GT6 Data Logger - A Beginner's Guide

[F1Racer68]

Greetings GT6 Tuning community.

In recent weeks I received several comments from members of my league regarding the Data Logger and their lack of knowledge on how to effectively use it. Since I use it a fair bit, I decided to make an attempt at creating a basic User Guide for this very powerful tool. Now that it is complete, I decided I should probably also share it here to assist any tuners that are just getting started with it.

Before you open the file though I need to add some standard caveats:

- I am not associated with Polyphony Digital in any way.
- I have no real world tuning experience
- While I am a moderately decent tuner, I am NOT and expert and will never claim to be

In regards to the Data Logger and this guide, I am merely hoping to give people some insight into some of the ways the tool can be used. The guide is far from comprehensive as there are many more uses possible and the tool can provide much more info that what I have highlighted in the guide.

However, if you are new to the tool, or somewhat intimidated by it, I hope it will serve to give you some ideas and guidance so that you can get comfortable with it.

I hope you find it useful, and I look forward to all of your feedback.

Thanks,

F1_Racer68

 

[demonchilde]

Great work man ^^
On behalf of everyone who views and reads this, thank you for all the time and effort you put into this.

That said, personally I think something like this was way overdue. I'm glad you took the initiative and dove in. I use the logger often when fine tuning. Basically I tune it to the point where it's "semi-perfect", and use the logger for tuning the individual track differences. Like turning a hardcore turn track tune into something that can be effective on a daytona-speed type track, or vice versa. Making use of the 3 set-up presets they gave us.
But I don't claim to be an expert on it by far, and always did want to learn how to use it more effectively. When I get home (I'm at work) I'm going over this with a fine tooth comb and hoping to accomplish just that.
Thank you again, and great job

-Demon-

 

[Thorin Cain]

Great work man ^^
On behalf of everyone who views and reads this, thank you for all the time and effort you put into this.

That said, personally I think something like this was way overdue. I'm glad you took the initiative and dove in. I use the logger often when fine tuning. Basically I tune it to the point where it's "semi-perfect", and use the logger for tuning the individual track differences. Like turning a hardcore turn track tune into something that can be effective on a daytona-speed type track, or vice versa. Making use of the 3 set-up presets they gave us.
But I don't claim to be an expert on it by far, and always did want to learn how to use it more effectively. When I get home (I'm at work) I'm going over this with a fine tooth comb and hoping to accomplish just that.
Thank you again, and great job

-Demon-

I second that! 👍

Looking good @F1Racer68. I'm looking forward to reading this properly in the morning. If it's as well explained as your damper post I've read already, I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Thanks

 

[demonchilde]

This is being overlooked by a lot of people.
patience is most likely the culprit. People see such a huge file and say, "wow, I will look at this later".
Don't let this discourage you.

It really is worth looking to anyone who DOES want to utilize everything they can the game gives them as far as tuning tools goes.
I hope it does get the attention it deserves.
Good luck man.

 

[Thorin Cain]

He ain't wrong folks. If your in any doubt about how to use the Data Logger, this is well worth the read.

Nice work @F1Racer68! Thanks for sharing

 

[F1Racer68]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments.

As far as I am concerned if even 1 person finds it helpful then it was worth it.

I created this for the members of my league, and they are able to access it from our website as well. It was posted here simply to make it availabe for those that might be interested, so I will not be disappointed if it doesn't get a lot of hits. It's here if people want it, and it was no extra effort for me to make it available here.

 

[DolHaus]

Just had a read through, looks good 👍
Tells you everything you need to make sense of the functions available.

Making sense of the data is a whole other kettle of fish and I don't blame you for not going into more details

 

[F1Racer68]

Just had a read through, looks good 👍
Tells you everything you need to make sense of the functions available.

Making sense of the data is a whole other kettle of fish and I don't blame you for not going into more details

I tried to touch on it a bit, but I needed to balance the level of detail with the level of the target audience. Hopefully once people understand what the functions are showing, and how that relates to where the car is on track they will be able to start interpreting the data themselves.

As an example, when you look at the Ride Height section, it's quite easy to start making sense of it as you consider what the car is doing. Specifically when you look at the last third of the traces you can see that as the car goes through the Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel complex the ride heights on the left and right sides change dramaticaly.

Why?

It 's a direct result of body roll due to weight transfer. As the car turns right, the weight shifts to the left. This causes the left side ride height to decrease, and the right side ride height to increase. As far as what to do with that understanding for tuning purposes, this is where it begins to point you to roll bars, and perhaps spring to try to reduce that roll amount.

Once you find a piece like this that you can easily understand, and work with, the more minute details will also start to make sense. I hope that I included enough of the high level theory to at least begin some thinking and discussion. I didn't want to overwhelm readers with detailed theory when most are probably already overwheled by the tool alone.

