Box Box Box - Sim Racing Players Club [Now Hype Train Enabled!]

[chaozbandit]

Dont think I ever posted these (and because Im bored on a sunday night) but heres the results of my AOR season.

[MEC-777]

Pulled off a 1:44:752 in the Caddy at the Glen. @chaozbandit - you're right, that car is harder to tame than the C7. It needs downforce to be stable. Nothing I could do would keep the back end planted with mechanical grip alone. That guy you posted that did the 1:41 must have had at least some assists turned on. I would almost put money on it.  

 

Tried the Glen again in the C7 with a few minor tweaks, only shaved about a tenth off my previous time, but that's about all I've got. Need to work on perfecting my line through the bus stop, mainly. I'm noticing all the leaders in most of the TT leaderboards are using some or all of the big 3 assists, which kind of grinds my gears a bit. IMO, the leaderboards should only apply for those with traction, stability and ABS all off.  

 

Did some GT3 MP last night. It's cool to see so much diversity in this class now. As much as I love the Vette, the Caddy is now my go-to GT3 steed.

[chaozbandit]

2 minutes ago, MEC-777 said:

Pulled off a 1:44:752 in the Caddy at the Glen. @chaozbandit - you're right, that car is harder to tame than the C7. It needs downforce to be stable. Nothing I could do would keep the back end planted with mechanical grip alone. That guy you posted that did the 1:41 must have had at least some assists turned on. I would almost put money on it.  

 

Tried the Glen again in the C7 with a few minor tweaks, only shaved about a tenth off my previous time, but that's about all I've got. Need to work on perfecting my line through the bus stop, mainly. I'm noticing all the leaders in most of the TT leaderboards are using some or all of the big 3 assists, which kind of grinds my gears a bit. IMO, the leaderboards should only apply for those with traction, stability and ABS all off.  

 

Did some GT3 MP last night. It's cool to see so much diversity in this class now. As much as I love the Vette, the Caddy is now my go-to GT3 steed.

Casey referred to the ATS-V.R in his development notes as a GTR GT3 if it was built on a true RWD platform, instead of the test mule they use that is being used in pC2 dev. I can definitely see where he comes wrt that statement - massively powerful TT V6 paired to an amazing gearbox. It definitely needs aero though, and with a shorter final drive you can keep up with the midpack of GT3 with 1/7 aero. Remove those and fine tune the setup, and you can definitely challenge the M3 GT2 and SLS AMG GT3.

 

I've decided that I will be content at 1:44.016 for a few weeks LOL. Fallen in love with the C7.R and I've done pretty well in MP with it (when I'm not getting rammed) so it will most likely be my car of choice. My preferred line in the bus stop is heavy braking right after the 3rd brake board, cutting the right side curb as much as possible to maintain a tight line through the left curb and out of the bus stop, then feathering the throttle to get it tight around the long right hand corner. Ideal speed is 170 kph in 4th, though I can do 175 in 3rd and have an easier time keeping it tight. Only issue is that out of the bus stop, shifting down to 3rd really upsets the rear end at 0/1 aero.

 

Need to try a new launch method with the C7.R though. My tried and true handbrake method doesnt work on tracks with any kind of elevation change so now I'm using my left foot to hold down both clutch and brake. The torque gives it amazing grip, enough to easily drive around people in front, but you have to remember to shift early or else the power drops off. Believe it or not, the ATS-V.R launches even faster so keeping an eye on that rear display is crucial.

 

v this is an unassisted release (car is held only by the brake, no throttle applied until green)

 

 

[MEC-777]

1 hour ago, chaozbandit said:

Spoiler

 

Casey referred to the ATS-V.R in his development notes as a GTR GT3 if it was built on a true RWD platform, instead of the test mule they use that is being used in pC2 dev. I can definitely see where he comes wrt that statement - massively powerful TT V6 paired to an amazing gearbox. It definitely needs aero though, and with a shorter final drive you can keep up with the midpack of GT3 with 1/7 aero. Remove those and fine tune the setup, and you can definitely challenge the M3 GT2 and SLS AMG GT3.

