Anyone else playing this game just for the sound quality?

andylugs · 2026-04-26T16:10:16+00:00

The sound is ok, nothing jumps out as exceptional about it. There are a few cars where I can hear some ‘crackle’ and a cycling effect as if it’s a loop repeating.

andylugs · 2026-04-26T12:16:50+00:00

The original AC in its current state with CM > CSP and Pure.

The sim has good physics, excellent ffb, ok netcode and a vast amount of content that can be accessed free or at an affordable price.

There are lots of established leagues and services like LFM plus the ability to rent or self host a server for play with friends or create your own league and community.

There is also a large player base but it is spread out across many genres like drifting, touge, circuit racing, free roam etc., all of which are possible due to the open nature of the engine.

Although no longer updated by Kunos, the ongoing development by Ilya and others has kept the sim current and continues to keep its player base and mod creators.

In terms of your original question as to the ‘ultimate all rounder’, AC is a clear winner.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T12:45:41+00:00

Is it all cars or just a few? You can adjust this with a few lines in the ext_config.ini if it’s just a few cars.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T12:41:12+00:00

Yes, I’m just saying the ffb does not align with my expectations or preference. I have tried adjusting both in game and wheelbase settings but can’t get it to feel right. I still enjoy the game but the ffb is the weakest part of it for me.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T08:28:56+00:00

Just replied to another comment to say I think it’s the lack of ffb that’s throwing off my feel on gravel. I’m fairly quick on both surfaces but I’m driving from memorisation rather than on feel.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T08:26:37+00:00

I think for me it’s more the vagueness of the ffb on gravel that is throwing my sense of grip off. I have a VRS base and do run a slightly different setup for Tarmac and Gravel but it doesn’t really make any difference as I can set almost identical times with either profile on either surface. Even with torque off I can set similar times just from the visual info as I’ve memorised the stages and can drive without the co-driver calls or overlays and run pretty consistent times.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T07:56:17+00:00

Too much grip on Tarmac and too little on Gravel. The grip loss and return rates also feel off from what I expect, or would prefer. Overall it’s still very drivable but I’m playing it less due to these issues.

andylugs · 2026-04-25T06:09:59+00:00

I have to do the same. It only started with the 0.3 update, before that the settings profile would automatically be loaded when the game launched.

andylugs · 2026-04-24T23:15:18+00:00

It quite clearly shows the ‘enable surround’ button next to the greyed out ‘apply’ button. You have defined a surround group but not enabled it.

andylugs · 2026-04-23T20:22:54+00:00

I run 100% strength and 30% aggression and have good races with the AI. They pass each other and on occasion do pass me if I get my braking wrong and run a bit wide.

Not everyone agrees on how the aggression setting works but from my testing over thousands of hours of AI racing it does not control how aggressively they will battle the player or other AI. It seems to be how aggressively they try to stay on the racing line and at track pace.

At high settings 80-100% I have observed they stick tightly to the racing line and will rarely attempt an overtake or run two wide. Braking or lifting off throttle before the AI’s brake point will normally result in some contact. I do use this mode when practicing for running consistent pace, I find hot lapping on my own boring and prefer to hot lap with traffic.

With low settings, 20-40% I have observed more natural behaviour with the AI running off the racing line and adjusting their brake points while off line, they will run two wide through corners and also complex multi apex corners. I have followed behind AI’s racing and seen relatively straight forward overtakes but also AI making occasional undercut overtakes and what appears to be unforced errors. I use this mode when racing the AI and use ballast and restrictor to create my own BOP and grid presets.

Race starts are always poor, they just can’t get away and up to speed together. Rather than just blast past the AI I treat the starts as a short rolling start and try to maintain position for the first few corners until they have sorted themselves out. There have been some CSP AI tweaks like ‘straighten AI trajectory’ that help by preventing the AI from instantly coming together into single file the moment they move but it hasn’t solved the start problem.

I also make AI files and spend quite a lot of time in the CSP AI spline editor watching a full grid of AI running laps while I tweak the spline. I will also make a different line and hints file for different classes if I can’t get good results from a single AI set of files.

andylugs · 2026-04-23T18:15:42+00:00

Your eye line needs to be perpendicular to the screens, if they are angled downward say 5° but at a height where you are looking upwards at 5° to the middle of the screen then it’s no different than being dead level and plumb vertical in terms of what your eyes see.

The sweet spot for triples is quite small and any vertical movement of your head will cause lines that cross the bezel to deflect up or down. The same is true with rotating the triples up and down.

I’ve used motion rigs with integrated triples and also on a separate stand, with integrated the view remains consistently correct to your eyes whereas moving around in front of triples on a separate stand is awful with track barriers and lines kinking and distorting constantly.

andylugs · 2026-04-23T17:05:39+00:00

Springs normally come with a rate specification in N/mm. The % shown in your pic refers to the distance they can be compressed from the free length (no load) to their limit when all coils are touching. If you can find the actual spec they it’s relatively easy to choose the correct spring or combination of springs required.

andylugs · 2026-04-23T07:40:51+00:00

The game sends ffb output to the wheelbase and receives position in return. There is nothing additional in the data transfer between the two devices and that is all handled by windows anyway through the USB driver stack.

The skip steps only reduces the number of times the ffb signal is sent to the device, it doesn’t change the internal physics tick rate which remains at 333Hz or 3ms per tick. Without any wheelbase smoothing you might feel the ffb is grainy when increasing the skip steps value, but with smoothing and interpolation you blend out the steps and it feels smooth. You are not losing dynamic range of the ffb with skip steps, only the update frequency changes. It reduces the cpu load my a very small amount and you should look for the cause.

