rec.autos.simulators

I'm thinking of getting it, even though I already have GP2.  I want to
know:
     1.  Does it work well with a good joystick like GP2 does, or would
I have to buy a damn steering wheel and pedals?  I'm looking for complex
adjustments for sensitivity, dead zones and so on.

     2.  Everyone raves about how good the physics model is.  However, I
read in an earlier post that someone thinks the cars handle like they
are front-wheel drive!  Can anyone expand on that?  Do they understeer
when you step on the gas or something?

Thanxya!

Yes. The physics is very good.

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Actually, I disagree.  I think the cars do behave like fwd to a certain
extent, because when the car is sliding, it does not want to turn at all.
Try a wet race and you will see what I mean.  You have to creep through some
corners just to get it to turn in low grip situatuations.  Other than that ,
it is awesome.  It might be in the controller, I don't know, that is just my
experience.  Anyone know how to get that out of it, let me know.

Understeer when stepping on the gas??
My real world racing experience is limited to one summer of auto-x.  I'm in no
way an expert.  I'd say I find F1RS's driving model to be in the same league
as GP2's.  Not obviously better, not offensively worse.

If you have a 3dfx card, I strongly recommend the game.  I still have GP2, but
I see no reason to fire it up now that I have F1RS.

Ditto...I removed CPR from my computer and use GP2 as a CART sim.

Don

It works with a joystick, but there are no complex adjustments for dead zones,
only a simple adjustment of sensitivity.

I don't like the spinning model of F1RS, otherwise it seems to be quite
ok, although a bit unresponsive. This has been mentioned a numerous times
before, but something's wrong with the model when you can't spin 180 degrees
with a simple press of the pedal on gear 1 and full steering. And you also
can keep on spinning forever in place with the steering turned to the WRONG
side when you for example go over a curb and start a spin there. GP2 models
spinning much better IMHO.

Driving over the grass does affect the car's handling for a couple of turns
and straights. Also the sense of speed is great and the tracks are quite
beautiful. But it is a very light sim compared to GPL demo (grand prix legends).

Oh yeah, the user interface is totally horrible, I wonder who designed it.
The menus are slow to appear and some of the menu gfx is small and confusing.
Hmm another gripe is the lack of a 'real' external TV-camera setup. We get
these flybys and floating cameras, but not something that you would see
on your TV-set at home.

The only advantage it has over GP2 is its graphics and that ghost-driver
thingy where you can drive against your own fastest time. But you can't replay
those laps, I wonder why, since they are usually your fastest times and I'd like
to see a fast lap made by me from the TV :-) But still it is a good game
and I'm sure you'll have fun with it, like I do, despite all these gripes.
Aah, I almost forgot to mention the weather, which is quite good. You get
foggy days and changing conditions during a race, which can be quite exciting.
Buy it!

 -Juha

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,

Sounds realistic to me. What does this have to do with thinking
F1RS is modeled like front wheel drive?

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I agree with you George. I can't do wet races at all because of that
daft fwd feel. In the dry however, you don't notice it much.

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Spudgun

Both GP2 and F1RS suffer from canned spins. What we need is an F1 sim
with the driving model based totally on real physics, like in GPL,
rather than what the programmer thinks will happen when a racing car
does this or that.

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Spudgun

 I felt a little frustrated with F1RS when I first got it,but now I am
quite pleased overall.The faster the computer I played it on  ,the
better it felt.I am now using a P2 300MHz and a Voodoo 2 and it even
feels better than the same CPU with Voodoo 1.
      Correcting slides,feel ,response every aspect of control has
improved with a faster machine.Even if you think your framerate is
high,try turning down the detail a bit and see if it improves.
       It really helps is to work at your setups.The difference that
even small changes make is dramatic,just as with real cars.You really
do have to work at understanding car handling to get the best out of
it.
    That's my opinion anyway, YMMV.

Err, isn't that exactly what it should be doing?

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Suck The Goat

They are definately not front wheel drive. Do they handle like a real F1
car? One would have to ask, which F1 car?

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Suck The Goat

Yeah, at least when comparing the hardware requirements. F1RS runs OK
with my P120+Voodoo even when there is a computer car nearby (with
full detail), but the GPL demo is incredibly sticky. Even with the
minimal details it's like 10 fps, and when the wheel hits the grass
the demo decides to take a five-minute coffee-break while the CPU is
calculating all kinds of wheel-balance thingies and smoke direction
goodies. Great sim, eh?

Seriously, having just bought F1RS it first kinda dissapointed me
although the graphics are great and the feeling of speed is there. I
had some trouble finding a driving rhythm since the viewpoint from the
***pit is so low you can barely see the corners when you are smack
dab in the middle of them. But a little creative fiddling around with
the views helped me get a comfortable feeling of the corners, and now
I would have to say it beats GP2. Not much, maybe 4-2 but beats it
anyway.

The negative thing I would have to say about F1RS is that after racing
a couple of nights, I went back to ICR2 and noticed my lap times went
up 3 seconds. Oh well, back to practicing Detroit :)

-
"If the meaning of life was printed in a book, someone
 would use it to keep the window open."

8-)

*Peter*    8-)
(NB: remove asterix to e-mail)