Sector splits - what's the deal?

[MidnightRun85]

Hey all, wondering if someone might know what the deal is with sector splits in GTSport.

What I've noticed recently is the sector splits which you clock as you head around each circuit, they obviously have a certain value (ie. -0.563s faster than your previous best run at that sector), but there seems to be something more complicated going on that I don't understand, because I've noticed several times the splits don't add up. What I mean by that, is every now and then I'll run a lap where the first sector is, say, -1.500s faster, then sector two I run wide maybe, and I'm +0.500s, but the lap delta tells me I'm -1.300s, which doesn't add up using simple maths. Am I missing something here, or is this a glitch?

Then the next thing I've noticed is those splits as you head around the track aren't necessarily correct when you cross the finish line. There appears to be a correction quite often as you cross the line, but I'm not sure how this is calculated. Let me explain. A track where there are three sectors: S1 -0.500s, S2 +0.600s, S3 -1.600s, overall lap comes in at -1.700s, but then the sectors correct and it often shows all three sectors as blue and say S1 -0.700s, S2 -0.500s, and S3 -0.500s. These are only fabricated numbers (as I'm usually too busy trying to concentrate and gain another win, but if you pay attention to sector times in general Career Mode racing, you may well see this too. Please let me know if you know what's going on here and if there is some simple explanation to all this?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[VMethos]

I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that the differences that are displayed are based on your best time (by sector and lap).

So, the delta between all sectors and the final lap time on your second lap SHOULD match up, but then any laps beyond that, the differences by sector and the overall lap differences may not add up as the reference point for those differences are being based on your best time in each particular sector no matter what lap it fell on, while the difference in lap time is solely based on current lap vs. best lap.

Again, someone else should verify this, because I'm just going off of what I thought was going on and I am unable to double check at the moment.

 

[Nando deBem]

If it’s purple, it’s against your best lap of the session. If it’s blue is against your best lap I think. Still, you can use the buttons you use to change brake balance up and down to change this behaviour. You can have your split time board against your session’s best or against your current car’s best. I still think there’s something bugged. In this “current car best time” mode my optimum is usually my best and my best is my first lap...

 

[John Crellin]

What I mean by that, is every now and then I'll run a lap where the first sector is, say, -1.500s faster, then sector two I run wide maybe, and I'm +0.500s, but the lap delta tells me I'm -1.300s, which doesn't add up using simple maths. Am I missing something here, or is this a glitch?

Sector splits are separate from lap delta. Sector splits are in relation to your best lap and each sector, so if you are -1.500s faster in first sector then +0.500 in your second sector and your lap delta is -1.300s then you made up 0.300s in the time it took to display the sector delta. Usually its not this large of a difference unless you spun or braked out of corner before the sector delta was calculated.
So if you ran -1.500s on your first then +0.500 on your second then you must have got a pretty good release on a corner (or something similar) which made up the 0.300s.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Sector splits are separate from lap delta. Sector splits are in relation to your best lap and each sector, so if you are -1.500s faster in first sector then +0.500 in your second sector and your lap delta is -1.300s then you made up 0.300s in the time it took to display the sector delta. Usually its not this large of a difference unless you spun or braked out of corner before the sector delta was calculated.
So if you ran -1.500s on your first then +0.500 on your second then you must have got a pretty good release on a corner (or something similar) which made up the 0.300s.

Thanks I was just using those numbers to simplify the maths and make it obvious.

Thanks for your help guys, I think I understand it a bit better now. It was always so confusing when the sectors didn't add up!!

 

[Nuschel01]

If it’s purple, it’s against your best lap of the session. If it’s blue is against your best lap I think.

It's also purple in races when you're faster than the FL and turns blue when it's a PB. Much like pink and green sectors in F1

 

[DigitalBaka]

Sector splits are separate from lap delta. Sector splits are in relation to your best lap and each sector, so if you are -1.500s faster in first sector then +0.500 in your second sector and your lap delta is -1.300s then you made up 0.300s in the time it took to display the sector delta. Usually its not this large of a difference unless you spun or braked out of corner before the sector delta was calculated.
So if you ran -1.500s on your first then +0.500 on your second then you must have got a pretty good release on a corner (or something similar) which made up the 0.300s.

Short version, splits are cumulative over the lap, not "per sector".

If you are -.5 at T1 and +.5 at T3 you lost 1 second between sectors 2 and 3, not just in 3. Could be you lost 1.2s in S2 and gained .2 in S3. In a time trial you can tell where you're slower or faster with the red and blue arrows/timing above the rev indicator.

I believe the timing is always against the purple fastest lap. If you are faster than the fastest lap it shows purple. If you are slower than the fastest but faster than your personal best it shoes green/blue. If you are slower than both it shows red. And if you understood that without re-reading it, kudos to you!

 

[Sven Jurgens]

It often screws up in a daily C and it starts reporting nonsense values. While qualifying I think it's always against your best lap, not your best sector time.

Yesterday the split time kept switching to me being 1 minute 26 behind 3rd while he was just ahead. Suzuka is also usually bugged in sector split times and I'm 99 minutes faster each sector... Sometimes it simply gives up and it's a bunch of dots.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Short version, splits are cumulative over the lap, not "per sector".

If you are -.5 at T1 and +.5 at T3 you lost 1 second between sectors 2 and 3, not just in 3. Could be you lost 1.2s in S2 and gained .2 in S3. In a time trial you can tell where you're slower or faster with the red and blue arrows/timing above the rev indicator.

I believe the timing is always against the purple fastest lap. If you are faster than the fastest lap it shows purple. If you are slower than the fastest but faster than your personal best it shoes green/blue. If you are slower than both it shows red. And if you understood that without re-reading it, kudos to you!

Yep easily understood that thanks! That's what I thought, but as I said in my OP, it's commonly not adding up correctly, which is where my confusion comes.

It often screws up in a daily C and it starts reporting nonsense values. While qualifying I think it's always against your best lap, not your best sector time.

Yesterday the split time kept switching to me being 1 minute 26 behind 3rd while he was just ahead. Suzuka is also usually bugged in sector split times and I'm 99 minutes faster each sector... Sometimes it simply gives up and it's a bunch of dots.

I can't say I've had that issue! Hope yours sorts itself out with this new update.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I was confused as hell by this as well. Often I would lose a race because I was trying to do maths and drive fast at the same time

So as I take it, the sector splits shown at the top of the screen is cumulative for the lap you're on, but the sector splits shown at the MFD bottom screen is against your optimum sectors?

So the splits at the top of the screen will add up to the lap delta, but the MFD splits won't (it will add up to the difference with the OPT lap however). Is this correct?

Here is the explanation provided by the online manual:
https://www.gran-turismo.com/us/gtsport/manual/#!/race/content04

EDIT: After some more testing (at the oval so I can be more consistent), it seems the sector splits at the MFD is against the sectors from your fastest lap (not individual fastest sectors). So if you add it up it will still add up to the cumulative splits at the top of the screen. Confusing as hell, I hope that makes sense 👍