Secrets of GTR2

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Secrets of GTR2: Tips, tricks, resources, and other helpful information.

Secrets is a series of blog posts I started with Secrets of iRacing and which has grown to include Secrets of GTR2, Race 07, GT Legends, Project Cars 2, Automobilista, rFactor 2, and even hardware, including The SimXperience AccuForce Pro and SimuCube 2 Pro. The “secrets” part is a little dramatic but there are quite a few tips and tricks I think new users will find very valuable and interesting.

Update 2022-12-04: Added Modding section. Added Modding > How Tag Filters and Classes Tags Work section.

Update 20022-10-06: Added Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin section under the Minimum GTR2 section with download/install instructions and a features list. Reorganized some other sections under Game Settings section.

Update 2022-10-05: Added a new Minimum GTR2 section to outline what I feel are the minimum tweaks to bring GTR2 closer to a modern experience. Reorganized some things out of the Modernizing section to the new Minimum GTR2 section.

Older updates are archived at the bottom under the Updates section.

What is GTR2?

From the Wikipedia entry,

GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game is a sports car racing simulator developed by Blimey! Games and SimBin Studios (later Sector3 Studios) for the x86 PC and is a sequel to GTR. Since its release in September 2006, it has received widespread acclaim. The game simulates the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Championship racing series.

And here’s the official game trailer,

Why a game from 2006?

GTR2 was/is one of those rare occasions when a game developer is given the opportunity to produce a game as it was meant to be. All the features you see in one game or another but never all in one game these days was actually included in one game: GTR2. And it’s still being updated by modders 11 years on!

Here’s some links that may give you a better understanding of why a game from 2006 still holds its own in this day and age:

• GTR2: Why are Modern Sims Still Not as Good? [Article]
• GTR 2 – The Sim That Keeps On Giving [Video] – Jimmy Broadbent
• GTR 2 – This is what immersion feels like… [Video] – Jimmy Broadbent

Getting Started

Getting the Game

Steam is probably your best bet. Head over to the GTR2 store page and pick up the game. It’s pretty inexpensive but still offers good bang for the buck.

Initial Game Setup

Go ahead, setup your graphics, controls, and force feedback as you like. I don’t have any particular recommendations for the obvious in-game settings just yet. I will assume you’re like me and will play with all this stuff. This post will concern itself with stuff that isn’t immediately obvious.

Fixing Missing Original Content

Certain original content has been removed since the game was released, so head over here for a fix.

Hint: Install US/EU (as applicable) patch and then install No CD patch from files over at NoGripRacing.com. There’s a Digital Distribution patch but that didn’t work for my Steam installation. Just try the US/EU patch first.

Note: If you happen to do this step after running the 4GB Patch (below) then you’ll need to run the 4GB Patch again.

Community

Get involved and meet the community! There’s some great people to meet and opportunities to join leagues and to find special mods which are not always available to the general public.

• Race Department.com
• European Endurance Center
• F1 Classic Forums
• Trackaholics
• International Sim Racing
• eSport-Racing.de
• Sim Racing Mirror Zone
• Festbierbude (View English language with English flag icon at the top)
• Koelschbierbude.de (View English language with English flag icon at the top)

Minimum GTR2

This section outlines what I feel are the minimum tweaks to bring GTR2 closer to a modern experience.

These are not strictly necessary to enjoy a vanilla GTR2. You can try vanilla GTR2 and come back to this later.

Skip Intro Videos

These are always annoying, here’s how to stop them (from PC Gaming Wiki.com GTR2 article):

1. Open Windows Explorer and find your Steam Library folder for the game: steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\MovieFiles
2. Rename (or delete) these files: Intro.bik, GameIntro.bik, SimBin.bik

NVIDIA Profile Settings

Prerequisites:

• Ensure GTR2’s Video Options (GTR2Config.exe) has Full-Screen Antialiasing -> Disabled (Unchecked)

NVIDIA Control Panel:

• 3D Settings > Manage 3D Setting > Global Settings:
  • Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

NVIDIA Profile Inspector:

Download NVIDIA Inspector (always virus scan downloads at virustotal.com), run nvidiaInspector.exe, click the Start Profile Inspector button (right-middle), find GTR 2 in the Profiles drop-down, and then set and apply these settings:

• Reset to NVIDIA Profile Defaults
• Compatibility
  • Antialiasing compatibility: 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)
• Sync and Refresh
  • Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1
• Antialiasing
  • Antialiasing – Mode: Override any application setting
    • Disable in-game Antialiasing using GTR2Config.exe
  • Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS + 4x MS]
  • Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
• Texture Filtering
  • Anisotropic filtering mode: User-defined / Off
  • Anisotropic filtering setting: 16x
  • Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Clamp(*)
  • Texture filtering – Quality: High quality(*)
• Common
  • Ambient Occlusion setting: High quality(*)
  • Ambient Occlusion usage: Enabled(*)

*I couldn’t quickly visually confirm these were actually doing what they should be doing but left them enabled anyway

Caution: Antialiasing can decrease performance. Reduce the setting if it slows down GTR2 too much for you.

