Newbie - What To Do?

[ronh29]

I fly various RC crafts and while not in it for competition, I found LiftOff hurting my ability to fly since it's so floaty. I downloaded DRL this weekend and was somewhat overwhelmed by the main menu. I found my way to Freestyle, tried a few preset drones, and things still felt a bit floaty. Then I recalled that physics can be modified so I browsed that way.. found some "3 inch whoop" models, and they do fly remarkably close to how my little drones fly. Also found a 3" build that flies very similar to my 3" 6s Xilo but on "4s".

My question on drone build.. how do I recreate what these "custom physics" did? Rather than seeming to be on the moon's gravity these drop when throttle is cut, and "brake" through the air similar to how my little ones do. The "stock" models seem like there is not any air density and gravity is reduced.

Then to the "racing".. not that i'll ever expect a "top of the boards" type time, but I noticed placing #2 when flying a "custom whoop".. But stock ones I'm way down there... what are my times compared to? How do the classes break down for leader boards? Are the "DRL" drones supposed to feel very "slippery" (wash out in turns)? Am I supposed to build my own then compete or does each drone have it's own leader board associated with it per track?

I'm all set now for "practice" using user made custom physics models that resemble a couple of the drones I actually fly, but figured I paid for the whole "game" so may as well do some of the racing stuff.. Also at that.. what camera angle do people race at these days? I heard a lot... I'm certainly slow at 30* with the 7" drone and throttle gets a lot of UP, not sure if I want to learn 2 angles though.. 30* "freestyle" angle and then a 50-60*
race" angle..

Thanks for any advice/tips/feedback.

-Ron

[KaNoodle]

Originally posted by ronh29:

I fly various RC crafts and while not in it for competition, I found LiftOff hurting my ability to fly since it's so floaty. I downloaded DRL this weekend and was somewhat overwhelmed by the main menu. I found my way to Freestyle, tried a few preset drones, and things still felt a bit floaty. Then I recalled that physics can be modified so I browsed that way.. found some "3 inch whoop" models, and they do fly remarkably close to how my little drones fly. Also found a 3" build that flies very similar to my 3" 6s Xilo but on "4s".

My question on drone build.. how do I recreate what these "custom physics" did? Rather than seeming to be on the moon's gravity these drop when throttle is cut, and "brake" through the air similar to how my little ones do. The "stock" models seem like there is not any air density and gravity is reduced.

Then to the "racing".. not that i'll ever expect a "top of the boards" type time, but I noticed placing #2 when flying a "custom whoop".. But stock ones I'm way down there... what are my times compared to? How do the classes break down for leader boards? Are the "DRL" drones supposed to feel very "slippery" (wash out in turns)? Am I supposed to build my own then compete or does each drone have it's own leader board associated with it per track?

I'm all set now for "practice" using user made custom physics models that resemble a couple of the drones I actually fly, but figured I paid for the whole "game" so may as well do some of the racing stuff.. Also at that.. what camera angle do people race at these days? I heard a lot... I'm certainly slow at 30* with the 7" drone and throttle gets a lot of UP, not sure if I want to learn 2 angles though.. 30* "freestyle" angle and then a 50-60*
race" angle..



The Racer 4 (what you called the DRL drone). Yes, it is supposed to have some slide in the corners, as this is a 1200+ gram drone. Its more than twice the average weight of a typical weekend racing drone. It certainly carries some momentum, and will, until you adapt and start to harness its power. LOL. It requires you to throw it around with some force to control it well. The DRL racer 4 was designed this way in real life for many reasons, from power to weight ratio, the speed of the courses, the competition, TV viewing, Spec racing, and more.


Thanks for any advice/tips/feedback.

-Ron

Hi Ron!

Welcome to the sim!

I'm just gonna fire away one by one on your questions.

