rec.autos.simulators

Dave

Grand Prix 2 didn't use tire temperatures either, but it's still the most
realistic Formula 1 sim I've ever played....  matter of fact, I just got a 1999
car body for it

Dan Belcher
Team Racing Unlimited

Are my problems because I choose the BMW with less HP than the Porsche?

Oh well, if they would just get the multiplayer fixed it would be awesome.

Jason.

Superbike World Championship. ;)  I don't know that the graphics are all
that bad. My biggest complaint are the textures which seem to be blurry.
But after looking at the mAS editor and looking around some of the bmps,
they are rather small and blurry, so that may account for things.   However,
other that not having real rooster tails or actual rain coming down, etc.  I
have enjoyed racing at night in the rain. :)

Heh, try this one on for size.  At Sebring I even took the time to change
the default setup (oh my....) and max it out for speed where I reached the
peak of 6th on the backstraight, have very little wing, etc all in a 818hp
Porsche GT1.  Yet still have I have a weenie Callway Corvette (and I do love
Vettes btw), who's base hp is fairly low in comparison to many of the other
cars, PULL away from me...what?!  So I loaded it an old season, maxed out
the 'vette and tried it myself.  Um, nope, even with every option turned on
and almost zero wing, gearing setup decently I can't match the AI vette in
raw speed.  So, obviously the AI makes up for its horrid performance under
braking and through corners by overcompensating on the straight away speed.

I don't know..I've seen that happen a couple times.  Where I honestly swear
that the AI waited til I was around to suddenly swerve across the road and
take me out.  Had one of those episodes and it damaged my wheel near the
start of the lap, limped around on a bad tire (which did effect handling!)
but only took 21seconds in the pits to fix (normal 26gallon gas pit is 12
seconds).  Man, I bet all the real pit crew wish they could fix things that
quick! :)

Its a start.  I dunno, sometimes I don't think developers go out and
research the competition.  Personally if I was going to produce a racing
game, someday maybe :), I'd make sure that I go find all the racing games
that cater to the market I'm targetting and play them all.  Find out what
they do well, what they don't do well, etc.  Troll the newsgroup such as RAS
and find out what people did and didn't like about said games...what people
were interested in.  Then combine that all with what I wanted the racing
game to be like.

I don't suck :-D  After an hour or so of trying to get my qualification
times down, I placed 2nd on the grid at Chatham with my GTQ BMW M3 (no
upgrades).  Before pitting with 8 mins to go of a 20min race, I was 1st
and dropped to 5th after returning to the track.  What amazed me is that
the AI can go almost the entire race without pitting.  The lead car
pitted with 58 seconds left and this allowed me to pass for the lead!
:)  

The racing was fun!  I actually like how the AI drive like real humans
-- they don't want you to pass and fight for the position!  Since the AI
take turns slower (all difficulties are maxed), they must be saving
their tires to produce those long runs without a pit.

My setup for a default BMW was as follows and gets me 46.56 in 1 warmup
and 2 qual laps:

        Front     Rear
Wings:    9.5      8.9          5th gear: 0.940
Tires:   27.6     27.6          Gas:      4.0 gallons
         soft     soft
Rollbar:  0.96     1.16

Oh yea, to be on topic.. the physics seem like a 4 out of 5 if GPL is a
5.

Now for Sardian (sp).
Jason.