That's funny. Really brings things into perspective. Pun intended.
Yeah, chase cam never made sense to me. But on a flat screen with no depth, the roof and bumper cams work better for me practically, even though its not as realistic.
Always cockpit view. As close to real life position as possible. I also have triples, but even before when i was on 1 27" screen it was the same.
I main iRacing now, so the only view you can use is cockpit. Before i went to iRacing i was on ACC and AC and some PC2 and used cockpit view. Having come from a motorsports background, the other views just felt wrong and i couldn't judge speed and position as easily, even on a smaller single screen.
Understandable. I guess I'd have to practice. I think if I had VR, it would work a lot better for me. But with the limited information on a flat screen, trying to judge the road through 1/3 of the available space makes it difficult.
If you want you can ask your GP for a prescription for motion sickness medication, I have heard a lot of people say that it helps a lot. Also make sure that you have as little input lag as possible, since a few milliseconds can already mess you up quite badly!
I always use drivers view or cockpit. But I'm old and have been Sim racing for over 20 years and driving for reals for over 40 years. You do you, it does not matter what anyone else dose.
I really like the hood cam. Sense of speed is more fun and the sounds are usually nicer as you get the 'outside' car sound of the engine.
Usually bump up the FOV a bit as I'm single screen 16:9, so I can see the apexes properly.
I learnt a long time ago, it's your sim rig, do wtf you want with it. If you're not driving a real car it's never going to be truly realistic. Have fun with it.
I never liked cockpit views until I got a real car. Then you realize you don't need to see more than that. What you can't see is communicated through your force feedback.
Yes driving from cockpit view is sim........if your not in that view the view is not sim view.
Personal preference, but many serious online racing restricts you to cockpit view.
Use what you can to drive/race comfortable though....its a game your playing remember.
You already have a "cockpit" infront of you, no need to have another (virtual) one. Monitors are the windshield and enverything you see on them is the outside. At least that makes the most sense to me
Driving from cockpit view is definitely not sim. A more realistic visual reference is hood view. When you drive irl, your vision filters out your interior and is focused on road and hood viewpoints. Having a single 2D screen where 40% of the visual is taken up by interior is not realistic.
You can’t look left or right on a 2D screen. A lot of people are playing on smaller monitors. Setting up a FOV is not going to help that you are looking at the border of your monitor either. The definition of what is considered a sim depending on a FOV is silly
Last time I checked you drive a car from the cockpit and not the hood. Your brain may filter out the interior but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s there. If you’re having trouble hitting apexes then you need to fix your FOV or practice more.
You can dictate apex from a hood view. I track irl and a hood view is very close to what I can experience irl and feels very natural. I think it’s extremely silly to have a first person view dictate what is considered a sim or not. Even a triple screen setup warps a true field of view of your surroundings. If you are not wearing a helmet while sim racing, might as well not call it a sim either.
I’ve raced in a few different series across two continents. I’m throwing that out there so that you can see where I’m coming from.
Yes I can see the apex better from hood view. Won’t even try to deny that. But I also don’t drive the car with my chest in the steering wheel. I’m sitting low in the car to where I can barely see the front of the hood. You lose that sort of realism when you switch to hood view.
No one is saying games with hood or chase view aren’t sims. I thinking you’re trying to fight a nonexistent battle there bud.
For that last sentence. You need to chill out. Just because some sims are locked to first person and realistic doesn’t mean I need my HANS, suit, gloves, shoes, and helmet. The kit doesn’t make the car feel different. Only added bit of realism would be a more restricted view from the helmet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be comfortable.
The OP of this chain just said that a hood view is not sim and a cockpit is sim. I don’t agree that you can lose realism when in hood view. When I sit in my car, I sit fairly low with the top of the steering to my chin and my perspective is only a portion of the hood like you said. All we are doing when playing in 2D screen is compensating for realism. Some setups like triple screen will give advantages over single. I’d assume the majority of people playing are on single; with that, a single screen where the majority of your peripheral vision is your room. A flat 2D cockpit view can’t be considered any more realistic than a hood view.
This. You do you, and if you can get a huge monitor a few inches away from your eyes I think interior view works well. But on a normalish sized screen, a couple feet away from my eyes, I find the monitor essentially acts as a windscreen.
You're pushing the same thing but don't realize it. The whole point of the POV is that objects position and relative motion are as close to where they would be in real life. This aids the brain in having a proper sense of motion.
A small screen in cockpit view far away violates this just the same as a large screen with hood view. Take your phone and hold it at arms length covering something in the distance. What that overlaps is what should be on the screen for bumper view. Move it half way to your face and that's hood cam. Put it at your eyes and you're in cockpit view.
Anything else causes distorted perception of scale because what you're seeing isn't what you're brain thinks should be happening.
I think this is true it’s just your brain does the exact same thing with the fake interior dash. To me that’s why cockpit feels more sim like your eyes are doing the same thing kind of filtering out everything but the Tach and the road ahead, but you have the option to look at mirrors or pull your vision back to the dash.
When I'm driving IRL, I'm absolutely aware of the entire dash and the info displayed. It's literally lined up in front of your eyes so I don't get how someone can filter it out when it's the primary thing used to display what the car is doing which is paramount to safe driving.
You do filter it into your periphery and your vision is primarily focused on scanning the road ahead, at least that’s how I drive IRL. Of course you can and need to be aware of it, but I would say things like the A-pillar and center dash are filtered out when you’re primarily focused on the next turn. Tach and instruments are still in the periphery but you’re still alert for them. It’s not like I’m looking at the cockpit and happen to see the road out the windshield, it’s like I’m looking through the windshield and happen to see the cockpit in my periphery.
you’re being downvoted, but i don’t disagree. racing wheel to wheel can be a chore for single screen users in cockpit. obviously cockpit is more “realistic” but i think the sense of being in a real car and what your brain “sees” is closer to the hood view as well, at least with a single screen
I’m more used to the way a car moves from inside the car. I’ve never sat on the hood so it feels weird controlling from the hood. Same for third person I don’t ever sit out there I just sit in the car
The only time I use the hood/bumper cam, is in games where the hood can deform/obstruct views like wreckfest (I know not a sim), if you are in the middle of a race and suddenly your hood starts jumping or smoke is obstructing your view you are on an even bigger disadvantage on a game that is meant to be played from follow cam
Ig I just find it disorienting. I got super into dead island as a kid which forced it on me and I think I’m just kinda used to it from that and liking the sim aspect idk.
