Advanced Setup Guide - Revision history

MandulAA: /* Stiffness */

2024-06-06T15:23:49Z

Stiffness

MandulAA: /* Maximum per wheel & Brake balance (rear-front bias) */

2024-06-06T15:16:37Z

Maximum per wheel & Brake balance (rear-front bias)

MandulAA: /* Stiffness */

2024-06-06T15:14:37Z

Stiffness

MandulAA: /* Ride Height Reduction */

2024-06-06T15:12:27Z

Ride Height Reduction

MandulAA: /* Brakes */ created a horizontal gallery, it is much more useful for visual comparison of all 5 example images

2024-06-06T15:10:18Z

Brakes: created a horizontal gallery, it is much more useful for visual comparison of all 5 example images

MandulAA: /* Max per wheel & rear-front bias */

2024-06-06T15:05:29Z

Max per wheel & rear-front bias

MandulAA: /* Brakes */ smaller brake thumbs, so they do not overflow into the next section. (maybe the use of a horizontal gallery would be helpful?)

2024-06-06T14:51:18Z

Brakes: smaller brake thumbs, so they do not overflow into the next section. (maybe the use of a horizontal gallery would be helpful?)

MandulAA: /* Bump & Rebound Damping */

2024-04-30T13:17:30Z

Bump & Rebound Damping

MandulAA: /* Max per wheel & rear-front bias */

2024-02-12T12:08:27Z

Max per wheel & rear-front bias

MandulAA: /* Introduction */

2024-02-12T12:07:59Z

Introduction

@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 {{steps
 |Part 1: Suspension frequencies
-<p>Stiffness is relative to the weight of the vehicle, so rather than tuning by stiffness you should be tuning spring frequency. Yes, that catches most people out, so don’t worry. A higher spring stiffness gives a higher frequency, and vice versa. While lower frequencies allow the tyre to stay in contact with the road as much as possible (and hence maximum grip), they also allow more body roll (which reduces maximum grip due to tyres being load sensitive). High frequencies do the exact opposite.
+<p>Stiffness is relative to the weight of the vehicle, so rather than tuning by stiffness you should be tuning spring frequency. Yes, that catches most people out, so don’t worry. A higher spring stiffness gives a higher frequency, and vice versa. While lower frequencies allow the tyre to stay in contact with the road as much as possible (and hence maximum grip), they also allow more body roll (which reduces maximum grip due to tyres being load sensitive). High frequencies do the exact opposite.</p>
-So obviously there is an optimum point in spring frequency – in real life this is known to be around 1.9-2.2Hz for cars around 1 tonne in mass (typical for GT racing cars). That doesn’t automatically mean these frequencies are best for LFS, however. As the weight increases this optimum frequency decreases and vice versa. Since the heaviest car in the game clocks the scales at just over 1.2 tonnes, 2Hz should still be a good point to start from and I wouldn’t recommend dipping much lower. For lighter cars, this optimum point may reach as high as 3Hz, although I wouldn’t recommend going quite that high for any road car in LFS. It’s best to experiment as see what feels best for you. Formula 1 cars are known to use anything in the range of 4 to 8Hz, but there are more reasons for that which I will explain in part 3.
+<p>So obviously there is an optimum point in spring frequency – in real life this is known to be around 1.9-2.2Hz for cars around 1 tonne in mass (typical for GT racing cars). That doesn’t automatically mean these frequencies are best for LFS, however. As the weight increases this optimum frequency decreases and vice versa. Since the heaviest car in the game clocks the scales at just over 1.2 tonnes, 2Hz should still be a good point to start from and I wouldn’t recommend dipping much lower. For lighter cars, this optimum point may reach as high as 3Hz, although I wouldn’t recommend going quite that high for any road car in LFS. It’s best to experiment as see what feels best for you. Formula 1 cars are known to use anything in the range of 4 to 8Hz, but there are more reasons for that which I will explain in part 3.</p>
-A quick note about creating rallycross setups: you want these to be softer, say between 1.7 to 1.9Hz, with plenty of ride height. This is to allow the tyre to follow all the bumps in the track, and can also be attributed to the softer nature of dirt.
+<p>A quick note about creating rallycross setups: you want these to be softer, say between 1.7 to 1.9Hz, with plenty of ride height. This is to allow the tyre to follow all the bumps in the track, and can also be attributed to the softer nature of dirt.</p>
-So where can you find out the suspension frequency? Colcob’s Setup Analyser would show you these figures, but that is only for v0.3 and hasn’t been yet updated for the latest version at the time of writing. It is possible to update that analyser manually by feeding in the appropriate S2 car data, however.
