How to learn racing lines?

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mattersend

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Hey everyone, I'm super pumped for this game. I'm a little discouraged sometimes because I watch these amazing community videos of guys racing like pros. I can't do it because I can't "intuitively" feel where the line is. For me its a mental exercise where I'm trying to just guess my way through a corner.
My question is if anyone knows good videos or has tips or anything on how to learn lines. Is it somethong you inevitably get better at with just practice or are there more fundamental things maybe I'm missing? Last, sorry if this has been asked already.
 
The main idea behind the racing line is to reduce the angle of corner, thus increasing the speed at which you can take the corner. In most games and sims, this is easily identifiable by the rubbered-in line around the track. These are some great vids:





 
There are 3 main points to a corner. Brake, Turn and Accelerate. The apex of the corner can be in any place you choose. It may be earlier for an overtake or later to set up the next straight or somewhere in the middle to set up the next corner. The videos above demonstrate this far more clearly than I can.
 
Those videos are great references, but another useful method is to setup a practice session ingame and sit behind another car, following his lines through the corners.
 
mattersend
Hey everyone, I'm super pumped for this game. I'm a little discouraged sometimes because I watch these amazing community videos of guys racing like pros. I can't do it because I can't "intuitively" feel where the line is. For me its a mental exercise where I'm trying to just guess my way through a corner.
My question is if anyone knows good videos or has tips or anything on how to learn lines. Is it somethong you inevitably get better at with just practice or are there more fundamental things maybe I'm missing? Last, sorry if this has been asked already.
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Here's a great one from EmptyBox, pretty much covers what you're asking

 
mattersend
I'm a little discouraged sometimes because I watch these amazing community videos of guys racing like pros.
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Don't get too discouraged, there are a few absolutely amazing drivers out there. Don't worry too much if you can't replicate them exactly. 👍
 
mattersend
Hey everyone, I'm super pumped for this game. I'm a little discouraged sometimes because I watch these amazing community videos of guys racing like pros. I can't do it because I can't "intuitively" feel where the line is. For me its a mental exercise where I'm trying to just guess my way through a corner.
My question is if anyone knows good videos or has tips or anything on how to learn lines. Is it somethong you inevitably get better at with just practice or are there more fundamental things maybe I'm missing? Last, sorry if this has been asked already.
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I find the best way for me to get faster is to just practice practice practice. Seriously just keep driving. Soon you will be shaving off tenths of a second from your time. Knowing the track in my opinion is more important than car setup.
 
Thank you guys. This is honestly the best racing I have seen so far. The battle is outrageous and professional. This was the most intense 26 minutes of project cars I have seen, and its multiplayer!! I think whoever is driving this must be a pro. Thoughts?

 
yeah Aleonso posts a lot of good videos. you see other youtubers racing with him like Fresquito(?) who also post vids. LFO club members I think, whatever that is.
 
The ultimate goal is always to maximize your exit speed. In other words, the old adage, "slow in, fast out." Everything else varies depending on the best way to achieve that goal in a particular corner (or string of corners) and with a particular car, which is what makes things complicated. If you keep that one goal in mind, it can help you gauge how well you're doing as you practice and learn a car+track combo.

As you get better, it's important to remain flexible with how you approach corner entry and the apex. If you're hotlapping and can't seem to whittle down your best laptime, don't be afraid to try something different on a tricky corner.
 
^ When a curve opens (ultimately becoming a straight) you should be accelerating. Exactly when a curve ends/opens/becomes-straight w.r.t. to the car's (possible) trajectory depends on your choice of line through it. The basic idea is to make the exit as smooth and 'straight' as possible so that you can get the power down.
 
PRO_TOO
I thought exit speed only is impotent when there is a long straight ahead of you.
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Exit speed is everything when it comes to being fast. At most, if you take a corner absolutely perfectly you might gain a tenth on another fast competitor. If your corner exit speed is 100 km/h, you gained roughly 2.5 metres or half a car length, which is a pretty big gain on a corner if your opponent doesn't screw it up. If your exit speed is just 3 km/h lower than his, you will lose 0.85 metres/second on the following straight, so if the straight is longer than 3 seconds or around 120 metres, you will begin to fall behind. But the real key is rotating your car the best way to get on the throttle earlier than the other guy combined with a higher exit speed. If you exit that same 3km/h faster and get on the throttle just 1/10th of a second sooner, you will blow by him before the next corner because you'll be travelling perhaps 6-7 km/h faster or more, down the entire length of the straight, gaining more than 2 metres/second.

I'm not an alien by any stretch but I do have a lot of online racing experience, and by far the biggest mistake sim racers make is pushing too hard entering the corner, getting off the racing line or just generally out of shape, and being late and slow exiting the corner.

By the way, if your exit speed is "impotent", I'd see a doctor:sly:
 
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Johnnypenso
Exit speed is everything when it comes to being fast. At most, if you take a corner absolutely perfectly you might gain a tenth on another fast competitor. If your corner exit speed is 100 km/h, you gained roughly 2.5 metres or half a car length, which is a pretty big gain on a corner if your opponent doesn't screw it up. If your exit speed is just 3 km/h lower than his, you will lose 0.85 metres/second on the following straight, so if the straight is longer than 3 seconds or around 120 metres, you will begin to fall behind. But the real key is rotating your car the best way to get on the throttle earlier than the other guy combined with a higher exit speed. If you exit that same 3km/h faster and get on the throttle just 1/10th of a second sooner, you will blow by him before the next corner because you'll be travelling perhaps 6-7 km/h faster or more, down the entire length of the straight, gaining more than 2 metres/second.

I'm not an alien by any stretch but I do have a lot of online racing experience, and by far the biggest mistake sim racers make is pushing too hard entering the corner, getting off the racing line or just generally out of shape, and being late and slow exiting the corner.

By the way, if your exit speed is "impotent", I'd see a doctor:sly:
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:D thank you for all that! I'm a rookie. I do appreciate all that!
Important that is! :P
 
What real life race coverage (F1, GT's, Touring Cars, Club Racing for the British tracks) from the various circuits in the game on Youtube!!! ;)
 
PRO_TOO
:D thank you for all that! I'm a rookie. I do appreciate all that!
Important that is! :P
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One thing I found really valuable and I hope it's also in Project Cars, is a lap time delta. It's a running calculation you display on the HUD, of the difference between your best and current lap time. You get instant feedback on every corner on the differences that different lines you take through the corner have on the following straight. You can tell how much of a difference that brilliant corner you just made would make on your lap, and how much what you thought was a little mistake will cost you.
 
Johnnypenso
One thing I found really valuable and I hope it's also in Project Cars, is a lap time delta. It's a running calculation you display on the HUD, of the difference between your best and current lap time. You get instant feedback on every corner on the differences that different lines you take through the corner have on the following straight. You can tell how much of a difference that brilliant corner you just made would make on your lap, and how much what you thought was a little mistake will cost you.
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If Project Cars don't have that I hope it has the tracks broken into sections.
 

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