UKGPL Season 17 (2009) - 60fps Test Race - 65 Mod - Monza - Feb 25

[Asbjeurn Tverberg]

Sorry, folks, I have to cancel. My other interest, Liverpool FC, is playing an important game on wednesday, and I won't miss it. Someone else can take my place.

Which part of Liverpool are you originally from? 

I'm from a remote suburb to Liverpool, located in western Norway.

[miner2049er]

I'm from a remote suburb to Liverpool, located in western Norway.

You're lucky then. You can't even see Liverpool from there. That would make it the best part of Liverpool.

[vosblod]

UKGPL.6 – IP address 80.5.200.198 (if you are joining outside IGOR core.ini is 5/84 – 5/384)
Also, the new 65 patch changes the distance to 23 laps
Remember to switch on the 60fps patch in GEM options prior to joining, password as already supplied. Also, don’t forget to switch it off after the race.
This is very much a test – never been tried with this many drivers on a server. I am not expecting major problems but we are entering the unknown…
Post-race feedback re connection / framerate consistency would be appreciated

[bernie]

bloody scousers everywhere  even the brother in law who lives in New South Wales supports the reds 

[Burtoner]

I have to admit what a load of crap this is!

Screen flickling every few seconds, when it does it tugs my wheel bit.

Also the Lag bar the Q and S are high all the time!

Yet it works ok offline

Perhaps i backup to my old one and just use old gpl65 instead.

[vosblod]

Perhaps i backup to my old one and just use old gpl65 instead.

I think your screen flickering etc would be the 60fps patch not the 65 one...

25fps on grid (normal), 50 and rising at the start then a solid 60fps all the way.
Race - mediocre qually compared to my PB. Spent many laps with an impending sense of evil, just as the evil was about to overwhelm me I disco'd - evil indeed 

I think the general feeling is the patch is only any good with top end PC's otherwise big framerate drops. Will feed this back.
Just to reassure everyone there are no plans to use it at UKGPL at present. The only way this could be considered was if ALL drivers could get a steady 60fps.
Will make replay available tomorrow...

[Hristo Itchov]

Yes, the 60 fps is fine as long as you have a good PC and not really nice when you don't. Driving alone is fine, but online with other cars it's too unpredictable. I was getting 20 fps drop at Parabolica each lap which was distracting and led to mistakes. So for official league races not using the patch would be best it seems.

Shame for the lap 2 incident on the s/f line, it killed any chances for the battle for victory to be between more drivers. I had a rather good battle with Jethro later on.

[bernie]

I have to admit what a load of crap this is!

Screen flickling every few seconds, when it does it tugs my wheel bit.

Also the Lag bar the Q and S are high all the time!

Yet it works ok offline

Perhaps i backup to my old one and just use old gpl65 instead.

Burt I have been having the same trouble , yet tonight it was OK , I'm begining to think my ISP  is at fault not GEM 

[Burtoner]

I have to admit what a load of crap this is!

Screen flickling every few seconds, when it does it tugs my wheel bit.

Also the Lag bar the Q and S are high all the time!

Yet it works ok offline

Perhaps i backup to my old one and just use old gpl65 instead.

Burt I have been having the same trouble , yet tonight it was OK , I'm begining to think my ISP  is at fault not GEM 

Hmm I was having a feeling about this, but I wasnt around tonight to try it perhaps i try it on a free server.

[Turkey Machine]

Will be watching the replay shortly, but that was the best race I've ever had online, was so much fun battling with people. Had a bloody good tussle with Hristo for about 8 laps, but was wrestling with oversteer in the Lotus at Parabolica. Set some new PBs though with that new slipstream patch.

EDIT: My replay's uploaded here: http://rapidshare.com/files/202578188/ukgpl_25022009_60fpstest_monza.zip

[Samb]

I agree Jethro, I've never had so much fun in an online race before. I was rather pleased with my performance, even if I was a tad inconsistent.

Grabbed Pole by one hundreth of a second from John and Hristo but that came to nothing when I bogged down at the start. So I entered Curva Grande in 3rd. The rest of the lap was a bit of a slideshow, I guess my PC can't really handle a full field or cars bunched together at 60fps but it didn't matter too much when me and Jethro had a tangle on the start/finish straight. Initially, I thought Jethro was to blame but, having seen the replay from Hristo's onboard camera, I straightened out too quickly and we touched. So, my fault after all and I can only apologise but I got what I deserved with a fiery flight into the scenery  .

