rec.autos.simulators

Do you base your online persona on the Riddler character from the
Batman comics?

--
Nos

I visited a mate in Edinburgh last night and had my first opportunity
to try GP3. Overall I concur with what a lot of people have said.

Basically I enjoyed it immensely, although that was mainly because I
liked GP2 so much - it was like enjoying GP2 all over again, since
essentially that's what it is. The graphics, IMO, are ***y awful -
they look pretty good, but the idea of having to accept such godawful
slo-mo effects due to graphical overload in these days of huge slabs
of silicon on graphics cards is terrible. Two cars in close proximity
in the rain, _kills_ the frame rate something terrible.

What I did _really_ enjoy though, was that rain.

Although I did a lap or two at several tracks I did only one "race", a
100% number at Hockenheim. Coming round in fifth place to complete the
first lap I noticed it looked a bit cloudy overhead. Six laps of dry
running and whoops, it's spitting with rain. Slowly, laptimes begin to
rise - after one or two "moments" you quickly lose the confidence to
brake late! The section from "Damon Hill Kurve" down to the first
chicane is dry, Ostkurve exit is a bit wet, likewise the stadium. On
my next laps the stadium gets wetter and wetter, the rest of the track
fairly dry. Suddenly, the stadium is awash - I'm tiptoeing my way
through it, REAL gentle on the throttle and brakes, same with exit
onto the first straight. The rain sweeps across the rest of the track,
now the Senna chicane is very wet and the Ostkurve exit has standing
water making hard acceleration round the Ostkurve itself near
impossible. Laptimes soar and everyone heads for the pits. Onto hard
wets and out of the pits, the circuit continues to change lap by lap -
each and every lap you need to judge how it was compared to last time,
how you think it will be next time and adjust your braking point
accordingly. Learning a track and remembering braking points is
tricky, doing it "live", under pressure, and relearning every lap is a
real feat. The 'Ring must have been a nightmare!

10 laps later, now it's raining hard all over the circuit and the wets
are no longer coping. I'm aquaplaning heavily under braking, and
although at high speed it's okay (downforce pushing the tyre through
onto the track surface?) at lower speeds the car is trying to lurch
off the track until I can get up enough speed for the aerodynamics to
work. This is scary. Into the pits for monsoon tyres, out again in
fourth place and 36 seconds behind Schumi. Now I'm chopping lumps out
of his lead 2, 3 even four seconds per lap where we ran pretty equally
before. Hakkinen spins off and crashes out, Now DC is in first and on
wets, Schumi second on wets, me closing the gap quickly in third in my
monsoon shod car.

I finally finished third, five seconds behind Schumi, having taken too
much kerb into the Senna chicane and spun in my efforts to catch up.
For sure this is no GPL for me, how can it be since it's GP2? However
the weather alone is worth the price of admission for me - not only
the effects, but the implementation of them is incredible. Lines
drying as rain eases off or remaining dry as the rain arrives. Rain
moving across the circuit, changing from lap to lap. Strategy changes,
tyre choice - it's all excellent. On top of that is the challenge of
wet weather driving.

Personally I don't feel the game is finished, and from my own short
try as well as the discussion I found on Deja about the Class/Flt
releases being a bit dubious I subscribe to the "old beta" story. I'm
glad people have downloaded the warez version as we have had unbiased
opinion on it, but I don't like to waste my money downloading it,
especially as it will be released here in two days :-)

For all who like GP2, you will love it. For those who enjoy racing,
you will love it too - the racing really is fun. For online junkies or
those who love purely driving, like I said, it's no GPL. Give it a
whirl, but no guarantees.

I just wish it worked over the net, by Kali or whatever means :-(
Even four, five or six players in a wet race would be amazing.

Cheers!
John

It would seem what GP3 lacks as a purist driving model it (more than for
some?) makes up with its gameplay. It is easy to dismiss the weather as a
bit of an add on to a racing sim but if done well (and by John's account it
is done very well) it brings a whole new area of e***ment to a race. What
is more it provides great incentive to run full length races as changing
circumstances can gain or lose you chunks of time. Whereas in constant
conditions and without tyre management a race can become uninteresting.

Whilst the drive alone cannot provide the fulfillment of GPL, perhaps the
overall experience will be able to enthrall.

I guess the disappointment is many expected GP3 to blow away everything
else, whereas for many it is too lacking in areas of great importance for
them. In some ways I think this is self inflicted rather than us being
victims of hype. Every manufacturer claims their product has ground breaking
physics blah blah. We (RAS) rather assumed that in 4 years something pretty
darn special would be produced and we would have great AI, weather AND a
state of the art physics model. Maybe next time...

Tony

"John Wallace" wrote

--
Ian Parker
"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy."

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Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
GPL hcp. +69.95

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
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Thanks

Regards Mike