The Chicane Podcast

PSVR 2 and Racing Glory: The Future of VR

• TGS Sim Racing • Episode 22

Share episode

Ready to immerse yourself in the world of sim racing and VR gaming? This week on the Chicane Podcast, we welcome back our good friend Eric Kelly, who shares heartfelt stories from his recent retreat in Guntersville, Alabama. Despite the rainy weather thwarting their golfing plans, Eric had an enriching time bonding with friends. Meanwhile, Jeff is living it up at the F1 race in Singapore, his thrilling escapades setting the stage for our engaging conversation on the latest Global iRacing League race. Eric's recount of missing crucial fuel calculations due to technical difficulties will have you gripping the edge of your seat, but Jason's clutch success, thanks to a tip from fellow racer Vlad, brings a triumphant end to this racing drama.

Are you ready to leap into the future of VR gaming? We dissect the capabilities and constraints of the PSVR 2 and the PS5 Pro, pondering whether these advancements can truly deliver the smooth, high-end VR experience we all crave. With a focus on foveated rendering and eye tracking, we explore the promises these technologies hold. We also tackle the market dynamics, including potential trade-in programs and pricing strategies that could sway current PS4 owners amidst the rising competition from platforms like the anticipated Switch 2.

We then dive into a passionate debate on whether it's worth splurging on a minimal upgrade for GT7 or investing in a PC for top-tier sim racing. From the cost implications of adding VR to the mix to the unparalleled experience iRacing offers, we leave no stone unturned. Our discussion meanders through the potential benefits of modding GT7 if it were PC-compatible, and we dream about the integration of PlayStation and PC platforms to boost lobby participation. Closing with reflections on the camaraderie that keeps our podcast strong, we appreciate your patience and understanding when life events cause delays. Buckle up for an episode packed with insights, heartfelt stories, and spirited debates – it’s one you won’t want to miss!

Link to RBR: https://rallysimfans.hu/rbr/index.php

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing

Follow all my social platforms below:

https://www.twitch.tv/trackghost
https://www.instagram.com/TGSsimracing/
https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing
https://twitter.com/TGSsimracing
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566360513781

Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou
Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube

Jason:

The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly. How are you doing today, sir?

Erick:

Hey, doing good man. How about yourself?

Jason:

I'm doing great, man. I'm happy that you're back, man.

Erick:

We got.

Jason:

Jeff on travel man. He's out at Singapore just having the time of his life right now. Oh, yeah, yeah, I hope you put in a good word for the podcast yeah, good word for the podcast.

Jason:

I'm telling you I'm super jealous but uh, hopefully, hopefully we get a full status quo on what's going on over there in singapore, other than it being super hot, I mean, you think you know it's probably boiling hot over there, but especially with cars running around yeah, if I was gonna be hot, though, that's the place to be man, other than being hot for no reason over here in Alabama.

Jason:

Yeah, so I mean, it's always good to have the full gang together, but you know, sometimes we need to take care of things and in Jeff's case, he's taking care of his hobby, which is his passion the F1 race in Singapore which is good, his passion, the f1 uh race in singapore, uh, which is good for him, and also mr kelly here just came back from a retreat.

Erick:

You want to want to touch a few on those, uh, eric yeah, man, speaking of just you know, sometimes you gotta take some little family time or, you know, guy time. I was on a retreat to a lovely place called gunnersville, alabama, um, basically like a little town that surrounds a lake, cabins, golf courses, uh, with a, you know, group of guys from the church. So there's some time just kind of fellowshipping, you know hanging out with the guys and just kind of bonding man. It was great, nice little retreat, recharge, little session man any golf, because I know you like to play golf.

Jason:

Isn't any golf, uh?

Erick:

we, we tried to. The weather here was pretty bad, so basically we kind of did a little bit of driving at the driving range and then just looking longingly at the golf course as it rained and the wind was blowing 30 to 40 miles an hour.

Jason:

So so no actual golf and how far was like your trip out to the retreat?

Erick:

like driving wise uh, it was like about an hour yeah it's not too far and you made it on time, right? Um, for the most part, um, guys are coming off throughout the night because people working and stuff like that. It was on a friday check-in and registration started at two and it went on to basically whenever you got there. So I got there about four, so not late, but you know, and you would say that you're a punctual person.

Jason:

When you say you'll be somewhere, you'll be there right on time that's the goal, yeah so what happened during my three-hour race? No, it wasn't the three hours, it was the Global iRacing League, hey look man.

Erick:

so me and Ashley I'm freaking out you was like I got you.

Jason:

I was like all right, you got me.