I just wanted to start with the feeling you are having while flying. This is normal considering you are flying with a drone that has a PERFECT battery, fully charged, 100% of the time, and in a virtual world, where its much harder to judge distance, height, width, etc without actually standing there. It takes time to get used to the virtual world a bit... With the Battery, this is a feeling that you haven't felt in real life since all batteries drain/sag, and are never charged and discharged exactly the same, as well as with a deteriorating life... and you have a better sense of judgement of distance, height etc. So if you want to have a closer feel to real life, no need to change gravity or anything else, as it is set to real life values/physics, but instead just turn on the Battery emulation in the physics panel. Just keep in mind that the battery will discharge, (restart to recharge) and you may not have enough battery to get through tracks that are really long, simply because the battery wont last that long irl either. In the panel, there is an option for Sag, Drain, and Charge. If you want the most real feeling, turn them all on. Feel free to change some values if you'd like.

The leaderboards: In DRL there are two main leaderboards, DRL Leaders, and Open Class. Since DRL operates on a "Spec racing" concept, our league is flown with the Racer 4 model drone and all pilots fly the same. For this, there is a specific leaderboard for it, DRL Leaders. So, any time set on any track with the Racer 4 drone, will be set on that leaderboard.

If you set a time on any track, with any other drone in the sim, it will be placed on the Open Class Leadboard. It will be listed by class, so if you are currently flying a 4" drone, and set a time on the track, you are setting a time based on that class of drone, on that specific track alone. There are not always a big selection of times set with some odd sized drones, for some tracks. IE: a smaller track, typically wont have many times set on it with larger drones, and a big track, typically doesn't have a lot of small sized drones set on the LB.

You don't have to make your own drone if you don't want to. You can certainly choose from the stock drones that are available to choose from, and enjoy those, or you can custom build one as well. Its completely up to you, just as it is in real life.

Cam Angle. a good majority of pilots starting out, start between 20-30 degrees. Most pilots who are racing competitively are flying with something around 50 degrees.

Freestyle flight... well that's a "choose your own adventure" type of thing. LOL The wonderful thing about freestyle, is that there are pilots who have made amazing things at 0 degrees, 20 degrees, and even upwards of 70-90 degrees. Most people ... I use that term loosely.... tend to lower the angle for slower flight, but more control. This is certainly not always the case, and everyone is different. So try it all, and don't be afraid of it!

I think that touches on them all, if you have any other questions, let me know!

Also be sure to join the DRL Discord server, as there is a fairly active community there, and very friendly and helpful! https://discord.gg/p7ndQHz

Have a good day!

TK

[ronh29]

Originally posted by TK:

Originally posted by ronh29:

I fly various RC crafts and while not in it for competition, I found LiftOff hurting my ability to fly since it's so floaty. I downloaded DRL this weekend and was somewhat overwhelmed by the main menu. I found my way to Freestyle, tried a few preset drones, and things still felt a bit floaty. Then I recalled that physics can be modified so I browsed that way.. found some "3 inch whoop" models, and they do fly remarkably close to how my little drones fly. Also found a 3" build that flies very similar to my 3" 6s Xilo but on "4s".

My question on drone build.. how do I recreate what these "custom physics" did? Rather than seeming to be on the moon's gravity these drop when throttle is cut, and "brake" through the air similar to how my little ones do. The "stock" models seem like there is not any air density and gravity is reduced.

Then to the "racing".. not that i'll ever expect a "top of the boards" type time, but I noticed placing #2 when flying a "custom whoop".. But stock ones I'm way down there... what are my times compared to? How do the classes break down for leader boards? Are the "DRL" drones supposed to feel very "slippery" (wash out in turns)? Am I supposed to build my own then compete or does each drone have it's own leader board associated with it per track?

I'm all set now for "practice" using user made custom physics models that resemble a couple of the drones I actually fly, but figured I paid for the whole "game" so may as well do some of the racing stuff.. Also at that.. what camera angle do people race at these days? I heard a lot... I'm certainly slow at 30* with the 7" drone and throttle gets a lot of UP, not sure if I want to learn 2 angles though.. 30* "freestyle" angle and then a 50-60*
race" angle..



