Advice on best ways to learn to drive with manual transmission on GT7

  • Thread starter Exige430
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Exige430

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Long term lurking first time poster

As the title says i'm looking for advice on learning to drive with manual transmission.

Whether it be the best modes, cars, tracks, video guides etc that might be best at helping making the transmission from automatic.

I have had GT7 for about a year but have been playing GT (and Forza) since the first game but never really had the urge to learn until now.

I have only played the single player since i bought GT7 but want to give the daily races a go as the online lobbies (atleast where i looked) seems deserted. I know that i will be at a major disadvantage it terms of speed and fuel saving (and ability :lol:) if i don't drive manual.

Thanks.
 
I made the switch about a year ago. Found the best way for me was to go to a simple track like Tsukuba in something low-powered (like a MX5) and just do loads of TT laps, following the recommended gear shown on the HUD. Eventually it becomes second nature.
 
Pigems
The best thing to do is just start doing it, you’ll eventually catch on, just give it some time. 👍
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I agree with this! I can't remember how long it's been since I drove in AT consistently - but that's exactly how I did it.

I think I re-did a handful of license tests after switching to MT. The license tests are good for learning skills in "bite-sized" chunks.

If you'd rather jump in and start racing, I would start with slower & older road cars. Many older cars only have 4 gears so you won't get overwhelmed trying to up-shift/down-shift multiple times through a corner sequence.

Do you do the weekly challenges? Maybe give MT a shot on the first race or two (the Sunday Cup 400, Japanese Cup 450, etc...) and go from there!
 
Exige430
Long term lurking first time poster

As the title says i'm looking for advice on learning to drive with manual transmission.

Whether it be the best modes, cars, tracks, video guides etc that might be best at helping making the transmission from automatic.

I have had GT7 for about a year but have been playing GT (and Forza) since the first game but never really had the urge to learn until now.

I have only played the single player since i bought GT7 but want to give the daily races a go as the online lobbies (atleast where i looked) seems deserted. I know that i will be at a major disadvantage it terms of speed and fuel saving (and ability :lol:) if i don't drive manual.

Thanks.
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Welcome! Manual shifting will give you more control over your driving but I remember that it was a quite difficult story. There are other users who can give better advice but I want to encourage you to change and to consider your button mapping. Maybe you will have to use other controls for Gas/Brake and steering.

On the other hand you should keep the fun and there are a lot of players with automatic transmission who are a lot faster than me. Have a nice day in GTPlanet!
 
Personally I restarted the game on a second profile, this allowed me to start with the slower cars/races as well as see what's changed in the menu books etc while learning manual.

As far as hardware is concerned, I bounce between controller (dualsense edge) with the back buttons assigned to shifting, or a steering wheel, as on both shifting is done with the same fingers.
 
head out on super stage X in a manageable car and just practice working your way up and down through the gears while braking and accelerating. Won't take too long for it to start to feel pretty natural...
 
Step 1: make sure you have the shoulder triggers mapped for accelerator and brakes, with X and Square for shifting.

Step 2: turn on racing line and braking markers so that you can focus your brain on the shifting, and get used to the upshift (easy) and downshift (harder) moments.

This is what did it for me, anyway...
 
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There’s also the old Fiat 500 one make race in ‘The Magic Mountain’ mission set. Tackling the hairpins and inclines with only 16 BHP on tap should give you a good start in sensing when and where to shift.
 
spend a couple days using your ears, while glancing ay the tac//rev bar. Also, spend some time playing with downshifting the car at various times and places. Develop an appreciation for how the engine and lower gears affect the car both with and without breaking. As these things begin making sense other things will as well. But this is a good start. Have fun
 
what you could do is start out by doing the weekly tt's spend an hour or so getting familiar with the combo on automatic. so you got your references on point. perhaps have a look which corners youd like to be in a different gear. then switch to manual and focus on those corners. plus side you have a nice side by side on your progress.

Additional upside is that you're alone on track so no added presure or anything just you and the car.

Also give your self some time to learn it and get familiar with it it will take some time.

p.s.
Back in the day i made a post about my experiences changing from automatic to manual. It's here under the Shifting header:
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Like OP, I also played GT7 in AT and on TCS3 as defaults. Managed to gold everything using this setup, but boy was it hard.

Then I set a goal of obtaining all the cars and started daily grinding. Used the same setup at first, but eventually got bored and decided to give MT a try just to spice things up. Doing it on a race that you already know well is a good starting point. Don't be discouraged at first as it takes some time to get used to always track gears and time your shifts with your braking, but in a couple of days you'll get used to it.

As others mentioned, you need to map gear shifting to the buttons that are convenient to you. Many people here use L2+R2 for Brake/Throttle and L1+R1 for shifting. At first I mapped gears to Square/Cross, but found that my right hand gets tired in that cramped position after 10-15 minutes. Now I'm using Right Stick for shifting and it just feels so natural by now that I don't even think much about it. Who needs to rotate camera mid-race anyway?

Also Online Time Trials are a good way to learn MT and how to tame different cars on different tracks. Watch the top replay, pay attention to the way they use shifting, then try it out yourself.
I promise, in a couple of weeks you won't look back at AT!
Have fun!
 
NismoGT
Like OP, I also played GT7 in AT and on TCS3 as defaults. Managed to gold everything using this setup, but boy was it hard.

Then I set a goal of obtaining all the cars and started daily grinding. Used the same setup at first, but eventually got bored and decided to give MT a try just to spice things up. Doing it on a race that you already know well is a good starting point. Don't be discouraged at first as it takes some time to get used to always track gears and time your shifts with your braking, but in a couple of days you'll get used to it.

As others mentioned, you need to map gear shifting to the buttons that are convenient to you. Many people here use L2+R2 for Brake/Throttle and L1+R1 for shifting. At first I mapped gears to Square/Cross, but found that my right hand gets tired in that cramped position after 10-15 minutes. Now I'm using Right Stick for shifting and it just feels so natural by now that I don't even think much about it. Who needs to rotate camera mid-race anyway?

Also Online Time Trials are a good way to learn MT and how to tame different cars on different tracks. Watch the top replay, pay attention to the way they use shifting, then try it out yourself.
I promise, in a couple of weeks you won't look back at AT!
Have fun!
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Why rotate the camera when you can simply turn your head in vr. Vr is also very helpful as it will convey how the gears affect the car in a meaningful way. Something flat makes challenging, or sometimes impossible to ascertain. This goes double for the floaty old school cars. Driving flat its just a weird bobble bounce, in vr it all makes sense.
 
I somewhat cheated when I 'learned' manual. I was always AT until I got a wheel, at which point I switched to paddles without evening thinking about it. Now on the occasions when I have to go back to a pad I use MT again without thinking about it (X/Square works best for me for gears)... so I'd say it will all come fairly naturally once you start making yourself do it, worst case scenario is that you occasionally forget to change gear.

The trick really is then using it to become faster. Figuring when you're loosing time shifting versus leaving it in a gear, and when shifting might be destabilising the car, stuff like that.
 
MatskiMonk
The trick really is then using it to become faster. Figuring when you're loosing time shifting versus leaving it in a gear, and when shifting might be destabilising the car, stuff like that.
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It really is a game changer, it doubled the fun factor in my case. Then i went and smashed the bus by weaning myself off from traction control. New obsession confirmed.
 

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