Keyboard vs Wheel Vs Controller

[Blick Flair]

I'm going to argue today about why I think the keyboard is a sign of mastery, and a much better controller than a driving wheel or wired xbox controller.

Before we start, I want to make it clear that I am NOT a bad driver - quite the opposite. I hold a top 500 time on Bahrain wet, and have several top 1000 times on other wet and dry tracks. I think the keyboard is the best method of driving, better than an XBOX controller or a $300+ racing wheel. Allow me to explain.

ACCELERATION - While a wheel or controller has finer control over acceleration, (half throttles and etc) the keyboard is simple. You are either accelerating, or you aren't. This is mostly notable when cornering, meaning I coast through a corner at 0% throttle, and immediately go 100% coming out of it. This cuts down the time it takes to fully accelerate out of that corner (Tenths of seconds are quite important in this game)

TURNING - Like acceleration, I am turning the wheel at the maximum angle the car is capable of, IMMEDIATELY. This allows me to brake at the last moment knowing that I'm not required to crank the wheel or a stick a certain degrees with the risk of over or understeering. I also know that I can mash the turn button with my index and middle finger to simulate a controller or wheel if holding the left arrow would turn me too wide or too narrow. This is especially noticeable on hairpin turns, which are taken a little quicker thanks to the 100% or 0% style.

BRAKING - Like turning and accelerating, braking is taken at 100%. You might think "Well, braking at 100% isn't always good, maybe you need to half brake and accelerate mid corner" and you'd be right. There are some things that I'm unable to do due to the lack of finesse. I've countered this by braking at the last minute of a turn until a certain speed (this depends on the track) and then fully accelerating while also turning. The grip I get while turning is a sufficient speed trap which acts as a psuedo-half brake, allowing me to "essentially" half brake through a corner.

MFD & RADIO - Probably the hardest part of using the keyboard. I have my MFD set to the WASD keys which is about as comfortable as I can get, and can only change things like fuel mixture or downforce when on a long straight. The team radio, which is bound the the T key on my rig, is quite tedious to use with WASD, and very time consuming. I don't feel like using voice controls, so I'm not calling this a bad game feature in the slightest, I just don't use it much.

[EinStein]

do you drive with assists? because if you do, i wouldn't be suprised actually. if you would drive without them, you would loose the car at every exit, lockup your tyres while you brake and understeer into every corner because of your car accelerating at 100%, your car braking at 100% and your car turning at 100%. if this is a troll post, i congratulate you for taking the effort to write such a long text xD

[Blick Flair]

Originally posted by EinStein:

do you drive with assists? because if you do, i wouldn't be suprised actually. if you would drive without them, you would loose the car at every exit, lockup your tyres while you brake and understeer into every corner because of your car accelerating at 100%, your car braking at 100% and your car turning at 100%. if this is a troll post, i congratulate you for taking the effort to write such a long text xD

Braking and traction assist aren't neccessary

[Blick Flair]

My specialty is wet driving

[neudren]

These cars dont have abs or traction control in real world 😂

[Shia Luck]

I would love to watch you drive Monza in the wet. Parabolica (the last corner) must be a sight to see. Understeer straight on? Oversteer with too much steering angle and throttle? A tank slapper? Full Kylie? (spinning around) Or just a very slow wobble? Spa and Japan must be amazing too. I imagine it works well for the slow Monaco hairpin. It's probably ok for the 90 degree corners F1 loves so much but any sort of long fast corner?

Please please please stream it!

Have fun :)

[Blick Flair]

Originally posted by Shia Luck:

I would love to watch you drive Monza in the wet. Parabolica (the last corner) must be a sight to see. Understeer straight on? Oversteer with too much steering angle and throttle? A tank slapper? Full Kylie? (spinning around) Or just a very slow wobble? Spa and Japan must be amazing too. I imagine it works well for the slow Monaco hairpin. It's probably ok for the 90 degree corners F1 loves so much but any sort of long fast corner?

Please please please stream it!

