Released Caterham Academy

Discussion in 'News & Notifications' started by Paul Jeffrey, Aug 4, 2022.

  1. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    You sure you didn't hit 1st or 3rd while doing that? I can't skip gears, except down to 1st (which seems to be a specific case). Matching revs or trying to double clutch doesn't get me into the lower gear at all.

    It's sort of ok, but if you mis-shift (let's say 3rd down to 4th instead of 2nd, or 4th->3rd instead of 3th->5th (eek!), you need to go back to your starting gear before selecting the correct one - which is pretty weird.
     
  2. vava74

    vava74 Registered

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    I have a Moza R9 wheelbase and I use the S397 recommended parameters which removes all software effects.
    FFB Strength: -100%
    Car Specific: 150%
    Caster: 6°
    Personally I believe that the car behaves dynamically really really well, being extremely intuitive how you constantly make simultaneous inputs with the steering and the throttle to keep it pointed to the right direction.
    But I do wish the FFB was stronger and I believe it needs some adjustment, but the driving experience is already very satisfactory in my opinion.
     
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  3. atomed

    atomed Member

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    Agree, the car´s physics feel spectacular, you can sense the long nose all along.
     
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  4. mixer61

    mixer61 Registered

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    Can't wait for an update !
     
  5. green serpent

    green serpent Registered

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    Yep, you've hit the nail on the head. Frame by frame replay shows a split second engaugment of first gear. For a test I mapped 1st and 3rd to differemnt buttons (so there was no possible way to accidentally engauge them), and I was not able to shift from 4th to 2nd.
     
  6. MileSeven

    MileSeven Registered

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    [
    Ok, great - that’s helpful, thanks.

    I’ll have a play with the audio - I hadn’t been running the RC this time before the update and think I noticed quite a change (engine noise much quieter in other cars for starters) when it flipped over to Release so maybe need to catch up on my settings.
     
  7. MileSeven

    MileSeven Registered

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    OK - well I can now *just* about hear the exhaust having turned up the master volume setting significantly - but this has just opened my eyes to the blunt-instrument that is the new sound system.:( I do suffer from age/occupation-related hearing loss (something to do with 60k miles in aeroscreened Caterhams and Westfields...) and am desperately missing the option to tone down the engine sound and balance it (to my ears) with tyres, exhaust, opponents etc...

    Changing between Default and Built-In HRTFs seems to make no discernible difference.
     
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  8. nolive721

    nolive721 Registered

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    Is it me or all that sounds like the AMG GT3 controversy?
    The caster significant increase in a modded version of the car had it fixed for me so the cate might need just that too no?
     
  9. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    Perhaps... but should there be unrealistically high caster ? IRL if steering is heavy, obviously it is if it is without powersteering, low caster is only way to go. In the old days cars not only had low caster, but also often ran positive camber to reduce scrub radius so bumps and braking weren't knocking up forces through steering so much.

    I think they most likely just underdone maxnominalsteeringtorque, basically just scaled the force slightly too much, although for me it is fine. A lot of cars in simracing doesn't have one to one forces to real life. But I guess thats why people buy 15+ Nm DD servos, so it should be different with those.

    I think it might be related to Merc GT3, IDK, it might be running low caster for GT3. It might be reason why Cat has nominalsteeringtorque for lowish peak forces. This car can also be felt to have steering going lighter when understeering. If they set nominalmaxtorque value to make FFB peak at higher torque, then the lightness when understeering would become more pronounced. And people don't like that too as we know from Merc case. So they might have chosen less bad thing. I would just make 6degs caster default, and make nominalsteering torque to add more peak force to FFB. This would actually make lower caster values in setup almost redundant though, but they almost are anyway.

    By the way, turns out the steering range setting in setup is not for steering wheel, but is for cars front wheels. This is very odd to me, could this be a mistake ? Whats the point to limit cars turning circle ? It would much more sense to alter steering wheel lock to lock range to make steering either faster or slower, and it would also be instrumental to get different resistance FFB, slower steering would make it heavier. Any Caterham guys could confirm that steering ratio is adjustable instead of turning circle ? I bet there was a mistake.

    Also yesterday in comp system had a fun race. Weird issue was that I drove through dust could and inner windshield became mirror reflective and remained for whole event all sessions, first time it happens like that to me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022
  10. Bernat

    Bernat Registered

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    For compensating hearing loss you don't need an effect mixer, an equalizer would work best to boost the frequencies that your ears are less sensitive to.

    You can use a system wide equalizer software or a hardware equalizer directly to the audio output of your computer.

    It should improve what you can hear although since you are adapting to the hearing loss it might feel a bit unnatural at first. You have to find the equalization parameters that work good for you.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022
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  11. MileSeven

    MileSeven Registered

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    There are/were two racks available. The standard road rack and a +22% ratio one (which is what I had - the so-called 'quick rack'). The Academy series are very locked down though - so you wouldn't have an option to change even if you wanted it.

