VR made driving sims enjoyable for me and saved me giving up this hobby. Maybe it’s because I’m middle aged and been driving for so long, but driving on flat screens my brain can’t process what’s going on. I’m quicker and more consistent in VR and I learn tracks a lot quicker in VR too. VR feels like I’m driving and you get a sense of speed, flat screens I never felt immersed or comfortable and get no sense of speed or presence. It’s great that technology gives us so many choices to find personal comfort.
It's definitely a different experience for each individual, great to hear VR has made such a difference for you! Hopefully they continue to develop the technology so that more people can enjoy it without feeling ill. - John
I just turned 57 and bought stronger "readers" to see my monitors. Never give up, never "grow up", play keeps the mind young and the body alive, but you do need to go outside and get some exercise. That said, I'm still holding off on the VR plunge. I'm ready to try, but all the advice I get now is...wait a month, big announcements coming soon.
@@EdBert Facebook connect / Oculus connect is next week and we are all waiting to hear if there will be new products from them. Valve are very cheeky and people are expecting them to make an unplanned announcement just before Facebook connect to steal some of the headlines, which is what they did last year haha bless them. I would wait until the start of November before pressing a buy now button on a VR headset.
Sim racing in VR is one of the wildest experiences we have access to. I never really played video games before VR, but once I tried sim racing in VR, it blew my mind. Specifically Dirt Rally 2. If you can work past the motion sickness, it’s incredible.
As long as you have smooth frames of 80fps+ you won't get motion sickness. At least most people won't, but getting that in Dirt Rally you need a high end system.
Im still fighting with motion sickness, i have the quest 2 and do iracing, so i try to have short sessions and a fan on. Maybe it will go away some time
@@fitnesschefen i think tea baggins is on to something. I had a rough time adapting until I optimized it and learned to turn off Asynchronous Spacewarp every time. Haven't felt ill at all since.
@@fitnesschefen take it slow, never drive to the limit of your discomfort. I find its easier to get into if you do not force yourself too much and give your mind time to adapt.
Combining VR with Sim Racing turned a hobby into a passion. And I'm definitely quicker with the VR headset on, I can feel the car so much better, I can't see myself playing without it except when I have no choice (I'm looking at you, F1 2021!), it makes the whole experience so real !
As everyone i started on a single panel. After a while got a good speed and was lapping consistently with times in the top 25 on every game and car i tried. Then switched to triple screen and after a brief adjustment period and motion sickness (yes you can get that one with triple screens as well as VR) i'm now permanently in top 10 and in some games, cars and tracks top 3. Was feeling pleased until about 2 weeks ago i tried Oculus Quest 2 on a friend's rig. I was shocked. On a rig that was completely alien to me, w/o my settings and with new viewing experience just 3 laps in i was already matching some of my best EVER times, especially at the fast tracks like Monza and Le Mans with big straights and hard braking points at the end of them. I could nail my braking spot on the start-finish straight of Monza EVERY.SINGLE.LAP. Time after time the difference was probably less than 10cm where even on triple screens i usually do it probably 2 out of every 10 laps. The depth perception is just on a whole another level and easily trumps the more narrow FoV. So is the ability to check your opponents and even peek over your virtual steering wheel when it gets in the way like in the 2014 LMP1 Audi R18. So after that i was amazed and a bit bumped out. The Quest 2 is $299 in the states but here it starts from $600 promo price for the 128GB. So now i'm divided between new GPU and VR headset, both of witch will set me back more than $700. Another important point for the triple screens - even with 1080p panels, you still need above average PC since the amount of pixels you have to render is almost twice the amount of 1440p and slightly below 4k.
The seated VR experience has been a dream come true. It finally became complete with my recent RTX 4090 purchase. Sims are so freaking smooth they are maxing out my Reverb G2. Whether it is MS FS 2020, Project Cars 2, or Elite Dangerous, they have never run more perfectly than now. I am blown away.
I mainly just play VR because of the fun factor and it's why I don't think I'll use screens for iRacing. I fondly remember first doing the MX5 practice sessions being amazed at the depth perception and the ability to look around. But that first multiplayer race is what has kept me in the VR camp, seeing other drivers around me and being able to see them in my mirrors made it feel soo immersive and I still feel on edge when going side by side through a corner whether I'm defending or attacking it's like you can sense the car next to you
I have triples and swapped to VR and I'm not going back. Having a fan on you pretty well makes me comfortable to race for hours, I can feel the depth perception which makes me more consistent and faster overall. I also enjoy it more from the immersion, I'm not just sitting in my room racing, I'm at the track with ppl, we chat and go racing. I take it more seriously and it's just more enjoyable overall.
How long are your sessions? I hear some people say they can only race for 20 minutes, many say more like 60 minutes. Are you able to use a VR headset indefinitely? I'm not good enough to do races over an hour, my attention span maybe, probably just lack of skill, but I get sloppy and either slow down or actually spin if I race too long and that is with a monitor!
Ive only used the Rift S, I also have triples, I would say that if you want to be totally immersed in the car, then screens just cannot give you what VR does, they are just not in the same ball park for scale, depth and dimensionality, you can get lost in VR in a way that you just cannot with screens. However the Rift S is still not good enough in terms of visual quality, I have not tried a reverb 2. I can understand that if you have pets, young children or you are streamer, VR is not ideal in the sense that you cannot keep on eye on your surroundings. But for me, sitting in a single seater in VR, in full 3D with the correct sense of scale is way more immersive than monitors.
I use head tracking with a single display and that works quite well. You can set spline curves for rotation so you might have 15 degrees or real head movement is 60 in the game, that way you can look around in the game without losing sight of the screen. It's a really good compromise.
At first I struggled on DiRT Rally 2.0 on a flat screen, mostly also because that and an occasional Assetto session were my only wheel driving games. Once I tried using my Quest 2 headset in DR 2.0, it changed everything- ominous crests became predictable hill climbs and finding the optimal apex points became stupidly easy. I then swapped back to playing on my monitor, and I was surprisingly proficient in it, maybe even on par with VR. For me the take away is that VR racing is fun and can ease first timers into flat screen racing by visualizing the courses and even interiors of the car, giving you a sense of scale of the car so that you don't get snagged on a curb or a rock.
Having both VR and triple screens, I find switching between the two far easier than from a single screen and VR. This is probably because I have pretty much identical FOV set in both.
That makes a lot of sense, I think a big part of it is the FOV like I was saying in the video. Take some time to get it set up correctly (or how you like it) and it will become more straight forward 🙂
Lap times shouldn't be why you choose either one of these. I will always race in VR because it's easier to set up than triples and I have no desire to dedicate my PC setup to a simrig. With VR, I can leave my rig to the side of my desk and hop into it when I want to race. Honestly, the more you race in VR, the more comfortable it gets. During a race, I don't even realize the headset is on. It's really only at the beginning and end of a race that I notice it.
Really great video, and as a die hard VR fan i found this balanced and fair. As for the comfort it does take time to get comfortable. But once i got comfortable i can be in VR for hours. And I struggled with motion sickness at the start, but thanks to taking it slow, a good fan, regular breaks and ginger beer (its what sailors use for motion sickness) i got over it pretty quickly and now never feel it. Not seen your stuff before but i liked it and you get a new sub too
I went from not liking sims anymore to loving them with the addition of VR. It just adds that extra of layer of presence I needed to make it feel like a real simulator. On a monitor, sims just feel like the same thing I've been doing for 20 years.
Great thorough test. Completely agree with your analysis and I arrive to the same conclusions. I would definitely choose VR permanently if it was more comfortable. I would also add in the pros for VR: it's a different world for rallye driving or drifting, where the car is mostly sideways. VR is soooo much better then. No question.
I went from single to VR to single to VR and finally Triples... 👍 For me nothing beats VR immersion however I find Triples to be the perfect balance between single (extreme comfort) and VR (extreme immersion) ... "COMFORTABILITY" especially in long races was primal for me when making my final decision and oh did I mention I get motion sickness after 20mins of VR 🤦♂️... sucks. Seems I can play every now and again with the virtual world but not live in it... 😂 Thanks for the video too, overall I enjoy them all in their own way👍
@@RRRsimracing I had a lot of motion sickness before and a motion simulator with motion compensation software eliminated all the sickness. More people need to try it. But it is essential that the setup is correct or it could make the sickness even worse.