Force Feedback Settings

I highly recommend the SHO Competition FFB mod which crowd-sources wheel-specific FFB parameters and provides PLR files for popular wheels.

Click here to download SHO Competition FFB

This is a little bit obvious, we all go pretty quickly for setting up force feedback, but I felt the need to emphasize this because the default force feedback options are, I feel, not enough to bring GTR2’s force feedback closer to modern standards.

You will most likely have to edit your UserData PLR file to get the right feel of your force feedback.

The HQ Anniversary Patch provides new UI menus that give you access to more FFB tuning parameters than the default screens provided. They don’t provide access to the most important FFB tuning parameters, unfortunately. The only other method is, unfortunately, to edit the GTR2\UserData\User.PLR file.

So, for that reason, see the SHO Competition FFB mod linked above.

4GB Patch

You can allow GTR2 to use up to 4GB of memory (it was developed with a 2GB limit). You may find this necessary as you add more and more mods with new assets that take up more and more memory. So you might as well just do it now.

Simply download the 4GB Patch tool, run it, find your GTR2.exe file, and press OK. You’re done!

The 4GB patch appears to have successfully applied on the GTR2 NO CD patch GTR2.exe file I discussed above under the “Fixing Missing Original Content” heading.

Note: If you happen to overwrite your GTR2.exe file then you will need to run this again. For example, if you rerun the US/EU or NoCD patches mentioned earlier.

Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin

I consider Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin that it comes with to be part of the minimum tweaks to bring GTR2 up to a more modern and enjoyable experience.

*Requires Steam GTR2 or HQ Anniversary Patch compatibility options

Crew Chief brings a voice spotter which the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enables but the plugin also provides other great fixes and features like graphics flicker fixes, use-all-cores, borderless windowed mode, various crash case fixes, VR support, gearbox enhancements, and a lot more and a lot more coming from the sounds of it.

Click here for the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin homepage with the latest details.

See the full list of features below.

Download and Install

Click here to download from the Crew Chief homepage and it will come with the latest release of the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin. The download link is in the middle of the page (“Download CrewChief for PC”).

Install Crew Chief, run it, select GTR2 under the “Game” heading, and click Properties:

• Set “GTR 2 install path (text)” to your GTR2 folder path
  • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game” but yours might be different
• Set “GTR 2 launch exe (text)” to your GTR2.exe path and file name
  • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\GTR2.exe” but yours might be different

Then you just click the Start Crew Chief button when you want to use it with GTR2.

You’ll know it’s working if you hear a voice when you get into the cockpit.

Features

As of October 6, 2022, Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enable and feature:

• Crew Chief
  • Spotter with real voice call-outs for things like “car left/right”, time remaining, cars gaining from behind, etc. It’s extremely well done. Absolutely recommend downloading Crew Chief.
• GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
  • Spotter Implementation and some Accuracy Customization
  • VR Support
  • Customize Rules…
    • Customize various stock rules
    • Add DRS Rules
  • FFB changes…
    • Stationary Tyre Friction
    • Fix for losing FFB
    • Flat Spots
    • Dirt Pickup
  • Gearbox changes…
    • Lift-to-Shift
    • Antistall
    • Damage
    • Gear grinding on mis-shifts
  • Graphics changes…
    • Flicker fix
    • Borderless Windowed Mode (excellent implementation; feels native)
    • UI Squeeze for Triples and Ultrawide Screens
    • Wiper Animation
    • Backfire Effects
    • Improved Rain Reflection Quality
    • Improved Rain Reflection Performance
  • Motec changes…
    • Enhanced Motec (more information)
    • Additional Data Pages
    • Additional Data Page Unit Styles
  • Tire Enhancements: Separate Visual Tire Per Compound
  • DXVK Integration…
    • “DXVK implements DX9 by using Vulkan. On some hardware, when used with GTR2 it improves framerate (especially in VR), memory usage and image quality.”
    • DXVK “SGSSAA”
      • “GTR2 specific DXVK fork supports AA form that looks similar to SGSSAA”
  • Memory Usage Optimizations
  • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Physics
    • A new physics thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 400hz, 800hz, 1600hz, and 3200hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
  • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Inputs/FFB
    • A new Inputs/FFB thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 200hz, 400hz, 800hz, or 1600hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
  • Additional Fixes…
    • Always-on Fixes…
      • Various crash case fixes
      • Optimized Framerate, meory usage, and image quality (on some hardware)
      • Reduce Headlight/Shadow Flicker (introduced with Steam GTR2)
      • Fix Missing rF1 Plugin API Telemetry Data
      • Enable Championship/Driving School Page Icons
      • Disable Use of My Documents for Game User Profile
      • Applies Changeable Weather Patch by Jstn
      • Add New Control Bindings In-Game Under Controls->Extra (scroll to bottom to view them)
    • Automatic Use-All-Cores-or-Some-CPU-Cores Setting for Improved FPS
    • VR Lens Flare Effect adjustment
    • Motion System Mode
    • Per-Car Settings File for Modders (mostly)
    • Per-Track Settings File

Modernizing

GTR2 holds up remarkably well in the features department but shows its age in the level of quality we now expect of those features. Some things can be improved like textures, visual effects, sounds, even AI and new and improved cars and tracks, themselves.