+<p>So where can you find out the suspension frequency? Colcob’s Setup Analyser would show you these figures, but that is only for v0.3 and hasn’t been yet updated for the latest version at the time of writing. It is possible to update that analyser manually by feeding in the appropriate S2 car data, however.</p>
-Another effect of changing the spring frequency is how it affects the handling. Higher frequencies make the car more responsive to steering input although setting them too high will make the car nervous. Lower frequencies, although making the car less responsive, helps make the car more chuckable (i.e. you can throw it into corners and it won’t mind so much) but going to low will make the car wallow and you won’t be in complete control. So clearly there is a range or useful frequencies to use, and somewhere in the middle of it all there is a sweet spot – though where it is also depends on the driver.</p>
+<p>Another effect of changing the spring frequency is how it affects the handling. Higher frequencies make the car more responsive to steering input although setting them too high will make the car nervous. Lower frequencies, although making the car less responsive, helps make the car more chuckable (i.e. you can throw it into corners and it won’t mind so much) but going to low will make the car wallow and you won’t be in complete control. So clearly there is a range or useful frequencies to use, and somewhere in the middle of it all there is a sweet spot – though where it is also depends on the driver.</p>
 |Part 2: Car balance
-<p>The second thing you can do with suspension is alter the balance of the car – which comes in very handy. While at first it may seem that equal frequencies will give neutral handling, this is only the case if the track widths are equal. If the front track width is wider than the rear (as is usually the case), neutrality is found with a slightly higher spring frequency at the rear. Since all real race cars are RWD, it is normally acceptable to use a rear frequency 0.15 to 0.25Hz lower than on the front as this will introduce some basic understeer. It is best to use as little as possible though because due to the nature of slip angles on tyres, a slight amount of oversteer is fastest. The better your throttle control and counter steering abilities, the less understeer / more oversteer you can get away with. For FWD cars you’d want the rear harder than the front by around this amount (or the front softer than the rear – depending how you look at it). If you were trying to make the car more neutral then reduce the difference in frequencies (this isn’t the only setting that affects car balance however (in fact most settings do really), though one of the two main ways, the other being antiroll).
+<p>The second thing you can do with suspension is alter the balance of the car – which comes in very handy. While at first it may seem that equal frequencies will give neutral handling, this is only the case if the track widths are equal. If the front track width is wider than the rear (as is usually the case), neutrality is found with a slightly higher spring frequency at the rear. Since all real race cars are RWD, it is normally acceptable to use a rear frequency 0.15 to 0.25Hz lower than on the front as this will introduce some basic understeer. It is best to use as little as possible though because due to the nature of slip angles on tyres, a slight amount of oversteer is fastest. The better your throttle control and counter steering abilities, the less understeer / more oversteer you can get away with. For FWD cars you’d want the rear harder than the front by around this amount (or the front softer than the rear – depending how you look at it). If you were trying to make the car more neutral then reduce the difference in frequencies (this isn’t the only setting that affects car balance however (in fact most settings do really), though one of the two main ways, the other being antiroll).</p>
-I wouldn’t recommend making the difference in frequencies greater than 0.4 or 0.5Hz though – if the car still isn’t handling like you want then either some other settings need changing or maybe your style of driving (but that’s not the purpose of this guide).</p>
+<p>I wouldn’t recommend making the difference in frequencies greater than 0.4 or 0.5Hz though – if the car still isn’t handling like you want then either some other settings need changing or maybe your style of driving (but that’s not the purpose of this guide).</p>
 |Part 3: The downforce twist
