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

[milko]

Yeah, that’s a big thing that just spending time in the car is more or less the only way through. I did a lot at first going into spins on exits from corners, getting the power down safely was hard, then going through the next one way too slow. It’ll come!

[Meers]

10 minutes ago, Pockets said:

I was trying to play some WRC 9 earlier and, in an effort for some semblance of control, I switched to bonnet cam and instantly did a lot better. I thought I'd try the same in ACC and it does feel better for me I think. Might be something to do with my set up but I felt a little disconnected in the cockpit.

 

Technically, since you're using a wheel, you're already 'in the car' with your wheel base being the dashboard. So the TV screen should act as the windscreen which means you would only see the bonnet (and thus more of the 'outside' of the car). Horses for courses, as long as you're not using an exterior chase cam. 

[Meers]

35 minutes ago, Pockets said:

I'm starting to get my head around the power down after corners but it has been a problem - more on Monza where I started.

 

I think I was hitting it too early before letting the wheel re-centre after turning so was literally still steering into a spin. That and maybe hammering down a bit fast.

 

I think there's something with gears I need to learn too. Will too high revs spin you out? Sometimes I change down while turning and go spinning as the revs go up.

 

Steering and throttle input should be directly proportional to each other. So if the wheel is turned more, the throttle input should become less and vice-versa. It can also help to increase the traction control or to short-upshift in gear (far before the rev redline). This is especially needed in rainy conditions. It all comes down to practice though.

 

 

31 minutes ago, Pockets said:

Yeah, it makes sense. I was trying to use the no-wheel dash cam. I do like the dirty windscreen effects and having to use wipers etc, feels a bit more immersive, but I definitely feel a lot more in control with bonnet cam. Being really tall, I think it's closer to the view I have in cars - the dash is generally in the bottom of my peripheral vision rather than actually in my view at all, I'd have to glance down at it. I know racing car drivers generally sit much lower and all that, but if I ever tried to get in one of these cars in real life they'd laugh me off the course.

 

In the view settings of the game, you can adjust the in-car seat position and field of view to suit your style. You can also disable the driver hands and wheel in there (recommended, as you are already seeing the wheel you're holding). If everything's set correctly, from your PoV your wheel and the in-game dashboard should line up like in the pic below. This should give you the best feedback.

 

[Valver]

1 hour ago, Pockets said:

I'm starting to get my head around the power down after corners but it has been a problem - more on Monza where I started.

 

I think I was hitting it too early before letting the wheel re-centre after turning so was literally still steering into a spin. That and maybe hammering down a bit fast.

 

I think there's something with gears I need to learn too. Will too high revs spin you out? Sometimes I change down while turning and go spinning as the revs go up.

 

Something I read that helped me visualise the relationship between steering angle and throttle or brake input was this, on "string theory" 

 

https://boxthislap.org/trail-braking-the-string-theory/#:~:text=I call this 'string theory,turn straighten the steering wheel.

 

 

“Work on coordinating your brake release with turning input. Only release as much as you are willing to turn. Only turn as much as you are willing to release. The relationship between steering input and brake release (even throttle) needs to be directly proportional. I call this ‘string theory’ in that you imagine that there is a string tied to the bottom of the steering that is connected to your big toe.

 

If you turn the wheel that string will pull your foot off the pedal and if you push your foot down on the pedal it will in turn straighten the steering wheel."

 

[davejm]

Yeah I don't think the FOV calculators work if you're playing on a TV sat away from you.  If you have a monitor sat right behind the wheel base, sure; but otherwise I'd just set it as low as is reasonable for you to see what is going on.

[milko]

Haha, I'm now vaguely in touch on sectors 1 and 3, but sector 2 - aka nearly all the turns, the one I thought I was alright at since it's a bit more like most other tracks I've driven - I am stuck at just over a full second slower than at least @davejm and @SANtoOos. I can't for the life of me see how I'd go faster in there, but maybe I've compromised the setup to get the straight bits done quick and found a limit on the corners.

 

Shall we have a "who did most spectacular spins on Raidillon" side-game tomorrow? Something for the rest of us to battle over even if it doesn't score league points.

[mrben09]

I had one yesterday, at least 3 360's and bouncing off various walls, with the crew chief telling me, it'll polish out. Shame @Meers was just a little to far behind to witness all its glory. 

 

 

[davejm]

Morning all.  Race day @ Spa!!!  

 

 

 

@SANtoOos has closed the gap in practice, and @milko and @scoobysi have found some more time too.

 

Sods law that I'm feeling mega ropey today... had an upset tummy for past couple of days which seems to have evolved into a head and eye aches overnight   Hoping I can shake it off or that it doesn't get worse in the day!!

[SharkyOB]

20 minutes ago, davejm said:

Sods law that I'm feeling mega ropey today... had an upset tummy for past couple of days which seems to have evolved into a head and eye aches overnight   Hoping I can shake it off or that it doesn't get worse in the day!!