HQ Anniversary Patch

HQ Anniverary Patch is the go-to drop-in mod to modernize GTR2 with just one mod.

Click here to download HQ Anniversary Patch and remember there are 2 parts to download (as of June 2022).

Here’s the mod description.

This GTR2 HQ Anniversary PATCH represents 6 years of work (nearly 20 000 FILES!) and includes all the necessary MODS/PATCHES for GTR2 plus tons of HQ textures. There are 2 games in 1, first the default 2003-2004 game with stock cars and tracks which get only few textures updates, second the HQ Cars&Tracks (with “HQ” prefix in menu) which get ALL the fixes/patches, more HQ textures plus exclusive graphics (both 2D/3D) : indeed, my will is to keep original game untouched to avoid online mismatch on internet and to see all the work done so far in this HQ Anniversary Patch when you compare both.

Go ahead and get it. Don’t even think twice. It’s that’s good. If you want to keep your vanilla install then just copy&paste your GTR2 folder, install the mod, then run GTR2.exe whenever you want, and then you’ll have both vanilla and HQ versions.

Custom Telemetry Overlays

Both SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays and the original XD Telemetry Overlays provide additional helpful HUD overlays that include things like Tyre Wear/Temps/Pressures, Leaderboard, and more.

Click here to download SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays (requires Steam GTR2.exe)

Click here to download XD Telemetry Overlays (requires non-Steam GTR2.exe or HQ Anniversary Patch fixed GTR2.exe)

Here’s some screenshots to illustrate (click to view full size):

And here’s a video to demonstrate SHO XD Style Telemetry Overlays:

Until recently, XD Telemetry Overlays was the de facto way to get tyre wear/temps/pressures and a leaderboard. It’s great and still provides exactly what you need but it also hasn’t been updated in a while, only provides a few overlays, and doesn’t work with the Steam GTR2.exe (not a problem if you use HQ Anniversary Patch which installs a compatible GTR2.exe).

The modern and up-to-date way to get add-on or custom overlays in sims is with SimHub. The SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays mod provides a collection of overlays reproducing the XD overlays, in the XD style, replacing original GTR2 HUD overlays, and adding new overlays.

Here’s a list of overlays included in SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays (as of June 2022):

• Awareness Left/Right/Rear
• Dash/Mini Dash/Mini Dash V(ertical)
• Delta Bar
• Lap Info
• Leaderboard
• Live Track Map
• Pedals
• Position Info
• Radar
• Relative Leaderboard
• Splits/RSplits Info
• Shift Light
• Status Info
• Tyres Temps/Pressures/Wear + Brake Temps + Oil/Water Temps

Repositioning Original XD Standings Box

Here’s an XD overlay tweak to the XD.INI file that repositions the Standings Box to top-left, to the right of the native Position dialog. This prevents the Standings Box from getting in the way of the rearview mirror. Here’s the tweak:  StandingsPosX=370 and StandingsPosY=0. To reduce the number of entries in the Standings Box, so it takes up less space, set StandingsPlayersVisible=7. I find this improves the layout and frees up the screen for where you really want to look while you’re racing.

Repositioning Original XD Tire Temps (Motec) Box

I found the default (automatic) position of the XD Tire Temps (Motec) box covered the flags (on 1920×1080) that show up from time to time so here’s a list of alternative positions for 1920×1080 resolution using the HQ Anniverary Patch Power & Glory 3 (PNG3) HUD – Use these as examples for how to move them when using different HUDs.

• PNG3 HUD: Top-left (covers flags), Scale=100, MotecPosX=auto (20?), MotecPosY=auto (50?)
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=100, MotecPosX=1670, MotecPosY=725
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=90, MotecPosX=1690, MotecPosY=700
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=80, MotecPosX=1720, MotecPosY=775
• PNG3 HUD: Center-left, Scale=80, MotecPosX=550, MotecPosY=870
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=100, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=670
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=90, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=695
• PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=80, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=720

Game Settings

Field of View

If you use HQ Anniversary Patch your FOVs will be updated for you, and you probably won’t need to change anything, but otherwise you can do so manually in the GTR2\UserData\defviews.cam file as described here.

GTR2’s default FOV (field of view) shows you a large amount of your cockpit but it’s not realistic and can be a disadvantage in terms of judging speed, distance, and general timing. You will almost certainly be faster with correct FOV because you’ll be better able to judge speed, distance and timing.

If you find you need to, tweak the field of view somewhat lower than default. You want your field of view to include your driver-side mirror and about half of your rear-view mirror.

The Project Immersion.com FOV calculator is a handy site to calculate your correct FOV from the size of your monitors and how far away you sit. The “vFOV%” value it calculates a factor which should applied against the default vFOV value in the GTR2\UserData\defviews.cam file:

For example, ProjectImmersion.com says my GTR2 vFOV% is 40% so that means I should change 62.0 to 40.0. I’ll probably adjust a little more as I get used to it. You’ll probably want to adjust your value, too.

