Dirt 2 Owners Thread

Hey guys, lets collaborate here if you own the game on game related stuff.

Fav Cars
Fav Tracks
Game Progress
Setup Matches
Share Techniques
Etc.

I'll start off asking a question. Who uses Automatic Transmission and who uses Manual?

I started with Auto and now that I have the basic hang of the game changed over to Manual. I think in single player I am doing better with Manual, it helps me make a few drifts and also lets me be a bit faster, but online its ruining me because when I wreck recovery takes way longer and is a lot harder because I have to downshift like 7 times to get into reverse, and hope I get lined up good than shift 2 more times to get into first again, and the quickly go to 2nd. This is with the paddle shifters on my Momo wheel. If I had an H-Shifter I do not think it would be so bad.

So anyways online I am wrecking a lot, have people ramming me often and I am on course I am unfamiliar with with cars way faster than what I have in single player that feel like they are on ice, so every wipeout is pretty much costing me the race and making me want to go back to Auto, but I in general hate Auto and the very idea of using it.

 

I'm playing in Auto. I don't even know how to drive manual for real yet lol.

 

I hit lvl 20 single player, making good progress. Can get 1st most of the time on casual difficulty.

Tried one online game before I got off and didnt get owned but still didnt get podium. Though half the stages we played were LA and I have not gone there yet in one player.

I have a good technique where I just downshift in a turn and let my rear slide and I feather the throttle as needed to maintain my drift and control the slide but it doesnt work on every turn, so now I need to try to develop the proper drift method called the pendulum techniqe. Turn sharp into the turn before the turn happens as if you were going to go off course and then turn away from it and you will go into a drift. Thing is I have no idea when to turn or how hard and doing that and controlling gear and throttle is too much right now. I pulled off some cool drifts on the last race trying the technique but it was too random for me if I made the turn or not.

 

i remember in GRID you can assign reverse gear to one of the keys or controller buttons, i haven't brought Dirt 2 yet though

 

I am AUTO user. But I don't know which car is the best for me currently.

I tested the Multiplayer Mode Online, it's great! However, my friends are too strong for me. I got defeated all the time.

Single Player, Level 21, Easy Mode.

 

does it honestly matter if you use auto or manual? other than an ego booster lol (LOL LOOK I DRIVE MANUAL LOLOLOLOLOL)

 

I like uing automatic. Manual really screws up my driving skill.

 

i installed this game and had an error half way through so it didnt install dx11, the game worked and i got 41fps - 35fps min, but after the second race i kept getting and error so i re-installed the game, this time it installed dx11 and now i get 31fps - 20fps min on the same settings as before.
any ideas? ... =/
btw settings are:
1920x1200
shadows - medium
AA - off
everything else - high

my machine: T9900 3.06 Ghz, 9800m GTS (stock clocks), 4Gb ram.

Thnx for any help ^^

 

I've recently discovered a love for the Utah trailblazer track. I use the Mitsubishi Eclipse GT, as it has just the right amount of oversteer.

Also just unlocked an Open-wheel vehicle, which was great fun flying in and around the canyons!

Favourite location: Utah
Least favourite location: LA
Favourite vehicle: Subaru Group N / Mitsubishi Eclipse GT
Least favourite vehicle: Any of the buggies
Current level: 24

I use automatic, with the view behind the car. Sometimes, I will put it into cockpit view for some of the more technical stages (Croatia, for example), as it helps to see exactly where the 'nose' of the car is going.

Haven't tried it online yet, but plan on doing so over the holiday break

 

I play the dirt 2 too,but in ps3,doesnt matter actually.

My favorite car is eclipse Gt(second car in rally category) and subaru group N(ken block's car)also i loved the bmw z4's performance it is amazing,z4 is really fast.

i use manual transmission,when turning corners you should have a high rpm,the automatic transmission is idiot,doesnt shift as i want.also car setup is great I lock the differential and use a low gear ratio if I want to drift.

 

I'm probably getting this for the 360... I'm going to download the PC demo tonight, it should run well on a P7811.

 

I use manual, with a Logi G25 wheel, prefer it with controller though for this game...

fave cars are:

Scooby WRX Group N
1995 Scooby
Ford RS 200
Ford Escort MKII
Sometimes use the Dallabach for trailblazer online.

All the tracks are great, there isn't one i don't like, prefer Utah and Morroco though.

i'm getting better online and i love the cockpit view of the car i always use that, fantastic graphics, i LOVE RALLY!!

 

Hit lvl 30 single player. Opened up the all star level stages. Those are tough. Tried Utah today, that stage is awesome, lots of speed. Cockpit view there is suicidal, There is one spot where you run into mud/water right before a pin turn right on the edge of a clif... also the sun glaze on the windshield and limited view... I could barely even finish the stage in cockpit view let alone get 1st place like I did with the hood view.