@@jimj2683 Well the logic of it makes sense that it should help. Thanks so much for your help. May I ask what brand you had xp with ? I may just give this a go. Thank you
I think the common misconception that people have is the more sensory input you have in sim racing, the faster you'll get. I played sim racing for a couple years on a single monitor, and when trying VR I just found the limited vision and immersion distracting, and drove a lot worse. I already had buttons on the wheel programmed to look left/right to see cars next to me. Even things like force feedback don't necessarily make you a quicker driver. The FF on my wheel eventually broke (a logitech DFGT) so I was forced to play with it off. Contrary to what I expected, after a bit of practise I found myself beating my previous lap records and driving just as consistently (in rFactor) with no force feedback. Also, one of the better drivers I raced against online was actually a controller player. To be fair he did use light assistance (ABS/TC), but I found it unbelievable that someone on a xbox controller could race faster on a sim game than most people with high end gear. At the end of the day, the main sensory input you actually need to control the car is a lag-free display, high FPS and sound to hear the tyre squeel / bumps. Everything else is just for increased immersion IMO and can be compensated for with experience.
I think this holds more true if you're not used to driving cars fast in real life. For a lot of enthusiasts who are experienced in that respect, especially those who go racing or to track days IRL, the lack of sensory input when simming is the single most disorienting factor that can really hit them in the lap time/consistency area. Having incremental sensory improvements brings the experience slightly closer to the real deal with which they're familiar. It's like bridging two skillsets rather than simply keeping them wholly separate. With these sensory input improvements I find myself much more able to leverage my RL racing skills than without.
You are right, if its about being competitive, nobody should feel the need for any gear, git good, practice, and you are able to go as fast as anyone else :D. The question on this video is relevant, of course, but people should choose one over the other based on the fun they are having. VR is pretty random some people become one with it and others dont find it pleasant.
I won 3x UK&I Skip Barber championships in iRacing using VR. The clinchers for me in favour VR were: 1) Perfect FOV in any car. 2) Being able to look left and right to check my blind spots meant I could be more confident in placing my car - and that makes a big difference with being able to hold your line in side-by-side racing or overtakes. 3) You get stereoscopic vision, which means everything is in 3D, which allows for judging distances far better than with flat 2D screens - giving greater fidelity for modulation under breaking. If you’re struggling with overheating, put a fan in front of your face.
Maybe I'm just used to it from tons of practice but I can just sit in VR and play Dirt Rally 2.0 for 1-2 hours at a time (headset on full time) It doesn't really get uncomfortable, I just get mentally exhausted Idk I also make sure to blast my air conditioner before I start playing so maybe that's a part of it
I have a rift s but just switched to triples I was having some issues after the last update but I will say it’s so nice having the clarity and freedom you get with triples and it’s not nearly as hot
When i used to play Counterstrike, i could clearly see the diffrence between 30 and 60 frames per second, i could also see the difference between 60 and 120 FPS. Above that it was hard to tell for me. I think the frames pers econd metric is more important in first person shooters than it is in sim racing.
The iRacing Formula Renault 3.5. You have to raise your in car seat height, so you can see over the tops of the mirrors and wheels. For single screen it makes it a lot easier to see the corner apex in that car.
I usually thought that I was reasonably quick until a tried acc, in which I was very first introduced to zolder. First lap times were 1:36ish and I have gotten that down to 1:31.2 but I just have no idea where another 3 or 4 seconds might be out there. Any tips?
1:31's are not bad at all! Will just be a case of chipping away a little bit everywhere, usually its the track limits that you can exploit at Zolder to find the lap time. Have you watched our track guide? - ua-cam.com/video/DzEtvKfuBbQ/v-deo.html
For me, VR makes a huge difference, especially because I like to drift in assetto corsa and do rallies in RBR. VR makes a massive difference in both of them just for the visibility around your car and being able to look further away more naturally. RBR especially feels much more comfortable in VR, with a single screen I feel like I have no clue on how close I am to the road edges and ditches. I have had to learn single screen because my Rift CV1 decided to just bust the left eye which makes it impossible to drive. For me VR is definetly the better option.
Like most things in sim racing, as long as you have a wheel nothing you do to add to it whether its upgrading to DD or load cell or triples vs single or screen vs VR... none of them will make you faster, none of them will make you slower either. They make it more immersive and each upgrade might make you more consistent too but at the end of the day you're just throwing inputs at a computer and it will always do the same thing with those inputs. Going DD will make catching slides more intuitive (but you can still do it on a G29), load cells make it easier to find the braking threshold and to repeatedly hit the ideal braking force for trail braking (but you can always teach yourself to do those things with a basic setup), triples give you more visibility to fight closely with other cars (but plenty of people manage that with a single 24" monitor) and VR gives you depth perception so you can create reference points more quickly and you can almost feel every mph and intuitively feel if you are going fast enough or too fast for a corner (but there will still be people on a single 24" who can run 12x 1:27.3 in a row while you end up doing maybe three with a bunch of 27.5 and 27.7's thrown in). But at the end of the day every one of those things you can adapt to with a screen or with a gear/belt driven wheel or a potentiometer based brake etc, every millisecond you think you can gain by upgrading your setup someone else has already gained it on an G25 that's old enough to get a driving licence itself, the rest is just for adding realism, making it feel more like the real thing and reducing how much you need to practice due to consistency but you'll hit the same wall if you use either setup for long enough, the limit to your pace is *always* directly correlated with practice time.
I must admit, choosing between my 43" 4K or my Oculus Quest 2, I go for the Quest 2 every time. It makes my cornering and overtaking way more consistent and safe. Plus, I'm a real sucker for immersion, so that's also 50% of why I'm VR mainly.
@@CaioCarneloz I haven't gotten a good setup with AirLink but I'm sure there are ways to optimize it. From what I understand, using Virtual Desktop is still better than AirLink.
No problem,@@PsyJoeTV. I just tested both and it is much better with the cable than it is with AirLink. Too much compression when using AirLink, even with WiFi 6. The image gets too blurry.
I used triples for 3 years odd even when I had a HTC Vive as I would get motion sickeness the odd time. Once I tried my friends HP Reverb G2 last year I moved on to one myself as the improved resolution removed motion sickness completely for me. I would say I improved by an average of 1 second a lap in VR for most tracks, especially when learning a track/car combo.
I been playing VR games since 2016 From Gear VR PSVR and Quest 2 i can't go back to flat games. In VR you can shoot in different directions stand next to anything and stick your arm out with your weapon without being seen and shoot . u can look in all directions 3-D audio works perfectly
Whether I go faster or not with VR more than using Display screens is kind of a mood point for me. I just feel with VR I am more into the game/race by being positioned in the car seat and viewing everything around me. Doing a Display or Displays are great, but I just feel distanced from actually being/driving the car, no immersion into the game. As many people say, once you have done VR in games, it is hard to go back to the flat screens. take care.
When I participate in a track day, wearing a sweaty helmet in a hot car and overcoming the claustrophobic environment is definitely one of the challenges. Perhaps this is another advantage of VR - acclimatization to the real world of performance driving.
Running a 4090 with a G2 here. With my old 2080ti VR sim racing was full of compromises and a generally frustrating experience with sub-optimal FPS even at 50% resolution. The 4090 has been a complete revelation. Now running AMS 2 and RF2 at 115% SS with MSAA on high and I'm pegged at 90fps with a full grid. We have finally reached a point where VR is immensely enjoyable and no longer a compromised experience.
@@LowBlow I bought Quest 2 almost a year ago. I am not new I dont have money to invest in good hardware to fully drive it. Besides, I work with screens all day and using VR is not easy for my eyes too. I just saying if you have money you are good but the most of us dont have money
Im about to turn 51 and just experienced VR for the first time in dirt rally 2. Games have come a long way since my first home gaming experience with The Atari master system.
VR gives you better depth of perception too, meaning you can get better lap times as you can see actually see how far away walls and opponents are. its even better, in rally as you can judge corner distance and angle of attack better, its a shame dirt's handling is nothing like real life, it would have been a good sim.
If one is able to by a vr headset with at least an average quality I believe it is a bit more natural for the brain to deal with 3D space than having to understand it from a flat image. That should translate to more speed over time, if not already from the start. To me, it also helps keeping the focus as I'm totally disconnect from any visual distraction outside of the game.
I wonder how VR would compare to eye and headtracing on a screen I think with 3 screen headtracking and eye it could a perfect maariage of these 2 types
I think its the VR headset that is bothering you that quickly. I fly DCS for hours using my Vlave Index. It never feels uncomfortable. Once I started using VR.. I don't even play many flat screen games now.
I really enjoyed this video, found it very late... I just recently switched from triples(28" 60hz) to a 49" ultrawide(120hz) and ultimately VR(HP Reverb G2), im currently waiting on changing back to triples (27" sides and 49" ultrawide in center all 2k at 120hz) , although VR is still going to hold a place for learning reference points, feeling track elevations, and brake/coast zones and ultimately fun I dont suffer from the heat or discomfort in VR maybe its due to a box fan blowing at me VR is absolutely amazing but I also have kids and triples are easier to "see in the back seat" VR has an amazing place and I am surprisingly much faster in VR than on a screen but since VR the screen times are improving at a much faster rate as well as consistency coming in close line to the VR times and even on Zandvoort in ACC actually faster on a screen now again
I race competitively and I can stay that VR a bit faster but the real thing is that you can be much more consistent. Still i find VR still lacking in comfort, the image is so blurry sometimes and I hate that.
