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Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
The best cooler would be the Scythe Ninja, which is also not that expensive.. You should indeed overclock, but do make sure to read some guides as there are a few things to keep an eye out for.

The stock speed is 2ghz for the 3200+ but they really all do 2.4 very easily. With some luck you'll get 2.6, though at that point its probably a case of 'diminishing returns' where you really have to increase voltage / heat for a few mhz that won't be noticable in practise anyway..

Overclocking AMD64 systems is fairly easy, you'll find some guides on Google np..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Not sure but I think this hasn't been posted yet.. Don't watch if you're anti tyre raping..

http://video.google.fr/videopl ... 3994200223&q=rigollet

Old turbo Sierra RWD doing rally.. on board, TV cam etc.. Thats quite a ride!
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
If you run them in a window and windows IS using the right resolution for the monitor, then it will be fine.

Running fullscreen it might not be. Some monitors have an 'aspect' button (mine has) which has a few modes:
1 fill with aspect (i.e. keeps aspect ratio and scales it as big as fits)
2 fullscreen (i.e. full screen: it will not remain aspect
3 native mode (i.e on a 1600x1200 screen, running a game in 800x600 will make it a small centered 1/4th of the area using window

However I haven't seen this button on many screens! Not on a cheapish Samsung 19'' widescreen anyway..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed


16:10, makes an angle of 32.00538 degrees
5:4 makes an angle of 38.65981 degrees

if you go 20'' at a 32 degrees angle you have covered a 'hight' of 10.59 inches (diagonal is 20'', angle is 32 degs, then 20 times the sin of 32 gets you the hight)

20'' 16:10, vertical is 10.59
19" 5:4, vertical is 11.7

I don't know why you'd like to know that though I would look at the pixels and (1680x1050)/(1280x1024) = 1.46! 46% more pixels and 'space' to work! And wide is nice for movies and most new games run fine wide screen.

Oh btw, don't fully trust the rated monitor speed.. 8ms 12ms.. they don't say much. Plus some people have raced on my 30ms rated screen without any issues. One guy said it wasn't visibly worse than his friend's 12ms one.
XRT Blackwood; consistent race laptimes / setup?
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Yo guys,

Being horrendously (sp) slow in LFS, I had a quick go in the XRT at Blackwood simply doing a 'test drive' with the WR setup (23.14 that was). I was struggling to get 26s before but with this setup and about 30 laps I managed to get into the 1:24s with a 1:24.97. Not great but I'm sure I can shave some more time off that arriving in the 'not really slow' 1.5 second off the pace category..

Now I have two 'issues' with this kind of hotlap setup:
1) tyres tend to heat up a bit too much; is that a tyre pressure thing?
2) brakes are 'ABS' as they tend to be too weak to lock the tyres.. What do people use for racing? I really like the idea of being able to lock the tyres as this makes braking more of a challenge. Or do most people use this "ABS" feature all the time?
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Boredom?? Once you start to go quickly but still not knowing each dent in the road, like I did when RBR was just out, 6:12 at East-West surely isn't boring
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Well, don't get me wrong.. I don't judge the G25 and I don't think my non ff approach is realistic! Its all a compromise as I said. I prefer a wheel to not tell me anything rather than having a wheel that often tells me the wrong thing.
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
I absolutely don't mind what wheels people use but with the limitations in mind I find it really scary when people judge a simulations force feedback quality. Some make claims about the FF being good / bad / realisitc...

It is very very easy to proof that most of the time the FF wheel simply can not produce the force or speed the sim tells it to. And when it can, you are not using a realistic amount of steering lock. So you can't really say wether the FF is 'good' or not, plus you are allowing 'unrealism' into the SIM experience which is meant to have no compromises..

I know though, it IS about compromises and wheels are one of them. I prefer not to use force feedback because IF I have a feedback wheel I want it to be giving me the exact or at least +-25% feedback during normal racing / sliding conditions. With current wheels it I know I can't listen to the feedback as I can easily testify that its inadequate and incapable.

I do find it strange, with the above in mind, that people use force feedback wheels as from my purist opinion they are more of a gimmick that just get in the way of objective judgement of a sim. I'm a bit of a strange man though, I realize people like the immersion an FF wheel gives them even though its a compromise. Most of my ramblings are based on some frustration regarding race simulations NOT having structurally improved since 1998. People often don't seem like they care whereas I really want a new revolution in simracing realism. One of the things that will certainly have to go in the bin is the current logitech type FF wheels.

Anyway that explains where I'm coming from.. I've got my pedals sorted with a true force sensitive brake but I don't see a real FF wheel coming soon
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
yeah artic cooling is decent enough, very cheap and generally much much less noisy than standard stuff. Their fans aren't always great but it should be a good step up


Edit: The model for the 9600xt seems to run at a constant fan speed of 1500rpm. For your card thats too much.. If its too loud you can easily undervolt the fan to 5 or 7 volt.. (if you need help don't hessitate to shout)
Last edited by Niels Heusinkveld, .
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
The 9600xt is pretty easy to cool. Any zalman (vf700 / vf900) should be overkill, even with the fan at minimum speed. They should be available. Alternatively you might find a HP80 (zalman) which is passive, also good enough considering the limited heat production of your card..

