newbie saying hi and some questions

[jeffong_hk]

hello all, just bought NetKar Pro today, hoping to get a few tips here to get me started.

I am wondering how do i downshift smoothly in this game. i have the driving force gt, so i don't have a clutch so i cannot heel and toe. i find it especially hard to downshift at higher rpms with the f1600 since it doesn't auto blip nor can i blip it without a clutch pedal. are there experts here to give me some tips on that? like is there an auto blip setting or something?

I also find that the wheel lock up quite easily. i was on 80% brake multiplier. are the brakes just so powerful that it locks the wheels up very easily when its at relatively low speed and that i just need to be more gentle to it? or did i not calibrate it properly?

any other useful tips would be awesome =)

 

[Senad Subasic]

hello all, just bought NetKar Pro today, hoping to get a few tips here to get me started.

Hiya :welcome:

I am wondering how do i downshift smoothly in this game. i have the driving force gt, so i don't have a clutch so i cannot heel and toe. i find it especially hard to downshift at higher rpms with the f1600 since it doesn't auto blip nor can i blip it without a clutch pedal. are there experts here to give me some tips on that? like is there an auto blip setting or something?

There is a simple gear setting, go to Setup, and in the bottom left you have auto clutch and simple gear.

I have a clutch, but don't know how to drive with it . Basically experience and getting the revs right, I think. I'm not a good driver.

I also find that the wheel lock up quite easily. i was on 80% brake multiplier. are the brakes just so powerful that it locks the wheels up very easily when its at relatively low speed and that i just need to be more gentle to it? or did i not calibrate it properly?

any other useful tips would be awesome =)

Again, I might be doing it wrong, but I don't go much lower than 80, and just go easier on the brake pedal.
Works great for me, especially in the Vintage, you can get just to the wheel locking point, and go back a little. Although, G27 pedals are a bit better than DFGT pedals, maybe someone else has a better system?

 

[Redvaliant]

I change down without the clutch in Netkar and rfactor. With the G25 it's really just timing and lots of practice to hit the sweet spot between gears - that's with both the H pattern and the paddles. Just start with the autoclutch enabled and get the feel/timing of blipping on the release of the gear and engagement of the next.
The brakes on the 1600 are fierce at first as there is little weight on the wheels and, for the first two laps or so, the tyres and brakes are cold. I'd start at about70% on the multi and again, get a feel for pressure and lock up. You really do need to put a few smooth laps on the tyres first before pushing as you will flatspot them so easily and arrrhhh. That's why this game is yet to bettered, the tyre model is pretty true to life and rewards laps/practice.

 

[jeffong_hk]

hey guys thanks for the input.

senad: how real are the clutches with the g27 in this game? or any other sims?
what does simple gears actually do? ... i can't wait to try it but then i'm not home yet =(

Daniel:
how do you downshift without the clutch since there's really no rev matching going on? or do you just wait for the revs to drop low?

 

[Senad Subasic]

hey guys thanks for the input.

senad: how real are the clutches with the g27 in this game? or any other sims?

As I said, I can't drive with it . And I'm not a driver in real life, so not a clue.

what does simple gears actually do? ... i can't wait to try it but then i'm not home yet =(

Dunno actually, LOL. I can't remember the last time I used it, except in the Vintage this week, when my H-shifter broke. No need to lift off the throttle on shifting up, not sure what happens on shifting down.

Daniel:
how do you downshift without the clutch since there's really no rev matching going on? or do you just wait for the revs to drop low?

Same as in any other game, I suppose. Wait for the revs to drop, blip the throttle and shift down.

 

[Redvaliant]

Ok, this regards the G25 mainly. The ingame clutch is fine if a little Grabby, but it really is only needed for starts when auto clutch is off. It's much worse in rfactor even though you can adjust its sensitivity...seems to be all on or off.
I learnt to no-clutch shift in rfactor which has a kinda always on clutch system - even with autoclutch off. It took a bloody long time to get used to the H shift gear pattern and clutch of the G25, but once i got the timing and feel for the gear gate right it was "fk Me!" Long story short: I turned all aids off + no auto blip/lift and I adjusted to the timing of shifts for each mod.
I wanted to start heel and toe shifting on downshifts but the pedals on the G25 are not well setup for this ( the brake needs to be higher than the throttle and closer to it) so, in the H pattern, I sort of double de-clutch on downshifts while left foot braking: 5th to N, blip, into 4th etc. With practice the timing becomes 2nd nature and your shifts rock.
Now I'm unsure of your wheel's features, but you can still downshift and blip before grabbing the next gear with the sequential paddles on the G25. It's all timing; there'll be loads of mishifts and missed braking marks at first but it becomes 2nd nature after awhile.

the closet analogy would be the gear change on a motorbike.After riding for a while you get to know how to do clutchless upshifts and even how to match revs on downshifts without a clutch - not recomended IRL, but can be done.

