Need For Speed: SHIFT & SHIFT 2 Unleashed

this "telemetry" that you guys are talking about is just the live telemetry screen right? That shows the 4 tyres with some colour and a strange Peak number?
It's kinda not really that useful... or maybe i'm missing something.
Yup thats what we are referring to. It's useful to see the tyre temperatures, forces and contact, etc. but limited in as far as it's only available on the live screen and not on the replay screen. I haven;t used it extensively yet but to do so would record a short session and watch the recording (easy with my capture card) but a pain in the arse if you have to record on a camera, etc.

Apparently there is another screen with additional info on it but I have yet to find a way to access it. It shows things like suspension info.
 
Yup thats what we are referring to. It's useful to see the tyre temperatures, forces and contact, etc. but limited in as far as it's only available on the live screen and not on the replay screen. I haven;t used it extensively yet but to do so would record a short session and watch the recording (easy with my capture card) but a pain in the arse if you have to record on a camera, etc.

Apparently there is another screen with additional info on it but I have yet to find a way to access it. It shows things like suspension info.
It's really hard to watch the temps as you're driving.
I didn't know there was suspension info too.... never seen that. I'll have to look for it.

I came across another page with setup info for the cars where the guy says he makes the setups to mimic the real car settings... or something like that, but his setups are not written down, you have to watch the video to get the setup... not very user friendly. I wonder if he uses the telemetry to do it.... I'll have to re-read his page.
 
Always good to have variety though ;)

Try the Maserati.. thats not as stable as the Ford but was lightening quick when we tried it earlier this week (or last....) so were ruling it out of the race. I think we all felt that car was much faster than the others but now the times in other cars have come down drastically.

Just had quick lunchtime run out with Robert and was into the 1:13's again so online is looking the same as offline to me now :thumbsup: We also had a mistaken run out at the Horsethief mile (the other track here) and oh boy :confused: That one is tricky and needs some serious learning lol.

That was funny. Peter picked the Horse Thief Mile to run and I think we decided to turn it into a one lap demolition derby. Picture going up a mountain and then turning 180 deg. on a dime, then going back down and doing it again back up, etc. I'm not sure what that track was meant for but I didn't see any thieves (except for Peter, who stole my dignity) or horses.

So, what I did Peter, was basically take your spring, aero and damper settings and plug them into my own. I didn't want to mess with any of the steering variables and I had already tested my camber and I love my gearing (like yours basically only I find using 6th to be useful here just as it matches my style and pattern better. For instance, the last sector, I can take in 6th, 5th, then down to 4th briefly and back up through to the finish. Very predictable and smooth, which is good for the wheel.So, I took this hybrid setup out an it definitely felt better, although I still notice that the spring hit the bump stop on the shocks, particularly the left sides, but this track must be brutal on the left.

With that setup in the Ford, I was finally able to beat Railers time, so I was not last on the leaderboard. lol. I think the time was a 1:14.607. Karl, you are next. Actually I didn't even realize I beat it at the time, but I got through the slow section well, and I knew I had a chance....

Criticism welcome, although I know it's tough to tell anything from this angle.
Thanks again Peter!
 
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It's really hard to watch the temps as you're driving.
I didn't know there was suspension info too.... never seen that. I'll have to look for it.

I came across another page with setup info for the cars where the guy says he makes the setups to mimic the real car settings... or something like that, but his setups are not written down, you have to watch the video to get the setup... not very user friendly. I wonder if he uses the telemetry to do it.... I'll have to re-read his page.

Ok, I can chime in here I think since I have been used to this sort of thing through Forza. The telemetry on this game is not as deep as Forza, but the tuning is. Maybe more so. I'd also say the tuning does make a difference and has real life effects, unlike F1. (For instance, camber is not all right all the time...well, you get the idea). You will need to get very well used to this for pCARS.

At least on Forza, there are whole forums, web pages, discussion groups, competitions, and folks with "tuning" shops that do nothing but tune the cars and let others race them to see who made the best tune. It's kind of like the like being the pit engineer better than the driver. To them, the telemetry is really the key. I'll try to explain as much as I know. But there are three screens you can access on Shift2. When you see the telemetry pop up. (It's my d-pad, left, that toggles between the telemetry, the full HUD, the lite HUD and the nothing on the screen "HUD" which is a nice touch. When you are on the telemtry screen, simply flick your D-pad down and it will toggle between the three telemetry screens. If that does not work, check the button assignments and leave the D-pad down unassigned.

