Re: Observations from Esports (don't worry, no spoilers!)

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@Amioram wrote:
@BadMayh3mIt's not only on the lack of different tyres strategies that is hurting the challenge, many other factors incide on most of the races just being a DRS chain. The drivers are very close in performance one with the other, the slipstream and DRS are much less important than before and ERS on other hand is extremely powerful and if used correctly renders the ability to pass almost non existent. All these factors tied with 50% races actually giving less tyre strategy - since softs become practically unusable - render all races a boring long DRS train with very little happening and the chance to win residing in great part on the qualifying.

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I'd say the races we've had so far have actually all had plenty of action, it's just mostly bunched around the pit-stop window and the end of the race. Sadly so far I think the change to 50% probably hasn't improved things since it principally seems to have extended the dead time with little happening.

The biggest change I'd like to see would be for cockpit cam to be enforced.

@Ultrasonic_77Although I use tv pod. Which no doubt is for the same reason e-sports and majority off YouTuber gurus do. But it does seem abit odd to me that you cant use assists in E-sports but you can choose camera.

I can only assume it’s because cockpit FOV whilst using a 2d screen is to restrictive and causes spatial awareness issues. As i assume e-sports rule makers would have explored mankjg cockpit cam  mandatory

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@ScarDuck14 wrote:

@Ultrasonic_77Although I use tv pod. Which no doubt is for the same reason e-sports and majority off YouTuber gurus do. But it does seem abit odd to me that you cant use assists in E-sports but you can choose camera.

I can only assume it’s because cockpit FOV whilst using a 2d screen is to restrictive and causes spatial awareness issues. As i assume e-sports rule makers would have explored mankjg cockpit cam  mandatory

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I do think it would be slightly harder for eSports drivers to be quite so consistent in cockpit view but to me this would likely make the racing more interesting. I may be wrong but I'd guess many of the eSports drivers will race competitively in cockpit view in other games too.

The other benefit is that if eSports made the switch it might make more regular players do the same, many of whom might find they enjoy the experience more.

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@Ultrasonic_77 wrote:

The biggest change I'd like to see would be for cockpit cam to be enforced.

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The best of the best would be to have drivers all use cockpit and VR but we are still very far away from this happening. To have drivers be forced to use cockpit cam on 2D CM has to necessarily implement a proper multi screen view and I hope sooner or later it will be done (VR is still better but sadly the hardware is not there yet).

I don't like myself the use of pod cam as not only it is not realistic but it is much easier to drive in it and hence it greatly impacts on the skill gap between drivers, but this is sadly a fault of CM itself that always marketed the F1 games more as arcade titles than real sims and hence people usually approach the games as such.

I'd actually prefer 2D cockpit view to VR myself, as I think it would be better from a spectator perspective and would also be a view all players could choose to replicate if they wished to.

VR has been around for decades and still struggles to gain traction. Just  like 3d tv.  Guess us humans prefer actual reality for our entertainment pleasure 

Dont see cockpit happening in F1 Esports for 1 reason only.......too much info for the other teams.

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@ScarDuck14 wrote:

VR has been around for decades and still struggles to gain traction. Just  like 3d tv.  Guess us humans prefer actual reality for our entertainment pleasure 

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Probably more likely that humans don't like having to wear equipment on their heads when they're trying to enjoy entertainment sat in their viewing rooms. 3D films were quite popular, it's just that when translated to the smaller screen, content virtually doubled in price to produce and post production costs increased (I work in television and film). 

VR is still around because there is some sort of traction. The things that are holding VR back are the accessibility in terms of price and the technology being unwieldy. Additionally it's still quite a solitary experience. Augmented reality is probably the best means to bring virtually reality in a social, connected aspect. 

I also think VR will become more popular as the image quality improves. PSVR was a notable downgrade to what people were used to in 2D but PSVR-2 should be a notable improvement.

(VR isn't an option for me personally due to my rubbish eyesight and therefore glasses with lenses unsuitable to VR headsets.)

@TotosHeadphonesI know why I dont like VR and its the same reason I dont like 3D glasses......they are designed for Right Eye Dominant people.
I'm Left and this makes all my vision blurry.
I wont pay good money for a terrible experience and a headache.

