Help me to fall in love with iRacing

[Motor City Hami]

I purchased the annual iRacing licence through my SCCA discount and just haven't played it as much as I thought I would. I intended to use it as a training tool to learn left foot braking at Mid Ohio in the Miata. I race Spec Miata at Mid-Ohio and other tracks. I feel that I am leaving a little on the table in turn one, the entry to thunder valley and the corner at the exit of thunder valley.

iRacing just hasn't panned out for me. I am finding that it is really sensative, especially the brakes. I use a G27 and added a Nixom brake pedal mod, which helped, but it's still not very realistic. I spent time calibrating the settings so that I have full use of the pedals and still seems so sensative. I think that they went a little overboard in trying to make a Sim close to reality. Any little mistake and you're off in the weeds. I get that in real life, if I don't get the braking zone just right or the shift at the exact moment at the limit, I could lock up and spin. But with iRacing, I just don't have all of the same cues that something is about to go wrong. In a game, it's all visual. In the real world it's visual and alot about feel - g-forces. Without the feel, I think they programmed the error room pretty tight on iRacing.

I also am a bit of a noob on finding rookie events to race in. So far, all I can do is test and that's not going well. So far, this has not been a good tool for helping me learn a needed real life technique for real life racing in a safer way. It's just me needing to learn the tricks and quirks of another video game in order to be fast in the game. Are there car setups that can help calm the car down? Are there other settings adjustments that can help with the braking zones, brakes and downshifting?

Looking for advice on getting more out of iRacing before my licence expires in October, never to be renewed again.

 

[Coxis]

You really shouldn't need help -- If you don't like it, maybe it isn't the sim for you. Within a week into my subscription I knew that I was there to stay.

You, however, have an added factor which is you do real life racing. It may be more difficult to adjust considering you experience the real thing on a regular (?) basis. Just join the Mazda cup and race the MX-5s, and be mindful of the wreckers. Once you get to the upper splits you'll find that there are some amazing races to be had.

 

[zedfonsie]

I love iracing, but the first week was a hassle. Your foot is a block of lead after you just came from playing gt5. You need to learn how to ease on gas, unlike in gt5 where you can just slam down the throttle in mid corner without spinning.

Practice, practice, practice.

 

[Coxis]

I love iracing, but the first week was a hassle. Your foot is a block of lead after you just came from playing gt5. You need to learn how to ease on gas, unlike in gt5 where you can just slam down the throttle in mid corner without spinning.

Practice, practice, practice.

I remember this. When coming from GT5 the hardest things I experienced was learning how to blip the throttle and how to threshold brake adequately.

 

[Mattdemichele]

You bought it to learn left foot braking? And you race for real? Haven't you learnt left foot braking already? Not being clever but I would have thought u can already left foot brake and heal toe if your racing mazda mx5s

 

[Motor City Hami]

You bought it to learn left foot braking? And you race for real? Haven't you learnt left foot braking already? Not being clever but I would have thought u can already left foot brake and heal toe if your racing mazda mx5s

Why would you think that every amateur racer is a left foot braker? There are plenty of pros who don't left foot brake. Somehow every amateur racer just magically does it? You have to learn somewhere. I have been using my test day sessions to try learning it, but it just feels awkward. My entire test day's were becoming about one thing and I wasn't able to learn other things about the car, the track, the tires, etc. I was hoping to use iRacing as a safe alternative on the track that I love the most.

Heal-toe is something that I spent time on during my first three years of SCCA. You are really underestimating the added challenge of learning these techniques at speed. Try coming down the back straight at Mid-Ohio at 110mph in a Miata, find the right spot to brake, without locking the rears, heal/toe to get two downshifts, turn in at the exact proper point, clip the apex and throttle on. It's a bit harder than in a video game because the consequenses are much higher.

 

[Jav]

You bought it to learn left foot braking? And you race for real? Haven't you learnt left foot braking already? Not being clever but I would have thought u can already left foot brake and heal toe if your racing mazda mx5s

Not everyone uses LFB... And if you wanna learn something new is only smart to learn it in an enviroment where you have nothing to loose.