First the tire temp screen. It will tell you when your tires are too hot or too cold, but it's really more useful for the circles it shows. Here is a good description I found:
The circles indicate a few different things.

1. Size of the circle indicates how much of the tire is currently in contact with the track.

2. The line in the circle indicates the direction the force is being applied from.
(coming from the direction of the line to the center of the wheel.)

3. The color of the circle indicates how much force/friction there is between the tire and the track. Remember to much force/friction and you will loose over all grip.

4. Peak % indicates the amount of friction/grip the tire currently has.
(More % = more friction/grip)

5. The color of tire indicates the overall temperature of the tire.

6. The changing bands of color on the tire indicate the outside/center/inside temperature of the tire.

Note: Depending on which mode you use, novice. pro, elite etc, will cause the game to either pre-heat your tires or not pre-heat them. When using elite mode, your tires are not pre heated so they start of at a cool 102 degrees and are cold blue in color on the telemetry screen.

Overall, the size of the circle is the usable grip at the moment, the percentage under the wheels how much from the peak is reached(the change of the color shows the same) , from the actual possible grip. The line in the circle moving around is the direction on the final force , geometric addition from side friction force of the tire and the tangencial friction force on the tire.
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1380871

The Suspension screen is most useful I think (the one you guys can't see). The long cylinder you see inside the tire is brake temp. Not that useful I don't think, unless you are on a high braking track and your brake pressure is too high...or maybe it's too low on a long track. Next, you can see the temps of the tire from right to center to left. This is very valuable in telling you how much camber you should run. You always want the inner temp about 5-10 degrees hotter than the center and another 5-10 hotter than the outer. This is in general. You should see them sort of even out when you take a turn. It's just like the thermal imaging you see on F1 broadcasts, where the inner edge is always hot because it's touching the ground, but the whole tire lights up in the turns. Also, if the center temp is equal to either the outer temp or the inner temp, your tire is probably overinflated. Conversely, if the numbers are way off from right to left, it's probably under-inflated. Next, you can see the travel of the springs as they go up and down. For instance, if that mark on top of the spring indicator touches the top of the long cylinder, then you don't have the right settings and should adjust ride height / downforce / spring to keep it off the bump stops from turning red in the hard cornering sections or bumpy sections. Mine still do in this car, so ideally I should adjust something, but I'm afraid to at this point.
 
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Shift2 International GT Series
2008-chevrolet-corvette-c6-r.jpg
This league is designed to run on the Saturdays that the "Autosport Race of Champions" is not running and co-exist along side it to round out our Autosport experience. We will take the fastest cars and put them on the fastest tracks, including many tracks that are unavailable in any other game on the Xbox 360.

This league will be based from the game "Shift2: Unleashed" and will feature road course, street, and oval racing in fixed cars (no upgrades for GT cars on non-oval tracks). A very deep tuning section may be used to your heart's content, and the game's biggest flaws (handling and proper tuning) will be completely addressed.

For great base tunes, controller and wheel settings, and , go here (except for ovals, which will be published before the race):
http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/renown-tuning-unleashed-™.196236/

The oval races will have a non-GT1/2 car type that can be upgraded to the top of "C" class. You pick the upgrades. This is to encourage different lines and braking points and creativity on an oval, so pedal to the metal racing will not usually be possible. Ovals will be rolling start, random order.

Cars:
Ovals:
(upgrade to any build within "C" class; no nitrous, works or turbo)
Dodge Challenger Concept
Chevy Camaro SS
Ford Shelby Mustang


Street and Road Courses:
Any GT3 Car (fixed build, A Class, no upgrades available)
Any GT1 Car (fixed build, A Class, no upgrades available)

The game is very inexpensive, around six quid. To participate you should download the DLC that unlocks ALL of the cars (not cars and tracks, but that's cheap too). It's very inexpensive, about six quid, and worth every penny. This can be avoided by buying the cars with game cash.

1. The first race will be in time attack mode with the Hardest A.I. filling out the field. The time will be set to "long" which is about 8 minutes on most tracks. Standing start and no restarts. The A.I. will not be included in the standings, but they are "part of the track" so to speak, so contact with them is never faulted. The finishing order of this race is the lineup (in order of finish), for the next race. Full points for this race.

