Starting Procedure - Update (1 Viewer)

[m4nu]

Added an additional paragraph to the Starting Procedure page. The "Lobby Rules and Etiquette" paragraph covers our pre-race procedure which ensures that our events run smoothly and stable without any issues and/or delay.

Standing Start
When we need a standing start our races will simply start on the ingame lights that Project CARS offers.

Rolling Start
Our rolling start system utilises a completely manual procedure, featuring a parade lap:

• When the race starts, cars are to remain on the grid. Once the lead car is instructed to move off, the rest of the field follows in single file formation.
• At a pre-determined point on the track (usually on approach to the final corner) the race directors will instruct all drivers to make note of their position and to form up in double file formation. The speed of the formation will be also instructed by the race directors.
• The side of the track that pole position will form up on will depend on the track. The rest of the field has to form up accordingly. This will always be worked so that the pole sitter has the racing line into the first turn.
• Once the leader crosses the start/finish line (or other pre-agreed landmark at a limited number of tracks) he must announce “Green Green Green” clearly over teamspeak.
• When “Green Green Green” is called by the leader all drivers may accelerate and also are allowed to overtake as the race officially begins.

Important Notes for the Rolling Start

• The pace of the lead car will be dictated by the race directors before the start of the race. All the other cars must follow and maintain a sensible gap between each other.
• During the formation lap you are allowed to steer left/right to warm up your tires and perform brake checks or overall warm up your brakes.
• If a car stalls on the grid in the beginning of the parade lap the car behind must give them a chance to get started. Leaving the grid is a slow process and a small delay is easily caught up in the first few corners.
• If you spin during the warm up procedure you must wait off the track until the whole field has come through and rejoin at the back. You must not re-take your position in the pack.
• It is very important that you take note of your position when instructed to by the race directors and not assume that it hasn’t changed from the start of the race or qualifying. If a car has spun, disconnected or had to retire the positions will change and the double file formation must be based on the correct and up-to-date positions.

Lobby Rules and Etiquette
The RSR Admin Team have been involved in Project CARS since before its release, during which time we have gained knowledge and experience in running events for our members that, on the most part, run smoothly and stable. To ensure this, we ask you to follow some basic lobby rules and etiquette:

• At the event start time you will be told the Dedicated Server you will be using for your race. Please do not join the server until you are told to do so. Joining early, whilst the server is being set up, can crash the server and delay the start of the race for everybody.
• When you join the server you will be in a practice session. This is not a real practice session, this session is to give everybody the time to join the lobby and check things are ok with their controls and game settings. This is your opportunity to fix any issues you might be having and, if necessary, rejoin the session - please notify us in TeamSpeak if you do need to leave the session and re-join. You may leave the pits to check that your controls are working correctly but, please DO NOT:
  • Pass the First Sector
  • Knock any brake/circuit markers over
  • Damage the circuit in any way
• After you have checked your controls please return to the pits as quickly as possible. Once everyone has returned to the garage the driver briefing will start, where we will run through the event format, laps, weather, pit requirements and gentlemen's agreements (if applicable). Please listen to this briefing as, although it might seem boring if you have been to many events before, most of the time there are useful bits of information relevant to everyone.
• Please keep your microphone muted during the briefing and wait until the briefing has finished before asking any questions you may have.

@Admins @Moderators @Members

 

[Ashnoom]

Damage the circuit in any way

How is this even possible?

 

[Blue Monkey]

How is this even possible?

Knock over tires, cones, brake markers etc.

 

[Cluck]

or driving into barriers at speed - which will distort them (not sure if that's at all tracks though). I believe barrier collisions are carried over from session to session, so even a light scrape will leave 'a mark'.

 

[Puffpirat]

or driving into barriers at speed - which will distort them (not sure if that's at all tracks though). I believe barrier collisions are carried over from session to session, so even a light scrape will leave 'a mark'.

Or look at what Jim Khana did to the poor pit box at Sakitto

 

[Martin G Webb]

It mainly applies to 'Cones' and other moveable objects such as tyre barriers and the like. Having drivers let lose around the circuit during the Join/Practice session can have implications to qualifying and even the race. The rule was originally brought in to stop someone, (who shall remain nameless) from removing all of the brake marker boards.