 

[Christhedude]

Heal-toe is something that I spent time on during my first three years of SCCA. You are really underestimating the added challenge of learning these techniques at speed. Try coming down the back straight at Mid-Ohio at 110mph in a Miata, find the right spot to brake, without locking the rears, heal/toe to get two downshifts, turn in at the exact proper point, clip the apex and throttle on. It's a bit harder than in a video game because the consequenses are much higher.

Hi, please don't get me wrong now, but are you saying it took you 3 years to master heal and toe ?

if you would like a bit of a reference, heres an onboard video from the 3rd race this year.
Its hard to see the blipping since I adjusted my brake and gas pedal in such a way that I only have to move my right foot slightly onto the throttle

im sure there are better heal and toe vids on youtube



chris

 

[Nastradamus87]

I purchased the annual iRacing licence through my SCCA discount and just haven't played it as much as I thought I would. I intended to use it as a training tool to learn left foot braking at Mid Ohio in the Miata. I race Spec Miata at Mid-Ohio and other tracks. I feel that I am leaving a little on the table in turn one, the entry to thunder valley and the corner at the exit of thunder valley.

iRacing just hasn't panned out for me. I am finding that it is really sensative, especially the brakes. I use a G27 and added a Nixom brake pedal mod, which helped, but it's still not very realistic. I spent time calibrating the settings so that I have full use of the pedals and still seems so sensative. I think that they went a little overboard in trying to make a Sim close to reality. Any little mistake and you're off in the weeds. I get that in real life, if I don't get the braking zone just right or the shift at the exact moment at the limit, I could lock up and spin. But with iRacing, I just don't have all of the same cues that something is about to go wrong. In a game, it's all visual. In the real world it's visual and alot about feel - g-forces. Without the feel, I think they programmed the error room pretty tight on iRacing.

I also am a bit of a noob on finding rookie events to race in. So far, all I can do is test and that's not going well. So far, this has not been a good tool for helping me learn a needed real life technique for real life racing in a safer way. It's just me needing to learn the tricks and quirks of another video game in order to be fast in the game. Are there car setups that can help calm the car down? Are there other settings adjustments that can help with the braking zones, brakes and downshifting?

Looking for advice on getting more out of iRacing before my licence expires in October, never to be renewed again.

I think the only advice you need is on hardware: buy pedals with a load cell brake, like the Fanatec Clubsport Pedals.
I used G27 pedals for over a year. I switched to Clubsport Pedals (CSP) several months ago and the difference between the two is enormous. You can read plenty of comparisons between the two pedals to get a better idea of the differences.

One thing the CSP have over the G27 pedals (besides a pressure sensitive brake) is tactile feedback. The brake pedal has a vibrating mechanism that activates when your tires lock up. (Note that iRacing does not offically support this feature for supposed security reasons, but a random guy made a plugin that allows it to work with very good accuracy.) I can't imagine racing without this feature anymore.

 

[Motor City Hami]

Hi, please don't get me wrong now, but are you saying it took you 3 years to master heal and toe ?

chris

How did this turn into "I don't know how to heal/toe?" Understanding the concept of heal/toe can be taught in a matter of minutes. Perfecting it at speed without hurting your braking ability is what takes practice. The hardest part about heal/toe isn't the position of the pedals or the foot or the blip itself. The most difficult part is doing the blip without changing the pressure that you are applying to the brakes. That is a honed art that you always work on. The better you are at holding a constant pressure on the brakes while hitting the throttle blip, the deeper you can go in the braking zone. Most people also have a tendance to blip too early and lock the rears. You have to wait, wait, wait and only put it into gear just before the turn in point. That also takes some focus - it get's pretty scary to wait that late when you are first learning. The corner seems to be coming at you so fast. If you want to see a lesson on late braking, heal/toe, just check out my youtube vids. That's one area that I am pretty good at because I have focused so much attention on perfecting it.

