rec.autos.simulators

It seems like every year (since N2 days), I'm in here making a post about
the Sears track.....a day or two after a new Papy NASCAR title release.
Nothing new this year....except I have little to *** about.

This year's Sears track (Infineon)......is the best Papy has ever done.
Nice job Papyrus.......your new Infineon track for NR03 is very well done!

Oh yeah...its not without some flaws.....but for the first time there's very
little that's not accurate, even the coloring is light-years closer to the
real track (in June) than it has ever been.

Here's a quick comment list....after touring around the track last night on
my graphics rig (not my sim racing rig which I've not installed NR03 on
yet):

1.  Track Configuration:  100% perfect (they have the new main straight done
correctly, as well as, they've fixed the Turn-7 section from NR02...it is
now correct).
2.  Buildings and TSO's:  About 90% correct.....what isn't can be fixed.
3.  Track surface coloring and trackside surface coloring:  Its about 90%
accurate....easy to fix.
4.  Hillside/trees and surroundings coloring:  Its much closer than ever
before (about 80% correct)......nice job......also easy to fix.
5.  New buildings/grandstands:  The main straight grandstand (left side) is
perfect, nice job.  Also, the new "Raceway Shop/Lunch Room" building is
perfect.
6.  Signage:  Very well done.....when I've removed all the fake WC
signs.....there's only a couple signs/billboards that need to be updated.

Those of you that had difficulty with racing on the road courses in previous
Papy NASCAR sims should be sure to come back and try them again in NR03.
The car has a much better sense of grip......and handles far more
realistically.  My first impressions when driving around last night.....were
that the car handled almost like it did in NR02....with the "arcade" setup
selected (which I used most of the time because the car physics were closer
to the real thing....in NR02.....on the roads only).  Also, for the first
time....your Winston Cup car has "brakes!"  I did about 10 laps at Watkins
and had the same feeling with regard to grip and brakes.  Nice job Papy!  My
guess is that much credit goes to Jasper Racing and Goodyear......for the
new car physics are really close to realistic....IMHO.  I will be totally
surprised if this doesn't also translate equally to the oval tracks.

Not trying to be "negative"....but here's a list of what's not correct:

1.  Turn 7 Grandstand:  Its not there anymore.....the grandstand seating in
Turn-7 is hillside terracing....just like Turns-2 thru Turns-4.  I can't add
the hillside terracing (maybe somebody knows how to do this?)....but I can
at least remove the T-7 grandstand.

2.  Hillside Terracing, Left side of track - all the way down through the
esses:  Its missing completely.  Not sure why Papy did this.....but unless
someone can re-compile the track and add that in.....there's nothing that
can be done "graphically" to fix this.

3.  Right side of track, main straight - grandstands:  These are used only
when drag racing events are coming up.  Those grandstands are removed for
the Winston Cup race.  I will remove them.

4.  Flagging stations:  Infineon uses all of the SCCA flagging
stations.....not the "caution light" system that all of the other tracks use
(including Watkins).  Only one of those was put in the track (in T-11).
Sorry to see those gone.....they are "key" point markers at many of the
turns.  I will remove the caution lights as I've done in past track patches.
It is possible to have the SCCA flagging stations, with animated
flaggers.....we did this for the GPL Sears track a few years back.  It
really adds a ton to the "realism" that you are racing on a road course!

But...as I said, this is the best job Papyrus has ever done on new release
of Sears Point Raceway.  On a scale of "one to ten"....I would give this
track an "8.5"....and I would have rated previous Papyrus Sears tracks no
higher than a "4 or 5"......so this is a pleasant surprise!

By the way, you can't get outside of the fencing and drive around the
infield and paddock area garages like you could do in NR002 (at least, you
can't do it through the same path as you could in NR002).  Too bad, that was
fun!

Regards,

Tom

Tom,

I agree with you on racing the road courses.  I fired up Watkins last night
and was amazed how wonderful a job they have done with NR2003.  Funny you
should mention the braking....  Initially I found myself coming up about 15
feet soon on my braking at the 90 and was way to slow with my corner
entering speed (Well, slower than normal <G>).

Now if we could just add a fully functional "boot", drive straight on the
backstretch,  and get a GT-1 or maybe a Sport 2000 in there....  I would be
a very happy camper!  ;)

--
Scott B. Husted
PA-Scott
ICQ# 4395450
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
"There are 10 kinds of people in this world,
those that get binary and those who don't"

I agree, it is very good now.  One other thing I noticed is that when
entering turn 4, in real life, going up on the rumble strip you can catch a
little air on the right side of the car but in NR2003 it seems to be way
overexaggerated.  The rumble strip practically flips the car if you cut the
corner too much..  Also I noticed in turn 7 in real life I seem to recall
them having two possible tracks and the nascar race used the farther around
track while the inner turn 7 track was coned off.  In NR2003, there is just
a solid wall on the inside.  Of course, this is all very nitpicky, just an
observation.

-Tim

Yes of course.  Every new Papyrus NASCAR titles comes with the obligatory
Tom Pabst Sears Point whine ;-D

(it's like me and Ubisoft titles, you have the obligatory ymenard track
accuracy whine!)

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://ymenard.cjb.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

C'mon, Francois....don't I get "credit from you" for giving credit where
credit is due (to Papy, for doing a good job with the Sears track this
time)?

In years past, my "obligatory whine" only sounded like whining because it
had sort of that broken record thingy going on.  Year after year, same
complaints!  Well, they were the same complaints because Papy kept making
the same mistakes....year after year.  This time they didn't.  I felt
obligated to give them credit for finally getting Sears (almost)
right....after all my years of ***ing!

Ymen...you have to say something nice about me.....sometimes!  Please.
LOL.....

TP

Hey Scott....

Question for you:

My new roommate (my son moved out of the house....so I rented his room out)
is from the NY area....and was a driving instructor at Watkins for many
years.  He had never driven a sim until he met me.  One night, we were
playing around on the sims and he asked to drive Watkins (in N2K2).  The
first time he came around into T-1....he stopped dead.  He said, "This turn
is not correct (in the sim)."  He told me that a few years ago, they widened
the track in T-1....not by widening the outside of the turn....but by
widening the inside only.  This made the T-1 turn radius much less
abrupt.....and so forth.  He says that N2K2's T-1 is the old T-1....not the
new one.  I haven't had time to go compare the N2K2 Watkins to the N2K3
Watkins.....but do you notice this or not?  He said the rest of the track
was "tits on perfect!"

TP

I was just joking.  It's the same why I say whining for myself about Ubisoft
and their track accuracy.  Yes, even with F1RC there are some problems.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://ymenard.cjb.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

Okay...I forgive you.  Sometimes I have a hard time telling when you are
joking!  LOL...

TP

Tom,

I agree with him about the track being perfect, and to be honest I did
notice something about turn 1 in 2003 that threw me off, but I couldn't
quite put my finger on it and this would make sense with what I was
experiencing!  Now I need to go check it out in "game" again!  <G>  I
haven't been to the track in person in the past 2 or 3 years unfortunately
and I haven't raced the track in person in over 10 years - so I'm using that
as my excuse! <G>

--
Scott B. Husted
"PA-Scott"
ICQ# 4395450
http://www.Husted.cc