rec.autos.simulators

I'm not entirely new to the sim community, as I currently have:

Viper Racing
Sports Car Gt
Midtown Madness
CART Precsion Racing
Nascar Racing 1999

I enjoy them all for different reasons; I like several of the road courses,
the sound, and the sense of speed from CPR; I like the way you can
four-wheel drift in VR; I like the huge fields of opponents in N99; I like
almost everything about SPGT (except that the sound is terrible and you
can't hear your own engine when you're in a crowd).

But I want to buy some more sims now and don't know which ones are worth my
time and money.  I know that GPL is a given, and basically the only reason I
haven't gotten it yet was because most of the things I've read on this
newsgroup indicate that I won't be happy with the performance of it on my
machine:

Pentium 233MMX
64MB RAM
4MB Monster 3D Voodoo1 add-on accellerator
Thrustmaster Nascar Pro wheel (which I love because of the CART-like
shifter)

(Another machine is not an option now)

I'm not racing online yet, but hope to at some point.  So besides GPL, are
there any other current sims worth looking at?

<remove 7of9 for e-mail replies>

--
Bill Jones    e-mail addresses:


(860) 701-1201   WWW:   http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Im also not sure if your system is good enough for GPL. But you can try the
demo and have a look. GPL is, as you know, the hardest and most realistic
driving-sim (incl. 4-wheel-drift).
Titop

Other than GPL, not really, given what you already have.  And even GPL's a
bit of a stretch for your PC.  You'd do well to pick up a Voodoo3 video card
though.  You can get a V3 2000 PCI version for about $80 now (check
www.shopper.com) and that will vastly improve your performance, even 2D.
That's no more bucks than a couple of games, and when Nascar 3 shows up in
the near future, you'll be fairly well set for that also.  GPL and N3 will
likely be your best bet for online racing, though Motorsims' upcoming AMA
Superbike may give 'em a run for their money (and yours).

Cheers,

Steve B.

I HIGHLY recommend that you check out Powerslide -- it's a Mad Max-type
futuristic arcade racer, but I think it far exceeds everything except GPL
and Viper Racing in the physics department.  These days, all I play is GPL,
Viper Racing, and Powerslide -- I like it FAR better than SCGT (which is
rapidly gathering dust right now).

Check out the DASCAR Web site -- I think they have an offer where you can
order Powerslide for $14.95 ($19.95 with shipping).  They're at:

 http://www.ivga.com/

Enjoy!

-- John Bodin
    Publisher, The IRL Insider Magazine
    http://irlinsider.adnetweb.com/

Hi Bill. You and I have the same machine. I race GPL on and off-line. Online
is easier on the processor when other cars are on the track for some reason.
I guess AI is harder to place. I keep the graphics at 640x480 with no
specular highlights and no dynamic lighting, only cars in mirrors and detail
bias at about 20%. When you get the game these setting will make more sense.
:-) I get 36 frames about 80% of the time at all the tracks online. The
lowest it goes is about 29fps. It is very driveable. Consistent and
enjoyable. I am considered safe and courteous online (if nothing else:-)) so
it works well with others.

Off-line I get a few frames less per second. But that's not the problem.
When using more than 9 AI there is latency in the processor that isn't
reflected by the frame rate. It makes controlling the car impossible. So
it's sort of like controller frame rate is separate from graphics frame
rate. Hard to explain but it's there.

Either way GPL is really, really good on your machine. You will simply have
a max number of opponents that your machine can handle. About 9 off-line/15
online. VROC has added a whole new dimension to driving sims on my computer.

--
Mark Jeangerard
www.soundchaserweb.com
New Mexico USA

Try the GP 500 motorcycle sim demo, it is AWESOME. The
graphics and rider/bike animations are state of the art.
I believe that the retail version is due out in october.

Motocross Madness is another good game, albeit with
exagerated motorcycle physics, but it is visually stunning,
especially the crash animations which are the best in any
videogame. The demo is also available on the web.

Extreme Trial Motocross is a very realistic motocross sim,
worth downloading.

Re-volt is a very accurate simulation of Radio controlled
car racing. The cars are a little tough to control
sometimes, but that just the way they are in real-life.

Grand Prix 2 is still an excellent game.

TOCA racing 2 is pretty decent also.

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Your machine will run GPL fine, if you stick to 640x480 and turn off
a few of the less important graphical details.

--

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GPL
SCGT