LFS Gear Ratio Calculator 2½ [deceased]

[Bob Smith]

May I present: LFS GRC v2½

For anyone who has used the old Excel spreadsheet versions (1.x): it has all the functionality of before, and then some. However it is now a standalone app written in VB and, most importantly, has support for all the S2 cars.

For people who've never seen it, GRC can:

Tell you the speed at shift points between gears, thus making it easier to adjust them.
Tell you the engine revs before and after shifts, to help prevent gears from being badly spaced.
Tell you the torque available in each gear, to help limit wheel-spin.
Perform standing start acceleration info and pick out some acceleration times (e.g. 0-60) and top speed.
Calculate all of the vehicles aerodynamics for aero balancing and view the impacts on top speed and acceleration.
Draw pretty graphs to provide information in a more readily understandable visual format.
Give tyre deformation information for you to coo over (but has no real use).
Allow you to create your own cars so that GRC can perform everything mentioned above with cars that are not in LFS by default.
Allow you to save and load settings to save you having to continously re-enter your gearing details.
Allow you to personalise the program so information is presented to you in the format which you prefer.

An 8 page PDF manual also ships in the zip which covers the majority of the features.

Screenshots:
http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview1_thumb.jpg (http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview1.jpg) http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview2_thumb.jpg (http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview2.jpg) http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview3_thumb.jpg (http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview3.jpg) http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview4_thumb.jpg (http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/pics/grc_preview4.jpg)
click the image for a larger version


Download page (http://lfs.thefloatingwidget.net/grc.html) - link is at the bottom of the page.

Languages supported:

English
Czech (Cestina)
German (Deutsch)
Dutch (Nederlands)
Finish (Suomi)
Polish (Polski)


Planned features list: - now added in Project3

add a 7th gear for the BMW Sauber
add a torque-split slider for AWD cars, for better acceleration modelling
add separate front and rear tyre choices, for better acceleration modelling
optimal shift point calculations based on estimated torque curve (rather than weird formula that worked for LFS 0.3x)
automatic gearing spacer
make tyres load sensitive
.csv export for acceleration data (will contain more data than is available in the text box)
LFS Setup (.set) file loading/saving (Read Only)

Planned features list: - not added into Project3... yet

automatic calculation of top gear rpm
add a graph for tractive effort vs. speed (currently only time can be on the x axis)
add a graph for speed vs. distance


Anyway hope this helps, as usual feedback is always welcomed & appreciated.

Cheers all, good racing


Update: LFS GRC is now a "deceased" project, I am no longer working on it. I am now working on a new app instead, a preview version is currently available here (http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=16961&page=2).

[the_angry_angel]

On the version I was testing for Bob some time ago, there was a save feature. I believe its still in there somewhere.

As for saving and loading .set's we're still trying to figure out exactly what all the bits in the .set file represent, and the format may change - so I'm guessing Bob will have that in the works as soon as its "final".

Incidentally Bob - nice beard ;)

[Bob Smith]

Yeah, there is still "File, Save As" you know. ;)

The .set specification is good (thanks to Colcob). I just need to learn how to read/write binary files in VB now.

I thought all programmers had to have a goatie?

[the_angry_angel]

Yup - I did until a few weeks ago, but i've decided to grow it back again (I felt naked, plus at work I didnt have anything to stroke when people asked me to estimate coding time) :D

I think the problem with the .set format, is that its possibly subject to change before the "full release" - ofc, it wouldnt be too difficult to change, just a pain in the arse ;)

[colcob]

We have php driven .set file reading and writing working fine at the moment, but I'm not familiar with VB myself, so I dont know how easy binary file reading/writing is. Shouldnt be a problem though.

As for saving and loading .set's we're still trying to figure out exactly what all the bits in the .set file represent

Certainly not, the spec is there in B&W in the programmers forum. Pay attention at the back :)

[the_angry_angel]

sorry :( I must've missed that.

