SimRacing.org.uk

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Car/Track download available by pm to WT

Track: '67 Bathurst (Mount Panorama)

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (20 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not required

Server: simracing.org.uk Wednesdays
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

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 SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None.

CAR OWNERS

NOTE: #37 removed.

#14 - WT
#99 - Erling G-P
#302 - Daz9
#1 - fpolicardi
#15 - Geoffers
#40 - roguk
#9 - Dimitar Dulichki
#45 - EvilClive
#33 - seniordan
#18 - phspok
#28 - SpecialKS
#8 - Robby82
#40 - Christian Dauger
#83 - Hristo Itchov
#102 - Paddler

I may have to miss this one guy's. The day before this event I'm due to get my Covid booster shot and I may get the psuedo man flu side effect.

EDIT: Sorry guys, feeling rough, so will not be attending. Have a good race.

Get well soon Tony and take care of yourself !

Damn, completely forgot this race...and I didn't keep the car file...(I don't have any sound !!) :-\

And, good healing Tony


Edit : it's ok !

Hope you soon feel better Tony!

Please take care and get well soon. :)

Yep, get well soon Tony, hope it is just a short lived reaction to the vaccine. Going for mine next Wednesday.

Congrats to Hristo on the race & championship victory & to Erling & Matt on the podium.  :clap: :clap: :clap:

My race was predictably short, great track that it is I always struggle with Bathurst & to be honest much prefer the modern version, this one just feels a bit bland. I am currently also struggling with getting a good FFB feel in GTL with my new wheel, there are no recommended settings for it in such an old sim so it is a bit of trial & error to get it right, but I will get there eventually.

Sorry to hear about DD's illness and Tony's reaction.......I trust that both of you feel better soon.

I can understand Geoffer's frustration re his new wheel. I'm sure that he will get things sorted faster than I did, but I cannot explain or describe how the Thrustmaster feels/responds so differently to my old Logitech. I know that the new one is belt drive and the old Logitech was plastic geared, but that does not quite seem to provide the reason.
Geoffers is a very smooth driver, I make no claims about my usual style but I find that I am having to adapt towards Geoffers method in order to find some pace.
 Last night's race at Bathurst with big V8's promised some close racing.......until Hristo installed a turbo!!! Stunning lap times H!  

My race was compromised by old driving habits sneaking back into the car. I must concentrate on my brking and smooth acceleration ( it was giving 3-4 secs difference at Bathurst ) Ultimately it was lack of fuel that scuppered things, which was only discovered after I had a spin and dropped to the back of the field. Chasing Christian I glanced at the laps left and the current fuel.... :scared: :scared: :scared: The calculation was wrong by about a lap, which is a long way around Bathurst so I had to back off and short shift if I wanted to see the flag.

Christian had an inverted moment and I was promoted to a lonely 4th, but I crossed the line with the engine coughing  ;D

Another great series Tony  :thumbup2:

I maybe in the same boat re: TM wheel.

When I use my old G25 in Southport I am often faster than the much more expensive
"superior" Tm wheel at home. The TM is bigger, but other than that If I practice with the G25
then go home and use the TM, I find it too different

What setting do you guys use in game? In the controls menu you get the choice of (if I remember correctly) joystick, keyboard & wheel & 4 specialised settings for wheels of the era. I used to use one of the Logitech ones for my G29, but have no idea what to use for a Fanatec wheel.

Bathurst is always a challenge - so much potential for screwing up, which perhaps was reflected in last night's attrition rate.

In pre race praccy, I dipped into the 2:15s for the first time, and was surprised to see myself closely grouped with Geoffers & Hristo.  Come qualy, the latter was soon back to his otherworldly self, posting a suitably unbelievable 2:12 time.  Would have loved to see a replay of that.

Tried my best to find the very delicate start balance between bogging down & completely smoking the rear tyres. Mucked it up and bogged down, but had gotten ahead of Clive again when we arrived at T1, only to run wide onto the grass, on cold tyres, losing 3 places in the process.  Got one back when Dan lost control at the cork screw. Another one next lap when Clive repeated my T1 mistake.  Exiting the canyon, Matt ran wide, dipping into the ditch & losing momentum, which allowed me to slip past.

