GTR2: Difference between revisions

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* '''When selecting opponents and the number turns red, it means the game has run out of unique cars and it will start duplicating cars.'''
* '''When selecting opponents and the number turns red, it means the game has run out of unique cars and it will start duplicating cars.'''
** You normally have enough cars that you’ll still get a good race. The only situation might be in cases like the BMW M3 GTR where you only have two unique cars, and so only two unique AI, which means there might not be enough variety in the field to have a realistic feeling race.
** You normally have enough cars that you’ll still get a good race. The only situation might be in cases like the BMW M3 GTR where you only have two unique cars, and so only two unique AI, which means there might not be enough variety in the field to have a realistic feeling race.


=== Quick Tips ===
=== Quick Tips ===
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=== Tips and Tricks ===
=== Tips and Tricks ===
==== iRacing-like Brake Sensitivity for Potentiometer Pedals (eg. G27) ====
If you’re used to iRacing and have potentiometer based pedals, like G27 pedals, you’re probably used to an iRacing default Brake Force Factor of 1.80x. In GTR2, and many other sims, brake sensitivity is linear and won’t feel like iRacing braking. You can achieve iRacing-like braking sensitivity by adjusting Brake Sensitivity in the in-game control options and lowering the value. Personally, based on my measurements, somewhere between 0-25% brake sensitivity is similar to iRacing braking progression judging by the in-game brake meter. Give it a try and use what you like best.
Note: I’m still testing, myself. It’s somewhere less than 50%, though, as 50% is linear in SimBin games.
If you don’t have potentiometer pedals, you may or may not want to adjust the brake sensitivity. I’ll assume you’re an advanced user, if you have these higher-end pedals, and you know what you want from them.
==== Use Auto-Clutch With Paddle Shifters ====
Use auto-clutch, available in the Realism settings, when making use of paddle shifters, otherwise shifts will be abrupt and cause wheel spin on up-shifting or lock-up on down-shifting.
==== Disable Auto-pit and AI Control ====
By default, your car will enter “auto pit” mode when you enter and exit the pits meaning AI controls your car until you exit the pits. Being used to driving the cars in pits, myself, I disable this:
* Edit your UserData PLR file
* Under “[ DRIVING AIDS ]” set:
** Autopit=”0″
** No AI Control=”1″ // AI never has control over car (except autopit)
==== Improve your driving by Turning up Tire Scrub and Tire Skid volume ====
Go ahead, turn up tire scrub and tire skin in the audio options and I think you’ll find it’s one more piece of information you can use to aid your driving around the track. I always find it helpful to match up the audio of slips and slides with the visuals and the force feedback.
==== Don’t skip sessions (causes AI bug). Use Time Acceleration, instead. ====
Don’t skip sessions. Use Time Acceleration.
Skipping can result in AI not setting laptimes and this results in randomly placed AI on the grid in addition to AI laptimes that don’t match the AI difficulty level set if you had run the session to completion instead of skipping.
Always time accelerate, never skip.
Use the Timing screen to make Time Acceleration go even faster.
==== Use High Shadows (Not Full Shadows) Option To Avoid Dark Screen Driving Through Shadows ====
In some mod cars, driving through shadows will make the entire car interior dark, too dark, including the windshield which should be the normal outside brightness.
Use High Shadows instead of Full to fix this. With High it acts as though you haven’t driven through a shadowed area at all, which isn’t great, but it’s a better alternative.


== Known Issues ==
== Known Issues ==

Revision as of 08:58, 19 February 2024

GTR2.jpg

GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game

This article is currently a work in progress as it is being ported over from my Secrets of GTR2 page.

GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game is a sports car racing simulator developed by Blimey! Games and SimBin Studios (later Sector3 Studios) for the x86 PC and is a sequel to GTR. Since its release in September 2006, it has received widespread acclaim. The game simulates the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Championship racing series. (Wikipedia)

Why a game from 2006?

GTR2 was/is one of those rare occasions when a game developer is given the opportunity to produce a game as it was meant to be. All the features you see in one game or another but never all in one game these days was actually included in one game: GTR2. And it's still being updated by modders to this day!

Still Beloved and Critically Acclaimed

Here's some links that may give you a better understanding of why a game from 2006 still holds its own:

Community

GTR2 still has an active community mostly around forums and modding but also some still existing online racing leagues.

Defunct:

Getting Started

Getting the Game

Steam is probably your best bet. Head over to the GTR2 store page and pick up the game. It's pretty cheap but offers amazing bang for buck.

Windows XP/Vista/7/10/11+ Compatibility

Try GTR2 first. If GTR2 is running fine for you, no need to worry about this section.

Follow this GTR2 and Windows 11 thread for more comments from other people including generic tips for 'how to run older software on newer windows'.

Compatibility Modes:

  • Steam
    • GTR2Config.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
    • Do NOT set a Windows Compatibility mode on either GTR2Config.exe or GTR2.exe
  • Steam with Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
    • Do NOT set either Run As Administrator or Windows Compatibility modes on GTR2.exe or GTR2Config.exe
    • If using DXVK: GTR2Config.exe functionality can be replaced by new GTR2.exe command-line switches and dxvk.conf
    • If you're having any issues check the manual for more details
  • Disc
    • GTR2Config.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
    • GTR2.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
    • GTR2.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Set "Windows XP SP3" Compatibility mode

GTR2 and Windows 10/11+

You may need to install additional DirectX 9 June 2010 Redistributables (direct link).