I could've sworn there was a few things that werent spacers, but werent identified. I'll try to keep up :p

[Bob Smith]

.....2.2.....

Highlights of changes: Added aero balance stuff, put the downforce onto the tyres and have made up a tyre stiffness equation (which affects how the tyre deforms), which totally changes the deformation compared to the old "balloon" style deformation.

[colcob]

Your site's down Bob.

[Bob Smith]

Already on it. Excessive bandwidth usage my arse, seems my ISP can't count. This is my last month with them anyway. A shame, since they've been very good all year.

[the_angry_angel]

If you wish, I can mirror the GRC files at least Bob.

[Bob Smith]

Noo, can't let this thread be at the bottom. :p

Anyway, v2.2.1 fixes the tyre frequency equation as discussed here the past few days, and also removes the about box and puts it in the empty space left on the info tab caused by the addition of the aero tab.

[Bob Smith]

After an all day coding session Thursday (to 2am), again Friday (to 3am) and once more today (to 4am), may I present GRC v2½.

Lots of new features (but still no .set file import/export)

Very tired now... going to sleep

Enjoy

[flyby3d]

After an all day coding session Thursday (to 2am), again Friday (to 3am) and once more today (to 4am), may I present GRC v2½.

Lots of new features (but still no .set file import/export)

Very tired now... going to sleep

Enjoy


Great job as always! Keep up the good work :D

[Madman_CZ]

As always bob nice work..... tho really u need to spend sometime away from lfs.......... u dont want to end up like that guy in china... :Eyecrazy:

[Gizz]

bob!!

im on win98SE and and when i try to open the program it gives me the following....

runtime error out of memory '-2147024882(8007000e)'

any ideas m8??

[StewartFisher]

Nice work Bob! How do you calculate the change in front/rear load distribution caused by the aero settings?
I've made a suspension calculator spreadsheet which takes into account the variation of weight distribution with driver and fuel load but I've not managed to get all the information about downforce yet.
Basically I need the locations of the point of action of the front wing, rear wing and undertray. I can calculate the downforce but don't know exactly where it acts on the car.
The only other thing I need for my spreadsheet is the unsprung masses of the cars...any ideas?

[colcob]

Yeah, we've got all that stuff. Drop me a PM as a reminder and send it you over.

[Bob Smith]

Do you actually have wing locations sorted now Colcob or are we still going with my guesstimates?

any ideas m8??
Nope. Not seen that error before. Are you sure you have the latest versions of the DLL/OCX files used by GRC? Other than those it is self contained.

Any more experienced programmers out there have any ideas?

[Gizz]

you mension a DLL? in the missing files there are only .bat files and ocx files no dll's am i missing somthing ?? (i normaly am like the apex :()


tnx bob

[Bob Smith]

Should be 3 OCXs and 2 DLLs. You must have them installed, as an error should pop up saying they are missing if they aren't, and the program won't load (but not crash). The ones in the zip should be the latest versions, so I was ruling out old versions of the libraries (not a likely cause...).

[Gizz]

bob in the missing files i only have the 3 .bat (for diff versions of win) and 3 ocx files...

could you point me in the rite direction for those DLL's its gota be worth a try :)

PS. the program doesnt load at all i just get that error as soon i hit the exe...

tnx again

[Bob Smith]

Well, you can give it a go but I really don't think this will help, I just can't think of anything else. Have you any other PCs to try it on? I've seen it run on Win98SE before so that itself shouldn't be a problem.

The files needed by GRC are (you can google for them):
COMCTL32.DLL
COMCTL32.OCX
COMDLG32.DLL
COMDLG32.OCX
MSCOMCTL.OCX


...but they are all in that zip, I just downloaded it to make sure the online one matches the one on my drive, and it does. There should be 9 files. Check to see if system files are being hidden.


No other programmers have any ideas as to what my be causing the problem for Gizz?

