rec.autos.simulators

Spent a while with Dirt Track Racing this evening. Unfortunately, I'm
not impressed.

I should point out that so far I have only tried running it on a
Pentium MMX at 166Mhz with 32MB of RAM and a 12MB Voodoo II. In other
words, one AI car on the track, details down and a low resolution.

It may not be the fairest of systems to judge DTR upon, but there were
a few important factors I picked up, which I'm sure will remain
despite the system speed.

1)      FF: The force feedback is lousy. Very little response, and
didn't even give much of a light drifting effect. Could have been MUCH
better!

2)      Sounds: Oh Dear God, even Nascar Racing 1 had better sounds
than this! And I thought GP500 had bad sounds!

3)      Damage: Nowhere near realistic enough.

The menu systems looked OK, but there certainly aren't enough visual
options to tweak. The garage certainly looks promising.

Sadly, I came away wondering just how much longtivity this sim has.
Could I race it for hour upon hour as I do GPL and N3? Definitely not.

Not sure if I'm in the minority, but whilst I appreciate DTR for what
it has added to the genre, this certainly shant be one title I'll be
buying any time soon. Shame to, as I had my heart set on it before
now.
:-(

Ken,
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Your'e right, it doesn't help.

Sorry, no ff here,,,,yet.

umm, well it sounds ok to me?

I don't drive a sim to see how the damage is, I also don't care if cars
flip in N3.

Yes it is nice.

I don't know.... longevity may not be the proper term. But fyi since GPL
came out it has consumed 95% of my sim-time, now I drive DTR at least as
much. Awesome online!

Well, DTR is $19.95 and N3 was $50... hmmm, does value come to mind?

Seriously, give it a few days, it is loads of fun.
John Moore

GP500 has accurate sounds.  They might sound bad, but that's how them bikes
sound.  It's not their fault ;)

But for DTR, it was noted that an upcoming patch would fix the bad sounds.

I think that was the principal problem, and many of us would somehow agree.
Especially with the increase of new titles during the Christmas period, DTR
simply kept me busy for a week and now it's back in the shelves.  It was a
fun week, still.  The longevity of the gameplay was still what I expected
from a low-production software.  I mean 19$US, you cannot expect something
like Nascar Racing 3 and it's complex gameplay, especially for a first
serious racing game.

I expect to reinstall it to enjoy some online racing during vacation during
the holidays.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

If you just tried the demo than your missing alot.  The full version has better
sound (slightly).  The damage model...its about on a par with SCGT after the
visual damage patch...but your not trying to wreck the car anyway right?  The
AI is quite good...I've been driving sims since Indy 500 the Simulation and
this has about the most aggressive AI I've seen.  The Force Feedback could use
some improvement but aside from alot of vibrations a real dirt race car doesn't
give alot of feedback anyway (I know...I drive a TQ midget on occasion).
However I personally don't have a FF controller...I was borrowing a buddys LWFF
to see if it was worht the investment but thats another subject.  I found this
to be a sim ill run alot....probably more so than N3 or GPL.  Not because its
harder or better but its more fun to me.

Chris

    Frank, after 2 months I'm still playing DTR and learning! After reading
3 books on real life setups Dirt Modifieds I'm more impressed than ever.
The suggestions and setups used worked correctly in the game, Nascar
series after 5 years still don't have the physics right! If you think
Nascar3
is complex you obviously haven't spent anytime doing the setups for DTR.
    The only sad part is lot of my setups have to be redone as I can now go
faster and be more consistant with what I have tried in the last 2 days. In
fact I have dropped my speeds at some of the tracks by 4 tenths just by
changing a few things that I learned from reading the books and I haven't
even begun to experiment.

    Pete

??  I have a Pentium 233MMX with 64MB RAM and a 4MB Voodoo1, and have no
problems with 7 AI cars on the track and details up.  My video card limits
me to 640x480 resolution though.  And I'm talking about the demo.  Hopefully
I'll have the same luck with the full version.

<remove 7of9 for e-mail replies>

--
Bill Jones    e-mail addresses:


(860) 701-1201   WWW:   http://pages.cthome.net/billj

        Can't imagine trying to run it with those settings!  If that's the
best your system's capable of, just give it up!  You'll never be able to
feel what it's like running 15 cars into a turn on a 1/4mi oval!

        FF works here!  It's pretty weak, but I CAN feel the tires lose
grip.  Wish I could feel the SURFACE of the track, but I'll settle for the
little "love taps" I get.

        You're kidding, right?  I can't imagine ANY game getting out the
door with those sounds!  If I didn't need 'em, I'd put my speakers on MUTE.
And to think it's A3D!!!

    I'm really stoked to play it online myself, and it's taken _almost_ all
my time from N3.

    I agree with John, but if you can't play with a full field and all
options at least at 640x480, I wouldn't bother.  My C300/450 96MB, V3 3000
system runs at 1024x768 with no hiccups and ALL options on max and it's
AWESOME!!!

    'cept for those RIDICULOUS sounds!!!

Gunner

On Tue, 7 Dec 1999 10:58:49 -0800, "Don Hancock (\"Gunner\")"

Tried it on my Pentium II 300MHz, 128MB RAM and ATI Rage PRO LT last
night. My opinion has certainly improved on the graphics, but not by
very much. The limitation to 15 cars is also a shame.

It works, but it just isn't good enough to compare with GPL, MGPRS2 or
N3. Not by a big margin.

Exactly. It's pure cack!

Damage modeling IS important, in any simulator. A lot of the games
magazines have taken points away from N3 because cars don't flip -
although most of them don't seem to know why they don't. I'm
considering writing to them to explain the situation Papyrus was put
in when they first planned to use the GPL engine.

I can run it perfectly well with all details on with my Dell Inspiron,
but it's still lame.

To be fair however, it is possible that I was expecting a little too
much from it. Afterall, this isn't a Papy sim!

Ken,
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Not unless the demo uses different sounds than the retail version!

Taking into account the price tag (which I admit, I hadn't done
before), it's actually not a bad deal, and I'm slightly more
encouraged to buy it.

Ken,
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We don't get to use the garage in the demo. Is it as good and
effective as the GPL garage?

Ken,
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Only when I'm bored...

You should try an FF wheel with GPL, N3 and NFS 3 if you're trying to
discover whether you should fork out for an FF wheel of your own.

Ken,
- Remove 'nospamallowed' from my email address to reply.
- ICQ #53954494

    Truly sorry you didn't find it as engrossing as I did.  Some of the
races are run at dusk and the sunset is pretty amazing!  I agree 15 cars is
a pretty small field, but some of the tracks are pretty damn small! lol

    I certainly didn't mean to infer they were GOOD, just that they existed
and were "sufficient."

    Ken, it's really too bad you didn't like it, but then - I didn't like
GPL (HERESY!).  I find it FUN!  Which, with my EXTREMELY limited available
time, is what's MOST important to me.

Gunner