Of course flat screen users generally are faster than VR users, it’s because in VR you’re less comfortable and require a powerful system to have max resolution and high fps to be consistent. Kind of like real life racing, uncomfortable and need a good vehicle to run. But I bet the transition into real life racing will favor VR users than flat screen.
Just started video but going to say now it made me faster. Being able to look at apex "normally out of view or fpv screen" in vr I can look while driving and take every inch.
You gotta go triple screens above 60 fps to make the proper comparison. I'm running triple 32 inch 1440p screens at 75 hz. The game is usually running above 100 fps and my VR headset has been hanging on the wall, collecting dust for months. Just the comfort level is a massive benefit. After about 30 minutes I have sweaty ears and forehead and my eyes are starting to fatigue. No fun there. I love VR but until they can make some simple glasses do the job, it is too much to wear. I usually race for hours with short breaks after two stages (rally racer) depending on the lengths of the stage.
In iRacing and Automobilista, the VR seat sat higher than the Monitor seat. In ACC that wasn't much of the case, but only with ACC I know that you can change the seat position, not sure about iRacing and Automobilista 2
@@Drnken229 ok man! Thanks for your answer. I was saying that because...you know, if i'm too high or low ingame, when i recentre my vr, i just recenter my view but i'm sitting lower or higher in my seat so when i sit normally to drive, my view is just at the right position. No need to touch any changing seat position ingame. Don't know if i explained as well as i should. ^^ That why i was like "b...b...but why". ^^
I've played racing games for years and years on a flat screen, going back to early NES days. To me, the jump to VR from a flat screen feels as big of a jump as going from a third person camera to "true" first person camera (not the tip of the car camera that used to be the standard first person... I'm old). I'm sure a really top of the line setup with 3 massive monitors could make up some of the difference, but I doubt even that would match the level of immersion that even a relatively cheap Quest 2 with Quest Link or Air Link can provide. And that level of immersion that VR provides is just too big of a factor for me. Side note, I can't wait for true full FOV VR to come out, that's going to be wild! I'd love to try a Pimax 8K or Crystal. A tip to make VR more comfortable, get a better head strap ASAP. I was using my Quest 2 with the stock strap for quite a while and it's just a brick hanging from your face after 30 mins or so, especially in games where you're really active or move your head a lot. I got a BoboVR that has a battery pack. It seems a bit counterintuitive that adding weight would be more comfortable but the counter-balancing that it provides is so nice. And in VR racing, where you're not leaning down a lot but mostly needing to swivel your head, I've found it makes an even bigger difference. Great video though! Thanks for this HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC™ test.
Im very lucky in that I get so engrossed in the racing that I barely feel the disconfort in vr until I take it off. Even did 3h endurancw rsces in acc. But I dropped ACC because it was indeed the only sim where in the end I found vr wasnt worth it. At least with my specs, it does not run well at all lol. Just got into Iracing and the sim is perfect if you like vr.
dont know how correct the video is to inbetween vr and single screen but it seems like your vr is way higher positionied then the standart single screen, which might give you the exact advantage in vr over single screen
How about PC requirements? Can a mid-ish end GPU like the RTX 3070 or an RX 6750 XT give me a good FPS on most games? It's okay if I would have to turn down the graphics a bit. If not, what level of GPUs are ideal for VR? I also heard VR has a slight latency to it. Is it noticable to the point that it can be a dealbreaker? It's gonna be my first time building a sim rig and I can't choose between triple screens and a VR
GREAT video. I find ACC much more tiring in VR, than any other VR sim i race. I’m ready to turn it off after a 20 min race. I think it’s because it’s much more intense and you need to be very accurate. I’m happy to do a 60 minute session in Richard Burns rally in VR!
At 7:20 you say one of the problems you had with ACC and VR was the constantly changing FOV. What do you mean by that? The FOV should never change. It should be setup once to a 1:1 with real-life size and never change between cars, games, etc...
I think he refers to changing fov when changing from non-vr to vr. This happens if your fov in non-vr is not setup to a 1:1 size with real live as described by you. (And having by concept always a perfect fov might be one advantage for vr.)
I cant go back to flat screen racing after trying VR six years ago. It's just not the same. Depth perception is increased a lot. Door handle to door handle racing looks awesome. Started with a Rift S and now have a Varjo Aero. VR for me.
screen is nicer looking and more consistent, but if you are not a competitive racer who competes in online events and wants best lap times in ladderboards then VR is much better. I am a middle aged guy, who does not care about being good but enjoys driving all sorts of cars IRL and in game. After work i put on racing shoes, gloves, VR headset and headphones, boot up AMS2, ACC or PC2 in VR with random weather and random car against AI and i have an absolute blast for 1-2 hours and real worlds stops existing, its just me, my car and the track and nothing beats it.
I've been racing with triple 24" and 27" screens in glorious Nvidia 3D Vision for around 8 years and now and I just got a Pimax 5K Super headset (taking advantage of the awesome Pimax 12K trade-in offer). It makes no difference to my laptimes whether I use triple-screens in 2D, triple-screens in 3D, or VR in 3D. The 3D / stereo vision when using Nvidia 3D Vision and VR is awesome though. It can arguably affect your driving as it can help judge speed, distance, turn-in, etc. better and the immersion from using 3D / stereo vision is incredible. Me personally, even when using crappy 2D, I can still get used to it and drive to the same laptimes but 2D sucks. After playing/racing in 3D, regardless whether it's 1 screen, 3x screens, or VR, anything 2D is unacceptable as it's like looking at a piece of paper. I'd rather pick 3D / stereo vision over any thing else: bigger monitor/s, higher resolution, faster refresh rates, HDR, curved, higher gfx settings, etc.
After just a month on PSVR2 with GT7, I can't drive any other way. I haven't wanted to play any of my sims on my PC because I don't have a headset for it yet.
Pro tip: for better performance in VR in ACC with any oculus... dont launch it with steam vr. Use oculus mode instead. Much better performance, which can make things easier to get used to.
in VR you were sitting higher in the car so you could see the track better. you could change your ride height when your on your monitor or lower the height in vr cause you wouldn't be sitting that high but good video, I've been using vr for 5+ years for racing and I finally tried triples and I was faster not as consistent cause i still need to get used to it but I think monitors are better especially if you can go with triples in vr you have tunnel vision but its all user preferences
What it seems like it comes down to is how well optimized it is and comfort. If the game is optimized for it and VR is comfortable for you, VR is better. But if not to either, then screens is safer.
I race the Formula Renault 3.5 and at Road Atlanta you are about 3 secs off the pace. VR definitely makes it easier to judge turn in an braking points but once you get close to the limit which 3 secs isn't then what monitors allow you to do is better judge when the car is beginning to over rotate and enter a spin. This is essential to drive at the limit so ultimately I found VR to be about 3-4 tenths faster. Plus yea you need your FOV set correctly and then switching isn't quite as bad as you make it out to be.
For me, it's the opposite, harder to spot exact braking points because of lower visual clarity, but much easier to feel the car's rotation in VR. Also, blind corners and hairpins are no longer a guesswork. As for the laptimes, initially they were essentially the same when I switched to VR three years ago and I think I got a bit faster in the meantime, but I completely lost my ability to race with flat screens, so I can't compare that now. And no, I'm not 3 seconds off the pace :)
I’ve been self debating going to triples instead of continuing with my rift, the VR headset can become uncomfortable but it forces me to take breaks. But everything you discuss about performance I completely agree with. When I went from one screen to VR I destroyed my lap times and it created a whole new experience. Took a few weeks to overcome the motion sickness but now it has zero affect on me.
@@TraxionGG well the motion sickness feeling is gone 100 percent. The longest race I’ve done has been about 20 minutes, but over the course of playing most of a day I have no issues. This is most likely a personal thing player to player. I’m currently using a rift S but will most likely upgrade if something more high resolution comes along
@@DreamstoRealityAutomotiveTV yes 100% I upgraded from a rift s to a reverb and its night and day difference. Just need a insane computer to even manage stable fps
do you need glasses in vr if you are nearsighted? like. i can see everything thats 11.5m and closer as perfect as with glasses, but everything farther than 3m is extremely blurry
I am also short (or near) sighted, and I do use my glasses while wearing the headset. Without them, everything is far more blurry. With them, it should be the same as it is for others, but that doesn’t mean it’s very easy to make it crystal clear. You still need to play around with it a bit when you put it on. Hope this helps😊
My problem with vr is comfort, after 10-15 minutes my eyes start to hurt, i begin to sweat, and I have to take a break, if they solve this vr would definitely be the way
Just found your channel and already a big fan. I adore ACC but it's a massive let-down in VR, so frustrating because it's my favourite sim but for me it's unplayable in VR. Especially when compared to iRacing and AMS2 (and the original AC). I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the driving factors behind the team moving away from UE for AC2, because they just can't get an acceptable VR performance out of it.