If you're really stuck

There's some registry changes for GTR2.exe that may help.

This DXVK Integration > Troubleshooting section may also help in the Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin manual.

StarForce Disc Protection DRM

The following applies for Disc versions:

  • StarForce Disc Protection was used at least for the Disc version of GT Legends but it is no longer compatible with Windows 7/8/10+ (see comments here)
  • Never install Official SimBin 1.1: Use No-CD and EXEs from GTR2 and GTL HQ Anniversary Patches
  • Never run EXEs from Disc or Demo downloads
  • You can still use the Disc version after GTR2 HQ Anniversary Patch is installed (May also apply to GTL/GT Legends)

Minimum GTR2

You can think of Minimum GTR2 as my setup specification for a minimum acceptable vanilla GTR2 experience. -Shovas

These are not strictly necessary to enjoy a vanilla GTR2. You can try vanilla GTR2 and come back to this later.

NVIDIA Profile Settings

tl;dr

  • Antialiasing compatibility: 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)
  • Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS + 4x MS]
  • Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
  • Anisotropic filtering mode: User-defined / Off
  • Anisotropic filtering setting: 16x
  • Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Clamp(*)
  • Texture filtering – Quality: High quality(*)

Considerations

  • I run in Windowed mode, not Fullscreen mode, that may matter I’m not sure.
  • Ensure GTR2’s Video Options (GTR2Config.exe) has Full-Screen Antialiasing -> Disabled (Unchecked)

NVIDIA Control Panel

  • 3D Settings > Manage 3D Setting > Global Settings:
    • Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

NVIDIA Profile Inspector

Download NVIDIA Inspector, virus scan at virustotal.com, and install.

Run nvidiaInspector.exe, click the Start Profile Inspector button (right-middle), find GTR 2 in the Profiles drop-down, and then set and apply these settings:

  • Reset to NVIDIA Profile Defaults
  • Compatibility
    • Antialiasing compatibility: 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)
  • Sync and Refresh
    • Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1
  • Antialiasing
    • Antialiasing – Mode: Override any application setting
      • Disable in-game Antialiasing using GTR2Config.exe
    • Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS + 4x MS]
    • Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
  • Texture Filtering
    • Anisotropic filtering mode: User-defined / Off
    • Anisotropic filtering setting: 16x
    • Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Clamp(*)
    • Texture filtering – Quality: High quality(*)
  • Common
    • Ambient Occlusion setting: High quality(*)
    • Ambient Occlusion usage: Enabled(*)

(*)I couldn’t quickly visually confirm these were actually doing what they should be doing but left them enabled anyway

Caution: Antialiasing can decrease performance. Reduce the setting if it slows down GTR2 too much for you.

4GB Patch

You can allow GTR2 to use up to 4GB of memory (it was developed with a 2GB limit). You may find this necessary as you add more and more mods with new assets that take up more and more memory. So you might as well just do it now.

Simply download the 4GB Patch tool, run it, find your GTR2.exe file, and press OK. You’re done!

The 4GB patch appears to have successfully applied on the GTR2 NO CD patch GTR2.exe file I discussed above under the “Fixing Missing Original Content” heading.

Note: If you happen to overwrite your GTR2.exe file then you will need to run this again. For example, if you rerun the US/EU or NoCD patches mentioned earlier.

Skip Intro Videos

These are always annoying, here’s how to stop them (from PC Gaming Wiki.com GTR2 article):

  1. Open Windows Explorer and find your Steam Library folder for the game: steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\MovieFiles
  2. Rename (or delete) these files: Intro.bik, GameIntro.bik, SimBin.bik

Defviews.cam Tweaks (Draw Distance, Level of Detail, etc.)

Increase Draw Distance

You can increase the Draw Distance by editing UserData\defviews.cam and changing the second parameter of ClipPlanes to a larger value. I use 100000.000000. For comparison, the original values vary from 500 to 2500, and HQ Anniversary Patch uses 33000.

Caution: On old hardware, this may lower FPS, but on any kind of modern hardware I don’t think you’ll notice.

Increase Level of Detail

Increasing LODMultiplier can increase the Level of Detail. I use a value of 8.00000. In my experience, the original LODMultiplier values (1.0) causes visually noticeable and jarring loading in of high or low detail car models depending on how far away they are from you.

Caution: On old hardware, this may lower FPS, but on any kind of modern hardware I don’t think you’ll notice.

Force Feedback Settings

I highly recommend the SHO Competition FFB mod which crowd-sources wheel-specific FFB parameters and provides PLR files for popular wheels.

Click here to download SHO Competition FFB

This is a little bit obvious, we all go pretty quickly for setting up force feedback, but I felt the need to emphasize this because the default force feedback options are, I feel, not enough to bring GTR2’s force feedback closer to modern standards.

You will most likely have to edit your UserData PLR file to get the right feel of your force feedback.

The HQ Anniversary Patch provides new UI menus that give you access to more FFB tuning parameters than the default screens provided. They don’t provide access to the most important FFB tuning parameters, unfortunately. The only other method is, unfortunately, to edit the GTR2\UserData\User.PLR file.

So, for those reasons, see the SHO Competition FFB mod linked above.

High Resolution Mirrors

Mirrors are low resolution in GTR2 with no way to fix in-game. No worries, just download High Resolution Mirrors by Speed1 and drop MIRROR.BMP in your GameData\Teams folder. That’s it.