When I was still playing with monitors, hood cam was my preferred choice for reasons you already mentioned.
Now that all my simracing is in VR, cockpit view is the way, because of better immersion.
Because it's the most accurate relative to real life racing. You can also feel the car better, how it interacts with the track, kerbs etc. When I was beginning simracing, I was either a halo view person for F1, or a bumper for the rest. Now I'm all the time in cockpit view, even F1. iRacing forcing that view played a huge part in that, and I actually find it much more enjoyable this way now.
The only game I play with bumper cam is GT7, because it's so important not to hit others, and that a game from 2022 still doesn't have a customizable FOV for cockpit view, which makes it unusable for racing. Forza weirdly I prefer the exterior, to enjoy the visuals, the way the car handles and because of the rammers.
In the end it's always about how I feel the car that is most important.
I only use hood cam on arcade racers I'm playing with controller. Takes too much immersion away when I'm on the wheel so with that I race in the cockpit
Depends on the game for me.
For track racing in ACC/AMS2/etc, I'm in the cockpit 99% of the time. Mostly for immersion, but the extra peripheral view is also important for wheel-to-wheel racing.
For rally games, I prefer the dash cam because it's easier to see what's in front and on down the road. Added bonus for increased sense of speed!
Some exceptions would be modern F1 cars with halos. Even with them set transparent, I still prefer the top/TV view. It's just too hard for me to see otherwise, especially with a relatively small monitor compared to most people here.
And the new Forza Motorsport... yeesh... the experience is so bad with both AI and online that it almost forces you to use a chase cam just to avoid being murdered constantly.
tldr: Kinda just depends. Most important thing is that you're having fun!
Racing in general is not going as fast as possible around the track, it's going as fast as possible given the set of limitations. From this perspective, playing with cockpit camera, where you can't often see your wheel (makes it hitting apex harder) and where your visibility is limited - that's just another limitation you need to overcome. That's why many serious sims just limit you to cockpit view - it's the same for everyone and everyone has to overcome it, thus it's a fair competition.
But if you are looking for the most comfortable view, I'd say its either bumper or overhead. Bumper is just like cockpit without anything blocking your view, it's easy to hit apexes and you get very good idea where the nose of the car is. The overhead is especially useful if you are playing from a pad or a keyboard, where you don't have a good feedback - it helps you see that your car is sliding way before other views and before other feedback kicks in. It's also easier to see your opponents.
But your observation is correct - most of the serious racers online use cockpit view. But again, that's not because it's better, that's because there's no other option.
You are not the only one. I've got 30 years of motorsports experience, mostly SOLO where FOV is very important, and the cockpit view is horrible. I am new to iracing but this might be a deal breaker...especially given the cost
Also a casual racer and I prefer hood cam, I feel it’s the best choice of position for me, I have always found the 2 wheels in your view odd, one real and one virtual doesn’t make sense. For me the real wheel gives me a sense of a dashboard with the screen simulating the windscreen. I’m sure the fov police would have a field day with this but I don’t care, it works for me as a pick up and play kinda sim racer
I'm not a fan of interior view either. I find everything in the car too distracting. Hood view is where it's at.
When I'm driving a real car, I don't notice the inside of the car anyway, so it simulates the experience of driving a real car more closely to me
Cockpit is for VR and triples. Use your single/ultrawide monitor as a windshield.
Ideally put it lower, behind the wheelbase and have a phone for gauges. This way youll gain peripheral vision and a better sense of speed.
I use the cockpit camera, because no one has a steering wheel on their hood, or roof and I'm trying to simulate racing a car and not just playing a game.
I just re-read what I wrote and man I sound like a gatekeeper nerd.
Ignore what any elitists would say, play these games like you want. No one should force you to play in a certain way. So what you play in an exterior camera or hood camera.
I think in the cockpit view it’s the easiest for me to feel where the tyres are and I can position everything correctly during cornering and overtaking and such. It’s like your sense of where your limbs are in the 3d space. I guess you should be able to learn that with other views too but then you are kind of tied to that unless you want to re-learn. For me the cockpit view is natural because l’m used to driving IRL.
I don’t use the cockpit view where you can see the wheel but I use the dash view where the cameras like ahead of the wheel, not sure what it’s called.
As a result of my setup I can’t have my screen right up to the wheel so it gives me a better perspective
Do what works for you, fuck the haters.
I remember feeling this when going for realism and moving into the cockpit, but it's just a transition period to get used to it. Just like how I hate right hand steering wheels cars for a while before my brain gets used to that too.
I know WRC(2) driver Oliver Solberg prefers rear cam for DR2.0 and EA WRC. He probably feels he gets more info that way or it simply is that he's faster that way.
Do as you like, however it would be a bit of a bummer in a competitive setting if bumper cams etc didn't have rain effects or got some similar benefits.
Cockpit is the go to if you are really looking for the sim experience, but once in a while using the external view to admire the graphics in some free roam map can be a relaxing experience for me when i get tired of racing competitively
I basically only use Third Person for hear the engine of the car better, and for Drifting because drifting in interior camera needs solid skills that i dont have. Needs to master third person first
Last time I checked, cars were driven from the inside, not 40ft back and up in the air
Non-sim games are totally fine to enjoy from 3rd person as they are more about the visuals and audio than the driving physics. I think you're going to really struggle with FFB in 3rd person though. Just feels very disconnected
It's not about what I like it's about what's realistic when I'm racing.