The Racer 4 (what you called the DRL drone). Yes, it is supposed to have some slide in the corners, as this is a 1200+ gram drone. Its more than twice the average weight of a typical weekend racing drone. It certainly carries some momentum, and will, until you adapt and start to harness its power. LOL. It requires you to throw it around with some force to control it well. The DRL racer 4 was designed this way in real life for many reasons, from power to weight ratio, the speed of the courses, the competition, TV viewing, Spec racing, and more.


Thanks for any advice/tips/feedback.

-Ron

Hi Ron!

Welcome to the sim!

I'm just gonna fire away one by one on your questions.

I just wanted to start with the feeling you are having while flying. This is normal considering you are flying with a drone that has a PERFECT battery, fully charged, 100% of the time, and in a virtual world, where its much harder to judge distance, height, width, etc without actually standing there. It takes time to get used to the virtual world a bit... With the Battery, this is a feeling that you haven't felt in real life since all batteries drain/sag, and are never charged and discharged exactly the same, as well as with a deteriorating life... and you have a better sense of judgement of distance, height etc. So if you want to have a closer feel to real life, no need to change gravity or anything else, as it is set to real life values/physics, but instead just turn on the Battery emulation in the physics panel. Just keep in mind that the battery will discharge, (restart to recharge) and you may not have enough battery to get through tracks that are really long, simply because the battery wont last that long irl either. In the panel, there is an option for Sag, Drain, and Charge. If you want the most real feeling, turn them all on. Feel free to change some values if you'd like.

The leaderboards: In DRL there are two main leaderboards, DRL Leaders, and Open Class. Since DRL operates on a "Spec racing" concept, our league is flown with the Racer 4 model drone and all pilots fly the same. For this, there is a specific leaderboard for it, DRL Leaders. So, any time set on any track with the Racer 4 drone, will be set on that leaderboard.

If you set a time on any track, with any other drone in the sim, it will be placed on the Open Class Leadboard. It will be listed by class, so if you are currently flying a 4" drone, and set a time on the track, you are setting a time based on that class of drone, on that specific track alone. There are not always a big selection of times set with some odd sized drones, for some tracks. IE: a smaller track, typically wont have many times set on it with larger drones, and a big track, typically doesn't have a lot of small sized drones set on the LB.

You don't have to make your own drone if you don't want to. You can certainly choose from the stock drones that are available to choose from, and enjoy those, or you can custom build one as well. Its completely up to you, just as it is in real life.

Cam Angle. a good majority of pilots starting out, start between 20-30 degrees. Most pilots who are racing competitively are flying with something around 50 degrees.

Freestyle flight... well that's a "choose your own adventure" type of thing. LOL The wonderful thing about freestyle, is that there are pilots who have made amazing things at 0 degrees, 20 degrees, and even upwards of 70-90 degrees. Most people ... I use that term loosely.... tend to lower the angle for slower flight, but more control. This is certainly not always the case, and everyone is different. So try it all, and don't be afraid of it!

I think that touches on them all, if you have any other questions, let me know!

Also be sure to join the DRL Discord server, as there is a fairly active community there, and very friendly and helpful! https://discord.gg/p7ndQHz

Have a good day!

TK

TK, Thank you for the awesomely detailed response!

Thank you for clarifying the LB rules a bit. It also seems that you (I guess obviously) fly, so allow me to clarify what I meant in flight characteristics. This will be two parts..

First, the feel of small quads. I flew the little one that's stock, and it felt extremely floaty and somewhat underpowered and heavy at the same time. The best example I can think of here is "flicking" it over a tree in a split S.. With the stock nano it carried a lot of momentum both up, and over the tree. My little 2s Mobula7 and TinyHawk2 don't do this. I found another mod, and I'm guessing there may be a few more since a search yielded many results, I found a 3" labeled as being a "3 inch tiny whoop" that behaves just as my little ones would, can't quite carry over the tree and starts dropping much quicker.

As I have zero experience in racing, or the DRL drone, I get it's a heavy beast with emphasis on big and spectator friendly, but is it supposed to feel so loose? It seems, for example, it needs more prop blades. It seems to require much more thrust and naturally then required bank angle to make turns... This just the nature of the beast?

Thank you again!

-Ron