Chapter 1166: Direct Drive Steering Wheel Solution
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Wang Xiaobin paused for a moment and continued, “The front wheel has a step-in motor or a servo motor. Its effect would be better than the force feedback of the gears and straps. That’s because the feedback would be stronger and the reaction would be faster.”
“The manufacturers who provide simulators for professional teams overseas basically use direct methods.”
“However, its price fluctuates very much.”
“Overseas steering is very expensive. Mainstream brands are basically around 1500 euros. The high price of a single steering wheel is more than 10,000 yuan. Most people cannot afford it.”
“However, many hardcore gamers in the country would choose to do it themselves. The entire set would be DIY.. That way, the cost could be reduced by a lot. The pure cost would probably be less than 2,000 yuan. If they buy second-hand stuff like industrial servers and drivers online, they would be able to get it at 400 to 500 yuan after all.”
“However, the process of DIY is extremely complicated and cumbersome. You still have to understand programming knowledge if you want to completely DIY. Even if you use the ready-made plan online, you have to spend a few weeks to adjust the school. It would be a pure waste of money for the noobs to buy it. Only the big shots with especially strong hands can play it well.”
“What’s more, if we look for a DIY plan online, we don’t have to count on the quality control and after-sales of the product.”
“At the moment, the real simulated game steering wheel that domestic players can buy, be it the entry-level feedback steering wheel or the direct steering wheel, are all mainly foreign brands.”
“There are some manufacturers in China who are making steering but they are all very cheap entertainment steering and have no power to give back.”
“Actually, the cost of the steering wheel of these foreign brands is secondary. The key is that the parts are also expensive.”
“The price of these parts is not lower than 1,000 yuan, be it the H-tier splint, serial-style splint, or special liquid pressure hand brakes. If you want to set up a full set, even if it’s an entry-level power return steering plan, you can’t do it without 6,000 to 7,000 yuan.”
“After all, the brand value, the license fee, the tax, and so on would make the price of the steering wheel overseas too high.”
“Actually, the cost of many parts is very low. For example, the scaffolding, the liquid pressure hand brake, these things from foreign brands are generally more than twice the cost price. Domestic homemade liquid pressure hand brakes only cost two to three hundred yuan. It would be sold for close to a thousand yuan at foreign brands. The actual experience is not very different.”
“Of course, the advantage of buying a ready-made brand is that everything is a set. It has the corresponding optimization for games. Once the steering wheel is connected to the computer, it can be played directly by installing drivers. For players who don’t have professional knowledge, DIY will definitely not work. They can only buy ready-made products.”
Wang Xiaobin explained the current situation of the domestic game steering wheel in detail. Everyone nodded as they listened.
These three different steering wheels gave players completely different gaming experiences. There was definitely a reason why they were expensive.
There were only two reasons for buying the steering wheel. One was to improve the immersion and immersion of the game, and the other was to improve the accuracy of the operation.
The simulated steering wheel had a rich vibration mode. The effect of the vibration would be different when cars passed by different roads. Players could clearly tell that their cars were passing through the gravel road or the mud road.
What’s more, the steering wheel could be slightly adjusted from the angle of the wheels. Coupled with the feet and the joystick, it could achieve advanced techniques such as bouncy top-up drift, lowering the speed and finger movements.
More importantly, the power feedback from the steering wheel could tell players the current state of the car’s wheels.
Players could judge the state of the car’s grip by the strength of the steering wheel’s recoil. They would be able to discover the tire slipping immediately. This was very important for drifting over the turns and driving on special roads.
Thus, many professional racing drivers would also use simulators to train. That was because outstanding steering wheels could indeed restore the driving feeling of a real car.
Simply put, ordinary gamers had to work hard to give back since they had decided to buy a steering wheel. They could not touch plastic toys below a thousand yuan. They might as well buy a good controller with that money.
Some people even said that it would be best not to experience it before you could buy the driver.
That was because after experiencing the direct steering, returning to the ordinary steering wheel, controller, and keyboard might make you feel disappointed. You might even completely lose interest in racing games.
Of course, the steering wheel did not improve your skills. When you first switched to the steering wheel, you might drive worse than a keyboard or a controller. However, as long as you were used to the operation of the steering wheel, most people would not use the keyboard or the controller to play racing games.
Chang You nodded. “According to Boss Pei’s usual style, he must do his best if he wants to make a product.”
“In that case, the steering wheel that we are making must be a direct plan for the servo motor.”
“What’s more, the market for direct steering is in a state of polarization. Foreign brands easily sell for more than ten thousand yuan. Players’ own DIY might be cheap, but the threshold is too high and it would cost time and effort.”
“There’s a huge market gap here.”
“If we can develop an outstanding driving model and control the price of all the parts at a price-quality ratio, it would still be very competitive!”
“Perhaps Boss Pei saw this business opportunity and decided to turn the steering wheel?”
Jiang Yuan added, “Perhaps Boss Pei decided to make it himself because he felt that the current steering wheel in the market cannot be perfectly compatible with the game.”
Ye Zhizhou nodded. “That’s right, that must be one of the reasons.”
“At the moment, there are some buttons on the game steering wheel in the market, but they are basically buttons to simulate the controller.”
