PS3

March 26 2018

Rationalisation

I spent some time yesterday dusting the AV corner in the lounge. There’s a fair amount of kit there and dust had built up. While doing that I realised that I don’t need the PS3 there anymore. I don’t play it. I had kept it lying around for GT6 in the days before GT Sport. Now the game is on the PS4. There are probably a few legacy games I will miss but I don’t have the time to play them!

This is a picture of the cabling I cleared out:

I decided I don’t need the Blu-Ray player connected to the LAN, nor the Amp. It’s likely I don’t need the Blu-Ray player there at all because of the PS4 but I’ll leave it there for another day.

March 7 2014March 11 2014

Willow Springs

This communication is about more research for my Poisson Distribution data, let’s see how long I can keep this going. For more information see this communication.

The next GT6 Seasonal Event to complete or participate in [there are some challenges where I have achieved a Silver Award but not quite the Gold, I might return to those] is to race the Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster 1960 at the Willow Springs Race Circuit in California, USA. Willow Springs is a new track to Gran Turismo and I’m not that keen on it. There are a couple of off camber and over-the-crest corners that make it pretty tricky along with most of the races on the track being rear wheel drive because it’s in the USA.

Aerial Shot:

This is a diagram of the circuit with the corners named:

Here’s a picture of the car:

Right, here’s some information about the car and laps. It turns out that I already owned this car and didn’t need to buy it, I can’t remember when I won it but at least that’s some money saved. Once into the set up section I upgraded the following parts, which improve the car’s handling but don’t affect the power or performance points:

Uprated the suspension to “racing hard” and fitted racing brakes
Fitted a 5-speed close ratio transmission unit
Fitted limited slip differential and racing flywheel
Fitted triple plate clutch, carbon fibre driveshaft

I also increased the power by adding or improving the following engine settings:

Racing ECR
Isometric exhaust system
Intake tuning
Sports catalytic converter

These items took my Performance Points over the allowable limit and so I limited the engine output to 94.4%.

The lap times required were:

1:42:00 Bronze
1:36:00 Silver
1:33:00 Gold

My lap progress was as follows:

Lap 1 – off at turn 5.
Lap 2 – off at turn 3.
Lap 3 – 1:37:360 Bronze level achieved.
Lap 4 – off at Castrol Corner, outside of exit, too fast on entrance and understeer pushed car out.
Lap 5 – spun, lost control of rear at Budweiser Balcony.
Lap 6 – spun off at Castrol Corner, too much power on exit [restart entire lap rather than finish this one].
Lap 7 – off at turn 9 before I had even started the lap.
Lap 8 – 1:35:311 Silver Award.
Lap 9 – 1:33:889.
Lap 10 – off at Castrol Corner.

Bought the fully customisable transmission and changed the gear ratios to meet the top speed more efficiently.

Lap 11 – off at Castrol Corner.
Lap 12 – 1:43:338.
Lap 13 – 1:32:960 Gold Award Achieved.

Job Done.

Glory Shot:

December 19 2013March 11 2014

One Of My Favourites

Ever since I raced this car in Gran Turismo I have always started the game with the Honda Integra Type R as my first car. I love it. Here’s my latest one from GT6 [just after a car wash]

I seem to remember one game in the series where I had to get a Civic Type R initially but soon bought my Integra.

December 11 2013December 11 2013

Not Sensible

Made a coffee earlier and also needed to get into my “race seat” [a sofa and Logitech Driving Force GT Wheel].
Placed my coffee on the steering wheel stand which is not sensible given the way the wheel calibrates itself and checks the force feedback systems!
Luckily I didn’t get covered!

March 1 2013March 11 2014

Wow, A Castle!

This morning I might have been having a cheeky couple of laps on Gran Turismo 5. I was possibly attempting to win one of the seasonal events (which for some reason I find quite tricky).
While racing around the GT Original track I noticed a castle in the background. I was so fascinated by this that for a few laps I couldn’t really concentrate on the track. The castle is a rather good looking building and really adds to the atmosphere. Sometimes I wonder whether game designers have bets about the most ludicrous things they can add!

Screen #1:

Screen #2

These two screen grabs were taken using the LG remote app on my iPhone that has a capture function!

February 10 2013March 11 2014

Is That It?

After playing for a long time I have finally got to 900 cars in my Gran Turismo 5 garage. This represents a large amount of effort and time playing. Also, the process for buying cars in the dealership is laborious and boring.
All I get for reaching nine HUNDRED cars is a bonus colour and car horn! I don’t even customise my cars with these.
Some money or game points would have been rather better!

February 1 2013February 1 2013

Simulview and Dual Play

Simulview is Sony’s buzzword for displaying two player images on a 3D television so that each player sees only their screen. Essentially the shutters on the active glasses activate at the same time rather than alternately and so P1 sees only his/her image and P2 sees their image only. This is quite cool and displays (I assume) a 1080p picture to each player.
Downside: This only works on the Playstation Monitor.

DualPlay is the technology that LG have introduced to try and allow two players to see their own picture full screen. It has taken me four days to figure out how to get this to work (which is slightly embarrassing). DualPlay uses passive glasses with P1 having a left/left combination and P2 having a right/right combination. The standard two player screen (up/down or left/right split) is then stretched over the whole screen. This will work with most games with that picture split.
Downside: Aspect ratio issues.