    I can't remember if the options had different turning circles - on the original 'narrow track' cars (optional wide-track front suspension came in in the early 2000s from memory) you did have to be a little careful to stop the front wing/wheel getting close to the bodywork on full lock. Note - the narrow/wide front suspension didn't originally (at least) change the rack - to convert to widetrack, I seem to remember you just added extensions to the track rods.
     
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  12. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Caterham steering isn't heavy. With the standard rack, 260 mm steering wheel and sticky tyres at 18 psi it's light except when parking (and even then it's not heavy, I'm no Schwarzenegger). I fitted the quick rack to mine which just makes it even more intuitive to drive - you just think where you want to place the car and don't have to make any conscious movement.
     
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  13. MileSeven

    MileSeven Registered

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    Zactly - but there's 'light' and there's 'lacking feel/feedback'. The detail should be there without adding 50% to the stock caster.

    Maybe it's because the front wheels really aren't there - it's not a VR face-palm after all!:)
     
  14. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    Thanks for confirming that most likely it is a mistake in setup physics that instead of steerign rack (steering ratio) steering circle is adjustable.

    And also, then if steering isn't so heavy IRL (except when parking and in general very very slow), then whats this fuss about FFB all about ? When this kind of fuss about ffb kicks of in simracing, I always wish we could just be neighbours and come to actually try the game. Or perhaps telemetry would help too lol Some will say 3Nm is heavy, some will say 9Nm is light, go figure xD And then there comesFFB at different car dynamics such as FFB while oversteering, FFB while understeering, FFB while just turning, FFB at straights. Bunch of people keeps on complainign about FFB, and as a physics guy to me it is always making me crazy understanding that they all could possibly mean different thing, different circumstances, have different refference points....

    If I have decent FFB with T300 which isn't stronger than ~4Nm, shouldn't guys with 16Nm steerign wheels have 4x the force, or is the force of this car just never reaching above 4Nm for any controler ?
     
  15. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    Lack of wheels could actually mess with whole perception. And FFB (in many simracers minds) actually is whole loop of perceptions combining together, it is just that force from a thing makes biggest impression. What you see and hear happening comes together with sense of physical force coming in through FFB motor and steering wheel. FFB only makes sense if you see thing happening on screen as it gives information about the results of actions you are doing and also necessary for understanding immediate action the next moment.

    "My feel" vs "your feel" is even more subjective issue than my "light force" vs your "light force". For force at least some numbers are possible to generate. I have seen people suggesting to bump up FFB smoothing while ramping up FFB mult. Problem with FFB smoothing is that it makes FFB signal smoother - in other words masks out detail. So its best not to use it at all, especially for fine steering FFB motors.

    Other problem is that you don't sit in actual moving fast car, so you loose that.

    It is possible that physics of this car simply doesn't have enough peak torque dialed in and thats it.
     
  16. Bernat

    Bernat Registered

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    I know some simracers like to fight the wheel and have a good workout when racing. It makes the racing more intense for them. This car might not be for them.

    I couldn't yet try the car and I'm very surprised by the mixed opinions and at the same time I'm happy to hear it feels very differently to most cars we're used to in rFactor 2, like it should.
     
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  17. Woodee

    Woodee Registered

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    Is there a painting template?
     
  18. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    For workout is good to walk, ride bicycle, do pullups, dips, pushops, gymnastic rings exercises, dumbels, maybe gym :D

    Yesterday I drove this quite a lot, I think manual cars are also good for aerobic cardio, when you go very fast you need to move a lot, move feet move hands a lot, it is like hardcore fidgeting. If you simrace manual cars a lot, you definitely will burn a lot more calories than with two pedals and paddle shifting, very small steering lock to lock.

    Truly heavy to turn steering wheel is inherently bad thing, because if it takes away miliseconds from your ability to correct slides then you just can't drive well and fast. And heavy steering can take lots of miliseconds - first is mistake to grip steering very strong, this way you restrict cars self alignment and loose sensitivity to react quick. Second problem is that you can't just oppose 10Nm as quick and as precise as 3Nm the moment you have to turn steering back to straight.
     
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  19. memoNo1

    memoNo1 Registered

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    Best workout is the Porsche Cup Car:D
    Love it:p
    Hopefully a fix come soon for the Caterham
     
  20. RaceNut

    RaceNut Registered

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    I thought the exhaust noise should be more prominent (being relatively close to driver), thanks for confirming that. The intake sound is certainly present but, overall engine sound is generally good, imo. Perhaps they can increase the exhaust noise a bit more, but I wonder if there are still some issues with the new sound engine yet to be sorted.

    As it is now, changing cars often requires a good deal of fussing with sound settings to find a proper balance (IF possible) between player car volume & opponent car volume.
     

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