What Does Your Dream Sim Look Like?

2022 GTR2

So GTR3

THK84 said:

rFactor2 FFB
ACC visuals / sound
ACC complete racing series
AMS2 VR performance
AC modability & versatility
'BeamNG light' damage models
AC in-game apps & SimHub functions like a dash display
Content Manager
Button assignment profiles for different rims
2 Alternative button assignment options for most functions
No subscription model or only subscription model (all content included)

Click to expand...

you hit the nail on the head, although i prefer AMS2 visuals to ACC. for sound - raceroom - got to include it somewhere

Well, I consider myself being living my sim dream already

It probably has something to do with 'just enjoying how things are at a given present state' vs. 'expectations in advance', and so it has been since I entered the sim racing world in 1985. Hence, the unfiltered conclusion must be that my expectations in general have been too low, leaving room for constant pleasantly surprises, time and time again

However, recently I feel pretty darn close, so all is left is my shameless greed*

Ofcourse psysics models, tyre modelling, graphics engine, possibilities of competition formats, etc. and which sim does it best will be never ending grumpy discussions. But thanks God we have societies as e.g. forums on this site to put the other in check and keep each other sharp in terms of defining the details of what is good modelling and immersion. Meanwhile I just drive them all and follow in the slipstream of constant slight improvements, even for older sims.

Since, all that count for me is immersion.

And even in 1985 with MC game 'Speed King' driven with C64 Arcade Joystick, I clearly sensed immerson by that time. Since immersion is not only the 'passive' observation factor, but also your brain trying to put the puzzle together of what is not there.

But I race all my sims - new, old and ancient ones - with the flaws they without discussion do have and quirky-nerdy stuff to get sort of around missing details.

For instance, just arrived home in my beautiful red&yellow striped Bizzarrini GT 5300 Corsa (unique classic combination of solid American small block and pinnacle Italian race car design ) after cruising round the open landscapes, listening to the tolls taken by my car just very recent same day, an hour earlier leaving the closed historic and now deceased circuit of which a tense endurance race battle against other 60ies GT and Prototypes unfolded, leaving sweat in my driving gloves, on my gear stick, my forehead and my VR headset

I.e. driving classic cars as at their days, with racing heroes entering and leaving the closed circuits for dangerous close battle racing and driving home to wife and kids in one and same vehicle.

It is far too overseen by the masses (concept 'the masses' might be wrong for a niche genre like ours) how valuable it is being able to not only being able to sim drive the authentic historic racing cars at now abandoned and deceased tracks from the golden ages, but now with progress in sim engines, sim hardware, graphics and VR improvements, our irreplaceable motorsport history can now safely be guaranteed and perserved for generations by simply offering the opportunity via sim racing.

Above-mentioned experience was driven in AC mods with tools and tweaks, after some months completely away from AC, focussing on VR racing own old handmade track conversions from rF1 to AMS1 with the possibility of the CF plugin, and tons of VR driving my harddrive of endless classic mods for GTR2. And VR optimizing settings for newer graphics engines for PC1, PC2, AMS2.
But after recent GFX-upgrade a couple of months ago - my new GFX including USB-C port, resulting in 3.4Mpbs quality single line communication and charging in one and same time, leaving room for real VR endurance racing, I must sayAC has shown phenomenal VR performance wise, using CM, latest SOL, Lights Patch' full version, Natural Mods Filter, Photorealistic Filter, etc.

I hope the official sim developer world discovers and realizes the importance of the very valuable motorsports history heritage, which is disappearing before our eyes. And with new punks on the block solely focussing on modern paddle sleds including all kind of electric nanny help, the immersion factor becomes 'dull' - compared to historic race cars where the difference between cars even within same category was huge - and now also clearly through immersion via sim racing and in my case VR sim racing.

So, OK my real sim dream would be, that sim racing historic racing cars would become quite more popular by the masses so official sims published official historic championships, fully reflecting the grids of the times, nomatter what class in the 50ies, 60ies, 70ies and 30ies.

That would be quite something for me.
And then as a benefit being able to watch loads of YT DYI solutions of self-made classic sim sleds reflecting the breath of history

* Greed = could be the combo I've called out for, for more than two decades:
An official sim release of the 1983 WEC Group C @ 1983 ADAC 1000 Kilometer Rennen at Nürburgring with authentic precise modelling of track surface, curbes, conditions and everything from that weekend. And likely served in a modern VR dedicated graphics engine. Cannot fathom that many years have gone completely missing the combo of 1983 #2 Rothmans Porsche 956 @ Nürburgring in it's authentic state of late May 1983.

