SimRacing.org.uk

I hope you've all recovered from the mosquito bites gained at El Piner, we're now all off to the home of the Waza's in the form of Sodeguara Forest Raceway located just outside Tokyo.
Bring your phrase books and be stay alert for any suspiciously friendly locals - Thay'll be in HER employ and out to ruin any preparation you may have planned  ;)
The track should be familier to many of you as we ran it in the off-season prior to S20, It seemed to run fine with only me ( ::)) suffering any kind of issues...
The key to this circuit is being smooth. I suspect that tyre management may come into it too. Overheat your rears and you'll find things much harder than if you restrain your drifting urges (Very hard to do I confess).


Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_T7_2
IP address = 62.149.202.168
Race date = 22-02-2011
Time = 21:00 UK time
Track = Sodeguara Forest Raceway (Download here (http://page.freett.com/polarblue21b/index.html), bottom of the page. Click on the program cover to download)

Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = PRO
Qualifying time = 35 minutes. Don't start until 30 mins left on clock to allow everyone to join.
Race length = 50 minutes (laps 43)
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

65 Patch: The 2.02 Release of the 65mod can be used.

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=276;theme=6)
The track can be downloaded from : here (http://page.freett.com/polarblue21b/index.html), bottom of the page. Click on the program cover to download
Add-on’s available at : None I'm aware of

Please be in IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:50 pm UK Time

Reserve drivers should not join the server(s) until there are only 30 minutes of qualifying left. Please restrict chat to pit messages. Moderating will be by reported incidents only, however the moderators reserve the right to review any incident with a particular emphasis on lap one. The aim is to review the race the following weekend so incident reports should be submitted within five days of the race (ie the following Friday). We're hopeful most incidents can be resolved amicably and recommend a days deep breath with a replay review before posting. A sorry in the forum won't be taken as an automatic admission of guilt by the moderators.
The race will be run on PRO Damage.

NOTE: Please ensure you join the correct server, due to the way we import if you start the race on the wrong server your result will not count.

Chassis assignments can be found HERE (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8480.0)

**NOTE**
Whichever chassis a driver begins race 1 with is the chassis he must use for the remainder of the season unless a change has been agreed with the moderator.


About the circuit:

Sodeguara Forest raceway was opened in 2008 and is a purpose built facility near Forest City in the Chiba Prefecture approximatly 48Km (30 miles) South East of the Center of Tokyo.
The full circuit is 2.4km (1.5 miles) long and consists of 14 corners with very slight altitude changes.
Since opening the course has been host to numerous forms of car and motorcycle racing ranging from Classic meetings to GT's and superbikes.

Praccy server up tonight if anyone is interested.

It's so easy to melt the tires on this one...  ::)

B*gger, B*gger! B*ugger, forgot all about this one AND I missed it in the off season.

Think I had better d'load and start learning  :-\ As melting rear tyres is a speciality of mine the omens do not look good! ::)

I have an onboard lap video from back then if you want to check it out. It's on my Youtube channel. The setup should be in my setup pack as well.

i am so jealous of you guys - i was in the off-season Sode test race and thought it was a great track! OK, us Novs have got the fantastic Albi to battle on instead so i guess thats some consolation, but it would have been nice to have Sode in the series as well... maybe Season 21? :)

Better ask those who want standard papy or often used add-on tracks for an explanation, Blito.  ;D

Thought I'd try using VirtualDub for a test and drove Sodegaura for it - Very mixed results I'd say. I need to make V-Dub work with the latest Codecs as quality is way down on using Windows Movie thingy.
Shame as V-Dub has better features.....

Anyway, vid is here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAM1AZNu6UA)

There are a couple of different versions of Virtual Dub, so it depends which one you used. I couldn't quite get one of them to work either, but the one I used ATM is great. It has a lot of available codecs, both for video and audio, and many filters, plus there are a lot of addons available for it as well.

It's called VirtualDub 1.8.6 (build 3009). I use the Mpeg4 codec for video compression and Lame MP3 for the auido. You can also cut off the black lines above and below by adding a filter (i.e. Brightness/Contrast) which then opens up a cropping option on the filter list window. Interface is a bit non-intuitive, but it's fast to work with once you figure it out. Oh, and I also use the Frame Rate option to adjust any out-of-sync video and audio.

About the video, strange engine and tire sounds you have, lol!

That tyre sound is great for detecting when you start to skid - and ANY engine sound is better than the standard one  ;D

Forgot to add that the video was on full fuel demonstrating that a smooth non-drifty lap can give good times - both laps were 1:09's of some sort  :)

I have a new video editor - and very nice it is too  ;D
If redundancy rolls on too long and I get bored, I'll be making a GPL movie now, had loads of ideas last night while failling to sleep  ::)

Where did you find it?