 

[jeffong_hk]

i don't drive a motorbike in real life but i do drive a manual car and they are pretty similar i suppose in terms of gear changes.

this is my understand of clutchless shifts...basically you pull out of gear without clutching in (which is very easy to do), and while in neutral you rev match, so when upshifting you wait for the revs to drop whereas in downshift you blip the throttle to bring the revs up for the lower gear.

so in netkar pro, with auto clutch OFF and simple gear OFF...i cannot downshift unless the revs drops a bit to allow the gears to disengage easier but the downshift will jerk the car. i can downshift and blip with auto clutch ON and simple gear OFF for smooth downshifts and as shown by the little graph in bottom left corner, that the clutch is disengaged during a downshift and i only need to time my blip when the blue bar (clutch?) appears.

i'm not too sure what simple gear does to be honest. with auto clutch OFF and simple gear ON. I couldn't start the car because i keep stalling

now my question with the downshifts with auto clutch OFF is that the gears are not in neutral for even a moment when using sequential paddles/stick (which is what i have...no H shifter). so i have no idea in which part of the downshifting process i can blip to rev match, since rev matching is only possible in downshifts by blipping the throttle because at the same speed, the lower gear will always have a higher rpm.

 

[Redvaliant]

I'm enjoying these questions because I haven't thought about this as I've been driving this way since I've had a G25 - 4 years.
After writing the explanation yesterday I jumped into Netkar, disabled the shifter so the paddles were forced on and tried the 1600 and oseella and Ks2.
The first thing to note is that Netkar has two types of car/gear setups. The 2 FFs and the Vintage and Abarth all default to a gated H pattern gear shift, whereas the F2k, FTarget, KS2 and Osella all use a sequential shift. Now, this assumes you have a gear stick in a gated pattern - G25/27 etc and a sequential stick and or paddles. When I tried the 1600 with the paddles and all aids off the shift was very clumsy, the upshifts were really slow and you had to lift, wait, shift and then get back on the throttle slowly to effect a proper shift. I kept missing gears on the upshift by trying to shift too fast. Just awful. Downshifts too were very tricky with my timing all over the place. I could do it, but as I said, I've been driving these for ages and it kind of is an unconscious process of knowing where to blip/change. I think the H pattern cars when being driven with paddles and no clutch pedal demand that autocluch is enabled to get the downshifts at least smooth.
The sequential cars are much easier to drive (in fact the 1600/1800 cars are imo, the hardest cars to drive in Netkar; the wing cars are much more forgiving) clutchless. Even with autoclutch off, you can flatshift up and downshift without blipping; however, I found that in, say the KS2, I was still blipping on downshifts...it's just automatic with me now that I don't think about it. We are talking mille seconds here as to where the higher gear becomes the lower one and where the blipped throttle comes in.
Ive never used simple gear so don't know what it does. One importnat thing is that autoclutch also prevents a stalled engine when spinning and a lot of ppl, even the real fast guys on here, use autoclutch with a H pattern shift, probably for this reason.
Unlike a car, bikes have sequential gear changes and the gears are very very close together, so changes can be done really fast and upshifts especially can be done with just a lift and swap, without a clutch. The sequential cars in NK are very similar.
I'd suggest always having Autoclutch enabled with the H pattern cars and even with the sequential cars - you are really losing nothing interms of time and gaining smoother shifts.
Take the F2000 out for a few hours and try every kind of shift up and down, clutch on and off and see where you are. It sounds illogical that you can blip on sequential downshifts when there is really no neutral space between gears in which to lob a big dollop of blipped revs, but there is and it comes from lots of laps and lots practice.
Good luck and welcome to RD.