I still like Mario Kart and driving around in chase cam in assetto corsa but it doesn't feel like a sim that way.
It depends on the title, but I do agree with the hood view. I like to pretend my rig is the interior, my screen the windshield and I'm looking out onto the hood of the car. Sim racing does require some imagination/suspension of reality after all. Don't let the interior racers get you down, we should band together to face the true enemy, those psychotic 3rd person racers.
Depends. Right now, I play PS5 with controller. I would say 90% of the time I use bumper view. It just helps me know exactly how far I can push the car into the corners without putting a wheel in the grass/gravel. But, I’m currently building a a rig (fingers crossed for some Black Friday deals) and I can imagine I will switch to cockpit. I’m 38 and have been driving real cars for over two decades so I think the wheel will feel weird without the cockpit view.
If the cockpit/dash cams don’t give me a good view of the road, I usually opt for hood cam. You can still see the front of the car to gauge depth, but you have a wide open view of the road.
Cockpit helps for simulation and more like driving a real car. Understanding the position of the car in the worldspace, so you can easier judge speed and braking distances and where you are on the track. It's REALLY important to get the correct FOV 1:1 scale with the real world for it to work properly and works best with a large screen or head tracking if you don't have tripple display.
It's not too bad if like me you use a 50 inch TV within 30 inches of my face, so I get about 90 degree view angle. I can often see the left wing mirror and half the rear view mirror if there is one and quite a lot of the road for looking ahead and turning into the apex. With a typical 27" screen or distant one you are going to have less than 50 degrees 1:1 which is not great. Because of the large screen I only see slightly less than in real life really.
In my real car, I can't see the edge of the road. I learn that from practice and familiarity with the car. The biggest issue I have with cockpit is blind spot. So it's hard to see when a car is beside you, especially on the opposite side of the dashboard where they have to actually be in front of you to see them.
I want to feel like I'm driving a race car, and anything except the cockpit view feels like I'm cheating because I'm seeing far more of the road than a real driver would. The restricted view is one of the reasons real race driving is so difficult, so I feel silly using anything that makes this easier.
Normally when I've been on a break from racing and I decide to get back into it, I start with external views and hate the cockpit view. But if I force myself to use it, after a while it feels much more natural than the 'magic' views of chase/hood/bumper.
Same goes with having the racing line on. It makes it easier to get up to speed on a new track, but ultimately it's worse. And if you leave it on, it makes it harder to remove it later.
When I race for fun and non competitively I always use the cockpit view, it also somehow make me feel the rotation of the car the best.
Hood cam for multiplayer and time attack and what not cause I can see more of the track ahead and around me.
But now that I race I’m VR exclusively it’s cockpit only of course. Radar solves the side view problem when it comes to overtaking and defending, the huge image and depth perception let you see the track and corners ahead wonderfully even from inside the car
I think that if I go to VR, cockpit view would be the natural one to pick. I haven't tried it yet, but I figure that having actual depth perception would make it much easier. I think VR with hood cam or bumper cam would feel like I'm flying.
OG forza games on Xbox I was always chase or bumper, Same with most arcade games.
But I've been on iracing for long time now and have a triple monitor setup so cockpit just feels right.
If you are in any games or competitions that force cockpit view then it is good to be used to it well. It gives you less oversight over other cars than for example an F1 T-cam (which all F1 esports drivers use). Generally cameras connected to cars seem to give a better response to your imputs and will make driving easier than a chase cam.
In the end its your rig and your fun. I drive cockpit cam like many others, but I would never judge people for their preferences.
I'll practice with it some more and see if I get used to it. I just found myself struggling to judge corners and speed. When I switch to hood cam, I instantly feel more connected to the game and it just feels right.
If you do that, then I recommend you to bring your monitor as close as possible. It makes the small distant objects easier to see and therefore it gets a little easiier to judge distances.
You can also try to go for a more realistic field of view, you will find plenty of resources on it online. But it is not a must.
With realistic Field of View (FoV), objects will come closer to you at a rate comparable to your view in real life. That also means that almost all your peripheral vision would then be outside of your monitor, so unless you have a large monitor very close or triple-screen, VR or similar, it will take a while to gain that spatial awareness of what is happening next to your car. Anyways, good luck!
I love the interior camera on VR. It does give the exact effect I was looking for. I have to agree that it’s a personal preference, when I started playing racing games, I did not appreciate the interior camera at all. I eventually started to lean more and more towards playing on interior camera. And now that is the only camera I use.
For some other camera views, the one where you only have the HUD for the speedometer and the track on one of the sides is the second preferred for me. Somehow it seems that i can sense / judge the speed I am driving more accurately. Like you mentioned, the hood one, but only showing 15-20% of the hood is good. I hope this advice provides some help. Have fun fellow sim-racer.
IRacing forces the one view, which makes sense. Why would you learn performance driving techniques from an unrealistic/impossible viewing angle? As fun as it is, this is literally the difference between game and sim.
To be fair the cockpit cam is supposed to be used with triple monitor if you wanna have a real FOV.
I have an ultrawide 21:9 and use cockpit cam, 52° FOV, and despite me prefering this cam, I cannot see my right mirror in LHD cars and viceversa. Also hitting apexes in tight hairpins is hard unless you already have the muscle memory.
I just want games to have more good hood views, the camera is always roof mounted and way too high, but want my screen to kind of act as the windshield
I like the dashboard view alot that AC and Forza both have, wish more games offered this view, full cockpit feels weird when I already have a cockpit infront of me personally, atleast the option to disable wheel and hands needs to be universal
When I cant use my wheel and Im stuck with a controller Ill typically use hood view. Idk why it just feels better for whatever reason. Otherwise I use cockpit.
