Just like real motorsports, sim racing is steadily evolving, and especially the hardware side of things has made enormous progress in recent years. With all the advancements having been made, this begs the very interesting question: What is next? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
The aim of sim racing is to simulate real racing as well as possible. Of course, this also applies to the hardware, which has gotten more and more apparent with the improvements that have been made and due to cooperations like the one between Fanatec and Bentley or BMW - the result is wheels that can be used in a real race car as well as in a sim rig.
When it comes to force feedback, direct drive wheel bases are now capable of accurately reproducing the forces that a driver would feel on track in a real car, complete with risk of injury and, of course, much more detail. Sim racing hardware manufacturers are just now starting to make these systems more affordable to virtual racers, whereas a few years ago, using a DD wheel base outside a professional simulator was almost unthinkable.
With FFB being so close to the real forces now, this begs the question: What piece of hardware is going to see big improvements going forward? A strong candidate would be pedals - brakes have transitioned from using pedal position to load cells, and offerings from manufacturers like Heusinkveld make it possible to have incredibly stiff brake pedals - again, like in a real race car.
However, there is not much else happening with the stopping pedal in the majority of sets to date. At ADAC SimRacing Expo, though, SimTag and D-BOX presented hydraulic pedals that included haptic feedback, which means it is possible to feel ABS kicking in - a feature that proved immensely helpful to brake at the limit in a GT3 car, for example. It is also possible to simulate longer brake travel should the discs overheat and other pedal behavior, increasing the immersion factor and helping the braking process at the same time. The only downside, at least for now, is the price - the SimTag pedals were listed at about €5.500 at the Expo.
Of course, there is a lot more sim racing equipment that might see more development in the near future - what do you think is going to take a big step forward next? And what piece of equipment would you personally like to see improved? Let us know in the comments!
The aim of sim racing is to simulate real racing as well as possible. Of course, this also applies to the hardware, which has gotten more and more apparent with the improvements that have been made and due to cooperations like the one between Fanatec and Bentley or BMW - the result is wheels that can be used in a real race car as well as in a sim rig.
When it comes to force feedback, direct drive wheel bases are now capable of accurately reproducing the forces that a driver would feel on track in a real car, complete with risk of injury and, of course, much more detail. Sim racing hardware manufacturers are just now starting to make these systems more affordable to virtual racers, whereas a few years ago, using a DD wheel base outside a professional simulator was almost unthinkable.
With FFB being so close to the real forces now, this begs the question: What piece of hardware is going to see big improvements going forward? A strong candidate would be pedals - brakes have transitioned from using pedal position to load cells, and offerings from manufacturers like Heusinkveld make it possible to have incredibly stiff brake pedals - again, like in a real race car.
However, there is not much else happening with the stopping pedal in the majority of sets to date. At ADAC SimRacing Expo, though, SimTag and D-BOX presented hydraulic pedals that included haptic feedback, which means it is possible to feel ABS kicking in - a feature that proved immensely helpful to brake at the limit in a GT3 car, for example. It is also possible to simulate longer brake travel should the discs overheat and other pedal behavior, increasing the immersion factor and helping the braking process at the same time. The only downside, at least for now, is the price - the SimTag pedals were listed at about €5.500 at the Expo.
Of course, there is a lot more sim racing equipment that might see more development in the near future - what do you think is going to take a big step forward next? And what piece of equipment would you personally like to see improved? Let us know in the comments!
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