Assetto Corsa Competizione | Season 14 Round 3 | GT3 Sprint @ Valencia

[milko]

3 minutes ago, SharkyOB said:

I learned something really important in this game last night, which is just use the aggressive setup with temperature related changes only at first, then make tiny tweaks (like, one change at a time) if you need to.  Basically I had an absolute mare in an AOL race at Spa a few weeks back due to running a really edgy setup where the car was very twitchy through Eau Rouge/Radillon, so last night for the final PowerQ race (also at Spa), I went back to the standard aggressive setup and just made changes to tyre pressures and brake ducts only.  The car was so nice to drive in the race (it all went a bit wrong for me at the end, but that was due to incidents with other drivers and me overdriving the car) so I'm basically going to stick with the aggressive preset going forwards.  

 

This all came from watching an Aris video where he was talking about starting with the safe setup so you understand what the car is doing and so you can properly evaluate setup changes.  I have a tendency to assume certain changes will be right for the track, tweak a load of things, then feel a bit lost when the car isn't handling as I want it to.  One of the things he said was that the aggressive setup is really close to what real teams run at those tracks in real life, so if it's good enough for them it's defo good enough for me!  Another thing he mentioned was that an alien driver had recently won a top tier race using just the aggressive setup with tyre pressure tweaks; which makes me think it's a total waste of time chasing setup changes when it's probably you as the driver who's losing most of the time.

 

I have slightly mixed feelings about this. Definitely you need to start with something preset and then make changes one at a time, that's certain. If you can feel the results of them, tiny tweaks are also good - if you can't I think there's a tendency to make several different tiny tweaks that might add up to a whole effect you weren't looking for. Mainly though - when we did Silverstone 'track day', those changes to brake balance and the rear ARB made a huge difference to the stability of my car in some corners which made a correspondingly big difference to how I could drive the rest of the track, because I wasn't fretting over the knife-edge instability I'd been feeling. I was able to apply some similar tweaks on our next race, albeit smaller adjustments, and get the same effect. When we got to Snetterton though, I didn't need to make the same changes and that was much more a case of "aggressive preset, brake pads 1, brake ducts, set pressures". I do need to watch that Ari video!

 

TLDR sometimes the setup changes are actually worthwhile just to make sure I'm able to do the "problem is behind the wheel" stuff that is the main priority. I dunno if just starting from Safe instead of Aggressive would get me to the same place mind you.

[davejm]

15 minutes ago, milko said:

 

Aye, I was just checking them two could join in as I felt bad they were missing out so far this season! I mean, after this week we're back in GT3 but still on tracks that they should have so they could keep racing. Wasn't entirely clearly written, I see.

 

Ah yes   Indeed, we have Brands Hatch and Spa for the next two league races

[SharkyOB]

5 minutes ago, milko said:

TLDR sometimes the setup changes are actually worthwhile just to make sure I'm able to do the "problem is behind the wheel" stuff that is the main priority. I dunno if just starting from Safe instead of Aggressive would get me to the same place mind you.

 

Yep, defo give the video a go:

 

 

It's really bloody long!!

 

I might be speaking too soon on this and feel another way in a week!  Maybe the aggressive preset at Spa for the GT-R is bang on, but I'll find more tweaking is needed at other tracks.

[Meers]

1 hour ago, SharkyOB said:

I learned something really important in this game last night, which is just use the aggressive setup with temperature related changes only at first, then make tiny tweaks (like, one change at a time) if you need to.

 

This is what I've always done ever since you recommended it to me when you gave me personal tutoring. Have you forgotten about your own recommendations? 

 

But indeed, tweak too much and you can totally screw your car up. I alsolutely keep my hands off the suspension setup and use the default aggressive values for that. I mostly only fiddle with the things that you can tweak during the race, apart from race height, wing angle, camber, toe etc.

 

 

In other news, I've reinstalled ACC again after a complete uninstall (including all my setups, settings etc) and set everything back up new. I also cleaned up the SSD where I installed it on and moved a lot of clutter to the HDD. I have tested the performance in an online (dry) race with ~30 cars (with a max of 10 visible) and I got ~50-55 fps which was fairly stable and perfectly playable I must say. No sound issues anymore either. So I think it's safe to assume that it's back to 'normal' again and I should have little issues on our server again, I hope. 

[SharkyOB]

2 minutes ago, Meers said:

This is what I've always done ever since you recommended it to me when you gave me personal tutoring. Have you forgotten about your own recommendations? 

 

Quite possibly!  I am old and confused.

[davejm]

Server is set up for GT4 practice at Suzuka.

[Meers]

59 minutes ago, SharkyOB said:

 

Quite possibly!  I am old and confused.

 

Welcome to my world! 

 

\m/

 

41 minutes ago, davejm said:

Server is set up for GT4 practice at Suzuka.

