SimRacing.org.uk

Track:	Silverstone GP
Practice:	18:00 for 150 mins (approx)
Qualifying:	20:30 (15 mins)
Race:	20:45 28 laps (approx 40 mins)
Resets:	One fast tow
Start procedure:	Rolling - standard iRacing double file start
Pit stops:	No mandatory stops (though you'll need one)
Password:	see above (#post_event_password) (only available on evening of race)]
Teamspeak info:	https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5646.0

Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKiR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3349.0) before joining - particularly those concerning general conduct and in-game chat messages

(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=289&theme=33)

this should be interesting  never run this car here


I best get some laps in  :o

After what I said about Laguna, I've realised there is one more track I actually hate, and that's Silverstone. Those final two corners are horrible. Bring back the original Woodcote, that's what I say!!   :)

I have a dead PC again.  PSU I suspect.  Lets hope we have something suitable in stock at work, though we had cod all a couple of days ago  ::)

If we don't I'll have to order online again and I will miss the IndyCars  :'(

If they don't then don't forget Maplin.  These days they have a very good range of PSUs available off the shelf, not Corsair or the like but I bought one of their discounted ones a few years back and it did me well till I needed more power.

Paul
:)

Hi,

I'd like to join this race. Is there anything I have to do other to announce my participation?

Looks like this will be my final race. Finding this a bit tricky, have increased the dampers an few as the car felt too loose, almost like the car is too soft and rolls too much but then lost it coming out of club on the bumps when i changed up!

Nope, just look on the day for the password in the first post and join.

I'll try and start a practice session this evening around 6.  The password for that will be as given in this post (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2929.0) as usual.  Assuming I remember to set the password this time, obviously. ;)

Paul
:)

[EDIT: password removed - don't tell Google our password! DG]

Try my Road America setup at Team Shark.  Add some downforce for Silverstone and see how that goes.  I usually short-shift to get round Club.

Thanks Paul :)

Wrong, the motherboard is dead.  Gaahhhhh

Ouch. :(

That's Tuesday out then unless you can source something very similar.  What is it?

It's an MSI AM3 socket board with a dual-core Phenom on it.  Looking at an Asus board to replace it along with a SATA3 HDD.  A full reinstall will be required either way I suspect, I always do anyway if I change motherboards.  I have to do this on a tight budget too.  I was hoping to upgrade the CPU this year, so that's now been put back a bit.

Ah, can't help with AMD any more.  I've been Intel for a while. :(

Are the new AMD processors going to be compatible with the existing boards or will it be a new socket a la Sandy Bridge?

Are you sure the board's toasted?

AM3 is the latest AMD socket, bought deliberately last time so I could just pop a new CPU onto it without buying a new board  ::)

Of course the only good thing is that AM3 boards are now a bit cheaper than they were before.  This one is definately toast, it's taking ages to clear the burning smell from the room.

Practise server tonight or not?

I think the setups are half my problem, i just dont get on with them even if people can go alot quicker with it.

Practice server's coming up now.

:)

Always use a front ARB.  Running without might be a little faster in qually, but it turns into a nightmare in the race.

Don't trail brake too much.

Don't go for full throttle in a low gear before the wheels are nearly straight.

Only had a brief chance to practise yesterday, in wich I managed a 1.33.1 (did 12 laps I think it was) with a full load of fuel. Setup still needs some work, and I need some work :). But I was slowly getting the flow of the track. Hoping to knock of atleast .5 sec in race trim.

Pity, I was rather hoping you were on fumes. :-[

I had the excuse of getting used to three screens and it's associated frame rate drop.  It's surprising how stuttery 120FPS round Luffield feels when you've been used to 300+.  A load of cars as well will be interesting.

Three screens is another World though.  I pressed the button and was actually sitting in a Dallara.  It seems incredibly low when you can see the wheels.

Tonight will be interesting.  at least I'll be able to see people alongside as they lap me. :)

Try with vsync on, and restart the game. Thats what I do on my triple setup.

Im running a Gregor Huttu setup. Fast, but nasty when you brake the limit with it. Thats what I want to try and dial out if it tonight. You would want to add front rollbar to start with, and the rest I hope is just damper tweaking -  thats what I did to his Watkins Glen setup.
Got it from their team website http://www.teamredline.co.uk/setups/

I'm always a bit suspicious of VSync.  The problem is that the FF rate is tied to the frame rate.  If you run VSync you're limiting the FF to 60Hz as well and it feels a lot different.  Having said that it may be better to have consistency at 60Hz than for it to deteriorate when you have a lot of cars around you.

Ta for the setup advice.  I actually found a decent amount of consistency using my old RA setup in the end, but Mark's was half a second quicker.  It's tricky.

Paul
:)

Any chance of being able to know how long the race is beforehand!

i'm gona be slow here  only just managed a few laps and i'm S L O W in a big way  {don't ya just hate setting up a new PC installing all ya games and stuff ::) it's been taking all my "practice" time of late }

In what way does it feel a lot different Paul? Gary made the same point to me recently when I said I always use vsynch. But I've tried with vsynch off and tbh I can't feel any difference with my wheel or any of the other controls. I find the advantage of a smooth, non-tearing image much greater than any faster physics processing.

