rec.autos.simulators

At North Wilkesboro the AI pit much sooner than I am forced to.  I
would imagine this is because of the tire wear, but I was able to
stretch the pit window until just past the halfway point on lap 101.
The AI had long since pitted by this time.  Yes, the right side tires
were all but burned off the rims, but the AI were not challenging
enough to warrant pitting sooner for fresh ***.  I ended up
finishing the race on that set of tires, stretching the left sides for
the entire 200 lap event.  Yes, the car was sideways coming off almost
every corner near the end, but once again the AI could not gain on me.

I suppose there are ways to tweak this in the track.txt file, but I'm
not sure what effect this would have if I raced someone via modem or
other multiplayer network who still had the stock track.txt file.

Kyle Langston
_________________________________

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

David Martin's speculation:  This is probably why it has been quite
difficult for Papyrus to get AI to run realistically.  They are
typically too fast on restarts, hogging the track and causing
accidents.  N2 made a great improvement to make restarts less hairy, but
they didn't do it with real physics.  N3 will probably have a greater
degree of real physics and it will probably require an upgrade of
everyone's hardware too, so word to the wise.  If your in the market for
a new computer, don't buy one that just runs N2.  Buy one that can
handle N2 with power to spare, because N3 probably won't run on it.

David Martin

On Tue, 04 Feb 1997 12:03:20 -0500, David Martin

I agree 100%.  However, when you mention a hardware upgrade would most
likely be necessary for just about everyone to run N3, I wonder if
Papyrus would really prefer to push the limits of everyone's systems
so far.  The computer I bought in late December (not just for N2, mind
you---------yes, that's the truth  :-)  runs N2 like a dream with all
the graphic options on. Don't get me wrong, I would like to see a more
physics-based AI, but if the pull on the hardware is too great, I hope
Papyrus goes for a more gradual upgrade to the AI in NASCAR 3, and
leaves the full, physics-based AI for NASCAR 4 or later.  Besides,
with the growing multiplayer venues, we may be able to race live
people as often as we race the AI now, and the AI may become a memory
as racing live people becomes cheaper, more reliable, and more easily
accessible.

Kyle Langston
_________________________________

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

: On Tue, 04 Feb 1997 12:03:20 -0500, David Martin
<snip>
: >According to Jim Sokoloski, the AI do not have any tire wear or any gas
: >usage.  They pit inside the pit window that is specified in the
: >track.txt file.  If this pit window is 1000 1010, the AI would not pit
: >until lap 1000.

: Well, I was a little unclear about my understanding of the game.  I
: was aware that the AI have only a line in the track.txt file to govern
: their pit schedules.  I took that info for granted when I said "I
: would imagine this is because of tire wear."  What I actually meant
: was the programmers set the pit window for the AI cars that way most
: likely to account for the tire wear that occurs in real life.  My
: apologies.
<snip>

First I hope I have not screwed up who said what.  Second, my apologies
if this has already been addressed as my ISP is all balled up at the
moment when it comes to receiving usenet posts.

Here is a post from Jim Sokoloff concerning AI fuel usuage and tire
wear:

 Subject:      Re: N2 AI question

 Date:         1997/01/22

 They are affected by tire wear and fuel usage SIMILAR to the player's
 car, PROVIDED you don't***around with the SPDWY line in the
 track.txt file. (It's from that that some computations of tire and
 fuel are based...) Change that, and all bets are off...

 ---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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