rec.autos.simulators

Chapter 1: Bit by Bit

Got home, 5 pm European DST, checked www.ogr.com. Yes, the demo is
out. But I have to be patient: the expensive business hours phone
rates apply until 6 pm. Time to eat something.

6:01pm. I fire up Netscape, dial up to my ISP. The modem informs me
that it is connected at 42000bps. Good, this means a stable
connection. Not too high, not too low. The bookmark to OGR's download
page works surprisingly fast. Well, o.k., it still was in the cache.

Now I have a tough choice: should I try the download directly from
OGR, or from Jumbo? Which one will be more busy? Following an impulse,
I hit the download button for OGR's site.

Nothing happens.

I'm about to cancel the action when the familiar window pops up: what
do I want to do with the file? Save it, of course! The bytes start
streaming in at an enormous rate, finally average at 4.1 kbps - the
max for the current line speed! This is almost too good to be true...
Quickly, we reach the 10% margin. I grow over-confident in the
connection and direct the Navigator to gpl.gamestats.com. I have some
qualms about wasting bandwidth (in a context where this expression
actually means something), but I have to do some "keep awake" actions
anyway, or the server might hang up on me.

While I'm reading the driving guide at The Apex, the
not-really-unexpected happens: 19% done, and nothing moves... Should I
restart the download? But maybe it will recover from the hiccups! Dump
almost three MB? (Where has the "resume download" feature from z-modem
gone, BTW?) Five long minutes go by. I'm awaiting an "operation timed
out" message any moment. There, a few bytes come in! Then nothingness
again. - - -The Apex also features the demo, so I start another
download while keeping the first one. Although initially not as fast,
the new download seems promising. After another five minutes, I
jettison the OGR download and dedicate all the bandwidth to the
gamestats download.

Hey, this looks good: the expected remaining time dwindles by 10
seconds every second in reality. This discrepancy reminds me of GP2,
for some reason. ;) Kilobyte after kilobyte zooms by. Steady, boys,
pull! You can do it! 50%, 44 more minutes, but still counting down
four seconds for one. I have opened a telnet window and send an "ls"
to the shell every five minutes to keep the server happy. By now I'm
staring at the blue bar like a mesmerized rabbit.

Half an hour later, one counted minute takes 56 seconds. 12 MB down,
one to go. Smooth download, but I'm not relaxed: every time the
counter misses a beat, my heart does too. The download has averaged
4.0 kbps. I count the last 30 seconds aloud. Five - four - three - two
- one - the window disappears, the hard disk rumbles when the cache is
being written to disk. I wait another ten seconds just to be on the
safe side, then hang up the modem. It is now 7:25 p.m.
gpldemo.exe has landed!

Chapter 2: Preparations

Power down the Internet HDD, swap to the rack with the faster
dedicated games HDD. Before I start the .exe file, I check the
calibration of my T2. I am strangely reluctant to install the demo:
will my computer be up to the task? I have no 3D hardware whatsoever.
Maybe I will be disappointed...

Anyway, I'll have to find out. Double click on gpldemo.exe -
extracting - install shield - The demo installs just fine. "Do you
want to view the readme file?" Actually, no, but I read it anyway.
Minimum requirements: P166, 32 meg of RAM, DirectX 5. That's *exactly*
what I got. Hmmm, doesn't sound too good... In my experience, "minimum
requirements" means "this won't do". Well, let's see for ourselves.
"Do you want to restart your computer now?" Yep.

Start - programs - Sierra - GPL Demo. Works instantly.
I like the look of the intro screen and the menus. The screens are
easy to navigate - I have no trouble figuring out how to accomplish
things. The whole thing has a cozy 60's look. It doesn't *look*
ergonomically styled, but it surely is! Now it is time to *drive*!

Chapter 3: The Glen and Beyond

I don't bother entering my name. Take me to my car! I choose G3 for a
start.

One moment of hard disk rumbling later, I'm on the track. This is
beautiful! I gently push the accelerator pedal - this is less
beautiful: one frame per second is definitely not enough! I press
escape and look for the graphic options menu. There it is. Now, this
explains everything: all graphical options are enabled. For the second
time this evening, I'm reminded of GP2 - I uncheck all options, then
return to the track. I shouldn't have seen the beautiful stills
before, since the bleak scenery I see now isn't very appealing in
comparison. "Indianapolis - The Simulation", if you know what I mean.