Gary also got me to try something called D3DOverrider. This enables triple buffering, which I think allows the game to run the physics faster even with vsynch enabled. Is that correct Gary? I have tried it (after having some trouble getting it to actually run on my PC) but I can't really feel any difference. In fact I'm not sure it's actually working. I do get the 'beep', which indicated the programme has detected a D3D process running, but I have found that unless I select vsynch in my gfx card settings then the Overrider does not force it as it is meant to. So if it isn't forcing vsynch is it actually forcing triple buffering??

And it looks like I'll be missing tonight. It's rather annoying cos my daughter is missing her dance class to revise for GCSE's later in the week, which would have allowed me to practice and qualify in a relaxed time scale, but work have asked if I'll go in later to help with some problems they are having!!!

How many laps do I need to set??

Can't start the session til I know!?
Not spun a lap myself so can't guess! :)

Sorry mate.

go for 28.

Paul

No worries Paul, it will start in 2 mins... :)

Really sorry mate.  It completely slipped my mind.

I've only just dialled in on the laptop this minute, I was watching Top Gear on the iPlayer for a change instead of surfing. :)

No worries! :)

Sessions up ! ... Rock n roll  ;D

Can't make this one I'm afraid guys, DIY duties :(

Have fun.

Otherwise engaged here too unfortunately - apologies!

Bugger! Enough said.

Apart from thanks to Martin for Hosting.

paid dividends for me you lot not being able to race .........my FIRST podium with you guys ;D  3rd place well happy considering my practice was sparse and incident full ..all just seemed to fit in place in the race  ;D ;D

jumped into practise with an hour to go and drove pretty much the whole time, found the default high df setup good enuf which made life easy  :D

almost thought i had pole in quali and karsten blitzed it  :(  ;) and then Simon a few hundredths behind  :P

good start after a mistake by Karsten on T1 ;) and had a 1 second gap to him and Simon........on lap 10 (??) i locked up after getting sideways thru maggots and rejoined by cutting some grass and had a few more seconds punishment for my spin! bit harsh saying i gained time after spinning to a standstill  ::) but i knew i was pushing my luck tbf   :P

not sure how much spinning/locking-up ruins your tyres but they were knackered (not denying some over-driving was involved  ::)) and half-spun at least 3 more times dropping to 5th  :-X

pitted halfway and got up to 4th when Mark pitted and was 10 secs off Ian when he came out the pits still in 3rd..... plan was to at least try and catch him by the end of the race but he was pretty quick  :P before i disco'd around lap 23/28....

not sure why the internet cut off  :(

was enjoying the race. Nice driving Simon and Karsten, shame i couldn't give you more of a race! :-\ .... look forward to 2 weeks time

Thought you had that one in the bag Purdie when you took off into the lead on lap 1. ;D

I chased Karsten hard but I could feel I was fighting a losing battle. After the pit stops where I chose to save a bit of time with no tyre change I couldn't quite manage the pace I had in the first half so it probably wasn't worth not changing tyres. Still, I can't complain as I had done no practice and happened to have a Silverstone History setup to use which turned out pretty well.

I'd not practised anywhere near as much as I normally would have done for this one, what with doing official Rad races at the weekend and getting the three screens working and the like.

In the event I wasn't too disappointed with my pace.  Off the start I got alongside Ian but the tighter line round Cops lost me momentum and he was in front before Maggotts.  I settled in behind him and despite him being well clear in qually I found I was keeping up.

On lap 5 though I put too much power in too early at Club and round it went.  I'd have been OK but Martin was right behind me with nowhere to go and I ended up on my head.

While waiting in the pits for my tow to finish it occurred to me that I could fuel up to the end of the race and avoid a second stop.  That ultimately worked as I jumped Martin when he stopped for fuel.  It might have worked better had I not had another spin and an excursion though the Priory/Brooklands sandpit.

Having said that though the Spotter suffixed their usual "5 laps of fuel" warning with "We might just make it" so I eased off the throttle a bit for the last couple of laps.  Martin was only 10 seconds back and Mark miles ahead so I figured discretion was the better part of valour.

Congratulations to Karsten on another fine win and apologies if I held you up the first time you lapped me.  I was experimenting with in-car mirrors which I think is a mistake in the Dallara as I couldn't see much.

Paul
:)

Results posted.

It sounds like you've got VSync set up optimally Ken.  Triple buffering is essential to avoid lag when using it.  The problem is that you're still restricting the frame rate and I have good reason to believe that the FFB rate is directly linked to the frame rate.  GPL's certainly was, I've seen the code and I have no reason to believe iRacing is any different.  Try the GPL 60Hz patch and see the difference.

