Off Topic Discussions

[Sam_AMD]

Hmmm, to answer my own question, I’d like to see Leclerc win this year. But for the record, I rooted for Verstappen last year because another win by the legendary Hamilton would have made the record practically impossible to beat when looking in the future.  Beating an  8-championships record, in my humble opinion, would practically be impossible.

I like all three drivers, well, I like all the drivers equally (this season I have my eyes on Gasly, Norris and Magnussen). Most of all I’m a Formula 1 fan! It’s a great sport. I’ve had the luck to watch a race in person in Monza when I was a little kid – among other things, I fell in love with the sound of their engines!

I spend almost every Sunday watching the race. And thanks to the Netflix “Drive to Survive” show, I watch the races with my mom! That’s right, after watching a few episodes, she’s become a fan of Formula 1.  Thanks Netflix!

If you are a fan (I think @z-house17 is! Just look at his rig), who do you want to win this year?

Did you know that AMD has sponsored Ferrari and is currently sponsoring Mercedes?

[Ashley_AMD]

I am totally not in the loop with F1, so I can't choose. 😅 I do have “Drive to Survive” on my watchlist, though! I've heard it's really good and interesting for people not familiar with F1 - like me and your mom, haha. 😂 I'll watch a couple of episodes this weekend and will reply back with my thoughts! Speaking of - I've heard the game "F1 2021" is also really good. 👀

I am curious about what other people think! 

[johnnyenglish]

I also lost track of F1. The last race I watched, Schumacher was still there.

I never lost a single race from 1993 to 2002, also had a lot of racing sims like the amazing GP2

I'm now watching Formula E and rooting for the Antonio Felix Da Costa.

[Sam_AMD]

Wow! Micro Prose! I remember the company...and noticed the software came on CDs! Good old times, right?

I've been playing Real Racing 3 on my smart TV! The game runs well, and the graphics are decent for being an Android game, and the physics work! 

Check it out! 

[johnnyenglish]

Nice, I played some RR3 too but I left when the only way to make significant gold was levelling up it gets really hard and some cars being +900Gold, its too much.

I need to install again and see the updates.

[Sam_AMD]

I agree, there's lots of "Leveling-Up" to do, but I'm getting used to it. I've purchased a couple of cars and working on customizing them a little. Eventually, I'll dive into the F1 cars!

[Vynski]

I was admiring the nice looks of Real Racing 3 in the video you posted.  After some research I discovered that it not only is compatible with the Logitech G923, I would bet that it is also compatible with my Wingman, it is also an offline racing game once you get all of the content downloaded, also it's not just F1. 

[Key-J]

I've also lost a bit of interest in F1 over the years, but I was a serious fan back in the day up to around 2010. Especially during the height of the Mercedes/Ferrari/BMW Williams trifecta. I even had the opportunity to travel to a couple of races, and in one of them, I was lucky enough to go to the Paddock Club and meet some of the drivers. Kimi, Ralph, Juan Pablo and Rubens.

I was still watching during the start/rise of Lewis but the driver that he is today (from what I hear) does seem to have some people on their toes.

I have watched a bit of the Drive to Survive Netflix special, and it brings back lots of memories from when I was REALLY into the sport.

[Sam_AMD]

I missed last week's race (in Italy) because I was at PAX East in Boston, but I watched the highlights video and man...what a start! Sorry Sainz! And, I have to say, I was happy to see Verstappen win - it makes this season more exciting! 

[lowteck]

Verstappen

[Vynski]

I do hope you have a force feedback wheel to play these racing games.  I have to admit that there is no comparison to a XBox gaming pad or anything else.  I could get into Formula I very easy.  Have the EA Sports Car GT but Windows 7 thru 11 does not like it.  I have tried all of the scenarios of how to make it work on Windows 10 and 11, but it crashes when you try to start a race.  Anyway, I have the Logitech Wingman Formula Force GT steering wheel and pedals.  

It is Windows 11 compatible and you can calibrate it and it works fine, just don't have any game to use it with anymore.  Perhaps you guys into the racing can give me a suggestion on worth getting.  I would sure appreciate it.

[Vynski]

I found a NASCAR 2003 demo download and installed it.  At first I was having difficulty getting the game to see the Wingman controller.  So I reinstalled the drivers for the controller, did a cold system restart and I was immediately able to connect the game with the Wingman.  The game was sluggish and just horrible to work with so I did some tweaking and set the graphics to 2K, set OpenGL, compatibility to Windows 7, override scaling to system, and when I restarted the game graphics were fantastic play was fast and smooth, and the Wingman worked fantastic as I recalled with Sports Car GT.  Now the only problem is, I have to learn how to drive again.  I think I'll upgrade my Ryzen 7 2700 to a 500 series CPU and put the 2700 on the original MSI X470 board that I had it on.  Of course I'll then need new DDR4 RAM and a new GPU, and make a dedicated machine for racing games. 

I need to ask @Sam_AMD if his Real Racing 3 is compatible with a steering wheel.    I watched his video and really liked the looks of it.  I'm not all that hot on NASCAR video games because turning left constantly is boring.  

[Sam_AMD]

Hi @Vynski 

Sadly, about 2 or 3 months ago, EA decided to pull the game off GooglePlay. So it's no longer available via the app, which prevented me from playing the game. Since then, I switched to Assetto Corsa Competizione, which is a great simulator (it's a 9/10 score on Steam!). If you are looking to keep racing, I suggest you check it out: http://www.assettocorsa.it/competizione/

The PC version is about $30 on Steam, worth every penny! And the best way to play it is with a controller (your Wingman will do the trick) and, ideally, budget permitting, a real steering wheel setup! 

[Vynski]

Thanks, I'll be looking into it.  Can you play it off-line?  I know you can play games like Call of Duty off-line on Steam.  I just don't like logging in to have to play the games.  We live in such a remote area that we didn't get high speed internet until just this spring, wasn't available.

[Sam_AMD]

No problem. Yes, you can play it off line.

[Vynski]

Just an update on the racing games.  I tried a couple of them of which, for whatever reason they would not recognize my steering wheel.  One of them I needed a clutch pedal. Even though the paddle shifter on my wheel operated it would cause you to lose control of the car every time you changed gears.

Anyway, I finally got the Sports Car GT, to work on Win 11.  Haven't connected the steering wheel yet, but so far everything looks good to go.