Adapting to Cockpit view

[Shotglass]

so ive been using wheels view for about half a year now (having the cockpit on killed my framerate) and now that i have a pc that can run with cockpit view i obviously want to use it
for one its more realistic and even more important it offers a lot more indication on what forces are acting on the car

trouble is i just cant get used to having an a-pillar blocking my sight into lefthanders
has anybody got some simple tips on how to get used to it (except driving lots of corners of course)

[Vain]

I don't think there is a trick here. In RL the A-pillar hides some corner-entries and in LFS it does too. *shrugs* Life sucks. ;)

Vain

[ruckus37]

"a-pillar blocking my sight into lefthanders"

Move around the pillar....

[RevMonkey]

ruckus.... *smacks head*

shotglass, go drive a car around a track :P basically just use the force and predict where the curb is, as long as it's a little left of you then it's all good. and you'll be able to feel the rumblstrip through FFB i assume (i use a mouse)

[ruckus37]

Sorry Mate out of myt leage, sorry for the reply..

[felplacerad]

try playing around with "look function: steer" and "look sensitivity" if you haven't already. it'll rotate the view as you turn the wheel.

[mrodgers]

Ruckus37, the "A-pillar" is the pillar between your windshield and the door window. "B-pillar" is between the door windows (on a 4 door) or door window and back side window. "C-pillar" you'll have to guess :-) .

It does take a little of getting use to. I was the same way. With the S1 demo I ran in cockpit view, then had to switch to wheels view when S2 demo came out for framerate. I put a better gfx card (replaced onboard) and was estatic that I could race in the cockpit again. Only took me a few times to get use to it.

Try this, set your FOV to around 60%, at least for tin top cars. I feel this simulates the view you have in real life looking forwards the best. Of course, you can't see out the side as well, but do you focus out there without turning your head in real life? Looking out the sides is what you have the head turn feature and the look left/right for.

[Shotglass]

I don't think there is a trick here. In RL the A-pillar hides some corner-entries and in LFS it does too. *shrugs* Life sucks. ;)

well irl you can move your head a little ... and maybe it wouldnt bother me as much if i had 3d googles

shotglass, go drive a car around a track :P basically just use the force and predict where the curb is, as long as it's a little left of you then it's all good. and you'll be able to feel the rumblstrip through FFB i assume (i use a mouse)

as far a i know all curbs in lfs are smooth so if you feel the curb its mostly rapidly changing forces and ffb lag ... but yeah you can feel them a little

but my problem isnt so much while im in the corner ... its getting the entry right when i cant see the curbs ... or the apex ... or the whole corner (in the gtrs)

[ruckus37]

Thanks, but for simplicity I race OW, fullup driver view

[Shotglass]

try playing around with "look function: steer" and "look sensitivity" if you haven't already. it'll rotate the view as you turn the wheel.

havent tried that yet but i assume ill run into problems with countersteering

[Vain]

I use the look-with-steering and it works for racing, countersteering and even drifting (as seldom as I do it...). The best part of steering-look is that you can see someone who is driving on the inside line in a corner and also you get a perfect view on the exit of the corner.
About the entry of left-handers: You're right, I can't think of many left turns where I use the left side as the entry-point. I mainly use the right side of the track to find my entry-point.

Vain

[felplacerad]

havent tried that yet but i assume ill run into problems with countersteering


possibly, but you'll adapt, and it might be better in the long run. you might aswell try it out asap since you already doing a switch ...

[Shotglass]

hmm i mainly countersteer and drift by observing how fast my view into the far distance moves ... i can only assume that it will take a lot of time to adapt to substracting the movements i get from turning my wheel with look with steering

[felplacerad]

hmm i mainly countersteer and drift by observing how fast my view into the far distance moves ... i can only assume that it will take a lot of time to adapt to substracting the movements i get from turning my wheel with look with steering

just try it already! :)

start with a low value, then increase it gradually.

[TheRealEddie]

I've got an old TrackIR 2 that I love. Once its configured correcty and you get used to it, it can greatly enhance your driving line and situational awareness.

