rec.autos.simulators

I've seen their next racing game. It is made by TRI which Craig thought
would not happen again. He said that CPR has sold poorly compared to F1 and
GPL, GP3, Nascar 3,  (which haven't been released yet, I think he simply
meant that people WILL buy those games when they are released and he's
right, I'll be purchasing at least 2 of them myself) and Nascar 2. I asked
if he was sure. I would need to see hard numbers before I'd agree with that.
I'd also have to see the net profit numbers for all the sims mentioned.
Otherwise we are all just guessing. I would be very, very surprised if CPR
hasn't outsold, and outearned F1 for a number of reasons which don't reflect
negatively on Ubi Soft at all. MS seems to know how to create and market
software pretty well considering their *** in the software world. A
big, hugely successful company like Microsoft can offer rebates on a niche
product like a racing sim whereas the other, smaller companies which make
the racing sims we are all familiar with probably can't. I'm a fan of Ubi
Soft by the way. I better be considering how many hours I've spent with
their products. Not that any of this really matters much to me anyway
because I don't own Microsoft or Ubi (unfortunately).

Dave

that.

You were right in guessing that I meant people will buy those games (F1RS is
out though) ...and they will. They are highly anticipated, if a CPR2 were to
be announced, I don't think anyone will be spending the night at the local
software store waiting for it to open so they can get their hands on the
first copy.......whereas, I rushed to the store the day GP2 came out and
GLADLY spend $60 US for the game. I was one of the first in the US to have
F1RS last November, and was shocked to only pay $39 plus shipping for it
from InteractCD.....and received it promptly. I will gladly pay more than
$50 for GPL when it's out. I don't even need to play the demo, although I
will! But, I must have played with the demo of CPR for three months and
followed it in the newsgroups the whole time debating whether I should buy
this game. I didn't want to toss $35 for this game, it just didn't do much
for me. If I hadn't hit 5 out of 6 numbers on the lottery new years eve, I
probably never would have bought CPR. (Yes, I almost won 18 million in the
Texas lottery, but had to settle for $2,053 instead!) so I bought CPR on
sale for $34 at Best Buy, and tried to play on the Zone, tried to play at
home, set the thing on expert or whatever the highest setting is, and
without any setup on the car at all, I'm lapping cars at Michigan after 4
laps. What's wrong with that picture? I'm not even going to go into the
problems with the game, they've been mulled over MANY times on the
newsgroups.......

What I'm getting at is: Now that there is Glide support, I actually
reinstalled CPR last night, and am going to give it a second chance. If MS
had left the Glide support in there in the first place, maybe more people
would have given it a chance as well. D3D sucks in my opinion. But that's
exactly what it is, my opinion. I prefer Glide or OpenGL, that's what I've
got VooDoo and Riva for......

I know F1RS is wildly popular in Europe, what about CPR? F1RS just began
selling in stores here in the states in the last 48 hours, so it's sales
here are just beginning. Let's see, CPR sold for about 3 months in stores
before slowing sales. And I don't think I ever went into a store and DIDN'T
see CPR on a shelf, even at Christmas, I'll bet F1RS is going to be hard to
keep in stock for at least a month, and sales will continue well. Now, F1RS
is not being shipped to the US at the Christmas sales peak like CPR was, so
it may take a little while to surpass US sales of CPR, but I'm sure it will.
But, I don't have hard numbers either, and I doubt anyone will, because MS
may be ashamed to show what they really are.

yes, you are right, MS does know how to market, the market the hell out of
CPR and suckered alot of people into buying it, including myself. And now
those people are TRYING to enjoy the game somehow, so they don't feel they
wasted the money or were suckers.

Craig Marcho

Sorry about the lottery. Sooooo close.

Since you have re-installed it now, are you using Pro or Int.? If using
Int., did you change the skill settings in the system.ini? Are you racing
with damage on, which naturally inhibits your courage? Ovals are where the
AI in CPR is not at it's best. I have watched real CART oval races and
members of the field do get lapped early on in races for many reasons. Th AI
is better on road and street courses. I have a new post which I comment on
AI in sims and, if you want, check it and tell me what you think.

< D3D sucks in my opinion. But that's

I can tell you that the differences between D3D and Glide are coming down
quickly. There is a game I'm testing now where the frame rate differences
are few and the qraphic quality is virtually identical. I can't tell what
version I'm in by looking at the screen.

CPR was just recently released in Europe. I do notice that the number of
people at the Zone races has been constantly increasing for about 2 months
now. Also, the number of racers signed up at Case's Ladder has also been
growing steadily. They must be buying the game and liking it or they
wouldn't join a ladder.

will.

To be honest, I don't think enough people play racing sims to make them fly
off the shelves. I'm comparing them to arcade racing games and all the rest
(action, adventure). Microsoft can get their products to the mainstream
buyer in a way Ubi Soft can't, regardless of  what's in the box so I don't
think they will ever surpass Microsoft sales.

Ubi Soft won't show their numbers either. Would it be because they are
ashamed?

Do you agree this might be a logical reason for the rebate?

Dave

If this is the same game I'm tesing (and I suspect it is), I disagree
with your conclusions. The Glide version is faster in all areas. The
only reason it looks the same is because they've chosen not to use the
more advanced features of Glide, they are only using the features that
have a D3D equivalent. But the Glide version is 4-5 fps faster, which
can make a huge difference in playability if it means you frame-rate
bottoms out at 20fps instead of 15.

Joe

Can someone let me know were to pick up this glide patch. I surfed over to
MS
page and could not find a Glide patch. Is it included in the 3775 patch.
Thanks
for any help.

ray

                                                        Steven Wright

Ahhh, Michael -- thank you! What a trip down memory lane! I kinda miss
old Dean "Short Fuse" Lester -- thanks for that reminder of official
corporate two-stepping!

Bart Brown

I have grabbed the glide file from op3df, via a link from 3dfxmania.
I have a pentium166 and cpr really struggled, almost unplayable and this file has brought the game to life.
I can't believe the arrogance of microsoft in not allowing any non-d3d versions.

Yeah, they are really working FOR us, aren't they, guys...

To answer the original question of this debate.
I have a P166, 80mb, Matrox Millenium and a Monster 3D.
Most of my 3dfx games have great graphics and frame rate
if I reduce the number of cars or whatever details so my
old slow CPU can keep up. With CPR  before the patch
I reduced most of the graphics and still the frame rate was
 too slow so I gave up playing it. Now with the glide patch
I can turn all the graphics on and with clipping at about 18
the game is faster and fun to play. Even the replay is nice to
watch now.

Is there a way to check the frame rate in the game?

I believe you have to type "frame" and it will show.

Glad to see that the Glide patch is helping someone enjoy the game
more.  Too bad TRi didn't take full advantage of the Glide API, the
graphics could have been much better, and the framerates would have
been higher.

Oh well, after trying the game anyways, I can't say I'm too impressed
with it.  I found it too easy, and it lacks as a simulation.  I think
I'm gonna stick with F1RS.  

Marc.
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