rec.autos.simulators

On Thu, 01 Oct 1998 01:09:46 +1200, Grant Reeve

  I agree with you almost totally (never got into SODA for that very
reason - I cant set up a car worth sh*t ) .
 However you left out the most important (and fun) part of this
demo.... The cool damage (sound like a ten year old dont I) model
I had the road blocked and while most stopped there was one who
decided to go through the signs to get by making himself a ramp and
flipping into an empty field.
 My only complaint so far (other than default handling) is the shadow
of your car has NOTHING to do with the condition of it, eg: after
using the W key a few to many times I ended up with literally 4 wheels
crunched together and nothing else showing (ouch) however on the
ground I still had a full box shadow while my "car" fit in about 1/8
of the center -and oh yeah the horn and egine still worked (as did the
dashboard mode <g>
  All in all looks to a fun partially realistic game in the realm of
NFS with damage and some physics
 (boy that was long)

On Thu, 01 Oct 1998 01:09:46 +1200, Grant Reeve

        Some of the skids and spins don't seem quite "right" but I'll
give the game the benefit of the doubt until I try it a bit more (10
minutes so far).

        I don't know about this one.  The way the wirerame is deformed
results in even weirder looking cars than Carmageddon 2's!  At a
certain point bodywork has to fall or rip off, not just crumpled like
aluminum foil.  For example, I get hit in the rear quarter and my
right-rear wheel is pushed almost to the center of the car!  And it
still drives!

        This is the weakest part of the demo, I feel.  The graphics
engine looks a few months newer than Monster Truck Madness's (ONE).
So, yes, it's smooth but you can see why it would be smooth!  Worst of
all is the actual 3d model of the Viper GTS.  You would think that a
game dedicated to the Viper could come up with a model that looked at
least as good as that of Gran Turismo's (the best-looking CG Viper
I've seen, short of Super GT).  As it is, the VR Viper is too
slab-sided and wrongly-proportioned.  Even the headlights are in the
wrong place.

        On the plus side, I really like the "sprung go-kart" view.
And maybe EA would like to tell us why a 12MB Voodoo2 (or 8MB Direct
3d, et cetera et cetera) is necessary for an NFS3 dashboard.  The
real-time paintkit is also a step forward.

        I'm trying it again, but only because I can't get my Colin
McRae demo to work.

Martin
Nigel Mansell RIP!

Hiya guys,

just thought i'd join in the wave of "first impressions" postings for
this new demo.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, this one - with good points, and some strange
points (not really bad points, just strange).

- The physics driving model seems to be pretty darn good. Except that
this car is even more "icey" to drive than the GPL demo! it's a mission
all in itself just to complete one lap without spinning all over the
place. I would say that the provided default setup is a load of shit,
but it could be just that my driving style doesn't suit it as yet :)
(I probably just push it too hard). I messed with the setup
considerably and now have it somewhat controllable, and can
occasionally manage a 1:02 lap (ie: i did one once). But I have yet to
figure out how to get the car to feel like i have genuine control over
it - if it gets out of shape at all, i'm a spectator.
But all the right elements are there - wheelspin, engine braking,
oversteer/understeer, etc. and i think all the setup bits actually
work as well - they seem to give the correct feelings when i alter
them, anyway. But with only a couple of hours in the***pit so far
i am still learning the "feel" of this particular sim.

- excellent damage and collision modelling.

- a very nice Options area for selecting controls, and so forth.
Better than 99% of other games i've seen.

- the AI are a bit slow and veer around the place worse than a
blind & drunk grandmother, but we can only select Easy AI in the
demo so I reserve judgement on the AI until later. At least the
AI cars actually use the same physics model as the player's car,
so you don't see the AI cars going around corners artificially
fast or having artificially high acceleration, etc.

- the brake lights on the other cars actually work! you get to see
this in VERY close detail when the car in front of you slams on it's
brakes and you plow into the rear bumper...

- the graphics seem to be pretty well done. very smooth framerate
so far - using the default options (35fps or so with my p233mmx+Pure3D).
i'll turn on some more stuff next time i play.

- but, the scaling of the cars themselves is totally screwy!!!! I mean,
it's as if the cars are HALF the size the should be, when you compare
the car to the road, all the scenery, etc. or perhaps the environment
has been scaled up by a factor of 2 instead... i have no idea why
MGI have done this. as a result the road seems to be incredibly wide,
the scenery and road goes past at half speed giving a pretty much
nonexistant sense of speed, and it feels like i'm driving a dwarf
Viper... strange!

But, the functionality of this demo is excellent - one of the best
demos i've seen in this respect. Although there is just one track,
you get to race a 2 lap race against the clock, against a ghost of
your best lap, or against up to 7 AI cars. The setup section is
fully functional. and it appears to support 4 player internet games!
i just need to find some other people to try this out with now...

To wrap up, i reckon this sim has got potential. I'll have to wait
until we get the best out of the setups to see just how good the
driving model really feels like, however. Hopefully web sites will
pop up or something like that where we can share info on setups!
Otherwise it might be half a year before any of us really get
the thing going properly! I had SODA Offroad Racing for over half a
year before I finally managed to create a really hot setup and started
really enjoying driving it.

I expect a lot of people will try it, find that they can't get too
far with it within 15 seconds, and then they'll delete it and declare
it to be crap. But that's their loss :) i suspect this one will be
much like GPL - it will take considerable practice to be able to
drive it well, but when you get it right, it will be very satisfying.

Er, having woken up feeling refreshed after staying up too late
last night playing this (1am is late for me) i remembered a few
bits i forgot to mention. and i just did a few more laps to test
out stuff :)

I forgot to say that i was driving in Simulation mode. Which is
why the car is really dicey to keep under control... I did a few
laps in Intermediate and Arcade modes... which are quite well done.
still the same physics model, but it becomes easier to keep
the car under control while throwing it around... if you're out for
a fun ride, these modes are what you want to use. Then i went back
to Simulation mode, and have realised that to get the best out of
the car you have to drive it very carefully and not try to toss it
around like i was trying to do - that driving style is suitable for
Arcade mode only:) The optimum grip, as far as i can tell, is when
you hear a very minor amount of wheel screech. So with some very
careful smoother driving my consistancy is going up, and i'm getting
faster too... right on the verge of breaking into the 1:01's.

Oh, and i also forgot to mention the sounds... they're not all that
bad - not overly great either however:) the tyre screechs are probably
the best bit, the engine is a little lacking - not as good as the
engine sound from NFS-SE, but i've never driven a Viper so i can't
really comment. the funniest bit is going into the lake - instead
of a proper splash noise you just hear what sounds like someone
whispering "splshhh" - it cracks me up every time:)

over and out,
Grant.