rec.autos.simulators

Hi,
   I'm currently playing F1GP at ACE level at 20-25% race distance.
However I want to play longer races but really don't want cramp in my
fingers from being hung over a keyboard for over 1 hour. Who has tried it
at above 60% race distance? and what is it like? What about 100% is it
really tiring? how do the other cars perform?

The big question is pit-stopping for tyres - when do the others cars
pit?? Is it random or do they pit to some sort of formula. At 20-25% they
do not pit - at what percentage do they have to pit?

SARDEV "SRi" SINGH
(not quite master of the wet!)

Some time since I drove F1GP seriously (at least 4 years!) but from
memory:

I ran at least one whole season at 100%, but using a joystick rather
than keyboard. Still rather tiring though. Probably much easier with a
T2 or similar.

The AI cars pit pretty realistically for the grade of tire that was
used at the circuit for the year that the sim was based on (can anyone
remember which year it was?). E.g. if the real cars stopped for tires
once at approx 40 - 45% of the full race distance, they will stop at
40 - 45% in F1GP.

Richard

Hi Sardev,

I have been playing at ace level on 100% races for a while now. Yes, it is tiring, especially
for my left hand for some reason. Most of the time I have to do half a race one night and
finish the race another.  I used to play 30% race distance and now I think  it's more
enjoyable over the full distance.

As for pitting, Richard Walker has already posted an answer to that question, but there is
one thing I don't understand. At Detroit, for example, the AI cars pit at approximately half
distance. I was expecting my pit light to come on at around the same time, especially as
my tires were definitely shot. But no, not even after 55 laps. In the end I ran into the
back of Damon Hill and had to pit anyway so I never found out if the light would ever
have come on at all. I was using C compound tires by the way and have seen the pit light
come on automatically before so I know it works. Any ideas anyone?

Paul.
(Hopeless in the wet!)

I think I know why the pit light did not come on:

The pit strategy of ALL the cars (this means also the you're using) is
fixed by F1GP. The cars are divided into 2 groups (one group is very
small) with a different pit strategy: for example one group makes one
stop and the other none.

If you're driving a car that belongs to the group that will not stop,
your pit light will not come one. In the other case it will come on.

With the help of CCPIT you can change the size of each group and/or the
number of stops.

If I'm wrong please tell me.
--
===================================================================================
J.M.B. Dukers

"Monday is a hard way to spend one-seventh of your live."

Eindhoven University of Technology
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry
Subgroup Electrocatalysis

===================================================================================

That makes sense. Are the groups fixed at each track or random? Last year I was
driving the yellow car, I think it was the Coloni from the original '91 season and
the pit light definitely came on. This year I am driving a different car so maybe
that is the difference.

Thanks for the info,
Paul.
PS. Where can I find CCPIT?

I believe that the groups are allocated random over the grid. The number
of cars for each group is different for each track.

There are also other utilities for F1GP than CCPIT. A good starting point
for F1GP is:

http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/f1gp/

Most of the utilities can be found on Trevor Kellaway's homepage.

--
===================================================================================
J.M.B. Dukers

"Join the army, travel the world, meet interesting people and shoot
them."

Eindhoven University of Technology
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry
Subgroup Electrocatalysis

===================================================================================

The pit light lights up (yellow). When you leave the pit, the light
extenguishes.

It seems to me that you don't know how to perform your own pit stops,
indepently of the simulators assigned pit strategy. When you press ENTER,
your pit light will light up and you'll be able to enter the pit (the
computer "forces" your car between the yellow markers of the pit).

With the help of a F1GP utility (at the moment I can't remember the name:
GPLAP?), the condition of your tires can be visualized during a race. Now
you can see when it is necessary to change your tires. You can find this
utility at http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/f1gp/. Look for the link to
Trevor Kellaway's home page.
--
=======================================================================
J.M.B. Dukers

"Join the army, travel the world, meet interesting people and shoot
them."

Eindhoven University of Technology
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry
Subgroup Electrocatalysis

=======================================================================