rFactor2 Special: Modern F2's @ Silverstone Nov.24

[maiph]

Sorry to Ralph for T1 in the 2nd race. I didn't want to move to the left having seen what could happen in the first race but then was faced with the sudden realisation that what is an easily flat corner from the correct line is rather tight when approached from right of centre

no problem Rik, I sensed you were there on the inside so I feathered a little hoping to slot in behind but misjudged it by inches. Slight contact but enough to get sideways. I thought everyone had passed so I floored it to turn around and was clobbered by a late-arrival, which I did not see due to visible-vehicles settings, and maybe also a 6-pint-hangover did not help . A valuable lesson. Shame though, I was really starting to enjoy the car and track. Cyas tomoz.

[Bogdan]

Spent another 30 min messing around with these. Using Rouke's original setup with some tweaks for the toe and brakes, I finally managed to get into the low 1:47's and was starting to get quite frustrated about my inability to get closer to the really fast times. I feel a bit silly for not bothering with the ride height. Rik - thanks for pointing it out. I will try it later.

My schedule is very uncertain for tomorrow. There's a high likelihood that I won't be able to make the race, so apologies in advance. I will try hard to move some things around and hopefully be there.

[Rick Stratton]

Thanks Bret and Rik for the ride height tip! Picked up nearly 2 sec instantly.
What on earth were they thinking with that default setup being so jacked up?

[Rouke]

I got the impression all things under the hood where 'official' as per licence and changes they made in post production where illegal....

But, Tim loves to talk cryptic so who knows what he really meant

[Bogdan]

Big difference with the ride height adjustment. Thanks, Rik and Bret for the information.

However, I still don't get the right feel for my liking with these cars. I've enjoyed every car that we've tried so for in rF2, but these F2s just don't give me the necessary feedback. I know you guys were thinking about using these for a Legends Championship, but if I had my choice the F2 would not be it. In any case, I will try to run whatever you guys decide down the road.

[Rouke]

server set to 31, yet half the field is not a driver???

anyone?

[Rik Walker]

Sorry guys, I can't be doing with a system so obviously bugged to hell and not fit for purpose. Thx for trying Rouke but I just don't see the point with rF2 atm - and certainly not with an open server with fields that are presumably too big for the server to cope with.

Can't drive when session changes, grid setting doesn't work, no start lights or klaxons. Complete waste of my time.

[Rouke]

Meh, it was a bit of everything tonight but nothing we cannot fix Rik.

Who would have thought 25 drivers eh? that's asking for trouble on a public server. it will be better once we move to passworded.
As for Lights, that's track dependant, in a series we would not use it would we? or accept the bug. (and I could hear claxons btw)
Grid settings worked perfectly in other events, I think it was due to all the car-changing we had to do.

So all in all, too many pickup racers to have good races, we knew that already. maybe too many cars but I feel the server hold up pretty well although there where some weird lag-induced incidents. was behind a car, half a car-length, and I rammed him without even getting close.

Next event we can do with a password, and let peeps sign up?

[DaleB]

Actually, I had starter lights for all three races, as for the cars not being able to get on, we've never run into that in all the rFactor2 races we've run and it was only when we moved to qualifying, yes we need to find out what happened there. And yes, the racing sucked in the first laps but we had a no passworded server and this is what happens on a public server, that why I race in leagues where the racing can be monitored. When was the last time a Legends server had to deal with 25 plus cars, that was awesome seeing that. We do that with a league server and we'll have some fun racing. That mod is awesome, fun racing and pushing those cars.

[Rouke]

Rik was referring to pole position and starting lights.

25 drivers is nice yeah, but a tad worrying it was not smooth enough. rf1 40+, rf2...20 tops? that's not good for a league.
I see loads of lag-reports on the ISI servers and they all seem to be about 28+ drivers etc.

But then again, we had Silverstone, I think other tracks should be better.

[Rik Walker]

Not just from pole, Rouke. Back in 18th the start lights were so far away & tiny that they were all but invisible and I couldn't see if they were lighting up or not. I would be disappointed in a hobbyist track maker not ensuring the start lights were properly visible from all grid positions but for an official release??

FWIW, I reckon that the need to transmit all the real road data is killing the server as much as anything else. When I had to rejoin at the start of qual & warm-up it took ages for the real road to be fully populated with the existing data. Going from full rubber to no rubber in the middle of a corner doesn't exactly make for a pleasing - or useful - driving experience . If it is trying to transmit it all to every client at the start of a session then that might explain why it just can't cope and effectively kicked so many of us. tbh, if we could just have a constant pre-built rubbered in racing line instead of the 'real road' feature I reckon it would be better all round for online racing and user-friendly non-time-wasting testing.

But the bottom line is that I really don't see why I or anyone else should put up with the sort of aggro we had tonight. Too many similarities to the sort of issues we had back when trying to get the first multiplayer racing sims working online over 15 years ago. Those experiments were doomed to fail because the requirements (basically a LAN) were too much for the internet & dial-up connections to cope with. I get the impression that rF2 hasn't been developed with a realistic expectation of what the internet can offer in the foreseeable future at a realistic price.

[Bogdan]

Sorry to have missed qualifying. I rushed to get home and barely made the first race. However, I should have learned my lesson when we ran the Howstons. I missed qualifying then too, and started from the back. On an open server it's an absolute nightmare to do that. What has happened to reasonable driving etiquette? I got punted while going along on the straight in the first race. I recovered and made it up to 4th, then someone spun in front of me and never bothered to apply the brakes. He rolled right back onto the track and collected me. The second race I never made it past T2.

I absolutely enjoy racing with all of you, but if these open races turn out this way it's really not worth the time. It's quite frustrating to rush through real life commitments and then get home only to end up being taken out in the first few corners. Compare the race 2 weeks ago with today's. Night and day difference.

On the positive side, rF2 runs great for me. Sorry to hear about your issues Rik. I think it's a great platform and the physics are what's pulling me in. These F2 cars are just not my cup of tea however. I would take the 60's F2s any day.

B.

[Rouke]

Agreed Bogdan. Its a lottery in public racing, sometimes it go's well, other times not so much. and having 25 drivers was totally unexpected

Rik, yes I forgot about real road not showing, I had the same when rejoining quali.
Keep in mind this was Silverstone and with 25 cars. that combo is just not good. i'm pretty sure things can be much better then tonight.

But, it is possible to set rubber as we want. if we would prepare a rubber file and set all sessions to that and not-progressive, we would have exactly what you suggested. its an option.

[Bogdan]

Well, I think the progressive real road is one of the great things about rF2. Sometime Qualy has low grip, but then during the race, as the rubber builds up, the dynamics change. It would be unfortunate if we were forced to remove this feature. These things are what currently separate rF2 from the run of the mill titles. It makes me feel like I'm truly part of a race weekend.

So what's really the bottleneck? I did not have any problems whatsoever and since I wasn't there I don't know what happened in Qualy. I was getting 80-90 FPS when I started at the back of the gird. I agree with Rik - I could not see the starting lights, but I looked for tire smoke from the cars up ahead.

Anyway, my frustration with today's event is subsiding . After I got taken out at T2 in the second race, I went and turned some laps in Assetto Corsa and everything got back to normal.

Let me know what the track/car combo is in 2 weeks. I have little time to practice, but if I know in advance, then I can figure out how to maximize my time.

Later,
B.

[Grant Riddall]

I was on pole after the grid edit and i was in clear sight of the lights. Like easily could see them.

Second race i was 6th and again i could easily see the lights. I had all graphics on max settings so could this be a graphics setting?