[Albert Castro]

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.