Erick:

I put the fuel numbers in the chat. I didn't know the chat was going to run up like that. You were like, hey, if you got to step away, away or something, just drop the numbers in the chat. I was like, cool, drop them in the chat. You didn't need help in the shower. And then all of a sudden I hear ashley. She's like hey, jason's yelling for you on the on the streams like he needs you. Oh crap, I come back. He's like, hey, what's the chat? And a freaking phone died. So I had to boot up another phone and when I booted that one up the chat was gone. Like all I could see was the first like couple of lines of chat.

Erick:

So I lost a few numbers, but yeah, man, it wasn't for lack of effort.

Jason:

I say that we I figured it out, man, I don't know I I under fueled her, but she made it, that's all that matters.

Erick:

You said you had like, uh like on the last lap you had like a like. On the last lap you had like a lap and a half worth of field left, or something like that.

Jason:

Bro, so the lovely dashboard has an overlay on the dashboard and it tells you when to pit. So it starts off by flashing, you know, red, like black red, black red, the entire lap, and then it switches over to pit now. It was saying pit now and it's freaking raining and I'm like, oh my god, it worked out though it worked out, but oh yeah thank god that, uh, the admins of the league actually posted.

Jason:

Uh, yeah, they actually posted. You know what you needed, and but still I mean I was late. And then vlad messaged me like after the race, after the fact. He's like you know what you needed and but still I mean I was late. And then vlad messaged me like after the race, after the fact he's like you know that you don't have to wait to be on grid to fuel the car. Right, if you're done with the race, you can start putting in fuel already or taking off. And I had, no, I just didn't know, you know, I just huh, yeah, I never done no super heat like that. I know how to put fuel in the car, but I didn't think that. Yeah, I just thought that the game would load and it wouldn't take my settings right, or it would just reset, and then I would be in deep trouble if that happened.

Jason:

So I was just. I waited till the last minute so that way if I'm on grid, then I can make changes to the car.

Erick:

Yeah, um, yeah that was if I'm on grid, then I can make changes to the car. Yeah, that was cool though, watching that Just like, was that your first time racing? That was your first time racing with Vlad in the league, right?

Jason:

Yeah, that was the first time and they decided to throw rain on us. But I've been assured many times that we're not going to see rain for quite a while. They weren't expecting it to be like that and you know I had some words for them. I said, you know, for people that are rookies, this might scare them off, right, Because they're trying to race in a safer environment. Still fast people are there. But you know, like you throwing rain on them, it's kind of like oh no, you know what I mean.

Erick:

it's kind of yeah, that iris and rain looks treacherous.

Jason:

Man, it's bad, bro it's like when the car, the car just does not. It doesn't do anything. You know what I mean. Until you get the grip back. And once you get it back, if your wheels anywhere from straight, you're gonna spin out. It's like it's like here, it's like hydroplaning. It's really realistic, it's super realistic yeah, it looked.

Erick:

It looked fun though, but uh, definitely it seemed like it could be frustrating if you were kind of more novice driver, because, yeah, seeing the guys just spinning yeah, I mean, look at F1 drivers that have been driving for their entire life and whenever rain comes, a lot of them.

Jason:

There's a lot of crashing and off track and it's because they're not used to that, but yeah, so if anybody's still interested, please don't let that scare you off. The rain is. I've been told that.

Erick:

They're going to take it easy next time. They're going to take it easy next time I'll take it easy next time.

Jason:

I think the next race is the nurburgring, so we're gonna do the.

Erick:

Oh I gotta watch that yeah, it's only three laps, which is plenty almost 30 minutes about 30.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah about there. So it'll be a nice short one. That'd be a good one. Uh, so I'll, yeah, definitely I'll be a nice short one, that'd be a good one. Yeah, so I'll, yeah, definitely I'll be live streaming that and be testing out the car. What I need to do is run a few laps on that tracks before the actual event Cause. Yeah.

Erick:

So will it be the Porsche again, or it's always going to be the Porsche. Always Porsche Okay.

Jason:

So it's a Porsche cup and every car is the same car.

Erick:

Okay, Okay, always porsche. Okay, so it's a porsche cup and every car is the same car.

Jason:

Okay, okay so how you feel about the porsche. I know you mcclaren guy, so you you get to appreciate the the lack of assists, because it teaches you to watch out, watch your limit. It's easy to get a car that you know you can get on the track and bang out laps and whatever, but with this one is kind of you know it's a, it's a, it's a lesson every time you drive her yeah, yeah, it seemed, it seemed, uh, like it required a good bit of focus.

Erick:

When you new car in in the rain, yeah. So I mean, yeah, it was insane, yeah, but man, so I don't know about you, but for for me, I loveacing, love, seeing it raced, but I'm still living a GT7 life.

