Hello, Thanks to a ton of help from this forum, I've been up and running for a couple of weeks now, and have been using my sim to familiarize myself with Atlanta Motorsports Part, driving a Radical SR3, in preparation for a 3-day race school I will be attending there next month. I've been very impressed with RF2 - the responses are very realistic, and I now have a very good feel for the track. The fastest real-life I've seen at AMP so far has been a 1:28.5 in a Porsche GT3, and my times in RF2 in the Radical SR3 have dropped steadily, first into the low 1:30's, and then on Monday night, I ticked off five consecutive laps in the 1:27's, with my best being a 1:27.2, with essentially no laps above 1:30. The car's top speed crossing the start/finish line was in the low 120 mph range on this very technical track. But last night, the car felt like it was down about 20% in horsepower. I could barely get its top speed above 110 mph (yes, I remembered to turn off the pit speed limiter), and my laps were an average of about 5s slower than on Monday night (still very consistent, though). The only change I made was to soften the front sway bar by one click to reduce some of the heavy understeer the car was defaulted with. The power delivery is just not there - going to full throttle in places that would have caused it to get twitchy before created absolutely no drama last night. Any idea what might be going on? Thanks.
are you sure your throttle pedal is reaching 100% in the sim? check the control tab, maybe it's not getting to 100% there
Or your brake pedal is always braking. Could be a bottleneck of your CPU too. What are the specs of your pc, screen, VR, etc?
He has a very new, very stout system if I recall correctly. Being suddenly down on power sounds to me like what both posters above suggested. Go back and re-calibrate the pedals. For the brake pedal, try to calibrate the minimum setting just a teeeny tiny bit above zero. Put as light amount of pressure as you can on the brake and try to hold it so that the graph just barely begins to rise. Then press the min button while 'trying' to hold steady. Then go back to the throttle and double check your full range is being used.
Yes, I doubt it's my CPU - I have a very new, high end computer bult by a shop that specializes in applications like heavy-duty gaming. I don't know the specs offhand, but I could check when I get home, but I'm sure that isn't the issue. I will check the calibration of my throttle and brake pedals, but I had re-calibrated my throttle about a week and a half ago after shortening the physical travel of the pedal. Why would the calibrations suddenly change? Is this rFactor's way of trying to make the sim act even more like a real race car?
Maybe you forgot to save your profile after calibration or you loaded a different one or for whatever reason it lost the calibration. It is good norm to check the pedals and the wheel, more often than not .
Well, that definitely did the trick - full power back after recalibrating the throttle and brake pedals, and I knocked another three seconds off my best time. I'm a little confused about the saving process. After recalibrating, do I hit the Save button on the Assign screen? Somebody mentioned something about creating a new profile when saving. Do I have to do this each time? That doesn't sound right. Thanks.
You can use the same name AFTER the first save. You don't want to erase whatever the default controller file was. After that, if you are using Myfile1, you can keep saving under Myfile1. This is just a precaution to ensure the original file is not disturbed.
Thanks, but I'm still unclear on the saving process. There are several screens from which you can make changes to various settings. The Settings menu (gear icon in the upper right) contains seven sub-menus, all of which allow you to make large numbers of various changes, but only the Assign sub-menu has a Save button. I've never pressed it, because someone warned me about the need to create a new profile each time I hit Save, which sounded confusing and daunting, yet most of the various changes I've made have ended up getting saved somehow. So this has me totally baffled, especially since my pedal calibrations seem to disappear at random times. And then there are the Session Settings, with its five sub-menus. I don't see a Save button on any of them, though. Do I have to update these settings before every session if I want to deviate from the defaults? As an example, I had set Realroad to "Naturally Progressing" a couple of sessions ago, and have always found the car/track to have a realistic level of grip, but last night, for some reason, the track was slippery as Dubai after a sandstorm (as someone here had put it - I still managed to set a personal best time, though, but it was quite hair-raising). So I went into my Session Setting just now, and noticed Realroad had reverted back to Green. Between having my full power back, and getting back to a normal level of grip, I should be able to obliterate my best time next time out. But for future reference, is there a way to save my Session Settings so I don't have to remember to check and adjust everything before every session? And finally (I think) there are the Car Settings. I noticed my Radical SR3 has a wicked amount of understeer, so softened the front sway bar by one increment, and stiffened the rear bar by one increment, selected Save on the Summary sub-menu, gave my new settings a name and a description, and exited out. But when I go back to the Car Settings screen, the sway bar settings are back to their default settings. Could you please again as you have done so many times walk me through, step by step, the correct way to update and save items in the Settings, Session Settings, and Car Settings menus? Thanks very much.