The intent was the once they understood the tool they could use it in conjunction with the excellent tuning guides already posted here such as yours and @Motor City Hami 's.

 

[DolHaus]

I tried to touch on it a bit, but I needed to balance the level of detail with the level of the target audience. Hopefully once people understand what the functions are showing, and how that relates to where the car is on track they will be able to start interpreting the data themselves.

As an example, when you look at the Ride Height section, it's quite easy to start making sense of it as you consider what the car is doing. Specifically when you look at the last third of the traces you can see that as the car goes through the Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel complex the ride heights on the left and right sides change dramaticaly.

Why?

It 's a direct result of body roll due to weight transfer. As the car turns right, the weight shifts to the left. This causes the left side ride height to decrease, and the right side ride height to increase. As far as what to do with that understanding for tuning purposes, this is where it begins to point you to roll bars, and perhaps spring to try to reduce that roll amount.

Once you find a piece like this that you can easily understand, and work with, the more minute details will also start to make sense. I hope that I included enough of the high level theory to at least begin some thinking and discussion. I didn't want to overwhelm readers with detailed theory when most are probably already overwheled by the tool alone.

The intent was the once they understood the tool they could use it in conjunction with the excellent tuning guides already posted here such as yours and @Motor City Hami 's.

You've given the ideal amount of information on the processes for someone to be able to reference other tuning resources, if you were to go any deeper then you would end up having to write up a tuning guide to explain all the nuances of cause and effect.
Good job, I'll be sure to reference this if anyone asks me about the data logger in my thread 👍

 

[demonchilde]

I was thinking to maybe make a recommendation to the forum leaders of maybe pinning this?
I have the Pdf file saved on my phone for quick reference anyway. But I was thinking to like newcomers to the game/website come around, if any had a question about the data logger, having it pinned would avoid some non-necessary question posts in the future.
just a thought

 

[Thorin Cain]

I was thinking to maybe make a recommendation to the forum leaders of maybe pinning this?
I have the Pdf file saved on my phone for quick reference anyway. But I was thinking to like newcomers to the game/website come around, if any had a question about the data logger, having it pinned would avoid some non-necessary question posts in the future.
just a thought

I second that too!

 

[DolHaus]

I think it would need to be copied into the OP rather than being a download to be stickied

I can add a permalink to the General Tuning Guide if @F1Racer68 wants?

 

[F1Racer68]

Thanks DolHaus. Please do that. If the community feels this is valuable then I appreciate any steps that make it easier to find.

 

[DolHaus]

Done 👍

 

[Bowtie-muscle]

I just took a quick look, looks good and informative. I will be adding a link to this in my garage as well.

 

[randyrockstiff]

Thanks alot bro, well informed aswell, tells me everything I need to know about the data logger. Definitely would suggest reading this if you are struggling

 

[rono_thomas]

As you can only use this feature for an offline replay how well does it translate to an online lap?

 

[MrGrado]

You might be able to tune straight line speed for online with data logger offline (transmission and optimising PP).

If you have a simple method to modify an offline tune to perform online, then it will be useful, as in adjust only toe for example, otherwise data logger has very low usefulness for online tunes.

 

[F1Racer68]

As you can only use this feature for an offline replay how well does it translate to an online lap?

I only race online. In my experience the data logger info actually translates quite well. There will always be some tweaking and fine tuning that will need to be done for online, but they are minor changes such as +/- 1 point on your LSD settings, dampers, etc. Overall though the setup will be very close.

The biggest difference between offline vs. online is the grip level. This is due to the inherent latency over the network and will in fact vary from room to room and race to race. A group of our members test together almost nightly and we see significant differences in laptimes based on who is hosting the room.

The data logger info will give you the ability to get a very good base setup for the track. Once in the room, you may find you need to make very minor changes.

 

[ALB123]

Thank you @F1Racer68, I've downloaded and read your Data Logger Guide from beginning to end. I think this is a must read for all Gran Turismo newcomers.

I do hope that at some point either you or one of the other seasoned tuners will offer an Advanced Data Logger Guide. I'm not very good at tuning my own cars. I'm actually in the process of tuning my first car from scratch, but that's a topic for a different thread. When I am looking for a tune I turn to the pro's here on GTPlanet, usually starting with a peek through the GT6 Tune Directory. However great published tunes can be, they aren't meant to be a perfect fit for every driver and tweaking the tune is essential to getting the most out of a car & tune. Honestly, I think an Advanced Data Logger Guide could help educate many Gran Turismo players to figure out what to do with their LSD settings based on the data they are looking at. I used LSD as an example as that one device has such an impact on the overall performance of your car. Spring Rate, Brake Balance, Dampers, etc. can also be tweaked, of course...

