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It’s really nothing special, just a few laps.
I made it as a reply to a ResetEra user asking about controller handling in ACC, thought it would get 20 views or so.
It has 2800 now (I know it’s not really much, but it’s also not a great video and I have less than 20 channel subscribers).Interesting.
Wheels remain a niche product and I wonder how Valve got their numbers.Saw someone mentioning that Steam gathers the information over time with hardware IDs that were connected. When you then agree to take part in the Steam hardware survey, it’s just pulling and sending the collected data.
This makes the most sense so far, since the original article also shows usage numbers of PS4 vs XB1 controller over the last month (did people that own at least one of these controller actually play a game with it in the last month).If – as most people assumed – the survey would only search for connected devices on the day someone gets asked to take part in the survey, then the usage data wouldn’t make any sense, unless they specifically asked the Steam user about their controller habits in the last month, which nobody mentioned, so I think it’s less likely.
This then would mean that Valve’s numbers can’t be super far off, which is hard to believe for me. Should be at the very very least double their number.
On the subject of Group B and handbrakes, the early Quattros could do handbrake turns, but the co-driver had to pull a lever that would unlock the centre differential solving the problem of locking all four wheels up.
I didn’t know that! Cool. That was before the adjustable torsen center diff introduced in the S1 then though, right? So the game still shouldn’t have it… or?
On Walter Röhrl:
Sure he was a great driver, but I’m not a fan about how un-fun full of himself and his achievements he was and still is, especially considering he was really picky about what rallys he even took part in, basically only driving what he had perfect (supposedly “photographic”) memory of. Then again, the majority of champions in racing aren’t the nicest guys.That’s an excellent question and I’ve added it to the OP. I confess I had no idea about this handbrake issue, will certainly make the Group B cars more interesting to drive. It seems like some cars may have had a handbrake but diff settings in the cars made the use of it unworkable in some cases depending on how the car was set-up. I’ll be sure to ask the developer the question.
Thank you, Alan!
On the bolded:
I remember Walter Röhrl mentioning how hard it was for him to adapt to the AWD Audi. He was already a two-time world champion and tried to force his old driving style on the Audi, giving up after excessive training, when he was just too slow. Before the Audi, he only ever used his right foot for braking and now not only had to learn left foot braking, but also switching it up, sometimes left, sometimes right foot braking.The Golf Alan drove in the New Zealand video, indeed seemed really understeery – didn’t look like the car could be sharply flicked in and the brake bias seemed to have locked the front long before the rear => understeer -, hopefully it was just a very safe setup for the event.
Since Alan asked for questions, I do have one, but it’s a little odd one:
In the original DiRT Rally, it always bothered me that Group B cars had handbrakes – they didn’t in real life (as far as I know). In one of the DiRT Rally 2.0 Trailers with the Group B Audi (this one definitely didn’t have a handbrake, correctly simulated in pCARS2 and AC), it again looks like the driver uses the handbrake for some turns (judging from helicopter perspective, so I could have this wrong). If the Codies’ differential simulation was realistic, then pulling the handbrake for a hairpin drift would result in the center differential locking up the front tires as well, not only the rears, and thus would not be any different from just pressing the normal brake so hard that all 4 wheels lock up, resulting in the car not being steerable through the hairpin.So question: Do Group B cars again have a handbrake on all realism settings? Have they improved the differential simulation?
(if you look at the differential simulation in Richard Burns Rally, even in the tuning menu, it’s obviously much more complex than what was featured in DiRT Rally).It’s probably too nerdy to ask this. But I just felt like bringing this up.
I saw people discussing that their PS4 controller would be recognized as an Xbox 360 controller if they use DS4Windows (that was the driver thing you needed, before Valve made their own DS4 controller support happen) and were guessing many of those Xbox 360 controllers might be DS4s really, but my personal guess is that Steam extrapolated the data from people who were willing to undergo the hardware survey and read out the hardware id and cross match it with their own database.
That would still mean many of the cheaper SNES controllers would fall under PC Gamepad, as you said, but the more unique and expensive ones like an 8BitDo SNES pad (those even work on Wii U and Switch IIRC) could be recognized and then filed under SNES-controllers.
Gamecube controller higher than wheel and DIY controllers together is insane too.
Also keep in mind a few games, such as iRacing, run off their own client. But even then, iRacing boasts of 70,000 members.
Good point with iRacing. How many people do you know, who have a wheel and what’s the percentage of them having played iRacing in the last 3 years?
Personally, most of the people I know somewhat personally online that have a wheel – most of them have some serious equipment, Direct Drive and PT1/Heusinkveld pedal owners, meaning they’re pretty well off, they have the money for iRacing – and not more than 50 to 60% have played iRacing lately. I wouldn’t believe the number is higher than 30% of wheel owners that have played iRacing in the last 3 years. Also, out of all iRacing sim racers I know, nobody plays ONLY iRacing and wouldn’t have connected their wheel to play a game on Steam.
If 95% of those 70,000 iRacing subscribers have a wheel and not more than 30% of wheel owners have played iRacing in the last 3 years, that would add up to about 220,000 wheel owners. I know, a lot of bad estimates, but anything oder 200,000 sounds really low to me.
About music instruments: Guitar Hero and Rock Band were huuuge for a while. The first Guitar Hero sold over 10 million copies and, checking this on Wikipedia, in 2008 the biggest gaming franchises were Mario, Guitar Hero and Rock Band (holy shit!). The entry price for the hardware is almost nonexistent these days as you can’t even give those instruments away to charity, they have too many of those already. What is surprising is that people connected them in 2015-2018 to a PC with Steam running, since the newest versions are on console only (Rockband lost their Fig crowdfunding campaign for a new Rock Band on PC in 2016). Maybe a lot of those instruments in the survey are real guitars to be played with Rocksmith?? *shrugs*
Checking Steam Spy: Their estimate for Rocksmith 2014 owners on Steam is 500,000 to 1,000,000.