Jason:

You need to try it, Eric. That's the thing you need to try it.

Erick:

I got the itch man, you got the itch for iRacing, or you got the itch for GT7?

Jason:

What's going on?

Erick:

Right now I take anything. I take Mario Kart kart. At this point I ain't been able to race so okay all right, so so you're gt7 guys.

Jason:

So what's what's been going, what's been going down in the world of gt7 lately? What's new? Is there any? Is there any new news that that that we need to share here on the show?

Erick:

so it's partly gt news, partly PlayStation news, which is a whole different animal, but the mid-cycle update for the PlayStation is coming out PS5 Pro and right now, one of the I'm not going to say flagship titles, but one of the games that is already poised to take advantage of the PS5's pro power is GT7. You know Polyphonic Digital. They are great with optimizing and squeezing every ounce of performance they can out of the PlayStation consoles. So one of the things they're going to be doing is adding real-time ray tracing while you're racing. So, if you don't know, right now you have the option to have real-time ray tracing during replays. So the replays look amazing, look beautiful, and so now you have that same level of quality while you're actually racing too, which is going to be crazy. The game already looks amazing, but that's just going to be crazy.

Jason:

So ray tracing, even with VR you can do ray tracing.

Erick:

So that's one of the, that's one of the big questions that I have, right Cause during the little they did like a little nine minute little.

Jason:

Like a trailer Presentation, like a so.

Erick:

Mark's Mark Cerny, the lead architect for PlayStation. He did like a little presentation on the PS5 Pro and what the kind of major highlights of it are, and for him it was basically where you would have you know three main kind of advantages. Right, because he said that the majority of PlayStation owners, when given the option between a high-fidelity mode and a high-performance mode, I think you said like 75% of people chose the high-performance mode.

Jason:

So people, care more about frames. Yeah, because of the frames.

Erick:

Yeah, people care more about frames, right. So with the PS5 Pro, the idea is that you will be able to not have to make that choice, right. You'll be able to get have to make that choice. You better get high fidelity with higher frames.

Jason:

I've heard this before man.

Erick:

Yeah, that promise has been made year after year and developers are like, oh, I got more power. Developers care about stuff looking pretty. They don't really care about frames that much, sadly. Hey, the frames are on you. Well, we care about making stuff as pretty as possible and, like I said, prolifically digital done a beautiful job with gran turismo 7. He did not speak about specific vr updates, but he said that the psvr 2 would benefit from the enhanced graphical power.

Jason:

So that's kind of yet to be seen? I don't know man just looking at the specs, I don't think that hardware can take that much. You know processing through a vr headset. I don't, I don't, I don't see it happening well.

Erick:

So I don't know about ray tracing, but there's definitely room for improvement. Um, because, basically, reducing the artifacting, sharpening the image.

Jason:

Well, yeah.

Erick:

Right, you know, just kind of getting you to a more native you know, look, yeah more native look Because, like I said, it already looks incredible. So any improvements they make there. I don't really have an issue with frame rates in the headset. I don't get nauseous or anything like that and it looks pretty smooth, right. But things like draw distance, like pop in our issue when you're racing um cars off of the distance.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, uh, cause they're using foveated rendering and I track and all this stuff already. So the hardware is there, um, as far as being able to optimize what you're looking at, but you know a little extra. Just raw power.

Jason:

So wait a minute.

Erick:

So you're buying a PS5 Pro, then, as of right now, I have no reason to buy one until they show me what the specific improvements are for specifically VR, because between that and then I'm playing like Dragon Ball and other random games. I, from what they showed in that little nine minute clip, I didn't see enough to justify seven hundred dollars and that's the problem right there.

Jason:

This is seven hundred seven hundred seven hundred, so now? So now we're dipping into PC territory like Like believe it or not, that is. You know what I mean. It'll take a lot to convince me to buy one of those, because it's like, okay, I don't have to turn down the graphics, but I'm still locked into 60 frames.

Erick:

So it depends on the title, right, because Ericic, think about it.

Jason:

Your choices usually range from 120 fps locked in at 1080p or 1440p, because it's rare the game that runs a native 4k. You know 60, yeah, it's very rare. They'll tell you upscaled 4k, which is basically like a two time right 1440, 2k, two times you know, 4k, but it's not really 4k. It's called checkerboard 4k. But yeah, um, if I got that right, you know, I'm just trying to put it in simple terms for everybody watching yeah, it's not native 4k. And that's not native. It's not.

