F1 2011 Want some Vets input :)

[Chris Thomas]

Hey all,

I spent most of F1 2010 just lurking. So this time I'm actually doing the odd post

I bought a wheel for the first time yesterday and I've been trying to get to grips with it. Sorted out the settings so it does what I want it to but I just need to get better with it. It's hard to believe but I was better with the keyboard!

I'm after some input on my racing etiquette in my opening lap on Shanghai. The link is here:

I recorded the clip using Playclaw hence the logo drifting across the screen. I don't know how other people get theirs uploaded but I simply recorded the replay using that programme.

This is how I generally race online - trying not to knock anyone etc. But sometimes I get caught out by an early breaker (look out for me bumping lightly into Alonso about halfway through and a near miss with a HRT into Turn 1). Is this ok?

Secondly, at the moment I suck with the wheel haha. But I do have Braking Assist and ABS turned off while TC is on medium. The AI is on intermediate. On this particular track I borrowed a set-up from these forums not realising at the time that 11/11 springs was bugged. I decided to run with it anyway because I figured it would be a good chance to get used to the new environment without spinning every 2 seconds!

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Have at it!

 

[John Robertson]

you seem to be locking up a lot, that should sort itself as soon as you learn the brakes on your wheel a little better, that's the reason you hit that HRT in the first corner.

If those were real people it might piss a couple people off, all that shoving at the beginning, and you kinda nudged alonso out of the way on the long right hand corner, that would have annoyed me

 

[Jan-Olov Johansson]

Well, the most important thing is to be very careful at the start, going into the first turn(s) of any track you will need to brake earlier then usual unless you are first in to the turn. There is nothing that annoys people more then first corner pileups.
But that is something that comes with practice, the thing that sticks out the most in your vid is the move you make on the ferrari, that is something I would have been a bit...annoyed... about, he is clearly ahead of you and you give him a bump and thereby gaining a position. If it had been online with 'real' people you would have been expected to yield your position back to the Ferrari driver.

Anyway, that's my little input of your vid, accidents and race incidents will always happend, this is racing and everybody wants to do well in the races. We are doing this for the fun of it so if you feel you have done a wrong move without having the possibillity to make a mence then and there a simple 'sorry for that' goes a long way, at least in my book

Edit: I think most of us here use either fraps or afterburner to record races 'live'

 

[John Robertson]

Edit: I think most of us here use either fraps or afterburner to record races 'live'

Yea probably, Fraps costs money though, an alternative is wegame, it's totally free but you have to register for it, Also it won't record full screen but I believe it will record 800x600 or something with out having to pay for it. I made a cod6 montage on it and it with the help of windows movie maker and it looked pretty good, no crazy effects or pristine resolution but it looks alright.

link is here so you can check the quality, note that I was also limited by uploading bandwidth to 480p so excuse the youtube artifacting.

 

[Graham Laing]

I don't know what it's like nowadays, but the XFire application (the chat/gaming software), used to have pretty reasonable quality screen capture software build in, and it's free. I remember that you had a fair number of capture settings you could use.

http://www.xfire.com/about_video/

Cheers

PS I have used it, but now I have bought Fraps & Playclaw. Playclaw suits me better when recording live fullscreen video @ 1680x1050, I get less of a framerate hit, plus you can use a low compression codec (rather than just RGB). Also I can designate how many cores of my cpu are used for this video work, I use 4 out of my 6. Checkout Xfire though, it might suit you.

 

[Robert Eady]

I'd say Afterburner is a better (and free) choice for video capture than xfire/fraps.

With regard to your driving, obviously the locking of brakes is something you'll need to get used to with pedals (thankfully you have more control over the car when it happens this year). As for overtaking, what you should think about a little is how agressive you are at the start - although there's very little contact, you try and dive into every gap you see between cars through turn 1, and with real drivers that's likely to end badly. Really, you should be a lot more willing to just take it easy and stay in position as other drivers slow down while the field is bunched up

Also, as Jan said, that move on the Ferrari was pretty bad - there should only be contact through a corner if it's unavoidable, so charging up the inside on someone and then pushing them out of the way is not really on. As for touching early brakers, it's not always easy to anticipate how others will brake (especially the way AI behaves on intermediate), but in general if you drive with a sensible line and braking points there's usually no problem

Incidents will always happen in racing though, and trying to drive fairly is usually the most important part of doing so.
Your driving seems pretty good considering you're new to using a wheel too

 

[John Robertson]

As for touching early brakers, it's not always easy to anticipate how others will brake

And if someone is lagging just forget even trying to make a clean pass, brake early and hope the mess up so you can kers past them on a straight.

I was following a car earlier that would lag warp from about 50M infront of me to 150M infront of me, making it IMPOSSIBLE to tell where they actually were, also they were jumping side to side about half the width of the track. so good luck.

 

[Chris Thomas]

Hey everyone, thanks for your input! Apologies for the delayed reply but I was moving into University and there was issues getting the internet sorted. (I had to buy the game again because Steam doesn't work here despite their website saying it did!)

Yeah I was really aggressive with Alonso there, I completely admit that. It's not something I would do online, although sometimes you need to be a bit bullish in PUGs - but that move was OTT!

Robert - Thanks for the ego boost there! I did do many laps in TT and Practice before setting off with the race though. During TT at Melbourne I managed to get within 1.3secs (no assists except medium TC) of my keyboard time (with all assists except for braking assist on).

Cheers for the suggestions for recording. I'll look into them soon - but for now I have my duplicate copy of the game to install