Assetto Corsa Competizione | Season 14 Round 5 | GT3 Sprint @ Donington

[davadvice1]

Cheers for assistance getting on last night. 

 

Quite happy my pace wasn't that far off (5 secs) considering I've never played the game on Pc and really think the PS5 version is quite different. It's much easier to feel the car on Pc. 

 

Just need to put some time in getting my rig setup correctly key mappings etc and then look at some car setup. 

 

I take it just getting a few online races will get my safety rating sorted? 

 

Also what are the general lobbies like in the terms of other drivers are they pretty sensible? 

 

Cheers again. 

[Valver]

You can boost your safety rating offline too.  If you setup some 20min+ Quick races with AI set to levels that you can sit on their bumpers with, get mid pack and follow a car within about 0.5secs for as many laps as you can, make no contact, and make sure you finish the race.  It will build up your trust rating (which isn't visible AFAIK) and then your safety rating shoots up after a few races.

 

Online public lobbies can be exceedingly random as to their driver quality.  (esp Monza - loads of pile-ups at turn1 as everyone thinks they can win the race there)

 

edit: made freshly for you 

 

[milko]

1 hour ago, Meers said:

I absolutely love the Ferrari 488 Evo (always have), so that'll be my pick for the new series.

I’m contemplating that one too, had a good time in it at Watkins Glen the other night. 

[Meers]

1 hour ago, davadvice1 said:

Just need to put some time in getting my rig setup correctly key mappings etc and then look at some car setup. 

 

You've mentioned you're using the G29, which may be a bit short on buttons for ACC (I had to upgrade to a GT rim for that reason because my first rim has even less buttons than the G29, I use it for rally games now). The most important functions that you definitely want mapped on your wheel are:

• MFD (multi-functional display) page flip up/down
• TCS
• ABS
• BB

You can set most things in the MFD, but it can be a bit fiddly in the heat of battle. Having buttons for them on the wheel is much more intuitive.

 

(I know this is the G920 but they're practically the same, right?)

 

I think BB could be on the red dial, MFD on the + - button, TCS and ABS on the blue buttons

 

You can also set a special 'shift' (secondary function) button in the controls screen to put an extra set of functions on each button if you wish. You can have a 'tap', 'hold' and 'shift' on each button - eg, I switch the headlights on/off by holding the button, tap it for flashing the lights and use shift to activate the rain light. The big 'enter' button in that red dial thing would be perfect to map as a shift button).

 

However, I'd leave windscreen wipers, headlights, rain light, engine start and ignition on automatic for now. Manual adds to the immersion, but it's a lot to cope with.

 

 

1 hour ago, Valver said:

 

So true! Thicker box wall as well in the end hahaha! Never underestimate a good, friendly and sportsmanlike private league such as ours.

[milko]

2 minutes ago, Meers said:

MFD (multi-functional display) page flip up/down

 

since it's only got four pages I just map a single page flip to this, it doesn't take long to cycle around.

[Meers]

6 minutes ago, milko said:

 

since it's only got four pages I just map a single page flip to this, it doesn't take long to cycle around.

 

Used to have that but now I've got the luxury to use one of the rocker switch things on my GT3 rim. Too many buttons! 😅 🤷🏼‍♂️

[milko]

Ha, I'm tempted by something like that but it's hard enough to track the buttons I have in VR already

[Valver]

12 minutes ago, milko said:

Ha, I'm tempted by something like that but it's hard enough to track the buttons I have in VR already

Thats the issue I have - in VR I need to keep the amount of buttons I use to a minimum, so I can find them using memory/touch alone.  

 

The critical ones I have mapped on my Formula style rim are:

Gear up/down (duh!)

Discord chat - ie push to talk

Menu navigation on a joystick, with OK and Back as buttons close by, plus next page/last page buttons for navigating in the setup pages

VR view recenter

One button to Toggle MFD view (I think it cycles through Positions/Intervals/Pitstop strat/Off - in that order)

Pause/menu button

I do have TC and BB mapped to a rotary encoder each, but I very rarely use them mid race - only really if the weather changes.

