Le Mans Ultimate

[Aysedasi]

Has anyone tried this yet? Being a (now very occasional) sim racer and a Le Mans nut, I couldn't resist the early access price. And it looks quite good but I'm having real trouble setting up my G29. It's way too oversensitive no matter what settings I use. I've looked for settings to mirror online but I guess the game is just too new as yet as I can't find anything....

[Aysedasi]

Just me then.....

[Akrapovic]

I haven't tried it, but have been reading and watching some stuff. It's an rF2 base - so if you have rF2, try getting the wheel working in that and copying settings over. If the settings aren't exposed in the menus have a look at the files (how old school!) and see if there's stuff you can copy from one file to another.

[Aysedasi]

It's strange. It was horrible to drive 3 days ago. 2 days ago I went on again and it was absolutely fine. Yesterday I went online to race for the first time in a lot of years and it was impossible to drive, it was as though steering help was on permanently. I assumed it was because it was a 'Beginners' race but then when I raced the A1 afterwards it was the same even though I (obviously) have steering help off. Today I toned down the FFB but it was still poor. I turned the FFB off completely and it drove beautifully, with FFB..... So there are a fair few glitches. The cars are nice and so are the tracks but the loading screens take forever. It takes about 6-7 minutes for Le Mans to load... Worth persevering with though, IMO.

[Akrapovic]

Apparently they're patching it several times a week as its early access. Worth sticking around for for sure. I can't play now days, but it looks good.

[Aysedasi]

Three patches so far in the first week. It's still very much a WIP and I'm reasonably impressed so far.

[Aysedasi]

Had a hard evening yesterday. Tried many times to join a GTE race online at Monza, but it was massively oversubscribed. Got in 3 times, twice I was booted back to desktop and the final time when I got in and got the car out on the track I was taken out by a twerp who had come out behind me and thought it would be fun just to drive in to me at the first chicane. I had thought the racing 'manners' were better than expected but having been used as a brake at Sebring the day before, doing damage that meant I couldn't get the car back, I'm now having second thoughts....

[Gerard C]

Ha, poor driving standards are everywhere even in your laptop! Poor world.

[Adam43]

We’re struggling to even get it running!

[Aysedasi]

Mine runs perfectly offline. No issues at all now my wheel is sorted out - even if it's a bizarre solution. I've turned FFB off and I now have perfectly acceptable FFB.... Weird. My Logi GHub seems to override the game settings.... Online though, that's simply carnage and until they get the servers sorted out properly and improve the online glitches, it's probably not even worth the effort. Sadly the developers probably can't improve the quickly deteriorating driver behaviour.

[Adam43]

It fails to get to the race control screen half the time. Then can only chose computer as it can’t connect to race control.

Not managed to be able to complete the create profile part.

Walked away and we had a quick blast at Project Cars in the last generation of prototypes.

Will try again later or tomorrow.

[Adam43]

All up and running now. Did nothing, but it just worked this time.

Seems OK. Kid had a go at Monza. Turned up the graphics and it was fine, apart from at the race start - many cars really killed the frame rate.

[Aysedasi]

After many years of racing the unadulterated Monza in GPL I utterly detest that first chicane…..��

[Aysedasi]

Managed to get a couple of decent online races in with no 'crashes' (of the game, that is...). 4th in both - GTEs at Monza and today GTEs at Spa. To be truthful, I was last man standing in the first race. But today I actually finished ahead of several other players. I was helped by the two cars ahead of me colliding out of the chicane on the final lap.

What bugs me though is the system of driver ranking. Until I get a silver ranking I can't drive anything other than beginner races which means no Hypercars at all. The ranking system is pretty naive - you get one ranking based on your position in the race but there is a second ranking, a 'Safety' ranking I think where contact with other cars, off-track excursions and penalties severely hinder your progression. In the two races I mentioned, I did really badly on this ranking. In the first it said I only had 1 clear lap (out of 7) and hit the same car 13 times! I didn't hit anything. In today's race I was given 2 clear laps out of seven but 'penalised' for hitting two other cars. Well I didn't hit anyone, but I was hit by two other cars in ill-judged overtaking manoeuvres, one of which cost me two places and damaged my steering. On reading the guidance, the game engine makes no distinction at all between fault and no fault incidents which really needs to be addressed. At this rate it'll be months before I make silver...