 

Ah man, that's rubbish.  Hope you feel better later and that it doesn't slow you down TOO much 

[Meers]

1 hour ago, mrben09 said:

I had one yesterday, at least 3 360's and bouncing off various walls, with the crew chief telling me, it'll polish out. Shame @Meers was just a little to far behind to witness all its glory. 

 

 I did a double 360 myself at one point by clipping the right hand kerbs a bit too brave with cold tyres like. 

 

58 minutes ago, davejm said:

Sods law that I'm feeling mega ropey today... had an upset tummy for past couple of days which seems to have evolved into a head and eye aches overnight   Hoping I can shake it off or that it doesn't get worse in the day!!

 

Same here, my throat aches and hurts when I swallow and I've got the sniffles so I'm going to have myself tested this afternoon. Same for the mrs. Working from home today. Hopefully I'm not too knackered tonight to race.

[SANtoOos]

1 hour ago, davejm said:

Sods law that I'm feeling mega ropey today... had an upset tummy for past couple of days which seems to have evolved into a head and eye aches overnight   Hoping I can shake it off or that it doesn't get worse in the day!!

 

32 minutes ago, Meers said:

Same here, my throat aches and hurts when I swallow and I've got the sniffles so I'm going to have myself tested this afternoon. Same for the mrs. Working from home today. Hopefully I'm not too knackered tonight to race.

Try to take it easy at work and remember to stay hydrated guys! 

[Valver]

Anyone else seen this chap's strive for immersion in ACC?  He's posting his rapidly evolving build to reddit lots ATM

 

He's built all the surrounding "bits" to help sell the racecar illusion, mounted the monitors to be like a windscreen and then added various in-car ambient lighting effects (using Hue lights) to help increase the realism factor.  Looks very impressive - almost as good as being in VR   

 

 

[Meers]

That's pretty mental (in the good sense of the word). But wouldn't VR be less of a hassle and cheaper?

[Valver]

37 minutes ago, Meers said:

That's pretty mental (in the good sense of the word). But wouldn't VR be less of a hassle and cheaper?

 

Mostly yes, I think!

 

I guess the downsides of VR (that this avoids) are the relatively low resolution of VR,  and that it generally performs poorly compared to ACC's 2D mode.  The VR headset can make some people motion sick I guess, and also some people complain wearing a headset can be hot/uncomfortable.  But you could also argue wearing a crash helmet in real life is hot and uncomfortable, so that actually adds immersion.  In VR you are also unable to use external button boxes and so on, without issues - this setup allows that easily - he even has a working fire extinguisher handy if his PC catches fire!

 

Regardless, I think this is a fine effort!  It certainly translates to a great Youtube video.

[Meers]

It certainly is a phenomenal effort, and I'm a bit envious. He even has those bezel cover things between the screens.

 

I've done a minor upgrade to my laptop yesterday and put 2 sticks of 8GB 1600MHz  SO-DIMM RAM in it, which seems to take a bit of workload off the CPU (the frametime is a steady line now). The CPU is still at 100% usage, but it allows me to play ACC in 1440p30 on low detail or at 1080p60 with the mirrors and shadows on!

 

I still need to test both outputs in the online lobby tonight (I was testing it last night with just @mrben09 in the room), but I think the definitive setting will be the 1080p60 just for the extra features.

[Count Buffalos]

Yeah, it still looks good at 1080p. Plus you could try increasing the resolution in small increments from the menu.

[Meers]

27 minutes ago, Count Buffalos said:

Yeah, it still looks good at 1080p. Plus you could try increasing the resolution in small increments from the menu.

 

That's a bit tough on my system, I found. Instead, I up the sharpness to 100%, the temporal upscaling on and the materials from mid to high for a better image.

[davejm]

Server will be live at 7:30

[SANtoOos]

Thanks for the race guys, very tense for me, had something in my eye from lap 5, my race fuel consumption was way higher than practice and only clocked it on the last lap before the pitstop, stressful calculations ensued, then the connection issues, floating cars, plenty of lag, and was on my last track warning. Decided to crawl to a halt on the finish line as I really didn't want to take any extra risks, I probably crossed the line within a second of the timer finishing, sorry if that's bad form! Would normally happily go for an extra lap, but never wanted a race to finish so much as this one 

 

But yeah great racing and driving, felt pretty clean all the way through! 

[Meers]

My wiggly d-pad dtopped working, as well as my pit limiter button for some reason I don't understand. They were mapped fine and after rebooting the game they worked again. Very strange.

 

Because of that I got a 30s SG penalty, and due to all the fiddling what the issue was, I forgot that I was at the wrong side of the pits, hence me being surprised that there was no pit crew waiting for me there.

 

Did well otherwise, 5th place and 4th after Raidillon in the race, only to bollocks it up again after a few laps. Great track but the pit straight and start/finish lines are just plain stupid. Why not use the GP pits? Is it because the GT grids are bigger?

[milko]

Is it three warnings and THEN your next offence gets a drive-thru? I had two in this race and decided to back off a bit as it always felt easy to get one by mistake on Blanchimant. 
 