Thus back in my original position, being the meat in an expanding Geoffers-Matt sandwich.  Then a dust cloud indicated trouble for Geoffers, letting me inherit 2nd.  Didn't look too bad, so surprised to see him leave shortly after. Replay shows him losing control in weird way at the cork screw, so maybe the car was damaged after all.

Had a 3-sec gap to Matt, and it seemed clear I would have to work to keep it. However, he must have had trouble, as it first jumped to 5-6 secs and then to 9 secs.  Thus had a comfortable gap, but tossed it all away by putting a wheel outside the track.  Car spun, I tried to continue when it was facing the right way, but the car had other ideas; continued rotating until it faced the wrong way.  By the time I had it righted and going again, Matt caught up and passed.   Chased him over the remaining lap and the next. Slipstream on the long straight only helped partially, as we both hit top speed.  Had to try an outbrake into the final corner.  Succeded, mostly by being in the way I think. Hope the move wasn't too aggressive/ambitious/optimistic. Could then proceed to build a gap again, while trying not to step out of line again.

Grats to Hristo on his distant win, to Matt on the podium & to the few who finished.  Commiserations to the early retirees.

Didn't know DD was ill, so a get well soon to him also

Thanks for all the good wishes guy's  :thumbup1:  Feeling much improved this morning.

Yes Geoffers, just a short lived reaction which affects very few people. The booster jab will leave your arm quite sore fore a couple of days. Unfortunately I also get flu like symptoms too  ::)

Results and replay now posted.

FINAL CLASSIFICATIONS

Winner - Hristo Itchov
Runner up - Geoffers

Thank you to everyone who took part in this series  :notworthy:

I got mild flu symptoms for a day after the first jab but nothing at all after the second, fingers crossed the booster will be the same.

The initial crash was all my fault,  just took the corner too quick but I am sure the second incident at the corkscrew was to do with the FFB. The previous lap I seemed to lose all FFB feel over the mountain for a couple of seconds & it felt similar when I had the second off,  but there could have been some car damage too which contributed. When you expect some resistance & there isn't any then you tend to steer too much. I think there is some conflict between the FFB info coming from the game & what it is making the wheel do. That is why I asked what in-game setting others were using. It isn't the wheel because it works perfect in RRE & AC.

I have "TX Wheel"
(https://phspok182510top.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Racevirt/Wheel1s.jpg)

(https://phspok182510top.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Racevirt/Wheel2s.jpg)

So you just use 'Wheel' in the Basic Effects menu. This maybe where I am going wrong because I think I still have it set on Momo Force in the specialised effects section, which is possibly causing an issue.

I have just asked on Fanatec's forum if there are any recommended settings for GTL.

I'll check what I am running Geoff, but I think I am doing the same as I was with the older GT3RS wheel on the (now not so) current Clubsport V2.5, which is using the Momo Force preset that you have selected. I tried the others but they gave me some odd effects. GTL doesn't seem to like the drift setting on the Fanatec to be too high, I have settled at minus 1, but for RRE using the game preset in the Fanalab software it changes it to minus 2 I think.

Are you using full effects? I've got it on medium effects but with 100% strength as the full effects did introduce a lot of OTT chatter to me.

Couldn't race last night, got massive problems getting the house infrastructure right for tomorrow as we exchange contracts then. Currently have had no heating or hot water for 6 days as we try to get to the bottom of several gas and boiler issues, and had both a gas engineer and the utility company around last night.

I've looked at other installs (I have a few) and they all are set to Wheel
Sometimes when I do a new install, I get little or no FFB, and I have in the past
set to sidewinder, or others, and eventually I get some FFB by changing the settings

This is on my TM. I probably have the same on my G25, but that's 40 miles away.

Thus far, totally no reaction to my 2 jabs ( I suspect that I was one of the 30% getting placebos  ;) ) But maybe the booster will knock me flat?

@ Geoffers. I am posting this from my laptop, but when do I fire up my rig I will try to remember and post the settings that I have both on the TM software and within GTL. I'm still not totally sure that I have the optimum settings, but it is certainly better than when I started  ;).

