Quote from geeman1 :

Well, don't race without ABS then?

I'm not complaining, I don't care if I use ABS or not. But as has already been demonstrated, there are a lot of purists out there.

Quote from Shadowww :

At what exact time ABS kicked in? (orange tyres in F9)

Exactly where Android said they would - during the entry phase, while trail braking. It's always optimal to brake "under" the ABS in a straight line, but once you start turning you can apply a ton more brake pressure than you could normally because the inside tires won't light up. Frankly, those racing online without ABS will get destroyed.

I really like the new dashes and the customization. Also, ABS works very realistically, and I noticed that it is indeed faster to stop by trying not to engage it.

Thanks devs! Good update.

Quote from JJ72 :

Nice paintjob. but 944 ruined it

Uh oh!

Very nice pics jibber, that Toyota pic looks amazing.

Quote from AndroidXP :

While matching laptimes are ultimately the final result of accurate physics, they are completely useless in judging the accuracy. Comparing them might be objective, but you may as well not bother at all.

Well, if a car is doing a lap 10 seconds faster than it can do in real life, I'd say there's something pretty wrong with the simulation! Either with the length of the track or the car's grip levels or power. It's not the be-all-end-all of an accurate simulation, just another yardstick with which to measure.

Quote from Franky.S :

I put auto clutch on because i always stall.

I think i stall when i pull away, when i stop and when i spin. Any tips how to stop it?

In a spin, clutch in! The motor has to be disconnected from the wheels when the wheels aren't moving, such as in a spin, or coming to a stop. Otherwise it stalls because it can't move!

Out of curiosity, have you driven a real stick shift car before? I was in the same boat - when I was 16, when I drove my first manual car, I thought I knew how it worked because I'd seen my dad do it all my life - putting the clutch in and changing gear. Easy! But the first thing I did, was try to start the car without the clutch in. Okay, try again, clutch in, start the car, great! I don't remember dad ever doing that. Then I let the clutch out because I still didn't get it. Stalled the car, dad explained, okay, got it. Try again, kept the clutch in, everything running, and then I tried to set off. I used the clutch like a light switch and I did a rather impressive burnout if I do say so! Well, at least we were moving now. I drove up the road a ways in 1st gear, and now I started coming to a stop. Guess what I didn't do? Put the clutch in. Stalled again. Dad suggested that he park the car and I didn't drive a manual for another 2 years or so. Last year I learned properly with the aid of Skip Barber at Laguna Seca. They had me heel and toeing within a few minutes, and only stalled a couple of times over two days. Good school, that.

Last edited by MadCat360, Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:55.

Lap time and stats are really the only objective tests. No objective tests (for simulators) will ever come out of the mouth of a human - every human sees the world differently and thus has a different take on reality.

As long as we are not able to simulate, in real time, all of the intricacies of suspension, tire movement, drivetrain, engine and all the rest, we will not achieve an accurate simulation. Even then, things may be tweaked and adapted to fit the vision of some designer and will most likely not be accurate in every respect. As it is, simulators are mere approximations. Most people, including myself, won't realize exactly how inaccurate they are until the next generation of simulators arrives. Much like graphics. Doom 3 used to look real to me a few years ago, now it looks so very old. Grand Turismo 1 was a very realistic simulator for it's time, but now we have iRacing and LFS.

In 10 year's time, we will look back and realize how unrealistic LFS and iRacing are/were.

If he's lapping you, you should give room. Nothing is written in stone about it really, but the more aware and polite you are, the better off everyone will be. If I've got a big string of cars behind and I'm way in the back having wrecked or whatever, I'll just pull into the pits and let them all by.

By the same token, if you're involved in a battle for position, the leader/lapper needs to recognize that and pass in a spot that won't hurt anyone's race.

Wow! This title totally snuck up on me - it's fantastic! I was playing it for a few hours with a buddy today, and that is seriously more fun co-op than Halo and Left 4 Dead. I was a bit skeptical about a quarter million guns... but it's done really well! There's enough variation in the guns that they all feel unique. Collecting new guns is strangely addicting and fun. Nothing beats the first time you find a really powerful shotgun and blast a Skag (split-face dog thing) to smitherines in one shot. There's tons of enemy types, too, and that keeps firefights frantic as you try to counter every tactic being thrown at you.

