Best approach for newbie to learn F1 2001

Hi, I'm a fresh newbie trying to learn this damn game. It's hard, as well it should be (I guess driving 215mph requires a little skill ;). Don't worry, I won't be crashing your multiplayer games for a long time. I'm trying to work my way through the practice sessions (I can bronze star any section with a little practice, but I still wreck often). Should I continue drilling, or get into a little bit of racing? Realistically, how long will learning this game to a semi-competitive level take? (I learned Quake3 to a high level, is the learning curve equally tough?) What's the key to preventing spinouts? Does it take precision and practice, or just driving conservatively within the car's limits? Are there any key skills that I should concentrate on? I basically brake solid into turns, turn with little/no throttle (depends on how tight), and gas like hell ASAP. Is combined gas/brake very important? Ok, that's enough questions. Any answers appreciated. Dave

Hi David Best thing to do is start at one circuit and learn it intimately. Then get yourself a good setup (ahem) www.simbin.com has a few good ones (I'm told). The key to preventing spinouts is prediction of the likely car behaviour given a certain corner/throttle input/steering combination. You can only develop this with practice. A forgiving car setup will help you a lot during the learning stage. You'll get better throttle control if you use Richard Beckett's throttle fix suggestion (a few posts up or down). Combined throttle and brake input is extremely important. Particularly if you push the brake bias rearward which will give you more effective braking but increase the potential of rear lock ups. Independant Throttle/Brake inputs will also allow for you to dab the brakes if you are spinning to bring the car under control by locking the fronts. With combined axis, this is impossible as in order to brake, you must first release throttle which will move the weight further forward and worsten the spin. Good luck Ian "David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Hi, I'm a fresh newbie trying to learn this damn game. It's hard, as > well it should be (I guess driving 215mph requires a little skill ;). > Don't worry, I won't be crashing your multiplayer games for a long time. > I'm trying to work my way through the practice sessions (I can bronze > star any section with a little practice, but I still wreck often). Should > I continue drilling, or get into a little bit of racing? Realistically, > how long will learning this game to a semi-competitive level take? (I > learned Quake3 to a high level, is the learning curve equally tough?) > What's the key to preventing spinouts? Does it take precision and > practice, or just driving conservatively within the car's limits? > Are there any key skills that I should concentrate on? I basically > brake solid into turns, turn with little/no throttle (depends on how > tight), and gas like hell ASAP. Is combined gas/brake very important? > > Ok, that's enough questions. Any answers appreciated. > > Dave

I only had the wheel/pedal for a day. I returned them when a splash of reason caught me by surprise, about how I couldn't afford the expense right now (I'm unemployed :-( ) So you're saying to try the pedal-centering adjustment if I get another set and that could make a big difference. I see this DXTweak only runs on Win98 - what about Win2000? Does XP have the same tweakability as 98? Dave "Richard S Beckett" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:9v7v96$[email hidden]:

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> x-no-archive: yes > > What controller are you using? That will make a big difference. > > See the thread on getting the pedals to work properly. I was spinning > out a lot, before I fixed the pedals, but at least I knew why ;-) > > R > > > "David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... >> Hi, I'm a fresh newbie trying to learn this damn game. It's hard, >> as >> well it should be (I guess driving 215mph requires a little skill ;). >> Don't worry, I won't be crashing your multiplayer games for a long >> time. >> I'm trying to work my way through the practice sessions (I can >> bronze >> star any section with a little practice, but I still wreck often). >> Should I continue drilling, or get into a little bit of racing? >> Realistically, how long will learning this game to a semi-competitive >> level take? (I learned Quake3 to a high level, is the learning curve >> equally tough?) >> What's the key to preventing spinouts? Does it take precision and >> practice, or just driving conservatively within the car's limits? >> Are there any key skills that I should concentrate on? I >> basically >> brake solid into turns, turn with little/no throttle (depends on how >> tight), and gas like hell ASAP. Is combined gas/brake very important? >> >> Ok, that's enough questions. Any answers appreciated. >> >> Dave >

Nice one Ian. JB

In article <[email hidden]>, David Geesaman <[email hidden]> writes:

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> Hi, I'm a fresh newbie trying to learn this damn game. It's hard, as >well it should be (I guess driving 215mph requires a little skill ;). >Don't worry, I won't be crashing your multiplayer games for a long time. > I'm trying to work my way through the practice sessions (I can bronze >star any section with a little practice, but I still wreck often). Should >I continue drilling, or get into a little bit of racing? Realistically, >how long will learning this game to a semi-competitive level take? (I >learned Quake3 to a high level, is the learning curve equally tough?) > What's the key to preventing spinouts? Does it take precision and >practice, or just driving conservatively within the car's limits? > Are there any key skills that I should concentrate on? I basically >brake solid into turns, turn with little/no throttle (depends on how >tight), and gas like hell ASAP. Is combined gas/brake very important?

