Noob questions. lots and lots of noob questions.

So I've been doing AC for roughly two months now (I only clocked 30 hours on AC, so not a lot!) and I find myself having a lot of questions. I figured I may as well collect them into one thread and maybe somebody find some of the answers useful as well.

A very brief summary of my journey so far: I started with Indycar Racing II, a few arcade games and GT3 over the years. Never was all that good so you could say I started from 0 when I started with AC. I got a DFGT and put a squash ball in my brake pedal which helped somewhat. I went from being unable to complete a lap without spinning out at least 5 times to being fairly consistent in lap times. My goal now is to work on corner exits to decrease my lap times further. In the 458 S3 I have 1.52.2xx on Imola as best time. Pretty sure that's way higher than more experienced racers, but it may give you a little bit of an idea where I am in terms of skill progression. I'm also pretty sure I have a long way to go

General

• What are recommended cars to start with? I've been finding a lot of different opinions on it, varying from GT3 cars to the Lotus 2-11.
  • In addition, why are GT3 cars not recommended to start with? I mean they have a ton of grip and feel easy to race with. I guess they get harder when you try to push them to the max?
  • I've been racing with a 458 S3 and the Z4 GT3 which seem to appeal to me the most, but some people recommend not starting with either of those cars. Why?
• Why would racing with a Lotus Elise or a 2-11 be better? I find myself having more difficulties with those cars than with the 458 or the GT3 cars.
• Is there a list of recommended / helpful apps somewhere? I did find http://assetto-corsa-mods.wikia.com but it seems to contain pretty much cars and tracks only and no apps.

Car & car handling

• The Zonda R. Is that thing even drivable without TC? I find myself spinning with it faster than the 98T on 100% turbo. Is it, like the 98T, a matter of acceleration control / skill?
• Drifting. I've been watching the drift bible but to be honest I am not getting very far, also because he often uses a clutch which I don't have. Are there other resources to look for?
  • Is it worthwhile to get a new set of pedals with a clutch?
• Breaking. Often it is recommended to race with all assists off, which I assume includes ABS as well. Why is it recommended to turn of ABS?
  • I sometimes read about learning about breaking itself, weight transfer etc, but in the end of the day ABS seems to allow faster and later breaking than without it, hence increasing lap times. I probably have it all wrong with my lack of experience
• Traction control. At first I thought that disabling TC was only necessary for drifting but turning off all assists includes disabling TC as well. What advantage do you gain from that?
• The only assists I am still driving with is auto clutch and auto throttle blip. Assuming I have a new set of pedals with a clutch, does disabling auto throttle blip mean I have to start learning heel & toe shifting? Or is it recommended to learn that in a later stage?
• When should you start tuning car setups? What's the best place to start? I already got a copy of Speed Secrets: Professional race driving techniques which seems to explain a lot of stuff. Even with all that info - where would one start?

Gear

• From what I understood the DFGT is a good starter wheel but crappy pedals. Is a wheel from let's say Fanatec really that much better? In what way is it better? The FFB? For the record I'm referring to the wheel only, not the pedals.
• Assuming it is worthwhile to get a new set of pedals, what would you recommend for let's say €100 to €150?
• Are there any other vendors than Logitec, Trustmaster and Fanatec where you have good experiences with?
• Do you think it's worthwhile to invest in triple monitors or wait for the consumer version of the Occulus Rift to come out next year?

Community

• I sometimes find myself just doing something and not really sure if that is the right way to do it. Drifting is a good example of it - I honestly have no clue what I'm doing so for me personally it would be great to have somebody point out to me what I'm doing wrong.
  • Is there like a community effort to help out new simracers with let's say a driving school or other ways of using the multiplayer feature for helping new players out? (I'm just taking a stab in the dark here, sorry if the question seems utterly retarted ).
  • If not, how would you recommend going about with situations where you have no clue what you're doing. I guess looking up online material works? Are there maybe any YouTube channels specifically for these sort of things?
• Online racing. I am honestly a bit daunted by it because I don't want to be "that guy" who just sits in the way and ruin somebody else's experience.
  • Are there any servers targeted specifically for new racers?
  • Do you think I should just "go for it" and see how it turns out?

Personal goals

• As you may or may not have read above (it's a long post so cheers for making it this far!) I am now relatively consistent in lap times on tracks I know.
  • How do you define consistent? I find myself having 2 second difference max pretty doable. Others say it should be below 1 second but a counter argument sometimes is that professional race drivers are not that consistent either.
  • Let's assume that 2 second max is acceptable, is improving corner exiting in fact a good way to further reduce lap times?
• Let's say you've been simracing for 5 years+ (which I am sure a lot of you have! ), how do you set your personal goal? Just keep on trying to reduce laptimes?