You definitely need to bring a friend to get the most out of this game though. Single player doesn't have the same zest. Still fun with one person though. I would imagine 4-player co-op to be an absolute blast, judging by how much fun 2-player was.

It's really nice to finally play something good, without all the hype bringing things down. This game is pretty much a summary of the last decade in gaming: it's got WoW talent trees, it's got Call of Duty-solid gunplay, it's got Fallout 3's open world (though not quite that open, though I'm only in the first area still), it's got leveling, it's got the 4-player co-op, it's got the immersion factor, it's just got everything (except a really robust deathmatch multiplayer).

Last edited by MadCat360, Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:15.

Unlucky, but skilled as all get out for kicking into high gear to GTFO!

Yeah the AI traffic flipped and bounced pretty realistically in TDU, but not a whole lot of deformation from what I remember. Bumpers and truck cargo coming off was cool, and lots of sparks.

Burnout easily has the best deforming and crashes, though much of the physics are canned. And the riders on the bikes disappear if you crash! Sucky. I want flailing ragdoll, lol.

Grid's and Dirt 2's damage is really good, but the rollovers are weird.

Probably best all around is Flatout. The demo for the latest one on the Xbox was awesome... just the sheer amount of stuff flying around is sweet. And no canned physics, but still natural looking flipping and rollovers.

Quote from DeKo :

I geniunelly think that having played LFS for a couple of years before i passed my driving test saved me a couple of times when i just passed. for example, going a little bit too quickly on a wet motorway and having a moment, i instnctively knew how to catch it, which if i had never played any sims before i wouldnt have a clue.

You had a moment on your driving test and they passed you? Or did you just mean in general?

Hell, out here in California, they'll fail you if an old lady falls over as you drive by.

Fifth Gear had it's own charm. Too bad.

Quote from Dajmin :

That's what I'd be worried about. It tracks all of your played games, so it must have the first date a game was played somewhere.

Even if it did, you could just pull the Ethernet cable, and then set the date and time to some post-release date. Any logging would be done with that date. The Xbox doesn't have an atomic clock.

But the dude Tweeted that it's all good, so it's all good.

Example one: if you're stuck behind a car and you've got a run, but you will catch them before they "open up", just rub the brake a tiny little bit. Lifting will kill your engine momentum. Even if you half-lift, you'll lose your run. So rub the brake and stay full throttle. You'll maintain your closeness without sacrificing your run.

Example two: leave enough room for him to stay on the asphalt. He's gonna need to come back on there eventually, and pinching that exit doesn't seem to bind the car up in most cases. Even so, coming out of a corner, the outside car is going to win down the next straight. Radius = speed. If he doesn't leave you enough room at the apex there's nothing you can really do.

Quote from franky500 :

heres a question then... The driver in that clip was already in the right hand lane... why did he move into the left hand lane just as he was coming upto the on ramp where traffic would have to merge into his lane... Crappy driver i say.

Exactly. It's only a hazard because the camera driver is being a dunce (for science!).

Quote from Bose321 :

They're freaking stupid. A shooter on a console, lawl.

The console version of COD4 seemed more refined, and played better IMO. I played COD 1 and 2 on PC - those were much better on PC. I'll probably get mine on the console. A lot of shooters these days are designed to be played on the console. There's plenty of shooters I'd never play on a console, either - UT, for instance, and Quake 4 was better on PC, and all of the Source games played better on the PC.

Really awesome driving from Kozlinski. Once it got wet he just came alive. Beautiful rain lines.

I race karts. Moving to cars next year, hopefully.

The danger with using a driver to help develop a game is that drivers usually have different driving styles and setups, and that's going to mean he gets a different feel, and thus a different opinion on what feels "right". Usually drivers don't really know the details about how the car does what it does - they just feel it and use it. It's probably best if sims consult with engineers more than drivers. Engineers know everything about their cars, except what they feel like to drive (most of the time). So it's good to have feedback from both (probably more so from the engineer).