Erick:

That's one of the three things that they introduce Um basically as a, as a outside of just raw like 67% more graphical power. They introduced a new ray tracing engine, which is interesting, like a lot of people are trying to see what exactly this engine is because it's a AMD product, but apparently it's something that they work with AMD on and isn't even available in AMD GPUs yet. Whatever this ray tracing engine is, and then they have their a new um of sampling algorithm that they're using.

Erick:

It's called PSSr playstation super sampling resolution or something like that, but apparently between the power, this new ray tracing engine and this up sampling um is supposed to like dramatically increase performance and do you know when this thing drops?

Jason:

man like by november in november. Yeah, it's really so we'll know soon enough yeah, yeah, it'll be here.

Erick:

You know, pretty much in time for Christmas probably, um but, I, think so. I've been thinking about it and I don't think the audience is. It's something like an iPhone, right? Apple came out with the iPhone 16. If you have a 15, they'll take your money. But you're not the target audience, right? They're really wanting the people with a 14 or older to really come buy the latest and greatest. This is for you. I think if you have a PS5, they don't really care about it.

Jason:

They're like we got your money, we don't oh, but they're not offering like a traded program, are they?

Erick:

not that I know of um.

Erick:

I've never done them to take trade ends, but if I think they're really targeting the people that have a ps4 pro or ps4 and the ps5 wasn't enough to really get them kind of going. I think this is supposed to be kind of like. You know, one of two things will happen. Either you'll see the ps5 pro and you'll be like, okay, I think this is supposed to be kind of like. You know, one of two things will happen. Either you see the ps5 pro and you'll be like, okay, I think it's time for me to leave my ps4 right. Ps5 has been out for three years. They got a good library of titles. I can play all my ps4 games and better frame rates, better graphics. It's enough of a package for me to upgrade. Or you'll see the ps5 pro and say, uh, seven hundred dollars. I don't want to grade that bad, but now paying 450 500 for a ps5 doesn't sound so bad. Right, I know what playstation has to offer and I'll probably go down lower too.

Jason:

It'll probably be on sale often often, yeah, $450.

Erick:

Which is crazy, because when we bought ours, we got the digital version for $399. If it went back down to that price point, I think that would be real compelling, especially around the holidays. And then you got the Switch 2 on the horizon too.

Jason:

Well, this one is a digital console period. The Pro.

Erick:

It was digital, but you have the option to add on the disk drive right, which is like yeah, which basically a hundred dollars more the taxes and all this stuff if you essentially yeah, it's close enough yeah, yeah and then also this other claim they said that you'll be able to play Gran Turismo 8K as well.

Jason:

In 8K.

Erick:

In 8K.

Jason:

Wow.

Erick:

So you know, the PS5 came out, they originally had 8K on the box and then when they upgraded to the slim model, they removed the 8K logo and I guess they're going to put it back on the PS5 Pro box and I guess they're going to put it back on the ps5 pro box.

Jason:

But I wonder how many frames we're going to see at ak, let alone. What tv are you plugging this thing into that can produce?

Erick:

two frames, three frames, I don't know but I mean once you're upscaling. I think maybe 30, but for racing that's not enough.

Jason:

So but 4k dude, I mean think about it.

Erick:

I mean because right now it'll do 4k 120, like it'll use checkerboard upscaling. Upscale the image to 4k and let you get 120 with vrr.

Jason:

So um, usually third first party games usually run better. If it's a third-party game, then it's up to the developer to take advantage. Or what side are they on? Are they on the Xbox side? Are they on the PC or the PlayStation side? Because usually PlayStation games made by Sony are going to run the best on a Sonyy. You know console oh yeah even in some cases, even better than the pc. Some, some games. You know what I mean yeah yeah, that one's interesting man.

Jason:

Seven hundred dollars, I don't know. Let us know what you think about that. Uh, email the show at the chicane podcast. Let me know if you guys for any gt7 guys out there, let me know if spending 700 for uh a very minimal upgrade, I I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what it's gonna be. You know what I mean. I mean yeah the game looks great enough. I don't know what else can you do to it. I I mean maybe in VR, like you said.

Erick:

Yeah, like I said, unless there's some VR stuff that's just like okay, this directly improves draw distance or you know fidelity frame rates, like there's no, I would take that 700 and buy a PC. I got a PS5 already.

Jason:

That's kind of a good argument because, think about it, a lot of people, a lot of sim racers, complain that I racing is expensive and you have to pay all this money. But we just talked about 700 to play gt7. You know what I mean, you know what's that?

Erick:

what's not's not a barrier, it's definitely an option. And then, if you want to add VR, you got to pay another $350.

Jason:

That's $1,000 just to play a single.

Erick:

Hey, the headset is $550.

Jason:

Excuse me, the headset is $550.

Erick:

Just for.

Jason:

So now we're up $1,200.