 

[PatatorJohn]

Once the leader crosses the start/finish line (or other pre-agreed landmark at a limited number of tracks) he must announce “Green Green Green” clearly over teamspeak.

I've (finally) got the time to check what happened at the start during last races, and it makes no doubt to me that any of the recent races, 'green' was either called way before the stating line, or way after (e.g. in the Dubai race).

My interpretation of this thread (plus another one) is that the 'green' and the start has to happen at the exact moment the line is passed. But that's not what's actually happening. Could you clarify that? That would be appreciated.

 

[m4nu]

I've (finally) got the time to check what happened at the start during last races, and it makes no doubt to me that any of the recent races, 'green' was either called way before the stating line, or way after (e.g. in the Dubai race).

My interpretation of this thread (plus another one) is that the 'green' and the start has to happen at the exact moment the line is passed. But that's not what's actually happening. Could you clarify that? That would be appreciated.

Green should be called once the leader crosses the S/F line. Obviously it won't be always exactly the S/F line, can be couple meters earlier or later. The call "Green" is the one which matters to you.

 

[PatatorJohn]

Green should be called once the leader crosses the S/F line. Obviously it won't be always exactly the S/F line, can be couple meters earlier or later. The call "Green" is the one which matters to you.

Sorry to be picky, I'm new to this procedure and I'm currently trying to improve myself in that topic. Typically the events I'm talking about happened 20m, maybe even more from the start line.

One of the events should probably have been classified as 'false starts', as it happened before the line as stated by @ramiboo in another thread. That wasn't ambiguous in the other thread, but it is in that one. If what was said in the other thread is correct, maybe it would be a good idea to specify it here too.

The other start came clearly much after the line. Both events tips me that none of the leaders did call the start 'at the starting line'. I'm not talking about a 'couple of meters' of comprehensible imprecision.

As side note, my comprehension of this procedure in real racing conditions is more that the leader call 'green' before the start line when it pleases him. Because of this, I'm with the impression that some players are mixing 'real' and league rules, so maybe it worth some work to improve the description.

 

[m4nu]

Sorry to be picky, I'm new to this procedure and I'm currently trying to improve myself in that topic. Typically the events I'm talking about happened 20m, maybe even more from the start line.

One of the events should probably have been classified as 'false starts', as it happened before the line as stated by @ramiboo in another thread. That wasn't ambiguous in the other thread, but it is in that one. If what was said in the other thread is correct, maybe it would be a good idea to specify it here too.

The other start came clearly much after the line. Both events tips me that none of the leaders did call the start 'at the starting line'. I'm not talking about a 'couple of meters' of comprehensible imprecision.

As side note, my comprehension of this procedure in real racing conditions is more that the leader call 'green' before the start line when it pleases him. Because of this, I'm with the impression that some players are mixing 'real' and league rules, so maybe it worth some work to improve the description.

I think the description is quite clear, what shall we clarify more here?

• Once the leader crosses the start/finish line (or other pre-agreed landmark at a limited number of tracks) he must announce “Green Green Green” clearly over teamspeak.
• When “Green Green Green” is called by the leader all drivers may accelerate and also are allowed to overtake as the race officially begins.

 

[PatatorJohn]

I think the description is quite clear, what shall we clarify more here?

Well, from my comprehension of what you guys are willing to enforce, I would suggest something like this:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' call occurs once the start line is passed, not before.

Then, depending on what you're willing to achieve:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' call can occurs between 0s and 5s after the start line is passed.
Or:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' must not occurs later as 0.5s after the start line is passed.

This is just a suggestion, with the idea to unambiguously state what is a 'false start' regarding this league and a clear direction for the leader. Maybe you should even define which part of the car is considered when passing the line (extremity of the car or front wheels axis or anything else?), simply because you would need it if ever a 'false start' complain occurs.

 

[m4nu]

Well, from my comprehension of what you guys are willing to enforce, I would suggest something like this:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' call occurs once the start line is passed, not before.

Then, depending on what you're willing to achieve:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' call can occurs between 0s and 5s after the start line is passed.
Or:
-The start and the simultaneous 'green green green' must not occurs later as 0.5s after the start line is passed.

