rec.autos.simulators

Unlike other genres there is not a steady flow of titles being released.
A typical console gamer will fill up a shelf in months that a sim racer
takes many years to fill.

2006 has seen only NetkarPro and the Hudson rFactor add ons that I can
think of. Both of which have been at the receiving end of certain sim
racers vitriol for ripping us off.

Now we all know that NKPro was hardly a model of release management, yet
I was surprised how many on RSC took a view that it wasn't just the lack
of communication that was the issue but that they had been conned (and
getting very vocal about it). I have made some bad *** choices over
the years with other genres to take a view that sim racing software is
very good value such that if the investment in NKPro doesn't pay off
then so be it. Hopefully though it will bear fruit in the future, then
we will feel we played our part.

As for Hudson Kerr's updates, my view is here is a guy who is looking to
bring professional updates in addition to the hobby groups. Quite
frankly I don't think he is going to get mega rich at our expense. Yet
if he can turn his day job into working on sim racing updates then it
has to be to our benefit in terms of quality and speed of production and
we can then choose if we think it is of sufficient value.

On the basis rFactor is now a year old, sprucing it up with some
excellent updates whilst we wait for a new version seems a reasonable
approach.

Of course there is also some excellent free stuff for rFactor, but I can
vouch for Hudson's work as being at the absolute top end of anything
that has been produced, so you know where you stand if you are looking
for the best. If you have upgraded to a mid or top end graphics card to
improve the visuals by being able to increase resolution, AA or in game
detail then it is a relatively small cost.

My concern is that if we don't support new ventures like NKPro or
Hudson's updates then the already niche group of suppliers of our
products will become even more niche and it will limit our options. The
same goes for ISI and Simbin. Their approach is continual evolution of
their products. They will not seem like quantum leaps yet they need a
steady income stream to survive, which require our continual investment.
Having experienced the drought of products when Papyrus stopped
producing open wheel sims due to financial pressures we should be aware
of the consequences.

Cheers
Tony

In the case of Live For Speed (forums), there are a lot of questions
regarding usage of keyboard, which implies these guys don't own wheels
or pedals. There's there's probably the majority who own some < $100
wheel and pedal set. It's only a niche group that has the fancy setups.

I don't know what the average RSC member spends on hardware, but it's
probably not much more than the average LFS member.

I also can't fathom spending more than $100 on a sim racing setup
either when I've gotten by perfectly fine with a non-FF Sidewinder
wheel that I paid $50 for 7 years ago.  I'm not saying the immersion
factor of an expensive 3 pedal/shifter 3-LCD***pit setup is a bad
thing, but there are guys at the top of the lap charts in every sim
using consumer setups like mine (or MSFF's and Logitech Momo's).

I agree. I've never understood this either. I hate to waste money like
anyone else, but sim racing software is so incredibly cheap for the
enjoyment you get out of it, even if you buy an occasional dud. rFactor
costs me less than a penny per session by now.

--
David G Fisher

--
David G Fisher

If you want to hate iRacing for some uninformed political reasons go
ahead, but any discussion on the quality of the product itself is
speculation.

I expect they will improve their net code, but their old multi code doesn't
compare to rFactor. If you took a poll....

--
David G Fisher

    In what ways - features, functionality or both?

GT Legends is less capable of handling larger numbers but also allows
for some door handle rubbing as befits the series.

rFactor seems pretty capable of handling large grids although I believe
it is more CPU intensive than NR2003.

Hopefully rFactor will get its killer mods (such as the 79 mod) which
will consolidate the complexity of joining races and give us some
greater stability.

Before the recent mods for rfactor I had sidelined it, but now it is
looking really strong with some great updates from ISI and the
aforementioned community mods.

It is hard to be tough on mods provided for free, but some of the early
rFactor mods did not do it justice, whilst the recent development seem
to be untapping the potential and I hope we end up with just a few
rising to to the top and not being subject to constant revisions and
third party physics patches.

Cheers
Tony