Note! Select Race 07, GTR EVO (vFOV%) from the FOV Type drop-down for use with GTR2.

Wheel Rotation and Wheel Lock

You’re probably on 900degree+ wheel, like a G27, T300, ClubSport, or modern Direct Drive wheel, so when you get into the GTR2 GT-style cars it will feel like you’re driving a bus: You’ll feel like you need to turn the wheel more than should be needed to get the car to turn the right amount – This is a wheel rotation and wheel lock setting issue.

It’s probably best to set a 540degree wheel rotation in your wheel profiles for GTR2. Then, in-game, the default 15degree wheel lock will feel better, but if it doesn’t try 18-22 degree wheel lock, give or take a few degrees. Somewhere in that range will be a 540degree sweet spot.

GTR2’s native in-game wheel rotation is 240degrees. I now set my real wheel to 240degrees to experience the game as it was designed. This makes things like steering locks, virtual wheel rotation, and general handling feel much more in-sync and cohesive.

Controls and Hidden Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are some non-obvious controls and hidden keyboard shortcuts (also available at this Race Department post):

Cameras:

Insert: change onboard view with motec still working
Home: change view of the car in different angles arround it. (motec doesnt work)
Page Up : swing cam, view the car from the back or any side you want just by pressin in the numpad 8,2,4,6 for direction , 7 and 9 for distance , 5 to reset the swing cam angle (exactly behind the car). Also if in a replay dont want to se the car moving , keep pressed one of 7,9,2.
Please note that in replays motec and gauges won’t work.
Page Down : view the car from the track cameras
Delete : make disappear the “Replay” overlay and the time (seconds) references while watching a replay.
Up, Down, Right, Left(arrow) keys: when viewing a replay, these will rewind, fast-forward, superfast and pause the replay.
– or + (in numpad) to change the car in focus.
0 and . (in numpad) for slow and very slow motion in replay (press and hold one of them each time).
Numpad Enter : return the view to your own car.
Left Shift : switch view to bumper cam.

Pressing space bar will skip the “Grid walk” that the camera makes before the start of an offline race.

F keys – Driving Assists:

F1 – Steering
F2 – Braking
F3 – Stability
F4 – Spin Recovery
F5 – Damage On/Off
F6 – Automatic Shifting
F7 – Traction Control
F8 – Anti-lock brakes
F9 – Autoclutch On/Off

Misc:

F12 : screenshot, .BMP image file in the installation folder.
(you can also press PrintScreen but you have to open mspaint or some other image editor to see it)

Ctrl + F : show framerate in the game.
Ctrl + G : Play the game in slow motion, like slowing the time.
K : accelerates time in game.
TAB : display multiplayer names
ALT-F : resets the Force Feedback to default values. (note: this will revert any custom FFB settings you may have placed)

LMB (and drag mouse forward/backwards): adjusts the horizontal seat positioning in cockpit view.
RMB (and drag mouse forward/backwards): adjusts the vertical seat positioning in cockpit view.

CTRL + LMB (and drag mouse forward/backwards): decreases/increases the FOV (Field Of View) for all views.

Adding Game Cars, Tracks, Mods and More

Tip: Use VirusTotal.com when downloading files from the Internet to quickly and automatically scan a file with all (or at least most) of the anti-virus and anti-malware solutions out there.

Race Department.com is one of the best, cleanest, and most professional of the sim racing sites I know of that also host downloads section. I highly recommend registering for ~$3/month or ~$15/year for unlimited downloads and removing all ads, amongst a host of other perks.

The community sites, mentioned above, also have downloads and some might have downloads Race Department doesn’t have. So I recommend checking them out, as well.

Generally speaking, the process of adding cars, tracks, or mods usually just involves a download and then copy&pasting the files into your GTR2 folder. Usually, it’s pretty straight-forward, although sometimes authors don’t use a consistent folder structure and you may have to figure out where files go (ex. track mods often give you the files but not the folder structure – they should go in GTR2\GameData\Locations\FolderName).

Mod Highlights

Got a mod you want me to spotlight? Add a comment, tell me why you think it’s worth it, and I’ll try it out and write it up here!

I wanted to dedicate an area to all the fantastic and fantastically dedicated modders out there who have kept GTR2 alive since 2006. We appreciate you!

I’ve moved this section to a dedicated post as it was quite large and could expand indefinitely cluttering up all the tips and tricks here.

Click here for Secrets of GTR2 Mods

Force Feedback

SHO Competition FFB for GTR2

SHO Competition FFB for GTR2 is a mod that crowd-sources wheel-specific FFB parameters.