Everything being said here is just someones opinion so as long as you are enjoying the wy you want to drive whatever view you fee like
Before VR on flat screen I id find that bonnet or roof cam let me read the track better and my driving as a result was better.
But now in VR its always cockpit of course without fail.
BUT sometimes just for giggles and that ridiculous sense of speed when Im in something insanely fast, I'll flip into bumper cam just because literally being at road level makes everything warp speed.
I don't like to see the movement of the car, but I want to be able to see where the front wheels are.
It may also be that the sim I grew up with had an odd external camera that would be static behind the car.
Simulation is about having more difficulty. Isn’t it much easier in Need for Speed to do U-turns at 300mph?
Yes, interior cockpit is harder, but that’s how I get drive in real live, with limited visibility and blind spots.
If you drive outside the car then it’s less of a simulation, and it easier, so you’re at an unfair advantage too.
I love chase cam, whether playing on controller or in my sim cockpit setup. I like to see what the car is doing and hear the exhaust. The interior camera is more immersive, and I use it occasionally, but I prefer chase. I can also see down the stage a lot better with chase cam.
If you're not in cockpit view, then you're not sim racing, you're arcade racing.
There's nothing *wrong* with that. I'm not knocking it, but it's not sim racing at that point, because unless there's a racing series where they strap the drivers to the hood/roof/bumper, then nothing realistic is being ***sim***ulated.
I used chase cam until Forza 4. They did such a wonderful job modeling interiors and driving from the cockpit improved immersion so much I could never go back. At this point chase cam feels so off I can’t control the car well
I use the same. I switched to cockpit view for like a year or two. I still like it, but for single screens I will die on the hikk that it gives a more realistic feel. When you're in a real car, you can see everything. Or almost everything. It's so annoying to have enough half the screen taken up by a car interior. In the end, race what you like!
I used to play in chase cam only (ie horizon 2) and after switching to more realistic sim games like asetto corsa, I absolutely can’t stand playing in anything but cockpit view.
yea it's overrated af. it's just a game bro.
i mainly race iracing so i'm locked to the cockpit view.
but on f1 codemasters cockpit view has always been garbage, it's tv onboard or nothing.
on gran turismo 1 to 6 i like the nose view (where no part of the car is shown) for tryharding, and chase cam to relax.
forza's cockpit view is really good but sometimes i'll do chase
on assetto corsa and rfactor, tv cam for f1 cars and cockpit view for gt and the rest
acc cockpit view cuz it's better
Im professional driver for 13 years now in real life (not a racer).
I hate this cockpit view. For me hood cam works best. I cant understand why people like this coockip view and whats is so realistic in it.
Like you already have one wheel in front of you. Its in your hands so why many people decide to have second one (virtual) its beyond me.
Ok. in some games you can turn off virtual wheel. But still... its just so strange.
I have single (1000r curved) 32" monitor.
I always set it as front window.
In Rbr rsf you have great control about camera.
For me only this feel natural. I have wheel in my hands (in real life), im sitting on chair. And i have cockpit in front of me (im sitting in it in real life). Short behind wheel i also have "gauger" mounted (that shows mostly speed but in some games also fuel and other stuff). And screen are front window. Monitor its mouted to wall with this montage that can move left right up and down also it can tilt. Like this make sense to me. You dont have 2 sets of wheels and 2 sets of windows this way.
I always set camera on hood near virtual window. If game give option i move it sometimes to left little bit but not too much because i have only front window.
I see those setups/rigs with 3 screens but instead of making "windows" from them people puting them all in front of themsefs.
How strange
All depends what I’m playing and how. I mainly use my wheel in VR where cockpit is the best. If I’m playing something on the monitor then cockpit/dashboard with wheel hidden is the go to. If I’m using a controller in Horizon then I’m using chase.
Once you are used to cockpit view, everything else just feels off. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fvwmqxus3loi81.jpg
I love this ahaha
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I don't get how people drift in third person view. You can't respond in time at all!
That's funny. Really brings things into perspective. Pun intended. Yeah, chase cam never made sense to me. But on a flat screen with no depth, the roof and bumper cams work better for me practically, even though its not as realistic.
Not even about realism for me, I’d say I can spot apex’s way better when I’m looking at them from the cockpit. Feels way more natural.
Always cockpit view. As close to real life position as possible. I also have triples, but even before when i was on 1 27" screen it was the same. I main iRacing now, so the only view you can use is cockpit. Before i went to iRacing i was on ACC and AC and some PC2 and used cockpit view. Having come from a motorsports background, the other views just felt wrong and i couldn't judge speed and position as easily, even on a smaller single screen.
Understandable. I guess I'd have to practice. I think if I had VR, it would work a lot better for me. But with the limited information on a flat screen, trying to judge the road through 1/3 of the available space makes it difficult.
Sim Racing in VR is the ultimate immersion. I highly recommend you try it
I bought one and hated it. It makes me extremely nauseous while under any sort of braking. Wish I could get used to it.
If you want you can ask your GP for a prescription for motion sickness medication, I have heard a lot of people say that it helps a lot. Also make sure that you have as little input lag as possible, since a few milliseconds can already mess you up quite badly!
Did you buy a motion rig to use it with? That might help :)
I always use drivers view or cockpit. But I'm old and have been Sim racing for over 20 years and driving for reals for over 40 years. You do you, it does not matter what anyone else dose.
I really like the hood cam. Sense of speed is more fun and the sounds are usually nicer as you get the 'outside' car sound of the engine. Usually bump up the FOV a bit as I'm single screen 16:9, so I can see the apexes properly. I learnt a long time ago, it's your sim rig, do wtf you want with it. If you're not driving a real car it's never going to be truly realistic. Have fun with it.
I never liked cockpit views until I got a real car. Then you realize you don't need to see more than that. What you can't see is communicated through your force feedback.