But this is only true as long as the car is standing still: once
moving, I can appreciate the nice details that still are there. The
***pit is true 3D, it is moving with the car. So is the suspension. I
assume that I get about 15 fps now. Not great, but enough to control
the car. Or so I thought. :)

Whoops! Why is the car launched from six feet high? But who cares.
First gear, carefully. The pit layout is a bit odd if you're used to
the old (or new, actually) shape of the track as seen in Nascar
Racing. I slowly drive up the hill. I push down the throttle and shift
through the gears. Well, this isn't as demanding as people said...

Then I look at the rev limiter: the engine of the G3 Lotus is only
allowed to reach slightly increased idling speed. Little wonder this
is easy to drive! Well, I'll do a few laps to familiarize myself with
the track, then I'll change to the G2 model...

I'm cruising down the long straight, past the only visible landmark, a
billboard or something to the left. Across the top of the hill. There
comes the next turn. It's still far off, much time to brake - why
isn't that car braaaAAAAAAKING - woooosh - kerplonk - silence.

Good car. The engine is still running. Now, if it were the wheels that
are touching the ground, instead of my head, I could drive right on.
:)
Shift-R brings me back into a more dignified position. Braking is
difficult, and the Lotus becomes very unstable. I have begun to
understand the first lesson: brake early.

With more respect, I'm driving back to the start/finish line. Here's
the last turn. I'm really not going that fast, but... Well, I know
*that* sensation from high-speed crashes at Michigan. I press Shift-R
just to be sure that I'm facing the right direction. Lesson 2: Be done
with your braking before you steer.

Waitaminute! More than *five* minutes for *one* lap? O.k., so I
crashed a few times. I'm used to lap times well below one minute, on a
Watkins Glen with a chicane! 1:20 should be possible, even with the G3
car! Heeeere we go: right into turn one, left into turn two, the car
is humming happily, right into A HUGE BALE OF STRAW - - -

Where am I? The outlook is kinda funny, but let's go on. First gear,
the engine revs up, but I don't move. I'm not upside down this time!
What's going on? I check the replay. Hmmm, yes, this is reasonable: a
car can't move if the fuselage sits on a bale of straw while the
wheels are suspended in mid-air. At least I can rock gently back and
forth by revving the engine - the momentum of the crankshaft is
modelled! And it seems to make a difference whether I put in a gear or
not. This, brethren, is truly awesome.
Now, if I could only drive this damn car! :)

                            *  *  *  *  *

After two hours of driving (or something similar), I had to take a
break and share my impressions with you [not that anyone would bother
reading this lengthy diatribe]. Suffice it to say that I can now keep
the car (even the G2) on the track for a whole lap, although I can't
do it if I'm trying to push it. The demo is great fun and it will keep
me busy for quite some time. Papy, take your time finishing GPL. I
have to buy a 3DFX card, more RAM and a faster processor first. I also
need some seat time at this track, maybe 1000 hours or so. I sincerely
believe I will be competitive by then. Until then, enter me into the
preliminary HOF with 1:29 in a G2 Eagle. Who cares about tenths of
seconds? :)

Now I have to get back to the track. The night is long and I don't
have to work until 7:30 in the morning...

--
Wolfgang Preiss       \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

Uni des Saarlands       \ and U.S. law. You have been warned.

(entertaining story cut)

Well, don't know about the others. But I don't have the demo (is it drivable by
keyboard? :-)  )so I had time to enjoy this truely entertaining report. Thanks
for sharing your happiness. Something else than all the negative slamming around
here....

JoH
Please remove *anti-spam* from the email when replying.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
When everything else failed, we can still become im-
mortal by making an enormous blunder....

                             John Kenneth Galbraith
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

First make sure you have at least 256k L2 cache; 512k is better.  Buy
either the 3Dfx card or a Rendition 2x00 card first, then see if you
need a faster CPU.  Lastly try more RAM.  

I've run the GPL demo on a P-133, a P-166, two different AMD K6/200's
(one overclocked to 75x3=225), and a P-233 overclocked to 83x3=250, all
with both Rendition 1000 series cards and Voodoo Graphics cards.  

Performace on either 3D card on machines running at or above 200mhz is
quite acceptable with all graphics details on, though frame rate slows
down during crashes or if I'm generating smoke or dust.  

Below 200mhz, the Rendition 1000 cards seem to give slightly better
frame rate, while at 200mhz and above, the Voodoo Graphics cards are
faster.  I find it necessary to eliminate some graphics details on the
slower machines to maintain good frame rate.

None of these machines seems to run well in software-only mode, unless,
as you found, you turn off much of the graphics detail.  I consider a 3D
card to be essential for GPL, unless you have a very fast Pentium II.

