rec.autos.simulators

With the demo of Rally 2000 (or whatever it's called) receiving a somewhat
lukewarm reception, I was thinking that maybe Papy could look at a rally sim
based on the GPL engine. Apparently it's not used in N3 because of the
number of cars and the horsepower (CPU) required to run it, well this isn't
a problem with a rally sim (same as one GPL car hotlapping). The physics
engine is certainly up to the task - everyone knows how easy it is to get
terminal understeer (same as a front-wheel drive rally car ) or terminal
oversteer (rear-wheel drive). The road surface simulation is there, the
grass and gravel in GPL feel completely different to the tarmac and the
scenery shouldn't pose any great effort - use the trees from Spa or Rouen.
etc
    The only problem I can see is the cultural one - a U.S. company probably
can't see the benefit in a rally game. Perhaps I they were made aware of the
good sales (I believe) of Colin McRae, it might become more interesting to
them.
    So what do we get - a world beating rally sim with the driveability and
realism of GPL at a cost (to Papy) of a few new tracks (using existing
scenery elements) and a bunch of new car setups. All this with a good sales
outlook! Sounds like a win, win situation
    Comments?

                    Cheers...
                    Phillip

Anything with the new Game engine would be fine for me.  Give it to me, I'll
buy it.  Rally sim, Nascar4, CART, F1, even IRL ;-)

I really would love to powerslide and using rally racing techniques with the
GPL game engine, carefully pressing the throttle/brake/clutch around the
stages.  The ultimate product by Papyrus (but it will never happen for
normal reasons) would be just releasing "the game engine".  Put it on the
market, let the user set the specification for the car modeling (it would be
very detailed and not anybody could do that, the same thing as not everybody
is able to create add-ons for MS Flight simulator).  I would gladly pay
300+$ for a SDK-type development package.  Maybe  not a totally open source
code, but just enough so we could do it.

--
-- 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."

It's a great idea. Unfortunately, if there is anything less popular in
the US than 33 year old GP cars, it's probably rally racing.
Colin McRae Rally still hasn't been officially imported.
There's a *done* title that they aren't even trying to sell here.
It's hard to even find the real thing on TV. =8^/

I'd like to see a modern sports car sim with the GPL engine. Sort of a
melding of SCGT and NFS (in a good way), with some tracks and some
longer point-to-point roads.
Fields as low as 8 cars are acceptable in this type of game/sim, and
if you could run 20, that'd be a great bonus.
Nurburgring proves the engine could do that well, and it's a given
that the US is performance car crazy.

I know some GPL die hards will say this is a bastardization of a great
engine, but I don't want the physics dumbed down, I just want the
appeal widened.

I'd also like to see a CORR sim using the GPL engine.
This is a *little* more in line with your idea.
CORR is off-road truck racing and would be similar to SODA.
Even THIS has limited appeal, and it's based right in the US!

SODA was ahead of it's time, much like GPL.
They actually had a much in common... A cutting edge physics model,
high processor requirements (for the time), and incomplete 3D support
(Rendition only, which I feel hurt it worse than anything else).

I'm rambling, so I'll just stop now. :-)

Tim