rec.autos.simulators

I chose custom difficulty, removing ABS and the "slide assist" thing.
Manual gears, linear steering, etc. But it just doesn't feel right.

Seems to have "clutch slip" between gears, no distinct change. No
power oversteer at all. And hitting ripple strips, grass, etc doesn't
upset the car at all, the tracks are way too smooth.

Is there a single website worth visiting for info on F1RC, or any
controller setup suggestions worth looking at? Recommended
updates/patches?

Oh, and I'm stuck in the chase view, how do I get into the***pit? (I
know, I'm a bit lazy these days :D )

Rafe Mc

I think currently the three F1 games all have their plus points and fans.
There seems no clear leader in terms of physics and either suits an
individual's driving style or controller setup. I personally like F1 2000CS
the least, so it will be interesting to see what F1 2001 has to offer. Out
of GP3 2000 and F1RC both seem pretty good in different ways, but equally
have their deficiencies IMHO.

I found increasing the Front anti roll bar to max, gave a sufficiently
controllable but twitchy rear end, and got rid of some of the arcadey feel

Yes, the sound is very poor in this area. Nobody seems able to address it
with third party add ons either. Very odd.

It is (too) tolerant of massive wheelspin for sure, though it is possible to
lose the rear end through power, I think it is done to ease drivability
especially in the wet. For long term appeal I think GP3 2000 is better
here - though initially more frustrating in the wet.

Not sure I would agree, there is a fair degree of twitchiness hitting the
curbs at Hungary. Though again the deliberatley induced oversteer by riding
the curbs (so evident at Monza last weekend) is much more apparent in GP3
2000.

Agree, which is a shame as watching the car bounce all over the grass or
gravel (not that I do of course!) shows a good model of handling bumps.
Considering the accuracy of the tracks the lack of bumps is a poor
oversight, though again it could be to make it easier.

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

F2 - cycles through views. Note the mirrors work in the roll bar view. This
view provides a reasonable driving view plus the "on telly" atmosphere!

Cheers

Tony

Maybe you might want to look at this one too.

Cheers,

Schumi

| Finally got around to getting F1RC after all the discussion and praise
| for it in RAS. I honestly don't understand what all the fuss was
| about. The graphics are undoubtedly the best in F1 sims ATM, but
| that's about it. Physics seem to be pretty arcadish to me, but I get
| the feeling there are a lot of assistance settings on that I can't
| disable (or can't locate).
|
| I chose custom difficulty, removing ABS and the "slide assist" thing.
| Manual gears, linear steering, etc. But it just doesn't feel right.
|
| Seems to have "clutch slip" between gears, no distinct change. No
| power oversteer at all. And hitting ripple strips, grass, etc doesn't
| upset the car at all, the tracks are way too smooth.
|
| Is there a single website worth visiting for info on F1RC, or any
| controller setup suggestions worth looking at? Recommended
| updates/patches?
|
| Oh, and I'm stuck in the chase view, how do I get into the***pit? (I
| know, I'm a bit lazy these days :D )
|
| Rafe Mc
|
|
|

Haven't tried f1cs2000 but I do have F1 2000, which I wasn't hugely
impressed with. Coming from the physics of GP3/gp3s2000, it's a fairly
big drop :(

I'll try that, sounds good.
Bummer :(

Gp3 definitely can take the "frustration award" for power oversteer
for a lead foot like me :D But with patience it is more rewarding.
Haven't tried the wet in F1RC yet, have to see.
I've only been driving in Australia, but hitting the curbs in 4th gear
didn't do much, I'll try a few more tracks and see.

Seems that way to me, not very realistic though.

Certainly plenty of addons there, this could suck a fair bit of
leisure time <grin>
Groovy, thanks for the tips mate. :)

Rafe Mc

Am I missing something here?  Increasing the front  sway bar to the max
oughtta make the front-end wash out, not make the rear-end twitchy.

BTW, F1 2001 is scheduled to be released on the 25th (of this month),

--Steve Smith

There are probably more scientific methods to overcome this but it was a
simple one step solution and the result seemed to work. I am sure there are
others who have played around with F1RC more who can add to this.

Cheers

Tony

RTFM!

8-)

Rafe Mc

--

Ian P
<email invalid due to spammers>

I think he was suggesting that if you actually read the manual that came
with the game you wouldn't have felt the need to come charging into a
newsgroup to slag off the game for not having features that you in fact had
not bothered to enable yourself.

cheers
John

I posted a short while ago suggesting that with some of the 3rd party
patches F1RC could be a very playable sim (i.e. with the AI not smacking you
off). The post concentrated primarily on the AI, though I eluded that the
physics were "very drivable though extremely twitchy in the rain". Easier
than GP3 in this respect (though not necessarily better). I also suggested
the "feel" was potentially dependant on getting the controller setup right.

Rafe's post commented on the physics not feeling "right" despite fiddling
with the settings.

Having since spent some time with GP3-2000 which I believe Rafe is comparing
with I believe both are worthy of attention. I now believe that GP3-2000 has
the edge in sheer depth and physics, whilst F1RC has the closest to
providing an instant fantasy of grand prix racing. Plus the AI have been
further improved in GP3-2000.

Some will simply have preferences for the driving style of each of these
games, others may not find the GP3 graphics system suitably good enough.
Comparing the two without driving them is no contest, providing the AI
behave on your system F1RC looks the part. It is only once immersed in the
race that GP3s graphical deficiencies become unnoticed.

The F1RC manual is worthless apart from providing info on keys to use. Mine
is around somewhere in a pile of computer stuff. The newsgroup is better
informed than the manual to give advice on settings. As for the keys - well
Rafe is lazy - he said so :)

I thought it was a valuable discussion...

Tony

"JM" wrote

You seem like a perfectly reasonable guy to me.  Ditto your comments.  Maybe
Rafe was having a bad day.  Or something.

--Steve

Rafe's comments were not directed at me (I think!), but to a comment
following Rafe's original post to RTFM. I was suggesting that Rafe's
comments were constructive and not slagging off F1RC as was suggested by
another poster once the thread began to lose its way.

Clearly I should have kept all the references in my post but was conscious
the newsgroup police would beat me up.

Ho hum...

Tony

Hey, I was giving my first impressions having read many complimentary
reviews/opinions here in RAS. And I didn't think that it was worty of
the praise it had received. I also didn't think I was "slagging it
off", simply putting my views forward, and asking whether anyone else
was of the same opinion. Tony put forward some suggestions which I
have tried and seem to work quite well. End of story.

How many of the features would I have been able to enable by reading
the manual that I hadn't done already? One, to change the chase view,
everything else was altered to remove all assist options.

Thanks for the constructive comments, BTW.

Rafe Mc

To get back to what the original point was, I've since found that my
main problem was with the throttle set up. I had changed it to linear
(assuming that I would find that the most responsive) whilst changing
a lot of other settings. For some reason, the game wasn't reading full
throttle, so it seemed like I had some kind of traction control still
enabled, or that the game didn't model heavy wheelspin very well.
Changing it back to exponential fixed it (mostly).

So I've eventually got it to drive pretty well, but it does take some
tweaking ;) The stiff front roll bar does give the car a nicer feel, a
bit more manoueverable. I need a decent sound patch though, the ones
I've tried are pretty average. Any suggestions?

It still feels a bit too arcadey (compared with gp3 2000) but my gut
feeling is that my controller setup needs some major adjustments. More
testing needed I'm sure. But it is getting much nicer to drive, if
only the AI weren't completely insane ;) Don't know how they could
release a sim without internet connectivity with such shocking AI.

Rafe Mc