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@BadMayh3m wrote:

Dont see cockpit happening in F1 Esports for 1 reason only.......too much info for the other teams.

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What do you have in mind? Would there really be a big difference to what can be seen by an on-board already? And actually, are the teams able to spectate on other drivers? I'd have guessed not to be honest, with it just being whatever is shown on the broadcast stream that they could see?

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@Ultrasonic_77 wrote:

I also think VR will become more popular as the image quality improves. PSVR was a notable downgrade to what people were used to in 2D but PSVR-2 should be a notable improvement.

(VR isn't an option for me personally due to my rubbish eyesight and therefore glasses with lenses unsuitable to VR headsets.)

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Aha, that's definitely a huge issue that is overlooked too. Obviously the technology needs to be inclusive to all with varying levels of eyesight needed to catered for. 

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@BadMayh3m wrote:

@TotosHeadphonesI know why I dont like VR and its the same reason I dont like 3D glasses......they are designed for Right Eye Dominant people.
I'm Left and this makes all my vision blurry.
I wont pay good money for a terrible experience and a headache.

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I too am left eye dominant. I do some FPV drone flying and most goggles include IPD adjustment for each eye which remedies the blurry vision. I can't remember if PSVR had this on the couple of times I tried it but yup, unlikely 3D TV manufacturers would offer options to help this issue.

@TotosHeadphonesLefties are the besties!

Apparently lefties are more adept at using both sides off the brain.  Yet can only use the right side off the body to stop themselves from falling over.   Whereas righties are physically better balanced.  

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@BadMayh3m wrote:
@Ultrasonic_77The engineers watch the streams.
There is no doubt in my mind they can back engineer with the info from just the wheel.

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In TV pod view you can still see the wheel well enough to see the ERS level, and beyond this I'm honestly not sure what else may be of interest? I'm also still very doubtful teams could see any view during the race anyway?

I may be missing something but I genuinely can't see the issue here.

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@BadMayh3m wrote:
@Ultrasonic_77The engineers watch the streams.

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Missed this bit... Actually it would make sense to me for the races not to be streamed live to prevent this being an issue.

@ScarDuck14I was brought up in a world where being left handed was difficult so my parents would switch my fork, pencil etc and I became right handed in most things.
It wasn't until I was taught eye dominance at 19 in college that I realized I was naturally left handed but you dont change about 15 years of habit.

@BadMayh3mI just had a quick look at what could be seen when spectating a multiplayer lobby and actually I could read everything on the steering wheel in TV pod view. 

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@BadMayh3m wrote:
@Ultrasonic_77Ive been wrong before so no big surprise there but the 3 people behind Lee and Donoso are doing something.

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Obviously they are - working on race strategy and if they have access to the live stream I'd expect someone to be keeping an eye on that for info. on other drivers too. I'm just not sure this has anything to do with if drivers use cockpit cam or not 🙂.

I don't think spectator mode shows the view each driver is using actually. There's just a straight choice of broadcast or TV pod views so currently even if a driver is using cockpit cam I don't think a viewer would notice. This could be changed of course. Thinking this through though, we'd only really notice a difference from eSports switching to cockpit cam if it then lead to the drivers using this mode more outside of eSports so that more of their regular streams/videos were like this.

After watching eSports and some league races, I hope they increase the skill gap again, as it stands it looks like nobody is bothering to push because sticking to someone is too easy with drs unless the pace difference is really, really big, such a snoozefest with all of them just sitting and doing nothing, even more exaggerated by the fact that overtaking in said trains require so much ers. Codies please

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@v8u5jco54ukp wrote:

After watching eSports and some league races, I hope they increase the skill gap again, as it stands it looks like nobody is bothering to push because sticking to someone is too easy with drs unless the pace difference is really, really big, such a snoozefest with all of them just sitting and doing nothing, even more exaggerated by the fact that overtaking in said trains require so much ers. Codies please

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What would you propose be changed? 

I think DRS trains are a somewhat inevitable consequence of lots of closely matched drivers in cars with equal performance. The game trying to mimic real-life aerodynamic changes is probably making them more likely too. I have still enjoyed the first three races though, it's just that you have periods with little 'action'.  Qualifying is well worth watching too of course given it's huge impact on the final result.