rec.autos.simulators

Agreed.  

No, I couldn't tell you my turn-in points for any specific turn.  Somebody
asked me that before.  I don't really HAVE set turn-in points.  Those seem more
difficult to see.  At the Skip Barber school(and I assume Jim Russell as well),
they had small cones setup to mark braking and turn-in points.  They also had a
cone on the inside of the line that you had to go around.  Meaning, it kept you
from turning in too early.  That's something I've been accused of by people who
have seen my replays.  I'll try your F2 lap comparison drill.  There are
SEVERAL laps on that site that are as fast as my F1 times...yipes...<g>
Thanks!

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.racesimcentral.net/~epickett
GPLRank - under construction...

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
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I was never able to gain any info from GPLdump.  All it would say is that the
other lap was faster.  Well damn, I already KNEW that...<g>  It didn't really
tell me WHY it was faster, unless I just missed a screen or something.

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPLRank - under construction...

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

Leave it to Eldred to star a good discussion!
I have to admit that I spend alot of seat time that's not very productive.
Most of my practice lately has been running a default setup with minor
changes to make it feel more comfortable.  Once I can get around with any
consistency, I'll try an AI race to see how I stack up.  The AI sometimes
leads me down the wrong path when I try and drive the same line.  Trying to
find a smooth line that allows for a fluid change of direction and speed is
usually what I try for.  Getting into the AI races also gives an opportunity
to explore less than perfect lines and passing/yielding manouvers.
Since I was trying to learn Anderstorp and Wild South, I applied some of the
ideas regarding RA and I made some improvement, but there's still a long way
to go.

Jeff H

-snipped-

It doesn't really tell you WHY the other guy is faster, but WHERE he
is faster. Ok, that would probably be at every corner, but you can
also see at what point he brakes, how much speed he carries through
the corner and at what point he starts to add throttle again.

For some corners you will learn -it is possible- to accelerate much
sonner than you're doing now. Watch the replay to see HOW they manage
this. Also, for some corner you will notice you brake later or carry
more speed through the corner, but you will lose that gained time
again -and more- because the other guy can accelerate sooner.

The GPLDump feature is also in GPLRA, but I prefer GPLDump for this.
So I use both tools to really analyze my laps.

Andre

"Jeff Hails" wrote ...

I agree, the most useful information you can get out of practicing against
the AI is to determine how your car is going to react when forced into less
than optimal braking points, lines, etc.  The car may feel fine on a normal
clean lap, and then you find that when you get on the brakes a little harder
than normal you can't keep the rear end behind you.  This lets you know how
you need to adjust your braking points etc. with traffic and adrenaline
applied.

Too bad there isn't a utility that shows when and how much throttle/brake
someone else uses.  As Maxx pointed out, the braking point isn't always clear
from looking at a replay.

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPLRank - under construction...

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

Man, that WOULD be a usefull display in the replay's.

Papy, we want TELEMETRY!

-Larry

I was happy to see the traction circle added to RA.  I haven't checked many
faster replays against mine, but the first thing that is obvious is the
faster guys show a smoother and more consistent transition from acceleration
to braking and turning forces.  The max G forces don't vary much generally
1.75 G.  This tells me I'm not using good throttle control and
overcompensating for the errors I make.

Jeff H.


-snipped-

As I understand it, that particular data is impossible to display in GPL,
as it is not in the dataset that the sim saves in a replay file. It seems
that the program designers' goal was to provide "movies" of races, not
telemetry. That's too bad.

Chris Noto, see Noto at tee dee ess dot net