sales of not only music but also the sales of instruments. No, I don't mean that in a "people played guitar hero and then could play anything" kind of way, I mean that in a sense of being encouraged to try and learn the real thing.

The point I'm trying to get at here is that these games/simulations are not here to give you everything. They do teach you things and get you thinking in certain ways but physically and theoretically they do not match reality. You still need to practice in real life and you still need to build up experience. The games can improve your approach to that and point you in the right direction.
I think the best way to put this is, "do video games make you a faster driver?" no, but they perhaps send you on a path that makes it quicker to become faster.

 

[niky]

Regarding controls... Guitar Hero really doesn't make you do anything remotely like playing an actual guiter. Forget for a moment the physical actions... if Guitar hero made you fret the notes accurately on the fretboard, even if you're only pressing buttons and not holding down strings, and makes you flick flappy paddles where the strings cross the soundhole, that would be a guitar simulator.

Though, obviously, it would be rather silly to build one since an actual guitar can be bought for less than the cost of the game...

The drum games are actually more applicable to real skills than your standard guitar game. That said, I like the singing aspect of Rock Band type games... requiring both timing and relatively proper pitch. And yes, however real, these games are fun.

-

Just a note: Even though the controls have nothing to do with real life, more and more armed forces are turning towards FPS games to train their soldiers for tactics. Not to supplant actual live exercises, but as a supplement.

From what I've heard, Rocksmith uses an actual guitar, plugged into the XBOX 360/PS3/PC and shows the gamer, for lack of a better term--tablature or tab which for a person who plays by ear or memory would equal playing a real guitar and could very well improve his/her skill level on the electric guitar.

It also allows the gamer to purchase effects pedals. I have not had a chance to try it but it sounds legit.

I'm looking at something similar... but it comes with pre-loaded effects already. Since it costs less than some effects pedals, I'm thinking it might be a fun toy.

 

[Ealirendur]

No, neither is a force feedback wheel. What is a "standard" controller for driving games? Oh thats right there isn't a standard, its either use a pad or start spend increasing amounts of money.
How is that any different to spending increasing amounts of money on more realistic guitar peripherals?

The fact you admit its different and people keep saying "well, you do need to practice" suggests that you can't translate it to the track, no?

The answer is that they aren't the same.

You cannot become pro at Gran Turismo and expect to jump in a real car and be able to do anything either.

I'm also pretty sure the average person can't play iRacing either. Typically they would tend to crash immediately and find it quite frustrating to understand. How is this any different to the guitar?

Why? I think Guitar Hero is an excellent equivelant example. I can't say I'm surprised that a motorsport forum would generally have people being over-protective of comparing "their" game with what they see as a toy guitar. I did expect some people to be a bit more open-minded though.
I wonder if its simply just because music games are still in a early age...

The point I'm trying to get at here is that these games/simulations are not here to give you everything. They do teach you things and get you thinking in certain ways but physically and theoretically they do not match reality. You still need to practice in real life and you still need to build up experience. The games can improve your approach to that and point you in the right direction.
I think the best way to put this is, "do video games make you a faster driver?" no, but they perhaps send you on a path that makes it quicker to become faster.

Fastest != faster. Not better than anyone else in particular, but better than the person using the game was before they used it for deliberate practice.

Let's put it another way. To disprove a statement that "A video game can make you a faster driver", you would also need to show that statements from drivers saying they have used video games for practice useful to them in some way are, in fact, false or incorrect. Wait, we've got a couple right here. Are they liars? Whoops!

Semantics? Rhetoric? Maybe, but you'd also have to explain why professional teams use sims at all. Maybe those wind tunnel tests are useless as well?

Moore's law has given us unprecedented power; the entire computing power used by all sides in WWII would likely be eclipsed by a throwaway chip used to play annoyingly poor music in a birthday card. I could probably run an emulator for all the systems NASA had in 1969 on my phone while playing music, gaming, and receiving email (and the encryption algorithms on just the wi-fi would have been considered vast overkill). Software algorithms and components are reusable and evolve - simulations of all kinds will only get better over time, and will trickle down to the consumer.

I didn't comment on the Guitar Hero analogy, which I thought merely had a problem of degree, and was just intended to be inflammatory. I hear what you're saying, especially about the inspiration effects in both game styles, and a normal Guitar Hero controller might be more successfully compared to a DS3; the problem I have with that is that not only is the control mechanism vastly different, the actual process and, perhaps importantly, the reward mechanism is entirely different also (although if the rewards are partly or primarily social, that problem likely goes away to a large extent).

I have no doubt games of that ilk could quickly evolve into something which could enhance real-life skills, and I'm sure that before long you could have full-blown trainers - but not until you're at least selecting chords in the case of guitars and keyboards. As niky said, drums and singing are currently closer to useful. I can certainly imagine a game where you could learn chord progressions for charts and successful variations without too much trouble.

Regarding controls... Guitar Hero really doesn't make you do anything remotely like playing an actual guiter....

The drum games are actually more applicable to real skills than your standard guitar game. That said, I like the singing aspect of Rock Band type games... requiring both timing and relatively proper pitch. And yes, however real, these games are fun.