 

How does this work with the wheel?(Question for both PC and 360 owners)

 

using manual trans give you more controll over the car. Like knowing what gear you want to be in when you enter the turn.

 

Great, the default settings were a bit too loose for me, but after a bit of tweaking I like how it feels now and wouldnt even play the game if I could not use my wheel. Its the difference between driving a car and playing a game in terms of how it feels.

Esp with the 3 screen eyefinity setup, surround sound and extremely realistic cockpit view, while an arcade like game it gives very realistic feel in terms of immersion.

The cockpit view is too realistic I have to use the hood view if I want to do good, getting blinded by sun glare on the windshiled, dirt buildup, cracked glass, and worst of all when you run into a water puddle and get totally blind with mud on the windshield for like 5 seconds doing 120mph.

 

Fun game, having fun with it. Playing with the 360 controller, works great.

Currently level 13, but been playing a lot of the early tracks repeatedly, as I'm having performance problems with the games. It stutters for me like crazy about 3/4's of the time. Framerate runs at 50+ when it works, and is perfectly smooth, but something is killing my performance randomly and while the framerate doesn't drop too much, it stutters, both video and sound, and totally kills the flow of the game. Posted on the Codemasters forum, a few others are having similar problems, hoping a solution is found, as it really ruins the fun.

Great looking game though.

 

Level 17 right now. Playing automatic. I just tried cockpit view, suicidal but it helps me to succeed more my turnings. I'm playing with a 360 controller too. The Malaysian tracks just look too awesome with the settings on "very high" (nothing at ultra) at DX11. It's also the only ones my 5770 has a bit of difficulties at 1080p

 

Hers a "technique" for you all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9_gK4JkwI

 

Have not played in the last 3 days been a hard week for me to find game time, sucks. Last I checked I was lvl 36 or 37 in single player and my progress is still not even 60% I think according to the magizine thing at the start of the game.

 

Whats a good controller for this game? I don't wanna buy a wheel yet, is the 360 fine?

 

Works pretty well.

 

I've got the same issue - framerate is fine, but sometimes it starts to stutter. I thought that it is ATI driver problem, but after looking at your signature I'm pretty sure it isn't Can you provide me a link to your topic @ codemasters forum?

 

Yeah, I use my 360 controller for almost every multi-platform game I play on my PC. Plus, all those games support it natively and thus switch to the Xbox's interface .

The adapter costs about $20 if I recall.

 

I'm actually out of town for a couple days using my phone for brief internet, so don't have the link. But, go to the official codemasters forum, there are about 3 posts that relate to this performance problem. There are some suggestions that might help you, none solved it for me, but some said it helped. I'm hoping a patch is in the works though, as I'm thinking it's some kind of memory leak or texture loading problem that randomly occurs. Also suspect audio issues though, so dunno.

 

Got the demo today. Ran the benchmark and I get about 34 fps all high. Sli too..

Great game though. Now I want the full version

 

just got done playing a few races on dirt 2. the graphics are great and the physics are good. does anyone know how i can add this game to my steam folder? i cant seem to find it.

 

the ATI graphics stutter has been solved my a patch from AMD. if you google for it it will pop up.i dont use ATI so i dont have the link saved, but it has been solved. patch from AMD NOT codemasters.

anyway, i have a 9200m gs, and i had to run this game on minimum settings and minimum res. i could run grid at 960x600 and medium settings, yet for this i had to overclock it by 35% to run at 640x480 with 8xCSAA and low settings to maintain a decent frame rate. it looks amazing though, and on some maps i can have medium settings, but increasing the resolution kills it so quickly.

if anyone is struggling with framerates, turn the resolution waaaay down. 8xCSAA is really efficient, and runs at the same FPS as 2xMSAA. 640x480 with 8xCSAA looks better than native res and no AA.

i have everything ultralow or off, except trees on low, particles on low, water on medium, objects on low and skidmarks turned on. anything else doesnt make much of a visual difference but eats FPS. the game still looks phenominal. such a good game. ive been playing if for 3 days, and at level 16 on savage already.

 

well after playing a few more races with fraps on i cant seem to get above 30 fps. this game must be limited by my cpu because even at all low i only get about 25-35 fps. the game defaults to all high but i only get 25-30 fps. 2xaa or no aa makes no difference for me.

 

I am missing dirt 2, my fav game to play right now and I have not played in about 2 weeks. Been too busy and i really need a good amount of time open to want to hook up the wheel and stuff.

Im going to suck so bad next time I get to play, this is a game that takes practice and consistency to be good at.

