rec.autos.simulators

I got bored and tried installing NR2003 on my PC which has Vista Home Pro.
The program installed fine and added all updates and mods I could find.
Installed latest cars I could find.  My PC is an AMD FX60 and running a
GTX8800.  I can't believe how good (amazing) this sim still is.  I never
really got rFactor run well on any PC, however, GTR2 is flawless and siky
smooth.  Visually, GTR2 and NR2003 are different breeds but I started a
championship season and just having a blast.  The latest nVidia drivers for
Vista allow me to run NR2003 to all max settings and get frame rates around
115-120.  I used a ECCI Trackstar 6000 and it is soooo nice and behaves
nicely with Vista.  I just hope some day a new Nascar based sim with come
that is as good as GTR2.  Just don't get the rFactor interface and can't get
decent visuals with Vista. rFactor's stockcar in-car visuals is very cool
for who ever produced the mod.

Now, I am simply just commenting on an experience.  No need for everyone to
pile on with foul language, or making fun of my ancestry.  Just a sim guy
having fun but not taking it too serious.

<clear high>

Rush
(the other one)

Some of the stock car mods look/sound really cool (altho I still
prefer the clean/desaturated look of N2003's lighting).  The physics
in all the oval mods I've tried so far are a ***ing joke, tho.

Hm, I find it a bit strange that you should have issues with rF
performance while gtr2 apparently runs fine.

No need to worries though, there's plenty of room for sims of every
genre I guess ;-)

Uwe

--
GPG Fingerprint:  2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F  67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

I had the same deal. I could get excellent fps and quality with little
effort for GTR2 and I have to spend more time fiddling with the
settings for rF. Ultimately, I DO get the balance of speed and gfx
quality, but it seems harder to do with rF. <shrug>

I had the same problem, initially.  When GTR2 came out I copied all of
the settings that were shared between each sim's PLR file over to
rFactor and it runs like a champ now.  It's also a better drive with
the skid/scrub sounds turned up to GTL/GTR2 levels. :)  I think the
problem, in my case, was the number of graphics and sound options in
rFactor that aren't accessible from the in-game menus for whatever
reason (at least, using the default menu setup).

What is it about The Pits stock car mod that you guys don't like?  Or,
at least, don't find realistic?

I'm enjoying it so far.  The default setups at some tracks turned me
off bigtime at first.  They didn't just push, they would bottom out or
something that made the front wheels lose grip, but it didn't feel
like a slide.  It didn't feel like anything realistic.  With a good
setup, however, I think it feels much better than N2003.  I can't
claim it's more realistic or anything, just that it feels better to
me.

One thing I really like is the way the tires will go away if you drive
too hard.  I think oval racing sims in general have been way too
forgiving in the tire department.  TPSCC seems to require a more
realistic approach to driving lines and speeds.

I can't comment on SCE.  I installed the previous revision but it
never would run.  Haven't tried the new release either.

Pat Dotson

jason doesn't like rFactor. He tries something for a few seconds, says it
stinks, says things can't be done that others are doing with no
problem......and that's about it. His avatar at RSC is a doctored rFactor
logo that says careFactor. He thinks rFactor cars spin way too easily.

The Pits NASCAR mod seems damn good to me.

--
David G Fisher

Evidence, please?  I think most people who know me would find that
statement to be laughable.

I hadn't driving N2003 in quite a while, so last night I loaded it up
on my simulator to refresh my memory of what it's like.  One of the
best things about Papyrus products that is missing from rFactor is the
simplicity of installation and ease of getting a good offline racing
experience.  I went to Dover with a full field with 100% AI and full
realism on all settings.  Also, with full graphics and sound options
at the highest resolutions.

It didn't take long to get a reasonably balanced setup.  DGF accused
Jason of thinking that ISI stock cars spin too easily; well they'll
spin on a dime in N2003 also.  N2003 is not easy to drive by any
stretch.  I'm not surprised that people are still using it as their
primary sim.

All that said, I still feel like The Pits TPSCC in rFactor feels
better.  What I would point to specifically is feedback telling me
what the car is doing.  In TPSCC I can 'feel' very quickly when the
car starts to push or get loose.  In N2003... the only way I can
describe it is that I had to wait until it became visually apparent
that the car had a handling problem.  Car control in N2003 doesn't
seem quite as intuitive, and takes more attention to percieve what the
car is doing.

I'm not sure if my opinion is the result of FF implementation, or of
arbitrary graphical limits placed on N2003...  See below:

This reduced perception of handling response in 2003 may be related to
the biggest complaint that I came up with the program last night - the
lower limit on field of view is way too high.  When using a TH2Go you
can't zoom in enough to get rid of the 'fish-eye' effect dictated by
the use of single monitors.  I have the same complaint about rFactor,
BTW.  The low limit on FOV in rFactor should be lower, but it's muct
better than N2003.

Pat Dotson

One man's take on the TPSCC mod. For whatever I cannot get the
steering to be as precise as it is in NR2003. I have made some
improvements over the last weeks and it's "better", but I still spend
far too much time setting up the wheel, not the car. And the really
weird part is that the GP79 mod for rF handles perfectly with the same
wheel settings (axis sensitivity, deadzones, etc.) I do agree that the
car exhibits MORE of the feel of what happens when you overdrive the
car. The tires heat up and it gets slick and backing it down cools
them and allows you to resume solid laps. NR2003 only showed the
effects when the tires were superheated or overly worn.

As much as I would like to really dive into TPSCC, I can't get past
the fact that the steering controls are all balled up somehow. I
checked numerous sites, (THEUSPits had the most posts) for my wheel
(TSW2) and found plenty of info about this "wandering" steering issue.
Sad part is, much of it contradicted itself. User A says to increase
the steering lock while User B says dial it down as low as needed.
User C says that the axis sensitivity needs to be high, while User D
says the opposite. Aren't we talking about the same wheel? I can see
moderate differences in settings based on user feel, but to be total
opposite answers is baffling. If the cars drive good in one mod, they
should be the same in another. I don't mean that a 750 hp stock car
should drive as easy as a 100hp open wheel trainer. But when I can
dial in the steering control settings for GP79 and enjoy the hell out
of that mod, the same settings SHOULD work for the TPSCC mod.

And NR 2003 supports widescreen. Yet EA Nascar Sim Racing does not, I guess
they were to busy finding shitty music to put in the game.
IMO NR 2003 is still better.

Agreed. I race at 1400 x 900 with Teamspeak running, and it is the
most immersive PC *** experience I have ever had. Other racing
games may be better or worse, but there hasn't been anything out there
to recreate the NASCAR experience as accurately as the Pappyrus sim.