-<p>Unfortunately just when you think something seems relatively simple, something else comes and complicates matters. In this case that thing is downforce. With downforce, as your speed increases you are getting air to push the car onto the ground, which is great for grip as you get more force sticking the tyre to the ground without the nasty side-effect of having to haul more weight around. Of course as speed increases there is more force being exerted onto the springs, so the ride height will be reduced (and most likely, it won’t be reduced equally front and rear, so the car pitch changes also). And of course changing ride height alters the camber of the wheels, making it harder to get camber perfect for both high and low speed corners.
+<p>Unfortunately just when you think something seems relatively simple, something else comes and complicates matters. In this case that thing is downforce. With downforce, as your speed increases you are getting air to push the car onto the ground, which is great for grip as you get more force sticking the tyre to the ground without the nasty side-effect of having to haul more weight around. Of course as speed increases there is more force being exerted onto the springs, so the ride height will be reduced (and most likely, it won’t be reduced equally front and rear, so the car pitch changes also). And of course changing ride height alters the camber of the wheels, making it harder to get camber perfect for both high and low speed corners.</p>
-Note that downforce does not actually affect spring frequencies (contrary to what older versions of the guide stated – these were incorrect), and thus does not affect damping either.
+<p>Note that downforce does not actually affect spring frequencies (contrary to what older versions of the guide stated – these were incorrect), and thus does not affect damping either.</p>
-This brings me back to the Formula 1 car comment and why they use such high spring frequencies. The first reason is of course they run with huge amounts of downforce, to such an affect that most of the force holding the car to the road is from downforce rather than the weight of the car. Though this does mean the car could drive upside down (say, on the underside of a bridge) which could make for some wacky racing. Getting back to the point, why do cars with downforce need to run stiffer suspension? This is due to the issues I previously mentioned, e.g. changing of ride height, pitch (which in turn affects downforce) and camber. Stiffer suspension means these properties change less as the car goes around the circuit, making it easier to setup. Also downforce is only created when air is travelling over the car in the correct direction. So high slip angles would mean a loss of downforce and for this reason tyres with low optimum slip angles are used. This also means that the cars are going to snap when traction is lost, so higher spring frequencies are used since their benefits (increased car control) are present but their downsides (worse handling over the limit) no longer really matter.
+<p>This brings me back to the Formula 1 car comment and why they use such high spring frequencies. The first reason is of course they run with huge amounts of downforce, to such an affect that most of the force holding the car to the road is from downforce rather than the weight of the car. Though this does mean the car could drive upside down (say, on the underside of a bridge) which could make for some wacky racing. Getting back to the point, why do cars with downforce need to run stiffer suspension? This is due to the issues I previously mentioned, e.g. changing of ride height, pitch (which in turn affects downforce) and camber. Stiffer suspension means these properties change less as the car goes around the circuit, making it easier to setup. Also downforce is only created when air is travelling over the car in the correct direction. So high slip angles would mean a loss of downforce and for this reason tyres with low optimum slip angles are used. This also means that the cars are going to snap when traction is lost, so higher spring frequencies are used since their benefits (increased car control) are present but their downsides (worse handling over the limit) no longer really matter.</p>
-Another reason F1 cars use such high frequencies (and very little suspension travel) is that, unlike GT racing for instance, they use soft tyres with fairly tall side walls. It is the give in the side walls that softens the impacts and cushions the driver and allows him to still see clearly (having the suspension frequency too high would otherwise impair the vision of the driver over non-flat surfaces).</p>}}
+<p>Another reason F1 cars use such high frequencies (and very little suspension travel) is that, unlike GT racing for instance, they use soft tyres with fairly tall side walls. It is the give in the side walls that softens the impacts and cushions the driver and allows him to still see clearly (having the suspension frequency too high would otherwise impair the vision of the driver over non-flat surfaces).</p>}}
 === Bump & Rebound Damping ===

