Realistic center of gravity calculation with driver movements

Discussion in 'Wish Lists' started by Diablo, Feb 19, 2013.

  1. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    I don´t want to write everything twice, so here is what I wrote on another thread:
    A fellow simracer and friend of mine, who was a very successful Kart driver, told me that in Karting adjusting the seat postition is even used as a viable setup option! In such a small vehicle shifting the CoG in such a way has a rather substantial influence on the handling.

    I would like to generalize that request to make any driver motion have an influence on the center of gravity of the vehicle. In the process maybe even make it visible from the outside, because as it is now, I can adjust my seat without seeing the effect from different viewing options in the replay. The latter is only secondary.

    As I see it, the current approach with seat adjustments or any shift in camera position in cockpit view, think TrackIR, is a motion of a non-existent object, which being non-existent to the physics, has no mass. This leads to many drivers exploiting such features to put themselves in unrealistic seating positions. In a competitive environment that is an advantage over drivers that want to keep it as close to reality as possible, because there is not penalty that comes with it. I also know from a certain other simulation, that shall remain nameless, that people are exploiting its TrackIR interface to adjust the view beyond reasonable constraints, without even having the actual TrackIR hardware.
    Edit: Apparently it has already started in rFactor 2 as well.

    I think a good approach could be to put a simplified model of the driver (basically the drivers CoG or multiple connected CoGs) into the seat and simulate ("mount the camera") his point of view at the appropriate position. Any shift in position of that camera should happen within the constrains of a properly buckled driver and result in a shift of the CoG of the head. Any seat adjustment should result in a shift of the CoG of the whole driver.

    Now people might say the influence of the driver´s weight is very small to matter in bigger race cars, but no matter how small it might be, it is never too small. Above Kart driver had the opportunity to test drive a WTCC car. He complained about the seat being too low to actually see anythig, being a little shorter than the usual driver of that car. Only reluctantly would the engineers adjust the seat upwards, and even then by only about 30 mm. So now he could see just a tad more than nothing.

    So please ISI, give us this bit of added realism!

    Best regards,
    Marcus
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 24, 2013
  2. WiZPER

    WiZPER Registered

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    So do you have to weigh-in before going online too ? Poor chubby/fat simracers out there :D
     
  3. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    Nope, we have a standard weight driver already, if I am not mistaken. It would be funny to see people get "creative" with their weighing methods though. ;)
     
  4. WiZPER

    WiZPER Registered

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    Funny thing is that I actually mentioned something like this in lne of those HOOD vs. COCKPIT discussions - they always seem to go haywire, haha :)
     
  5. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    See where my quote is taken from. ;)
     
  6. Helldriver

    Helldriver Registered

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    This thing has two sides.

    The good: More Realism, it would just be like in the real world.
    You want to sit as deep as possbile but still want to see some of the track.

    The Bad: Some people are using always every advantage they can get.
    They would simply use the adjustable seat the best way possible and switch to the hood cam.

    So, i don´t think we really need this.
     
  7. Diablo

    Diablo Registered

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    Good point, I was thinking about putting it in my original post. But those have an advantage anyway, and I come from a community where the server run in forced cockpit view, so it would be the same for everyone, and truely the same. As it is now, those sacrificing realism for better view are at an advantage and I think that is not right.

    In the full text of my above quote I jokingly said it would be nice to have CG calculations for all camera options, just to see if one can rooll a car over just by using chase cam. Maybe that could be used as an additional request. ;)

    But seriously, I think it would be possible, that the "advanced CG calculation" is turned off in views different from true cockpit, so we basically have what we have now.
     
  8. Helldriver

    Helldriver Registered

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    I know, how to fix this in a hurry.
    Simply replace Seat up/down and forward/back with "drivers neck" longer/shorter and more angle/less angle.:D

    Just making a little fun here.....
     

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