Zalman is not the king of silent products btw. Engineering wise they are ok but the fans they use are certainly not the best. Of course they are well available and they do a decent job, but they don't lead the pack in any of the silent aspects. With a Seasonic S12 psu you get more silence than Zalman.. With a Scythe Ninja you beat all Zalmans for cpu cooling.. etc etc.

But a 9600xt is easy to cool and unless you really go on a silence frenzy any zalman will do..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
There is a LONG way to go towards proper real realism in sims as far as car handling goes. Compared to the not yet existing really really good sim all of todays efforts are fairly poor.

If iRacing manages to cause a breakthrough comparable to what GPL was in 1998, then I'd have no problem with monthly charges and some restrictions. I'm really hoping it will be this next big evolutionary step..

What have I paid for games and PC hardware in the last 10 years? A few thousand. I pay monthly for phone, rent, water, internet, electricity.. I spend 13.50 on my phone

Besides, NOTHING (really!) has been said about the final pricing / structure of the sim so it is too early to really discuss that..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
If you stick to LFS then you'd say most cars have 720 degrees of lock. I read that a real Porsche 911 (dunno what year) has 1080.. Most road cars seem to have at least 900. I like that LFS actually shows the graphical wheel turning more than a tiny bit (as in most other sims, they don't turn enough!) but I wouldn't say that 'realistic' is to copy the rotation you get in graphically in the sim. I'd more look at what their real life counterparts would use. GPL and N2003 have wheels turn about 320 degrees, where in real life a GPL car might even turn ~600+.. In RBR for instance the graphical wheel turns only about 30 degrees..

The problem with a DFP type wheel is that they have roughly the same gearing (wheel to motor) as a MOMO, hence they have about the same 'top speed' when the motor tries to turn the wheel. Now you go max left to max right, the wheel with more rotation will take a longer time. So MOMO type wheels with say 240 degs of lock go lock to lock 3.75 times quicker than a DFP at 900 degrees..

From various videos, even 'road cars', it is obvious that due to caster, once the back steps out, the driver can simply let go of the steering wheel as the front wheels will keep pointed in the direction the car is going. This can be some seriously quick turning of the wheel. If the wheel can't do this quickly enough, this 'driving aid' (well its 'real' but it helps greatly) becomes an obstacle as it doesn't steer quickly enough..

So instead of what you'd do in real life, i.e. let the wheel slide through your hands, ready to grip it and adjust it slightly, you'd have to try and force the opposite lock. You then encouter a good amount of resistance as you try to spin the motor at a few 1000rpm faster than it can.

The gearing from wheel to motor is about 1:40 .. so for each rotation of the wheel the motor turns 40. The max speed of the motor is ~2400rpm, although that is hard to say with a load on it, might be quite a bit less. In 'free air' its probably faster than 2400. Logitech use 40:1 gearing because that also increases wheel force by 40 times so they don't need a big motor to develop big forces. They don't care about speed..

If you steer very quickly you can certainly reach a speed (not constant but a quick 180 degree correction, keeping your hands on the wheel) of about 3 or 4 revolutions per second. that is 240 per minute. Times 40 is 9600RPM on the FF motor! The motor does NOT like this and that is the resistance you feel trying to steer fast with a current day FF wheel.*

So realism would be letting go of the wheel as it automatically applies opposite lock. With a DFP at 720 or 900 degrees, especially with 'snappy cars' like the lx6, you can TOTALLY not get force feedback the way it would be in real life. The wheel can't keep up.. You end up doing the opposite of what is realistic: you try to force the wheel where it should go by itself! Of course opposite lock / powersliding is far more than just letting go of the steeringwheel but its a good example to point out where big rotation big gearing wheels like the DFP are so bad.

In 240 degrees mode the problem is less but then again it is unrealistic to keep your hands on the wheel wich such a small amount of lock..

*SHould be better with the G25..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Hey MaKaKaZo,

I kind of agree, although going back to S1 shows its not quite as good as S2. Things have been added, parameters have improved but the fundamentals tyre physics seem relatively the same.

I'm also a casual player, rarely online and always in doubt about LFS. In one way its VERY good but I'd say some things really need improvements.. But I wouldn't want to miss the odd hour of fun in the LX cars on the FZ50..

So I'd really get the license for the cool cars, even though you might not have time for serious leagues, and / or you will sometimes disagree with the physics..