-

Just a note: Even though the controls have nothing to do with real life, more and more armed forces are turning towards FPS games to train their soldiers for tactics. Not to supplant actual live exercises, but as a supplement.

I'm looking at something similar... but it comes with pre-loaded effects already. Since it costs less than some effects pedals, I'm thinking it might be a fun toy.

iPad + Garageband/others = win?

The sub-field I was talking about was Drones, incidentally. You could imagine that if motorsport determined the cost to keep actual humans in increasingly fast machinery could no longer be justified, they might try remoting. Of course, its value as a mating prowess display/spectator sport might be vastly decreased.

Sorry about the wall(s) of text.

 

[niky]

The big problem with remote racing would be determining how much control the computers would have. I can imagine that hyper fast drone racers would be so twitchy and complex that you would need the same sort of algorithms used in modern fighter jets just to keep them going in a straight line.

It would make for fantastically quick cars... But most racing organizations frown upon making things too much easier for the drivers...

There are already semi-guitar sims for the iPhone, they allow you to pluck out strings on pre-set chords. Would be nice if you could chain several iPhones together into a fretboard so you could finger them, too. Again, though, any guitar simulator would cost more in total investment (console/hardware plus software) than an actual guitar... Even one with a light-up fretboard.

But considering a full-motion rig for driving costs more than my car...

 

[Ealirendur]

It would make for fantastically quick cars... But most racing organizations frown upon making things too much easier for the drivers...

There are already semi-guitar sims for the iPhone, they allow you to pluck out strings on pre-set chords. Would be nice if you could chain several iPhones together into a fretboard so you could finger them, too. Again, though, any guitar simulator would cost more in total investment (console/hardware plus software) than an actual guitar... Even one with a light-up fretboard.

But considering a full-motion rig for driving costs more than my car...

Probably a niche or new sport, yeah. Or several .. Fighting Robots!

GarageBand on my phone/iPad will happily provide the virtual frets, but will also do amps/effects if you happen to have a real guitar with a pickup and a hardware adapter. iRig is one. Recording and quiet solo practice are definitely there, and it wouldn't surprise me if some folks were using effects processing and loops/backing live.

I don't think it's the only one, either; I don't know if there's any games that use those adapters (I'm not a guitar player).

In the PC world, musos have been using Band-in-a-Box for practice for quite a while now, but it's not gameified in any way. It clearly could be, if someone thought there was a market for it.

 

[homeforsummer]

No, neither is a force feedback wheel. What is a "standard" controller for driving games? Oh thats right there isn't a standard, its either use a pad or start spend increasing amounts of money.
How is that any different to spending increasing amounts of money on more realistic guitar peripherals?

In fairness, as Niky points out, spending extra on guitar peripherals for a game is pretty useless, since you can buy an actual guitar for less money.

Spending a hundred quid on a steering wheel for the PS3 is a fairly cost-effective way of getting a realistic-feeling experience for a racing game, when the alternative is vastly more expensive.

In other words, the return on investment is better for a steering wheel than it is for fancy-pants music gaming peripherals, as you need to spend a lot more getting the "real deal" in motorsport than you do in music.

 

[Ardius]

In fairness, as Niky points out, spending extra on guitar peripherals for a game is pretty useless, since you can buy an actual guitar for less money.

Spending a hundred quid on a steering wheel for the PS3 is a fairly cost-effective way of getting a realistic-feeling experience for a racing game, when the alternative is vastly more expensive.

In other words, the return on investment is better for a steering wheel than it is for fancy-pants music gaming peripherals, as you need to spend a lot more getting the "real deal" in motorsport than you do in music.

While the scales of money are fairly different, if you bought the Squier Strat on the previous page you already have a real guitar for a few hundred quid.
Whereas you can end up spending thousands of £s on steering wheels, hydraulics, multi-screens, etc and still be miles away from the real thing.

Obviously though, like you say, motorsport is just a completely different level of expense. But that doesn't change the fact that if you are willing to spend the money on either type of game, you can get closer to the real thing.
I'd actually argue the Rock Band example is pretty much the real thing if you end up buying that "Pro" guitar seeing as all thats left is to ditch the game and just play with it yourself.

I totally accept that there are differences and that a standard button-based Guitar controller is very far removed from reality. But it also serves as an example of a game isn't about giving you tranferrable physical abilities but inspiring and teaching you in other ways.
I see racing games in exactly the same way, true, its a bit closer physically if we compare a FFB wheel with a button guitar controller. But then what if we compare £229 for the stringed Squier Strat to roughly the same price for a new Logitech G27...do we really consider the G27 closer to real life than a working electric guitar?

 

[Ealirendur]

While the scales of money are fairly different, if you bought the Squier Strat on the previous page you already have a real guitar for a few hundred quid.
Whereas you can end up spending thousands of £s on steering wheels, hydraulics, multi-screens, etc and still be miles away from the real thing.

Obviously though, like you say, motorsport is just a completely different level of expense. But that doesn't change the fact that if you are willing to spend the money on either type of game, you can get closer to the real thing.
I'd actually argue the Rock Band example is pretty much the real thing if you end up buying that "Pro" guitar seeing as all thats left is to ditch the game and just play with it yourself.

