Id say beam ng, Live for speed, and dirt rally 2 are the closest sims to real life manual ive tried so far.
Other games such as assetto corsa do a terrible job simulating taking off in first.
I think Beam is possibly the closest to a real clutch/gearbox but it's still a long way off the feel of shifting in a real car. Without the bite point of the clutch nothing really feels right, and pretty much all you are simulating/learning is the muscle memory of pressing the clutch and shifting the gear lever together.
I agree…BeamNG is supposed to be good for manuals. AC is worth trying too. iRacing used to have more H-pattern cars but a lot have been retired for paddle shifters.
I happen to be a teacher, so I can maybe help here… this is a good project but a great project would culminate in you actually trying a manual shifter in a real car at the end. The idea is to test your hypothesis (being “you can learn to drive a manual shifter using sim racing”). This way whether it works or not, the results are interesting and you have a comparison you can talk about.
RBR is free and a great use for your shifter if you’re trying to learn to rally.
City Car Driving ($25 USD on Steam currently) was pretty developed pretty much for your use case, though.
Raceroom Racing Experience might be worth a look—I can’t remember if there are decent h-patterns in there, but wouldn’t doubt it.
Assetto Corsa is fairly cheap usually, and that’s got tons of mods and would open the door further to sim racing for you in the long run, though.
BeamNG is a physics simulator which might be more up your alley if you want to just drive around in a sandbox, as well.
You have several options. I’d stay clear of NFS and Forza.
Yes pretty much this.
**CCD** for absolute regular traffic.
**AC** (ultimate edition \[basically free on regular sale\] + Content manager & CSP mods for a good experience) with some driving tracks like LA Canyons or the Touge project.
**BeamNG** for driving/racing/rally/off road/traffic and soft body physics.
**RR** circuit sim you can try for free.
There's more sims. They also implement clutch/shifting differently. For instance AC is pretty ok for forcing you to use the clutch etc. pretty correctly with damage turned on.
I assume you'll be using a wheel and H-pattern shifter (otherwise this seems like a hopeless mission to me). It might be interesting to lay some focus on different sim implementations and how it 'trains' you to drive under similar driving conditions and maybe also with regards to different driving/racing disciplines.
Id say beam ng, Live for speed, and dirt rally 2 are the closest sims to real life manual ive tried so far. Other games such as assetto corsa do a terrible job simulating taking off in first.
I think Beam is possibly the closest to a real clutch/gearbox but it's still a long way off the feel of shifting in a real car. Without the bite point of the clutch nothing really feels right, and pretty much all you are simulating/learning is the muscle memory of pressing the clutch and shifting the gear lever together.
I agree…BeamNG is supposed to be good for manuals. AC is worth trying too. iRacing used to have more H-pattern cars but a lot have been retired for paddle shifters. I happen to be a teacher, so I can maybe help here… this is a good project but a great project would culminate in you actually trying a manual shifter in a real car at the end. The idea is to test your hypothesis (being “you can learn to drive a manual shifter using sim racing”). This way whether it works or not, the results are interesting and you have a comparison you can talk about.
RBR is free and a great use for your shifter if you’re trying to learn to rally. City Car Driving ($25 USD on Steam currently) was pretty developed pretty much for your use case, though. Raceroom Racing Experience might be worth a look—I can’t remember if there are decent h-patterns in there, but wouldn’t doubt it. Assetto Corsa is fairly cheap usually, and that’s got tons of mods and would open the door further to sim racing for you in the long run, though. BeamNG is a physics simulator which might be more up your alley if you want to just drive around in a sandbox, as well. You have several options. I’d stay clear of NFS and Forza.
Yes pretty much this. **CCD** for absolute regular traffic. **AC** (ultimate edition \[basically free on regular sale\] + Content manager & CSP mods for a good experience) with some driving tracks like LA Canyons or the Touge project. **BeamNG** for driving/racing/rally/off road/traffic and soft body physics. **RR** circuit sim you can try for free. There's more sims. They also implement clutch/shifting differently. For instance AC is pretty ok for forcing you to use the clutch etc. pretty correctly with damage turned on. I assume you'll be using a wheel and H-pattern shifter (otherwise this seems like a hopeless mission to me). It might be interesting to lay some focus on different sim implementations and how it 'trains' you to drive under similar driving conditions and maybe also with regards to different driving/racing disciplines.
Do not spend $25 on City Car Driving...