Category Archives: gaming

Prost’s 1988 McLaren F1 @Algarve = 01:27:594

This is a 01:27:594 lap around the Algarve track, racing Alain Prost’s 1988 F1 McLaren. As I write, the lap record is only 11 seconds faster, in a F1 2020 car.

From 2020-10-23 to 2020-10-25, the Formula 1 Championship is at a new racing circuit, where F1 cars have never raced before: the “Autódromo Internacional do Algarve”, in Portimão, Algarve, Portugal. F1 never officially raced, but did test there, in the past.

In a season so competitively poor and lacking dispute for the wins, the interest is beyond the podium. Tracks like Algarve’s are a very welcome addition to the calendar, not just because they are new, but mainly because they are different: in this case, the layout brings variance in the Z-axis. Cars go up and down, frequently! Corners are blinder and wider than usual, allowing and even inviting alternative trajectories, enabling a human-factor not so evident in other locations. I am enjoying it! It is unique and F1 needs variables that can contribute to less predictable race results.

I decided to try it myself, racing Alain Prost’s 1988 McLaren F1.
I have also upped my simulator’s resolution, from 2560×1600 to 3440×1440. The wider ratio is more immersive. I changed for productivity reasons, not expecting gaming benefits, but they are there.

Here is a video of a 01:27:594 (minutes:seconds:milliseconds) lap, using rFactor 2. Contrary to many, I never found the sound of this car’s Honda engine particularly enjoyable or spectacular. In-car, the noise is too regular, providing relatively poor acoustic queues for when to shift gears, up or down. Modern F1 cars literally beep the drivers when it is time to up-shift. This car also had no speed limiter and no driver-assists, and that is good.
I find the McLaren heavy, high down-force, trustable. That is its key positive attribute: it is predictable – after a short time, you know how it will behave, except when on the limit on old tires, when it becomes less clear how the tire wear will condition outcomes.
I dislike the slow gearbox and there is nothing the driver can do, to compensate it: the setup only allows different gear ratios.

Regarding the track itself, it is ever-changing in altitude, and challenging to the left-front tire under braking, because there are two right-corners which require heavy braking while not in a straight line.

The video has two segments: the first ~90 seconds are captured from in-car, exactly as seen, when playing. The second half is footage from the “TV” camera. Enjoy!

Ferrari F1 1968 @Algarve, Portugal : 01:51:9xx

If there is anything good in the current F1 2020 championship, is the new circuits, namely the “Autodromo Dino e Enzo Ferrari” (Italy), the “Autodromo Internacional do Algarve” (Portugal), and the “Intercity Istanbul Park” (Turkey).

Novelty is much needed. F1 has never been so full of young drivers, yet smelling of old déjà vu winners. Or winner, singular, such as been the boring, uncontested for tooooo long, dominance of Lewis Hamilton.

The wonderful Turkish track is a return, but it was missing from the official F1 calendar for so many years, that it feels like a debut. The Ferrari circuit is also no stranger to F1 (red) cars. In a way, the Portuguese track will be the completely new event.

I raced the Ferrari F1 1968 car around the Algarve track, in the RFactor 2 game. With no aids (no traction control, no braking assistance, no stability control), these 1968 cars are nearly impossible to control. They can be “driven” but never pushed to their real top performance levels, unless at least a bit of traction control is set on the game.

The 01:51:9xx lap that I am sharing, contrary to my usual, does use that bit of traction control (the minimum level). I could not approach the A.I. cars without such help. Even with TC on, I was 2 seconds adrift the top computer cars. If I was optimistic, I would say that if I practiced enough, I could null the difference in a few hours, but I value first impressions and my impression was that, with these cars and A.I. at 101%, TC is the only way to make the challenge feasible.

This left me wondering how hard these cars really were. I felt the Ferrari too nervous: not only small throttle inputs are enough to destabilize it out of control, but also small direction corrections can easily overcompensate and make the driver lose the car.

The video I am sharing lasts for more than the time of my recorded full lap (01:51:9xx), because it includes the start of a failed second attempt and a TV perspective of the whole event. I beached the Ferrari very early on the second lap, because of an unexpected car response out of a turn.

My very first RDD2 session, raw and uncut

When I was younger, I played a lot more: I played a lot more outside and inside the house. Playing inside the house meant and still means, to me, playing videogames.

Although there may be contemporary excuses for less outside playing, is it hard to argument unsurmountable obstacles preventing me from playing more on the PC. I am just bad at , unable to commit to wiser choices for myself.

Gaming usually is a mentally healthy choice! It provides escapism, detoxing. I feel rewarded when I am PC playing and I am sorry I do not do it as often as I used to, and should do.