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 <gallery mode=packed heights=200px>
-Brake2.jpg|Example 1 Brake balance set too high
+Brake2.jpg|Example 1: Brake balance set too high
-Brake4.jpg|Example 2 Brake balance set too low
+Brake4.jpg|Example 2: Brake balance set too low
-Brake3.jpg|Example 3 Too much force
+Brake3.jpg|Example 3: Too much force
-Brake5.jpg|Example 4 Nearly perfect
+Brake5.jpg|Example 4: Nearly perfect
-Brake1.jpg|Example 5 Controlled
+Brake1.jpg|Example 5: Controlled
 </gallery>

@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
 A) This is simply how stiff the spring is – a stiffer spring compresses less under load compared to a softer spring, and vice versa.
-Q) '''How do I tune it?'''
+Q) '''How do I tune it?''' A)
-A) Part 1: Suspension frequencies<br>
-Stiffness is relative to the weight of the vehicle, so rather than tuning by stiffness you should be tuning spring frequency. Yes, that catches most people out, so don’t worry. A higher spring stiffness gives a higher frequency, and vice versa. While lower frequencies allow the tyre to stay in contact with the road as much as possible (and hence maximum grip), they also allow more body roll (which reduces maximum grip due to tyres being load sensitive). High frequencies do the exact opposite.
+{{steps
 So obviously there is an optimum point in spring frequency – in real life this is known to be around 1.9-2.2Hz for cars around 1 tonne in mass (typical for GT racing cars). That doesn’t automatically mean these frequencies are best for LFS, however. As the weight increases this optimum frequency decreases and vice versa. Since the heaviest car in the game clocks the scales at just over 1.2 tonnes, 2Hz should still be a good point to start from and I wouldn’t recommend dipping much lower. For lighter cars, this optimum point may reach as high as 3Hz, although I wouldn’t recommend going quite that high for any road car in LFS. It’s best to experiment as see what feels best for you. Formula 1 cars are known to use anything in the range of 4 to 8Hz, but there are more reasons for that which I will explain in part 3.
@@ Line 84: / Line 86: @@
 So where can you find out the suspension frequency? Colcob’s Setup Analyser would show you these figures, but that is only for v0.3 and hasn’t been yet updated for the latest version at the time of writing. It is possible to update that analyser manually by feeding in the appropriate S2 car data, however.
-Another effect of changing the spring frequency is how it affects the handling. Higher frequencies make the car more responsive to steering input although setting them too high will make the car nervous. Lower frequencies, although making the car less responsive, helps make the car more chuckable (i.e. you can throw it into corners and it won’t mind so much) but going to low will make the car wallow and you won’t be in complete control. So clearly there is a range or useful frequencies to use, and somewhere in the middle of it all there is a sweet spot – though where it is also depends on the driver.
+Another effect of changing the spring frequency is how it affects the handling. Higher frequencies make the car more responsive to steering input although setting them too high will make the car nervous. Lower frequencies, although making the car less responsive, helps make the car more chuckable (i.e. you can throw it into corners and it won’t mind so much) but going to low will make the car wallow and you won’t be in complete control. So clearly there is a range or useful frequencies to use, and somewhere in the middle of it all there is a sweet spot – though where it is also depends on the driver.</p>
-Part 2: Car balance<br>
+|Part 2: Car balance
-The second thing you can do with suspension is alter the balance of the car – which comes in very handy. While at first it may seem that equal frequencies will give neutral handling, this is only the case if the track widths are equal. If the front track width is wider than the rear (as is usually the case), neutrality is found with a slightly higher spring frequency at the rear. Since all real race cars are RWD, it is normally acceptable to use a rear frequency 0.15 to 0.25Hz lower than on the front as this will introduce some basic understeer. It is best to use as little as possible though because due to the nature of slip angles on tyres, a slight amount of oversteer is fastest. The better your throttle control and counter steering abilities, the less understeer / more oversteer you can get away with. For FWD cars you’d want the rear harder than the front by around this amount (or the front softer than the rear – depending how you look at it). If you were trying to make the car more neutral then reduce the difference in frequencies (this isn’t the only setting that affects car balance however (in fact most settings do really), though one of the two main ways, the other being antiroll).