 

Nice. I've got time tonight so I'll give it a spin. 

[SneakyNinja]

5 hours ago, extremepabs said:

@Count Buffalos  Yes for some reason I just cant seem to get the grip right in the Aston. Any tips greatly appreciated I still think I overdrive the car too much.

 

 

As a fellow Astonista, I find that overdriving the car is the main source of my issues. (well, car related issues that is).

 

Whilst the setup can influence things to a degree, for me it's about my driving style combined with the current set up. For example, if the car is tending towards understeering on exit, I can either mess with the setup, or alter my driving to combat it. 

 

If you don't already, I recommend using headphones so you can really hear the rear tyres starting to scrub, then drive around concentrating on reducing that noise. For laffs, turn the TC down to 1, or even off. That'll get you a feel for how to put the slipper down smoothly which is really important in these cars. If you're anything like me, you'll accidently get it bang on once in a blue moon and be rather surprised at how fast that green number in the top left goes up.  

[mrben09]

I might jump on tonight. But had my jab yesterday and the right arm is a little tender, so should be fun. Maybe i'll  mount a window sill on my seat for the full one arm experience.

[Meers]

19 minutes ago, SneakyNinja said:

 

As a fellow Astonista, I find that overdriving the car is the main source of my issues. (well, car related issues that is).

 

Whilst the setup can influence things to a degree, for me it's about my driving style combined with the current set up. For example, if the car is tending towards understeering on exit, I can either mess with the setup, or alter my driving to combat it. 

 

If you don't already, I recommend using headphones so you can really hear the rear tyres starting to scrub, then drive around concentrating on reducing that noise. For laffs, turn the TC down to 1, or even off. That'll get you a feel for how to put the slipper down smoothly which is really important in these cars. If you're anything like me, you'll accidently get it bang on once in a blue moon and be rather surprised at how fast that green number in the top left goes up.  

 

Loving the jargon mate. But are you really driving with slippers on? I'm using socks with rubber nubs (like kids have, but adult sized) for maximum grip and feel.

 

Why are you all laughing?

[davejm]

11 minutes ago, Meers said:

 

Loving the jargon mate. But are you really driving with slippers on? I'm using socks with rubber nubs (like kids have, but adult sized) for maximum grip and feel.

 

Same here.  Yoga socks

[SharkyOB]

46 minutes ago, SneakyNinja said:

If you don't already, I recommend using headphones so you can really hear the rear tyres starting to scrub, then drive around concentrating on reducing that noise.

 

But not too much, a bit of tyre slip is actually good:

 

 

I think this is one of the reasons I tend to be quite quick in the wet; I find it much easier to get the tyres to slip on the limit through the corners in those conditions.

[Meers]

7 minutes ago, davejm said:

 

Same here.  Yoga socks

 

That's what they're called? Learned something today.

 

But wahey! Sock mates! 

[mrben09]

Socks ? Insane.

OK, who uses gloves as well ?

Racesuit ?

Helmet ? With cutouts for VR obviously.

 

[SneakyNinja]

55 minutes ago, Meers said:

 

Loving the jargon mate. But are you really driving with slippers on? I'm using socks with rubber nubs (like kids have, but adult sized) for maximum grip and feel.

 

Why are you all laughing?

 

Quite often, yes, actual fluffy slippers. With no rigid sole. That or socks.  

[Valver]

Socks?!  Slippers?  Puma Speedcats all the way.

 

I'd quite like a pair of these red ones actually:

https://uk.puma.com/uk/en/pd/scuderia-ferrari-speedcat-motorsport-shoes/306796.html?dwvar_306796_color=02

 

And I've got a pair of gloves - but I'm undecided on if I want to wear them.   I want to keep my alcantara rim looking nice, but my hands do get hot in them!

 

Helmet and racesuit - a step too far perhaps? 

 

[Mr Majestyk]

M&S Slippers here! Proper LOL at the ironing board in that pic!

[Valver]

1 hour ago, Meers said:

 

That's what they're called? Learned something today.

 

But wahey! Sock mates! 

You need these in your life!

 

https://uk.puma.com/uk/en/pd/red-bull-racing-future-rider-motorsport-shoes/306803.html?dwvar_306803_color=01

 

 

[SANtoOos]

I was at a sports shop once and thought those anti slip shoes for use in water/surfing would be great, something like this

 https://www.sportsdirect.com/hot-tuna-mens-aqua-water-shoes-222188?google#colcode=22218845

 

Easy to put on, comfy, enough structure for hard load cell braking but still thin enough for a good feel. Gonna get some when my current shoes are dead. 

 

Edit: I used to be a sock guy but my foot started hurting (it was very hard to use full brakes) when I upgraded to load cell, and I found even thin slippers helped. @Meers if you're a sock guy it might be worth trying something with a thin sole as I remember you saying your knees hurt sometimes? 