[Bob Smith]

Still nobody with any ideas to help Gizz? Oh well. :(

Anyway, to happier news, v2.5.1 is here, just some small maintenance before I get around to adding some more features in a few days:
* added weight transfer caused by acceleration :yipee:
* replaced the logo with the one I meant to put in v2½ :doh:
* fixed 5 small bugs that hopefully no-one noticed anyway :)

[JTbo]

bob in the missing files i only have the 3 .bat (for diff versions of win) and 3 ocx files...

could you point me in the rite direction for those DLL's its gota be worth a try :)

PS. the program doesnt load at all i just get that error as soon i hit the exe...

tnx again

Could you please write here names of those .bat and .ocx files, would help a lot in helping :)

[Stuff]

Also Gizz, and Bob, don't forget about the essential .dll file, the VB 6 runtime.
It can either be found in this spiffy unofficial service pack (http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html) or simply at the M$ site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7B9BA261-7A9C-43E7-9117-F673077FFB3C&displaylang=en).

Might help :)

[StewartFisher]

Good work again Bob :)
One thing I've been meaning to ask you about since I 'discovered' it a few days ago is the effect of drag on the load distribution. I was trying to add downforce to a weight distribution spreadsheet I made and tried to calculate the locations of the three downforce points on the FXO GTR.
It's a standard three unknowns requiring three simultaneous equation problem so I used F1PerfView to give me the wheel loads for three levels of downforce all at 125mph. The locations my calculations gave me were completely wrong so I investigated...

I was taking moments about the rear axle to calculate the load distribution which means that ALL forces which have a moment about the rear axle must be included. This includes drag! I was just wondering whether your program takes drag into account when calculating the load distribution?

Oh, and I spotted a mistake in the latest version of the Advanced Setup Guide. You removed all the stuff about downforce affecting suspension frequencies from the 'Suspension' section but not the 'Downforce' section (it's on page 26).

[Bob Smith]

Also Gizz, and Bob, don't forget about the essential .dll file, the VB 6 runtime. ...
M$ site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7B9BA261-7A9C-43E7-9117-F673077FFB3C&displaylang=en).
Ah cheers, have added a link to that on the download page now. :) Well done from refraining from mentioning APIs. :p

Good work again Bob :)
I was taking moments about the rear axle to calculate the load distribution which means that ALL forces which have a moment about the rear axle must be included. This includes drag! I was just wondering whether your program takes drag into account when calculating the load distribution?
Do you mean the weight transfer caused by aero forces not acting at the height of CoG? If so, then no (not even for non-downforce cars). At the moment I'm working with driving force and rolling resistance working at ground level, and drag sufficiently above the CoG height to remove any forward weight transfer caused by rolling resistance but not enough to create any rearward transfer. So basically, only accleration or braking causes weight transfer, not deceleration caused by coasting.
I would like to include these effects but have any data to work with. Even my wing/undertray x axis locations are guesstimates.


Oh, and I spotted a mistake in the latest version of the Advanced Setup Guide. You removed all the stuff about downforce affecting suspension frequencies from the 'Suspension' section but not the 'Downforce' section (it's on page 26).
:doh: ta :)

[StewartFisher]

Do you mean the weight transfer caused by aero forces not acting at the height of CoG? If so, then no (not even for non-downforce cars). At the moment I'm working with driving force and rolling resistance working at ground level, and drag sufficiently above the CoG height to remove any forward weight transfer caused by rolling resistance but not enough to create any reward transfer. So basically, only accleration or braking causes weight transfer, not deceleration caused by coasting.
Sort of, but surely it doesn't matter where the aero forces act relative to the CoG? I haven't thought about it in great detail but surely any force which does not act through one of the axles must be taken into account when calculating load distribution?

I would like to include these effects but have any data to work with. Even my wing/undertray x axis locations are guesstimates.
I would have tried it myself but 6 unknowns would require 6 sets of RAF data and 6 simultaneous equations...no thanks!