+<p>The second thing you can do with suspension is alter the balance of the car – which comes in very handy. While at first it may seem that equal frequencies will give neutral handling, this is only the case if the track widths are equal. If the front track width is wider than the rear (as is usually the case), neutrality is found with a slightly higher spring frequency at the rear. Since all real race cars are RWD, it is normally acceptable to use a rear frequency 0.15 to 0.25Hz lower than on the front as this will introduce some basic understeer. It is best to use as little as possible though because due to the nature of slip angles on tyres, a slight amount of oversteer is fastest. The better your throttle control and counter steering abilities, the less understeer / more oversteer you can get away with. For FWD cars you’d want the rear harder than the front by around this amount (or the front softer than the rear – depending how you look at it). If you were trying to make the car more neutral then reduce the difference in frequencies (this isn’t the only setting that affects car balance however (in fact most settings do really), though one of the two main ways, the other being antiroll).
-I wouldn’t recommend making the difference in frequencies greater than 0.4 or 0.5Hz though – if the car still isn’t handling like you want then either some other settings need changing or maybe your style of driving (but that’s not the purpose of this guide).
+I wouldn’t recommend making the difference in frequencies greater than 0.4 or 0.5Hz though – if the car still isn’t handling like you want then either some other settings need changing or maybe your style of driving (but that’s not the purpose of this guide).</p>
-Part 3: The downforce twist<br>
+|Part 3: The downforce twist
-Unfortunately just when you think something seems relatively simple, something else comes and complicates matters. In this case that thing is downforce. With downforce, as your speed increases you are getting air to push the car onto the ground, which is great for grip as you get more force sticking the tyre to the ground without the nasty side-effect of having to haul more weight around. Of course as speed increases there is more force being exerted onto the springs, so the ride height will be reduced (and most likely, it won’t be reduced equally front and rear, so the car pitch changes also). And of course changing ride height alters the camber of the wheels, making it harder to get camber perfect for both high and low speed corners.
+<p>Unfortunately just when you think something seems relatively simple, something else comes and complicates matters. In this case that thing is downforce. With downforce, as your speed increases you are getting air to push the car onto the ground, which is great for grip as you get more force sticking the tyre to the ground without the nasty side-effect of having to haul more weight around. Of course as speed increases there is more force being exerted onto the springs, so the ride height will be reduced (and most likely, it won’t be reduced equally front and rear, so the car pitch changes also). And of course changing ride height alters the camber of the wheels, making it harder to get camber perfect for both high and low speed corners.
 Note that downforce does not actually affect spring frequencies (contrary to what older versions of the guide stated – these were incorrect), and thus does not affect damping either.
@@ Line 98: / Line 100: @@
 This brings me back to the Formula 1 car comment and why they use such high spring frequencies. The first reason is of course they run with huge amounts of downforce, to such an affect that most of the force holding the car to the road is from downforce rather than the weight of the car. Though this does mean the car could drive upside down (say, on the underside of a bridge) which could make for some wacky racing. Getting back to the point, why do cars with downforce need to run stiffer suspension? This is due to the issues I previously mentioned, e.g. changing of ride height, pitch (which in turn affects downforce) and camber. Stiffer suspension means these properties change less as the car goes around the circuit, making it easier to setup. Also downforce is only created when air is travelling over the car in the correct direction. So high slip angles would mean a loss of downforce and for this reason tyres with low optimum slip angles are used. This also means that the cars are going to snap when traction is lost, so higher spring frequencies are used since their benefits (increased car control) are present but their downsides (worse handling over the limit) no longer really matter.
-Another reason F1 cars use such high frequencies (and very little suspension travel) is that, unlike GT racing for instance, they use soft tyres with fairly tall side walls. It is the give in the side walls that softens the impacts and cushions the driver and allows him to still see clearly (having the suspension frequency too high would otherwise impair the vision of the driver over non-flat surfaces).
+Another reason F1 cars use such high frequencies (and very little suspension travel) is that, unlike GT racing for instance, they use soft tyres with fairly tall side walls. It is the give in the side walls that softens the impacts and cushions the driver and allows him to still see clearly (having the suspension frequency too high would otherwise impair the vision of the driver over non-flat surfaces).</p>}}
 === Bump & Rebound Damping ===

