5 Things I WISH I Knew: Sim Racing in Virtual Reality (VR)
Today I’ll be going over the five things I wish I knew before I purchased a virtual reality headset for sim racing. So, if you’re thinking of sim racing in VR or switching to VR, this should be very helpful to you and I highly recommend you keep in mind the things I am going to mention.
#5 VR Compatibility
I wish I knew that a lot of games are not compatible with VR. I wasn’t expecting compatibility for every sim racing title, but I expected more games to offer support. Some of the most popular games such as the F1 series and the Forza franchise are not compatible. And although some might argue that those games aren’t true “sims”, I would have liked to have the option to play them in VR nonetheless. In essence, going the VR route will inevitability limit the selection of sim racing titles you will be able to experience using your virtual reality headset.
#4 Graphics
I wish I knew that some games simply do not look good in VR. Virtual reality users still make up only a fraction of the player base, so most developers create the game perfectly optimized for everyone else playing on traditional screens, and then quickly add VR support as an afterthought to appeal to a larger audience. Although it's great that some games do offer support, many of them simply do not look great regardless of how high the graphics settings are set. Most notably for me, Dirt Rally 2 and Assetto Corsa Competizione have never looked great, and since the main reason most people go with VR is for the immersion, this definitely takes away from it. Thinking about it, in the future I’ll talk about the best-looking sim racing games for VR, so stay tuned for that.
#3 Strain
The third thing I wish I knew, is that sim racing in VR does put a strain on your eyes. I’ve talked about this in other videos, but I’ll say it here as well. Pretty much, when you are racing online (or just racing in general I should say) you are focused nearly 100% of the time. Any small mistake or lack of judgment will result in either you losing time or completely spinning out and crashing, so unlike other types of virtual reality games where you can afford to lose focus and relax, sim racing will require all of your attention. As a result, I’ve noticed that for me at least, after about half an hour of racing, I feel discomfort in my eyes and am pretty much forced to take a break. This will vary from person to person, but I think it's important nonetheless. I know what some of you are thinking, and no, my eyes do not get nearly as exhausted with triple monitors, probably because they aren’t two inches away from my face.
#2 Setup Process
I should have considered that the setup process can get annoying after a while. Now let me explain. After a long day of work, all I want is to go to my rig, sit down, and play. And when I don’t play with VR, that's exactly what happens. But whenever I want to play in virtual reality, I need to plug in the base stations, turn on the headset, make sure everything is calibrated, turn on steam VR, properly strap in the headset to my face, once in-game I need to readjust the view so that I am in the correct spot, and only then can I get to racing. Now, while this might not seem like too big of a deal, it gets extremely annoying after a while when all you want to do is play and don't have the time or patience to set everything up.
#1 Comfort
Finally at number one, having a VR headset strapped onto your face can get quite uncomfortable after a while especially when sim racing. Now I will admit that this will vary tremendously from headset to headset, but either way, having something strapped on your head and against your face tends to get annoying for me at least, after a while. For example, If you’re racing and you need to scratch your eye, well, good luck. Also, I’ve heard some people tend to sweat from having the headset on for a long time, so that’s something to consider as well. Overall, while it's not anything terrible that I would consider a deal-breaker, it’s more uncomfortable than playing with screens so keep that in mind.
Anyways, those have been the five things I wish I knew when I first started sim racing. If you are considering VR or Triple Monitors, I’ve also created a separate video on that topic, so make sure to check that out if you are interested. Anyways, I’d love to know everyone's thoughts on this, do you agree with me? Do you disagree? And what do you think of VR for sim racing as a whole?