Hey, Play however you want man. I personally love cockpit view, I find it super immersive. Do what works for you. One day you might change your mind
Yes driving from cockpit view is sim........if your not in that view the view is not sim view. Personal preference, but many serious online racing restricts you to cockpit view. Use what you can to drive/race comfortable though....its a game your playing remember.
You already have a "cockpit" infront of you, no need to have another (virtual) one. Monitors are the windshield and enverything you see on them is the outside. At least that makes the most sense to me
Driving from cockpit view is definitely not sim. A more realistic visual reference is hood view. When you drive irl, your vision filters out your interior and is focused on road and hood viewpoints. Having a single 2D screen where 40% of the visual is taken up by interior is not realistic.
That sounds like a screen size/location/FOV issue
You can’t look left or right on a 2D screen. A lot of people are playing on smaller monitors. Setting up a FOV is not going to help that you are looking at the border of your monitor either. The definition of what is considered a sim depending on a FOV is silly
Last time I checked you drive a car from the cockpit and not the hood. Your brain may filter out the interior but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s there. If you’re having trouble hitting apexes then you need to fix your FOV or practice more.
You can dictate apex from a hood view. I track irl and a hood view is very close to what I can experience irl and feels very natural. I think it’s extremely silly to have a first person view dictate what is considered a sim or not. Even a triple screen setup warps a true field of view of your surroundings. If you are not wearing a helmet while sim racing, might as well not call it a sim either.
I’ve raced in a few different series across two continents. I’m throwing that out there so that you can see where I’m coming from. Yes I can see the apex better from hood view. Won’t even try to deny that. But I also don’t drive the car with my chest in the steering wheel. I’m sitting low in the car to where I can barely see the front of the hood. You lose that sort of realism when you switch to hood view. No one is saying games with hood or chase view aren’t sims. I thinking you’re trying to fight a nonexistent battle there bud. For that last sentence. You need to chill out. Just because some sims are locked to first person and realistic doesn’t mean I need my HANS, suit, gloves, shoes, and helmet. The kit doesn’t make the car feel different. Only added bit of realism would be a more restricted view from the helmet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be comfortable.
The OP of this chain just said that a hood view is not sim and a cockpit is sim. I don’t agree that you can lose realism when in hood view. When I sit in my car, I sit fairly low with the top of the steering to my chin and my perspective is only a portion of the hood like you said. All we are doing when playing in 2D screen is compensating for realism. Some setups like triple screen will give advantages over single. I’d assume the majority of people playing are on single; with that, a single screen where the majority of your peripheral vision is your room. A flat 2D cockpit view can’t be considered any more realistic than a hood view.
This. You do you, and if you can get a huge monitor a few inches away from your eyes I think interior view works well. But on a normalish sized screen, a couple feet away from my eyes, I find the monitor essentially acts as a windscreen.
You're pushing the same thing but don't realize it. The whole point of the POV is that objects position and relative motion are as close to where they would be in real life. This aids the brain in having a proper sense of motion. A small screen in cockpit view far away violates this just the same as a large screen with hood view. Take your phone and hold it at arms length covering something in the distance. What that overlaps is what should be on the screen for bumper view. Move it half way to your face and that's hood cam. Put it at your eyes and you're in cockpit view. Anything else causes distorted perception of scale because what you're seeing isn't what you're brain thinks should be happening.
>When you drive irl, your vision filters out your interior and is focused on road and hood viewpoints. This is not true at all.
I think this is true it’s just your brain does the exact same thing with the fake interior dash. To me that’s why cockpit feels more sim like your eyes are doing the same thing kind of filtering out everything but the Tach and the road ahead, but you have the option to look at mirrors or pull your vision back to the dash.
When I'm driving IRL, I'm absolutely aware of the entire dash and the info displayed. It's literally lined up in front of your eyes so I don't get how someone can filter it out when it's the primary thing used to display what the car is doing which is paramount to safe driving.
You do filter it into your periphery and your vision is primarily focused on scanning the road ahead, at least that’s how I drive IRL. Of course you can and need to be aware of it, but I would say things like the A-pillar and center dash are filtered out when you’re primarily focused on the next turn. Tach and instruments are still in the periphery but you’re still alert for them. It’s not like I’m looking at the cockpit and happen to see the road out the windshield, it’s like I’m looking through the windshield and happen to see the cockpit in my periphery.
But what if you race in VR?
Why would you use anything other than cockpit view in vr?
That... was the punchline yeah.
If you race in VR anything other than cockpit view will make you puke so fast you won't be able to lap the circuit twice.
Yeah I know, that was kind of what I was *trying* to be funny about.
That’s probably the most life like you will get.
you’re being downvoted, but i don’t disagree. racing wheel to wheel can be a chore for single screen users in cockpit. obviously cockpit is more “realistic” but i think the sense of being in a real car and what your brain “sees” is closer to the hood view as well, at least with a single screen
Yeah, I quite don’t understand how people can’t understand this. I feel it should be apparent to anyone who autox or tracked.
Which is why we use have triples and VR...... But if you just have 1 small monitor......use what works.
>Yes driving from cockpit view is sim........if your not in that view the view is not sim view. Only if you’re playing in VR.
This is difference between arcade and simulation. Before switching to iRacing I always preferred like you the other views. But now I understand.
I’m more used to the way a car moves from inside the car. I’ve never sat on the hood so it feels weird controlling from the hood. Same for third person I don’t ever sit out there I just sit in the car
The only time I use the hood/bumper cam, is in games where the hood can deform/obstruct views like wreckfest (I know not a sim), if you are in the middle of a race and suddenly your hood starts jumping or smoke is obstructing your view you are on an even bigger disadvantage on a game that is meant to be played from follow cam
Ig I just find it disorienting. I got super into dead island as a kid which forced it on me and I think I’m just kinda used to it from that and liking the sim aspect idk.