Interesting that you also have some weird FF effects as I struggled with that for quite some time. I still have to hit ALT/F sometimes to kick in the FF ( last night it vanished when we started quali and I had to prompt it ). Totally agree with you that trying to drive sans FF is like waving a stick at the steering !!
It is ONLY within GTL that this happens, GPL and other games are fine 100% of the time.
The only other issue that I can recall is that in the early days after installing my wheel/shifter/pedals etc I would fire up GTL and I might have 2 out of 3 elements operational. However, I did notice that I was maybe over eager in pushing my PC to launch into Windoze at the BOOT screen by typing my PW at the earliest possible moment. The wheel would go through it's start up as windoze was launching as per normal, but on one occasion I was scratching my head ( or maybe it was my a** ) and I noticed that the initial splash screen with the PW box flashed off and on again as if some software was initialising.
Every time I have waited for that quick blip, all elements appear to work OK, if I try and be too damned quick I sometimes get a problem. It might be my imagination, but maybe the TM/Fanatec hardware/software needs to be awake before Win 10 boots to desktop?
Probably someone with more computer knowledge will tell me I am spouting total bo**ocks, but I offer it in good faith lol!

Just dropped by to say hello, after seeing some familiar names here. I am glad to see that GTL is still alive. I haven't raced for at least 10 years now, but had so much fun back in the day in GBGPL and GBGTL leagues.

Hi Davor, your last GTL race here was in Oct 2009. Nice to hear from you after so long.

Glad you're feeling better, Tony. I had a sore arm from the jab too and a bit of an issue with my throat, but nothing more than that. I guess it's individual.

Also DD told me he's doing better today, so good news on that front too.

As for the race, I think my main advantage was that I lucked on a setup that suddenly made the car very smooth to drive, with almost no sudden change of direction, except under braking at 2-3 corners, but even then it was easy to correct on time. Especially for the race, I made a few modifications just before the start and they worked like a charm.

I was taking it a bit easy early on, as I wanted to look after the tyres, but unfortunately the others had issues and dropped back. I decided to just push afterwards and get it over with. 20 laps on my own felt rather long. The last 2 laps were tricky as my tyres were so far gone by then and I had a few offs as a result.

Grats to Erling and Matt for the podium, and commiserations to Geoff for retiring. I wish we had another close battle (for the championship too) with him and DD like we had at Adelaidesomething, but sadly it didn't happen.


Erling, here's my pole lap exported as highlights from my stream - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1221960905

I think using 2nd for even the slowest corners is actually quicker, but very difficult to get right, as the revs drop so much and you get extra understeer going into the corners, so perhaps there are still a few tenths left on the table at T1 and last corner.

If anyone's interested in the setup, you can see it on my full stream recording as I make those final changes before the race.

Thanks for your feedback guys, I will try your suggestions.

As far as the seemingly momentary loss of FFB, it only happened last night, at Montlhery on Monday it was fine. The other main problem is the steering oscillating on straights, initially it was so bad that if I let go of the wheel the car would go completely out of control. I have calmed that by adjusting the inertia, friction & damping, not totally eliminated it but the car continues straight if I let go of the wheel.

Can I ask Daz, after selecting your preset in the Fanatec software do you shut the software down or leave it running? And no I am not running the effects at full, like you I found it a bit too clattery, I think I am on high now. One other thing, I am still using the Clubsport pedals plugged into the PC separately but the Fanatec software will not open until I have unplugged them. It will then open & recognise the wheel & when I plug the pedals back in it recognises them too, odd. I have now bought a cable to connect them to the wheelbase & will try it that way after tonight's RRE race.

Result (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/_2021//01122021_67Panorama)


8)

Thanks Kurt  :thumbup1:

Geoff, I don't have to open the Fanatec wheel software at all for any of the games unless I feel the need to check to see if the calibration is working. And I open none at all for GTL, it is that old now that there are no presets for it. Do you have the pedals in a USB 2 or 3 port? This is still the Clubsports from me I guess? You can go to the wheel via whatever the port is on the new wheel you have, but it will always be worse resolution on the pedal if it is not going direct to USB. However, if it means it works seemlessly than it is an option for sure...I never saw that issue you describe in all honesty, but will happily offer any help I can give Geoff.

The other software I do use on the newer games is the Fanalab software that gives the chance to load presets for FFB etc for the newer games, and download plenty of them also if you choose to. It has nothing for GTL as said.

https://forum.fanatec.com/categories/fanalab

I do like this software, nice GUI and is useful.