Still, on 10 August, I finally managed to do a good thing and play “Red Dead Redemption 2” (RDD2), which I had bought nearly 1 year before, only to leave it abandoned on my Steam library. I recorded this very first RDD2 session on its raw entirety, including my struggles with the game settings, defining keys, feeling and discovering the game mechanics, and doing plenty of errors in the first mission, including terrible options, story wise.

The game is quite a cinematic experience. Games of this caliber are art and action. It was a very nice hour! Not stunningly great, but very nice. Amazingly, I felt more excited in the other century, walking by pixelated corridors in the ZX Spectrum. May be if total realism is ever achieved, gaming will become indistinct from reality, and will be gaming no more?

Here is my full, uncut, raw and ridiculous RDD2 session @ https://youtu.be/x9WI6UMIpIU

F1 1968 @Portland, USA

Modern F1 is probably facing its most serious existential crisis: the sport remains a formidable engineering laboratory, but the racing on track – or the perception of it – leaves much to be desired.

Seasoned viewers should be able to appreciate the underlying technology, and enjoy the constant showoff of amazing numbers, namely 200 kph to 300 kph in ~2 seconds, unbelievable short braking distances, body challenging G forces, and so on. F1, for example, is now the reference in applied IoT (Internet of Things), with hundreds of addressable sensors per car.

Yet, casual viewers, not knowing or not caring about the technology, and with no understanding of the history of the sport, will have no references, and see nothing but a small set of 20 cars going around boring wide tracks, designed for safety, difficult to capture on video, conveying a decent sense of speed.

The fact is that the “relative speed” of F1 is eventually at its lowest ever: cars might be regularly exceeding the once magical 300 kph mark, but 300 kph at an “airfield” is like 12 kph on a treadmill. Moreover, the understanding that the cars are safer to crash than ever, creates the perverse collateral effect of undervaluing the drivers’ effort: in the past, one mistake would literally break or kill you, so overwhelming respect was due to those daring to ride their fallible temperamental machines. After Senna’s death, in 1994, F1 changed enormously in terms of safety. The early 1990s cars were the last
machines to constantly challenge the drivers’ physical integrity, and even then, less than in the 1980s, the 1970s, and certainly the crazy 1960s.

I remember the day Jacques Laffite (JL) broke both his legs in what seemed like a slow accident: his car steered to the right, at the first corner of a chaotic first lap, to avoid other cars in trouble. His Ligier left the asphalt, and then just skidded “slowly” over the zero grip grass, until its “nose” hit the barriers. The absolute speed of the car upon the impact must have been “low” (~50 kph), but the car’s construction offered nearly no protection to the feet and legs. JL’s F1 career ended that afternoon.

Imagine higher speeds and even less modern cars, namely the machines from the 1960s and from the 1970s! Every event was a bit of a “circus”, such were the life threatening risks looming. Yet the “rewards”, for example measured in exhilaration and/or adrenaline, shared by both racers and spectators (which were crazy daring, placing themselves in unacceptable spots), is something unparalleled.

Today, somewhat bored with the F1 2020 cars, I decided to exercise my arms and legs, by virtually racing the “Matra” from the 1968 F1 season. I did some laps around the “new” Portland circuit, USA, a track for rFactor2, released this July. It was formidable! What a challenge! The Matra is a noisy, nervous, powerful car, capable of ~275 kph in such a short circuit! My best lap was a 01:14:8xx, half a second slower than the best adversary.
In real life, with this car, I imagine, if you put a wheel wrong, you will hurt yourself – instantaneously and seriously. The Matra is agile, nervous, very fast, but unstable. It accelerates much better than it can decelerate or turn, so be careful with what you request it to do!
The video that follows has two segments: first it captures my best 01:14:8xx lap, from the in-car camera (footage taken while I was driving the lap), then it features two other laps, from the “TV” camera perspective.

Enjoy and try it yourself. The “Portland” track and the 1968 F1 cars are both free.

F1 2020 at the Estoril circuit

This is a 01:14:xxx lap around the current (2020) layout of the “Estoril” circuit, @Portugal, Europe. The car is Esteban Ocon’s 2020 Renault F1, using “RFactor2” – the simulator selected for the first ever official “24 hours of Le Mans Virtual” (check https://www.studio-397.com/2020/06/celebrating-24h-lmv/).

Relatively to the layout that hosted real Formula1 / F1 races in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the key changes are at turn #1 – now a ~90 degrees corner, instead of a pedal-to-the-metal right – and, by the end of the lap, at what was called “curva do tanque”, which also became slower, but not as slow as in the horrible version, used for some races, following Senna’s death, when there was a literal stop-and-go “S” segment.

