rec.autos.simulators

I have been sim racing for many years now, right back to the days of F1GP on
an Atari ST.

I have had many PCs, and as I have upgraded them, I have noticed one very
special thing about the way sims behave...

If your PC doesn't have the power to run the sim at a 'decent' frame rate,
then the car will generally understeer.

I don't know why, but it's been true for every sim I have had.

Here's how to treat a new sim...

When you first install it, run it at the easiest setting for your PC, so
that you get the maximum frame rate. Drive around for a bit, to get a feel
for the car. Then, if you want more 'eye candy', start cranking up the
resolution/detail level, etc. Because you have driven the car at the best
frame rate your PC can manage, hopefully (provided your PC isn't too crap),
you will know how the coders intended the car to feel, so when you detect
that the car is now not handling properly, you will know that you've
overdone the 'eye candy'.

Hopefully, if people realise this, and treat sims sensibly, we should get
less whinging about how a sim doesn't feel realistic, every time a new one
comes out, simply because people have cranked all the details up to max, and
are giving their PC a hernia! ;-)

R.

Eldred
--
http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
Screamers League
IICC League
GPLRank -6.0    MoGPL rank +267.80
Ch.Rank +52.58   MoC +741.71
Hist. +82.34  MoH:na
N2k3 rank: -1.047
Slayer Spektera lvl 79 assassin
Slayer Spectral_K lvl 44 Necro
US East

Have you been dead for tax purposes? ;-)

R.

   Did you miss that?   Poor Eldred was pronounced D-E-A-D by one of our
rabble-rousers.   Of course, since it was printed on the internet it must
be true and I am jussst a little suspicious of the suposedly dead Eldred
continues to make postings from the great beyond.
:)

dave henrie

-Greg

Actually if you PC is underpowered for teh sim you are trying to use, you
will see controller lag, sometimes severely, period.  Depending on how you
then react or over-react to that lag, you can create understeer or
oversteer.

The advice you have given about making sure your PC is up to the task so you
dont see controller lag issues, is solid.  Anyone trying to say a sim doesnt
have realistic feel when his PC isnt up to the task of properly running the
sim in the 1st place has absolutely no business making any kind of comment
to that aspect or most likely any other aspect of the sim.  but this is
usenet, so I dont expect that to improve any.

;)

<snip>
Surely they have internet access in paradise by now?

Alex.