rec.autos.simulators

I think the best street car racing simulation to date is still Viper Racing.
It is excellent in many ways, except, of course, it only supports Vipers,
and maybe that is why is didn't do so well?

I sure hope that World Sports Cars isn't being overhyped.  It just goes to
show you that people are craving for such a game.  If this simulation really
provides a sound physics model and the ability to build custom cars and
tracks, it may actually allow us to build and race souped up Honda Civics,
Buick GNXs and other regular street cars from the past and present.  I'm
keeping my fingers crossed on WSC because it may be our only hope.

p.s.: What ever happened to Grand AM racing??!!  The physics modeling was
supposed to be excellent... but it was never released!

Wasnt that from Empire? If so it might have been WSC in the early days.
It was indeed very very well done, and when I saw the video's of WSC it thought
it was that game :)

I think WSC will be good, no hype.

It's a fun arcade racing game, with incredible deepness and some
eye-piercing jaggies.  Choosing between that and a solid WSC, it's an easy
answer.  Of course for any sim on the market, more deepness and viability is
appreciated.  People still race GPL after almost 3 years.  That's something.
Like Falcon 4.  But GT3 isn't the end-of-all sim.  If it had serious physics
and serious tracks, now we would be talking of it differently.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.ymenard.com/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimato Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

To explain my -no hype- line : I meant everything that will come out will be
good enough imo to make up for all hype involved until release. Let me refresh...
GPL only lives now because of the new versions which add gfxcard support.
That's a important factor to understand, because if a (and _all_ are) simulator
get's released the question is "Does the company respond to the critics of the
actual users?"  If they do then the lifespan of any sim can be increased. And with
WSC I see a couple of devolpers which really dedicate there qualities as programmer
and graphicartist to this simulation. SO, for short - when it gets released we have
a whole series of buys to be reported and overtime it will get a high quality product.
I'am not in the position of telling anyone, but I do think they can easily go for a 80%
product and finnish it in _cooperation_ with *** simracers.

My last point, which is important too imo, is the validation process of add-on's which
really should stay with the West Bro's and get a sort of checksum/proof of quality.
So we can get the following situation: You can have a production 100% sim installed
_and_ beside that another copy with the _none_ approved add-on's. So when we
race online, we can use the production copy only.

(If someone is close to West Bro's please explain the last point - because that can
be of great influcense on the 'managability' and 'proof-of-true-sim' status of the to be
WSC. I think this sim has to have a open end, but also a closed end if it regards the
true status/package which we can call the 'core' of the sim. Core: The sim with official or approved
addons.)

My 2 cents

Anyone tried it?

The Real Car Simulator looked pretty promising but I don't think it is being
released in the US. You could also try Sports Car GT, there are a ton of
addon cars and the physics, although not quite as fun as GT, are pretty high
quality and can be tweaked to your liking.

What's wrong with NFS:PU? It's got a true 4-point physics system
and quite detailed handling of all the Porsches, from the venerable
356 to the current GT1's...

--KC

All game platforms have their flagship games. That's why I've got a PC,
a PS2, a PS1, a Dreamcast, an N64 and I will be getting an Xbox and a
Gamecube when they come out.

OK, I haven't got much room under the television:-)

- Michael

http://www.3dfiles.com/games/needforspeedporscheunleashed.shtml

(If you hadn't found it yet)

-Slash
--
"Ebert Victorious" - The Onion

   It ain't GPL...  (where have I heard that before? :)

   But it is decent.  My only NFS reference points are 4 & 5, and 5
(PU or Porsche2000) is far superior.  Good enough to keep me
interested for three weeks or so of the championships and test driver
mode.  Give it a try.

"But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was
nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into
a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark

hi,

Porsche Unlimited is pretty much the best of the NFS5 games for me.  I
liked the first one a heckuva lot and sorta skipped the second as by
then the 3dfx craze was the thing and the first release of nfs2 didn't
support it.  NFS2SE was better, but my enthusiasm had waned by then.

NFS3 was the first step forward from the 1st game and was wonderfully
enhanced with tons of addon cars.  Playing the General Lee and racing
against the Starsky and Hutch car and the Batmobile (for lack of a
better description) was an experience not yet simulated on any other
system(except NFS4, I suppose).

NFS4 was just more of the same.  Incrementally better and also with
tons of new user-created addon vehicles.  The handling still wasn't
realistic and the car still floated above the ground in replays, but
what the hell, still not too bad.

The came NFS5 or Porsche.  Much better handling and you can feel the
difference the different chassis and engines made.  Try playing the
early 911 turbos with a level 4 turbo on a twisty circuit.  wheeee.

It's still one of the better pc racing games (note not Sim) around.

As for GT2, I managed to get it working under the emulator EPSXE.
I have some snapshots taken of a replay with the RUF Porsche vs a
Viper and some others which are mindblowingly good.  EPSXE basically
enhances the PSX graphics by using the PC 3dcard to up the resolution
and filtering/aliasing of the original psx graphics.  Unfortunately
the view / drawing distance and popup are still much in evidence, but
that is unavoidable.  

As for the GT2 is not a sim argument, 100% correct.  The enjoyment it
brings me is more due to the 500 plus cars built in and the relatively
good approximation of all the fun bits which driving is made up of.
Also the variety of different handling cars make switching from a 4
wheel drive to rear wheel drive a lot of fun.  It may not be GPL or
even Indycar Racing, but what it lacks in realism it makes up for in
playability and then some.

If only GPL had had a dumbed down arcady mode, you guys might have
been able to praise and be playing GPL2 or even 3 by now.  There's a
lot to be said for making a game the many more people can enjoy.  I'm
sick and tired of the elitist attitude which I had myself until I
actually sat down and tried GT2.  Another one of my character flaws.

Regards all,
Ian