Yes, I'm primarily a stick and hell&toe guy, too and feel a bit meh about all the new paddle and electronics nanny aids generation cars. But hey I enjoy them on occasions in rF2, ACC, AMS2 and iR. However, often like a quick drop-in from my laptop e.g. sitting in an airport. Yup member of Keyboard Drivers Anonymous here... though have flexible NLR seat as my primary, it is still a challenge finding a suitable backpack for it .

Like yesterday I was country driving in a bus, running rF2 for the first time in a while, now from my <$525 laptop including Ryzen 5 4600H + GTX1650Ti and delivering quite well performance doing a sped up 12 hours Callaway + Corvette C6 2009-10s at Queensland with no AIDS whatsoever, but worked splendidly just keyboard driving the sessions.

Perfect sim to me for would be
-AMS2
-AI that actually know how to race and execute racing strategies
-Complete control over which cars are selected for races
-Complete grids of series represented. So modern WEC would have all makes and manufacturers. The Sportscar championships or older IMSA series would be fully represented which their cars and classes etc. Basically if a series is being represented the entire series would be represented with every team etc
-Progressional immersive career mode
-Mid race saves

Think that would cover the biggest gripes I have I have with most modern sims. Full series are rarely represented and if they are then the offline experience or driving feel leaves a lot to be desired.

From a Historical Preservation standpoint, my dream Racing Sim would focus on Grand Prix cars from before 1950; i.e. before the dawn of Formula One.

This part of automotive and motorsports history is slipping further away from people's firsthand memory as time goes on, and while documentaries, photographs, history books, museums & historic car meets give us a glimpse into this time period, these mediums are limited in the level of immersion they can provide.

Honestly, I can't thank enough the people who have previously worked, or are currently working diligently to bring scratch-made content of this vintage to Assetto Corsa!

• Gary J. Paterson (Auto Union Typ-C)
• Mantasisg & Aphidgod (Mercedes W125)
• Nicecuppatea (1923 Tours GP cars & Bugatti 57G)
• SATLAB (Benz Patent-Motorwagen)
• Fourty-Too! (Delage 15S8 & Miramas)
• Fat-Alfie (Deutschlandring)
• THL (Opel-Rennbahn)
• Jim Lloyd (30's Donington Park)
• Sergio Loro (Sitges-Terramar & 30's Indianapolis)
• Italotracks (Napoli Street Circuit)
• A Casual Sim Racer (Everything at Historic Sim Studios)

Julian Strasser said:

I thought I wad the only one who knows of this gem of a mod

Click to expand...

Oh I know at least a dozen rF1 guys knowing Anglesey very well, too during an interesting online lobby event (some +10 years ago now ). I dunno why, but the GTR2 mods of the track I've been the most keen of, maybe due to both standard GTR2 car content and brilliant likewise mods were a match made in heaven at Anglesey. However, Tyrone's AC mod version is such a blast. But in the rF2 ball game I reckon I only did a driveout, and just reinstalled rF2 on my laptop, so out I go this evening.

The Dream Sim for me:
Rfactor 2 physics as a starting point to evolve for more realism.
The multiplayer of Iracing/LFM as a starting point. + High performance AI for offline play and championships for single player competitors.
Quality graphics Unreal Engine 5 optimized for medium PC + triple screen and virtual reality.
A finished game but in permanent evolution. (Hub, pit stop, podium, animation) D-Box DLSS 3 RAY TRACING DOLBY ATMOS.

The official licenses of motorsport ( ENDURANCE : IMSA/WEC, SRO MOTORSPORTS (GT3-GT4-GT2-others), BTCC, ADAC GT MASTERS, SUPER GT, SUPER FORMULA (Japan) , NASCAR, INDYCAR (USA) V8 SUPERCAR (Australia), WORLD RALLY, WORLD RALLYCROSS and AUTOCROSS, HILL CLIMB, KARTING and Historic SPORT CAR series likely to bring together the entire world public America, Europe, Asia Oceania with ALL the cars + official livery + All the circuits laser scan quality RF2. The whole of the circuits impossible to circumvent in each country.

objective to be as close as possible to the real thing in order to bring together the whole of the world's motor sport amateur and professional public in the same simulation.

