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Review
NASCAR SimRacing - Part 2
SimHQ presents a week-long
series on one of the most important simulations ever produced
for the Motorsports genre. In Part 2 of SimHQ's NASCAR SimRacing
Review we will look at car handling, damage modeling and controllers.
by Chunx
and Jens
"McGonigle" Lindblad
Introduction
Like
a good NASCAR race, things are heating up as we progress in
our review of EA Sport's NASCAR
SimRacing. Yesterday
we focused on the "eye candy", the game's view system,
and sound quality. In today's installment we'll be kicking
the excitement up a notch as we look at NSR's Physics and
AI features.
Handling
 Physics
Without
a good, realistic physics model, all you have is a cheesy
arcade racer instead of a rewarding racing simulation. Of
course, you have to keep in mind that no simulation's physics
model is "perfect." Ask any military pilot or professional
driver, and they'll tell you that their multi million dollar
simulators don't "feel" like the real thing. A simulation
is only a model of reality, and models can only emulate a
handful of life's infinite variables. So, when it comes to
physics modeling in a simulation, you have to recognize your
limitations and "pick your poison" as to which variables
you are going to simulate and which you'll leave out.
With NSR, you have a very different
approach to car handling than you did with the "NASCAR
Racing" series of simulations. In some respects the physics
convey a more realistic "feel", and in some respects
they don't.
Tires are the way our cars stay in
contact with the road surface. Our chassis set up is simply
designed to keep the tires as "stuck" to the pavement
as possible. So, as goes the tire modeling, so goes the physics
modeling. In NSR, Chunx noticed no significant difference
in the traction level of the tires as they heated up in the
early laps of a test session or race. It might be there, but
it's so subtle you can't tell, and that means you don't have
to drive the car with a more delicate hand for the first few
laps before the tires heat up, which diminishes the challenge.
However, your lap times do come down as you heat up the tires
to normal operating temps (around 200° F), which happens
after about 3 or 4 laps. You can also tell as the tires wear
down that the car gets a little more push in handling, but
it doesn't seem to demand a more ginger application of throttle
or brake, so less driver technique is involved in going fast
over a long run.
 That
might or might not be realistic for a NASCAR stock car, but
it certainly means that individual driver skill will be a
much more subtle thing to behold in online races than with
other NASCAR titles, and there will be less punishment for
the driver that over-drives his car in the turns since the
tire wear won't impact the car's performance as much. But
it will result in a much shorter learning curve for new drivers,
which will probably serve to tighten up the racing and keep
more virtual drivers in the game rather than giving up altogether.
Because both Chunx and Jens noted
that the tire wear seemed to be less than expected, Jens initiated
a more in-depth test of the tire wear model at Martinsvillle.
The mission: To drive the tires to destruction. Upping the
tire wear factor to 6X, Jens managed to put in what equates
to 312 laps on one set of tires. Interestingly he found that
the only tire that degraded notably during the test was the
Left Front, which finally blew on the very last lap. The other
tires were worn by about one third.
A bit more than halfway through the
run Jens found the degradation of the left front tire only
caused him to start pushing his braking points further out,
slowing his lap times by only 1.3 sec. Since actual NASCAR
tires will last less than half the number of laps we tested
to (and degrade lap times by more than 1 sec at the end of
their life), our test indicates that the tire wear model in
NSR is somewhat optimistic when it comes to replicating actual
racing tire wear. For three of the tires to easily survive
what equates to 312 laps, while the degrading performance
of the left front tire could only be felt from lap 210 onwards,
indicates EA will need to do some updating to this code in
future patches.
One Aspect of NSR's physics model
that we enjoyed was the way upsetting a car's balance is modeled.
Touch the raised berm, put a tire off the banking at the inside
of a turn or get an off-center tap from a competitor and you'll
get extreme oversteer, but the onset rate for the oversteer
(yaw) is such that it can be corrected and recovered from
before your car spins out — if you catch it quickly enough.
To Chunx, this aspect of the physics model felt more correct
than in other sims, even though it is more forgiving. It also
looks more like the kind of car reactions that you seen on
TV. But make no mistake — if you find yourself having
to massively overcorrect to counter a spin and saving the
car, you won't be setting any lap records on that trip around
the track.
Chunx also liked the overall brake
and throttle response in NSR. You have a good deal of usable
travel in the brake pedal and throttle before you break the
tires loose, either in skid or spin, respectively. This feature
allows more finesse in how you use brake and throttle modulation
in a turn to keep the car's attitude optimized all the way
around. The feeling is that what you'll get when you ease
on the brakes or throttle will be a smoother and more predictable
reaction by the chassis, allowing you to better anticipate
the car's reaction to the forces you're putting on it. From
a physics standpoint, this all makes sense, since when you're
working the diagonal corners of the traction circle, where
turning and acceleration/deceleration forces coexist, you
cannot be at full throttle and at the lateral traction limit
of the tires simultaneously. With NSR, you get good feedback
as to how much more throttle or brake the tires will accept
while turning. Again, this makes the cars in NSR easier to
drive relative to other sims, but that's not necessarily a
detractor against the game.
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