 

I've decided that I will be content at 1:44.016 for a few weeks LOL. Fallen in love with the C7.R and I've done pretty well in MP with it (when I'm not getting rammed) so it will most likely be my car of choice. My preferred line in the bus stop is heavy braking right after the 3rd brake board, cutting the right side curb as much as possible to maintain a tight line through the left curb and out of the bus stop, then feathering the throttle to get it tight around the long right hand corner. Ideal speed is 170 kph in 4th, though I can do 175 in 3rd and have an easier time keeping it tight. Only issue is that out of the bus stop, shifting down to 3rd really upsets the rear end at 0/1 aero.

 

Need to try a new launch method with the C7.R though. My tried and true handbrake method doesnt work on tracks with any kind of elevation change so now I'm using my left foot to hold down both clutch and brake. The torque gives it amazing grip, enough to easily drive around people in front, but you have to remember to shift early or else the power drops off. Believe it or not, the ATS-V.R launches even faster so keeping an eye on that rear display is crucial.

 

v this is an unassisted release (car is held only by the brake, no throttle applied until green)

 

 

Yep, I've shortened the final drive for better acceleration on all tracks (there's only a few where you barely run out of gear, and usually it's when in a draft). Right now I have the Caddy set to 0/6 aero for just a little more straight speed. That combined with my mechanical grip suspension tweaks seems to work well. 

 

The bus stop at the Glen is one of those corners like turn one at Brands, that just evade me and that I find difficult to be fast/consistent. My previous strategy with the bus stop used to be to brake a little early and drop down to 3rd so as to be better able to hold tight to the left side - cutting the right then left curbs on entry. Then getting back on the throttle as soon as possible - feathering as needed, and once I can see the exit and I know the car will hold, I go to full throttle and up to 4th. Usually I hold 4th through the next corner, not giving full throttle until I know the car will hold and follow through. 

 

I have since taken up the strategy of braking later and only dropping to 4th gear for the bus stop in the hopes of carrying more speed, but I find that ends up hurting my exit speed as the car ends up pushing too much on exit. Perhaps I'll try again with my original technique and see if it's any faster. I know it's slower on entry, but the faster/cleaner exit might be more rewarding for the overall lap time.  

 

As for launching techniques, I found that slipping the clutch works quite well, but it can be tricky to get just right. Are you using auto clutch? That's the only way you'd be able to hold the brake and not the clutch with the car in gear. I hold full throttle and then slip the clutch so as to not spin the tires, then just let it rip. 

[chaozbandit]

1 hour ago, MEC-777 said:

Yep, I've shortened the final drive for better acceleration on all tracks (there's only a few where you barely run out of gear, and usually it's when in a draft). Right now I have the Caddy set to 0/6 aero for just a little more straight speed. That combined with my mechanical grip suspension tweaks seems to work well. 

 

The bus stop at the Glen is one of those corners like turn one at Brands, that just evade me and that I find difficult to be fast/consistent. My previous strategy with the bus stop used to be to brake a little early and drop down to 3rd so as to be better able to hold tight to the left side - cutting the right then left curbs on entry. Then getting back on the throttle as soon as possible - feathering as needed, and once I can see the exit and I know the car will hold, I go to full throttle and up to 4th. Usually I hold 4th through the next corner, not giving full throttle until I know the car will hold and follow through. 

 

I have since taken up the strategy of braking later and only dropping to 4th gear for the bus stop in the hopes of carrying more speed, but I find that ends up hurting my exit speed as the car ends up pushing too much on exit. Perhaps I'll try again with my original technique and see if it's any faster. I know it's slower on entry, but the faster/cleaner exit might be more rewarding for the overall lap time.  

 

As for launching techniques, I found that slipping the clutch works quite well, but it can be tricky to get just right. Are you using auto clutch? That's the only way you'd be able to hold the brake and not the clutch with the car in gear. I hold full throttle and then slip the clutch so as to not spin the tires, then just let it rip. 

