Meh, you just have to figure it out the way real race drivers do, practice. It isn’t easy to judge them in real life on every track either. I always drive dashboard as I hate the driver animation. The braking line is good for a few practice laps to familiarize yourself with the layout. After that, it quickly becomes a hindrance and you just become PacMan and you’re at the mercy of a static glowing line that may or not be the best way around a track nor at the best speed.
Use other references, the occasional trackside ambulance, where elements of the grandstands are, certain sponsors on the walls, a given tree, where the curbs start or end in a certain place, etc. Many times, there’s some sort of marker or cone at the apex as well(until you punt it of course).
I’m trying my best to familiarize the tracks and now I’m trying to avoid using the break lines and rely on other visual cues. Unfortunately there are so many track variations per location that sometimes it’s difficult to tell which way the track leads. I also noticed that I dislike specifically 3 locations: Virginia International Raceway (VIR), Road to Atlanta and Sonoma Raceway. The problems come from driving up hills and not being able to see the turns which follow.
Yes I’m trying to do that as well, but there are too many “distractions” on the track. Plus sometime the game’s draw distance for the cones is not very far (on Monza Autodrom Nazionale I start breaking when I see them for the first turn after the long straight line).
VIR is brutal to learn and an ultra tough course to feel out, especially IRL. I did a couple club days with Mustangs a few years back and never really figured any of it out very well, felt like I was just trying to survive the track. Some guys had lots of experience there and I would follow until I thought I knew what I was doing and they would get bored pulling me around and disappear in the distance I hate it in the game, and any sense of FFB with a wheel is horrible there. I usually run the very long races and for that one cut it to the minimum and just try to cheat and slide my way through it. It’s just a chore to get through it.
Road Atlanta seemed so much easier to navigate back in FM4 days, it’s really hard to judge turn 1 and the chicane at the top of the hill in FM7. It used to feel so head forward and ‘dig in’ through the switchbacks and the climbing square turn used to be so fun when you got it right into one flowing turn. I used to love that track, it’s OK now but far from a favorite like it used to be. In FM4 it used to be a go-to test track for me, now I only do it when I have to.
Sonoma is a really, really fun track once you get it implanted, but takes a LOT of practice to where you can enjoy the hill climb and the hairpin followed by those wonderful sweeping s’s. It takes a LOT of laps just to get the hairpin and the last turn right. A good tune is very important there.
A good way to learn them is use braking line for a little bit, run a generic single player race, and let yourself fade back from the melee up front and follow 10th place cars around for a while. Some tracks are easier to learn in race rather than hot lapping.
Forza badly needs a Field Of View slider. It’s always good to properly calculate the Field Of view basesd on your distance from the screen and the size of said screen. If Forza also had Position Of View options like in Codemaster’s F1 series, where you can adjust height, angle, seating position from front to back and left to right and such, it would make a huge difference.
Another huge problem is the lack of options when it comes to camera shake and motion blur. Again, Codemaster’s F1 series implements this really well where you can adjust the strength of both settings how you’d like.
Personally, I prefer the lowest FOV possible with the seating position pretty far back. That suits most games if they don’t give you actual values, then I’d increase the FOV ever so slightly until it feels right.
Unfortunately, Forza has none of these things which for a racing game in 2017, is quite ridiculous.
I have AC and PCars and all the usual suspects. I don’t care what any ‘expert’ says I LOVE the F1 Series. I do like getting the in-car setup with just about 1/2 the side view mirrors in view(for the occasional DRS check) and I delete the center HALO bar(there’s an antenna there that’s more to scale IRL anyway). Heck, you can even adjust the mirror angles independently. When you tinker until everything is ‘right’, it’s just such a wonderful game. With the buttkicker and headphones cranked up and the FFB solid, you are just THERE to test your mettle with millions of dollars worth of engineering that’s yours to tame or ruin. And you can follow another car within 3’ for an entire lap.
You know its a great game when you invest three hours in practice and qualifying, get halfway through a race and trash the car on your own doing-and feel like you don’t deserve to rewind and retire because you’re supposed to for being a moron. Great stuff.
I like the F1 games quite a bit. The physics are a bit wonky and it effects the Force Feedback in strange ways but overall, the game is solid.
I just don’t like the fact it releases on a yearly schedule. There’s not enough development time for any significant changes to warrant a €69.99 price tag every year. Now if it was €34.99 a year, I’d jump at it.
I’m literally living the same dream while exploring AC these days - I wish Forza would borrow a lot of elements from this fantastic simulator - particularly car sound and driving physics.
I hate it in the game, and any sense of FFB with a wheel is horrible there. I usually run the very long races and for that one cut it to the minimum and just try to cheat and slide my way through it. It’s just a chore to get through it.