SimRacing.org.uk

GTR2 Fun Race at Zhuhai

Date: Monday 18th September

Practice 1: 8:15pm (30 mins)
Qual 2: 8:45pm (15 mins)
Warmup: 9:00pm (2 mins)
Race: 9:02pm (20 mins)

Cars allowed: Any 2003 or 2004 GT car
Weather: Dry
Track: Zhuhai

Server: Simracing.org.uk
Password: usual practice password (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2929)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=7) - especially the new speed limiter starting procedure.
(3) Thought Zuhai would be a good place to start, as it's a very easy track to learn.

Awesome! I'll be there  ;D

Excellent idea Aagramn !....cool, i'll be along for this one, hehe and we get some track time at a new circuit before everyone else does :P

Shame there is no Aston  :'(...hope someone creates the standalone quickly to compete with the Massa's
Now to choose a car... :-\

If it arrives and if I get time to install it before the Comet race and if that race finishes on time I'll join in.

Lot of "if"s there. :D

The server is now set to GT cars at Zhuhai if anyone wants to practise.

Oh.. just noticed it's GT's only  :'( ???

Can we have NGT's too? Pretty please  :-*

[EDIT: In the race as well as practice]

I've allowed NGT class on the server but I see race is limited to GTs! Was this intentional Aagramn? only a few of you have the game just now.

I thought it was a good idea to restrict the car classes, as not many of us have the game yet and you need good numbers for multi-class racing. And since I prefer GTs, I went for them first. ;) I was intending to make the next race NGTs only. After that, I thought something like 350Zs Vs TVRs might be worth a try.

I also think that alternating between new and known tracks would be a good idea, so we have time to learn the new ones.

OK, no problem, I was thinking this would be more like a test session than a proper race.

Gutted - I'm playing badminton 8-10 so I'm gonna miss this :(

Hope you guys have fun.

*Crosses fingers that the postman actually turns up tomorrow and I can install with no problems*  ???

Though Aagramn makes a fair case ;D, wouldn't it be better to open it to all classes as not many people have the game atm and we may want as many to turn up as poss?

If you are treating it as a race, even a fun one, you're better off having a smaller selection of cars, otherwise there will be 8 people who never see each other. Even if this is more just trying it out you still wanna have fun right?

Well, I'm happy to just try it out to see what happens with lag, frame rates etc. I don't think there's really much point trying to have even a fun race with maybe 8 of us  :-\

But if it's GT's only I'd rather do some NGT testing offline as I've hardly played the game yet and don't want to spend the evening with a car I have no intention of driving very often!

Well, I've had some very enjoyable races with just a few cars on track. All is needed is a car or two with similar pace to yourself. Why not give the GTs a try Popa, you might like them? It's not like GTR1, where moving between the classes is a big learning curve. I struggle to drive the 911 in GTR1, but in GTR2 it was much easier to pick up. I'd recommend the Lister or Corvette as they are very predictable.

Fell at the first hurdle! :laugh:

Hopefully tomorrow.

Is the Vette going to be allowed for this?

Thanks for the tip Aagramn, I'll give the Lister a crack tonight, don't want to miss out on the fun :)

I guess so - we'll have to review the classifications once more of us have got the game...

Yep, I'll make sure the Corvette is available.

Glad you can make it Popa.

That was excellent! (apart from me hitting Edam on the 1st lap :( Sorry mate)

FPS good, extremely smooth (which you'd expect as there was only 5 of us!), nice bit of low sun to blind us through T1  8)

These cars are NOT easy to drive fast, it takes a real effort to wring every ounce of speed out of them.

Big thumbs up from me so far :)

Not trying to rub it in pops, but what was the online collision model like? :angel: :laugh:

It felt about right I think, the cars seemed a bit well... heavier.

I hit Edam as he was turning in which span him a bit (but not excessively like GTR) as I sailed into the gravel which took me *ages* to get out of!  :D

That was fun, although it's a shame we only had 5 turn up. Bit of a lonely race for me, but I enjoyed my moment of glory. Think that's the first time I've won a race since we were testing GTR on home servers when it first came out. My sneaky practise session and race against the AI yesterday paid off.  ;) We tried a standing start since there were so few of us. Instead of the 30 second countdown we are used to, it went into the start light sequence soon after the last player joined (I think). I got a good start from pole and pulled away from the pack. Got a suprise after a few laps when the setting sun started to blind us at T1. Could still make out my braking point though, it seems much better in that respect than GTL. After that I concentrated on getting the most out of the F550, was lapping in the mid 1:29s consistantly.

