SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: Sim Racing Tips - Getting the Most Out of Your Virtual Racing Hobby

Since visual cues are your primary driving reference, you'll need to strike a good balance between frame rate and graphics detail in order to drive and react properly. In the frame rate department, I find that about a minimum of 36 fps is the threshold of a good driving experience. But your goal is to have at least 40-60 fps all the time when driving, no matter what's going on in the game. Adjust your graphics detail settings to achieve these frame rates. Remember that things like Antialiasing, Anisotropic Filtering, in-game special effects and shadows can have a huge impact on frame rates, as will number of visible cars, mirror detail, track detail, cockpit field of view, etc. Some frame rate improvements aren't so intuitive to the new racer. For example, in GT Legends I found that I could achieve better frame rates when I shortened the length of the instant replay feature. With that, I was able to up screen resolution to 1280x960 and still get 40-60 fps while racing.

Graphics Card Settings

Follow the game manual's suggestions and don't be hesitant to check the various racing forums for tips on what to adjust to get the best frame rates. Many web sites offer great advice on game tweaking, such as Race Sim Central's GTL FAQ. And once you've tried those frame rate tips, go in and do some experimenting on your own. You may find that for your tastes or your system, that you can make some other modifications to the graphics settings and tweak your visual scene to meet your unique needs. "With racing sims, "eye candy" goes beyond mere immersion factor." An evening of experimentation with varied graphics settings will pay big dividends later on in terms of your general PC user knowledge and optimizing your racing experience.

Once you've got a feel for managing your frame rates, you'll want to strike a solid balance between acceptable frame rates and graphic detail. With racing sims, "eye candy" goes beyond mere immersion factor. Displayed track detail has a direct impact on how well you can keep the car on the racing line and judge braking points, chassis slip angles and rates, etc. Better track detail will let you "see" further down the track, notice braking point cues in the form of light poles, braking marker signs, or marks on the track surface sooner, giving you more time to prepare and react. You'll be able to see the corner's apex better, and see down track on turn exit so that you can set up for your next corner. With racing sims, the better the game looks, the greater your situation awareness will be, and the faster you'll be able to drive the car — so indeed, eye candy does serve a purpose!! But as we've discussed, you'll have to strike a balance between acceptable, race-able frame rates and graphics detail in order to run fast. Don't forget that you'll want to optimize the fps and detail for races with multiple cars involved, not just in solo practice sessions. And, you may find that for online races, you might want to further tune your graphics settings to keep the graphics running as smooth as possible.

Look at the screen shots below to see how I have my display properties set up for racing in ISI's rFactor.

rFactor Display Balance

rFactor Video Setup

Go To Page 3

Click here to go to top of this page.