Now, I am searching for a few more tenths at Mid-Ohio. I can run in the top 10% of the field, but there are a few drivers who are pulling me in the three corners that I mentioned. One common theme to these corners is no down shift and just a mid to light touch of the brakes. It seems that most of the top guys left foot brake in those corners. It's time for me to focus on that area of my driving.

The issue with left foot braking is that it feels unnatural - like throwing a ball with my left hand. There's no finess. It's like a big clumbsy foot that has been trained to kick the clutch in and out as fast as possible. It hasn't been trained to gently ease into the brakes with the exact, repeatable pressure lap after lap. I thought that iRacing might be a way to start training my brain and my left foot to be gentle and consistent and build that second nature that when approaching turn 1, 11 and 12 that the left foot should take on that job, not the right.

All without having to buy a perfect pedal or the like.

Is there a way to adjust the brake pedal to make the program think it is longer than the actual throw of the pedal. With the Nixom brake pedal mod, there is a stronger spring than stock G27 that is two stepped. There is also an eraser type of block in the bottom. This creates a pedal with 1/3 being super soft, 1/3 medium sprung and the bottom 1/3 feels more like a real pedal. If I could trick the computer to let me get deeper into the pedal, I'd have better feel without so much lock up.

 

[Eric.]

I've picked up left foot braking really easily in iRacing, and even switch-foot braking for cars like the SRF. However I can't even brake normally on the street in a real car with my left foot. Its odd. Both my cars have the pedals too far right to comfortably do it anyway, if there was any finesse to it.

 

[Roush_fan_99]

^Most street cars intentionally put the brake far right to get people to right foot brake more naturally. I couldn't do anything but left foot brake from racing cars since I was 8 but with my first street car, it was hard to do either until I realized that I was being forced to right foot brake. In Quarter midgets and legends there is a big Ol' steering rod in the way of right foot braking (and a tiny right foot brake pad on the other side of the steering rod that causes you to hit gas and brake with it).

This is kind of a rough way, but could you put an extension to the right connected to your gas, and move the whole pedal set to the left? It's kind of crude but it may work, I haven't tried it though as I don't have a clutch

 

[left888]

When I joined iRacing I had 30 years of Sim racing. Ya I know, I am well past my prime. It was much harder then I ever imagined. I played a lot of GT5 back a year and a half ago. When I joined iRacing I would hot lap for 30 minutes and most of the time get very frustrated.

I hit the Ru-barb more then I will admit to. Sometimes I would quit in a few minutes because I couldn't keep the car on the asphalt. I however persisted, I am slow but I have always had a passion for racing, so I slowly improved. I left foot brake sometimes, depending mostly on what car I am driving.

I have seen a few people quit after their 3 month trial because a lot of people think it will be a Forza type game. Once someone gets the feel for iRacing it becomes enjoyable. While I probably will never win top splits, I will have fun racing.

 

[Imari]

There's an easier way to learn to left foot brake. You don't have to practise at racing speeds, you just need to develop that sensitivity in your left foot.

Buy/beg/borrow/rent a car with an automatic gearbox. Drive everywhere for a couple of weeks left foot braking. You will get very good, very fast, because it's uncomfortable as hell when you jam the brake too hard and chuck yourself into your seatbelt.

Two weeks of this and you'll have enough sensitivity in your left foot that you'll feel much less like you're throwing a ball left handed. A month and it will feel natural.

You could do it in game too, but I think it's more about the time spent practising than anything else.

P.S. Good on you for racing in Spec Miata! My Miata went to it's first track day last month, I'm only just starting to learn all the great things about driving a real car fast. I hope one day I find myself in the position you're in now.

 

[Mattdemichele]

You won't b able to learn lfb on a sim. For starters your cars pedals and the sim pedals will feel completely different, even the most expensive sim pedals won't b able to capture Wat a car has. I guess I might take for granted that I have been karting since I was young and left foot braking is the only option. Good luck learning lfb tho.

