Assetto Corsa Competizione | Season 12 Round 8 | GT3 Endurance at Monza

[Valver]

21 hours ago, englishbob said:

I like what is here so far though, very absorbing (once I'd found the TC settings and turned them right down!).

 

These GT3 cars are designed to run with TC on in real life.  Dont just turn TC and ABS off.  They're not there as an 'easy mode' like you might find in some other more arcadey driving games.   If you load the aggressive pre-set, then the car is in a pretty decent state of tune - maybe dial them up/down a click as the track or conditions mandate.

HTH

 

Are you using a wheel or a pad?

[englishbob]

6 hours ago, Valver said:

 

These GT3 cars are designed to run with TC on in real life.  Dont just turn TC and ABS off.  They're not there as an 'easy mode' like you might find in some other more arcadey driving games.   If you load the aggressive pre-set, then the car is in a pretty decent state of tune - maybe dial them up/down a click as the track or conditions mandate.

HTH

 

Are you using a wheel or a pad?

 

Pad - I turn SC off and use TC and ABS at 2 - seems a good spot for me

 

Currently struggling seeing the pit line (to get under 31 mph) in the full cockpit view though! They could have made it a bit more prominent! 

[Meers]

On 28/12/2021 at 13:42, davejm said:

Hey guys!  Hope you all had a good Christmas.  I'm pleased to announce the schedule for season 8.   To save a lot of faffing and decision making; and to make it easier for folk wanting to take part in the LowFuelMotorsport races I've aligned the track choice with their rookie series.  Here it is:-

 

This season we'll be back in the GT3s (with your choice of car for the season) and will move between the 1 hour endurance races and 2x 25 minute sprints; with a 90 minute Blue Riband event to round off the season.  I'll get the practice server configured at some stage; but we have a little while before we start things off anyway.

 

Let's try to arrange an Assetto Corsa race for Thursday 6th if possible.

 

 

Awesome!

Happy new year, guys! I've barely done any sim racing for the last week and a half. Did some tidying up in the sim corner though. Cable management due tomorrow. Sorry for the dark pics. I'll light the place better next time.

Overall shot

 

New shelves on the wall, P1 rim on a temporary mount on the wall too (proper mount has been ordered).

 

Mounted the P1 rim with a PVC cap that's used for capping off sewage pipes (ø38mm). It's a bit loose, hence ordering a proper one.

[Junker]

On 30/12/2021 at 15:25, englishbob said:

Bought this on the PS Store PS4 version for just under £12 the other day - ready for the PS5 update in Feb. I like what is here so far though, very absorbing (once I'd found the TC settings and turned them right down!).

 

£12 with the PS5 update seems like a good deal really - just as well as a lot of the game is locked behind another £45+ of DLC 🙄

Yeah I’ve been sitting on the PS4 version for a while. It’s ok but knowing how good it is on PC I’m eager to see if the PS5 upgrade delivers. 

[EuroVapeSim2]

16 hours ago, Meers said:

New shelves on the wall, P1 rim on a temporary mount on the wall too (proper mount has been ordered

Your setup looks very clean, not too many cables in view unless you look from the side.

What wall mount did you order? I looked up a few, seems to be a lot of options with low prices but shipping is more than the mount itself and some shipping was x3 the price of the mount.

 

Got my CSL DD at Christmas and did the basic mounting straight away, I haven't had much time to simrace since unfortunately, just a couple public lobbies at monza. I did cable management, adjusting the screen placement and some FFB tweaks today. 

 

 

 

 

@davejm in the fanatec tuning menu do you use 'peak' or 'linear' ffb for your CSL DD? I'm still trying to find a sweet spot for my preferences, I feel like peak is too jerky but linear looses a good chunk of info.

[Meers]

2 hours ago, EuroVapeSim2 said:

Your setup looks very clean, not too many cables in view unless you look from the side.

What wall mount did you order? I looked up a few, seems to be a lot of options with low prices but shipping is more than the mount itself and some shipping was x3 the price of the mount.

 

Cheers man. It's low budget but I'm handy enough so I've customised it to my own preferences. Seat is fully adjustable (front/back, up/down, reclining). Stand is a Wheelstand Pro V2 (very sturdy, but could use a buttress* to eliminate some forward/backward wobble).

