ORCA General Discussion

[BrandonW77]

@IforceV8, why would quicker guys get stuck driving clunkers? With the parity method you can drive almost any car you want to so if someone picks a clunker it's their own fault. I also think the slower guys improve a lot because they get to race door-to-door with the skilled drivers and that's the best education you can get. True, if their time improves they would have to dial their car back a little more so you wouldn't see improvements reflected in their lap times, but that doesn't mean there's no improvement.

My issue with tuning is that I, personally, would rather spend my time on track learning the car than spend all day in the tuning screen trying to make the car handle the way I want it. I don't have the time nor desire to spend hours fiddling with every suspension setting trying to wring out every last tenth of a second. I also really do enjoy experiencing the differences between cars and tuning them takes most of those away. IMO, in a tuning series the ones who do well are the ones who have the most time to play around with setups or who can best exploit the oddities of the GT series tuning system.

I know our opinions on this will always be miles apart and I'm certainly not trying to imply my opinion is better or anything of that nature. Different people can enjoy the same thing in completely different ways and that's the case here. I'll also admit that I'm completely ignorant at tuning and could not improve a default setup if my life depended on it and that's part of why I have no interest in it. The parity method is the only way I know that allows tuners and non-tuners to compete together on an even level but it means that there is no driver that's clearly the fastest because the lap times are all the same (or should be).

I'm not saying we're going down the parity road, I was just interested in peoples opinions on it.

 

[MC-Chase]

Never done parity, but it looks like a lot of fun and something I would be very willing to try out. In regards to 'tuning' (I think that words always used in the wrong context) I don't think it's really much of an issue, I never think it takes more than 10 minutes to get a car to go ballpark how you want it to and I highly doubt it's beyond the skills of literally anyone. Regardless, allowing for set-up or stock would not bother me at all in my interest to give it a try, so if you want to organise something then count me in.

 

[CC570]

Quicker guys get stuck driving the clunkers of the game and that would get old fast and slower guys dont improve since the time to beat is capped.

Single make or a couple of cars,allow tuning for those that want to learn it,and with your series management the grids will fill up.Instead of wasting time trying to find tracks that your tuning restricted car will work on,pick the best tracks and use the tools available and adapt the car to the circuit.

Teams could be created to pair tuners and spec'rs together to alleviate the fears that the "magic setup" might beat them,and they might even learn something new.Open discussion in the race thread would help keep interest and sharing setups will create a tighter group.There is only so far paint chip discussion will take a thread and fill a practice room on a Thursday night.

When the parity racing idea got started, they made a competition for the lowest pp car used in the race.

 

[dsgerbc]

I'm kinda confused. Between two unrelated discussions here and in the 1.24hr thread, which one's more related to what's coming next?
P.S. parity racing is fine, but not my cup of tea.

 

[BrandonW77]

Never done parity, but it looks like a lot of fun and something I would be very willing to try out. In regards to 'tuning' (I think that words always used in the wrong context) I don't think it's really much of an issue, I never think it takes more than 10 minutes to get a car to go ballpark how you want it to and I highly doubt it's beyond the skills of literally anyone. Regardless, allowing for set-up or stock would not bother me at all in my interest to give it a try, so if you want to organise something then count me in.

The parity racing was great fun, but it also took away a bit of the edge because winning didn't always have to do with talent or skill. But it was geared more towards enjoying the competition than striving for the victory.

I hope my earlier post didn't sound to anti-tuning, I don't hate on tuners and I don't feel like my way of doing things is superior. Tuning just isn't my flavor and for me it lessens my enjoyment of the game. I also don't like skins in my mashed potatoes and prefer my coffee black but I certainly don't expect everyone else to enjoy the same things.

I'm kinda confused. Between two unrelated discussions here and in the 1.24hr thread, which one's more related to what's coming next?
P.S. parity racing is fine, but not my cup of tea.

Probably the BMW thread, I'm planning to make that into a short series. Here I'm just throwing things against the wall to get an idea of where to go after that. Seems like it will be easy/quick to just convert the BMW spot race into a series so I'll do that just to get something up and running.

