SIM Racer Volume 1 Issue 07

THE DEFINITIVE SIM RACING MAGAZINE

PC

-

XBOX

-

P L AYS TAT I O N

SIM RACER AWARDS

MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT

exclu BEHINDTHE sive

SCENESATiRACING

Nordschleife and Le Mans Projects!

RALLY DRIVING TECHNIQUES GREGER HUTTU INTERVIEW

SECTOR3 INTERVIEW

ELEMENT GAMING PERIPHERALS REVIEWS OF ELEMENT'S MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS

07 9 772056 410010

RACEROOM RACING EXPERIENCE

SIM RACER VOL:1 ISS:7

£4.99

FULLREVIEW!

WWW.GTOMEGARACING.COM

i(5 0NFHB 3BDJOH 0GmDF $IBJST 8JEF 3BOHF PG $PNGPSUBCMF PGmDF DIBJST GPS HBNFST w

PRO

OFFICE CHAIRS £149.99

%*4$06/5 $0%& &#$0/

WWW.GTOMEGARACING.COM ART

RACING SIMULATOR COCKPIT £289.94

PRO

RACING SIMULATOR COCKPIT £309.95 i(5 0NFHB 3BDJOH $PDLQJUT 0OF PG UIF NPTU DPNQMFUF VQHSBEBCMF SBDJOH DPDLQJUT JO UIF .BSLFUw

PRO

RACING SIMULATOR COCKPIT £409.95

ART

RACING SIMULATOR COCKPIT £359.94

%*4$06/5 $0%& &#$0/

CARSMario1.jpg

PUBLISHING

EBCON PUBLISHING LTD THE COURTYARD CHOPDIKE DROVE SPALDING PE11 4JP TEL +44 (0)1755 750005

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

PAUL MONAF PAUL@EBCON.CO.UK TEL +44 (0) 1775 750005

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR SHARON MONAF SHARON@AI-MAG.COM TEL +44 (0) 1775 750005

EDITOR

DOMINIC BRENNAN DOMINIC@EBCON.CO.UK TEL +44 (0) 1775 750005

TECHNICAL EDITOR CONNOR JAMES CONNOR@EBCON.CO.UK TEL +44 (0) 1775 750005

DESIGN LEAD DARREN BROWN

PHOTOGRAPHY BEN WEBB

ADVERTISING

TEL + 44 (0) 1775 750005

SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIPTIONS SHARON MONAF SHARON@AI-MAG.COM TEL +44 (0) 1775 750005 ORDER ONLINE AT: WWW.SIMRACER-MAG.COM OR OVER THE PHONE ON: 01775 750005

ADMINISTRATION SHARON MONAF: ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR SHARON@AI-MAG.COM

EBCON PUBLISHING LTD THE COURTYARD, CHOPDIKE DROVE, GOSBERTON, CLOUGH. LINCOLNSHIRE. PE11 4JP - UNITED KINGDOM

DISTRIBUTED BY COMAG COMAG TAVISTOCK ROAD, WEST DRAYTON MIDDLESEX, UB7 7QE

PRINTED BY THE MAGAZINE PRINTING COMPANY ISSN: 1750-8584 While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of articles in this magazine, the publishers do not accept liability for any incorrect statement or errors contained in material from independent sources or authors that may be reproduced from time to time. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustration in any form without permission from the publishers/editor is strictly prohibited. We welcome articles, photographs or artwork, however, Sim Racer cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage to unsolicited material.

Please enclose a sae if you wish your material to be returned.

Competitions will be judged on the 20th day of the month following publication and winner’s names will be published at the earliest opportunity. No correspondence will be entered into and the judge’s decision is final. In the event of the published prize not being available due to circumstances beyond the control of the magazine, a suitable alternative of similar value will be provided.

WELCOME TO THE SEVENTH ISSUE OF SIM RACER! This marks the start of our second year - thank you for sticking with us. To those reading for the first time, I hope you enjoy your stay. And what a year it has been; we’ve seen incredible developments within software and hardware, both simulator-specific and in general computing. The most significant is the rise of virtual reality - I keep going on about it, but just wait and see - the best is yet to come!

But VR is nothing without good software, and we’re lucky to have such a broad selection of simulators as a starting point. Other popular genres are in a much more challenging position - many traditional video games, including the first-person shooter, do not lend themselves well to VR without dramatic changes to game design.

Simulators, by contrast, require very few changes. And the competition has never been more healthy. Following developments closely, you can’t help but notice the increased enthusiasm, rate of development and speed of announcements from many of the big names in simulation over the past year. RaceRoom has stood out for me in particular, so I’m pleased that we’ve been able to cover it in detail this issue, in the form of an insightful interview with Sector3 Studios. iRacing, a service often accused of being slow to evolve, has also impressed with recent developments. The reproduction of both the Nordschleife and Le Mans are massive milestones for the team, and we take an exclusive look behind the scenes on these hugely challenging projects - not to be missed.

We also have a chat with the ultimate sim racer - Greger Huttu. The fastest and most successful driver in the history of virtual racing, Greger’s records are almost unbelievable. The competitive aspect of simulation is important, particularly with the rise of e-sports; my aim is to approach virtual racing from many angles in the future, but with so many championships happening at once, it’s hard to know where to begin - this seemed like an ideal first step!

Enjoy the magazine.

Dominic Brennan

ebcon publishing ltd.

004

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

23

27

WORLD’S FASTEST!

iRACING TRACKS

Greger Huttu is the fastest, most successful sim racer on the planet, whose remarkable talents have kept him at the top of the game since the days of Grand Prix Legends.

Driving for Team Redline, Greger is well on his way to an

The Nürburgring Nordschleife and Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans - for years it was doubful that iRacing could produce these enormous tracks to meet their own high standards. We chat to VP of Art & Production Greg Hill about how both are becoming a reality, and Director of Marketing Kevin Bobbitt gives us an exclusive look at his diary of the Le Mans scanning trip!

Series title. He spoke to Sim Racer about his experience, the gear he uses, and much more!

w

8 NEWS

23 GREGER HUTTU INTERVIEW

Sim racing moves fast - check out the news section for a quick summary of the stories that caught our eye recently.

We sit down with the ultimate sim racer and ask him a few questions.

Some of his answers might surprise you!

11 LETTERS

27 IRACING’S TRACK TECHNOLOGY EXCLUSIVE

Each issue we’ve been asking a question via our facebook page - this time it’s “which circuit do you use the most and why?”

13 F1 2015 REVIEW We have a detailed review of Codemasters’ latest entry into their long-running F1 series. With the jump to Xbox One and PS4, the engine has seen massive updates in all areas relating to the on-track experience. But has the game suffered as a result? Turn to page 13 for our thoughts. The review anywhere else...

19 PC PREVIEW Check out the incredible Fusion Master PC from Chillblast! It includes some of the latest technology available, such as Intel’s Skylake architechture (launched at Gamescom in August), a lightning-fast M.2 SSD and much more.

006

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

We talk to Greg Hill and Kevin Bobbitt about track creation in general, and the unique challenges they faced when recreating two of the largest circuits in the world. Not to be missed!

32 FEATURE BUILD Connor continues with our PC build with help from our friends at XFX.

37 ELEMENT GAMING This new company is attracting the attention of the discerning gamer, offering performance-orientated peripherals at competitive prices.

42 TRACK GUIDE Matt Bell takes you around the famous Silverstone circuit in

37

54

ELEMENT GAMING

RACEROOM

Reviews of four items from the top of Element Gaming’s product line. The new company has priced these gamingfocused peripherals and a solid PC case aggressively, much lower than the more established brands, but make bold claims about performance. Our technical editor Connor consessions to cost-saving are worth the risk.

Experience, Bob Simmerman conducts an exclusive interview with Sector3’s Jay Ekkel, JF Chardon and Sonat Ozturk about the project - where it came from, where it’s going, and how they felt about the transition from SimBin to Sector 3. Exciting things are just around the corner; we were really encouraged by what they had to say!

47 MINI ITX BUILD

60 GTR2 RETROSPECTIVE

The ongoing Mini ITX project is almost complete! This time we’re installing the all-important graphics card.

Nearly a decade after launch, we take a look back at what can probably be described as a modern classic. The sim still holds up today, and is still worth playing.

52 TECH DESK Our technical editor is always testing bits and pieces relating to PC builds and other fancy electronics. This issue, Connor talks you through the pros and cons of using cutting-edge DDR4 RAM!

54 SECTOR3 STUDIOS INTERVIEW RaceRoom Racing Experience had a rough start in 2012, but it has become more appealing of late. We talk to the team transforming this title; their answers are insightful, honest, and very refreshing! A must-read!

58 RALLY DRIVING TECHNIQUES Struggling with DiRT Rally? We’ve got some quick pointers on where you might be going wrong. Rallying is one of the toughest disciplines to master, but so satisfying once it starts coming together.

64 PIT STOP We check out some new gear, including a review of version 2 of Ricmotech’s popular load cell kit for T500RS and T3PA-PRO pedals!

68 AWARDS A summary of some of the main nominees in order to help you place your vote!

72 SUBSCRIBE NOW! Subscribe today and don’t miss an issue!

74 NEXT ISSUE A small taste of what’s in store next time.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

007

SIM RACER NEWS Forza 6 We can’t wait for Forza 6; it’s shaping up to be the most authentic Forza game ever, with particular attention on night racing and wet-weather handling, including physics-based puddle simulation. Here’s the launch track list:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Rio Daytona Watkins Glen Brands Hatch Indianapolis Prague Bathurst

Reiza’s crowdfunding... n ews

Reiza’s crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo was a huge success! They’re fully-funded, with the total rising well above the expected figure. The team is aiming to have all of the promised Stock Car Extreme updates in place within the next 2-3 months, then they will start focusing on the next title.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

Nurburgring Sebring Road America Road Atlanta Long Beach Top Gear Test Track Yas Marina

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

Airfield Test Course Le Mans Laguna Seca Bernese Alps Circuit de Catalunya Circuit de Spa Francorchamps Silverstone

22. Lime Rock Park 23. Monza 24. Circuit of the Americas 25. Hockenheimring 26. Sonoma

Loeb Rally Evo postponed

Thrustmaster...

Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo has been postponed to 2016. Milestone made the decision in order to add further improvements and polish to the title; we suspect they were influenced by the success of DiRT Rally, and with WRC5 due soon, 2015 was looking like a crowded marketplace!

Thrustmaster are now offering the wheel base powering their popular ‘TX’ wheel and pedal set as a standalone product, allowing buyers to select from their growing range of rim and pedal add-ons, such as the recently-announced 599XX Evo 30, a stunning Alcantara-wrapped rim. We imagine the ageing TX 458 Italia set will eventually be phased out; perhaps it will be rebranded as a 488 GTB, as the rims appear identical. The ‘TX Servo Base’ retails at £229.99.

Windows 10 Karting Sims The long-awaited KartSim, had a strong presence at Gamescom this year, with a 6-DOF hexapod motion simulator and the Oculus Rift DK2. The is title has been renamed ‘KartKraft’, and is expected to hit Steam Early Access in Q4 2015. Coding wizard PiBoSo, creator of World Racing Series and MX Bikes, recently put his Kart Racing Pro project on Steam Greenlight, with the aim to launch in early 2016. Both titles feature cutting-edge simulation features such as dynamic tracks, chassis flex and VR support. PiBoSo’s beta is currently available at www.kartracing-pro.com - worth a try.

008

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

Microsoft launched Windows 10 at the end of July to a largely positive reception. It is a free upgrade for the first year for users of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 (and then remains free for the lifetime of the device). It promises to deliver better gaming performance across the board and many VR optimisations.

While there are some teething problems with certain sim hardware and software, we’re confident that this is the best Windows yet!

Verstappen joins Team Redline Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen has joined Team Redline - a virtual racing team. Having previously worked with Redline manager Atze Kerkhof in simulator

training, Max decided to get involved in order to ‘practice and stay on top of his game’. Team Redline includes many top sim racers from around the world,

including the world’s fastest, Greger Huttu. Find out what he thinks about Max joining the team and much more in our interview on page 23!

WE’VE BEEN ENJOYING: rFactor 2’s improved triple monitor support (it now has side angle adjustment), and the huge performance improvements at Portugal International!

Assetto Corsa... scope of the project, and they’re hard at work creating new content, including more than 30 new cars.

The Toyota GT86 in Assetto Corsa - perfect balance, just enough performance, and a great introduction to the fundamentals of rear-wheel drive handling. It’s very popular to race online too - being quite slow, it’s good for random public servers as there is more time to react to poorly-considered moves or erratic drivers, and it’s very forgiving when one end breaks loose.

Sector3 Studios...

Sector3 Studios continue to improve RaceRoom Racing Experience they recently revealed previews of a fictional F1-style race car. This is the first time an open-wheeler has appeared in R3E. Find out more about this title on page 55!

British Sim Racers In an exciting new venture, British Sim Racers & Apex Racing TV struck a deal with Motors TV UK to nationally televise the final 19 race meetings of the British Sim Racers Touring Car Pro Series. The first event at Laguna Seca was broadcast on August 18th tune in every Tuesday!

gRally alive and well...

Programmer Paolo Ghibaudo recently revealed the sim runs on Unity3D v5, supports 64-bit, DirectX 11, physically-based shaders, and full triple monitor configuration options!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

009

n ews

Assetto Corsa is coming to PS4 and Xbox One in 2016 with an all-new user interface. Kunos have expanded their staff due to the ever-increasing

SIM RACER READERS LETTERS

readers

letters

VIA OUR FACEBOOK PAGE, WE ASKED “WHICH CIRCUIT DO YOU USE THE MOST AND WHY? IS THERE A LOCATION YOU’D LIKE TO SEE RECREATED IN MORE SIMS?” WE RECEIVED SOME VARIED AND INTERESTING RESPONSES -HERE ARE OUR FAVOURITES...

CHRISTIEN HOOGVELD

My favourite tracks are often the ones least used, like historical Monaco. Considered too difficult because of high attrition rates. So the circuits most used would be Laguna Seca, Road America, Silverstone and Spa.

MATTHEW FEARON I’d love to see official versions of my home track, Road Atlanta, in more sims. I know iRacing has a laser-scanned version, but I would really love an official version in AC, rFactor 2, and GSC. The mod versions are OK but very outdated. ISI did a fantastic job with Atlanta Motorsports Park, I was REALLY hoping they would have made an additional stop at Road Atlanta so we can do some Virtual Petit Le Mans!

MICHAEL KOOP Mt. Panorama Bathurst. I grew up watching my racing heroes drive there each October. Looking forward to this in AC!

LUKE LEFTY EMERTON Sydney Motorsport Park is a must!

NICHOLAS BIAR Any rally stage from Finland!

LUKE GRAY Nordschleife, Watkins Glen, Talladega Super Speedway.

ADAM WAREHAM Circuit de La Sarthe. Why? Because it’s my

favourite track - been there plenty of times and when I drive around I can think of the memories. It’s got everything you want, long straights, fast corners in Porsche curves, chicanes and it’s steeped in history. Le Mans 24 hours should be in every race sim in my opinion!

DOUG ELLWOOD Lakeside Park in Brisbane, Queensland. One of the only historic Grand Prix tracks to not be in a mainstream game!

STEF CLAES I like to see the two Dutch tracks, Circuit Park Zandvoort and TT Circuit Assen. Pikes Peak would be a great track.

LEW INGALLS Watkins Glen International and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course of course!

MICK PALMER The ultimate, OK it’s bikes , but cars have had a go - the TT mountain course. If Grand Prix Legends could do it...

DANIEL ACKLAND Would love to see Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, Australia. It is an awesome track.

ADAM ZEROTHREE Would love to see an up-to-date version of the Adelaide street circuit. I recall one was modded for rFactor back in the day, but I’d love a properly funded one. Either the old F1 version, or the current V8 Supercar version. I’m not fussy!

STEFAN PERSSON Spa-Francorchamps! It’s a legend! Got back to sim racing after hanging up my helmet. Use to race rFactor for many years. Got Project CARS now and I would love it if Sebring came out!

SCOTT RUSSELL Spa for me, it’s just one of those tracks I enjoy the most. I mostly drive LMP1 and LMP2 around there. Well done to all the teams and drivers who competed in the iRacing Spa 24h -long and hard race!

WW WW W. W S I. M S IRMARCAECRE- RM-AMGA. G CO . CMO M 005011

LATEST ISSUE OUT NOW!

F1 2015 REVIEW SIM RACER

BY DOMINIC BRENNAN

NO CAREER MODE. It’s the biggest complaint being directed at the new game, something I find hard to fathom when it didn’t amount to much more than ‘Your Name Here’. F1 2011 probably contained the most elaborate effort, with a motorhome hangout and press interviews in the paddock, but it has been well-streamlined since then. Okay, so this is the first time we’re missing the concept of progressing through a season with a smaller team, receiving fake emails and contract offers for the top teams, but it was always fairly superficial stuff. Perhaps the option to pick any team as your starting point in F1 2014 was a way of making this news easier to swallow. In any case, what mattered to me was the content and the on-track action; being able to visit every circuit, running a random race or the full season, using any team on the grid. Having my name in lights hardly crossed my mind, in fact it barely made sense, as it would replace one of the actual drivers. Where did they go? Early retirement?

I’ve always wanted to select my favourite driver rather than replace them, and take them to glory.

Review Review

This is the way annual sports games have worked for years, and with Codemasters taking the same yearly approach, it’s surprising that F1 2015 represents the first time this is available. I have no problem with my name only being relevant to the multiplayer mode, but evidently a personal career was indeed a popular feature amongst fans of the series (the amount of ‘Let’s Play’ episodes on YouTube is testament to that). No doubt Codemasters have seen the complaints and won’t be making the same mistake again. Hopefully they can offer both ‘pick a driver’ and ‘create a driver’ next year.

But if it was as simple as swapping out a name, why was it removed in the first place? I suspect the all-new presentation is the culprit. This is the first time we’ve seen full 3D models of all the drivers - until now, this missing detail has been disguised by only showing cutscenes while they’re wearing helmets, with podium ceremonies avoided altogether. Finally, F1 2015 delivers podiums and champagne (although sadly no anthems - it cuts straight to Los Toreadors), and you can see why it

was avoided throughout the last generation. Even now, with the jump in fidelity and some impressive models of all the drivers, they still stumble down the steep walls of Uncanny Valley as soon as they begin to animate. That said, it’s a decent first effort, and maintaining this level of presentation with a personal career would require a full avatar-customisation tool, perhaps even something similar to EA’s ‘Game Face’ - a serious undertaking.

But perhaps the bigger reason is the introduction of commentary. It’s not the blow-by-blow dialogue that could be heard in the older Studio Liverpool F1 series, but easily the most elaborate voice work so far from Codemasters. The talents of David Croft and Anthony Davidson are used to good effect, particularly if you’re familiar with Sky Sports’ broadcasting. With references to many of the drivers’ career history, it’s hard to imagine how this could work with a random player name in the mix. But the delivery is more than awkward at times, so perhaps they should just try it anyway! Davidson can’t disguise that he’s reading from a script, and

THIS IS A HUGE STEP FORWARD; EASILY THE BEST-HANDLING GAME OF THE SERIES

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

013

review

EVOLUTIONORREVOLUTION? CODEMASTERS’ F1 SERIES FINALLYMAKES THEJUMPTOCURRENT-GEN.DOES THE NEWTECHNOLOGYACTUALLY DELIVERABETTERRACING GAME,ORIS ITALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS?

SIM RACER

F1 2015 REVIEW

review

it certainly doesn’t sound like they recorded their lines on the same day. While there is a decent amount of variation race to race, the repetition is inevitable; you’d think with the high probability of a Mercedes one-two finish, they would have recorded several versions of that particular sign-off. Crofty also seems to need a ‘lie down’ far too often. However, it’s a welcome addition to the series that adds some flavour, and they do occasionally call out something smart, such as describing one of the drivers’ performance in the previous race, rather than simply being a generic introduction to the circuit each time. They often mention a specific track feature too, for instance calling out the unique steering rack required for the (incorrectly-named) Loews Hairpin at Monaco - a brave move considering the previous years’ steering wheel support.