 

[Motor City Hami]

This is kind of a rough way, but could you put an extension to the right connected to your gas, and move the whole pedal set to the left? It's kind of crude but it may work, I haven't tried it though as I don't have a clutch

The intent isn't to left foot brake all of the time. I'm interested in road racing. I only need to left foot brake in corners that don't require a downshift. If a downshift is involved, then heal/toe is in order. It's just training the brain that sometimes the right foot does the job and other times the left does it.

Here is some late braking work. This was my first time at this track and I just wasn't ready on this start. All through practice and qualifying they used a flag stand further down the straight. So, late start for me, then the car next to me in turn one locks them up and knocks me into the grass. Now I'm no longer in a comfortable 4th spot but more like 8th or 9th. It was pretty fun working my way back up there until I caught the Saturn. He's not really in my class (shared track time) so he had lots more power. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsCV79yTdw4&feature=fvsr

 

[zedfonsie]

The intent isn't to left foot brake all of the time. I'm interested in road racing. I only need to left foot brake in corners that don't require a downshift. If a downshift is involved, then heal/toe is in order. It's just training the brain that sometimes the right foot does the job and other times the left does it.

Here is some late braking work. This was my first time at this track and I just wasn't ready on this start. All through practice and qualifying they used a flag stand further down the straight. So, late start for me, then the car next to me in turn one locks them up and knocks me into the grass. Now I'm no longer in a comfortable 4th spot but more like 8th or 9th. It was pretty fun working my way back up there until I caught the Saturn. He's not really in my class (shared track time) so he had lots more power. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsCV79yTdw4&feature=fvsr

Post a video of you doing one lap in the mx5 on mid-ohio. We can help you out a lot that way.

 

[Motor City Hami]

Post a video of you doing one lap in the mx5 on mid-ohio. We can help you out a lot that way.

That's a good idea. iRacing is just really frustrating right now and I want to like it. I'll try a 30 minute practice session then post some laps for review and advice.

 

[Patrocles]

I purchased the annual iRacing licence through my SCCA discount and just haven't played it as much as I thought I would. I intended to use it as a training tool to learn left foot braking at Mid Ohio in the Miata. I race Spec Miata at Mid-Ohio and other tracks. I feel that I am leaving a little on the table in turn one, the entry to thunder valley and the corner at the exit of thunder valley.

iRacing just hasn't panned out for me. I am finding that it is really sensative, especially the brakes. I use a G27 and added a Nixom brake pedal mod, which helped, but it's still not very realistic. I spent time calibrating the settings so that I have full use of the pedals and still seems so sensative. I think that they went a little overboard in trying to make a Sim close to reality. Any little mistake and you're off in the weeds. I get that in real life, if I don't get the braking zone just right or the shift at the exact moment at the limit, I could lock up and spin. But with iRacing, I just don't have all of the same cues that something is about to go wrong. In a game, it's all visual. In the real world it's visual and alot about feel - g-forces. Without the feel, I think they programmed the error room pretty tight on iRacing.

I also am a bit of a noob on finding rookie events to race in. So far, all I can do is test and that's not going well. So far, this has not been a good tool for helping me learn a needed real life technique for real life racing in a safer way. It's just me needing to learn the tricks and quirks of another video game in order to be fast in the game. Are there car setups that can help calm the car down? Are there other settings adjustments that can help with the braking zones, brakes and downshifting?

Looking for advice on getting more out of iRacing before my licence expires in October, never to be renewed again.

First off, the iRacing manual will help you a lot! I recommend downloading this pdf and printing it out at a local printer shop or at home.

I have a G27 and I do not find the brakes too sensitive (then again I do not raced a real car like you so cannot compare directly). Have you adjusted the brake curve factor in the race setup OPTIONS screen? I know you can adjust the sensitivity with these settings.