 

[Marcus Garvey]

Can't we have a discussion about how it is entertaining to view the camber in the photo on the iracing website homepage? I want to talk about that.

Otherwise, I'll likely be round for what materialises. Obviously, I'm a fan of tuning prohibited spec racing, but I'll be in for whatever.

 

[BrandonW77]

I'll just leave this here for all to discuss.

 

[Marcus Garvey]

Mad stanced, yo.

 

[Johnnypenso]

So when are you going to revive DNE??

I don't have much time to race lately or even drive, so organizing anything is pretty much a non-starter for me. Parity was a lot of fun, closest racing by far you can ever get and if one is into close racing and not having winning as a goal every race, it's a great concept. I remember at one point I think I went 24 races in a row without winning but I enjoyed every one of them as much as or more than any races I've ever won in any setting

 

[dsgerbc]

Party racing would've been 100% more fun for me if GT's tire model punished getting loose adequately. As is, with barely a tenth of a second lost from major oversteers etc, to overtake someone not having a major off you'd have to do for passes I'd rather not see done on myself.

Anyway, do we need to test any tracks/fuel tire wear on those before settling on a schedule for the mini-series? I need a reason to turn on PS3.

 

[BrandonW77]

I've done some testing and the tracks I've selected are Daytona Road, Silverstone GP, Nurb. GP/F and la Sarthe (2009 or 2013, I know the latter has frame rate issues in the final chicanes). If you want you can give me your opinion on them and let me know if you think any other tracks would be a better fit. I didn't think the car handled good at Spa (understeered right off the track a few times) and it was a bit hair-raising at Brands Hatch. I also tried it on Ascari and Bathurst but didn't feel like either of those would produce very clean racing in this car. If you think those 4 tracks are ok then you can give me an idea of a lap count for each that would result in a 40-45 minute race.

 

[dsgerbc]

Ok, I'll run some laps. Maybe a pre-season race soon?

 

[BrandonW77]

If you want to get really involved you can figure out time progression settings at Daytona, Nurb GP/F and la Sarthe that would go from day-to-night-today in 45 minutes.

We could do a preseason race, I don't think many were going to be around this weekend so it would probably have to be this Tuesday and/or next Saturday? Maybe Indy Road for a preseason track? My crack IT staff has informed me that work is underway on the scoring/tracking applications. 👍

 

[dsgerbc]

If you want to get really involved you can figure out time progression settings at Daytona, Nurb GP/F and la Sarthe that would go from day-to-night-today in 45 minutes.

I thought it was simple, provided the track is coded for a complete 24hr cycle. Set it at X and get X minutes of track clock per 1 real minute, no?
Unless your question is 'at what time per track clock is sunrise/sunset on those tracks?'

 

[BrandonW77]

Don't think it works that way. There's some logic to it but I've never been able to nail it down. The progression can be from 1-60 with 60 being the fastest. I do know that if you set it at 30 then 1 "hour" will elapse in 2 real-time minutes but it doesn't seem to scale logically from there.

3 of those tracks have full 24hr cycle and I believe Silverstone only goes from 06:00 to 19:00. To do day-night-day for the 1.24 hour race I had to start at 08:00 and set the progression at 23 but this resulted in more than a 24hr cycle (race would have finished around 17:00 the next day).

 

[dsgerbc]

I tried setting it to 15 and to 40. Seems to work as described, that is - 15 or 40 in-game minutes per real one. There's some track-dependent start-up error, where the in-game clock starts ticking before the room timer starts (top right on the screen when on the track), but the increments are spot-on in practice and in race.

Ran some laps at the Nurb and LaSarthe.
GP/F is terrible at night. PD's new lighting model transforms concrete blocks in the chicane into a bunch of blinding projectors. Pace-wise, during the day quicker guys would probably be doing 2:02 or under. At night it was hard for me to put together a sub-2:04 lap.

It gets dark around 9:40pm and sunrise is around 5-30am.

LaSarthe is better at night than it used to be since the fireworks are no longer obnoxiously bright. It gets dark around 10-40pm-ish and the sunrise is about 5-30am.