For arcade fans there will always be forza/gran turismo /f1/ and wrc

THK84 said:

rFactor2 FFB
ACC visuals / sound
ACC complete racing series
AMS2 VR performance
AC modability & versatility
'BeamNG light' damage models
AC in-game apps & SimHub functions like a dash display
Content Manager
Button assignment profiles for different rims
2 Alternative button assignment options for most functions
No subscription model or only subscription model (all content included)

Click to expand...

Yes, this is a great list (personal opinion)
I would adjust a few items from above list from THK84...
AMS2 - Visuals / Graphics
Raceroom - Audio / Sound
Raceroom - Multiclass Racing set up, choosing cars and even allowing to visibly choose the Livery easily allowing for a colorful Grid.
Raceroom - Mapping Functionality, a share plethora of mapping

Screenshot / Photo Mode Functionality -
rF2 - Mapped Keys for 'Depth of Field' adjustments in the 'Free Camera' Controls
PC3 - Photo Mode functionality is great for Triple Screen
Raceroom / AC - No Track Limits, move Camera anywhere
AC - Lighting Angle (change position of the Sun) and Time Offset (change Time of Day)
AC - Headlights / Taillights (Force on or Off)

No Modability, BUT allow Modders to submit their work to the Devs for inclusion to Sim, to keep consistant look / Quality throughout.

...just my 2 cents

Sorry, hit wrong button

Assetto Corsa with better AI, proper PBR workflow.
Don't care about what tracks it would come with, I'll just make my own.

It's called GTR2. Any game made later, failed to replace it and any new game will fail due to its incompleteness and never-ending betish status.

My preference is for more series specific games.

We have all seen the pitfalls of titles that try to be everything for everyone, and they have their place, But I'd definitely buy more sims that had a tighter focus.

As an example, If Reiza came out with a dedicated Indy game rather then trying to incorporate bits and pieces of it into AMS2, Instant buy.

A Nascar game that didn't suck would also be good, and a stadium truck game., Aussie Supercars, Historic F1, split them up, give them the love they deserve.

M D Gourley said:

Yes, this is a great list (personal opinion)
I would have...
AMS2 - Visuals / Graphics
Raceroom - Audio / Sound
Raceroom - Multiclass Racing set up, choosing cars and even allowing to choose the Livery easily.
Raceroom - Mapping Functionality, a share plethora of mapping

Click to expand...

I only really played AMS2 in VR and ACC on pancake mode, on a PC that can't handle ACC in VR to my preference. So that might skew my visuals to my imagination of ACC VR

RR I haven't played that much, I do remember the sounds were great, so might be 'recency bias' for ACC on my part.

As for the mapping, haven't played RR enough and the interface didn't really invite me to set up the mapping more extensively.

Good list too

Assetto Corsa, 'nuff said.

Tho I would love to see it support ray tracing + DLSS, Snow and MudFX for rallying, customization like in Forza, GT7 and NFS franchise and especially physical damage model like in BeamNG Drive. Call me crazy and laugh all you want, but with the amount of stuff the modders in the AC community added over the years, it demostrates just how much untapped potential Assetto Corsa has still to be explored for the foreseeable future.

And if perhaps AC2 won't have none of those once it'll get released by next year or the other (both in time for its 10th anniversary), then we'll just keep the first one eternally and update it for our own sequel calling it 2.0 from there.

To some extent, my dream sims already exist. RSF RBR for rally. And I love AI racing. So GP4 or AMS1 for F1, AMS1 for Supercars and Super Trucks, NR2003 for NASCAR, Indycar Racing II for historic CART. Possibly rF2 in the future, if it continues to improve like recently. Plus if I want a modern GT experience, ACC feels great, and the AI is unexciting but perfectly raceable.

But the older titles like ICR2, GP4, and NR2003 are lacking by today's standards in physics and FFB. And even the best AI (i.e. GP4, NR2003) can struggle if you put them into specific situations.

Personally, I don't need or want hyper-perfectionism in graphics or physics simulation. I don't want to see pixels or have no wheelspin simulation like in ICR2. After that, I'm open-minded if it "feels right" to drive and race. Any of today's popular sims are probably more than close enough for me.

My dream? I'd love it if a developer spent extra effort on a highly customizable, deeply realistic single player experience. AI that drive well and race well door-to-door, including behaviour like blocking, slipstreaming, series-appropriate lapping, and fuel/tyre saving. Like GP4, more or less. But also – customizable race weekend sessions, rulesets (including start procedures and safety cars/Code 60s), pit strategy, championship systems, provisions for ovals and multiclass. With a system making it all configurable e.g. by setting various parameters in a JSON file for each series. Imagine if one system of text file settings could handle the rules and race weekend format of F1 of various eras or the Indy 500 just as easily as the Bathurst 1000 (incl. the shootout) or Formula E (incl. the head-to-head qualifying). With some clever design, it would be possible. It would just take time, effort, and money.

