FSR08 Mod Comes Under Scrutiny
Recently it has become apparent that the .gmt files which are used by teams as a base for their team liveries has the ability to control the length of the wheelbase and wheeltrack of the supposedly controlled FSR cars. Significant testing has been done by members of the forums and while several drivers, including Bruno Marques, have said they can feel no difference, the telemetry disagrees with them showing that in a controlled test the cars are definitely different.
The whole problem springs from the fact that when creating team liveries graphic designers often use different car shapes as a base for their design, obviously if one team uses a Ferrari F12005 and another team uses a Torro Rosso STR2 significant differences will exist. In most cases this was never considered a problem as although the cars look different the overall physical properties of the chassis was defined by another file, the .HDV, which overwrote any differences in the chassis used by different teams, or so we thought.
FSR Management have been quick to investigate and repair this issue and in an email ISR Club President Roald Ruerink stated that an update would be posted soon which will repair the issue and force all cars to use the settings contained in the HDV file. WC driver Danny Davison who created an early unofficial fix for the issue has stated that the new wheelbase and wheeltrack settings will be taken from somewhere between the Mclaren and Williams chassis meaning no-one will have any advantage by continuing on the chassis which they have been using since the beginning of the season.
While FSR Management have handled the situation in terms of future racings, it remains to be seen what will be done about the inconsistencies in cars previous to the discovery of this problem.
From this image created by WS ADV driver Tom Eley we can see that of the chassis in this comparison the GhostSpeed Racing and Nocturne eSports cars have a significantly shorter wheelbase than those of Diamond Racing, Roaldo Racing and Crown Seven Da Silva. Without drawing comparison with every car in the field it is difficult to draw any significant conclusions as to whether any driver has gained a specific advantage from this inconsistency. Torrent Motorsports Team Principle Micheal Theis has iterated his concern and has said that the cars with shorter wheelbases definitely had an advantage due to the nature of the physics used in the FSR08 mod due to the lack of mechanical grip for low speed corners.
In an email from Dennis Hirrle Team Princple of Twister Racing I received this comment;
In a championship where real money is on the line in terms of sponsorship and team owner investments this kind of problem is very worrying especially for drivers who stand to lose very valuable WC points if these results are overturned.
Planet FSR has been in contact with several team principles and we hope to have a follow up article with their opinions on what should be done about the issue and how FSR can prevent problems like this arising in the future.
Update: While I was writing this article the Physics update was posted, well done to FSR Management for quickly repairing the problem so that people can continue with their testing.
The whole problem springs from the fact that when creating team liveries graphic designers often use different car shapes as a base for their design, obviously if one team uses a Ferrari F12005 and another team uses a Torro Rosso STR2 significant differences will exist. In most cases this was never considered a problem as although the cars look different the overall physical properties of the chassis was defined by another file, the .HDV, which overwrote any differences in the chassis used by different teams, or so we thought.
FSR Management have been quick to investigate and repair this issue and in an email ISR Club President Roald Ruerink stated that an update would be posted soon which will repair the issue and force all cars to use the settings contained in the HDV file. WC driver Danny Davison who created an early unofficial fix for the issue has stated that the new wheelbase and wheeltrack settings will be taken from somewhere between the Mclaren and Williams chassis meaning no-one will have any advantage by continuing on the chassis which they have been using since the beginning of the season.
While FSR Management have handled the situation in terms of future racings, it remains to be seen what will be done about the inconsistencies in cars previous to the discovery of this problem.
From this image created by WS ADV driver Tom Eley we can see that of the chassis in this comparison the GhostSpeed Racing and Nocturne eSports cars have a significantly shorter wheelbase than those of Diamond Racing, Roaldo Racing and Crown Seven Da Silva. Without drawing comparison with every car in the field it is difficult to draw any significant conclusions as to whether any driver has gained a specific advantage from this inconsistency. Torrent Motorsports Team Principle Micheal Theis has iterated his concern and has said that the cars with shorter wheelbases definitely had an advantage due to the nature of the physics used in the FSR08 mod due to the lack of mechanical grip for low speed corners.
In an email from Dennis Hirrle Team Princple of Twister Racing I received this comment;
Twister Racing has been critical in the past of Mod groups and their focus on creating car shapes and F1 team liveries over realism in terms of physics, sound effects and tracks and Dennis reiterates some of that criticism today placing some of the blame for this issue on MMG and the rushed nature of this year's FSR mod.“I think this issue is a bit unfortunate but I don’t think there is anyone to blame. The mod had to be done in very short time due to the modding group being quite careless with releasing carshapes, and there was no hint that there was going to be an issue like this. Neither did the modding group mention anything about it, so there was no obvious mistake in the mod. I’m glad this issue is resolved now, but I don’t think it will change a thing in terms of team performances as differences seemed to be only marginal. But of course it was necessary to apply the same physics to all cars.”
In a championship where real money is on the line in terms of sponsorship and team owner investments this kind of problem is very worrying especially for drivers who stand to lose very valuable WC points if these results are overturned.
Planet FSR has been in contact with several team principles and we hope to have a follow up article with their opinions on what should be done about the issue and how FSR can prevent problems like this arising in the future.
Update: While I was writing this article the Physics update was posted, well done to FSR Management for quickly repairing the problem so that people can continue with their testing.
This entry was posted by Murray Brundle, on
Wednesday, May 7, 2008.
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great article! I think it's important to fix but I doubt it has/will change anything in speed and results.
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