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Rec.Autos.Simulators Archive

GPL : A letter to Dave Mansell

12 posts by 12 people · 02 Sep 1998 - 04 Sep 1998

McKafre 02 Sep 1998#418887
Hiya Dave :) Ive some questions to you and for all the guys who are really flying in GPL .. were you also fast in another sims ? (F1GP, GP2, ICR2, ...) I remember some guys who were fast in F1GP and in GP2 too I was fast in F1GP (almost top ten in F1GP HOF) but in GP2 I lost speed and in GPL Im 3 seconds off your lap times ... I think that when I buy a wheel (this week I hope) I will be only 2 seconds off yor tail ;) , but ... Why some guys are fast in some sims and "slow" in other ? maybe the physiscs of a certain sim can be favourable for some "drivers" ? F1GP was a good sim for late braking drivers (Senna, Schumi, ...) ICR2 was good for early braking drivers (Prost, Panis, ...) Ayrton McKafre (Powered by Seat) ICQ#17627567 Excuse my english ...
P Gagg 02 Sep 1998#418888
Some of us are *always* destined to be slow..... 8-( *Peter* 8-)
I'm a different Dave. :-) I race CPR, F1RS, MTM2. About a year and a half ago I raced a lot with POD. I have been able to match most of the top times in those sims and have done very, very well online against some of the best drivers I know of (I apologize if I sound like I'm bragging, I'm just answering your question -) ). I also don't believe that a person has to have much experience with past sims, or even a lot of talent, to be fast in a particular one. Practice and/or having a good "fit" with a sim is the key. I'll give an example later. The fastest guys in most sims are usually the ones who put the most hours into the game along with having the most enthusiasm. One leads to the other. Talent is important, but not so much with hotlapping as in AI, and especially, online racing. I saw your other post, and the times you are doing without a wheel are tremendous. With a wheel, you should be great. One sim can fit with a driver much better than another. For me, GPL isn't as difficult as two other sims I use (CPR and F1RS) or even MTM2. Not nearly as hard as F1RS and CPR actually. I was able to get very fast laps much quicker in GPL than I did with the others. Many people find GPL harder for them. I just happen to like being able to slide the GPL cars through the turns, and they seem very, very easy to control on the straights. The overall feel of speed seems slow to me too, while CPR and to a slightly lesser extent, F1RS, seem like hyperspeed in comparison. For others, they may have a completely opposite view. How one person perceives a sim's "feel" is something that can't be argued. I have a friend who has 0 hours with sims. His racing has been mainly with POD. He was able to do a 1"07 at Watkins Glen after about 4-5 hours which is about how long it took me. He just "fit" GPL very well. You hit on a key point with regards to sims and how they are perceived by some. Again, since you are so damn fast with a keyboard, you obviously fit GPL very well. :-) Dave DmndDave
Very easy to control on the straight? I feel like I am driving a waterbed. I know the cars had soft suspension high ride height compared to modern race cars but Im having trouble keeping the car straight if I try to move to the side a little. Maybe I have the wrong setup on my steering controller. Its still fun to drive and good practice for driving smooth but little frustrating. Dsr#74 :-)
Move the linearity slider all the way to the right!
Quoted text (9 lines)> Very easy to control on the straight? I feel like I am driving a waterbed. I > know the cars had soft suspension high ride height compared to modern > race cars but Im having trouble keeping the car straight if I try to move to > the > side a little. Maybe I have the wrong setup on my steering controller. > Its still fun to drive and good practice for driving smooth but little > frustrating. > Dsr#74 :-)
Quoted text (11 lines)>>Many people find GPL harder for them. I >>just happen to like being able to slide the GPL cars through the turns, and >>they seem very, very easy to control on the straights. >Very easy to control on the straight? I feel like I am driving a waterbed. I >know the cars had soft suspension high ride height compared to modern >race cars but Im having trouble keeping the car straight if I try to move to >the >side a little. Maybe I have the wrong setup on my steering controller. >Its still fun to drive and good practice for driving smooth but little >frustrating.
I, too, found the GPL cars pretty hard to control, even when going straight. It felt like steering my cousin's 30 years old Peogeot 404 - it leans to one side, then shoots off in the opposite direction. :) A few controller setup changes made it much more manageable, however: - I used to calibrate the accelerator as in GP2, i.e. I did *not* depress it fully when calibrating. I thought this would ensure that "full throttle" actually means "full" and not "97%". Bad mistake. Even though this measure probably did give me full acceleration, it effectively turned the gas pedal into a digital device - it was "nothing" or "everything" with little in-between. Not good for control, as you can imagine. I now calibrated the gas like the setup tells me to do, and it's much more responsive. - In a vain effort to be ultimately realistic, I initially set the linearity slider to "fully linear". This led to a very responsive, yet uncontrollable car - the "waterbed effect" you speak of. If you set the slider to "fully non-linear", however, you get a dog of a car that apparently is absolutely unwilling to corner. The trick is to find a position that's between those absolutes and gives you a responsive, yet controllable car. For my personal likes and hardware (T2), this is currently 1/4th from the "fully linear" end of the scale. -- Wolfgang Preiss \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.
Devo 03 Sep 1998#419013
> Move the linearity slider all the way to the right! Is that how you have it set Byron? Devon
ymenard 03 Sep 1998#419014
As a famous computer said once in the future : "Im sorry Dave, but Im afraid I can't do that" ;-P - Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard! - Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. - Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking) - Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS - "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--
Quoted text (8 lines)>- In a vain effort to be ultimately realistic, I initially set the >linearity slider to "fully linear". This led to a very responsive, yet >uncontrollable car - the "waterbed effect" you speak of. If you set >the slider to "fully non-linear", however, you get a dog of a car that >apparently is absolutely unwilling to corner. The trick is to find a >position that's between those absolutes and gives you a responsive, >yet controllable car. For my personal likes and hardware (T2), this is >currently 1/4th from the "fully linear" end of the scale.
That's exactly the same as my setting. I found the car to be the best compromise of controllable and responsible abput 1/5 to 1/4 of the way along the scale from the left. Cheers! John
Wolfgang Preiss wrote My preference too (TM Formula Pro/Nascar Pro) Tony
Kurt 04 Sep 1998#419145
Makes me wonder if these same people would be as proportionately fast in REAL cars... Kurt
Grant Reeve 04 Sep 1998#419146
> That's exactly the same as my setting. I found the car to be the best > compromise of controllable and responsible abput 1/5 to 1/4 of the way > along the scale from the left. Seems to be a popular setting - I use the same too. :) except the reasoning behind me using it is kind of complicated, just to be different: my steering pot is quite worn (being 2 years old) around centre, so the steering is far more responsive due to the wear in the carbon ring altering the resistance than when the wheel it turned further to the side - and by doing some careful measurement of exactly how far the steering wheel and arms on the GPL screen move compared to how far i move my wheel, i find a linearity setting just a fraction to the right of the "r" in "linear" (about 1/5 to 1/4 from the left) is exactly the right amount to cancel out the non-linearness of my steering pot to give properly linear steering response.... :) I suspect this effect comes into play on a lot of people's wheels out there, but I suspect most people have probably long since replaced their pots by the time 2 years comes up so maybe this effect doesn't have as much influence as it does on my T2. Come to think of it - people who play Nascar2 all the time will probably have pots that are worn only on the left hand side... this could explain why they have trouble driving road circuits because the pot doesn't respond at the same resistance/movement rate on teh right hand side... :)

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