There is no question that making these guides takes a tremendous amount of time out of your already busy schedules. Please know that your work is extremely appreciated and I really try to learn from it, whether it's this particular guide or any of the other tuning guides available from GTPlanet members. Thank you, for your continued hard work to make the Gran Turismo community a better place for all.

 

[F1Racer68]

Thank you for your comments @ALB123 . I do appreciate the feedback.

I may consider an Advanced guide at some point in the future, but it would be a huge undertaking and quite a large document. I had intentionally decided with this document that I would remain focused on the tool itself and leave the tuning theory to the already well documented guides. This was never intended to serve as a standalone document.

Thanks again for the kind words.

 

[F1Racer68]

Wow..... nearly 200 views/downloads. I did not expect that!

I hope it has been useful to all that have looked at it.

 

[Ronald6]

Advanced Data Logging Guide = @F1Racer68 guide + @Motor City Hami guide.

If you got permission from @Hami (or @DolHaus ) you could interlink the two guides. I think you would pretty much need to rewrite both guides into one document.

@Hami is great to collaborate with. If the two of you got together and worked on one project the end result would be fantastic and immensely usefull for the whole community.

No pressure.

MCH + F1R + DolHaus = Mind Blown.

 

[F1Racer68]

Advanced Data Logging Guide = @F1Racer68 guide + @Motor City Hami guide.

If you got permission from @Hami (or @DolHaus ) you could interlink the two guides. I think you would pretty much need to rewrite both guides into one document.

@Hami is great to collaborate with. If the two of you got together and worked on one project the end result would be fantastic and immensely usefull for the whole community.

No pressure.

MCH + F1R + DolHaus = Mind Blown.

That is something I would be very happy to consider doing. I would definitely learn a heck of a lot more myself from that. What do you say @Motor City Hami and @DolHaus ? Are either one of you or both of you open to that? If so, PM me and we can try to figure out a way to make it happen.

 

[DolHaus]

That is something I would be very happy to consider doing. I would definitely learn a heck of a lot more myself from that. What do you say @Motor City Hami and @DolHaus ? Are either one of you or both of you open to that? If so, PM me and we can try to figure out a way to make it happen.

You are free to copy/paste/rewrite what ever parts of mine you feel are relevant, just let me see a preview copy before publishing so I can check it over first 👍

 

[F1Racer68]

Just so everyone is aware, @Motor City Hami @DolHaus and I have started discussing the possibilities. Having said that, today's update with the ability to export replays for use in MoTeC i2 Pro has thrown a minor kink in our ideas.

I for one had been asking for this capability since GT5, so I am thrilled to finally see it happen. MoTeC i2 Pro is used by many amatuer and professional racing teams, and is what GT6's Data Logger wants to be when it grows up.

 

[F1Racer68]

For those of you interested in trying the MoTeC i2 Pro, there is a dedicated GT6 download site for the software.

http://www.motec.com.au/gt6/gt6downloads/

This site also contains links to recorded Webinars for how to use the software. I highly recommend viewing them.

http://www.motec.com.au/webinars/webinararchive/#i2

 

[bread82]

@F1Racer68 great guide, really appreciate the work 👍

Have you had much of a play with MoTeC? I just d/l it and got a replay across. It looks like one extra thing which the GT6 logger has is ride heights - I got "N/A" in MoTeC for suspension position - hopefully they will add this in later.

It's great to be able to see numerical lat and long G forces throughout the lap - this update took me completely by surprise, great content!

 

[DolHaus]

@F1Racer68 great guide, really appreciate the work 👍

Have you had much of a play with MoTeC? I just d/l it and got a replay across. It looks like one extra thing which the GT6 logger has is ride heights - I got "N/A" in MoTeC for suspension position - hopefully they will add this in later.

It's great to be able to see numerical lat and long G forces throughout the lap - this update took me completely by surprise, great content!

I've found the same issue, lots of new data points that will prove invaluable I'm sure but no suspension data. Really hope they fix that soon 👍

 

[F1Racer68]

@F1Racer68 great guide, really appreciate the work 👍

Have you had much of a play with MoTeC? I just d/l it and got a replay across. It looks like one extra thing which the GT6 logger has is ride heights - I got "N/A" in MoTeC for suspension position - hopefully they will add this in later.

It's great to be able to see numerical lat and long G forces throughout the lap - this update took me completely by surprise, great content!

Unfortunately, I have not. Between the work day and the 2 feet of snow I have had to clear off my driveway I haven't had much time to look at it. I did grab a couple of pre-1.14 replays but no new ones yet. The one thing I really like is that it is not just limited to the Best Lap Replays. In fact, I was able to export an entire 90 minute Endurance Race replay from an online race. This now opens the door to being able to properly fine tune for the online rooms, as well as being able to see how the car changes as the fuel load decrease and the tires wear out.

I was also completely shocked by the addition of this in the update. There was no indication that this was even remotely on the horizon. For us serious racers and tuners this is huge. 👍