The Best VR Racing Experiences on PC

so it's your birthday happy birthday and you've decided to treat yourself to a brand new shiny VR headset much like this HTC Vive Pro 2 for example you've heard the positives and negatives more immersion versus motion sickness and now you're looking for some awesome Sim racing experiences to blow you away well we are here to help and the following is a list of what we think are the best racing game VR experiences around now this test was originally conducted by Ross using an Oculus Quest 2 headset and playing all of these games back to back but I can confirm having used this HTC Vive Pro 2 and my Oculus Rift S as well that the experiences do translate very well across multiple different devices so without further Ado let's jump in released back in 2017 project cars 2 garnered favorable reviews from fans and critics alike as it crammed a whole bunch of racing content into one PC and console from IndyCars to rallycross not only that but it has some of the best changeable weather effects in any game and it still looks great four years after release whether it's vehicle handling matches its graphical Pro s is arguable but after spending a decent amount of time with project cars 2 in VR I can categorically say it works tremendously well this game certainly isn't without its flaws a lot of the cars handle strangely and some of the engine sounds are unconvincing or just plain wrong I'm looking at you the Ford GT with four cylinders however when you find the right car and track combination plus pick the right weather and time of day project cars 2 is an absolute delight and a definite must try for any racing game fans with a VR headset the action speeds along fluidly and even with 20 plus AI opponents on the grid it maintains impressive graphical Fidelity project cars 2 uses slightly mad Studios proprietary Madness physics Engine with one of its key features being the sort of dynamic weather never seen before in any racing game puddles form organically snow flatters onto your windscreen and the sunset over the ferris wheel at Le mall is truly a sight to behold doubly so in VR best of all though it has licenses to use the Indycar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval so you can feel like you're actually in the Indy 500. automobilista 2 or ams2 uses the same Madness physics engine as project cars 2 so in a lot of ways the two games are very similar in how they handle and look however ams2 arguably has the upper hand in terms of physics having been refined by crack Brazilian developers Riser over the past few years they've maintained the same jaw-dropping visuals and dynamic weather used by slightly man studios in their title ams2 has less content overall but it feels like there's been a little more attention to detail in what's there in terms of VR performance it matches project cars 2 in the immersion Stakes it looks pretty has some excellent sounds and runs smoothly even with multiple cars on track arguably the handling physics are an improvement on Project CARS too but there still exists a perceptible Madness engine taste about how the cars behave and for me that's not wholly positive as an early backer of ams2 I paid 99.99 or 75 British pounds to receive the game plus all future DLC so I'm invested in this being a great game but at the moment I can only recommend it as a fun VR title with promise a hugely popular rally game at the moment dirt rally 2.0 is the only focused rally title designed with VR compatibility in mind with its genre leading engine notes and impressive weather effects dirt rally 2.0 sets The Benchmark for immersion and rally Sims and arguably in the racing game genre as a whole picture the scene you're firing through a dark and rainy Welsh forest in the middle of the night aiming your group b Metro 6r4 at the next muddy Apex exhaust note ricocheting off the claustrophobia inducing trees as you inevitably spin a twig and beat yourself in a ditch this is rallying and in VR you really do experience all the visceral Thrills the only thing that could possibly make the experience more authentic is if Phil Mills were sitting next to you but it would be a little awkward afterwards when you immediately fire up your dunfermline athletic football manager safe he's probably got other places to be after all with Chief rally Sim rival WRC 10 currently without VR compatibility and as I'm narrating this WRC Generations is yet to launch and we haven't heard any VR confirmation yet they're at rally 2.0 pretty much has the VR rally Market to itself just now but you won't be disappointed by the end results especially as it has the FIA World rallycross Championship license as well meaning you can Unleash Your Inner Johan Christopherson in mixed surface races as well as rallying against the clock I have to admit I've never beaten iracing's number one fan the cost is a little steep and for me the cars always feel like they're on the verge of losing grip at any moment even more so using Logitech gear driven Wheels I still enjoy dabbling down again but as a Driving Experience iRacing gives me mixed messaging at times however when I fired it up in VR it all suddenly made sense I no longer had claustrophobia stuck inside that fixed cockpit camera position and felt like I could really lean into the corners and nail the apices I racing also seems to be well set up for VR it recognizes your headset before boosting up a session and prompts you on whether you want to use it or not allowing you to scroll the UI as you normally would then strap on the headset when the racing starts the great thing about iRacing now is that you can race against the icars and this is doubly important for VR users that want to get the hang of using their headset before racing against other people online the best thing about eye racing in VR though is that it performs so well I did a back-to-back test of it with a set of course a competition and the differences were Stark ACC looked blocky little rares and suffered from slowdown while eye racing was silky smooth and retained almost as much detail as it had on monitor the consistent frame rate really keeps the action flowing and during my test at Brands hatch Grand Prix circuit in the dalara F3 I even experienced that same queasy feeling at Paddock Hill Bend you get when you hit a real-life compression and of course it's pretty cool to see eye Racing's excellent damage model up close released all the way back in 2014 a settle Corsa was never designed with VR compatibility in mind however with the help of steamvr it's possible to play the stacks of content kunosa's crammed into AC with maximum immersion in terms of performance AC runs very smoothly in VR naturally the image quality takes a bit of a hit using something like the Quest 2 which isn't exactly top of the range but everything looks tidy and