rec.autos.simulators

DGF: Sorry to hear you got another screen-freeze.  I felt sure the AGP
driver was the solution.  On RASCAR, I must say I don't like your car
(nowt personal) so I'm gonna do a more WC-like version of your #19
Ford.  If I'm happy with the results you can have it.  Feel free do
disregard - I won't be offended, but I will probably still use my
version.  Is this against the spirit of RASCAR and freedom of
expression?

RASCAR: I'm *hopefully* gonna be in a position to take part more
frequently now that the garage has been converted.  I wanna change my
id and hand in my new (and final) car.  I want a Sierra id that
reflects my name and my performance on RASCAR.  My current id
(MrkyMrk) is screwed from SS racing on Sierra when I first got the
game.  Hardly been online since.  John Simmonds - is this a problem?

Racer: I have not tried this yet myself but have read posts here on
RAS.  What is the difference between Racer and Racing Legends - other
than Racer is cheaper (free) and is actually available to try?  The
concept seems similar to me so I must be missing something?

Thanks for listening (or not)

Mark
Reading, UK

His attitude, activities and the way he presents himself makes some people
very angry

Others either dont notice or dont care.

Doug

I'm still pretty sure it was. I've also replaced the video card. This might
be ANOTHER type of freeze. The latest one happened right when the spotter
came on and said "there's five laps to go" so I've now disabled streaming
sound and hopefully that will solve the problem. If not, I'll just run
without a spotter and use text only messages. If it still happens then the
only thing left to do I guess is to get another motherboard or wait for
N2003. :-)

I appreciate the offer, but I'm sure I'm going to stick with my car no
matter what is offered to me by someone. Go ahead though and make the car if
you have a good idea and use it yourself or offer it up for someone else. I
have the number 19 locked up though for RASCAR, so you should wait to put a
number on until you know who's going to drive it if it is going to be used
in RASCAR.

David G Fisher

What do you mean your ID is screwed?  You mean you abused people in
online races?  Got a bad rep?  I know you from past racing and I never
had a problem with you online. :)

It's no problem if you want to change your ID, and people can change
their car any time they want.

--
=========================================================
Redneck Techno-Biker & "programming deity"
  http://www.paddedwall.org/john
DeMONS/1 for Nascar Racing 3 & Nascar Legends
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons
DeMONS/2 for Nascar Racing 4 and 2002 Season (in development)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons2
RASCAR Roster
  http://www.paddedwall.org/rascar
Barbarian Diecast Collector (490+ cars and counting)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/diecast

If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown
above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame.
=========================================================

Thanks, John.  I'll say it again - your work is much appreciated.

Mark
Reading, UK

I think the "wound up types" that visit r.a.s. will attempt to tackle anyone
running with the ball.  Its a fact of life.....r.a.s. is no different.
Sometimes they are focused on me, others get their ranting and raving hits
too.  I'm not the only one.  But, the frequency of my posts, and the fact
that I tend to write in a "matter of fact" and precise manner (with healthy
amounts of errant rambling thrown in....lol.....) - possibly makes me a more
frequent target than others.  I do know one thing, what is in the mind of
the writer, does not often get translated correctly to the mind of the
reader, simply by reading the written words.  Intent....can not be
determined always accurately.  You know?  So, if someone is pre-disposed to
thinking someone is an "elitist and arrogant" (for example).......they tend
to read that into that person's writing....right or wrong, as that may be.

Mark, I need to look into this "tree pop up" as you put it.  Can you provide
me more info.....I have not noticed the draw ahead phenomenon being any
closer in my WG track than any others.  But, maybe I have not paid attention
or something.  I have the original WG track intact.....I would like to view
the draw-ahead on both versions to see if they are dramatically different.
And, if they are, see what I can do to fix my track version.  Send me an
email about this...no sense taking up r.a.s. bandwidth on the topic I think?

DGF:  This screen freeze thing is a fairly common issue from time to time
(more so in N2K2 that other sims in the past, I believe).  I assume you have
taken the normal and customary fixes into account and done them?  You
know.....taking control of the "swap file" back from Windows and setting
your ram allocation for replay to a large number (the papy default is very
small...so you keep swapping in and out of the swap file during a
race....that can cause freezes)?  Have you?  If not...try that first.  Also,
screen freezes are common when the video card is over heating....which is
very easy to do in running N2K2.  That's another issue I fight with all the
time.  You should not have to endure screen freezes.....if you are getting
them, you can take action to eliminate them (short of the obvious fact that
if you have a defective video card....there's nothing you can do about that
but replace it).

Regards,

Tom

huh?

