Why is it all on the driver?

Designed to forget useful info?

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I don't think OP has the right attitude, but he's asking for something that's pretty valid. Ok, a full blown AI race engineer won't happen any time soon because it's way too complex. And this being a sim, the game rightly allows you to manually set whatever you want, and then simulates it.

But. If the game already eyeballs an estimate of how much fuel per lap you need, it isn't unreasonable to ask for it to give you an estimate for the race. A simple "62 to 70L of fuel estimated for this race" message would suffice. Likewise, we could and should have a message to warn you your tyre pressures are way off the normal range for the predicted weather conditions. These would be pretty important and quick/simple/easy to develop QoL changes, that don't remotely detract from the game's character as a proper serious stimulator. The fact other simulators don't have these features isn't an excuse - one of ACC's strengths clearly is having a pretty accessible UI (at least in the menus outside of driving.. I had to come to these forums to work out how to do a tyre change pitstop), and a closed system of a limited range of official cars and tracks that can't be modded, so making the user experience as straightforward as possible is clearly a priority for the devs, unless something like say, rFactor 2.

So please do add a fuel estimate to help us, I don't see what do we gain by having to do fuel calculations on a phone or second screen. The option to do that should still be there for who wants to do it, to fully optimize a strategy to the tiniest degree, but for more casual racing these things can only benefit us.

 

I'm absolutely with the OP in this. Just some small Recommendation In Game about PSI on the actual Condition and automated Fuel Calculator next to Fuel Consumption would be nice to have.

 

Careful, thou shall tread cautiously when one tries taking ye old simracers calculators away.

Heaven forbid, you want accurate tyre pressure.

May the Lord have mercy!

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All Marco needs to do is get Geoff Crammond out of retirement and BAM, race engineer solved.

 

All these tips are great but they aren't going to work for someone like me. When I get the chance to sit in my sim rig I don't want to spend my time making setups, I get to spend a few hours in sim, every other weekend if I'm lucky. I won't be able to go through these tips easily with my VR headset, I want to race or do the challenges. I do setups from time to time but basically the problem is, I have the attention span of a goldfish and just get frustrated with it and give up.

I'm going to keep going the way I'm going until someone comes up with pit crew AI. And I fully appreciate that a virtual AI pit crew is a ridiculously complicated thing to ask for. So Kunos should get cracking on it ASAP.

I can get by just fine on slightly modified default setups, seeing as I'm somewhere around 2 seconds slower than top times I feel there's still room for improvement in my driving, so I work on that rather than setups.

 

Earn experience and you will make it

 

Simple quick calculation of fuel:
30mins = 60L
1 Hour = 120L

Gives you plenty for any track/car combo and easy to work out for more or less time. Any finer adjustments can be made if you so feel but in reality the few extra litres will make no difference to lap time for 99% of drivers.

Tyre pressures wise you just have to over time get a rough idea of whats needed. If in doubt go a few clicks higher if temp is lower and/or time of day is later in the evening than last session.

 

Haha good one

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possibly

But since I enjoy the calm of my virtual sailing boat I'd say this is a very interesting topic and one that can be generalized across multiple game types and game elements.

If you want to have AI to give you a solution regarding any element in a game you start with 2 possible scenarios.

A) devs cannot develop an AI that can perfectly solve the problem every single time
B) devs develop an AI that can perfectly solve the problem every single time

so let's apply this to tyre pressure as an example.

In the A scenario devs will have to add some kind of "safe space" to whatever the AI comes up with, because we know it's not perfect. That means that whatever number the AI will come up with will be sub optimal and players with more experience will come up with a better number... and that is pretty much what it will happen without the AI at all.. ie you are adding a lot of complexity but you aren't solving anything and it all turns into a countdown before "MrBungle2" shows up complaining that the AI RaceEngineer is stupid and suggests always too much fuel, or sub optimal pressure and so on... and we're back at square one.


