What's the point of the Warmup session?

I don't get why a warmup session was included in rF2. When I think of a warmup, I think cars going out on track to, well, warm up before the race. They drive around, bring the fluids up to temp, scuff the tires a bit, then come in to top off and head for the grid. But in rF2, when the warmup session ends, there you are at the starting line with a cold engine and tires that need to be heated for a couple of laps before you can push them.

Is this something that's going to be changed in the future? If not, it seems like an extra appendage the game doesn't need.

 

skip the session.

 

I get it and it`s optional, nothing to complain about...move along.

 

So that when you have a race online, the smokers can grab a butt before the race. Make it 5 mins, ought to be enough as long as no one smokes 120's.

 

Well most people qualy on a different set then they race on. Warm up gives drivers a few mins to adjust to their race set before the real race.

 

Why would it be changed? A warmup session in a league race after Q allows everyone to go take a piss, grab a puff, a beer or their favorite beverage to get ready for the race.

If you don't like it, don't use it.

 

In our league peeps do the same, smoke, toilet, practise pitstop, and more importantly, check their qualifying laps and reset their times if illegal or risk a big penalty

seriously, half the people would not be ready to race if quali shifts to race right away.

 

I use this extra time to take a poop.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. So for most, the "warmup" session could be better served by an adjustable race delay feature on the server to allow clients time to take care of various bodily functions.

 

Yup. In a league race I always check setup, add fuel and head to the track. A couple of start practices after pit exit, 1-2 laps with cold tyres and heavy car just to get comfortable (less chance of wrecking someone in 1st corner) and a pit stop excersice if there's going to be a pit stop in the race.

 

"adjustable race delay feature"... you just described warmup.

If everyone is ready to go before the warmup timer is at 0:00, they can vote to advance or the race admin can do it.

 

That´s what the formation lap is for. A warmup session has nothing to do with warming up the material. It is for the drivers to get used to their cars in race trim. Before Formula 1 introduced Parc Fermé after Qualifying their Warmup sessions were usually held at 9 a.m., if memory serves me right, whereas the races started at 2 p.m., so the cars were as cold as anything despite having been in a Warmup session. Nowadays there is no more Warmup in Formula 1 but there are still Race series that have it. Since rFactor 2 is a platform to build different Race series on, there needs to be the possibility for Warmup as well.
Plus everything, the others already said about online/league racing. And on a public server it is the last chance to kick troublemakers.

Cheers,
Marcus

 

HA HA..Good one!!

 

One more key feature Warmup is for is manual grid editing. Sometimes a race host won't use the official qualifying session (like if you do pre-qualifying on a different day or wish to do a reverse grid, etc.).

For some of my league's races I give drivers a couple of weeks to set a time then I manually build a batch file to set the grid based on LiveRacers timing data. That lets us be more efficient for early morning endurance events.

 

Code:

// Multiplayer.ini
Race Client Wait="32" // Seconds to wait at the beginning of a race session for clients to get ready and go to grid
// [...]
Delay Between Sessions="30.00000" // Dedicated server delay before switching sessions automatically (after hotlaps are completed, if option is enabled), previously hardcoded to 45

// player.PLR
Recon Pit Open="300" // Time that pits remain open for recon laps (real-life is 900 seconds)
Recon Pit Closed="150" // Time that pits are closed before formation lap (real-life is 900 seconds)
// [...]
MULTI Reconnaissance="1"

Have your pick.

 

Ehh... Yeah, it's called Warm Up... It's Adjustable.

 

Well said, and I agree for the most part. However, we are talking about racing on a computer, not real life. This is an opportunity for art to enhance life, rather than imitate. I suspected that most people simply skip the warmup, or as you and others have suggested, use it to make last minute adjustment to the grids and allow clients time to relieve themselves. I just wonder if there couldn't be a better use for that session. I'd like the option to run two or three laps to warm the tires and be able to start with them that way. If we ever get dynamic weather working, it would be a good opportunity to get a weather forecast so you could do some planning around pit stops, etc. (It would be even nicer if we could set up a couple of pitstop options.)

All good options, but I'd like to see more of these things built into the UI, rather than having users hunt through ini files.

 

I run in an endurance series- 75 min to 3 hour races and the warm up session is definitely a chance to run to the bathroom too!

 

I don´t see the point in having anything more than we already have. I agree it would be better to have some options in the UI rather than hidden in config files. But I´d say the Warmup is the most flexible way. As you can see there are different preferences of what to do during that period. If I drive different setups for qualy and race, I definitely want to test the feel of the car before the race. If others don´t want to do that and rather go to the toilet, they can do that. Just because it is a session open for driving there is no obligation to do so.
Warming up the car for the race is best done in the formation lap, just like in real life. You just need to enable that option. Providing other options to do that would only lead to a myriad of exploits of such features in my opinion.
And let´s not forget, rFactor 2 is a simulator and as such should diverge as little as possible from reality. Granted there are things that are not feasible to simulate, but adding things that cannot be done in the real world would be something wrong, especially in this context of getting everything up to temps.

 

Great one, John.