Can I edit my laptimes...

[DC_Tox]

...to restore a best lap time that has been deleted by a power cut-off?
Is this allowed by the GPL rank rules and, if yes, how can I edit the laptime (simply changing the value - or is there some sort of checksum/control in the PLAYER.INI)?

I mean, yesterday night I was training on Spa and got a 3:34:15 that I saved in a Replay (attached here - 334Kb) (http://www.geocities.com/toxi/spa.zip). I also took a screenshot from the replay that shows the lap time:

http://www.geocities.com/toxi/spa.txt

The time has not been recorded in the player.ini because a lightning stroke near my home and the power supply had a spike that resetted the PC...:( (I need an UPS...)

I tried several laps after that to regain the lap time, but I'm stuck at 3:36:00...Maybe you can watch the replay and help me understandig what I'm doing wrong to be soooooo slow at Spa.

Thanks for your help

[JeffR]

You can take a look of my replay, not a world record time, but at least descent, about a 3:26:

Zip of JRSFFE.RPY (http://members.cox.net/jeffareid/jrspa.zip)

Note, my controller (tow joysticks) causes my shifts in this replay to show up as speed shifts. I'm trying to avoid hitting the brake (single axis for throttle and brake).

I looked at the replay, and noticed a few things. On the first long straight with the kink in it, you're braking. This isn't necessary. Position the car on the far right of the road. Lift up on the throttle and steer left at the 100' marker, or actually the tree just past the 100' marker (maybe the equivalent of 90'?). Just as the car is moving to the left of the rail on the inside of the right, transition into a right turn, just missing the rail. During the transition, downshift to 4th, and drift by the rail for the right turn.

After the kink, and the rest of the long straight, you're fine through the big right turn, and the next two lefts, but after that, you're braking again for the first right. For that right turn next to the small shack, posiiton car to far left of road, lift up on the throttle, and steer right aiming for the apex there. Drop to 4th gear either just before or just after this turn. The next one, does require slowing down as you do, taking this corner in 3rd.

The only other thing I notice is that you short shift (shift into higher gear well below redline). This will cost a few seconds.

From what I could tell, you're setup seems ok, the car takes the right turn at the bottom of the long straight well. If you're car isn't scrubbing enough speed in corners, you might want to try reducing rear toe-in, or changing to a 45 coast ramp angle, like a 85/45/4 diff (instead of 85/30/4 diff). If I remember correctly, I was using -.200 toe out at the front, and only +.025 at the rear, with an 85/45/4 diff. This is good for high speed corners and transitions.

If the car is too tail happy (spins), increase the rear toe in. I have it at +.300 for some tracks. I'm still trying to figure out a good method for choosing front toe-out. For the Ferrari, I set the rates to 120/90 or 120/100, and start with bars at 160/160. I set front toe out to -.200, then adjust rear toe in to get the car to handle the way I want. I then look at front/rear tire temps and adjust the bars to compensate (stronger to make hotter, weaker to make colder). Generally the bars should follow the relative toe rates.

[WCOutlaw]

Firstly, to answer your question, yes, you can edit times in your player.ini - as long as the lap is proper, then do so - you should be able to extract the time in GPL Replay Analyser - which you can get here (http://home.bip.net/martin/gplra/). The times, as I recall, are stored in absolute seconds, I've only had to do this once, where I had the same thing you had...

OK, Next thing is Spa...

In the Ferrari, it's hard to get a fast time there, it took me a long time - and also, it took me driving the Eagle, to re-learn some faster lines to get quicker in the Ferrari...

Here are my best laps in the Ferrari and Eagle at Spa.

Eagle (http://www.totalnfs.net/phil/pb31702spaeag.rpy)

Ferrari (http://www.totalnfs.net/phil/pb31953spaferr.rpy)

I hope these can enlighten you...

There are only 3-4 corners that really make a difference at Spa - Eau Rouge (T1 chicane) you have to get right, Masta (the fast kink) you have to get right and the right sweeper after that holds a lot more speed than you may think - and after that, it's the slower (3rd gear) right hander by the house, etc. (Forget the names of the corners now).

Hope this helps,

[DC_Tox]

Thanks Jeff. I added some remarks below
On the first long straight with the kink in it, you're braking. This isn't necessary. Position the car on the far right of the road. Lift up on the throttle and steer left at the 100' marker, or actually the tree just past the 100' marker (maybe the equivalent of 90'?). Just as the car is moving to the left of the rail on the inside of the right, transition into a right turn, just missing the rail. During the transition, downshift to 4th, and drift by the rail for the right turn.
You're talking of Masta. I don't brake there, actually, but lift off a bit before than you suggest (I'm scared by that kink :eek: ) and don't shift down. Maybe passing to 4th can help me being faster (more traction for the exit where I always go too wide). I'll try.
After the kink, and the rest of the long straight, you're fine through the big right turn, and the next two lefts, but after that, you're braking again for the first right. For that right turn next to the small shack, posiiton car to far left of road, lift up on the throttle, and steer right aiming for the apex there. Drop to 4th gear either just before or just after this turn. The next one, does require slowing down as you do, taking this corner in 3rd.
I don't brake here either, just lift off. I do the 2 turns on +1 gear than you say (5th and 4th respectively) and short shift, actually, because it seemed to me that the engine is not giving more power in the lower gear after 10000 rpm...but as you say I'm wrong, I'll try that too and see the difference.