[Bob Smith]

Sort of, but surely it doesn't matter where the aero forces act relative to the CoG? I haven't thought about it in great detail but surely any force which does not act through one of the axles must be taken into account when calculating load distribution?
It's the CoG height that matters. When accelerating, the force is acting at ground level, and assuming a non-zero but positive CoG height, there must be rearward weight transfer. If you throw away your internal combustion engine, and strap a jet engine to the roof, there will now be forward weight transfer under acceleration.

Likewise with deceleration, the brakes are at ground level, causing forward weight transfer. Throw that jet engine into reverse and you'll get rearward weight transfer under deceleration. The aero drag of the car is the same, it most likely acts above the CoG height, so you get more rearward weight transfer the faster you go (irrelevant of propulsion). And the rolling resistance is below the CoG height, causing the opposite.

So taking a car of 50:50 weight distribution and letting it coast down (and no engine braking) from a high speed, what will we see? The car will be rear heavy as the aero drag slows the car. Eventually the aero drag dies off and rolling resistance becomes the dominant resistance. This switch usually happens about 35mph. Assuming the aero was acting as far above the CoG as the rolling resistance is below it (unlikely I agree), the car will be back at 50:50 weight distribution. And finally, the last bit of deceleration will cause the car to get front heavy (just like prodding the brakes).

The magnitude of these affects will (in most cases) be reasonably small though (relative to actually using the brakes, or firing up the afterburner). So it's nothing you would need to worry about too much. Interesting none the less.


At this point I'm hoping everything I said is accurate or I'm going to look like an idiot. :)

[Stuff]

Ah cheers, have added a link to that on the download page now. :) Well done from refraining from mentioning APIs. :p

To each their own, programming methods... I gave up a while ago trying to convince people that API is the way to go in VB6. :) I'm currently learning Java so no need anyway :p

[StewartFisher]

It's the CoG height that matters. When accelerating, the force is acting at ground level, and assuming a non-zero but positive CoG height, there must be rearward weight transfer. If you throw away your internal combustion engine, and strap a jet engine to the roof, there will now be forward weight transfer under acceleration.
I agree in principle, but the forces acting at ground level have nothing to do with weight transfer because they act on the unsprung mass of the car rather than the chassis. The weight distribution changes during acceleration/deceleration because of d'Alembert forces acting through the centre of gravity (F=ma, basically).

Likewise with deceleration, the brakes are at ground level, causing forward weight transfer. Throw that jet engine into reverse and you'll get rearward weight transfer under deceleration. The aero drag of the car is the same, it most likely acts above the CoG height, so you get more rearward weight transfer the faster you go (irrelevant of propulsion). And the rolling resistance is below the CoG height, causing the opposite.
So you're saying that any drag forces acting below the CoG height (like the front wing) cause forward weight transfer? Surely the vertical position of the drag force relative to the pitch centre of the car is the key factor?

Forget acceleration for a moment and consider a car moving at constant speed. The drag force is not acting through either axle so the weight supported by each axle must change in response to the drag.
Including the tractive forces at the wheels (required to balance the drag since there is no acceleration) only applies if you're considering the whole car as a free body. When calculating weight transfer you only take the sprung mass of the car as a free body, therefore any forces acting on the unsprung mass do not come into consideration.

When you add acceleration, the weight transfer can now be modeled using d'Alembert forces acting on the CoG of the car where the force is equal to mass times acceleration (good old F=ma). Tractive force at the ground never comes into it, except to calculate what the acceleration of the whole car should be in response to a given applied wheel torque.

At this point I'm hoping everything I said is accurate or I'm going to look like an idiot. :)
Ditto! I'm really not quite sure about the physics of the situation but something seems wrong with your explanation to me.

[Bob Smith]

Hmm, I was ignoring that suspension existed at all for now. Unsprung and sprung masses, roll and pitch centers, etc, are likely to complicate things.

I can see where you're coming from with what you're saying but I think I'm going refrain from commenting further until we get a third oppinion. Where are JB and Colcob hiding?

