Ok guys so this post is going to be based on Build 502, Casey’s new GT Tyres and what I found when testing them. Already I see Ben has posted some great feedback of what he found with different cars, so to work together with him, I have focussed on a which car he did not test and have written about the heating fazes with this car and the general balance.
BMW M3 GT
First of all, the sounds on this car are great, I have noticed a massive improvement on the details within the sound, especially when shifting.
For me there are 2 main aspects in which I think we need to nail with all slick tyres. The first main aspect is the heating faze and the second aspect is how the tyres feel when at optimum temperature.
Heating Faze
At the moment it is hard to simulate the cold tyre faze as in both Time Trial and Practice modes, the temperatures start at optimum, but I have been turning the car off and waiting for the temperatures to decrease before I try and heat them up again. What I have found in this test is that trying to heat the tyres up at ‘Formation Lap’ pace works quite well, but the decrease in temperature when not weaving or sometimes whilst weaving happens too quickly, by this I mean that you have to work very hard to warm the tyres up at Formation lap pace which is accurate and the same as real life, but as soon as you come to a halt, stop weaving or during weaving, the tyres lose 5ºC almost immediately which is not the case in real life, if you were losing temperature whilst weaving and then losing a load when at stand still for a couple of seconds, then weaving would just be a waste of time.
In my experience, once tyre temperature is at optimum, you are able to come into the pits for a couple of minutes, head back out on track and push from the start with near enough the same amount of grip, meaning that temperature loss is not as high as in the game at the moment, (this all depends on air temperature and conditions, which is what also needs to be taken into account for the game.) At the current rate of temperature decrease, the tyres would be pretty much cold within 2 minutes, so I would advise to slow down the rate of temperature decrease a little bit to make this more accurate.
I have also noticed 2 minor features in which one needs to be added and one needs to be improved. The first feature that needs to be added, is making the heat from the brakes add to the overall temperature of the tyres, by this I mean, to help with tyre temperature, when drivers are heating the brakes before a race or throughout the weekend the heat from the brakes heat the wheel/rim which then makes the tyre temperatures increase. At the moment, the ‘Dash’ is showing that the brake temperatures are increasing after and during braking, but this does not affect the overall temperature in the tyres, this needs to be added and is an easy fix (I think ☺)
The second minor feature is the HUD Display, which I believe Andy Tudor updated a couple of weeks ago. (Great job) I have noticed that the information given by the HUD Display regarding brake and tyre temperatures does not match up with the readings on the ‘Dash’/’Motec’
The next part of the heating faze I noticed, was that there is no change in grip level from tyres that are Cold or at Optimum temperature. this meant that regardless of what temperature the tyres were at, I was still able to attack corners at racing speed with no issues. As you all know, this should not be the case and is where we need to make the physics of the tyre and grip levels it produces match the readings of the temperature gages. At the moment, pushing on cold tyres is no issue and the temperatures do not seem to rise as fast as they should, as after doing 5 corners at race speed, I actually lost temperature. This shows that the temperature shown on the gages, to the temperature that should have been gained after a few corners, to the grip the tyres actually produce is quite far out.
The reason why I am basing the feeling and temperatures from a ‘Formation Lap’ point of view is because this is the most important part of a race, as it is the preparation faze and during this faze, you should feel the temperature of the tyres coming up as you go through the lap. At the moment, there is not sliding and griping feeling from the car in terms of feeling or car behaviour and is something that needs to be taken into again for this game, but is going to take time to master.
Balance
So regarding the general balance of this car, I feel that it is really nice to drive and very enjoyable, but it almost reminds me of the BTM days where there was so much grip, that it took the realism away. At the moment the grip is so high that I am able to run 0 rear wing at Belgian Forest and still encounter understeer. It brings me back to when I spoke about the BMW Z4 months ago by saying that running 0 rear wing and getting away with it was just unrealistic.
This for me puts us in a situation, which is sort of like being between a rock and a hard place…. Do you want a car that is really nice and forgiving to drive and is very consistent with the feeling it gives you, or do you want a car that is more realistic and in that case more difficult to drive. I chose the second option, which is what this game is all about, but I do not want to lose the great balance and feeling that this car already has. So the main issues I feel that are causing the unrealism, is the high levels of traction and general rear end grip. The grip levels are still so high on the rear that even with the rear set as loose as possible, you can get away with it. This all results in mid corner understeer and makes the general balance feel even more unrealistic. One more slight issue is the lack of grip at Belgian Forest when going over the kerbs and onto the run off areas, when using the run off, the tyres just wheel spin and act like they are on a wet surface which should not be the case. Obviously these areas should have less grip as there will be dirt and pick-up from cars, but should never be as slippery as it currently is.
What I have noticed with simulation games in the past is that they always feel like a game, what I mean is that the cars feel and handle in such a way that, once you get the hang of how the game feels and reacts when you do different things, you become dialled into how the game is and not how the car actually would feel in real life. This then means that if you are good at one racing game, you can be pretty good at all racing games. What the difference between games and real life is that the feeling of the car changes all the time from lap to lap, corner to corner which is what is needed to make this game stand out, at the moment, because the tyres are so forgiving and predictable, you get the feeling you are driving a game and not the real car, obviously you will never feel like you are driving the real thing, but we need to get as close as possible, which is why myself and Ben are here to help ☺
What I would advise is to create a tyre that produces a good, realistic level of grip at optimum temperature that changes all of the time, changing due to conditions, the way the driver is driving, whether they are saving their tyres or pushing by driving either smooth or more aggressively, either way the car should always be changing which is caused by many different factors. In terms of this car, we need to reduce the grip level on the rear, but keep the same feeling on the front with the tyre susceptible to change over a race distance etc.
One more small detail I noticed, was that even when the engine is turned off, the FFB still reacts like the car is still at idle (vibrating at stand still.)
It would also be great if we could add an animation of the driver ‘flicking’ the ignition switch and pushing the start button when starting the engine, so the ignition and start button, which are both available in the options menu control the drivers correct actions. The procedure should be reversed when switching off the engine (only flicking the ignition off)
Thanks guys ☺
Great progress!
![[ok]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/okis.gif "ok")
![[qmparto]](/images/smilies/net_quemeparto.gif "Que me parto!")
![[mamaaaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos/triste_ani4.gif "llorica")
![[oki]](/images/smilies/net_thumbsup.gif "Ok!")
gracias jlanc3,
![[bye]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/adio.gif "adios")
![[buuuaaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos/triste_ani3.gif "a lágrima viva")
con las ganas de probarlo... en fin 