The rest of the race involved catching cars here and there and having great battles with everyone thanks to the new slipstream effect. I managed to find myself in 3rd with 10 laps to go, around 11 seconds behind Nicky but I simply could not narrow the gap down quickly enough. I was about 7 seconds or so behind with about 4 or 5 laps to go and then Tim found my slipstream. So we had a heated battle for 3rd while rapidly catching John and Nicky. On the last lap, I really went for it, under pressure from Tim's Honda bearing down on me and I somehow managed to 1:36.3, about 9 tenths up on my next fastest lap  . Not sure how I managed such a banzai lap but I narrowed the gap to Nicky to under 2 seconds. While all this was happening Tim was reeling me in and I only just managed to hold onto 3rd.

So all in all, the 60fps patch was stable for me when there weren't too many cars around mine although the fluctuations was a bit of a put off. Although good fun, I would rather stay at 36fps for now as the constant frame rate helps considerably when driving. Having said that though, the 60fps patch is a great addition to GPL and maybe when computers improve, we could use it regullaly. Congrats to Nicky for the win

[Turkey Machine]

So I've seen the replay and I could have had popcorn with it, it was exciting just watching the damn thing! When me and Sam had a tangle, I just kept plodding on, overtaking any and every car I came across. Although I did squeeze Norbert a bit and I think we lag-touched which sent him into the barrier at Curva Grande, which I apologise for. I kept going, and came up to the leading pack with Tim behind them. When he clipped the kerb at Lesmo 2, he went for a nice jaunt across the track into the bush, and then me. Thus commenced the 11 lap battle between myself and Hristo, but not before I had a "moment" at Parabolica that appeared to ruin everybody's race and send me down the order! The only thing I can say is "sorry for spinning in the wrong place", because every time I tried to rejoin, somebody came round that corner and when I tried getting out of the way I ended up screwing more people the wrong way, including Hristo on the barrier at Parabolica. We traded places once or twice every lap, until I couldn't make up my mind which way to go into Lesmo 1 and it sent him into the barrier. I tried being nice and wanted to battle him again, which we did for a couple more laps, but I couldn't keep with him due to me making more cockups in the last few laps than I had all race!

Excellent race though, wish we could do it again! If we have the same thing at Spa, can we keep it clean? I promise I will be fair.

[AuldenA]

and then the view from here

In the regular racing I rarely see 36fps, 25-32fps is the norm for me.  The lowest fps reading today was just above 36 fps going into the banking tunnel.  Most of the race was run within 42-46 fps with no sudden/big drops affecting the driving feedback. 

In this race with the two 60 fps and the 65 patch I had the best time driving that I have had in a long time.
Having the control from the > 36 fps connection and having the drafting effect I was able to actually race with two, three, and four other cars at the same time. I was able to pass drivers who were actually still on the track - and have drivers passing me without seeing a blue flag for it.

My good experience with the two patches may have come with the lesser hardware that I am using.

1.6 ghz, older nvidia card, wheel w/paddles, throttle/brake pedal base, and no FFB

I will use the 60 fps whenever possible, and will keep the 65 mod update patch in full use. Both improving my racing experience.

from the 'Union of GPL Backmarkers' - our second motto "If it wasn't for me one of you would be last"

[Geoff65]

In this race with the two 60 fps and the 65 patch I had the best time driving that I have had in a long time.
Having the control from the > 36 fps connection and having the drafting effect I was able to actually race with two, three, and four other cars at the same time. I was able to pass drivers who were actually still on the track - and have drivers passing me without seeing a blue flag for it.



I will use the 60 fps whenever possible, and will keep the 65 mod update patch in full use. Both improving my racing experience.

Hear, Hear. I quite agree...talk about bang for ya buck!!
My system managed 50 odd frames sitting on the startline....with an average 59-60fps all the way round. I did notice a drop briefly to 55 mid way along the back straight....but it shot back up before the Parabolica again and I was too busy to look.
This is the first time I have run in 3-4 car freight trains for more than half a lap, and without the cars in front clearing off. Exhilirating experience....and at this rate Spa should be berserk!!
Any takers for petitioning the Mods to drop normal Monza for the last round, and replace it with Monza10K?
The 65's slipstreaming on the banking would be insane!!....Might test it with the AI first.....lol
Geoff.

[Hristo Itchov]

Monza 10k has notorious fps problems, which are probably not a factor if you've got a modern machine, but that's not the case with all of us.