Since upgrading my PC I've been getting absurdly high frame rates with a single screen, running on my own at Laguna I was seeing peaks over 600fps!  Now obviously the screen isn't updating at that rate, it's limited to 60Hz but I believe the FF is.  With the frame rates so high the wheel feels tighter, more responsive and far less susceptible to FF lag effects causing tank slappers.  After experimenting I found that limiting to 168 gives 95% of that high rate FF feel without pushing the machine too hard.  I certainly don't see any point in going above the core physics rate of 288Hz (IIRC) as you'll just be doing the same work twice.

Now I've gone to 3 screens and frame rates are back to normal levels that's gone, the steering feels less in touch with what's happening at the wheels.  More importantly it's not consistent.  On my own I can still get 168fps but last night at a few places round the circuit and with cars around the rate was dropping to around 120 and the steering felt different.

GPL used an averaging formula over recent force samples to smooth out FF spikes.  I think it's a fair assumption iRacing does something similar though it's obviously been refined, remember the asymmetric camber FF spikes on the straights at Monza?  At lower frame rates it will have fewer samples to work with and is more likely to get it wrong.  It could be that they're increasing the smoothing at lower frame rates?

Most of this is supposition and experiment, apart from the GPL bits I've not seen the code.  IMO though there's a very noticeable difference in FF feel between 60fps and 600fps.  It's all about finding a compromise.  It's almost certainly better to get used to the slightly inferior FF at a consistent frame rate than having it vary when you most need it in a tight racing situation.  I'm certainly going to experiment further with Vsync, visually it's super smooth and I've not had time to get D3DOverrider working on the race machine yet.

Standard disclaimer - this is all just my opinions based on many year's experiment and a few known facts.  I could be completely misinterpreting what I'm seeing or imagining the whole thing. :)

Paul
:)

Thanks Dave.

Thanks for your thoughts/advice/knowledge Paul. My equipment is decent but not top spec. My old rig just wouldn't play iRacing at all, even in solo practice, but my current setup is able to run at decent fps with much of the eye candy selected. But it wouldn't get anywhere near 600 fps for sure and I doubt it would hold a steady 168 either. I could maybe switch off a few of the gfx settings but it would reduce my playing enjoyment. I think I basically tune my brain to compensate for any lag, and as long as it is consistant then I can cope.

That's the point, it's consistency that matters.  Karsten is quick and consistent with vsync on because he's used to it.  I've felt the pull of the dark side at high frame rates but realise I can't maintain that with three screens and need to find a compromise.

iRacing recommend 1.4 x refresh rate as the best compromise for a non vsync setup.  Gary has his locked to 109 which is 1.4 x 76Hz which his monitors can handle and he seems to be managing OK. ;)  Mine are only 60Hz max but for some reason 84Hz causes constant stuttering.  168 is 2.8 x refresh and is smooth as silk but I can't maintain it.  I wonder if 126 or 2.1 x refresh would be a good compromise?

You have to find settings you like and stick to them.

Paul
:)

Was limited to how much practise I could actually get in, so I didnt feel super prepared for the race. Was even delayed in getting home, so wasnt able to join untill there was like 35 min left of practise. None the less, I got the dampers dialled in pretty quick (just relied on what I have learned from a lot of Indy road course driving), by just reusing values from previous tracks. Felt pretty comfortable, except exit from low speed corners. Car felt good, and I felt good around the track. I had a good flow going.

Started from pole, but oopsed it in T1 already. Underestimated the grip in the cold tyres, and went wide onto the icky bits in T1, and lost the lead to Purdie. For the next 10 laps I was settling in, getting a good rhythm going, and pretty much just planned on waiting to see what would happen. Suddenly Purdie weared left in Maggots (looked so strange, hehe) and I retook the lead. Simon was never more than 2 sec away, and was hard to shake loose, even when I picked up the pace a little after Purdie's incident. I stayed out long, lap 18 I think it was, changed tyres and added 30 liters of fuel. When I regained the track I had, I think it was like 10 sec lead. I quickly fell into a very good rhythm, clocking very consistent times. But then on L26 (out of 28) I went to brave and suddenly decided to do a sub33 lap time. I attacked a curb to hard in Maggots and the car instantly took my head off. I managed to save the spin, slid across the grass and rejoined the track. Only lost 3 sec, and around 4000 hairs :D.
And yes, Andy. A good spin really messes up the tires. I lost a ton of grip after that slide.

Didnt really expect to like it on Silverstone - never really been a big fan of the track, but it made sense for me in the IndyCar, and suited my driving style very well. Enjoyed my self. Hope I will in the Corvette too :).

A shame that we werent more than 8 entries. I expected a lot more since it was a British track. I guess wrong :).

I'm gutted I had to miss this :(

My new parts have arrived and I found a big burned area on the old motherboard, it had gone all the way through  :o  New board in and working, reinstallation in progress.  As I'm building the cockpit too, I won't be doing any racing until next week I think.

That's generally not a good sign.

Well, at least with you out and Gary a question mark because of his wheel it gives the rest of us a chance. ;)

Sorry i missed this one aswell  :(

I have to put so much practice in for the enduro that i never seem to have any time to prepare for these races!