Have fun :)

Monaco is quite tough, especially la rasse'casee (I'm not the best speller). Has to be taken at 1st gear, can't go any faster haha. Japan is a tough track too, but very fun and very popular online. I'm starting to record some of my times but having trouble getting bandicam to record in 60 frames without making the game stutter. There's some corners where I can take full speed, like in China and USA (Silverstone is probably my favorite, since the track in real life is only a 4-5 hour drive away from me)

[Blick Flair]

Originally posted by dren:

These cars dont have abs or traction control in real world 😂

Hey I never claimed to be Max Verstappen...

[Waggy]

Back in the old days nobody had a wheel so everybody played with keyboard.

Sometimes you had a joystick because they were cheaper than a wheel and you could use them with flight sims which were popular at the time. I played Nascar Racing 2003 with a joystick. It had a throttle so that was my gas, pulling was my brake.

In some Super Nintendo games like Mario Kart of F-Zero I was taught the Ayrton Senna technique of flickering the throttle in some corners. Pulse on, off, on, off, on very fast.

I played My Summer Car with a keyboard because I didn't have a controller at the time. It was very good because like you say you could get from 0% to 100% steering input instantly.

You are a deep rooted gamer if you play with a keyboard, I salute you.

[Blick Flair]

Originally posted by Waggy:

Back in the old days nobody had a wheel so everybody played with keyboard.

Sometimes you had a joystick because they were cheaper than a wheel and you could use them with flight sims which were popular at the time. I played Nascar Racing 2003 with a joystick. It had a throttle so that was my gas, pulling was my brake.

In some Super Nintendo games like Mario Kart of F-Zero I was taught the Ayrton Senna technique of flickering the throttle in some corners. Pulse on, off, on, off, on very fast.

I played My Summer Car with a keyboard because I didn't have a controller at the time. It was very good because like you say you could get from 0% to 100% steering input instantly.

You are a deep rooted gamer if you play with a keyboard, I salute you.

My summer car definitely an influence. If you can drive a finnish lada, drunk on beer and moonshine, you can drive anything

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by UnaPietra:

do you drive with assists? because if you do, i wouldn't be suprised actually. if you would drive without them, you would loose the car at every exit, lockup your tyres while you brake and understeer into every corner because of your car accelerating at 100%, your car braking at 100% and your car turning at 100%. if this is a troll post, i congratulate you for taking the effort to write such a long text xD

It "is true while it is not".

If you have a "heavy finger" tthat keep the button pressed for long, you end up with a 100% turn/brake/throttle, yes you do.

If you press it lightly, it count as if you was pressing it gently (or turning gently) instead of going full power on pedals or full turn on wheel.

I know this from my own experience with many racing games, sims and arcaed (and both work the same way, but arcades are more "set up" for keyboards as they have controls that work progressively if you keep the button pressed, other games you have to either press it fast (so the game response will be a gentle throttle/break/turn) or you have to press it fast and rhythmically, depending on what you are doing and what you have to do to keep the car going fast and on track.

I cant play it with (analog stick setup) [controller using R2 as thottle, L2 as break and analog stick as wheel], because for me is is crap, useless and I dont even conceive how to get prefect inputs with such a crappy controller setup . . . I preffer (My controller setup) ["X" as throttle, "square" as break and the controller arrows (left and right) as wheel] because . . I am much more used to it and I am also used to it since PS1 era.
(indeed, my times at Brazil are:
1:09. - wheel no asissts
1:10.5 - wheel with all assists
1:10. - my controller setup with assists
1:13.9 - my controller setup no assists
1:12.5 - arcade controller full sanwa with assists
1:15.5 - arcade controller full sanwa no assists
1:19. - analog stick controller with assists
1:24.5 - analog stick controller no assists

My worst times are with the so called "best controller setup for racing".
But, yes, I find it way harder to do with keyboard and no assists anything much better than that . . . I find it "harder", not impossible.

[Blick Flair]

Originally posted by EF_Neo1st:

Originally posted by UnaPietra:

do you drive with assists? because if you do, i wouldn't be suprised actually. if you would drive without them, you would loose the car at every exit, lockup your tyres while you brake and understeer into every corner because of your car accelerating at 100%, your car braking at 100% and your car turning at 100%. if this is a troll post, i congratulate you for taking the effort to write such a long text xD

It "is true while it is not".