I use this to load up wheel and pedal presets for RRE, Dirt and Dirt 2.0, PCars2 and ACC, I think AC is also in the list but have not opened that for what feels like years....The presets I have found in there work very nicely indeed on those newer titles, and are incredibly easy to load etc. You can also launch any of those games from the Fanalab interface. I do have to manually put the wheel back to GTL setup if I load another preset for another game though, which is not too difficult in all honesty as I do that via the wheel itself on the WRC rim I use.
For GTL I have the following on the wheel
800 degrees
50% feedback strength
Virtually all other settings are at 100
Drift is the only other setting I have to adjust, sometimes I run this at -1 in GTL, but sometimes that feels like it centres too violently and I turn it to 0 if so. Feels uber smooth at that point, which on some car/track combos isn't quite right either, so that setting then goes back to -1. The preset in Fanalab puts it on -2 for RRE.....

Thanks Hristo, impressive stuff - and grats on winning the Championship most convincingly!

Can see you exploiting the entire track better than I was able to, and being flat out over one of the hills where I had to lift or else lose control.  I used 2nd for all the slow corners, but had to be really careful not to brake too late and overshoot, as that really made the revs drop too low.

Thanks!

I was also struggling going over the top of the hill fast right-left combination, even if I lifted up, but some changes to the setup for my final qualifying run and then additional ones before the race, seemed to transform the handling of the car through that section. I guess it was about finding the balance so it transitions smoothly as the weight shifted around and also prevent the car from suddenly changing direction when you touch the grass. At the same time I didn't want to have too much understeer. Using lower diff power, softer rear dampers and staying at high revs in 3rd gear, seemed to do the trick.

Thanks for the info Daz. I am not using Fanalab yet, the latest regular software allows you to set most of the FFB parameters & presets for different sims. I found some recommended settings in these two sections of the Fanatec forums.

https://forum.fanatec.com/categories/raceroom

https://forum.fanatec.com/categories/assetto-corsa

Yeh still using the Clubsport v1 pedals in a USB2 port, I don't think they are compatible with USB3. May give your settings a try later, see if that makes any difference. Cheers.

From memory they are definitely not going to work on a USB 3 Geoff.

I'm not sure I've updated my software or drivers for a while, so for all I know I may have the ability to change stuff in the regular software. Fanalab does make it easy though, click of a button and it does it all for you essentially. Nothing I have ever found for GTL though, apart from waaaay back when in the old NG days where I recall having some plr files that had been uploaded to play with, one of which did make a big difference for me. That was on the old GT3RS wheel of course, and may not even be relevant to my current rig, never mind your swanky new DD setup  :drool: :thumbup1:

Couple of other things spring to mind.

Are you going into a front port or in the rear I/O of the motherboard on the tower?
Do you use the same port for the same device every time?

I have had issues in the past if I put the wrong device in the wrong USB, ie plugging the pedals into the USB used to install the wheel and vice versa.....

I will download Fanalab & have a look.

Plugged into rear port, could not get the wheelbase to register on the front. I used to plug the G29 in the front for convenience & that worked OK.

Geoff & Daz, regarding the USB3 question:   USB 3 should be backward compatible, so plugging USB 2 devices into a USB 3 port should not be a problem - you just don't get the higher transfer speed, but shouldn't be relevant in this case.  That's generally speaking of course - whether special conditions apply for Fanatec's hardware I can't say.

Incidentally, can you guys offer any advice about Fanatec's wheels (I have a set of their pedals already, plugged into front USB 2).  Somewhat confused about their modular system - what is actually needed for a working system, and what might be desirable, if there are options in that regard.  With the not insignificant amount of dosh they charge, one wouldn't want to order the wrong stuff  :o

That is in general my understanding also Erling, but I know I had issues trying to plug my own set of V1 pedals into a USB3 port on the new rig when I built it at the start of the year. I have since only plugged in the V3 pedals on USB2 just in case without any issues.

As far as a Fanatec setup goes, if you have the pedals then you need a wheelbase, and a wheel rim. Can be bought together as a package I think, or you can choose what to pair with what. What options you looking at?

Rear I/O is the best way I believe Geoff, and has been rock solid for me. I always plug it all in once the pc is powered up and it just works for GTL with no other input from me.

Yeh, as far as I am aware all Fanatec pedals should work with the current range of wheelbases & wheels. All you need to do is order a wheelbase & wheel which will come with the button/paddle units & the hub to attach the wheel to the wheelbase. They all come as separate parts & you have to assemble it, but all the bolts etc. are supplied along with the tools to do the job. If you are mounting it on a desk you will also need a table clamp. I bought the CSL DD wheelbase & it is quite heavy & on fitting it to my desk I found the weight made the desk top flex quite considerably so I had to stiffen it up to make it more stable. The wheel I bought is the Clubsport R300 & as I say it came complete with button unit & adaptor to fit to the wheelbase.