So let’s get right to it - wheel support is indeed significantly improved, and that Monaco hairpin call-out isn’t simply a throwaway line - the tighter steering rack is modelled correctly and visibly represented (the front tyres achieve a sharper angle at full lock than other circuits). As with most Codemasters titles of the last generation, F1 2014’s steering was optimised for around 270 degrees of rotation. This has thankfully become 360 degrees, a more realistic value for F1 steering lock (real-world values are typically between 360 and 450). It does mean that on PC, you still need to set your rotation separately in the driver, but this is progress. It’s something that has been addressed in DiRT Rally, which now accepts full rotation; F1 2015 just missed the boat on that upgrade - hopefully next year! And it’s not just a rotation upgrade. In previous years, the animation priority was constantly overriding the input, exaggerating the on-screen wheel’s movement when riding the kerbs, presumably for the benefit of gamepad

014

users, making the cockpit view a more exciting place to be. This has finally been toned down, to the point where the animation appears 1:1 the majority of the time when using a wheel.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that not much else has changed; controller options appear virtually identical to all the last-gen Codemasters titles, with the now-familiar linearity and saturation sliders, no calibration wizard, limited FFB options, and so on.

Racers with unusual controllers may find it painful to configure inputs - and with a bug that seems to forget settings, you might be revisiting these menus regularly. The game can occasionally generate huge deadzones on the pedals too, which might not be immediately noticeable due to the lack of axis input displays. With stiff, snappy cars and huge torque, a half-dead pedal is the last thing you want, particularly on a game that doesn’t feel as direct as it should - but more on that later.

Bugs aside, there is plenty of good news, with the force feedback system receiving a significant upgrade. Again, you wouldn’t guess from the menu system, presenting the same three sliders as previous years, but they operate very differently. In F1 2014, the three options were independent - ‘environmental effects’ determined the level of kerb vibration, ‘feedback strength’ provided the self-aligning torque and ‘wheel weight’ seemed to be an unnecessary damper. Anything above 20% feedback strength appeared

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

to cause ‘clipping’ and remove all sensation of understeer, making 80% of the range unusable. In 2015, ‘environmental feedback’ and ‘wheel weight’ are independent, but the strength of both parameters is determined by what is now the master ‘feedback strength’, and 100% of the range is usable. ‘Wheel weight’ determines the level of self-aligning torque now, and the relationship between this value and the overall strength value influences the characteristics of the FFB in a way that was totally missing before. That probably sounds incredibly confusing, but I assure you the new system makes so much more sense. Basically, the same number of sliders now provide more options and much more granular control over how the FFB is delivered.

Gamepad input has been sorted too. F1 2014’s ‘hidden assists’ for gamepad users were overbearing and ruined the challenge for many players - this has been returned to a much better state, where good throttle and brake control is essential (plus the rumble triggers on the Xbox One version are used to good effect, while the PS4 gamepad can run the race engineer dialogue through the built-in speaker).

A special mention goes to the UI - despite the similar settings menu, the rest of the presentation has changed drastically, with animated drivers and introduction videos to each circuit. The loading begins in the background as soon as you pick your track and driver, allowing you to use that time to configure final options (race settings, difficulty, assists, etc.) - a subtle improvement but an example of smart thinking with the redesigned interface. The in-garage interface has a fresh coat of paint too, with slick live timing displays and a live feed where you can watch your competitors on track from various cameras - something we’ve

F1 2015’s New Tyre Model Lee Mather answers some questions.

That’s correct, we run a modified system with its roots in the Nicolas-Comstock theory. Particular attention was paid to the low speed/low grip behaviour, to allow for controllable and progressive breakaway. The new version is also parametric, rather than using hundreds of look-up tables, able to handle variation, evolution, wear, damage, etc. in even more areas and to a finer granularity. The additional grunt of the new consoles permits way more on-the-fly calculation.

Could you tell me what the model is capable of now - for example, are the surface temperatures different across the width of the tyre, does it simulate the effect of surface heat (perhaps even brake temperature) on tyre pressure?

We have a very complex heat model. It has many strands which affect not only the immediate performance of the tyre, but also its degradation cycle. The heat of the track and its evolution due to weather and racing is modelled to a high degree. Pushing the temperature up in the tyre reduces grip, which causes more movement, which increases wear, as it would in real life. Managing the temperature of the tyre is imperative to extending its life span. It’s interesting that you mention brake temperature, as this is a detail we’ve rarely spoken about. Since F1 2010 we’ve had temperature from the brakes affect tyre temperature. High brake temperatures will cause heat to seep through the wheel, heating up the core temperature of the tyre.

How do you go about modelling the different slick compounds used, as well as the inters/wets?

The biggest difference between the tyres, aside from the levels of grip they provide in different conditions, and the temperature operating windows, are in the way in which they feel. A slick tyre has a very narrow slip angle, and can be quite abrupt in its breakaway when traction is lost or cornering grip is exceeded. Its peak operating window is quite narrow. A treaded tyre on the other hand has a much wider window, which allows for a softer, more progressive feel.

Were you able to work directly with an F1 team on tyre data, or perhaps Pirelli themselves?

We’ve always based all of our tyre work upon real data provided to us from various sources over the years, and we do speak with Pirelli on a regular basis. There are two things which are important when simulating tyre behaviour, but it’s also dictated by your end goal. When speaking to companies who develop professional tyre models for motorsport, they talk about the data which they need to get back out of the tyre model, this is paramount. But if the feel isn’t correct, then the test driver can’t drive the car in the fashion it would be driven in real life. So a large amount of building a strong tyre model comes from reproducing the feel that’s expected of it, that often requires some manipulation of the raw data.

With a theoretical model, I imagine it’s difficult to simulate things like flatspots - they don’t appear to be in 2015. It pretty forgiving at the moment, I can lock up dramatically several times before the tyre even begins to show anything on the ‘damage’ display, and there’s no ‘clunk’ through the FFB and no vibration at speed. It’s an important part of F1 can it be done?

The race engineer talks about ‘blistering’ sometimes.

How is that determined?

We’re always looking at ways to improve and expand our model, and will continue to do so.

Blistering sits separately to wear. Wear can only go in one direction, you can’t recover wear. Blisters on the other hand can build up on the surface of the tyre, but then scrub away a little over time. This means that the player may push hard for a lap, and cause blistering to the tyre, therefore reducing grip.

If they then calm their driving down a little and allow the surface temperature of the tyre to drop, the excessive blistering on the surface will reduce, so an amount of grip will return, but it will never return to the same level had the blistering now occurred.

Does this model give you a good starting point for future F1 games - are there ambitious plans to upgrade it? Would you even want it to become more sim-like, or is that not the market you’re aiming at?

We’ve given ourselves an incredibly strong starting point, from a physics and tyre model point of view.

I still believe we simulate a lot more than virtually any other sim orientated racing title on the market. With multiple compounds, and tyre types, temperature, wear, blistering, wetness, pickup many other elements all taken in to account.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

015

review

come to expect in PC sims, but a first for this series.

The positive impression continues as we explore the circuits of the world, all of which received a visual overhaul, raising them to the level expected of current gen. It also marks Formula 1’s return to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico, a track rarely seen in racing games. Although not laser-scanned, the track quality is very high, including the most beautiful representation of Monaco in any racing game so far. Particularly pleasing is the bump on the short straight leading to Mirabeau (that the drivers avoid in real life) - it’s modelled properly now, causing the cars to bottom-out. A keen eye will spot the odd inaccuracy - Montreal seems slightly too wide in places for example, and is missing the sausage kerbs on the final chicane, making the ‘wall of champions’ less intimidating than it should be. A few of the corner profiles are not quite right on various circuits, but overall you’re treated to excellent representations of each location, and they’ve really come to life with the new rendering technology. Beautiful dusk lighting in Bahrain and the spectacular Singapore night race showcase the new engine’s abilities. The trackside grass is the best of any racing game, and the AA techniques, depth of field, motion blur and chromatic aberration result in a uniquely smooth, consistent appearance. The shadow rendering is as seamless as they come, with no obvious Level of Detail boundaries, and the side mirrors have impressively high-quality reflections. Leaves kick up in Montreal, sparks fly as the cars attack Eau Rouge. As always, wet weather doesn’t disappoint - umbrellas scatter the grandstands, raindrops streak along the bodywork,

When I visited the Southam studio, the DiRT Rally handling team described the tyre model to me, how it was a bit of a hybrid, based on the Nicolas-Comstock theory with their own custom equations. I’m told the F1 team started with the same codebase about 15 months ago, which has evolved since then to suit the demands of an F1 game. What makes the model such a big step forward compared to what was used in 2014 (and earlier)?

review

water pours convincingly over the garage entrances, the ‘rooster tail’ spray looks better than ever, along with the surface water distribution and reflectivity, and the drying line.

The consoles enjoy 60fps for the first time, with the Xbox One rendering at 1440x1080 and the PS4 version displaying the full 1920x1080. The PC version naturally has the potential to push the highest image quality of the three, but don’t expect the game to perform as comfortably as the rest of the Codemasters library. PCs have been munching through their 360/ PS3-optimised titles with ease for years; F1 2015’s new engine demands some powerful hardware to run at its best (a GTX 980 drops below 60fps on the wet Singapore streets when all settings are maxed out at 1080p), which is frankly a welcome change. A recent PC patch removed the controversial chromatic aberration effect, which simulates the colour separation seen when capturing images through a lens - fairly realistic (albeit slightly heavy-handed) for the camera views, but at the expense of sharpness, particularly towards the edges of the screen. It’s possible that the console versions will have received a similar update by the time you read this, but I’d quite like to see an option to leaving it on for all the broadcast-style camera angles, as it does benefit the presentation outside of the car. Sadly most options are locked down within the installation folder on the PC version. Motion blur can be disabled via an XML, but the game needs more adjustability if it is to be embraced by the sim community. Triple-screen can be forced, but the game clearly isn’t optimised for this, with distorted menus, no FOV options,

016

and certainly no specific triple-screen tweaks that you find in many PC simulators. Previous entries in the series had access to FOV adjustment in the cameras. xml file, but this is sadly not the case with the new engine.

With hardly anything available to tweak, it’s time to hit the track. The automated pit exit unfortunately remains, but I’m soon clocking laps at Albert Park, building speed and confidence as I explore the feel of the new physics. It takes a single corner to notice the improvements to rear stability on throttle, but several hours before the full picture emerges. This is a huge step forward, easily the best-handling game of the series. It’s not going for a full simulation, being very forgiving in many areas - particularly high-speed oversteer - but it’s the closest they’ve ever come, demonstrating the basics of vehicle dynamics in a way that is, for the first time, completely intuitive. I found myself grinning as the rear began to break away convincingly through the tricky Turn 16 onto the main straight - a corner that never felt right in F1 2014 - resulting in an hour of additional ‘testing’ in Melbourne just for the sheer fun of it. With such a big change, those who treat the yearly F1 release as their go-to driving game are in for a shock, but get used to it - this represents the foundation of something great, and there’s no going back.

It’s now a great learning tool for anyone new to racing games, particularly in the wet, and will make for a more seamless transition to full simulation software. I’d prefer a more treacherous wet weather experience, but it provides just enough of a challenge in its current state.

Much of this intuitive handling can be

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

attributed to the new tyre model, but evidently the entire chassis has received attention, illustrated by the new setup pages. Strangely, the ride height option is absent but camber, toe, anti-roll and stiffness remain, with the addition of fuel levels for practice sessions, ballast positioning, differential and tyre pressure options. Messing with detailed setup options is understandable now that the vehicle dynamics are more realistic, but I’ve found it difficult to reach that ‘zen’ level of connection to the car where such changes are meaningful. This lack of connection is my main concern about the new engine. The game does not feel as direct as the best simulators, and testing 2014 and 2015 PC versions back to back (with a frame limiter at 60fps with no v-sync), there does appear to be marginally more input lag in the new game, even with as many post-process effects disabled as possible.

The forgiving over-the-limit slip characteristics mean it can be ignored to some extent, but it numbs the experience and prevents the game from reaching that stellar level of driver engagement that we enjoy in other titles.

Audio has received some notable improvements - along with higher quality, unique engine samples, there is now an audio reflection system that causes

AS ALWAYS, THE WET-WEATHER GRAPHICS DON’T DISAPPOINT localised increases in volume, based on your proximity to walls and objects. With a good pair of speakers or headphones, this effect can actually improve your driving, as it provides a subtle indication of how close you are to a barrier, enhancing your spatial awareness.

At the very least, it makes the audio more dynamic, noticeable when the cars fly over you at the 130R crossover at Suzuka, for instance. Tyre slip noises are better, as are the hair-raising screeches as you brush a wall at high speed. The various rain effects, from the droplets bouncing off your helmet as you sit on the grid, to the deep rumble of thunder add convincing atmosphere. The radio signal now distorts as you go into concealed sections like the Monaco tunnel - a neat touch - but the expected large reverberation is strangely absent this time. The replays have a confusing sound mix, with the sound of the cars being too quiet relative to the ambient environment noises, as if we’re only receiving the ‘surround’ channels possibly a bug.

In my F1 2014 review, I acknowledged the solid, dependable AI, but wished they could battle a little harder side by side and make better defensive moves. They’re at least halfway to achieving these improvements - F1 2015’s AI has been reworked, and the side-by-side action is much better. I’ve yet to see them make a truly convincing, early defensive move, but they battle hard and stay safe in equal measure, also battling comfortably wheel-to-wheel with each other, sometimes around multiple corners. It can be thrilling to watch two cars battle ahead of you, and the subtle locking of brakes from the AI as they push the limits adds a great deal to the intensity of racing.

This really is some of the best AI in the business, particularly if you drive with precision, but it’s not without sketchy moments - backmarkers get confused by blue flags, particularly if being caught by other AI drivers at the same time as the player. Occasionally they’ll ignore blue flags entirely and battle as if they’re on the lead lap, or it’s the other extreme, trying to move out of your way so abruptly that they slam into a

wall and come flying across your path.

The flags appear to be at the root of the problem.

With no implementation of the ‘virtual safety car’ system, or even a real safety car this time, every wreck simply receives waved yellows, which then clear unrealistically quickly, becoming green before you (or the AI) can react appropriately. This is the most disappointing aspect of the track action, which is otherwise superb. In a random, throwaway race it’s not a big deal, but it’s a major drawback in the new, hardcore Pro Season mode. This presents the complete race weekend with every setting locked to their most realistic values - three full-length practice sessions, full qualifying and a full-length race, the highest difficulty, no assists, no restarts, forced cockpit view and no HUD - engaging the player in the world of F1 in a way few racing games can match. A fan of the sport will recognise the attention to detail, but immediately notice everything that doesn’t correspond with the real thing - the lack of formation lap being an obvious omission (one of the commentator’s opening lines mentioning the lap suggests it was planned and didn’t make the cut), and the flag problems and lack of safety car being regular immersion-breakers. It’s a damn shame, because the new tyre model recreates tyre wear over full-length stints in a convincing fashion, making full-length races an appealing prospect for the first time.

Most players will turn to Championship Mode instead, but is not as customisable as it should be - for example, if you select a short weekend, you have no option but to do one-shot qualifying. But there is a solution - Quick Race Mode is actually a customisable Championship Mode under a different name. Within the Quick Race menu you can create a custom list of races, any type of qualifying to match any length of race, and it keeps track of your points. The ‘three practice sessions’ feature is restricted to Pro Season, but it’s clear that Championship, Pro Season and Quick Race options could have easily been contained in a single mode - but then the menu would have looked

very sparse indeed.

Online multiplayer is presented with a novel ‘hopper’ system. It is effectively a quick-join mode, and is able to search for a game while you continue to enjoy any single player mode - a smart idea. The problem is, most players were comfortable with the lobby list, and this system should have been an alternative, not a replacement. The removal of the lobby browser entirely and leaving it to the game to do the matchmaking is frustrating, particularly as all the lobby functions are there, but restricted to invite-only races (for your friends list).

The more hours I invest into this title, the more I appreciate the work involved. To recap - a huge visual overhaul including a streamlined UI, dramatically improved physics with a new tyre model and force feedback, significant audio upgrades and excellent AI - this is unquestionably the biggest step forward the series has ever seen. If one of the established PC sims revealed this kind of technology upgrade in the space of a year, the developers would be hailed as geniuses and we’d never hear the end of it. Instead, many are shrugging their shoulders. But as much as this game deserves praise, one can’t ignore the fact that the features are thin on the ground this year. The option to select the entire 2014 season’s content is no small feat - all the car models are up to standard, along with some unique commentary - a nod to PS4 and Xbox One owners who did not receive an F1 game last year, but it’s no consolation for the missing features. Multiplayer has suffered significantly, with no splitscreen on PC or console, no LAN options and no co-op career mode either. The Scenario Mode, arguably the most entertaining feature of previous games, is also absent.

Each year, Codemasters attempt to cater to the widest possible audience with their F1 release. The physics upgrades were implemented to improve the experience for all users, and this happens to have produced a game more relevant to sim fans. But it was never intended to be a sim, and some of the design decisions clearly reflect that - the lack of FOV options, no way of disabling hand/wheel animation, and no adjustment of head movement or the look-to-apex will rule out many sim racers from the start. Along with the various controller woes, there is no manual clutch system and ERS deployment, like F1 2014, has no manual override. The draft effect is exaggerated, the ‘full’ damage is too forgiving, there are no manual pit stops, the list goes on.

All this amounts to a game that shows signs of greatness, but is hard to recommend outright. It doesn’t tick all the boxes for the casual player, nor does it do enough to satisfy the sim enthusiast. It offers the best core experience of the series, in terms of physics and racing quality. But if that’s all you wanted, dozens of simulators would serve you better; a licensed F1 game needs to be more than that, delivering both good action and great features. As such, F1 2015 is few steps short of the full package.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

017

review

F1 2015 REVIEW SIM RACER

CHILLBLAST FUSION MASTER

PC PREVIEW

SIM RACER

WITH THE NEW RANGE OF X99 MOTHERBOARDS NOW OUT, SUPPORTING INTELS NEW SKYLAKE CPU AND DDR4 DRAM, IT SEEMED FITTING TO SCOUR THE PREBUILD MARKET FOR A REAL MONSTER THAT SHOWS OFF SOME OF THIS GREAT TECHNOLOGY. THIS SEARCH FINALLY LED US TO OUR FRIENDS OVER AT CHILLBLAST, WITH THEIR FLAGSHIP SKYLAKE GAMING PC; THE CHILLBLAST FUSION MASTER. .

THE CHILLBLAST FUSION MASTER is Chillblast’s flagship Skylake gaming PC and is underpinned thoughout by some of the most cutting-edge technology on the market. Working closely with a range of their suppliers, the Chillblast Fusion Master combines some of the latest PC technology and connectivity to provide the end user with a gaming PC that will truly get the most out of your gaming experience.

The Chillblast Fusion Master is available direct from Chillblast at a price of £1699.99. Now whilst the price isn’t ‘cheap’, it is certainly worth the money.

Boasting some brilliant technology, and being built by a group of people who really know their stuff, you could find much worse ways to spend the money. With 5 years collect and repair warranty you can feel more than safe should anything go wrong. Either follow the QR code provided, or head over to www. chillblast.com for more information.

CASE: COOLER MASTER MASTERCASE 5 One of the most exciting components of this PC is the Cooler Master MasterCase 5.

With features such as a free-form modular system that allows you to mount your hard drive caddies anywhere on the right side of the case, two stealth modules dedicated for SSD storage, brilliant cable management and the ability to be upgraded to either the MasterCase Pro or MasterCase Builder due to the brilliant interchangeability of the case. It’s very rare that we get this excited in regards to a case, but the MasterCase 5 certainly caught our attention!

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING Every PC is built around its motherboard, so it’s only right that a serious gaming PC have a serious gaming motherboard.

Chillblast have opted for the Asus Z170 PRO GAMING Motherboard here, which offers you everything that you would expect from a gaming grade product from ASUS. Boasting features such as being SLI ready, DDR4 ready, M.2 storage ready along with a range of other technical features, the Asus Z170 is certainly a good base for use when building a flagship product.

CPU : INTEL CORE I7 6700K The brains of the operation; the new Skylake Intel Core i7 6700K. Our Technical Editor was so impressed with the capabilities of the new i7 6700K that he went out after playing around with one and completely revamped his PC in order to utilise the mind-blowing power offered, especially the over-clocking potential. Clock for clock, the new Skylake processors are about 5% faster than their Devil's Canyon predecessors. The i7 6700K used in the Chillblast Fusion Master has been over-clocked to 4.6Ghz, which is pretty much the over-clocking ceiling for the 6700K.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

019

SIM RACER PC PREVIEW CPU COOLING: COOLER MASTER NEPTON 240M

RAM: 16GB DDR4 MEMORY

Keeping in theme with the Cooler Master MasterCase 5, Chillblast have opted to make use of one of Cooler Master's brilliant cooling devices, the Nepton 240M. With two 120mm fans attached to the large front-mounted radiator, the Nepton 240M really will have no issues with keeping your new Skylake CPU well under the recommended temperatures.