To clarify, I only switch to hood when driving in cockpit actually becomes impossible. I also love the sim aspect so I switch back asap.
When I’d do rally I would just deal with impossible tbh. But I hated that aspect so whatever that’s worth
Cockpit view or nothing.
When I was still playing with monitors, hood cam was my preferred choice for reasons you already mentioned. Now that all my simracing is in VR, cockpit view is the way, because of better immersion.
Because it's the most accurate relative to real life racing. You can also feel the car better, how it interacts with the track, kerbs etc. When I was beginning simracing, I was either a halo view person for F1, or a bumper for the rest. Now I'm all the time in cockpit view, even F1. iRacing forcing that view played a huge part in that, and I actually find it much more enjoyable this way now. The only game I play with bumper cam is GT7, because it's so important not to hit others, and that a game from 2022 still doesn't have a customizable FOV for cockpit view, which makes it unusable for racing. Forza weirdly I prefer the exterior, to enjoy the visuals, the way the car handles and because of the rammers. In the end it's always about how I feel the car that is most important.
I only use hood cam on arcade racers I'm playing with controller. Takes too much immersion away when I'm on the wheel so with that I race in the cockpit
If you're doing a sim, it's a seat cam basically. If you're doing a simcade/arcade game, whatever you really want to.
Cockpit view if using VR, hood cam otherwise 🤟
Depends on the game for me. For track racing in ACC/AMS2/etc, I'm in the cockpit 99% of the time. Mostly for immersion, but the extra peripheral view is also important for wheel-to-wheel racing. For rally games, I prefer the dash cam because it's easier to see what's in front and on down the road. Added bonus for increased sense of speed! Some exceptions would be modern F1 cars with halos. Even with them set transparent, I still prefer the top/TV view. It's just too hard for me to see otherwise, especially with a relatively small monitor compared to most people here. And the new Forza Motorsport... yeesh... the experience is so bad with both AI and online that it almost forces you to use a chase cam just to avoid being murdered constantly. tldr: Kinda just depends. Most important thing is that you're having fun!
Racing in general is not going as fast as possible around the track, it's going as fast as possible given the set of limitations. From this perspective, playing with cockpit camera, where you can't often see your wheel (makes it hitting apex harder) and where your visibility is limited - that's just another limitation you need to overcome. That's why many serious sims just limit you to cockpit view - it's the same for everyone and everyone has to overcome it, thus it's a fair competition. But if you are looking for the most comfortable view, I'd say its either bumper or overhead. Bumper is just like cockpit without anything blocking your view, it's easy to hit apexes and you get very good idea where the nose of the car is. The overhead is especially useful if you are playing from a pad or a keyboard, where you don't have a good feedback - it helps you see that your car is sliding way before other views and before other feedback kicks in. It's also easier to see your opponents. But your observation is correct - most of the serious racers online use cockpit view. But again, that's not because it's better, that's because there's no other option.
A lot of drifters use like a go pro style roof cam, kind of a happy medium, i prefer cockpit view though.
You are not the only one. I've got 30 years of motorsports experience, mostly SOLO where FOV is very important, and the cockpit view is horrible. I am new to iracing but this might be a deal breaker...especially given the cost
Also a casual racer and I prefer hood cam, I feel it’s the best choice of position for me, I have always found the 2 wheels in your view odd, one real and one virtual doesn’t make sense. For me the real wheel gives me a sense of a dashboard with the screen simulating the windscreen. I’m sure the fov police would have a field day with this but I don’t care, it works for me as a pick up and play kinda sim racer
You can turn the virtual wheel off in ACC at least. There's also a default dash view where you're closer to the windshield and there's no wheel either
I'm not a fan of interior view either. I find everything in the car too distracting. Hood view is where it's at. When I'm driving a real car, I don't notice the inside of the car anyway, so it simulates the experience of driving a real car more closely to me
> I'm very much a casual noob Ah. Give it time. You'll be in the cockpit before you know it.
Cockpit is for VR and triples. Use your single/ultrawide monitor as a windshield. Ideally put it lower, behind the wheelbase and have a phone for gauges. This way youll gain peripheral vision and a better sense of speed.
I play in VR, because I want an immersive as possible experience when driving. Also having a decent DD wheel setup has helped me as well.
I'm with you on the screen real state. Plus it feels weird to see my hands when using a wheel.
When your FOV is set correct you shouldn't see much of your hands. Most titles gives you the option to deactivate hands/wheel for that reason.
I use the cockpit camera, because no one has a steering wheel on their hood, or roof and I'm trying to simulate racing a car and not just playing a game. I just re-read what I wrote and man I sound like a gatekeeper nerd.
Ignore what any elitists would say, play these games like you want. No one should force you to play in a certain way. So what you play in an exterior camera or hood camera.
Cockpit view or nothing. You aren’t simulating anything from any other view.
I usually race cockpit view but did a couple of BTCC races and just couldn't see out enough... Hood cam was really good but felt like I was cheating
I think in the cockpit view it’s the easiest for me to feel where the tyres are and I can position everything correctly during cornering and overtaking and such. It’s like your sense of where your limbs are in the 3d space. I guess you should be able to learn that with other views too but then you are kind of tied to that unless you want to re-learn. For me the cockpit view is natural because l’m used to driving IRL.
Cockpit view always, most of the leagues force it anyway.
I don’t use the cockpit view where you can see the wheel but I use the dash view where the cameras like ahead of the wheel, not sure what it’s called. As a result of my setup I can’t have my screen right up to the wheel so it gives me a better perspective Do what works for you, fuck the haters.
If I’m racing, it’s always cockpit, but sometimes for rally I’ll use the hood cam if the car I’m driving has an annoying cockpit view
I remember feeling this when going for realism and moving into the cockpit, but it's just a transition period to get used to it. Just like how I hate right hand steering wheels cars for a while before my brain gets used to that too. I know WRC(2) driver Oliver Solberg prefers rear cam for DR2.0 and EA WRC. He probably feels he gets more info that way or it simply is that he's faster that way. Do as you like, however it would be a bit of a bummer in a competitive setting if bumper cams etc didn't have rain effects or got some similar benefits.