You could to very well by reading Maxx's suggestions. Look for the thread titled "practice ideas". He gives some great info that is valuable no matter what sim you run. There are a few other people who have added well to the discussion. 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.

"Ian Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:IYLR7.5581$[email hidden]: > Hi David > Best thing to do is start at one circuit and learn it intimately. Then > get yourself a good setup (ahem) www.simbin.com has a few good ones > (I'm told). I've been focusing on Monza in the Driving School mode. Is there a way to tweak the setup in this mode? What other game mode is good for practice? > The key to preventing spinouts is prediction of the likely > car behaviour given a certain corner/throttle input/steering > combination. You can only develop this with practice. A forgiving car > setup will help you a lot during the learning stage. > You'll get better throttle control if you use Richard Beckett's > throttle fix suggestion (a few posts up or down). I'm afraid pedals (and linear throttle+brake input) won't be coming for some time, since I have no money to spend. It seems that running fast has a lot to do with precisely applying brakes at the last possible moment entering a turn (like the first chicane at Monza). Is it a wise idea for me to brake a little early to prevent overruns, or am I just avoiding a critical skill?

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> Combined throttle and brake input is extremely important. Particularly > if you push the brake bias rearward which will give you more effective > braking but increase the potential of rear lock ups. Independant > Throttle/Brake inputs will also allow for you to dab the brakes if you > are spinning to bring the car under control by locking the fronts. With > combined axis, this is impossible as in order to brake, you must first > release throttle which will move the weight further forward and worsten > the spin.

Right now my joystick is set with a brake button and throttle button. I can run both concurrently, but there's no linearity. I'd be content for now if there was a way to get progressive brake and throttle and keep the joystick, until I can buy a wheel. Dave > Good luck > > Ian > "David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

"David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > "Ian Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in > news:IYLR7.5581$[email hidden]: > It seems that running fast has a lot to do with precisely applying > brakes at the last possible moment entering a turn (like the first chicane > at Monza). Is it a wise idea for me to brake a little early to prevent > overruns, or am I just avoiding a critical skill? Don't worry so much about applying brakes as late as possible. It's more important to be able to hit your turn in point and hold your racing line (at the highest speed possible) through the turn. David G Fisher

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> > Combined throttle and brake input is extremely important. Particularly > > if you push the brake bias rearward which will give you more effective > > braking but increase the potential of rear lock ups. Independant > > Throttle/Brake inputs will also allow for you to dab the brakes if you > > are spinning to bring the car under control by locking the fronts. With > > combined axis, this is impossible as in order to brake, you must first > > release throttle which will move the weight further forward and worsten > > the spin. > > Right now my joystick is set with a brake button and throttle button. > I can run both concurrently, but there's no linearity. I'd be content for > now if there was a way to get progressive brake and throttle and keep the > joystick, until I can buy a wheel. > > Dave > > > Good luck > > > > Ian > > "David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

"David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:GtRR7.300706$[email hidden]...

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> > "David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > "Ian Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in > > news:IYLR7.5581$[email hidden]: > > It seems that running fast has a lot to do with precisely applying > > brakes at the last possible moment entering a turn (like the first

chicane > > at Monza). Is it a wise idea for me to brake a little early to prevent > > overruns, or am I just avoiding a critical skill? > > Don't worry so much about applying brakes as late as possible. It's more > important to be able to hit your turn in point and hold your racing line(at > the highest speed possible) through the turn. > > David G Fisher Or put another way "sacrifice entry speed for exit speed". That tenth of a second you gain by braking late for a corner can be wiped out by the longer time it takes you to accelerate coming out of the corner, from a lower speed. The fastest guys aren't the guys that brake the latest, they're the guys that brake as late as possible while still getting through the corner at maximum speed. (Nigel Mansell seemed to be the exception to this rule).

"David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > "Ian Bell" <[email hidden]> wrote in > news:IYLR7.5581$[email hidden]: > > > I'm afraid pedals (and linear throttle+brake input) won't becoming > for some time, since I have no money to spend. > There are some really cheap wheel and pedal sets available if you look around, just the other day I saw a Thrustmaster set for $20. The pedals looked like crap, but Thrustmaster wheels have analog levers that can be used as throttle and brake, and some people actually prefer the levers to pedals. Not sure whether it was split axis or not, though, and getting split axis pedals (or levers or whatever) is extremely important. > > Right now my joystick is set with a brake button and throttlebutton. > I can run both concurrently, but there's no linearity. I'd be contentfor > now if there was a way to get progressive brake and throttle and keepthe > joystick, until I can buy a wheel. > If your stick has a throttle slider you can use that for one of the two, and you can use the vertical axis of the stick for the other. If it doesn't have a throttle slider you can use the vertical axis, split in the middle, for both. All of the racing sims that I have tried are set up to recognize either combined or split axis pedals, which means that you can use a single analog axis, split in the middle, for both throttle and brake. Use the forward motion of the stick for throttle and backward motion for brake. You will not be able to get combined throttle and brake this way, but it is way better then using buttons. HTH, Hal