How do the different damage levels work?

DesertPenguin09 · May 3, 2016

So far I've been leaving it on visual only. Sometimes I'm doing fine and just due to bad A.I. will get hit. I'd hate for a race to be ruined from something unrealistic. If it's a stupid mistake or I'm in the wrong place then that makes sense and I deserve it. So I've been scared to put it on at all.

But now I'm curious about turning it on. Performance affecting and full damage. What's the difference? What can I expect if I go with "light" damage? I set my career main races to whatever percent makes a ~20 minute race. Sometimes 30 minutes. Is adding damage worth it or will one problem put me out of the race? Does the AI get damage a lot too? Do they drive differently with damage on?

Scaff · May 3, 2016

DesertPenguin09
So far I've been leaving it on visual only. Sometimes I'm doing fine and just due to bad A.I. will get hit. I'd hate for a race to be ruined from something unrealistic. If it's a stupid mistake or I'm in the wrong place then that makes sense and I deserve it. So I've been scared to put it on at all.

But now I'm curious about turning it on. Performance affecting and full damage. What's the difference? What can I expect if I go with "light" damage? I set my career main races to whatever percent makes a ~20 minute race. Sometimes 30 minutes. Is adding damage worth it or will one problem put me out of the race? Does the AI get damage a lot too? Do they drive differently with damage on?

I've had full damage on since day one so I can't really give you any feedback on what the lower levels are like.

What I can say is that the AI do suffer damage, to what degree I can't 100% say, but I have seen AI open wheel cars lose wheels.

I personally don't find the AI causing that many accidents, certainly no more than I used be the actual cause of upon review, and as such I just accept it as part of racing (a view I know others may well not be happy to accept). What I would recommend however is an App called Crew Chief, which is an excellent spotter app and will let you know what cars are around you and when its clear behind or to the side of you, it helps cut down on the incidents a lot in my experience.

Here's an example of AI damage from the Formula Rookie German Championship when I ran that.

DesertPenguin09 · May 3, 2016

I love Crew Chief. So helpful.

Scaff · May 3, 2016

DesertPenguin09
I love Crew Chief. So helpful.

It is.

It's the sort of thing that more console titles need to support. I run it with PCars Dash and vRHive and its a great combo

DesertPenguin09 · May 3, 2016

Iwhat is PCars dash?

Scaff · May 3, 2016

DesertPenguin09
Iwhat is PCars dash?

Its this.....

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pocketplayground.pCarsDash&hl=en_GB

...I run it on my mobile on a mount on my rig and then switch the HUD in Pcars off totally, running with helmet cam it then provides a massive amount of immersion for me.

DesertPenguin09 · May 3, 2016

Oh man 6 bucks for that? Whatevs. Most cars have a motec led that I use when turning off the game HUD.

gregc · May 3, 2016

DesertPenguin09
Oh man 6 bucks for that? Whatevs. Most cars have a motec led that I use when turning off the game HUD.

Worth every penny. Someone put in a lot of work on it, they have every right to charge for it. It's not a fortune.

Scaff · May 3, 2016

DesertPenguin09
Oh man 6 bucks for that? Whatevs. Most cars have a motec led that I use when turning off the game HUD.

I find it compliments the MOTEC well and offers a lot more detail as well.

Worth every penny in my opinion and it's been well supported with regular updates and runs without any issue.

Never regretted the money I spent on either this or Crew Chief.

bleeder · May 4, 2016

Scaff
I find it compliments the MOTEC well and offers a lot more detail as well.

Worth every penny in my opinion and it's been well supported with regular updates and runs without any issue.

Never regretted the money I spent on either this or Crew Chief.

I hadn't used pCARS Dash for a couple of weeks until tonight and I can see there's been some work done to it in terms of customization options and even some new displays. Definitely worth the money IMO. Top work by the dev.

Mike_grpA · May 4, 2016

Pcars dash is the best app, I use it on my tablet, and with the huge amount of info I get on that, I can turn off the HUD in-game, which is good for live recording gameplay. Haven't tried Crew Chief, but I've heard great things about it.

Edit: Pcars dash also allows you to go back and view in-depth telemetry after a session, which can be a very handy tool indeed.

Scaff · May 4, 2016

Mike_grpA
Pcars dash is the best app, I use it on my tablet, and with the huge amount of info I get on that, I can turn off the HUD in-game, which is good for live recording gameplay. Haven't tried Crew Chief, but I've heard great things about it.

They do a trial version of Crew Chief for a couple of tracks to try out, well worth it in my opinion.

Mike_grpA
Edit: Pcars dash also allows you to go back and view in-depth telemetry after a session, which can be a very handy tool indeed.

vRHive is my pick for that, its free and provides more detail and logs it all for you (and can be exported to excel); only downside is it needs to run on a windows laptop or PC.

DesertPenguin09 · May 4, 2016

I have a really crappy laptop that probably can't run PCars Dash. It's still on Windows XP. I just have one phone and no tablet so I'm using Crew Chief. That's good enough for now. I don't mind the in game HUD, I don't need to be that immersed.

Scaff · May 4, 2016

DesertPenguin09
I have a really crappy laptop that probably can't run PCars Dash. It's still on Windows XP. I just have one phone and no tablet so I'm using Crew Chief. That's good enough for now. I don't mind the in game HUD, I don't need to be that immersed.

I run pCars dash on the same phone I run Crew Chief, never had an issue with it.

I would be surprised if vRHive didn't run on an XP laptop, and its worth a shot given that it free.

DesertPenguin09 · May 4, 2016

Doesn't Crew Chief need to be open for it to work? Mine doesn't work when the screen is locked or on a diferent app.

Scaff · May 4, 2016

DesertPenguin09
Doesn't Crew Chief need to be open for it to work? Mine doesn't work when the screen is locked or on a diferent app.

I start Crew Chief, hit the home button and then open pCars Dash. They both work together perfectly well on my phone (HTC One M8).

Mike_grpA · May 4, 2016

Scaff
They do a trial version of Crew Chief for a couple of tracks to try out, well worth it in my opinion.

vRHive is my pick for that, its free and provides more detail and logs it all for you (and can be exported to excel); only downside is it needs to run on a windows laptop or PC.

Cool, I'll definitely try crew chief. Didn't know it had a free trial!

I could run vRHive on my laptop I guess. I might have to try that one as well. I like the telemetry part of Pcars dash, but it would be nice to be able to log it all so I can go through it whenever I like. Also, you can never have too much detail when it comes to telemetry. Cheers mate! :cheers:

MrF1 · May 5, 2016

Criew Chief is an additional race engineer, fully customizable and he swears at you when you, and i quote '**** up'. Lol

PJCars dash is for next level sim racers IMO. If you like doing time trials and online racing.. its probably not going to benefit you other then looking pretty.

BUT for those (like myself) who do league races and enduros. Its the number one tool for the job for fuel management, brake/tire/engine temps and timing.
I can put down 1-30or more laps.. pit the car and get an i depth review of my temps and wear after that stint. And see mine and others sector times to compare.

You become an engineer with an engineer (who swears) driving a race car..
Its very busy and very fun

Example A