Racing Simulators

CatMangler said:
In practise I can run in the 1:39's in race conditions it tends to be a little slower on average -> 1:40 - 1:41's. Not the quickest I know but I'm still fairly new and this is my first proper driving game. /excuses

EDIT: Had a look at Zandvoort National last night for the first time, if that doesn't look like a SR sink hole I don't know what does :/
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That surprises me tbh, with braking that late I would've expected mid-38's at least (I was comfortably into the 37's by the end of the week, best being a 37.1), trying not to be condescending but could it be you're trying to overcompensate with late braking, which could be making your life harder/slower?

It's a fairly old saying but 'slow in, fast out' really is quite true, late braking does gain you a small amount of time but if you're not able to follow the ideal line after braking late then it's just going to cost you, and that's where as a rookie it's probably better to back up the braking to ensure you get it slowed down nice and controlled and able to run the 'right' line,

Sorry again if I'm being condescending/patronising, not my intention at all :)

On the new track, not sure if I've tried that layout, Zandvoort generally seems to flow quite nicely though so I'm hoping it's not too bad, mostly as I've only just got my SR back to over 2.00 A Class, I don't want to be demoted at the end of week 13 :p

But then I only really drive the skippy, don't exactly need my A licence :p
 
Even if you know the theory, getting the braking point right isn't as easy as it sounds. As above, it's easy to measure your performance with the faster guys by comparing your braking point, but it could be misleading as you may just not be ready to enter the corner at that speed.

It really is just a matter of practice, i'm not talking about watching a few videos and hammering it for a few days, it can take months to find that last second or two until you catch the front end of the pack.

Also (and i'm not confident about this statement at all) lag might be playing a part in the confusion. I assume because of the nature of the internet, when your competitors press the brake pedal isn't exactly when the car begins to slow on your screen, unless there is some fancy predictions the sim is doing.
 
Just did my first Zandvoort race of the week, wasn't sure whether it was a good idea after only about 15 laps practice, but ultimately the hairpin (which is evil :p) is the only bit I'd not driven before so not that bad,

Overall race went well, started 11th (no qual), ranked 5th and finished 5th \o/

First lap hairpin pileup did get rid of ~3 people, an alien's connection dropped which gave me another place, only overtook 2 people on track :p

On that note, had a good battle with another guy, caught him up and stuck with him but couldn't really get past, got a few runs into T1 but didn't have the balls to send it flying up the inside properly, and there really isn't anywhere else that it's really doable...

Still good fun race, only 1 incident and a top-half finish so I'm happy as usual :)
 
The way the fast guys are able to brake very late is trail braking.

Normal driving style you come up to a corner get on the brakes and slow the car enough to make the turn.

Trail braking you brake later than the guy that drove the normal style but now of coarse you will run wide and miss the apex so what you do is trail the brake.

By braking half a car length later than you need to you now stay on the brake all the way round to the apex gently releasing the pressure on the brake pedal as you go but keeping on as much pressure as you can without locking up and sliding off track.

If your very loose at the rear under braking leave on a little gas and modulate both gas and brake.

With good technique on the pedals you practically steer the car with the pedals as much as the wheel.

I drive lotus 79 so my replay wont be much use to you guys unless you own that car sorry but its all i drive.

https://sites.google.com/site/ayupf...9.rpyjdmosport1.05.289.rpy?attredirects=0&d=1

That's my replay of Mosport in the lotus if you have the car and track you can watch how i trail brake into Moss chicane.

Where most guys go wrong and lose speed though is trying to brake when they see god then miss the apex and then it takes half a second to get the car back into position were you can get on the gas out of the turn.

late braking doesnt gain you lots the secret to being fast is exit speed from the apex so for anyone struggling try braking a little earlier make sure you hit the apex and get hard on the gas out from the turn.

Slow in out fast get that right and your laps will always be quick.

To be super fast you need fast in and fast out but that's very tricky to get right and for some its a skill they are born with although it can be learned.
 