 

 

I used a G29 when I first started with this wonderful group.  Served me very well until the "spend more money on your rig" bug bit me 

[Meers]

8 minutes ago, milko said:

Ha, I'm tempted by something like that but it's hard enough to track the buttons I have in VR already

 

I've been looking at VR recently but aside from not knowing where to begin or what to buy, not seeing the buttons is holding me back from going VR. Isn't augmented reality an option for sim racing?

 

I might rather go for a triple 1080p or 1440p screen setup instead. Call me old fashioned, but that would give me more immersion than the single screen I'm using now. Also more frames per second!

[milko]

13 minutes ago, Meers said:

 

I've been looking at VR recently but aside from not knowing where to begin or what to buy, not seeing the buttons is holding me back from going VR. Isn't augmented reality an option for sim racing?

 

I might rather go for a triple 1080p or 1440p screen setup instead. Call me old fashioned, but that would give me more immersion than the single screen I'm using now. Also more frames per second!

 

Triple monitors looks great if you have the space. I don't know if it'd quite match the immersion from VR but it must be at least close. Honestly I don't find the button memory that big of a deal, you can feel for them very easily and I've yet to accidentally switch my engine off or anything

What VR headset to buy might be less clear, they're all a little bit of a compromise still, depending on budget.

[Valver]

24 minutes ago, Meers said:

 

I've been looking at VR recently but aside from not knowing where to begin or what to buy, not seeing the buttons is holding me back from going VR. Isn't augmented reality an option for sim racing?

 

I might rather go for a triple 1080p or 1440p screen setup instead. Call me old fashioned, but that would give me more immersion than the single screen I'm using now. Also more frames per second!

VR - I mean if you are on any sort of a budget, then the Oculus/Meta Quest 2 is the only real option.  Everything else requires lots more dosh for very diminishing returns.  You'd also want a nice long USB 3 cable connect it up to your PC, but other than that, you dont need anything else.  If you're playing mostly PC VR games on it, you also dont need to worry about how much memory/storage it has - so get the cheapest one (128Gbs now I think).

 

The PITA is that ACC is so badly optimised for VR.  You need lots of graphics card power to get any sort of decent performance with good visuals - otherwise you have to fiddle a lot with the settings to scale stuff back to get the framerate up. 

 

 

The Quest 2 minimum framerate is 72fps and its default resolution is 3936x1984 -  and if you dont hit 72 fps then it drops to doubling  36fps and you get horrible visual judder, input lag and (personally) that makes me feel very queasy quickly.  The disconnect between what your head and arms are doing in the real world and what you see them doing in the headset, at 36fps, messes you up fast.

 

AMS2 or regular AC in VR are by contrast brilliantly implemented and they look and feel so much better as a result, its not funny.  I always demo AMS2 to friends when showing them my rig/VR

 

I still find VR "well worth it" for ACC though!    I haven't raced in pancake mode in years!

 

The Quest 2 has a passthrough visual thing to allow you to see the real world in black and white via the external cameras and the VR world can be projected on top of that (so AR)  but its not implemented in any way in any PC VR games, its an OS level feature on the headset right now.  I can use it to suddenly find my keyboard or grab a drink, but its no good for finding buttons on a wheel while racing.

[Valver]

As for triples are easier to run, some approximate maths:

 

1. Triple 1080p monitors = 1920x1080x3 =  6.2Million pixels
2. Default Quest link resolution of 3936x1984 = 7.8Million pixels 
3. 4K on PC = 3840x2160 = 8.3Million pixels
4. Triple 1440p monitors = 2560x1440x3 = 11Million pixels

So if you ignore the overhead for running VR and base the graphics card load purely on the amount of resolution you have to push - VR is sort of in the middle of some triple screen setups, and about as hard as driving one 4K screen.

 

/nerdmodeoff

[Count Buffalos]

I was never able to entirely eliminate micro stutters in VR with my Quest 2 in either ACC or iRacing, no matter what settings I altered. That’s with an RTX 3070 mobile and a fairly decent Ryzen CPU, can’t remember what I have offhand.