You can also extract MIRROR.BMP from the HQ Anniversary Patch by GTR233. It’s a bit more work but they might be newer, and there’s a 1K and 2K version, but honestly I can’t see much of a difference.

Modern GTR2

You can think of Modern GTR2 as my setup specification for a baseline modern GTR2 experience. -Shovas

GTR2 holds up remarkably well in the features department but shows its age in the level of quality we now expect of those features. Some things can be improved like textures, visual effects, sounds, even AI and new and improved cars and tracks, themselves.

Original Tracks Updates

HD Gloves and Suits

8K Beautiful Skies

Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin

I consider Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin that it comes with to be a critical part of a modern GTR2 experience.

Requires Steam GTR2 or HQ Anniversary Patch compatibility options

Crew Chief brings a voice spotter which the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enables but the plugin also provides other great fixes and features like graphics flicker fixes, use-all-cores-by-default, borderless windowed mode, various crash case fixes, VR support, gearbox enhancements, and a lot more and a lot more coming from the sounds of it.

Click here for the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin homepage with the latest details.

See the full list of features below.

Download and Install

Click here to download from the Crew Chief homepage and it will come with the latest release of the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin. The download link is in the middle of the page (“Download CrewChief for PC”).

Install Crew Chief, run it, select GTR2 under the “Game” heading, and click Properties:

  • Set “GTR 2 install path (text)” to your GTR2 folder path
    • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game” but yours might be different
  • Set “GTR 2 launch exe (text)” to your GTR2.exe path and file name
    • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\GTR2.exe” but yours might be different

Then you just click the Start Crew Chief button when you want to use it with GTR2.

You’ll know it’s working if you hear a voice when you get into the cockpit.

Features

As of October 6, 2022, Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enable and feature:

  • Crew Chief
    • Spotter with real voice call-outs for things like “car left/right”, time remaining, cars gaining from behind, etc. It’s extremely well done. Absolutely recommend downloading Crew Chief.
  • GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
    • Spotter Implementation and some Accuracy Customization
    • VR Support
    • Custom Rules
      • Customize various stock rules
      • Add DRS Rules
    • FFB Changes
      • Stationary Tyre Friction
      • Fix for losing FFB
      • Flat Spots
      • Dirt Pickup
    • Gearbox Changes
      • Lift-to-Shift
      • Antistall
      • Damage
      • Gear grinding on mis-shifts
    • Graphics Changes
      • Flicker fix
      • Borderless Windowed Mode (excellent implementation; feels native)
      • UI Squeeze for Triples and Ultrawide Screens
      • Wiper Animation
      • Backfire Effects
      • Improved Rain Reflection Quality
      • Improved Rain Reflection Performance
    • Motec Changes
      • Enhanced Motec (more information)
      • Additional Data Pages
      • Additional Data Page Unit Styles
    • Tire Enhancements
      • Separate Visual Tire Per Compound
    • DXVK Integration
      • “DXVK implements DX9 by using Vulkan. On some hardware, when used with GTR2 it improves framerate (especially in VR), memory usage and image quality.”
      • DXVK “SGSSAA”
        • “GTR2 specific DXVK fork supports AA form that looks similar to SGSSAA”
    • Memory Usage Optimizations
    • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Physics
      • A new physics thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 400hz, 800hz, 1600hz, and 3200hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
    • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Inputs/FFB
      • A new Inputs/FFB thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 200hz, 400hz, 800hz, or 1600hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
    • Additional Fixes
      • Always-on Fixes
        • Various crash case fixes
        • Optimized Framerate, memory usage, and image quality (on some hardware)
        • Reduce Headlight/Shadow Flicker (introduced with Steam GTR2)
        • Fix Missing rF1 Plugin API Telemetry Data
        • Enable Championship/Driving School Page Icons
        • Disable Use of My Documents for Game User Profile
        • Applies Changeable Weather Patch by Jstn
        • Add New Control Bindings In-Game Under Controls->Extra (scroll to bottom to view them)
      • Automatic Use-All-Cores-or-Some-CPU-Cores Setting for Improved FPS
      • VR Lens Flare Effect adjustment
      • Motion System Mode
      • Per-Car Settings File for Modders (mostly)
      • Per-Track Settings File

Custom HUD Overlays

Both SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays and the original XD Telemetry Overlays provide additional helpful HUD overlays that include things like Tyre Wear/Temps/Pressures, Leaderboard, and more.

Click here to download SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays (requires Steam GTR2.exe)

Click here to download XD Telemetry Overlays (requires Disc GTR2.exe or HQ Anniversary Patch fixed GTR2.exe)

Here’s some screenshots to illustrate (click to view full size):

  • SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays

    SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays

  • XD Telemetry Overlays

    XD Telemetry Overlays


And here’s a video to demonstrate SHO XD Style Telemetry Overlays:


Until recently, XD Telemetry Overlays was the de facto way to get tyre wear/temps/pressures and a leaderboard. It’s great and still provides exactly what you need but it also hasn’t been updated in a while, only provides a few overlays, and doesn’t work with the Steam GTR2.exe (not a problem if you use HQ Anniversary Patch which installs a compatible GTR2.exe).

The modern and up-to-date way to get add-on or custom overlays in sims is with SimHub. The SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays mod provides a collection of overlays reproducing the XD overlays, in the XD style, replacing original GTR2 HUD overlays, and adding new overlays.