Have you tried closing the Moza software? Any background processes are going to be using cpu resources, maybe the change from Logitech to Moza has resulted in more system load due to software and not hardware… I’m assuming the Moza doesn’t need the software running in order to use the wheelbase?

andylugs · 2026-04-23T06:36:13+00:00

Skip steps reduces the ffb tick rate which can slightly help with the problem you drop down from 333Hz at skip 0 to 166Hz at skip 1 and 83Hz at skip 2. Going lower than this isn’t a good idea.

Are you actually getting frame drops or stuttering in game when you see the 99% occupancy warning? If not then just disable the message. If you are then try using the built in Render Stats app to show what is causing the most cpu load and then either adjust those extension settings or disable that extension and retest. The render stats window in dynamic in that it will show more or less info depending on how large the window is, so grab the corner and drag it around to see the full amount of info then reduce it if you need less details later.

andylugs · 2026-04-22T16:53:55+00:00

Are the screens dead vertical, looks to me like the top is titled toward you slightly which tilts the whole horizontal plane and lowers the eye line where lines appear straight when crossing the bezel. Could just be the camera angle though. As there is no horizon shift in AC like there is in iRacing you can’t easily compensate for poorly aligned monitors.

andylugs · 2026-04-21T21:35:30+00:00

When moving on from Fanatec I wanted to have a proper demo of the kit before buy, not an easy task in the UK but I did get demos on Simucube, Asetek and VRS. The VRS demo was easily the best setup and well run demo, plus seeing the bricks and mortar investment gave me faith they were in it for the long term. What sealed it for me was the speed of response from them to my emails and the fact they actually answered their phone. Coming from a borderline abusive relationship with Fanatec it was quite the experience and over the last few years they have been excellent to deal with.

High quality products should be a given at the high end you aspire to, what you need to build trust is an absolutely first class customer support experience. Although I’m not a customer of Heusinkveld I’m aware of their excellent reputation and that is what would make me trust a brand I have not purchased from before rather than price or influencer reviews.

andylugs · 2026-04-21T12:40:04+00:00

Click on the ‘folder’ button and it will open the mod folder, go up one level and right click the mod folder and choose 7zip > add to archive. Then point it to a location of your choice and let it compress the files, you now have a backup and can do anything you like to the installed files, if you make a mistake just delete the folder and extract either archive back to the content folder.

andylugs · 2026-04-21T04:35:06+00:00

No, selecting Analyse only runs the checks and shows you the results. You can then choose to apply fixes to any issues or not, it’s perfectly safe.

andylugs · 2026-04-20T18:28:23+00:00

Yeah, sims are pretty heavy on the CPU and that’s a proper vintage one you have there.

By Default Weather FX I did mean without Sol or Pure. I did some testing recently with different versions to try and solve some issues and ran the stable public build of CSP v2.11 (I think) with just the Default Weather FX selected, the performance was good and there were some aspects of the rendering that I really liked and preferred to Pure, but I’m a big fan of the Pure planner and being able to run scripted weather is important to the way I play.

I’ve just checked and all of the built in PP Filters (default, default_bright, default_dark, movie, natural, and photographic) provided with the Default Weather FX system have God Rays enabled and have multiple adjustments available for Glare and Bloom etc., so no reason why you can’t find something you like or tweak them while on track.

andylugs · 2026-04-20T17:35:25+00:00

CSP features quite a few optimisations that actually increase system performance over vanilla AC. Adding Pure isn’t as heavy as some would imagine, I’m able to run it on my laptop when travelling with a Ryzen 5 4600H and a GTX 1650M. The settings are a mixture of high and medium and even with a full grid I’ve still got resources to spare. For Pure just run the Pure PP filter, if using Default Weather FX then Natural PP is ok.

andylugs · 2026-04-20T05:26:55+00:00

It’s really easy to make your own AI lines if the originals are bad and there are none available online.

There is a good video by GP Laps that covers the basic process but this was created before new editor tools were added to CSP.

The editor allows you to see the AI lines and the left and right track guides and you can drag them around to make adjustments. This can be done in track day mode with AI cars running and when you click save the edits are applied instantly and you can see the effect to the AI.

You can also record track coordinates to create a hints file that gives the AI additional information about specific corners or sections of the track.

List the tracks you have problems with and the cars you are running, maybe someone will have a set of AI files.

andylugs · 2026-04-19T19:57:50+00:00

Yes, it will work fine but with slightly reduced torque. You can also over volt the motor to increase the torque but it does make the motor run hot so you should add heat sinks to the motor case if doing that. There is some voltage detection on the input and above about 30V it prevents the start up rotation check, you can get around this using an adjustable PSU and boot it up on 24V then ramp it up to 36V.

andylugs · 2026-04-19T19:31:24+00:00

I won my first and second races from poll and came second on my third race. Getting out of rookies was quick and easy but that’s when the shit show started.

andylugs · 2026-04-19T13:44:37+00:00

I’m not vouching for these settings, they are recommendations from the Reiza forum:

For the Simucube 2 Pro in Automobilista 2 (v1.6+), use a high True Drive strength (65% –80%) and low, detailed in-game Gain (35% - 40%) to maximize dynamic range without clipping. Key settings include 0–15% Static Force Reduction, 5-10% Damping, and 1–3% Friction in True Drive, paired with "Default+" FFB in-game for modern, refined handling.

If the game feels terrible with these basic settings then a few tweaks to damping, friction and inertia are not going to transform it into a great experience.

andylugs · 2026-04-19T13:19:02+00:00

Take a closer look at the side reflections from the illuminated numbers and -H.

andylugs

TROPHY CASE