Göran

No idea anymore - I can email it to you if you like  :)

Yes please!

Göran

Screen freeze.

Goran says he had a screen freeze too, although not quite at the same time - If Fulvio and Phil can let me know what caused them to retire I can see if I need to prod other Tim over this.

Glad it's over TBH, I'm knackered!

Me too for the second night in a row with GPL and different mod :(
After some temps testing I found that was caused by a GFX overheat that happened again during the test with AtiTools.
Opened again the case and put a big fan towards the GFX card.
Tested again and didn't happen anymore. Finger crossed...
I thought that winter temps would have helped to keep the case closed, but I was wrong. :(
Ciao

This is the 3rd Amateurs championship in a row (in fact, since the division exists) which I lose due to screen freeze in a critical race. I'm seriously fed up...

Unlucky H. WD Tim.

Some bedtime reading for Hristo.  ;)



Sodueagara, set in the fabled land of the Wazas beckoned, and HER battle weary warriors returned from their crusade to rid the world of "green things" to battle on home soil. Unfortunately, the elite ( their description, not mine!!) pit crew of Mabel and Arnold Glutbucket decided to travel with them, which perhaps was not wise.

The journey to Sodding guera ( as Arnold insisted on calling it ) was not without problems, as the Glutbuckets had crossed out the booking for this race and written in "weekend off in Tokyo!!" Which meant that preparations  for the journey were overlooked and the shipping date for the cars was missed.
As it was considered the fault of the Glutbuckets, it was left to them to get the team to the race on time.  They fell back upon Mabel's underwear, (which is big enough to provide a soft landing in any situation) and by imaginative use of a corset and a pair of her size18 shoes constructed a catamaran/car transporter. Two of Mabel's dresses provided enough sail cloth to propel the craft at enormous speed and Arnold's truss was surgically removed from his overweight body and used to operate a rudder. The cars were loaded and by feeding Mabel with copious quantities of baked beans and chillies, we were soon on our way with a good following wind!
Landfall in Japan, was not so much landfall and landhit!. We arrived in the middle of the night without lights and navigation aids. We had no idea of exactly where we were, only that Japan was somewhere in front. Arnold had boasted that he had served in the Navy and would take us straight to Japan "no worries boys". When he used the word "served" we now suspect that it was more in terms of a waiter at the captain's table,  rather than in any really helpful role!!
We just did not know how far it was to Japan...nor, due to the extreme efficiency of Mabels huge sails, how close. But, that question was abrubtly answered at around 2 a.m. when the boat hit a beach, and the whole crew were ejected from peaceful slumber to the sound of lapping waves against the hull and hurled from their makeshift hammocks and beds. They landed on the beach, promptly had sand for breakfast, and were horrified to see the cars soaring over them towards some rocks.
Arnold, was heard to cry "Land Ahoy!!" several seconds after everyone landed on the beach, but any further information from that source was closed off as Hristo's hands clasped him warmly by the throat, presumably in a warmhearted show of gratitude.
 As luck would have it, Mabel had been doing her Titanic impression on the bow of the boat when we struck the beach and she had her eyes closed and really did feel like she was flying....because she was!  for a few glorious seconds!!  We were even more fortunate when Mabel recovered from her landing spot just in front of the rocks and stood up, just in time to provide a soft landing for both cars. Japan as a whole was indeed fortunate that she did not land in the water, because a tsunami would have caused more devastation than the minor earth tremor that was felt locally.

By dawn the ever inventive pit crew had "borrowed" a cart but no horse, so Mabel was harnessed and we set off for the forest and the track.

Lack of preparation and practice meant that at least one of the cars (ok it was mine!!) was below the pace that SHE expected and it was not until the latter stages of qualification that both cars managed to squeeze into the top 4 grid places.
Hristo was on pole and the journey to the track and breakfast on the beach seemed to have inspired him with a stunning time.
The next few rows of the grid were very close on time and the race looked like it was going to be intense. Qualification had shown that managing tyre temps was going to be crucial to survival, or so most of the drivers thought.
Arnold had decided to try and repair his somewhat tarnished image by "arranging" a favourable result for the Wazas!! in his own devious and suspect way.

