Burned Out For Tonight

Got a lot done today.

Rear differential torque sorted out. Now, downshifting at short tracks like Martinsville is plain dangerous. Gotta match those RPM's to do it right.

Also worked on the engine file, trying to get the torque/horsepower as close to reality as possible. Still need a bit more work, reducing torque by 25-50% of my current alpha NSS engine file. Very close to finishing that portion of the mod.

NSS 7.0 Mod Testing Soon

I think the suspension side of the mod is just about finished. I have a handful of things to complete and then we'll be ready to begin general physics and tire testing. I'm aiming for May 25th at the latest, hopefully sooner.

Testing will be a mix of online and offline. If you're interested in turning laps and giving feedback, then feel free to send me an email and let me know:

dougfromtos@yahoo.com

Telemetry Tire Loads

Though exhausted, I was able to get a little bit done today. Did some tire research, then I examined telemetry data from both the NSS mod and NR2003. Primarily dynamic: tire loads, left/right/front/rear weight distribution percentages in addition to cross weight calculations. Comparing between the two sims the tire loads are clearly very, very similar at the same places on the track.

While reviewing data in MoTeC, I had some inital concerns about the loading being too high. It's comforting to see those concerns were unnecessary.

Back Online

After some personal issues, I am back online. Still in the process of moving and sorting, but I should now be able to give more timely updates as they come.

Per the mod, I've updated tire sizes to reflect real life. Tire work still continues. With the new aero rebalance, I'll be able quickly get accurate downforce data into the game.

I'm also beginning to think about starting online multiplayer alpha testing with select people.

April 2011 Update

While my time is pretty tight, work is still coming along with the mod. A couple of key news items:

- Each track has a specific suspension with upper A-Arms balanced for each. Steering arms pitched at proper angle so cars now turn/rotate as they should.

- Aerodynamics are rebalanced to better match the spoiler and splitter combination. Splitter is also locked at 9 inches out per new rules.

- Tires are now, for lack of a better term, 1:1 compared to reality. No more heating issues, more specifically covering up a heating problem to cover up lousy physics and suspension modeling. Even a certain sim that you have to pay for is guilty of doing this.

- Implemented new toe that NASCAR used to get the cars to loosen up. Will get more information on this, but does work as it does in real life.

- With the changes, NASCAR Sim Series mod now supports both types of Cup setups. Old setups (stiff front, soft rear springs), from early 2000's and modeled in NR2003, work as designed. You can, in fact, port over NR2003 setups and they will work flawlessly. New setups work as well (soft front, stiff rear).

Next on the agenda is calculating and adding downforces based upon weather history (altitude and pressure). Will also continue planned tire work.

Going Offline

Just a heads up that due to real life commitments and changes, I'll be going offline for the foreseeable future. Work on the mod will be ongoing.

Tire Work

Making excellent progress on the new tire model. Initial testing seems to indicate that tight seems to be faster...especially for qualifying. You can drive it max loose, however, but the pucker factor is 100x. Plain scary. You can also step these cars out a lot farther and reign them back in.

Also found a track surface grip that equals that of iRacing, at least according to skid pad results.

Going to work on fixing the track pack this afternoon.

Still Working

Work is still progressing, albeit more slowly than before. Have a lot of things going on in life.

I've just about finalized the diffuser in conjunction with more accurate spring multipliers. A lot of testing to be done, then I'll plug in the downforce data and begin work on the new tires.

Diffuser Now Working

Finally got early diffuser lift working. Very excited about the possibilities to emulate the real cars.

The unrestricted engine has also been updated, courtesy of public data from Roush-Yates. Higher RPM idle, torque curve adjusted to match data.

FMS Cup & CTS Track Pack Version 4.0

FMS Cup & CTS Track Pack Version 4.0
====================================
Initial Release: 04/01/10 by JNS Tracks, http://www.jnstracks.net
Final Relase: 08/20/10 by JNS Tracks, http://www.jnstracks.net and Freedom Motorsports, http://www.racefms.com
-----
This pack contains all of the current CUP and CTS style tracks for use with the NSS 2010 Mod provided by John Alley and FMS (http://racefms.com)

These tracks should be considered fictional as they do not exactly duplicate any real world tracks. They can be substituted for real world tracks that these may resemble.

DOWNLOAD
==========
Note: Multiple links are provided for availability. All links contain the same file.

