Online racing made (a little more) real
Text: Kyle Kock.
Source: This article is taken from the August 2011 issue of Car Magazine.
The most eagerly anticipated racing game of the year provided the necessary thrills for CAR’s own 24 Hours of Le Mans
It was eagerly anticipated by stalwarts of the CAR Liqui Moly Virtual Le Mans challenge and gamers alike ever since developers Polyphony Digital announced that the wheels had started to turn on the the fifth instalment of the Gran Turismo series…
In the past, Virtual Le Mans had to use multiple PlayStation2s with GT4 and the simultaneous running of individual races. Not only that, but GT4 was limited to running the full 24 hours in broad daylight with Al (artificial intelligence) opponents as chosen by the simulator. GT5, however, offers the opportunity to race during the day and night, as well as the prospect of variable weather conditions.
The switch to the latest version left us with some logistical issues for this year’s event. Obviously, the teams would have to progress rapidly to pass all the licence tests to unlock Circuit de la Sarthe (the track that hosts the real race). And not only that, they would have only a few months to reach these milestones. This limited the event to hardcore gamers … the guys who eat, sleep and work. And then play in every other spare moment. The CAR team decided that the basic requirements for entry this year would be enough credits to be able to purchase at least two P1 Class racers (in this case, a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP).
The real kick of course, came from finally seeing all the teams compete on the same track, at the same time. That capability was thanks to one PlayStation3 acting as a host on the PlayStation Network, the creation of an event with the requisite restrictions and settings (weather completely variable, maximum damage and surface realism) and inviting individual PSN accounts chosen by the team. Once invited, teams were allowed a “free run”, essentially qualifying for the front of the grid.
Because we could host only seven teams this year, 10 entries were required to attend qualifying on the evening of June 1 – all from the comfort of their homes or wherever they could get their hands on the best-possible Internet connection.
After a few hours of head-bashing and getting around technical issues, the preliminary results were in. Le Mans Challenge veterans and champions in 2007 and ’08, GT Worx (John Cowley, Junaid Allie and Ian Kolbe), had made the grade, as well as 2009 winners M Technique (Iftikar Dalvie, Nasief Dalvie, Ashraf Enus). As expected, defending champions Obox (David Perel, Marc Perel and Werner Lotter) made a good showing, as well as D1S (Ernest Page, Braam Peens and Brenton Gregory). GT Worx Academy (James Cowley, Clint Du Plessis and Justin Daniels) was named JJC Racing for this year and the newest team of the bunch was SynOptic GT (Nezaam Cariem, Badroodien Bergstedt and Pieter Kellerman). The CAR team comprised of editor, Hannes Oosthuizen, Kyle Kock and Feerhan Fredericks – kindly lent to us by team FFR (who failed to qualify this year).
With qualifying out of the way, it was once again time to iron out the finer details. Because a 4 mb Internet line (Canal Walk’s current infrastructure) would be unsuitable for hosting this year’s event, we opted to purchase three 4 mb lines. GT5s new graphics engine allows for the use of high-definition television sets, on which the game’s visuals look amazing. For this task, we used seven 42-inch monitors.
After last-minute preparations, a prolonged drivers’ briefing outlining the finer details of sporting behaviour and a final qualifying run, the teams all purchased a brand-new 908 HDi FAP. The event kicked off at 15h00 to the sight of the real Le Mans where two Audi R18s lead a duo of Peugeots into the first few corners. At the virtual event, the first two hours were pretty much touch and go – with almost nothing in it between the teams.
Things became interesting halfway during the second stint, however, as the first few drops of rain started appearing on the windscreens of the 908s. GTSs realism factor allows for at least 20 minutes to pass before the track surface really becomes greasy – particularly on the public road just after Mulsanne Corner on the way to Arnage. The drivers stayed out on slicks until the lap times started drifting into the four-minute bracket. That’s when tyre choices became paramount. As luck would have it, while the real event experienced very little wet weather, it rained during the virtual race for nearly seven hours…
Unfortunately, just after midnight all the teams were disconnected from the lobby server (that hosts all the teams). Luckily, we had been keeping count and the teams decided on a restart at around 01h00. The track had dried, but all the teams were fooled into going out on slick tyres. This led to a first lap more akin to a Formula Drift Grand Prix.
Just before dawn, it seemed the track conditions were at their finest in more than 10 hours and fast laps were once again the order – the fastest guys once again dipping under the 03:10 second mark. It ended in tragedy when GT Worx, which were running in an unchallenged third position, were disconnected with just a few hours to go. Team CAR, running last, was soon disconnected, too.
In the end, M Technique was the architect of a magnificent comeback after finishing dead last in 2010. The team clinched the title after a nail-biting duel with Obox over the last two hours. D1S inherited third after GT Worx’s disconnection, while JJC and SynOptic GT took fourth and fifth. M Technique won a trip to the Italian Grand Prix for their enormous effort.
Acknowlegdements: A big thank you to Liqui Moly for its continued support of this event, as well as F1 Grand Prix Tours for the awesome main prize, Pinnacle for the Proline HD LCD televisions, Peugeot for its involvement and display, and Biogen for keeping the competitors energised.
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