I've found that I'm a bit more consistent in VR, so overall I guess that would make me faster, but my lap times were pretty much the same as using a monitor once I got used to the feeling of VR. However my issue is with the graphics. I've only tried the oculus quest 2 so far, so maybe that headset just isn't up to par, but with a 4080 GPU, I can't really justify using VR and only getting a fraction of what my GPU offers thru it. Obviously VR is way more immersive and enjoyable at least for me, but not sure if I want to spend the money yet, until I'm able to try better headsets. The issue is being able to test them without having to buy them first, does anyone know how/where that can be done? I had to borrow a friends oculus.
i found vr to be slower at first but soon found it to be very consistent and when you are going very fast you can feel the fact you are going fast and being able to look over at other cars helps my race craft however after 30 minutes your focus can drop significantly in vr making it harder to be consistent but its one of those thinga you have to work on and is quite realistic compared to real life
you can build VR endurance, and for the heat thing, just point a fan towards you. or turn on the A/C. I'll play in VR whenever I have the choice. it's just so much more fun. but then again, I just play these games casually and won't be caught dead going "pro" in them. Don't make your hobby your job or you'll start to hate it.
I assume for different styles of driving, like drifting, and just maybe rallycross/rally, VR would be more enjoyable? I also only have a gaming laptop, so VR would be more practical for me space, and cost wise opposed to 3 monitor setup. But since most of my time is spend in Dirt Rally/ Assetto Corsa drift tracks - I'm not sure if I could get a comparable experience to VR with a single monitor... but ultimately it most likely will go down to the price...
It’s a tricky one… I would agree that VR is even more beneficial for those specific racing disciplines, but this doesn’t mean that a single screen won’t still give you a superb and immersive experience. Everyone has a different experience with VR, so its worth trying it first before committing lots of money to a top of the range headset 😊
I love VR . That said I also get overheated in longer stints. I'm waiting for the future when headsets are flip up, flip down. I hate trying to take notes or log times. I have the same problem with the cockpit or bumper camera debate. How can you be a sim racer if you only use bumper cam.
Personally, I have done more VR with motion than without as I used to work in a VR sim centre with motion seats. It is a brilliant combination, great immersion but also helps reduce levels of motion sickness interestingly! Think it's because both the brain and the body are sensing movement rather than just the brain, so your whole body is more in sync. I am not a scientist though😂
VR vs a screen is different than VR vs Triple Curved screens ....VR will be better than a single screen but for longer races a Triple screen setup with the right FOV gives you a very good feeling but you don't get hot while racing with Triples.. I've got both so for me VR is for when I'm just playing around when but it's a real race for points it's Triples all day.
My only gripe with VR is the settings are hard to get figured out i’m having issues with how blurry everything is and I have a very powerful computer but I agree VR > Screens
I started driving simracing in 1998 with Grand-Prix Lgends. Now I use AC, ACC, and mainly rF2 and iRacing. I have a triple screen of 24 inches and Track-iR. But for three months, I have an Oculus Quest 2 that runs with a PC not at the Top. I'm a little faster in VR but above all, I take a lot more pleasure. The disadvantages, indeed, are the pain and fatigue that can generate the helmet , as well as heat management. Pwwee. Bonne route !!
ACC is terribly optimised for VR, ams2 is brilliant, I have a 3080ti and a 12th gen cpu and still couldn’t get ACC looking great, switching to openxr instead of Steam Vr has helped a lot though. I went from single screen to triples to VR and now race exclusively in VR, I started on Quest2 and it did get uncomfortable after a bit but with the reverb g2 not only is it visually far superior it is way more comfortable and I’ve done a 4 hour race at Le Mans with no problem, no going back to pancakes for me
@@Methbilly I have it looking good but not looking great my point was if it was optimised better with my spec of PC I should be able to run it at higher settings
if vr was nicer to wear, and didn't strain the eyes so much, it would be way way better imo, I never liked using single screen with standard cockpit view because visibility is just so bad compared to hood cam or dash cam
A big reason for being worse in ACC in VR is that it is so badly optimized for VR. The poor fps performance and poor graphical quality make it very taxing for your eyes/brain.
I absolutely love AC in VR and its great for those short to medium length drift sessions that aren't exactly gonna be requiring your full focus, and for that I think VR is a great option, but having taken more time to dive into endurance races on ACC I find myself also losing pace after awile becuase it just hurts to have on my head and my eyes get dry after 45 or so minutes and have to take a break. But there really is nothing like it I've also had days where I spent 4 hour sessions on one track trying to learn it in VR and then transitioning back to screen for a main race, it certainly has it's uses but I can see how it just wouldn't be worth the pricetag for some people. Great video TGG!
Personally, I have only tried 4 or 5 different headsets, so maybe some other VR users in the comments can also assist with this question. However what I would say is that every new headset I have tried in the past 5ish years has been perfectly comfortable with glasses. The original Rift wasn't great (you needed a foam edge rather than the leather one around your eyes for it to be comfortable), but the following Rift S is great (as used in this video). This headset is fairly old now, and the others I have tried since (including HP Reverb G2 and HTC Vive Pro 2) have also been perfectly comfortable with glasses. Also the PSVR2 was tried recently by Tom, and he had no issues with his glasses either. So basically, modern headset designs seem to have considered this more than the original ones so anything fairly new should be okay :) Maybe just check specifically with other users before you buy!
VR made driving sims enjoyable for me and saved me giving up this hobby. Maybe it’s because I’m middle aged and been driving for so long, but driving on flat screens my brain can’t process what’s going on. I’m quicker and more consistent in VR and I learn tracks a lot quicker in VR too. VR feels like I’m driving and you get a sense of speed, flat screens I never felt immersed or comfortable and get no sense of speed or presence. It’s great that technology gives us so many choices to find personal comfort.
It's definitely a different experience for each individual, great to hear VR has made such a difference for you! Hopefully they continue to develop the technology so that more people can enjoy it without feeling ill.
- John
I ride only in VR, it's realy cool
I concur.
I love the feeling of being inside a racecar rather that just looking at a pancake version of the dash.
I just turned 57 and bought stronger "readers" to see my monitors. Never give up, never "grow up", play keeps the mind young and the body alive, but you do need to go outside and get some exercise.
That said, I'm still holding off on the VR plunge. I'm ready to try, but all the advice I get now is...wait a month, big announcements coming soon.
@@EdBert Facebook connect / Oculus connect is next week and we are all waiting to hear if there will be new products from them. Valve are very cheeky and people are expecting them to make an unplanned announcement just before Facebook connect to steal some of the headlines, which is what they did last year haha bless them. I would wait until the start of November before pressing a buy now button on a VR headset.
Sim racing in VR is one of the wildest experiences we have access to. I never really played video games before VR, but once I tried sim racing in VR, it blew my mind. Specifically Dirt Rally 2. If you can work past the motion sickness, it’s incredible.
As long as you have smooth frames of 80fps+ you won't get motion sickness. At least most people won't, but getting that in Dirt Rally you need a high end system.
@@teabaggins3517 I’m fortunate to have a great computer to run it.
Im still fighting with motion sickness, i have the quest 2 and do iracing, so i try to have short sessions and a fan on. Maybe it will go away some time
@@fitnesschefen i think tea baggins is on to something. I had a rough time adapting until I optimized it and learned to turn off Asynchronous Spacewarp every time. Haven't felt ill at all since.
@@fitnesschefen take it slow, never drive to the limit of your discomfort. I find its easier to get into if you do not force yourself too much and give your mind time to adapt.
VR is just so incredibly immersive, and it'll only get better as the headsets progress. It's awesome just how real it feels.
For me it is VR. i almost sell my rig, but decided to try VR in the last minute. It is so immersive, VR has save me from giving up this hobby.
Combining VR with Sim Racing turned a hobby into a passion. And I'm definitely quicker with the VR headset on, I can feel the car so much better, I can't see myself playing without it except when I have no choice (I'm looking at you, F1 2021!), it makes the whole experience so real !
Did you get f1 22 and how is it?