2. The second race will be a standing start with a parade lap so that wheels can be fixed and we can get in the proper order from the first race. No A.I. The number of laps will be 25. Points will be as explained below with no points in either race for pole or fastest lap.

Points System

Points: 1-25; 2-18; 3-15; 4-12; 5-10; 6-8; 7-6; 8-4; 9-2; 10-1
(Each Race scores points)

ALL RACES WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THIS THREAD, WHICH WILL SERVE AS A CATCH ALL FOR THIS SERIES.


Notice To: @Peter Hooper, @Railer Cantrell, @Matthew Booth, @Karl Fuss, @Wessel Slagter, @Chris Hempsall, @Balazs Floszmann @Michael Watts, @Dmitriy Ivanov

NOTE:
- The game will not allow pit stops
- Damage will be “full”
- Collisions will be “on”
- Tuning will be allowed.
- No assists; helmet or cockpit view only.

So come on and sign up and pass the time until the glut of new games arrives on the next gen systems.

Driver Sign Up:

1. Robert Waddell / OctoberDusk06
2. HRH 5 Racing / Railer Cantrell
3. Peter Hooper / Hammerpgh
4. Michael Watts / Machaei Watt
5. Karl Fuss / niblips2
6. Matthew Booth / Boothy
7.
8.
9.


Schedule:
1. February 7 - Willow Springs GP (GT1) (Dusk)

2. February 21 - Laguna Seca GP (GT3) (Day)

3. March 7 - London Town GP (GT3) (Day)

4. March 21 - Hazyview Oval (Night)

5. April 11 - Zolder GP (GT1) (Day)

6. April 18 - Dakota Tri-Oval (Day)

7. April 25 - Dijon-Prenois GP (GT1) (Dusk)

8. May 2 - Miami Bayside Run (GT3) (Day)

9. May 9 - Rustle Creek Oval (Dusk)
 
Had an early morning session today and tried out a different button configuration leaving the down arrow of the d-pad unassigned but still had no luck getting the second telemetry screen up :O_o:. I get the usual HUD with the race positions, lap time, tach and map, etc. Then the telemetry screen with the tyre, acceleration and braking info, etc. and then the empty screen. When on the telemetry screen nothing I press brings up the alternative telemetry info.. any suggestions?
 
As much as I love playing this game there is one thing that lets it down a little and that is the AI. Very poor in the main, they always seem to try to take the one line even if you are on it but worse for me is their overall pace... even on the hardest setting they are just not up to scratch. In my session this morning even though I was messing around with the various screens trying to sort out the telemetry problem which led to numerous incidents and spins and despite testing out different lines and gears through some corners leading to some very slow lap times I was still able to beat them easily :thumbsdown:

I think they are my main worry with regard to Project Cars seeing as how it's the same company involved with both games. Everything I have seen with Shift 2 and in news, discussions and videos of Project Cars has me really positive about the upcoming release but the AI has always been a tough one for programmers to get right and many fail in that respect so I hope SMS have made some major improvements in this area from the AI they put together for Shift 2 and from some of the videos I have seen which hopefully were from earlier releases.
 
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We can only hope pCars uses the same technology as Forza and bases the AI around Real Life driver tendencies. Personally I would love to race against You guys as AI it would be great practice and Challenge since we seem to never be on at the same time. Nobody on Grid pushes me as hard as you guys! :thumbsup:
I don't know if this has been posted, but if you are a slow reader like me:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1370642
this gentleman took the time to transcribe all that was written in the Tuning screen. There's even a comment at the bottom of the thread stating that this might even be relevant to pCars.
 
We can only hope pCars uses the same technology as Forza and bases the AI around Real Life driver tendencies. Personally I would love to race against You guys as AI it would be great practice and Challenge since we seem to never be on at the same time. Nobody on Grid pushes me as hard as you guys! :thumbsup:
I don't know if this has been posted, but if you are a slow reader like me:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1370642
this gentleman took the time to transcribe all that was written in the Tuning screen. There's even a comment at the bottom of the thread stating that this might even be relevant to pCars.
Very true Michael, It's very difficult to make AI that can race as cleverly and hard as a human, trying different lines, dummying moves, etc. Not many get it right, some have been close but I do appreciate the difficulties involved.

Yeah that's a good site, I printed off some of the stuff from there at work this week. Have you managed to download the uploaded document from that page Michael?
 