For years now DRAM hasn’t seen an upgrade, and whilst everything around it was changing, DRAM slowly got left behind. However that has now changed, and DDR4 has burst onto the scene. The Fusion Master makes use of 16GB of DDR4 DRAM, clocked at 3000Mhz. Our review sample made use of the Corsair Vengeance; a staff favourite here at Sim Racer HQ, but you may find this could change as companies tend to use what they have in stock at the time. If you want to learn more about DDR4 RAM, then definitely check out this month's Tech Desk!

STORAGE: SAMSUNG 512GB SM951 M.2 SSD This is the first time we’ve actually ever seen the Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD, and at first we really struggled to even work out where it was. Unlike a traditional SSD that sits in a hard drive caddy, these attach straight to your motherboard via a specific M.2 port; something that has been used in high end ultrabooks and all-in-ones, and are TINY! We’re talking smaller than a uncased stick of RAM here. What the SM951 M.2 offers though is mind-blowing. With 2.5GB throughput, these are roughly 5 times faster than a traditional SSD running via a SATA port, essentially meaning everything will boot up really, really fast.

GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 4GB The Nvidia GTX 980 really is an absolute monster of a graphics card, and is currently the weapon of choice for Sim Racer’s Technical Editor, Connor. Able to chew up absolutely anything you’ll throw at it in regards to gaming, there really are very few competitors on the market. With its 4GB

VRAM (Video Random Access Memory), you should have zero problems whatsoever. Chillblast have made use of the Zotac overclocked variant of the GTX 980, and with 3 fans, not only will the card stay cool, it is also surprisingly quiet.

020

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

STORAGE: SEAGATE 2TB SSHD HYBRID DRIVE Your typical HDDs are slowly evolving, and one of the favoured options is the SSHD. These combine the best features of SSDs and HDDs, combining the large storage of traditional HDDs, but allowing you to boot up programs and software 5 times faster than a traditional HDD. We’re a huge fan of SSHDs, and having one is certainly a good thing.

PSU: COOLER MASTER V750 The Cooler Master V750 is a 750W 80 PLUS Gold certified PSU, and supplies more than enough power for the Fusion Master. There really isn’t an awful lot to say in regards to a power supply, other than the fact it works… But for future reference, the Cooler Master V750 is fully tested and suitable for SLI, should you choose to buy a second GTX 980 for more power in the future.

OPERATING SYSTEM WINDOW 10 HOME 64-BIT The Chillblast Fusion Master makes use of the all new Windows 10 Operating System, and unlike Windows 8 at launch, Windows 10 actually doesn’t do a bad job! Utilised in its 64-bit variant here, it makes a solid first impression, and is widely supported with nearly everything in regards to games, software and peripherals thanks to Microsoft doing a large amount of testing prior to launch…

Seems like they’ve learned from the fiasco that was Windows 8!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

021

V O L U M E

GUN REVIEWS ¤ GAME REPORTS ¤ HOW-TO GUIDES ¤ GEAR TESTS

1 0 I S S U E 1

I

N

T

E

R

N

A

T

I

O

N

A

L

A I R S O F T I N T E R N AT I O N A L

OPERATOR

publishing ltd.

JUNE 2014 VOL:10 ISS:1

£4.25

ebcon

BUILD A MK18 PTS RM4 ERG REVIEWED PROJECT PTW INTERVIEW TACTICAL T-SHIRTS JUNE14 Cover.indd 1

28/04/2014 08:58

V O L U M E

THE WORLD’S FIRST DEDICATED SIM RACING MAGAZINE

LAUNCH

1

1

I S S U E

ISSUE #

1

WIN A MEGA BUNDLE OF STEEL SERIES KIT!

KAMUI KOBAYASHI INTERVIEW!

S I M R A C E R

CHILL BLAST! SIM RACING PC’S FULLY REVIEWED INSIDE

THRUSTMASTER GEAR REVIEWED

POSTER INSIDE!

MADCATZ PRO RACING WHEEL REVIEW

D THE SCENES EXCLUSIVE LOOK BEHIN

ebcon £5.99

publishing ltd.

LAUNCH VOL:1 ISS:1

SIM RACER TAKES AN

NIVIDIA GRAPHICS CARDS TEST

SIM RACER LAUNCH ISSUE.indd 1

26/08/2014 13:53

THE MAGAZINE FOR THE ALPHA MALE

OUTDOORS - ADRENALIN - TACTICAL - ESSENTIALS - FITNESS - EXPLORE

TRAVIS HALEY

GUNFIGHTER!

WE TAKE A KNEE WITH WORLD CLASS GUNFIGHTER TRAVIS HALEY IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW TO FIND OUT WHAT MAKES HIM TICK AND HOW THE WORLD OF HALEY STRATEGIC PARTNERS REVOLVES . . .

HARDSHELL JACKETS!

WE TRY BEFORE YOU BUY! 8 HAND-PICKED JACKETS UN-ZIPPED AND BARING ALL!

COMMANDO SCHOOL PAGE 25

WE GET TO GRIPS WITH TACTICAL TITANS ARKTIS AND SHOWCASE A SELECTION FROM THIER MILITARY AND POLICE RANGE

BCB DEPLOYMENT ESSENTIALS TACTICAL HOODIES ON TEST! FITNESS ON THE MOVE SEPT14 RAIDER.indd 1

ebcon £4.25

publishing ltd.

VOLUME 7 ISSUE 5

AS SEEN ON TV!

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO COMPLETE ONE OF THE MOST GRUELING PROGRAMS?!

ARKTIS UNCOVERED

04/08/2014 18:31

ebcon publishing ltd.

GREGER HUTTU

interview!

SIM RACER

T HE W ORL DS FA S T E S T SIM R A CE R

GREGER HUTTU

FOR CLOSE TO TWO DECADES, GREGER HUTTU HAS THRASHED CARS AROUND VIRTUAL TRACKS WITH A LEVEL OF SKILL AND COMMITMENT THAT HAS KEPT HIM AT THE VERY TOP OF THE GAME. CURRENTLY HEADING FOR A 5TH TITLE IN THE IRACING.COM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND PRIX SERIES, SIM RACER HAD A FEW QUESTIONS FOR HIM...

Those Asus triples are 120Hz; high-refresh, low latency displays are ideal for sim racers - how do you feel about the importance of reducing input lag? I find it baffling that many sim racers play with v-sync on for instance. It must be critical to feel the most direct inputs to compete at the highest level, although I suspect you can comfortably adjust to something with a higher latency - I’m sure you remember when sims struggled to hit 30fps!

BY DOMINIC BRENNAN I UNDERSTAND YOU first experienced the joys of the steering wheel controller back in the Grand Prix Legends days - what was that first wheel you used, and what was it like?

The very first one was a Thrustmaster GP1 which had hand paddles for throttle and brake instead of pedals. From there I moved pretty quickly to another Thrustmaster wheel which had pedals as well! I can’t remember the name but I don’t think it was the T2. Anyway, I remember playing with a joystick and thinking that I don’t really need a wheel, but the first time I tried a wheel I knew there was no going back!

It is often stated that a good set of pedals is what you need to be consistent and fast. I’d argue that you can be fast on almost anything with decent sensitivity, you just need to adjust to it and be smooth! I believe several top drivers still use consumer-level hardware. What do you reckon?

The most important thing is to be comfortable with whatever you use. You can definitely be fast with almost anything as long as you’re adjusted to it and the pedal set works without issues of course.

Higher-end pedal sets bring a more realistic feel, if that’s what you want, and also reliability.

These days you’re sponsored by Fanatec, so no doubt you’re enjoying their hardware. I’d love to know the details of your full rig - what’s in your PC, what kind of displays do you use, your seat, whether you have any vibration or motion systems?

In my PC I have an Intel 2500K CPU bought early 2011 I believe. That’s probably my best CPU purchase ever as it’s still going strong and looks like I don’t need to upgrade it for another year at least! My video card is an NVIDIA 780Ti. The displays I use are Asus VG278H triples with an Obutto R3volution cockpit. Going to triples was a really nice upgrade from a single screen. It doesn’t help with lap times but it’s great when racing side by side and a lot more immersive. And maybe it does help a bit in those tight hairpins.

I’ve been using the Logitech G27 pedals for the last few years. I find they work really well when racing with socks which is what I prefer. I’ve done a few upgrades, like the Bodnar cable, hall sensors and firmer GTEye springs which really improve the feel. I used the Fanatec Clubsport V2 pedals for a while but for me those pedals were best when used with a high brake force and shoes on. I don’t like to wear shoes inside so I switched back to the G27 pedals!

I’m also using the Fanatec CSW v2 wheel base

That’s funny, because early this year I actually switched to using adaptive v-sync! I’ve always been pretty insistent about minimising input lag, but using adaptive v-sync hasn’t really had a negative effect on my lap times or driving. I actually switched it on because sometimes I had these graphical artifacts in the middle of races in iRacing which always ruined the race. I haven’t noticed an increase in input lag and the graphics are a bit smoother now. I’d really like to go for G-sync monitors but those are still really expensive and to buy three of them is even worse!

Adaptive v-sync is surprising! Perhaps this is because your framerate is hovering around the refresh rate, so it’s kicking in and out of ‘sync’ regularly, or simply because a high-refresh means being v-synced isn’t that bad for lag anyway...

Yeah I think it’s mainly the 120hz refresh rate so there isn’t actually that much input lag. I didn’t notice any difference at all when switching it on.

With a 60hz display it would be worse I’m sure.

What are your thoughts on force feedback? I understand it is quite common for FFB to be turned very low or even off on the oval side - I can only imagine this is another latency thing, avoiding confusing signals between your eyes and hands…

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

023

i nte rvi ew

with a Formula rim and also their universal hub with the ‘Flat1’ rim which have been awesome. I don’t have any vibration or motion systems.

SIM RACER GREGER HUTTU

interview!

With the Fanatec CSW v2, I always turn it as high as possible without clipping the forces. I haven’t done much oval racing for a few years, but I’ve done the World Cup in iRacing and didn’t have any issues with the FFB on ovals. I could see it being an issue on the super speedways as you need to be as smooth as possible with the steering to find those last thousandths of a second.

I used non-FFB wheels for a few years when I started sim racing so I don’t think I rely that much on the feedback from the wheel. In fact, whenever I’ve switched steering wheels, it hasn’t taken me many laps to adjust. But I definitely like to feel the FFB from the wheel as it brings more immersion if nothing else. With pedals it’s a different story, as I use them to control the car more than I do with the steering.

Do you try to test all the sims on the market?

They seem to all have strengths and weaknesses - which do you connect with the most? Would it be fair to say that your iRacing career is at such a serious level that you need to look elsewhere for your ‘fun’?

i nte rvi ew

Lately it’s been mostly about iRacing for me as that’s where most of the competition is with the World Championship Series. iRacing does the multiplayer aspect better than anyone else and the competition is what I enjoy the most. I do try other sims every now and then, mostly Assetto Corsa - I really like doing hotlaps with AC and I think it drives great. But of course when the World Championship series is on, that takes quite a lot of time.

You’ve been driving for Team Redline since its inception at the turn of the century, over 15 years ago. That’s a large chunk of your life, and I’m sure there are many stories to tell - can you describe one of the stand-out moments from the early days?

Back in the early days it was mostly about racing in online leagues and it wasn’t as organized as it is now with iRacing for example. There are definitely some memories of racing with the team in different events in the early to mid-2000’s but I’d have to go with winning the first world championship in iRacing in 2010 which wasn’t that long ago!

Max Verstappen joined Team Redline recently it’s not the first time a famous name has become associated with sim racing, but it’s certainly

exciting, as he seems to be involved for the right reasons. Have you spoken to him, and how do you feel about this development I’ve chatted with him very briefly but it’s obviously great to have him in the team. I think it’s great publicity not only for our team but for sim racing in general as we’ve seen quite a few articles about this story on various sites. Hopefully it will bring some new people into sims. And it’s not only for publicity - he’s already done a couple of practice sessions with us.

The connection between real racers and sim racers has never been closer, with real drivers like Max using sims for practice, and sim racers becoming real racers through competitions like GT Academy. How do you feel about this, have you been tempted to try for one of these competitions?

If I were in my 20’s I would definitely jump into those competitions! I’m still tempted to try something like GT Academy one day but it would take some preparation and commitment.

With the rise of Twitch, YouTube live streaming, and the major e-sports competitions growing around the world, including the recent Dota 2 championship with a mind-boggling 18 milliondollar prize pool, I was expecting virtual racing to have a larger following by now. There are several YouTube channels covering live online racing with TV broadcast presentation and commentary, and the level of skill on display is arguably even higher than the strategy-based team games that are so popular. Why do you think pro sim racing attracts a relatively small audience, and what do you think needs to be done to change that?

I think sim racing is still not that well-known in the gaming circles, even with people who are interested in racing games in general. The only thing you can do is keep promoting it with quality broadcasts and things like that. I also think games and sims that can bridge the gap between arcade racers and proper sim racing titles are important. There’s a possibility that once people get a taste of more realistic titles they will be more keen to get more involved with sim racing.

Like the Codemasters F1 series for instance?

Have you tried F1 2015? It has stepped up on the physics side of things...

I haven’t tried it but that’s one example. I’d like to give it a go since David Greco who’s been sim racing for years is involved with the car handling there. iRacing usually sees physics updates several times per year. Some people complain, some people just get on with it. How do you feel about it? Does a tyre model update mean all your setups are totally messed up?

I actually like the changes as they keep things fresh.

Sometimes you have to throw away your old setups but I prefer that to grinding with the same physics over and over again.

One of the builds a few seasons ago changed so much that I felt like I had to fundamentally adjust my driving style to get back up to speed.

Has this ever happened to you?

I think the tyres became more sensitive to temperature in iRacing sometime last year and I kind of struggled with that with the F1 car. I like to trail-brake quite a bit and that wasn’t working so well anymore. It wasn’t a huge thing but even small changes can make a difference in the WCS. iRacing’s dynamic track technology is probably the biggest change to the service since the New Tyre Model - how do you expect it will affect the World Championship Grand Prix series, your team’s approach to the strategy, and your own driving?

We’ve had dynamic weather for the last few races and it hasn’t changed things that much. I’d expect the same with dynamic track. I hope it doesn’t reduce overtaking! I don’t think it will change our approach to testing and strategy either, but I guess we’ll see once we get there.

024

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

Huttu takes an incredible 50th World Championship Grand Prix Series win at Motegi.

Yeah, it’ll be nice to drive something other than the FW31 in the WCS for a change. Although I have to say I’m not a fan of some things in F1 currently like the excessive fuel saving and drivers not being able to push to the limit with the tyres. But it’ll be a new challenge which is always nice. I was really happy to see the announcement about the FR3.5. I prefer single seaters most of all so I’m definitely planning on racing it as long as the car drives well!

I see the last time you did any oval racing on iRacing was in 2009 - what do you think of oval in general, and have you ever considered going back to it?

I think oval racing will really benefit from dynamic weather and track, so I’ve kind of been waiting for that before getting back on the oval scene. I’d like to try racing in the oval world championship one day, so now with the dynamic stuff happening in iRacing, I might have to get back into it.

Are you ever tempted to jump into a random official race in other iRacing series? I imagine if you ever tried it, people would recognise your name, treat you differently on track, try too hard to beat you and end up taking you out or binning it themselves?

I’d have no problem jumping into any race but at the moment I’m pretty happy doing a world championship race every two weeks. I don’t think people would treat me any differently and maybe with the FR3.5 I’ll do more official races. Like I said I’m mostly into single seaters and there haven’t been many cars like that in iRacing so far that would interest me. I don’t like GT3 cars that much but I think I’ll be doing the Blancpain series next year as long as we qualify for it!

A few years ago, you travelled to the USA to take part in a test organised by Top Gear magazine,

where they wanted to see if your virtual skills translated to the real track. In the Star Mazda at Road Atlanta, you were posting times within 3 seconds of the guys who race regularly in the series, after only a short number of practice laps and no prior real-world track experience. Do you look back at that trip with fond memories, and have you done any similar tests since, or taken part in any ‘track days’?

Yeah, that was a great trip overall and I really enjoyed it. The Skip Barber 3-day school that I did the weekend before the Star Mazda test went really well. I wasn’t really happy about the last day as I was feeling a bit sick already the night before so I couldn’t really push during the Star Mazda test. I was hoping to take my time and start pushing at the end of the day but that never happened. It still went pretty well considering the handful laps that I did but definitely wanted to get more driving in. I haven’t done any tests or track days like that since then.

I think the world has the impression that everyone from Finland has tried rally driving have you?

No, never tried any proper rally driving!

Did you ever invest much time in Richard Burns Rally, and what do you think of DiRT Rally?

I actually bought an Xbox to play Richard Burns Rally. It’s still the greatest rally sim in my opinion.

I’ve tried DiRT Rally and it’s definitely fun and quite realistic but still doesn’t quite compare to RBR. Virtual Reality is going to kick off in a big way in 2016, and driving simulation is one of the most ideal applications of the tech. Many sim racers have Rift devkits already - have you tried it yet?

And are you excited for VR in general - can you

imagine most of the grid using VR headsets in the Pro championships within a couple of years?

I have the Rift DK2 but I haven’t used it that much.

It works quite well but for competitive sim racing it would need a better resolution, for me at least.

When using it I felt I like couldn’t see into the corners well enough. Maybe the final consumer version will be good enough and I think in a couple of years, VR could be pretty popular even in the Pro races.

Anyone who has attempted to race competitively online will understand the level of skill on display at the front. Occasionally I’ve competed against Pro-ranked drivers and they blow me away with their consistency and raw pace. The draft will flatter for a while and then they start to pull a gap and it’s all over. And yet, it’s those same pro racers who look at your performance and think the same thing! It’s difficult to even comprehend what it is that makes you so fast.

After all, many people know how to be fast; the fundamental concepts are not that complicated - trail-braking to carry speed deeper into a corner, smooth inputs, early on the power, use all the track, nail every apex, etc. The entire grid is doing this, and at a very high level, yet you’re doing it better. Can you explain how you can achieve this?

No, I can’t! Really, it’s very small differences that can make up for even a second in lap time. And often it’s hundredths or thousandths in qualifying that can decide a race in the WCS so it doesn’t take much. I think on the ‘top’ level of sim racing it’s a lot about the mental side, how well you can focus and keep your mind on the next braking zone and corner. The physical side of actually making the inputs happens almost automatically so the better you can focus and keep away the distractions, the better you’ll do.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

025

i nte rvi ew

They also have plenty of interesting content on the way - the McLaren MP4-30 should replace the Williams as the F1 car of choice, and you tweeted that you were particularly excited about the new Formula Renault 3.5 single seater too will you be happy to see the back of the Williams, and are you hoping to race the 3.5?

iRacing

iRACING - TRACK CREATION

SIM RACER

SINCE 2008, IRACING.COM HAS LEAD THE WAY FOR TRACK ACCURACY IN SIMULATORS THANKS TO THEIR LASER-SCANNING TECHNIQUES. WE ASKED GREG HILL, IRACING’S VP OF ART & PRODUCTION, TO EXPLAIN SOME OF THEIR TECHNOLOGY, AND TO DISCUSS THE AMBITIOUS NÜRBURGRING AND LE MANS PROJECTS. BY DOMINIC BRENNAN modelling the track itself. As Greg explains, “that includes the roads, kerbs, grasses, dirts, gravel traps, and so on, which are inside of the outer walls of the track - basically everything from the outermost catchfence to the innermost walls.

Working in concert with the modeller is a texture artist, who creates unique textures including the albedo map, normal map, specular, and detail textures, for each of these surfaces and then applies them.”

t r ac k c r e at i o n

LET’S START WITH a rundown of the build operation, which involves processing the massive amount of laser and photo data from the reference team. By carefully studying the laser scan in the scanner registration software, they can make sure that the data looks good, with minimal error in the registrations. All photo reference is downloaded and categorised onto a drive which all the artists can access. Once this reference is processed and the scan is converted into their proprietary format, a track modeller will begin

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

027

SIM RACER

iRACING - TRACK CREATION

t r ac k c r e at i o n

While this is going on, a team of 3D artists will model the terrain that surrounds the track. “This includes any parking lots, fields, hills, mountains, etc. that you can see from the track”, Greg says.

“This same team will place the trees, powerlines, lights, and any detail along those lines. This is all built to the laser scan, or if it’s outside of the range of the laser scan, we’ll supplement with digital elevation maps or aerial lidar”. Greg goes on to explain that each circuit is positioned correctly in the world via GPS information - the georeferenced data seamlessly snaps into place, allowing them to show accurate long distance views from high vantage points, such as the blimp camera.

