Online Vs offline

[Tricky Dicky]

I have been joining the Friday night socials of late and have a query. When an event is announced I will start doing some practice offline to learn the track then do some quick races to try and get up to speed. Last Friday was the 911 cup at Brands Hatch and I was lapping against the AI at a little over 1.30.00 which I didn't think was too bad for me. I found I was able to dive into a corner, drop a gear and boot out at full throttle with little difficulty other than undesteering off if my entry speed was too excessive.

Going online, however, changed everything. With settings exactly the same just a touch too much throttle on exit produced an instant and uncontrollable spin. It was like driving on black ice. I ended up going round so gingerly that within half a dozen laps or so I was in danger of being lapped yet again so I retired. It was a similar thing though not quite so bad at Monza the previous week.

So my question is: What would cause such massive discrepancy between racing off and on line using exactly the same car, track and setup combination? Even allowing for my usual dose of nerves when on line I can't see that this can be entirely explained by my rubbish driving.

It almost seems pointless to race against AI in preparation for an online session as I am having to backtrack on my driving style and start from scratch at short notice. It is not a question of which one is more realistic but why the difference?

 

[Andy-R]

Did you check the grip online?

For example our server is setup with a 97% starting grip and lap gain so that it will hit 100% during the race with a full 24 car grid. If you were to join having driven the combo at 100% only, you would find you are a good 1 second or so slower a lap.

That is probably the issue if it is SRS you are talking about, in the few races I have done there they seem to have a very low starting grip and a very low lap gain.

If it isn't that then maybe the temp is drastically different to what you used in SP or wind setting is really high, or they are forcing a slower tyre or have traction control forced off on the server.

 

[Andy-R]

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the game. You can check your realism/assist settings by clicking the tab I have highlighted green. I imagine most servers have stability control forced off and ABS/TC forced to factory so if you have either stability control set to on or ABS/TC set to on it could explain the difference when you go on the server.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Thanks for your replies, Andy-R. That all makes some sense. I will ask in the relevant section what the server settings are that they use and match them when I practice. Very helpful, thanks.

 

[guidofoc]

You can use the Electronics app in drive mode to see which car features are active (ABS, TC, DRS..). I always keep that app open in a corner of the screen.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Had a quick practice race last night and set it to Pro mode which seemed to do the trick with the car handling as it was on line. The better the sim the more tweaks, levels and stuff under the hood to get to grips with as well as the hardware that all affect the actual driving experience. Love it. Thanks guys.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I think the only real benefit to racing AI is them forcing you offline, they don't seem particularily close to human drivers otherwise.

Track temps make an enormous difference, make sure to check your tyre pressures every session.

 

[Kek700]

To me, as already mentioned, I would suggest you were running with traction control ON, offline, Friday night there is no Traction control allowed.