Ordinarily I have problems driving S+ so I don’t, and some chums tonight offered some A/B multiplayer racing, so I went for it.
It ended up badly.
I have a top 2% career Prague Full lap time in Career mode, which is where 99% of my FM5 time has been.
Online, let’s just say it was bad. Lines I take in career spun out; gears I use were too high; corners I take in high 4th I couldn’t take in high 3rd, let alone low 4th.
Am I imagining this discrepancy or has anyone else experienced it?
For the mods, this isn’t yet a ‘blame’ thread, I just want to know if the online engine is substantially different from the offline engine, and with this one product do I need to learn another product to be able to play online? As if FM 2/3/4/H aren’t enough to accumulate Forza Rewards
This is the first time I have ever heard of such speculation in these forums. Forza has never been known for having different physics for different modes. However, could your drop in driving quality have anything to do with knowing you are racing other drivers that aren’t Drivatars - other drivers that are typically quicker than Drivatars and, often times, use more defensive tactics than Drivatars? I suspect so.
Good question, well considered, but no. I know Prague Full like the back of my hand and muller career races by respectable percentages of a lap in all classes I’ve tried this far. In online races my Ferrari I’ve run quite a few times in career feels like the Flintstone-mobile; it doesn’t glide like in career, it usually hits the wall instead of taking the wide left before the very wide right through to the bridge; I can’t take it through the streets after the last bridge in fifth, it has to be in fourth, slowing to third.
I have literally spent days driving Prague in career and Free Play, and online is absolutely not the same engine.
Well, you’re the first person in two and half months to suggest so. I suspect we’d never really know the truth; but, with that said, are you experiencing any sort of lag in multiplayer that may be preventing you from reacting and driving the vehicle as you would in offline modes?
I drive with a wheel, so I can’t do the headset chats, but I hear my chums just fine, and frankly even in career leaderboard they’re ahead of me, so I don’t call shenanigans there. I haven’t actually compared their online times (with controller) to see if they match Drivatar or offline times, but if I’m being pitted every online race in the first half of the lap and then don’t have the grunt to get back into competition, it pretty much takes the wind out of the sails of online fun, at least for the next month while I compete the rest of Career …
Even if I get lucky and outrun the online NPCs on the track, though, I still can’t drive the online track as I do in career - the physics are way different!
I alternated between career and online pretty much every session. So I might have done 5 career races and then 5 online races in a night. I have never experienced anything suggesting there is a difference.
I totally respect your response SNE - the only reason I haven’t added you as someone I follow is because I have enough folks to lose to.
But I still posit the online driving engine is not exactly the same as the offline/career engine.
I’m under the weather right now and ready for bed - I will save and upload a Free play Prague circuit and friends-willing an online run too, hopefully this weekend.
I second that idea, mainly because i will tune a car to handle test track conditions, try in MP and end up doing things i never did on test track (my purpose on test track is to push hard) be that meaning spining out on bends or not.
Now once i have my tune down and it all seems above board for what i deem a quick time for myself, ill go rivals once i am seeing a zone as in persistent time with small margin increases in time i go to MP now while i KNOW others can and will be faster im in with a fighting chance of between 2nd and 6th unless otherwise hindered.
BUT point being is i do experience slides, spins online on bends i didnt on the test track, which leads me to the conclusion this man is right something is different.
how can you push hard to get your car to a standard with no issue’s to compete in MP and find a whole new world of hurt where your cars not handling as you tuned for. especialy if you tuned on that specific track.
Hm - good question … recently I’ve switched to no control assists other than TCS, and it felt like that was on, but worth checking - thanks for the hint.
More or less me and my friend have been speculating online physics is different since Forza 4. If so I believe it is due to the netcode slowing the physics calculations down. We have noticed weird differences in handling from tuning single player over to online mode. It’s not huge but we feel it is there. Something is there.
You should do your testing with a completely stock car without a tune, because there is a bug with the tunes not “sticking” to the way they were created. There are many theories running around, like you need to adjust your tune every time you turn your console on, re-download and install the tune every time if you are using someone else’s custom tune, and that if you change your time a lot then the time will progressively get slower.
I personally don’t know what to think but I have been online and wondered what the heck happened to my car when I changed nothing from the day before. First time it happened I figured it was me, you know those days where you are just off your game a little, but I have noticed it more and more here lately that certain aspects of my tune are way off. Not off in the sense that I see the actual values are different in the tuning screens, but off in its handling and suspension characteristics.
I rotate between online, rivals and career regularly and I notice no difference in the physics between these modes.
Most likely there was some setting that was different or possibly that your wheel got hot and motors took a break making the force feedback feel different.
OP - You mention one race on Prague last night. Are you basing your theory on only this single race? Or did you do multiiple races that felt different?
I think my state of mind is different when racing with human vs computer. I am a lot more ‘tight’, more deliberate in trying to avoid any contact, and I think it results in me going beyond the grip capability of my car. In single player I can be competitive, but still looser, no ones watching, In lobbies, I completely push my car to the limits in order to compete with others, trying to get a clean lap, and trying to be safe on track. Sometimes I will have a car tuned for lobbies to compensate for the extra push.
Could it be a tire thing i know harder compounds grip longer but less.Wider tires can heat up faster too.I havent raced online yet but i would guess these things would be exagerrated in more aggressive driving.
I too have wondered if the game physics might ‘lag’ while online. When i race in private lobbies with mates i have the same assists as i do in career mode and my lap times online are always slower then in career. 2 secs or so. Doesn’t seem like much but when you have a mate that plays on unbeatable and always gets gold ( All assists off, Manual no clutch, brake line only and full damage) and beats you by 10secs every race, every sec faster helps!
I always look at my times at the end of online race and even if it was a good clean lap i still can’t match my offline times
You are still driving in the game on your console.
Your console sends your telemetry data out to the other players, and their telemetry data gets sent to your console.
Your console takes their telemetry data and draws their cars in the correct locations (along with orientation of the vehicle, tires turning, brake lights, etc)
Both Your console and Their consoles perform collision detection.
But - see number 1 - You are still driving in the game on your console.
So, there is no “physics lag” when racing online. There can be “update” lag - that is, there can be lag in getting the other players’ telemetry data - which is the cause of cars floating, jumping up and down, “warping” around the track, etc. But it does not induce lag on the physics calculations.
If you really want to try and compare online physics vs offline physics, try this: You and a couple friends set up a private race, with lots of laps. Let your friends race against each other, while you sit at the start for 30 - 45 seconds. While they continue to race, you just run laps as if you’re in Rivals mode. Assuming you’re on a track/car combo with a 90-second+ lap-time, you’re friends will be well out-of-range, so your lap-time won’t be affected by traffic.
Also, your lap-time won’t be affected by “trying too hard” to catch / pass other players.