[Meers]

48 minutes ago, Valver said:

VR - I mean if you are on any sort of a budget, then the Oculus/Meta Quest 2 is the only real option.

 

The PITA is that ACC is so badly optimised for VR.  You need lots of graphics card power to get any sort of decent performance with good visuals - otherwise you have to fiddle a lot with the settings to scale stuff back to get the framerate up. 

 

Yeah that would be in my budget range. Not going to spend more than €500 on a thing I'm not sure is for me. I'd rather try it first but I don't know anyone here with a VR sim racing setup. I mainly play ACC (hardly have time to delve into other games) so hearing it's badly optimised isn't making me eager to take the plunge. Plus currently I am using a GTX1070 so I might be severely under-powered for VR (and I don't want to get queasy because of that). I think I may use that budget on a new graphics card and/or monitor instead.

 

48 minutes ago, Valver said:

The Quest 2 has a passthrough visual thing to allow you to see the real world in black and white via the external cameras and the VR world can be projected on top of that (so AR)  but its not implemented in any way in any PC VR games, its an OS level feature on the headset right now.  I can use it to suddenly find my keyboard or grab a drink, but its no good for finding buttons on a wheel while racing.

 

So that's not an option either. Thanks for clarifying that. I think I'm going to explore the triple screen setup option (I have the space for it).

 

28 minutes ago, Valver said:

As for triples are easier to run, some approximate maths:

 

1. Triple 1080p monitors = 1920x1080x3 =  6.2Million pixels
2. Default Quest link resolution of 3936x1984 = 7.8Million pixels 
3. 4K on PC = 3840x2160 = 8.3Million pixels
4. Triple 1440p monitors = 2560x1440x3 = 11Million pixels

So if you ignore the overhead for running VR and base the graphics card load purely on the amount of resolution you have to push - VR is sort of in the middle of some triple screen setups, and about as hard as driving one 4K screen.

 

/nerdmodeoff

 

That's an amazing comparison, thanks! I'm currently playing ACC in 2560x1440 (on a 4K TV) which is ~ 3.6Million pixels so triple 1080p is nearly double of that in pixels it seems. So triples might actually be a bit too taxing for my PC?

 

Thing is, My TV doesn't display 1080p well (blurry) otherwise I would have used that resolution to boost performance. I'm also looking to replace that TV because monitors are a bit more efficient for PC gaming so maybe a curved ultrawide 1080p monitor (2560x1080 = 2.8Million pixels) might be a good alternative instead? An ultrawide 1440p (3440x1440 = 4.9Million pixels) may also be an option (but more expensive too). Hmm...

  

 

 

[Meers]

I've recently remapped my rim again. So for those interested, here's how I have it now:

 

[davadvice1]

All I'm hearing hear is Go spend that money on that wheel you need now. My wife was asking what she could get me now I bought my pc as that was going to be it. 

 

Aww well new DD it will be. 

 

Cheers 

[Meers]

1 minute ago, davadvice1 said:

All I'm hearing hear is Go spend that money on that wheel you need now. My wife was asking what she could get me now I bought my pc as that was going to be it. 

 

Aww well new DD it will be. 

 

Cheers 

 

Oh sorry that was not my (our?) intention mate. 😶

 

I have the same wife 'challenge' though when I brought a new PC up. "What's wrong with the laptop, you've used it for years now?". "Because I can't keep up with my racing chums, dear". "So what, how's a new computer helping with that?" 😅

 

Now I'm looking at VR/monitors/GPUs again. 😔

[davadvice1]

Never ending cycle, I'm 2 consoles new pc among other things this year already. 

[Valver]

26 minutes ago, Meers said:

I've recently remapped my rim again. So for those interested, here's how I have it now:

 

I hadn't found a use for my little flicky rubber coated red switches on my Formula rim - MFD Up and Down sounds like a great use.  I might nab that idea - they're super easy to find in VR

[Meers]

33 minutes ago, Valver said:

I hadn't found a use for my little flicky rubber coated red switches on my Formula rim - MFD Up and Down sounds like a great use.  I might nab that idea - they're super easy to find in VR

 

It's the most intuitive button map on my rim - can't miss it. It's also fool proof as it's only up and down so you can't accidentally hit left or right whilst moving through the pages. I use the nipple d-pad left/right with my other thumb to change the settings separately (I used up and down for the pages on there but that caused me to change settings accidentally so I changed it to what I have now).