 

quick guide to dirt 2 settings and performance impacts

waha! ive got dirt 2 running on ultra settings on a 9200m, gs! well, mostly.

i turnede 2 big ones off: shadows and vehicle reflections. turning them off gave me a whopping 22fps more! taking my fps up from 4 to 24-31!
the benchmark gave me 26.6fps average, and watching it showed no sloowdowns. minimum fps was 19, but i have no idea when that was. it was hitting highs of 34 going round though.

drivers are turned off, cos you only see them in the reply anyway. however changing it to ultra only removes 1 fps average, but on occasions caused HUGE drops in fps. min recorded was 13fps.

changing distant vehicles from low to ultra only removes 1.2 fps.

so i have everything on the highest setting except with cloth, post processes, vehicle reflections and shadows set to the lowest.
my resolution is 640x480, but with 8xCSAA, so it looks really smooth, much smoother than if i had it at 1024x726, and with much better frame rates. 800x600 or 960x600 with no AA gives a worse FPS and looks much worse.

 

I have my DiRT 2 running on Windowed Mode on my Desktop-PC.
1366x768 Resolution
2X AA(will be virtual 4X due to ATI)
V-SYNC ON
Almost everything to Ultra except some 1 or 2 which I think got nothing special on whatever grade and lag me up. I set them to low.
Running under DirectX 11 (Radeon HD5870)

FPS 55-60.

Non-DX11 users, it's not good to use Ultra because it will be the same with High. You will have lower FPS because of that.

 

I play it in full 1080p. Everything on High, 2xAA. ~25FPS. Really smooth but slowdows in London & the forest tracks.

 

I tried that but on some Ultra and some High with 1080p, it's like 30FPS something but sometime 60FPS depends on tracks. Not so balance. So, I am not really like it.

 

Does anyone here play with just the keyboard or mainly a gamepad or wheel?

 

i play with my xbox 360 controller, racing games with a key board is very hard for me.

im hooked on this game right now haha. also i realized i wasnt set to high performance yesterday and my fps is very stable at 30+ fps now with all high, 8xcsaa at 1440x900.

 

+1
xbox360 controller FTW!!

 

One thing I never understood with the X360 wireless controller is that it's an RF controller, but they give you a super long cord for the receiver. It'd be almost better to be a USB dongle, just makes it inconvenient for use with a laptop. Better yet, make it Bluetooth. Just ridiculous.

 

yeah i keep my receiver tied up with the twist tie that came with it. no reason for that super long cable when using a laptop.

 

Laptop OR desktop. If it's RF, it should have a pretty decent distance regardless. But I digress. I might have to pick up a wired X360 controller though.

 

Just bought the full version of the game 2 weeks ago. Man im loving it. Any games for windows users wanna add me? send me a pm

Since were talking about specs, I play with 1200p resolution everything on ultra. I get 30+ fps the entire time. Guess ill turn everything to high since theres hardly any differences...

Great looking game. One of the best looking racing games I've seen. I just love looking around the RV..

 

? how have ytou guys got it running so high> i know your using an 880gts and im on a 9200 gs, but still..... your on high res with 8xcsaa on high details, and im sat here on ultralow at minimum res on some tracks!

jesus this sucks....

 

Wow now im pissed. Corrupt save file. and I just beat xgames america T_T

Any help...I hate when this happens.

 

So i guess they released a patch today and I don't know what they did but my performance has increased. The benchmark gave me around 37 fps avg 30 fps min before. Now i am getting 44 fps avg 31 fps min. this is at 1440x900, 2xmsaa, all high.

I really only race rally or trailblazer so my in-game fps is around 50 fps because i don't have 8 cars on screen.

 

yep, got the patch as well.... just loaded it up, seems to be running a bit better! Very happy, still loving this game!

Also, plays great on the m11x, for those that care.

 

mine corrupted too. it just reset all my lvl stuff. i still had access to all the races that i had unlocked.

 

What system is playing it on Ultra? Ultra settings are DX11 only and I see a GTX280 SLI setup in your sig.

I was able to play it on Ultra with my laptop & desktop both have a 5870 card in them.

I actually only play on all high with the desktop since the resolution is so much higher, but I cant notice much from the ultra effects (though high post processing is also DX11 I think and that is noticeable)



6004x1200

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Got my save files back like a month ago. I think ultra only applies to DX11 cards because all I see is an fps drop.

Been playing the crap out of this game! Really fun online. Beat the single player tour awhile ago. Im level 98 in the single player tour also..rank 100 something in the leaderboards

also amazing video ^

 

It has a really long single player Im only rank 48 and only like half done with single player.

When I had more free time on my hands and played a few days in a row I tried some multiplayer. It played smooth, no lag. Wait time in lobby could be kind of high and I do not think I ever had a game with american players. (always listening to voice chat with people in other languages) I was not good enough to win online races though, some of those guys were just really insanly good.

Plus what made a big difference was finding some wheel settings posted online, it changed my game for me entirely. Right now (and that video) I am on a new install of the game and forgot to save my wheel settings so I suck again :/

 

Patch info: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/dirt-2-game-pc-1313/408559-01-03-dirt-2-pc-patch-now-out.html