rec.autos.simulators

I got my GPL two weeks ago. When I found out how damn hard this game is I
started to search the Web for extra advice. There was a lot of material,
but...

It seems, that these articles were written by people who can already drive.
It also seems that these people didn't practice as they advice, rather the
advice is what they think would be the best for a beginner. I followed this
advice for a week and got nowhere, but then made a few changes to how I
practice and, voila. Again, I remind you that this only my experience, and
GPL is a different experience for all of us. I have no racing background, so
I don't like to follow the advice of some tight-ass racer who worries
whether I will make a fool of myself in front of some pixels by spinning the
car in pit lane ;-). Rather I just try to have fun while starting the game.
So here goes:

- Don't start by driving around with novice training car, take the grand
prix car from beginning and slide around. It is a game and you won't get
hurt when you drive off. Learn to catch a slide and the tracks this way, not
by driving around with under powered car. It is not fun at all. I hate this
advice in guides 'If you get behind a wheel in real life, you wouldn't start
by going with full speed'. HELLO, this is not real life, it is a game!

- Don't look too far on the track when beginning GPL. Most of the guides
tell you to watch deep into the curve. Concentrate on what you are doing. If
you are braking to a corner don't look at the corner too much, try to brake
without locking the wheels. When coming out of the corner, concentrate on
keeping the car right on the edge of sliding off, not to the end of the
corner. It is a lot of work to handle the car and thats your first priority,
not to shave off one tenth of your lap time.

- First, take the Lotus. It is the hardest car. Use it for a few days in the
beginning. It doesn't matter what car you have in the start since you are
going to suck anyway. When you start learning the driving a bit, take the
Ferrari and download a descent setup (Alison is good) and suddenly it all
starts to make sense...

- If you have a FF wheel, then a completetly linear steering is the ONLY
option. With this you can feel what is going on with the car and also you
can catch the car when it is getting out of hands. To me this made a world
of differernce, maybe in the beginning you could use unlinear steering and
then move to linear to have this 'heureka' experience that I had.

- Setup DOES matter. There is a hell of a difference for example with a car
loaded with fuel and a car with 9 gallons. Download a few of the best known
setups ( I use Eagle Woman's Ferrari setups
http://www.racesimcentral.net/) so you don't have to tweak
everything from the beginning.

- Again: Drive at full speed. The game is not about learning to drive aroud
at walking pace.

I know the great racers don't like these advice. However, it made the
training fun for me.

-Harri

Try these track guides, they are great for beginners.

Enjoy

It seems that F3 (trainer) cars are mainly driven by experts like Mike
Barlow rather than novices, as they find them more interesting to race
online with!

I just love the feeling of power you get in GPL when you rev the engine
and the whole car trembles!

Time for another cold shower, I think!

Jan.

Jan.
------
competing in F3 at:

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/mark.seery/F3%20League.html

I kind of agree here. You're gonna have to drive the GP car at one time or
another and the trainer cars have too little power to compensate for error.
You shouldn't, however, go looking for the limit from the wrong side.
Otherwise you will never experience how the handling changes as the tyres
warm and the fuel burns off.

Wrong, wrong and wrong... although it's pretty hard to "feel" the dimensions
of the car in the sim, you've got to be looking at where you need to go next
(within reason... breaking point to turn in point to apex to exit point and
so on). If you don't look ahead you're be constantly correcting in an effort
to keep up with the car, while, to be consistent, you need to be ahead of
it. Simple as that. To quote Mark Jeanguerard (expert simracer and
philosopher): "You don't look at the edge of the track, you just know where
it is. And you slide your car up to it like the bad mamba jamba that you
are." Braking should be done by ear, not by actually looking at the wheels.

The Lotus is not the hardest car to drive in the sim, the Ferrari is much
more moody (although seemingly more responsive) and I find the Honda to be
the hardest (doesn't want to accept the power). Each car has it's own
characteristics, but I strongly recommend the Cooper, Eagle or BRM as
training wheels.

This is an entirely personal thing, and on top of that it depends on the
controller.

Setup is very important, but it's not the be all and end all, you can make
the car easier to drive by setting it up to your taste, but any actual speed
gain comes from knowing the track and your car inside out. I also strongly
disapprove of downloading setups and just learning how to drive them.
Reading up on car dynamics and what the effect of the various setup
parameters are and then "rolling your own" (it doesn't hurt to look for
inspiration as long as it doesn't lead to duplication) takes far less time
(both on and off the track).

Try to do your testing on at least half a tank of fuel. If you set up on a
light car, it's going to be pushy as hell with GP length fuel in it.

You've got to learn to walk before you can run. Start driving with the
intention of doing reasonably quick, consistent laps. You'll won't be able
to keep yourself from speeding up, even if you're actively trying to stay
safe and solid. Let the car and the track lead you to more speed, don't try
to force the issue up front.

I've got news for you... it's not supposed to be fun. It's a simulation. The
enjoyment you get out of it is on another level and is disproportionate, no
matter how much seat time you have to put in to get it.

Jan.

Agree with you here...I still turn lots of medium to sorta fast laps in GPL.
:)

However, the underpowered cars do teach you lines and how to get the most
out of them so they have their place.  However, I disagree that they have
too littler power to compensate for error...Ive caught many of slides by
opposite lock and a little power.  Its a gearing issue more than power
issue.

Bingo!

wheels.

Hehe, love that quote...must remember to be bad mamba jamba!  And to not
lose my mojo!