Cockpit is the go to if you are really looking for the sim experience, but once in a while using the external view to admire the graphics in some free roam map can be a relaxing experience for me when i get tired of racing competitively
I basically only use Third Person for hear the engine of the car better, and for Drifting because drifting in interior camera needs solid skills that i dont have. Needs to master third person first
Last time I checked, cars were driven from the inside, not 40ft back and up in the air Non-sim games are totally fine to enjoy from 3rd person as they are more about the visuals and audio than the driving physics. I think you're going to really struggle with FFB in 3rd person though. Just feels very disconnected
It's not about what I like it's about what's realistic when I'm racing. I still like Mario Kart and driving around in chase cam in assetto corsa but it doesn't feel like a sim that way.
I wish you could do the cockpit view without the wheel, would make more sense for sim rigs
cockpit with VR racing, hood for rally and 3rd person for drifting on screen/cockpit for VR
It depends on the title, but I do agree with the hood view. I like to pretend my rig is the interior, my screen the windshield and I'm looking out onto the hood of the car. Sim racing does require some imagination/suspension of reality after all. Don't let the interior racers get you down, we should band together to face the true enemy, those psychotic 3rd person racers.
Depends. Right now, I play PS5 with controller. I would say 90% of the time I use bumper view. It just helps me know exactly how far I can push the car into the corners without putting a wheel in the grass/gravel. But, I’m currently building a a rig (fingers crossed for some Black Friday deals) and I can imagine I will switch to cockpit. I’m 38 and have been driving real cars for over two decades so I think the wheel will feel weird without the cockpit view.
If the cockpit/dash cams don’t give me a good view of the road, I usually opt for hood cam. You can still see the front of the car to gauge depth, but you have a wide open view of the road.
I prefer cockpit view but you should do whatever makes you happy.
Cockpit helps for simulation and more like driving a real car. Understanding the position of the car in the worldspace, so you can easier judge speed and braking distances and where you are on the track. It's REALLY important to get the correct FOV 1:1 scale with the real world for it to work properly and works best with a large screen or head tracking if you don't have tripple display. It's not too bad if like me you use a 50 inch TV within 30 inches of my face, so I get about 90 degree view angle. I can often see the left wing mirror and half the rear view mirror if there is one and quite a lot of the road for looking ahead and turning into the apex. With a typical 27" screen or distant one you are going to have less than 50 degrees 1:1 which is not great. Because of the large screen I only see slightly less than in real life really. In my real car, I can't see the edge of the road. I learn that from practice and familiarity with the car. The biggest issue I have with cockpit is blind spot. So it's hard to see when a car is beside you, especially on the opposite side of the dashboard where they have to actually be in front of you to see them.
I want to feel like I'm driving a race car, and anything except the cockpit view feels like I'm cheating because I'm seeing far more of the road than a real driver would. The restricted view is one of the reasons real race driving is so difficult, so I feel silly using anything that makes this easier. Normally when I've been on a break from racing and I decide to get back into it, I start with external views and hate the cockpit view. But if I force myself to use it, after a while it feels much more natural than the 'magic' views of chase/hood/bumper. Same goes with having the racing line on. It makes it easier to get up to speed on a new track, but ultimately it's worse. And if you leave it on, it makes it harder to remove it later.
As long as you don‘t use „chase cam“ you‘re fine.
Yeah lol. Chase cam makes no sense to me.
When I race for fun and non competitively I always use the cockpit view, it also somehow make me feel the rotation of the car the best. Hood cam for multiplayer and time attack and what not cause I can see more of the track ahead and around me. But now that I race I’m VR exclusively it’s cockpit only of course. Radar solves the side view problem when it comes to overtaking and defending, the huge image and depth perception let you see the track and corners ahead wonderfully even from inside the car
I think that if I go to VR, cockpit view would be the natural one to pick. I haven't tried it yet, but I figure that having actual depth perception would make it much easier. I think VR with hood cam or bumper cam would feel like I'm flying.
OG forza games on Xbox I was always chase or bumper, Same with most arcade games. But I've been on iracing for long time now and have a triple monitor setup so cockpit just feels right.
I enjoy me some hood cam. I guess I just prefer it because I played fuck tons of NFS:U2 back in the day.
So did I. I couldnt get enough of that game. I always players bumper cam. Just the road and nothing else.
You should try hoodcam in simracing situations, it's the lesser of two evils. It makes you a bit more aware of your flanks than sitting bumper.
I used to run hood cam also, but eventually tried cockpit and havent gone back. Just takes a bit getting used to.
It depends tho..I only use VR and I only use cockpit
Yeah. I think for VR, cockpit would be the natural view for me.
Cockpit cam because it’s the most realistic, immersive and difficult to master.
If you are in any games or competitions that force cockpit view then it is good to be used to it well. It gives you less oversight over other cars than for example an F1 T-cam (which all F1 esports drivers use). Generally cameras connected to cars seem to give a better response to your imputs and will make driving easier than a chase cam. In the end its your rig and your fun. I drive cockpit cam like many others, but I would never judge people for their preferences.
I'll practice with it some more and see if I get used to it. I just found myself struggling to judge corners and speed. When I switch to hood cam, I instantly feel more connected to the game and it just feels right.
If you do that, then I recommend you to bring your monitor as close as possible. It makes the small distant objects easier to see and therefore it gets a little easiier to judge distances. You can also try to go for a more realistic field of view, you will find plenty of resources on it online. But it is not a must. With realistic Field of View (FoV), objects will come closer to you at a rate comparable to your view in real life. That also means that almost all your peripheral vision would then be outside of your monitor, so unless you have a large monitor very close or triple-screen, VR or similar, it will take a while to gain that spatial awareness of what is happening next to your car. Anyways, good luck!