Last but not least, thank you for your time for even reading all of this. By all means only answer what you feel like answering, hopefully I can collect everything from snippets here and there.

 

just start the fecking game and drive...

 

I can say getting pedals with clutch and mainly "Load Cell" has been the biggest improvement for my racing. It's also related to the consistency probably. I've learned to brake properly (trail braking) and guide the car into the corner smoothly. By the way all the movements should be smooth as much as possible ;o) Everything is about a weight transfer and since I understood this, my lap times started to be much faster and much more consistent. ( + - 1s max). Also with a good pedals and load cell brake you can turn ABS Off (even in cars having it enabled by default). I found myself faster with ABS Off (GT3 cars) catching the spot before the tires are locked by muscle memory and vary the brake pressure during the braking process and release it slowly into the apex. This is maybe why there is recommended to start with cars like Lotus elise, where you can feel all of this the most and where it learns you to be smooth and precise.
PS: About the "pro drivers" consistency, check sometimes their qualify times, DTM f.e. - 1st: (1:32:292) / 16th: (1:32:885) ;o)

 

Well I think that normal street cars like the Lotus Elise/2-11 or a BMW M3 E30/E92 are good cars to start with. While GT3 cars seem to have a lot of grip and seem to be easy to drive, they actually aren't when you really push it ti the limit.
I wouldn't start out with powerful cars because you first need to drive/race to drive in general, you can't handle a Zonda R or a BMW M3 GT2 as a novice if you try to push it. That's why it is recommended to start out with a low powered car.

Yes, the Zonda R is drivable without TC, and it is like you said a matter of control. You can't expect a Zonda R not to break traction when you floor it (except if you are in a straight line in a high gear).
For drifting: TC isn't a good idea because you obviously don't want the rear wheels to have traction. TC will just cut the power when the wheels start to break traction so drifting won't happen.

I guess the DFGT wheel is fine, but the FFB is more accurate and smoother with my T500RS, because it is belt driven (and it's extremely powerful). But I guess the DFGT will do the job just fine.
If you have 150€ to blow and want a new set of pedals, I'd go for the Fanatec CSR Elite Pedals, from what I've heard it is a decent set of pedals and it features a load cell brake.

And as GeneralHans said, you should just start up AC, play a couple of hours and gather some experience, I'm sure you will get some or most of your questions answered by just playing the game.

 

Holly cow, that is really a lot of different questions, but since the formatting is so nicely made, i'll have a bite on some of them

- Recommended car: something you like, preferably not single seater except Fabarth. The less downforce the better, less power the better. Personally i think lotus 2-11 is a great learning tool. It's more important to learn one car properly than try them all a little. GT3 are fine too. You have more difficulties in 2-11 because you don't have the basics down properly, it has very specific handling that when mastered will make you much faster in other cars too.
- Apps, i use default ones, the mods are fancy but everything you really need is in the stock game. (idk about mod lists) (oh and you can turn on Dev apps in one of the games *.ini files, they can be handy)

- Zonda is almost like a GT3 car, stable and reliable... i'm a at loss here
- Drifting: get the skidpad mod track, refer to this: Calling all drift nutters! and start doing them circles. Clutch is not mandatory at all, just helpful sometimes as is handbrake.
- ABS: driving with ABS will make you learn brake pedal control. During cornering braking pedal is the single most important control tool that driver has, you don't want to suck at it do you? ABS will only make you faster when you already know how to brake without it and can exploit the difference. For now just braking 50m earlier, but having a proper turn in will shave you more time than any ABS system could.
- TC is only ABS in reverse, i don't think it matters much unless you really struggle with throttle. It can be helpful over bumps and low grip tracks but aside from that, it's faster to adjust your line to be able to use 100% throttle out of the corners without TC, than to use it and get your car slowed down.
- Setups, default ones are fine on most cars. I would start with a mindset that you set up the car not to make it faster but to allow you to be faster. In general, think what would you like to be able to do on track that will gain you time and change setup options accordingly. It does mean you need to be able to control the car well enough to understand its current limits.

- Wheels, switched from Momo to G27 - world of difference, people say having clubsport pedals and shifter does that too... The base of DFGT/G27 is enough for being fast, thou having strong base helps with drifting and is more enjoyable.
- Pedals: I think they are very important, G27 pedals made a world of difference over DFGT, and i heard there is another world after that with load cells.
- Screens: I'm waiting for the Occulus, but honestly for driving competitively triples will always be better because of resolution and less body strain.

