Last updated: 17.10.2013
Now that you have registered and downloaded the VRC Pro software you are ready for your first virtual r/c experience. Or maybe not…
There are 2 very important things you need to know and maybe even need to consider spending some extra money on, your PC and your controller. Please take a few minutes to read our recommendations.
PC
First about your PC. VRC Pro is an ultra realistic r/c racing sim, and to achieve the best possible r/c experience we are giving you ultra realistic graphics and ultra realistic physics. To play these ultra realistic graphics you need a serious video or graphics card, also called the GPU. A normal home or office computer will probably not have a good enough video card which results in a much too low frame rate and therefore also too much latency (lag or delay) in your controller. This has nothing to do with your controller but everything with the video card.
You can lower the graphics settings in Options -> Graphics settings, you can reduce or even turn off the dynamic shadows, or reduce texture quality, but this will of course also reduce the quality of the gaming experience. You should be striving for at least 60fps, preferably with all graphics settings to medium or max. Read more about the graphics settings in the VRC Pro User manual.
VIDEO CARD
Video cards are extremely powerful and although ‘faster is better’ we recommend to get a gaming card which is designed for gaming. You can get very good cards for as little as $120-150. Check out this gaming card benchmark page. The minimum benchmark is around 2100, if you want to spend a bit more start with cards with a benchmark of 3000 and more.
Ignore cards from FirePro and Quaddro, these cards are designed for professional workstations and not so much for gaming.
If you are interested in setting up a system with 3 monitors (works great….!) you should definitely look at 3000 and up. Radeon supports 3 and more monitors with their Eyefinity system, their multi-monitor set-up is more user friendly to configure than nVidia Geforce.
PROCESSOR
Another bottleneck may be the processor or CPU. The physics, especially for our off-road cars with its 3DS (3DSuspension geometry model and physics), demand a lot from the CPU, especially when you race with several virtual opponents or in multi-player. We strongly recommend the use of at least an i5 processor but preferably and i7 or similar AMD processor.
In short, CPU and GPU are of the utmost importance for a good gaming experience. So you may have to invest some extra money to upgrade your PC or even get a more suitable PC. Consider it an investment in your hobby, and we are convinced that you will not regret it. And besides VRC Pro there are plenty other exciting games that come within reach with a good (gamin) PC.
CONTROLLER
VRC Pro can be controlled with a key-board and a regular joystick, but these devices will not give you anything near a real r/c racing experience. VRC Pro supports also digital gaming pads like for the Xbox. The 2 joysticks can be mapped for throttle/brake and for steering, it will give you kind of a stick radio experience.
By far the best r/c experience will give you the VRC 3NT USB adaptor. This device plugs into your receiver and lets you control VRC Pro with your own transmitter. The VRC 3NT adaptor works with almost all radio systems including 2.4Ghz. Everything you adjust on your radio, like exponential steering or adjusting your brake, will also work in VRC Pro! In the VRC Pro User Manual you can find more information about controllers and how to calibrate your controller.
The VRC 3NT adaptor is available from the VRC e-shop for just €10.00 as an introduction price!
So there you have the whole story about what is needed to get the best possible r/c racing experience. We have not compromised on graphics and physics quality, you should not compromise on your hardware either to get the best virtual r/c racing experience. Hours and hours, no years of pure virtual r/c racing excitement and unlimited tracktime lay ahead of you.
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