Had an early morning session today and tried out a different button configuration leaving the down arrow of the d-pad unassigned but still had no luck getting the second telemetry screen up :O_o:. I get the usual HUD with the race positions, lap time, tach and map, etc. Then the telemetry screen with the tyre, acceleration and braking info, etc. and then the empty screen. When on the telemetry screen nothing I press brings up the alternative telemetry info.. any suggestions?

What I had to do was go back into the control panel screen and reset everything to "default" (remembering my advanced slider bars). Then, when I just left the D Pad alone and banished the handbrake and rewind, etc., to unused buttons (on yours, I don't think they are assigned or don't need to be), then I was fine. But I'm not sure if this would work on a M/S Wheel.
 
As much as I love playing this game there is one thing that lets it down a little and that is the AI. Very poor in the main, they always seem to try to take the one line even if you are on it but worse for me is their overall pace... even on the hardest setting they are just not up to scratch. In my session this morning even though I was messing around with the various screens trying to sort out the telemetry problem which led to numerous incidents and spins and despite testing out different lines and gears through some corners leading to some very slow lap times I was still able to beat them easily :thumbsdown:

I think they are my main worry with regard to Project Cars seeing as how it's the same company involved with both games. Everything I have seen with Shift 2 and in news, discussions and videos of Project Cars has me really positive about the upcoming release but the AI has always been a tough one for programmers to get right and many fail in that respect so I hope SMS have made some major improvements in this area from the AI they put together for Shift 2 and from some of the videos I have seen which hopefully were from earlier releases.

The two games are miles apart. They aren't even the same physics engine or tire model. As you have seen from the videos, the A.I. in pCARS is not perfect (no A.I. can ever be, as far as I can tell) but it's much more in line with what I see on PC SIM games.

I do know that SMS has spent lots of time working on the FFB and A.I. recently, so they want to get them right too. Also, if you watch enough pCARS videos, you will see a two sliders that go from 0-100% that contrl the AI difficulty and the AI aggression. I impagine, with these, you could get any kind of A.I. mix you want.

Bottom line is, the ONLY thing you can take away from this game that can be even remotely translated to pCARS is the feel (helmet cam, seat positioning, violence of racing, etc.), which are all fairly superficial -- and even then, many of these are adjustable in pCARS. Trust me, the 360 with ANY wheel is night and day from the One w/ the TX. But I've said this enough. The real big questions will and can only be answered when you get your hands on pCARS. I have no doubt you will not be disappointed. :thumbsup:

P.S. - I'm sure you know this, but don't ever test out your telemetry with other cars on the track. Also, you don'thave to drive like Mario Andretti to test out telemetry and setup. Just a decent pace around the track alone is good enough. ;)
 
I think they are my main worry with regard to Project Cars seeing as how it's the same company involved with both games.

This is half true. SMS was involved and they will not come out and say it directly, but plenty of insiders (just go talk to some PC gamers here) will tell you that SMS made the best SIM ever for the 360, before Electronic Arts, the cash cow publisher and distributor, ruined it for serious SIM racers. I think many, even PC guys, like @Mid-pack Jack, who wanted to play with us and is an unofficial tester for pCARS, saw the potential in Shift2, but since PC players are used to no bullshit, they modded the hell out of it and it was decent, but not as good as it could have been.

This is the whole reason SMS had the brilliant idea to end around the suits and go directly to the racers themselves.
 
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We can only hope pCars uses the same technology as Forza and bases the AI around Real Life driver tendencies. Personally I would love to race against You guys as AI it would be great practice and Challenge since we seem to never be on at the same time. Nobody on Grid pushes me as hard as you guys! :thumbsup:
I don't know if this has been posted, but if you are a slow reader like me:
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1370642
this gentleman took the time to transcribe all that was written in the Tuning screen. There's even a comment at the bottom of the thread stating that this might even be relevant to pCars.

I could not disagree more Michael. Sorry man. But having played against those "drivitars" in Forza5 many many times, it's far worse than any F1, GRID, or Shift game ever was. "Real life" driver tendencies suck. They are bashers and crashers, for the most part. If this were a PC only game, I'd feel more comfortable about that idea, but I have seen it in action on the console and it's not pretty.