As everyone i started on a single panel. After a while got a good speed and was lapping consistently with times in the top 25 on every game and car i tried. Then switched to triple screen and after a brief adjustment period and motion sickness (yes you can get that one with triple screens as well as VR) i'm now permanently in top 10 and in some games, cars and tracks top 3. Was feeling pleased until about 2 weeks ago i tried Oculus Quest 2 on a friend's rig. I was shocked. On a rig that was completely alien to me, w/o my settings and with new viewing experience just 3 laps in i was already matching some of my best EVER times, especially at the fast tracks like Monza and Le Mans with big straights and hard braking points at the end of them. I could nail my braking spot on the start-finish straight of Monza EVERY.SINGLE.LAP. Time after time the difference was probably less than 10cm where even on triple screens i usually do it probably 2 out of every 10 laps. The depth perception is just on a whole another level and easily trumps the more narrow FoV. So is the ability to check your opponents and even peek over your virtual steering wheel when it gets in the way like in the 2014 LMP1 Audi R18. So after that i was amazed and a bit bumped out. The Quest 2 is $299 in the states but here it starts from $600 promo price for the 128GB. So now i'm divided between new GPU and VR headset, both of witch will set me back more than $700.
Another important point for the triple screens - even with 1080p panels, you still need above average PC since the amount of pixels you have to render is almost twice the amount of 1440p and slightly below 4k.
The seated VR experience has been a dream come true. It finally became complete with my recent RTX 4090 purchase. Sims are so freaking smooth they are maxing out my Reverb G2. Whether it is MS FS 2020, Project Cars 2, or Elite Dangerous, they have never run more perfectly than now. I am blown away.
Hey mate I am using Quest2 in iRacing and its very fun. Do you think the reverb G2 will be better for the experience?
I mainly just play VR because of the fun factor and it's why I don't think I'll use screens for iRacing. I fondly remember first doing the MX5 practice sessions being amazed at the depth perception and the ability to look around.
But that first multiplayer race is what has kept me in the VR camp, seeing other drivers around me and being able to see them in my mirrors made it feel soo immersive and I still feel on edge when going side by side through a corner whether I'm defending or attacking it's like you can sense the car next to you
Yes..Back when their MX5 was manual..its garbage now its all flappy paddle crap.ruined iracing for me..that and the silly price
I have triples and swapped to VR and I'm not going back. Having a fan on you pretty well makes me comfortable to race for hours, I can feel the depth perception which makes me more consistent and faster overall.
I also enjoy it more from the immersion, I'm not just sitting in my room racing, I'm at the track with ppl, we chat and go racing. I take it more seriously and it's just more enjoyable overall.
Does using the fan cool you or helps trick your brain and gives you less motion sickness?
i can only sim race in vr. add some bass shakers and setup correctly , and you have an immersive experience
How long are your sessions? I hear some people say they can only race for 20 minutes, many say more like 60 minutes. Are you able to use a VR headset indefinitely?
I'm not good enough to do races over an hour, my attention span maybe, probably just lack of skill, but I get sloppy and either slow down or actually spin if I race too long and that is with a monitor!
Ive only used the Rift S, I also have triples, I would say that if you want to be totally immersed in the car, then screens just cannot give you what VR does, they are just not in the same ball park for scale, depth and dimensionality, you can get lost in VR in a way that you just cannot with screens. However the Rift S is still not good enough in terms of visual quality, I have not tried a reverb 2.
I can understand that if you have pets, young children or you are streamer, VR is not ideal in the sense that you cannot keep on eye on your surroundings. But for me, sitting in a single seater in VR, in full 3D with the correct sense of scale is way more immersive than monitors.
I started sim racing on a rift s and then upgraded to the reverb. All I can say is. wow 👌 👏 😍
@@allblack2977 Reverb is hands down the best headset for sim racing
I use head tracking with a single display and that works quite well. You can set spline curves for rotation so you might have 15 degrees or real head movement is 60 in the game, that way you can look around in the game without losing sight of the screen. It's a really good compromise.
Something I’ve never tried, but sounds interesting!
How do you get this going?
@Ez Pz Head trackers (settings)are fully customizable so you can overcome this problem
I tried calibrating it but I just got headaches.
head-tracking is the key + having fov set to match 1:1.
At first I struggled on DiRT Rally 2.0 on a flat screen, mostly also because that and an occasional Assetto session were my only wheel driving games. Once I tried using my Quest 2 headset in DR 2.0, it changed everything- ominous crests became predictable hill climbs and finding the optimal apex points became stupidly easy. I then swapped back to playing on my monitor, and I was surprisingly proficient in it, maybe even on par with VR.
For me the take away is that VR racing is fun and can ease first timers into flat screen racing by visualizing the courses and even interiors of the car, giving you a sense of scale of the car so that you don't get snagged on a curb or a rock.
Having both VR and triple screens, I find switching between the two far easier than from a single screen and VR. This is probably because I have pretty much identical FOV set in both.
That makes a lot of sense, I think a big part of it is the FOV like I was saying in the video. Take some time to get it set up correctly (or how you like it) and it will become more straight forward 🙂
Lap times shouldn't be why you choose either one of these. I will always race in VR because it's easier to set up than triples and I have no desire to dedicate my PC setup to a simrig. With VR, I can leave my rig to the side of my desk and hop into it when I want to race.
Honestly, the more you race in VR, the more comfortable it gets. During a race, I don't even realize the headset is on. It's really only at the beginning and end of a race that I notice it.
Really great video, and as a die hard VR fan i found this balanced and fair. As for the comfort it does take time to get comfortable. But once i got comfortable i can be in VR for hours. And I struggled with motion sickness at the start, but thanks to taking it slow, a good fan, regular breaks and ginger beer (its what sailors use for motion sickness) i got over it pretty quickly and now never feel it.
Not seen your stuff before but i liked it and you get a new sub too
Cheers Alex, appreciate the comment! I was actually on the Missed Apex Podcast a few times a couple of years back😄 Hope you are well!
Which headset do you have? Im Looking for something comfortable for long time using
@@marco1115 I have the HP Reverb G2 but I have had the Rift S also. Both are comfortable. Both have their pros and cons
That video is one of the best in terms of quality of profuction and testing thank you so much!
You are very welcome, appreciate the comment! ♥
I went from not liking sims anymore to loving them with the addition of VR. It just adds that extra of layer of presence I needed to make it feel like a real simulator. On a monitor, sims just feel like the same thing I've been doing for 20 years.
Great thorough test. Completely agree with your analysis and I arrive to the same conclusions. I would definitely choose VR permanently if it was more comfortable. I would also add in the pros for VR: it's a different world for rallye driving or drifting, where the car is mostly sideways. VR is soooo much better then. No question.
I went from single to VR to single to VR and finally Triples... 👍 For me nothing beats VR immersion however I find Triples to be the perfect balance between single (extreme comfort) and VR (extreme immersion) ... "COMFORTABILITY" especially in long races was primal for me when making my final decision and oh did I mention I get motion sickness after 20mins of VR 🤦♂️... sucks. Seems I can play every now and again with the virtual world but not live in it... 😂 Thanks for the video too, overall I enjoy them all in their own way👍
@DOGS LOL Pimax has 8k Headset and big fov already.
HP Reverb G2 is also 4k per eye, but standard fov on them.
I think you can get rid of the motion sickness with a motion simulator like yaw vr 2 with motion compensation software.
@@jimj2683 interesting... I need to look this up. Thank you. Did you have motion sickness as well and did this method help ?
@@RRRsimracing I had a lot of motion sickness before and a motion simulator with motion compensation software eliminated all the sickness. More people need to try it. But it is essential that the setup is correct or it could make the sickness even worse.
@@jimj2683 Well the logic of it makes sense that it should help. Thanks so much for your help. May I ask what brand you had xp with ? I may just give this a go. Thank you
I think the common misconception that people have is the more sensory input you have in sim racing, the faster you'll get. I played sim racing for a couple years on a single monitor, and when trying VR I just found the limited vision and immersion distracting, and drove a lot worse. I already had buttons on the wheel programmed to look left/right to see cars next to me.
Even things like force feedback don't necessarily make you a quicker driver. The FF on my wheel eventually broke (a logitech DFGT) so I was forced to play with it off. Contrary to what I expected, after a bit of practise I found myself beating my previous lap records and driving just as consistently (in rFactor) with no force feedback.
Also, one of the better drivers I raced against online was actually a controller player. To be fair he did use light assistance (ABS/TC), but I found it unbelievable that someone on a xbox controller could race faster on a sim game than most people with high end gear.
At the end of the day, the main sensory input you actually need to control the car is a lag-free display, high FPS and sound to hear the tyre squeel / bumps. Everything else is just for increased immersion IMO and can be compensated for with experience.