I totally accept that there are differences and that a standard button-based Guitar controller is very far removed from reality. But it also serves as an example of a game isn't about giving you tranferrable physical abilities but inspiring and teaching you in other ways.
I see racing games in exactly the same way, true, its a bit closer physically if we compare a FFB wheel with a button guitar controller. But then what if we compare £229 for the stringed Squier Strat to roughly the same price for a new Logitech G27...do we really consider the G27 closer to real life than a working electric guitar?

The Strat, like the G27, is not going to kill you if you mess up. But a Fender/insertrealguitar probably won't, either, unless your crowd-surfing sim was really bad and encouraged irresponsibility

You can get away with practicing on a real guitar in a hotel room at midnight, with a storm blowing outside, half a world away from your gig the next day. You could possibly even rehearse with your mates. The dude who forgot to pack his G27 + PS3/Gaming laptop has no such option; although he may wind up preferring to exercise, sleep, or watch quali laps or other footage/telemetry, he otherwise literally can't do any useful practice.

 

[Ardius]

I really question how much genuine useful practice you can get from a racing game. I'm not convinced its that much of a tool for racing drivers.

 

[Ealirendur]

For the purposes of the thread, it just has to be better than nothing (solitaire, tiddlywinks, a night on the town...) - unless we can postulate another unrelated activity that would be better again. I provided pretty much all the candidates I could think of there in my previous post.

 

[homeforsummer]

I really question how much genuine useful practice you can get from a racing game. I'm not convinced its that much of a tool for racing drivers.

I'd argue that you can take two people who've never driven an actual car before, one of whom is a racing gamer, and the gamer would be quicker in an actual car on an actual circuit.

The best example from my own experience was a racing scholarship I did several years ago. My sole experience of racing was on the Playstation, and I had a few years of experience driving in my Ford Fiesta on the road.

The scholarship was full of people who'd been karting since they were six and had all brought their own racing gear to the scholarship.

The majority of them were marginally quicker than me in the actual go-karting section, but my times in the actual cars (MINI Cooper cup car, Mazda MX5 cup car) were quicker than theirs.

With no more than some racing game experience (which, at the time, was entirely on a regular joypad) and a few years of road driving experience, I was reasonably competitive on karting and far quicker in an actual car than people with far more actual racing experience than me.

I'm certainly not saying that the gaming was better experience than karting (after all, they were virtually all quicker than me in the karts), but the fact I didn't embarrass myself in the karts despite having never driven one, and was quicker in the cars despite my sole experience being in a 60bhp Ford Fiesta, has to say something for the dozens of hours of gaming... even if it was only about racing lines and clipping points.

I don't doubt that I'd have been even better had GT5 and a DFGT been around then.

 

[Bigbazz]

Ardius I just give up with you, you seem incapable of understanding the difference. I'l say this though.

For sim racing games a wheel is the standard controller and the controller that is intended to be used, just as the plastic 4 button guitar shaped thing is the standard controller for guitar hero. This new program using a real guitar is not guitar hero but something different, something new, its a real guitar.


Yes wheels can be expensive but I absolutely 100% believe as i've said already that a £200 G27 is enough to learn. If someone is extremely fast in the sim then that person has a great chance of transfering that to the track, I absolutely believe that and there is more than enough evidence to suggest just that, talking about fear is pointless because it is nothing to do with your skill.

So you can spend a lot more than £200 on your wheel, just as you can spend over £200 on your guitar, the shelf price of just 1 of my guitars and amps would set you back £4000, but I don't "need" that gear. Just like you don't "need" every bit of physical force 100% accurately simulated in a sim, infact all you really need is something that allows you to develop precision control. When you go in a real car if your skills, your mind and muscles are well tuned, even though the car could be completely different, they will quickly adjust because of your experience in the sim.

Gregor Huttu, the guy had never driven a race car in his life and had no track experience, but he being the iRacing world champion at the time got offered to jump into a real life Star Mazda race car, with no experience at all he was running within 3 seconds of the racing drivers on the track that day. He had issues with his fitness and dealing with the heat, but his skill in driving the car was good, he had undeniable speed and talent.

But knowing you Ardius, you will find a way to brush that example off in some way.

 

[niky]

The price point is an interesting question. A wheel is cheap enough for everyone. A full rig is not. But a multi-screen rig is cheaper for a race team to run than shredding expensive racing tires. Just like an industrial flight or marine simulator is cheaper to run than an actual ship or aircraft. And this isn't counting training accidents.

Sometimes the removal of the fear factor is a good thing. Getting a pilot accustomed to performing certain actions in a simulated emergency allows him to internalize those actions, making him more confident and more able to perform them in an actual emergency.

 

[Ardius]

But knowing you Ardius, you will find a way to brush that example off in some way.

Of course, everyone knows me. I'm quite the celebrity. Apparently.

 

[peter_vod69]

I'm just posting this here as an apology for any offence I might have unintentionally caused with a picture earlier. I was more have a dig at the notion of "celebrity" than seeking to imply that Ardius was somehow a shaven-headed, B-list has-been...

Again - My Apologies.