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Did you knows... About rF2

edwin

real live is overrated....
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Aug 3, 2013
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After reading Marcel's post about etiquete i would like to start a thread with did you knows and tips how to improve our rF2 experience and make racing more fun for all of us.

To have less blind spots i use 2 things:

1. To reduce the blind spots in my mirrors i toggle with the #3# key to get 3 virtual mirrors at the top of my monitor. (they are not very realistic i know) but it helps a lot to know what is going on behind me ::)

2. To be able to look around i started using a head tracking program. With TrackIR being a bit expensive imho i started looking and i found this.
http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm it is freeware so no money needed (but you could do a donation for the good work of this boys)

You have to have a good webcam though and after some research i found that the playstation eye is a good one for a resonable price. it's able to run at 120fps when set on low resolution. You need a driver for the pseye cam to be able to use it on pc. This driver can be found here http://codelaboratories.com/downloads/
with some tweaking it all runs very smooth and makes the experience a lot more immersive.

If you want to know more about it just pm me.... ;)

Please guys i did the kick-off....come on and post you tips here so we all will be better in the future.

Cya Edwin 8)
 

Hedlund

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Re: did you knows

The virtual mirrors are great and I'm always using them... I don't care if it's realistic or not. Although they are quite distorted and it's still hard to judge exactly how close the car behind you is. But they definitely help.

But use the "look behind" button. And combined with "look right" and "look left" there are no blind spots actually... You combine "look behind" with "look left" for example, you'll see the area 45° to the right side of your rear. And of course always have these buttons mapped to your steering wheel if possible. With G25/G27 the buttons on the wheel are great for this. With a little practice, you can take a quick look 45° behind you in the middle of a corner (even if that is not preferable hehe).


Everyone should already have "look left", "look right" and "look behind" mapped... I don't know how anyone could drive safe without them.
Of course TrackIR is great, like Edwin mentioned. I have it, but not been using it for the last races.
With trackIR, you can map "look behind" to your wheel, and then you just need to turn your head around to see where your opponent is.
 

Hedlund

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Re: did you knows

...In your plr file, you can edit "glance angle", to be able to look for example 90° instead of only 40° to your left/right.
 

DJCruicky

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Re: did you knows

As already said by Hedlund you can change the angle you look left or right at.
Do that by editing line in player.json file.
For 90 degrees change it like this...
Code:
Glance Angle="1.57900"

It was said by some people they can not use the side buttons as this made them lose orientation. I think this is because by default you have to keep the button pressed while the view moves from front to side. There is also another line you can change to make it look to the side a lot quicker.
Code:
Glance Rate="30.00000"
I forget what the default was but happy with 30.
 
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Lecram

Marcel Wiegers
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Location
The Netherlands
Let's keep this topic about rF2 and tips 'n tricks. Minimize off-topic chatter pls. :)

Some shortcuts to check your pc's performance in-game:

Ctrl and F pressed gives you your frames per second in top right corner.
Pressing this combo again adds a green bar at top left of your screen. This shows how much memory your videocard is using. (no bar means no mem/full bar full mem usage)

Pressing Ctrl and C together gives you info about your cpu and gpu performance at top right of your screen.
Green bar is gpu, purple bar is cpu.

Some more info about it here : http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/2258-CPU-time-graph-what-does-it-show
 

DJCruicky

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Clearing out old replay files from your replay folder can help the time it takes to switch sessions.
Found by Myles7.

Same with clearing out your screenshot folder. This can reduce the pause when taking screenshots with F12 button on your keyboard.
 
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lamer of fortune

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After reading Marcel's post about etiquete i would like to start a thread with did you knows and tips how to improve our rF2 experience and make racing more fun for all of us.

To have less blind spots i use 2 things:

1. To reduce the blind spots in my mirrors i toggle with the #3# key to get 3 virtual mirrors at the top of my monitor. (they are not very realistic i know) but it helps a lot to know what is going on behind me ::)

2. To be able to look around i started using a head tracking program. With TrackIR being a bit expensive imho i started looking and i found this.
http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm it is freeware so no money needed (but you could do a donation for the good work of this boys)

You have to have a good webcam though and after some research i found that the playstation eye is a good one for a resonable price. it's able to run at 120fps when set on low resolution. You need a driver for the pseye cam to be able to use it on pc. This driver can be found here http://codelaboratories.com/downloads/
with some tweaking it all runs very smooth and makes the experience a lot more immersive.

If you want to know more about it just pm me.... ;)

Please guys i did the kick-off....come on and post you tips here so we all will be better in the future.