I think this holds more true if you're not used to driving cars fast in real life. For a lot of enthusiasts who are experienced in that respect, especially those who go racing or to track days IRL, the lack of sensory input when simming is the single most disorienting factor that can really hit them in the lap time/consistency area. Having incremental sensory improvements brings the experience slightly closer to the real deal with which they're familiar. It's like bridging two skillsets rather than simply keeping them wholly separate. With these sensory input improvements I find myself much more able to leverage my RL racing skills than without.
You are right, if its about being competitive, nobody should feel the need for any gear, git good, practice, and you are able to go as fast as anyone else :D. The question on this video is relevant, of course, but people should choose one over the other based on the fun they are having. VR is pretty random some people become one with it and others dont find it pleasant.
I won 3x UK&I Skip Barber championships in iRacing using VR. The clinchers for me in favour VR were:
1) Perfect FOV in any car.
2) Being able to look left and right to check my blind spots meant I could be more confident in placing my car - and that makes a big difference with being able to hold your line in side-by-side racing or overtakes.
3) You get stereoscopic vision, which means everything is in 3D, which allows for judging distances far better than with flat 2D screens - giving greater fidelity for modulation under breaking.
If you’re struggling with overheating, put a fan in front of your face.
Maybe I'm just used to it from tons of practice but I can just sit in VR and play Dirt Rally 2.0 for 1-2 hours at a time (headset on full time)
It doesn't really get uncomfortable, I just get mentally exhausted
Idk I also make sure to blast my air conditioner before I start playing so maybe that's a part of it
I have a rift s but just switched to triples I was having some issues after the last update but I will say it’s so nice having the clarity and freedom you get with triples and it’s not nearly as hot
When i used to play Counterstrike, i could clearly see the diffrence between 30 and 60 frames per second, i could also see the difference between 60 and 120 FPS. Above that it was hard to tell for me. I think the frames pers econd metric is more important in first person shooters than it is in sim racing.
hmmm thanks for the tip on Cadwell Park, looks like a fun drive either way 😎
The iRacing Formula Renault 3.5. You have to raise your in car seat height, so you can see over the tops of the mirrors and wheels. For single screen it makes it a lot easier to see the corner apex in that car.
I usually thought that I was reasonably quick until a tried acc, in which I was very first introduced to zolder. First lap times were 1:36ish and I have gotten that down to 1:31.2 but I just have no idea where another 3 or 4 seconds might be out there. Any tips?
1:31's are not bad at all! Will just be a case of chipping away a little bit everywhere, usually its the track limits that you can exploit at Zolder to find the lap time. Have you watched our track guide? - ua-cam.com/video/DzEtvKfuBbQ/v-deo.html
Already fell in love with Assetto corsa with my dualshock controller playing in VR, must be even better when i get a wheel.
Enjoy! It will be mega.
For me, VR makes a huge difference, especially because I like to drift in assetto corsa and do rallies in RBR. VR makes a massive difference in both of them just for the visibility around your car and being able to look further away more naturally. RBR especially feels much more comfortable in VR, with a single screen I feel like I have no clue on how close I am to the road edges and ditches. I have had to learn single screen because my Rift CV1 decided to just bust the left eye which makes it impossible to drive. For me VR is definetly the better option.
What graphics card is needed for VR in RBR? I've only got a GTX 970.
Like most things in sim racing, as long as you have a wheel nothing you do to add to it whether its upgrading to DD or load cell or triples vs single or screen vs VR... none of them will make you faster, none of them will make you slower either. They make it more immersive and each upgrade might make you more consistent too but at the end of the day you're just throwing inputs at a computer and it will always do the same thing with those inputs.
Going DD will make catching slides more intuitive (but you can still do it on a G29), load cells make it easier to find the braking threshold and to repeatedly hit the ideal braking force for trail braking (but you can always teach yourself to do those things with a basic setup), triples give you more visibility to fight closely with other cars (but plenty of people manage that with a single 24" monitor) and VR gives you depth perception so you can create reference points more quickly and you can almost feel every mph and intuitively feel if you are going fast enough or too fast for a corner (but there will still be people on a single 24" who can run 12x 1:27.3 in a row while you end up doing maybe three with a bunch of 27.5 and 27.7's thrown in).
But at the end of the day every one of those things you can adapt to with a screen or with a gear/belt driven wheel or a potentiometer based brake etc, every millisecond you think you can gain by upgrading your setup someone else has already gained it on an G25 that's old enough to get a driving licence itself, the rest is just for adding realism, making it feel more like the real thing and reducing how much you need to practice due to consistency but you'll hit the same wall if you use either setup for long enough, the limit to your pace is *always* directly correlated with practice time.
I only have this question because a great vr is still cheaper than a good tripple screen + screwn stands
I must admit, choosing between my 43" 4K or my Oculus Quest 2, I go for the Quest 2 every time. It makes my cornering and overtaking way more consistent and safe. Plus, I'm a real sucker for immersion, so that's also 50% of why I'm VR mainly.
Which games do you play? Are you using AirLink or the cable?
@@CaioCarneloz I haven't gotten a good setup with AirLink but I'm sure there are ways to optimize it. From what I understand, using Virtual Desktop is still better than AirLink.
@@CaioCarneloz okay. i'm trying to help you out here. but i think someone is constantly deleting my comments to you... sorry man. can't help
@@CaioCarneloz But look into disabling ASW.
No problem,@@PsyJoeTV. I just tested both and it is much better with the cable than it is with AirLink. Too much compression when using AirLink, even with WiFi 6. The image gets too blurry.
I used triples for 3 years odd even when I had a HTC Vive as I would get motion sickeness the odd time. Once I tried my friends HP Reverb G2 last year I moved on to one myself as the improved resolution removed motion sickness completely for me. I would say I improved by an average of 1 second a lap in VR for most tracks, especially when learning a track/car combo.
awesome video!
thats exactly what the title promises without clickbait or youtuber bullshit.
sir, i salute you
Vr made me better at sims. I don’t think I was faster, but I was crashing less and judging distance better.
Distance judging is a big one for me too. So many different aspects to it.
Agree 100% except for the ‘Going back to the monitor part’🤔
Thanx for the straight to the point video
Vr is the best. Always have a fan gently on in the room to stop them from fogging up. Can wait to see what VR will be offering in 10 years time.
I been playing VR games since 2016 From Gear VR PSVR and Quest 2 i can't go back to flat games. In VR you can shoot in different directions stand next to anything and stick your arm out with your weapon without being seen and shoot . u can look in all directions 3-D audio works perfectly
Whether I go faster or not with VR more than using Display screens is kind of a mood point for me. I just feel with VR I am more into the game/race by being positioned in the car seat and viewing everything around me. Doing a Display or Displays are great, but I just feel distanced from actually being/driving the car, no immersion into the game.
As many people say, once you have done VR in games, it is hard to go back to the flat screens. take care.
Just want to help you out here, it's "moot point", not "mood point".
I think a newer comparasion, between a decent 3 screen setup and a better vr (reverb g2 or pimax 5k) needs to be make.
When I participate in a track day, wearing a sweaty helmet in a hot car and overcoming the claustrophobic environment is definitely one of the challenges. Perhaps this is another advantage of VR - acclimatization to the real world of performance driving.
Running a 4090 with a G2 here. With my old 2080ti VR sim racing was full of compromises and a generally frustrating experience with sub-optimal FPS even at 50% resolution.
The 4090 has been a complete revelation. Now running AMS 2 and RF2 at 115% SS with MSAA on high and I'm pegged at 90fps with a full grid. We have finally reached a point where VR is immensely enjoyable and no longer a compromised experience.
it's steal is compromised experience. for example: money, next is comfort, headset is balky, hot, have a eyestrain.
@@iraklimgeladze5223 sounds to me like you are a newcomer to VR. I don't have any of those issues.
@@LowBlow I bought Quest 2 almost a year ago. I am not new I dont have money to invest in good hardware to fully drive it. Besides, I work with screens all day and using VR is not easy for my eyes too. I just saying if you have money you are good but the most of us dont have money
Im about to turn 51 and just experienced VR for the first time in dirt rally 2.
Games have come a long way since my first home gaming experience with The Atari master system.
VR gives you better depth of perception too, meaning you can get better lap times as you can see actually see how far away walls and opponents are.
its even better, in rally as you can judge corner distance and angle of attack better, its a shame dirt's handling is nothing like real life, it would have been a good sim.
If one is able to by a vr headset with at least an average quality I believe it is a bit more natural for the brain to deal with 3D space than having to understand it from a flat image. That should translate to more speed over time, if not already from the start. To me, it also helps keeping the focus as I'm totally disconnect from any visual distraction outside of the game.
I wonder how VR would compare to eye and headtracing on a screen
I think with 3 screen headtracking and eye it could a perfect maariage of these 2 types
I think its the VR headset that is bothering you that quickly. I fly DCS for hours using my Vlave Index. It never feels uncomfortable. Once I started using VR.. I don't even play many flat screen games now.
