A heartfelt thanks to the kind souls who helped me out.
To be frank, I doubt I would have believed it. Having
learned the code, and hence installing the game, I can
assure you that the code was not with the package I
paid $40 for, and yes it was needed. I've been told
by others that EA did indeed***up a batch. I've yet
to hear from CDAccess and of course EA. I'd actually
like to answer to EA as I can prove I bought it with the
credit charge, and of course CDAccess records.
The Game:
Heh, heh, I was expecting physics between F1RS
and GPL, graphics on a level of ICR2 with textures
off, and AI from hell. The primary reason I got it is
because I can't race ICR2 with split axis on my LWFF,
and for the same reason I never got GP2. And I wanted
a virtual***pit for a modern F1 sim.
On a PII 400, V2, 64mb: this SIM has greatly exceeded
my expectations in the above mentioned areas. However,
the Katmai PII may have a larger code cache than some of
the "faster" mhz CPU's. I'm using very high quality Azzo CAS2
ram, and one of the earlier 7200 drives with a full install on it's own
partition (not planned, just ran out of room on the other and
was just starting a new partition). In an algorithm
intensive sim that has to deal with all the tire composite
and aerodynamic choices, something GPL was
able to avoid, this might make all the difference.
And for the CPU with algorithm complex apps, having
to swap out the algorithms can make a routine as
much as 10 times as slow. So a large CPU code cache,
even if it is lower grade memory, might be the way to go.
If I up the resolution to 800x600 the loading times
and fps slow down, something that didn't happen in
GPL. I believe GPL used the same set of textures
for all resolutions, that is why you could switch
rez in the race. In F12K you have to reload the race
and so I believe it might use higher rez and hence
larger textures for each higher rez option. If this is
so then it could really slow down non-3dfx AGP
cards. When AGP first came out it was just a
scam to advertise large memory gfx cards at a
cheap price. The bus may have been wider, and
the buffers larger, but the memory was cheap and
slow grade. 3dfx was the one to hold out as they
realized you get fast fps by storing small textures in
fast expensive memory, not by advertising large
16 or 32bit textures in large cheap slow AGP memory.
The brakes are the best of any sim after narrowing the
range with DXTweak: r = 0, 128, 355. It has to
be setup quit different than for GPL. In fact, just the
opposite. See the Eagle Woman's site for how to
setup the FF. (LWFF).
The AI is more sophisticated than GPL. GPL has
configurable parameters in the ai files but they can
only change the behavior so much. What Papy did
was to set them so they all could make it around the
all the tracks, then tweak the hype and track.ini files to
set the lap times. In other words, they are on rails, and the
yaw is somewhat canned. If you don't believe then
just boost the Monza track.ini until the cars go 260+
and 150+ around the Parabolica without any yaw.
You can produce a somewhat canned AI yaw just
by increasing the yaw variable in the physics section
( I think ) of the ai file. It has no effect on the speed.
And here was the problem; to make the drivers slower
they just made the CARS slower, a slower top speed.
So you're at Mexico and some of the cars are going
210 on the straight and some top out at 160, however,
when you reach the curve they all brake like Jim Clark.
A more realistic AI no talent would realize he has no
talent ( like me! ) and brake sooner. He would also
loose not because his car can't go faster than 160
at Monza, but because he spins, crashes, or is slow
in the turns when he realizes he doesn't have the
skill to trail brake deep. I had to hex edit some of
the GPL race.lp files to get a more realistic braking
opponent for my skill level. So far, it looks like
F12K "might", "maybe", give the AI the top speed
for the cars, but slows the DRIVER by making them
less intelligent in the corners, and they seem to
know it. (Unless they are really stupid). Think of
70% in F12K as being an IQ of 70, whereas in Papy
sims 70% seems to mean the car can reach 70%
of its maximum speed.
And you're right that F12K is not finished. But
the next time I'm at Australia and puke when I
see the flourescent grass, or the bright gold dirt,
I'll remind myself about the telephone poles at
Mosport and the 2 second slow stopwatch in GPL
and try to keep my sense of humor.
GPL benefited greatly from the Glide wrapper that
allowed me to set the mirror refresh to every other
frame. This more than anything allowed me to
race at 800x600 with all details. It would be great
if someone could make such a patch for F12K.
If the sim does indeed use larger textures for
higher rez, then it would be great to get a patch, or next
version that allows 800x600 with low bit and
low rez textures.
I can mix it up with 9 AI drivers in test drive without
too many fps problems. But the full grid in the races
seems to be a big hit even when no cars are visible.
I'm trying to figure out how to limit the field in a race.
After many hours of trying different tracks, etc. the
windows virtual memory gets fragged bad and then
things start to really slow down especially track load
times. But until then the load times are no worse than
F1RS or GPL, for 640x480 that is.
Thanks for the help,
Tom