I dunno, Eagle can be fiesty....but since its really a lot like a bigger
badder Cooper, it makes an easy transition from Cooper to Eagle.

I have found full linear steering with the LWFF to be optimal.  I used to
run at about 3/4 linear steering, but tried it on a suggestino and really
like it.  But as Jan says, its personal!

Catch 22...gotta know how to drive a certain setup, but then you hae to know
why that setup is doing what its doing when you drive it. :)

Better yet, decide what you are going to do...do you race a lot of Int Short
or Long on VROC/SpyBoy?  If so, practice with the fuel load necessary to
SAFELY completely with spins, etc, a full race.   Then practice some more
with about 1/4 of the starting fuel...car handling does change and you most
be able to drive with both settings.  Personally I am lazy, so I tend to
drive with more fuel than I will ever need so that my change in car's
handling doesnt change too much during most online races. :)

Very important point.  And one even seasoned veterans forget.

Mmms...I concur with the last part, disagree with the first part.  Its a
game.  Its a fairly decent simulation of 67 GP racing, but its still a game.
It should be fun and personal tastes may vary with how to get the most fun
out of it.  However, as Jan says....you will find the more time you put into
ti, the better you get, the more you learn (and this will hold you in good
stead for the next generation of racing game simulations) and the more fun
it will become.  And lastly, the more satisfaction you will receive from
doing well in it.

        Thanks for the compliment!  It does mean a lot to me! :)

        First, patients pays!  As well as help from the Race Communications
Association for teaching me this. Holodyne Engineering for their
computer help. And Mystic Music for the fantastic driving***pit.

--
=========================================
Mike Barlow of Barlow Racing?
=========================================
Racing online with the help of......

Race Communications Association
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Holodyne Engineering

Mystic Music

(have Your !!Name/Address!! placed here)

Interesting point of view, how do you spread the gears? -and how many
clutches do you put in the diff?

{now that I catch myself doing this, I've hit on another thing that I wanted
to mention in my post. A lot of new drivers (myself included at the time)
don't ask enough questions.... you can aquire some really bad habits going
on an assumption of how it's done instead of asking.}

Could be my impression, but I found it needs a lot more toe than the others
to brake in a straight line. That's the only thing wrong with the Eagle IMO,
it doesn't like slowing down. ;-)

Yeah, probably my driving style. I can't stand anything above something like
5/6 linear (LWFF). What's important is not to go play with the setting. Set
it and leave it until you're experienced enough to tell your steering is too
linear or not linear enough I say.

Heh, that's a good trick. Never occured to me..

Jan.

Andre

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:57:37 +0200, Jan Hovius

Been using 3 clutches with the Eagle, 4 clutches on the longer tracks like
Spa and Monza.  Generally, I've mimic'd the default setups, so there is a
decent size gap between 1st and 2nd, but a longer 4th gear....  I have found
though that I like to setup one tick shorter on both 3rd and 4th gears than
some other folks.  Just as long as I still reach max. rpms on the longest
straight in 4th.

True, must ask, must learn...I gotta learn better how to catch the draft, I
am not "feeling" it and was taught a pretty good lesson about using it at
Spa in an F3 race. Thanks Mr. Jolly! :)

Yes, thats my opinion of it.  I at first was wondering why I couldn't slow
as fast as some of the other cars, but found out by driving some others that
it was really the Eagle that doesn't lke to brake. :)  But then again, as
Mario Andretti said...something about if a person thinks the brake is for
slowing down, they are wrong. :)

Very good point.  I may have adapted, because GPL keeps losing my
calibration (annoying but oh well) so I just put it over there so I remember
every time where my linear settings were. :)

One of those things I think I'd have had thought of if I wasn't really low
on time and only get to play around every now and then. :)

Then go to Monza and drive laps with that Ferrari until you get sick of that
track, then go to Watkins Glen and drive laps until you get sick of that,
all the while mixing a few laps in at Spa.  As far as I'm concerned, when
you can drive at least five crash-free laps there at reasonable speed you've
learned at least enough to learn how to learn to drive.

I don't think you'll ever get sick of running laps at Spa.  I haven't.  Have
fun.

Jerry Morelock

thats not the point. if you are not going slow for your first laps, you
will have to do a lot of crashs before ever completing a whole clean
lap. besides: if you crash every 2nd corner, you have to restart, i.e.
press shift-r and get a full tank and new (= cold!) tires. the latter is
the important thing: after doing 3 or 4 clean laps, you will recognize,
that driving with tires at the right temperature is much easier!

I agree as far as you should not allways watch the track miles ahead,
but a very importing point to fix BEFORE you turn into a curce is the
apex. you will see that when you try to 'hit' this point you will drive
much better trought the curve ...

I'd rather suggest the cooper (coventry) as the best training car - it
is VERY forgiving plus it is not understeering like the eagle nor
oversteering like the ferrari.

if you want to get frustrated easily: do it. if you prefer meeting with
success: be slow first. this will also prepare you for online-racing:
the most important thing there is calm. not only for yourself (nothing
is more frustrating that spinning in the 1st lap, just because you were
going to fast into a turn) but also for the other drivers (I HATE people
crashing me just because they were pushing it!) ...

Lio

Andre

% Could be my impression, but I found it needs a lot more toe than the others
% to brake in a straight line. That's the only thing wrong with the Eagle IMO,
% it doesn't like slowing down. ;-)

While more toe in the front may help, it is also possible that the front
end is too tight.  I have found that reducing the spring rate or the ARB
will sometimes help alot for heavy braking in the Eagle.

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

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