I’ve recently discovered this game and have been putting quite a few hours in. I’ve been wondering, though, with all the precision adjustments available, the cam and ignition timing being simple 0-100 sliders seems a little out of place. Is it possible we might see individual sliders for cam rise and duration in mms and ignition advance and maximum advance point in degrees/rpm respectively?
Manually adjustable mixture and VVT/L curves would be cool too, but, I imagine, probably much more difficult to implement.
Oh? Where’s that in the FAQ, I don’t really see anything pertinent? I wouldn’t have thought adding those extra 2 sliders would make the game too complicated for casual players, considering the level of detail in other settings, but it’d definitely help players better understand what they’re doing.
Hell, if adding sliders is seen as a no-no (Not that I agree with that assessment, but regardless), why not at least give us the actual information about timing and lift? At the moment, all I know is I have a mystery amount of timing, and then I turn a vaguely named slider to a different number, and have a mystery amount more timing.
This has bugged me about cam and ignition since the beginning in the game. I completely get trying to simplify things for the non-car person, truly I do. But that doesn’t mean you can’t at least provide information to those of us who want it.
Quite simple reason for that: it’s a parameterization, not a simulation. That means there are no actual timing or cam values to be shown in the first place, they would have to be made up.
Quite simple reason for that: it’s a parameterization, not a simulation. That means there are no actual timing or cam values to be shown in the first place, they would have to be made up.
That really surprises me! I would have thought the engine data would be based on physical calculations. Did you guys come up with generalized functions for how different cam/ignition/mixture/etc. properties effect engine performance?
Yes, it is not realistic, but believable to a point that it all seems very realistic and the results it produces are very accurate, too! That is the beauty of a well-parameterized system, it is relatively simple and easy to tune to a point where it closely resembles the real world. Engines are FAR too complex to accurately simulate. You need super computers for that
Out of curiosity, how much similarity do your parametrized calculations bear to the engineering equations we use to design real engines? Obviously, you’d have to add fudge-factors to account for imperfection and heat-loss since real engines aren’t perfect thermodynamic systems and you can’t perform experiments for each tiny variation on engines players can create, but do you use standard equations for bearing stresses and heating, valve airflow, combustion cycles, etc. or is it all emulative?
It is a lot simpler than using simplified formulae from engineering even basically it is a “torque per liter” number that advances over the years and gets pushed and pulled by the various systems, friction, “resonances”, etc. It is all based on as simple equations and values as possible, together forming a very efficient way of “faking” engine metrics to the point that they are highly realistic in their outcome. Cheers!
and the results it produces are very accurate, too! That is the beauty of a well-parameterized system, it is relatively simple and easy to tune to a point where it closely resembles the real world. Engines are FAR too complex to accurately simulate. You need super computers for that