GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 1: GT3s across 'Murica

BradLTL said:

Rules are updated.  Series starts next week.

I wonder if Air and Spool are too afraid to race...  

 Not too afraid, too old. 10pm start time is way past my bedtime lol

I see you have ‘standing starts’ in the rule list.  Can you do a standing start at Daytona?

I did in pc1. Trick is compensating for the bank. I’ve seen odd AI behavior with rolling starts, but I’ll test both tonight and see how they go. 

I got a bit more time in PC last night.  I think I will take a pass on the 911, for a bit of a strange reason.  It sound Horrible!  The BMW and the Ferrari sound great, the 911, just bad.  I guess it's realistic, but I am not sure why.  Sure the motor is in the back, and so is the exhaust, but so is the exhaust on all the other cars!  Its not like the BMW has zoomies!

I was still having issues with view.  I discovered if I turn off all of the camera / head movement effects, it helps a lot.  They are a cool effect (such as looking into corners), but are rather disorienting for someone used to the fixed view in most driving games.  I still do not get much of a sensation of speed, but that's like because I am used to the "bumper cam" in GT (which realistically is more of a driver view height, but you can see a lot more road).  I found that there was a little bit of dead zone setting on the wheel, which I removed.  I also found that changing the wheel setting to Raw, helped the steering feel a bit.  Yes, there are a LOT of settings you can change in PC.  I REALLY wish GTS allowed some of these (e.g. adjusting the brake pedal / brake pressure).

There certainly are some interesting effects build into the game.  I noticed that after sliding off a corner in my favorite Lotus F1 car (sorry, I can't resist driving that car) that the tires were visibly covered in sand!  Not only that, but it slowly went away as I drove around further.  You will also notice the windshield wipers vibrating as you go faster on some cars.  Oh, and the puddles.  Oh my!  I must have been on slicks I guess (not sure), but the puddles that appear when it rains are deadly!!  The solution (other then changing to the proper tires) seems to be to let off the gas as  you hit them, otherwise be prepared for a quick change of direction.

The two biggest issue I am having are with braking (as noted, I have gotten used to the cues in GT) and the fact that I am unfamiliar with most of the tracks in the game.  Those two combined can make for frustration, but its a simple mater of time and practice to solve.  If I race on tracks I know, things are a lot better.

Also, I think I am done with the Cayman.  I really think there is something wrong with the car model.  I have tried a race at Circuit of the Americas (?) an would get an "insta-spin" on the first corner every time!  I even tried turning off ABS, moving the brakes all the way forward the getting up to 100 and slamming on the brakes.  The result?  A bit of skidding, and you guessed it, an insta-spin!  Despite having NO braking and full traction in the rear and no traction in the front!  Argh!

I did try a bit of online racing.  Not so good.  The problem, as always, is the drivers.  It was a race at Monza.  HUGE pileup in the first corner.  Idiots ramming people, oh joy!  I can't imagine why someone like that would continue to drive in this game.  I suspect the driver rating system will help, but you have to get your rating up somehow before being allowed in "good" rooms.  The rating system seems to have a big effect in GTS.  My suggestion:  Get your ratings up before all the "Christmas kids" show up online!!

My primary concern with PC at this point is that I am not sure I will have the time to put into it that will be required to get competent in it any reasonable time.  I do find it rather entertaining that I have almost no issues driving the no driving aids, historically vicious early F1 cars, but struggle with the electronically assisted modern suspension etc. GT cars!  Would it be unreasonable to drive a Lotus 49 in a GT3 race?  

Playstation 4 will be $200 on Black Friday.

If you have too much weight transfer to the front, the car will swap ends.  When I raced r/c cars, I kept trying things to help the spinning out when hard on the brakes.  It finally occurred to me the front was diving way too much.  After putting in my strongest springs in the front, it made a huge difference.

My issue is 10:00 start time. It just is not going to work for me.  

I would so want to try the Bentley GT in this. 

racerfink said:

I see you have ‘standing starts’ in the rule list.  Can you do a standing start at Daytona?

Nope.  Daytona only allows rolling starts.

Dean and Spool... it's not much, but would moving 30 minutes earlier help?  9:30ET?  I really can't do much earlier than that (kids, man...).

Doing a test session tonight at Daytona.  I'm in the mid 49s, currently P3.  P1 is a 48.0.  P12 is a 52.7.  So, at 65% the AI has a spread of almost 5 seconds.  I think that is pretty reasonable to give every one someone to race with.

Messing around with a controller tonight, I think I figured out my Cayman issue.  I turned off ABS and set the brakes full forward, full reverse and looking at the brake heat and watching the tires from the external view I could clearly see it was locking up the rear brakes either way.  It's some sort of bug in the settings, it was stuck on full rear.  I had to reset the setting to get it to behave normally.  I am not sure how or why it happened.