Popa took soft tyres for the race. They didn't overheat, wonder how many laps you could do on a set?

Saw one problem in the practise session, where Don's times didn't seem to be registering until he reconnected, we'll have to watch out for that one.

Thanks for showing NGT Legends guys & Edam. Next time it's your turn to trounce me in some NGTs. I look forward to some races with larger grids.  :)

That was quite a fun race, and bloody hard too - I don't remember GTR being that hard!

I'd only done some of the driving school runs, and some laps in practice for Zuhai, and I wasn't sure what sort of lights/beeps/countdown/whatever were going to show at the start, so I was a bit caught out, then after a few corners I got harpooned ;) No problems Pops, it only turned my arse around a little, and I did enough of that myself later on :o

I took the Lambojambo because it's the only one I can drive reasonably fast at that track without falling of every other corner. It's a bugger of a track actually, there's a few left handers which just look tighter than they are, and the temptation is to go slower or tighter through them, which leaves you slow on the exit. Truly a circuit that sorts the men from the boys. Aagramn was a big man tonight ;)

Gravel is a pig to get out of if you bury yourself, as it probably should be, but the damage I received from my shunt, and hitting the wall later on was minimal - I guess we're on the 'GTL' style damage model unless we turn it up somehow.

I finished 2nd, and I think I had the 2nd fastest lap, but to be honest I was all over the road, and have a LOT of work to do to catch up with Mr. A :P

We have been running all of our GTL races with a time start of 6pm ingame.  The dusk setting seems to be popular with people, the lighting change and sun glare makes it a bit more challenging - glad you guys seemed to take it in stride, I think it makes for a more interesting race.

Usual style replay (http://www.ukgtr.org/replay/Zhuhai%20-%20Fun%20060918.zip) available

Can we view these full game replays through the demo?

Did any of the export data come out? I suppose Gizz is working hard on getting a template set-up.

Do the replays have cars with wheels on this time?

We got moaned at a lot when we tried GTL online races with night or dusk settings cause people wouldn't turn down graphics settings to get smooth FPS, so we now only run daytime. I do hope the same doesn't happen with GTR 2. Would be a massive shame not to use rain or night time.

The track and not all the cars are in the demo, so no.

As you so rightly guessed, in Dave's capable hands now. I expect there's lots to do, not least sorting out the core fixed data, cars tracks etc. that he uses to cross-check I'm importing the right data for the right event!

I'd already set the tracks and new cars up, although car classes are still to be decided. The reference data isn't really very different from GTR1 and all the shared cars, tracks, tyres and so on can be reused.

The data is extremely simiilar to GTR1, which is both convenient and disappointing. :-\

Initial results are here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&event=217) - don't worry about the tyres not being there, it's not a problem with the exports, I just don't know what they are. :D Have a look and report anything which is Bad, Very Bad, or Disasterously Wrong^TM.

Was good fun and great to see the new game in action and anger for the first time. Shame only 5 of us turned up but hey ho.
Unlike the other 4 who had obviously been using driving school previously ::) , i turned up with no practise or track knowledge of Zhuhai and was promptly out qualied by Pops and Don in the GT's much to Pops amusement  ;D
Fortunately for me they took each other out on the first lap  :P

Totally agree with Edams verdict on the track, it will make for some great racing with a full grid. It felt quite tiring even for 20 minutes, hence me re-appraising my early impression of the physics modelling  :-[ I was really pushing and still well off Aargramns pace (tho i am sure his extensive testing gave him a fair advantage :-\ ::)), and the Lister was on the edge quite a few times. I found the Lister much much better than GTR1, you no longer feel like your hanging out the drivers window whilst steering !  :)
Good test all round really, the Lister sounded good too. (just fix that bloody TVR 'milk-float' sound !!)
Loved the sunlight glinting at T1 too.

The data looks spot-on Dave (yes, Aagramn did lap me :'()

I agree with the other guys, Zhuhai seems like a very decent track for league racing.

Don't know if this is the place for it - but are we likely to have another fun race in GTR2 in the future?  I'm gutted I missed this one, and after running a few laps at Zuhai, I'm really looking forward to racing there.

