I have been watching some videos on tuning in forza. I really want to be able to adjust settings and test them and be able to create my own tunes for different cars and tracks. some of the videos by moneyman are really good. is there any advice from people on here about getting to grips with tuning and where to start ? lower class cars or any car and track etc. I just want to improve my lap times. im a racing enthusiast and I wanna be competitive on the leaderboards and online. I feel my racing style is fine but I know with tunes applied you can shave seconds off lap times. any help and advice much appreciated guys !
It all takes experience, a lot of it. I’m still learning and I’ve been at it since Forza 3. There are many here from even earlier than that. I’m lucky, I spent a lot of time with some top people and I saw for myself what worked and a few people explained some things, where the game might lead you astray for instance.
There are multiple ways to skin a cat so I’d just keep looking, and experimenting. And we can answer any questions that arise.
My one piece of advice is where applicable, mainly all bar the highest classes, the build is the most important part. Picking the right combo of parts is the most critical thing. See what others have done on the leaderboards, and use that as guidance. If people use lighter cars for some tracks then that may be a hint. Equally using more power oriented cars for like Road America or Daytona, then that’ll be a clue too!
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Probably even more important, ask any of the top tuners, is the build. Upgrading the car in order to get max grip and speed that the PI limit will allow. I usually end up with just about every upgrade you can buy. I’m sure some of the better tuners in here have a system. My system is to just keep throwing Cr’s at it until I find the right combo. It’s too bad Turn 10 didn’t bring back the parts selling thing like we had in FM4. As far as what class to start in, it makes sense to me to start out in the lower ones, maybe D or even C. In my opinion C class is where the build and tune come more into play.
http://forums.forza.net/turn10_postst223_Tuning-Guide.aspx
That link will take you to FM4’s tuning forum and that guide has a lot of useful info.
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Sorry Motorhead, you snuck your response in before I got mine in.
THANKS GUYS.
I don’t get much time to put into all of this as I have a little girl (7 weeks old) so my gaming time has drastically reduced every night !
if I can get to grips with basics I may be able to play around. spent some time last night and ended up feeling like id done nothing on the time I had on the xbox lol
Get in car, go to test it.
Drive 2-3 laps and get a sense of what needs be done.
First thing I normally do is lower rear spring to 55-65% of front(if car is very soft increase frontspring a bit before adjusting rear), and check springs in telemetry if they bottom out.
Then I increase rebound untill I get car stable. After that I adjust bump for cornering. Either move bump all the way down and increase in small portions, or adjust in small portions from stocksettings if car feels ok.
Next step for me is brakes and I normally have towards front 52 to start and 110-120 pressure.
At this time I start doing laps to get laptimes and feel of car, and now I also adjust camber and toe. Normally put caster 6.5.
At this point you can go to transmission and more finetuning etc, but if I understand you correct, you want an easy quick way to improve car, and after a few times you can do this in 30 minutes.
Good luck.
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cheers coastkey,
yeah i used to have lots of time to mess around on tracks and different cars but i just dont have the time at the moment. and it sucks because its now that i wanna improve my racing in every way possible. so yes even if its not majorly tuned id be happy with a tune different to stock which can save me some seconds on the track. hopefully doing a few tests like you said i can find the balance,
i wanted to try this first rather than just downloading other peoples tunes (which is awesome) but wanna feel like ive tuned it myself.
quick question,
if you are to download someones car tune. can you use these in multiplayer and leagues ? and once tune is applied will that be the default tune for that car every time you race or will you have to reapply it after leaving forza and coming back the next day ?
cheers guys
Tune sticks with car as default untill you change.
To get best info from telemetry use a track that is as flat as possible to get correct numbers.
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Who remembers the Prima Official Game guide for Forza 3? You can still see it for sale here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forza-Motorsports-Primas-Official-Guides/dp/0761563385/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443533983&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=forza+6+guide).
I bought it back in the day with FM3, and it was awesome. It had tips from race car drivers on how to drive properly and corner etc, even down to a corner-by-corner analysis of each track. It had tips for the various cars and a little history on them, plus a huge section on tuning and exactly what each thing does. I learned how to tune cars in Forza with this book. I loved it.
Pity these seem to have disappeared. I guess internet wiki guides killed them off?
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Stella Stig has some excellent vids on tuning. They’re from FM5, but he claims they still work in FM6, and so far I have found them to be useful. The one on suspension was especially helpful to me. You can find his channel here: Stella Stig - YouTube
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I also have a baby at home and limited time. Here are a few things I have learned.
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Top lap times are more about the parts than the tune. A good tune can shave off a second or two, but won’t make up for a sub-optimal build.
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Learn to tune with the lower classes first. It’s easier to see the effects of your adjustments when the laps unfold at a more leisurely pace…
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Pick one track with a good mix of corners, or a pick very small number of tracks, to use when developing a baseline tune. Always do your base tuning on this track, then refine for a particular track if needed. Your baseline track should be short enough that you can do a lap in a reasonable amount of time (in other words, don’t use Nordschleiffe) to check your lap time, handling, etc. Your goal in baseline tuning is to get the car settled, eliminate bad behaviors as much as possible, and get it handling the way you like it.
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Develop some baseline settings that you apply before you ever hit the track. For example, I always set my caster at 5.5 and braking to 55% front, among others. To figure out your baselines, you need to make some determinations about what makes the car feel good / perform for your driving style.
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Experimentation is a great way to learn. Take a relatively stable car and crank one setting at a time to see what the effects are. This is a good way to learn the practical meaning behind all the little sliders in the tuning menu. Of course the descriptions in the menu are helpful for telling you what to expect from your adjustments, but nothing beats the “seat of the pants” experience.