Erick:

Yeah, if you're trying to play at the highest, if you're a super Sony boy, you shell out $1,250.

Jason:

So there's not much different here. You know what I'm saying. You know I got rated, my stream got rated, when I was racing on iRacing and one of the guys commented I rent thing. I laughed so hard when he said, and I was like you know, I mean it's. It's true it's a subscription model which I usually don't like to get myself into, but when you experience a game like that and it delivers, then you'll you'll pay the money, you'll it If AC.

Jason:

Evo comes out next month and it's killing iRacing, it's stabbing it in the throat. Then I'm going to be moving on to AC Evo. It's just an evolution type of thing. We all move on, we use things for a while and then you move on to the next best thing. That's just the cycle of life.

Erick:

You know what I mean? Yeah, and to your point, man, it's up to iRacing or whatever game.

Jason:

To keep up.

Erick:

Yeah, to keep up and justify what it's charging, because the market will let you know, hey, what you're charging is not worth what you're giving me. So obviously iRacing is delivering for the money, like like I hear people complain all the time about the subscription and oh, it's expensive, but I'm racing this weekend. It's like it obviously is giving them something in return to feel justified, you know, yeah and it's, you know, it's.

Jason:

It's the fact that they're they're charging you a certain amount of money, right, a subscription, you know base. It depends what you get. If you buy by the year, then it's a little better, it's a little less, but now you have professional gt3 drivers that are on this, f1 drivers as well. Max verstappen is an iracing oh yeah, yeah, which is incredible. If imagine getting on grid and you see that you know max verstappen next to you, that it's got to be crazy and it's only, it's an experience that you can only get using a title like that. But is it going to be permanent is is this going to be a staple forever? We don don't know, but it's been dominating since 2008. I mean, yeah.

Erick:

I mean that's a lot to speak. That's a lot to you can't really buy that experience.

Jason:

And I'm not saying what we're looking at is the same 2008 version. Yeah, but it's been being cared for throughout the years. Is what I'm saying.

Erick:

Yeah, so, yeah, man, yeah, that's a good point, though you can't. That's an experience that's unique to our racing. At this point, I'd love to turn on gt7 and see, you know, lando in a car next to me. That's never going to happen I mean if.

Jason:

If it did, it would be awesome though.

Erick:

I mean, yeah, it would be cool. It's like you know.

Jason:

It would be cool. I mean, I just wish that GT7 would open its doors to PC, because, I've said it many times, gt7, if we can mod GT7, if we can mod it and it's yeah, mod gt7, if we can mod it. And it's yeah, if we can mod it and put in like the physics, like a game called. It's a game called rbr. I don't know if you've heard of it, eric, but rbr is uh.

Jason:

Richard burns rally this game yeah this game came out in 2004 2004. There's people playing this game right now and they made it work for the pc. It was like on a totally different. There was a way to get it installed because it was built for like windows 2000.

Jason:

I don't know what it was built for man and this hungarian company and this Hungarian company took it and they built their own physics engine and it's like the best physics engine in a rally car you can get into and the modders is keeping this game alive and it's free. You guys can go to Rally Sim Fans, google it. I'll put a link in the description Rally Sim Fans. You can download this for free, like a hundred percent for free. You can install it and you can. They have maybe over 500 tracks available for you to download. There's tracks that are physical tracks, there's fat tracks that are downloadable. You know people that them, they create them and they upload them.

Jason:

Yeah, they upload them to the server. You can sign up for rally events on the website and race with other guys. It's all free.

Erick:

That's crazy. That's what I mean, yeah.

Jason:

If GT7 were to come with the amount of cars that GT7 has, right it has has what? 700 cars upwards, I don't they keep adding yep so if a game like that came over to the pc and modders found a way to crack it and, and you know, inject the mods in there, the game will be totally different from the gt that you know today. It'll still look great, but it'll have those physics that are missing, right, the little physics that make it. You know that step up the simulation aspect of the cars.

Erick:

Yeah, that would be great. I could think of some immediate improvements, especially on the VR side. It would be a dream come true just to be able to put the power of a PC behind GT7 and VR Some of the things I said earlier like the draw distances and all that stuff, be able to address that and then changing some of the UI elements. The reason why I know the reason why people that care about going fast don't race in vr is because you just don't get the information like.

Erick:

You're limited to the hood they give you in vr, which is is limited and so being able to modify that and add, you know, tire pressures, because you know the telemetry is coming through. Add some of that stuff into vr in the hood. I mean that would be dope that would be sick man.

Jason:

Because, yeah, you know, I think in vr the only thing you can see is like a track map. You can see. Yeah, you can see. Like that right.