“A separate team of artists focus on the buildings themselves, with each building, grandstand or object surrounding the track cut out of the scan into its own smaller laser scan file”.

Greg continues. “Modellers will then import these scans into 3D Studio Max and create 3D objects from the scan data. These objects are built to the exact correct location and scale due to their being part of the larger laser scan file, so when they add them to the track, they are in exactly the right place”. It’s essential that every object is created in this way, as you never know which is going to be used as an important braking reference, or some other ‘sighter’ for the driver.

When all of the objects are done and the track is modelled and textured, there is a polish phase.

“We go over the track with a careful eye for anything we may have missed and to make sure the track has reasonable performance.”

And how much data is normally acquired from the initial scan and photos, and how many laser points are captured for an average-sized track?

“It really depends on the type of track and the surroundings”, Greg explains. “A short track surrounded by fields or forest is at a completely different scale than something like the Nürburgring or Le Mans. On the low side you may have a track like Southern National, which we were able to scan

iRacing’s Nürburg Castle in the distance, and the detailed model of the tourist diner

in the low tens of millions of points. On the very high end you have the Nürburgring, which took billions of points to capture. Photo reference scales similarly, ranging from a few thousand images and videos to tens of thousands.”

This vast data needs to be converted into something usable. “We model our tracks with our proprietary spline-based modelling tool, Sandbox”, he says. “This is the same tool we’ve been using for years, going all the way back to the days of Papyrus Racing Games, but just like 3D Studio Max and Maya it has received significant improvements along the way. Since we work exclusively with laser scans, one of the most important capabilities of Sandbox is for it to quickly load and render millions of points at a time quickly, so that our track modellers can model track geometry quickly and accurately right onto the laser scan. The tool is custom tailored to work with laser scan data, and

build into the track representation every bump, dip, or subtle nuance that has been captured.”

The photographs are invaluable for the texture artists and an essential first step, but there is much more to creating great textures than simply cutting out a photo and applying it to a model, as Greg is keen to point out. “Many textures are derived from high-poly 3D sculptures that we’ve created in tools like zbrush and then rendered to texture and normal map.”

How many man-hours does it take to build a track from scratch, and how many people are working on a track at any one time in the studio?

“Anywhere from a couple of man years to 5+ man years”, Greg says. As for personnel, “it varies depending on the phase of development the track is in. It can range from just one person in the beginning all the way up to our entire department along with significant outsourcing resources.”

Asked to expand on their outsourcing, Greg obliges. “Our internal team is built such that it has expertise in all areas of track and car development, but when workload increases or more speed is needed, we supplement by calling on additional

HOW DOES LASER SCANNING WORK? For most large-scale 3D scanning applications, ‘lidar’ (light and radar) technology is used. These scanners emit a continuous or rapidly-pulsing laser beam, which is rotated or oscillated by a mirror to perform a controlled sweep of the environment. When the beam reaches an object, the energy is reflected, with a small amount bouncing directly back into the scanner, where a sensor detects it.

The time taken for the photons to return to the scanner is precisely measured, which can then be used to calculate distance.

By factoring in the angle and rotation of the beam, the point can be triangulated, making it

028

an exact point in 3D space. Many thousands of points are created with each sweep, automatically building up a ‘point cloud’ of data, which can be sub-millimetre accurate, depending on the scanner and techniques involved. Modern scanners also take panoramic photographs during the sweep, so the point cloud can be coloured to look more realistic, which can be a useful additional reference. Laser scanners have proved invaluable for many applications, such as

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

archaeology, geology, and surveying.

In January, iRacing retired the Leica HDS3000 and revealed a new scanner, the Leica ScanStation C10. “Our new scanner has allowed us to scan more quickly, which is great for the team in the field who can be on the road for weeks at a time”, says Greg. “More importantly, though, it allows us to scan with a far higher resolution. The end result is we’re getting better data with which to model our tracks.”

Mon Dieu

Le Mans really is the greatest racing event in the world!

Many thanks to Kevin Bobbitt, who describes their trip in detail:

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015 Off to the airport. Since direct flights from Boston to Paris were unreasonably priced on short notice we opted for the scenic route through Iceland. It turned out to be quite enjoyable and I plan to make a longer stop on the volcanic island nation the next time I head across the pond. Sunday turned into Monday and next thing you know we were sitting in traffic on the peripherique around Paris. Several hours - and a couple of coffees - later, we were in the central square of the village of Le Mans to meet our track contact and pick up our credentials. Public scrutineering was in full force and it was great to see so many cars and fans already taking in the event.

Full media access and two passes to drive our cars on the circuit. You can’t get better access than that!

Once credentials had been sorted we headed to the circuit. Since we couldn’t get on the track surface until Wednesday we immediately began photographing trackside objects. We split up into several teams and began wearing out our cameras.

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2015 After a really long day, about 36 hours without sleep, we were feeling a little fresher having slept in to about 7:30. Today’s assignments were similar to Monday’s as we still couldn’t get on the track surface.

Photographing the trees, homes and business along Mulsanne straight was fun, even when we were be watched by curious homeowners and sometimes yelled at. We weren’t doing anything nefarious but if you look at it from the homeowner’s perspective it is a bit weird to have half a dozen Americans shooting photos of your house and property. No police were called, no one was arrested and most importantly no one was hurt in the making of this virtual track. We did nearly lose one of our photographers when he inadvertently stepped in a post-hole that was dug for the temporary Armco and left uncovered. Luckily he was uninjured; more importantly, his cameras were also undamaged.

I think the best way to get a real sense of just how long the Mulsanne straight is, is to walk it. It goes on forever!

Jack Davidson and I even managed to do a short

Kevin snaps away near Dunlop Curve

interview with American racing driver Jordan Taylor.

He happens to be an avid iRacer and races for Corvette Racing in the #64 car – yep, that’s right, the same car that won GTELM Pro class! So much for the iRacing curse.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015 Having made very good progress on trackside objects the past two days – six photographers lets you cover a lot of ground – we planned to arrive early at the track to see if we could get on the racing surface before our allotted time of 12-2pm. Getting there early paid off as we were able to get on closer to 11 and stayed until after 3pm. Unfortunately this day also brought us some rain. Not a big deal for the photography but the laser scanner was not too happy. A good quality scan would have to wait until Thursday, which coincidentally, was the last time we would be allowed on the racing surface. No one said it, but I think we all went to bed with a final thought, prayer or wish for a clear day tomorrow. If we didn’t get the scan on Thursday it would literally have to wait an entire year.

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015 The day began with checking out of our hotel as we need to move further away from the track since all of the rooms nearby Le Mans had already been booked for the race weekend. Once at the track we were able to get on the racing surface a little early again.

Thankfully the weather was perfect and the laser scanner was able to capture the precise detail that you have grown accustomed too. Again, we divided into teams and were able to finish photographing everything we needed – the track surface, barriers, signs, light poles, fences, gravel traps, houses, corner worker stations, garages, grandstands, etc. If you can see it from the track, we have pictures of it! Once again we were yelled at, this time by some corner workers who didn’t understand or frankly really care why we were on THEIR track. The one police officer who did stop me seemed fine once I showed her my credential - got to love the all access pass! We finished up in the evening and half of the crew headed back to Paris to catch a flight the next morning. The rest of us moved to our new hotel, about an hour from the track in the beautiful town of Chartres.

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 We had planned to use Friday to finish up the trackside photography but since we were done with that and there wasn’t much on track activity we decided to head to Paris for the day and see some of the sites. It’s a beautiful city and a place everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime. I won’t bore you with the details of our walking tour but I will say it was great to be back in Paris. I lived in the city many, many years ago and this was my first time back. Felt a little like going home again.

SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2015 Early alarm so we could get to the track and beat the traffic. I guess we should have left a couple of hours earlier if we wanted to get in before the crowds.

Luckily our all access passes still worked and we were able to find a nice parking spot in the infield not far from the paddock. Today was our chance to see, experience and photograph the facility in a race setting: the crowds, the carnival, the pits, corner workers, the shops and displays. Everything had really come alive and the circuit had a completely different feel now that several hundred thousand race fans had arrived.

We watched the pre-race ceremonies and start of the race from a balcony near the media center – it’s a great place vantage point. We could see the tens of thousands of spectators jammed on the front straight.

I have been to countless races and never experienced anything like this. The Rolex 24 at Daytona, Sebring 12 hour, even the Indy 500 pales in comparison to the Le Mans experience.

We shot more photographs throughout the afternoon and into the night. We’ll use these for reference so we can incorporate the atmosphere into our digital version of the circuit. As you can imagine the track has a completely different look and feel once it is populated with race fans!

Having worked until literally the middle of the night and then driving an hour back to our hotel we were completely wiped out. We never did manage to make it back to the track Sunday as we needed to catch up on some sleep. We eventually hit the road and headed back to Paris for the night so we could catch an early flight back Boston.

It’s hard to put into words what it was like to be at Le Mans and to be a small part of the team that is bringing iRacers this great track. Everything came together so quickly and thanks in large part to Greg’s ability to plan, organize and keep us on track (see what I did there?) the trip was a huge success.

We even managed to keep this all a secret. None of us posted anything on social media about being at the race. No one wore any iRacing gear – quite a change for a marketing guy like myself who lives and breathes our brand and almost always wears something with the iRacing logo emblazoned on it. I actually had to go out and purchase a couple of new shirts before I left as literally 90% of my shirts say iRacing on them!

With more than 35,000 photos, a complete laser scan and even video reference of laps driven in the rental car we have everything we need to recreate this iconic track.

While the release of this track is still a long way off, I know that we’ll bring you the absolute best version possible. From the perfectly modeled track surface, to the subtle details on the houses lining the circuit - it will be unlike anything you have ever seen and it will be worth the wait, I promise.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

029

t r ac k c r e at i o n

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2015, 11:00 Executive VP Steve Myers calls me down to his office for an unscheduled meeting. I walk down the hall to see what is so urgent and arrive to find VP of Art & Production Greg Hill and Associate Producer Kevin Iannarelli already discussing something. Steve is not one to start a meeting with friendly chit-chat so he gets right to the point – We came to an agreement with Le Mans and we need to laser scan and photo reference next week. Are you available to go to France this weekend? Of course the only sensible response is oui! It’s days like this that I really like my job.

Greg spends the next couple of days making travel arrangements – no small feat to find hotel rooms for six people one week out from the biggest endurance race in the world! The rest of my week was a whirlwind as I attempted to wrap up several projects and plan for the trip. I experienced a minor scare on Friday when I couldn’t find my passport – luckily my wife knew where it was!

SIM RACER

iRACING - TRACK CREATION

t r ac k c r e at i o n

resources. We have a handful of long-term arrangements with trusted outsource studios and contractors. We’ve worked with these providers for years to ensure consistency and quality between our work and theirs so that the result is seamless and always to the iRacing standard of quality.”

The scan data is great for placing objects correctly and at the right scale, but for this application, it is also used to give sim racers an accurate surface. But the accuracy of the point cloud converted directly to the sim environment would have ludicrous PC requirements. As such, there is a physical driving surface much closer to the raw data that interacts with the physics engine, and a rendered one, as Greg explains. “It is true that the driving surface can differ slightly from the graphical. This is for performance reasons. The physical driving surface has a tremendous amount of fidelity. To represent that fidelity with polygons that would have to render would be very costly performance wise. By doing this we’re able to give users the most authentic driving feel possible.”

Continuing on the performance theme, the production team also have to manage the resources, by building every object with LODs (levels of detail). “Basically the farther you get from a building, the less detail that building needs because your eye cannot distinguish the detail due

030

to the distance. As such, the models will switch from something that’s perhaps 12,000 polygons, down to 6,000, and so on, to minimize the number of polygons on the screen at the same time. We also have many tools which allow us to visualize the performance around the track, which lets us identify potential problem areas and address them.”

Naturally, such detailed creations require extensive testing. “We try to get our tracks into testing as soon as possible. Sometimes this will lead to a track being put on our test site that is just a ribbon of asphalt floating in a void, with no terrain or objects0 surrounding it. As we complete the various objects and steps in the project, those items will be added and rolled out.” iRacing’s usual laser-scanning technique is very time-consuming, even with the new equipment setting up a static scanner with reference markers, sweeping an area before moving the whole setup to another point, repeating multiple times until the entire circuit is covered, with all the data stitched together. Presumably they had to use a different scanning technique for the Nordschleife and Circuit da la Sarthe?

“The Nordschleife and Le Mans were both scanned with a mobile scanner. Mobile scanning technology has come a long way since we first

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

considered its use many years ago. For these two projects we found a great scanning partner who have developed techniques to acquire data while on-the-move, with incredibly high accuracy.”

The team spent several days collecting data on location in Germany; Greg describes how they managed to walk the track at such a busy facility.

“It was certainly a challenge getting daylight access to the Nordschleife. We managed to arrange a span of days where the track was closed down for repairs during the time of our track walk. Crews were doing fixes such as filling in cracks and replacing damaged pieces of Armco.”

Circuit de la Sarthe is also one of the longest tracks in the world, with the additional complication of large sections being used as public roads for

the majority of the year. This gave the team a very small window in which to capture data, and was only possible by working closely with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) for access to the facilities, timing their trip to coincide with the build-up to the Le Mans 24hr race. They stayed for the main event. “Our purpose was to capture the look and feel of the race itself: what it looks like at night when everything is lit up, where fans congregate, etc. Despite that purpose, however, it was incredible to be there during one of the most exciting motorsport events in the world.” iRacing’s tracks have been described as having personality rather than being just a clinical display of a laser scan. Greg offers an explanation on how this is achieved. “We pride ourselves on the accuracy and attention to detail that we put into our racetracks. This goes back to the philosophy of our entire product. We don’t take the easy path, rather we take the path that we think will produce the most authentic racing experience possible.

When we approach a track, we pour over the photos and reference for weeks, identifying all of the structures, materials, and characteristics that make up that track. We don’t have a generic library

of Armco barriers, road surface, or kerbs that we quickly rubber stamp around a track model to make a quick approximation of that track. Rather, we take the time to build textures and objects unique to that location. You’d be surprised by the extreme variety in materials at different tracks such as the composition of an asphalt aggregate, the seam pattern used to lay it down in strips, the age and type of metal used on a piece of Armco, the types of powerlines and track lights, etc.”

It’s true that every circuit in the sim has a unique look - sometimes subtle, but always noticeable. “We also create a great deal of density in objects”, Greg enthuses. “If it can be seen from the track we like to recreate it, even if it’s seemingly insignificant like an electrical breaker box or traffic sign in the distance, or a distant cluster of buildings seen filtering through the trees and fences. All of these things come together when you’re driving through the rendered world to create a very believable and life-like scene.”

After yet another successful ‘24h-Rennen’ at the ‘Ring in May, and the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, we were reminded once again of the unique appeal of endurance racing. Interest in the discipline is rising, both in the real world and in simulators. Dynamic track technology is one of the main reasons for excitement on the virtual side; track evolution, changing grip levels due to weather conditions, rubber build-up, marbles being pushed off the racing line - it couldn’t be more important to the realism of endurance racing at the ‘Ring and Le Mans, as the track not only evolves significantly during the course of the race, but can be experiencing different weather conditions at different parts of the track at the same time! Rain is still a distant goal for iRacing; we can’t wait to see all of these features come together.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

031

t r ac k c r e at i o n

iRacing’s model of the Nordschleife tourist gates

SIM RACER NEW BUILD

PART

3

STRIPPING

YOUR

new build

PC OVER THE LAST TWO MONTHS WE HAVE BEEN BUILDING A PC IN COLLABORATION WITH GRAPHICS CARDS EXPERTS, XFX. SO FAR WE HAVE MANAGED TO STRIP OUR OLD PC AND BEGIN WORK ON BUILDING OUR NEW ONE, AND THIS MONTH WE BEGIN TO GET CLOSER TO THE FINISHED ARTICLE. THIS TIME WE'RE SHOWING HOW WE INSERT OUR HARD DRIVES AS WELL AS TYING OFF A FEW LOOSE ENDS. STEP 1 LOCATING THE CADDY

To start make sure you have any hard drive you wish to install as well as a screwdriver. Our first step is a simple one, you simply need to locate the hard drive caddy (located on the right side of the PC). Once it's located you can simply pull out the desired number of hard drive caddies in which you wish to install hard drives into.

032

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

STEP 2 MOUNT DRIVE TO CADDY

STEP 3

STEP 4

SLOT CADDY INTO BAY

CABLING

Step three simply sees us replacing the hard drive caddy into the hard drive bays. If you’re using more than one hard drive we would recommend keeping them together due to power cabling later on. This will make using daisy-chained cables a lot easier, saving on hard drive power cabling later on in the build.

Once you have placed your hard drives and caddy and back into the hard drive bays you will want to remove the other side of your gaming case so you are able to insert your power cables and SATA cables. Firstly we will be inserting our SATA cable. Looking on the back of your hard drive this will be the smaller of the two ports.

Make sure you line your SATA cable up correctly with the back of your hard drive to prevent any potential damage.

STEP 5 PSU

Next we are going to install our power supply. Usually we would have done this when installing our motherboard, however we simply just forgot! With our power supply being a non-modular power supply, we first need to thread the power cables through the power supply hole located on the back of the PC. Once we have pulled these cables through, we can then place the power supply into the correct area and continue to secure it. This is done with four screws, one in each corner, screwing the power supply to the case.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

033

new build

Our next step sees us mounting our hard drive into its caddy. In our case we will only be mounting a singular HDD as this is all our old PC had. As you can see this is just a standard HDD. Once you have removed the hard drive caddy you’ll notice four screws in each corner.

Remove the screws and then place your hard drive into the caddy lining the screw holes up with the holes on your HDD. Simply screw the screws back into place once you have aligned the HDD.

SIM RACER NEW BUILD

STEP 6 MORE CABLES

With your power supply in place, the next step is to thread your hard drive power cables through to where they need to be. Your hard drive power supply cables are the only ones that are in a single row. Simply line the cable up to the back of your hard drive, lining it up like you did with your SATA cable(s). Once this is done your hard drives are ready to go‌ well nearly!

new build STEP 7 CONNECT TO MOTHERBOARD

The final step for installing our hard drive is inserting our SATA cables into our motherboard. These ports are located in various different places dependent on your motherboard.

How many you have is also dependent on this. You should have no problem finding them - as shown here in the picture.

034

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

STEP 8 LOOSE ENDS

new build

With our power supply now installed we can look at tying off a few loose ends in regards to our motherboard.

Firstly you’re going to want to find the motherboard Power and CPU Power cables. Nine times out of ten these cables are labelled. If not then the motherboard cable is the largest of them all, however looking at your motherboard and power supply should make things self-explanatory.

STEP 9 OPTICAL DRIVE

Our last step this month sees us install our optical drive, otherwise known as a CD drive. This step isn’t mandatory, with a lot of people choosing to forsake the use of an optical drive. However with such a big case it would seem stupid to not include one, especially due to the fact that it makes installing drivers much simpler. Firstly you need to remove the locking system on the optical drive bay. This is done by simply flicking the red switch to unlock and then removing the two screws that are holding it on.

NEXT TIME...

NEXT

MONTH

NEXTMONTHWEFINISHOUR BUILDOFF,FINALLYINSTALLING THEPOWERHOUSETHATIS THER9295X2!

Once this is done simply slide your optical drive into the bay. For ease we have removed the XFX locking system and simply used the holes behind said locking system to screw our optical drive into place. Once this is done, you will need to thread another SATA cable and power cable through to where your optical drive is located.

Once this is done simply insert both cables into the optical drive and hey presto, we’re finished!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

035

ELEMENT GAMING SIM RACER

Element Gaming In association with

IT IS NO SECRET THAT THE COMPUTER PERIPHERAL MARKET IS OVERLY SATURATED, WITH A HUGE AMOUNT OF COMPANIES ALL TRYING THEIR HANDS AT BEING THE NEXT CORSAIR, RAZER OR STEELSERIES. SO TO SAY THAT WE GET THOROUGHLY UNDERWHELMED WHEN A NEW COMPANY COMES ONTO THE MARKET IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. HOWEVER WHEN OUR FRIENDS AT EBUYER SUGGESTED WE TAKE A LOOK AT NEW BOYS ON THE BLOCK, ELEMENT GAMING, WE DID JUST THAT… WHEN YOU TAKE a look at the computer peripherals market, it is very easy to get lost in the vast amount of product out there. From the giants such as Corsair, Razer and SteelSeries to various unbranded devices, it is often very hard to find exactly what you’re looking for at exactly the price you’re looking to spend. The general rule for years has been ‘you get what you pay for’, but whilst the big brands churn out some brilliant products; a lot of which I personally use, the general consensus is that a lot of it is vastly overpriced.