Quote from jnr89 :

well, i can understand a lot of stuff of "real" skills after doing them on "virtual" skills, thats why i say the only diference is the heat, the g´s forces, the wind, and if you crash: the pain, the money, the gas you use lol...

but talking about reactions or reflexes, the understanding of the concepts "APEX", "braking points", "racing line" is something that virtual skills can help you to improve in that aspect..


i saw a professional driver testing GT4 back there when it was released, and he said "this kind of games can help you to study track courses", so i think there are some advantages of playing sims

See this thread.

Stuff like line and apex points are pretty much instinctual after about a year or so. Sims are really only helpful from a driving standpoint for newbies (they helped me quite a bit in racing school).

As far as track learning goes, yeah they can help, but in reality the amount of laps that it will save you is probably minimal. Still, it's better than nothing and they don't cost very much - even iRacing is dirt cheap compared to track time, so you might as well play it.

But from my experience, real racing experience can help a little bit in the virtual world, but things differ enough that a really good racer in real life won't necessarily be a really good racer in a game, and vice versa.

Quote from Shotglass :

obviously if you do something from an early age your brain will get much more adapted to dealing with whatever is nescessary to do it successfully
by the same logic skipping karts entirely and going into cars with proper suspensions and all that other rubbish right away (at the same early age) would make a better driver than one who started with pedal karts

Well, for one, you can't do that - I know of no country that lets pre-teens drive race cars (even a few states in the US go so far as to ban anyone under 18 from driving race cars, it causes problems in Indy Lights and Star Mzda, etc).

And two, lots of people are recommending to me that I don't start racing GT cars right off the bat - I should get experience in Formula cars first. The reasoning being, a Formula car driver can drive anything (and numerous examples of F1 and IndyCar drivers moving to tin tops proves that), but someone whose raced tin tops all his life will not find it an easy transition to go to Formula cars. Obviously it's not a hard and fast rule, but as a general idea it seems to hold. So on that basis, since karts are so twitchy and hard to control on the limit, it's good training for any kind of driving, suspension or no. There's also some evidence that motocross racers have something extra in the car control toolbox, as well. Probably something to do with balance.

But, in my own experience, having a breadth of knowledge and experience helps, period. Driving road cars offered revelations about karting, and driving karts offered revelations about road cars. I'm sure getting some Formula (F2000 or F3) experience will have similar results. It's probably in my, and every other young driver's best interest to drive everything you can.

Sims probably fit in there somewhere, too.

This video makes me want an Elise.

I can get a used one for 25 grand... hmmm.

Quote from The Very End :

That's really simply. The bump in the head comes from the impact with the ground, but the train simply just drove above the kid that were lying between the rails. The rails are pretty high, but not high enough to cover the baby's hight, but the trains often has high ground clearance aswell.

If you lie down between the rails, you would at most cases be unhurt, the train simply goes above 'ya

Actually there's room for 2 under there!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I agree with you there, but I'm wondering how long it will take Intrepid to make a post explaining how karting is the most important thing in the world.

The tragedy about karting is that so many people tell karters when they step into cars "forget everything you learned in karting". Big mistake! They end up being slow and cautious, forgetting the basic principles of tire grip and brake control that they learned in karts. When I first went to Skip Barber, to do a high performance driving school, they embraced my karting experience and helped me learn the not-so-great differences between a car and a kart, and I was instantly fast in road cars. I'm sure that experience will benefit me greatly again when I go back for a 3-day Formula school.

Karting is important, but not essential. I think every driver should get karting experience. It's not necessary to be the best karter ever, or even in your series - it's about perspective, and learning to use a specific item of the car in the way it is intended. It is a pure form of learning. You don't learn how to walk, then how to crawl.

Besides, you can start karting as early as you want, but you generally can't start racing cars until you're 14 or 15. That's a big head start if you start karting at 8!

This is awesome, just in time for my Fanatec! I'll definitely be subbing when it gets here. Participation rewards are an awesome idea. Attendance will go through the roof I'm sure.