This is an unprepared lap, done just to test the 2020 F1 cars and the circuit. For now, the cars sound bad and have much to improve in terms of credibility – I full-throttled the Renault at the exit of several slow corners and indeed got some wheel spin, but it was too easy to control. Nevertheless, a promising first version of these cars.

The video has four segments: from in-car, then two different from-halo angles, finally one lateral perspective.

Oh, the violence! Nordschleife under 310 seconds! (IN CAR)

This is a 05:09:9xx (5 minutes, 10 seconds) lap around the challenging Nordschleife track, in its most faithful digital laser scanned version, using the superb “rFactor 2” simulator, driving Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F1 2004.
I do these laps just for fun, and as a form of physical exercise. To achieve these relatively fast times, one has to commit, mind and body! This particular lap was intense, hard, and great fun. Extremely demanding action, for 5+ straight minutes.

Recently (May 2020), the Nordschleife track has become my testing playground. I have now tested Prost’s McLaren F1 1986, Montoya’s Williams F1 2004, and now Schumacher’s Ferrari F1 2004, always improving. Next on list is Grosjean’s Lotus F1 2012.

Oh, the violence! Nordschleife under 310 seconds! (TV CAM)

This is a 05:09:9xx (5 minutes, 10 seconds) lap around the challenging Nordschleife track, in its most faithful digital laser scanned version, using the superb “rFactor 2” simulator, driving Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F1 2004.
I do these laps just for fun, and as a form of physical exercise. To achieve these relatively fast times, one has to commit, mind and body! This particular lap was intense, hard, and great fun. Extremely demanding action, for 5+ straight minutes.

Recently (May 2020), the Nordschleife track has become my testing playground. I have now tested Prost’s McLaren F1 1986, Montoya’s Williams F1 2004, and now Schumacher’s Ferrari F1 2004, always improving. Next on list is Grosjean’s Lotus F1 2012.

Nordschleife under 5 minutes is getting nearer – Juan Pablo Montoya, William BMW F1 2004

This is a 05:12:xxx lap around the 20+ KM long Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Juan Pablo Montoya’s 2004 William BMW F1 car.

This lap is 46 seconds faster (!!) than the one I did on Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fe6Q7qaXTo). This translates to a progress of ~2.5 seconds per year, in the 18 years of rules and technology changes that separate both cars.

The 2004 Williams BMW F1 seemed easier to drive than the 1986 McLaren, which has sudden bursts of power and requires a very firm hand on any acceleration. The older car also produces less downforce and cannot handle corners with the impetuosity of the Williams, demanding an intelligent preparation of any corner.

The 2004 Williams is greater fun! With my current setup, it is ~30 kph faster on the long straight. It can brake later and, more importantly, it does not immediately spin around, when subject to extreme – and bordering carelessness – direction changes. Overall, it tolerates a violent lap and it rewards the player with considerable brain and body stimulus. After a few minutes of trying to push this car, one gets tense, awaken and sweaty! True physical exercise. I adore it!

This time of 05:12:xxx can surely be improved, but not by much. I doubt that I can make this car go sub 5 minutes, but I will try.

Montoya vs Schumacher, Nordschleife, Williams BMW F1 2004

During my attempts to perform a great lap around the Nordschleife 20+ KM track, racing the 2004 Williams BMW F1 car – which would culminate in a spectacular 05:12:xxx achievement as captured on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vReEBXMRxU
-, there was one situation where the other Williams BMW, driven by Ralph Schumacher on the 2004 F1 season, got on the way and did not play clean at all.
I managed to record the ~1 minute long sequence of “friction” between the cars, until a successful overtake finally happened.

Nordschleife under 6 minutes – Alain Prost, McLaren F1 1986 (TV cam)

This is a sub 6 minutes (05:58:xxx) lap around the famous Nordschleife track, @Germany, running Alain Prost’s 1986 McLaren F1 car. Not easy at all! With no driver assists, these cars, real or simulated, are known for their very challenging handling, with sudden bursts of turbo power and an overall mass lighter than modern (2020) F1 cars.

It was so difficult (for me) and enjoyable to race this lap, that I recorded it from multiple cameras: the in-car perspective, the TV capture, a view from the car’s top structure, and a split-screen edit, featuring both the in-car and the TV records.

This is the TV camera video. Check my channel for the other perspectives.

Just enjoy and, if you ever get the chance to try it on rFactor 2 (PC), please do, and share it too!, because, at home, this is the closer one can get to the real thing. No other game approaches this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fe6Q7qaXTo

https://youtu.be/NMWQA3fdxPM – from in-car
https://youtu.be/0Fe6Q7qaXTo – from the TV camera
https://youtu.be/MAZ9iAcKs_0 – from the car’s top
https://youtu.be/RTnVyKRhGIw – split-screen edit