[Smp]

Hi Bob,
I have couple of suggestions:

1. Could you extend "0-30, 0-60, 0-150 mph" values from "N.Ns" to "N.NNs" (in order to see changes 1/100sec), please.

2. When I watch the "Acceleration Data Table" and adjust gear ratios (for ex. 1st and/or 2nd gear) it is inconvenient to (RE)scroll-down data window to track changes at higher speeds (somewhere in the bottom of those text window), cause when data changes scroller goes up automatically.
It would be good to keep scroller's position.

2.5. It Also would be convenient to make LFS GRC window resizeable.
We could use maximize window then, and to see a lot more data from "Acceleration Data Table" . Graphs would be more detail/precise too :)

3rd - Is a kind of bug? :
When you start LFS GRC (I used v.2.5.1), you can not access Acceleration Graph
(these one:)
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/thefloatingwidget/pics/grc_preview2b.jpg

I've found the only way to make it available is to go to "Options -> Misc -> " and to uncheck (despite it was checked by default) "Enable Acceleration calc..s" checkbox and then put a check back.
Though, you should do it every application restart :(

Thank you,
Smp

[Bob Smith]

Hi Bob,
I have couple of suggestions:
Yay, feedback. :D


1. Could you extend "0-30, 0-60, 0-150 mph" values from "N.Ns" to "N.NNs" (in order to see changes 1/100sec), please.
Hmm, well there are two issues there. Due to limitations of a text box, I can only put about 900 lines in it. So with a timestep of 0.1 seconds, that's 90 seconds of acceleration time, which is just enough to get the slow vehicles to reach top speed.
There are two solutions:
1) Allow the time step to be manually reduced, so that low speed acceleration can be displayed to more precision, but then you won't be able to test high speed acceleration as the loop will end.
2) Allow the loop to run for longer with the smaller timestep, but only output every nth line (in this case, every 10th) to the textbox... the downside here is that it will make the program even more sluggish than it already is. When are 10GHz processors coming?... The good news there is that it's mainly the outputting of text that takes time anyway, not the actual maths, so it wouldn't be ten times slower, maybe only half.


2. When I watch the "Acceleration Data Table" and adjust gear ratios (for ex. 1st and/or 2nd gear) it is inconvenient to (RE)scroll-down data window to track changes at higher speeds (somewhere in the bottom of those text window), cause when data changes scroller goes up automatically.
It would be good to keep scroller's position.
OK I've an idea how that could be done, I'll see what I can do. :thumb:


2.5. It Also would be convenient to make LFS GRC window resizeable.
We could use maximize window then, and to see a lot more data from "Acceleration Data Table" . Graphs would be more detail/precise too :)
Well at the moment I can make the window resizeable but nothing will grow, you'll just have blank space. The next version is going to have to be slightly larger anyway (to fit all those silly long German words in), and with any luck you'll be able to use it in your native language too.


3rd - Is a kind of bug? :

Weird. Works fine for me. :shrug: What value is saved in the options.ini file next to "Acceleration:" (it's the very last line of the ini file)?

[Bob Smith]

OK v2.5.2 is ready, multi-language support being the most notable change.

Smp: I've done something about most of your points. :)

I would say visit my website to see a full list of changes but my ISP is being gay and not letting me upload the devlog page for the minute (yes, they have homosexual webservers). So the full differences since the last update are:

* GRC is now translatable, ships with translations in Czech, Dutch, German and Finnish
* Acceleration times are now caclulated to 1/20th of a second
* Revised clutch simulation (slightly less simplistic)
* Altered undertray effect location (hopefully more accurate)
* The UF1000 is now available in open roof guise
* Cars now have independant idle speeds
* New GRC-style car skins for the road cars (by yours truly... apologies for my lack of creativity)
* Some minor bug fixes and improvements

[Seahorse]

Has anyone tweaked a setup sucesffully using this? I have been playing with the XFI @ Blackwood and have cured the lack of top speed, but the gearing is now in th wrong place, i.e. I'm having to upshift from 3rd to 4th on bends at 65mph rather than driving out of them in one gear.

