Modelling tires in rFactor

This is an idea I've been throwing around in my head lately, whereby characteristics are designed for individual tire compounds, and then transferred to different tire sizes.

Parameters in the TBC file like Heating and WearRate maintain what the average is around the full circumference of the tire. The heating parameter controls the effect of rolling and friction on the average temperature all the way around the tire, and the same applies to wear rate.

But tires of different measurements will have different surface areas. More rubber mass on the tire, more mass to heat up, and more mass to shave off when wearing the tire down. So, a larger tire of our compound will wear down slower and heat up slower than a tire of the same compound but smaller size, right?

Cover systems in video games

Cover systems are typically met with mixed responses. The video games industry seems to love them, while audiences meet them with mixed feelings. Chances are if you've played an action game lately, you'll have played one where there's a context sensitive button to hide behind some object. A lot of people seem to find it frustrating, asking whether it was worth having in the first place. I personally think so, and to see why, we need to take a broader look!

Suspension Diagrams - Workings

I'm gonna discuss how my Suspension Diagram program works in this post. Brace yourself for maths!

Suspension diagrams

In my venture to learn more about vehicle dynamics, and apply that knowledge to racing simulators, I found the need for some fairly intimate analysis of the cars. The characteristics of the suspension are affected by a lot of things. For instance, in an Endurance Series DBR9, the default front spring rate of 245n/mm translates to a 'wheel rate' of 133n/mm when measured at the wheel. This is due to various factors in the suspension geometry. I figured this would be helpful to understand on a car-by-car basis, so I'm working on a program to draw diagrams of the suspension geometry on these cars. Read on for more info.

Alien Swarm & Formations

I think I've been playing too much Alien Swarm. Since it's release 2-3 days ago, I've got 22 hours of gameplay, according to Steam. Doing my best to get all the achievements. Note the progress through the campaign on insane difficulty, which has proven to be the most enjoyable thing I've done in the game so far. It certainly isn't easy though, we've had to be really strict with our strategies. Which hopefully will help anyone else who's trying to do the same thing.