The SIM Dashboard Community Designs Thread

Now that Beta participants are allowed to share videos and images of the current 1.5 Beta, the public can already get a good picture of the new and improved content that the update will bring.

In terms of new content, even if you don't have Beta access you may have seen the new cars already, which include Rallycross cars, a Formula Dirt, Cross Karts and a second generation of P1 prototypes, including the long-awaited Sigma P1 G5.

I am happy to say that after several days of hard work in-between actually testing each update, SIM Dashboards have been prepared for all of the new cars. And that's quite a bit of content, considering many have three or four pages per dash.


Aside from the new content, it seems that existing cars have received extra attention with regards to their cockpits lately. Though I'm sure there are others that have been updated, one car that I know has received substantial modifications to its LCD is the Formula Ultimate Gen 1. Corresponding changes to my SIM Dashboard design will also be made available to the public once 1.5 is released.


tl;dr it's a great time to be an AMS2 player!

 

Alright folks, the first batch of new/updated dashboards is here!

Truth be told I would have loved to post them all at once, but unfortunately my aging Samsung tablet (which is 11 years old!) has become so slow and unreliable that just uploading the first batch took me the better part of an hour... Anyway, without much further ado I present to you my most recent creations.

Formula Ultimate 2019 for AMS2


The Formula Ultimate Gen 1 dashboard recently received some updates in AMS2, so I decided to keep my SIM Dashboard equivalent as close as possible. The vertical RPM bar has been removed and the ERS bar now occupies the space on the left of the screen. One thing I failed to mention in the update notes is that I also added an ERS mode popup whenever you change ERS modes just like there is in-game. Aside from a few minor tweaks the design largely remains the same otherwise.


Formula Dirt for AMS2


Ah, the first of the new off-road vehicles! The dash isn't too flashy, and actually shares a lot of elements with the Copa Montana and Copa Truck.


Cross Kart for AMS2


This is another very cool-looking dashboard, IMHO. Sadly you probably won't have much time to look at it considering how explosive the Cross Karts are.

After uploading this design I noticed that the brake bias indication (brF) is misaligned by a few pixels in relation to the inactive digits. I may release a small update with a fix for this if it bothers me too much. Sorry about that!


Next up is the first half of the RX cars, which I will show in a separate post.

 

It's Rallycross time!


Citroen DS3 RX for AMS2


While the dash of the Citroen looks quite cool, some of its elements are of a purely decorative nature at this point. Things like battery voltage and the large clutch balance (?) display aren't functional, and I couldn't decide on a replacement for them so I decided to include them as is for now. The rest is fairly straightforward just as in the sim; the LED bar also turns orange when max RPM is reached, IIRC.


Mini Countryman R60 RX for AMS2 Page 1/3


Mini Countryman R60 RX for AMS2 Page 2/3


Mini Countryman R60 RX for AMS2 Page 3/3


Here we have the Mini Countryman R60 RX, which is the first of the new multi-page dashboards. These are always a bit more work, because I have to ensure consistency across all pages once the basic design is done.

It's nothing too special in terms of functionality, but I was experimenting with giving the rounded-square RPM lights more depth by playing with shadows. For another car that I hope to upload later today I have worked some more on this technique, which you will hopefully be able to see tomorrow.

By the way, the red bar at the bottom indicates fuel load.


That's it for today! I'll do my best to upload the remaining designs later today so I can post them here tomorrow. Let me know if you enjoy these - and as always, I am open to suggestions and ideas for improvements!

 

I really like that effect on the cross kart and formula dirt ones where you can see the LCD 'shadow' in the non showing numbers. A small detail that gives it a nice subtle realism.

 

Is it possible to use the app on a PC?

 

Thank you for noticing it!
When it comes to replicating the look and feel of a particular dashboard I like to pay attention to these details, and replicate them if possible. This is easy enough in SIM Dashboard Studio, as all it requires is a text widget with several 8s (7-digit font) or Xs and 8s for the 14-segment LCD font. A little bit of pixel fine-tuning and it's done.

