I can understand why people are disappointed with the game (many bugs) and yes even call it unplayable. However after 14 100% career races I have complied a list of tweaks and workarounds which to me solve most of the issues and make it a realistic and enjoyable experience. Hopefully some of these you can try to improve your game as well: Note I am a PC user but some of these apply to all platforms
1. Turn off Vsync: game randomly crashes with it on.
2. Set shadows to High instead of Ultra, this increased my fps from 35 to 55 with no noticeable visual loss.
3. The default cockpit FOV is horrible especially for triple screen, edit the car .xml files to set it lower (30 instead of 48), also I reduced the head shaking effects in this same file.
4. Again for triple screen (eyefinity) intially the OSD/HUD/minimap was stretched to the side monitors- change your resolution to something that is divisible by 3, eg 6060, and the hud becomes centered on the middle screen.
5. There is a bug which disables the slipstream effect if you are using a wheel/pedals. The fix (strange that it is) is to set a deadzone in your brake pedal to 2% or more- viola slipstream now working
6. The default damage is a joke, this is F1 not dodgem cars- install a damage mod or edit the loose_parts.xml file yourself (I suggest values of 1.5) to make your and AI cars more fragile. Changes the game completely for the better and you will also see more AI incidents and more chance of Safety Car and AI retirements
7. Qualify Bug- DO NOT ACCELERATE TIME in Practice or Qualifying otherwise the AI will set slow lap times, play the whole session in realtime to get realistic AI times
8. WET WEATHER BUG!- This was almost a game breaker for me, the AI being way too fast in the wet compared to yourself. The solution- In a wet race you MUST setup your car for wet conditions! Set your wings high (like 10/10), add one click of stiffer springs, adjust gearing. You will now have a competitive car in the wet. I just did a 100% legend AI, no assists race at Monza in the wet- in previous wet races with my default setup the AI were at least 4-5 seconds per lap faster than me in the wet. With a wet setup I had the perfect race at Monza, qualified 9th in the dry and finished 9th in the wet, perfect pace with the AI.
9. On the first lap of a race don't play like a kamakaze and overtake 10 cars in the st corner, it's unrealistic and spoils your experience (with the damage mod on you won't want to anyway). Instead try and be realistic and hold your position or maybe pickup a place or two only.
10. 11/11 BUG! Use this as a difficulty slider! We all know AI are slower/faster at some tracks compared to others. I test my pace in practice and Qualify for each track and adjust the springs slider to make my car faster/slower to match AI to where I think my car should be, ie, close to your team mates pace. With this you can normalise your pace compared to AI for each track and have a far more enjoyable game.
11. Backup your saves- although I have yet to have corrupt saves I backup my save after each race just in case.
12. Tyre bug- there is a bug if during your tyre strategy you have the same type of tyre selected 3 times in a row for your pitstops, eg prime, prime, prime- the 3rd tyre the crew put on will be already worn and useless- the workaround is simply to change the strategy to something like prime, option, prime or any combo where you don't have 3 of the same type in a row.
13. Run at least 50% races, or better yet 100%- Not only will strategy play a bigger role but you get more satisfaction and become a better and more consistent driver.
Now following these 13 rules/tweaks the game is fun for me however there still remains the following bugs which annoy me:
1. AI overtaking- often can't/wont overtake on the straight even when they get a massive run on you.
2. Related to 1- AI hopeless in heavy braking zones- you can easily outbrake/overtake AI from 10 car lengths back and likewise they will never outbrake you to make an overtake- they simply brake far too early fro heavy braking corners.
3. AI DNF's, Real life you on average see 4-5 DNF's per race, in the game 90% of the time there is not a single DNF, is there mechanical failures? This is not realistic.
1. Turn off Vsync: game randomly crashes with it on.
2. Set shadows to High instead of Ultra, this increased my fps from 35 to 55 with no noticeable visual loss.
3. The default cockpit FOV is horrible especially for triple screen, edit the car .xml files to set it lower (30 instead of 48), also I reduced the head shaking effects in this same file.
4. Again for triple screen (eyefinity) intially the OSD/HUD/minimap was stretched to the side monitors- change your resolution to something that is divisible by 3, eg 6060, and the hud becomes centered on the middle screen.
5. There is a bug which disables the slipstream effect if you are using a wheel/pedals. The fix (strange that it is) is to set a deadzone in your brake pedal to 2% or more- viola slipstream now working
6. The default damage is a joke, this is F1 not dodgem cars- install a damage mod or edit the loose_parts.xml file yourself (I suggest values of 1.5) to make your and AI cars more fragile. Changes the game completely for the better and you will also see more AI incidents and more chance of Safety Car and AI retirements
7. Qualify Bug- DO NOT ACCELERATE TIME in Practice or Qualifying otherwise the AI will set slow lap times, play the whole session in realtime to get realistic AI times
8. WET WEATHER BUG!- This was almost a game breaker for me, the AI being way too fast in the wet compared to yourself. The solution- In a wet race you MUST setup your car for wet conditions! Set your wings high (like 10/10), add one click of stiffer springs, adjust gearing. You will now have a competitive car in the wet. I just did a 100% legend AI, no assists race at Monza in the wet- in previous wet races with my default setup the AI were at least 4-5 seconds per lap faster than me in the wet. With a wet setup I had the perfect race at Monza, qualified 9th in the dry and finished 9th in the wet, perfect pace with the AI.
9. On the first lap of a race don't play like a kamakaze and overtake 10 cars in the st corner, it's unrealistic and spoils your experience (with the damage mod on you won't want to anyway). Instead try and be realistic and hold your position or maybe pickup a place or two only.
10. 11/11 BUG! Use this as a difficulty slider! We all know AI are slower/faster at some tracks compared to others. I test my pace in practice and Qualify for each track and adjust the springs slider to make my car faster/slower to match AI to where I think my car should be, ie, close to your team mates pace. With this you can normalise your pace compared to AI for each track and have a far more enjoyable game.
11. Backup your saves- although I have yet to have corrupt saves I backup my save after each race just in case.
12. Tyre bug- there is a bug if during your tyre strategy you have the same type of tyre selected 3 times in a row for your pitstops, eg prime, prime, prime- the 3rd tyre the crew put on will be already worn and useless- the workaround is simply to change the strategy to something like prime, option, prime or any combo where you don't have 3 of the same type in a row.
13. Run at least 50% races, or better yet 100%- Not only will strategy play a bigger role but you get more satisfaction and become a better and more consistent driver.
Now following these 13 rules/tweaks the game is fun for me however there still remains the following bugs which annoy me:
1. AI overtaking- often can't/wont overtake on the straight even when they get a massive run on you.
2. Related to 1- AI hopeless in heavy braking zones- you can easily outbrake/overtake AI from 10 car lengths back and likewise they will never outbrake you to make an overtake- they simply brake far too early fro heavy braking corners.
3. AI DNF's, Real life you on average see 4-5 DNF's per race, in the game 90% of the time there is not a single DNF, is there mechanical failures? This is not realistic.
