Question Various rookie questions

Few questions to the experienced in R3E

1. Is downshift protection always enabled? In replays, I noticed other cars don't seem to have them, is this a setting? In my drive, it seems always on.
2. In pit-stop:
   1. what is 'Safe', 'Normal', fuel, and how are they determined/computed?
   2. In some MP servers having 'mandatory pit-stop', when pitting, there seems to be no way to press 'Confirm' on changes I make in the Pit Menu, or is it because it simply requires performing a 'pit-stop' w/ no changes? Then it doesn't even try to add fuel (when in 'Safe' or 'Normal'... haven't tried yet putting a number value instead for fuel).
   3. In SP, when setting it to have 'mandatory Pit stop', what does 'Minimum time' to pit mean?
3. In replay, how do go to 'Cockpit view' of another driver? When viewing another driver, I tried changing the camera view but it doesn't give the 'Driver/cockpit' view, only various external (not even talking about the Directors chair).

Thanks in advance.

PS. ADDENDUM:
Another question, for the devs perhaps, the 'Brake Release rate' doesn't seem to work, as I want to increase the speed of release, but 0-100% doesn't change the effect when I release the brakes (ie. when I release around 50%, it goes to the same position, regardless of the value in this setting).

 

Yes, annoyingly so. If I want to blow my engine I should be able to!

It's the rough amount of fuel that will be added during your pit stop. "Safe" will be an amount that will (should) definitely get you to the end of the race. "Normal" should too, but might not if your average fuel consumption rises for any reason. (Ie, if you start driving more aggressively.) I prefer to specify the number of litres to be added myself.

Pressing the "confirm" button when entering the pits caused a lot of complaints, so they essentially disabled it in that context. Instead pit stops are now automatically confirmed as you enter. You can still navigate down the options, click on them to make them white instead of green, change their value, and then click them again to make them green.

Not sure... I've literally never done a singleplayer race with mandatory pit stops.

In the video settings there is an option called "Opponent Cockpits". Enable it.

 

Thanks. Then how are the other drivers able to downshift earlier?

I assume the same for 'Safe' and 'Normal', though wondering why no fuel was added during pit stop... spotter then just says 'Go, go...', no fuel added. Anyone from the devs care to explain bit?

Will checkout video settings. Thanks again.

PS. ADDENDUM:
Another question, for the devs perhaps, the 'Brake Release rate' doesn't seem to work, as I want to increase the speed of release, but 0-100% doesn't change the effect when I release the brakes (ie. when I release around 50%, it goes to the same position, regardless of the value in this setting).

 

When you set a minimum time, you will have to stay in the pit lane during your mandatory pit stop for that amount of time so your mandatory pit stop counts. This is being used in a lot of racing series.

The other drivers probably shift right when the downshift protection stops kicking in. You can't disable it.

You need to click on the pit stop actions in your pit stop presets to activate them by making their background green or else they won't be carried out.

The brake release rate is only supposed to work with keyboard keys I think.

 

Thanks Majuh. Got it re downshift, guess just timing, since it's always enabled.

Re pitstops, to clarify in more detail, so I should have at least 1 preset saved before the race?

Update: So I tried it again, used my preset but still didn't work. I rechecked my preset and saw no item was in green, so I changed both front/rear tires and it highlighted in green, then used it in a sample race, and pitstop now worked. It estimated around 32secs for both wheels. So does this mean, I could just set 1 tire (to get the shortest pit stop time), and use that in a race? I tried this (only front tires set to green) and it required only around 22secs. However, AI took longer. I waited for them at the pit exit line, and it took them around 30+secs (must be the preset of AI to change both). Wondering what's the point, so everyone can just set 1 pair of tires to have the shortest stop, or perhaps it's just to have everyone go to the pits. Thanks again.

Oh, and for the Minimum Pit Time, so what happens with my example above? The least value for Minimum Pit Time is 1min, but my Pit stop was only 22sec for changing the fronts, what happens then? The AI were there about 30+ secs, but still less than the Minimum of 1min.

 

The minimum required by a mandatory pit stop is two tyres, so yes you can choose to only change the fronts or rears in order to save time.

The AI likely changes all four tyres, regardless of how worn their old tyres are. Changing just two is more a strategy for online racing, in races that are long enough to make tyre wear a potential issue. In those circumstances, someone who is good at preserving tyres while maintaining their pace might be able to gain an advantage.

Correct, mandatory pits stops are just to force everyone to make at least one pit stop during a race. Sometimes it might be on safety grounds to prevent teams trying to run a whole race on knackered tyres, but it's also used to try and "improve the show" by mixing things up a bit. (Like in F1, where they're forced to pit because they have to use two different types of tyres.)

 

Thanks @Goffik, clarifies a bunch load. One more thing though, what about the Min Pit time? @majuh mentioned the driver will have to stay in the pit lane for that given 'minimum' time during the mandatory pit stop, but what about this example where changing only front that takes only 22secs (or actually, even changing both F/R takes only 30+secs)? Since minimum in options is 1min, how does that affect the action?

Thanks too @majuh.