Click here for SHO Competition FFB for GTR2

Here are the wheels currently tuned (as of June 2022):

• AccuForce V1: User – AccuForce V1 by Shovas.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
• CSL Elite: User – CSL Elite by ToddMcDanger.PLR
• CSL DD: User – CSL DD by ToddMcDanger.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
• CSW 2.5: User – CSW 2.5 by Strenski.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
• Driving Force GT: User – Driving Force GT by BlackMarketBlood.PLR
• Fanatec DD1: User – Fanatec DD1 by The Iron Wolf.PLR
• G920: User – G920 by Jean-Paul Sarti.PLR
• Simucube 2 Pro: User – Simucube 2 Pro by Shovas.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
• T300: User – T300 by Paokkerkir.PLR
• TC-PC Racer: User – TC-PC Racer by Machiavelo.PLR
• Thrustmaster T-GT: User – Thrustmaster T-GT by WesBrook77

Guidelines for Tuning GTR2 Force Feedback

• Tune one FFB parameter at a time
• Do NOT use Vsync or Frame rate capping
  • Frame rate matters to GTR2 FFB. The FFB update loop is tied to the frame rate so a 50fps FFB experience will feel differently than a 100fps FFB experience. The more FPS you have the better FFB will feel.
• Change as little as possible to avoid variables throwing off your tuning
  • Save a race session and keep using it every time you exit and enter GTR2 after changing FFB parameters
  • Use the same track
  • Use the same car
  • Use the same setup – including things like tire types, pressures, etc.
• Certain effects play off each other:
  • Grip Weight vs Grip Factor
    • Reducing/Increasing Grip Weight can Reduce/Increase the Grip Factor effect so you may need to make an opposite adjustment to Grip Factor. The opposite can also happen: Changing Grip Factor might require a need to adjust Grip Weight.
• Use bi-section searching to tune FFB parameters to reliably dial in your settings and  help avoid bias and false leads.

Shovas Custom FFB Files (Obsolete)

Before I created SHO Competition FFB, for crowd-sourced wheel-specific FFB parameters, I published “Custom FFB Files”. I no longer recommend or support these as they have been far surpasssed by SHO Competition FFB.

Force Feedback Tweaking Guide for Simbin Games  by Julien Regnard

A helpful guide (plain text backup link) with a little bit better descriptions of FFB parameters in your PLR file.

Of special note in this file is the section at the end titled “3. Tweaking FFB parameters”. His baseline FFB PLR values are really educational and informative to experience and especially to use as a baseline to experiment with values one by one.

Please note, while I find the guide incredibly helpful, I find some of Julien’s advice counter-intuitive, at the least:

• Friction vs Damper:
  • Julien recommends a negative Friction “to be sure that the wheel moves fast when required by the car movements” but the point of friction to simulate some of the drag on the steering column. Negative friction defeats that purpose, so I’m left confused. Maybe this makes sense on older/lesser wheels but I just can’t see how this makes sense on modern wheels. I ended up at zero or small positive values for friction.

Helpful Guide for Advanced Force Feedback Tweaking

Check out this guide, Force Feedback Tweaking Guide for Simbin Games, for helpful descriptions and tips for advanced force feedback tweaking using the UserData PLR files.

Pro Tip: What do the FFB Effects Levels mean?
Low: Steering+Grip
Medium: Adds Friction+Damper+Rumble strips
High: Adds Brake vibration
Full: Adds Throttle vibration+Steering vibration

Rumble Strips Pushing/Pulling the Wrong Way

I noticed rumble strips were pulling me off track instead of tending to push me back on track. Luckily, I noticed an FFB setting:

Update 2017-11-10: I believe I was wrong about the feel of this. I now feel there’s some legitimate drag to larger, more raised kerbs (eg. at Spa) and some kerbs lift your rear tire enough to lose grip on the backend thus acting like sliding on the backend and feeling like being “pulled” off the track. Consider reducing Spring and/or Fast Bump/Rebound to deal with this. My Pull Factor FFB setting is now the default 1.5.

• FFB rumble strip pull factor=”-0.890625″ // How strongly wheel pulls right/left when running over a rumble strip. Suggested range: -1.5 to 1.5.
  • Looks like this should be negative: -1.50000
    • My bisection search: -1.5, -0.75, -1.125, -0.9375, -0.84375, -0.890625
  • Positive vs negative could be wheel dependent. So you’ll have to test to make sure.
  • You may want to tweak this value. It’s a little strong feeling for me.

The GTR2 Force Feedback Engineer

Inspired by the Project Cars 2 Race Engineer, which provides an in-game question and answer interface to solving car setup issues, I thought I’d document the same kind of thing for GTR2 from a Force Feedback perspective.

In GTR2, and probably most early SimBin titles, the most important Force Feedback tuning parameters are not exposed by in-game settings. These settings include Force Exponent, Grip Weight, Grip Factor, Friction Coefficient, and Damper Coefficient. You’ll need to edit your UserData\USER\ PLR file to change these settings.

Engineer: What’s the problem?