Great replies and advice ppl.

Your reply is not at all condescending Skill. My optimal lap time is mid 1:38's and I can reliably run mid 1:39's when "testing". When "practising" or "racing" my pace seems to be that bit slower.

As far as braking goes I'm content that with my current ability, I'm braking sufficiently to slow the car to attempt to be on the correct line into - out of corners. I also accept that I maybe trying to overdrive erm everywhere. I know the theory of slow in fast out, its trying to be patient with my ever eager throttle foot :P Still its early days I've only been running the Skip since the beginning of April.

Skill what lap times are you doing around Zandvoort, so I have some sort of comparison?
I'm probably going to risk my nice shiny SR at the above tonight, what could possibly go wrong?
 
CatMangler said:
Great replies and advice ppl.

Your reply is not at all condescending Skill. My optimal lap time is mid 1:38's and I can reliably run mid 1:39's when "testing". When "practising" or "racing" my pace seems to be that bit slower.

As far as braking goes I'm content that with my current ability, I'm braking sufficiently to slow the car to attempt to be on the correct line into - out of corners. I also accept that I maybe trying to overdrive erm everywhere. I know the theory of slow in fast out, its trying to be patient with my ever eager throttle foot :P Still its early days I've only been running the Skip since the beginning of April.

Skill what lap times are you doing around Zandvoort, so I have some sort of comparison?
I'm probably going to risk my nice shiny SR at the above tonight, what could possibly go wrong?
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I know the problem of an eager throttle foot :p

Nowadays with the braking I tend to find the 'ragged edge' point, eg the latest point where I can get the car slowed down to be on the apex at roughly the right time, and then for a proper lap I'll take that a step back so that I'm comfortable braking for the corner and still being able to move the car into the corner how I want to rather than being reliant on the corrections to the braking if that makes sense.

Another thing to concentrate on (and the last corner of Zandvoort is a great place to try it on) is eliminating tyre scrub, eg when the tyres start 'squealing' which is the Papyrus/iRacing way of telling you you're on the limit, in the last corner at Zandvoort you can get the line just right to get no real tyre noise at all, and the benefit is 1-2mph onto the straight which does make a difference.

That's less of a problem on 'proper' corners but the fast flowing ones can sap a lot of time if you've got the tyres scrubbing across the track constantly, surprising amounts of time really.

Zandvoort times, I did a 23.20x in the race last night, but a chunk of that was getting a good old draft down the s/f straight, I think my alone lap time would hopefully be around a 23.5 on a good lap, the hairpin is annoyingly mickey-mouse like though, using 1st on the skippy = corner's too slow :p
 
SS, just to let you know the season 2 schedule has been released, if you go to the forums and the announcement forum it's in there :)

Also, if you want I'd be happy to do a practice session at some point, no idea if I can help but I might be able to offer some 'useful' tips to be a bit more consistent/quick? Or might be easier to put up a replay as then I'd see your control inputs maybe? just an idea :)
 
SKILL said:
SS, just to let you know the season 2 schedule has been released, if you go to the forums and the announcement forum it's in there :)

Also, if you want I'd be happy to do a practice session at some point, no idea if I can help but I might be able to offer some 'useful' tips to be a bit more consistent/quick? Or might be easier to put up a replay as then I'd see your control inputs maybe? just an idea :)
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Erm could I invite myself along too? Think I need help. Didn't bother with a race last night as I didn't feel confident with my practise pace, that and crashing.

Interesting news on iRacing 2. Thx for the link Liquid
 
SKILL said:
SS, just to let you know the season 2 schedule has been released, if you go to the forums and the announcement forum it's in there :)

Also, if you want I'd be happy to do a practice session at some point, no idea if I can help but I might be able to offer some 'useful' tips to be a bit more consistent/quick? Or might be easier to put up a replay as then I'd see your control inputs maybe? just an idea :)
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Thanks dude. Yeah I saw the announcement, looks good. I'll make a few more purchases and I'll have most of the season covered I think :) If I purchase Summit Point, Mid Ohio, and Okayama, I'll have the first 6 weeks covered. Then again I don't think I'll be in a place where I can race safely for a couple of weeks, so I may just practice at Spa for the next couple of weeks and hopefully by the time Round 3 comes around I'll be at a decent pace. What do you think?

I'm slowly getting to grips with the Skippy, I was able to complete 4 or 5 laps in a row without crashing at Zandvoort last night. I had a couple of laps around 1:27, which I know is still off the pace but I was pleased with it. I can see how keeping throttle on whilst braking helps keep it steady, I'm trying to force myself to do it, but it's a tricky skill to get right.
 
This seems like a good place to ask. I really like GT5, but can't afford (nor do I really want) a PS3. Therefore, what is the best driving game similar to this? It'll be for offline/casual play (as I'm hopeless at them!) with an xbox controller.
 
ScarySquirrel said:
Thanks dude. Yeah I saw the announcement, looks good. I'll make a few more purchases and I'll have most of the season covered I think :) If I purchase Summit Point, Mid Ohio, and Okayama, I'll have the first 6 weeks covered. Then again I don't think I'll be in a place where I can race safely for a couple of weeks, so I may just practice at Spa for the next couple of weeks and hopefully by the time Round 3 comes around I'll be at a decent pace. What do you think?
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Don't know if you've seen it yet but I've had an email saying that if you buy two or more items they will give you $8 credit until the end of Sunday
 
Liquid said:
For the iracers;), announcement here
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Awesome, night road racing and driver swaps! I didn't see that coming. That is a pretty impressive list of features, I really need to get a new PC sorted soon.



Ahleckz said:
This seems like a good place to ask. I really like GT5, but can't afford (nor do I really want) a PS3. Therefore, what is the best driving game similar to this? It'll be for offline/casual play (as I'm hopeless at them!) with an xbox controller.
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In terms of content and the kind of career you can expect I suppose NFS: Shift. Personally, I can't stand the physics and don't think they are half as good as GT5, but non sim racers tend not to feel the floatyness of the cars as much.

Really though, the best PC driving games are either quite simulation focussed, or Trackmania! It's totally worth putting in the effort into the sims though, it's really quite rewarding. SimBin do pretty good single player career based games (with lots of assists as options), it follows a much more realistic season based career though, no buying cars and tuning them.
 
Ahleckz said:
This seems like a good place to ask. I really like GT5, but can't afford (nor do I really want) a PS3. Therefore, what is the best driving game similar to this? It'll be for offline/casual play (as I'm hopeless at them!) with an xbox controller.
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Maybe have a look at Race 07? It's more of a sim than GT5, and the graphics aren't as nice, but then again the gameplay is much better (in my opinion, of course) It's also cheap on Steam (£3.99 when I got it last week) and there is a demo to try. It's much more focused as there are only a couple of racing series and therefore fewer cars - WTCC, Radicals, Catherhams, F300 and Formula BMW, but it's good fun, especially if you want to get into sims :D

Shift 2 isn't bad either though, I'm enjoying it even with the floaty handling...
 
I am a returning sim racer, i have always played car games and used to be in to GPL et al back in the MS Sidewinder wheel days, however i gave up on pc gaming around BF2 time and went console only. I play GT5, F3, F12010 and have a Fanatec GT2 + WSP

What kind of spec pc do i need to cover iRacing, rFactor etc, bearing in mind this will only be used for said games and i dont want to get back into my bad old pc hardware spending ways!!?
 
My iRacing subscription has expired in Jan, but I've got an Intel E6420, and a 320MB Nvidia GTS8800 (until it broke), and that was running iRacing fine at 1280x1024. Obviously, I couldn't turn all the bells and whistles on, but it looked good enough, and was smooth.
 
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