 

I'm not manually clutching, by the way. I'd rather would have used those analogue paddles for looking left and right, but I can't get them to become digital (using a workaround trick that @davejm posted a while ago). I can't get that tool to recognise my keyboard (which you need to trick the wheel into believing it's pressing a button on the keyboard when pulling the paddle).

[Erik]

5 hours ago, Meers said:

That was a good session, guys. I absolutely love the Ferrari 488 Evo (always have), so that'll be my pick for the new series.

 

@Erik, is your practice server always running from now on? 

 

Its running now, I'll try to remember to now shut down my pc 😉

[Meers]

Ultrawide monitors are not too expensive either (thought they were). Any idea on the size (it's going to be positioned right behind or on top of the wheelbase)?

[milko]

@davejm uses an ultrawide I think. When he's not in VR of course.

 

But, as big as you can get, surely!

 

@Count Buffalos you run it on a laptop right? I wonder if something inherently limited to those causes the microstutter somehow. I've not had much trouble myself on desktop, the framerate drops in certain areas like Nurbz at sunrise/set or if I enable too many cars. Halfway through upgrading to a 5800X3D CPU which seems to be the ultimate stutter-stopper for sims at the moment. And remembering how annoying it is to build a damn PC.

[Count Buffalos]

Yeah, laptop. I’d wondered the same thing regarding some sort of inherent issue. It only happens in VR.

[Valver]

I saw two common fixes for microstutters (that you may already have tried)  Spoilered as this is detail loads of ACC'ers couldnt care less about

Spoiler

First is to open the OculusDebugTool.exe in the Support/Oculus-Diagnostics and then tick the option to "toggle console window visibility" in the the Services menu. 

Just having that window running fixes loads of people micro stutters!

 

The other tip is to go into the Debug tool (as above) and manually enter something into the "Encode Bitrate (Mbps)" field.  I think 500 is the max.  Start at 250.  Keep reducing it to see if you can unsaturate the encoding task on your GPU and/or cable bandwidth - and thats when the microstutters should disappear.  I was able to get up to 350 before mine started misbehaving.  USB chipset, CPU and GPU hardware encoder type all affect this massively.

 

[Count Buffalos]

Cool, I’ve tried some of those things before but I’ll have another look when I reinstall ACC next week.

[milko]

Any of you Quest Link + ACC lads using Windows 11 yet? My computer upgrade has caused Windows to get all excited about updating to the latest and greatest. Don't wanna do it if it's inviting problems!

[SneakyNinja]

9 hours ago, milko said:

Any of you Quest Link + ACC lads using Windows 11 yet? My computer upgrade has caused Windows to get all excited about updating to the latest and greatest. Don't wanna do it if it's inviting problems!

Yep, I use ye olde Quest 1 with Quest link. Upgraded to Win 11 ages ago and haven’t had any problems. 
 

Apart from the fact they’ve changed how the Win+p shortcut works when changing to the external monitor so my Stream Deck button doesn’t work any more

Edit: one thing that you might class as an issue - the AMD Adrenaline software doesn’t get on with the windows 11 drivers for the graphics card. AMD actually recommend using the windows driver rather than theirs but then all the tuning and capturing stuff doesn’t work. You can override that if you want and use the AMD drivers and software but I’ve had no issues with the windows one. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by SneakyNinja
Remembered something

[milko]

Cheers @SneakyNinja. I've got an AMD cpu now but Nvidia GPU so it sounds like I'll be all good. 

 

fired up a quick AI practice with 30 cars and everything set to epic and it ran perfectly I think, looks amazing. Turned into an hour of driving very quickly! 

[milko]

Now, inevitably, my head turns to VR and if there's a good way to push MORE pixels. When's Quest 3 coming?