rec.autos.simulators

I think they have already built the sim engine (4 years of WSC development)
but are attempting to find a new way to sell it without having to sign with
publishers/distributers AND without having to gain licenses. They want to
retain control of their software - which I think they should be applauded
for.

Of course by pitching it to real race teams they tap into a new specialist
market for their software. Particularly amateur and low budget racing teams
who may not have the funds for the expensive engineering/modelling software
and hardware.

More importantly however, they definitely want to tap in to the sim editing
community's ability to 'value-add' to a sim. In fact I think they hope the
sim editing community will make the majority of the expansion packs (free
mods) for the RL engine for a number of reasons:

1. It will bypass the problems and costs of obtaining licencses for tracks,
cars, championships, etc. They can concentrate on the really specialist
expansion packs like damage modelling, and pit stops, (not to mention
patches) while the community builds licence free cars and tracks.

2. As the sim community gets involved in extending RL, it will also act as
an advertising system (similar to viral marketing).

3. It will continually increase the VALUE of the RL sim engine to the end
user without the Wests doing any more work. Look at GPL, SCGT, F12001 etc. -
all the add-ons and mods certainly increased sales for those games. One
drawback of this is that those mods may actually decrease sales of
subsequent releases because the quality of the older sim has increased
dramatically. In the case of Racing Legends they intend to capitalise on
this mechanism because they will continue to sell the original sim engine.

It all sounds like it could work for the Wests, and could be great for sim
racing enthusiasts - but I'm still bugged by this thought.  If the open
source concept can produce Linux, Xplane and Racer then surely we can't be
too far from producing an open source, ultimate motor racing sim similar in
concept to Racing Legends. And if both the commercial Racing Legends and an
open source 'ultimate sim' do arrive, which one will get the most support
from the sim racing/editing community?...

<snip>

I just read at one of the sim racing sites that Thfella who did Xplane is
doing a car sim as well.  More details to come in the next few weeks.

Elrikk

I think you will find even the sim community won't be allowed to make
likenesses of tracks without licences.
I remember the issue over the Daytona track that was made to N2 I think it
was. The author was threatened legal action and had to back out of the
project.

Nigel

<snip>

You mean like they haven't in GPL? ;-)

--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.

The GPL Scrapyard: http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard

     I believe that the code for WSC belongs to Empire and not the Wests.
That's why the code for RL is supposed to be new.  But it sure seems odd
that it took years to write the code for WSC, then to be able to knock out
the code for RL in just 6 months or so.

Joel Willstein

--

"If you can leave black marks on a straight from the time you exit a corner
till the time you brake for the next turn
, then you have enough horsepower."
Mark Donohue

     I believe that the code for WSC belongs to Empire and not the Wests.
That's why the code for RL is supposed to be new.  But it sure seems odd
that it took years to write the code for WSC, then to be able to knock out
the code for RL in just 6 months or so.

Joel Willstein

--

"If you can leave black marks on a straight from the time you exit a corner
till the time you brake for the next turn
, then you have enough horsepower."
Mark Donohue

Indeed. However - it's owned by Emprie - and thus RL is all new code.

Bingo.

Yup.

X-Plane isnt open source - and the only one of the above that's not free.

Best of luck to anyone prepared to have a go - Ruud and Ash are doing ***y
well - but it take months of full time effort to get there

Doug

I think you'll find it was called the Feretti Turbo ;o)

Then there was the McFaster Special...

cheers
John

You'd maybe be surprised at how much of the time spent in development
doesn't involve actually entering the code into the text editor :o)
Also the initial years of work may have yielded many dead ends.  In
essence, with a new code base, the Wests could have "hit the ground
running" as it were.

I'm not saying that's the explanation, just that it's possible to re-do 3
years work in 6 months when you're fully up to speed.

cheers
John

Hmmm...I seriously doubt its all new code. My guess is that Empire ended up
with a cut down 'Arcade' game ( which may still be released as WSC, who
knows) - all the juicy, realistic modelling code is most likely what Empire
wanted cut out of WSC, so I  believe the Wests retained that code after the
split. Even if they didn't, they could easily rewrite the code based on the
knowledge they'd gained over those years, and Empire couldn't do a thing
about it - they only got code, not the West's knowledge. It's all
speculation of course so you may be right :)

Oops! Yes you're right - my mistake.

Yep. But that only gives me hope :). I think open source has a much better
chance of eventually producing our 'ultimate racing sim' than a commercial
entity. Trouble is, that is probably still a couple of years off - Racing
Legends might be just around the corner. I just hope it doesn't cost too
much.

still be released as WSC, who
Empire wanted cut out of WSC, so I  believe the Wests retained that code
after the
the  knowledge they'd gained over those years, and Empire couldn't do a
thing
speculation of course so you may be right :)

Empire legally own all the WSC code - but they're not using it.  TIR doesnt
contain any WSC code - it's entirely new,

It's going to be expensive.  A ferrari costs more than a fiesta.  I had no
problem paying $99 for X-Plane because it's the best there is imho. I'll
have no problem paying double that for Racing Legends.

Doug

Eldred
--
Homepage - http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
My .sig file is in the shop for repairs...

Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

On another note, how does Empire check that they don't use bits of
code from the old project ? House-razzia ?

--
Olav Malmin
remove .spam when replying

I have to agree with John on that one. All the experience gained
in years of coding will allow you to be much more "efficient"
should you have to start from scratch again.

uwe

--
Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
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