GRM Project Cars 2 - Series 3: Blancpain in Air's arse

I will first say Argo has been doing this game much longer than I have so I would start with what he suggests first. 

My personal preference is to use some abs and some TC. I am much better with a bit of it helping me. 

The specific auto spin thing Argo is talking about I have tamed with brake bias adjustments and being more gentle with the brakes in general. I tend to roll the car more if that makes sense. 

I am not faster with abs and TC. I have tuned to it for a more boring and more catchable car.  I am faster with out it but I crash less with it.  

Like many things in these cars they seem to be tuned to an extreme in there default setup. 

Another thing is that one of the settings is backwards (like the engine braking).  If you set it to 100 it is off.  I think it is the TC. Another thing to note is that if you turn off the TC but keep the ABS set to as low as it can go the TC will still be on.  The only way to turn off the TC is to also turn off the ABS. 

Dean has valid points to read the side notes and make sure which way is "off".  However you set them, just know that they have a major impact on how the car behaves.

After suffering running out of fuel on lap 11 last week, I ran some economy tests at Zolder.  The Lambo is a fuel sucker.  A 30 minute race will use 48 litres...  the tank holds 50.  It will be close.

On the plus side, I can run consistent 36's without too much drama.  I am wondering how passing will be on this track made up mostly of chicanes.  It is a track that keeps you very busy during the lap.

Edit:  I just looked at the leaderboards.  A quick time is 32's and under. (Sigh)

Argo1 said:

bslate3 said:

I’ve been trying to figure out this game. Why the heck do all the cars have SO MUCH snap oversteer?! It’s like I’m driving kn I’ve ALL the time. 

This is for anyone trying to get decent in this game:  Start by turning off the traction control and turning off the abs.  Use the "stable" setup in the game and start running practice until you have a feel for the car.  The traction control masks the true handling right up until it snaps loose.  The ABS masks the brake feel.  If you have a bit of rear bias, you wont feel it with ABS under full braking but as you let off and the ABS releases you will snap into oversteer on corner entry.  As you gain a feel for the cars you will be able to feed back in  the amount of TC and ABS that is appropriate.

I really didn't like this sim when I first got it.  It seemed impossible to get a decent feel for the handling.  It is more accurate and difficult than arcade games like GT6/S.  Turning off the TC and ABS while learning let me get a much better feel for the game in a short period of time.  Now I have a decent feel and respect for the game's realism.   I'm still not good but I know that it is me, not the sim.

This is basically what I did.  I had run a few sessions and was all over the place and was quite frustrated.  After the last series started, I drove one car at one track with no tire wear, fuel consumption, time progression, or weather until I got the hang of it and could consistently keep the car on track even if it wasn't at the highest pace*.  *This is important.  Coming from the GT series where you can hop into pretty much anything and in a few laps be running at the limit this is a huge departure and was my biggest hangup early on.  You CANNOT hop in a car and run 11/10th's and then dial it back in like in GT.  In PC2 you have to build pace, if out of the gate you try to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks nothing will.  In short, in GT "over the limit" is still controllable, in PC2 it isn't.

Once I accepted that I had to build pace and got the feel of the physics I started playing with settings: change one thing, run 5 laps or so, and evaluate.  Then change something else, rinse and repeat.  Find the bumpy sections, try more or less curb, different lines, etc.  If you keep everything else constant and are at a point where your inputs are fairly consistent you can figure out what the knobs do.  There are more of them than in GT, but most of the same principles apply.  

To get a better idea of how to tune watch Yorkie065's videos on YouTube.  He breaks down how to set a baseline tune, and then goes into fine detail on what each setting does and how to use it.  His videos are kinda long but very thorough.  I'm still several episodes behind and haven't watched the shock or diff settings videos yet, but what I have seen has been very well done.

I got to the 37s but not consistent there. I found that getting the camber right calmed down the ABS issues. I took a bunch of camber out to get the tire temps even.

Another thing that you really have to get right is the brake temps. If the fronts are colder than the rears the rears will work better. So what I do is set the bias to 50 50 and then drive the car at 9/10ths and get the temps up in the brakes and see how things are looking temp wise. Then adjust the air ducts to get even temps front and rear. As for the actual temps I find somewhere in the low to mid 600 deg seems to be ok. If things start to get over 700 deg you need more cooling. Anyway once you get this right then you have balanced brakes. Now you can adjust your bias to what you want but you will always have to remember that if you add bias to the front you will then have to add some more cooling as well. 