In order to make my car more competitive he decided that it should be lighter, so he removed several gallons of fuel!! Something that I would discover much later in the race. Hristo's car was also subject to his attentions. The waza boffins had been experimenting with a "cloaking device" to allow us to creep up on competitors unnoticed, but there were several flaws with this device and it can hardly be considered the "finished" item. It also added weight to Hristo's car, something that Arnold had chosen to ignore in his enthusiasm, which made him vulnerable on the early laps and he found himself several places down.
Cunning teamwork on track by the Wazas, allowed Hristo to climb back to the front of the field and begin to challenge for the lead, as my car was  handily placed in 4th spot and hounding Tom for 3rd. Tom went wide and now the Wazas were almost in the correct positions ...2nd and 3rd.

It was then that Arnold's handiwork started to unravel as he operated the remote cloaking control button from the pitwall!!
Hristo who was about to pounce for the lead spot, found himself, not only cloaked, but transported to the pits!! The resultant ripple in the space / time fabric also affected several other cars over the next few laps. Drivers of various teams were finding themselves removed from the track and deposited in various European countries without any warning or passport checking. Some have been imprisoned for illegal border crossing, but UKGPL is negotiating for their release before the next race.

That left my car in 2nd spot and Tim several seconds ahead and in a clear lead.
The pit board said   "push!" which seemed odd, because after the breakfast of sand and seaweed I was certainly not constipated. So instead I concentrated on upping my pace and slowly ( very slowly) the gap was closing. with about 15 laps to go I was almost within slipstream range of Tim and mightbe able to give him some hassle, when I happened to glance at my fuel level................WTF!!!!!
Arnold's handiwork again!
At this pace there was no chance of completing the race, so I started to short shift and try and conserve fuel. Tom was closing from behind and presented a real threat and Bob was fortunately quite a distance back.

As the laps counted down it became apparent that the fuel thing was serious, and Tom was going to catch me if he maintained his current pace. Tim pulled away and barring a mistake was home and dry.
With 6 laps to go things were desperate,  1.6 gallons was NEVER going to be enough!! But despite slowing by 2-3 secs a lap Tom was not closing and I correctly guessed that Arnold and Mabel had been busy "equalising the opposition" and he too was low on fuel.
With 2 laps to go the fuel pressure was dropping as I crossed the line and I had less than half a gallon...this was looking bad!! just wait until I see Arnold!!!

Half way around that lap the engine started to cough, so i left it in 4th gear wherever possible and cruised. Still no Tom in my mirrors. as I crossed the line with 1 lap to go the fuel guage said 0.1 gallons. !! The engine coughed and spluttered but kept going and at the exit of the hairpin  really hesitated as the fuel guage said ZERO!!! This will never get up the hill to the finish...but it did and went dead just a few metres over the line!!

I walked calmly back to the pits and found Arnold. The doctors say that he will pass the gearstick through his digestive system in due course, but that the steering wheel might require surgical intervention.

Oops!

Due to acute attack of selinity I somehow thought the day was monday. So missed this  ::)

Looking the results show my old CC rival Phil has now leap frogged me to P10 in the chumpionships table  :-\

Got to make a bigger  effort for the final showdown  :P

Very good write up Clive - although I think you forgot that incident in the Sushi bar after the race......


Wondered what happened to you Bernie! At 20:50 I said I was shutting the server down ready for the race and then never saw you again!  ;D

Thanks for the write up, Evil, a great and entertaining read as usual! I may have overreacted a bit by saying screen freeze has cost me the chance to fight for the Amateurs championship for the 3rd time in a row. In fact, it's the 3rd championship overall in different divisions over the past 3 seasons, but as far as Amateurs is concerned, the previous ones I lost for other reasons.

Anyway, grats Tim to an almost certain another title in the AMs, you're still more consistent over the course of a season and so deserve to take it.

As for my race, it was actually a lot of fun after the start, after I messed up T1 by running too wide in my attempt to give room to the cars on the inside and getting sucked into the sticky gravel. That dropped me to 8th or so, and it was quite difficult to attempt any overtaking because of the lack of serious braking for any of the corners, and the single line that exists for the majority of the lap, despite the relatively wide track.

I made up positions mostly by putting pressure on the drivers in front and waiting for them to make a mistake such as go wide or lose speed with a slide (something which only Evil is immune to), so eventually I found myself running in 4th, behind Tim, Bob and Evil.

Evil let me through by lifting up on the s/f straight and although I was looking forward to enjoying a battle with him as there were many laps to go and the two leaders were not pulling away, I'm grateful for his gesture.

Bob messed up soon after and so I was left chasing Tim who increased his pace in response. I was planning to simply pressure him very hard but avoid attempting any risky passing manouvers. Either his tires were beginning ot overheat or my tactic worked, for he began to lose control here and there, but managing to catch it just in time before the car would spin.

Just as I was having a run on him out of T2, the screen froze, the sound pitched up and it was all over.