Here’s a list of overlays included in SHO XD Style SimHub Overlays (as of June 2022):

  • Awareness Left/Right/Rear
  • Dash/Mini Dash/Mini Dash V(ertical)
  • Delta Bar
  • Lap Info
  • Leaderboard
  • Live Track Map
  • Pedals
  • Position Info
  • Radar
  • Relative Leaderboard
  • Splits/RSplits Info
  • Shift Light
  • Status Info
  • Tyres Temps/Pressures/Wear + Brake Temps + Oil/Water Temps

Repositioning Original XD Standings Box

Here’s an XD overlay tweak to the XD.INI file that repositions the Standings Box to top-left, to the right of the native Position dialog. This prevents the Standings Box from getting in the way of the rearview mirror. Here’s the tweak: StandingsPosX=370 and StandingsPosY=0. To reduce the number of entries in the Standings Box, so it takes up less space, set StandingsPlayersVisible=7. I find this improves the layout and frees up the screen for where you really want to look while you’re racing.

Repositioning Original XD Tire Temps (Motec) Box

I found the default (automatic) position of the XD Tire Temps (Motec) box covered the flags (on 1920×1080) that show up from time to time so here’s a list of alternative positions for 1920×1080 resolution using the HQ Anniverary Patch Power & Glory 3 (PNG3) HUD – Use these as examples for how to move them when using different HUDs.

  • PNG3 HUD: Top-left (covers flags), Scale=100, MotecPosX=auto (20?), MotecPosY=auto (50?)
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=100, MotecPosX=1670, MotecPosY=725
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=90, MotecPosX=1690, MotecPosY=700
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-right, Scale=80, MotecPosX=1720, MotecPosY=775
  • PNG3 HUD: Center-left, Scale=80, MotecPosX=550, MotecPosY=870
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=100, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=670
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=90, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=695
  • PNG3 HUD: Bottom-left, Scale=80, MotecPosX=20, MotecPosY=720

HQ Anniversary Patch

HQ Anniverary Patch is a go-to drop-in solution to modernize GTR2 with just one mod. I, personally, copy&paste my GTR2 folders so that I have Vanilla GTR2, Minimum GTR2, Modern GTR2, and HQ Anniversary Patch GTR2 installations that I can run separately whenever I wish.

Click here to download HQ Anniversary Patch

Notes:

  • There are 2 parts to download (as of June 2022)
  • Requires latest [7-zip.org 7zip] to extract. You could need to open the first archive in 7-zip and extract: 7-zip is smart enough to extract all parts at once.

Here’s the mod description:

This GTR2 HQ Anniversary PATCH represents 6 years of work (nearly 20 000 FILES!) and includes all the necessary MODS/PATCHES for GTR2 plus tons of HQ textures. There are 2 games in 1, first the default 2003-2004 game with stock cars and tracks which get only few textures updates, second the HQ Cars&Tracks (with “HQ” prefix in menu) which get ALL the fixes/patches, more HQ textures plus exclusive graphics (both 2D/3D) : indeed, my will is to keep original game untouched to avoid online mismatch on internet and to see all the work done so far in this HQ Anniversary Patch when you compare both.

Go ahead and get it. Don’t even think twice. It’s that’s good. If you want to keep your vanilla install then just copy&paste your GTR2 folder, install the mod, then run GTR2.exe whenever you want, and then you’ll have both vanilla and HQ versions.

In-game

Game Settings

Field of View (FOV)

GTR2’s default FOV (field of view) shows you a large amount of your cockpit but it’s not realistic and can be a disadvantage in terms of judging speed, distance, and general timing. You will almost certainly be faster with correct FOV because you’ll be better able to judge speed, distance and timing.

Need convincing? Try watching this classic Empty Box video on why you would adjust your field of view.

If you use HQ Anniversary Patch your FOVs will be updated for you, and you probably won’t need to change anything, but otherwise you can do so manually in the GTR2\UserData\defviews.cam file as described here.

If you find you need to, tweak the field of view somewhat wider than default.

As a good rule of thumb, you want your field of view to include your driver-side mirror and about half of your rear-view mirror.

For those with head tracking, such as TrackIR, Tobii, or VR, bring your FOV so taht you can see half of your driver-side mirror and half of your rear-view mirror.

Field of View (FOV) Calculators

The old projectimmersion.com fov calculator is sadly defunct but I'll keep the example here to give you a point of reference for whatever calculators remain, as they all put out the same values.

The Project Immersion.com FOV calculator is a handy site to calculate your correct FOV from the size of your monitors and how far away you sit. The “vFOV%” value it calculates a factor which should be applied against the default vFOV value in the GTR2\UserData\defviews.cam file: 

LocalCam=COCKPIT // Inside View
{
  Fov=(112.0, 62.0) // Change 62.0 to the vFOV% value
  ...
}

ProjectImmersion.com says my GTR2 vFOV% is 40% so that means I should change 62.0 to 40.0. Try it out. I adjusted mine from the suggested value. You probably will, too.

Note! Select Race 07, GTR EVO (vFOV%) from the FOV Type drop-down for use with GTR2.

Seating Position

While not as important as FOV, one thing I've found handy is setting FOV about right and then using seat adjustment to bring the seat forward until the bottom edge of my screen is about in the center of the wheel. In other words, I move in until I can see only the top half of the brand logo in the center of the wheel).

Combined with FOV, this gives a decently immersive cockpit field of view experience, in my opinion.