Erick:

Yeah, you can see so you've got the little multi-function deal and depending on the car you're in, and what um functionality you have okay yeah, you can rotate through, like you know, see the radar.

Erick:

You can see the track map, you can see your times, you can see um right balance. You can see power, um, if that's a function that's turned on for the race. You can see tire pressures, not not pressure. You can see tire wear, um tire type, um throttle input, track wetness. But the biggest one for me is, like times of other people around me. So time to the guy in front of me, time to get behind me, um, where it's like if you're really trying to be fast and like game plan in a race, you need, I need that information. I need to know if I'm catching or if I'm falling behind.

Jason:

Yeah, man, it's nice having a Delta and not just an overall Delta. You have a Delta per sector, so you see where you know, and, and, and uh, yeah, yeah in a lovely dashboard.

Jason:

If it's a three sector track, for example, you'll see the map and it'll highlight where section one is on the map. It'll, it'll turn white and then you'll have a delta. It's either green, which is improving, yellow, which is not improving worse, or purple, which is all-time and all-time best, or red, which means off track, invalidated for whatever reason, and then it'll switch. Once you go to sector two, it'll switch and then, once you hit sector three, it'll calculate overall and then lap, and then you pass your lap and then you can see the full time. But you can also see your projected map, your projected lap time as you're driving. So it'll say if you continue driving like this, you're going to be at a minute 58. And then you know, you figure out where you're slow and stuff like that, and you see that time coming down and your, your delta is going up.

Jason:

You know stuff like that that would be so there's little things like that. That make it you know, and make it legit you know that dog on constantinos man constantinos. I don't know if you heard the last episode, man, but he dropped his plug in and it's amazing and it doesn't look like a version one, it looks like a version 4.0 or something like that. So I can't wait to see if that's the foundation. Yeah, you know what's coming. What's coming that I don't know about, which has got me excited for real yeah, it's gonna be beautiful man.

Erick:

That'd be, I don't know, just wishful thinking. It'd be great to have like a lovely uh dashboard in vr that you can configure.

Jason:

But you know like in the ar example we we put out. Yeah yeah, that would be crazy yeah, I mean, but yeah it, I'm pretty sure we have the tech to do that.

Erick:

Yeah, it exists, but it's such a specialized problem, like the amount of people racing in VR versus the effort I don't blame anybody for not working on it right now.

Jason:

There's not much demand for it. Either that's one of them demand for it, either that's that's one of them. You know, because sim racing is a niche, and then you have vr, which makes it smaller and then console, which makes it limited you know what I mean, especially on playstation.

Jason:

Yeah, or or. I mean not, yeah, I mean because playstation is proprietary. But thank god that they actually came out with that adapter that connects your psvr2 to the pc, because now that's giving me hope that why would you make this thing compatible with a pc when your number one vr title is Turismo 7. That's hands down. Everybody knows that.

Erick:

I would. I'm probably at like 80% right now. Playstation has a PC roadmap. Right now they say that their first party titles come to PC a year to two years after landing on PlayStation. They have to be gearing up for a PC version of Gran Turismo. They have to be. This is my prediction.

Jason:

Yeah, but you said two years, right, gt7 has been out. For how long? Three years?

Erick:

So this is my prediction, Because originally I thought they just weren't going to bring GT to PlayStation, but there was a I think it was like a FCC filing or a patent filing from PlayStation I mean from Sony and it was for a PSVR headset, but it was wireless. And so for me I could see them coming out like dropping a new headset, it being compatible with PC, and a update to GT7 for PC To me that headset would go.

Jason:

I mean, I would be fine with paying for PlayStation Plus and just let me play it on the PC. Let me project it yeah let me project it on using? What? Is it PS Now, or whatever?

Erick:

The thing. Yeah, the little streaming service.

Jason:

Yeah, the only problem is it needs to have triple support. It needs to. It needs to have triple screen support. Needs to. It needs to have triple screen support.

Erick:

That's the limited factor. Yeah.

Jason:

But I mean, it's not that hard to figure out that it's a racing game. They should be able to. You know what I mean?

Erick:

I don't know, I don't know, I think, I don't think it's a technical thing.

Jason:

I'm hopeful to bridge that gap, because you know what that would do. It's not to get people away from a PlayStation. If PlayStation is your main I've said it here many times if PlayStation is your main way of engaging into sim racing in any way, shape or form, then stay there. Way, shape or form, then stay there. But let's bring over PC guys to fill in your lobbies because, let me tell you, your lobbies will triple, quadruple the amount of people so that you can cross platform and play together. You know what I'm saying.