[milko]

M&S Slipper Crew! Maybe we should form racing teams around these loyalties. I do race in my socks sometimes though, but they're just regular socks. And I've gone barefoot as well before but probably only when testing and maybe not since I got the load cell brakes.

 

That reminds me, I'm dreading playing this in the summer, the whole (small) room I'm in gets bloody hot already.

[Meers]

3 hours ago, mrben09 said:

Socks ? Insane.

OK, who uses gloves as well ?

Racesuit ?

Helmet ? With cutouts for VR obviously.

 

 

Not insane.

I use gloves for long races

No racesuit

Don't be ridiculous

 

 

2 hours ago, Valver said:

You need these in your life!

 

https://uk.puma.com/uk/en/pd/red-bull-racing-future-rider-motorsport-shoes/306803.html?dwvar_306803_color=01

 

Yeah no. I mean they're nice and orange and all, but that's way too thick.

 

1 hour ago, SANtoOos said:

@Meers if you're a sock guy it might be worth trying something with a thin sole as I remember you saying your knees hurt sometimes? 

 

These socks I have are dong it for me perfectly. Believe it or not, the mrs actually recommended them. 

 

 

And my knee is okay now mate. I've removed the clutch pedal and moved the brake to the left so it's lined up better now. 

[SharkyOB]

Absolutely love the GT4 Porsche Cayman!!

 

I think I set a reasonable time last night, although I don't have it to hand at the moment.  Started with the default aggressive setup and the car felt pretty great straight away, if a bit understeery.  Ended up playing with the setup for quite a while, but most of the things I tried (ARB changes mainly) seemed to make the car worse and didn't really have the effect I was expecting.  I felt like I was improving in terms of working on the setup though; I was being much more methodical, making small changes and evaluating them one at a time.  Ended up back at the default, but raised the rear ride height so it was the same as the front (rear is quite a bit lower as standard) with standard temp related changes.

 

Footwear wise, I alternate between socks and slippers.  I tend to wear socks when I'm driving cars with sequential boxes, as I like the extra sensitivity they give me on the brake pedal.  I wear slippers when driving manual cars, as heel and toe is painful otherwise.

[davejm]

56 minutes ago, SharkyOB said:

I think I set a reasonable time last night, although I don't have it to hand at the moment...

 

 

Can you do server duties this week?  I'm going to take a break from ACC until the next league race.

 

I can prepare the server files for each race.  Should be easy to upload and sort.

 

Aside from @SANtoOos is anyone else not racing this week?  If so I'll exclude you from the reverse grid placement for the race.  It gets a bit messy if you allocate the position for someone that doesn't take the grid.

[SharkyOB]

8 minutes ago, davejm said:

Can you do server duties this week?  I'm going to take a break from ACC until the next league race.

 

I can prepare the server files for each race.  Should be easy to upload and sort.

 

Yep, no problem at all.  Is qualy based on practice times this week?

[milko]

I'm a bit 50/50 sorry, that manflu I've had did a real number on me over the weekend and I'm still getting over it. Haven't had any practice yet, don't know either track, still kinda want to get back in and start learning them! I'll see if I can get it done and let you know.

[davejm]

12 minutes ago, SharkyOB said:

 

Yep, no problem at all.  Is qualy based on practice times this week?

 

No qualifying this week, it's a reverse grid (from championship order).

[SharkyOB]

2 minutes ago, davejm said:

 

No qualifying this week, it's a reverse grid (from championship order).

 

Ah, sound.

[Meers]

22 minutes ago, davejm said:

 

 

2.3 seconds between 1st and 2nd is shocking. I'll give it another try tonight as I couldn't find the pace yesterday.

 

So far, the SSD cleanup (~80GB) and the reinstall has done wonders to ACC's performance on my system. 70-75fps in the lobby with Sharky and Ben last night, which gives me a nice bit of overhead for my 1080p60 setup. See how it goes when everyone's there, but initial testing in a 25-30 car lobby over the weekend was promising.

 

The only problems that still remain are the CPU bottlenecking (it's near 100% performance when ACC runs) and the RAM (~90% used). I think I may upgrade the RAM from 8 to 16GB to create a bit more margin and prevent the SSD (C disk) from being used as a memory buffer (I think that's how it works, @mrben09?)

 

New PC is on hold for now. 

[Valver]

58 minutes ago, davejm said:

 

Aside from @SANtoOos is anyone else not racing this week?  If so I'll exclude you from the reverse grid placement for the race.  It gets a bit messy if you allocate the position for someone that doesn't take the grid.

I think I will be a no show too, it's my daughter Birthday and I'm doing a family zoom call party thing...

[Count Buffalos]

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be racing either.