Wheel Rotation and Wheel Lock

You’re probably on 900+ degree wheel, like a G27, T300, ClubSport, or modern Direct Drive wheel, so when you get into the GTR2 GT-style cars it will feel like you’re driving a bus: You’ll feel like you need to turn the wheel more than should be needed to get the car to turn the right amount – This is a wheel rotation and wheel lock setting issue.

It’s probably best to set a 540degree wheel rotation in your wheel profiles for GTR2. Then, in-game, the default 15degree wheel lock will feel better, but if it doesn’t try 18-22 degree wheel lock, give or take a few degrees. Somewhere in that range will be a 540degree sweet spot.

GTR2’s native in-game wheel rotation is 240degrees. I now set my real wheel to 240degrees to experience the game as it was designed. This makes things like default steering locks, virtual wheel rotation, and general handling feel much more in-sync and cohesive.

Controls and Hidden Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are some non-obvious controls and hidden keyboard shortcuts (also available at this Race Department post):

Cameras

  • Insert: change onboard view with motec still working
  • Home: change view of the car in different angles arround it. (motec doesnt work)
  • Page Up: swing cam, view the car from the back or any side you want just by pressin in the numpad 8,2,4,6 for direction , 7 and 9 for distance , 5 to reset the swing cam angle (exactly behind the car). Also if in a replay dont want to se the car moving , keep pressed one of 7,9,2.
    • Please note that in replays motec and gauges won’t work.
  • Page Down: view the car from the track cameras
  • Delete: make disappear the “Replay” overlay and the time (seconds) references while watching a replay.
  • Up, Down, Right, Left arrow keys: when viewing a replay, these will rewind, fast-forward, superfast and pause the replay.
  • – or + (in numpad): change the car in focus.
  • 0 and . (in numpad) slow and very slow motion in replay (press and hold one of them each time).
  • Numpad Enter: return the view to your own car.
  • Left Shift: switch view to bumper cam.

Pressing Space Bar will skip the “Grid walk” that the camera makes before the start of an offline race.

Driving Assists (Function Keys)

  • F1 – Steering
  • F2 – Braking
  • F3 – Stability
  • F4 – Spin Recovery
  • F5 – Damage On/Off
  • F6 – Automatic Shifting
  • F7 – Traction Control
  • F8 – Anti-lock brakes
  • F9 – Autoclutch On/Off

FFB

  • ALT-F: resets the Force Feedback to default values. (note: this will revert any custom FFB settings you may have placed)

Cockpit

  • Left Mouse Button Click and Drag Forward/Backward: adjusts the horizontal seat positioning in cockpit view.
  • Right Mouse Button Click and Drag Forward/Backward: adjusts the vertical seat positioning in cockpit view.

Field of View (FOV)

  • CTRL + Left Mouse Button Click and Drag Forward/Backward: Adjusted the Field of View (FOV) for all views.

Misc

  • F12: screenshot, .BMP image file in the installation folder.
    • you can also press PrintScreen but you have to open mspaint or some other image editor to see it
  • Ctrl + F: show framerate in the game.
  • Ctrl + G: Play the game in slow motion, like slowing the time.
  • K: accelerates time in game.
  • TAB: display multiplayer names

Defviews.cam (Texture Quality, etc.)

I wasn’t able to notice a change using negative values so it may be that the default value (0.0) is the optimum value, here.

Higher quality textures can be made to load in at farther distances by decreasing MipmapLODBias in UserData\defviews.cam. The effect is most noticeable on cars when increasing above 0.0: Textures look blurrier at closer distances.

Mipmaps are supposed to be about higher or lower quality textures but to be honest the effect doesn’t look like loading in higher or lower quality textures, it just looks like textures becoming blurrier at a distance. Maybe it’s just hard to tell.

Force Feedback (FFB)

SHO Competition FFB

Consider #RealFeel FFB before trying this.

See the earlier #Force Feedback Settings section.

SHO Competition FFB for GTR2 is a mod that crowd-sources wheel-specific FFB parameters.

Click here for SHO Competition FFB for GTR2

Here are the wheels currently tuned (as of June 2022):

  • AccuForce V1: User - AccuForce V1 by Shovas.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
  • CSL Elite: User - CSL Elite by ToddMcDanger.PLR
  • CSL DD: User - CSL DD by ToddMcDanger.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
  • CSW 2.5: User - CSW 2.5 by Strenski.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
  • Driving Force GT: User - Driving Force GT by BlackMarketBlood.PLR
  • Fanatec DD1: User - Fanatec DD1 by The Iron Wolf.PLR
  • G920: User - G920 by Jean-Paul Sarti.PLR
  • Simucube 2 Pro: User - Simucube 2 Pro by Shovas.PLR [Wheel Software Profile Available]
  • T300: User - T300 by Paokkerkir.PLR
  • TC-PC Racer: User - TC-PC Racer by Machiavelo.PLR
  • Thrustmaster T-GT: User - Thrustmaster T-GT by WesBrook77

Shovas Custom FFB Files (Obsolete)

Before I created SHO Competition FFB, for crowd-sourced wheel-specific FFB parameters, I published “Custom FFB Files”. I no longer recommend or support these as they have been far surpassed by SHO Competition FFB.

RealFeel FFB

I am increasingly leaning towards RealFeel FFB as the universal drop-in solution for GTR2 FFB as it requires less tuning, simplified global and per-car configuration, tyre-at-rest physcs, and potentially has better physics-to-ffb implementation vs original game FFB including SHO Competition FFB.

