The GTPlanet Rig Builder

[Jordan]

​

Building and planning sim-racing rigs and understanding how products compare to each other can be tough, especially for people new to the hobby.

To help, I've created the GTPlanet Rig Builder.

Hardware Database

At its core is a database of the most popular sim-racing hardware, including rims, wheel bases, pedals, rigs, and other accessories. Every product includes a brief description and normalized specifications per category, so you can quickly find and compare products and prices across brands. You'll also find a built-in comparison tool, which lets you place up to three products side-by-side to see how they differ.

Prices and availability are checked by the Rig Builder every day in every region. You can see all of the price/availability changes on a single page, see the best deals live right now, or sign up to receive email alerts when a product drops in price, goes on sale, or comes back in stock for your local store. The Rig Builder is launching with products from Fanatec, Logitech, Moza, Next Level Racing, Thrustmaster, and Trak Racer, and I hope to add more brands in the future.

Where GTPlanet coupon codes are available, discounted prices are calculated to show exactly how much you can save.

Build Your Rig

At the heart of the Rig Builder is the... rig builder!

It helps you bring together all the hardware you need for your own sim-racing setup, whether you plan to mount your wheel on a desk or table, sit on your couch with a wheel stand, or mount it all on a full cockpit. It uses a compatibility engine to determine what parts fit, and produces a visual map to help you understand how everything fits together.

You can start a build from any product, and create, copy, and share as many different builds as you like. Rigs are stored automatically in your browser, with no account or login required. Every rig gets a dedicated URL you can share with anyone for them to duplicate and remix on their own. If you’d rather browse ready-made setups, the Featured Builds page has a hand-picked set of complete rigs at a range of budgets.

Price totals, including discounts where available, are automatically calculated and displayed with direct purchase links for each item in every build.

Rig Builder Wizard

For someone not sure what they want, the Rig Builder Wizard can guide you to a good starting point.

Just answer a few questions, and the wizard goes to work to create different builds that fit your budget. You can save and share all of its recommendations, and further customize them to get exactly what you're looking for.

Public Beta Testing

I need your help! Before rolling out the Rig Builder for a wider release, I am opening it up to the community for public beta testing.

This has a lot of moving parts (no pun intended), and because it's designed to help GTPlanet users decide how to spend their hard-earned money, I want to get it right. As you try out the Rig Builder, here are a few things to keep an eye out for:

• Look out for incorrect product data. I will admit my eyes glazed over a few times while adding over 400 products to the database. Keep an eye out for mistakes!
• Wrong prices, dead links, or inaccurate stock. Prices are checked hourly, but I have noticed some stores changing page URLs without warning. If a price doesn’t match what you see at the store, or a link goes nowhere, please let me know.
• Try to build rigs you know won't work. The compatibility matrix which determines which products work together is very complex and likely has some mistakes. I'm concerned the Rig Builder will approve products that don't actually work together. See if you can find them!
• Challenge the wizard's recommendations. The Rig Builder Wizard is very complex, and building a recommendation engine turned out to be far more difficult than I had anticipated. It will never be perfect, but hopefully I can continue to refine it based on your feedback.

If you do find a build that doesn't look right, please save it and share the link with me here in this thread. It will make it much easier for me to find and troubleshoot.

Click here to start using the Rig Builder, and thank you for sharing any feedback you might have!

 

[LeMansLambo14]

​

Building and planning sim-racing rigs and understanding how products compare to each other can be tough, especially for people new to the hobby.

To help, I've created the GTPlanet Rig Builder.

View attachment 1574569

Hardware Database

At its core is a database of the most popular sim-racing hardware, including rims, wheel bases, pedals, rigs, and other accessories. Every product includes a brief description and normalized specifications per category, so you can quickly find and compare products and prices across brands. You'll also find a built-in comparison tool, which lets you place up to three products side-by-side to see how they differ.