 

[jeffong_hk]

thanks for the detailed explanation daniel. yea i was confused for a bit when people were talking about clutchless shifts with no auto clutch, i guess that only applies to equipments with an H shifter while equipments with the +/- shifters have to resort to auto clutch to be able to blip. now with auto clutch on, all i do is blip at the same time as i push the button for downshift, works perfectly.

and thanks for clarifying that the 1600 and 1800 are H shifters while the other ones are not. i was a bit confused when some cars i could downshift without blipping but not others.

as for simple gears, according to a member in another forum, i was told that it allows you to upshift without lifting the throttle.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

Both iracing and netka were close to undrivable with my DFGT=useless pedals, especially the brake.

 

[jeffong_hk]

Both iracing and netka were close to undrivable with my DFGT=useless pedals, especially the brake.

well i just started and am by no means at competitive level. but how come? it doesn't feel so bad so far...

 

[jeffong_hk]

I downloaded race studio 2. according to the NKpro faq, there should be a set up window to enable data logging, but i cannot find it. any ideas?

 

[David Ignjatovic]

well i just started and am by no means at competitive level. but how come? it doesn't feel so bad so far...

Your brake pedals isn't sticking yet, give it a chance.

 

[Senad Subasic]

I downloaded race studio 2. according to the NKpro faq, there should be a set up window to enable data logging, but i cannot find it. any ideas?

Run Race Studio Analysis, click on File -> Import Netkar File, go to documents -> netkar pro -> aim, and open the telemetry dump file there.

EDIT: ah, you're asking for an in-game option. The manuals and FAQ could be outdated, I think you get the telemetry dump by default.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

well i just started and am by no means at competitive level. but how come? it doesn't feel so bad so far...

http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=116047

 

[jeffong_hk]

http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=116047

sorry to hear. i got to watch out for the pedal problems then :frown:

 

[Raido]

So... another NK newbie here (GPL veteran though).. I just downloaded the demo to see if it would run on my Mac.


In fact, after some fiddling it runs fine, using Codeweavers CrossOver, like rFactor it runs well (directly in Mac OS X) and with good FPS. Only thing not working seems to be the antialiasing.


Two things kept me from going further with it though:

- What, no AI? Online *only*? Maybe you'd get away with that when you're iRacing, with a lot of servers being up all the time, and with special beginners servers on tap, but not otherwise. I'm a gamepad driver on my Mac (using the analog thumbsticks), so can't really run online. Any rumors about AI being added sometime in the future? This is probably a dealbreaker (not only for me but for a lot of people - most sim drivers by far just don't race online).

- FF1600 drives nice imho, tyre model feels pretty good, I could live with that. But what's the status on new car models and tracks? I take it there's no thing like Bob's Track Builder for NK? Or even a car modding program? (Hey, modding worked a treat for rFactor, so...)

 

[Senad Subasic]

- What, no AI? Online *only*? Maybe you'd get away with that when you're iRacing, with a lot of servers being up all the time, and with special beginners servers on tap, but not otherwise. I'm a gamepad driver on my Mac (using the analog thumbsticks), so can't really run online. Any rumors about AI being added sometime in the future? This is probably a dealbreaker (not only for me but for a lot of people - most sim drivers by far just don't race online).

No rumours about AI. Thought I remembered reading something about it, but found just this:

"Primarily intended for online use, there’s currently no AI, and we gather that the inclusion of AI is not high priority, especially with the creator's wish for perfection. Coding an unsatisfying AI-component is not an option."

So basically, it's either racing with other people online, or hotlapping alone. You can compare times with other people here: http://www.wagenvoort.net/rank/latest.php

- FF1600 drives nice imho, tyre model feels pretty good, I could live with that. But what's the status on new car models and tracks? I take it there's no thing like Bob's Track Builder for NK? Or even a car modding program? (Hey, modding worked a treat for rFactor, so...)

nKPro has it's own track editor, and people have been converting tracks from other games, so that works fine.

Car models on the other hand don't seem to be doable, at least I have never heard any talk of it.

 

[Bruno Ops]

Another newbie, with a really simple question: is there a way to enable a deadzone for steering? My current wheel doesn't have great resolution and so I don't actually go straight if I release the wheel (in the setup it says 0.01 ) and a small deadzone would fix my problem.

 

[Andy White]

Another newbie, with a really simple question: is there a way to enable a deadzone for steering? My current wheel doesn't have great resolution and so I don't actually go straight if I release the wheel (in the setup it says 0.01 ) and a small deadzone would fix my problem.

Not sure about the deadzone, but by altering the linearity setting and the steering ratio setting you should be able to sort your issue.