In the B scenario the net result is that you've effectively removed that element from the game. If the AI can perfectly solve the problem and you always get the best solution in every situation then that element of gameplay (and simulation) is gone for good, it's like it has never even been there... all of this at the double cost of implementing the AI and also the entire physics simulation that the player will never see nor care because they AI is now taking care of it.... and MrBungle3 will only notice this even exists the moment the AI doesn't do exactly what it should and he'll run to the forum to complain about incompetent devs...and we're back at square one.

so ya, I think you are right, current simulation games are harder than they should because they do ask the player to know and understand more compared to their RL counterparts.. but the problem is not as easy to solve as you might think it is.

 

... man, when is this pirate coming home...

 

thanks for this, it does help but now I just feel like I need to delve into aspect of the sim that is going to be so time consuming and for me personally pretty boring, I'd take option C you remember the little Microsoft helper from office 95 it'd really cheer me up and help me with those pesky pressures! food for thought. I never slagged off the dev's all of you have created the most engaging race simulation of all time imo. its just so damn complicated I feel like I need to go on a course.

Cool that you still post here btw.

 

I don't think it's that hard to program something like a calculation of how many psi's are needed to reach 27.5.
Example bellow. When I enter the pit or press esc key my dash will tell me just that. It's not perfect, but it helps immensely.
Just did it in 1 min, changing what I had previously that would show the last value(as you see in setup menu after entering the pits), to do the maths for me.
This will definitely help during races, and it's such an easy thing to implement. Can't see why anyone would be against this, specially with the arguments "hur durr simulation..."

 

Well actually apps like Sidekick for AC tell you how much psi you need to add to reach optimal psi and and apps like ACRL fuel also for AC tell you how much fuel you need. So it's not like we are talking rocket science. And of course the advantage of having a ballpark figure overcomes the possible lack of accuracy. After all they are just suggesting a number, not changing stuff for you automatically.

I think that something could be done so you have a sort of "engineer" suggesting to you at least the ballpark figures for tire choice, tire pressure and fuel before you enter the race. Show them somewhere and let you decide what you want to do.

 

Guys 27.5 is not always the optimal value!!!!

Psi change as you change the setup and also as condition changes.
So, probably for the standard aggressive setup they can develop a pretty system, but once you chenge camber ( just to mention one of the non finite factors in play), it wont work anymore.

Sometimes you should ask yourself why people dont do things you think are simple.
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LOL

 

Are you talking about the paperclip!!

I thought that one of the most hated things included in any software ever shipped so widely, in fact I was under the impression that was a case study on how not to do software design

remember.. “It looks like you’re trying to write a letter...” aaah!

It looks like you’re trying to set your tyre pressures ... **** off lol
Perhaps it would be a spanner

 

That's the one haha! I'd take it

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Per my earlier comment:

+ A and B points considered,
what about throwing the enahnced AI crew/team idea aside and instead adding the ability for other players to man crew/team positions/slots.
(similar to iRacing, linked in previous comment)

Human driver with human crew/team, human calculations, human error - doesn't get any more realistic than that
... well, it could, you get my point

That would also play into the online and eSports side of things too.
Otherwise, don't see much use of it in SP.
Far as I have observed, ACC is focusing more on MP anyway.

We could all learn a lot from each other with a feature like that, regardless which side of the wheel you are on.

 

This problem can be so eaisly solved. rather that using a AI pit crew to try and estimate how much fuel you need and what are the perfect tyre pressures , why not just use your brain. In that way when you make a mistake and run out of fuel on the last lap , which does happen , you can retrain your brain to do better next time. This really can work well. For example if I do a 30 minute race and find that I have 40L of fuel left at the end. My brain will suggest that the next I time i do a 30 minute race I should maybe deduct 35L of fuel. It really works. I know that AI is all the fasion at the moment but your brain is much much much much , better so use it. In all seriousness you really don't want to remove real variables from a simulation, they make for a for a more interesting experience.

 

That has always been my take on it.
Just use common sense.
Don't calculate then abuse the ECU maps or else your math will be wrong anyway.

I rarely adjust tuning without improving myself (the driver) first anyway.
An inexperienced driver could run minimum fuel and perfect tires/etc but it won't make him/her any faster and less prone to error.

Not sure if it was an older title like GTR2/Race07 or a modern one like F1 - you would get a DQ if you couldn't complete a lap after race finish and enter the pit.
Since then that is always how I guess fuel, extra 1-2 laps.