However, once you get into the habit of buying from one of the bigger brands, it is very hard to break that cycle, and before you know it your mouse, keyboard, headset, mousepad and

just about everything else is all from the same company, and when something goes wrong with one of your items, you usually just end up going back to the same people, purely because it’s convenient.

Very rarely do you see people venture into the realms of the smaller companies either; usually brainwashed with the views that because of the price, it must be worse… right? And I’ll be honest, for years I was stuck in the same mindset. For years I refused to look at the smaller brands on the market, stuck in the cycle of purchasing from the bigger companies. And whilst there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it’s foolish to ignore some of the ambitious new companies popping up…

About a month or two ago, I personally hadn’t even heard of Element Gaming, let alone seen or contemplated buying anything from their range. It was only when we started doing some work with eBuyer that the company was even brought to my attention.

Element Gaming really are fresh on the block, in fact so fresh that they were only launched this year; 2015, so I’ll forgive you if you've never heared of them. UK based, Element Gaming promise both “high standard AND low prices”, which let's be honest, are two things you rarely see go hand in hand in the PC market. But with them being “Avid gamers themselves” they claim to know “exactly what the gaming world expects and demands”.

Their most eye-catching statement is that “We are confident you won’t find better quality tech anywhere”…

A very bold statement to make, especially considering their promise to keep prices low.

But like always, we’re always willing to give things a chance, but can Element Gaming really deliver on their promises? Well there’s only one way to find out!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

037

SIM RACER ELEMENT GAMING

Hyperion Micro ATX Computer Case RRP £54.99

e l e m e m nt gam i n g

When it comes to cases, it’s very rare to see much of a price discrepancy from one case to another, and the same can be said for Element Gaming’s first attempt at a Micro ATX gaming case; the Hyperion, which falls into the usual £50-£60 price bracket.

Starting with the general sales jargon - “The Hyperion is designed specifically for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts who want to build a high-specification computer in a small form factor case.

The Hyperion chassis can house either a micro ATX or mini ITX motherboard and the roomy interior offers plenty of space for the PC builder.

Five PCI slots and plenty of internal bays provide great scope to fill the case with high-performance components.

And, crucially, a great deal of attention has been given to cooling.

The case has four 120mm stock fans. Two LED models are mounted to the right panel whilst further fans are positioned to the front and rear. There is ample space for more fans as well as support for liquid cooling with room for 2 x 140mm radiators at the top of the case or 2 x 120mm radiators on the right panel.

Rounding off the list of features is the external connectivity. The top of the case featuring two superfast USB 3.0 ports along with a further USB 2.0 connection as well as the audio inputs.”

Now cases are largely personal preference; as lets be perfectly honest here it’s more about what goes into the case than the case itself that makes a good PC, however there are still certain things to look for in a case to make sure you are happy with the end result.

When the Hyperion came into the office, it had done so at around the same time we received a whole bunch of new PC components, and having already looked at both a Mini ITX and Tower build within the magazine, the next logical step was of course a Micro ATX. So to really make sure I got the most out of reviewing the Hyperion, a new build quickly started.

Now I’ll be honest, everything about the case is fairly standard when it comes to features. You’ve got a ton of fans, some external case buttons and that’s about it. The LED fans are a nice touch,

038

but let's be honest, they’re hardly cutting edge technology. But cases aren’t exactly known for coming with freebies, and you largely pay for the build quality.

In regards to build quality of the case itself, I really can’t fault it at all.

Built from a mix of steel and plastic, it’s about as sturdy as they come, and you’ll struggle to do any damage to it should you accidentally drop or kick it. The steel is nicely anodised and the plastic is of a good finish, meaning the case looks far from tacky.

Adorning the front of the case is ‘ELEMENT GAMING’, located centrally at the bottom of the case, along with their logo in the bottom right. Neither are big enough to look corny, and they add a little bit of oomph to an otherwise bland front panel. And to add a little colour to the otherwise blackness of the case, you have a blue stripe where the top casing connects to the rest. Now personally I would have liked to see a range of different colours; purely because I’m a huge fan of red in gaming cases, but that’s just being super picky. I’d also have liked to have seen the logo and name in the same colour as said coloured stripe - but again I’m just being picky here.

The Hyperion is however, pretty boring to look at, essentially just being a big black block. They’ve tried to combat this with the aforementioned blue striping, as well as a ‘slotted’ finish to the top of the case and a view hole on the left of the case, but there is very little they could have done to make this case look… well, interesting. That said though it’s neither ugly or pretty, just very ‘plain jane’.

The biggest factor for myself when it comes to cases though is how easy they are to build with, and the Hyperion does pretty well here. After the pain of

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

There’s plenty of ventilation on offer, including three Raidmax-branded fans.

building into a Mini ITX for the first time, I had some reservations building into the Hyperion, but the difference in room is astounding, and it’s definitely one of the easiest Micro ATX cases on the market for a build process, with the only real trouble coming when routing cabling, but some of said difficulty may have been due to the fact I had broken a couple of fingers so was building one handed! Overall the build experience was easy and stressless, which definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

So what do we think of the Hyperion?

Overall it’s a very good case. Whilst it may not be the prettiest case out there, it’s easy to create a new build and it has amazing airflow for such a small case. The front and back fans keep the main section well cooled, with the fans on the right hand side preventing your hard drives and power supply from overheating. Personally I would have liked to have seen some more space for hard drives, as I’m currently limited to two, but I have yet to fully explore the possibilities within the case so I may be missing something here. I would have also liked to have seen the case retail in a wider range of colours, but that really is just nitpicking.

For their first entrance into the case market, the Hyperion definitely stands on its own two feet, and doesn’t get bullied by the other similar products, but there are things we would’ve liked to have seen done differently. But with that said, I would gladly go out and buy the Hyperion if I were looking for a Micro ATX solution.

Beryllium Mechanical Red Switch Keyboard It’s a pretty well known fact that when it comes to competitive gaming where you need lighting fast input into your keyboard without running the risk of accidentally pressing two buttons, mechanical keyboards are the place to be. If you look towards the professional FPS scenes, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone using anything but a mechanical keyboard, but why is that?

Put simply, mechanical keyboards are far more reliable when it comes to input.

Without going into it too much, each key on a mechanical keyboard has it’s own switch, which stops you running the risk of ‘double inputting’ - something membrane keyboards are renown for. They also provide tactile feedback, which allows for muscle memory to kick in a lot quicker than it would with a membrane keyboard.

And on top of that the average life of a mechanical keyboard vastly outweighs that of a membrane keyboard…But less about mechanical keyboards on a whole, and more about the Beryllium from Element Gaming.

After begrudgingly placing my beloved Corsair K70 to one side and unboxing the Beryllium, it was almost as if I’d just replaced my keyboard with the same model!

On first inspection, the Beryllium is an exact clone of the K70. It has an identical layout, is built the same, and has pretty much all of the same features. All that the Beryllium is missing in comparison to the K70 is the multimedia buttons in the top right (Play/Pause, Stop, Previous and Next) and the ability to program two different lighting options, LED brightness and Windows Button lock keys located on the top of the keyboard. Everything else is an exact copy of the K70; even down to the wrist support and volume controls.

However, whilst the aforementioned features aren’t placed on the Beryllium in exactly the same places/button layout as the K70, most are located elsewhere on the keyboard. The multimedia functions are instead placed on F5 through to F8, and the ability to change your button illumination to purely just WASD is located on F12. You’ve also got the brightness buttons bound to the up and down directional keys. The only things the Beryllium is missing in regards to buttons is the Windows Button lock and you also don’t get a USB extension on the keyboard; something that

is a significant downside.

In regards to how it looks, again it is pretty much like-for-like.

The edges are less aggressive, taking a more-rounded look as opposed to the sharper appearance of the K70. The base of the keyboard uses a metallic dark grey, as opposed to the black of the K70 and the illumination is blue instead of red. You also get a set of changeable buttons for ‘WASD’ and the directional keys, however these don’t have the same raised finish on as the K70; instead they are just blue keys, which look very out of place.

So we’ve established that it looks nigh-on identical to the Corsair K70, but how does it perform? Well, it uses Kailh Red switches (very similar to Cherry MX Reds), which allow you to double and triple tap extremely quickly without having to fully release the key in question. Response time seems pretty similar, however the keys feel slightly more tough to push; however I would presume a lot of this would come down to the new-ness of the keyboard, and after time would feel a lot more like my current K70.

All in all though I noticed next to no change in regards to how it affected performance, apart from ‘WASD’ being a little harder to find due to the keys not having that raised texture on. Personally I’m not much of a fan of using other already assigned keys for keyboard macros that could’ve been placed on their own button like the K70 has done, but this is a very, very minor gripe if truth be told.

One thing to note is that you can’t download drivers for ANY Element Gaming peripherals via the internet. In the case of the Beryllium keyboard, it is simply plugand-play, but this means that it lacks any dedicated configuration panel or gaming software, which could be a significant downside, depending on how you plan to use the device.

e l e m e nt gam i n g

RRP £79.99

Element Gaming are on to a winner here. Performance and great design at a very competitive price. Let’s hope they expand their range in the future!

The main question though is the price.

At £64.98 with free P&P from eBuyer, it is nearly half the price of the K70, and sure it’s missing a few ‘bling’ features, but are you really willing to pay the extra £50 for the privilege? Well I guess that comes down to personal preference. My main gripe is the fact there is no configuration panel whatsoever, and with some really powerful ones out there, it’s a real shame Element haven’t bothered, or seem to not have.

Like any mechnical keyboard, it is also great for typing, as long as you're comfortable with the distinct noises of the switches. It's great for the general PC gamer, but is it overkill for a sim rig? Perhaps, but anybody can appreciate a solid, dependable keyboard, and the backlighting is very useful for night-time racing.

Overall, £64.98 for a fully mechanical keyboard that has nearly all the same features as the K70, as well as some added illumination features really isn’t bad at all, in fact I’d say the Beryllium is about the best price-for-performance mechanical keyboard on the market, and will definitely attract a lot of people into the mechanical age!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

039

SIM RACER ELEMENT GAMING

Iridium 820 Gaming Mouse RRP £29.99

e l e m e m nt gam i n g

Over the years I’ve got to grips with some absolutely outstanding gaming mice, including the SteelSeries Sensei and the Razer Deathadder. However both of the aforementioned mice command high prices. The Iridium is on the complete opposite spectrum of the market at an RRP of £29.99. However, being labelled as Element Gaming’s ‘premium’ mouse, we were a little unsure what to expect.

Element claim that the Iridium 820 is “the ultimate gaming machine”, being “precision engineered to the highest standards and made from the best available materials” and being “optimised to provide professional grade results for gamers of all levels”. Now lets be brutally honest here, you very rarely hear such claims with such an inexpensive mouse.

But we won’t judge a book by its cover!

On first look the Iridium 820 looks both elegant, and well… cheap. The mouse itself looks brilliant. It’s aggressive looking, the materials used look good, the adjustable hand support at the bottom of the mouse is a nice feature and easily adjustable and it fits the hand really nicely.

However, what makes it look cheap in my personal opinion is the annotations on the mouse. The ‘ELEMENT’ on the right mouse button looks fine, in fact it compliments the design quite nicely, and the ‘ATTACK’ is so small it’s acceptable. However when you’ve got ‘PROFESSIONAL GAMING’ on the mouse, well in my eyes it just loses credibility. It’s done in a really strange font too, which you can tell has been used so it fits along the mouse contour. Get rid!

Now whilst you may think that’s a little harsh, you’ve got to remember that for the average gamer, performance isn’t necessarily on the top of their list. Looks are.

Now I’m aware that looks mean nothing when it comes to competing, but for those who just enjoy PC gaming, having attractive peripherals is a huge boasting point between friends. And simply removing that ‘PROFESSIONAL GAMING’ tag would make a huge difference to me. Hey, you might like it… Each to their own!

But back on topic. The Iridium comes

040

with 8 mouse buttons, some of which you are unable to bind for certain games; which is hugely irritating but there is a work-around which we’ll come to shortly.

The Iridium 820 does however come with a driver panel (apparently only available via the included mini CD) that at first was pretty underwhelming, but on further inspection turned out actually rather powerful! You can do just about everything here - light settings, sensitivity adjustments, polling rate, and button settings. The saving grace for me was the button settings.

Having mentioned not being able to bind the existing buttons to certain games, the work-around lies in this section of the

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

The included software can be very useful - just don’t lose that CD!

driver settings. At first I hadn’t noticed it, and it’s something a huge amount of gaming mice take advantage of - macros.

All you need to do to make use of all of the mouse buttons, regardless of what game you play is to set up some macros!

Simply assign a key on your keyboard to said macro, preferably one you will never use (I tend to use NumPad keys); select what mouse button you want that action on, and voila! You can now use that useless ‘ATTACK’ key for something useful!

In regards to performance, I had my ups and downs with the mouse. At first we got on really, really well, and I really enjoyed the device, but after a two-week period of 8 hours use per day of solid gaming (yes I need to get a life), it started to act a little strangely, jolting off to random parts of my screen. At first I cleaned my mouse mat and the mouse itself, but there are still slight stutters at times. The two main mouse buttons give really nice feedback, the side buttons are a little light in my opinion and the ATTACK button is a little heavy, but I can deal with that on the whole. I think if given a choice to fix one of them, I’d make the ATTACK a little lighter.

Overall though, for an RRP of just under £30, you really can’t complain. Yes it has a couple of niggling faults visually, and I had some slight issues with the fact you can’t download drivers online, but it still performs admirably. Then compare it to mice that give similar features and performance; you’ll realise this really is a bargain!

Xenon 700 Gaming Headset Headsets are always a funny one to review as I’m by no means a audiophile, however that being said I’ve had the opportunity to test a huge range of headsets in the past from various different companies, meaning I’m pretty clued up on what makes a good gaming headset and what makes a not so good one! So with that said, we’ll get into things.

On first inspection, I really wasn’t sure what to think about the Xenon 700. Parts of me really liked the look of them, but on the other hand I thought it looked like they belonged in a 70s Sci-Fi movie… But whatever it was I couldn’t quite work out whether I was a fan or not. If truth be told I much preferred the look of the Neon 250; another Element Gaming headset we’ll be looking at in a future issue of Sim Racer.

But again, we won’t let looks tarnish our review, as we’re here for performance, not prettiness.

On closer inspection I started to notice the quality of some of the materials used.

The soft leather ear pieces and headband are top notch, and some of the most comfortable I’ve ever worn over extended periods of gaming. The microphone comes on an articulated arm that has a 360 degree angle of rotation, meaning you can easily move it out of the way; which is rather handy should you want to eat or drink whilst still having your headset on. Each ear dome also glows a range of colours, which is always a nice touch for those of you easily distracted by shiny things!

Moving away from the headset itself, the cable is plenty long for those of you who have their seating position a way back from their PCs; a full 3 meters to be

The design is a bit fussy, but the Xenon 700 delivers where it counts!

precise, and half way down said cable you have access to inline controls, enabling you to turn the glow off, mute your mic, mute the headset and turn the volume up and down. This is always a great feature to have.

Adjustment of the headset is fairly easy.

Each side has a ‘screw’. Simply loosen these off and you can then make the headset either smaller or larger dependant on your head size. I’ll confess to having a fairly small head, and often find many headsets being way too big for me, but the Xenon 700 was more than comfortable once fully adjusted. However, just make sure you tighten the screw-like locking feature securely, as I’ve had a few midgaming headset mishaps due to this.

Elaborating on the comfort factor a little more, the Xenon 700 is REALLY comfortable, and I really can’t push that point across enough. Of all the gaming headsets I’ve owned over the years, there is something about the shape and fit of the Xenon which blows 95% of them completely out of the water. I’ve gone a good 10 hours playing PC games while wearing this in a single day, with the only times I’ve removed it being when I’ve had to eat, or when I’ve had a fit at my teammates for

being useless, and at times I completely forgot I was wearing it.

Now the important part; sound quality.

In terms of output, they’re pretty good.

Boasting 7.1 simulated surround sound, you can hear pretty much anything, including that sneaky last individual trying to get the drop on you. In a racing game/ sim, the Xenon 700 beautifully replicates the sounds generated by the various cars.

The microphone on the other hand ran into some issues. Now the general sound outputted through the microphone was relatively good; it wasn’t £200 gaming headset good, but it certainly did the job.

What I did have a huge issue with though was interference from phones. You’ve all heard it in the past; that painfully annoying buzzing/beeping noise that happens when you have your mobile phone too close to the headset. And being someone who always has their phone to hand, I had a lot of people complain about the "feedback" as it’s known. Now if Element could work around this somehow; and I know it’ll never be eliminated, more controlled with some additional shielding, the Xenon 700 would be brilliant in regards to audio.

So what is the verdict? Overall the Xenon 700 is a top-notch product. Sure it has a few niggling gripes such as the feedback, but the comfort and general sound quality overrule this if truth be told. As mentioned I wasn’t much of a fan of the overall look of the headset, but again this really is a minor thing, and personal preference has a huge part to play there. Once again though I find myself looking at the price, and at an RRP of £49.99, you really could do a lot worse. How it holds up long term is a different question altogether though, and the Xenon 700 is definitely something we’ll look to revisit after some extended hard use.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

041

e l e m e nt gam i n g

RRP £49.99

PRO-DRIVER TRACK TIPS

042

W 006 W W.SW I MWRWA .CSEI RM-RMAACGE.RC -OMMA G . C O M

SILVERSTONE TRACK GUIDE THANKS TO ITS OWNERSHIP OF A REAL-WORLD RACING SCHOOL—THE SIMRACEWAY PERFORMANCE DRIVING CENTER, BASED ON SONOMA RACEWAY IN CALIFORNIA— SIMRACEWAY’S ONLINE RACING WORLD PLACES GREAT EMPHASIS BOTH ON DRIVER TRAINING AND THE EVER-INCREASING SYNERGY BETWEEN VIRTUAL AND REAL RACING.

TURN 1

ABBEY

WHO BETTER, THEN, TO PRODUCE A NEW SERIES OF VIRTUAL TRACK GUIDES PENNED BY PRO DRIVERS? THE FIRST—APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH, WITH ITS RECENT HOSTING OF ITS 50TH BRITISH GRAND PRIX—SEES UNITED AUTOSPORTS DRIVER MATT BELL TAKING US AROUND SILVERSTONE IN A CAR HE DROVE TO VICTORY THERE IN 2012: THE MCLAREN MP4-12C GT3.

1

<RIGHT

On a hot lap, you should be approaching Abbey in fifth gear in the McLaren MP4-12C GT3. Quickly dab on the brakes and change down to fourth, carrying a lot of speed into the corner. Turn in relatively early, getting on the curb and letting the car run all the way out to the left on the exit. (Some drivers go through Abbey holding the car to the right in order to straight-line Farm Curve, but it’s not necessary because Farm is shallow enough to allow you to stay left and carry a lot of speed through both corners.)

TURN 2

FARM CURVE

<LEFT

TURN 3

VILLAGE CORNER

>RIGHT

2 The rear end of the McLaren will be quite lively as you reach Farm, so change up to fifth gear to minimize this.

Let the car drift out around two-thirds of the width of the track on exit, and then get it as far to the left as possible before braking into Village Corner.

3 Village looks deceptively tight on approach but it’s essentially a 90-degree right-hander, so you can carry a bit more speed through it than you might think.

Hard-brake as you turn in and change down to second gear.

Don’t be too greedy on the exit—stay more or less in the middle of the track.

W W W . SWI M WRWA. CS EI M RR - MA AC G E R. C- O MM A G .005 COM

043

TURN 4&5

THE LOOP

<LEFT &

4

5

AINTREE CORNER <LEFT

Change down to first gear for The Loop and get the car turned. Don’t be too greedy on entry, though. If you carry too much speed in, you’ll understeer past the apex. Once through it, get hard on the power and change all the way up to fourth gear. You should be flat-out through Aintree.

TURN 6

BROOKLANDS

<LEFT

6

By the time you approach Brooklands from Wellington Straight, you should be in sixth gear. Brooklands is a very long duration corner, which tightens up all the way around. You should carry a lot of speed into it, braking very late and then braking all the way around to its tightest point.

By now you’ll be in third gear, possibly even second. Aim to take a lot of curb on the final part of Brooklands, just after the black-and-white bollards, and quickly put on the power on exiting.

