- One of the main reasons that I bought a Rift was to play driving games and they finally released a patch to add VR to the game.
- I can easily say the best VR game that I've played.
- They took their time and fully added VR support, this isn't some half-baked addon, the update was over 10G so it touched nearly every file in the game and it shows.
- When you start up the game you are in what looks to be a tire with a huge screen in front of you showing you the intro video and the menus. It's really slick, Codemasters has always done a good job with their menus.
- Since this is VR there is a possibility that you may get a little motion sick so they rate each track with a comfort meter. I tried the lowest level and after 2 races I did feel a bit of motion sickness but after I played the game more I haven't experienced that feeling again. Your body should adjust to VR it might take a bit of time.
- Once the race begins and you are in the cockpit of the car it just feels awesome. Looking around and seeing your co-driver with their cheat sheets as they start telling you about the race is just cool.
- While I was revving up the engine I looked down and they drivers leg was matching my motion of the gas pedal.
- The actual racing feels perfect, I'm able to really get a feel for the track and can hit corners much better and also the sense of speed and motion is greater so you can make subtle gas/brake adjustments quicker.
- My first race I hit a water puddle and it completely obstructed my view and as soon as my wipers swept across my screen I saw a fence post and plowed right into it. It was an intense moment as I thought I was really there.
- The graphics look really nice, it still has the screen door effect but I really don't notice it at all since the tracks are full of curves and the environment envelopes the track. I noticed it much more in Assetto Corsa since you can look far off into the distance. There is a trick in the Oculus debugger that will allow you to increase the pixel density that will make the games look better with the cost of performance. I haven't tried that yet but will in the future.
- I am really impressed with this version of the game and it has made my track times much better.
- Kudos to Codemasters.
Serpentine Belt
- Speaking of cars my serpentine belt broke yesterday and I attempted to fix it myself.
- I had been hearing scraping noises recently and thought I was me running over something in the road.
- Nope it was my belt just shredding to pieces.
- I can say that I am grateful for a praying mother as the belt finally broke when I was backing out of my driveway returning to work from lunch. If this happened while I was driving.....
- I had to walk to the parts store and luckily one is really close but the Levy hill is a bear to climb.
- I picked up my belt and got a 19mm socket for the tension rod but bought the larger socket version, First mistake.
- On some of the videos they mentioned that you can take off the front passenger wheel to make it easier. As I was taking off the lug nuts one of the bolts broke off. Yay! Second Mistake.
- There are 6 different pulleys that I have to wrap the belt around so that takes some time to get the cable on 5 of them. Once that is done I tried using the larger socket and just knew it wouldn't fit. I was right, I could get the socket on but not the ratchet.
- So I walked back down to the store and exchanged the part, No price different though!!!
- Get the socket on and pull the tension bolt and there is not enough torque to get the belt on. I find a curtain rod that fits over the ratchet and use that to help pull down the ratchet, but it's still not enough as the rod hits the car frame.
- Now I'm wondering if I got the right belt. I walked to another store which was farther away and the belt I had was the right one, but I was able to rent a serpentine belt toolset. Third Mistake.
- I carry that back home and it doesn't even have a 19mm socket, so much for a complete kit. It does have a larger bar that I can use, but it's too long and just like the curtain rod it hits my car.
- I did try a small wrench that I could attach to the ratchet but it was difficult to grip but I did press it down quite far but just not enough.
- I did this for about 2 hours and still wasn't convinced that I had the right belt. It just didn't feel right that I had to press down that hard. I knew it had to be tight but this was ridiculous. None of the videos seemed this tough.
- I look over at my battery and notice that one of the arms of the positive post clamp has broken in two. Third Mistake.
- One video I found mentioned taking off part of the engine bracer so that I could get a better angle at the tension bolt.
- As I was trying to remove the bolts the car came off the jack. Fourth Mistake.
- I get it hoisted back up and now probably I messed something else up.
- It was around 6 at this time and I was tired so I got cleaned up and was going to get a pvc pipe to use as better leverage the next day.
- I just couldn't stop though, my girlfriend came over and took me to another part store and yes I did have the right belt, Arrggh.
- I went to Lowes and got a PVC pipe thinking this would be the finisher.
- Got back and used the pipe and it's still not enough leverage. I am really pressing down this tension bolt and fear I might break it, Fifth Mistake.
- JK I didn't break it.
- It was 10pm now and I'm just about to give up and I thought I'd try one more time with a different pulley I hadn't tried.
- It was under the car but somehow I managed to get a lip of the belt over the pulley and from there able to get it fully on.
- I started the car and the belt moved the parts and I was ecstatic.
- I put the tire back on with 4 lug nuts hoping that would be enough.
- I fixed the battery clamp barely. The fly nut in the package was too big for the bolt provided. Luckily I still had the old one.
- It was 11 now and I took anouther shower and just sat in my recliner listening to music and drinking water for about 45 minutes. Half falling asleep I dragged myself to bed and was sore all over. This had been a long day.
- The total cost. $60 and 10 hours of hard labor.
- I love my job.