If you have a "heavy finger" tthat keep the button pressed for long, you end up with a 100% turn/brake/throttle, yes you do.

If you press it lightly, it count as if you was pressing it gently (or turning gently) instead of going full power on pedals or full turn on wheel.

I know this from my own experience with many racing games, sims and arcaed (and both work the same way, but arcades are more "set up" for keyboards as they have controls that work progressively if you keep the button pressed, other games you have to either press it fast (so the game response will be a gentle throttle/break/turn) or you have to press it fast and rhythmically, depending on what you are doing and what you have to do to keep the car going fast and on track.

I cant play it with (analog stick setup) [controller using R2 as thottle, L2 as break and analog stick as wheel], because for me is is crap, useless and I dont even conceive how to get prefect inputs with such a crappy controller setup . . . I preffer (My controller setup) ["X" as throttle, "square" as break and the controller arrows (left and right) as wheel] because . . I am much more used to it and I am also used to it since PS1 era.
(indeed, my times at Brazil are:
1:09. - wheel no asissts
1:10.5 - wheel with all assists
1:10. - my controller setup with assists
1:13.9 - my controller setup no assists
1:12.5 - arcade controller full sanwa with assists
1:15.5 - arcade controller full sanwa no assists
1:19. - analog stick controller with assists
1:24.5 - analog stick controller no assists

My worst times are with the so called "best controller setup for racing".
But, yes, I find it way harder to do with keyboard and no assists anything much better than that . . . I find it "harder", not impossible.

i know they make touch sensitive keyboards, i do not think i have one. my keyboard was bought from a chinese website for under 10 dollars haha

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Racer X:

Originally posted by EF_Neo1st:

It "is true while it is not".

If you have a "heavy finger" tthat keep the button pressed for long, you end up with a 100% turn/brake/throttle, yes you do.

If you press it lightly, it count as if you was pressing it gently (or turning gently) instead of going full power on pedals or full turn on wheel.

I know this from my own experience with many racing games, sims and arcaed (and both work the same way, but arcades are more "set up" for keyboards as they have controls that work progressively if you keep the button pressed, other games you have to either press it fast (so the game response will be a gentle throttle/break/turn) or you have to press it fast and rhythmically, depending on what you are doing and what you have to do to keep the car going fast and on track.

I cant play it with (analog stick setup) [controller using R2 as thottle, L2 as break and analog stick as wheel], because for me is is crap, useless and I dont even conceive how to get prefect inputs with such a crappy controller setup . . . I preffer (My controller setup) ["X" as throttle, "square" as break and the controller arrows (left and right) as wheel] because . . I am much more used to it and I am also used to it since PS1 era.
(indeed, my times at Brazil are:
1:09. - wheel no asissts
1:10.5 - wheel with all assists
1:10. - my controller setup with assists
1:13.9 - my controller setup no assists
1:12.5 - arcade controller full sanwa with assists
1:15.5 - arcade controller full sanwa no assists
1:19. - analog stick controller with assists
1:24.5 - analog stick controller no assists

My worst times are with the so called "best controller setup for racing".
But, yes, I find it way harder to do with keyboard and no assists anything much better than that . . . I find it "harder", not impossible.

i know they make touch sensitive keyboards, i do not think i have one. my keyboard was bought from a chinese website for under 10 dollars haha

My keyboard is not touch sensitive either, I hit the keyboard buttons fast and rhythmically so I avoid to keep it pressed.

If you press it fast the game will understand it as a gentle throttle/break/turn.
If you press it fast and many times/second, the game will understand it as progressive throttle/break/turn.

Same thing work for arrows, "square" and "X" at PS controllers.

Old videos of old games I played with keyboard (recorded with free fraps version, so replay only and I had to edit for each 30s of video):
TDU - Tackling the Giant Hairpins - TVR Tuscan - 3-09-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTeFtirg6zU

GRID - Ironwill - 4fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdemhrQpmEw
That is what i meant. ;)

(btw, I dont like assistances at games and when I find way to turn off I do, the assistances are for whoever have a heavy finger and cant do fast hits at button but screw who try to do fast hits).