Driver: Well,

• I can’t tell when I’m losing grip. The wheel doesn’t go light enough when I’m losing grip.
  • Increase Grip Weight
    • Increases Grip forces, which decreases Steering forces at the same time, which increases wheel weight loss due to grip loss and can help you identify when grip has been lost because the wheel feels lighter.
• The wheel goes too light when I’m losing grip.
  • Decrease Grip Weight
    • Decreases Grip forces, which increases Steering forces at the same time, which reduces wheel weight loss due to grip loss and helps keep the wheel forces stronger.
• The wheel feels loose or force feedback is weak on straights, in corners, everywhere in general.
  • Decrease Force Exponent
    • Compresses forces over a narrower range, so more total force, so that forces are compressed around center causing the wheel to feel tighter or forces to feel stronger.
• The wheel feels tight/jittery around center on straights.
  • Increase Force Exponent
    • Evens out forces over a wider range, so less total force, so that forces are not all compressed around center causing high forces or spikes which you feel as tightness or jitteriness.
• There’s too much centering spring feeling in the wheel.
  • Increase Force Exponent
    • Evens out forces over a wider ranger, so less total force, so that all combined forces do not cause too much force towards the center.
• The wheel force feedback goes ‘numb’ during hard or high speed cornering. I can’t feel anything.
  • Increase Force Exponent
    • Evens out forces over a wider ranger, so less total force, so that all combined forces do not overwhelm the wheel and cause ‘clipping’ (ie. max force reached so can’t feel any more forces, it just feels dead) and this should allow forces, while somewhat weaker, to still be felt.
• I can’t feel the road, such as bumps, lines, or contours.
  • Increase Grip Weight
    • Increases Grip forces which are affected by road bumps, lines, and contours, so your wheel will emphasize greater and lesser weight feel that help identify road feel through force feedback.
• I can’t catch the car when the backend loses grip and slides out.
  • Increase Grip Weight
    • Increases Grip forces, which lowers Steering forces at the same time,  which provides emphasized grip information through force feedback that should help you catch backend slides more easily.
  • Decrease Grip Factor
    • Decreases Grip forces from the front tires, which increases Grip forces from the rear tires at the same time, which provides emphasized rear grip information through force feedback that should help you catch backend slides more easily.
• There’s not enough resistance when I turn the wheel, in general.
  • Increase Friction Coefficient
    • Increases constant friction forces so the wheel feels heavier to turn. Real steering columns have inherent friction so tuning friction can make it feel more realistic.
• There’s too much resistance when I turn the wheel, in general.
  • Decrease Friction Coefficient
    • Decreases constant friction forces so that the wheel feels lighter to turn. Real steering columns have inherent friction so tuning friction can make it feel more realistic.
• The wheel rotates too quickly during some forces, like there’s not enough resistance. It doesn’t behave like a real wheel.
  • Increase Damper Coefficient
    • Increases the fluid dampening applied to forces so it will spin up more slowly
• The wheel rotates too slowly during some forces, like there’s too much resistance. It doesn’t behave like a real wheel.
  • Decrease Damper Coefficient
    • Decreases the fluid dampening applied to forces so the wheel will spin up more quickly.
• Wheel forces feel like they’re clipping in high ffb strength scenarios but I’m not even at max FFB strength on the wheel.
  • Decrease Steer Force Output Max
    • Reduces the amount of strength applied to steering forces  and frees up FFB strength headroom for road bumps preventing force clipping in high ffb strength scenarios like high speed corners.
    • This is known as ‘soft clipping’ where your wheel FFB strength has sufficient strength but the in-game calculations are overwhelming their own maximum FFB strength output. This results in numb steering forces taking up 100% of the in-game FFB output and providing no room for road bump forces which provide feeling on the road.
    • Caution: Damper and Friction will become increasingly apparent as you decrease Steer Force Output Max and you will want to adjust them accordingly.

Peripherals

SimXperience AccuForce Direct Drive Wheel

I’ve since changed my wheel but my SimXperience AccuForce direct drive wheel worked flawlessly with GTR2. It will feel better if you tune FFB properly (see Force Feedback section).

My SimXperience AccuForce setup is tweaked only slightly from the default GTR2 setup. Here’s the settings. Also, personally, in SimCommander I always reset my AccuForce to defaults, set Wheel Mode High, enable Force Boost, and disable Engine RPMs:

TrackIR Head Tracking

TrackIR is a great step if you’re not yet willing to go to VR, like myself, and the good news is GTR2 supports it out of the box!

I find it works extremely well to achieve the ability to look around the cockpit, at your mirrors, and out your side-windows on a single screen. You should find slides easier to notice and correct as your head stays looking in the direction you want and your car rotates around you – as you would expect in real life. The added head movement also gives you a slight depth-perception improvement due to subtle angle-of-view changes as your car moves, your head moves, and bumps affect your cockpit movement.

You can click the image to the right to see the settings I’ve used. The settings mainly try for 1:1 head movement while looking at your cockpit and mirrors, and then accelerates so that you can look out your side-windows without straining your neck too much.