Erick:

Yeah, that would be interesting because then the number of people that are racing on rigs would go through the roof, which I think would be interesting. Because you have some guys, obviously GT7, they have to account for a controller. So you have some guys that are like that are fast on controllers, so you might be in a lobby and you can kind of tell the way the guys are like moving around the track, like this guy's fast, but obviously he's on a controller because he's kind of you know a little.

Jason:

So there's, there's always benefits there's always pros and cons, like, if you like I've just been thinking about this and I'm like, if a sim racer likes to race on gt7 and he has a rig like me or has a, you have a rig as well. Uh, eric, um, and let's say it works on pc, for example, works on pc. You got the triple screens you can put, you're playing gt7, but then you go on a business trip. I can't take this thing with me, but I can pack up a ps5 and throw it in a backpack and I can work on car setups if I want, or I can do a small live stream from a hotel room if I want to. And you know just little things like that, just creative things like where's sony's head at?

Erick:

it's like money for the taking and they're not taking it, and I don't understand why there's so many options, even, like you said, having some portable option where you can take it with you, and you know there's playstation portable, but that's that's a disappointment in my eyes because it's not a real console. But you know, just they're. They're pretty much the only console player in this area right now. Switch 2 is coming, but that isn't a factor in racing.

Jason:

No, it's not a threat. And then Xbox has Forza, which I will.

Erick:

They even said Forza is coming to PlayStation.

Jason:

Yeah, but you know what? You're not missing much. If I had to choose between Forza and GT7, it's GT7 all day.

Erick:

Like hands down, Even GT Sport. I would take GT Sport over.

Jason:

Forza dude any day.

Erick:

Yeah, for you know more, I guess, realistic racing, but for like open world, social kind of stuff.

Jason:

Oh, like Horizon, horizon, of like horizon, horizon, yeah, like fun yeah, yeah, I think yeah, but that's a windows game. So all you got to do is you know you could. You can have a steam deck and install windows on it, or you can have a one of those uh rog allies and you can run, yeah, yeah you can play that on those.

Erick:

yeah, for you can play it on those. Yeah for sure, but just kind of bridging that gap between the PlayStation people and PC.

Jason:

Right, yes.

Erick:

Because I would love to play it on my rig, because it just seems fun. That's one of the few Xbox games that I've always kind of been envious of. That's a nice game, but I can't play it. It looks fun.

Jason:

And I'll stream it on the pc. But they're fun. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I, I I've played every single horizon game and you know it's a blast. Because you don't. You're not expecting simulation level physics, yeah and that you know. Once you understand that you, you just, you're just here to have some fun, that's it. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's not a big deal.

Erick:

Meet up with some friends and roll out and jump off some mountainsides or something.

Jason:

Ah, herrick, I know we can sit here and dream all day, man, but you know, hopefully things will change with this PS5 Pro, and I don't know. We'll see what goes on with that. We do have one more thing on the show, though, for the final piece, and it's the Fanatec situation. It continues. What's up, eric? Tell me about it.

Erick:

Yeah. So if you've been following Fanatec at all here lately, you know they've been having a little bit of a hiccup in their finances and all that kind of came to a head last week where all of their assets have been liquidated and purchased by Corsair. So if you're thinking well, I did hear that Corsair was taking them over when they were going to file bankruptcy or insolvency is what they call it and this is different. When they liquidate everything, that means if you are a shareholder of Fanatec, your shares are now worth nothing. Basically, they dissolve the company and everything. Basically, corsair buys the rubble essentially. So they're just going to buy up all the assets and if you're a shareholder, you're left with nothing but memories.

Jason:

So is that kind of like getting evicted from your home? Do you think like? Do you think like fanatec will be ripping stuff apart, like, like breaking the walls and damaging wheels and throwing it against the ground, like ah?

Erick:

you know, hey, you, you know, I I don't know if I was an employee, it it would really depend on what Corsair is going to do. I think to me business-wise for Corsair to step in and purchase this stuff. Yeah, they're getting a bargain basement sale, but the idea is to make more money sim racing, because even outside of fanatec.

Erick:

They've kind of started producing their own products. So for for me, it would make sense for them to come in and try to create as smooth a transition as possible. But whenever there's a buyout, there's always going to be a little pain. Right, they're going to come in, they're going to trim the fat. So if you were a manager or you were somebody who making a whole bunch of money or high up at fanatec, you're probably gone.

Jason:

They replace you, of course, people and then they're gonna place you with the, uh, with the two for one guy. You know what I mean?

Erick:

yeah, exactly like the guy comes in like yeah, they're gonna look at those reports.

Jason:

You get paid how much?

Erick:

oh hell no yeah, you get a guy that comes in eat a sandwich, something like that. Yeah, I don't know about no sim racing, but I'm the new boss today. But you know what.