I think I need to mess with the ABS, TC and diff settings.  I like cars with a lot more rotation, but it's likely just that these stick tire aero cars cannot be driven like that.  I will probably go with the Ferrari, the 911 is all gear noise.

Oh, and a funny complaint I read about the game.  Someone was complaining that the 60s Mustang in the game had a large dead zone in the steering.  Clearly this guy has never driven a stock 60's Mustang! 

Ok. Tonight is the night. Series starts tonight. It will be a private room, so I’ll need your PSN account to send the invite. 

I finished 2nd to last.  Spun trying to pass a slower car, the got shunted by the AI when I got sideways.  I set my fuel for 61, and never had reloaded my settings in any practice.  For some reason the game loaded me with 109 fuel for the race!  I checked my settings after and it was set to 61.  I re-entered the race again after it was over, and I had 61.  Definitely some sort of bug like my full rear brake bias issue.  I am not sure what I could have done to prevent this.

Which COTA is next week.  National or GP?

Last night was a harder race than I expected.  Qualified P4, finished the race P5, but a lot happened in between those 2 points.  I feel like I brought a knife to a gun fight.  I picked the Renault because it was the car I could drive the fastest with the fewest mistakes.  So, overall I'm faster in it than other cars.  At Daytona it was a bit of a liability.  Daytona is a horsepower and top speed track.  Those are not the strengths of the RS01 GT3.  The Merc's were untouchable and the Astons weren't far behind them.  As the race started I managed to hold 4th, but I wasn't fast enough on the straights to really press ahead.  I could get a good run in the braking zones and turns, but often I mis-timed it and was balked before the straight ruining any chance of a pass.  I was in a battle the entire race.  Up as high as 3rd, down as low as 6th.  I made an aggressive move into the Bus Stop and took an Aston to the passenger door.  We both spun but only lost 2 positions.  It did put me in a pack of Astons and a BMW, all faster than me in a straight line.  I had to work to keep my position.  After several laps of battling, I finally got a good run on the Aston (that hit me) and made a pass.  Only for him to use the draft and try and get right back by me.  I may have squeezed him down to the apron causing him to spin.  Maybe.  Whatever, I was tired of fighting with him.  After that I settled into chasing the BMW in front of me.  I could get close, but couldn't quite get there.  With 2 laps to go, I found an opportunity out of the bus stop, where I could get right on his bumper.  I knew I couldn't hold the position, but I thought if I could get close enough and time it well enough I just might sneak by him at the Finish line.  So, I tried to set that up... only to over drive my car and give him about a half second gap on me on the last lap.  Oh well. P5 ain't a bad start.

I posted the replay, first from my perspective and then from Air's.  Enjoy.

aircooled said:

Which COTA is next week.  National or GP?

GP

Just checking the leaderboards (for the PC), the fastest lap time for a GT3 is a 2:05.1 from a BMW M6. My lap times are in the 2:10s. That’s disappointing. 

http://cars2-stats-steam.wmdportal.com/index.php/leaderboard?track=2050315946&vehicle=0

Round 2 tonight.  COTA GP.  9:30 ET.  Let's see how big of a pile up we can make in turn 1.

In reply to BradLTL :

What is the race length?

In reply to BradLTL :

I wonder how much difference between pc and ps4?  I'm not in the 10's but have tamed the 911 enough that I am going to use it.

It’s on the front page, but I’ll make it easy.

30 minute - Practice 

15 minute - Qualifying 

30 minute - Race

You should note the race season will be Spring, so expect temps in the mid 80s. That’ll effect your tire compounds and pressures.

Opening the room early and extending practice. Join when you are ready. 

Points updated, replay posted.

Happy Thanksgiving!

OK, I did a bit of testing and tuning.  The limits on how much you can tune these is much narrower than GT (which I am sure is a lot more realistic).  I have not explored the extremes. E.g. tire pressure does not seem to affect tire temp across the tire but I have not gone super high or low.

There is definitely something wonky with the gearing settings though.  They both don't seem to do anything and also do not always save (could never get the lowest 1st gear to save and a randomly would not save the entire setup). Changing 1st gear did not change the pit out RPM (which is always a constant speed). At this point there does not seem to be any reason to mess with them (not a lot of range in these cars anyway).

There is supposed to be a patch out this week, so hopefully it will address some of the issues.

The So, I think I am ready for Wednesday.  I will either do good, or be on the other side of a smoking hole in the perimeter fence!  I am going to open the GT6 room then jump over for qualifying.

You might do ok tonight. I’m slow at Laguna. I know the track, but I think I’ve only had 3 laps in any car. 

There is a bug with saving setups. You always have to save as a new setup. You can choose the same slot as another and it will overwrite it. However if you choose the save as existing option it doesn’t save.  

New patch notes are lengthy. Lots of fixes throughout the game. 2 areas of note:

- BoP for GT3 cars

- Improvements for AI. Including corner exit speed, and being more consistent between the sessions.