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:

AV Kit
AV Kit

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.

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:

Willow-Springs-Aerial

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

Willow-Springs-Diagram

Here’s a picture of the car:

Gran Turismo 6 XNR Ghia

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:

Gran Turismo 6

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]

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

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!

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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:

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Screen #2

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

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!

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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.

Attention To Detail

Just so you people know how good GT5 is here’s a changelog for the latest update:

  • The [Tire/Fuel Consumption] settings under [Event Settings] of the Online Lounge can now be set in four levels; “None”, “Normal”, “Fast”, and “Very Fast”.
  • The view during 3D display has been improved.
  • The speed of tire wear varied too greatly depending on the vehicle in some cases, and this has been balanced.
  • Improved the scoring method in drift trials to prevent cheating
  • The maximum RPM of the Honda Weider HSV-010 (SUPER GT) ’11 has been changed to 10300rpm. The engine sound has also been improved.
  • Fixed an issue where enemy cars were hitting the pit entrance wall when pitting in at the Twin Ring Motegi Road Course East.
  • Fixed an issue where fuel was not being consumed when entering an endurance race with a Prius, or when setting tires and fuel to be consumed in the online lounge. Affected cars: Toyota Prius G ’02, Toyota Prius G ’09, Toyota Prius G Touring Selection ’03, Toyota Prius Touring Car.
  • Fixed an issue where the online control characteristics differed from the offline characteristics.
  • That’s why I think GT is one of the best game series ever and why I love it. Just a shame I haven’t played for about 3 weeks! Too busy. Need to be a student again!

    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).

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    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.