Underrated Video! Thanks Bro! See you on the Track!
I really enjoyed this video, found it very late...
I just recently switched from triples(28" 60hz) to a 49" ultrawide(120hz) and ultimately VR(HP Reverb G2), im currently waiting on changing back to triples (27" sides and 49" ultrawide in center all 2k at 120hz) , although VR is still going to hold a place for learning reference points, feeling track elevations, and brake/coast zones and ultimately fun
I dont suffer from the heat or discomfort in VR maybe its due to a box fan blowing at me
VR is absolutely amazing but I also have kids and triples are easier to "see in the back seat"
VR has an amazing place and I am surprisingly much faster in VR than on a screen but since VR the screen times are improving at a much faster rate as well as consistency coming in close line to the VR times and even on Zandvoort in ACC actually faster on a screen now again
I race competitively and I can stay that VR a bit faster but the real thing is that you can be much more consistent.
Still i find VR still lacking in comfort, the image is so blurry sometimes and I hate that.
Of course flat screen users generally are faster than VR users, it’s because in VR you’re less comfortable and require a powerful system to have max resolution and high fps to be consistent. Kind of like real life racing, uncomfortable and need a good vehicle to run. But I bet the transition into real life racing will favor VR users than flat screen.
Just started video but going to say now it made me faster. Being able to look at apex "normally out of view or fpv screen" in vr I can look while driving and take every inch.
Well, I only race in VR. Iracing, PC2, AMS2, AC, ACC and F1 22. The huge secret to VR racing: BLINK MORE. You can get use to it.
You gotta go triple screens above 60 fps to make the proper comparison.
I'm running triple 32 inch 1440p screens at 75 hz. The game is usually running above 100 fps and my VR headset has been hanging on the wall, collecting dust for months.
Just the comfort level is a massive benefit. After about 30 minutes I have sweaty ears and forehead and my eyes are starting to fatigue. No fun there.
I love VR but until they can make some simple glasses do the job, it is too much to wear.
I usually race for hours with short breaks after two stages (rally racer) depending on the lengths of the stage.
In iRacing and Automobilista, the VR seat sat higher than the Monitor seat. In ACC that wasn't much of the case, but only with ACC I know that you can change the seat position, not sure about iRacing and Automobilista 2
Changing seat position in-game, on VR? B...b...but why? :p
@@Mystipaoniz If your VR default position is to high, you can just use the option to change where the camera is located (seating position) so it fits
@@Drnken229 ok man! Thanks for your answer.
I was saying that because...you know, if i'm too high or low ingame, when i recentre my vr, i just recenter my view but i'm sitting lower or higher in my seat so when i sit normally to drive, my view is just at the right position. No need to touch any changing seat position ingame. Don't know if i explained as well as i should. ^^
That why i was like "b...b...but why". ^^
I've played racing games for years and years on a flat screen, going back to early NES days. To me, the jump to VR from a flat screen feels as big of a jump as going from a third person camera to "true" first person camera (not the tip of the car camera that used to be the standard first person... I'm old). I'm sure a really top of the line setup with 3 massive monitors could make up some of the difference, but I doubt even that would match the level of immersion that even a relatively cheap Quest 2 with Quest Link or Air Link can provide. And that level of immersion that VR provides is just too big of a factor for me. Side note, I can't wait for true full FOV VR to come out, that's going to be wild! I'd love to try a Pimax 8K or Crystal.
A tip to make VR more comfortable, get a better head strap ASAP. I was using my Quest 2 with the stock strap for quite a while and it's just a brick hanging from your face after 30 mins or so, especially in games where you're really active or move your head a lot. I got a BoboVR that has a battery pack. It seems a bit counterintuitive that adding weight would be more comfortable but the counter-balancing that it provides is so nice. And in VR racing, where you're not leaning down a lot but mostly needing to swivel your head, I've found it makes an even bigger difference.
Great video though! Thanks for this HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC™ test.
Im very lucky in that I get so engrossed in the racing that I barely feel the disconfort in vr until I take it off. Even did 3h endurancw rsces in acc. But I dropped ACC because it was indeed the only sim where in the end I found vr wasnt worth it. At least with my specs, it does not run well at all lol. Just got into Iracing and the sim is perfect if you like vr.
dont know how correct the video is to inbetween vr and single screen
but it seems like your vr is way higher positionied then the standart single screen, which might give you the exact advantage in vr over single screen
How about PC requirements? Can a mid-ish end GPU like the RTX 3070 or an RX 6750 XT give me a good FPS on most games? It's okay if I would have to turn down the graphics a bit. If not, what level of GPUs are ideal for VR? I also heard VR has a slight latency to it. Is it noticable to the point that it can be a dealbreaker? It's gonna be my first time building a sim rig and I can't choose between triple screens and a VR
GREAT video. I find ACC much more tiring in VR, than any other VR sim i race. I’m ready to turn it off after a 20 min race. I think it’s because it’s much more intense and you need to be very accurate. I’m happy to do a 60 minute session in Richard Burns rally in VR!
At 7:20 you say one of the problems you had with ACC and VR was the constantly changing FOV. What do you mean by that? The FOV should never change. It should be setup once to a 1:1 with real-life size and never change between cars, games, etc...
I think he refers to changing fov when changing from non-vr to vr. This happens if your fov in non-vr is not setup to a 1:1 size with real live as described by you. (And having by concept always a perfect fov might be one advantage for vr.)
I cant go back to flat screen racing after trying VR six years ago. It's just not the same. Depth perception is increased a lot. Door handle to door handle racing looks awesome.
Started with a Rift S and now have a Varjo Aero. VR for me.
VR helps me a ton in Dirt Rally 2.0.
I can drive so much more consistent. Sense of Speed and Sense for Distances is sooo much better.
screen is nicer looking and more consistent, but if you are not a competitive racer who competes in online events and wants best lap times in ladderboards then VR is much better. I am a middle aged guy, who does not care about being good but enjoys driving all sorts of cars IRL and in game. After work i put on racing shoes, gloves, VR headset and headphones, boot up AMS2, ACC or PC2 in VR with random weather and random car against AI and i have an absolute blast for 1-2 hours and real worlds stops existing, its just me, my car and the track and nothing beats it.
That sounds like the dream life to me!
Great video! I like the way you say competizione xD, you sound as a Italian guy
I've been racing with triple 24" and 27" screens in glorious Nvidia 3D Vision for around 8 years and now and I just got a Pimax 5K Super headset (taking advantage of the awesome Pimax 12K trade-in offer). It makes no difference to my laptimes whether I use triple-screens in 2D, triple-screens in 3D, or VR in 3D. The 3D / stereo vision when using Nvidia 3D Vision and VR is awesome though. It can arguably affect your driving as it can help judge speed, distance, turn-in, etc. better and the immersion from using 3D / stereo vision is incredible. Me personally, even when using crappy 2D, I can still get used to it and drive to the same laptimes but 2D sucks. After playing/racing in 3D, regardless whether it's 1 screen, 3x screens, or VR, anything 2D is unacceptable as it's like looking at a piece of paper. I'd rather pick 3D / stereo vision over any thing else: bigger monitor/s, higher resolution, faster refresh rates, HDR, curved, higher gfx settings, etc.
i would say whatever you are more comfortable with will make you faster
Love vr can’t wait for the headsets to evolve more. I might be one of the few who can play for hours with out getting sick but eyes get a little tired
After just a month on PSVR2 with GT7, I can't drive any other way. I haven't wanted to play any of my sims on my PC because I don't have a headset for it yet.
Pro tip: for better performance in VR in ACC with any oculus... dont launch it with steam vr. Use oculus mode instead. Much better performance, which can make things easier to get used to.
I had no idea. I’ll try this out. Thanks
@@kdotdo dont forget your custom engine.ini file. Without it the improvements are minimal.
@@kdotdo Also are you driving with Saigon United Motorsports? Your name sounds familiar lol
@@alexbui1385 lol no I am not. Hahaha
@@kdotdo damn bro u gotta join us, we race in AC, ACC, iRenting, we even sponsor young Vietnamese talents to take part in regional competitions
Shame we still don't have a realistic Cadwell, AM2 one looks ok but still gets some core parts wrong :(
in VR you were sitting higher in the car so you could see the track better. you could change your ride height when your on your monitor or lower the height in vr cause you wouldn't be sitting that high but good video, I've been using vr for 5+ years for racing and I finally tried triples and I was faster not as consistent cause i still need to get used to it but I think monitors are better especially if you can go with triples in vr you have tunnel vision but its all user preferences
What it seems like it comes down to is how well optimized it is and comfort. If the game is optimized for it and VR is comfortable for you, VR is better. But if not to either, then screens is safer.