As you can save settings & export - is there a repositry for sorted ones to save muppets like me re-inventing the wheel...?

[Bob Smith]

Has anyone tweaked a setup sucesffully using this?
I would hope so, that's why I've bothered to continue the development for the past 18 months.

I have been playing with the XFI @ Blackwood and have cured the lack of top speed, but the gearing is now in th wrong place, i.e. I'm having to upshift from 3rd to 4th on bends at 65mph rather than driving out of them in one gear.
So lengthen the earlier gears without changing the 5th/final drive.

As you can save settings & export - is there a repositry for sorted ones to save muppets like me re-inventing the wheel...?
I have not created one, but I admit a few example settings could well prove useful. I'll add that to my to-do list and will try to include some in the next update. :)

[Seahorse]

Excellent, thanks Bob.

On the engine v car speed graph - Should I be aiming to have gears lines end at/above/below the upper pale green line?

[Bob Smith]

Due to the way the optimum shift point is calculated, the line for any gear will always go past the green line (rpm of peak power) and drop below it when starting the next gear.

The height of the vertical line (the rpm drop) merely shows how close the gears are. (note that changing final drive doesn't affect the drop, since you aren't actually making the gears closer, but reducing them all by exactly the same percentage)


(woo, 1000 posts)

[orjanbye]

Weird. Works fine for me. :shrug: What value is saved in the options.ini file next to "Acceleration:" (it's the very last line of the ini file)?

I just tried this calculator, and it is very good, but I also cannot view the acceleration graphs. And when I change some of the gears, the data in the "Acceleration" field (0-50, 0-100, 0-150 etc..) doesn't change.

In the options.ini it is written "Acceleration = True". Changing this to False with Windows notepad doesn't change anything. In the options menu in the program, if I uncheck the mark for "Enable Acceleration Calculations (Slow!)", the program crashes and I get an error message "Run-time error '383': 'Text' property is read-only".

I uploaded a screenshot plus the error message here:
http://home.online.no/~orjanbye/f1/screenshot_1.png
http://home.online.no/~orjanbye/f1/error_message.png

I have checked all dll's and ocx's etc. and even tried to replace them with the same copies found in the zip-file on the download page. I also tried to reinstall Visual basic 6.0, but nothing helped. I run Windows XP, and I tried it on another XP machine at my office, but the same result...

A possible clue to what may be wrong is that the save/load options function doesn't seem to work correctly. If I do some changes in the options menu and choose "save options", then close the program and start again, some of the option changes is gone and I have to do them again every time I use the program... Maybe I have to place the program in some default directory like C:\lfsgrc or something, otherwise the program gets confused?? I don't know, but I think this should be examined for possible bugs.


As for suggestions, I think I have one: In the Torque graph, there is an option for plotting the engine torque. But more useful would be to plot the aerodynamic drag. This is possible if you change the X-axis from wheel rpm to car speed (multiply rpm with wheel circumference?). Next is to change "torque at wheels" to "wheel thrust" by dividing torque with wheel radius. You then have a graph with Newton as unit on the Y-axis, and can draw the aerodynamic drag (also in Newton) in the same graph. Then you can see better how much force is available for acceleration as drag increase with speed. Maybe it is even possible to make an option for instead plotting the difference between the two as "net acceleration force"?

Just an idea from me, feel free to use it or scrap it. :)

[Bob Smith]

Hi

That's basically what the tractive effort plot would show.

As for the bug, it has been reported before, however in order to fix it, I need to be able to reproduce it my end. And that's the prolem, everything works fine for me. If somebody can point to a system setting that causes the problem, perhaps I can change it my end, analyse the problem, and come up with a work around. I'm hoping it's only a smaller percentage of users that have the problem. Not many people seem to complain.

Thanks for you interest. :)


Edit: I suspect it might be some regional setting.

[orjanbye]

Edit: I suspect it might be some regional setting.