 

The screen hangs on this wall mount. It's incredibly strong and it can hold my 55" TV easily. It hinges forwards, backwards, left and right, and the tv can be tilted up and down. No movement in the z-axis though.

 

* shore/shoar/brace?

[davejm]

3 hours ago, EuroVapeSim2 said:

Your setup looks very clean, not too many cables in view unless you look from the side.

What wall mount did you order? I looked up a few, seems to be a lot of options with low prices but shipping is more than the mount itself and some shipping was x3 the price of the mount.

 

Got my CSL DD at Christmas and did the basic mounting straight away, I haven't had much time to simrace since unfortunately, just a couple public lobbies at monza. I did cable management, adjusting the screen placement and some FFB tweaks today. 

 

 

 

 

@davejm in the fanatec tuning menu do you use 'peak' or 'linear' ffb for your CSL DD? I'm still trying to find a sweet spot for my preferences, I feel like peak is too jerky but linear looses a good chunk of info.

 

Great rig setup due, impressive!

 

I use 'peak'.  I use the Fanatec recommended settings for ACC and they seemed good enough, so didn't feel the need to tweak.

[EuroVapeSim2]

46 minutes ago, Meers said:

The screen hangs on this wall mount. It's incredibly strong and it can hold my 55" TV easily. It hinges forwards, backwards, left and right, and the tv can be tilted up and down. No movement in the z-axis though.

Yours looks much sturdier than mine with the extra pieces in the arm, it was fine when mounted to the wall in front of my rig, now its mounted on the rig it wobbles a bit, the wheelbase doesn't seem to shake it too badly, the h-shifter does shake the screen a bit more, I would've expected it to happen the other way around. An upgrade is needed but those integrated monitor mounts from sim-lab are expensive, might pick up the one you linked then, that's a good price.

 

18 minutes ago, davejm said:

 

Great rig setup due, impressive!

 

I use 'peak'.  I use the Fanatec recommended settings for ACC and they seemed good enough, so didn't feel the need to tweak.

Thanks, really happy with how it's turned out, the only big upgrade left is the seat which doesn't flex like the next level racing one.

I was back using peak this afternoon and just made some small adjustments and smoothed out some of the jolts, ffb is starting to feel like I want it to now.

 

 

I really expected kyalami to at least be a dry race with the real weather but it could go either way looking at the forecast.

 

[Meers]

5 minutes ago, EuroVapeSim2 said:

Yours looks much sturdier than mine with the extra pieces in the arm, it was fine when mounted to the wall in front of my rig, now its mounted on the rig it wobbles a bit, the wheelbase doesn't seem to shake it too badly, the h-shifter does shake the screen a bit more, I would've expected it to happen the other way around. An upgrade is needed but those integrated monitor mounts from sim-lab are expensive, might pick up the one you linked then, that's a good price.

 

Well if you need any additional info (hole pattern etc) then pop me a PM. Looks like your setup allows it to move in the Z-axis on that column, whilst I have it bolted to a concrete wall, so you're good for adjustment in that direction.

 

3 hours ago, EuroVapeSim2 said:

Got my CSL DD at Christmas and did the basic mounting straight away, I haven't had much time to simrace since unfortunately, just a couple public lobbies at monza. I did cable management, adjusting the screen placement and some FFB tweaks today. 

 

 

Absolutely mental setup mate. No way I can keep up with you now!

[davejm]

I haven't played since before Christmas, so looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow.  I'll configure the server for Kyalami practice in the morning.

[EuroVapeSim2]

1 hour ago, Meers said:

Absolutely mental setup mate. No way I can keep up with you now!

If its any consolation I was super slow when I jumped into public lobbies so there's hope yet. 

[Meers]

Just did a public lobby. Loads of beginners and controller users by the looks of the weaving in straight lines. Immense amount of corner cutters as well (1st chicane Monza). Holy shit wat a difference to what I'm used to with you guys. Never again in that server (DnD Drink n Drive Monza, should have known it). 

[davejm]

Even the LFM or Simgrid servers aren't anything like as clean as our racing.  

[milko]

Yeah I finally got an LFM race in today, qualified mid/low-grid without feeling at all fast and the first laps were pretty brutal, a lot of yellow flags. With 23 cars I guess it’s always going to be more crowded but enough people weren’t being particularly careful and I saw at least one nutty rejoin. 
anyway, survived all that without massive damage but later did myself in, as is traditional. Wasn’t last! (But only by one place)

[Meers]

9 hours ago, davejm said:

Even the LFM or Simgrid servers aren't anything like as clean as our racing.  