Since the TrackIR 4 just came out I bet you can get the 2 really cheap on Ebay.

Edit: Yup, there is one up there now for $20 US. Can't go wrong at that price=).

[Shotglass]

just try it already! :)

start with a low value, then increase it gradually.

hmmm certainly feels very weird ... especially while drifting with full lock

[Woz]

hmmm certainly feels very weird ... especially while drifting with full lock

the thing to rememebr when its set to 1 then your head is just tracking the front wheels from what I can figure. This makes drift easier because you know the wheels are pointing where you want them to point when you drift.

I use FFB to let me know when I have pushed to hard.

[richy]

i use the full cockpit view just for a better sense of immersion in the game, i just use the default view, like in a real car a lot of the time you cant see because of that pillar but you forget its there, you begin to just look "through" the pillar. just trust the fact that where the curb is hidden by the pillar by only an inch or two that nothing can fit in that gap :D Same as anything close to the car around the body that you cant see, you learn to know that there is a chunk of metal around you, become one with the car and it will feel like an extension of your body. :razz:

well enough hippy talk,

how can you adjust the cockpit so you can see all of the rear view mirror? (not side mirror) in some cars i can only see a small bit of that mirror, it would be nice if i could see the whole thing

[mrodgers]

Richy is absolutely right up there. I can't see the front or rear bumper of any of my real vehicles, but I can pull up to around half an inch to 1/4 inch from a wall without hitting it (that's 12.7 to 6.35 mm for you wierdo's everywhere else, LOL). You learn where the "dimmensions" of your car is and don't need to see them. Can you drive your real car with the tires right on the edge of the road without going off? I'm sure you can't SEE your tires, but you know exactly where they are on the road. Same concept with the A-pillar being in the way of the view. You learn to look "through" it as richy said.

[tailing]

Yeah, wheels view is basically h4x, cockpit's harder to get your lines right, simple as.

Actually, is there any way to tell what view the super-fast hotlappers are using? I'm guessing a lot of them will be using wheels view...

That's a load of bollocks in my opinion, for 1 and a half years in S1 I used wheels view, only switching to cockpit in S2 cause of the formula cars and not wanting to change my default view all the time.
There's very little difference between the two in the end, the one very minor advantage to wheels view is the aforementioned a-pillar blocking some corners.
When it comes to being quick it's all driving skill.

[Chaos]

wheels view a "hack"? It does not make you faster, I know that Jet_ cze (http://www.lfsworld.net/?win=hotlaps&whichTab=details&racer=jet_%20cze) does use the cockpit view (seen him drive with my own eyes) and he has some WRs (FZ GTR @ AS National for example)...

So it really does not matter which view you use... It's only about getting used to it...

[Gentlefoot]

I too used to use wheel view for better FPS. Played LFS like this for the first 3 months. Then I changed to cockpit view simply because it looks nicer. It only took me a few hours to get used to it.

But I agree with some others that when on wheels view you can place the inside wheel exactly where on the curb you want it. In cockpit view, you have to learn where you need to be because you cannot actually see the wheel.

'A pillar' only ever bothers me on corners where I use the apex to judge turn in and the a pillar stops me from doing this. Most of the time I will have found a reference point on the outside of the track as my turn in point anyway though.

In summary, I reckon it makes no difference to time in the end when you are used to both views.

[IDUI]

"There is no pillar." :tilt:

[Shotglass]

btw theres another advantage to wheels view ... better feel of speed since you see the road right beneath you ... of course having the speedo directly in view in the cockpit rather then bottom right where you cant see it makes up for this in some way

[Vain]

I measure my speed purely by the sound of the motor and the gear. Of course this means my perception changes whenever I tweak the gearbox, but I never got used to reading a speedo while racing. Another good source of speed-perception is the force feedback (at least in turns).

Vain

[AndroidXP]

Personally the wheels-only-view made me slower because instead of watching the road and "the place where I want to go", I instinctively started staring at the wheels to see if I'm understeering, etc.

Without the wheels I'm much more concentrating on actual body movement and I have a much better feel for the car this way.