rec.autos.simulators

And:
I don't know a damn thing about 3d cards.  Do they replace your video
card or do they run alongside them?

And:
I take it you need something more than a 10 dollar joystick to put in
decent lap-times, eh?  :(

Super Pants

You have a couple of choices for 3d cards:

A Rendition-based card. Hercules Thriller 8Mb seems to be the card of
choice for Rendition support. It's a 2d/3d combo card and will replace
your current card. Not sure what the price on this card is - about $149?
Other option is Diamond Stealth II S220, I believe.

Any Voodoo2 card (available from Diamond, Creative Labs, Guillemot,
Canopus, etc.). I'd recommend a 12Mb card over an 8Mb card. Prices have
dropped to ~$169 for the 12MB cards. Voodoo2 cards work in addition to
your current video card. If your system has 2 free PCI slots, you can
get a pair of Voodoo2 cards for about $229 - it'll increase performance
on a lot of games, but it may be overkill for just GPL.

Conventional Wisdom is that the Thriller will give better or equal
framerate performance and better image quality.

  Yeah, so the conventional wisdom has it, but the good news is that you can
pick up some pretty reasonable wheel / pedal combos for around $100, and, if
you've a mind to, you can even get the Thrustmaster Grand Prix 1 wheel that
has throttle and brake paddles attached to the wheel for around $30. I'm
being cheap and using it now and it works quite well.  There are people out
there using just joysticks, but they're probably a pretty special breed.

Joe

Beware of VoodooRush cards. They are 3dfx 2d/3d cards, but they don't do a
particularly good job.

Your specs are similar to mine. I haven't tried software only (not using
the video card to process graphics), nor do I want to. You can find decent
3dfx cards for uner $150.

Apparently some can do quite well with a joystick, but again, I wouldn't
want to try it. I like my TSW2.

Super Pants

Siegfried & Roy's secret love child

So looking at your spec I'd say you'd have no problem but it it is
worth getting a 3D card as it will improved the graphics quality and
framerate no end.

Well there are two types as far as I know and I'm happy to be
corrected.

You can get 2D/3D combined cards and 3D pass thru cards.

The 2D/3D combo's replace your existing card completely but I've
heard of a lot of people having problems with them and getting poor
2D performance.

As for the pass thru cards (the type I have) you simply put it in a
spare PCI slot and use the provided cable to couple it to your
existing card. This takes output from your existing card into the 3DFX
card and then you connect your monitor to the output of the 3DFX card.
I believe some use and internal connecter.

Anyhew....

There are a lot of arguments about whether to go for 3DFX, Voodoo  1
or 2 or the Rendition version.

I wont argue the case but I'll give you my opinions.

Voodoo 2 is great and has many more features and speed but at a cost.
As this has now replaced the Vooodo 1, these cards are cheaper and
you can pick them up for pennies (see www.3dfx.com)

Memory is an issue - like standard video cards, the more ram you have
the higer the resolutions/colour depth you can run your games in, but
at the cost of processing.

Renditions cards have been out for a while and quite a few Papyrus
games support them, but of all the games I have, its ONLY Papyrus
games that seem to support them (others must, but I dont have them)
and of the 26 or so games I have 3DFX is supported in all.

So in my opinion, if you have *** all budget, get a pukka 3DFX
Voodoo 1 chipset clone for about 35 for now until you can get
a better Voodoo 2. The power of your PC should compensate for
the slower 3DFX card to some degree and make it playable.

Again, these are only my opinions based on personal experience.

Not really. I played N2 and ICR2 with a $10 two buttoned stick from
Tandys for years and was pretty damn quick. As long as the contacts
are kept clean and it gives you a good ammount of controlled
input then you dont have to rush out and buy a $150 Force Feedback
stick.

I have a FF stick and without Auto centering off, I cant drive GPL
with it.

I've got a very old and beat up T2 at home and apart from a dodgy
pot on it, it works fine.

- Jed, The Pits

Jens

I played it a lot last night and decided that to keep the frame rate
up with the AI on I switched to 512 mode and turned off the mirrors
to just show the cars. The starts are slow, but I still get 30fps when
I'm pootling round and about 15-18fps if I'm 'in the mix'.

- Jed, The Pits

Rob Yates.