- Online help: there is not much really, we chat during trackdays/drift meetups, etc. If you want to ask something etc shoot me a PM. bah if i have time we could do some drift/car control lessons haha (I'm thinking on doing a small Youtube series on learning to drift in AC and this could help with it hehe...)
- Multiplayer: Go for it... no really do it! Just be mindful of others on track and slow down gently if you are not sure what's going to happen. And remember that almost any public server has some new people in it, so crashes will happen

- Consistent driver in theory should be able to tell how much his tyres have worn since he last visited the corner because that the thing that changed the most. But really consistency is all about being able to repeatedly hit important points in cornering and braking. Don't think of it as a set of times but as a set of places. Each time you visit them all properly your laptime will stay the same. Also you will not be consistent when Pushing 100% (unless you are a champion that is) so focus on driving slower but with 100% control. There is an old racing saying "If it looks fast, its slow and if it looks slow its fast" and it fits here perfectly.

Welp, good luck improving Cheers!

 

Start with the time trial & race challenges to get a good feel for the game . I use the DFGT with stock pedals myself (apart from a piece of sponge under the brake pedal in the little well to help prevent lock ups) and was brand new to sims also just a few months ago too so i started by using "gamer" difficulty and gradually turned assists lower and off and i'm on Pro difficulty now (200 hours) and staying there i'm happy with that for my skill level atm and i'm in no rush to upgrade as the wheel as lots of so called "aliens" use the same one .

 

GT3 cars have a lot of grip, but when you push too much, they loose it in a sudden and violent way. They can go through corners very fast and generally have poor visibility from the cockpit, so it's harder to keep the proper racing line. They are easy to drive moderately fast (faster than road legal vehicles), but they are harder to drive on the limit. So not a very good platform to learn the basics of racing.

Zonda R versus 98T. Well, Zonda has 700+ HP, so yeah, it can be lively, especially at low speeds when the fancy aerodynamics don't provide additional grip and torque is highest. For comparison GT3 cars have about 450HP and better tyres. On the other hand, by driving the 98T with auto blip, auto clutch and without H-shifter, you're missing half of the challenge, so it may seem to be "easier" at the first glance.

 

Clutch is near mandatory in low power cars for drifting on a track. On a touge or rally course you can get by without it.

Get at least a G27 + pedals. Preferably a load cell pedal, but I don't have one and I do fine.

If you want to get good at driving, drive the Lotus Elise SC and aim to have no oversteer and no understeer on corner entry, by training your braking and steering technique. Don't try to drive high power cars until you can enter a corner with neutral handling.

Apart from that, do what I did, and drive, drive, drive. Study car engineering and setting up cars as well, the setup is very important. I managed to turn the Lotus GTC car into a drift car essentially, and actually drifted some corners in a race I was in. It was fast when it wasn't sliding too much, but it was very hard to drive. Later I made it have neutral handling and understeer on the throttle. Slower but easier.

 

Wow, thanks very much for the replies so far! They are very useful. Special thanks to Nao and the extensive answers as well, I'll read them a couple of times and let it sink in!

Honestly not an answer I was expecting but a valid point nevertheless. I do have a habit of over thinking stuff, which may be obvious with all of the questions I gathered over time ...

 

30 hours is nothing, I've clocked up nearly 300 and I've still a lot to learn.

What to drive can depend on what your like to drive but the main differences would be road cars roll and move around a lot and are pretty much completely dependant on their mechanical grip . They can be a good way to learn because they don't make it easy for you, they're not really design for high speed in the way a race car is.

Race cars have varying degrees of downforce, they're also light and rigid. I was quite surprised at first with how easy some of them felt to drive, at first, then you start pushing them and find they have a very different approach to the limit of speed. I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain the differences but you will get a feel for them through hours and hours of practice.

At the end of the day that's what it takes, hours and hours of practice. There's no need to stick to one particular car for practice, move around and try different cars. I believe what you learn in one will make you better in another.

 

Drifting is about car control. If you're having problems drifting, you're a beginner. You just need to recognize that, and drive more to get more comfortable with how a car feels when it's sliding. At first you'll do everything wrong.

Also, there can only be one.

 

Thanks, I'll remember that. Also, if you need a test subject for the YT series I'm all for it!

Yep, no questions there. As @Turk mentioned, 30ish hours is nothing and I have many many more sessions to make.

Indeed, hence I am number 300

 

Argh just noticed writing fail previous post and since i cannot edit it out, it will be drilling my head if i don't make an errata
"ABS: driving with ABS will make you learn brake pedal control." (of course i meant >without<)

Also I would add to the answers about car choice and improving: Pick a single track/car combo (preferably not difficult, something you like) and stick with it for 100-200+ practice laps, watch videos of people driving it (preferably WR's), analyze your laps drive it under different conditions (tyres, track surface etc), mess around, drive casually, race the AI etc. but stick with the combo... That's the fastest way of improving IMHO. It will give you better understanding of car control and thus reduce times on other tracks/cars as well.

 

Lotus Elise SC + Imola.
Lotus Evora GX + Mugello.
Lotus Elise GTC + Nurburgring GP.

