Extreme newbie here, so apologies if this is a really dumb question. When racing do you set your drivers view to "in cockpit", that includes the windscreen, roll bars etc? There seems to be an uncluttered view available that I find much easier to use. I am trying to learn circuits, the "realistic" view just cuts down visibility so much that I miss some corners completely. Interested in your views
Of course. I want to simulate a real race driver. And they are not sitting on the bonnet somewhere because it's easier. Yes, it's hard. But it's the right way in my opinion.
I also tried a lot. I just have single screen (small one as well) and the bad overview in cockpit is far away from realsitic as you cannot move your head as in real life. So if you do not have triple screen or VR, then I think that bonnet view is the best for having adequate overview to the the apex and a good feeling for the speed. I played a while with the camera behind/above the car just cause the cars look so good ut to get your braking points right, the bonnet view is best. My opinion. When I drive my car, then I basically also only see the bonnet, the A-pillar and the rear mirror.
In-car cam all the way, but I appreciate it's not the easiest when starting out. I remember some of the cars were like looking out of a postbox.
Tbh, I never even thought seriously about driving in any other view. Sure, with some cars, like the LMP1, it is like driving through a straw, but not being "inside" just kills all the immersion and fun for me. I also like to disable as much of the UI elements as reasonable.
There is nothing that can replace the view from the cockpit, because only then you can get a realistic feeling. If you decide to put a video on You toube, it will not look good in the hood view.
Thinking back, there was a natural progression with me. The beginnings god-knows-when ago was third person, then with the likes of Gran Turismo 1 I moved to the bumper cam, then onto bonnet cam with the earlier Grid/Dirt games. After a hiatus with racing games I returned with PCars1, used their 'default' cockpit cam, and never looked back.
You can also tweak your cockpit view a bit by assigning buttons or keys to change the position of the drivers seat. (forward, backward, up and down) In addition two more to tilt the drivers view up and down. There's also the possibility to bind a button to reset the view to default if you completely messed things up Experimenting with seat position should get you a better sight. And set your field of view to the lowest value you still feel comfortable with. Hope that helps. Oli
Drive how you are comfortable, cockpit view without vr not a chance for me, i always drove bonnet view, as soon as i got vr switched to cockpit view. If you are happy with a view then drive it! There is no right or wrong view only what you are comfortable with. I`ll be fked if im gonna drive a particular view because the general consensus is it is more realistic than the next one. Drive happy is more important than than drive realistic, and lets be honest the cockpit view is too restrictive and not that realistic unless (vr).
Bonnet-cam for me. Switched to it a few years ago, and never looked back. Only exception is if I'm in VR, in which case bonnet-cam is....odd. Now, I know the argument is that cockpit-view is more 'realistic'. To which my counter is: Bullshit. First of all, there's nothing realistic about plonking an untrained driver into a GT3 and letting him loose on the Nordschleife. Nor, for that matter, is there anything realistic about disabling all inputs except visual and wheel FFB. But leaving all that aside, there's the simple question of field of view and depth of field. The human eye has a far peripheral vison-cone of about 200 degrees, near-peripheral of about 160 degrees. Most flat-screen simmers run somewhere around 50-70 degrees. Granted, a helmet will remove some of the peripheral vision, but certainly not reduce it to a third! And while I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an expert on real-life racing, I've yet to see a driver wearing blinkers. Again, you can adjust your seat-position to more closely mimic what you'd see in real-life, but then we're talking about a driver with his seat pretty much on the dashboard itself. And the realism argument kinda goes out the window. The more important factor here is depth of field. When you're sitting in a real car, you don't see the rollbars, mirrors, safety-netting and whatever else might be around. You don't even see the steering wheel although it's right in front of you. Your brain is very good at filtering out unneeded information, and since all the stuff in your cockpit isn't in your cone of focus it gets filtered out. Unless you drive while staring intently at your steering-wheel, in which case we have bigger problems. It's the same when you're using triple-screens. After the initial period, you don't even notice the bezels. Ever changed your radio-station without looking at the radio? Same deal. You know where it is, so you don't have to look at it. The problem in sim-racing is that everything is on the same screen, and thus the same distance from you and right in your focus-cone. So everything gets brought into focus, meaning your brain can no longer filter it out. Finally, and perhaps more to the point..... Never, ever let anyone else tell you how to run your sim, or which way is more realistic. It's your game, and it's your spare time, so use both as you see fit. If you enjoy racing with an Xbox controller while using swingman camera, good for you. Doesn't really matter what anyone else think, including myself.
their is only one realistic view, it is in VR, all other view are not realistic. If you were in VR you would not ask the question, so choose what ever you like best.
vr isnt any more realistic than a well setup triple screen install but as with all things its opinion and preferance Andi
I use cockpit with a pretty narrow FOV, because i'm used to it and i need it for my turn-in points but there is nothing wrong with using a wide FOV and bonnet or something. In fact: Using a narrow FOV on a small single screens is even kinda stupid, without the Ott3rHUD Heli-Corsa-like-thingy and a spotter because you just see less of your surroundings, also learning to approach apexes is...let's say...harder.
Mad aint it, when you look right or left with triples theres a good chance your looking at a space in whatever room your in, in vr your looking at whatevers happening in that same space on track, you would need to using humungous screens to get anything like the vr experience. Nowhere near as realistic, that is a fact not opinion!
Except in a real race car, strapped to a seat, with a hans device attached to your helmet, and head rests to your side, you wouldn't be able to look left/right that much That if you let you race with that level for nearsightedness you have in most current VR helmets. The only thing more realistic about VR is that you see fully 3D. anywhay, this: 100%, this is a hobby, as long as you're enjoying it, you're playing it the right way
Well that answered that then Seriously guys thank you all for your insights and some good discussion on the pro and cons. I had thought that maybe there was some sort of rule forcing you to use the tight cockpit view, patently not, thank goodness. So I will sit mainly on the bonnet for learning the track, and maybe move inside when it gets too windy. Thanks again
Interesting that nowadays the arguments are more how it looks on YouTube instead of how it feels or how you like it. I think on single it depends on the size and distance if cockpit is possible. But everybody should drive how he likes it. After some time you will go the VR or triple road with cockpit view