 

I still have to dip my toes into LFM (I yet have to qualify) so I'll take your word for it. But I did have some really clean and respectful races in some of the ACC servers a couple of times in the past (except the one from last night). Even the RCI endurace races, although most people being really mindful in there, is not as clean as ours. Something to be proud of for sure. Most people here are much quicker than the average sim racer though (even me as I found out, despite being much slower than most of you), just saying in case anyone calls themselves slow or shit again. 😅

[Meers]

Besides cleaning up the sim rig corner during the Christmas (and spending lots of time with my wife and kids of course), I spent a bit more time comparing the 2 graphical settings that gave me the best performance over graphics. I had a third setting (with TAA5 enabled) but I had to make too many concessions for that one (45fps and 30ms with lower graphical detail and an overall blurry image with a lot of ghosting artefacts).

 

So I have 2 settings that gives me an incredibly solid 60fps @ 16ms of rendering latency (which is really, REALLY good for my system). Both are at 2560x1440 resolution (1080p looks too blurry as well, and doesn't give me much better performance despite the lower res). Both settings share identical graphical settings, where everything is set to low or disabled, except for the following because they have little impact on performance and give me the best stationary image (on my system at least):

 

V-Synch (on - since 1.8 I have screen tearing and it runs much better now with it on)

Rendering scale (70% - because it makes it easier for the CPU that way, and the temporal upsampling and advanced sharpening filter makes up for it)

Draw distance (epic - little impact on performance)

Shadows (mid - gives me at least shadows under the cars so that they don't appear to hover)

Shadow distance (epic - little impact on performance)

Textures (epic - little impact on performance)

Visible opponents (all - little impact on performance, strangely enough)

Car detail (100% - little impact on performance)

Temporal upsampling (on - because of the lower rendering scale)

Materials quality (mid - for obvious reasons)

HLOD (on - gives more frames innit)

Advanced sharpening filter (on - because of the lower rendering scale)

 

So the 2 settings that I compared are:

1. FSR on (high Q) with FXAA and FSR sharpness to 0 (to smoothen the jaggies a bit)
2. FSR off, with KTAA (because FXAA looks even worse without FSR)

With 1 it looks really crisp, textures are clear even in the far distance, but there's a lot of jaggies. No artefacts at all, but the framerate is nigh-on 60 so there's no overhead with the abovementioned settings.

 

With 2 I have about 8fps more overhead, but the textures are less sharp and there's still some ghosting artefacts on fast moving objects. The overall image is blurrier but there's less jaggies.

 

In all, I think I'm settling for setting 1. In the end, the jaggies aren't that bad (mostly on power lines, gratings and the white lines on track) as they're more prominent far in the distance than up close, and the ghosting artefacts makes it looks more of a mess than the jaggies do. So in the end, I'm really happy with the crisp image and the solid performance I'm having now. I'll capture a bit of footage next time I'm on to show you guys.

 

What is the most interesting about it all is that FSR doesn't give me much of a performance boost at all (not even in balanced mode, hence I can have it at high Q). I'm sure that's because of the GTX1050 and the fact it's a laptop I'm running ACC on. Unless I'm missing an essential settings trick somehow.

[davejm]

I suspect FSR isn't giving you extra performance boosts because you're already lowering the rendering resolution by a significant amount (then using temporal upscaling).  FSR is essentially just another way of doing the same thing.  So you're probably CPU limiting at that point.

 

I'm surprised option 1 looks better in that case, but perhaps the upscaling techniques are doing something that makes it look nicer.

 

I've been toying with ditching DLSS and going back to temporal upscaling.  They look different, without one being objectively better IMO.  And I keep flipping between which I prefer.

[davejm]

What car are you guys going for this season?  I want to change again, but whenever I try other cars they feel like tanks compared to the Macca.  I wanted to go back to the Ferrari but it feels like a death machine since the update 😬

[Meers]

42 minutes ago, davejm said:

I suspect FSR isn't giving you extra performance boosts because you're already lowering the rendering resolution by a significant amount (then using temporal upscaling).  FSR is essentially just another way of doing the same thing.  So you're probably CPU limiting at that point.

 

I'm surprised option 1 looks better in that case, but perhaps the upscaling techniques are doing something that makes it look nicer.