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One of my favorite test and tuning tracks is the Indy Track. It has long sweeping turns, brief technical s-turns, a coupe of sharp hair pin turns, full 90* turns and a decently long straight to test acceleration and speed. I have found tuning to be a challenge since FM4 and since then the driving physics have been updated so there is no tuning consistency between games. I find “typical” tunes between different drivetrains. As in i tune all FWD just about the same, I tune RWD cars the same, and AWD have a typical tune. I am a huge fan of slight oversteer so all my tunes are consistent with that. Its always fun but, definitely a challenge.
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Telemetry is a key tool to determine what settings to change. For example, I was watching tire temperatures on the inside rear wheel getting too hot when going through a corner. I realized my race differential deceleration was set to high - causing that tire to drag rather than spin freely - reason for the spike in that tire temp. This adversely affected my acceleration out of the corner as tire temps too hot I would get wheel spin when stepping aggressively on the gas. I reduced deceleration setting, no more temp spike and therefore I could be as aggressive on the gas without causing wheel spin. Also, softened springs to make rear squat more during corner exit acceleration.
Look at tire patch telemetry screen and ask yourself why a certain wheel is loosing traction? Perhaps not enough camber, vehicle too low, springs too stiff, tire temps too high.
Telemetry is a great tool for tuning. P.S. Road Atlanta is also great track for tuning setup - especially those chicanes - where quick left and right transitions expose alot about a vehicles handling dynamics.
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Don’t you mean Acceleration?
Too high of Deceleration is when you let off the brake and you car breaks loose.
If i get an hour or so later on ill give it a go with the telemetry again. Had a go last night but didnt get much done and got confused with where to actually start tuning. I was racing my laferrari round prague full. Love that track. Just got confused with what to start with. Was trying to counter oversteer whilst accerlerating from a corner. Ive seen videos of people with tuned cars taking corners with the braking distance guides on whilst red and comfortably taking the corner fast and smooth. I want to be able to do that ! Thanks for all the info peps. Im also learning to drive manual with clutch. I normally drive all assists off but with auto gears.
When I started ‘learning’ how to tune I googled alot of stuff. Like ‘forza tuner calculators’ some of these are pretty good to setup a base line. You input a bunch of parameters and it gives you settings to plug into tuning screen. Majority are for older versions of FM, but a good place to start.
Also, there are some blog/forum threads about tuning as well. Some of the good ones have scenarios and what you need to look at to correct issue. For example - Car understeers entering corner at high speed: adjust front sway bar, brake balance, etc.
Importantly, use the telemetry screen to see empirically what is happening to determine why and how to fix the problem, and not just rely on seat of the pants feel.
After a while this acquired knowledge will serve you well for any pc/console racing games where tuning is involved, for many years.
Good luck!
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o went with the controler set up that has shift on a and clutch on b, then i place my thumb between them just a bit to the b side so it engages just before a. one press gets both buttons. and its most important the lower the car class. that lotus e car i am as fast with auto as i am shifting.
For builds, treat power upgrades and race tires as a luxury.
Only add them if you really need them.
Then look at leaderboards and chose a time you’d like the car to achieve. If 5 seconds off number 1 is your benchmark and your build doesn’t cut it, rebuild to add more power, drop power for tires, or compensate for lower power with lighter weight.
Like others have said, and after spending a lot of time playing with some really fast guys, the build is probably 75% of everything.
Most of the time, for most tracks (evenly balanced tracks) I try to start off with a well rounded build, and shoot for decent acceleration, handling, and speed. Short, tight tracks you’ll want accel and handling, and tracks like Road America you want more accel and speed, but still a bit of handling if you can…
Then after that, you’ll want parts that can be tuned… all suspension mods, race transmission, etc.
Keep in mind your engine layout, weight distribution, etc. (this is paramount when tuning suspension) when tuning as well. Differentials can also play a big part in your car’s performance, and they typically don’t affect your PI.
I had gotten really, really good at building Front Engine, RWD cars in FM4, particularly A class and below. B class racing was such a great time… and eventually I got to where I could drive people crazy smoking their 97 Civics with my Lincoln Continental build XD. But it doesn’t seem to carry over as well into FM6, and I feel like I’m pretty much starting from scratch again, so you’re not alone OP. There are probably very very few people who are already masters at tuning in this game. But it will get much better with time.
While tuning is key, track knowledge is king.
By all means, tune your cars, and get good at it. Find out what pushing/understeer feels like. Understand the difference between an overall pushy car, and a car that just has transitional understeer. If you make an adjustment, and it does nothing, then that was not hte cause of hte problem. Put that one back, and try another. Good tuining is knowing what the car is doing, and not doing, and knowing what adjustment to make to correct, or improve the behavior.
It is also skill. Driving just flat takes skill. You develop skill by driving lots and lots.
And, to my original point, track knowledge. Go to Road America in an Indy car. At the first turn, in most other cars, I lift throttle at the 4 marker, and begin braking sometime before the 3 marker. If I do that in an Indy car with full downforce, and brakes adjusted to my liking, I end up dropping boat anchor, and going through the turn way too slow. In the Indy car, I can push the lift throttle points and braking points much closer to the turn.
Also, into the esses at Road Atlanta, what is the correct line? What is the best throttle position? When do you apex in the carrousel at Road America? What are the turn in points for the corkscrew at Laguna Seca? All of this knowledge is developed over time. Spending time tuning is one of the best ways to gain drivinmg skill and track knowledge.