Doug

If you do change your ID, leyt me know asap so I can update the roster
page. Eldred will be building the invite list from the ID's on the
roster page (at least that's where I *think* he's gonna get the ID's).

--
=========================================================
Redneck Techno-Biker & "programming deity"
  http://www.paddedwall.org/john
DeMONS/1 for Nascar Racing 3 & Nascar Legends
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons
DeMONS/2 for Nascar Racing 4 and 2002 Season (in development)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons2
RASCAR Roster
  http://www.paddedwall.org/rascar
Barbarian Diecast Collector (490+ cars and counting)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/diecast

If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown
above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame.
=========================================================

Correct.
I may have missed a couple of messages here and there.  AOL has been throwing
temper tantrums today.  I can't download the NG messages anymore, and the tech
support guy says that means the NG's aren't being carried on AOL's server
anymore.  But, I can obviously access the NG while I'm still online to write
this message, so AOL can still see it.  I'm not sure what's going on... :-(

Eldred
--
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPLRank:+8.09
N2002 Rank:+22.329

Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

"EldredP"
  But, I can obviously access the NG while I'm still online to write
   :)  You'd think someone with a single digit GPL rank would be smart
enough to dump AOL.  <snicker--snort.!!!>  :)

dave henrie

Yes, I've done EVERYTHING and long ago. :-)

Tried running with the cover off the case adn a big fan blowing on the card
months ago. Still froze for a few seconds.

Actually, I did replace the card about two weeks ago even though it wasn't
necessary. What turned out to be the problem was my AGP aperature was
getting reset to something other than 4x. How, I'm not sure. I now keep
checking it and even reset it occasionally with the GeForce Tweak Utility
just to make sure it's still at 4x. Have only had that one freeze when the
spotter said "there's five laps to go" since I figured out it was the AGP.
Maybe I was suffering from two types of freezes all along. Some did seeem to
happen when the spotter said something somewhat unique (as opposed to
"inside" or "outside" which is said many times during a race). I've now
disabled streaming sound which is something one of the Papyrus guys said can
eliminate sound related freezes.

David G Fisher

Cheers,

Mark
Reading, UK

There's obviously some history between some RAS regulars, but I can
only call it from my experience.  Therfore:

Attitude: Helpful, practical.
Activities:  Interesting, useful, appreciated (track retexturing).
Presentation:  Verbose, opinionated!  (opinions are like ***s,
etc, so no problem there)

Like I said, though, that's just *my* experience, so I hope it doesn't
sound like I'm "taking sides".  Please don't hold it against me ;)

Cheers,

Mark
Reading, UK

Has disabling "streaming sound" stopped the freeze?  I'd be interested to
know (and could your repeat the sound card you have).  Also, this might be
hard to do (usually you have to have someone watching for you), but can you
determine if your hard drive is "active" when the freeze happens?  This is
easiest to detect by seeing the hard drive activity light come on...or blink
quickly, just as the freeze occurs.

Here's a new area (new to me) that can cause freezing.  Side Band Addressing
(SBA).....and Fast Writes (FW).....are not compatible on some video
card/mobo combinations.  These are complicated issues and probably not
within the scope of a newsgroup post.  But here's a "***" on each:

FW:  Not compatible on AMD platforms (works on Intel boards) and can cause
all kinds of weird behavior.  Disable it in the mobo BIOS AND in the video
card vga-BIOS.

SBA:  There's no mobo BIOS setting for this.  It is found in the video
card's vga-BIOS only.  Some GF4 cards have it enabled by default.  Most have
it disabled by default.  It robs you of FPS and does nothing that it was
intended to do.  It can cause screen freezes and graphic anomalies as well.

You made a comment above about using a video card tweak utility to set the
AGP port.  My experience has been that using anything other than a direct
BIOS entry for this is unreliable.  The mobo BIOS doesn't do well when some
kind of TSR tries to override it.  Why not add some insurance and set the
AGP directly in your mobo BIOS at boot up?  Try setting it to 2x (128 for
the aperture) and see if that stops the screen freeze.  If it does, consider
it a lucky find.  The 2x AGP is more stable on many platforms and it only
takes a small hit to the FPS (2 or 3 FPS in N2K2.....not a bad price for
stability).  I run only 2x AGP now.....and still get FPS up in the 100's for
N2K2.  Maybe you've tried that already, sorry if you have....I haven't seen
all your posts on this screen freeze issue.

What I can gather from your posts I have read, you seem pretty
tech-competent on this stuff.....so my guess is that some little "setting"
is the culprit.  Or at least, that's what you are down to since it appears
the freezes are much less frequent now.  Keep digging.....you'll find it.

Good luck....

Tom

You are supposed to steer around them :)

-Larry