I haven’t yet tried this on my TV but will soon. I am quite excited about it but also worried about the aspect ratio change. Nice of LG to think of gamers though.

August 15 2012March 11 2014

GT5 Set-up

Here’s a picture of my Gran Turismo set up. There’s a big tv with home cinema 7.1 sound and my music playing using GT5’s jukebox function (shame it doesn’t run from a NAS drive though). Anyway, here’s my Logitech (their stuff is brilliant) Driving Force Pro wheel attached to the force feedback stabiliser (ironing board).

March 21 2012March 11 2014

Gran Tursimo 5 Cars

The recent seasonal events on Gran Turismo 5 have made me need a selection of good cars at different PP (performance points). Gran Turismo applies Performance Points to each car so that you can race cars of similar performance and know that you are evenly matched. I have selected, not very carefully, the following cars for the indicated PP. I have learned that it is best to have as much power as possible and to increase the ballast to counteract the power increase.

For the 400PP races my car of choice is a BMW Mini of all things! But it works well and thrashes the opponents.

A 500PP race gets me heading to my Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione ’91 for a non-race car. If I need a race car then I seek out my RE Amemiya AsparaDrink RX7 ’06.

A 600PP race and it’s the McClaren F1 ’94. Soemtimes I might use the Ford GT LM Race Car SPec II, you know, just for kicks!

For a 700PP race I turn to my beloved Mazda 787B. It’s a gorgeous car and was one of my favourites in a previous incarnation of Gran Turismo.

October 3 2011October 13 2011

Death of the PS3

So it happened again. My re-conditioned 60Gb PS3 from Sony has died. We were watching Wall-E on blu-ray and we got about 2 minutes into the film when:
Pvvvvvvvvvvvvv
The Ps3 turned off and the red light just flashed. The unit is still under warranty and so will be replaced with another re-conditioned 60Gb model, which is good because that is a classic model.
WW ~~agreed I can~~ suggested that I buy a brand new PS3 as well. So Amazon had a great deal on a 320Gb version bundled with a game and blu-ray movie. So until it arrives I am in limbo.
I managed to get the GT5 game save file copied when I tried turning on the PS3 to check it was FUBAR.
Updates later.

Tues 3 Oct
New 320Gb PS3 arrived with Resistance 3 and a blu-ray film. Plugged in and now vertical next to AV amp. Looks very nice. I have noticed though that the disc grabbing motor is much noisier than the old version, the disc reader motor makes a bit of noise and the buttons are real buttons rather than touch sensitive. However, the fan noise is much quieter and so much preferable.
Firmware update completed and GT5 save file copied after a bit of hassle. I’d been saving game files on a SD card because the 60Gb has lots of lovely memory card slots. Had to transfer the files to a USB memory stick using my PC before I could get them onto the new PS3.

Weds 4 Oct
Installed lots of the extra GT5 files onto the PS3 to reduce load times. That took about 40 minutes. Planing to install every game I’ve bought from the store over next few weeks as I now have the space for them. Also looking forward to DLC for GT5 by end of October.
PS3 stand arrived so I don’t have to worry about it falling over. It’s much thinner than the old version and so less stable. Now have a few more USB ports and some snazzy blue LED lights if I want to impress WW.
Old reconditioned 60Gb now taken and on its way to console heaven. Just waiting for the return of the next one.

Fri 7 Oct
New old PS3 delivered. Sony have kindly replaced my recondition PS3 with another (although it was within warranty). I have not yet checked it works as I need to be free of children to do it. New PS3 is wired in so this 60Gb will have to wait until half term.

Tues 11 Oct
GT5 version 2 download released and so very excited. Just waiting for DLC.

July 28 2011August 22 2011

This is probably the definition of irony.
Decided to cancel my Continuous Play PS3 insurance policy. Although it was only £5 a month I had been paying it for a few years and could have bought another PS3 with that amount of money in that time. The issue is that I have a 60Gb Fat PS3 and the specification is so good I don’t want to lose it. I bought a few SACDs when they were released and the PS3 is the only thing that will play them since I upgraded my amplifier. So, 11am I phoned the insurance company and cancelled my policy with them.
I started playing on the PS3 and actually had it doing some GT5 B-Spec races while I was watching TV. Later on while my baby son was sleeping I thought I would have a go at a Japanese GT race at the Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit. I was doing really well and catching first place at about 3 seconds a lap with 2 laps to go and a gap of 4 seconds. This was going to be a fun last lap.
BLANK. The TV picture died, I could hear the HDD and fan of the PS3 running down and playing the sounds of death. Suddenly there’s a red light flashing on the PS3. I google, as is the modern way, and it turns out to be bad. OK, no panic. Surely everything will be ok.
Phoned the insurance company: Yes, my cover is still valid and yes they will stop my cancellation order.
Phoned PlayStation support: Yes, you are covered and we’ll send a reconditioned unit to you tomorrow.
Result: I am now playing GT5 (managed to get the save file) and loving it still. Won the GT race and now, as I type the PS3 is racing a B-Spec race for me but rather badly.
Hopefully, that is the end of the story.