Have you considered a better pair of pedals? From what I have read here and at iracing forum the Fanatec CSP are really nice and use a load sensor for the brake pedal. I am not an expert on these things but i believe the G27 pedals use potentiometers(?) and are not as sensitive as the Fanatec CSPs.
Oh, and I believe I read that Fanatec is coming out soon with a CSP version2 which are supposed to be more reliable than the original CSPs.
http://www.fanatec.de/
http://f-wheel.com/clubsport-pedals

If i was rich I would buy a set of these CST pedals!
http://www.cannonsimulationtechnologies.com/


Test sessions are always run alone. You should have no problem finding events Mazda Cup events. The rookie MX5 races run every hour. You can also try to run in MX5 practice sessions with other pilots. I know that in the rookie Mazda Cup series the cars run a fixed setup. I believe there is a way to adjust the MX5 for certain sessions (not the Mazda Cup)? anyone?

good luck! I hope you stick with the game! It is fantastic for clean pickup racing (I, too, come from mainly console racing which is awful).

 

[fizzer]

With the the G27 pedals, the brake curve factor in iRacing (its in options) makes a huge difference. Have you played around with that yet?

The default setting is 2 I believe. I use anywhere from 2 to 4 depending on the car to get the brake feel the way I like it.

Basically, the higher the setting, the less sensitive the pedal is in the earlier part of the travel. Since you rarely use full brake pressure in iRacing (everything except the williams and prototype will lock up long before full pressure) this allows you to tune the majority of the pedal travel to be in the sweet spot for threshold braking.

 

[fizzer]

You won't b able to learn lfb on a sim. For starters your cars pedals and the sim pedals will feel completely different, even the most expensive sim pedals won't b able to capture Wat a car has.

I wholeheartedly disagree. GT5 and iRacing certainly helped me build up accuracy with my left foot that transferred directly to karts, autocross, and road racing. If anything, learning to left foot brake with a potentiometer pedal makes transitioning to real brakes easier. Pressure sensitive brakes give you more tactile feedback.

My advice is to stick with it. It is hard coming from a pure real life racing background, but with enough practice it will click. Driving the real car will seem easier after learning to race with your vision and seat of the pants feel handicapped.

 

[Motor City Hami]

With the the G27 pedals, the brake curve factor in iRacing (its in options) makes a huge difference. Have you played around with that yet?

The default setting is 2 I believe. I use anywhere from 2 to 4 depending on the car to get the brake feel the way I like it.

Basically, the higher the setting, the less sensitive the pedal is in the earlier part of the travel. Since you rarely use full brake pressure in iRacing (everything except the williams and prototype will lock up long before full pressure) this allows you to tune the majority of the pedal travel to be in the sweet spot for threshold braking.

This is a good suggestion. I did calibrate the pedal so that iRacing was reading the full travel, but if I can move the sensativity to deeper into the pedal, it may make better use of the Nixom brake mod. Gotta try it. Thanks.

 

[Christhedude]

How did this turn into "I don't know how to heal/toe?" Understanding the concept of heal/toe can be taught in a matter of minutes. Perfecting it at speed without hurting your braking ability is what takes practice. The hardest part about heal/toe isn't the position of the pedals or the foot or the blip itself. The most difficult part is doing the blip without changing the pressure that you are applying to the brakes. That is a honed art that you always work on. The better you are at holding a constant pressure on the brakes while hitting the throttle blip, the deeper you can go in the braking zone. Most people also have a tendance to blip too early and lock the rears. You have to wait, wait, wait and only put it into gear just before the turn in point. That also takes some focus - it get's pretty scary to wait that late when you are first learning. The corner seems to be coming at you so fast. If you want to see a lesson on late braking, heal/toe, just check out my youtube vids. That's one area that I am pretty good at because I have focused so much attention on perfecting it.

I never questioned wether you can or cant heal and toe... i was just wondering what you meant exactly... but i did understand now.

The reason why I ask was, cause i've been racing professionally since many years now and i had to be heal and toe 'ing in my first year in the Forumla Renault 2.0 series and Formula BMW aswell.

And from there on it was either left foot braking, but now in the Porsche Carrera Cup its only heal and toe...

One advice that I could give you is that you shouldnt be thinking about the correct heal and toe 'ing while you're racing, this will just make it harder.

Race, push hard and the down shifting rythem will come!

