Next Level Motion Racing Platform First Look

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rD5ddIcz0U[/youtube]

Presenting my Next Level Racing Motion platform first look and impressions that is available from Pagnian. It goes for $2800 here in the states, $3000 in Australia and 1700 British Pounds in Europe. Shipping is free to most locations that are local to the three Pagnian distributors.

A little history on how they developed this platform. Pagnian got introduced to a European company called Motion Systems and they specialize in professional simulation solutions on a world scale. If you go to their website at motionsystems.eu, you’ll find a wide range of motion platforms. They also developed the motion system that Playseat is developing that I tried at E3 last year.

Pagnian worked with them on design and engineering and making improvements and then began testing prototypes. Their companies came together with a crystal clear goal –  to combine their expertise to make the world’s best value motion platform in terms of performance, design, ease of use and quality of product.

Here’s some specs that I pulled from their website:

Features –

Up to 4000 motion updates per second sent to controller
Compact Design to fit under the GT Ultimate seat
Actuators provide up to 600 Newtons of thrust and push
Can Support Up to 150kg or 330 lbs users
USB port and with plug and play software that supports all major racing titles as well as some flight sims on the PC only
Operates at under 57DB
Manufactured in Europe
Max Angular Displacement for Pitch & Roll : +- 10°
Max Speed : 10°/s
Max Acceleration : 360°/s2
Maximum Vertical Lift : 10cm

Specifications –
Power Source – 110-240VAC 50-60HZ
Max Power Consumption – 160W

Besides being directly compatible with the Next Level GT Ultimate, owners of the motion platform have reported using it with the Obutto Revolution and you could probably adapt it to just about any seat. I measured it and it would probably work on my main PC rig. If not I could probably drill it to adapt it.

It comes with the motion platform, Motion control unit, power supply with adapters depending on your region, hardware to assemble, additional side plate uprights to lower the seat and an instruction manual.

The hardware assembly instructions were lacking a bit. There’s stability arms that were included but not mentioned in the manual. I asked Hess at Pagnian about them and they’re not required to use the platform but I installed them anyway. (see video) Once you get all the hardware setup, download the software and firmware from the Pagnian website after you enter your serial number, load it and you’re pretty much ready to go.

Little more about the hardware. The platform is rock solid and compatible with the Next Level accessories except maybe the keyboard tray. You could attach it, but it will just be moving all over the place. The shifter mount works great though and is in the same position that it was with the standard GT Ultimate. The actuators on the platform are setup horizontally and then attached to a cam mechanism. Definitely unique compared to how we’re all used to seeing motion work. I’ve personally seen and tried the ones with the actuators attached vertically at the back of the seat and the Dbox style where they are at all four corners of the rig or even in two spots, but this is new to me.

The software also has some instructions that have the basics but could be more detailed. You can tell it was originally written in a different language, I believe Polish and then translated to English. The software will also detect titles that are loaded on your system and allow you to link it up with the motion system.

From unpacking to installation, I was driving in iRacing in about an hour and a half, maybe two hours tops.

It’s compatible with just about every racing title on the market. Assetto Corsa, all the Codemasters titles, Game Stock Car, iRacing, Project Cars, rFactor 2 and a lot more. You can also set it up in direct input mode and it will move based on your position. Whether it’s a wheel, joystick or Joypad. It’s also compatible with a handful of flight sims. I also think that it can work off of force feedback cues in that direct input mode but I need more time with it to figure all that out.

The software provides a good amount of adjustability. There’s 5 main sliders to adjust intensity.

Motion which handles the overall intensity. The following axes are used by ForceSeatPM and the platform firmware:

• Left-Right rotation (Roll)
• Rear-Front rotation (Pitch)
• Horizontal Left-Right rotation (Yaw)
• Down-Up movement (Heave)

So far I’ve tried it with Dirt Rally and iRacing.  As quickly as I got it setup and running, it’s not a plug and play experience. Its more like a plug, tune and play where the tuning could take many hours per car and per track to get it right. A motion setup that is wrong, can ruin your sim racing experience. Tune it right and it can definitely enhance it.

So far I like it and it offers a very tune-able, affordable solution when it comes to motion. I want to try it with Assetto Corsa, Project Cars, rFactor 2 and Raceroom Experience. Maybe I’ll share some of those test with you guys in separate videos before my final review.

So there’s my first look and impressions of the Next Level Motion platform distributed by Pagnian. I’ll definitely need more time with it to give it a fair shake in a review and to get things dialed in properly. Head over to pagnian.com to find a distributor close to you if you are interested in picking one up for yourself or one of the other items they have for sale.