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VR and mirrors
#1
Hi,
Those of you that use VR headsets, what's your opinion about mirrors in simracing?
Before buying my Oculus I read everywhere that mirrors become extremely useful when you are on VR, but now that I decided to stop using Helicorsa I'm a bit disappointed with them (but I also think that are useful)
I don't know if there are not so well implemented or this is what real drivers see, but I feel that the dead spot is enooooormous. I mean, when you have a car following you, and he is not in a straight line to your mirror, he just doesn't exist, and when he is near you that's a real problem.
Im not sure, but I remember that in Life for Speed you can actually move your head and see different angles on mirrors (not like in AC or RR), and I think that you can even see your own helmet reflected, so in my opinion modern Sims have a lot of work to do regarding this point.
What do.you think?
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#2
On the whole, I find them very useful but it really depends on the car. They are quite good on some cars, much less useful on others. It makes a big difference for your peace of mind and you can definitely feel it when one of them is missing, like the right mirror on some older cars (cheap bastards !), or you can't really see it because of the bucket seat or the safety net or whatnot, or the central one as on the McLaren GT3 for example.
I would suppose they're among the easier things to modelize (am I wrong ?) so I assume what you get is fairly close to reality but yeah, Helicorsa still comes in handy, first because not everyone you race with is to be trusted, second because with good positioning, Helicorsa is faster than having to turn your head and glance to the side. But then Helicorsa only works when the cars are quite close to each other.
(and yes, I saw a video of Live for speed where the guy showed how the view in the mirrors changed with the angle ; pretty cool, would be nice to have in AC)
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#3
My safety rating went from 1.3 to 1.7 since I'm racing with a VR headset, so yeah, it's the very same for me.

Even though those couple of Abarth races I did really were quite hard, regardless the VR headset. But even without them I'd definitely be around 1.5 now.
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#4
Simon, what do you mean by "safety rating", the incident average?

Also, can you please let me know how did VR help you in sim racing, if at all?
I am collecting opinions as I feel that one of the reasons I am slow is that I cannot correctly perceive the depth of a corner on a flat 2D screen with small FOV, and then choosing good line is hard. I am wondering if VR would help, but I am reluctant to make a ~$800 investment (Rift + new video card) and still lose as many races as I do with a monitor.
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#5
I had a Vive a bit ago, but I also had a triple 1920x1200 setup before that with an additional TrackIR for head tracking. After having as much resolution and field of vision as I did with the triple monitor/head tracking setup, the resolution of the Vive was no where near acceptable to me. I could barely make out details on the track further than about 150 meters. Others swear that the pros outweigh the cons, but I won't bother again with VR until they double the resolution while maintaining 90+ Hz.

Now I have a single 42" display about 30" in front of my face (~34 degrees FOV) . I traded the TrackIR for using Real Head Motion and I absolutely love it. You get real world field of vision with the "wider" view provided by Real Head Motion during turns. My solution might be a good solution for you to try before dumping a bunch of cash into your PC and learn how to deal with motion sickness and lack of resolution, since... you know... free. If it doesn't work out... you can always upgrade!
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#6
AC is grim compared to other sims because in AC you a) cannot enable a virtual mirror, b) you cannot map Look Back, and c) the mirrors themselves are just textures projected from fixed cameras (unlike iRacing, R3E and PCars where the reflection is relative to your head, and moves with it.)

Worst of all world's really. In some cars you basically just cannot see backwards at all.
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#7
Pawel,
I can't really tell you if VR made me faster, I only drove about two months with a monitor before I bought the Vive. But I'm pretty sure it gives me a better perception of distances in general and a better sense of my position relative to another car, which makes close racing much less of a gamble. As for the "fun" part of it, the immersion is fantastic and, contrary to Russel, I would never give it up, despite the lower resolution. I'm not driving right now, and I miss it, but I know that come September, as every time I've had a break like that, I'll put the headset on, leave the pit and go "Oh yeah baby !".
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#8
(07-21-2018, 11:16 PM)Iain Mcfadzen Wrote:  AC is grim compared to other sims because in AC you a) cannot enable a virtual mirror, b) you cannot map Look Back, and c) the mirrors themselves are just textures projected from fixed cameras (unlike iRacing, R3E and PCars where the reflection is relative to your head, and moves with it.)

Worst of all world's really. In some cars you basically just cannot see backwards at all.

I agree with this.

The mirrors technically work, but they're not as useful as I'd like them to be. There are definite blind spots - huge in some cars. In cars with a halo seat, I can't see past the wings on the seat, like the cayman GT4 club sport, unless i "push my head through them."

That said, even with the less functional mirrors, and the lack of resolution, I absolutely love VR. It's very immersive, and the perception of speed and distance is so much more natural than on a 2D screen - the cues that you look for on a 2D screen are very different from real life. AC in VR feels very close to real life driving on track, I'd say it's about 85% similar, where as 2D is more like 55% similar if I were to put some arbitrary subjectively quantitative number on the comparison.

I used to have a 2D setup on console (Project Cars). I've had multiple people try both setups. With the 2D screen, every person went way too fast and barely tapped the brakes for T1. They always went flying off the road and barely touched the brakes. When I've put people in VR with assetto corsa, everyone had a very real sense of speed, so much so that the vast majority of them never made it past 3rd gear in the car. They were all driving super slow and stepped on the brakes quite a bit for every turn that they saw. A good number of them also had motion sickness - it was the sense of being told you were moving, but not actually feeling it.

The other part that I really like with VR is being able to "look where I want to go." I can really look ahead, and turn my head to see through a turn. That said, I don't think VR has made me faster; however, VR has done for me is make me more consistent. For 1 hour long races, it's much easier to stay focused because of how immersive VR is. With a 2D screen, it I find it much easier to lose focus and/or get distracted by real life stuff that is occurring in the environment around you.

To the OP, I don't necessarily think VR will make you faster. It might, but I think there are much cheaper solutions for getting faster. I'd say try out Russel's suggestion for the Real Head Motion, and I would also recommend getting a decent set of pedals (if you don't already have some) that give feed back. It's more important for being able to hit your braking points consistently each time with the same depth and pressure each time. I think both of those combined are cheaper and will yield better results.

Also, VR is quite an investment. I spent about $1200 to get my VR going - video card ($500) + oculus rift ($400) + power supply ($150) + more RAM - 32gb total ($150). That's a lot of money if it doesn't work out. You can get a direct drive wheel with that kind of money.
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#9
You can change the field of view of the mirrors.

[Steam folder]/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/system/cfg/assetto_corsa.ini
[MIRRORS]
FOV=11 (or more)

I agree with all your comments, it is not perfect, but at least you can see a bit more this way :-)
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#10
(07-24-2018, 12:08 AM)Antoine Jacquet Wrote:  You can change the field of view of the mirrors.

[Steam folder]/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/system/cfg/assetto_corsa.ini
[MIRRORS]
FOV=11 (or more)

I agree with all your comments, it is not perfect, but at least you can see a bit more this way :-)
Thank you!!! I'm going to go do this now.
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