In the future I'll also try and make 'flat' LED widgets, like the RPM lights used in the Mini, look more vivid and three-dimensional by applying some Photoshop-Fu. Details like these really help make a dash appear more realistic and believable.

@Racinglegend1234
No, at least not officially. I guess you could use it on a secondary computer screen with an android emulator? But I have never tried that myself, sorry.

As has been said before, 2ndLastJedi has some amazing SimHub dashboards, though. You can find them over at Racedepartment:
https://www.racedepartment.com/members/2stains.237132/#resources

I'm not actively following any SimHub content, but his dashboards are definitely the coolest and most authentic stuff I've seen for it and the closest to an equivalent to my SIM Dashboard designs.

If I may ask, how would you like to use these dashboards? As overlay on your main screen? Or on a dedicated secondary screen?

 

I use them as an overlay and currently is use one called Lovely dashboard

 

Mhh, perhaps you could set up an android emulator, install the app from the play store and let it run in a window? You'd have to find a way to pin the window on top of AMS2, though. Keep in mind my dashboards won't work with the non-premium version of SIM Dashboard, though, as they have (way) more than 3 widgets per page. Not sure what the pricing for SIM Dashboard is these days, but back in the day I got premium for all supported games for just a couple of bucks.

Other than that, I don't really know of a solution (short of making all the dashboards you want yourself in SimHub), sorry.

 

Well that’s okay. I will consider your option

 

As promised, here are the remaining RX cars!

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 RX for AMS2 Page 1/4


Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 RX for AMS2 Page 2/4


Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 RX for AMS2 Page 3/4


Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 RX for AMS2 Page 4/4


Ah, the Lancer Evo10 RX! My favorite out of the RX bunch due to its handling (and I've always been fond of the Lancer in rallying and rallycross).

Not much to say here except that the background is actually not blue, but gray. I just forgot to turn off the headlights, which when enabled also turns on the blue background lighting. Oops!


Volkswagen Polo RX for AMS2 Page 1/4


Volkswagen Polo RX for AMS2 Page 2/4


Volkswagen Polo RX for AMS2 Page 3/4


Volkswagen Polo RX for AMS2 Page 4/4


For the VW Polo RX I was able to re-use the screen rim graphics, which is the same as the Super V8 uses. Data and RPM bar are similar, though the Polo obviously has more pages, resulting in much more information conveyed to the driver (and more work for me ). Similar to the Mini, there is a bar that displays fuel load at all times, just in case you were wondering what that thing in the upper right corner is.

 

If you thought I was done yet, think again! The P1 Gen 2 cars come with a new car in case you forgot - the absolutely amazing fifth Generation of the Sigma P1!

Sigma P1 G5 for AMS2 Page 1/3


Sigma P1 G5 for AMS2 Page 2/3


Sigma P1 G5 for AMS2 Page 3/3


This is a very cool design IMHO, but also a bit of an oddball. You see, the Sigma P1 G5 actually has two info LCDs: A main screen and a secondary screen to the side. The main screen has two pages, while the secondary one only has one. So ideally to make the most out of this you'd use it with two devices simultaneously, i.e. a tablet and a phone. But that's only if you want the maximum amount of immersion, I guess.

The basic design of the main LCD is the same as the Roco 001, by the way. That's also where you might've seen that funky RPM bar before. Oh, and the screen dims when the headlights are turned on - same as in AMS2.

As I mentioned before, I tried to give more depth to flat LED widgets in the app. For this dash, that means the four side LEDs which indicate spinning and locking of the wheels. The car in the sim seems to show ABS and TC activity instead, so be aware that these are not exactly the same and will light up at different occasions than the in-sim ones.
Either way, using some layer style tricks in Photoshop I tried to provide more depth to these otherwise flat lights and I like to think it works okay for a first try. They appear a bit too button-like for my taste, but I'll see what I can do about this in future designs.

