rec.autos.simulators

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Glenn

  ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/games/spiritofspeed1937demo.zip

Unfortunately, it won't run properly on my machine.  Everything's fine
until I try to enter the car and drive.  Then the machine hangs, with
engine sounds going but nothing happening.  I have to either Alt-F4 or
reboot to get out.  

If I'm using 800x600 and max graphics options, I never see anything
beyond the splash screen that shows while the track is loading.  If I
use 512x384, with minimal graphics options, I get to see a view of the
cars on the grid, from behind, and then it freezes there.

Nothing worse than downloading 25 mb of eagerly anticipated demo, only
to find it doesn't run on my machine!  

Anyone got any suggestions?

Alison

Computer:

P2-350, ASUS P2B
128 mb SDRAM
8 mg Hercules Thriller AGP
Canopus Pure 3D
SoundBlaster Live! Value
Logitech FF wheel on USB port
CH Pedals on PDPI L4
Windows 98

On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 22:52:27 +1000, "Stephen Colbourne"

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http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

When I exited the game and restarted, it went back to***.

I'll try upgrading the SB Live drivers.  A Voodoo3 is in my near future,
I'm sure.

At 512x384, with all graphics options on, it looked ok.  I'm sure it
looks much better at 800x600.  

How does it drive?  Wellll...I guess I'm spoiled.  :-(

Alison

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Joe McGinn
==========================================
Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network
http://www.racesimcentral.net/***.com/
==========================================

The steering is very vague and unresponsive.  Perhaps there is a wacky
non-linearity issue.  Small steering inputs don't work well, while larger
inputs have you PIOing all over the road.  Throttle and brake have no
noticeable affect on steering response.  The car is either at full grip or
is sliding and spinning. This low-resolution traction model sets the tone
for the other physics modeling in the game.  Throttle control is pointless -
just floor it and go.  At a pre-set throttle setting the rear wheels spin,
regaining 100% traction the instant you reach a hardwired speed.  Spins are
similar: hit something and you are instantly spinning at an incredible yaw
rate.  After half a rotation or so, you abruptly stop.  The cars display
almost no momentum.  They bounce around, and manouver with all the subtlety
of a Nintendo game.

You may as well pull your troublesome SB card - the sounds are really
poor.   I don't know what a 6l '37 Mercedes sounded like, but I'm sure it
had more bark that the wimpy muted noise reproduced in this game.

On the up side, the graphics are nice and I like the vintage cars.

If this game had a modest reality quotient, (Indycar Racing -1  or
thereabouts) I would have been fairly happy.  As it stands, it's a waste of
the programmers effort. (and of my time / disk space).  If the developers
are serious about selling more than 1000 copies they need to gut the program
and install some sensible physics modeling.  (Dare I hope for a licensing
agreement with Papyrus?!!)

-Greg

---------

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Hello,

We are sorry for any disapointments you may have with the demo of SOS 1937,
and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

If you need further assistance, please call our technical support staff at
(410) 568-2377, or visit our web site at http://support.hasbro.com.  Also
please be sure to include all previous replies when/if responding to this
message.

Best Regards,
Brian at Technical Support

Go figure...this one seems to be DOA

Bart

Alison,

     Stop everything,and go and get at Voodoo3 3000. It's a must for GPL.

Joel Willstein

Maybe the little ***y, tall tires on those cars behave that way...

I have had a few cars with very low power...this is pretty much the way I
had to drive  them, too.

it's 1937....

Tell us what it's like to drive a 1937 race car, then tell us the
non-sensible physics modelling is inaccurate.

I haven't downloaded the demo yet, but before i even do and try it out, I am
expecting the cars to have high centers of gravity, horrible traction, very
low power, dreadful twitchy steering and the handling of conestoga wagons.
That's what I imagine race cars were like in 1937.  Do you expect them to
rocket away from a standing start, turn on a dime, and do controlled 4 wheel
drifts with the slightest touch of the throttle?

The demo may well suck, but I hope people have realistic expectations of how
the cars will behave.

daxe

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When you drive GPL, it feels like you're driving a car.  

When you drive SOS, it doesn't feel like you're driving a car.

I mean, in 1937, they had centrifugal force and momentum.  Friction still
worked the same way.

Not in SOS.

glen

I have always wondered....

Who enforces the laws of physics?

~daxe

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It's still 4wheels on the ground controlled by two pedals and a steering
wheel.  I've watched enough old footage of those car types to know that it
was even more twitchy, because of the high-gravity of those cars and tiny
wheels (compared to the funny Monster-truckesque tyres in SOS hehe).

It's like telling to an aircraft pilot who loves to fly air sim that he has
no idea how a Spitfire would react because he only flies his Cesna.  A plane
is a plane is a plane, like a car is a car is a car.  We have enough
experience (many of us from sim and real-life) to understand the difference
between those cars and today's cars and imagine very realistically how they
would act.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Joe McGinn
==========================================
Staff Writer for the Sports *** Network
http://www.racesimcentral.net/***.com/
==========================================

"imagine very realistically"?

I have eaten lots of different foods, but I cannot tell you what a food I
have never tasted tastes like.  I have seen people eat these foods and tell
me what they taste like, but that doesn't mean I know what it's like to eat
them.

I have several very nice guitars, but I can't tell you what it's like to
play one I have never played or owned.  Watching someone play one on TV
doesn't mean I know, either.

I have a house full of computers and plenty of experience using them, but
none of them are Macs.  I can't tell you what it's like to use a Mac, even
though I have watched people use them.

I have made love to many women, but I cannot accurately imagine the
experience of making love to a woman I don't even know.  I have
watched..uhh..nevermind...

My point is (and it's mostly academic, not in defenSe of this demo) that
everyone knows this is the only program to attempt a representation this
era, and I imagine nobody or next-to-nobody in here has ever raced one of
these cars, so where do you get off saying it's inaccurate or wrong?  All
you are saying is that it's not like you imagined it would be.  Sorry, but
your imagination doesn't qualify as reality to anyone with the possible
exception of yourself, and if that's the case, you need professional help.

I downloaded the demo and find it amusing.  I am not as *** about sim
accuracy as most of the people in here, but I find it entertaining.  I did
about ten 4  lap races and got it to where I could get around the corners
pretty well.  The driving model is weird, but so are the cars!  Perhaps this
is the arcade mode and there will be a more accurate level of representation
in the full version.  I dunno.

I did have one thought, though (suprisingly enough.)  The way it steers
(which people refer to as pivoting around the car's center) may indeed be
the case, but doesn't a car actually pivot around the rear wheels, or a
point in between the rear wheels?  I noticed that the***pit in these cars
is almost over the rear wheels, so it would seem more like the driver was
situated at the pivot point, making that point of view for turning more
correct in this case?  Does that make any sense?

Probably not.  OK, now everyone tell me I'm a moron.

~daxe

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