Those are my best "driver's track/car" combinations.

 

Eventually you will read it on speed secrets. And its a good principle to have, once you are on the throttle, floor it and never lift! In the vast majority of corners the exit is way more important than the entry. All you have to do on entry is to prepare the car to the exit, balanced and as straight as possible. Its a common mistake to brake too late and lift on exit, people think that late braking is good, it isnt. The soon you are on the throttle the faster you will be, that means braking earlier than you think.

Lotuses (not including the f1s) are great cars to start for one simple reason. They are well balanced, not very powerful (but powerful enough) and not too dependent on aero (like gt3s are). Everything you learn in a lotus can be applied in any other car.

1) There is a difference between driver aids and "assists". If a car has abs and tc there is nothing wrong in using them. Driving line, stability control and things like that should be off, as they never teach you anything and induce bad habits.

2) abs and tc could be turned off for more speed or better control, it depends how you use it. Sometimes a good diff setting and no tc can be faster then tc on and a not so good diff. And abs isn´t always faster, just did a race with the p4/5 at monza and i had a hard time figuring out the right pressure on the brake, didn´t matter abs on or off, the car always understeered, when i finally came to terms with the braking, i realized that the right pressure (where i could turn in without understeering) wouldn´t lock the tires with abs off, so it made no difference, but i kept abs on in the race just to be safe.

3) dont worry about heel and toe for now. But definetly learn how to blip/rev match. You dont need a clutch pedal to do it, and it does make a huge difference. Tons of experienced simracers (but not so fast, specially in older cars) simply don´t blip. Blip/rev match comes hand to hand with braking, its one single process, to learn how to brake you need to learn how to blip. That is the kind of thing that a gt3 will never teach you, because it blips for you. But take a bmw dtm, 2/11, or any other not so modern car...

consistency happens when you are confortable with your pace, when you are not trying, just doing. 2 sec in a 90sec lap is too much, but its a start. Dont try to go as fast as you can everywhere, specially on those corners that always catch you. Better to lose 2 tenths backing off a bit then to spin every five laps.

 

The best way to improve corner exit is improving corner entry. Slow in, fast out. If you carry too much speed into the corner, the exit will be trickier; and that is one of the most common mistakes from beginners.

 

I'm only a beginner and started off with all the assists, but I found I wasn't really learning much; the assists were preventing me from understanding what's going on with the car. Also I was jumping around casually lapping with different cars all the time and not really getting very familiar with any of them.

Out of the box when just starting out I think assists on does make you faster than without, but as I got better and turned them off I found I was way out of my depth because I had a complete lack of braking, throttle and clutch control. I couldn't even change down properly as I braked without locking up the rear or missing the gear. I made myself drive the 98T on Mugello with no assists so as to just force myself to learn these things in a car that is brutally unforgiving. I went from not being able to keep the car on the track to ranking 26th on RSR just because I made myself (at the suggestion from someone on these forums) learn the fundamentals of controlling a manual H-shift first before pretending I'm Ayrton Senna. Plus it's an awesome car to drive!

Man I wish I got into simracing earlier.

 

I have a noob question.

Is it ok to deconstruct a car mod that someone else has made to learn how to do it myself?

I'll explain. I would like to learn how to do it so I took a mod that someone else has made and added slick tyres to it from another mod. I then decided it needed more power so I took the power file from another car mod and added it. I have now decided it needs adjustable suspension and it dawned on me I might be ruining someones hard work without permission.

Where is everyone on this? I will not release it or offer it for download, its not Kunos work.

So before I go any further is it ok or not?

Cheers

 

As long as you don't release it or make it available for download, do whatever you want for your own personal use.

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To the OP:

I wish I could find the other half dozen threads where I wrote this and maybe one of these days I will get smart enough to copy and save it...anyways, here goes:
First, go into the game options and pick "pro mode"...I know, you are new and all but just trust me here....
Take the BMW Z4 street car to Magione and turn off all on screen apps. (in case you don't know, move your mouse to the right side of the screen to highlight the different apps)
Why the Z4 street car? Because it is paddle shift, rear wheel drive, and doesn't like to turn..in other words, everything you need to learn car control.
Why Magione? Because it is small; less turns to memorize...yet it is very technical and what you learn there will transfer to all other tracks.

Now with no apps on your screen start driving; don't worry one bit about speed..concentrate on simply driving around the track without going off...Once you have made about a hundred laps or so you should have the track layout memorized and you should be able to make several laps in a row without going off or spinning...Once you are at this point it is time to turn on the ghost car.

The ghost car will be a recording of your best lap..now you can 'race' your ghost and use it to learn.

Have fun!!

 

Once again thanks a lot for the replies all. They really help me understand things better!