Aaand with that we are at one hundred percent dashboard coverage for AMS2 again! Yay!


As always, let me know about your thoughts and also feel free to point out any updated AMS2 cockpits that warrant updates to their corresponding SIM Dashboard equivalents as well.

 

Dear friends,

I lied to you. I lied! Unintentionally, at least...


When I said that I had covered all cars and classes in AMS2 (with a select few exceptions that are just too similar to merit their own dashboards), I actually forgot about a unique feature of the Copa Fusca as well as the Fusca in the Copa Classic FL series.

Copa Fusca for AMS2


This is the side LCD that you can find mounted in the Fusca cockpit. The main dashboard is essentially the same as the classic Stock Cars (1979, 1986 and Old Stock), so for the best experience I recommend using two devices - one for the main instruments and another for the side LCD.

Anyhow, the data includes RPM, speed and oil temperature. That being said, the in-game car actually displays water temperature; but there's one tiny issue - the car should not have water cooling! At least as far as I am aware these cars still use engines of the same type as found in the original Volkswagen Käfer series, and those engines were notably air-cooled. Old man Porsche really liked his air-cooled engines. After all, these remained a thing in the 911 series until the advent of the 996, if memory serves right.

Oh, and if you can't be bothered to dig for the stock car dashboard, here it is:

Chevrolet Opala Stock Cars (1979, 1986, Old Stock) for AMS2


Enjoy!


P.S.: I hope it won't be as long until my next post in this thread.
But that depends on the duration of the current Beta cycle...

 

Aaalright everyone, I got good news and not so good news.

First, the good news: Today you get four new dashboards to play with, yay! I was lucky enough to be able to design them during the Beta phase, so I only had to put on some finishing touches and upload them today.

That's also where the bad news come in: My tablet is 11 years old and has become so slow and unstable it has become almost impossible to use SIM Dashboard on it (or anything else, for that matter). Just fixing a few minor things and uploading these four dashboards took well over an hour, multiple restarts of the app and one reboot of the tablet.

And it's not just that the amount of designs I have on the tablet slows the damn thing down; apparently, when the app loads my profile it also attempts to load data from all of my shared designs, which severely slows down the device to the point of becoming unresponsive for minutes or even crashing.

tl;dr not sure how much longer I can continue working with my tablet. I do have an android phone I could use if I *really* had to, but I vastly prefer to be working on a larger device. Unfortunately a new tablet is way, way down on my list of priorities, a.k.a. things-I-need-but-can-absolutely-not-afford-right-now (like that overdue oil change for my car).

Sorry about the downer, folks! On the upside, AMS2 is pretty well covered at this time - at least until we get new toys to play with.


Anyhow, here are my new designs:

Stock Car Brasil 2023 for AMS2


First we have an update to the Stock Car Brasil. Please note that this is a new separate design, because I wanted to give everyone a choice between the old design and the new one. Functionally still the same, it is mostly the colors and a few minor details that have been changed to match the updated 2023 specs as seen in AMS2 now.


Formula HiTech Model 2 for AMS2


If you've been following my work you may recognize this design. The basic layout and graphics are the same as the Formula Classic Generation 3 (and 4, I think?) Model 2 car. However, the new Formula HiTech car ("notWilliams") in both generations has different data displayed on its screen. Additionally I decided to add what I dub the "Mansell Light" as there is no such thing in the in-game cockpit; that is, a light that shows the status of the active suspension system (aka DRS 1.0). That way you won't forget about turning it off again so easily.

Oh yeah, and the dash also covers the F-HiTech Gen 1 Model 4, as it is the same car as the Model 2 just without active suspension.


McLaren MP4/7A for AMS2


McLaren MP4/8 for AMS2


Finally we've got the two new McLaren cars. The features are mostly the same as in AMS2, although I had to change or add a few elements (the fuel warning light isn't working, and I decided to add an active suspension/DRS light to the MP4/8).


