What does the arrow mean in B-Spec?

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Bonedwarf

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Did a search and can't find anything on here. In B-Spec, when you're on the race info screen, the little cars at the bottom often get a little arrow next to them, pointing to the left. Does anyone have any clue what this arrow means? If often appears next to multiple cars.

Any help greatly appreciated, to make up for GT's pathetic manual.
 
I thought it meant that car has gained a lot of ground on the guy in front of him during that particular stage of the course... The draft thing is interesting though, I'm gonna check it out when I get a chance.
 
I am in BSpec right now and an arrow popped up over my car and there was a big gap between the car in front and the car in back......I cant figure it out.
 
Happend to me as well. It happend when my car was tailing the other car, and the car just sped off and left mine in the dust. I thought it ment my car was surprised or couldn't keep up.
 
Wow! Took four days for this to be posted!

I've ascertained that the arrow appears when the car it's next too has gone through the previous sector faster than the car in front.
 
I read in another thread that it means the car hind the arrow has completed the previous interval in less time than the car it's trailing i.e. it's catching up. Makes sense to me
 
if you press X, you'll switch from the map to the sector time comparison.

basicly, the fastest person (of all the drivers) in the last sector is red, the slowest blue. it makes sense if you watch it

if the sector time of the driver is higher then that of the driver in front of him, then the redish arrow thing will light up.

the whole sector time comparison is very usefull for stategy in b-spec, if you pass someone and kick your pace down from 5 to 4, you can see if you are still lapping faster then them or not.

on single race events, I always b-spec before I a-spec, for two reasons; this gives me a chance to both train my b-spec guy (he's at 8k skill level 25% into the game) and I can see the approximmate fast lap times, so I can adjust mods/car down to their level. I hate running 4 seconds faster per lap then the AI, if I'm gonna drive, I wanna race.
 
I didn't think there was a such implementation of slipstream in the game. For you racing rookies, I guess I'll explain what I'm talking about.

-THE CONCEPT OF DRAFTING-

When race cars zoom down a track, the cars generate a good deal of turbulence. The higher the speed, the more the turbulence. When a car behind another tends to get sucked into the slipstream of another car, it has a sort of vacuum effect. When the racer behind gets just enough pull from the other car's slipstream, the trailing racer can easily zoom past the car ahead with the slingshot. Drafting is simply when you have one racer ahead at speed and has a sort of turbulence that suddenly pulls you win. And when you have enough turbulence, you can inch closer and closer until you simply blow past the car ahead. The slipstream is that turbulence behind a leading car.

Or set me straight if I'm wrong. It should probably be one of the simplest concepts race drivers and fans should know. Maybe that is why I didn't drive so well at normal difficulty in GT's arcade mode- not learning about the draft. Perhaps my worst moment in my racing game history involving draft has to be the arcade game "NASCAR Racing." I raced the Talladega track in the arcade game, and while starting 40th... I STAYED there! Couldn't generate any sort of draft to bypass the other AI racers, and if this is also in GT4, I'm going to be spending a lot of time trying to learn how to win races.
 
GT4 has plenty drafting. They even use sound effects to enhance it -> normally you hear the roar of air rushing past at high speed in GT4, and when you get into another cars slipstream it goes all quiet.
 
qwejibo
GT4 has plenty drafting. They even use sound effects to enhance it -> normally you hear the roar of air rushing past at high speed in GT4, and when you get into another cars slipstream it goes all quiet.
Click to expand...


^ Nice effect! You just need to judge when to 'pop out' of the slipstream correctly..:)
 
JohnBM01
I didn't think there was a such implementation of slipstream in the game. For you racing rookies, I guess I'll explain what I'm talking about.

-THE CONCEPT OF DRAFTING-

When race cars zoom down a track, the cars generate a good deal of turbulence. The higher the speed, the more the turbulence. When a car behind another tends to get sucked into the slipstream of another car, it has a sort of vacuum effect. When the racer behind gets just enough pull from the other car's slipstream, the trailing racer can easily zoom past the car ahead with the slingshot. Drafting is simply when you have one racer ahead at speed and has a sort of turbulence that suddenly pulls you win. And when you have enough turbulence, you can inch closer and closer until you simply blow past the car ahead. The slipstream is that turbulence behind a leading car.