Prices and availability are checked by the Rig Builder every day in every region. You can see all of the price/availability changes on a single page, see the best deals live right now, or sign up to receive email alerts when a product drops in price, goes on sale, or comes back in stock for your local store. The Rig Builder is launching with products from Fanatec, Logitech, Moza, Next Level Racing, Thrustmaster, and Trak Racer, and I hope to add more brands in the future.

Where GTPlanet coupon codes are available, discounted prices are calculated to show exactly how much you can save.

View attachment 1574572

Build Your Rig

At the heart of the Rig Builder is the... rig builder!

It helps you bring together all the hardware you need for your own sim-racing setup, whether you plan to mount your wheel on a desk or table, sit on your couch with a wheel stand, or mount it all on a full cockpit. It uses a compatibility engine to determine what parts fit, and produces a visual map to help you understand how everything fits together.

You can start a build from any product, and create, copy, and share as many different builds as you like. Rigs are stored automatically in your browser, with no account or login required. Every rig gets a dedicated URL you can share with anyone for them to duplicate and remix on their own. If you’d rather browse ready-made setups, the Featured Builds page has a hand-picked set of complete rigs at a range of budgets.

Price totals, including discounts where available, are automatically calculated and displayed with direct purchase links for each item in every build.

View attachment 1574574

Rig Builder Wizard

For someone not sure what they want, the Rig Builder Wizard can guide you to a good starting point.

Just answer a few questions, and the wizard goes to work to create different builds that fit your budget. You can save and share all of its recommendations, and further customize them to get exactly what you're looking for.

Public Beta Testing

I need your help! Before rolling out the Rig Builder for a wider release, I am opening it up to the community for public beta testing.

This has a lot of moving parts (no pun intended), and because it's designed to help GTPlanet users decide how to spend their hard-earned money, I want to get it right. As you try out the Rig Builder, here are a few things to keep an eye out for:

• Look out for incorrect product data. I will admit my eyes glazed over a few times while adding over 400 products to the database. Keep an eye out for mistakes!
• Wrong prices, dead links, or inaccurate stock. Prices are checked hourly, but I have noticed some stores changing page URLs without warning. If a price doesn’t match what you see at the store, or a link goes nowhere, please let me know.
• Try to build rigs you know won't work. The compatibility matrix which determines which products work together is very complex and likely has some mistakes. I'm concerned the Rig Builder will approve products that don't actually work together. See if you can find them!
• Challenge the wizard's recommendations. The Rig Builder Wizard is very complex, and building a recommendation engine turned out to be far more difficult than I had anticipated. It will never be perfect, but hopefully I can continue to refine it based on your feedback.

If you do find a build that doesn't look right, please save it and share the link with me here in this thread. It will make it much easier for me to find and troubleshoot.

Click here to start using the Rig Builder, and thank you for sharing any feedback you might have!

This seems pretty extensive and it works well! Considering upgrading my rig so this is really helpful 👍

 

[Abarth_71]

I appreciate the effort but there are loads of other quality brands available that could be added to increase the options for people. For instance GT Omega, Asetek, Simagic, to name a few.
I play on both PS & PC and use a Leoxz wheel with a Fanatec base & Simnet pedals on a GT Omega rig.

 

[Jordan]

I appreciate the effort but there are loads of other quality brands available that could be added to increase the options for people. For instance GT Omega, Asetek, Simagic, to name a few.
I play on both PS & PC and use a Leoxz wheel with a Fanatec base & Simnet pedals on a GT Omega rig.

More brands and products will be added.

 

[CTznOfTime]

Very interesting project Jordan...

Great feature to help people get into the sport.

I gave it a go and here are a few observations:

1) in the step 3 and 4 of the "help.me.build a rig" there should be a multiple option (i.e. I want either round or GT wheel)
2) in the step 8 where you can select which items to omit from the calculation, there should be an option to select "other" for things that are not listed, or for customized or homemade parts.
3) you are missing the Logitech RS H pattern shifter

Thanks for doing this Jordan


One stop shop


Just for reference:

Notice he doesn't have motion on his rig...
I think his spine already suffered so much from his day job.

 

[Jordan]

1) in the step 3 and 4 of the "help.me.build a rig" there should be a multiple option (i.e. I want either round or GT wheel)

Yes, this has now been implemented.

