100% custom vs 50% custom

Hey lads,

As I am a complete n00b towards everything, a less DIY-intensive option such as grabbing some actuators and stuff off simxperience's for a 3dof setup seems like a super-attractive option. On the other hand, a less appealing option would be getting everything seperately and setting it up in SimTools, and doing pretty much everything by myself, like most people on these forums seem to do. As far as I can see for the fully-custom approach:

Pros:
Fully customisable to suit your needs
Supports more games, for more juicy simulator goodness
Cheaper.

Cons:
Seems much harder
You need to know a lot about this stuff to actually use it
Would probably take longer
Takes a lot more planning, etc.

So, considering everything, if you were a beginner, would you rather grab some swag from simxperience's website and be up and running sooner, or do everything by scratch and end up with a super-badass rig that is specialised for you? And what are some more pros and cons of each??

Thanks.

Read my thread, I was once too a noobie with motion and hadn't a clue what i was talking about or doing.

SimX/Actuators lol no thanks...Take that expensive loud stuff to the kerb and some one will pick it up for you.

This ^
Total noob too, enjoying a working (cheaper) rig

DIY, its just cooler......it just is

DIY All the way!!

@Aidan Holdsworth: Definitely DIY, a lot cheaper and that wonderful sense of achievement, I'm in my late eighties
and with help from this forum and a hell of a lot of reading threads, I've built a Kickass (to me anyway) 2DOF rig, I can't weld so it's MDF, I took the easy way out with JRK's (just one board per motor no coding, just plug and play virtually) a no brainer really. It's kept me occupied and
the sense of pride "GEEZ LOOK WHAT I MADE!!" there's no comparison. Go for it mate!!

Definitely go for the 100% DIY route. Most of the fun for me was to learn, how to weld and milling, developing the design, test it, redo everything, etc. etc. The building process is what is makes you happy

lmao case closed, I get it now fam

I'm using SimXperience Stage 1, but with DIY upgrades: moving the entire cockpit (wheel & pedals included). As for software choose SimTools or SimCommander 4 depending on the game I play. Here are pros and cons of SimX:

Hardware:

Good about SimX :

- off-the-shelf solution. However, depending on your skill, you'll spend anywhere from a couple hrs to a couple days assembling and calibrating just Stage 1 (2DOF);

Not so good things about SimX (at least for me - playing all major sim genres in VR):

- all stages of SimX rigs have the wheel and the pedals static (in my view: throwing off immersiveness in VR especially); I ended up doing DIY project, which to some extend can be compared to building a new rig;

- MAX 3DOF (Seat mover concept) with SimXperience, while you can build up to 6DOF using Joy Rider design from SimTools project (Silent Chill’s rig is one of my favorite).

- even stage 1 is fairly heavy and bulky (fine for me though); you can design lighter and smaller rig using simtools projects;

- price - said enough in the previous posts; think, all depends on your salary/time cost ratio just FYI: stage 1 without the moving pedals and wheel on SCN5s will cost you $2300 + shipping;

Software:

Good things about SimCommander 4:

- SimCommander 4 has pretty polished, easy to navigate UI (don’t SimTools is bad at all though);

- in terms of car/effects setting - SimCommander 4 is very flexible (on my level SimTolls still provides all i need as well)

- supports a vast majority of racing games and no need to re-patch plugins;

All on all realy good of-the-shelf solution for sim racing fans.

Not so good things:

- doesn't support space sims and supports only on flight sim: x-plane (big disadvantage for me personally: E, DCS & WT);

Note: its very easy to run SimTools on SimXperience rig.

If you ever need more info, including step-by-step process of my modifications, just check simxperience community blog:
"Simulator upgrade: Moving the entire cockpit (wheel & pedals included), when playing in Virtual Reality."