Hear's another onboard video from a quali run of mine, think i had 2nd place in that qualifying.
However, you can see the onboard telemetry and my blipping input.
This should give you a proper view on how to consistenly heal and toe in a professional race manner

 

[VINCE__]

You do learn to love the things you hate in time.

 

[Hotrails17]

I think the only advice you need is on hardware: buy pedals with a load cell brake, like the Fanatec Clubsport Pedals.

Listen to the man. I have upgraded to the Fanatec CSR Elite Pedals and the load cell makes a world of change.

The Logitech pedals you are using apply brake pressure using a potentiometer, only sensing the distance the pedal has traveled. The Fanatec Clubsports and CSR Elite pedals offer a load cell sensor which actually measures the pressure you are applying to the brake just like in a real car. If you really want a realistic driving feel, switch to the load cell and experience a much higher accuracy during braking. You will be able to make minute pressure changes and get much better feedback from the pedal itself.

It will take about a week to adjust your muscles to read the load cell brake pedal. Judging pressure is how you regulate the brakes in your car, but you are trying to train your body to sense distance which is completely different. If you really want to go over board and match the braking systems of true cars, you should check out Frex and their new Hydraulic brake setup. Once you have a proper set up you will notice that the problem you have been having is solely because of your hardware, not your simulator. Cheers and happy racing!!

 

[GTP_FastM3]

I purchased the annual iRacing licence through my SCCA discount and just haven't played it as much as I thought I would. I intended to use it as a training tool to learn left foot braking at Mid Ohio in the Miata. I race Spec Miata at Mid-Ohio and other tracks. I feel that I am leaving a little on the table in turn one, the entry to thunder valley and the corner at the exit of thunder valley.

iRacing just hasn't panned out for me. I am finding that it is really sensative, especially the brakes. I use a G27 and added a Nixom brake pedal mod, which helped, but it's still not very realistic. I spent time calibrating the settings so that I have full use of the pedals and still seems so sensative. I think that they went a little overboard in trying to make a Sim close to reality. Any little mistake and you're off in the weeds. I get that in real life, if I don't get the braking zone just right or the shift at the exact moment at the limit, I could lock up and spin. But with iRacing, I just don't have all of the same cues that something is about to go wrong. In a game, it's all visual. In the real world it's visual and alot about feel - g-forces. Without the feel, I think they programmed the error room pretty tight on iRacing.

I also am a bit of a noob on finding rookie events to race in. So far, all I can do is test and that's not going well. So far, this has not been a good tool for helping me learn a needed real life technique for real life racing in a safer way. It's just me needing to learn the tricks and quirks of another video game in order to be fast in the game. Are there car setups that can help calm the car down? Are there other settings adjustments that can help with the braking zones, brakes and downshifting?

Looking for advice on getting more out of iRacing before my licence expires in October, never to be renewed again.

I just returned from doing a 2 day BMW M School and I talked to the head instructor about iRacing. She is a fairly accomplished racer, but she can't stand sim racing because it lacks the feedback she is used to. It sounds like you are experiencing the same thing.

I concur with those recommending the CSP pedals. There is no comparison between CSPs and G27s. The load cell brake makes a huge difference

 

[WedgeX]

as someone who played with a G25 at first .... for the record, its next to impossible to brake consistently (that is keep the brake pressure consistent while you throttle blip) .... I hear exactly what your saying... I'm sure you heel toe much easier in your actual car because the pedals are staggered and probably not coming from the floor ... I can heel toe perfectly or hardly at all depending on which real life car I'm driving and how the pedals are situated .... In a small hatchback its usually quite easy, but in my jeep its next to impossible to blip past 2x rpm because the brake sticks out much further from the floor than the throttle, if I was braking 100% foot to the floor I might be able to do it.... but just for fun and not trying to be hard on the brakes I just can't do it.

but in iRacing I could only heel toe effectively with Clubsport pedals... its still easier in real life but compaired to G25 which is virtually impossible since all 3 pedals are even side by side and sprung very stiff.


get club-sports i guess is the moral of this story.