Guess what, your spot on right!
I just tried to change the regional settings to "England, UK" and suddenly, like magic, I can see all the graphs!
Norway and England has different symbols for decimals, list separation etc., like "." instead of ","
Mystery solved! :thumb:
Hopefully it is not too difficult to solve it in the software, but I know nothing about that. Except I remember having some trouble with excel-sheets many years ago for a similar reason.

Anyway, thank you for this interesting and useful tool! :)

(Edit): This is the setting I changed to make it work:
->Control Panel->Regional and language options:
http://home.online.no/~orjanbye/f1/regional_settings_2.png

[Bob Smith]

Ah that's good to know, I'll have a play tomorrow and see if I can understand what's going on.

Cheers

[MARSH2a]

Hi.

These old links:



Are now:
http://www.thefloatingwidget.net/files/LFSGRCv2-5-2.zip and http://www.thefloatingwidget.net/lfs_grc.html

Cheers :)

Will you be includig the BF1 soon? :thumb:

[Bob Smith]

Will you be includig the BF1 soon? :thumb:
This weekend, time pending. Adding a 7th gear is a fairly large task, there's loads of code to be tinkered with - all the torque stuff, max revs, the acceleration testing, all the graphs, the setup file format, the list goes on. :(

[Bob Smith]

OK done some investiagtion - do "Usann" and "Sann" mean true and false in Norweigan? No idea where it's getting those words from, and only sometimes. :S Bloody MS software.

[Bob Smith]

OK v2.5.3 has been updated for patches S/T/U

Atm I have not added a 7th gear for the BMW Sauber, this is just a quick update

Since my site is down atm, here is a temporary download link on my old webspace: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/thefloatingwidget/files/LFSGRCv2-5-3.zip

List of changes:
* Car specs updated to reflect changes in LFS Patch S
* Tyre grip values updated to reflect changed in LFS Patch S
* BMW Sauber car added
* Open top UF1000 removed - specs had been made identical to UF1000 (closed), so was redundant
* Accuracy of aero affect on car balance now improved greatly
* Tried to flatten the torque curves further for the BMW Sauber but my alogirthm still can't reproduce the torque curve for this car :-[
* Car list re-ordered
* More international support: user can now press "," (as well ".") for use as a decimal point without it being ignored
* Web address updated to point at my new URL

[Sp3cTr3]

is this supposed to work stand alone or do i have to extract the files in the lfs folder?

when i try and run it i get an error saying:
component COMDLG32.OCX or one of its dependencies not correctly registered; a file is missing or invalid

have no idea what it means

[Bob Smith]

It is stand alone - if you are missing the VB runtime files, just google the file missing and download it and put it in the same folder as GRC for now. There is a zip on my site containing all the files needed which you could grab, but my site isn't back online yet (the webspace is up but the domain doesn't work yet). Will be up at somepoint tomorrow once I've finished uploading everything again.

[AleksejBASOwarrior]

I just want to say that I did not know for this program before, I download it few days ago, and its wunderfull.

Great job Bob Smith, and others!!!!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

[dontsimon]

Is there a more detailed explanation of how to make the most of this app? I've read the included pdf, so I understand what most things do, but I'm slightly confused as to how to make optimal use of the info.

For example I'd like to understand at what revs I should set each gear to give optimum acceleration / top speed etc for any particular car. Should I set the gear to change at the line for torque peak, or power peak. or rpm peak??

I'm sure this stuff is staring me right in the face, I'm just a bit thick :scratchch

Great App though Bob :thumb:

[Bob Smith]

Well tbh there's a fair amount of freedom involved, and it also depends what you want to achieve. I could sit down and talk to someone about adjusting gearing for a good 25 mins I reckon, so I'm never going to cover everything in a single post.

I have touched on it in the setup guide, but it's something I do need to explain in a bit more depth when I've more free time.