In relation to screen freeze, I would repeat again that we should do a test by turning off bw patch and use the default core settings, on a track which is considered screen-freeze-prone these days, such as Riverside 1960, and see what happens. I definitely remember that screen freeze happened much less in the past than it does now, and some tracks that used to work just fine (Riverside is one of those), is problematic now. BW patch and different core settings (for network stuff) is the only thing that has really changed since then.

I also don't recall anyone suffering screen freeze when we tested Sodeguara before the season, to see exactly if it's stable or not before we use it. How come 3 or 4 people suffered screen freeze now? It's rather disturbing.

Anyway, grats again Tim for winning the race and Evil for taking 2nd!

No technical issues for me (no disco or screen freeze).  I quit because I was a liability.  I had done 5 laps, spun 4 times and was about to be lapped by the entire field (everyone else was in a freight train) when I decided to retire before I ruined someone's race.  I don't normally give up but this track was so tight it would have been hard to let people lap cleanly so I thought it best to pack in.

At least I did enough to leapfrog Bernie in the championship ;D.  Pressure on for Monza Bernie  :fencing:

H for me the issue is GFX overheating. I suffered the same problem on Sunday night with 67 at Interlagos. Soon after I run the AtiTools test and the GPU temps went sky high, not the CPU one. At start of winter I closed the pc case, wrong decision! Now I have opened the case and I have put a big fan towards the GFX card so the temps are 10° C lower and the AtyTool test runs good. Maybe the GFX has collected some dust too.
Anyway the bandwith patch issue could have some point in the fact that there are more cars to render for the GFX card, so more load. But again for me the problem is overheating.
Ciao

I seriously doubt it, Fulvio. My video doesn't overheat, that I can tell for sure.

The fact that a couple of people have screen freeze is telling that the problem is not at the driver's end. Plus you know very well how some tracks are 100% leading to screen freezes.

Yesterday we had a 65 race at Adeliaide in BREASTS, and right at the end 3 of us screen freezed at the same time.

In my observation there are tracks which most certainly increase the chance of screen freeze, but there is also another factor (either server or server-side GPL settings) which adds up to it. Because I've raced for so long, my memory is telling me about an increase in screen freeze occurances since we began using a high network setting that allows us to see more cars in front and behind.

Well I was speaking about me H. At Interlagos in the GPFun race on 18 drivers I was the only one that got a screen freeze with a locked image and the sound looping, exactly how it happened at Sodegura and about 30 min. after firing up GPL.
Ciao

Hi Fulvio

I had problems with my ATi GFX  fan coming on after a few laps when it never did before , found out it was spyware/malware type stuff running in the background of GPL

might be worth you checking it out  :)

Felt absolutely knacked after work and crashed, hence my no-show in this one.

I just had a look at the server replay, btw could you please put it up in the usually place Tim, and the fact is that Fulvio, H and me are having the screen freeze at exactly the same time. It seems to me that if your freeze Fulvio was due to your GFX overheating then it is strange that it did so just the very moment H and I got our freezes?

Btw, the same goes for if the bandwith patch allowing us to see more cars is the cause, how come that the freezes come at the same time when we at the freeze time have different situations on the track? Maybe I have missed something here but how exactly is the bandwith patch causing screen freezes?

I really do think we ought to find this out because the screen freezes are really annoying. Is there any report ever of a screen freeze on a papy track in a online race?

Göran

I don't know, Goran, but the track worked fine in our pre-season test and I think we had absolutely zero occurances of screen freeze.

If the screen freezes are not random, and I doubt that, then there should be possible to test it.

The fact that a track is considered OK one time might be just luck. Think of Snetterton that has not caused any problem here at UKGPL as I understand it but GPLRACER had problems.
 
There are just too many different possibility's to just guess. What do the track makers say about it all? I mean if it is a track related problem and sometimes it is happening and sometimes not, then maybe the problem is there all along, only that sometimes the problem is not triggered.

Göran

I've probably had some 15-20 Snetterton league races and there were no problems with screen freeze. It has to be something on the server side if it's causing people to experience a freeze simultaneously, but whether it's network, operating system or GPL itself, it's hard to find. Of course, I'm excluding tracks which are 100% to cause freezes, but it just goes to show that there is not a single factor which affects the chance to get a freeze.

Bright example (again) is Riverside which worked without any problems whatsoever in the past, and I've had some full league races at it, but since 2-3 years it's been causing freezes every time we had tried it.

As for track makers, I don't recall the name of the track, but we ran a patched track some months ago which was supposed to be fixed (ginetto's patch), but it wasn't, so I doubt they know for certain either.

All this talk of freezin is putting me off GPL , bloody cold enough in me loft as it is  :o

Moderators report published  :)