RealFeel FFB is enabled by Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin by The Iron Wolf. I highly recommend it. -Shovas

Guidelines for Tuning GTR2 Force Feedback

  • Tune one FFB parameter at a time
  • Do NOT use Vsync or Frame rate capping
    • Frame rate matters to GTR2 FFB. The FFB update loop is tied to the frame rate so a 50fps FFB experience will feel differently than a 100fps FFB experience. The more FPS you have the better FFB will feel.
  • Change as little as possible to avoid variables throwing off your tuning
    • Save a race session and keep using it every time you exit and enter GTR2 after changing FFB parameters
    • Use the same track
    • Use the same car
    • Use the same setup – including things like tire types, pressures, etc.
  • Certain effects play off each other:
    • Grip Weight vs Grip Factor
      • Reducing/Increasing Grip Weight can Reduce/Increase the Grip Factor effect so you may need to make an opposite adjustment to Grip Factor. The opposite can also happen: Changing Grip Factor might require a need to adjust Grip Weight.
  • Use bi-section searching to tune FFB parameters to reliably dial in your settings and help avoid bias and false leads.

Force Feedback Tweaking Guide for Simbin Games by Julien Regnard

A helpful guide (plain text backup link) with a little bit better descriptions of FFB parameters in your PLR file.

Of special note in this file is the section at the end titled “3. Tweaking FFB parameters”. His baseline FFB PLR values are really educational and informative to experience and especially to use as a baseline to experiment with values one by one.

Please note, while I find the guide incredibly helpful, I find some of Julien’s advice counter-intuitive, at the least:

  • Friction vs Damper:
    • Julien recommends a negative Friction “to be sure that the wheel moves fast when required by the car movements” but the point of friction to simulate some of the drag on the steering column. Negative friction defeats that purpose, so I’m left confused. Maybe this makes sense on older/lesser wheels but I just can’t see how this makes sense on modern wheels. I ended up at zero or small positive values for friction.

Helpful Guide for Advanced Force Feedback Tweaking

Check out this guide, Force Feedback Tweaking Guide for SimBin Games, for helpful descriptions and tips for advanced force feedback tweaking using the UserData PLR files.

Pro Tip: What do the FFB Effects Levels mean?

  • Low: Steering + Grip
  • Medium: Adds Friction + Damper + Rumble strips
  • High: Adds Brake vibration
  • Full: Adds Throttle vibration + Steering vibration

Rumble Strips Pushing/Pulling the Wrong Way

I noticed rumble strips were pulling me off track instead of tending to push me back on track. Luckily, I noticed an FFB setting:

Update 2017-11-10: I believe I was wrong about the feel of this. I now feel there’s some legitimate drag to larger, more raised kerbs (eg. at Spa) and some kerbs lift your rear tire enough to lose grip on the backend thus acting like sliding on the backend and feeling like being “pulled” off the track. Consider reducing Spring and/or Fast Bump/Rebound to deal with this. My Pull Factor FFB setting is now the default 1.5.

  • FFB rumble strip pull factor=”-0.890625″ // How strongly wheel pulls right/left when running over a rumble strip. Suggested range: -1.5 to 1.5.
    • Looks like this should be negative: -1.50000
      • My bisection search: -1.5, -0.75, -1.125, -0.9375, -0.84375, -0.890625
    • Positive vs negative could be wheel dependent. So you’ll have to test to make sure.
    • You may want to tweak this value. It’s a little strong feeling for me.

The GTR2 Force Feedback Engineer

Inspired by the Project Cars 2 Race Engineer, which provides an in-game question and answer interface to solving car setup issues, I thought I’d document the same kind of thing for GTR2 from a Force Feedback perspective.

In GTR2, and probably most early SimBin titles, the most important Force Feedback tuning parameters are not exposed by in-game settings. These settings include Force Exponent, Grip Weight, Grip Factor, Friction Coefficient, and Damper Coefficient. You’ll need to edit your UserData\USER\ PLR file to change these settings.

Engineer: What’s the problem?