With a setup, you saved the file properly. But you have to load it each time you get to the track UNLESS you also ASSIGN the setup. Think of a Track Day car that allows some setup changes. Each weekend you rent the car, you have to put your personal setup back on. OK, so you have a setup, you saved it. Then on the same page where you named your setup you can load that setup. If you X out the window your summary screen will show the change from the default. Now go back to the setups screen click on the name of the setup JUST TO MAKE SURE you have it selected, and then click the Assign Button. Assign then remembers that setup. But only for that Car and that Track. If you move to another circuit, you have to repeat the process all over again. Summary. Create and Save a Setup, then Assign the setup. That should appear on the summary page near the upper left. Hopefully every time you return to that track it should load the Assigned setup. (however, this being rF2, it is always WISE to verify the setup is loaded by looking at the summary screen.) More confusion follows. Next I'm talking about the various gameplay screens like Calibrate and Assign & Display etc. So when you see ASSIGN mentioned below, it refers to the assignments made for your wheel and pedals.(not the assign from the setup screens) Controls: Almost every wheel has a pre-set arrangement of commands. Those are listed on the left side of the ASSIGN screen. When you move through the various screens, choosing which driver helps you want enabled, what sounds, what plugins, things you don't really need yet, but will become important later especially if you want to start using Motec to log your sessions. But the main two screens for you now are the Calibrate and Assign screens. Those determine how your throttle, brake, & wheel respond. And assign determines which button activates which command. That is why there is a save button here. You probably began setting up your gear by choosing a name from the left of the Assign screen. Then, you made what-ever changes that suited your taste. Pit-Lane speed limiter for example. You probably changed that from a keyboard command to a button on your wheel. Once you make a change or changes, you will have to save that new controller profile. (this is the part where we recommended changing the name of the controller file. The reason is to leave a pristine copy of the non-altered original file available. You may have loaded Fanatec CSW v2.5 Now that you have made changes, you can save all your changes with a new name. Fanatec CSW v2.5a or Fanatec_Radical. (just about any name will do, you merely want a name you will recognize if you ever have to go back and reload the controller profile) Different cars have different options, you may want a wheel profile that allows you to adjust ABS brakes or Fuel Mixture, so over time, you may find you have created several new profiles. I have one called WING which is solely for one car, a 1967 Chaparral with a flipper wing(think manual DRS). I only use that profile when I'm driving the car that can adjust it's rear wing. For the rest of my cars I have a profile that is rather generic to GT3 and GTE vehicles. Summary: Changes to the gameplay are sticky. That means when you alter anything it remains waiting for you next time. The SAVE & LOAD features on the ASSIGN screen allows you to customize your wheel/pedals/shifters/button boxes etc and recall those at a later time. Separate Gameplay from On track activity. Gameplay are those options that relate to how your computer runs rF2. On track are the setup changes, time of day, practice, the number and skill of Computer controlled opponents(called AI usually) that affect how you compete once you are on the track.
Well, it's happening again, in spades. The car is suddenly WAY down on pawer - it's immediately apparent as I pull away from pit lane. The response to the pedal is very sluggish, and once underway, I can't get anywhere close to my usual speeds in the straights. I've tried recalibrating the throttle (and brake) pedals on the Fanatec properties page, and also within the Settings in RF2. I've completely exited the game as well, and nothing helps. This has been an intermittent problem over time, and has always responded to recalibrating the throttle, but not this time. I've checked my car settings on the Setup page (I have an assigned setup, which I never change), and nothing has changed. I always drive the same car (a Radical SR3) on the same track (Atlanta Motorsports Park, where I'll be headed for a 3-day race school next week), and never touch any of the settings. Any ideas what could be causing this strange behavior? Thanks.
