rec.autos.simulators

After hearing all the positive response about Need for
Speed, I was wondering what kind of system is needed for
optimal performance (max details, 16 bit stereo sound).

Thanks.

          What??!!  I have a Gateway P133 and it runs *perfectly* with
SVGA, max *everything*, 16-bit stereo, full-screen etc.....
          What brand of 133 won't it run perfectly on?

--Evan

|> >> After hearing all the positive response about Need for
|> >> Speed, I was wondering what kind of system is needed for
|> >> optimal performance (max details, 16 bit stereo sound).
|> >>
|> >> Thanks.
|> >
|> >I don't think we have an optimum system yet. Even a Pentium 133 with fast
|> >video card is not fast enough in SVGA.
|>
|>           What??!!  I have a Gateway P133 and it runs *perfectly* with
|> SVGA, max *everything*, 16-bit stereo, full-screen etc.....
|>           What brand of 133 won't it run perfectly on?

Ha! I have a P100 asynchronous cache with an ATI Winturbo card, running NFS
in SVGA, max everything, 16-bit stereo, full-screen etc... smooth as silk.
the P133 must have something wrong.

--
Isaac Wong                % Protel Compiler Group


TEL: (613) 763-6127       % Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

: |> >> After hearing all the positive response about Need for
: |> >> Speed, I was wondering what kind of system is needed for
: |> >> optimal performance (max details, 16 bit stereo sound).
: |> >>
: |> >> Thanks.
: |> >
: |> >I don't think we have an optimum system yet. Even a Pentium 133 with fast
: |> >video card is not fast enough in SVGA.
: |>
: |>           What??!!  I have a Gateway P133 and it runs *perfectly* with
: |> SVGA, max *everything*, 16-bit stereo, full-screen etc.....
: |>           What brand of 133 won't it run perfectly on?

: Ha! I have a P100 asynchronous cache with an ATI Winturbo card, running NFS
: in SVGA, max everything, 16-bit stereo, full-screen etc... smooth as silk.
: the P133 must have something wrong.

Are you sure your P100 run as smooth as silk in SVGA? Go back to VGA mode
and you can find the meaning of "smooth as silk"! I got a P120 in SVGA,
turning off horizon, still find it obvisouly slower than that in VGA mode. I
think at least P200 or P133 with 3D accelerator will get the similar frame
rate in SVGA as VGA mode.

: --
: Isaac Wong                % Protel Compiler Group


: TEL: (613) 763-6127       % Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

    Great game, but how about some more cars and tracks?  I'm bored of
all them already.  I got the patch so I can drive the "Warrior" and
drive on "Lost Vegas".  That's got me playing it more.  Also, I LOVE
driving the "Warrior" on the Gravel covered "Rusty Springs"!  130
m.p.h.-plus burnouts!!!

My system:

ASUS P55TP4XE motherboard with 256K sync pipeline burst cache.
16mb 60ns EDO ram
Matrox Millenium 2mb VRAM video card.

That's really all that matter when frame rate is concerned.
The Millenium seems to score unusually high with SVGA games.  It's
in the high-end of the spectrum with VGA, but SVGA seems to be
ahead of others!

125   - but don't put too much faith in this old benchmark.  
Doesn't mean much anymore.  Seems all fast machines + video cards seem
to score EXACTLY 125.0, with the next lowest step at 111 (I think).
Nothing in between from the benchmark lists I've seen.  Definitely
shows that the program is running outside it's bounds.

After the initial awe of the cool hi-res graphics, I tried fooling around
with the different graphics and audio settings and the games does
seemd to run faster under lower Image Quality settings. (switching
between setting using F2 while speeding in the first City segment)
I say "seemed" since the scenery going by as a blur of blurred pixels might
have make it appear as if it was a lot faster.
(The other details and audio options didn't seem to have any noticeable
effect.)  Ever since then, I can't escape the sense that hi-res isn't
as smooth as I thought it was before I tried messing around with the
options.  Also, setting the game on one of the Auto settings made the game
run in high during crashes and very low speeds (start, slow turns)
and low/medium during higher speeds which seems to support the
unscientific tests I was trying. I'm interested in hearing from the
other people who have stated that NFS runs smoothly for them on
P120s and P133s. Are you getting the same sort of results?

Are NFS and other games in general made such that they run at a
one certain speed (or framerate) given the processor can support it
(so that a game that runs optimally at 30 frames/sec. on a 486 also
runs at 30 frames/sec on a Pentium) or are they programmed to run
as fast as the CPU allows?
And, is there any definitive way to find out whether or not a computer
is running in hi-res to its full capability? Someone mentioned
framerates...was this an eyeball estimate or figure that can be
calculated somehow?

bing

One thing is certain, in frame rate performance, it runs rings around NASCAR
in SVGA.

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Thanx,

Yao Tan

Nap

BI>After the initial awe of the cool hi-res graphics, I tried fooling around
  >with the different graphics and audio settings and the games does
  ...
  >and low/medium during higher speeds which seems to support the
  >unscientific tests I was trying. I'm interested in hearing from the
  >other people who have stated that NFS runs smoothly for them on
  >P120s and P133s. Are you getting the same sort of results?

Now I don't know how much slower (if any) the actual real version runs than
the demo I played, but I had no apparant problems getting smooth graphics on
SVGA with my P60 (read "Packard Bell Pentium-60!", yes a Packard Bell) with
8 megs RAM.  No problems at all.  However, NASCAR won't run full detail
with 38 oppenents in VGA on FM sound.  Go Figure.

---
 * TLX v4.10 * An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.
---
 * OLX 2.2 TD *

Mine is a Gateway P5-120. All details maximum and it runs beautifully.
Don't know the frame rate, but it looks natural.

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David W. Griffin              |   (407) 830-4133
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