I guess my dream sim would be AC+CSP+Cphys with rF/AMS-style netcode allowing close racing and an AI system like what I explained above. Ultimate moddability of cars and tracks, solid netcode, good graphics and sounds, good door-to-door AI racing, and hugely configurable rules to be able to make the complete realistic experience for a given series in a specific time period. It'd be incredible. And the game would be played for decades, because of how flexible it would be.

Obviously I want fantastic physics, FFB, graphics, day-night and weather transitions, VR, etc etc.

I want more depth into systems that have been tried in the past but somehow have never actually materialized properly:

Career
Many different disciplines to be represented, and intertwined, in a multi-discipline career ladder system. Single make series where they exist, variety of multi-car/class grids where they exist. Properly fleshed out series are important for this.

As a driver, you choose what contracts to pick up, taking into account various series' schedules. Individual race weekends have full weekend persistence; meaning rubber/dirt/weather affecting the circuit is persistent through the full weekend, through all support series races. Anything you're not involved in yourself can be simulated off screen and is shown in the next session you take part in. Maybe you're faced with a great guest opportunity and you need to make the call between continuing your support series championship fight, or missing the race to take part in the top tier series opportunity. If you're in two different disciplines on one weekend, you also have to keep track of differences in sporting regulations between series where they exist; different pit or caution procedures, for example.

There's (hidden?) modifiers on your car/team based on your team; smaller budget teams may have slower pitstops, or worse pit strategies, but you may get lucky with a super great car one weekend and really show what you can do.

Proper sporting regulations would be setup for each series, including things like safety car procedures, qualifying procedures, pit lane exit 'do not cross' lines, must be within X% of the pole sitting car to qualify, etc. As a driver, you need to know these things because you will be dinged for a rules breach.

Sign personal sponsorships that follow you throughout your career; and manage conflicts of interest (maybe you get a great contract on a top factory team, but it means ending your sponsorship with a rival automaker).

Eventually start your own team, choose series (even multiple) for the team to focus on, hire other team drivers, find and retain sponsors, make liveries, etc.

Very successful? Maybe you'll see some personalized flags/signs in the crowd at some events; especially home races.

Stretch Career Goal: Dynasty
Expand content to include various eras of the past; decide whether 'you' are related to 'you' in other eras, linking accomplishments throughout different competition eras. This could have influence on the kinds of sponsorships and contract opportunities presented to you, or create unique exhibition type events (driving 'your father's car' in a vintage racing event, etc).

Race Weekends
Fully simulated weekends, with a full schedule of sessions in addition to what you're driving.

For example, maybe you run in Indy Lights and happen to pick up a guest seat on a mid-tier Indycar team that weekend as well. You don't simply hop from one Indy Lights session to the next, you have to juggle all sessions for both series in chronological order, adapting to the different car on the fly. Between your Indy Lights qualifying session and your Indycar Qualifying session, a regional Formula Ford series runs its first race of the weekend and a crash results in some oil deposited in turn 3. The clean corner you had for Indy Lights now has oil dry all over the racing line at the exit for your Indycar Qualifying session (further depth: do you start your laps a little later in the session for a hopefully cleaner corner, but also less time to get your hot lap in?).

Maybe it's especially hot and the track is coming apart in turns 3, 5 and 9 that requires repairs, and it pushes the day's schedule back 65 minutes and your Saturday race to run almost into twilight, forcing you to deal with a low sun in your eyes at the end of the race, or shortens the length of a few sessions that day.

Maybe there's a regional showroom stock series running between your sessions, and the differences in your tire compounds makes your second session a little more slick until it rubbers in with the compound you're using again.

Maybe rain interrupts your NASCAR night race and it gets postponed, becoming a Monday afternoon race with few fans in the stands and very different track conditions than your car is setup for.

Maybe a massive downpour over night washes away most of the rubber on the surface, giving you a 'green' circuit for your WEC race start.

Maybe you tag the wall in final practice, forcing your team to scramble to repair it and you start the race from the pits with a slightly sub-optimal setup.

A fully simulated weekend adds additional variables to consider that could be exciting.

