rec.autos.simulators

i would have replied to one of your earlier messages, but with the numerous
replies to your other messages i thought a dedicated message would be easier
for you to see.
anyhow this is the quote from a previous message that i am refering to:

i know you have had serious issue with the realism of this sim, but be open
to the idea and give it a try.

you know, i've been giving serious thougt as to what is causing the problem
for some people with the steering.  last night i thought that maybe the
problem is in the wheel locks number of degrees.  on road courses this is
usually set higher as to make it through hairpins etc.  the feeling in the
steering is good to me, but like i said it takes some getting used to.  papy
has a somewhat more difficult (maybe) task of making the cars "feel" good at
both oval and road courses.  in n2 at a track like watkins glen i have my
wheel lock setting at as high as 22 degrees which makes the car very touchy
on the straights. this feeling reminds me of the way that gpl handles the
steering.  if you aren't used to using the high angles on steering, it is
very difficult to drive.  i personally love to run the road courses in n2
and have gotten used to the feel--grip the wheel tight!
i really think that papy has done good things with the steering issue in
sims.  in n2 awile back there were problems with twitchy joysticks with
cyrix chips.  this was due to a different pentium specific routine used for
joysticj control.  the result to me was a smooth feeling that allowed me to
point the car where i wanted it to go. cpr on the other hand used the
windows calibration that i known to suck and when i tried the demo, no
matter what i did i couldn't steer the thing.  the patched demo didn't make
it that much better either.  how did you like the steering in cpr?
gp2 is another story alltogeter. i like gp2, but i was not able to get my
steering to feel right until i picked up someone elses setting--it was as if
it was over-complicated.  as was posted in other threads, making a good lap
in a papy sim is somewhat more satisfying to do i think.  this post is
getting long, and i could go on to f1rs and its handling characteristics,
but i won't.

one other note, as suggested in a post above somewhere, place the slider
right of full left, about half to three fourths of an inch was good for me.
( i think that's what someone posted, i can't find it again.)

% Tim, I've tried both linear and non-linear.  I find linear almost impossible
% to handle but I'll give it another go and see what happens.

% In anycase, I always thought linear steering applied to those "arcade style"
% constantly revolving wheels.  But then again, I could be wrong.

% Thanks for not slagging me off like the others did.

Here is how I understand Papy's use of linear vs. non-linear.  When set
to full non-linear, the placement of the wheel doesn't affect the turning
radius of the front wheels.  Basically the longer you hold your wheel
off-center to the right the more the front wheels will turn to the right.  
As soon as you center the wheel the front wheel will center themselves.
There is a pseudo sensation of linear steering in that the further you
turn the wheel off-center the longer you are holding the wheel
off-center.  This gives an illusion of linear control, but it is only an
illusion.  You have no real control over the degree of the front wheels
turning or straightening (except for the length of time you hold the
wheel off-center).

Now with the controls set to full linear setting, the slightest movement
of the steering wheel moves the front wheels to that turning radius.  A
slight movement off-center to the right will slightly turn the front
wheels to the right.  A quick full turn to the right of your steering
wheel will bring the front wheels to full lock right.  Move your
steering wheel mid way between center and full right and the front wheels
will position themselves to mid-lock right.  This gives you complete
control the front wheels for steering.  Hold the wheel slightly
off-center and the turning radius of the front wheels will maintain a
slight off-center position.  However, with non-linear setting, holding
the wheel just slightly off-center will cause the front wheels to
continue turning in that direction.  

Settings in between full linear and full non-linear will dampen the
affects of the steering.  A 50% setting will dampen the movement of the
front wheels compared to the movement of the steering controller.  It
will take longer for the front wheels to react to the position of the
wheel.  In a perfect world, this would be a 50% dampening affect.

This is why I have suggested to people who are having a hard time with
linear steering to gradually adapt themselves to it.  This will allow
them to better sense the reaction of the car to the movement of the
steering wheel.  As you become more comfortable with the "feel", start
sliding the setting further into the linear setting.  Depending on the
quality of your controller and your game card, the further you will be
able to move the setting into full linear.

GPL requires "precise" control to achieve smooth and consistent laps.
That's why the real hot shots are de-crying the use of full non-linear
settings.  This setting CAN NOT give precise control of the car.  It
will however provide a false sense of "smoothness".  Keep in mind,
that each individual will need to find their own comfort zone in the
linear setting.  This setting will depend on various variables,
precision of the steering controller, the game card's port precision,
car set-up (which we don't yet have available), frame rate, and last
(but not least) driver skill.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

     Here is the difference between Linear and Non Linear

  Linear - obvious - the sim wheel deflection is directly related to the
angular position of the front wheels.

  Non Linear - the sim wheel deflection is related to the angular
position of the front wheels in an exponential (or logrithmic, parabolic
or whatever) way. This means that the steering is very accurate/non
responsive near the centre and that the rate of rate of turn increases
as you approach full lock.

    Where did you come up with this one Michael? :)