“Ordinary racing games require fewer buttons. They can also meet the requirements with such a steering wheel.”
“However, there is a lot of simulation in the game ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’. For example, if you want to turn a corner, you have to turn on the turn signal. If you park a car when it is malfunctioning, you have to use a double flash. There is also a rain brush, a light far away, a windscreen to get rid of fog, and so on. If players want to drive large trucks or long-distance cars to earn money, they would need even more buttons.”
“If there aren’t enough buttons on the steering wheel, we can only use the keyboard. Obviously, it’s not convenient. If we can create a special console and integrate the buttons required in various games, it would definitely be more convenient. It would also be beneficial to increase the sense of immersion.”
Wang Xiaobin agreed. “That’s right. Speaking of this, I think that even though there are many steering wheels in the market now, there is still a lot of innovation in terms of hardware.”
“There’s no need to talk about the most basic H-tier and hand brake.”
“Under the steering wheel and on the base of the motor, you can actually add a monitor screen. This price is not expensive, but you can show different effects according to different cars so that players don’t need to look at the screen. You can know the time and turn the car once you lower your head.”
“The steering wheel has to be equipped with a switchboard that possessed a magnetic field, and there have to be a turn signal, a rain brush, and various other buttons. The disc of the steering wheel can be wrapped in Alcantara leather. It won’t cost much, but it can improve the hand sensitivity.”
“You can install a mini vibrator on your feet. If the steering wheel and feet vibrate together, it can better simulate the driving feeling.”
The four of them spoke one after another and quickly finalized the details of the steering wheel.
There were many different parts to this steering wheel. They could be bought separately, priced separately, or bought together. There would be a certain discount for the price.
The main body of the steering wheel was divided into a steering wheel and a straight base. The straight base had to be integrated into a control box and the small monitor of the instrument. Between the base and the steering wheel was the D1SPCE fast dismantling system used by real cars. It was reliable and safe. It was also very convenient to disassemble it.
These two added up to the bulk of the price of this set of equipment. The steering wheel was about 1,300 yuan because the steering wheel was integrated with various buttons and dynamiters. The straight base required about 3,200 yuan.
The pedals were made of pure metal. The accelerator, brake, and clutch could slightly adjust the distance between the top and bottom of the pedals. The clutch and accelerator relied on adjustable springs to rebound. The brake was a small preloaded spring and a large piece of rubber. This design was to simulate different foot feelings.
There was also a small motor on the accelerator, brake, and clutch pedals to simulate the vibration of the car as it drove.
The price of this board was relatively high. It was about 1,200 yuan. Even though it was similar to the price of many foreign manufacturers’ feet, the actual experience was definitely completely different.
They were integrated into the H-tier and the serial-tier rods, as well as the liquid pressure hand brake. They were 300 yuan and 200 yuan respectively.
There was also a special console with various commonly used buttons on it. It was mainly used to simulate some special situations in driving. It was actually a special keyboard, so it was not expensive. 100 yuan would be enough.
In addition, there were three different types of scaffolding. They were foldable scaffolding without seats, about 500 yuan; adjustable scaffolding with seats, about 1200 yuan; including display scaffolding, the highest specifications of the GL seats, which was priced at 4,000 yuan.
Of course, these GL seats were not in six directions. Instead, they were in three basic directions. In other words, they could only simulate back, left, right, and top movements. However, three directions were enough for ordinary experiences. The GL seats in six directions were too expensive. The demand was relatively small. Big shots who pursued this experience would basically form their own teams. There was no need to use them as mass-produced content.
The GL seats could only improve the experience, and it did not help in improving the technology. Many racing drivers did not use the GL seats even if they opened simulators. The reason why they provided such scaffolding was only to satisfy the needs of some high-end players.
If gamers already had a steering wheel scaffold or other brands’ hand-lock, brake, and other parts, they only needed to choose the new parts that they needed.
On the other hand, if players were to experience the game from scratch, Otto Technologies would also provide three different package plans.
The first was the entry-level package. They only needed the steering wheel, the pedals, the scaffolding, and the console. The original price was 6300 yuan, and the package was 5800 yuan.
This plan was suitable for newbies. There was no need to change or use the hand brake. The seats could also be used with their own chairs. It was a relatively entry-level plan.
The second was an advanced set meal. The steering wheel, pedals, brake, console, seat adjustable scaffolding. The original price was 7200 yuan and the set meal was 6800 yuan.
This plan was suitable for players with a certain level of advancement requirements. The liquid-pressure hand brake was easier to drift, and the swap dial on the steering wheel could also be completed. If they preferred the H-tier, they could just add 300 yuan to buy a separate slot.
At the same time, the seat and the frame were fixed together. They did not have to worry about the seat shaking. It was more comfortable.
The third was a luxurious set meal. It had all the configurations and a GL seat. The original price was 10,300 yuan and the set meal was 9999 yuan.
This set of equipment could basically meet the requirements of all professional gamers, and even some professional racing drivers.
The discount for the entry package was relatively large. It was mainly to expand the players.
If he wanted to upgrade after purchasing a low-level set meal, he just had to spend more money on the parts he needed. It was not that troublesome at all.