Driver: Well,

  • I can’t tell when I’m losing grip. The wheel doesn’t go light enough when I’m losing grip.
    • Increase Grip Weight
      • Increases Grip forces, which decreases Steering forces at the same time, which increases wheel weight loss due to grip loss and can help you identify when grip has been lost because the wheel feels lighter.
  • The wheel goes too light when I’m losing grip.
    • Decrease Grip Weight
      • Decreases Grip forces, which increases Steering forces at the same time, which reduces wheel weight loss due to grip loss and helps keep the wheel forces stronger.
  • The wheel feels loose or force feedback is weak on straights, in corners, everywhere in general.
    • Decrease Force Exponent
      • Compresses forces over a narrower range, so more total force, so that forces are compressed around center causing the wheel to feel tighter or forces to feel stronger.
  • The wheel feels tight/jittery around center on straights.
    • Increase Force Exponent
      • Evens out forces over a wider range, so less total force, so that forces are not all compressed around center causing high forces or spikes which you feel as tightness or jitteriness.
  • There’s too much centering spring feeling in the wheel.
    • Increase Force Exponent
      • Evens out forces over a wider ranger, so less total force, so that all combined forces do not cause too much force towards the center.
  • The wheel force feedback goes ‘numb’ during hard or high speed cornering. I can’t feel anything.
    • Increase Force Exponent
      • Evens out forces over a wider ranger, so less total force, so that all combined forces do not overwhelm the wheel and cause ‘clipping’ (ie. max force reached so can’t feel any more forces, it just feels dead) and this should allow forces, while somewhat weaker, to still be felt.
  • I can’t feel the road, such as bumps, lines, or contours.
    • Increase Grip Weight
      • Increases Grip forces which are affected by road bumps, lines, and contours, so your wheel will emphasize greater and lesser weight feel that help identify road feel through force feedback.
  • I can’t catch the car when the backend loses grip and slides out.
    • Increase Grip Weight
      • Increases Grip forces, which lowers Steering forces at the same time, which provides emphasized grip information through force feedback that should help you catch backend slides more easily.
    • Decrease Grip Factor
      • Decreases Grip forces from the front tires, which increases Grip forces from the rear tires at the same time, which provides emphasized rear grip information through force feedback that should help you catch backend slides more easily.
  • There’s not enough resistance when I turn the wheel, in general.
    • Increase Friction Coefficient
      • Increases constant friction forces so the wheel feels heavier to turn. Real steering columns have inherent friction so tuning friction can make it feel more realistic.
  • There’s too much resistance when I turn the wheel, in general.
    • Decrease Friction Coefficient
      • Decreases constant friction forces so that the wheel feels lighter to turn. Real steering columns have inherent friction so tuning friction can make it feel more realistic.
  • The wheel rotates too quickly during some forces, like there’s not enough resistance. It doesn’t behave like a real wheel.
    • Increase Damper Coefficient
      • Increases the fluid dampening applied to forces so it will spin up more slowly
  • The wheel rotates too slowly during some forces, like there’s too much resistance. It doesn’t behave like a real wheel.
    • Decrease Damper Coefficient
      • Decreases the fluid dampening applied to forces so the wheel will spin up more quickly.
  • Wheel forces feel like they’re clipping in high ffb strength scenarios but I’m not even at max FFB strength on the wheel.
    • Decrease Steer Force Output Max
      • Reduces the amount of strength applied to steering forces and frees up FFB strength headroom for road bumps preventing force clipping in high ffb strength scenarios like high speed corners.
      • This is known as ‘soft clipping’ where your wheel FFB strength has sufficient strength but the in-game calculations are overwhelming their own maximum FFB strength output. This results in numb steering forces taking up 100% of the in-game FFB output and providing no room for road bump forces which provide feeling on the road.
      • Caution: Damper and Friction will become increasingly apparent as you decrease Steer Force Output Max and you will want to adjust them accordingly.

Performance

Improve Frame Rate by Making GTR2 Use More Cores For Better Performance

By enabling GTR2 to use all cores, you can significantly increase your FPS, perhaps by more than 2x. It's an absolute must.

The Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin enables using all cores by default. Otherise, use the free Bill's Process Manager or the paid Process Lasso (I paid for it, I think it's worth it for other old games like GT Legends, Race 07, etc.).

There are other applications that do the same thing, too. Try a google for “window cpu affinity tool” if you’re looking for a different one.

How to use Process Lasso with GTR2:

  • Start Process Lasso
  • Click Options menu > “Configure default CPU affinities …”
    • Process name: GTR2.exe
    • CPUs: All
    • Click “Add to list” button
    • Click OK
  • Click Options menu > “Configure default CPU priorities”
    • Name match: GTR2.exe
    • Select “High” from the priority drop-down
    • Click “Add to list” button
    • Click OK
  • Start GTR2 and enjoy better performance!

Remember: Process Lasso must be running before you launch GTR2.

Note: Some have said more than two cores assigned to GTR2.exe doesn’t seem to make a difference. I’ve seen GTR2 use 4 cores, myself, but it certainly gets the biggest boost from 2, then less of an improvement as you add cores. I just enable them all for convenience.

Mods - Modders - Modding

Resources

Modders tend to congregate in various forums around the internet. See #Community above for a list of sites, what they offer, and if modders tend to hang out there.

Discords

Modders

Here's just some of the modders I've interacted with over the years.

Mods

Tip: Use VirusTotal.com when downloading files to quickly and automatically scan a file with all (or at least most) of the anti-virus and anti-malware solutions out there.

Race Department.com is one of the best, cleanest, and most professional of the sim racing sites I know of that also host downloads section. I highly recommend registering for ~$3/month or ~$15/year for unlimited downloads and removing all ads, amongst a host of other perks.

Other sites that curate mods and other downloads include eSport-Racing.de, Koelschbierbude.de, and Festbierbude (GTR2 Power & Glory Mod Focused).

Trackaholics and European Endurance Center have dedicated Release forums where modders regularly post new and updated releases.

Check out the #Community sites for more details.

Mod Package Managers

Mod package managers enable one-click install and uninstall operations for mods with the same folder structure as the GTR2 folder. Most modders do this but if not just re-create their archive with the proper folder structure and it will work.

Running Mods

Generally speaking, the process of adding cars, tracks, or mods usually just involves a download and then copy&pasting the files into your GTR2 folder. Usually, it’s pretty straight-forward, although sometimes authors don’t use a consistent folder structure and you may have to figure out where files go (ex. track mods often give you the files but not the folder structure – track mod files should go in GTR2\GameData\Locations\FolderName).

Modding

In 2024, the best places to get into GTR2 modding are probably Race Department, Trackaholics, and European Endurance Center.

Modding Tools

Note: Tools here will eventually link to Simwiki generic tool pages as applicable.