It is still a great blast.
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Dave, that is true with N200x but not so with GPL which reacts immediatly
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Its all a matter of tradeoffs for sure. I have a homemade non FF wheel which turns as fast as I can manage myself. I can just about use 720 although it needs some practise as right now the wheel has no return spring at all. I did have a DFP and compared to that, I much prefer the non FF 720degrees to the DFP's but that won't surprise you considering my anti DFP / regular FF wheel ramblings..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Yeah I don't hessitate to mention my DFP dislikings whenever an opportunity arises.. For me though its a bit like playing NFS Underground: it might be fun but has no place in simracing.. Anyway .. nuff said..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
<== My recent visit to München Germany.. I like the size of their beers..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Using a DFP at 900 degrees mode and thinking it is a good wheel scares me! Its great at 900 degrees celcius though; most of it will have melted by then..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Its a slippery slope though. I would say LFS is a bit too easy over the limit at the current state of physics, so it might very well be drivable with a DFP at 720 or 900 degrees. I think its wrong however if you call it realistic with LFS *trying* to turn the wheel FAST which the wheel can't do coz of its poor mechanics...

You see I'd say realism is only when the wheel can turn approximately as fast as the sim wants it to. Wether or not it is drivable with 'too slow' wheels like the DFP is not the issue! I wouldn't call it more realistic in that case.. LFS is just fairly easy to catch slide after slide..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Also, I would limit the car setup steering lock to a LOT less. Setting it to 15 degrees still makes all hairpins easy but steering far less sensitive.. that way you can have it linear and nicely responsive, plus you can't go too wild or you won't have enough lock to catch the problem. Good way to teach smooth driving!
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Its a bit of a tough one at the moment. Using 270 degrees is obviously unrealistic for road cars. There is no way a real caterham or normal road car would get 36 degrees of wheel lock to one side with 135 degrees of steering wheel lock. In LFS they graphically do 720. Even a real caterham could well use more and it seems that 900 is about the minimum for more normal road cars from my admittedly limited experience.

Now there are loads of videos that show that in real life, with most car geometries (caster angle etc) the front wheels will automatically want to go in the direction the car is moving, even if the car's back end steps out. So this will often apply opposite lock for you! Now with a DFP at 900 degrees setting, it WILL do this.. but at about 1/10th the speed you might witness in a real car.. Hence its way too slow and you'd have to try and force this, making the wheel scream like a pig.. This would be unrealistic and unrealistically hard.. Now with the wheel at say 270 degrees, the realism is overshot the other way. It becomes easy (hands on at all time) and a LOT faster to steer.

So the faster the FF wheel is (and the less it resists manual steering) the more lock you can use while it still is realistic. With a DFP the best lock setting is in a 10cm thick walled safe with a combination nobody knows.. I wish I could try the G25 soon, it should be a lot nicer..

I don't use force feedback which is also a compromise, as I have to do all the steering manually which at a real 720 or 900 degrees would make drifting nearly impossible..

Sofar its all compromised by the actual wheel hardware.
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
With the DFP its internal drag/resistance made 900 degrees useless. The G25 is easier and faster to turn making it better. I haven't tried but it seems you can use a reasonable amount like 720 degrees..

With a GOOD FF wheel (which doesn't exist yet) of coures you'd have to use exactly the wheel rotation adopted by the real car! Makes it more difficult? Even so, its how the real thing is..

Until then though, poor FF makes it a compromise but the G25 is the best yet..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
The weak points of PC speakers are often:
- trebble (as no separate tweeters are used, one 'big' cone tries to do high frequencies and always kinda bundles / screams; even the Logitech 5500s sound like crap because of that imo)

- bass.. They think 'more is better' so most of the time the bass is relatively too loud..

Soundcards are ok enough really, the performance I get from my sblive over GOOD speakers far exeeds what you can do with any uber soundcard and speakers that @#$ things up above 5khz..

On board sound might have relatively much noise but today the onboard chips might even suffice..

Anyway I would much rather get two nice monitors that have a nice frequency response even though they won't go VERY low.. M-audio sells some nice monitors for decent prices.. Or if you're into building your own there are loads of cheap and very nice sounding speaker kits you can buy and build!

Stuff like cables etc is mostly irrelevant; nothing about an audio signal (lowish voltage / wattage / low frequency) demands anything special from a cable. Often people will disagree but in blind tests differences are small.. IF at all they can be constantly heard. Nothing wrong with copper!

A set of logitechs are nice if you want things to be in your face and loud. Actual quality and clarity / smoothness is not to be found imo though..
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Casual Enjoyment mostly. I really like the odd hour of LFS but I would say there are still a good few improvements needed before it really is realistic enough to play it for 'uber realism'. Everytime I do that I end up frustrated so I have the most fun in 'casual enjoyment mode', where I look at the good bits and not at the things that need improvement.
Niels Heusinkveld
S2 licensed
Everbody should do what they like but when 'drifting is faster than racing' thoughts come up it does become a bit scary!

Races are probably at least 30 minutes long. A BIG part of having the car go fast is provide it with sticky tyres: the softer the compound the most likely they will grip more and go faster, unless they overheat that is. Racing is about trying to get the most out of the tyres for as long as the race lasts.

That is the problem with drifting, even if it might be pretty fast for one or two laps, things overheat, especially if you'd fit grippy soft tyres, and after 2 laps, laptimes will get worse and worse. Drifting is not something that you can sustain any sort of speed with. You might drift for 30 minutes on hard tyres but they will provide less grip wich you wouldn't fit if the objective was to go as fast as possible.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG