pmason

I would agree with Jim's comments, being one of the newbies here, the first sessions at the Glen I don't know how many millions $$$ of cars I killed :-) But treating it like a real car, being constant it the trick. Last night I started in the low 1.31's -1.33's and through the session just got a little better, a little smoother, and was staying in the 1.29's and 1.30's I just couldn't break in to the 1.28's but got really close a few times.

JustinL

When I started off I couldn't drive the "fast" setups. They all felt too loose. I think I've developed better detection of slides with my eyes and hands with a lot of practice. The C-spec compounds the issue because those little microslides that tell you that you're near the edge can quickly turn into big whopper slides backwards into the tires.

The other factor is to make sure your video settings are all optimized to reduce lag. Shut off V-sync, get the frame rates up. If your eyes are telling about slides that started after they are unrecoverable, you don't have a prayer of saving it.

User 52121

Did the spin happen right as you downshifted?

The car seems pretty harsh on downshifts. I've tried giving the throttle a little blip as I kick it down but it doesn't seem to be much help (to me anyways). I've learned to adjust my downshift points for when the car is pointed perfectly straight and I can ever so slightly ease off the brake as I click.

If my memory is correct, I think I was braking just before the imaginary 4 marker would be (so right before where that white mark is on the right). I have to drive fairly conservatively when it comes to braking in the Cup, get it slowed down early. Slow in, fast out. It got a little better as I moved the brake bias towards the rear but then I had to be even more careful with the downshifts, as the heftier rear bias combined with the harsh downshift gave me a TON of effective rear bias...

The "Track" version, by comparison, you can really go deep and stand the car on its nose with the brakes.

Gary R.

It isn't real either.. I push the limits to see where they are, kind of fugly for a lot of laps with strange car and track but that's how I roll.. literally at times! Couple more hours and I may string 3-4 laps together!

User 52121

To this day I cannot run setups built by the "fast" guys in the sim. Honestly I'm not 100% convinced that some of those guys are actually driving the cars in a realistic manner. I remember how many guys fell from their "alien" status when iRacing introduced engine damage... suddenly 15,000rpm downshifts (to sort of "fake" a sharp sudden rear brake bias) wouldn't work to help rotate the car anymore! GASP!

I've had the best luck running minor tweak'd versions of the default sets. Usually just a bit of additional rear brake bias is all that I've found I need for pretty much all the default sets in all of the cars.

Justin's sets are the first sets I've had ANY luck with, as far as a downloaded/shared set goes. Usually I go slower. My guess is that Justin is one of the small few "fast" guys who drives the car like I do (like it's a real car), hence his setups work for me.

Justin also raises a good point about your equipment - there might be some basic settings to help your driving. Make sure Vsync is off. For those of you running 3x monitors, take a tape measure, get the measurements from your head to the screen, the screen angles, etc. and then use the built-in calculator. For those with single screens, I know the temptation is to open up the FOV so you can "see" more... but that also makes it much more difficult to detect a change in yaw rate. For a single screen (when I ran one) I never went beyond ~65 degrees. Beyond that, things looked distorted.

If you are using an old LCD monitor (4-5 years old), a really really cheap new one, or an LCD TV as a monitor - you might be having issues with input lag (which is something that Vsync makes worse, hence why we tell you to turn it off). The "2ms response time" you see advertised at the store is the time it takes for the pixel to change color. Input lag, however, is different, and never advertised... this is the *processing time* the monitor needs to be able to tell the pixels to change color. So the computer sends out the signal, the monitor receives it, processes it, then tells the pixels to change. In some cases (especially with older LCDs and most TV's) that processing time can be 100ms! That's 1/10th of a second... a big deal when you're racing at 100mph off the bumper of another car. This means that everything you see on the screen happened 1/10th of a second ago - everything you do will be 1/10th late! That makes it pretty much impossible to catch a spin or slide before it's too late, etc.

Monitors have gotten a lot better over the last few years. If your monitor has a "game" mode - use it. That helps reduce lag. If you haven't bought a monitor yet, then do some research into input lag before you buy them.

User 52121

Whatever works for you! I just know there are some people who aren't consciously aware of it, get frustrated and quit, before really figuring it out.

It might be fun to run a calculator on the amount of virtual $$$'s burned up in our sessions in destroyed Ruf's LOL. Think we can hit 9 figures in a 2 hour session?

Indy Rev

We had 10 people join us last night, and I alone rolled the car 3 times along with multiple suspension and front end damage; so I would say 9 figures is doable

pmason

No that spin was a stupid mistake of getting a wheel off and then hitting the brakes, just making a joke of nice recovery and kept going :-) Not unsimilar to real life luck in the kink a few years back, had the car complete sideways all the way through the kink with the front just about 3ft from the the inside wall pointing at the wall, just watching the wall go by in front of me and then it just straighten out. Now I know what I did to get into that but no clue how I got out of it.

User 52121

Hahaha

Well on a serious note - I'd say one thing iRacing has helped me with, that I can apply in real life, is spin recovery. Lots of opportunity to practice it here!

HoBoJoe

Justin's shared setup from last night is the first one that I've had luck with. I had been running the baseline setup before. Usually setups I find feel too loose for me and I can't control the car properly. We had a great turnout last night and I assume it'll be a bit better on race night.

Thoughts on putting practice sessions in a separate "season" so that the points season is just the races?

Anyone who has questions or needs help feel free to ask in session or on the board. Take a look at other racers fast laps and see what they are doing different.

Indy Rev

It should only post points for a race.

HoBoJoe

I was thinking more so the view doesn't get cluttered if we use the same season for the year.

pmason

Yes, I did end up using one of Jason's setups, but I think the second one he posted was the lose one, I did remember someone (think it was Jason) that said they posed one that someone else had from Fugi or something like that but didn't work that well at Laguna, that might of been the one I tried first.

JustinL

Got a join request I didn't recognize. Is there a Jason Lisner here? Not sure if you are a random or a Rennlister.

JustinL

I've scheduled in a few more races now. I'm trying to be in advance of the PCA schedule and the USSC schedule. Let me know what you guys think. We have a gap in february to fill in if anyone has any requests.