Something a little different this week, as we bring you The Pit Stop! In this category of posts, we will be going through the latest news in the Sim Racing world and other tips and tricks that can keep you on top of everything Sim Racing. Short sharp blurbs with useful links and tutorials on a variety of things involving sim racing are coming your way, so let’s get into it.
Need a new Graphics Card?
Your Sim Racing experience might not depend on your platform, but it does depend on your hardware. It is a relatively stress-free experience if you’re racing on a console, as you don’t have to worry about the specs over there. However, if you’re a sim racer that plies their trade on PC, your computer hardware specifications indicate your overall gaming performance, and we all know how important that is. Your GPU is essential in rendering everything that is meant to show up on your screen. Your graphics card is responsible for rendering the cars, tracks, weather effects and cosmetic as well as damage effects during any event. Not just that, the GPU also renders the textures, surfaces, shadows and lighting.
With that being said, let’s take a look at ‘The best graphics cards for Sim Racing’ that doesn’t have the word 30 series in front of it.
Using MoTeC
MoTeC is a tool used by a number of real-life race teams to set up their race cars to have the optimum setup and extract the final few tenths of pace from their car. The software at the root of it is a data collection tool that collates and displays information in a readable and understandable format. The information collected from the car, such as brake pressure, throttle application, or damper rebound, is translated to visual interpretations of data such as line graphs or histograms.
Race engineers then use this information to turn data and numbers into real-life setup changes that tailor the car to a driver’s preferences. Luckily we can also use MoTeC in Sim Racing and Coach Dave Academy have created two fantastic articles for you to digest both to use on Assetto Corsa Competizione and iRacing.
Making the most of Strategy
One of the hardest things whilst Sim Racing also has to be the strategy, wouldn’t you agree? We’ve all been there – that moment when we have had to be: The driver, the mechanic, the crew chief, the strategist and the rest of the pit wall – all whilst trying to search for the optimum lap time. It is made even tougher when all these tasks have to be performed during the race, as our attention is already focused on the track and the car itself, not to mention racing the other cars! Luckily on iRacing, your teammates can take care of much of the strategy from the pit wall so you can concentrate on the racing. We have not been so lucky with Assetto Corsa Competizione however, because you need to amend your strategy whilst racing at the same time.
iRacing can be beautiful, we promise
While iRacing, in general, is quite an optimized and easy to run game even on low-end systems, it can quickly become taxing with higher resolution displays or especially in VR. Coach Dave Academy has run through all of the settings in the game and narrowed down the biggest ones to look at when looking to quickly optimize your game, without having to flick through each setting to see which is losing the most frames.
iRacing, just like many other platforms, also has a whole host of opportunities for you to show your creative flair in the form of screenshots. However, they aren’t quite as easy to set up on iRacing compared to the likes of Assetto Corsa Competizione and paired with its obvious graphics shortfall by default; there’s a bit more to do. So, let’s break down how to make the most of the iRacing engine and take the best screenshots possible.
ACC is just as pretty
The final tutorial from me this week then whilst we are on the topic of taking screenshots and photos will finish with ACC. Assetto Corsa Competizione comes with a powerful replay system compared to iRacing and with a plethora of customization options to choose from. Yet few people know how to take full advantage of it, or even know how powerful it really is. I for one can tell you it is highly addictive once you have learnt how to take those screenshots and I am guilty of losing track time because I am fiddling around in photo mode too much. Once again the guys over at Coach Dave Academy walk you through the process of making an amazing looking screenshot.