This is just a suggestion, with the idea to unambiguously state what is a 'false start' regarding this league and a clear direction for the leader. Maybe you should even define which part of the car is considered when passing the line (extremity of the car or front wheels axis or anything else?), simply because you would need it if ever a 'false start' complain occurs.

We never had a problem with that if I am honest. If its couple meters in front or behind the S/F doesnt really matter in my opinion. The deciding point is the call of the leader. We do not want to over-complicate things with defining everything into the last detail, but those are obviously only my 2 cents about it^^

 

[PatatorJohn]

We never had a problem with that if I am honest. If its couple meters in front or behind the S/F doesnt really matter in my opinion. The deciding point is the call of the leader.

I'm fine with that either. For some reasons I've had in mind that the leader had to call 'green' at the exact moment he passes the line, but that's obviously not the idea and not what is applied.

Btw I've found the thread and the quote I was talking about was from @Cluck, not @ramiboo, sorry for the confusion: https://revolutionsimracing.com/threads/questions-related-to-rolling-start.522/

Thanks for clarifying, it will surely help to get used to those starts

 

[m4nu]

I'm fine with that either. For some reasons I've had in mind that the leader had to call 'green' at the exact moment he passes the line, but that's obviously not the idea and not what is applied.

Btw I've found the thread and the quote I was talking about was from @Cluck, not @ramiboo, sorry for the confusion: https://revolutionsimracing.com/threads/questions-related-to-rolling-start.522/

Thanks for clarifying, it will surely help to get used to those starts

I do get your point. Will note it down and talk with the other admins about it what the aim should be in the future.

Allow leeway and say "Around the S/F line" or "Exactly at...". I will keep you updated on this thread!

 

[Cluck]

To be fair, Patator, I thought we should make the call on crossing the S/F line but it does seem fairly obvious now that it's not a "set in stone" rule . I think the key thing is that it shouldn't really be made before the S/F line.

At the end of the day, however, @t0daY is quite correct, the decision is made entirely by the leader and it is on his/her call that the race starts (unless an alternative has been arranged prior to the start of the race).


EDIT : Our glorious leader posted whilst I was typing my post! I think it only needs a small revision to state that the call should be made by the leader after crossing the S/F line, within an acceptable timeframe that does not result in an unsafe race start - eg, making a sufficiently late start call at Silverstone National, for example, could result in the race starting on the corner.

EDIT : Scrub that (scrub it like you scrub your tyres). Our majestic father is correct, the call should be made as soon as possible, by the leader, once he/she has crossed the S/F line.

 

[m4nu]

To be fair, Patator, I thought we should make the call on crossing the S/F line but it does seem fairly obvious now that it's not a "set in stone" rule . I think the key thing is that it shouldn't really be made before the S/F line.

At the end of the day, however, @t0daY is quite correct, the decision is made entirely by the leader and it is on his/her call that the race starts (unless an alternative has been arranged prior to the start of the race).

You are supposed to do the call while crossing the S/F. I was just saying I would allow some leeway cause it is kinda impossible to time that exactly on the centimeter. I mean we can talk about how much leeway is acceptable.

 

[Puffpirat]

As Dubai was mentioned, I called the green rather late there because the s/f line comes pretty soon on the straight and I wanted the formation to settle before releasing the field. I hope that was ok

 

[2scoops]

It has to vary, depending on the track, start/finish lines are not always in the best position, the size of the grid has to be taken into consideration, but this info can be given in the driver briefing so everybody knows.

 

[Martin G Webb]

*Old Git Alert* - The reason for the 'Flexible' call of 'Green, green, green' came about as there were times when the grid wasn't tight enough towards the back on a rolling start. Any delay or late call was to allow the two by two to form 'Correctly' or allow the tail end to catch up. This caused a further issue as cars towards the back of the grid were accelerating and moving quicker than the cars at the front, thus allowing them a potential 'Head Start' into the first corner. The 'Flexible' call was to abort a bad start, call a false start or allow the grid to form. This like many of the other 'Rules' depend on members accepting and abiding by the 'Spirit' of them. While RSR have a code of conduct and 'Rules' it is more about members being fair to one another, without the need for specific penalties and rigid rules, play hard but play fair.

 

[2scoops]

? What is that supposed to mean?