Mike, you have to remember that 99% of the people who race online (or offline) on a console game are not the kind of people we get here. Without sounding arrogant, you are at racing with the cream of the crop. I learned that the hard way in F1. lol. There are other leagues, and many are just as good with Forza, but they are also the race 1%.

So, I, for one, hope nobody takes Forza's insane idea and runs with it. In fact, the A.I. "drivitar" idea is one reason the loyal Forza community has become so frustrated with Fora and is looking hard to pCARS, which will have real A.I. artificial and intelligent...I'll show you a video later). For now, don't take my words, but the words from the Forza5 forums:
http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/turn10_postst14515_how-to-play-with-regular-ai-in-sp.aspx
My favorite:
"It is possible to make great AI, Codemasters AI in F1 2013 is an excellent example, the best AI I've ever competed against, perhaps the T-10 could take a lesson from them."
(and I think I agree, except Autosport may top F1). Codemasters has done the best job on the 360 IMO.
 
As for the A.I. in pCARS, speculation is all over the place, and so are opinion, as usual. One reviewer put it like this:

"In general racing, your opposition’s artificial intelligence is quite impressive. In most games the AI feels like it’s on rails, with algorithms occasionally ‘randomly’ deciding it’s time to take a trip to the gravel trap. Although it’s cool to see AI’s making mistakes, it just feels a little fake. Project Cars’ AI seems to genuinely be aware of what you’re up to, giving you space when needed or diving up the inside if you leave a gap.
That being said, it seems to struggle with other computer-controlled opponents. You can specify a ridiculous number of cars on track, but when things get narrow and they’re all trying to fit into the same space they all hit the brakes and everything slows to a crawl."
(Edit: I'm pretty sure this is what happens in real life...lol.)

Another tester of pCARS, on our forums, said this:
"I can't speak for the combo (car, track, settings, etc.) that you tried but last night (latest build) I had the best couple of single player races I have ever had in pCARS. Up till last night, I have not tried the career mode much at all so thought it was time to give it a go. The career mode I chose started with the Clio Cup cars - practice, time trial, and 2 race set. The AI was competitive and aware/respectful of my position. There was a little paint rubbing/bumps and bruises but nothing so dramatic to get me off track. It was fun, and gave me hope that pCARS will deliver."

Some set the A.I. on pCARS too high and get frustrated, but Yorkie seems to have struck a good balance at 88%. Just look at how the A.I. react on this video. It's pretty impressive re; their awareness:
 
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Steering assistance – Yes
This tip is from the Need for Speed forums and helps get rid of most of the twitchiness in the steering. The original post emphasised that regardless of whether you turn off all other assists, at least leave Steering Assist turned on.

Full damage
Rather than simulated damage, webDotWiz has found a hint from a post on the Need for Speed forums to turn on Full Damage. This setting seems to “calm down” the AI cars somewhat.

Settings for Rear wheel drive/ Front wheel drive / All wheel drive cars
The table below summarises a range of settings from a contributor on the GTPlanet forums:

Rear wheel drive cars
Tires/Brakes
Front Tire Pressure – 40.00
Rear Tire Pressure – 55.00
Brake Balance – 50.00
Brake Pressure – 10.00
Alignment
Steering Lock – 20.00
Caster Angle – 8.00
Front Toe Angle – 19.00
Rear Toe Angle – 21.00
Front Camber – 20.00
Rear Camber – 30.00
Differential
Limited Slip Acceleration Lock – 6.00
Limited Slip Deceleration Lock – 12.00
Springs
Front Sway Bar – 5.00
Rear Sway Bar – 2.00
Front Spring Rate – 3.00
Rear Spring Rate 3.00
Dampers
Front Damper Fast Bump – 3.00
Front Damper Slow Bump – 3.00
Front Damper Fast Rebound – 4.00
Front Damper Slow Rebound – 4.00
Rear Damper Fast Bump – 2.00
Rear Damper Slow Bump – 2.00
Rear Damper Fast Rebound – 2.00
Rear Damper Slow Rebound – 2.00