TURN 7

LUFFIELD

<LEFT

7

Brake late into Luffield, taking a little bit of curb on entry, and then allow the McLaren to drift a car’s width or so off the apex in the middle of the corner, so you can straight-line the exit. Head back for a second apex and then get hard on the power, exiting in second gear.

TURN 8

WOODCOTE

>RIGHT

8

Head flat-out through Woodcote.

044

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

TURN 9

COPSE

>RIGHT

9

This fast-and-flowing section of Silverstone is one of my favourite sections of track anywhere in the world—and particularly well-suited to the MP4-12C GT3. Heading into Copse in fourth gear, brake late and carry fourth round the corner.

TURN 10&11

MAGGOTS

<LEFT/ >RIGHT

10

11

Change up to fifth gear for the straight before turning in early for Maggotts, staying flat all the way until you hit the left-hand curb. Dab the brakes and stay in fifth gear for the right-hander, taking as much curb as physically possible.

TURN 12&13

BECKETTS

<LEFT/ >RIGHT

TURN 14

CHAPEL CURVE

<LEFT

12 Brake, change down to fourth gear, and get the car under control as you head towards Becketts. Clip the curb as you go around the left-hander and, once again, ensure the car is under control as you approach the right-hander. Change down to third gear and turn in slightly early, clipping the curb. Then get back to power as soon as you can, using a lot of exit curb. You’ll want to make Hangar Straight as long as possible because there’s a great overtaking opportunity at the other end of it!

TURN 15

14

STOWE

>RIGHT

13

15

Head flat-out through Chapel.

TURN 16&17

VALE <LEFT/

>RIGHT

16

17

TURN 18

CLUB CORNER

>RIGHT

Stowe is a great corner! Thanks to the MP4-12C GT3’s excellent braking, you can afford to be very, very late on the brakes here. Look for the kink just before the end of the straight and brake shortly after it. Carry on braking all the way into the corner and change down to third gear. The corner will crest and begin to fall away on the exit, so make sure you don’t get back to power too early, or the car will drift with the negative camber. Use plenty of curb and exit Stowe in third gear.

18 Club is a crucial corner. It doesn’t look much, but a lot of time can be won and lost here. Stay way over to the left-hand side for a late turn-in and get up to full power as early as possible, using the entire exit curb and any exit road you can.

And that completes Matt Bell’s hot lap of Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the McLaren MP4-12C GT3.

You should be approaching Vale in fifth gear. Look out for a small rise in the track and get hard on the brakes just after the McLaren’s nose touches it, changing down to second gear. Turn through the corner, clipping the curb, and then stay over to the left to give yourself a nice exit from the following right-hander.

Like all of its 40 tracks, Silverstone is free-to-race in Simraceway’s Online Racing World. The McLaren MP4-12C GT3 can be downloaded for $2.50 or earned by collecting 2,500 Credits.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

045

SIM RACER COMPUTER BUILD

CO NT IN UE D...

MINI ITX

BUILD EVERY NOW AND THEN I GET BORED OF MY CURRENT PC AND DECIDE TO SIMPLY BUILD A NEW ONE. WHETHER THAT BE SIMPLY BUYING A NEW CASE AND INSTALLING MY OLD PARTS INTO SAID CASE OR A COMPLETE RE-HAUL; SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS VERY RARELY. HOWEVER, AFTER GETTING HANDS-ON WITH A RANGE OF MINI ITX CASES OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS I HAD MY NEXT PROJECT IN SIGHT… BUILDING A MINI ITX POWERHOUSE!

INSTALLING THE GRAPHICS CARD WE’RE NEARLY ON the home stretch now, only 2 more build phases left until we have a working PC! Our

penultimate phase sees us install the brawn behind our machine; the GTX 770 4GB. Once again, there are some highly fiddly sections within this part of the build, so try to have some patience as you may damage your graphics card with too much force. Just take your time, and if something feels like its going to break, stop what you’re doing, take 5 minutes and give it another go.

Often times you’ll find that after chilling out for a bit will help the build process, you’ll go back and it’ll snap right into place.

With all of that in mind, lets get started!

One of the hindrances of working in the computer gaming world is the amount of stuff you get to play with.

Sure, at first it was like being a kid in a candy store, but you soon realise that the huge nerd-gasm can’t last forever and review items slowly begin being given away as competition prizes or returned to their place of origin.

Review PCs are simply the worst when it comes to this feeling of detachment when they’re sent back to their respected companies. A lot of these companies will pimp their high end machines right out, and it’s no surprise that these high end machines are the ones they want us to review.

They’re often the all singing, all dancing machines that have been a part of your dreams for a while - top-of-the-range motherboards, two 780Ti in SLI, fancy water cooling systems… And at the time there was me sitting there with my cheap and cheerful, running a video card that was worse than my hot laps.

Usually I was able to grit my teeth and bear it, or simply decide to swap an item out occasionally. But after playing with Mini ITX systems from both Chillblast and YOYOTech, I simply had to bite the bullet and splash the cash.

Then it came to me in a splendid brainwave… I now work for a computer gaming PC, I can put the majority of these parts through the company and not even have to pay for them myself, using the ploy of ‘Oh, I’m doing a PC build article and need a ton of components to fully realise the potential of such an article!’

So over the next few months I’ll be talking you through the process of building a Mini ITX machine, something that has proven to be a lot harder than I initially thought.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

047

SIM RACER MINI ITX COMPUTER BUILD

CO NT INU ED...

STEP 1

STEP 2

Before you can install your graphics card there are a few thing you need to do first.

Spin your PC round so you’re looking at the back of it, and on the right hand side you will see 3 screws. You want to remove the two screws that are next to each other.

Once these screws are removed, put them to one side.

You should then be able to slide the two covers out.

Now, take a look at your graphics card. You should see the same as this picture - a plastic protective cover over the graphics card PCIe port. Simply remove this cover and put it into your graphics card box for safe keeping.

STEP 3

STEP 4

Note that we’ve not actually referred to this with the correct term… Well that’s because I’m personally not 100% sure what this little mechanism is called! Above the expansion slot covers you’ve just removed, you will see another screw - loosen this screw off, push the cover up and then retighten the screw so it stays in place.

Now you will be inserting your card. Line it up with the expansion port on the motherboard and then slowly push your graphics card into the expansion port. We found it best to do this at an angle. You may find yourself re-seating this a couple of times to align the graphics card properly with the two holes created by removing the expansion port covers.

REMOVING EXPANSION PORT COVERS

OPEN SESAME!

048

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

REMOVE PROTECTIVE COVERS

INSERT GRAPHICS CARD

STEP 5

SECURING GRAPHICS CARD Once you have your graphics card in correctly, your first task is to lower the ‘door’ that we moved earlier in Step 3. Once you have lowered this onto the silver of the graphics card, you will then have to line up a ton of screw holes to secure the graphics card.

Again, you may find yourself doing this a couple of times to secure it correctly.

STEP 6

CONNECTING POWER CABLING Next you’re going to need to find your power cabling.

Firstly you would’ve noticed two power slots on the top right of your graphics card. If you look in your graphics card box, you should find two extenders for these slots, connect them first.

Once this is done you will need to look in your PSU box and find the cables labelled as VGA. These cables then just connect to the extenders.

STEP 7 FINISHED

Now all you need to do is route those VGA cables through your case to the power supply and plug them into the ports labelled ‘VGA’. Foolproof right?!

NEXT TIME...

NEXT

MONTH

NEXTISSUEWILLSEEUSLOOK ATTHEFINISHINGTOUCHESTOTHE BUILD,FINALLYALLOWINGUS TOBOOTOURNEWBUILD UPANDSEEHOW SHERACES! W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

049

LATEST ISSUE OUT NOW!

LATEST ISSUE OUT NOW!

SIM RACER

WHAT’S ON OUR DESKS?

DDR4 - THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK ONE OF THE JOYS OF BEING THE TECHNICAL EDITOR ON A PC GAMING MAGAZINE MEANS YOU OFTEN GET THE CHANCE TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY. OVER THE COURSE OF TECH DESK, WE WILL BE BRINGING YOU ALL OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY, AND TALKING YOU THROUGH THE PROS AND CONS, AS WELL AS EXPLAINING HOW TO GET TO GRIPS WITH IT! THIS MONTH WE LOOK AT SOMETHING VERY MUCH ON THE TIP OF A LOT OF PEOPLES TONGUES AT THE MOMENT - DDR4 DRAM. t e c h n i cal d e s k

OVER THE PAST few years, pretty much every PC component has seen some form of change or improvement, heavily increasing performance on the whole. From storage drives becoming bigger and faster, graphics cards with much more power and CPUs with far greater capabilities than before, nearly everything has seen some form of performance update. Everything but DDR DRAM. Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory, more commonly known as DDR DRAM is present in pretty much all computing devices, including tablets. Essentially it is a type of storage that allows your PC to access the programs you are currently using a lot quicker. The easiest analogy in regards to DRAM is with the use of a backpack. Think of your normal Disk Memory

052

(found in your HDD and SSDs) as the backpack as a whole, and DRAM as the outer pockets. Now it’s all well and good storing your belongings in your backpack, but for the items you need to get out in a hurry, you tend to use the outer pockets for this. The same applies to PCs. All of your information and data is stored on your HDD/SSD, but once you boot a program up, the information will transfer to your DRAM so you are able to access it faster.

The last form of DDR DRAM; known as DDR3, was released way back in 2007 and has been the primary source of RAM used in a wide range of computing devices. However in Q3 2014, manufacturers began to release DDR4 DRAM to the general public.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES? Obviously when something new comes out, the main question on peoples minds is “What are the differences?”

THE GOOD… For gaming, the main difference between DDR3 and DDR4 is the speed. DDR3 specifications start at 800 MT/s (Millions of Transfers per second), with the high end stuff going as high as 2133.

DDR4 on the other hand starts at 2133, and at the moment, the highest speed on the market is 3300. So what does this mean? Purely that the increased speed means an overall increase in bandwidth.

DDR4 also operates at a lower voltage than DDR3; with a 0.3 volts difference between the 1.2v of DDR4 and 1.5v of DDR3. You’ll find the voltage difference between the two would relate to around 15W, which isn’t really a huge difference, nor a huge money saver… But it’s a difference nonetheless. The main place this would make a difference though is for large scale computer architectures, but that really doesn’t relate to us.

THE NOT SO GOOD…

THE BAD…

SO SHOULD YOU UPGRADE?

Well first and foremost, the price. As with all new technology, you will be paying a premium for DDR4 DRAM. For example, taking a look at the Crucial Ballistix range; a favourite of the staff here, you’ll pay around £35 for 2x4GB DDR3, whereas you’ll pay around £50 for 2x4GB DDR4 - a £15 difference.

Now that’s not a huge difference, but say you want to look at 16GB in 4GB sticks, well the price difference starts to add up.

Whilst we mentioned that the increase in speed is a good thing, with said increase comes an increase in latency as well. However, with the increased clock speeds making for quicker transfer rates, the latency is fairly comparable, and pretty much unnoticeable. To give you figures, you’ll have to understand Column Access Strobe latency, or CL, so we’ll give you a brief breakdown.

Another huge difference that will put a lot of people off is the fact that your old Motherboard that happily supported DDR3 will not support DDR4. DDR4 is currently limited for use in Intel’s X99 platform, which not only means you’ll have to replace your Motherboard - and the X99 platforms aren’t cheap - you’ll also have to replace your CPU, which also are very much on the expensive side. There also aren’t many options at the moment in regards to X99 platforms and the LGA 2011-3 CPUs that accompany them. You’re also bottlenecked into either full sized Motherboards or Micro-ATX variants as things stand, however ASRock have announced that they will be bringing a Mini-ITX Motherboard that supports DDR4 and LGA 2011-3 in the near future.

Of all the questions I’m asked in regards to upgrading from one to another, DDR3 to DDR4 is possibly the hardest. There are a lot of tests out there at the moment from reputable sources that show DDR4 currently performs at around the same level as DDR3. That said there are places that it does outperform DDR3.

The large outlay needed to transfer over to DDR4 will put an awful lot of people off as well, and if you don’t need to upgrade other components at the moment, then it does seem like people will be unwilling to just fork out to upgrade.

That being said, if you are someone who is sitting there pondering an upgrade, then I would definitely take the plunge. It won’t be long before DDR4 is the go-to in terms of DRAM, in the same way that DDR3 took DDR2's spot prior, and it’s definitely a good idea to be ahead of the curve now as opposed to forking out for a new build and then being out of date a couple of years down the road.

I’ll be honest, the main advantage you’ll see from upgrading to DDR4 won’t be from the DRAM itself, it’ll be from the other components that you have to upgrade to support it. And whilst you may be paying a premium for those components today, if you are looking to upgrade, then I would definitely spend the extra to make sure you are set for a long period of time, as I really can’t see them releasing a new form of DRAM for a long time, if ever.

Essentially this latency is the delay time between the moment a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular memory column on a RAM module, and the moment the data from the given location is available. As a general rule of thumb, the lower the CL number, the better.

So now you’ve got a brief understanding of CL, we’ll give you figures. DDR3 at 1600Mhz; which was generally the most popular DDR3 RAM operated at a latency of CL11, which took 13.75 nanoseconds to read. DDR4-2133Mhz on the other hand sits at CL15, and performed a read at 14.06 nanoseconds. So as you can see the difference in timings is minute - 2% to be precise, and not noticeable whatsoever.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

053

t e c h n i cal d e s k

Something else to take into consideration is the size DDR4 is available in. DDR3 saw its highest stick of DRAM at 8GB, where as DDR4 is available in up to 16GB… Meaning should you want to, you can run a whopping 128GB of DRAM. Overkill? Yes. Necessary? No. Nerd-gasm? Hell yes.

Another menial and quite frankly laughable advantage is bragging rights…

Lets be honest here, PC gamers love a good bragging session about their latest tech.

Whether you want to fork out a ton of money for bragging rights though is entirely down to you!

FIRST LOOK SIM RACER

RaceRoomRacing

Experience CHANGE IS IN THE AIR AT SECTOR3 STUDIOS; IT WAS ABOUT TIME WE TOOK A LOOK AT THEIR PROGRESS. BOB SIMMERMAN HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS THE GAME WITH LICENSING MANAGER JAY EKKEL, AND PRODUCERS JF CHARDON AND SONAT OZTURK.

AS A ‘FREE TO PLAY’ endeavour, RaceRoom Racing Experience was met with more than a small amount of scepticism from the sim racing community at large. Many of us wondered if this was the end of the road for the vaunted development team that over the years gave us some of the best racing simulators to ever reach the market.

Today, feature-rich and polished, the title has come a long way. At the time of writing the game features more than sixty-five cars spanning the classics to the modern era, more than twenty tracks from around the globe, beautifully-worked sounds and graphics, single and multiplayer modes and a detailed statistical representation of all of your time on the track. The game also boasts a large number of real world drivers navigating its virtual raceways.

What are your positions and tasks at Sector3?

JE: Licensing Manager and reference coordinator and on the side a helping hand in the marketing department.

JFC: Producer in charge of content and game features directly related to it.

SO: Producer responsible for portal and backend systems, Quality Assurance and localization, deployment and releases, along with game features.

In what ways has RaceRoom exceeded the design goals of the development team?

JE: I don’t think it has yet, since the start of Sector3 Studios we have been on a path that has turned the game into something on the brink of being awesome. That puzzle has not been completed yet; we are still missing a few pieces.

But my personal highlights are the ease of getting up to competitive speed, the awesome sound by Anthony are always a treat to listen too, and let’s not forget the quality cars and tracks that are created by some extremely talented people.

Behind the scenes, it’s the features that are constantly being worked on by the programmers. It’s hard to put your finger on it at times as it’s not in your face like a car, but the guys are moving a lot of work and effort into shaping the game the way we would like to see it.

JFC: In terms of features, we have big plans and what we have achieved as Sector3 so far is just a mere fraction of what we have on the wish list. In terms of content I must tip my hat to the team for delivering outstanding results that go beyond what used to be SimBin standards. We are constantly pushing the envelope and going the extra mile to deliver top quality material.

SO: I would say the design goals of RaceRoom evolves along with the game itself. While we have the main pillars of the game set well in place, there are a lot of bits in various aspects we still plan to do or redo in some cases.

In what ways has RaceRoom fallen short of the design goals of the development team?

JE: I think it’s fair to say that now that we can look back, the biggest fault was to release a beta when we did. It was way too early, some early design decisions were not well received and it painted a picture in the beginning that did not match the goal of the game at all. We’re now on a path where you can see where the game is going and the reception of the gamers is a thousand

times better. But in the end we should not forget that this game is still in full development, you can expect things to go bad; great ideas getting a bad reception or having a faulty execution. It’s all part of the development cycle we are in.

JFC: The title is in the free-to-play category, yet it doesn’t have the mechanics you’d expect from a free-to-play title. At the beginning they tried to call it “free 2 race” but then players started thinking they could play two races and then had to pay for the game... so they gave up on that gimmick! The business model and the way the game is presented are being reviewed. It’s no secret we’d like to see more players at all times in the game, and this is definitely one of the reasons people are staying away.

SO: Releasing an early alpha build as beta and lacking fundamental free-to-play features are certainly two main areas we failed on. Another big issue in the past I believe was implementing features within structures that were meant to work in different ways. You create a structure and framework with a set goal in mind but over time new deals and opportunities come and you have to implement things differently. Unfortunately it became a bit of a mess, since things were designed differently and the new requests demanded something else with no time to restructure. Because of this, the first experience we added to RaceRoom had a lot of shortcomings.

Since Sector3 however, we ironed out a lot of the kinks and things are much better now.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

055

Were any of the design goals changed as the transition from SimBin to Sector3 was made?

first look

JE: With the change we had the chance to switch focus on the important things. We had been overstretched and overreaching on certain aspects of the game. Trying to develop things too early or out of order since it was “needed” for the development of a small segment of the game.

One of the big things we got rid of was the “orb” menu; on paper it was a great idea, the implementation proved way more difficult than expected, and due to time constraints never really got anywhere close to its potential. The current menu just provides a better first contact with players and doesn’t cause confusion.

The bigger thing that we changed was to drop the somewhat broad approach, trying to please all, and focus on the more experienced racers but still try to provide an easy-access platform for the new racers.

This is still in ongoing development, like the recent menu update we did.

JFC: Definitely. You can view it as a U-turn. The people who transitioned from SimBin to Sector3 were suddenly free. Decision-making is made in a much more relaxed way with the need of a better product and player experience in mind. Examples are corner markers, Orb-shaped menu, force feedback. And then the huge part of it all is a strong re-orientation of the title towards proper simulation. Can’t stress that enough, we’re sim racers and we were not even playing our own game. Now we do. What’s currently in development in the physics and sounds departments will blow your mind.

SO: Pretty much all of the design goals changed or at least the priorities. What the team as a whole felt important had an effect on the order of priorities. We had to review everything since the team was cut in half and focused on what’s important and how much

056

of it can we deliver and when. And I think we did the right thing. The appraisal we have received to features and the additions we injected to RaceRoom since Sector3’s takeover speaks for itself I think.

What was the transition from SimBin to Sector3 like? What is the current mood of Sector 3’s design studio?

JE: I can only speak for myself when I say it was hard to say goodbye to the SimBin name, it was a very integral part of my life for over 10 years with lots of highs and lots of lows - so sad to see it go, but happy to start something new! The change reignited a spark inside the team, without trying to sound cliché, but pieces were falling into place and progress was made swiftly and the game improved a lot in a very short period of time. The renewed freedom allows for more leeway for developers to create cool stuff, which in return allows users to create cool stuff for the game like the Shared memory which started the awesome Mr Belowski Crew Chief app and the broadcast overlays. The mood is great inside the studio, plenty of work left to do; so many ideas, only so many people to do them!

JFC: I was genuinely relieved. The SimBin days had a lot of good times for sure, I was Q.A. Lead at the beginning; that position was tough as the level of frustration was high. I then had the opportunity to move to a producer role for a side project - a version of the game tailored for on-site events, I jumped on it and really enjoyed the freedom of decision there.

When SimBin went down, that product was kind of complete and development was halted. But it’s still used these days and receives regular content updates.

I think none of the guys who are now in Sector3 regret the SimBin days at all. We’re now striving for efficiency in our work, but we still suffer from over-engineered development tools from back in the day.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

SO: I was a bit torn to be honest. On one hand it was sad to see some of my colleagues whom I consider friends lose their jobs due to the bankruptcy. On the other hand I was excited to have been asked to join the new team with more responsibilities and challenges. It hasn’t been easy as we had to adjust a lot due to the transition but the current mood is great.