Thanks also for the set-up info, they're precious. I miss a reference that explains cause-effect relationships for all parameters, one by one, so I always fear to mess things up and use other's setups...but that's not so good sometimes.

[DC_Tox]

Originally posted by WCOutlaw
Here are my best laps in the Ferrari and Eagle at Spa.
Thanks Phil, I'll try to learn something ;)

PS: I finally had the time to watch your replay "watagoodrace", nice run and soooo close. Bad luck for you and that double spin, you were slowly getting D.Thomson...:eek: If you only could brake a bit before ;)

[D_Man]

Hey Tox, I had a similar problem once when my puter crashed after I saved the replay. I manually edited the time into my player.ini, but was so determined to do it again that I went back into the game and beat the time by almost 2 seconds.

Believe me, the times you are doing now aren't really relevant. You are in the process of learning to control the car and you will be doing much faster times before too long. Times become more important in terms of GPL Rank when you are near the Papy benchmarks. By then you are able to drive harder with more consistency. The gains in terms of lap times will also be much smaller - tenths of seconds.

Good luck

[JeffR]

Masta. I don't brake there, actually, but lift off a bit before than you suggest (I'm scared by that kink ) and don't shift down. It's just a game...so far, I've walked away from every crash (and there have been quite a few just at that kink). You could just drive back and forth through this kink for practice. Setup properly, downshifting on a car shouldn't cause it to spin; it should just keep the tail drifting while slowing down a car (depending on how much throttle you're using). However, since this is a transition kink, I downshift during the transition rather than while turning the corners (this is for the Ferrari, with the Braham, I leave it in 5th here). At Masta, the line is important. I use the tree just after the 100' marker as a guide for when to turn left, and start from the right side of the road. Since this is a kink, you need to continue to turn left longer so that the car ends up headed for the left side of the road, which sets up the 2nd half of the kink, before turning right.

After the kink, and the rest of the long straight, you're fine through the big right turn, and the next two lefts, but after that, you're braking again for the first right.I don't brake here either, just lift off.This is another one of those racing line issues. Keep the throttle floored and stay on the far left of the road. Lift off the throttle and turn in, letting the car scrub off speed as required to make that bend, downshift to 4th if the car isn't losing speed quickly enough. For the next bend, I find it better to brake a bit earlier than the skid marks on the track indicate, to setup up that bend for better exit speed.

...thanks for the setup...still trying to make sense of it all, but for me messing with the rear toe in seems to be the key. With less rear toe in, like the +.025 I use at Spa, combined with the 85/45/4 diff, it doesn't take a lot of steering to get the rear end to drift out This is good for high speed turns. With more rear toe in, like +.200 to +.300, and a 85/30/4 diff, more steering (or front toe out) is required to get the rear in to drift out, and the result is that the car doesn't lose speed as much in corners with light steering. You can release the throttle and peg the wheel and the car still won't spin (take a look at fast lap replays at Nurburg, there are a lot of pegged wheel spots). I setup the bars to match the toe in setting, more rear bar with less rear toe in and vice versa.

[DC_Tox]

Hehe Dave, you're right. ;)

Instead of struggling with INI files, I re-scored that 3:34 and then went over, until I got a 3:29:66 :)

Here the screenshot:
http://www.geocities.com/toxi/spa2.txt

Then, since my 107% on Papy benchmark was reached, I moved to mosport and got another <107% (1:28:26)

Again a screenshot :)
http://www.geocities.com/toxi/mosport.txt

So, slooooowly... but I'm starting to accomplish the first goal, a 107% on Papy benchmark for all tracks. The next one to do, where I have the most to recover for the rank, is the Ring &(

[rms]

There is only one valid method to restore old times that I know of: Use the restore player.ini function on GPLRank. Either that or delete the line from player.ini with the bad time and start over with that car+track combo. Anything else is more or less cheating.

rms
rsquires@flash.net

[DC_Tox]

Thanks rms, that's what I feared and the reason for my asking here. I wouldn'd do anything that's considered cheating by whoever :(

That's also why I re-run the track until I got an even better lap time :D

Anyway, I couldn't restore any player.ini since the lap time has never been registered there (it's saved when you exit the training session, and I had the PC re-booted before doing it).

[D_Man]

I agree with you Tox. The guys on Racesim Central said it was okay to edit the player.ini file as long as I had a valid replay. However, it just didn't feel right so I was totally determined to do it again and get it to record the time properly. The only other time I have edited the player.ini was to remove a 1:27 time I got on Monza due to warping. I then restored my player.ini from GPL Rank.

[DC_Tox]

About warping: since it's due to lost/weak connections to the server, it happens only online (and only if you're not the host).... is this correct?

Is it the same as "clock smash"?

How do you know if you had a warp/clock-smash, so you can correct your INI?

[WCOutlaw]

Yes, they only occur online - and you can test your hotlaps (from online play) are OK with Replay Analyser, and this will give you accuracy checks, etc.

As for editing times back to erase a clock smash - be careful I suppose... GPLRank has the useful restore facility - just keep it updated as often as possible...

Good luck,