[ChicagoBoy11]

Driving sims with the right setup are truly breathtaking gaming experiences. For driving, especially, even things like the weight of a headset almost add to the experience since in the real thing you are wearing a helmet. But it is a way to have a legit, e-sports level gaming experience with real-to-life controls with total VR immersion.

[mrguyorama]

I once played a custom Japanese Highway map in Assetto Corsa made for nighttime cruising and was a little high and I forgot what reality was.

I used to do a lot of GoKarting at a local course before the Pandemic, and VR racing is the single most immersive video game experience that you can have. The only thing you are missing is the physical exertion and G-Forces. Even the feel of the helmet and reduced field of view is emulated by the headset. Even cheap wheels have force feedback, and you can feel the weight shifting around. You can intuitively glance around for situational awareness. If you have experience, you will naturally fall into the look at where you want to go style of skid recovery, and you will feel the tires about to skid and feel in the wheel when they line back up with your vector of motion. It all transfers so well, even real race car drivers enjoy it.

You can feel your body freak out when you hit a wall at 200mph because you misjudged the distance because you're not a real racecar driver.

Driving an open cockpit car like an old F1 car is insane. You feel like you are just hanging out in the open air. I guess we didn't have survival instincts back then.

If you have a few thousand extra dollars, you can even fix the lack of physical exertion and G-Forces!

Shooting games are super fun too because it feels rewarding to be good at actually aiming, rather than stupid mouse twitches I have never been that good at. Also because Pavlov VR mods let me play Halo 1 Blood Gulch for real and that's magic.

VR Chat is also a pretty incredible experience. When the pandemic first hit, I actually spent several weekends clubbing in VR Chat clubs.

[ehnto]

I have driven on tracks in real life and then the same track in VR, and all the spatial cues map perfectly. It's so close to "the same thing" that I really don't mind driving in VR more and then only paying for the occasional real life track day.

My partner also likes that I can't actually die in VR, though sometimes I still close my eyes just before an impact.

[ehnto]

Agreed, if you have all the sim racing equipment already adding in VR brings you basically "there". The sim rig is a rabbit hole of immersive technologies of its own, but even just a basic wheel and pedal plus a headset will get you an incredible experience.

I believe sim flight people would have the same opinions on that side of simming too. It's a uniquely ideal situation for VR. Seated with full tactile controls.