retains a high level of immersion regularly discounted AC is definitely worth picking up in a sale along with its vast range of DLC including masses of officially licensed Ferrari and Porsche racing cars much like project cars 2 iRacing and AMS 2 a set of Corsa has modern GT3 Racers supercars sports cars and lemon prototypes plus historic vehicles but doesn't have rallycross or oval racing content thankfully the feel of the car is already present in-game makes up for the relative lack of racing diversity although it's become a huge hit among the drifting Community coming with several pieces of drift vehicle and track content Watts live for Speed I hear you ask well it's the racing so many people played in the early and mid-2000s and we apologize for all of the live for Speed content we've been spamming you with recently to celebrate his 20th birthday I say that we're not really sorry I mean it is that good a game amazingly it's still in development today and recently gained VR functionality what's it like to play well the physics have always been excellent but the Sim is let down by a lack of content well it was until the S3 update dropped adding mods to The Fray as a VR experience you can turn all the graphic settings up to 11 and still get a smooth experience on a mid-range gaming PC but for a game that began life in 2002 that's hardly a surprise lfs is a pleasantly immersive driving simulator overall however but difficult to justify when you could buy the previous five titles I've mentioned for less than it costs to unlock all of lfs's content ouch it does have stereoscopic mirrors though which is pretty cool in VR lfs gets bonus marks for its ease of use in VR mode 2. it's well worth checking out its free demo so that's our main six picks and now it's time to look at some honorable mentions Sports first foray into the world of F1 video games after it purchased codemasters saw a much hyped VR mode added to f122 and it works only for PC users mind however using an Oculus Quest 2 which a fair proportion of PC Sim Racers will also be using the graphics and performance aren't particularly special with jerky movements proving to be immersion breaking even with the graphics turned down on my mid-range gaming PC it's disappointing however f122 is the only way to drive officially licensed 2022 Formula One cars in a Sim right now and as I found out earlier this year if you have a beefy enough PC in VR headset it can provide an entreatingly exciting experience Richard Burns rally is an ancient rally Sim that requires a bit of legwork to get working in VR but boy does it deliver I'm not going to wax lyrical about how much I love this Sim I've already done that enough but the only reason this doesn't feature in my top 6 is because of the extra effort required to get it working well worth it though race room racing experience is a free to play title from the makers of classic Sims GTR 2 and GT Legends simbin although the feel of the cars can be divisive different people prefer different things after all the main plus point of restroom is that it can be sampled in VR for free so if you don't like it you're under no obligation to buy any more content in terms of immersion the big thing race room has over its competitors is the car sounds they are fantastic I enjoyed trying it out but I feel like there are much cheaper and more satisfying ways to go about VR virtual racing a set of Corsa competition is certainly one of my favorite Sims on the market right now it pains me to say this but the VR implementation just isn't where it needs to be my guess as to why is down to how resource intensive ACC is because of this I was actually forced to buy a new motherboard and CPU as I had a Spate of game crashes caused by a processor bottleneck as a result the graphics in VR aren't as pretty as they are on a monitor in fact I let one of my non-sim racer friends give it a try and his response it looks a bit jaggy he was right it is a bit jaggy it's a big Aggie in fact not only that but in certain light conditions Dusk and Dawn mainly get a bit of FPS slowdown which really ruins the immersion it's a shame because ACC has the potential to look incredible in virtual reality so what would we like to see moving forward how awesome would wreckfest and BeamNG.drive be in VR seriously imagine being in a five-car pileup your car rolling over and over and over and up and down and side inside and over and up and down and over and over and over and over uh on second thoughts I think I'll stick to using a monitor I love a cinematic car crash but really don't want to Star on my own version of Mad Max 2 Welcome to chunderdome virtual reality fits very nicely into the racing game genre and can actually make you a quicker and more consistent driver in some cases but for most Sim Racers VR is an amazing way to create a whole new level of immersion in our Niche hobby for me VR gives titles such as project cars 2 and automobileista 2 added value as a gaming experience even though I'm not a huge fan of either in terms of physics they are at least excellently optimized for VR if I had to pick between project cars 2 and Ultimo ballista 2 as VR titles I think I'd go project cars too purely as it has a bigger variety of tracks and cars to create convincing VR experiences with however AMS 2 especially since it's V 1.41 update is arguably the more satisfying to play right now and new content seems to arrive with every update want to keep an eye on them dirt rally 2.0 is Far and Away the most complete VR experience for rally fans to date so it comes top of its own category but the most complete Sim racing VR experience overall one that combines driving feel visuals sound and content I'd pick eye racing or a set of Corsa if cost is a factor then I'd probably choose a sense of Corsa so then that concludes this video about virtual reality and Sim racing do you agree with our comments do you disagree be sure to let us know down below subscribe to the traction.gg channel for more racing game content like this and hit that notification Bell to catch our videos as they are released until next time thanks for watching keep it pinned and have a great day [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: TraxionGG

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Keywords: traxion, traxiongg, traxion gg, traxion.gg, virtual reality, sim racing, virtual reality racing games, assetto corsa, oculus quest 2 racing games, project cars 2 vr, racing games for quest 2, automobilista 2, project cars 2, vr racing, rfactor 2, dirt rally 2.0, oculus quest driving games, best quest 2 racing game, vr driving simulator oculus quest, quest 2 racing simulators, vr racing simulators, oculus rift, best vr racing games, vr driving games, best racing vr games, vr

Id: 8GsVaTNDKoY

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2022