Simulator was once a patent of the aviation industry, through the use of simulators, pilots in training can save a lot of time and cost, and in order to make the aviation simulator closer to the real, the aviation industry investment is huge, some complex models of simulators have even become part of the purchase contract, not counting the high maintenance costs in the future, the purchase of simulators themselves, at every turn will be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.
Compared with aviation simulators, racing simulators are more sophisticated, and what is mentioned here is not a consumer-level racing simulator, because even the most hardcore players spend "huge sums" to build racing simulators, which are just large toys, and industrial-grade vehicle simulators are far from an order of magnitude. The car simulator and the racing simulator used by F1 teams are very different in all aspects.
For example, Dynisma, founded in 2017, is the top racing simulator company in the industry, founded by former F1 racing simulator specialists for McLaren and Ferrari teams. The original intention of the simulator is that in the process of racing development, if the simulator is used properly, it can be very effective in assisting the entire process and development effect, while reducing the number of prototypes and shortening the development cycle, saving a lot of time when saving actual expenses – which is tempting for any F1 team.
To judge the quality of industrial-grade racing simulators, the most important thing to look at is two points, one is visual delay, and the other is vibration frequency bandwidth. Visual latency is calculated in milliseconds, and the smaller the number, the better. The unit of measurement of the frequency bandwidth is hertz, and the larger the value, the better.
Visual delay is the biggest gap between the simulated scene and the real world, such as when the racer sees any problems that need to be adjusted to the state of the vehicle, which occurs in real time, but on the simulator, due to the reaction of the 6-column bench, what is seen on the simulator screen and felt in the simulation cockpit, there will be a significant delay – to put it bluntly, it is to see the visual response of the person and the impact of the simulator reaction in time to PK.
On the early racing simulation bench, this delay can reach 50 milliseconds, although 50 milliseconds is short, but for many people, the reaction speed to the emergency seen when concentrating can be as fast as 100 milliseconds, and for the driver, it requires a high degree of concentration, if the driver's reaction speed is doubled, increased to 50 milliseconds, and its reaction time and visual delay time are consistent, the existence of the simulator is completely meaningless. For example, if an F1 driver sees a car in front of him on the simulator with a delay time of 50 milliseconds and a reaction time of 50 milliseconds, then by the time the driver reacts on the simulator, 100 milliseconds have passed, so that the simulator does not represent the scene in the actual race.
In order to reduce the visual delay in the simulator, the system used by the top 6-post bench simulator needs to ensure that the delay is between 3-5 milliseconds, and when the visual delay is controlled within 10 milliseconds, no one will feel the presence of the delay, that is, what is seen on the simulator is what is gained, and driving a real car is no different.
The importance of the oscillation bandwidth is to ensure that the simulator is closer to the real scene in terms of physical feeling. If the bandwidth is too low, such as on a flight simulator, you don't feel high-frequency vibrations, otherwise any external force received by the aircraft will be fed back into the cockpit, and you will quickly feel dizzy on the flight simulator. Therefore, only the low-frequency vibrations of a larger value will be transmitted to the flight simulator in a low-frequency mode, but on the racing car, you need to feel every vibration of the road surface, the multi-directional force of each corner, and even the impact of the speed bump needs to be transmitted to the rider in the most realistic high-frequency way.
In this regard, the mechanical structure of the simulator, the friction coefficient of the simulator motor, and even the weight and design of the simulator base will have an impact on whether the simulator can achieve high frequency, such as the industry's top simulator frequency bandwidth can reach 100 Hz, while the general industrial-grade racing simulator can only reach 50 Hz, even so, 50 Hz is not easy.
In a real simulator, if the visual delay is short, the actual feeling is that your steering input will be displayed in almost real time, and the 100 Hz frequency bandwidth means that if you try to accelerate straight on the simulator, outsiders may not feel any movement of the bench, but your hand clutching the steering wheel can feel the violent vibration – and the final feeling is the same as driving an F1 car.
In addition, the factors that play a decisive role in the actual role of the simulator include data. The first is the track data, if the track data is not perfect, the use of any simulator does not really make any sense, and the collection of track data is a time-consuming, labor-intensive, expensive and extremely accurate work. The track data that needs to be collected here is completely different from that in the game, and only the accurate angle of each corner, shoulder position, width, height and road friction coefficient can be collected to ensure the accuracy of the simulated race and test. In addition, key information such as tire data and powertrain data is also very important, but it is relatively easy to obtain this data.
Therefore, really don't take your own hobbies and other people's professions for PK, spend more money, and create at home, it is just a set of enthusiast big toys.