Honestly, this was one of the most encouraging videos ever. As someone just getting into sim racing, it means the world to me that you don't have to have a ridiculous setup to be good or even accepted!
those pedals: 1000 dollars that wheel + rim: 800 Don't get me wrong. Empty box in a Driving force GT would trash most of us, and obviously his setup is just a reflection of his devotion to simracing. But the setup is still pretty ridiculous.
Adam Lindgren you definitely don't need high end gear to be good or accepted. As long as your wheel has FFB and you're willing to practice you can go quite far. I'll probably get corrected, but Michael Conti won 2 ( I believe) big championships with a G27.
well Greger Huttu was winning with MS Sidewinder FFB wheel (only 270 degrees of rotation, pedals worse than DFGT has. I still got that one in storage room) for a long time .. till somebody sponsored him.
I love the "humble" setup. some of the best pedals available. One of the best wheels available. Good headphones. Rest? Meh, doesn't matter. Think some of the best Oval Pro-Drivers race on single screen or even notebook with a DFGT and good pedals. You can't buy talent. But my god does my triple screen cockpit feel great when i'm overtaken :D
If this was "CSI" we'd get the reflection from the Fanatec Logo on his wheel, put it through their enhancement software and get a Super High Resolution portrait of Matt "EmptyBox" Orr
Empty Box, I must admit that, for the first good half of this video, I was bracing myself for you to say "Just kidding guys, this is my study space" and then walk us into a different room where you had any sort of sim racing chassis. However, I feel loads more confident about my setup now that I've got something from one of my favorite sim racers to compare it to. I was planning to buy a Next Level Racing chassis in the coming weeks, but I think I'll spend that money on a set of proper sim pedals instead (and then upgrade from my Thrustmaster TX later down the road since I won't have to buy pedals with whatever new brand of wheel I go with.)
Among the guys who asked for a rig tour before and Matt almost said: "This is not going to happen at all!" Really love these basic setups! I did GT Academy while racing on a desk in the hallway of my tiny house using a plastic regular chair, sliding it forwards to let someone of my family members pass by.
Well that was refreshing. No crazy contraptions, just plain ol' enjoyment and dedication. Been watching your videos for years, but for this I subscribe, for being so down to earth.
Thanks for showing off your setup. I've always wondered what you raced with. This proves that you don't need a spectacular setup to be a good sim racer.
For some reason, this is exactly the setup I was picturing, down to the carpet and the chair. This isn't to say I was fantasizing about the Box, or that you gave off a "beige" aura. I just had a feeling "The Bawx" was built for comfort, not bulky tubular frames and bolted down bucket seats. Coolio!
I thought I was strange for using a wood piece to hold my pedals down, and with an office chair. Digging the setup Empty Box, showing it doesn't take much to create a sweet rig!
It's a lot like my "rig". Add a TrackIR camera to the monitor and bolt a Thrustmaster Warthog to the desk for flight sims, and we'd be almost identical.
builded my rig with $130 worth of lumber years ago- sold my home to get my daughter thru college, disassembled the rig, put it back together- I can race about maybe an hour per week but I like simplicity also- I also know an Eastern European who still uses an old washed up momo wheel, and has several top 25 laps in iracing, with a few different vehicles- rock on empty- and block the stalkers who keep posting about your real life looks- very creepy
well, this was pretty lack luster, still better than my setup XD I can confirm that bit about the desk, i have a G27, is not as strong probably but its enough to make my desk wuoble and rock OMG
I actually used to haul Steelcase office furniture products all over western Canada from their main north american factory in grand rapids MI. Can confirm, one of the highest quality manufacturers in the office furniture game world wide. I've taken their stuff as far as Whitehorse, Yukon territory, Canada. I have never seen someone use their product for a home or personal use before but, that is awesome and rather brilliant, its definitely commercial grade equipment for a gamer as compared to just stuff intended for the average joe.
The place I bought it from (a local 2nd hand office equipment reseller) said they actually have quite a bit of average joes like me (you know, not business, just individuals) come in and buy these types of chairs specifically, one at a time. Like, they come in stock and then people pick them apart basically, pretty quickly. The lady working there was slightly confused it seemed by the popularity, but I let her know there are various reviews that recommend these chairs heavily because what they are for the price you can get them used! Blows away pretty much any office / gaming chair I've had with ease. Also, Michigan to Whitehorse must have been one hell of a trip!
Haven't had that problem, probably because I'm fat. lol Chair castor cups though, I've used them in the past and they work reasonably well... but kind of a pain to remove for when you want a normal chair, so you are better off with something like weights if it works for you IMO.
Idea : you could go to a local store that sells carpet and see if you can score some suitable carpet remnants for cheap and put that under your chair. Or a shaggy area rug perhaps?
It's funny when you watch all sim racers on YT with full cockpits, triple screens, vr and fucking crazy gear and here you have wheel, "ikea" desk and I small monitor :F
I know you are going to love using VR if you actually get a headset. It's so amazing to actually be able to look to your left and right in racing games instead of the precanned right and left look buttons.
I'm also a single screen sim racer and I grabbed a TrackIR 5 a few months ago to allow for head tracking without the restrictions of VR. It definitely worth the money spent for it!
I have a trackhat / open track setup I use for flight simming. Totally unusable for sim racing IMO. Great for flight sims, not sure how anyone can use them for racing.
