My sincere apologies to everyone involved...
The VROC system is truly wonderful. I simply picked an open race at
Spa which VROC informed me that there were still 11 minutes of
practice remaining with only one other car entered. So I took a
deep breath, double-clicked on that selection, and away we go to
Spa!
The first thing I noticed right away is that my framerate really
sucks. So I had to take a moment to toggle off all sorts of options
which I'd otherwise become accustomed to having. My framerate was
still unacceptable. Oh well, time is running out and I better get
at least one practice lap in while I still can.
Sheesh. It sure is hard to drive when you're only seeing 10-15
frames per second! That took a little bit of getting used to. And
all the while, as I'm bouncing between guardrails, fences and hedges
and back, messages are flashing across the top of my screen in chat
mode. How the hell are you supposed to be able to read any of that
tiny print while at the same time fighting to keep the car shiny
side up? So I took a moment to squint up close to the screen only
to find that someone is asking ME if I'm driving drunk! Hey, no
time for any of that small talk now. Still gotta put in one timed
lap to get on the grid.
I barely managed to complete one full lap as the clock ran out on
the practice session. And miracle of miracles I was second on the
starting grid. That wasn't all that big a surprise to me as I had
only expected to find two cars on the grid.
But I was SHOCKED to discover that there were actually now EIGHT
cars on the grid, with me in the middle of the front row!!! Christ!
How the hell did THAT happen?!
But there's no time to work up a sweat about this because I'm not
even in gear yet and the green flag just dropped and we're off. And
then time stood still...
I distinctly remember seeing the green flag drop, with me still
fumbling for first gear. After that my framerate became
non-existant. I'm hearing engine noises, but all I see is that last
image of the flagman dropping the flag.
I figured if I just roll straight ahead and don't veer to either
side, no one will hit me. So I short shifted up to third gear to
prevent any wheelspin and cruised completely blind to where I
estimated Eau Rouge should be.
I swear I saw no more than three frames from the moment the flag
dropped until I woke up, upside down, at the top of Eau Rouge. I
hit Shift-R and briefly saw another car spinning on its head then
suddenly disappear in front of me as a message flashed to say that
someone had disconnected. er, Sorry about that...
Oh well. The rest of the pack must have gotten away okay because I
don't see anyone else. So I guess it's safe to continue now.
It's a good thing I've driven Spa a few times before on my own
because, with my framerate still down between 10-15 fps, I have to
start my braking and steering inputs long before I can even see the
corner coming. So the first lap was rather more "adventurous" than
I had intended.
It was just a short race of only 5 laps (I think?), but during one
of my numerous Shift-R moments I must have been lapped somewhere.
Other than the brief moment when we were all stationary on the grid,
and other than when I killed that guy at the top of Eau Rouge, I
never saw another car during the entire race. I suspect that was
probably a good thing.
Still, I finished the race in 4th place, one lap down. Everyone
behind me had either blown up, quit, disconnected, or (unseen by me)
been launched into the woods by my errant driving.
Damn that was fun.
I really do need a faster computer. I noticed chat messages
flashing on my screen throughout the race. You other guys must have
amazingly fast computers if you can find the time to type messages
to each other in mid-race!
So where do I start in my quest for improved framerates? I have a
P233mmx, a 33.6modem, and a voodoo3 graphics card. It all works
fine in solo lapping, but even there I rarely get more than
25-29fps. I can't turn off ALL the scenery or I lose all my visual
cues.
Itching for more,
-Ferdinand-