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

After many years of racing the unadulterated Monza in GPL I utterly detest that first chicane…..

You should see it in the flesh… Pro side, marshals are fantastic and genuine enthousiasts there. Still, I wonder if they finally found my 'Vette crank and rods!

[Aysedasi]

Had more fun and games with the rankings just now. Did another GTE race and once again finished 4th. I was penalised in my progression stats for hitting another car 6 times. It told me whose car I had hit...... my own car, apparently..... They clearly need to sort out some of the bugs!

[Aysedasi]

Got two decent races in today. Both GTE at Spa. Finished the first 3rd (my first podium) from 3rd on the grid and the second 4th from 13th on the grid.... . Really good fun and pretty clean driving throughout. I'm convinced I would have caught 3rd place in the second race if I hadn't got stuck behind a guy for two laps who braked really early.. Should have had him sooner than I did.

[Aysedasi]

It seems that there is little interest in this sim, which is a shame as for the most part it's really awesome. I now drive online races only and although I've had a few hiccups in understanding how the servers work, I've largely had a really terrific immersive time. The only real gripe has been some of the driving standards. Yesterday I had two horrendous LMP2 races at Monza where my race was destroyed on both occasions by idiots continuing to drive around with damaged cars veering all over the place. I was eventually taken out by them speering into me in both races. Unfortunately the rating system penalises contact but cannot distinguish between fault and no fault incidents and as the ratings are essential to be able to move on from beginner to intermediate races, being hits by idiots, destroys the hard work you've put in previously. The system also imposes huge penalties for DNFs which is why drivers with damaged cars are desperate to get across the finishing line. But overall I'm loving the game which runs very well on my (now) lesser spec pc. The best thing for me by far since GPL.

[Aysedasi]

I'm astonished there's so little interest in LMU.....

[Aysedasi]

Well, at the risk of talking here to no-one but myself, I'm having an absolute blast with this sim. My driver ranking is now up to Bronze 3 (which I suspect is about my level, tbh), however I'm up to Silver 1 (not far off Silver 2) on my Safety Rank which means I can now drive the Hypercars. I haven't done so yet as I'm actually enjoying the shorter GTE and LMP2 races.

[Adam43]

My kid and I are working up to having a session.

[Aysedasi]

You need to race online Adam, it's amazing fun. I've done over 40 online races now. Got my Silver 2 SR rating yesterday as well. I'm slow in comparison to the hotshoes but having a real blast. Did a GTE race at Portimao yesterday. Such good fun dicing with 3-4 other drivers all much of a muchness skill-wise. I made a couple of errors and was in 11th starting the last lap then three of them tangled and I finished 8th, only missing 7th by 0.042 seconds. There's been nothing like this for me since GPL. I'm completely hooked.

[Aysedasi]

106 races online now and a Platinum 1 safety rating. This game is such a blast!

[flatlandsman]

Ayes. Am thinking of getting this, I use a rag old G25, and can do OK on stuff like ACC, but have become bored of it, GT3 is dull as hell and the game has become a one or two car meta. Kunos also have never updated the older stuff and setups to accommodate the new physics so unless you are a data engineer the old cars are next to useless which is a huge shame.

LMU is a steal at 25 quid I am on PC btw.

I know its early access, and have read stories of issues what issues have you experienced> I hear long load times and its a bit buggy>

[Aysedasi]

Lots of bugs. Menus can be a bit slow but I've been very lucky. Apart from a issue which was causing regular CTDs when I first got LMU (which largely resulted from my own lack of knowledge of how modern sims and servers work), my game runs near-perfectly. Let's say 98% of the time. I still get the occasional crash but very rarely (maybe 2-3 times in 3 months) while I'm actually running on track. The graphics are great but for me it's the online racing against real people which is extraordinarily good - aside from the muppets who crash into you of course... For me it's been the best £25 I've ever spent on software of any kind. It is a buyer beware situation because there are players who've had a lot of problems, but as I say, even with my modest computer set up (16Gb RAM, 8Gb VRAM) and a G29 wheel and pedals, it's been an absolute blast and it's getting me through some hard times at the moment.