rec.autos.simulators

I bought a GP1 steering wheel from TM a few weeks ago and
am greatly impressed with it.  However, I still cannot reach the
"fantastic"
lap times some people have reported.  The "hot lap" in question I got
from the Internet in the form of a file called '1M13S991.HLA'.  The track
is
Interlagos in Brazil.  The author of this hot lap bragged with a lap time
of
1.14.113.  I tried to emulate this time and could only achieve 1.18.19, no
matter
how hard I tried.  I then timed the so-called hot-lap with a stop-watch and
measured it at 1.27.231.  I then time my own hot-lap and found it to be 3
tenths
of a second faster.  Seems to me someone has been cheating or what?

Dick.

If you use too much graphics in conjunction with high frame rate the
real time will be wrong, if you press the 'o' key when driving, you will
see what I mean. The 'o' key shows you the current processor occupancy,
if this is more than 100 %, the game time will be slower than the real
time, thus lying about the time spent lapping. Try scrubbing of some
graphics and/or decreasing the framerate, and you will have a system
with game time equal real time...

The hotlaps on the net are unbelievably fast, you' ll have to spend
months on the game before you're anywhere in this area...

--
---Asgeir---

Any information herein must be used without utter discretion and respect

First of all: 1m14.1 at Brazil isn't ANYTHING special. I do 1m13.2 with the
keyboard, and MANY others are much faster with a wheel.

It IS strange that you are four seconds off the pace with the same setup. Maybe
he is driving without steering help, while you still have it turned on? Also:
don't expect these kind of times to be beaten easily....

About timing the hotlap: this doesn't give you any information about cheating at
all (well, there are very small indications, but not what you're thinking
of...). If the guy has a P200, and plays at 21fps SVGA 100% Processor Occupancy,
the replay will be saved like that. If YOU happen to have a slower system, the
CPU can't keep up the framerate in realtime, and it will be shown slower. But
this doesn't tell you anything about how it is on HIS system.

JoH
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You can't measure a lap time with a stopwatch, as the frame rate is a major
factor on the times lapped. In fact, i set my framerate by timing a known
GP lap time by watch and adjusted the frame rate till the times were equal.
But you're right, i often question those 'internet' times too.

Joris

The *actual* time of a hotlap depends on the cpu occupancy of the pc
replaying the hotlap (eg:- yours)

The *actual* time will only match the *hotlap* time if your cpu occupancy
is at 100% for the whole hotlap (virtually impossible as the cpu occupancy
changes all the time depending on whats happening during the lap).

If the cpu occupancy is higher than 100% the *actual* time will be slower,
and if the cpu occupancy is lower than 100% the *actual* time will be
quicker.

This is due to the fact that the program rigidly displays the frame rates
set in the graphics screen, if your cpu cannot handle the graphics, the
game slows down, if you have a ninja pc, the game speeds up.

However, some of the times posted on the net are questionable? especially
bearing in mind the vast number of editors, patches, and utilities that
are available for *enhancing* gp2?

BTW, Personally my best at Interlagos, (using no editors, etc, and
using the keyboard) is 1:16:985

The best way to improve is to practice, practice, and practice......

d:~))

* Peter *  8-)   Please remove asterix from address to email.

For example 20 fps at 100% load GP2 shows 20 frames in one second which
lasts 1 second in the game.

20 fps at 200% load GP2 shows 20 frames in two seconds but the game
clock still registers 1 second a lap.

Rumour has it that alledgedly people are using this to their advantage
by artificially slowing the game down thus increasing time to react etc
and posting ridiculously low times as a result