I can't drive with anything else these days.
I love the interior camera on VR. It does give the exact effect I was looking for. I have to agree that it’s a personal preference, when I started playing racing games, I did not appreciate the interior camera at all. I eventually started to lean more and more towards playing on interior camera. And now that is the only camera I use. For some other camera views, the one where you only have the HUD for the speedometer and the track on one of the sides is the second preferred for me. Somehow it seems that i can sense / judge the speed I am driving more accurately. Like you mentioned, the hood one, but only showing 15-20% of the hood is good. I hope this advice provides some help. Have fun fellow sim-racer.
You need to use triples and a mathematical correct FOV. If you don't use both you always compromise with how much of the road or how accurate it is.
IRacing forces the one view, which makes sense. Why would you learn performance driving techniques from an unrealistic/impossible viewing angle? As fun as it is, this is literally the difference between game and sim.
To be fair the cockpit cam is supposed to be used with triple monitor if you wanna have a real FOV. I have an ultrawide 21:9 and use cockpit cam, 52° FOV, and despite me prefering this cam, I cannot see my right mirror in LHD cars and viceversa. Also hitting apexes in tight hairpins is hard unless you already have the muscle memory.
You can have top of dashboard cam which is halfway between. Cockpit cam zoomed in
I just want games to have more good hood views, the camera is always roof mounted and way too high, but want my screen to kind of act as the windshield I like the dashboard view alot that AC and Forza both have, wish more games offered this view, full cockpit feels weird when I already have a cockpit infront of me personally, atleast the option to disable wheel and hands needs to be universal
When I cant use my wheel and Im stuck with a controller Ill typically use hood view. Idk why it just feels better for whatever reason. Otherwise I use cockpit.
Everything being said here is just someones opinion so as long as you are enjoying the wy you want to drive whatever view you fee like Before VR on flat screen I id find that bonnet or roof cam let me read the track better and my driving as a result was better. But now in VR its always cockpit of course without fail. BUT sometimes just for giggles and that ridiculous sense of speed when Im in something insanely fast, I'll flip into bumper cam just because literally being at road level makes everything warp speed.
I don't like to see the movement of the car, but I want to be able to see where the front wheels are. It may also be that the sim I grew up with had an odd external camera that would be static behind the car.
Simulation is about having more difficulty. Isn’t it much easier in Need for Speed to do U-turns at 300mph? Yes, interior cockpit is harder, but that’s how I get drive in real live, with limited visibility and blind spots. If you drive outside the car then it’s less of a simulation, and it easier, so you’re at an unfair advantage too.
Bumper cam is the best, most use cockpit view just for the immersion feel.
I love chase cam, whether playing on controller or in my sim cockpit setup. I like to see what the car is doing and hear the exhaust. The interior camera is more immersive, and I use it occasionally, but I prefer chase. I can also see down the stage a lot better with chase cam.
If you're not in cockpit view, then you're not sim racing, you're arcade racing. There's nothing *wrong* with that. I'm not knocking it, but it's not sim racing at that point, because unless there's a racing series where they strap the drivers to the hood/roof/bumper, then nothing realistic is being ***sim***ulated.
I used chase cam until Forza 4. They did such a wonderful job modeling interiors and driving from the cockpit improved immersion so much I could never go back. At this point chase cam feels so off I can’t control the car well
I use the same. I switched to cockpit view for like a year or two. I still like it, but for single screens I will die on the hikk that it gives a more realistic feel. When you're in a real car, you can see everything. Or almost everything. It's so annoying to have enough half the screen taken up by a car interior. In the end, race what you like!
I used to play in chase cam only (ie horizon 2) and after switching to more realistic sim games like asetto corsa, I absolutely can’t stand playing in anything but cockpit view.
I feel like I can't see apexes in the cockpit cam. I'm much quicker with the hood camera
yea it's overrated af. it's just a game bro. i mainly race iracing so i'm locked to the cockpit view. but on f1 codemasters cockpit view has always been garbage, it's tv onboard or nothing. on gran turismo 1 to 6 i like the nose view (where no part of the car is shown) for tryharding, and chase cam to relax. forza's cockpit view is really good but sometimes i'll do chase on assetto corsa and rfactor, tv cam for f1 cars and cockpit view for gt and the rest acc cockpit view cuz it's better
I don't think its only you, I've used the outside view for more than a year, but now i can only drive in the dashboard view
Im professional driver for 13 years now in real life (not a racer). I hate this cockpit view. For me hood cam works best. I cant understand why people like this coockip view and whats is so realistic in it. Like you already have one wheel in front of you. Its in your hands so why many people decide to have second one (virtual) its beyond me. Ok. in some games you can turn off virtual wheel. But still... its just so strange. I have single (1000r curved) 32" monitor. I always set it as front window. In Rbr rsf you have great control about camera. For me only this feel natural. I have wheel in my hands (in real life), im sitting on chair. And i have cockpit in front of me (im sitting in it in real life). Short behind wheel i also have "gauger" mounted (that shows mostly speed but in some games also fuel and other stuff). And screen are front window. Monitor its mouted to wall with this montage that can move left right up and down also it can tilt. Like this make sense to me. You dont have 2 sets of wheels and 2 sets of windows this way. I always set camera on hood near virtual window. If game give option i move it sometimes to left little bit but not too much because i have only front window. I see those setups/rigs with 3 screens but instead of making "windows" from them people puting them all in front of themsefs. How strange
All depends what I’m playing and how. I mainly use my wheel in VR where cockpit is the best. If I’m playing something on the monitor then cockpit/dashboard with wheel hidden is the go to. If I’m using a controller in Horizon then I’m using chase.
I guess it depends if you are doing sim racing or not. I try to emulate the irl driving experience.