Could you explain the vRP system in detail? Are there any plans to change this system in the future?

JE: vRP is an in game currency used to purchase items inside RaceRoom, and you love it or hate it...100 vRP equals roughly a single EURO. Once you get to use it a bit more often quite simple really, the store system could use some work though!

If it might change in the future? Who knows, the outline and business model of the game is set by our publisher, we’ll discuss with them what we think is best or at least worth investigating.

JFC: I usually say I don’t understand the store discounts very well. There are talks about changing the approach. Let’s see if that takes shape.

SO: Asking if we plan to change the system in the future indicates that you guys are not happy about it I suppose. One of the main purposes of having an in-game currency is for us to be able to give them out as prizes as there are a lot of complications if we were to do it with real money. I think the VRP system itself has no issues but the complicated discount systems we have in the store could be shown better perhaps.

I’m not sure about the vRP system going away anytime soon but we plan to add more ways for players to earn vRPs.

FIRST LOOK SIM RACER some little things we can address but it’s not the highest priority. Anthony is really happy with what he has to work with so until he complains again we won’t be touching it!

Will complete triple screen support be implemented? For example, separate field of views for side monitors and bezel compensation?

JE: First place that pops in my mind is our own forum of course, some good info there and if you can’t find it you can ask for it. But one should not forget to mention that there are numerous places on the net where you can ask the same question.

JFC: There’s a nice FAQ in the forum that describes what the settings do. Since there’s no game manual, we had to write that down somewhere. Also a great place for people to share experience. And we keep an eye in there too.

stats can be used for numerous things later on in the project like a base for race divisions, e.g. driver level.

Better to track as much as we can now rather than realise afterwards we should have tracked it from the beginning.

JFC: We’ll be working on a player ranking system next.

Design has already started and we’re running some algorithms in the background with live data to see how viable some ideas are. This isn’t around the corner though as it’s a big task.

The Wrecker Prevention is a very clever and thoughtful addition that many games could benefit from, what brought about the development and inclusion of this particular feature?

SO: Stats are always good to have and they certainly help us see what’s more popular, preferred, what needs reworking and a lot more. We have plans to improve a lot on the stats area as we believe we can do a better job in showing the stats a player wants to see on a profile. Right now it kind of reads like a spreadsheet and some of the stats are a uninteresting so we want to revamp those areas, while focusing on them for the player ranking system.

JE: Idiots really, why try and provide an idiot that enjoys driving in the wrong direction the tools to do so!

Can you tell me about the future plans for your physics, graphics and audio technology?

JFC: Frustration level is just too high when someone only wants to ruin your experience. With the game being free to download, we needed way to filter some behaviours. I think this feature could be extended though. I’d gladly ghost players with high latency, or when we have a ranking / reputation system in place, to ghost certain people with a bad reputation.

JFC: We are currently fixing the existing tech, optimizing the engine and content before we start adding more visual features. High on the list is depth of field effects for example.

In terms of physics, we’re in close relationship with several drivers who spontaneously volunteered to help us out. The results of these collaborations is only about to reach beta phase now and all I can tell you at the moment is that it’s going to be epic. But you knew I would say that, right? Wait until you try it and you’ll see.

The cars available for free in the game are also going to receive a drastic update, making them fit for a first time player. It’s always been a bit stupid that the first cars a player gets to drive are all overpowered. There’s hardly any learning curve and just take a look on a multiplayer server running those - they are too much of a handful. Silhouette fantasy cars like the Canhard were meant to be DTM-wannabes that were made redundant once we had the actual DTM in the game.

We just finished a massive audio update to the engine, right now there are still

I recently ran a session at the Red Bull Ring in the DTM cars and I noticed a groove building up as the session progressed...

JFC: Yes, the grip progresses through the sessions.

This simulates the build-up of the surface during a race week-end. Practice, qualifying and race, your grip will be different in those.

I am very impressed with the level and detail of driver statistics that are tracked by the game and I feel that this is something that is lacking in many other racing games; how important was it to the development team to achieve this level of detail in terms of the driver statistics? Are there any plans to enhance this portion of the game in the future?

JE: This feels like another JF question, but my 2p on this is, you can never have enough stats. If not just interesting for the numbers,

JE: Yes I’m not a big fan of triples but that doesn’t mean other people love it, I prefer a single big screen myself.

SO: The triple screen support is still something we intend to improve and it’s been sitting in our backlog for quite a while now. This is nothing new as we’ve said this in the past so it’s a bit embarrassing for us to not have done anything about it still. Priorities keep shifting but hopefully soon we will be able to have better triple screen support along with SLI and Crossfire support.

What are some of the future plans for the product in terms of content?

JFC: No secret, we’re working on a set of open wheeler cars. This comes with some required features like animated suspensions for example. You’ll be able to enjoy single seaters of all kinds of performance - Formula RaceRoom Junior, Formula RaceRoom 3, Formula RaceRoom 2, Formula RaceRoom 1, and we’ll also throw in a Formula Raceroom 1 “Classic”. Why fictional? I think once you see them and drive them you won’t really be bothered by that. We have full freedom making the cars look and sound exactly as we want. Sometimes the real cars don’t look or sound like we wish they would. That freedom of choice is awesome in itself.

We’ve also just started on a classic little bugger from the 60’s that I had on the wishlist for a while.

You’ll know about it soon enough!

From a track perspective, we’re working on the laser-scanned Nordschleife and we’ll be releasing Spa-Francorchamps before that. We have two more WTCC tracks lined up that I’ll keep in my pocket for now. We’re busy on all fronts as you can see.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

057

first look

What might be the best place for a player of RaceRoom to find optimized settings for the game?

For example, the force feedback and graphics settings.

JFC: More of a question for Sonat. But yeah, seems like we have to? Personally not a fan of those big set-ups. I’m more a VR enthusiast. Hope we can do something there.

SIM RACER DRIVING TECHNIQUES

rally driving

MUCH LIKE ANY fast driving, the overall technique is largely determined by the car’s weight distribution and the driven wheels. For example, the classic rear-driven Porsche 911 was (and to some extent, still is) a popular car for rallying due to its unusual layout - the engine hangs behind the rear axle, meaning superb traction under power, but a natural tendency to oversteer. This means drivers can use the weight to help rotate the car around corners very effectively.

FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE The small, front-wheel drive hatchback is a common entry into rallying. It is the least intimidating and easiest layout to drive, as the natural behaviour is understeer, and the get-out-of-trouble solution is often simply to mash the throttle. However, driving fast with this layout is arguably the most difficult, as it requires precision, patience, and nifty pedal work.

The basic way to drive FWD is to trail-brake heavily into a corner, doing as much rotation with the brake pedal as possible, because as soon as you’re back on the power it will resist rotation. This means you should then feed the power in carefully, to limit the amount of understeer. The advanced technique is to left-foot brake - by brushing the brake while you’re on the power, you’re encouraging more weight transfer to the front, giving the steered wheels more bite, reducing understeer. Applied correctly, left-foot braking in a front-wheel drive car can also lock the rear wheels while the fronts continue to roll, much

058

THE RESURGENCE OF RALLY GAMES IN 2015 HAS TURNED OUR ATTENTION TO LOOSE-SURFACE DRIVING. WHILE THE BASICS OF CAR CONTROL CAN BE APPLIED TO MOST FORMS OF HIGH-SPEED, FOUR-WHEELED ACTION, RALLYING’S UNPREDICTABLE TERRAIN PRESENTS A UNIQUE CHALLENGE.

like a handbrake. With practice, you should be able to spin the car around tighter corners without the need to take a hand off the wheel to activate the handbrake.

REAR-WHEEL DRIVE The crowd-pleaser and the most intuitive layout.

Rear-wheel drive is the recipe for fun; you have to tame the inevitable oversteer and use it to your advantage. The key is to not get carried away - the temptation to slide very sideways is strong, but it’s not always the fastest approach. Being on the power early during a corner is essential - the weight will transfer to the rear, creating stability and giving the driven wheels more traction. The throttle pedal then becomes the most important tool for completing the rest of the turn - more so than the steering wheel.

Correctly balanced, you can perform the majority of the steering in the second half of a corner with the throttle, with the front wheels just pointing forwards.

A famous technique employed by rally drivers is the Scandinavian Flick, where you use the pendulum effect of an oversteering car to induce a greater rotation around a corner. To do this, you approach a corner, trail-braking while steering slightly in the opposite direction to the corner. As the car begins

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

to oversteer in the wrong direction, release the brakes, apply steering the other way and applying some power. This results in a large lateral weight transfer, causing the car to rotate on a tighter radius.

It requires anticipation well in advance of the corner, but can be the smoothest way around if executed correctly.

FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE The technical details of how different four-wheel drive systems function is beyond the scope of this article, but it’s safe to say that this complicated arrangement is also the least intuitive to drive, sharing characteristics of both FWD and RWD cars.

It’s clear why the fastest rally cars are all four-wheel drive - the level of traction is simply unbeatable.

Unlike RWD, you can pin the throttle without much fear of the car swapping ends, and there’s less tendency to understeer like a FWD machine.

However, it can feel strange when the throttle causes both front and rear to slide equally, so understanding weight balance is arguably most critical here. Much like front-wheel drive, trail-braking heavily into corners can be very effective, and much like rearwheel drive, the Scandinavian Flick works well too.

You should be aiming to maintain slides (at small angles) as much as possible, with the car rotating

around bends based on throttle and brake inputs, while keeping the front wheels facing forward.

GENERAL TIPS The concept of the ‘racing line’ is not something you should employ on a rally stage, unless you’re absolutely confident of how the next corner (and the one after) is shaped. Listen carefully to the pace notes, resist the famous McRae line of ‘if in doubt, flat out’, and stick to the middle of the road. There are very few moments in a stage where flat out is the correct decision.

The brake pedal is the most important control input. Heavy braking in a straight line, as recommended for circuit driving, is usually not a good idea in rallying. On a loose surface, this will cause lock-up very easily. It is better to throw the car into a corner, as the lateral movement of the tyres digging into the loose surface will slow you down.

More subtle braking can be done to adjust the angle of this slide.

Use the handbrake sparingly. Weight transfer techniques with smart pedal work is what you need to negotiate most corners. The handbrake should be reserved for low-speed, extra-tight hairpins or as a last resort if you’re understeering off the road.

Left-foot braking is not just for front-wheel

drive cars. In theory, it is faster for all types of car, simply because it eliminates the time between pedal application that occurs when just using your right foot. Being able to subtly apply brakes mid-corner while still playing with the throttle provides you with more options for vehicle placement, weight transfer and power delivery, but it is a complex combination of actions that can only come with practice. With the right foot dedicated to throttle application, it also allows you to keep spooling up the turbo in certain older rally cars to stay in that peak performance zone.

Negotiating jumps comes with experience - every jump is slightly different so you have to make a split-second assessment of how to approach it. But generally speaking, front-engined rally cars tend to nose-dive, so try to accelerate slightly before take-off to force a bit of rear weight transfer. Of course, you need to slow appropriately in order to compensate for this final acceleration!

Understanding weight transfer is the most important aspect of loose-surface driving, as your steering wheel is so ineffective compared to circuit or road driving. On gravel, you’re always sliding, so steering is largely determined by how each wheel is sliding differently, and weight transfer is the only way to influence that.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

059

SIM RACER

OLD SKOOL

BACK IN THE DAY

GTR2 Retrospective

AS WE APPROACH ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY, IT’S A GOOD TIME TO LOOK BACK AT ONE OF SIMBIN’S FINEST CREATIONS. BY BOB SIMMERMAN

c o m m e n ta ry

IT SEEMS ONLY natural that as time passes we seek new and exciting things to occupy our time. As sim racers, many of us can’t wait for the latest piece of kit or the hottest new simulator to come to market. But it is not always the case that the newest and shiniest of things are capable of capturing our attention in ways that perhaps a favourite game of several years ago did. Personally, I have several, from several genres, but the standouts are easy to list—NASCAR Racing 2003, Falcon 4.0, and, last but certainly not least, GTR2, one of the most important and influential simulators to ever hit the simulated racing scene.

But first, a bit of history. Please forgive me in advance but as I approach the big FIVE-OH I have to freely admit that my memory is not what it used to be. For example, that thing that happened, was it yesterday or twenty-seven years ago? I’m probably embellishing a bit but these years fly by fast! So… yes, here we are, I’m going to go ahead and take a wild stab at

060

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

sometime around 2002 or 2003, a modding group called SimBin Development Team (SBDT) released what many considered at the time to be one of the best mods ever released, a full-blown FIA GT spec racing series mod that for many, myself included, was responsible for many sleepless nights. With an attention to detail bordering on fanatic, FIA GT broke the mould as far as mods went.

Created for EA Sports’ Formula One Challenge ‘99-’02 simulator (developed by Image Space, Incorporated), it had everything, including the kitchen sink.

No stranger to the modding scene, SBDT had prior experience with EA’s Sports Car GT (also ISI-developed) racing game and it was clear with the FIA GT mod that they had put that experience to good use. Things happened rather quickly after that and before you knew

it, SBDT had graduated from modding team to full-blown commercial racing simulator developer.

Their first commercial product, GTR, was released in 2004. Featuring a fully-licensed FIA GT field of the 2003 season cars, liveries, drivers, tracks, weather and day and night cycles, it was poised to take the racing simulator world by storm. It took this writer by storm, which I do remember quite vividly.

I would rush home from work and fire up GTR for hours-long sessions that lasted, literally, for months. I even tackled the 24 Hours of Spa

Other criticisms quickly followed, notably the behaviour of the tyres in certain situations, but, if you think about it, even the most advanced tyre models of the current crop of simulators have their shortcomings. Mind you, we have come a far way in that department as a few laps in rFactor2, Assetto Corsa or iRacing will show you. But at the time, in my opinion, the totality of what GTR offered as a complete package far outweighed the deficiencies of the tyre model.

Not long after GTR was released, word got out that there was going to be a follow up to GTR named, aptly, GTR2. After the success of GTR, GTR2 became one of the most anticipated racing games in a long time. But first, SimBin released a Historic FIA GT game, GT Legends,

featuring GTC-TC cars from the 60’s and 70’s.

GT Legends wasn’t a simulator of the seasons from the 60’s and 70’s, rather, it was based on the 2005 FIA Historic Championship featuring GTC-TC cars from those glory days of years gone by. While not what we all expected, GT Legends proved to be an excellent game and helped pass the time before the release of GTR2.

We’ll come back to that game later…

When GTR2 was finally released in 2006 it was clear that SimBin had not only listened to the criticisms of GTR they had more in store for us. Retaining the full licensing of both the 2003 and 2004 seasons, tracks, liveries, MoTeC integration, dynamic weather, game saves and Live Track Technology, it was clear on the first drive that this was more than a graphics update. The physics and tyre models were tweaked and fiddled with and though some criticism remained, it was clear that SimBin was not doing this just to make a buck, they cared about their product and we, the end-user, benefitted greatly.

I had thought my appreciation of a racing game had reached its peak with GTR but I was mistaken. My obsession with GTR2 was immediate and intense and whenever I upgrade to a more capable computing device, GTR2 is on the short list of programs that find their way to the new system.

Shortcomings aside, GTR2 was met with critical acclaim from both the end user and the gaming press, having been named by IGN as Best PC Racing Game of 2006, earning GameSpot’s Best Driving Game of 2006 honour,

and a veritable treasure chest of positive reviews. From their humble beginnings as a modding group SimBin made the transition to highly respected commercial game developer with hardly a bump in the road.

In addition to being one of the best racing games ever produced, GTR2 also proved to be a remarkable modding platform, with notable efforts such as FIA GT 1997, SCC Prototype, V8 Supercars 2006, World Super GT and GTR Reborn, a complete overhaul of the default GTR2 physics and AI. Modded or not, almost ten years after release, GTR2 remains relevant. And a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Remember that interlude between GTR and GTR2? GT Legends? Enter the Power and Glory mod. Much like the FIA GT mod revolutionized what modding could be half a decade before, the Power and Glory mod took the cars of GT Legends, built some of the best physics and tyre models to be found, and used the base of GTR2 to produce a truly stunning and fun-to-drive game. GT Legends out of the box was a good game, but the Power and Glory mod took it to another level entirely. By using GTR2 as a base instead of GT Legends, the Power and Glory team was able to take advantage of the newer features found in GTR2 such as the weather modelling and the ability to create a custom championship.

I think many of us were disappointed that GTR3 never materialized, but every time I fire up GTR2 for a few laps the disappointment is shortlived. And with RaceRoom improving rapidly this year, the soul of GTR is beginning to stir.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

061

c o m m e n ta ry

in my Lister Storm and had it not been for an errant brake vent setting, I might have actually finished. Toss in an integration with MoTeC telemetry, Live Track Technology and a save game feature, it was difficult to find a more complete simulator.

For the most part GTR was met with critical acclaim and praises but there were areas where the simulator fell short. One of those was multiplayer and to say it was bad might be an understatement. Personally, I have always preferred the offline experience and though the AI were not perfect I found them to be perfectly acceptable and they were decent when you gave them plenty of room but the fact remained that if you wanted a robust multiplayer experience, GTR was more likely than not going to leave you disappointed.

LATEST ISSUE OUT NOW!

LATEST ISSUE OUT NOW!

SIM RACER PIT STOP

geAR PULL IN AND FILL UP WITH OUR GUIDE TO SOME OF THE LATEST KIT TO HIT THE SIM RACING WORLD. THIS MONTH WE PUT RICMOTECH’S UPDATED T500RS/T3PA-PRO LOAD CELL KIT THROUGH ITS PACES, AND TAKE A LOOK AT LOGITECH’S SECOND MAJOR PRODUCT LAUNCH THIS YEAR - THE G920.

1

LOGITECH G920 DRIVING FORCE RACING WHEEL Due to launch in October, the Logitech G920 Driving Force is essentially the Xbox One version of the PS4-focused G29 Driving Force, which we reviewed last issue. It is the follow-up to the Logitech G27, one of the most popular wheels in the history of sim racing. This represents the first time Logitech have offered a serious force feedback wheel for a Microsoft console. Much like the G29, the G920 is also PC-compatible.

It differs from the G29 in a few subtle ways naturally the branding is slightly different, and the buttons are Xbox-themed. It is missing the shift lights found on the G29; unfortunate but actually not a major loss - being below the eye-line and not very bright, those lights were always more of a neat trick than a useful feature. The more significant loss is the lack of buttons on the lower half of the rim, meaning the input count is down by seven compared to the G29. Granted, those inputs aren’t in a primary position, and the important ones nearer the thumbs are all present, but this is still disappointing when both wheels are priced the same. It makes the G29 the obvious choice for those looking for a PC wheel, unless you have a strong dislike for blue - admittedly the G920 is the more elegant of the two, looking like a closer relation to the G27.

In terms of performance, the G920 holds no surprises, being mechanically identical to the G29.

As such, this is an impressive, dependable device with many years of manufacturing experience behind it. The wheel rim is very comfortable, with leather that actually provides that ‘new car smell’.

The helical gearing and dual-motor force feedback system is responsive and direct, with the steering angle detected by a hall-effect sensor rather than the optical sensor in the previous generations.

The pedals are solid and built to a high quality, with plenty of adjustability to find your ideal ‘heel

064

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

and toe’ position, along with a clutch pedal with a slightly heavier resistance than the throttle, and a progressive brake pedal with a non-linear feel due to a rubber bumper placed in the centre of the spring.

To complete the package, you can choose an optional H-pattern shifter, which works with both the G29 and G920. Unlike the shifter that was included with the older G25 and G27 packages, the new Driving Force Shifter has no additional buttons to replace those missing on the G920 rim.

The mechanism is unchanged, meaning there is still too much play in the 3rd and 4th gear

positions, but it’s a reliable shifter for the money.

With Project CARS, F1 2015, Forza 5 and Forza 6 compatibility right out of the gate, this is a great first wheel for Xbox One owners.

FROM: WWW.LOGITECH.COM PRICE: £299.99

PITSTOP SIM RACER

1

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

065

SIM RACER PIT STOP

3

2

Pre-release model shown - final version will have small aesthetic changes

2

RICMOTECH LC500-2 LOAD CELL KIT FOR T500RS/T3PA-PRO PEDALS What is a load cell? Most commonly found in digital weighing scales, it usually involves one or more strain gauges providing an electrical signal, which changes due to the varying resistance in the material as it flexes by an extremely small degree. As such, the measurement is effectively determined by the ‘pressure’ on the component, with practically no movement involved. In the context of a brake pedal, the standard T500RS unit uses a potentiometer to read the position of the pedal across the entire range of travel, whereas a load cell brake will barely move in comparison (naturally there is some travel before you hit major resistance), and the output is determined by the force exerted on the pedal. The result is a braking system that is easier to modulate with accuracy - the theory suggests that it is more natural to develop muscle memory based on the amount of force required rather than to try to hit the same position of travel each time.