Quick update. I tried connecting the pedals into the wheelbase, nothing, pedals not detected, so gone back to plugging them in via USB. Followed some of Daz's settings & that definitely improved things, particularly the steering oscillations on the straight. So I have the following settings now which seem to provide a good feel & after a few test laps no sudden loss of FFB.

Steering angle 450 (I like it to react quickly)
FFB Strength 50%
Natural Damper 35%
Natural Friction 10%
Natural Inertia 10%
FFB Interpolation 15
Force Effect Intensity 60
Force Effect Strength 60%
Spring Effect Strength 100%
Damper Effect Strength 100%

As Geoff says there, all pedals will be compatible.

R300 with the universal hub Geoff?

Forgot about the hub bit......

First choice, wheelbase. Current options are CSL DD or Podium DD1 or DD2. I have the older Clubsport V2.5, a non Direct Drive wheelbase purchased very lightly used from Ebay.

Second choice, wheel rim. Type will dictate possible third choice. If you go for a wheel rim with the 'hub' built in, such as the CSL Elite WRC I have, or the latest CSL BMW wheel, or one of the Clubsport Formulas, then you do not need to purchase a separate 'hub' and your wheel itself gives you all the buttons you need, has shifter paddles installed, and the method of accessing the tuning functions of your wheelbase.

The third choice potentially is if you go for one of the other wheels in your second choice such as Geoffers' R300 choice, or the Clubsport Flat or Round, or R330 etc etc (there are lots of options here), you need to purchase a 'hub' such as the CSL or Universal, so that you then have the buttons etc as outlined above, as the wheel rim itself does not have any of those. That wheel rim then fixes to the 'hub', and you use both in conjunction as a piece, as the 'hub' has the quick release mechanism on it to attach and release from the wheelbase. This quick release system is the reason for the need for the hub really...

Hope that helps. I'll happily post pictures if you need any Erling. For the record, I do have a wheel and universal hub that is going spare that may need a new home as it goes.....

Lol, that DD wheel has settings to play with that I don't Geoff!

Glad to have been of any help if I was. I too run smaller degrees on the modern stuff in RRE, around 600 for GTs and 540 for the rest of the tin tops, not done enough single seaters to have set that up. But in GTL I prefer to have more degrees to play with, makes the steering feel more natural to me.

Yes the R300 v2 with universal hub, & yes it does come complete with buttons, paddles & quick release adaptor, you do not need to order those separately.

https://fanatec.com/eu-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-r300-v2

It's almost a smaller version of the GT wheel I've got I think.....

https://fanatec.com/eu-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-gt-forza-motorsport-v2-for-xbox

I only stopped using it as I wanted a round wheel not a D shape, better for Rally and Rallycross, as well as being a little more right for the historic stuff.

So now I run this

https://fanatec.com/eu-en/steering-wheels/csl-elite-steering-wheel-wrc

Yours looks lovely Geoff, being that bit smaller I can imagine it feels really nice in the hands.

Thanks Daz & Geoff for the info - it's all these options that can seem a bit daunting.  It's been a while since I last looked at Fanatec's homepage, so don't have anything specific in mind presently, but will have a good look at their offerings.  If I get my sights on something, I will run it by you guys before pulling the trigger.

One important thing: Do they have table clamps that allow for easy setup and removal of the wheel, like Logitech & Thrustmaster?  I don't have a permanent setup for simracing, so that's a requirement for me.

The answer is yes.

The CSL DD Geoff purchased has it's own clamp available for mounting to a table.

I used a table clamp for years, but eventually had enough of trying to find stability for the pedals and ended up going for one of these.....

https://nextlevelracing.com/products/next-level-racing-wheel-stand/

Solved the problems I was having straight away.

I intend having a full rig when I move to the new house, been spending a lot of time researching recently!

Yes the CSL DD one is easily removable from the desk, it just has a big knob underneath for clamping it. Cannot comment on the others but from the pictures they look as though they should be easy to take on & off.

Oh, and according to the instructions with it, it will clamp to any thickness from 6 to 60 mm.