rec.autos.simulators

Thanks for the info.....and how are you?  Still letting all these r.a.s.
rookie drivers beat you in RASCAR?  LOL....just teasing you, I am well aware
of your high-level racing skills!

Actually, the LOD changes you indicate were one of the first things I
changed.  I learned that "trick" early on with F1-2001 (where the wheels of
the car in front of you would disappear about 100 feet in front of you, very
disconcerting to a real-world driver running the sim).  I was actually quite
surprised to see that F1-2002 still had the same problems.  But then, I
realized EA wants to sell games like everyone else in the "*** industry"
and those low LOD settings allows them to decrease their "minimum specs"
data which allows them to sell more copies of the game.  Its an old ***
industry trick......they probably invented it!

And besides that, parts of cars disappearing is not what I refer to as
"flashing."

Flashing is what looks like "flash bulbs" going off on things like
buildings, crowd textures, trees....white lines on the track....and so
forth.  I'm not sure why this happens in today's world of high-on-board ram
video cards (where the need for mipping textures is considerably less), but
in the older days it was because the D3D mipping algorhythms swapped the
texture from mip to mip level by page flipping them.....not blending them as
does OGL.  That is why the flashing was always worse with D3D sims than Open
GL sims.  Even Papyrus sims...when they went to the D3D graphics engine had
it pretty bad.....but for some reason its really bad in EA's stuff, and not
so bad in Papyrus's sims - these days at least.

I still think the overall best quality graphics (track presentation to the
driver from the***pit) is either GPL (with the later updated track
textures) or NASCAR 4.....both with the OGL renderer.  N4 with OGL....was
the best of all NASCAR titles (graphics wise) from Papy!  It's been downhill
ever since they switched to D3D.

What I have done to minimize the flashing in F1-2002 is the following (so
far):

a.  Use 16-bit textures (its worse with 32-bit textures and the 32-bit adds
nothing IMHO, to the graphic quality otherwise - and the FPS suffers in
32-bit as well).
b.  Use as high of a screen resolution as I can (based on my systems specs)
that allows 30 FPS + in race mode (usually I use the back of the pack in
race starts as a standard).  For F1-2002....that would be 1280x1024x16.
c.  Use Quin-FSAA.....adjusting the screen res down (per above) as needed
(actually with no FSAA, my system runs F1-2002 at 30+FPS at race starts very
well at 1600x1200x16).  By the way, the FPS hit for Quin-FSAA is far less
than with 2x-FSAA.....like half as much.  And, the picture quality with Quin
vs. 2x is three or four times better!  At least, on my system it is.
d.  Set the "mipmapLODBias" setting to "-0.5" from the default setting of
"-1.5"......and that has reduced the flashing about 20% - IMHO.
[\F1-2002\Save folder, look for the default.cfg file and the line under:
"LocalCam=Cockpit" for "MipMapLodBias=(-1.5) and change it to read (-0.5)]

That's all I've been able to find in F1-2002 to minimize the
flashing.....and all of this was learned in F1-2001 long ago!  I was hoping
there were some better techniques found by all you guys.....for F1-2002!
That was the reason I asked the question above about "flashing."

Hope that makes sense?

Regards,

Tom

   The single best way to upgrade track graphics would be to install GTR.
Along with their 3 track upgrade for the circuits not included in the
FIA season, this is a comprehensive update.
  Make sure to at least install the v1.2 update as well, AFTER testing
and running a v1.0 car and driver.

dave henrie

  You might have to edit two lines...
under the heading [Game Options]
Locked Pit Cam="1"
and under [Graphic Options]
Allow Swingman in Pitlane="0"

   I had to re-install F12k2 a whiles back so I'm not 100% if those are the
 correct settings.

   I 'think' that got broken in F1 2k2.   You can have a timed pre-race and
run laps from and to the pits, bypassing the starting grid, like
Michael Schumacher usually does.   Then you also can enable a formation
lap and drive to your grid position.  Again, this is with F1c NOT
2k2.

dave henrie

I have been able to find some fine setups there.
OJ

Exactly what high level racing skills are you talking about?  I haven't
found them yet.  ;o)

The phenomenon you are talking about is something that I have never seen.
Is it possible you have tweaked yourself into it?  What if you set all your
video card tweaks back to default and run with 32 bit color and no FSAA, how
does it look then?  In my experience 32 bit color is necessary to get the
texture blends to look right.  And practically everything you see in game is
a blend of two or more textures (material, light, reflection, etc.). Anyway
the above is how I am running it and I don't think I am seeing what you
describe.

Regards,
Hal...  er, Haq... er, somebody

<etc.>

David G Fisher

Tom

Thanks for the tip on this.

TP

Those two lines do exist in the "playername.plr" file.....and the "default"
settings are as you've indicated above

When I changed, "LockedPitCam" from (1) to (0)
and,
changed "AllowSwingManInPitlane" from (0) to (1)

it worked!  I stayed in the***pit during the entire pit stop!
Thanks.....I would have never looked for the second line....and it seems odd
to turn it on.....in order to "turn it off".....LOL...you know?

Thank you Dave!

Tom

I don't know really how to respond to this....you are describing something I
have never experienced in a racing sim....no flashing!  Maybe someone else
can describe what flashing is.....better than I have?

Otherwise.....could you please send me your video card?  LOL....

Tom

TP

I have an ulterior motive than simply running an F1 racing sim.  I can't
explain it to you....protected by NDA.  But, I do have a good reason for
getting F1-2002 up to speed.

Then...I will install F1-C....and go through the same "routine" of getting
it tweaked and working properly (for F1 cars only).  I will be installing
mods for both......but that's for my own pleasure and what I'm doing now is
for work needs.

I suspect that you are right about F1-C being the superior F1 racing sim
(between the two)......and that most people are not running F1-2002 any
longer (except for some of the good mods for that).  When the ALMS, GTR mods
are converted to F1-C (if ever)......then F1-2002 probably dies off just
like NASCAR 4 did after NASCAR 2003 came out.

Thanks for the feedback, though.

Regards,

Tom

Another REALLY important thing to remember about the F1x series
physics engines is that they're linked to framerate, so if you're
trying to build an accurate simulator chassis (just a guess ;)...),
you're hamstringing the whole experience by running at a low frame
rate (IIRC 50-60 is the sweet spot).

At the very least you could try overclocking your Ti4200 - if it's a
later built card they tended to have alot of OC'ing headroom -
increased memory speed would help your framerates the most (with
careful testing with something like 3dmark to check for artifacts that
indicate you're pushing too far).

HTH,
Kendt

Oh - and another thing - if you get an ATI Radeon -
www.omegacorner.com - the only drivers you'll ever need ;).

Regards,

Tom