 

Auto clutch for just the start, turn it off once I get rolling since the cars shift faster with it off. Just gotta be on the clutch when you spin and have a button mapped to engine start.

[chaozbandit]

In case you're ever wondering why Im on pCars so much lately, it's because I'm grabbing photos from the past season of racing.

 

ANOTHER MASSIVE GALLERY

[MEC-777]

2 hours ago, chaozbandit said:

 

Auto clutch for just the start, turn it off once I get rolling since the cars shift faster with it off. Just gotta be on the clutch when you spin and have a button mapped to engine start.

Ah, I didn't know you could turn auto clutch on/off on the fly. I think I'd still prefer full control at all times though.  And yeah, I definitely have the start button mapped.  

[chaozbandit]

13 minutes ago, MEC-777 said:

Ah, I didn't know you could turn auto clutch on/off on the fly. I think I'd still prefer full control at all times though.  And yeah, I definitely have the start button mapped.  

Yeah, you can pretty much map everything in game to a button box. All your assists, auto clutch, ARBs, brake balance, etc. 

 

Just wish you could change your aero settings in the pits though.

[MEC-777]

20 minutes ago, chaozbandit said:

Yeah, you can pretty much map everything in game to a button box. All your assists, auto clutch, ARBs, brake balance, etc. 

 

Just wish you could change your aero settings in the pits though.

I wish you didn't have to exit out of TT to make adjustments to the car. Why they didn't allow that, I don't know...

[MEC-777]

PCars crashed/froze on my twice last night. The image freezes but I can still hear the game running. Controls go unresponsive. If I wait for about a minute, it jumps out of the game (can still hear it though) and gives a "pure virtual call trapped" error message. After a quick search, I found this is and has been a very common problem with PCars that hasn't yet been fixed and mostly only happens when playing MP or specific career mode races (endurance). 

 

Anyone else getting this crash? I can go weeks without this game crashing once and then, boom, 2-3 times in one sitting. I don't get it. 

 

 

[chaozbandit]

12 minutes ago, MEC-777 said:

PCars crashed/froze on my twice last night. The image freezes but I can still hear the game running. Controls go unresponsive. If I wait for about a minute, it jumps out of the game (can still hear it though) and gives a "pure virtual call trapped" error message. After a quick search, I found this is and has been a very common problem with PCars that hasn't yet been fixed and mostly only happens when playing MP or specific career mode races (endurance). 

 

Anyone else getting this crash? I can go weeks without this game crashing once and then, boom, 2-3 times in one sitting. I don't get it. 

 

 

Havent seen that behaviour with my game recently, though when watching long replays the game does start to hang. Could be unrelated though.

[bcredeur97]

28 minutes ago, MEC-777 said:

PCars crashed/froze on my twice last night. The image freezes but I can still hear the game running. Controls go unresponsive. If I wait for about a minute, it jumps out of the game (can still hear it though) and gives a "pure virtual call trapped" error message. After a quick search, I found this is and has been a very common problem with PCars that hasn't yet been fixed and mostly only happens when playing MP or specific career mode races (endurance). 

 

Anyone else getting this crash? I can go weeks without this game crashing once and then, boom, 2-3 times in one sitting. I don't get it. 

 

 

I've gotten that a couple of times. it's only occasional though and usually not during a race.

[MEC-777]

7 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

I've gotten that a couple of times. it's only occasional though and usually not during a race.

I rarely ever have issues with the game. Luckily I wasn't racing when it happened. Was just MP open lapping of Nord. 

 

Now that I think about it; when I do get this crash/error, it happens most often only at Nord. Something about that track... Maybe a memory leak or something? I don't know.

[chaozbandit]

1 minute ago, MEC-777 said:

I rarely ever have issues with the game. Luckily I wasn't racing when it happened. Was just MP open lapping of Nord. 

 

Now that I think about it; when I do get this crash/error, it happens most often only at Nord. Something about that track... Maybe a memory leak or something? I don't know.