TrackIR Fix for Camera Uphill/Downhill Extreme Angles

TrackIR users probably want to set Video options World Movement to 1% (not zero) to stabilize the vertical angle of the cockpit camera to the angle of the car so that when you’re going up or down a steep hill you don’t lose sight of the bonnet of your car looking too far up while going downhill or end up looking at your feet looking too far down going uphill. Zero World Movement is lock-to-horizon, I guess, and to me that doesn’t work for TrackIR users. World Movement greater than 1% causes your cockpit camera to stabilize with the car angle but the “world” (ie. what you see of the car and the track) ends up bouncing around so a high World Movement number isn’t great, either. So 1% seems to minimize ‘world shake’ and stabilize the cockpit camera to help when you’re going up and down hills.

Performance

Improve Frame Rate by Making GTR2 Use More Cores For Better Performance

Use the free Bill’s Process Manager to speed up GTR2 by enabling it to use all available cores.

You can also use Process Lasso to do the same thing. It costs money but I now find it’s worth it for how conveniently it works.

There are other applications that do the same thing, as well. Try a google for “window cpu affinity tool” if you’re looking for a different one.

How to use Process Lasso with GTR2:

1. Start Process Lasso
2. Click Options menu > “Configure default CPU affinities …”
   1. Process name: GTR2.exe
   2. CPUs: All
   3. Click “Add to list” button
   4. Click OK
3. Click Options menu > “Configure default CPU priorities”
   1. Name match: GTR2.exe
   2. Select “High” from the priority drop-down
   3. Click “Add to list” button
   4. Click OK
4. Start GTR2 and enjoy better performance!

Remember! Process Lasso must be running before you launch GTR2!

Note: Some have said more than two cores assigned to GTR2.exe doesn’t seem to make a difference. I’ve seen GTR2 use 4 cores, myself, but it certainly gets the biggest boost from 2, then less of an improvement as you add cores. I just enable them all for convenience.

Tips and Tricks

This section will contain miscellaneous tips and tricks that don’t neatly fit into other sections.

iRacing-like Brake Sensitivity for Potentiometer Pedals (eg. G27)

If you’re used to iRacing and have potentiometer based pedals, like G27 pedals, you’re probably used to an iRacing default Brake Force Factor of 1.80x. In GTR2, and many other sims, brake sensitivity is linear and won’t feel like iRacing braking. You can achieve iRacing-like braking sensitivity by adjusting Brake Sensitivity in the in-game control options and lowering the value. Personally, based on my measurements, somewhere between 0-25% brake sensitivity is similar to iRacing braking progression judging by the in-game brake meter. Give it a try and use what you like best.

Note: I’m still testing, myself. It’s somewhere less than 50%, though, as 50% is linear in SimBin games.

If you don’t have potentiometer pedals, you may or may not want to adjust the brake sensitivity. I’ll assume you’re an advanced user, if you have these higher-end pedals, and you know what you want from them.

Use Auto-Clutch With Paddle Shifters

Use auto-clutch, available in the Realism settings, when making use of paddle shifters, otherwise shifts will be abrupt and cause wheel spin on up-shifting or lock-up on down-shifting.

Disable Auto-pit and AI Control

By default, your car will enter “auto pit” mode when you enter and exit the pits meaning AI controls your car until you exit the pits. Being used to driving the cars in pits, myself, I disable this:

1. Edit your UserData PLR file
2. Under “[ DRIVING AIDS ]” set:
   1. Autopit=”0″
   2. No AI Control=”1″ // AI never has control over car (except autopit)

Improve your driving by Turning up Tire Scrub and Tire Skid volume

Go ahead, turn up tire scrub and tire skin in the audio options and I think you’ll find it’s one more piece of information you can use to aid your driving around the track. I always find it helpful to match up the audio of slips and slides with the visuals and the force feedback.

Don’t skip sessions (causes AI bug). Use Time Acceleration, instead.

Don’t skip sessions. Use Time Acceleration, instead. Skipping qualifying sessions results in unrealistically quick lap times by AI opponents.

Note: See Known Issue about skipping qualifying resulting in overly fast AI lap times.

Use High Not Full Shadows To Avoid Dark Screen Driving Through Shadows

In some mod cars, driving through shadows will make the entire car interior dark, too dark, including the windshield which should be the normal outside brightness.

Use High Shadows instead of Full to fix this. With High it acts as though you haven’t driven through a shadowed area at all, which isn’t great, but it’s a better alternative.

Mod Files to Keep Modular and Separated

Sometimes mods have extra files, like shaders in the root GTR2 folder, and these can conflict with other mods that also contain the same shared files.

Whenever possible, keep mod files isolated to their own unique folders.

Here’s a list to watch out for:

• Shader files
• Shared sounds

I’ll keep adding more as I come across them.

Racing

How to Practice, Qualify, and Race against AI

My best and most recent tips for dealing with AI will now be in the SHO Competition AI mod README file. You don’t need to install the mod if you just want tips on how to qualify and how to race against AI. Just read the README file section on racing the AI.

Custom Daylight Acceleration

Edit your UserData PLR file and change the Time Scale Factor parameter to any value between 1 and 600 where 1 is real-time and >1 accelerates time.

For example, I chose Time Scale Factor=”24″ to experience a full day-night cycle in a 1 hour race.

