Quote from thisnameistaken :

First up: Is everybody driving the "Rookie" Solstice at Lime Rock? And if so, are you changing the setup at all? I can't get better than a 1:06.9 around there and the guys in my race last night were doing 1:04s. Is the "Other" Solstice a different car or do I just suck at this?

Keep practicing I guess. I was able to run 1:05.6 on my 2nd clean lap - my first 10 were all off track With a few more practice sessions I could run low-mid 1:04's but I was still a little out of control. Now I'm much more controlled and can run 1:04's nearly every lap with an occasional 1:03.8x.

If you're running 1:06's your probably not pushing it hard enough. Make sure your using the concrete patches since they provide more grip.

Phew, been racing for 10hours... my legs demand a rest :S

I've just tried qualifying in the Solstice, got it into the 6s and can see where the time can be made up, beginning to like the challenge of driving it on the limit a bit more though. What is really annoying me is that the brakes (when they're not jammed on) are ridiculously strong and I'm using the 911 wheel pedals which have short travel, I'm routinely struggling not to lock up at the end of the straight and can't see anyway to reduce there strength.

OK 2 things.

1) my pc, at 4/5 years old, and was mid/low at purchase is not going to cut it..getting about 12/15 fps. However during a race I had no drop and only occasional slow down.

2) I'm really slow.......Nuts

In iracing the brakes are at full realistic strength, so 100% is the max a car can do. For the people with simplistic pedals this kinda sucks, but if you use a loadcell, like I do, it's quite nice actually. You could however edit the brake axis with diview or dxtweak and make 70% your 100%.

Quote from ajp71 :

I've just tried qualifying in the Solstice, got it into the 6s and can see where the time can be made up, beginning to like the challenge of driving it on the limit a bit more though. What is really annoying me is that the brakes (when they're not jammed on) are ridiculously strong and I'm using the 911 wheel pedals which have short travel, I'm routinely struggling not to lock up at the end of the straight and can't see anyway to reduce there strength.

Brakes feel very good to me - if anything a bit too weak I'm using very stiff CST pedals though. I may have to recalibrate them so that I only use something like 85% of the travel - I really have to step on the brakes forcefully to lock them up.

Quote from Technique :

Keep practicing I guess. I was able to run 1:05.6 on my 2nd clean lap - my first 10 were all off track

WTF? I must've done 50 laps and a good lap is 106.7-9. Either my line sucks or I'm braking for corners nobody else is braking for.

Speaking of which: I brake for every corner, except T3 (the right-hand leading to the kinky back straight). Am I being too cautious in the faster corners?

Quote from Technique :

If you're running 1:06's your probably not pushing it hard enough. Make sure your using the concrete patches since they provide more grip.

I'm using all the road, I think my line is OK through 1 and 2 (bleeding off speed on the way round, late apex), 3 I'm getting on the power early, is it just because I take the faster corners in 3rd? Actually, has this car got a 5th gear? Because I've never seen it!

I have a different technique than some people. I've seen many people stay in 4th gear thoughout most of the track but I'm in and out of 3rd and 4th throughout the track.

T1) I stay to the inside and get the outside tire on the concrete patch - full throttle to the exit just touching the curb occasionally.
T3) I suck at - I go fairly slow through the inside so I can get a good line for the next series of turns which are more important.
T4) No braking - full throttle. Outside tire on concrete. It's important to unwind the wheel using the entire track.
T5) I hit 4th gear usually a bit before the bottom of the hill. Heal-toe to 3rd but I just tap the brakes to rotate the car a bit then full throttle up the hill.
T6) I hit 4th a bit before and do the same deal as T5. Downshift to 3rd and just barely tap the brakes.
T7) I hit 4th again before the turn. I don't brake, I just lift slightly, dive to the inside, and get back full throttle. I come as close to the inside curb as possible (hitting it ocassionally!) then of course unwind the wheel to the exit.

Some people stay in 4th gear in turns 5 and 6 and run about the same times.

You really need to 4 wheel drift this car and keep the speeds and momentum high. The last 2 corners you really need to be on the limit to win time on the straight.

Anyhow, on the iracing forums there is someone who made a "guide" for the track. It's in the driving tips section somewhere

Quote from thisnameistaken :

WTF? I must've done 50 laps and a good lap is 106.7-9. Either my line sucks or I'm braking for corners nobody else is braking for.

Speaking of which: I brake for every corner, except T3 (the right-hand leading to the kinky back straight). Am I being too cautious in the faster corners?



I'm using all the road, I think my line is OK through 1 and 2 (bleeding off speed on the way round, late apex), 3 I'm getting on the power early, is it just because I take the faster corners in 3rd? Actually, has this car got a 5th gear? Because I've never seen it!

Here are few tips from me. I can low 1:04s consistently (my best is a 1:03.5 but I had an incident on that lap, went a bit wide on the 3rd of fourth corner)

Anyways, the tips:
1) you can lose speed by sliding the car into corner, even a tiny slide will cut some of your speed so if you are braking very gently, leave the brakes off, it will turn better too
2) make sure you are not coasting without throttle/brakes unless you want to. If you are doing that you are either braking too early or trail braking too much
3) do not turn in too early. On some corners it is really easy to turn in too early and as such your exit speed and the apex speeds take massive hit
4) as it is said on the iracing site, the solstice is a momentum car, do not shave off too much speed for better corner exit. There is no power to make up for slower corner entry.
5) do not trail brake into fast corners, tiny tap of brakes is enough for the quick corners

If you want to try some practise together, just PM and let's see what we can do

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EDIT: haha, you can get better oval racing safety rating if you drive the legend on road course . I haven't done a single lap on ovals yet my oval rating is 2:61.

Quote :

The character richness of the tracks is not because of laser scanning, they just have good bumps, cambers and other small details which is something too rarely seen done well in any sim, or at all .

But isn't that due to the laser scanning though? Those elements aren't being made up- they're being pulled from the data.

What resolution are the scans REALLY at (before any interpolation), and what accuracy are they vertically? I'd be shocked if most real bumps made it past the noise reduction process, and they were then added later by 'feel' (whatever that means).

Good point. I heard someone mention 'centimetre accuracy', but that's a little hard to believe..

OK, I've run a few more laps. Turns out I was turning in too late for the last corner so I was slow out, and my line through the first two corners was a bag of shit - just did a couple of 1:05s (best a 1:05.6) so I'm getting more towards normal-people territory.

I think a bit better timing on turn-in for the faster corners will gain me some more time. 1:04 still seems a long way away but it was further away last night when I was proud of my 1:07.7

Thanks guys.

Get all excited because your pace is improving, "Oh, let's see when the next race is..."

21:00 GMT [10:00 pm] (0)
23:00 GMT [12:00 am] (0)
01:00 GMT [02:00 am] (0)
03:00 GMT [04:00 am] (0)

None of these are links. Are they all booked up? Or can I only select one when it's about to start?

See, I like this sim and all, but the multiplayer ****ing sucks. Paying $20 a month to maybe get one race a day if you're lucky?

This is why LFS isn't going to go away any time soon.

they will become links 30 minutes before race start kev

and afaik we will see races every hour when the service is busier (and to me now seems a good time to switch to hourly)

this is the second day the service is available in a minimum release...

your fault for wanting to be one of the first I suppose

That means 0 people have entered. There's times when a good amount of people enter the races - but most of the time they're empty. The oval races may also be more popular right now. Also, it wont allow you to select or join a session if you're currently in one. Make sure you "Withdraw - and confirm the withdraw" if you leave a session early.

60 people registered for the next session in ~15 minutes I'm one of them. Hopefully my 2nd race isn't as bad as my first.

Quote from Hyperactive :

Hmm, there is a race in 15 minutes. If I spent an hour making long posts I'd cut down the waiting time a lot between the races

:banana::static::elefant: Yippee...

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

OK 2 things.

1) my pc, at 4/5 years old, and was mid/low at purchase is not going to cut it..getting about 12/15 fps. However during a race I had no drop and only occasional slow down.

Define your 4/5 year old pc.

I've been worried that my e6300, 2gb DDR400, 6800GS would be out of it's depth. And i'm not keen on paying 20 bucks a month for the privilege of seeing if i'm left with the choice of a pretty slideshow or graphics that resemble Test Drive 2

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

2) I'm really slow.......Nuts

You ain't seen nothing yet bud !

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I'm still not convinced this game is for me tbh. At best i'm nothing more than a casual gamer, so leagues and ratings and stuff don't interest me in the slightest. And if someone like our Kev is way off the pace, then i doubt there's any hope for me at all. So if extra content can be partly bought with good results on track, then i'd have no other option than to pay for any extra content with real propah monies ! yeh !

I think i probably will put my name down on the list and have a go at it on the next release wave, but it's purely out of curiosity.

I do wonder how many people in this first wave will be renewing their contract after the first month though ? Do you guys reckon this thing has legs ? will it last, or by this time next year will the only available racing be on de Ovalz

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Well I just did a race at Lime Rock (because I wasn't allowed to race anywhere else, for some reason...

apparently youre only allowed to race at one track all week

Quote from AndroidXP :

Dumb question, but what is a debit card? Here in Austria at least the most commonly used card type are ATM cards. Online stuff is generally paid for via bank transfer.

not exactly sure what its like in austria but afaik all ec cards are maestro debit cards nowerdays
although apparently most cant be used on the interweb

Quote from spanks :

this is the second day the service is available in a minimum release...

your fault for wanting to be one of the first I suppose

All that needs to happen is add four times as many races, hardly something that couldn't be automated to meet demand.

10 laps of Laguna Seca in the Solstice thing.

Force feedback 70% (100% was too much). Added more negative camber to setup, lowered tyre pressures a lot, reduced castor a tad... Manual shifting/clutching with h-shift.

Managed a 1m53, which is probably utter shite. Can't get the hang of braking without virtually coasting or locking up, and I'm not able to judge apex speeds very well, so I tend to go in far too hot at the moment.

But, based on 10 laps, I quite like it. Quite LFS in terms of overall feel (although it's a bit unforgiving when you put a wheel on the 'grass'). Not yet able to feel the tyres deflect when I lean on them, but that's probably because I'm not as used to it as I was with LFS. The 'snap' after a slide is nice

I'm only getting 27fps, although I have increased the settings from what it suggested... Need to tweak them a bit I think, and see what does what. I looked horrid at first, until I turned on shadows... But I'm sure my rig should handle more...

This is not a definitive opinion - so no quoting "Tristan likes it, and he's an LFS fanboy" just yet. I'll do more testing, fiddling and experimenting next week, and give a proper opinion then. I might even treat myself to the Formula Mazda and drive a proper car.

Not tried a race yet - just Testing, so can't comment on the racing/netcode. But it doesn't look too good based on the comments above...

As for netcode, got no problems so far and latency is suprisingly low ~100ms since I recall ~150-180ms being the standard on most other games when I play on servers located far away in Americaland.

There's no need to get worried if you see 0 signups for a race, you can't signup until 30min before the start and most people prefer to join during last 10mins so they have time to do some qualify. Lowest count I was was ~30 around midday GMT+2 but on last race I had it was ~70.

Tristan: Shadows make huge difference but also cost alot of performance, you could also try lowering other details since there's no time to enjoy the scenery when you're racing. (Unless you take a field trip out there every other lap, like me)
What kind of system are you running on?

Quote from Mazz4200 :

if someone like our Kev is way off the pace, then i doubt there's any hope for me at all.

I'm shit at all sims - I'm only slightly better at LFS because I've had it for three years. That's a long time to still be fairly average.

I should just go hang around their forums, more my speed.

What names are people racing under? Would be nice if we could have a list of LFS forum users so we can be grouped to crash into each other