2) in the step 8 where you can select which items to omit from the calculation, there should be an option to select "other" for things that are not listed, or for customized or homemade parts.

That would be very nice, but I don't know how to build it. The wizard's recommendations are ultimately determined by compatibility, so a generic option for a part leaves a lot of loose ends. With an ambiguous part, its recommendations would be uninformed and random, and I don't think would be useful.

3) you are missing the Logitech RS H pattern shifter

Good spot, thank you. It has been added.

It was only showing in LogitechG.com's store directory (not Logitech.com's), so that must have been why I missed it.

 

[i386]

Will it be open sourced?

I've created

Without ai?

Edit 1: (wheelbases/systems) how about an "eco system" filter? Fanatec is very big, but usually not compatible with other brands (except a few wheelhubs that work with pc only). Other brands are a lot smaller but allow third party wheel or accesories

 

[Abarth_71]

Will it be open sourced?

Without ai?

Edit 1: (wheelbases/systems) how about an "eco system" filter? Fanatec is very big, but usually not compatible with other brands (except a few wheelhubs that work with pc only). Other brands are a lot smaller but allow third party wheel or accesories

There are a couple that may be of interest to people. Simnet pedals work via a control box connected to the Fanatec wheelbase so are console compatible, also Leoxz wheels are available with a Fanatec type QR2 that also makes them natively compatible with the wheelbase and so console as well (although wheel functionality can be limited).

 

[Jordan]

Will it be open sourced?

Without ai?

Edit 1: (wheelbases/systems) how about an "eco system" filter? Fanatec is very big, but usually not compatible with other brands (except a few wheelhubs that work with pc only). Other brands are a lot smaller but allow third party wheel or accesories

I don't plan to open source the software, and I use AI development tools for assistance.

Are you referring to an ecosystem filter for the wizard? The wheel base and steering wheel pages have a quick-release system filter, so you can filter bases and wheels to Fanatec QR2, Moza QR, etc. The builder also enforces ecosystem compatibility when you pick a wheel for a base.

also Leoxz wheels are available with a Fanatec type QR2 that also makes them natively compatible with the wheelbase and so console as well (although wheel functionality can be limited).

Yeah, things get a little tricky on edge cases like that. A Leoxz wheel on a Fanatec base works by emulating a Fanatec wheel over the quick-release pins, which Fanatec doesn’t support and a firmware update could disrupt some day. It’s a nice option for advanced users like yourself, but I don’t feel comfortable with the Rig Builder recommending that kind of pairing to people who might not be aware of the risks. Those will show as "unverified" rather than compatible.

 

[Abarth_71]

Yeah, things get a little tricky on edge cases like that. A Leoxz wheel on a Fanatec base works by emulating a Fanatec wheel over the quick-release pins, which Fanatec doesn’t support and a firmware update could disrupt some day. It’s a nice option for advanced users like yourself, but I don’t feel comfortable with the Rig Builder recommending that kind of pairing to people who might not be aware of the risks. Those will show as "unverified" rather than compatible.

That's fair enough and understandable. The fact it may show will at least make people aware of it and let them do the research. I will say that I've had the wheel a while now and the DD+ is on the latest firmware. It's great for me though having the extra buttons etc for PC use as well but may not suite everyone. It's a shame about the limited Fanatec mode compatibility because it's a very well made piece of kit.

 

[Jordan]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

GTPlanet Rig Builder Launches to Help You Plan Your Sim-Racing Setup​

When people find out I own a site like GTPlanet, there is usually one question I get more than any other: “what sim-racing hardware should I buy”?

 

[Tomo 427-MS]

Great tool that, Jordan!

Might possibly upgrade my gear next year (I still rock an old Logitech) so this will be very handy.

 

[Cschwartz12]

This is amazing, congratulations. I am spending so much time in the page and I already have all I need at home, it's just so fun to put it all together in different settings. Great tool, congrats!

 

[Flex0r]

Very nifty and handy tool!
Great work!