Spa Fun Race - High capacity server

[Simon Gymer]

There will be a fun race on Tuesday night here are the details:
Server: UKGTR (Avonrise)
Password: usual practice password
Track: Spa (Dusk)
Weather: Dry
Race Lenght: 30 mins
Time: 9pm (UK Time), please arrive around 9pm for start of qualifying
Car choice: Any

Although this is a fun race, please follow the rules as per any championship race.
There is capacity for 30 drivers at the moment.
As it's Spa Dusk please turn on your driving lights to make it easier to spot each other and please be very careful at the pit exit (both drivers passing the pit exit as well as drivers exiting the pit, Spa has a particularly dangerous pit exit)

Thanks to Picnic for the server.

[Zacari]

Cool!  I've got a pool comp. that evening but I'll try and get back for 9 ish.

[popabawa]

Having never tried Spa Dusk before, just had a blast. That is SO much more difficult than the daytime version!

Thank goodness it's going to be dry!

[BiBo69]

Having never tried Spa Dusk before, just had a blast. That is SO much more difficult than the daytime version!

I should have done about 6 laps at SPA (daytime)
How can the dusk vesrion being more difficult? Are the sight problems?
I have an orrible PC (the championship may be the excuse for an upgrade) so I hope I can see the road. 

[Aagramn]

How can the dusk vesrion being more difficult? Are the sight problems?

It's more difficult to spot your braking points. It helps if you get the gamma settings in your graphics driver right, the dark shades in the colour wheel should be just distinguishable instead of appearing as a black hole.

[PaulW]

I think I see more with the headlights off what with the headlights not actually lighting anything up in this game but  rather tweaking the levels a bit (for all you Photoshop'ers out there). Fair enough though, we need to see each other!

Look forward to it. I'll NGT it both so that I can get more race practice in teh Porsche and also so I can get used to being passed a lot by 550's

[popabawa]

After a bit more practice...

It's not too bad driving behind another car, what gets REALLY hard is when you have nothing in front of you, especially that long straight after Eau Rouge, I find getting the braking point there really tricky anyway but with the reduced visibility it's horrible!

Still, Dusk seems to have slightly better visibiity than Dawn. Haven't dared try Night yet! <shudder>

Pops

[Simon Gymer]

There is an option in the game (i think it's graphics options) that allows you to adjust the "darkness" level, this is the best way to make it easier to see in the dark. Yes the lights on the cars suck big time, something they are fixing in GT Legends with the proper DX9 engine.

Still you shouldn't have too much difficulty seeing in the Dusk setting so try turning this down to make it lighter (I think it affects dusk as well as night).

Night-time Spa is great fun, a good test of driver skill. Unfortunately last time we tried full night time there were lots of graphics problems for people in multiplayer.

There are a few shots from the last Spa (Dusk) fun race we had here if you want to look...
UKGTR Fun Race Gallery

[AdrianD]

I don't mind the dark, I particularly like dawn, so natural

I set the dark as dark as it will go in the game, I find the contrast better and I can somehow focus better, in a concentration sense in the dark.

I think the important thing to get right is the room lighting, I have a dimmer switch and I take some time to adjust it so that the screen just dominates the rest of the desk.

One problem though, the section of the track after the main straight after Eau Rouge, the twisty bit that cuts deep into the hill, I get bad stutter there, the only stutter I have anywhere and it's worse at night

[popabawa]

Ahhh, I'll have a play with the gamma setting to see if that helps - dunno why I didn't think of that before.

Doesn't really help that the room my PC's in is quite bright and I do get a good bit of reflection on the screen during the day, especially in the morning. Unfortunately, our (somewhat huge)curtains were designed more as decorative than functional so drawing them closed is a major hassle and Mrs Pops will notice in an instant if they aren't put back according to her exacting specifications

I'll have another punt this evening when the sun's in a more GTR friendly spot .

Pops.

[Simon Gymer]

One problem though, the section of the track after the main straight after Eau Rouge, the twisty bit that cuts deep into the hill, I get bad stutter there, the only stutter I have anywhere and it's worse at night

How much memory do you have?
And have you tried changing the VBSTRATEGY line in your config.ini file, some people, even with ninja systems can alleviate stutter with that.

[AdrianD]

I'm running an Athlon64 3200 with 1gig memory and a 9800pro

What is the VBSTRATEGY line for?

[Aagramn]

Think VB stands for vertex buffer. Something to do with how the game uses the graphics card, there should be something about it on the Simbin technical support forum.

[Mark Harrison]

I would be there, but Tuesday's the one night I can't do, so I'll have to give this one a miss

[Iain]

i should be there