The car is pretty evil here, easily spinning out, so the only lap I was able to put together w/o crashing was mid-4:18.

 

[BrandonW77]

I never looked at the time progression that way, makes sense now.

I love GP/F at night, that's where I've been going when I just want to cruise around. I don't remember la Sarthe being evil, thought it was pretty good. I'll re-test it tomorrow.

Did you have frame rate issues in the final chicanes at la Sarthe? I'm normally not bothered by them but I experienced a really bad drop on the 2013 version.

 

[dsgerbc]

If you go over some pretty flat-looking curbs while doing any kind hard cornering under power - it spins and it's almost impossible to save. I didn't have anything unusual, I was alone though.

 

[BrandonW77]

I only did a couple laps, I'll give it a more thorough testing.

 

[dsgerbc]

To be clear, I have no issues with running LaSarthe, I'm just warning that curbs seem to unsettle the car. GP/F bright concrete blocks in the chicane are annoying, that's all. Better pick a starting time so that the field is spread out by the time it gets dark there.

 

[RDAardvark]

To be clear, I have no issues with running LaSarthe, I'm just warning that curbs seem to unsettle the car. GP/F bright concrete blocks in the chicane are annoying, that's all. Better pick a starting time so that the field is spread out by the time it gets dark there.

I was having trouble with kerbs at Daytona - Like driving onto ice. Ok, mostly this was due to my strange driving lines but in my defence I was using a DS3 which I hate. I've since got a wheel and am now finding I can take a more conventional racing line around the circuit!

 

[dsgerbc]

I've since got a wheel and am now finding I can take a more conventional racing line around the circuit!

Congrats! Whatcha got?

 

[RDAardvark]

Congrats! Whatcha got?

Just a second hand DFGT. I got over-ruled on the g27!

 

[dsgerbc]

Just a second hand DFGT. I got over-ruled on the g27!

Don't despair, getting foot in the door is the most important step. And then there are birthdays/anniversaries and Christmases.

 

[Johnnypenso]

If you go over some pretty flat-looking curbs while doing any kind hard cornering under power - it spins and it's almost impossible to save. I didn't have anything unusual, I was alone though.

Praiano has done some testing and found that the curbs he tested actually have more grip than the tarmac. I'm sure he didn't test every curb but it explains a lot of the curb behaviour people are finding.

 

[BrandonW77]

Which curbs at la Sarthe are causing problems? I drove 5 laps around the 2009 version Saturday, I tried to abuse every curb I could and never spun or had any issues. The only spin I had was due to hamfooting the throttle coming out of the Mulsanne corner and I didn't touch any curb, purely driver error.

The frame rate drop at the final chicanes didn't seem as bad on the 2009 version so we'd probably use that one.

 

[RDAardvark]

I've not tried La Sarthe in GT6 as yet, but there certainly seem to be some icy kerbs at Tsukuba and Daytona. Try touching the inside kerb of the last corner at Tsukuba.

Interesting to see we've found another word which differs depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on.

 

[Naptown25rs]

I've not tried La Sarthe in GT6 as yet, but there certainly seem to be some icy kerbs at Tsukuba and Daytona. Try touching the inside kerb of the last corner at Tsukuba.

Interesting to see we've found another word which differs depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on.

I've ran hundreds of laps at Tsukuba and Daytona, both online and off and have never noticed any issues with the curbs... But if your driving is anything like your spelling, I can see why you're having issues...

 

[MC-Chase]

^Got to agree with Naptown here,

I find the kerbs on the final corner of Tuskuba to provide the same grip as the race track. What throws (the Rocket I tried with) into oversteer from my eye is the fact you tend to hit the kerb first with your right-front tire, this bump throws an inertia shift and you end up throwing all the work on your left-rear tire.

 

[RDAardvark]

I found with the Rocket, and with the beemer, the front tyre was ok when it hit the kerb; when the rear tyre made contact, grip was lost. At Daytona Road, this was most noticable on the penultimate corner of the infield section; the left front tyre can make contact without any problem but should the left rear just touch the kerb, around I go. Maybe it's just me!