New racer here, currently stuck, looking for help and advices!

[Mutzzz]

Hi all,

I have recently bought Assetto Corsa ultimate while it was on sale, as well as my first wheel. I am in love with this game, however, I found myself stuck after playing for 2 weeks with 24 hours behind the wheel.
I have watched a few youtube videos about beginners and sim racing. I have followed what those videos said. I started with BMW Z4 GT3 and only drove it on Red Bull Ring, I have not touched any other cars nor tracks (I did start career but only 1 race in). I managed to clock a 1:32:7 with Z4 on Red Bull Ring, but I found myself unable to improve.
I have concluded that my main problem is that I lack consistency despite I have driven around more than 100 laps on the track, I know where my breaking points are, but I just can nail it perfectly, I either break a meter too early or too late. I also have trouble hitting the inner curbs of corners, it being inconsistent as well.
I also have a question: should I drive more cars and drive on more tracks to get more experience in general, or to keep focusing on the current car-track pair that I have been working on?
Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

Mutz

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

You are doing the right thing by concentrating on a single car/track combo, but I would recommend starting with a street car (preferably a slow one, like the GT86 or such) due to the setup not being as important to performance.

 

[Mutzzz]

You are doing the right thing by concentrating on a single car/track combo, but I would recommend starting with a street car (preferably a slow one, like the GT86 or such) due to the setup not being as important to performance.

Thank you!
1 question,
should I drive more cars and on more tracks to get experiences or just stay with this combo only to change the GT3 to a slower street car?

 

[Richard Dastardly]

BMW M235i is a good trainer if you have it, as are GT4 cars. I think my current issue is being slow/bad at coming off the brakes, so you might want to look at your footwork - I think you're probably broadly ok at line with that sort of time. GT3 cars don't really give you time to think about your feet.

I'd obviously recommend driving everything everywhere just for the experience, but either the BMW or some of the better tuned road cars will help you train yourself. But hey I did most of my early AC training in the M3 GT2 at nords & got up to something like p5 on RSR at TF before I really drove anything else

 

[Ryno917]

I've been playing racing sims for over 20 years and I'm still not always consistent. Don't forget that you are human, and likely aren't a born pro at this. Also, if you're running on a single screen you have essentially no depth perception, which makes a huge difference. Switching to VR instantly made me more consistent simply because you have 3D binocular vision again, like you do in real life, and therefore your depth perception is restored. That's quite a steep investment for someone new to the hobby, though!

I'm not sure what a decent time is at RedBull Ring as I haven't driven much there, but if you've plateaued it might be worthwhile to try a different car or track. At the very least, it will probably help you prevent getting burnt out; there's so much variety here that it would be a shame to get burnt out on the game before experiencing most of it

Personally, I don't really care that much about being super fast or consistent. I care much more about having fun. Part of that is learning how to drive different cars somewhat quickly, but if I'm only competitive against AI set at 92% in some combos I won't lose any sleep over it.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

1:32.7xx using default setup isn't a bad time, few seconds from the aliens of course, but seems pretty good to me. If you can run multiple laps without spinning out or going off track while lapping within a second or so of that time after only a couple dozen hours of playing you should be good to go to try other combos.

 

[bsmooth]

I'd have to agree as well, sims are great and having fun is one of the big things not to worry about. Try and be consistant.
Biggest thing I have found is braking too hard and too late. Just for fun adjust your brakes to make them less powerful, and try running that way for a few laps, that way your not quite slowing down as much and you tend to carry more speed thru the corners, and you don't unbalance the cars as much.
The other thing, try and use low powered "momentum" cars.Mazda Miata is a great example. it'll make you smoother with the gas and brake and you have to keep up your speed to maintain lap speeds.
You probably know this already, but it helped me a little.

 

[Kek700]

Some good advice on this forum post.

Staying on one circuit and one car whilst learning has some sense to it. But and this is a big but
what are you trying to achieve....

Race against AI then 1:32 is good enough, so then you should race other circuit too. And enjoy it rather that single mindedness of circuit time, also learning how to do reasonably repetitive times and most importantly staying on the circuit for at least all the race laps. Also learning how to deal with overtaking with reasonably predictable opponents.

Race on line against other people, this opens a "can" of worms, with consistency, this time will give
a good showing in racedepartment's Gt3 club races and provide a basis for a good "learning curve".
But to be competitive you will need to be in the low 1:30's and low 1:29 to be vying for a win
If that's your bag, personally I go for low 1:30's and really enjoy the variety of challenges that the
24th place to 6th place provides.
This conversation could go on for ever, so as I said what do you want!!!!!