FileFront

http://www.filefront.com/17214478/FMSTrackPack4.exe

Megaupload

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H8N3BHJ0

Rapidshare

http://rapidshare.com/files/413989010/FMSTrackPack4.exe

Fileplanet

http://www.fileplanet.com/215579/210000/fileinfo/FMS-Track-Pack-4.0

Mydropbox

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8694080/FMSTrackPack4.exe

JNStracks

http://jnstracks.net/fms_files/FMSTrackPack4.exe



Installation:
=============
Before installing this track pack please delete any FMS_Tracks folder from your locations folder and HAT files that may be in your "rFactor\userdata\log\hat" folder. Now you can install this track pack by extracting the exe file from the downloaded zip file to a temp location on your system and double-click on it. Make any corrections that may be needed to the default game location shown (C:\Program Files\rFactor\) and click the unzip button.

That’s it, now you can fire up the game and go racing.



Needing a league that uses our tracks with the NSS 2010 mod? Then check out Freedom Motorsports (FMS) at http://www.racefms.com. This is a free league that provides a lot of fun and close racing.

Special Thanks to John Alley and everyone at Freedom Motorsports for their assistance in helping to improve these tracks. Visit them at: http://www.racefms.com

Special Thanks to Petre Tutunea (malvictis) for allowing us to use his great looking track loading screens. His generosity to the community can be seen at: http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=MAL%20Track%20Loading%20Screens

Credit for the Flagman goes to Keeper: http://www.thepits.us/board/viewtopic.php?t=7420&highlight=flag

Credit for the pit road lights goes to JoeB at: http://www.nascarsimseries.com, thanks JoeB.

Report any problems or comments at: http://jnstracks.net or email me at support@jnstracks.net

Additional thanks to Drew Brunson for Infineon texture updates; William Bradshaw for various texture updates.

Have Fun!
Joe
http://jnstracks.net

**************************************************************************
All Trademarks acknowledged, and are the property of their respective owners.

This track release is free to use for personal use and may NOT be sold or distributed for commercial purposes, or money exchanged for this track or any part thereof. JNS Tracks is distributing this track free of charge in the hope that it will be useful to the community but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
**************************************************************************

Uploading

Got the track pack done. Created a installer and am now beginning to upload to the various free hosting sites. Being on a slower connection, it'll take a while. I would venture a guess to say that the target release date will be this Friday, August 20th.

Engine Work

A new engine torque curve and HP has been created. Now closely reflects available dyno numbers.

Suspensions Updated & Track Pack

Did work on 3/4 of the suspensions early this morning. Had to get upper control arm angles within realistic ranges. Also did some background work on the diffuser.

Heard back from Joe. Barring any catastrophic event, on Wednesday I will begin uploading files in order to release the new FMS track pack.

New Downforce Numbers

Got some new downforce numbers calculated and plugged in and I think I've settled on one that provides realistic balance, also helping with the bottoming out. It's comparable to a case of three people seeing the same thing, yet describing three different things. It's all a matter of how you view something.

Still fighting to get the diffuser numbers working as it should in real life.

Going to make some control arm angle adjustments on the 22 suspensions this weekend.

Track Pack 4.0 Is Nearly Ready

The FMS Track Pack 4.0 is nearly ready for release. Very, very close.

I had one small issue that I couldn't fix on the texture side of things, so I've sent it up to Joe Evans to see if he may be able to provide a fix.

Once complete, I'll be looking for hosting and begin initial uploading thru the usual free sites. I believe that you guys are going to be impressed with the quality of these tracks. In my opinion, it supersedes the quality of the 3.0 release.

The Culprit

The culprit of my recent problem appears to be a front downforce issue with the front springs. Either the new diffuser upgrade coming up will solve the problem, or I'll be forced into a SpringMult. Hoping the former works!

Any Work Is Good Work

Been doing some smaller work lately. Fixed an axis issue with all of the rear suspensions, a simple edit really. Working on some fixes for a certain issue the car is having, which is leading me into doing some much needed work on the diffuser.

Also, I've gotten back into downforce work a bit. Interestingly, my physics and math for the front end is accurate within 20 pounds of real life data taken from 2002. Only problem is, the rear end aero balance data is vastly different. Not going to touch it, though. If the math for the front end is correct, then so too is the spoiler. I'll chalk up any downforce and/or aero balance gains being made in the body department. A lovely grey area, indeed!

New Car Models

New car models appear to be in the pipeline for the NSS mod. In addition to one friend doing initial work, another has talked to me about wanting to modify and update the current models.

It's these guys who will get all of credit for how the NSS cars look, and it appears to be in great hands.

Nothing new to report on the physics side of things. Stepping away for a bit to avoid burnout and to reinvigorate myself with ideas and solutions.

July 28 Updates

New springs are in and finalized, as well as spring compression distance. Now experimenting with ride heights and spring multipliers.

Decompressed

I took the weekend off from all mod work so that I was able to really decompress and think about this spring situation. Glad to report that I was able to come up with a solution and will be applying it in the coming days. I've also received some information about spring height requirements that will be added into the mod. The future is currently looking very bright!