rec.autos.simulators

Okay, I am trying to move on to a road course now; Laguna Seca.  I've
turned damage off and auto spin recovery one (save some time
resetting), but I have left auto brake and auto shift off.  I am
running the practice pattern with 31 opponents at 80%.  Is this the
best way to pick up the rythm of a course?

How to get the timing of the brake and down/up shift correct?  Visual
clues?  Number gears to down shift one the way in?  Find a resonable
gear like third for a few bunched up turns?  Shift in the turns or
always on the straights?  I have a lot of trouble shifting and
steering turns with one hand.  I wish I could shift without taking my
hands off the wheel.  Whatever happened to HOTAS (hands on throttle
and stick)?

Thanks for your help.

Mark Kratzer    Brooklyn, New York, USA

CompuServe:     73142, 3650

Racing against the AI will only distract you.

Good luck!

--
--- Terje Wold Johansen

    --- http://www.ifi.uio.no/~terjjo/
      --- "I am your inferior superior." O.W.

: Okay, I am trying to move on to a road course now; Laguna Seca.  I've
: turned damage off and auto spin recovery one (save some time
: resetting), but I have left auto brake and auto shift off.  I am
: running the practice pattern with 31 opponents at 80%.  Is this the
: best way to pick up the rythm of a course?

I find it better to learn the course without any traffic.  They tend to
through my rhythm off.  Rhythm is the key to road courses.  It doesn't
hurt to do a session with traffic and then watch the replay from one of
the faster cars.  This will usually reveal a few tricks.

: How to get the timing of the brake and down/up shift correct?  Visual
: clues?  Number gears to down shift one the way in?  Find a resonable
: gear like third for a few bunched up turns?  Shift in the turns or
: always on the straights?  I have a lot of trouble shifting and
: steering turns with one hand.  I wish I could shift without taking my
: hands off the wheel.  Whatever happened to HOTAS (hands on throttle
: and stick)?

I find that is usually unwise to shift in a corner.  Look for markers or
skid marks for where you need to start your braking.  Try to do your
heavy braking in a straight line.  I shift down as I brake.  You will
find it helpful to have a little brake on while you start your turn.
This puts more weight transfer onto the front wheels.  Try to be off the
brake as you complete the turn.  I look for a gearing that will let me
be near the top of the rev range when I come out of the turn and get
back on the gas.  You may have to change the gearing for a couple of
turns.  Plan your turn so you can get back in the gas as soon as
possible.  Generally speaking more time is made coming out of the turns
than entering them.  The exception is when trying to out brake an
opponet to get at the turn first.

Practice -- Practice -- Practice.  Find a comfortable setup (not
necessarily fast).  One that will allow you to make each lap with
consistant times.  Get the rhythm down and you will find your time will
increase.  Be smooth!  Once you get the course down start playing with
your setup for speed.  Then it's time to mix it up with some traffic.

Oh, did I  forget to mention Practice?!

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The best way (for me) to learn the track is to play the opponents at
80%, NO autobrake, NO autoshift, NO spin-recovery (Try yourself to
come out of a spin. If you get familiar with this you save seconds.).\

It's almost impossible to say where brake points are. Every driver
drives different. Also it depends on your setup (what tires etc. etc.)

In the beginning try to use the default setup (Easy). Later you can
begin to put the opponents to 85 or 90%.

Make your own setups and try to increase the opponent strength.

A good hint: For beginners, try to decrease the number of opponent.
The AI is not that intelligent and you get disappointed if you hit the
wall every corner.

: A good hint: For beginners, try to decrease the number of opponent.
: The AI is not that intelligent and you get disappointed if you hit the
: wall every corner.

I have noticed that the more demands you make on the sim (graphic
details turned on, number of cars seen/heard, number of opponents, etc.)
suck the abilities out of the AI drivers.  Since they share the same
brain, I guess there is just too much a brain-drain.  They seem faster
and cleaner in VGA with no detail than they do in SVGA & all detail.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

--
--- Terje Wold Johansen

    --- http://www.ifi.uio.no/~terjjo/
      --- "I am your inferior superior." O.W.

: Well, that's just your imagination. The problem is the frame rate, with
: too few
: frames the fluidity of the sim will be lost and their movements will
: become very
: choppy hence the AI will be harder to judge(they seem more moronic).
: Simple as that.

I not sure that's it's just imagination or an illusion.  The times for
the AI cars tend to be quicker in VGA with full frame rate vs. SVGA and
low frame rate.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=