To actually make this post useful:
Calculation of the optimum shift point is automatic at the moment (well, unless you turn that off) and while worked great in S1, the broader spectrum of torque curves in S2 means it's not that accurate anymore - but at the moment it's best to leave it on, since it provides far more information that using fixed rpm (that way you can only see the drop between gears). Basically while accelerating you want to maximise torque at the wheels, which means stradling the rpm of peak power (e.g. shift at 750rpm above peak power, revs drop to 650rpm below peak power).

*The drop in rpm should get smaller with each gear change, I will add (configurable) auto gear spacing at some point soon.
* You want to be going past peak power rpm in top gear at the fastest point in the track, or acceleration around the track will be less than optimum. How far past peak power rpm depends on how close to the vehicles potential top speed you are reaching (e.g. UF1 at oval, you want to hit about 25rpm past peak power (or some other very low value), FZ5 at FE Club you want to nearly make the engine explode). I will also add auto-calculation of that at some point.
* Make first gear as tall as possible but so the engine doesn't bog down during starts - however this doesn't always allow 2nd gear to be short enough to give good punch out of slow corners (without being too similar in length), so experiment.

Is that enough to start with? More questions, just fire away.

[dontsimon]

Thank you Bob. Very good, helpful info :)

Calculation of the optimum shift point is automatic at the moment (well, unless you turn that off)

Where / how is this option enabled?? Do you mean the gear change indicator in the car? Or is this something within your app? Like the RPM numbers turning blue and red for example?

[Bob Smith]

The idea is, that GRC picks the rpm to shift up at, and should do at the same point that the red light comes on in LFS. However, it's not spot on anymore, so I'll have to fix that. For instance, make two gears very close to one another, and it will say shift up at peak power rpm + 1%, make them very spaced apart, it could be more like peak power rpm + 10%.

To see the difference in turning it off, go to Tools, Options, Misc, Rev Calculation, Custom Fixed, and enter a number.

[dontsimon]

Ah right, so the 'Engine Speed - Before' RPM is the optimum shift point??

So the speed column relates to the speed at that optimum shift point? Or the max speed possible in that gear???

[Bob Smith]

1. Correct. Likewise "engine speed - after", is what the engine rpm drops to after the shift.

2. Speed at the (optimum*) shift point.

*not actually optimum (as explained in previous posts)

[Bob Smith]

In response to this thread (http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=10018) (which is now locked)

There is no uninstaller for GRC, nor LFS, so please, GRC will not harm your computer. If it confuses you, read the documentation! If it still confuses you, tough. :)

[Bob Smith]

Just to make it official, development of GRC2 is now officially over, halted, stopped, dead, never to continue, etc.

But it's not all doom and gloom, since the code base is the basis for my next adventure, Project3, so GRC2 will live on in spirit. More details on the new project later.

Also a kind Polish gentleman has also created and emailed me a Polish translation of GRC2, I'll include that in zip of 2.5.3 for any Polish folks who aren't so fluent in English. :)

[AleksejBASOwarrior]

Just to make it official, development of GRC2 is now officially over, halted, stopped, dead, never to continue, etc.



:( Why that??

[Bob Smith]

Read the next line. ;)

Demo of GRC's replacement should be public this weekend. :)

[sharukh]

can demo racers use it to?:shrug:

[mcgas001]

Realy nice bump.... :really:

[MR_B]

rofl! This thread is actually showing signs of decomposition... sharukh is now our resident grave robber.

[AleksejBASOwarrior]

Read the next line. ;)

Demo of GRC's replacement should be public this weekend. :)

I dont know for others, but I prefer more older version... :shrug:

[Bob Smith]

sharukh - this app works with or without LFS installed, and does not care if you are licenced. It's not a mod. ;)

I dont know for others, but I prefer more older version... :shrug:
Why is that? Are you saying you preferred GRC to VHPA? :S?

And yeah, this thread didn't really need bumping.

[Eleanor SpeedGT]

Whats wrong with bumping?
If someone who bumps, but has question/good post, then why not?

I understand if people bump like that: lololololol.

[the_angry_angel]

Plus you could always lock it, if you didnt want it bumped :p