Or set me straight if I'm wrong. It should probably be one of the simplest concepts race drivers and fans should know. Maybe that is why I didn't drive so well at normal difficulty in GT's arcade mode- not learning about the draft. Perhaps my worst moment in my racing game history involving draft has to be the arcade game "NASCAR Racing." I raced the Talladega track in the arcade game, and while starting 40th... I STAYED there! Couldn't generate any sort of draft to bypass the other AI racers, and if this is also in GT4, I'm going to be spending a lot of time trying to learn how to win races.
Click to expand...

Just to confirm John... Drafting (as it's now known I always called it slipstreaming) was in GT1 and has been in the series since... in GT4P the wind noise changed when you were "in the zone"... And I notice that it has carried through into GT4 (Courtesy of post above).

C.
 
kFMkII
I thought it meant that car has gained a lot of ground on the guy in front of him during that particular stage of the course... The draft thing is interesting though, I'm gonna check it out when I get a chance.
Click to expand...


I think this is what it means, I thought it was drafting too, but I've seen cars with the arrow above them aren't even close to another car. I think it just means they are gaining ground quickly on the car in front of them.
 
-=Wolf=-
And I'm guessing the little car icon to the right of your car name indicates wheelspin or a slide?
Click to expand...

Yes, the car icon generally means you've gone off the track. That's why you'll never see it in city courses. And the arrow has nothing to do with drafting. That's why you'll see it pop up even though the car is half a lap behind someone else. It has everything to do with being faster over the last interval.

Maybe its just my tv, but the color coded lap segments have three designations for red and I can't tell the difference. 👎 Only when it gets to maroon, purple, and blue for the slower cars is there anyway to tell who is faster than someone else. A more varied color scheme would have been nice.
 
oy, there is definitely drafting in GT4, far more noticeable than in other GT's. I've been playing with it since I got the game. If your not way out of your class in a race (as in, you dont have an 800hp touring car in sunday cup) and you are actually having to try to win (IE when I took a 200hp subaru into 4WD challenge against 500+hp cars) drafting comes in quite handy. Fall in behind a car whenever you can, and the draft will pull you, allowing you to accelerate to a greater speed than the car ahead of you, then you can pull out and pass or what for a corner and out-break them. Awesome update to the physics from sony. 👍
 
The arrow means that the car is doing faster sector times (or T times, as some people call it) than the car in front of it. It generally means that that car will more than likely pass the car in front of it.

The car icon next to a vehicle in B-Spec means that the car has gone off the track.

Just one last thing to note, Opera Paris sucks. :)
 
Bryan C.
oy, there is definitely drafting in GT4, far more noticeable than in other GT's. I've been playing with it since I got the game. If your not way out of your class in a race (as in, you dont have an 800hp touring car in sunday cup) and you are actually having to try to win (IE when I took a 200hp subaru into 4WD challenge against 500+hp cars) drafting comes in quite handy. Fall in behind a car whenever you can, and the draft will pull you, allowing you to accelerate to a greater speed than the car ahead of you, then you can pull out and pass or what for a corner and out-break them. Awesome update to the physics from sony. 👍
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ok gj guy, oh wait this thread isn't about drafting but u still get a cookie anyways
 
Pascal02: Please post on-topic instead of adding the same question to every thread you read. In fact, why not read a few threads about first cars? There's one called What car did you start with? on this board.
 
Okay, doing some more playing today:

The little car that appears next to the car means the driver has had an off. Someone said it wouldn't happened on a city circuit. That's incorrect. I did that 95 lap at Opera, Paris today, and saw it several times.

As for the arrows... it's definitely NOT just "Faster through previous sector than car in front" as when cars space out, it doesn't happen.

Damn the pitiful manual:(
 
Bonedwarf
As for the arrows... it's definitely NOT just "Faster through previous sector than car in front" as when cars space out, it doesn't happen.
Click to expand...

But when the cars space out, that means they're falling behind--hence no arrow. No?
 
Well it's nice to know what that arrow final means.

I thought it had to do something with candycorn.
 

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