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

In Part I we discussed how to set up your PC workstation for sim racing. Part II discussed optimizing the controls. For Part III we'll look at how to get your mind and body up for a good session of sim racing.

"Driving" Apparel

As was mentioned in Part I, you'll want to be comfortable when you drive, in order to make it easier to stay focused on your in-game performance. That not only includes an ergonomic and comfortable workstation, but also comfortable "driving" attire. We're not talking about turning you into a sim racing "fashionista" here, but rather to dress for success in a function-over-form manner.

Try to start each session wearing comfortable and loose-fitting clothing, such as sweat pants or workout attire. Comfy clothes let you more easily detach from the real world of your PC workstation and enter the "matrix" world of your racing sim. What you wear on your body is a personal choice (and telling us more might violate the "too much information" rule), but one thing you really to need to wear when driving a racing sim are a good pair of socks. Yes, it's imperative that you drive with socks only, not bare foot or wearing shoes. Why socks? In order to operate the delicate racing pedals of your Force Feedback wheel, you'll need the sensitive touch of bare feet but less friction on the pedals than having bare skin on plastic. A good pair of socks will allow you to feel the pedals and their position better, let you feet slide a bit on them for greater fine control or 'finesse'. Socks will also preclude a situation wherein bare feet can sweat and start to stick to the pedals, reducing your ability to make subtle inputs and corrections. With shoes on, there is no such thing as subtle inputs with plastic pedals. Go with socks. If you want to go that extra mile (and spend that extra dollar), invest in a pair of SimSocks from Driver's Emporium (link currently down). They feel great and really do improve your lap times — at least they have for me.

Adjusting To A New Reality

Do you want the Red pill, or the Blue pill? A question similar to that appears in the sci-fi movie "The Matrix" and refers to whether the main character wants to remain in the simulated world of his captors or to enter the strange new environment of the real world. When you decide to make racing sims a part of your gaming hobby, you have to make a similar assessment.

In my current occupation, simulators play a large part in the learning and proficiency cycle. The military uses sims extensively to adapt perceptions, develop skills and build good operational habit patterns. But the military realizes that no simulation can fully model every one of the literally infinite variables of the real world. So the physics "model" that a sim uses is just that — a model, with limits to its fidelity. That guarantees that each sim title will have a different take on how various details and variables should be portrayed, and makes driving in each sim title it's own little "Matrix" world that you, the racing sim enthusiast, must be able to step into and master.

Some folks feel that racing sims are "harder" than real driving. That's true, in a sense. What makes a PC sim "harder" than real life is having to make the adjustment to the game's physics engine. Real pilots & drivers are highly skilled in the ways of real world physics, and the way their vehicle responds and performs in the environment. In order to be good at what they do, they have to be able to hand-off a lot of their cockpit actions to their subconscious mind, and that is only possible after a lot of experience. As we all learned to drive a car, the same process happened. At first, every action we took in a car, every perception of the car's interaction with the environment, had to be processed in our conscious mind. It felt awkward. But as we gained experience, things got easier. The subconscious took over a lot of the duties of driving a car. The process became more instinctive, more intuitive, for us. Soon we could drive the car while drinking a latte, reading a map and talking on a cell phone... well, some of us can do that, anyway.

Regardless of the level of physics fidelity in a sim, there has to be a readjustment to the unique recreation of physics of the sim-world. It doesn't feel natural at first, can't be handed off to the subconscious mind. So compensations to one's technique have to be made. Until your brain can "translate" between the physics "dialects" of the real and sim world, until it can interpret the inputs and pass off some of the chores to your subconscious, driving a racing sim will feel awkward. The same is true when stepping between different flight sims and their respective physics models.

The message here is to be patient, and expect that there'll be some time period while your mind adjusts to its new physics environment. Once it does, you'll see your consistency improve. But be patient.

P1 LeMans Cockpit

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