Had some fun but man that was a hard circuit and I don’t think my car likes it either. At the start, happy with 4th on the grid with the words “single file through Eau rouge” ringing in my ears I got a tap and then @Meerswhizzing by, that was all a bit of a wake up call. I find the Honda very hard to drive on cold tyres. Anyway, got my head down, dodged a flying @SharkyOBwho might have got past me sooner or later but not quite like that. Chased Meers and got a chance when he bodged the last chicane, got alongside and we did a little swap around La Source. Cool! 
Then I could finally settle down. Started slowly reeling in @Count Buffalosbut only when driving near-perfectly (by my own best standard) so it took a while. Just as I got him going into defensive lines I made a slip, lost time and realised my fuel was running out so decided to back off and sort my pit stop out. After the pit I was itching to get back into it but the car was horrible again on cold tyres, smashed a wall a bit and then had to slide out letting @SneakyNinjaby. Finally got it going, settled down, then as Sneaky caught Count it looked like their battle would let me catch up again and join in. Except just as that was getting close I then lost it coming out of the last corner and had to do a (very cool, honest) donut on the finish line, so it became more a case of hanging on to my place before @SharkyOBcaught me up again, which might have happened if the race had been much longer.  
 

I was pretty relieved in the end when @SANtoOos did that move to end the race as early as possible! Frustrating that I couldn’t be consistent enough to apply pressure to people in front of me, but happy with my final result. Hopefully the next track is one my car and me are more intuitively quick at. 
 

edit - Oulton Park sprint next, sweet.

[Count Buffalos]

Yeah, I thought you’d get me tbh, I couldn’t keep pressure in my right hand tyres that only got worse as the race progressed. @SneakyNinja pulled back a 10 second gap to overtake me on the Kemmel straight on the penultimate lap. It was a really good move despite him having the smallest of gaps to through on the right hand side. 

[davejm]

Really tough race.  I didn't get the tyre pressures right and lost all notion of grip after a few laps so @SANtoOos sailed off into the distance.  It got so bad at the end I could barely keep it on track, but managed to just keep enough pace to stay ahead of the rest.  Well done on the win mate!  You defo did the right thing not to do the extra lap, would have sucked for you to have lost it due to technical issues.  I was soooo glad to see the end!

[davejm]

Results:-

https://simsource.azurewebsites.net/results/wk3k081703a3?tab-=qualifying

https://simsource.azurewebsites.net/results/wk3k081703a3?tab-=race

[Valver]

I had a nice battle with @Speech for most of my race.  He was hounding me from behind constantly, with the gap yo-yo'ing backwards and forward around 1 second.  I could tell he was a bit faster than me in several corners, but not quicker enough to have an easy clean overtake.  To his credit, he hung back and waited to see if I would make a mistake. After pitting on different laps, I came out still ahead, but I had utterly lost tyre pressure - and I really struggled to get heat back into the tyres (I didn't change them)  Speech reeled me in again still waited for an error.   And it came on Lap 23 (of 25) as I messed up Eau Rouge under pressure, I had to come off the power and take the escape tarmac and he was able to cruise past me on the straight.  Bugger - but well played sir!  Very fair racing and you deserved that position.

 

From the replay I can see @SANtoOos connection issues.  On the final lap in the highlight video your car is warping about like crazy!  Congrats on the win and on managing to hold on to a connection to the server by the thinnest of threads! 

 

Here's the race highlight video.  HD and 2K versions are processing as I type...

 

 

[SneakyNinja]

30 minutes ago, Count Buffalos said:

Yeah, I thought you’d get me tbh, I couldn’t keep pressure in my right hand tyres that only got worse as the race progressed. @SneakyNinja pulled back a 10 second gap to overtake me on the Kemmel straight on the penultimate lap. It was a really good move despite him having the smallest of gaps to through on the right hand side. 

Not sure why, but my tyres came good near the end, after taking ages to warm back up after my pit stop. 
 

There may have been a bit of grass involved in my overtake  as I thought I had the widest Aston on the grid, but it seems I was mistaken. Great defending mate! 

[SANtoOos]

17 minutes ago, Valver said:

 

 

 

Wow really enjoyed watching these highlights, loads of action. @Meersand @SharkyOB side by side for a few corners, @SneakyNinja and @Count Buffalos and loads of other great moves. Nice helicam at the start @Valver! 

[Count Buffalos]

32 minutes ago, SneakyNinja said:

Not sure why, but my tyres came good near the end, after taking ages to warm back up after my pit stop. 
 

There may have been a bit of grass involved in my overtake  as I thought I had the widest Aston on the grid, but it seems I was mistaken. Great defending mate! 

 

Tbh, when i saw you were quicker I squeezed you a little more (still a car width worth of space though) until it was clear you’d get the overtake in the braking zone. I shouldn’t have done that but adrenaline etc!

[Meers]

7 hours ago, SANtoOos said:

Wow really enjoyed watching these highlights, loads of action. @Meersand @SharkyOB side by side for a few corners, @SneakyNinja and @Count Buffalos and loads of other great moves. Nice helicam at the start @Valver! 

 

Oof, so it was Santos who was lagging and causing the high latency judging by the end of that replay?

[davejm]

Server is configured for Oulton Park practice   Go go go!