I race the Formula Renault 3.5 and at Road Atlanta you are about 3 secs off the pace. VR definitely makes it easier to judge turn in an braking points but once you get close to the limit which 3 secs isn't then what monitors allow you to do is better judge when the car is beginning to over rotate and enter a spin. This is essential to drive at the limit so ultimately I found VR to be about 3-4 tenths faster. Plus yea you need your FOV set correctly and then switching isn't quite as bad as you make it out to be.
For me, it's the opposite, harder to spot exact braking points because of lower visual clarity, but much easier to feel the car's rotation in VR. Also, blind corners and hairpins are no longer a guesswork. As for the laptimes, initially they were essentially the same when I switched to VR three years ago and I think I got a bit faster in the meantime, but I completely lost my ability to race with flat screens, so I can't compare that now. And no, I'm not 3 seconds off the pace :)
I’ve been self debating going to triples instead of continuing with my rift, the VR headset can become uncomfortable but it forces me to take breaks. But everything you discuss about performance I completely agree with. When I went from one screen to VR I destroyed my lap times and it created a whole new experience. Took a few weeks to overcome the motion sickness but now it has zero affect on me.
Have you found that you can drive for way longer now you're used to VR?
@@TraxionGG well the motion sickness feeling is gone 100 percent. The longest race I’ve done has been about 20 minutes, but over the course of playing most of a day I have no issues. This is most likely a personal thing player to player. I’m currently using a rift S but will most likely upgrade if something more high resolution comes along
@@DreamstoRealityAutomotiveTV There is a lot of higher resolution headsets already.
@@De-M-oN any recommendations, are hp reverb2 headsets worth it
@@DreamstoRealityAutomotiveTV yes 100% I upgraded from a rift s to a reverb and its night and day difference. Just need a insane computer to even manage stable fps
do you need glasses in vr if you are nearsighted? like. i can see everything thats 11.5m and closer as perfect as with glasses, but everything farther than 3m is extremely blurry
I am also short (or near) sighted, and I do use my glasses while wearing the headset. Without them, everything is far more blurry. With them, it should be the same as it is for others, but that doesn’t mean it’s very easy to make it crystal clear. You still need to play around with it a bit when you put it on. Hope this helps😊
My problem with vr is comfort, after 10-15 minutes my eyes start to hurt, i begin to sweat, and I have to take a break, if they solve this vr would definitely be the way
Just found your channel and already a big fan. I adore ACC but it's a massive let-down in VR, so frustrating because it's my favourite sim but for me it's unplayable in VR. Especially when compared to iRacing and AMS2 (and the original AC). I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the driving factors behind the team moving away from UE for AC2, because they just can't get an acceptable VR performance out of it.
Welcome aboard! Glad you like the content!
I've found that I'm a bit more consistent in VR, so overall I guess that would make me faster, but my lap times were pretty much the same as using a monitor once I got used to the feeling of VR. However my issue is with the graphics. I've only tried the oculus quest 2 so far, so maybe that headset just isn't up to par, but with a 4080 GPU, I can't really justify using VR and only getting a fraction of what my GPU offers thru it. Obviously VR is way more immersive and enjoyable at least for me, but not sure if I want to spend the money yet, until I'm able to try better headsets. The issue is being able to test them without having to buy them first, does anyone know how/where that can be done? I had to borrow a friends oculus.
That wreck on AMS 2 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks, excellent review
Appreciate the comment and glad it has helped!
i found vr to be slower at first but soon found it to be very consistent and when you are going very fast you can feel the fact you are going fast and being able to look over at other cars helps my race craft however after 30 minutes your focus can drop significantly in vr making it harder to be consistent but its one of those thinga you have to work on and is quite realistic compared to real life
you can build VR endurance, and for the heat thing, just point a fan towards you. or turn on the A/C.
I'll play in VR whenever I have the choice. it's just so much more fun. but then again, I just play these games casually and won't be caught dead going "pro" in them. Don't make your hobby your job or you'll start to hate it.
I assume for different styles of driving, like drifting, and just maybe rallycross/rally, VR would be more enjoyable? I also only have a gaming laptop, so VR would be more practical for me space, and cost wise opposed to 3 monitor setup. But since most of my time is spend in Dirt Rally/ Assetto Corsa drift tracks - I'm not sure if I could get a comparable experience to VR with a single monitor... but ultimately it most likely will go down to the price...
It’s a tricky one… I would agree that VR is even more beneficial for those specific racing disciplines, but this doesn’t mean that a single screen won’t still give you a superb and immersive experience. Everyone has a different experience with VR, so its worth trying it first before committing lots of money to a top of the range headset 😊
Thanks for video! What about non-Competizione version of Assetto Corsa?
How do you guys get over the motion sickness?
I love VR . That said I also get overheated in longer stints. I'm waiting for the future when headsets are flip up, flip down. I hate trying to take notes or log times.
I have the same problem with the cockpit or bumper camera debate. How can you be a sim racer if you only use bumper cam.
Get a desk fan mate.
Do you need to play in cockpit view invr?
Have you tried with and without motion simulator? I was shocked at how much better I did with a motion simulator, night and day difference for me.
Personally, I have done more VR with motion than without as I used to work in a VR sim centre with motion seats. It is a brilliant combination, great immersion but also helps reduce levels of motion sickness interestingly! Think it's because both the brain and the body are sensing movement rather than just the brain, so your whole body is more in sync. I am not a scientist though😂
VR vs a screen is different than VR vs Triple Curved screens ....VR will be better than a single screen but for longer races a Triple screen setup with the right FOV gives you a very good feeling but you don't get hot while racing with Triples..
I've got both so for me VR is for when I'm just playing around when but it's a real race for points it's Triples all day.
My only gripe with VR is the settings are hard to get figured out i’m having issues with how blurry everything is and I have a very powerful computer but I agree VR > Screens
I started driving simracing in 1998 with Grand-Prix Lgends. Now I use AC, ACC, and mainly rF2 and iRacing. I have a triple screen of 24 inches and Track-iR. But for three months, I have an Oculus Quest 2 that runs with a PC not at the Top. I'm a little faster in VR but above all, I take a lot more pleasure. The disadvantages, indeed, are the pain and fatigue that can generate the helmet , as well as heat management. Pwwee. Bonne route !!
ACC is terribly optimised for VR, ams2 is brilliant, I have a 3080ti and a 12th gen cpu and still couldn’t get ACC looking great, switching to openxr instead of Steam Vr has helped a lot though.
I went from single screen to triples to VR and now race exclusively in VR, I started on Quest2 and it did get uncomfortable after a bit but with the reverb g2 not only is it visually far superior it is way more comfortable and I’ve done a 4 hour race at Le Mans with no problem, no going back to pancakes for me
@@Methbilly I have it looking good but not looking great my point was if it was optimised better with my spec of PC I should be able to run it at higher settings
@@Methbilly oh and I don’t play iracing mostly Assetto Corsa or ACC and in AC I play around a lot with settings and have it looking amazing
if vr was nicer to wear, and didn't strain the eyes so much, it would be way way better imo,
I never liked using single screen with standard cockpit view because visibility is just so bad compared to hood cam or dash cam
Rift S isn't in production anymore hasn't been for a while. Quest 2 is more than enough these days..120hz etc.
A big reason for being worse in ACC in VR is that it is so badly optimized for VR. The poor fps performance and poor graphical quality make it very taxing for your eyes/brain.
Hello, what is your spec of your pc ?
I absolutely love AC in VR and its great for those short to medium length drift sessions that aren't exactly gonna be requiring your full focus, and for that I think VR is a great option, but having taken more time to dive into endurance races on ACC I find myself also losing pace after awile becuase it just hurts to have on my head and my eyes get dry after 45 or so minutes and have to take a break. But there really is nothing like it I've also had days where I spent 4 hour sessions on one track trying to learn it in VR and then transitioning back to screen for a main race, it certainly has it's uses but I can see how it just wouldn't be worth the pricetag for some people. Great video TGG!
I wear glasses so what VR headset would be recommended. Thanks
Personally, I have only tried 4 or 5 different headsets, so maybe some other VR users in the comments can also assist with this question. However what I would say is that every new headset I have tried in the past 5ish years has been perfectly comfortable with glasses. The original Rift wasn't great (you needed a foam edge rather than the leather one around your eyes for it to be comfortable), but the following Rift S is great (as used in this video). This headset is fairly old now, and the others I have tried since (including HP Reverb G2 and HTC Vive Pro 2) have also been perfectly comfortable with glasses. Also the PSVR2 was tried recently by Tom, and he had no issues with his glasses either. So basically, modern headset designs seem to have considered this more than the original ones so anything fairly new should be okay :) Maybe just check specifically with other users before you buy!