rec.autos.simulators

On the grids....yes, you're correct.  However, what I attempt to do now is
to set my fields to the same number of 3-litre cars as gridded for each
event and then reduce that number by one.  I then become the last person.

What I would like to have the ability to do is to set the grids exactly as
per history and then randomly take the role of one of the drivers on a
race-by-race basis.  That way I wouldn't concern myself with setting a
"qualifying" time and would merely slip into the***pit of whatever car the
dice came up with.

Would certainly make for an interesting time! :o)

If that was accurate, then presumably the fastest setups in GPL would
end up pretty similar to the real-world setups of those times.

I mean, they must have missed something in the physics model for such
low ride-heights to work better than realistic ones?

If it's a question of the tracks being artificially smooth and therefore
not truly reflecting the difficulty of driving on the bump stops, surely
it would be possible to put in some random 'noise' that becomes
noticable when the suspension has insufficient travel?

I just think it would be better to tweak the model so we end up at the
'correct' ride height because it works better, not because of an
arbitrary limit.

   Having driven low rider setups however and beaten my own personal best times
without trying very hard, it seems quite obvious that there is an artificial advantage
to be gained by doing so. Since this was discovered to be an advantage, many have been
playing a game of follow the leader(s) in an attempt to duplicate the fast times set
by some very talented drivers, and in so doing have robbed themselves of the
opportunity to learn more about real world vehicle dynamics in a simulated
environment.

   Does that mean that you or anyone else who uses these techniques equates to
cheating? well as I stated before since there is no governing body to make a ruling on
what constitutes a cheat, so there will continue to be a lot of debate on that
subject.

   It does point out that there are, and will continue to be, loopholes to be found in
any simulation, and if there's an advantage to be gained, then people will use it.

   Since you have proven yourself to be amongst the fastest drivers, I would encourage
you (and others like you) to continue to experiment/explore with higher ride heights,
other diff. settings etc.(while kicking ***as you're bound to do) and  in general
widen your/our awareness and understanding of the limitations and possibilities that
can be achieved in spite of the physical anomalies of the simulation rather than
taking advantage of them.

Respectfully

Thomas JS Brown

% But IMHO it's not because they didn't used those setups back in the days
% that it means they couldn't had used those settings.  Who knows what maximum
% and minimum settings the teams could use for about everything (spring rate,
% gearing, etc..).  Im sure Papyrus made research on this aspect, I hope they
% did not throw random min/max settings.  But of course they might have had
% for certain settings like the ride-height, since the minimum height was
% changed during the beta testing stage.

If I remember correctly, I think Dave K. explained this in one of his
interviews.  Today's PC's can't run fast enough to simulate the
high-frequency bumps.  Physically it was probably possible for a 1967 F1
car to be set to a ride height of 1.00", but due to the poor handling
enduced by high-frequency bumps, no one in their right mind would have
driven their car with such a low ride height.  I would hazard to guess
that the actual mechanics of adjusting the ride height is modelled
correctly in GPL.  Therefore, they allowed settings below the soon to be
default of 2.5" in GPL.  I think the big discussions regarding ride
height in r.a.s. helped contribute to the patch restriction.

[did I say "soon to be default"?   --- let me rephrase that, "in a
galaxy far, far away, in a time, far, far in the future to be default".]

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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