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How to improve
#1
Goodday everyone!
As I'm a beginner, I struggle a lot getting close to competitive lap times, so I'm looking for some suggestions to make my practice laps more "efficient".
At the moment I'm focusing on Monza, Spa (my favourite tracks, the both of which I'm quite consistent on, even if not fast yet), and, recently, Laguna Seca (as there is a lot of community events there).
As I said in my presentation some days ago, my objective is to have some fun racing online and to avoid runing other players experience on the track.
Thanks in advance and ahve a nice day!
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#2
Those are total basics, so excuse me if you're already familiar with them and seek more advanced tipps, but they sure helped me when I started sim racing:

Brakes are (not) for stopping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPSj56lavE
Weight Transfer, it influences everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX4euX-1rug

And another thing I had to learn and didn't know by nature: let go off the brakes slowly when you're done slowing down the car for a corner, just releasing them in a sudden move upsets the suspension and generates instability (sudden weight change).
Amazing list of awesome achievements: 5th Lotus 25 2018, 4th DRM 2019, 5th Williams FW14 vs. Ferrari 643 2019, 3rd Ferrari 312T vs. Lotus 72D 2020
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#3
(11-16-2020, 12:46 PM)Simon Meisinger Wrote:  Those are total basics, so excuse me if you're already familiar with them and seek more advanced tipps, but they sure helped me when I started sim racing:

Brakes are (not) for stopping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPSj56lavE
Weight Transfer, it influences everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX4euX-1rug

And another thing I had to learn and didn't know by nature: let go off the brakes slowly when you're done slowing down the car for a corner, just releasing them in a sudden move upsets the suspension and generates instability (sudden weight change).
Thank you very much, I already checked them and consider them very useful, indeed!
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#4
Spy on the fast guys! Save replay of a race you have participated in, go watch it and jump in the cockpit of a fast car to learn his/her racing lines and throttle/breakwork. Smile 
Open setup cars are difficult as the setup makes such big of a difference, but fixed setups are equal to all. You can adjust brake balance and power in fixed setup also, they are something to look for if you have hard time with braking the car and rear gets loose too easy.
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#5
(11-16-2020, 02:22 PM)Ilmari Ylitalo Wrote:  Spy on the fast guys! Save replay of a race you have participated in, go watch it and jump in the cockpit of a fast car to learn his/her racing lines and throttle/breakwork. Smile 
Open setup cars are difficult as the setup makes such big of a difference, but fixed setups are equal to all. You can adjust brake balance and power in fixed setup also, they are something to look for if you have hard time with braking the car and rear gets loose too easy.
Nice one, I have a couple of replays in tracks I did a decent job to check out those 3-4 aliens giving 3+ seconds per lap to everybody else!
Btw, I think I watched you on a Mazda Cup stream... Wink
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#6
TLDR: As Ilmari said, watch replays of the fastest drivers in your races.

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Since you are a beginner, I would only focus on one of the daily series and leave the other series alone. The MX-5 Cup is a great one for example, especially as it uses a fixed setup and there are many races through out the week. While the lack of variation of using the same car for 6 weeks straight might be frustrating, by focusing on one series you will be able to improve your overall driving skill at a much quicker rate. Once you've picked a series you should first focus on being able to lap consistently at a decent pace, within roughly a 1 second window for multiple laps in a row with no crashes or major mistakes. Even if you are 3 seconds or more off pace from the fastest guys, if you can lap consistently like this then that is a great start. Being able to lap consistently is more important than being able to go 2 seconds a lap quicker but you crash every 5-10 laps or having times that vary widely from lap to lap. The ability to drive consistently helps immensely with then being able to learn how to improve lap times as you try to make adjustments to your driving, since you'll know immediately which of the changes that helped improve the lap times most.


Now onto what I found was the best ways to improve lap times when I first started racing on SRS, and that was watching replays of the race. After a race I would look up the standings, identify on what laps where the fastest times by the top drivers. I would then open the replay, switch to their point of view and watch what they did on those fast laps. While watching them I would compare what they are doing different to me, with a heavy focus on their driving line and braking points for each corner. Even though I had initially thought my driving line was okay, I always found some fundamental differences. They always used more of the track width, especially at the later stages of the straight just before they turn in and also when hitting the apex of a corner. Switching to the exterior camera in the replay also helped show this, I love the F5 camera mode in Assetto Corsa where you can then use your mouse to adjust the camera. To identify the braking point, I had the pedal app open (in the cockpit view) and paused the replay the moment the app showed braking input before the corner. I would then look around the screen and try and figure what their brake point was. For example it could be when the car passed over a line on the road or a roadmarker/tree/steward reached the edge of my monitor. Once I've identified the brake point, I would do the same thing to find the turn in point, the apex point and also the exit point. I would also note when they got back on the throttle. I repeated all this for every corner of the track. Once I finished watching the replay, I went into a practice session and tried to repeat what I had learned. Initially I would brake before the braking points on the first few laps and then try to work my way up to the point as my confidence grew.

This all might sound tedious but it honestly was the quickest way I improved my lap times and I really can't stress how important it is to watch replays. For example, I remember before one of my first races I practiced to the point where I couldn't improve my lap times anymore, even if I continued for another few hours. However in the race I was roughly 3.5 seconds per lap off pace from the leader. I spent 20-30 minutes watching the replay of the top 3 drivers. I then did a practice stint and within 10 minutes I improved my lap time by 2 seconds, which was a huge leap forward in such a short space of time. What's more, I could easily repeat it lap after lap as I already had developed my consistency for driving around the track.

Make sure in your settings for Assetto Corsa that you set the replay capture length to cover the full race. I think the default replay length is only 30 seconds to a few minutes at most. One thing to note when watching other drivers in the replays for  Assetto Corsa, is that when a driver brakes the pedal app shows the brake pedal input at 100%, even if they aren't full pressed on the brakes. This used to confuse me at first and I was baffled at how they weren't locking up, until I realised the pedal app in the replay only showed either 0% or 100% braking for the other drivers.

 
This was a series I watched when I first started sim racing (which was about a year before I joined SRS) which slowly but purposely goes through what I mentioned above about finding a driving line, reference points and using replays:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj9Y_qdx...nZ&index=5  
It's by Aristotelis who is one of the lead developers of Assetto Corsa.  Aris also has his own Youtube channel, which while is main focused on ACC, it has plenty of useful information and tutorials that would apply to any sim. Here's the link to it:   https://www.youtube.com/user/Aristotelis321
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#7
Thanks very much Donnchadh!
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#8
Along the lines of improving as a total beginner is there anywhere you can go to say practicing starting against the lights etc as opposed to trying to come to grips with it at the start of a session. For us beginners its all happens pretty quick on the start line and if you are not sure what's coming next etc things happen. I find I am getting penalized for jumping the start because I am still not quite sure of the exact sequence and timing etc. Are there tutorials for SRS?
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#9
It takes 5s for all the red lights to be lit. When the lights go off the race starts.

I believe the gap from all red lights on, to all off at the start is randomized.
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#10
Sorry for being so direct but if you're not familiar with how the lights at the start work you really shouldn't be racing against other people. Please practice racing against the AI first.
Amazing list of awesome achievements: 5th Lotus 25 2018, 4th DRM 2019, 5th Williams FW14 vs. Ferrari 643 2019, 3rd Ferrari 312T vs. Lotus 72D 2020
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