rec.autos.simulators

    One thing I've seen (or haven't seen) is the fact that.. In order to
get faster laps, You must be able to feel what the car is doing when you
try to make the car do something.  The best way to achieve this is to have
ALL the eye and ear candy on and have a minimum of 36fps at the highest
resolution.  If at any point of the track the fps drops down to 35fps your
going to be missing something vital in what's happening. And then, with
every frame/second less is a lot more that your going to be missing.

    Although the human eye can only see so many fps,  I wish GPL would
allow for 80fps.  even at 36fps the screen still feels choppy. Or at least
not *absolute* fluid.

    Give it another 5 years for computer development and this version of
GPL will be close to that *absolute* mark.  Unfortunately, by then then,
this version of GPL will be very old and the newest we'll have to wait
another 5 years. :-(

    Wish #2 would be to have it punishable by death to produce a sim that
can't be run at it's full potential with the average computer of the time.
;-)

Mike Barlow

BTW>: I have the same problem you do..

Race Communications Association
http://members.xoom.com/RCA/toc.html

Holodyne Engineering

Mystic Music

Have you had your glasses checked lately ????  <VBG>

I get 35 - 37 fps with everything on and 8 sounds.   At the start of the race
with 19AI my fps drops to 26 - 30.   I do not see any "choppy" framerate at
anything above 32 fps  IMHO.   I dont really seem to notice anything different
at anything above 35 fps.

Celeron 400 (Running at 450)
64mb of SDRAM
Diamond Stealth II S220

BTW -  It looks as if I am going to be attending Watkins Glen again this year
with Tim Lansberry (knight82).   If you are interested in getting together
again I will make sure I dont have to leave in such a short time as I had to
last year.  =)

Scott
PA-Scott

--
Scott B. Husted
ICQ# 4395450

Thinking that very same thing this morning!  You would think, alot of people
won't buy the game unless they can play it and enjoy it.  Meaning, there are
probably a lot of people out there that would just love to beable to play
GPL.  But, because the can't or haven't yet upgraded there system, the won't
buy GPL.  Let me just say, that this seems to be the case more and more. New
game / New computer.  Not comments not just limited to Papyrus/Sierra.

Have you ever wondered if the release dates on some games get pushed back,
not because of problems with the game itself.  But, the idea was so good,
that the computers the end users had, where not up to speed yet.  Here think
of it this way.  For a moderate price, what speed of computers where
available to the general public when GPL was supposed to be released the
first time.  What speed of computer was available when GPL was first
announced as an release in the future.

IMHO
Thad

Ruud van Gaal
MarketGraph / MachTech: http://www.marketgraph.nl
Art: http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery

Yes, $ spent for PC hardware to achieve high frame rates with max candy
on gives you more speed.  That said, I hope that people with lesser PCs
aren't so discouraged by postings like this that they never try GPL for
themselves.

My PC is running a 200MMX overclocked to 225MHz.  I run at the lowest
supported graphical resolution (500-something x 300-something) using a
Sierra Screamin 3D Rendition-based 4Mb graphics card and 64Mb RAM.
I have played against the computer AI only, but I race against 11 opponents
at a frame rate in the low 20s fps range.

Setups, and what the mechanical knowledge it takes to create them, just
plain are important!  But you don't have to be a rocket scientist.  So many
people offer theirs free for the taking over the WWW that anyone should be
able to find a suitable setup or three to improve his/her lap times.  If
not,
keep developing your own.  With my out-of-date PC hardware and moderate
driving ability, my race times around Monza are in the 1:31 range on a
decent
day.  Good enough to compete with the back half of the field.  I enjoy GPL
tremendously without feeling like I've got to be best in the world.

Richard Worden
SCCA/Detroit "KVICK" Saab 900