@Andrew Nagy in the settings calibrate screen, if you press the throttle all the way does it show as full on the graph? If so, you have no controller/calibration issue and can focus on something in the car. Also check on the same screen that your brake isn't sticking.
There is a small chance that your throttle potentiometer is dirty or failing, but this should be less likely as I bet you have good product and brand new.
@Andrew Nagy Also check if you didn't accidentally activated a driving Aid. As said above already, if the Acc Pedal is doing the full Way up to 100% and the Brake Pedal don't shows any Activity if it is released, it must be something like that, because a Car Setup can not change itself (did you check if the correct Car Setup is loaded?) and if you have loaded the correct Controler Profile, the Car should drive in a normal Way.
Thanks for the replies. @Comante: Yes, when I press the throttle all the way, it very clearly fills up the graph, as it normally does. And the brake doesn't appear to be sticking, although its reading fluctuates between 0 and about 3%. Is this normal? I've been recalibrating it when I calibrate the throttle. In any event, it doesn't seem like even a 3% brake drag could result in the massive loss of acceleration I'm experiencing. @Lazza: Yes, my hardware is quite new. My pedals are Fanatec Clubsport V3's. But I suupose a failure is always possible. Is there a way to troubleshoot whether my braking action is normal while driving? @redapg: I'll check through my driving aids when I get home tonight. I have never turned any of them on, at least not intentionally. Here's a little more detailed description of what I've been experiencing: Occasionally and very intermittently, I would notice, sometimes at the beginning of a session, and sometimes during the session, I suddenly am not able to achieve the shift point rpm (9500) to shift from 5th to 6th in the last straight leading to the start/finish line. Recalibrating the throttle has typically resolved this. But lately, the problem started as described above (along with very slow lap times, of course), but after recalibrating the throttle and trying to drive more laps, the problem now starts when I pull away from the pits. I put it into first, and apply some throttle, but the car barely moves. So I give it more throttle, and the car suddenly lurches forward. But after shifting into 2nd, it bogs down as though I threw an anchor out the back, and barely moves. So I suppose it could be massively sticking brakes, but that doesn't fit with the problem (previously at least) going away after recalibrating the throttle.
Your brake reading should be 0 ,unless you press it, press slightly the pedal before pressing "min" in the calibration panel.
Yes, that's exactly what I've been doing - I press very lightly on the brake pedal before pressing the MIN button for the brake pedal calibration.
@Andrew Nagy are you capturing any telemetry while driving? That would also help eliminate controls as the issue...
@Andrew Nagy I don't know which Build you are using, but if the Replays work, you can watch one where the Problem appeared and you, if it also still works, can see the Activity of the Pedals there too. Maybe you see something wrong there already.
I think I found the problem. What has been a minor 2-4% fluctuation in the brake pedal force indicator when at rest has turned into a 20-50% fluctuation. In other words, the brake pedal pressure indicator fluctuates between about 20% and 50% of its range when I'm not even touching the pedal. The exact same thing happens when I go to the pedal calibration screen on the Fanatec Properties screen (so completely independent of RF2), so I do in fact have a hardware problem, as opposed to a game setting issue (I checked, and I don't have any driver aids turned on). So the car must be thinking the pedal is significantly depressed during the session, when I'm not even touching it. This could clearly interfere with the car's ability to accelerate in a big way. As I mentioned above, I have a set of Fanatec Clubsport V3 pedals (along with a DD1 direct drive wheel base). I just posted about this on the Fanatec forum, and hope to hear back soon, as they have always been very responsive, but in case there are any people here who are running Fanatec gear and have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. My real life race school at Atlanta Motorsports Park is only six days away, and I was planning to spend many hours over the next several days on the sim refining my technique, with my excellent coach, Alvaro Perez. Thanks very much.