←Older revision		Revision as of 15:12, 6 June 2024
Line 62:		Line 62:

	Q) '''How do I tune it?'''<br>		Q) '''How do I tune it?'''<br>
−
	A) This is best to set last out of all the suspension options. To get an idea, if you put all your suspension details in the Suspension Analyser and go to the “Suspension Loads and Travel” section, you can see how much travel you have left. Unused travel is making the car unnecessarily high, which raises the centre of gravity, therefore increasing weight transfer and lowering maximum available grip. However don’t forget to set the G forces before lowering/raising your car. See how much is left under both maximum lateral and maximum longitudinal G forces – you should not run out of travel at any point (NB: apply maximum lateral and maximum longitudinal forces one at a time). If you run out of suspension travel during racing you will hit the bump stops, which can cause unpredictable handling, and if hit hard enough, will damage your suspension. When I say maximum G forces, these depend on the car and the tyre choice see the G force tables in the appendixes.		A) This is best to set last out of all the suspension options. To get an idea, if you put all your suspension details in the Suspension Analyser and go to the “Suspension Loads and Travel” section, you can see how much travel you have left. Unused travel is making the car unnecessarily high, which raises the centre of gravity, therefore increasing weight transfer and lowering maximum available grip. However don’t forget to set the G forces before lowering/raising your car. See how much is left under both maximum lateral and maximum longitudinal G forces – you should not run out of travel at any point (NB: apply maximum lateral and maximum longitudinal forces one at a time). If you run out of suspension travel during racing you will hit the bump stops, which can cause unpredictable handling, and if hit hard enough, will damage your suspension. When I say maximum G forces, these depend on the car and the tyre choice see the G force tables in the appendixes.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 == Brakes ==
 An essential part of racing is not just going forwards quickly, but slowing down quickly and in the shortest distance possible. Thankfully there are only a couple of adjustments necessary, meaning it    should be relatively quick and simple to get your brakes sorted, especially since the settings in the default setups are usually very good.
@@ Line 24: / Line 19: @@
 ''NB: These screenshots are from v0.3 but there are no differences for the purposes of these explanations.''
 '''Example 1:''' Brake balance set too high<br>
 Here the front wheels have locked, while the rear wheels aren’t helping you slow down much. With the steered wheels locked you are unable to change direction, so the car will plough on in a straight line. Locked wheels will heat up the contact patch of the tyre very quickly, and overheated tyres loose grip rapidly. Big lockups will also cause the tyre to become flat spotted.
@@ Line 50: / Line 52: @@
 There is one more twist to the brake settings story: hills. Circuits, by their nature, go round – so if you go up a hill at some point you are also going to go back down it. The more hilly the track, the more likely it is that you will end up having to brake on an incline. When braking going downhill, more weight is on the front wheels so they can take more brake force before locking and of course this means less weight is on the rear wheels so they are likely to lock, with all the nasty side effects involved. So the front-rear bias would need to be shifted slightly to the front (a higher number). Braking uphill is just the opposite, so the bias would need to be more rearward (lower). Of course, the angle of gradient you are braking on is unlikely to be fixed before every corner on any given circuit, so a compromise is needed. You can never have the brakes perfect for every corner unless the circuit is always flat, so the only way to find what compromise suits your driving best is to experiment.
-Remember to keep using the forces view ({{key press|F}}) to help when adjusting settings. (''NB: you may find it useful to drive without forces, save the replay and watch it in forces view, rather than trying to drive like that.'')
+Remember to keep using the forces view ({{key press|F}}) to help when adjusting settings. ''NB: you may find it useful to drive without forces, save the replay and watch it in forces view, rather than trying to drive like that.''
 == Suspension ==

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 An essential part of racing is not just going forwards quickly, but slowing down quickly and in the shortest distance possible. Thankfully there are only a couple of adjustments necessary, meaning it    should be relatively quick and simple to get your brakes sorted, especially since the settings in the default setups are usually very good.
-=== Max per wheel & rear-front bias ===
+=== Maximum per wheel & Brake balance (rear-front bias) ===
 Q) '''What do they do?'''<br>
-A) Basically Max per wheel is how strong your brakes are when the brake pedal is fully depressed, while rearfront bias controls how the brake strength is split between the front and rear wheels (a setting of 0% means only the rear wheels are braked, 100% means only the front wheels are braked, while 50% means the front and rear wheels are braked equally). Note that the brakes are only adjustable between 5% and 95%, so two of the examples I just gave aren’t actually possible in game. The brakes in LFS appear to not have kneepoints, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
+A) Basically max. per wheel is how strong your brakes are when the brake pedal is fully depressed, while rear-front bias controls how the brake strength is split between the front and rear wheels (a setting of 0% means only the rear wheels are braked, 100% means only the front wheels are braked, while 50% means the front and rear wheels are braked equally). Note that the brakes are only adjustable between 5% and 95%, so two of the examples I just gave aren’t actually possible in game. The brakes in LFS appear to not have kneepoints, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
 Q) '''How do I tune them?'''<br>
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 There is one more twist to the brake settings story: hills. Circuits, by their nature, go round – so if you go up a hill at some point you are also going to go back down it. The more hilly the track, the more likely it is that you will end up having to brake on an incline. When braking going downhill, more weight is on the front wheels so they can take more brake force before locking and of course this means less weight is on the rear wheels so they are likely to lock, with all the nasty side effects involved. So the front-rear bias would need to be shifted slightly to the front (a higher number). Braking uphill is just the opposite, so the bias would need to be more rearward (lower). Of course, the angle of gradient you are braking on is unlikely to be fixed before every corner on any given circuit, so a compromise is needed. You can never have the brakes perfect for every corner unless the circuit is always flat, so the only way to find what compromise suits your driving best is to experiment.
-Remember to keep using the forces view to help when adjusting settings.
+Remember to keep using the forces view ({{key press|F}}) to help when adjusting settings. (''NB: you may find it useful to drive without forces, save the replay and watch it in forces view, rather than trying to drive like that.'')
 == Suspension ==