 

[Mutzzz]

Thank you all so much! much appreciated

 

[Mr Deap]

In my opinion racing sim are great to learn new tracks. It's mostly about how driving is like and attempted to base that handling and steering on it. Exploiting the handling with the same car on a single track isn't as rewarding as trying new tracks & new cars.

Racing against other without crashing itself or on other in different type of corners is also recommended. Learning new track improve your 3d spatial awareness.

 

[ronip]

GT3 is one of the modern race cars , modern sims can simulate in not so wrong way, with F1 IMHO we are not there at the moment. For me the sense of speed and physics are the most important elements in car sims . To have a bigger and greater fill about it in sims ; I mix cars from normal ones, even street cars, vintage ones and modern race cars. In this way you can better expirence the difference but also a advantages of such racecars as a gt3 car. It is a simmilar felling when you go home after a raceday or even a karting hour and set back in your own car or opposite.

 

[guidofoc]

I would say drive different cars on the same track, this will give you a much better feeling for each car's personality and when you come back to your original car you will understand it better. Cars with less downforce will teach you more about what the car wants to do in a certain situation.

In general, I'm not a fast guy but after 2000+ hours in AC here are the things that improved my consistency and speed:

• Wheel: obvious.. but some people still seem to ignore the fact that a 900-degree steering wheel offers a level of control of the car that other controllers simply cannot match. The other day I saw a guy driving around with what seemed a 180-degree wheel.. a miracle he could keep the car on the track. Less degrees = super-sensitive wheel.
  
• Brake pedal: so important. I have a good progressive feeling on the brakes, obtained through the settings and by stiffening the actual pedal.
• Braking technique: when I feel the car is understeering during a corner, the instinct makes me push the brakes and increase the steering angle. Most times this is wrong, it will just make the car understeer more. If you need to slow down, try to just lift and don't panic-brake. Also, correct very smoothly with the wheel. That will save your life more often than not.
• Corner entry: at the correct speed, a bit of trail braking on some cars while entering a corner makes the front of the car grip better into the corner. Be aware of your car's weight and inertia.
• Traction control: I try to drive with the minimum necessary, off when possible.
• Tires! I use the tire apps to make sure my tires are in the optimum range, that is a game changer.
• FOV: another game changer for me. Lowering the FOV to a more realistic level made me instantly faster and more consistent, but the most amazing thing is that AC feels "real" with a lower FOV.
• Track camber/elevation changes: this also seem obvious but I still see people driving at Laguna Seca as if it were flat. Braking/steering while on a crest before/during a corner will throw you out of the corner. Inversely, steering/braking during a compression is more effective than on a flat road. If a corner has some positive camber, use it. You get a better awareness of the road features with a FOV closer to reality.

 

[guidofoc]

Also, check the videos from Aris (one of the game devs) on driving faster: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhcxwsAYQYBBjJD2IfMCVr3vayF_I3unZ

 

[Mr Deap]

I actually recently made a video with the brake input. I hope it help a bit.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

The absolute best advice I can give you is to never, never, never, never, never pay any attention to anything that @Mr Deap posts.

 

[Kek700]

I'll have to make an appointment at specsavers, too me the "slow mo" looked about
Spot on.

 

[Mr Deap]

The absolute best advice I can give you is to never, never, never, never, never pay any attention to anything that @Mr Deap posts.

The true is mid 1:32 is bad & I've seen many useless advices like adjusting fov. There's no correct FOV unless you screen is as large as a real car windshield with the dash(yes over 72inch). I presume working the brain 3d spatial awareness is more ideal. You may gain placebo by bomb diving the corner from having a bad spatial awareness & changing on random FOV.

Too many confused advices... like who the hell that has real driving experience would mash the brake & increase steering angle while understeering... Anyone with real driving experience, choosing Assetto Corsa & sane person asking for advices to improve at it wouldn't do it.

The game doesn't penalize you much from doing it either & the placebo demonstration clearly show it. I'm highly doubting giving such advice to not do it will help anybody to improve at the game as the difference is minimal.

 

[guidofoc]

EDIT: my advice is subjective so the fast guys can give you much better advice. I am not going to get into an argument over these things. Thanks.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

FOV is also adjusting foreshortening which affects sense of speed, which is about the only thing we have to compensate for lack of stereo vision if we're not using VR. I know when I used a single monitor I had a somewhat unrealistic FOV, because a supposedly realistic view just wasn't working. Actually even my triple isn't mathematically correct, because there was no sense of real depth when I set it "properly".

 

[Kek700]

i do see what MR DEAP means, he just does not word it very well, and does not
seem to appreciate the amount of skill the fast drivers and aliens have in exploiting
that most important part of sim racing.

It's a "shame" that so much emphasis is placed on lap times, personally I get a lot
of satisfaction from watching the way some drivers exploit their race craft, but not
always by those creating ultimate lap times.