Given the size of the map and the amount of textures stored, it's possible. Definitely worth looking into before the combined track comes out I guess. Are you still running 8GB?

[MEC-777]

25 minutes ago, chaozbandit said:

Given the size of the map and the amount of textures stored, it's possible. Definitely worth looking into before the combined track comes out I guess. Are you still running 8GB?

Yep, 8GB. I usually don't monitor CPU/ram usage while gaming because it's never really been a problem before. Will try it tonight and see if maybe I'm just simply running out of ram... Good thing I have an extra 8GB of AData XPG 1600 I can yank from another build for the time being. Ram is actually pretty cheap right now though, even for Canadian prices. Had the same crash/error on this track when I had the R9 290's, so I know it's most likely not a GPU/driver problem.

[chaozbandit]

Nick should just never comment on PC hardware ever again because hes not as knowledgeable as his fan base makes him out to be - why NCIX Quebec sponsored him I dont know, but oh well.

 

At first glance the PC version definitely looks better. Excited to try it with a wheel, just hope theres a crossfire profile for it at launch.

 

 

 

 

[MEC-777]

^Reminds me of NFS underground 2. Played the heck out of that game back in the day. I remember actually getting stuck in that game, not being able to progress because I didn't "bling" my car out enough - even though I modded the engine and all that as much as possible. It was then I decided this is not my type of game. lol  

 

One game this also reminds me of that was a lot of fun in it's day was Test Drive Unlimited which was the entire map of one of the islands of Hawaii. The cars were well modeled, the car sounds were well done and the physics were decent. Used to try and see how quickly we could travel all the way around the island, but traffic made it pretty hard sometimes. Kinda makes me want to install and play it again...

[chaozbandit]

I'm really liking these photos.

 

[chaozbandit]

Top tip: if you ever go through Eau Rouge like this, you're going to have a bad time.

 

[bcredeur97]

with autocross next week. What game should I be playing and what track? lol

 

I need an autocross simulator lol

[chaozbandit]

1 minute ago, bcredeur97 said:

with autocross next week. What game should I be playing and what track? lol

 

I need an autocross simulator lol

Something tight and technical maybe. Either download some hill climb tracks for assetto corsa or just do a couple stages in dirt rally / rallycross.

[MEC-777]

3 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

with autocross next week. What game should I be playing and what track? lol

 

I need an autocross simulator lol

Do that short track at Silverstone (can't remember what it's called) in PCars.  

[chaozbandit]

Welp this pretty much confirms it. Combined track layout + Mercedes AMG GT3 is March's free car. The curve of the door and the door handle pretty much give it away.

 

 

 

[chaozbandit]

Oh boy, EA's servers are definitely taking quite a hit right now because preloads just opened up. 11GB install, 13GB when on disk. Playable March 15 with wheel support.

 

But GG this is painfully slow considering my network is 40/40 and the nodes shouldnt be getting hit that badly since it is friday and quite a few of the university kids have gone home.

[MEC-777]

24 minutes ago, chaozbandit said:

Oh boy, EA's servers are definitely taking quite a hit right now because preloads just opened up. 11GB install, 13GB when on disk. Playable March 15 with wheel support.

 

But GG this is painfully slow considering my network is 40/40 and the nodes shouldnt be getting hit that badly since it is friday and quite a few of the university kids have gone home.

 

Let us know how it is. You're gonna play this for a while, then come back to PCars/AC and massively blow the first corner wondering why it won't turn while going a billion mph. lol

 

The reminds me of a funny story from back in the Gran Turismo 4 days on the PS2. Friend of mine asked me to help him setup his Dodge Viper. He said he fully modified it but was still struggling with the car. I take the controller and hammer the gas. Thing blasts down the straight (forget which track) and I then hit the brakes at the appropriate point, pretty much nothing happens. Car careens off into the wall. "Didn't you upgrade the brakes?" I asked him, to which he replied, "Why would I do that? Doesn't make the car go faster."  *faceplam*