 

The CPU is definitely my laptop's biggest achilles' heel. Hopefully there's room for a new PC this year (mrs M has a new job and needs the laptop more often now, sooooo... ) and if there is, then I will definitely not save on CPU power. I learned that much from all the fiddling...

 

Rendering scale at 100% forces me to set pretty much everything to low, and even then I won't hit 60fps so that's too much of a concession. I'd rather have a bit more detail with jaggies and a solid performance than more res at this point. 1440p at 70% rendering scale still looks miles better than 1080p at 100% or more, hence the choice for 1440p.

 

Option 1 looks better overall, even though it shouldn't on paper. I'll try to post some comparisons next time I'm at the wheel.

 

35 minutes ago, davejm said:

What car are you guys going for this season?  I want to change again, but whenever I try other cars they feel like tanks compared to the Macca.  I wanted to go back to the Ferrari but it feels like a death machine since the update 😬

 

I tried the new 2022 BMW and the Ferrari Evo. The BMW feels safe and fast, but I miss the roar of the Macca. The Ferrari is an unleashed beast now indeed, so Macca it is again for this season! 😅

[milko]

BMW is OP til it gets a BoP. Not that I’ve driven it for more than a lap yet. I’m giving the McLaren another season, I want to try and learn a bit more about setup so I think starting from a baseline I know reasonably well could be wise. 
 

saying that, the LFM server yesterday was almost 60/40 BMW and Macca, maybe four or five exceptions in the whole field. Bit weird. 

[Erik]

Heads up if you love endurance racing! RCI's next endurance, 2022 World Tour, will launch in February. Featuring around 45 GT3 teams per split in 6 race events with live stewarding, live timing, top 10 superpole qualifying the weekend prior to race and a total of 70 racing hours. We will try to field 2 teams with 3-4 drivers each. Exact teams and cars are not decided yet, but they will very likely be 2 different cars out of BMW M4, Bentley, Aston and AMG. As of now there are a total of 191 registered teams so this is huge!

 

May 14 will be the big day: 24 hours of Spa Francorchamps. For that race we will need reinforcements because 24 hours is too much for 3. Dont be afraid to contact me if you are interested. We will practice many times well before the race and bring you up to speed and get you used to the car and running in traffic. Right now there is no target laptime but you should be good if you can consistently lap sub 2:22. If you dont want to or cant dedicate time for the entire race, you can probably drive just couple of stints(minimum and maximum driving times are not public yet). Every bit helps the rest of the team. 😉

[SneakyNinja]

7 hours ago, davejm said:

What car are you guys going for this season?  I want to change again, but whenever I try other cars they feel like tanks compared to the Macca.  I wanted to go back to the Ferrari but it feels like a death machine since the update 😬

 

I'm tempted to go back to the 911. I know it's a handful, but I need to smoothen up my driver inputs and if I don't do that in the 911 I'll be in the gravel. Backwards. Up side down. On fire.

 

 

[EuroVapeSim2]

3 hours ago, Erik said:

May 14 will be the big day: 24 hours of Spa Francorchamps. For that race we will need reinforcements because 24 hours is too much for 3.

I'd be interested in helping out for the 24 hours of Spa, I did a quick public lobby just now and my laptimes were not consistently below 2.22, I'm still adjusting to the DD but plenty of time between now and May to practice for it.

[Meers]

17 hours ago, Erik said:

Heads up if you love endurance racing! RCI's next endurance, 2022 World Tour, will launch in February. Featuring around 45 GT3 teams per split in 6 race events with live stewarding, live timing, top 10 superpole qualifying the weekend prior to race and a total of 70 racing hours. We will try to field 2 teams with 3-4 drivers each. Exact teams and cars are not decided yet, but they will very likely be 2 different cars out of BMW M4, Bentley, Aston and AMG. As of now there are a total of 191 registered teams so this is huge!