Maybe we could run an NGT race at Valencia (I'm guessing not too many people will be overly familiar with the track), or even in Elises.  The Valencia track lends itself to the "slower" cars as the infield bit is really quite rammed full of slower corners - although I'm sure after a couple more laps things would start to be a bit easier.

My other thought was a race at Donnington National, nice short laps on a very familiar track - maybe just running Porkers (seeing as there are a couple to choose from).

I think Aagramn mentioned an NGT race next week Adam :) Valancia would be a nice choice.

I'm intrigued to see if the GT3-RSR will blow the other NGT's away, I hope not :-\

Hopefully there can be a couple more people turning up (me for one!).

Is it likely to be taking place on a Monday again - Mondays & Wednesdays are generally out for me that's all.  Seeing as there are only a select few who've got GTR2 at the moment (obviously we're the real sim racing fans) I'm guessing there might be a bit more flexibility when it can be run.

Adam, dont know if you or others are about tonight ?  I wouldnt mind a further testing of GTR2 using some NGT's this time. So would be happy for a fun race again.
Have retired from GTR1 now as it wasnt worth reinstalling it all on new rig for last couple of elise races.

Tonight's probably no good.  I'm meant to be going over to a friends house to play poker (it's his last real night of freedom before getting married this weekend) - and failing that I'd be running the the Elise race.

As for not reinstalling GTR - aren't you planning on entering the fairwell race at Spa?

Sadly SIMBIN don't seem to have developed a server that is multi-game friendly :( There maybe a good reason for that but seems strange to me. Thus for official races we only run that one server. For testing/practice there are so few on that running 2 servers has not caused performance problems (yet).

So Tues/Thurs are out due to Elise/GTL races. Sundays are rF and this week Friday is a nKpro race. Next week seems clearer but I believe there will be another Elise race Tuesday. I won't schedule another nKpro Friday as in theory the rest of us will be pleasured via a delivery of GTR2.

Yes, the calendar is pretty full at the moment. Could I schedule an NGT fun race for next Monday?

Thats fine by me Aagramn. I'll be there  8)

Adam, no sorry, no fairwell race for me. I would have had to install GTR, the patches, car sets and configure etc on the new rig and it just does not seem worth it now i have GTR2. I am amazed anyone will want to race the old game once they install and try the new. Surely a 'welcome to GTR2' race at Spa would have been a better idea  :-\
Hope you guys have a good race all the same.  :angel:

Next Monday sounds good to me too, I'll definately try to be there :)

Most people won't get GTR 2 till it's actually released! I don't particularly think it's a good idea to replace a race that has been scheduled for ages that should get high turnout with a race where only a handful of people can actually turn up due to the game not being out yet.

 :cursing: :cursing:

Shark...no offence meant mate, i always appreciate you guys administration efforts  8)  Obviously my circumstances were altered by the arrival of the new pc otherwise i would have joined in too  :angel:

I just thought that by the 24th, 'most' of ukgtr's racers would have got their copies of GTR2  :-\

The release date is the 29th.
And I thought my maths was bad.  :-*

D'oh....i thought it had only been postponed until the 22nd  ???

Blimey, dont know why you lot dont get on the e-bay mans case and get it sooner like us other impatient buggers ? ;)

I totally agree about the "Welcome to GTR2" race (that we should have one, not that it should replace waving goodbye to GTR) - although quite when it would be depends on when everyone else gets their hands on it.....and in the meantime, I'm more than willing to help test GTR2's online capabilities :D

No comment.  :(

TT

I'm not that desperate to get an updated version of a game I already have. I'm sure it's better and worth the money but I have plenty to do in the mean time. I'd rather save £7 getting it for under £18 and wait a few more days. I bought 2 copies of GTR last time getting the German version 5 months early and then the UK one, I see no reason to do the same for the sake of a few days, we're not talking months here. There are so many other races to compete in this week and next there is no time for GTR or GTR 2 anyway.

Besides I'm only one person. Most people racing won't even be reading this, know about getting it off Ebay or again care that much. They'll get it when they get it.

Next Monday would be good for me, I'm on mornings, so plenty of time in evening, sorry I couldn't be there Monday, was on afternoons, but due to people off on the sick and stuff, I'm doing 12 hour days this week so lots of time to praccy!   ;D