Modding Help

Racing

Rain

Trivia

Did You Know?

GTR2 is deeper than you might think: This is a section for trivia about the things you might not know even if you’ve been using GTR2 for a long time.

  • Setting Changeable Rainfall Enables More Realistic Weather
    • Requires Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
    • Setting Rainfall to None will use a clear, sunny day and the temperature will progress from 20C to 30C every session, every race, every time. Set Rainfall to Changeable to enable more realistic weather based on the location. Eg. Overcast at Donington, Sunny at Barcelona, etc. These are based on weather probabilities for the geographic location of the track.
  • GTR2 suports 180hz+ FFB refresh rate
    • GTR2’s FFB update loop is tied to your frame rate. So, the more FPS you get the more refined your FFB experience will be. Disable vsync to start. Then, allow GTR2 to use all CPU cores by using the free Bill’s Process Manager or nagware Process Lasso (I ended up purchasing this and can recommend). If you’re still not satisfied, SHO Competition FFB provides crowdsourced FFB profiles for many wheels and reviewers say it really brings GTR2 FFB to life.
  • GTR2 has fully animated feet
    • The right foot moves in and out on the gas pedal as you would expect. The left foot brakes but it will also move over to the clutch and go in and out there. Here’s one I didn’t expect, when slowing down for a corner the right foot moves over to the brake pedal while the left foot stays on the clutch…for heel and toe I guess?
  • GTR2 can use external sounds in the cockpit
    • External sounds often sound better to me than the muffled normal cockpit sounds. Edit your PLR and set: Only External Engine Sounds=”1″ // Always use external engine sounds regardless of current view
  • GTR2 is hard-wired to 240 degrees ffb wheel rotation
    • So unless you have a 240deg physical wheel the in-game animation won’t match your physical wheel. Find out why you might want to consider setting your wheel to 240deg besides getting matching animation over on this Race Department post.
  • When selecting opponents and the number turns red, it means the game has run out of unique cars and it will start duplicating cars.
    • You normally have enough cars that you’ll still get a good race. The only situation might be in cases like the BMW M3 GTR where you only have two unique cars, and so only two unique AI, which means there might not be enough variety in the field to have a realistic feeling race.

Quick Tips

These are quick tips that can be said in simple ways. More involved tips can be found in the Tips and Tricks section.

  • Faster Time Acceleration
    • In the garage in a race session, time acceleration will go faster on the Timing screen. So, if you’re trying to time accelerate to see AI lap times and/or rubber in the track, try using the Timing screen instead of the cockpit feed screen.
  • Timing Screen Laptimes Details
    • In the garage in the Timing tab, right-clicking on a driver will show their individual laptime details.
  • Choose Your Own Starting Position
    • Unselecting all qualifying sessions, when setting up a race, will enable the Grid Position selector so you can manually select where you want to be on the grid.

Tips and Tricks

iRacing-like Brake Sensitivity for Potentiometer Pedals (eg. G27)

If you’re used to iRacing and have potentiometer based pedals, like G27 pedals, you’re probably used to an iRacing default Brake Force Factor of 1.80x. In GTR2, and many other sims, brake sensitivity is linear and won’t feel like iRacing braking. You can achieve iRacing-like braking sensitivity by adjusting Brake Sensitivity in the in-game control options and lowering the value. Personally, based on my measurements, somewhere between 0-25% brake sensitivity is similar to iRacing braking progression judging by the in-game brake meter. Give it a try and use what you like best.

Note: I’m still testing, myself. It’s somewhere less than 50%, though, as 50% is linear in SimBin games.

If you don’t have potentiometer pedals, you may or may not want to adjust the brake sensitivity. I’ll assume you’re an advanced user, if you have these higher-end pedals, and you know what you want from them.

Use Auto-Clutch With Paddle Shifters

Use auto-clutch, available in the Realism settings, when making use of paddle shifters, otherwise shifts will be abrupt and cause wheel spin on up-shifting or lock-up on down-shifting.

Disable Auto-pit and AI Control

By default, your car will enter “auto pit” mode when you enter and exit the pits meaning AI controls your car until you exit the pits. Being used to driving the cars in pits, myself, I disable this:

  • Edit your UserData PLR file
  • Under “[ DRIVING AIDS ]” set:
    • Autopit=”0″
    • No AI Control=”1″ // AI never has control over car (except autopit)

Improve your driving by Turning up Tire Scrub and Tire Skid volume

Go ahead, turn up tire scrub and tire skin in the audio options and I think you’ll find it’s one more piece of information you can use to aid your driving around the track. I always find it helpful to match up the audio of slips and slides with the visuals and the force feedback.

Don’t skip sessions (causes AI bug). Use Time Acceleration, instead.

Don’t skip sessions. Use Time Acceleration.

Skipping can result in AI not setting laptimes and this results in randomly placed AI on the grid in addition to AI laptimes that don’t match the AI difficulty level set if you had run the session to completion instead of skipping.

Always time accelerate, never skip.

Use the Timing screen to make Time Acceleration go even faster.

Use High Shadows (Not Full Shadows) Option To Avoid Dark Screen Driving Through Shadows

In some mod cars, driving through shadows will make the entire car interior dark, too dark, including the windshield which should be the normal outside brightness.

Use High Shadows instead of Full to fix this. With High it acts as though you haven’t driven through a shadowed area at all, which isn’t great, but it’s a better alternative.

Known Issues

Troubleshooting

Credits

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