The TrackIR software allows you to the ability to fine tune each individual axis. At first I severely restricted the axis to only allow the ability to look into the apex while cornering, but since I've started driving the Porsche (after seeing them race at Barber before the IndyCar race this year) I've got it set where I can glance out of both windows to physically see if I've got a car beside me, which is perfect in the opening lap chaos. For racing, you only need the four primary directions (up, down, left and right) and the up and down can be greatly limited as you only need the ability to glance down to your dash/wheel. You also want to use a 1-to-1 ratio with an absolute minimal dead-zone - only using a bit of smoothing to clean up the onscreen movements. It takes a bit of work to get it right, but now that I've gotten it I don't know if I could go back. I've got little time to race these days but my wife actually asks me to race at times, as she fell in love with the Porsche races at Barber and the added movement it brings to the screen really builds to the realism/excitement of the sim.
I've played around with various setttings, just no dice for me. It's bizarre looking away at the corner with your head, but looking the opposite way essentially with your eyes. It works in flight simming because you don't need a high level of precision, in sim racing precision is the key. Better off with glance buttons set up properly so you don't lose track of your car IMO.
Empty Box Oh, it's a fair assessment and it did take me a bit to adjust to it. Now that you say that I think there could be another factor when looking at your setup: monitor placement. My monitor sits directly above my wheel base and that puts my screen very close to my face. I only need look at the side of my screen and the camera is set to rotate a bit further than my head. If I were to move my screen behind my base, yeah, that wouldn't be optimal at all - I didn't think of that. I'll keep that in mind before throwing that recommendation out again. I absolutely agree with you on the precision though! Until I got the settings right I definitely lost the necessary precision I needed to be competitive, but now I'm more precise and comfortable with the TrackIR than without it or with VR. Again, I did forget about the rebuild to my setup to get to that precision level. Oh and while I've never commented, I've enjoyed watching your channel for years, and I must say thanks for what you do. I've learned so much from your videos over the years - heel-toe downshifts! - and have even taken that experience to an actual car and track. Keep up the great work!
2 questions: 1. What's the brand of the pedals? Didn't got that from the video somehow... and they are better than the fanatec? 😳 and 2. How do you prevent the chair from rolling back when you step on the breaks? That was my problem when i played like this....
Heusinkveld Engineering, they blow the Fanatecs out of the water. Haven't really had that problem, carpet must be thick enough to keep it from being an issue.
Good choice on going VR. I can't race outside of it anymore. You'll also appreciate going from one screen to VR more than triples to VR. A lot of people that go to VR from triples feel like they lost something with the loss of resolution (despite gaining so much in immersion and depth perception)...but going VR from a single screen will feel like a big upgrade.
Empty .. you deserve something from IRacing , it's because of your videos that I'm on IR 🤣 and I think many others .... I don't know what , a new steering wheel , OSW, triple monitor XD, oculus, a complete seat ... give something big to this nice guy !!!! 😜😜😜 Amazing job, with a lot of passion !!
A rig tour?! Thought nascar'd announce running clockwise for a season sooner than you recording anything of the sort, ha. Good stuff but also: yes - Go VR! - Upload VR video so we can sit next to you chilling out at 300 km/h while you turn us left like the chillest uber driver in the galaxy -???? -PROFIT
List of the gear in the description please. Optionally with Amazon affiliate links? 27 inch single is what I race on, though I've only got a 60hz. Do you think G sync is worth it or just the higher framerate makes the difference? I don't mind screen tearing, hardly even notice.
Love it. Nice to see others on desk and a basic chair. What stops the chair moving / rolling backwards when pressing the pedals? Sorry if i’ve missed the reason why it doesnt move backwards
Finally! :p Love this so much, very similar setup to mine except I'm using lower end hardware (G27+ CSPv3 pedals). Been needing another chair though as I'm tired of sweating in a fake-leather one. How is the quality of the Leap?
Have you ever struggled with your chair moving backwards while braking? Or is your brake light enough not to cause that problem? I have an office chair with wheels and a rubber mod in the brake pedal and while the break feel and required force is somewhat ok, I have to line up furniture behind my chair in order to have it stay in place. I have thought of either removing the wheels or tethering the chair to the pedals to avoid this problem.
My PC screen is 21.5 inches, which I feel is a little too small for racing as it can't clear my wheel, so I race with a wall-mounted 42-inch TV a little further back. Its okay, but I'm probably losing out on finer graphics.
1) Fanatec Universal Hub - there is 2/3 of unused travel in fastening of those button sets ;P 2) If you don't use it, sell it! Fanatec's wheel prices are crazy (1 wheel = VR) 3) VR is not maybe, it is the way to go (even with 1070). You will be slower, but it will be at least twice as fun. You are missing it.
iR or AC/Else? Another VR moment - your brain will not like physics (data) of some games you were ok with thru flat frame of monitor (LFS, rF2,PC), yet some stuff semi-arcade stuff will be ok (DirtRally).
that chair.. the whole driving position.. the ergonomics.. the monitor at that distance..? In my opinion simracing starts from the basics: a rig, a proper driving position/ergonomics and then the expensive pedals come later. Good that you go vr, a nice decision. Take care
The monitor obviously comes right to the back of the wheel during racing. This chair is freakin' comfy as it comes short of a truly molded chair, and the position is where I want it on all regards...
I should get into competitive online racing.... considering I could build a whole unit for racing, essentially a cage to sit in, pedals welded, moveable mounted seat... shifter( pedal and paddles)... shit... I could make a setup for 2grand!