 

May 14 will be the big day: 24 hours of Spa Francorchamps. For that race we will need reinforcements because 24 hours is too much for 3. Dont be afraid to contact me if you are interested. We will practice many times well before the race and bring you up to speed and get you used to the car and running in traffic. Right now there is no target laptime but you should be good if you can consistently lap sub 2:22. If you dont want to or cant dedicate time for the entire race, you can probably drive just couple of stints(minimum and maximum driving times are not public yet). Every bit helps the rest of the team. 😉

 

Maybe worth mentioning that the RCI endurances have two GT3 splits (AM and Silver). For Prime Motorsport I'm driving in the AM team, and Erik drives in the Silver team (they're a bit faster). For the 24h race on Saturday May 14^th we're allowed 6 drivers (ideally 4 stints per driver, stints are ~1h long and you have breaks between stints). So if I'm not mistaken (correct me if I am, @Erik), Silver ideally needs 3 more drivers, and AM needs 2.

 

As Erik said - there's no need to be available for the entire day, just register the times you can be available and the guys will schedule it into the roster. I think the race starts at 10:00h (UK) for this one as well, and the #1 driver for each team will do the qualifying and the first stint. So the earliest start for most of us would be ~11:00h UK (depending on your place on the roster of course).

 

It's an amazing experience really. I'm not one of the fastest guys on here (let alone in the AM team, if anything I'm the slowest) but I can be really consistent in long races I've found, and I've kept incidents and mistakes to a minimum so far. In the end that's all that matters in endurace racing. And considering that a lot of you guys are much better than me, I think you'll fit right in. 😊

 

 

13 hours ago, EuroVapeSim2 said:

I'd be interested in helping out for the 24 hours of Spa, I did a quick public lobby just now and my laptimes were not consistently below 2.22, I'm still adjusting to the DD but plenty of time between now and May to practice for it.

 

I'm not sure if I can lap below that time either on full fuel but the most important thing is trying to play the long game and survive. So avoiding incidents and minimising mistakes is more important than fast lapping.

 

It'd be handy to practice driver swaps in advance as well. It's not complicated, but being prepared for it definitely helps. You also need to practice setting up the pitstop strategy whilst racing. Most of it will be pre-set, but you'll need to adjust things on the fly.

And no worries that you'll have to do all of it yourself. There's always someone around to assist you while you race (usually the guys that are scheduled before or after your stint).

[Erik]

@Meers they might go with 4 splits if there are enough participants. How they will be named we dont know yet. Personally I would be fine to drive 24 h in a 3 man team, but likely not everyone wants or is able to drive 8+ hours. Or be able to clear the 24 hours from work and family duties... so 4th and/or 5th drivers are needed.

 

They key is consistency. You of course dont want to be slow, because being slow for a full stint loses a lot of time which will be very difficult to regain, but even more so you dont want to crash or spin. Or take penalties. Better to get stuck behind a slightly slower car than to punt him out of the way and get a drive through penalty from stewards.

[Meers]

1 hour ago, Erik said:

@Meers they might go with 4 splits if there are enough participants. How they will be named we dont know yet. Personally I would be fine to drive 24 h in a 3 man team, but likely not everyone wants or is able to drive 8+ hours. Or be able to clear the 24 hours from work and family duties... so 4th and/or 5th drivers are needed.

 

4 splits, blimey! 😲

 

I too have family commitments obviously. But for the current EWC race days our kids have been sleeping over at their grandparents' and mrs M is spending the day with her sister so I could dedicate myself to a good chunk of the racing. Doing that once a month is just fine, my parents love to have the kids again (as do the kids) and my better half can have a break as well. 😁

 

I still have to consult with mrs M about the World Tour schedule as it seems that it'll clash with a couple of appointments. I will definitely be at the Spa 24h though. But the rest is to be confirmed.

[davejm]

A reminder of the schedule for Season 8!

 

 

Server is configured for Kyalami practice.

[milko]

Kyalami so soon! Will be nice to hopefully not find it completely foreign to me

 

I also finally managed to get through a race on LFM without being taken out - at the third attempt. Got spun twice at the second, it can be really frustrating. This time I was able to pick my way through the first lap carnage of which there was a reasonable amount, got stuck into a close duel but then the guy got a drivethrough (Hungaroring is a menace for track cuts) so that sorted me out, and then was more or less clear sailing til the last couple of laps when I caught somebody up but couldn't get an opening to pass. I dunno how long I'll stick with LFM to be honest, today's my last day off and then time gets precious but I'll keep at it a while yet.

[winky]

Finishing on Kyalami and starting a new season on the same circuit is great. As the track is still fresh in my head it means I can try different cars and get a feel for which cars are working for me. Good job!

[Count Buffalos]

I won’t be racing guys, I’ve been ill all week 😬