rec.autos.simulators

I have been racing sims since 1994, I have owned GPL for nearly a year
with hundreds of hours (mostly at the Glen), and when I race--everybody
passes me up. Are the default settings that off?  Its not as if I can
adjust downforce, and my gearing seems fine.  Where and how do I
download settings for the Ferrari that will keep me in the race?  I am
ready
to give up on this DAMM sim!!!  Give me less authentic, bumper-to-bumper
racing in place of this game anyday.  But I am willing to keep trying.

Thanks.

this sounds rather strange. with experience in racing sims and hundreds
of hours training should at least do a sub 1:10 with the ferrari (in the
grand prix car of course ;-)). did you watch replays of other drivers in
order to compare their driving style and technique to yours? is your
driver.ini correct?

Lio

Goto the following url:
http://www.parc-ferme.de/
and click on "Schubi's GPL".
There you'll find lotsa hotlaps and setups w/ and for the Ferrari.
Simply click on "Chassis" in the top menubar and choose the Ferrari.
And another thing: Is your computer capable of giving you a solid 36 fps
during the whole game? If not, you'll better upgrade! I had the same
problem as you and with an upgrade of my machine, my laptimes dropped by
3 or 4 seconds due to an immense increase of car-control. Don't give up,
you'll make it for sure! ;))

Regards
Crash, 1:05.33 at the Glen

"Papaioannou, G. A. (George)" schrieb:

Run, don't walk, to Alison Hine's web site: http://www.racesimcentral.net/
and get her Ferrari setup collection.  They have quite a bit of mid-corner
understeer, especially if you don't trail-brake, but you should be able to
run under 1:10 very easily with them.

You can also try Ricardo Nunnini's setups at http://www.racesimcentral.net/~richardn

You can also get the setups of the really fast guys at http://www.racesimcentral.net/,
but I can't stay on the road with those setups.

Of course, you can also try my own setups if you want, they're a sort of
hybrid between Alison's and Ricardo's.  http://c***.enter-net.com/gpl/

Besides the setups, make sure that you're not spinning your rear wheels too
much on corner exit (try exiting in the gear above the one your instincts tell
you to use), and that you're not entering corners too fast.  Exit speed is
usually much more important the entry speed.

Finally, run other tracks.  By always running the same place, you get into a
pattern that gets harder and harder to break, and stops your progress.

Keep trying, you'll succeed !

Richard.
--
Richard Bellavance          Enter-Net Inc.
                            Phone:  (450) 652-7189 #16
Systems Administrator/              (514) 990-1683 #16
  Analyst-Programmer        Fax:    (450) 652-6973

Damn buddy, 1:12!  Here's your last resort!  >http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/<
 Go to her download section/setups and grab the Ferrari setups.  Alison has the
easiest to race setups around and they're useful for Personal Best times also.
Instructions on installation should be there also.  Hope you can find that 5
seconds you need...

speedracer

Cheers, Andrew.

George,

      Since you don't mention if you race on or off line, I'm assuming that
you're running off line. GPL is setup to have the AIs get faster as you do.
So you always have to "work" to stay competitive.  But after a year at the
Glen,you should be a master.

      There are literally tons of sites with setups. Try Alison Hines "Eagle
Woman" for her setups. While they push some what,they are just what the
doctor ordered for novice drivers.  Take a look at the VROC site for all
sorts of great info and links.

      If you're running lap times at the Glen 1:07 and less,you're doing
just fine.

Joel Willstein

  I disagree completely.  I spent months and months on GPL getting 1:15s
at the glen using variants on the old default set-ups for the eagle.
Finally getting my hands on some stable non-race set-ups transformed the
game for me.  It didn't knock 6-7 seconds a lap immediately.  But it did
move me from a 1:15 at the glen 1:35 at Monza to 1:07 at the glen 1:31
at Monza within the next month - having already practiced for months.

  Sure - practice is the only thing which improves your times.  But
practice with a set-up that suits you will really improve your times.

  The difference between two "okish" set ups which are reasonably
balanced won't turn a poor racer into a good racer.  But nobody's going
to be good with a random set-up not balanced front and rear with the
brake balance screwed up...  Also, until you've driven a "balanced" GPL
car you don't know that the set ups you have are wrong.

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
    www:  http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html

If you download some good setups you will be amazed. I just bought GPL about
2-3 weeks ago. I have been running so far strictly at the Glen. My best time
using the default setup was about 1:12. I downloaded some Ferrari setups and
within 2 days I was running consistently in the mid 1:08's, my best so far
being a 1:08.18. After switching from the default setup to some good ones, I
couldn't believe how much more stable the car was. My braking zones shortened
up dramatically.

My guess is that if you get stuck far off the pace with serious
training (i.e. hundreds of laps at a single track), your hardware
might be the biggest problem.

GPL really transforms when supplied with fast hardware (both CPU
and graphics) and a good wheel / controller combo. I recently
built a new "GPL console" and suddenly it feels almost easy :-)
(easy in the right way though, there still is enormous depth
making it very unlikely that I will ever feel there is nothing
more to learn from it.) My old track records are blown away
at a pace I have never seen before, and I doubt I got that
much better suddenly... Not to mention the improvement in
consistency which is huge.

Besides the obvious improvements from allowing higher frame rates
at higher resolutions with more details on, I also suspect that the
dynamics computations were degraded on my old computer (a 233MHz
pentium pro with a vooodo2). Maybe the computation rate gets to
low on a slow computer, affecting the stability of the dynamics
calculations? I guess the model really needs to be run at 288 Hz
to work properly, and maybe they reduce the 8 model ticks per
frame on a slow CPU to improve the frame rate?

      _
Mats Lofkvist

  Not every set up suits every driver.  I find an understeering car
pretty repugnant.

: My guess is that if you get stuck far off the pace with serious
: training (i.e. hundreds of laps at a single track), your hardware
: might be the biggest problem.

  This can also be an issue.  I got nowhere with my old analogue wheel
which was twitchy as hell.  Switching to MSFF really helped things along.
Also being able to turn graphics details on and find a few more markers
for braking points really helps.  One thing which will really hurt your
times is having to brake when you're "kinda close" to the corner rather
than "as I pass the bush/sign/crowd/whatever".  (I had a big off at
Kyalami last night after turning off the graphic detail I usually use as
a braking marker for T1R.)

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
    www:  http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html

And yes, I had a similar occurrence with saving seconds at WG after dling a
setup... but I just thought if he is 6-7 seconds off the mid pack pace, he
should check out some replays and maybe see if he's driving the wrong line,
or not realizing how fast you can take certain sections.. Of course  a good
setup will always help out.

speedy

And remember before you give up: there is no equal substitute for GPL!

    ---SimTim---