Ricmotech recently updated their popular load cell conversion kit for the T500RS pedals to version 2, which delivers an ‘improved feel’ and two firmness levels to choose from. Since the launch of the original LC500 kit, Thrustmaster introduced the T3PA-PRO, a separate version of the T500RS pedals for those with TX or T300 wheels.

The T3PA-PRO included a ‘conical brake mod’ - in our review in Issue 5, we noted that it delivered a more progressive and realistic feel compared to the standard brake mod and shared some similarities to a load cell system. After testing the LC500-2, it’s clear that the similarities end at ‘feel’ and the differences are very apparent in terms of performance.

The original kit was already recognised as the best load cell system for Thrustmaster pedals, and version 2 has addressed all the main criticisms to some extent. It is now easier to install, the bushings are more compliant so there is a little more travel, and a spacer is included to reduce the dead zone at the top of the travel. Two bushings give the user some choice over feel, but even on the softer of the

066

two, it is essential to hard-mount the pedals, ideally to a solid rig with a seating position that allows the driver to exert the required forces in a comfortable manner. You’ll probably also want to invest in some dedicated sim shoes. It is quite a shock to the system, and takes time to fully adjust - your calf muscles might be sore in the beginning!

No doubt about it, the kit transforms the brake, feeling like a race car pedal with the short throw, and the performance speaks for itself. Not everyone will see massive lap-time gains, but consistency is where you’ll appreciate the benefits - the ability to precisely blip the throttle without affecting the brake pressure during a heel-and-toe downshift helps greatly with driver confidence. But similar levels of resistance can be achieved with rubber bushings; why bother with a load cell? It’s a matter of precision. Adding more resistance to a potentiometer-based system can give an unrealistic pressure curve, and there is less accuracy due to the shorter distances detecting changes in value.

Compared to the conical brake mod, I found it easier to consistently hit the ideal threshold braking pressure at the end of a long straight, and easier to modulate the final moments of trail-braking towards an apex.

Not only is it likely to improve your driving, it simply feels more realistic, unless you only use road cars, in which case the short throw isn’t ideal (but the softer bushing helps a little).

Making such a dramatic improvement to the middle pedal highlights the shortcomings of the clutch and throttle; the kit is almost too good for the rest of the set - we’ll be looking for ways to improve the other two pedals in the future. This is a near-perfect upgrade for those who want a convincing racing brake pedal, being unobtrusive, retaining full functionality of the unit on PC and console, with precision beyond what a stiffened potentiometer system can do.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

FROM: WWW.RICMOTECH.COM PRICE: $169.99

VR COVER FOR OCULUS RIFT DK1/DK2

While we expect virtual reality to hit the mainstream in 2016, the enthusiast audience has already been enjoying prototype headsets and developer kits for years - the DK1 was an early glimpse at the potential of gaming in VR; DK2 was a huge step forward and we still use the device regularly to keep track of VR developments in sim racing. With a headset tightly strapped to the skin comes the unavoidable matter of sweat. Even if you’re not prone to sweating, the natural oils from your skin will slowly be absorbed into the foam cushioning.

VR Cover is a simple solution - a cloth cover, shaped to wrap around the headset foam. It stays in place simply by fitting accurately, so it’s very easy to remove and wash. It can be made by hand; there are several homemade suggestions, including using an old T-shirt sleeve. However, you’d have to be skilled with a sewing machine in order to create something with the fit and finish of this product. Get it wrong and it’ll irritate, or you’ll cover up all the vents, meaning the lenses fog up all the time.

The improvement is surprising, being much more comfortable against the skin compared to the foam. It fills gaps where the foam is not quite the ideal shape, making the whole headset a better fit. It also means that it blocks out more light - good for immersion but making it more difficult to do the stare-down-your-nose trick to look for something without removing the headset.

The biggest difference? The smell. The DK1 and DK2 have identical foam surrounds, and made with a material that produces a strong chemical smell that is very apparent when you try VR for the first time. The problem with the devkits (particularly the DK1) is that poorly-optimised demos are everywhere, causing many to feel nauseous very quickly. Some users have found that they began to associate the distinctive smell of the foam with feeling sick, meaning they would trigger more nausea by simply holding the headset near their face. The VR Cover conceals the chemical smell, arriving with a neutral fragrance, and will smell just like your clothing once washed; far more

4

comforting and can help with nausea in some cases.

Although consumer headsets will use higher-quality foam without a strong smell, the sweat issue will remain. The Rift is expected to have replaceable foam inserts, but they could be expensive. No doubt the VR Cover brand will continue to offer solutions for this and many future headsets, having already expanded their range to accommodate Gear VR, and even offering a wipe-down, waterproof cover designed for VR exhibitions.

FROM: WWW.VRCOVER.COM PRICE: $26 (PACK OF THREE, INCLUDES SHIPPING WORLDWIDE)

3

4

LOGITECH WIRELESS TOUCH KEYBOARD K400/K400R All-in-one keyboards are designed as ‘living room’ devices - something lightweight and compact to control media PCs attached to TVs from the comfort of your sofa. They combine a keyboard with media controls and a trackpad with left and right-click buttons in a package smaller than a normal desktop keyboard.

This also makes it an ideal solution for a sim rig. Those who sit at their desks to drive will be familiar with reaching over a steering wheel to awkwardly access the keyboard and mouse to interact with a menu, but on a dedicated rig the solution is usually a small shelf, or you have to hold the mouse against your lap, or, if you’re sitting low enough, push it around the floor.

Using a trackpad as part of a wireless, compact keyboard is a much more elegant system, and makes your rig look less cluttered.

The K400 uses Logitech’s brilliant Unifying Receiver, standard across all their wireless products - a tiny USB dongle that can deal with up to six different devices at once. This means those who already have other wireless Logitech products running on their PC will not even lose another USB port to the K400. The 2.4GHz connection claims a 10m range, and in our experience it is very reliable. Using the two included AA batteries, the keyboard should last over a year before you require replacements. It is completely plug-and-play with no software required, even to use the multi-touch features of the trackpad.

However, you might want to install the SetPoint software, if only for the ‘F swap’ toggle.

One of the nightmares of compact keyboards is the multi-purpose ‘F’ keys - F1 through to F12

become media and shortcut keys by default, as the typical use-case for this device would have limited need to use the standard F keys. They’re always accessible by holding the ‘FN’ button, but this is an inconvenience. Thankfully, Logitech’s SetPoint software allows you to swap this feature, giving you all the F keys without the need to hold another button down. This is invaluable for sims, where many of the functions that you might want to access while driving are placed across the F keys. You can also disable the Windows key, something many gamers ask for.

As one of the more inexpensive devices of this kind, the material quality has suffered, with the plastic shell feeling creaky, and the keys having mushy feedback. While it claims to have a full-size keyboard, it is definitely on the small side in terms of key spacing, with two small Shift keys and a squashed Enter key, so it’s not one to choose as an everyday typing tool. We’ve also noticed that the trackpad becomes less responsive if you have very hot hands, which can be the case immediately after a stressful race. Otherwise, it gets the job done with no fuss.

FROM: WWW.LOGITECH.COM PRICE: £34.99

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

067

!

NO W

VO

TE

DRIVER

AWARDS

D R IVE R AWAR DS

WITH THE VOTING FOR THE SIM RACER DRIVER AWARDS FOR 2015 GOING LIVE WITH THE RELEASE OF THIS MONTH’S MAGAZINE, WE’VE MADE SURE THAT YOU HAVE AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE REGARDING EACH OF THE ENTRANTS COVERED FROM THE SIMS AND GAMES SECTION THIS MONTH.

Simraceway NOMINATED FOR BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST PHYSICS

‘"Blurring the line between sim racing reality" - this is the claim Simraceway make on their website. They live up to this claim in a unique way, offering real-world rewards for competing online and a performance driving centre at Sonoma.

Simraceway pride themselves on their physics, based on ISI technology and created with the help of various professional race drivers, including the late Dan Wheldon.

Still described as an open beta, Simraceway

have built a large portfolio of cars and tracks, with close to 150 cars, ranging from current and historic models - all of which are under license from their respective manufacturers, and 36 tracks.

While their business model has been difficult to understand, it's one to keep an eye on, and with all the tracks free-to-play and Test Drive Tuesdays allowing 48 hours to test some of their vehicles, it's worth a try.

Stock Car Extreme NOMINATED FOR BEST SIM BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST PHYSICS EASIEST LIVERY DESIGNS

Stock Car Extreme is one of the most highly-regarded racing simulators for the PC. A unique title with a Brazilian focus, the sim takes the aging isiMotor2 (rFactor 1 engine) to new heights, with every vehicle and track created with a loving attention to detail.

Thanks to Niels Heusinkveld's understanding of this complex physics engine, Stock Car Extreme's handling is absolutely remarkable, with force feedback that feels incredibly direct. Well supported with free downloadable content, the title offers some of the best value in sim racing, with cars and tracks being added regularly. It doesn't have the largest selection of cars, but many aren't found in other sims.

Running on isiMotor2, the online knowledge base for modding is large, meaning livery design is

068

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

very straightforward.

Thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign recently, there is renewed interest in the title, meaning the multiplayer has come alive, which is

great to see. The funding will also mean several improvements, including a much-needed user interface update, before Reiza begin development on a brand new title.

SIM RACER

Project CARS NOMINATED FOR BEST SIM BEST IN-GAME GRAPHICS BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST PHYSICS BEST SOUND EASIEST LIVERY DESIGN

Project CARS leads the pack in our Sim Racer awards, getting a total of six nominations. The game was long-anticipated by sim racers, combining jaw-dropping graphics with realistic physics.

We reviewed the title in issue 6, and our thoughts were largely positive. We continue to have a huge amount of fun with the sim, despite the bugs.

Project CARS offers some of the best graphics we've ever seen, as well as being very easy to pick up and play regardless of your experience, and catering to both the single player fan and the online community.

Along with stunning graphics is an impressive audio package. Gone are the exaggerrated effects from the Shift series, replaced with more realistic sounds.

Force feedback is remarkably good too, as long as

you're able to keep the sim running smoothly and with minimal latency. Disabling some of the more flashy visual effects helps, something that can be done on the console versions too - a nice touch.

Again not the biggest range of cars, but it was nominated for the category as they are

well-considered. The large number of unique race cars means many specific disciplines are available in the single player career mode.

And if you want to paint your own car, it couldn't be easier, on PC at least, with good templates and a straightforward folder structure.

playing the game.

Assetto Corsa offers brilliant graphics alongside an excellent range of vehicle dynamics, pairing the two seamlessly. It has become embraced by the modding community, which has expanded on the already-impressive range of cars.

It currently falls short in a few areas, namely

the limited track selection, the basic single player career and some problematic AI. It is also lacking a complete set of online features at this time, but it improves at a regular pace, with the major 1.2 update recifying many issues. It also improved the force feedback significantly, which was a common criticism, as well as the audio.

Assetto Corsa NOMINATED FOR BEST SIM BEST IN-GAME GRAPHICS BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST PHYSICS

Assetto Corsa is probably Project CARS' closest competition in the simulation racing world. Boasting an exciting range of cars, stunning graphics and realistic but approachable handling, it's easy to see why it has been such a success since its PC release in 2013. And with a console release coming in 2016, providing the product is as good as its PC counterpart, it will be interesting to see whether it is well-received in that market.

One of our favourite qualities about Assetto Corsa is its ability to welcome both seasoned drivers and newcomers alike. So much so that even our technical editor, whose computer gaming love falls outside of the racing space, has been getting involved and thoroughly enjoying his time spent

rFactor 2 NOMINATED FOR BEST SIM BEST PHYSICS EASIEST LIVERY DESIGN

rFactor 2 builds on the highly successful rFactor, taking all the development knowledge and features to the next level. rFactorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success was largely down to its modding potential and advanced physics. rFactor 2 has improved the physics further, particularly in terms of tyre and surface simulation, but the ease of modding has suffered as a result. rFactor 2 is widely regarded in the sim racing community as having some of the best physics that have ever been seen in a racing game, with the most complete simulation of tyre, surface and

environmental dynamics.

Add arguably the best AI, and you have one the best single-player experiences for the hardcore sim enthusiast, which somewhat makes up for its limited popularity in the multiplayer space.

However, there are many established racing leagues using rF2.

Less enthuasism for mods means content still feels somewhat limited, despite the in-house efforts from ISI being extremely high-quality. The sim needs to improve its presentation in order to grab the wider audience.

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

069

iRacing NOMINATED FOR BEST SIM BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST PHYSICS BEST SOUND EASIEST LIVERY DESIGN

iRacing has been the staple of the simulation racing community for years, offering a huge range of tracks and cars, and an unwavering philosophy of delivering physics, vehicle and track accuracy. iRacing is one of the most-established racing simulation products available, and will no doubt be a benchmark for years to come iRacing is used regularly amongst the Sim Racer staff, due to its unmatched online functionality. Since 2008, the sim has delivered the best multiplayer experience in the genre - probably one of the best multiplayer systems in all of gaming. There is no wonder it has the most active online community, as you will always find a good race, no matter what time of day.

With some of the best technology in the industry,

iRacing is used the world over as a training tool for both professional drivers and hopefuls.

The subscription system isn't going to work for everyone - some people will struggle to justify the content prices when they compare it to other games.

It's also fairly intimidating for newcomers, it requires a large time investment to fully enjoy the experience,

and there is no offline or single-player mode.

Along with its sophisticated physics and modelling accuracy is a lifelike sound system, again going for realism rather than embellishing the effects.

Custom liveries are an important part of online racing, and thanks to Trading Paints, iRacing's members enjoy a smart and capable system.

after a number of free updates, Driveclub has really turned itself around.

Its standout feature, the challenge system, introduces a competitive dynamic within races that is unique and entertaining.

Driveclub is a game with long legs, continuing to sell well late into 2015 - benefitting from the lack of a Gran Turismo on PS4, and being regularly in the

gaming news due to the extended absence of the PlayStation Plus edition, pitched as a launch title, finally becoming available this June.

While not a sim, Driveclub is worthy of note, due in part to its superb presentation, which includes great positional audio, a spectacular weather system, and the best environment detail in the history of racing games.

purchases, but you can test drive everything for free, and there are many competitions running which effectively allow for extended testing of a selection of the cars and tracks.

Raceroom Racing Experience does some things very well, including competitive AI, a wide variety of cars, amazing sound and a strong multiplayer system, which recently received dedicated server support.

The negative reviews due to the poor experience at its initial launch are no longer relevant, and the game is absolutely worth another look. We'd still like to see big improvements to the physics and force feedback, but the recent content is definitely heading in the right direction. We had an open and interesting interview with Sector3 in this issue that explains the situation in much more detail.

RaceRoom is back on track!

Driveclub NOMINATED FOR BEST RACING GAME BEST IN-GAME GRAPHICS BEST RANGE OF CARS IN GAME BEST SOUND

Sony have long been a company to get behind racing games, being the publisher of Gran Turismo, so when they announced Driveclub, we were interested in where it would sit relative to that sim - naturally Sony would not want to create the same kind of game with two first-party studios.

When first released, Driveclub was a mess, with terrible servers and a lack of content; however

RaceRoom Racing Experience NOMINATED FOR BEST RACING GAME BEST RANGE OF CARS IN SIM BEST SOUND

Launched in 2012, RaceRoom Racing Experience was a departure for SimBin, with a free-to-play business model. The game began in a limited, early beta form, and wasn't well received by a community looking forward to a sim called GTR3.

A couple of difficult years passed, and SimBin reformed as Sector3 Studios, which rejuvenated the team and we've seen the game turn around in a very short time. The game now offers over 30 different manufactures with over 65 different models, over 25 tracks, and the feature list seems to grow by the day.

Most of this content is accessible via in-game

070

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

SIM RACER

Gran Turismo 6 NOMIATED FOR BEST RACING GAME BEST RANGE OF CARS IN GAME

Gran Turismo is a legendary name in gaming.

No doubt many of you were introduced to racing games by one of the many titles in the series, spending hours racing, expanding your garage and customising your cars. In many ways, not much has changed. With the original creator, Kazunori Yamauchi still at the helm, Gran Turismo remains a unique experience, but not always for good reasons. The title seems to have questionable priorities at times, but without his vision it would be just another racing game.

Gran Turismo 6 launched back in 2013, just three years after GT5. The gap between GT4 and GT5 was six years, demonstrating the struggle Polyphony Digital had in creating a new engine for the PS3. GT6 addressed many of the problems that prevented its predecessor from being the classic it should have been, and while it also shows the

shortcomings of the old console, it is a remarkable achievement in its own right, boasting well over 1200 cars - the biggest collection of any racing sim.

A new PS4 game has been confirmed, possibly

arriving in 2016 - watch this space. Polyphony have more competition these days, but we're betting they'll once again make the game they want, rather than reacting to others. We can't wait!

difficult task of satisfying every type of gamer.

F1 2015's ambitious move to current gen has caused some features to miss the cut; we're

hoping next year's iteration can address this.

For all the details, and an in-depth review of F1 2015, turn to page 13.

Forza Motorsport 5

With over 200 different cars from 50 manufacturers, 17 different circuits including classics such as Spa, Bathurst and Yas Marina, all executed with some of the most stunning visuals to date, it is hard to not fall in love with Forza 5.

It retains its famous painting system, capable of such intricate designs you'd swear they were done in Photoshop.

It became the fastest-selling racing game in Xbox history, with more than one third of Xbox One owners purchasing the game. But it had a bumpy start, being heavily criticised for its adjusted in-game economy, and the option to buy XP boosts, promoting the idea of paying to win.

Turn 10 have gone out of their way to restore confidence in the hearts and minds of the gamer since then, with many free updates, and Forza 5 remains a competitive game in the present company - an impressive achievement for a launch title.

We have high hopes for Forza 6 - look for a full review next issue.

F1 2015 NOMINATED FOR BEST RACING GAME

F1 2015 is a continuation of Codemasters' successful F1 series, and the first designed for current-gen consoles. We've been entertained by the yearly entries, but they were held back by the 360 and PS3, particularly in terms of physics.

Thanks to a new engine and most notably, a new tyre model, this year's entry is a dramatic improvement.

The additional power of the Xbox One and PS4 has allowed the game to run at 60fps for the first time on consoles, and the new lighting system combined with the step up in modelling quality of cars and tracks means that F1 2015 can be a stunning game. This naturally benefitted the PC version too, although it is up against stronger competition in that space.

The F1 franchise attracts a wider audience than most of the titles in this list, so the team have a

NOMINATED FOR BEST RACING GAME BEST IN-GAME GRAPHICS BEST RANGE OF CARS IN GAME EASIEST LIVERY DESIGN

With a decade of experience across three generations of consoles, Forza Motorsport is a well-established name in racing. With the upcoming release of Forza 6, the fifth entry into the main series will soon find itself obsolete, but for now we are certainly enjoying ourselves!

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM

071

LIMITED OFFER! PRE-ORDER THE FIRST 3 ISSUES OF SIM RACER MAGAZINE AT OUR DISCOUNTED PRICE !

SIM RACER IS ALSO AVAILABLE TO READ AS A DIGITAL EDITION; AVAILABLE AS AN APP ON ITUNES AND VIA WWW.POCKETMAG.COM

ORDER ONLINE AT

WWW.SIMRACER-MAG.COM one year subscription six issues

£29.99

EUR: £39.99 ROW: £49.99

OR YOU CAN ORDER OVER THE PHONE

01775 750 005 YOU CAN ALSO PAY BY CHEQUES MADE OUT TO:

EBCON PUBLISHING LTD

PLEASE SEND YOUR CHEQUES/P.O.S TO: SIM RACER MAGAZINE, EBCON PUBLISHING LTD, THE COURTYARD, CHOPDIKE DROVE, GOSBERTON CLOUGH, LINCS. PE11 4JP - UNITED KINGDOM

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND DON’T MISS A COPY OF SIM RACER!

SIM RACER NEXT ISSUE

NEXTISSUE FORZA MOTORSPORT 6 FULL REVIEW

NEXT ISSUE LAUNCHES NOVEMBER 5TH BE PART OF SOMETHING SPECIAL - ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! 074

W W W.SIMRACER-MAG.COM