The issue I was having is my brake temps were not even.  So say I was having an issue with wanting more rear bias but my rears were cold. Compared to the fronts. I add rear bias and all of a sudden the rears come up to temp and I all of a sudden have way to much rear brake and I get snap oversteer on corner entry because now my rear brakes are grabbing way to much. 

The short of it is get the cooling set up so you have even brake temps both front and rear and they are up in the operating range so the brakes work right. Then adjust bias and then fine tune the cooling to keep the temps even with the bias setting you like.  This will make the car much easier to drive and tune. 

And back on thread topic, I've decided to bail from the GTR and try to tame the AMG.  The GTR with only a baseline tune was the fastest car I tested with Dean at the Glen, and with only a couple track-specific changes was on pole for the test race.  It's a car where, if your driving style fits what the car wants, it's really easy to be fast in.  As commendable as that is it's kinda boring.  No one has yet been able to make the AMG handle worth a hoot, and given that of the 10 or so laps I ran at Zolder this evening about half of them ended up with the car facing the wrong direction I'm not the exception, but at minimum it'll be interesting.

I have a tune similar to how the Bentley drives for the AMG. Not quite as idiot proof as the Bentley but dam good. I am sure that you could make that little tweak it needs. 

Anyone up for some Zolder practicing tonight? I've so far only raced against the AIs.

I am up for it what time?  Maybe we can get Sauce to join in as well.

I am probably good for some practice tonight.

I'm also in for practice, I definitely need it. 

Send an invite my way. I think I’ve only managed 10 laps in the BMW. If my network plays nice, I’ll try and join. 

Or I can host if you guys would prefer?

I might be around.  I need to mess with Argo’s 911 tune and see I’d I can make it undriveable...

I want to drive with traffic and get a feeling for the Bots and see if they will play nice if we turn down the aggression a bit.  

Brad you seem like the only one that can host that it works for everyone.

TJ I will send you a friend request when I log on.  

At the Dr. office getting an injection in my left eye. I wonder if I can drive with one eye? May be more of an observer tonight.

In reply to T.J. :

I just sent you a friend request. I will be on in a bit. 

In reply to dean1484 :

Ok. Me too. 

I’ll  start s room in 10-15 minutes 

I kept getting disconnected. Usually just as I hit the pit exit and got manual control. Not sure what the issue is, but no use to keep trying at this point after getting booted about 10 times. I may need to hardwire the PS4 to the router.  I connected without issues to Dean's room. Hopefully I can get things sorted by Wednesday. 

In reply to T.J. :

I had trouble getting in as well.  Not the first time.  I've found if I start the game and get out on track off line enough to use my wheel, then join the group race, that I have fewer problems.

Good fun tonight. Thanks for hosting Brad!!!

I also want to say that TJ is going to give you all a run for your money. In the room I had up he was a good 1-2 seconds faster than me. 

Air what happened to you? 

I fell behind and lost interest.  Dinner was ready anyway.

Argo’s tune is actually rather good.  He has manages to completely eliminate any braking issues for the car and greatly improved the turn in.  It’s excellent out of a corner and will very nicely slip and even full 4 wheel slide through some corners. Steers reasonably well with the brakes and does really prefer to be on the gas in general.  It’s pretty spin resistant, but it can happen if you get aggressive on and off the gas.

It is quite strapped down with TC and ABS so I want to play with turning those down a bit and moves the brakes back a bit.  I do like to have a bit of a “braking issue”.  Not really knowing the track and learning the car, I was about 3 seconds off the pace.

One strange thing is does is it locks up the (front I am assuming) tires with hard braking even with a lot of ABS.  I adjusted the brakes back a bit (Argo had them well forward) and that seemed to help.

In reply to T.J. :

Yea, this game seems real particular about your network setup. I know Rotarian had similar issues and ended up changing how his PS4 was connected. That resolved the issue for him. 

I’m still on my old network hardware, but in a new configuration. It seemed to hold up last night which was a relief.