27-01-2014, 04:50 AM
Well i've not written a race report since the first round and after many ups and downs it's time for another(mainly to apologise for some mayhem a la Hectari)
Practice leading up to this round left me scratching my head trying to develop my setup and not quite managing to get into the groove and string good laps together, though still hanging out behind the really fast guys in terms of quali pace.
Official practice I mainly ran with race fuel to get used to the feel of the heavier car and decided that I would run a bit more fuel to start and take a bit more overall than I needed. Kept tweaking my setup and finally settled on a race set.
Quali - Really struggled to even complete an outlap until deep into the session, kept crashing but eventually posted a time to put me about 8th I think, managed to improve on this and up to 7th but not feeling too confident.
Race 1 - Got a decent start and into 6th by eau rouge, just following along trying to keep it tidy, lost Marcel on lap 1 then Gorka crashed on lap 2 I think, up to 4th. DJ was pulling away from me and I had Robert not far behind. I made a mistake at Masta, at the 2nd apex I clipped the fencepost with my rear right ever so slightly, this sent me into a spin on the exit and I totally lost my bearings, tried to lock my wheels and hoped for the best not knowing which way Robert would pass. Unfortunately he clipped me as he tried to squeeze by and suffered heavy damage, very sorry for this. I had no damage and continued on after losing a couple places. Someone ahead of me crashed out, possibly Rick and I jumped another place and was hoping to catch John at some point. Pitted after 5 laps I think and John went for another lap and temporarily took the lead with DJ and Rik pitting in front of me. Had a decent stop and outlap went smoothly, heading down the start straight next time around I could see John start to move off from his pit and managed to cross the bridge just in front of him. He wasn't far off me and looked like it would be a good fight for 3rd over the last few laps but into Les Combes he did a 'Brian Redman' and he was out. Up until that point in the race i'd been lapping very nervously, scared of making any mistake and since I found myself comfortably in 3rd I decided to take it very easy and drive it home.
Race 2 - Decent start and straight into 3rd from 4th, at the top of Eau Rouge Edwin yielded for me
thanks! John wasn't too far ahead but I had DJ and Rik chasing me down! Managed to catch John with a good exit from Stavelot and made the pass and hoped to create a gap. Nope. DJ and Rik got straight by and DJ was on my tail, kept him there without him getting a passing opportunity until lap2 after Masta, he made 'mastaful' exit and ran up behind me for the pass so I let him complete the pass quickly and safely, Rik was coming fast too so I yielded to him so I could continue on and battle the track instead of faster drivers, who would only encourage me to crash. Oh if only I had thought about that later... after my pitstop I was spooked to read Marcel was only a few seconds behind me in 4th, I wondered if maybe he had still to stop... silly me for thinking this. He was closing the gap and I pushed on, hoping to hold him off and take another podium but he was too quick and with just over a lap to go he was right up behind me into Blanchimont and I bottled it, just trying to be too fast but it ended furiously, hit the armco and got thrown back across the track and straight into marcel. So sorry, I really wish i'd not tried to fight so hard and just driven it home safe like race1. Watched the replay to see what i'd done and my pedal telemetry looks really stupid, for some reason I panicked and mashed both the throttle and the brake in the turn, no wonder I lost it. Heavily damaged I tried to nurse it home over the last lap but it was way too dangerous, crashed again and called it quits.
Well after the race I found out about windowed mode and input lag, just a few days ago I switched to run this way, very convenient for doing things outside of rf2, but 40ms input lag?! Yikes! I had thought the server tonight was a bit choppy, with a couple of freezes too and the usual join lag but thought it was just because of the heavy traffic. Now I realise why I was struggling so much. Just a while ago I went back on the server to do some laps with full screen mode. First laps, very patchy rubber, seemed to take ages to fill out real road. Numerous freezes too, some for 5 seconds plus.. Anyway the first timed lap I put in a pb, 21.6 but got dq'd for exiting pits under red. Stayed in the server for a while more, just lapping, felt good and I could really push, managed some more 21s and was on for a 20 but blew the last sector. I reckon my input lag is about 40ms with full screen mode, either running 120fps or sometimes 180fps which I think brings it slightly lower, so running with approx 80ms feels absolutely horrible compared and is very tough going, surprised I managed as well as I did. If I hadn't switched back and tried it again i'd probably just have continued on using windowed mode, unbelievable it can cause so much input lag, is this something that ISI are aware of and will they be able to fix it? Alt-tab is so unreliable, sometimes it's fine, sometimes it crashes rf2.
I had a look at the replay to see what had happened to Lewis, my word you were lucky Rik, he was so close to landing on you at Blanchimont!!! Also I wondered what had happened to Gorka, seems that he hit the marbles at Malmedy. Really ISI?! Marbles from bias-ply?!!! I hadn't noticed them on the track at all until I took a look at his crash but there they are just sitting there off the racing line. Crazy stuff.