If you're wondering about the other cars, that is the generic Model 1 (V12 notFerrari) and Model 3 (V8 notBenetton), then those share the same cockpits as their Formula Classic counterparts. The downside to this is that they don't have an active suspension indicator, but neither do the in-game cars! So yeah, if you're prone to forgetting to turn the DRS off again (like Mansell), then you'll have to use the HUD for now, sorry.


And, as always, let me know if you enjoy these! I'm open for feedback and suggestions.

 

I have looked a bit at simlab ddu display but they are quite expensive 269-359 EUR, Ascher-Racing Display 448-520 EUR here in Sweden, it is cheaper to buy an Android mobile for 108 EUR instead and use it with SIM Dashboard, a given choice!. Thanks for the recommendation that I saw in the beta section and really nice Dashboard's you make!

 

I use sim hub and put the screen on my monitor. Watch any of my recent videos to understand

 

A steal indeed! Even if SIM Dashboard costs a couple of bucks extra (not sure about the current pricing, I can't find it anywhere?) that was easily the best money I ever spent on simracing.

Out of curiosity, how many decently authentic replica dashboards of AMS2 cars are available for Simhub? I'm genuinely curious if there are more available now, because the last time I checked (on RD, that is) there weren't too many; but maybe there are many more at the Simhub forums or elsewhere, I don't know. Of course full dashboard replicas are more suited for a secondary display anyway, otherwise they might either end up taking too much space on the screen or everything ends up being so small you can't see anything.


As for my next dashboard designs, all of the new content coming with the next game update has been covered and is ready to be published; that is, unless there are drastic last-minute changes to any of the cars. And I have to say, there's quite a lot going in some of these - just one dashboard I finished earlier today had 131 different widgets from what I remember (and I think some of the others may have even more)...

 

I only know of them on RD, otherwise I have no idea how many there are. I used to use the Lovely dashboard, then I when to the AIO dashboard due to the damage info and other stuff, but now I’ve gone back to the Lovely dashboard due to how it looks and widgets I’ve found

 

Updated the first post with information about the state of the latest dashboards. All of the new ones are essentially done at this point. However, uploading them will take a considerable amount of time and work - mostly due to the aforementioned issues with my old tablet - so I can't give an exact ETA. I will try to get most or all of the uploads done tomorrow, so ideally they should be available by Tuesday. Keeping my fingers crossed it'll work out!

Also: A Happy New Year to everyone! Enjoy the public RC and Le Mans when it's released!

 

I really admire your replica dashes, high quality work!

But I have a different aproach as a do prefer a general all-in-one dash instead of a perfect replica. SimHub user here running a self developed dash based on many others including Lovely Dash, PS5, Hervé Dash,zdw dash and many others. And no, I'm not a programmer.

 

Thanks! I greatly appreciate it!

Understandable! That's how I actually started as well. And it makes sense if you're trying to get the most information you can and make it as accessible as possible. Sort of your own personal race engineer, who has access to way more data than you as a driver usually do. Especially since a lot of the sim data isn't readily available via the in-game HUD, even though it's present (and available via shared memory).

When I tried replicating the first dashboards of virtual cars in R3E, AMS and PCARS I was fascinated by the limitations I had to work with. Screen space on a phone or tablet is pretty limited, so I often had to get creative in order to fit it all onto the screen. This was a fun challenge (and a great learning experience!) though, and I kinda liked how some of the results looked. That's when I got hooked.

To be honest the idea of recreating all AMS2 dashboards in SIM Dashboard seemed a little ridiculous (not to say daunting!) to me when the idea first came to mind, but well... here we are today!


Speaking of which, I finally finished uploading the new designs (10 new individual pages), and also threw in an update to the McLaren 720S GT3 dash as well. And all of this only took me a couple of hours today thanks to my slow and unreliable tablet...

Either way, all of these should hopefully be available tomorrow!