Front wheel drive cars
Tires/Brakes
Front Tire Pressure – 50.00
Rear Tire Pressure – 50.00
Brake Balance – 50.00
Brake Pressure 10.00
Alignment
Steering Lock – 20.00
Caster Angle – 8.00
Front Toe Angle – 19.00
Rear Toe Angle – 22.00
Front Camber – 25.00
Rear Camber – 35.00
Springs
Front Sway Bar – 5.00
Rear Sway Bar – 3.00
Front Spring Rate – 2.00
Rear Spring Rate – 2.00
Dampers
Front Damper Fast Bump – 0.00
Front Damper Slow Bump – 0.00
Front Damper Fast Rebound – 1.00
Front Damper Slow Rebound – 1.00
Rear Damper Fast Bump – 0.00
Rear Damper Slow Bump – 0.00
Rear Damper Fast Rebound – 1.00
Rear Damper Slow Rebound 1.00

All wheel drive cars
Tires/Brakes
Front Tire Pressure – 50.00
Rear Tire Pressure – 50.00
Brake Balance – 50.00
Brake Pressure – 15.00
Alignment
Steering Lock – 20.00
Caster Angle – 8.00
Front Toe Angle – 19.00
Rear Toe Angle – 22.00
Front Camber – 25.00
Rear Camber – 30.00
Differential
Limited Slip Acceleration Lock – 6.00
Limited Slip Deceleration Lock – 8.00
Springs
Front Sway Bar – 5.00
Rear Sway Bar – 4.00
Front Spring Rate – 2.00
Rear Spring Rate – 2.00
Dampers
Front Damper Fast Bump – 3.00
Front Damper Slow Bump – 3.00
Front Damper Fast Rebound – 4.00
Front Damper Slow Rebound – 4.00
Rear Damper Fast Bump – 2.00
Rear Damper Slow Bump – 2.00
Rear Damper Fast Rebound – 2.00
Rear Damper Slow Rebound – 2.00

Notes:

  1. If you upgrade your car after applying the above parameters, you’ll need to re-enter the values.
  2. Depending on the level of upgrade of your car, not all the above parameters will be available.
 
SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED Tuning Tips: Tires & Brakes

Everyone knows a car doesn’t perform well when it’s got a flat tire, let alone four flat tires. Using that as an extreme example, one can understand that by slightly adjusting tire pressure, you can improve the handling of a car.

I wouldn’t recommend solely increasing or decreasing tire pressure. It should be used in conjunction with the other tuning aspects offered, some of which I’ve already described. I want to reiterate that going overboard with one area can affect the rest of your tuning in a negative way. Making small tweaks to different parts will almost always garner better results than maxing out the settings on just one.

I’ve tuned a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG fairly well, but I still feel some minor push in the corners. After manipulating the springs to my taste, I began fine-tuning my front and rear tire pressures.

I decreased the front to 40.00, and increased the rear to 55.00, promoting oversteer. This immediately helped bring the rear-end around in the middle of the corner, getting the car pointed quicker, essentially allowing me to get back on the accelerator sooner. Anything larger than 10-15 in either direction is generally too much.

Whereas the tire pressure seemed to help in the middle of the corner, I still felt I was having to over-slow for the entry. By increasing the rear brake balance to 55.00, my entry improved enough to where I felt the car was helping me turn, instead of working against me. That being said, I wouldn’t advise going any higher than that. Couple your brake balance with a brake pressure between 10.00-15.00, and you should find the car acting more like it should.

Again, I can't stress enough that while changing tire pressure may seem minor, small changes to multiple areas result in a better tuned car than giant changes in the more important areas. Make enough small changes and you’ll find yourself rising higher and higher on the Speedwall.

General Rules:

Tire Pressure:

-Increased Front: Promotes Understeer

-Decreased Front: Promotes Oversteer

-Increased Rear: Promotes Oversteer

-Decreased Rear: Promotes Understeer

Brake Balance: Higher will lead to more movement in the rear, making it easier to turn, but more unsettled

Brake Pressure: Adds or removes "bite" when braking
 
SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED Tuning Tips: Sway Bars

As any driver will tell you, there are (at least) three parts to a corner: The entry / turn-in, the apex, and the exit. What’s great about SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED is that each car reacts differently to corners. In general, you want your car to have the fastest exit speed possible, but some suffer such bad understeer or oversteer that you spend precious time correcting your steering instead of getting back on the accelerator. At the forefront of this issue are the sway bars.

When tuning, adjusting the sway bars can mean the difference between your fastest lap and the gravel trap. There are front and rear sway bars which react differently based on their stiffness. A soft front sway bar will cause oversteer, while a stiff front sway bar will cause understeer. The opposite is true for the rear sway bar. Therefore, by setting both of these to a certain point, you can find a happy medium with your car.

