Displaying the optimum operating temperatures/pressures I would like to see the optimum ranges for tire, engine and brake temperatures visible somewhere in the game UI for all mods. In real life you would get them from the manufacturers of the said parts, and would not have to guess and/or experiment. In rFactor1 you always had to either find them from the documentation of any given mod (if you were lucky), or fish them out from the physics files (if you knew how). Also, the proper operating range for the tire pressures should be provided. I realize there is a colour coded HUD for tire temps, and you can always experiment with the brakes, but it's really tedious to do that with every single mod. LAZY BUG REPORT: Just stealing the context to report that the tire temp HUD; with the colour coded indicators, doesn't always work properly. Sometimes it shows a diagonal "mask" running through the HUD screen, so that the left front tire colours are not indicated at all (they are just brown), and half of the left rear and right front tires are not indicated. Promoting temperature management I used to drive many league races with Simbin's GTR2 with changeable weather, and with NAP-physics (which makes the temperature management more critical than stock physics), and a big part of the races became the ability to respond to weather changes between and in the middle of sessions. I must say it worked very well, so much so that static weather races have always felt boring afterwards. With the prospect of changeable weather in rFactor2, IMO it would make things much more interesting if the physics were as unforgiving for operating in wrong temperatures as in real life (especially with tires). But also, the player needs to be able to easily understand how to respond to weather changes properly, and he needs to be able to easily monitor the temperatures and pressures that are critical for performance. So much so that I think the game should provide a dedicated HUD screen to simultaneously display at least tire temps / pressures, brake temps, engine temps, air and track temps and wetness condition (unless it is obvious graphically), and continuous delta laptime. Basically those things that in rFactor1 are provided only via installing a plug-in (if you want to monitor them ontinuously without browsing through HUD that is). There is also something to be considered regarding what can be done to the various air ducts during pit stops. In real life it is typical that the teams respond to rising air temperatures via ripping off some duct tape from the air ducts. In GTR2 races, there were few instances where something like that would have been needed. And last but not least, weather forecasts and various car temperature warnings from the pit crew would make things easier (and pretty much essential for people who don't want HUD clutter), and more realistic in terms of changeable weather. ps, regardless of temperature management, I think continuous lap delta should be provided already on the grounds that it's a very handy and simple tool in making setups (you can easily monitor how the car responds per corner), and in hunting down those last tenths. pss, I noticed with the Formula Renault in Malesia at 29C, that the front brakes would overheat even with the largest air duct settings. By overheat I mean going over 1000C and pushing the brake balance far rearwards. Supposed that could be considered a bug? Or maybe just WIP... Promoting rain and track condition dynamics Dynamic rain conditions really makes races interesting in many ways, as long as the track dynamics and tire physics are up-to-par to handle all the interesting permutations. I do not know what your plans are, and how much is missing from the current physics implementation, but I can give my own wishlist, after having some good experiences with GTR2. What became important in GTR2 races was not only the appearance of the drying line after the rain, but equally the way they handled aqua-planing and puddles/rivers also in the half-dry conditions. The puddles may have in fact been due to low resolution in the track dynamics, but the net effect was that with slicks tires, it was often possible to start putting down faster lap times, if you just learned where the track was still wet and the tires would aquaplane, forcing you to straighten your driving line through there. Another thing that worked well was the cooling effect of the water towards the tires, both when trying to get as far as possible with intermediate/rain tires, and when switching to softests slicks available, on the grounds that they can be kept cool as long as there's some water to collect. Also IMO it made things very interesting when the water being thrown in the air really blocked visibility drastically. An interesting one-up to GTR in track dynamics could be the rubber being laid down on the track (this they had), and the said rubber becoming more slippery than naked asphalt if it starts to rain (this they didn't). And as this tends to push the driving line out from the normal line, it would also make sense to dry up the track fastest at the places where people actually drive. I have no idea how difficult that would be with your physics framework, but a man can dream.... Well that's it for now. Good luck with everything!