 

Minimum pit time isnt just the time youre stationary at the stop but the whole time you spend on pitlane (so basically the whole area where you have to obey the pitlane speed limit). If driving through the pitlane plus doing your stop doesnt take as long as the minimum pit time youll have to wait in your pit box until you think you can leave without then crossing the pitlane exit too early or youll get a penalty

 

Re the minimum pit time. I believe @mr_belowski has added this to crew chief now so he will work out when to release you..... Maybe he can explain how exactly this works for us?

 

Yes, if you want to do a pit stop during the race, you should always prepare a preset for it.

The AI pit stops depend on the circumstances. If tire wear is low or even disabled, they will only change two tires. In general, they are more conservative with their strategies.

The minimum pit stop time is configured in seconds, not minutes. If you set it to 1 second, it won't change anything. If you set it to 60 seconds, the AI will spend around 60 seconds in the pit lane between the white lines.

 

Ah, that explains a lot - I assumed it was stationary time.. This will be why I lose ground to the AI each time I try and use it on shorter races. (On longer races, I use the tire multiplier to force a more 'natural' stop.)

Yeah, stuff got added recently.. I've only tried it once so far, and it didn't work how I was hoping, but the above has just shown my expections were wrong anyway. In the patch notes there was also a caveat/requirement to have already crossed the pit-exit line at least once already for something to be calculated, which I didn't fully understand at the time. In light of the above info, I guess it's to gain data on the time from the pitbox -> pit exit which it will factor into the estimate maybe. I need to spend a bit more time with it to see how it works. A proper explanation from @mr_belowski would be great.

 

Whoa, no wonder, assumed they were in minutes... don't remember seeing units in-game settings. Thanks again everyone!

On hindsight, where's the setting to penalize driver's going over pitlane speed? I believe I've failed to activate pit limiter and oversped past the pit entrance many times, but never got/saw any penalty, though my HUD turned red many times.

 

There's a 10% tolerance, so you won't get a penalty when you are only slightly too fast. Also, you can only get drive through penalties for speeding in races; there are no penalties in practice or qualifying sessions.

 

Edit: Ignore. These forums won't allow a video to be posted at a specific point in time.

 

Some more questions, pls indulge me, in MP.

1. I presume the limit of incidents for a session is set in the server. What's the impact of reaching the limit, just ranking, or getting kicked off race, etc? Noticed incidents also includeout of track errors, but why record them during Practice? Also, one would be unlucky when there are lots of rammers in a race, but why get penalized when you're the one rammed from behind/side?

2. Can the Pit menu and 'Yellow/blue flag, etc messages’ be moved, like the in-game track map?

3. In replay (cockpit view), is there a way to view pedal inputs?

 

I don't know the answer to the first two as I don't do ranked racing, and don't use the in-game HUD. But in replay mode, the available HUD is extremely limited so no, the pedal input widget doesn't show. Replays also do not work with the WebHUDs, or with spectator mode overlays. I've heard that some third-party data display apps still work, but I don't use them either so I couldn't tell you which ones.

 

The incidents only affect your ranking (well technically not even that, it is the reputation that will suffer) when youre on a ranked servers.
Regardless of the type of server youre on you will get kicked from the server once you reach the incident limit. Afaik you can immediately rejoin tho.
I suppose the incidents are counted in practice as well to encourage good behaviour all around and not just in races. Dont know for sure if it still is like this but i think your incident points reset to 0 after every session and incident points collected during practice on a ranked server dont count towards your reputation so it doesnt really matter whether or not theyre recorded in practice sessions anyways (unless you reach the limit of course).

Theres not really a way for an automated system to reliably assign fault so well have to live with getting incident points when involved in an incident regardless of whos at fault

Yes, you can see the input meter from the normal ingame hub. If you assign a button to it you can just press that button during the replay (or when driving if you want to have it there as well) and itll look like this:

Size and position of it can be changed as well

Dont know anything for sure about 2) but i dont think thats possible

 

Bloody hell... I had no idea you could activate the regular HUD items in replay mode via keys. You learn something new every day, thanks!

 

Thanks @Nico Kunze, for the info. Though I've not joined any Ranked servers, I wanted to understand the uses of 'Incidents' better, other than the obvious monitoring of one's behavior in a session. Right, quite unfortunate that's it's hard to reliably code logic to determine who's at fault, due to the variety of circumstances. Starting at the back-end and waiting for the trail to loosen (and watch cars fly/tilt/rotate ) helps, but not always ideal, as you have a lot to catch up with.

Yes @Goffik, you said it! That (pedal inputs) did work in replay. Problem though is that it represents only 'your' inputs, and not any other driver that you're watching. Would have been nice if you're trying to study a faster driver's line/inputs in replay.

For the 'Yellow/Blue flag' messages, I think I have to figure out removing the stock or Otterhud version.

 

Hi, another question pls.

How do I serve a Drive Through penalty? I went in pits w/in 3 laps, and Pit Menu opened with my preset (only has Change Front Tires), though it already had the 'Serve Drive Thru' as the action (no confirm button). So I stopped and it performed the tire change, and when I left, the Drive Thru Penalty was still active (saying now I have to serve it in the next 2 laps). How is this performed, or am I not supposed to stop, just Drive through the pits and exit? Annoying