Is it possible to drive faster lap times with "Throttle Cut on upshift" and "Throttle Blip on downshift" switched off? I have it turned on since i first played this game.
Or does this setting not affect your laptime?
I want to know because I would have to learn to drive again, if better times are possible with these settings switched off.
There are cases where it seems to help, for example in fxo gtr, it helps with eliminating the turbo's lag. But it kills the motor in a few laps there too.
I see a lot of people flatshifting (i.e. not stepping off the accelerator while changing gears) but as ysu said, you'll have to be damn fast with the clutch if you don't want to over-rev the engine (in case the car doesn't have a rev-limiter).
What it does is add some extra boost when you stepp off the clutch pedal because of the engine's high rpm.
What it also does in real life (apart from being dangerous for the engine) is damage the gearbox. I don't think it will do so in LFS but imho, for the sake of realism, you shouldn't flatshift all the time.
Now, the "throttle blip on downshift":
It prevents the engine from adding extra brake force when you're braking hard and shifting down. If you just throw the gears in and let go of the clutch, your wheels will most likely lock at some point and you'll get understeer or start fishtailing, depending on whether your car is FWD or RWD.
So you don't wanna turn this off unless you're keen on heel-toe shifting (which can actually be fun once you get used to it ).
Can you really see that? Actually I've been puzzled about that a long time already. When I watch replays of my own it looks as if I was flat-shifting too, but I don't. When watching others in spectating mode, it seems sort of arbitrary if the revs go max or not when shifting. I can't believe that this is how people really drive...
As for the throttle cut on up-shift: To my experience it does make a difference (at least for XFG). You can do the throttle cut manually, but far less intensive than the automatic does. Just have a look at the speed vs distance diagram in the performance analyser to see the significant difference when accelerating on a long straight line...
Flatshifting is noticeably faster and currently the level of damage it does to the engine in LFS is so minimal it does not matter. So lots of people have throttle cut set off and they flatshift all the time.
You are definitely faster without Gear change cut option. But depending on car you have to do it manually. The GTRs have so fast gearchanges and rev limiter you dont need to cut (except for FXR maybe - engine gets damaged so easily ), but with the road cars you have to get off the throttle while shifting.
Well...just try disabling it and see what happens .
Anyway..see....you approach a corner. Your engine is running at 7000rpm. You lift your right foot off the accelerator and hit the brake pedal. You slow down and after a split second, your engine will be running at a mere 4000rpm. You hit the clutch with your left foot. You shift down from 5th to 4th gear. In the meantime, engine speed has decreased to 3000rpm. You lift your foot off the clutch pedal.
Suppose you let go of the brakes at the same timet, what happens? The clutch is engaged and your engine will be revved up to about 7000 again as the engine speed is matched to the speed at which the engine-side shaft of your gearbox rotates. This requires energy, which will be taken from your car's momentum, as there is no fuel coming in to create it. In other words, the engine will resist and thus slow you down. And whenever you slow down, there'll be a force acting on your wheels.
Now when you brake and motor-brake at the same time, this "motor-brake force" adds to the force created by the brakes - but of course only at the drive wheels, which means you are likely to make your drive wheels lock while your other pair of wheels continues to spin.
For the brake force to remain constant when braking and downshifting at the same time (which you probably do every time you brake in LFS) you'll have to match your engine speed to the speed of the engine-side shaft of your gearbox before you let go of the clutch pedal.
That's why you have the "throttle blip on downshift" option - irl, drivers do this by stepping on the brake with the toes of their right foot and hitting the gas with its heel at the same time. Hence the name "heel-toeing"..
Well...I hope I didn't create more confusion than there already was and instead answered your question.
I've been racing without the upshift cut for a long time. I still do it because
i do it in any real car anyways so it's natural. I have never been able to
actually flatshift though since the engine over-revs way before and i get
engine damage in no time. I wouldn't flatshift any real car, or at least not
a car i have to pay for the repairs...
What i usually do is start accelerating a split-second before releasing the
shift button (auto-clutch). It gives a very small advantage at each shift,
but only because you start accelerating a tiny bit sooner. With auto-cut,
the engine seems to bog down a bit when you upshift anyways, like an
automatic transmission on sport mode.
I actually started messing with this because every freaking dragger i met beat
me on the shifts and i could HEAR their engines revving in between gears...
In a drag race, it's all in the start and the shifts. Even with a perfect start,
you can lose to someone with better shifting. Even with a perfect start, i
was losing 1/4-1/2 car lenght every shift. That's when i realised something
was up. Short of reducing the clutch's release speed, auto-cut is a
disadvantage.
It's hard to judge other's actions from the bars in the lower right bottom since
they are so jumpy. The engine sound raising in between gears is the only sure
way to confirm if someone is doing it from my experience.
Even if your not flatshifting your better off turning throttle cut off and lifting the throttle on upshifts yourself. It's not hard to learn and once your good at it I'm pretty sure it is faster.
Throttle blip is a bit different, most people will probably want to leave this on unless you left foot brake and can blip the throttle yourself while downshifting. Similarly if you know how to heel-toe.
I flatshift in those cars that will allow it in LFS, I don't see much reason not to, those that will suffer from engine damage I manually lift on upshift.
I switched off the "Throttle Cut on Upshift" and yes, it's really faster. I don't lose 2-3 car length from start to turn one and my laptimes went down 1 sec. (AS Classic on XFR) But I don't know if this comes from this setting or I'm getting better...
).
), but with the road cars you have to get off the throttle while shifting.