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 == Brakes ==
-[[image:Brake2.jpg|thumb|Example 1 Brake balance set too high]]
+[[image:Brake2.jpg|thumb|200px|Example 1 Brake balance set too high]]
-[[image:Brake4.jpg|thumb|Example 2 Brake balance set too low]]
+[[image:Brake4.jpg|thumb|200px|Example 2 Brake balance set too low]]
-[[image:Brake3.jpg|thumb|Example 3 Too much force]]
+[[image:Brake3.jpg|thumb|200px|Example 3 Too much force]]
-[[image:Brake5.jpg|thumb|Example 4 Nearly perfect]]
+[[image:Brake5.jpg|thumb|200px|Example 4 Nearly perfect]]
-[[image:Brake1.jpg|thumb|Example 5 Controlled]]
+[[image:Brake1.jpg|thumb|200px|Example 5 Controlled]]
 An essential part of racing is not just going forwards quickly, but slowing down quickly and in the shortest distance possible. Thankfully there are only a couple of adjustments necessary, meaning it    should be relatively quick and simple to get your brakes sorted, especially since the settings in the default setups are usually very good.

@@ Line 121: / Line 121: @@
 Q) '''How do I tune them?'''
 A) Thankfully you can get a very good idea of what settings to run very easily. If you open up the Suspension Analyser file for the car you are looking to tune and enter your front and rear suspension stiffness into it, the spreadsheet can calculate what is known as the critical damping. The critical damping is the strength of the rebound damping needed to stop suspension movement the quickest after motion has started. Some diagrams may help the explanation.
 [[image:sus3.gif]]
-The picture below shows the affect of having the rebound damping set to low. The purple line is critical damping and the green line is underdamped. You can see that the critically damped spring has settled to its resting position before the underdamped spring has. This means that the critically damped suspension has dealt with and recovered from any bumps as fast as possible.
+The picture below shows overdamping (again critically damped spring is represented by the purple line and the overdamped spring by the green line). When there damping is set too high, again the spring takes longer to settle to its resting position.
 [[image:sus4.gif]]
 However it is known that the optimum rebound damping is to be around 80% of the critical damping and the suspension analyser handily takes this into account. So for a baseline figure, just set the rebound damping so that “optimum damping” is displayed.

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 == Introduction ==
-This is an advanced setup guide, by that I mean I won’t be skimming the surface but will be going into lots of detail (where required), so there’s plenty to read here. I’ll try to explain what each setting does so you have an idea of what you are actually adjusting, as well as how to adjust the setting to either its optimum (in terms of lap times) or what best suits your driving style (and ability). I will do my best to explain things clearly, though certain aspects are quite technical and there isn’t really a nontechie way of explaining things. If you are confused by anything, take a deep breath and try rereading the paragraph from the start. If you are still unsure of what I’m saying, feel free to contact me and I will try to explain it better. It could be a good idea to get some idea of the setup options and be used to fiddling with them a little before reading. Chances are you’ve tried anyway.
+This is an advanced setup guide, by that I mean I won’t be skimming the surface but will be going into lots of detail (where required), so there’s plenty to read here. For an introduction to racing physics, see [[Basic Setup Guide]] instead. I’ll try to explain what each setting does so you have an idea of what you are actually adjusting, as well as how to adjust the setting to either its optimum (in terms of lap times) or what best suits your driving style (and ability). I will do my best to explain things clearly, though certain aspects are quite technical and there isn’t really a nontechie way of explaining things. If you are confused by anything, take a deep breath and try rereading the paragraph from the start. If you are still unsure of what I’m saying, feel free to contact me and I will try to explain it better. It could be a good idea to get some idea of the setup options and be used to fiddling with them a little before reading. Chances are you’ve tried anyway.
 If you spot anything that is incorrect, or know a better way of explaining anything, please let me know: bobsmith@xenocracy.plus.com