Jason:

To be fair, Corsair makes quality stuff. Yeah, their gaming stuff is legit their headsets, their keyboards, their mouse. They even make coolers for PC parts. They make coolers, uh, for part pc parts. You know, they make coolers for pc. They make um, psus power supplies for pcs. So they're, they have the the reputation of a high-end, you know brand for for pc parts. So it's not like fanatec, that fanatec was just nobody and they, they just brought it up from the ground. That you know, corsair is an established, it's a brand name. We were talking about that earlier.

Erick:

It's a brand name it's a yeah, it's like pepsi.

Jason:

It's a brand name, you know it's respected, so they recognize it I hope that they take that and they just take off and run with it, man, because nobody wants to see a company go down like this. But it's happening. But I mean sim racers don't want that. We want more products. We want more stuff. You know what I mean.

Erick:

Especially Fanatec. That, like you said that, that brand, of course there's a brand, but in sim racing fanatec is. You know they're like royalty yeah they're known almost single-handedly kind of established the foundation of sim racing. Other companies came in, but they're they're plastered everywhere you know real racing.

Jason:

They have ads in all kinds of different games, like a set of horses got fanatec stuff. Um, yeah, I excuse me, I racing. I racing has, uh, what you call this, um the fanatec series I was racing in, which is, you know, sponsored by fanatec and you know, I mean they're everywhere, yeah, yeah oh, gt7, they got fanatec like billboards and stuff oh yeah, fanatec, you know, like liveries and I mean oh wow full liveries yeah, nice like they're.

Erick:

I mean they're because you know they come out with the um, the gran turismo branded wheels, and they're always fanatec gear, so they're official partners with fanatec um yeah, so their name is everywhere. Yeah, yeah whenever they have their, you know their um forget the name of them, but there were a series that they have every year. They have several of them their cup races.

Jason:

All of the professional drivers are, and the expos too, the expos always been like, yeah, the staple there. And well, not, not lately, but but yeah, but that's there, you know. Yeah, they had their time, so yeah, for sure, and it is.

Erick:

It's perfect time too, because there's some stuff that fanatec was doing. I think we've spoken about it on the podcast previously, that wasn't very customer friendly, like the quick release situations and the exclusivity as far as having a fantech wheel for fantech base. So I think of course wants to just come in and just turn on the money, keep the fantech branding, even though their lineup of products, even if you didn't add anything, you just worked on opening it up. Right, there's more, you know.

Jason:

Work better with other options because there's so many out there they'll keep the stuff running and then they'll develop more and to add to their you know, to the repertoire, they'll probably make a headset that's a sim racing headset, and a mouse that's geared for rigs, which I want to see. You know what I mean. That'll be awesome, something like that, because that's what they know how to do. They know how to make peripherals, that's what Corsair's about?

Erick:

I had one of their headsets. It was one of the best built gaming headsets I had um until yeah rgb thing now yeah, rgb, the mic was great. Um, leather, it was a quality headset. Um, yeah, I mean. Yeah, I got high hopes for them yeah, corsair, I think corsair is.

Jason:

I think that's a good move for them, probably to cost them a little to get that restarted, but and hopefully they'll see the fruit, you know, at the end of the tunnel.

Erick:

Yeah, I think this is probably best case for them, for sure, but yeah.

Jason:

Yeah, I mean yeah. So a lot of high hopes on this episode, Jeff, if you can see us. Yeah, so a lot of high hopes on this episode, jeff, if you can see us, if you can hear us. I hope you're having the time of your life over there in Singapore. Eric, thanks again for coming back. We missed you, is there? Anything else that you would like to add to the show before we wrap it up today.

Erick:

Hey, glad to be back man and get past that first turn.

Jason:

That's right, man. Oh, there it is Get past that first time.

Jason:

Okay, all right, I like it. I like it. I don't think, jeff. I think Jeff forgot to say his phrase. Wait until I talk to him. We're going to have a good discussion. But yeah, listen, I get that. You know, life gets in the way sometimes, guys, and we really try to put the time and to be here on time and have this this weekly you know show for you, you know so. So, given you know I might take a break one day I probably won't, but I mean I probably will, but you know you won't see me leave. I'll kind of fade in the distance. But you know, you, you, you miss your buddies. It's different when it's, it just feels different when, when there's something missing, right. So anyways, eric, welcome back, and hopefully jeff will be back soon in one piece. I hope he gets back safely. And yeah, man, and to everybody listening, thank you so much and have a great start of your week.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jason Rivera

Host
Head Shot

Erick Kelly

Co-host
Head Shot

Jeff Smart

Co-host