Need help weaning myself from TCS

[Nightwing24]

As a relative newbie as well in sim racing getting my first wheel set up that quickly evolved into full rig when GT7 came out, thanks for making the thread as it has had a lot of great info shared.

I found Tidgney driving school from GT Sport was immeansly helpful in explaining a lot of the physics basics to me

So much so that now after getting a bit of skill developed after months I’m going back to it to catch up on more advanced points I didn’t have the experience to catch the first time around.

Great info already shared by all, I would add pick 1 car and track to run consistently daily. The more you drive it and practice, it will become a consistent baseline you can use to judge your skill level alone. Also when the physics of that one specific care become second nature to you from practice and use on one track you are consistently getting better at, it is easier to pick up different cars and adjust accordingly, at least seemingly to me. An added bonus is when that track pops up in one of the daily races, you know what’s it’s like to compete at a higher level since you have experience and knowledge of it more than all the others and will pole and place higher.

 

[CodeRedR51]

For me its a combination of the force feedback loosening up, and physically seeing the car start to rotate. My problem is not the car breaking loose, its me overreacting and counter steering to much or too fast and it snaps the other way. 😅

 

[Imari]

One thing you can try if you're getting bored and frustrated is practising drifting. It's largely the same skill, just used differently. Take the car you want to race and try to slide it sideways through the corner. You will spin and it will be funny, but eventually you'll start to get a feel for how the wheel and throttle are interacting, what feedback the wheel is giving you and how you should react when it does.

If you can get to the point where you can hold a big angle for even a second or two, you'll find it much easier to find and hold the much smaller angles you want when racing for speed.

As other people have said, this is ultimately something you'll have to just develop a feel for through practice and repetition though. Explanations can help you understand what you're doing wrong, but ultimately it's having enough car time to know when it's going to slide and enough muscle memory to be able to quickly correct and hold it. It's tough, but once you get it with one car you'll find it easier in others.

Typically it's good to start in something like a Skip Barber/Formula Ford car. They give lots of feedback and when you do it wrong they very definitely let you know. I'm not sure what a good equivalent might be in GT7. Xbow? Cayman Clubsport? Don't start with the big Formula cars, anything with serious aero is making it harder to learn because the grip is inconsistent with speed and they snap harder when they let go.

Good luck! And remember, downhill corners will be a lot trickier than uphill ones.

 

[OldandSlow]

Good luck! And remember, downhill corners will be a lot trickier than uphill ones.

Especially downhill, off-camber corners. The decreasing radius ones, too.

 

[Haitauer]

Just turn ASM off. TC off vs TC1 will be slower 99% of the time. Very hard to be consistent with TC off - feedback is insufficient for that dare I say in all sim games. ASM is the one holding you back by not letting you reach anywere near the edge of grip - was it acceleration or turning. TC1 will still let the car over-/understeer, and by controlling those you find seconds off your lap times WHILE keeping consistency.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I learned to start controlling my throttle by doing the Alsace Human Comedy mission. You have to use an older car with comfort tires (I think) and that calls for a lot of sliding through fast corners. The Alsace track has all kinds of crazy turns with and without camber, and with elevation changes. You pretty much get it all on that track. Because you’re using and older car with comfort tires you are able to catch your slides easier because they are more forgiving, and you learn to modulate your throttle to control the slides rather than braking or letting off the throttle completely.

 

[Imari]

Very hard to be consistent with TC off - feedback is insufficient for that dare I say in all sim games.

What kind of monster cars are you driving that you're struggling to be consistent without TC? Some cars it's true, it's very hard to control the cars well without at least some aids. But that's mostly down to the car, not the sim (as long as it's something that's got passable physics and FFB). And most stuff under 300hp you should be able to drive and be consistent with no aids even with bad FFB.

I really don't think it's true that it's very hard to be consistent with TC off in all sim games, period. That's a skill issue.

 

[Haitauer]

What kind of monster cars are you driving that you're struggling to be consistent without TC? Some cars it's true, it's very hard to control the cars well without at least some aids. But that's mostly down to the car, not the sim (as long as it's something that's got passable physics and FFB). And most stuff under 300hp you should be able to drive and be consistent with no aids even with bad FFB.

I really don't think it's true that it's very hard to be consistent with TC off in all sim games, period. That's a skill issue.

Well yes.. there is some truth what you said, and ofcourse tire choice makes big difference. Mild street cars with good tires are pretty easy without tc, but I drive mostly Gr.3 with hards and when one has to push every lap and corner after corner at the limit, its very easy to make a small error with tc off and spin out. Id say for 99% of players TC1 wont slow you down - speed is missing for other reasons and just more training is needed. Its not easy to get answers from other players. As one drives enough he starts to find hints for grip limits in the driving feel and to react to those hints instinctively. Not easy to teach as cars and controllers give vastly different feels. Thats also why i like to stick to just few cars and master them instead of trying to find the meta car for each race. Have driven most of my time with gr.3/gr.4 Mustangs since vanilla GTS. 😉

But like I said, ASM is way too intrucive to be fast. I might loose 1-2 seconds per lap with ASM just because it wont let one put enough power down.

 

[hollowkatt]

I have probably been the most vocal critic of TCS in GT7. In GTS you could run TC2 and be very competitive in A rated lobbies, yes it cost you time but you could do it. TCS1 was very subtle and again, very useable. In GT7, TCS1 is SAVAGEL:Y intrusive, it cuts power like a light switch and intrudes in places it just should not. I literally have ZERO idea what TCS2 to 5 is used for because TC1 is so powerful.

My solution is pick your cars. In Group 3 that means the RSR, McLaren, Z4 and the Supra, everything else is useless to me. On a wheel and good pedals, i imagine you need to very gently squeeze the throttle.

Tomahawk glitch basically. Having TSC6 is about the only thing that makes that beast controllable.

 

[darkdragoon7]

personally, turning TCS off is slower than keeping it at 1.
The only times I turn it off are on dirt races or if the car I'm driving doesn't have enough torque to spin the wheels aggressively, if that makes sense.