Cya Edwin 8)
Last year I bought the trackhat solution which is also using the playstation camera. I fiddled a lot with the settiings of open track as sometimes the movement was too much and sometimes ot enough. I found it quite distracting when driving as it required recalibrating through the Z key eery now and then and there was more mental payload on the trackhat stuff than on the driving itself. After some time I adjusted to it but then it stil felt like small stutter when I moved my head as the resolution of the positioning was not high enough or the 120 FPS were not reached. In the end I abandoned the idea and went for VR.
Even there I use virtual mirrors in a VR hud and I also use look back as this is still the best way to find out who is going where. Looking left and right I can of course do with my VR goggles.
There is anotehr trick you can do to become aware of Cars that overlap. Crew Chief has a rather efficient voice based radar and the spotter tells you whther there is a car to you left or right and also lets you know when it is clear again. This is very helpful as you kan keep looking at that braking point or the Apex.
 

DJCruicky

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Error messages trying to enter a server

rFactor 2 has a nice feature where Cars and Tracks download automatically from the server if you have not got them but it does not always work.
Below I list some things you can try get it working:-

* Delete all files from your 'Packages' folder.
You might have an older version of the mod there that is stopping the newer one from downloading.
My best advice is to clear out your 'Packages' folder every so often.

* Make sure you have a folder called 'Packages' in the root folder of 'rFactor 2'. If you don't, then make one.

If that does not work exit the game and load up ModMgr.exe (Mod Manger) found in \rFactor 2\Bin64\

Before you do anything check the Working Dir and the Package Dir are correct (see screen shot)
Locate the server mod that is Grey colour or red.
This should tell you what is missing.
Modmanger.png
In the above example, the track Road_America_2019 is missing.

* In very rare cases for the error, you could have another track by a different author that both share the same track name. I do know there are more than one Road America for example.
You might have to delete one to make the other work.

* If it's a car install problem, check you have no old skin packs or old update files to this car mod. This could stop the new version of the car to install. In some cases it might be easier to just manually delete the files straight from your Location folder or Vehicles folder.

If you still have error messages then it's most likely problem on the server side. Person running the server has probably forgot to place the car or track files in the package folder of the server. Or even worse server running out of date mods.

Hope this helps out any newbie trying to get on rfactor 2 servers.
 

DJCruicky

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Does rFactor 2 take a long time to load? It might be this-->

See this link Here.

Open the Settings folder and do a search for .rcd files.
If there are thousands of them, delete them.
This happens when people try enter the room with a Team Skin, this can get into a endless loop making these files for everyone on the server.
I had 3828 with Bruce Johnsons name in my Brabham BT20 folder, and 2723 with 'Lando Fox Racing' team name in my BMW 2002 folder.
Please do not enter any server with a Team skin. You can join with a custom made skin but not a Team one.
 
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DJCruicky

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Cars with clutch slip where you have to lift the gas pedal to change gear.
Changing the 'Auto Lift' setting to On can help here:-
Inked20211105235130_1_LI.jpg
It does not get rid of the slip completely, but it is a good improvement compared to off.
 
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DJCruicky

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What if you have a Stop/Go penalty but want to do fuel and tyre stop first?
The game defaults to serving a penalty first. If you want to tell pitcrew to service car instead, for example you are running out of fuel, then please see screen shot below.
20211110184213_1.jpg
Press the pit request button to bring up the above menu.
Use cursor keys to move box to STOP/GO then use cursor keys left or right to change this setting from Yes to No.
You need to do this before entering the pitlane, tricky to do when driving.
Of course you will still need to re-pit again to serve Stop/Go afterwards.
Very useful on long tracks like Spa67 or Nords.
 

Myles (Mr Fox)

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Long delays exiting from a track (back to main menu), switching between sessions (particularly practice->Qualy) etc.? Motec or other logging plugin running?

Use Windows Task Manager to check if your antivirus app is kicking in during these transitions. The replay files and logs (Motec or otherwise) may trigger an individual file scan that will delay rf2 until completed.

If you see your AV spike, Google how to set specific folders to be ignored. You should only need to exclude the Logs and Replays folders.
 

DJCruicky

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When you are low on fuel the game can automatically request the pit crew for you without you pressing your pit request button.
Sometimes it's annoying as some tracks it happens like 65 laps before you plan to pit :D

If you prefer for it not to do this there are options in your Player.json file you can change.

Search for a line called:-
"Automatic Pit Menu":4,

I've changed mine to 2.
 

Keeper

Ron O'Dell
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I assume it's the same as in rF1 where one was supposed to use the ZR car when making an AIW in order for the game to work out fuel calculations. Using the wrong car when making an AIW would cause the estimates to be horribly off.
 

DJCruicky

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rF2 is a bit better as I think it now calculates the fuel use after you done a few practice laps. 65 laps was an exaggeration :D

2nd way, setting the number of fuel stops to 0 in your setup page also is a way to stop the pitcrew calling you in, in the race.
 

DJCruicky

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To get notifications of penalties of other drivers, not just yours, there is now a new option.
Change this setting to 'Admin'

20231005191843_1.jpg
 
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