Practice leading up to this round left me scratching my head trying to develop my setup and not quite managing to get into the groove and string good laps together, though still hanging out behind the really fast guys in terms of quali pace.
Official practice I mainly ran with race fuel to get used to the feel of the heavier car and decided that I would run a bit more fuel to start and take a bit more overall than I needed. Kept tweaking my setup and finally settled on a race set.
Quali - Really struggled to even complete an outlap until deep into the session, kept crashing but eventually posted a time to put me about 8th I think, managed to improve on this and up to 7th but not feeling too confident.
Race 1 - Got a decent start and into 6th by eau rouge, just following along trying to keep it tidy, lost Marcel on lap 1 then Gorka crashed on lap 2 I think, up to 4th. DJ was pulling away from me and I had Robert not far behind. I made a mistake at Masta, at the 2nd apex I clipped the fencepost with my rear right ever so slightly, this sent me into a spin on the exit and I totally lost my bearings, tried to lock my wheels and hoped for the best not knowing which way Robert would pass. Unfortunately he clipped me as he tried to squeeze by and suffered heavy damage, very sorry for this. I had no damage and continued on after losing a couple places. Someone ahead of me crashed out, possibly Rick and I jumped another place and was hoping to catch John at some point. Pitted after 5 laps I think and John went for another lap and temporarily took the lead with DJ and Rik pitting in front of me. Had a decent stop and outlap went smoothly, heading down the start straight next time around I could see John start to move off from his pit and managed to cross the bridge just in front of him. He wasn't far off me and looked like it would be a good fight for 3rd over the last few laps but into Les Combes he did a 'Brian Redman' and he was out. Up until that point in the race i'd been lapping very nervously, scared of making any mistake and since I found myself comfortably in 3rd I decided to take it very easy and drive it home.
Race 2 - Decent start and straight into 3rd from 4th, at the top of Eau Rouge Edwin yielded for me
thanks! John wasn't too far ahead but I had DJ and Rik chasing me down! Managed to catch John with a good exit from Stavelot and made the pass and hoped to create a gap. Nope. DJ and Rik got straight by and DJ was on my tail, kept him there without him getting a passing opportunity until lap2 after Masta, he made 'mastaful' exit and ran up behind me for the pass so I let him complete the pass quickly and safely, Rik was coming fast too so I yielded to him so I could continue on and battle the track instead of faster drivers, who would only encourage me to crash. Oh if only I had thought about that later... after my pitstop I was spooked to read Marcel was only a few seconds behind me in 4th, I wondered if maybe he had still to stop... silly me for thinking this. He was closing the gap and I pushed on, hoping to hold him off and take another podium but he was too quick and with just over a lap to go he was right up behind me into Blanchimont and I bottled it, just trying to be too fast but it ended furiously, hit the armco and got thrown back across the track and straight into marcel. So sorry, I really wish i'd not tried to fight so hard and just driven it home safe like race1. Watched the replay to see what i'd done and my pedal telemetry looks really stupid, for some reason I panicked and mashed both the throttle and the brake in the turn, no wonder I lost it. Heavily damaged I tried to nurse it home over the last lap but it was way too dangerous, crashed again and called it quits.Well after the race I found out about windowed mode and input lag, just a few days ago I switched to run this way, very convenient for doing things outside of rf2, but 40ms input lag?! Yikes! I had thought the server tonight was a bit choppy, with a couple of freezes too and the usual join lag but thought it was just because of the heavy traffic. Now I realise why I was struggling so much. Just a while ago I went back on the server to do some laps with full screen mode. First laps, very patchy rubber, seemed to take ages to fill out real road. Numerous freezes too, some for 5 seconds plus.. Anyway the first timed lap I put in a pb, 21.6 but got dq'd for exiting pits under red. Stayed in the server for a while more, just lapping, felt good and I could really push, managed some more 21s and was on for a 20 but blew the last sector. I reckon my input lag is about 40ms with full screen mode, either running 120fps or sometimes 180fps which I think brings it slightly lower, so running with approx 80ms feels absolutely horrible compared and is very tough going, surprised I managed as well as I did. If I hadn't switched back and tried it again i'd probably just have continued on using windowed mode, unbelievable it can cause so much input lag, is this something that ISI are aware of and will they be able to fix it? Alt-tab is so unreliable, sometimes it's fine, sometimes it crashes rf2.
I had a look at the replay to see what had happened to Lewis, my word you were lucky Rik, he was so close to landing on you at Blanchimont!!! Also I wondered what had happened to Gorka, seems that he hit the marbles at Malmedy. Really ISI?! Marbles from bias-ply?!!! I hadn't noticed them on the track at all until I took a look at his crash but there they are just sitting there off the racing line. Crazy stuff.