More recently, I’ve been using Time Scale Factor=”12″ to experience half a day-night cycle in a 1 hour race. I chose this to have some daylight transition but not too much in my usual 20min races.

Note! 24 Hour races do not use Time Scale Factor. You can set a race length when setting up a 24 Hour race and GTR2 will automatically set the time scale. For example, you can setup a 24 Hour race with a 1 hour race length and you will still experience a 24 hour day-night cycle.

Hint: Find your GTR2 folder and you’ll see your UserData\Player\Player.PLR file. Edit this file. Mine is “G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\UserData\Shovas\Shovas.PLR” but your location and PLR folder and file name will be different.

Resources

• GTR Engineers Handbook – The official GTR Setup Guide (Backup; HTML)
  • “The official GTR Engineer’s Handbook, which is hard to find on the internet (and not included with the game). It was made for the first GTR game title by Simbin in 2004, but it also applies to the sequel.”
  • “Combined with the GTR2 Car-Owner’s Manual, it’s a must have for those who use GTR2’s original cars. A great source of knowledge for GTR2 users, as it provides important information as a setup guide.”
• GTR2 Car-Owner’s Manual – Extensive details on the car specs, tyre character, power graphs, etc (Backup);
  • “Along with the GTR Engineers Handbook, this manual is a must have for those who use GTR2’s original cars. It has all extensive data on every single car specs, such as tyre characteristics, ideal temps and pressures, power graphs, transmission, aerodynamics, weight balance, etc, etc.”

Modding

How Tag Filters and Classes Tags Work

These are the Game Filter, Selection Filter, and AI Filters you can find in some GDB files and and Classes tags you can find in CAR files.

• Tag Filters
  • Example: OR: Gr2 AND: PG1958, PG1959, PG1960, PG1961
  • Boolean Operators:
    • Implicit AND for both space-separated clauses and comma-separated lists
    • AND Boolean Operator
      • Follow with a comma-separated list
      • Follow list with a space to start a new boolean clause
    • OR Boolean Operator: Follow with a comma-separated list
      • Follow with a comma-separated list
      • Follow list with a space to start a new boolean clause
  • Cases:
    • OR: A B
      • Either A or B must be present
    • OR: A, B
      • Either A or B must be present
    • AND: A B
      • Both A and B must be present
    • AND: A, B
      • Both A and B must be present
    • AND: A OR: C, D, E, F
      • A must be present and either C, D, E, or F must be present
    • AND: A AND: C, D, E, F
      • A must be present and C, D, E, and F must be present
• Classes Tags
  • Example: classes=”TC60, Jgr_MKI_34, Gr2, PG1958, BSCC1961″
  • Comma separated
  • Alphanumeric and underscore (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _)
• Limitations
  • AND: A, B OR: C, D, E, F
    • Does not work. Seems to translate to A or C,D,E,F or B or C,D,E,F in other words just brings in everything.
  • AND: A AND: B OR: C, D, E, F
    • Does not work. Nothing is matched.

Known Issues

Skipping Qualifying Results in Unrealistically Fast AI Lap Times

There is an issue where skipping the rest of your qualifying session will result in the AI having faster lap times than they should have. This can, for example, result in you being put further back on the grid because the AI put in faster lap times when you skipped. Use Time Acceleration to get the end of qualifying more quickly.

The Leader’s Advantage AI Bug

When the player is ahead of the AI, the AI have tendency to go slower than if they were ahead of the player. This can happen even when qualifying suggests competitive timings: Even if you start further back in the grid, if you can manage to get out in front then the AI have a tendency to slow down.

Also, if you start further back in the grid, try to make up as much ground as possible or else the AIs ahead of you, especially top 3 or so, will tend to be uncatchable for the rest of the race.

I guess the ‘solution’ here is to find out where qualifying place results in a competitive race for you. For example, I try to qualifying top 3-6, at least, and make sure I stay up with the faster cars off the start.

Troubleshooting

Enable Tracing

1. Launch GTR2 with -trace=1000
   1. For Steam, right-click your game in your Library
   2. Click Set Launch Options button
   3. Added -trace=1000 in the text box
2. If a crash happens then check UserData\Log\trace.txt
   1. Errors are likely near the end of the file. Google for the error message and you’ll likely find some tips to help fix it.

Crashes Loading Tracks

Try uninstalling previously installed mods and see if the problem happens.

To make this a little easier, make a backup of your GTR2 folder before you install new mods so you can rollback easier just by renaming folders.

This can also be related to large mods that need a lot of memory: So use the 4GB Patch mentioned above.

Black Screen Driver Stopped Responding Freezes

If you experience graphics related crashes, such as ‘driver stopped responding’ black-screen freezes:

• Try using DirectX 8, not Auto or 9 in GTR2Config.exe. This solved these types of crashes for me on Windows 7 (NVIDIA 980 TI). Note, however, this was due to an (unknown to me) bad video card and upgrading solved the problem.

About This Post

I’ll be updating this post with more and more details as I play around with GTR2. Check back and look for the updates box at the top of the post I’ll add update notes there as I add things.

Credits

• Featured Image

Updates

Older updates: