rec.autos.simulators

Okay, thanks to Cie Phillips the patch is available via the internet.
It can be found at his homepage.  I have also including it in my
homepage and via ftp.  Check the following URLs:

        http://www.racesimcentral.net/
        http://www.racesimcentral.net/~mcarver/autosim.htm
        ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/mcarver/AutoSim/icr100_2.zip

The following is the Readme file for installing the patch:

This patch upgrades IndyCar Racing II for DOS version 1.0.0 to version
1.0.2.  It is recommended that you apply this patch to a clean
installation of IndyCar Racing II. You MUST apply this patch to a full
installation if IndyCar Racing II.  When you reinstall IndyCar Racing
II, you must select the "Complete Installation" option.  Failure to do
so will result in errors while patching.

This patch contains several batch files that will help you to apply the
patch without losing your setups, replays and saved races. The
recommended steps to upgrading IndyCar Racing II are:
1) save your current setups, replays and saved races
2) reinstall IndyCar Racing II from the CD-ROM
3) apply the patch
4) restore your current setups, replays and saved races

Note that the patch and its batch files MUST exist in the main directory
where you installed IndyCar Racing II. This is the directory that
contains the INDYCAR.EXE file.

1) Saving your current setups, replays and saved races

You should first save away any settings files, replays and saved races
before applying this patch. You can use the batch file SAVEALL to save
your settings, replays and saved races. You use SAVEALL like this:
        SAVEALL directory
where directory is an empty directory that you create that will hold the
saved information.

2) Reinstall IndyCar Racing II

Remove IndyCar Racing II from your computer. If you installed using the
Windows 95-based installer, you should use the Add/Remove Programs
control panel in Windows 95 to uninstall IndyCar Racing II. Otherwise,
just delete your IndyCar Racing II directory from your hard drive.
NOTE: Deleting your IndyCar Racing II directory will delete the patch
and its batch files. Make sure you have saved away PATCHICR.ZIP to
another directory before deleting your IndyCar Racing II directory.
After you have removed IndyCar Racing II, reinstall it from the CD-ROM.
After you have reinstalled IndyCar Racing II, you will need to re-unzip
the patch in the IndyCar Racing II directory.

3) Apply the patch

To apply the patch, change directory to the IndyCar Racing II directory
and run the PATCHICR batch file. If, for example, you installed IndyCar
Racing II to the \ICR2 directory on your C: drive, you would use the
following commands:
        C:
        CD \ICR2
        PATCHICR
NOTE: The PATCHICR batch file and the patch data files MUST reside in
the IndyCar Racing II directory.

4) Restore your setups, replays, and saved races.

Once you have applied the patch, you can use the batch file
RESTALL to restore the files you saved with SAVEALL. You use RESTALL
like this:
        RESTALL directory
where directory is the same directory you specified to SAVEALL.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Michael, as always, you've gone above and beyond the call of duty. You
are a terrific asset to everyone here in r.a.s., and I think I speak
for everyone when I say this: Thank You!

I'll include your full message below for those who might not see it
for a day or two:
______________________________________________________

--
II*

<BIG SNIP>

First, thanks for the information.

Now on to other stuff:
Those of you who have patched your ICR2 could you please start dropping
bits of information of the results of the patch?

Such as (obvious) does the patch work? It's been reported that the
warning light now does light at 13,000RPM. Ok, fine. How about the ghost
paint lines of the cars? It seems that some folks are still running into
the yellow flag bug at Cleveland. How about traction?

Now some less obvious stuff: Try converting tracks between NCAR and ICR2.
Will they work, or have the programers been busy "patching" other
features as well...?

Car setups. Is the garage still frustrating? Are shock adjustments still
limited to 5% increments? How about wing adjustments? Are they still 20
and 10 increments between garage and pit lane respectively? And camber...
does it seem that this now "works"? There were times that I'd crank all
the negative camber I could into a tyre and the temps would stay
identical accross the tyre. This seemed to happen most on road and street
courses, where it would "work" on ovals.

Please, start informing us that have forgotten that this program is
installed on our hard drives :)
    __o
  _-\<,_  Cosmo Potapoff

: Now on to other stuff:
: Those of you who have patched your ICR2 could you please start dropping
: bits of information of the results of the patch?

: Such as (obvious) does the patch work? It's been reported that the
: warning light now does light at 13,000RPM. Ok, fine. How about the ghost
: paint lines of the cars? It seems that some folks are still running into
: the yellow flag bug at Cleveland. How about traction?

I'll take a stab at a couple and leave the rest for some other people to
comment on.  I haven't really done much but run Cleveland.  I can't say
that the yellow flag bug is totally swatted.  It seems that the pace car
waits too long before leaving the pits when the yellow drops.  The back
markers don't seem to be catching up with the field during the yellow.
I wasn't told to get behind the last car in the field, but I am not sure
I was "blended" in with the field properly.  The cars I was behind
didn't catch up with the leaders and I was almost a 3/4-lap down when
the green dropped.

Rev warning light works.  But I have only tried it with the Ford engine.
Does it come on later for the Hondas?

Traction "weight-shift" seems to be fixed.  I love the feel of the car
now.  It is easier to correct when I make a mistake and cornering at
Cleveland is much improved.  I shave 2 seconds off my fastest lap
without much readjusting of the car's setup.  There is a short pause
before the front wheels grab, but when they do the feel is excellent.
This is a MAJOR improvement.  It feels real, but then what do I know I
have never driven a real Indycar...
--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hi. Im having trouble with the patch 1.00 to 1.02
It wont patch my drivers2.txt file. No reinstalling helps.
maybe my cd is defective, I dont know. anyway, I need the drivers2.txt
BEFORE it was patched. Could you please post it somewhere? Thanks

to:
call prep4pat
patch -ignoremissing patch.rtp .

Worked like a charm for me. I really like the new car handling, much more
feel to the car, can actually throw the car sideways around corners and
feel the wheels catch when they grip.

Well hope that helps.

Cheers.
--John
--
-------------------
  John (Joao) Silva
  http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jsilva
  Seattle, Washington USA.

The field also speeds up slightly before the green flies, up to 100-
120mph. Not sure if it's realistic, but I quite like it. However......

The yellow flag bug is still not fixed. The "Stay behind xx" one is
fixed, but the one where the field zips past you and the pace car while
under yellow isn't.

The "Hand of God" seems to be worse. In one day I've seen it three
times, whereas it's only happened once in the last eight months. It even
happened to one of the CCs, and crashed my PC in the middle of a race
when I tried to look at a replay of where he'd gone

Something seems different with the grip levels at Michigan. Previously
the car used to suddenly "bite" as it found grip in T4, but now it is
smooth. This could be entirely the product of a fertile and fevered
imagination though! :)

Just drive past them. They will speed up to recatch you and get in
position, and you can lead them right up to the back of the field and
let them repass. A good workaround.

Emmmmm, this was wierd, and may also be my imagination so I hope someone
can check this. I had the Reynard chassis selected as I was running
Vancouver, and I tried all three engines. They all redlined at the same
point. I then switched to the Lola chassis, and the engine redlined
500rpm later at 13.5k. So the CHASSIS determines the redline? As I'm
writing this I know it sounds wierd, so I'm going back to check it some
more (after the British GP!).

Cheers!
John
                     _________________________________
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/______:/  \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm \::/  \._____\
               http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~harmon/simnews

Josh

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed as much of a difference in
the AI as I have. With the 1.0.2 version, I have been running some races
at Laguna Seca and Toronto, and some of the AI cars will try some VERY
late braking manuvers. I was very suprised the first time that this
happened, as I never noticed it on the earlier version. Also, the
blocking of the AI is seems to be more pronounced. I did notice that ads
for the new version claimed improved AI, I was just wondering if anyone
else has the same opinion. Just to let you know, the opponent strength
was set at 100% for Laguna, 99% for Toronto (setup just needs a tad more
work!)

Eric Giles

Charlie

I just ran a 45% distance , 101 opp. strength race at Toronto. It
seemed to me that the AI were more aware of where you were.
The handling of the car is much better, you can sling it around a
little more now and still catch the backend. Yellows were on but the
race went caution free so I didn't learn anything about that.
Oh yea, I started 8th and won by 17 seconds over DeFerran.
I was able to knock 2 degrees off both wings without giving up much in
the way of grip. I think we can all plan on reworking our setups, but
that's OK, It seems now that we have something to work with.
I'm very grateful.. thanx Papy...

-----------.   __   .-----------
     -----    \(  )/    ----- Cie Phillips
        ---   ' \/ `   ---  Phillips MotorSports
          --- :    : ---  #01 Lite Ice Chevy
            --' 01 '--   #01 Lite Ice Reynard Mercedes
              //..\\    http://www.racesimcentral.net/

             '//||\\`
               ''``

<...>

Is that the thing where all of a sudden you are spinning at about 200
RPM, for no apparent reason? I've heard of the HoG bug, but never
really understood what it is.

Someone who bought the CD said it didn't, it seemed to turn on
generically for all engines.

That is an interesting observation. In 2 weeks we'll know a lot about
exactly what this patch does.

But the main thing is that the car is much more controllable now. I
was finally able to race in Vancouver (not well, but before the patch
I just hated the track (and  myself for the lousy driving)).

Good stuff, and nice to see Papyrus release the patch via their own
channels. Sierra really does not have the right touch for sim
business. I mourned when Dynamix flight sims got eaten by Sierra, now
the same is happening with driving sims.
--

Eh?
AI at 101% and WON?
Caution free?

<bowing>   "I'm not worthy....I'm not worthy"   :-)

Looks like I need LOTS of practice!
Remind me to take advice from you.
Mike