The Need for Speed SHELBY Terlingua Mustang, for example, along with most of the muscle cars in the game, has horrible understeer. Its big, heavy engine block makes the entry to corners much more difficult, especially on a technical track like Laguna Seca. I knew thatsetting both sway bars to 0.0 would shoot me right off the track with massive push, while leaving the front at 0.0 and setting the rear at 10.00 would cause the Mustang to act like a drift car. Here’s what I love about tuning: Tiny adjustments can make all the difference. Instead of going overboard as previously stated, I made a small tweak to the front sway bar, softening it from 6.0 to 4.0, and all of a sudden, the car was dialed in. I shed nearly 1.5 seconds off my lap time.

A small car like the Lotus Elise has the opposite issue. Every time I came tearing around the corner, the rear-end felt like it was going to step out on me. I was so busy worrying about oversteer, that I would take each corner much slower than I needed to. The rear sway bar was already pretty soft, but I tried making it even softer (0.0-1.0). The result was a car with great turn-in, and the wheels would just barely stick through the corner, never breaking loose. It felt like I was racing right on the edge through each hairpin, kink, and chicane, which is exactly where I want to be.

The key to sway bars is to make small adjustments, don’t do anything drastic. Heavy muscle cars tend to push while the lighter cars want to fishtail. Make a few small corrections and they’ll all be handling like the well-balanced race car you want.

General Rules:- Softer front: Oversteer
- Stiffer front: Understeer
- Softer rear: Understeer
- Stiffer rear: Oversteer
- Make small adjustments: No more than 4.0 in either direction
- Heavier cars: Tend to have understeer
- Lighter cars: Generally have lots of oversteer

 
SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED Tuning Tips: Drivetrain

I’d like to begin by discussing one of the simpler, yet extremely valuable, changes you can make to your car: Gear Ratios. Gear Ratios can be one of the easiest fixes you can make to slice precious seconds from your lap time. Depending on the track, giving your car taller or shorter gears can make a huge difference in top speed and acceleration. Like any bit of tuning you do, it’s going to be give-and-take. You give up top speed, but you get acceleration and vice versa.

For example, I like to use the Porsche GT3 Cup R and race in the FIA GT3 category. While the Porsche is fantastic in the corners, the power of the Lamborghinis and Corvettes allows them to walk away when we hit the straights at Road America. To counter this, I shortened the Final Drive of the Porsche from 4.0 to 2.0, giving me more acceleration out of the turns, allowing me the quickness to keep up with the others as they power down the straight. (In the beginning, stick to adjusting only the Final Drive to avoid messing up your shift points!)

As further proof, I tried setting the final drive to 8.0 and did a few hot laps. The result: I was 10mph faster at the end of the straights, but I was so slow accelerating out of the other turns that I was about 1 second slower on my lap times. (For fun I also took the Porsche GT3 R to Hazyview and ran .3 seconds quicker with 0.0 gears.)

I use Road America as an example because it only has medium-length straights where you can allow yourself the ability to trim top speed in favor of acceleration. At tracks like the Dakota Tri-Oval, Enna Pergusa, or Monza Jr., set your gears to a taller setting (6.0+) because those extremely long straights will give your car the time to climb up to those high speeds.

To see the most dramatic change, take a Class D car and shorten the final drive as far as it will go. I took a bone stock, Volkswagen GTI and set the final drive to 0.0. The result from a lap around Mount Panorama was 3 seconds quicker! The Class D cars take so long to hit their top speed, it’s better to just give them a lot of acceleration because it’s rare you’ll find a track you’ll be pinging the rev limiter down the straightaway.

It’s a delicate balance, but there is a sweet spot on almost every car and track that will maximize your speed and minimize your lap times. Utilize the live tuning options and find what works!

General Rules:

Short Gearing (2.0 and less):- Class D cars
- Short tracks with short straights and/or lots of corners (Hazyview, Suzuka, Brands Hatch, Riviera)


Average Gearing (2.0-6.0):- Any car Class C and above
- Tracks with a lot of variety (Laguna Seca, Road America, Dubai Autodrome, Shanghai)


Tall Gearing (6.0 and higher):- Tracks that favor extremely long straights or constant high speeds (Dakota Tri-Oval, Enna Pergusa, portions of the Nurburgring, Monza Jr.)

 

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