PT2:

Custom Scheduler
For custom championships or race weekends, you can build a full weekend schedule as you see fit. You choose which series are involved, when their sessions are, what rules sets are being used, qualifying procedures (single solo hot lap, timed session with all cars, class-specific timed sessions, legality of changing tires between qual/race, etc), race settings (number of races, how grids are set for subsequent races, how points are allotted, mandatory pit stops and pit windows, reward weight, etc), mandatory tire compound usage (must use both compounds in Indycar at some point in the race, etc).

System could be presented as a calendar view, showing Thurs-Sun and you drag and drop different session 'modules,' setting series/session attributes as you go. Set the weather forecast for the weekend, time of year, etc.

Save and share weekend/series templates, allow some randomization or randomize the entire thing. Add as much, or as little, detail as you want.

Modular
Only pay for the disciplines you want.
Don't like ovals? Don't buy the oval series pack(s).
Love gettin' dirty? Get the rally and trophy truck racing packs.
Only get the content you want.
Also provides a sort of road map for features, easing development; for example asymmetrical setups don't necessarily need to be included if they wouldn't be there for launch content, but are critical for oval racing content.

If anyone on the dev team mentions esports, fire them. Joking. Sort of.

Modding
I'm a designer, I have to create things. It's not a choice, it's a compulsion.

AI
I want some good AI. AI which is equally capable in any racing discipline, and can be tuned with stats for each driver (aggression, consistency, confidence, etc) which can also change over time. Watch rivals graduate through the career ladder, or lose their rides. Maybe former rivals wind up as teammates. Stats also apply to teams.

AI 'learning' would also be nice, but not how it's usually done: I want the AI to learn my driving style, and adapt to it over time. I'm not an alien, there's some circuits I just click with and some that I really don't. Rather than a simple speed % slider, I'd like the AI to adjust a bit to operate more similarly to myself so there's no situations where there's one specific corner that I'm just 20kph faster for no real reason, which happens all the time. The AI system should look at how I drive, how I make my speed and my own average delta to the 'optimal' ai times, and adjust dynamically in various areas of the circuit so that the racing can always be close. I've had a lot of fantastic battles with the AI in many different sims, but a lot of the time there's just a spot where I know I can blow past 3 cars every single lap. I'd like the AI to recognize this and adapt to close the gap. Not rubber-banding, but closing the gap throughout a lap to some extent, if that makes sense?

This is more important the more speed and downforce a car has. Like many, I struggle to be competitive in modern top tier open wheel and prototypes; in AC turning the AI down below a certain amount results in them lifting off on the straights, so even through through a lap we might be equal they still blow me away in corners and I drive past them like they're standing still on the straights. I rarely race the really exotic stuff as a result. Have the AI reduce its cornering while keeping it's speed on the straights would result in closer battles at all times, not just parity over a complete lap.


Controls
Add bindings for both sequential and paddle shifting FFS. I think I've personally seen one racing sim that's done this officially, another that's done it through .ini files outside the sim you have to make yourself, and CM adds this in for AC. Why this isn't standard practice for all sims is beyond me. We've had peripherals for every conceivable method of shifting cars for decades now, there's no excuse for such a basic oversight.

If I have to alter the controls because I've changed the car I'm driving, you messed up.


Pit Stops
Ok, this is in most sims, but usually not handled all that well from a UI perspective. Some of what I want might be included in other sims, but it's not intuitive or clearly communicated. I want fully animated pitstops, I want to set a pit strategy ahead of the race, and I want a better method of pit strategy changes than fumbling for my mouse with my headset on as I'm cruising down pit lane. Admittedly I never do pitstops anymore because I've never seen a half decent system in the past so I've stopped trying in newer titles altogether—if they've gotten better, there's no way to know outside of forum posts, and that's also part of the problem.

RWD
I'd love to design more RWD vehicles for a sim. #ShamelessPlug

Final Thoughts
As far as I can tell, we've never had a multi-disciplinary racing sim with enough depth to do any of its content justice. We've had a few focused sims with the depth to replicate the series on the cover, but never anything like this for multi-disciplinary titles.

I don't care if it's all real content, or all fictional (or a mix) as long as it's realistic, well made, and represented logically.

Assetto corsa with free roam and customization... Pretty much beamng but better.

If ISI had sold rF2 to Reiza I'd probably have my dream sim already...

Give me rF2s net code and mods in AMS2 and I'd be very happy...

Within the next 5 years I'm gonna make my dream sim...