I have only just gotten a Rendition 2x00 series card on my P-133.  It
made a noticeable improvement over either the R1000 or Voodoo Graphics
cards, but I still need a faster CPU as well, to get decent frame rate
with any graphics detail turned on.  

Theoretically, GPL should work better with a Rendition 2x00 card than
with a 3Dfx card; they have comparable fill rates, but the Rendition
card has superior architecture which reduces the load on the CPU.  Since
GPL's sophisticated physics engine is very CPU-hungry, this is an
important consideration.  

As I mentioned, at CPU speeds below 200mhz, a Rendition 1000 card seems
to work slightly better than a Voodoo Graphics card, probably because
the Rendition card offloads some of the work from the CPU.  However, at
200mhz and above, the Voodoo Graphics card seems to deliver better frame
rate than the Rendition 1000 due to its faster fill rate.  

The Rendition 2x00 cards should be better than either of these,
especially for "slower" machines like your P-166.

Of course, all this may change for the final release version of GPL, and
it's probably safe to assume that the additional processor load
generated by running AI cars and/or drawing other players' cars in
multiplayer mode will have some impact on frame rate.

Eagle Woman

Remove the spam blocker NOSPAM to email me.
http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison/

I have 1MB of L2 cache (FIC PA-2007) and had to add some RAM in the
meantime. One of my 8MB SIMMs had gone bad. I wanted to replace it,
but my favourite store didn't have a single 8MB SIMM left, so I bought
two 16MB SIMMs instead... I'm a bit impulsive at times. :) It was
cheap, though (less than $50).

With the new RAM, I was able to overclock my P166 to 2.5x75. It should
now have a performance in the 200MHz region. Unfortunately, the newer
Intel socket 7 chips are not overclockable by multiplier anymore.

[snip]

Mike Lescault said that the software-only mode wasn't optimized yet.
But even if the final product was twice as fast as the demo, I don't
think it would be advisable to run it on a P II 400 without 3D card.
(Especially since someone who can afford such a machine would also
have the money for a nice dual Voodoo 2 setup... ;)

Judging from the reports I've read here, anything below a P166 (unless
it's really optimized) will have problems running the demo  - 3D
hardware or not. I assume that the physics model just eats up a lot of
processing power. And it has every right to do this, being as
sophisticated as it is. :) Did you notice that, when parked on a hay
bale with the rear wheel in the air, the car rocks differently whe
revving depending on whether you have a gear engaged or not?
Apparently, the inertia of the wheels is modelled... Awesome or what?

I'm a bit confused regarding the different cards. Having my budget in
view, the choice seems to be either a Voodoo 1 or a Rendition 2x00.
(People keep mentioning 3D cards for less than $100, btw. I have yet
to see one of these here. The least expensive offers I see here are in
the $150 ballpark. This is a difference for me.) The broad support of
native ports speaks for the Voodoo, but then, I mostly play Papyrus
sims anyhow. And I would love to see ICR2 in rendition mode. :) If a
Rendition card offers reasonable D3D support, it might be the way to
go, especially since I can always add a Voodoo or two if necessary.
But I am still confused: 2x00 stands for either 2100 or 2200, IIRC.
What are the differences between the two chipsets? And what advisable
cards are on the market? I think people mentioned the Diamond Stealth
II as one example (or was it the 3D?). There seems to be a Hercules
card with a Rendition chipset, too, but I don't know which one it is.
Every manufacturer seems to offer at least three 3D cards based on
different chipsets... I don't buy no-name anymore - the hardware often
is o.k., but next to useless without proper driver support...
Help! :)

provided I can find a good and inexpensive 3D card. By the time the
sim is released, AMD will hopefully be able to manufacture the new K6
266 in numbers and offer it for little money. If necessary, I will buy
one then. The memory (48MB by now) should suffice, unless the
Nuerburgring has to fit entirely into the memory. The Nuerburgring is
in - excuse me for a moment, I feel like dancing all of a sudden. --
Ok, I'm back. :)
But the 3D card comes first - if I could only decide!
Thanks for helping to sort this out, Alison! :)

--
Wolfgang Preiss       \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

Uni des Saarlands       \ and U.S. law. You have been warned.

It's the same with flight sims and racing sims: on a Voodoo card you can
play ANY sim (Glide, D3D) having great or good results, any other chip
set could leave you waiting for a D3D patch...

l8er
ronny

--
Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure,
kiddo?"

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

That's why a Riva card is out of the question for me, currently. But
an inexpensive 2x00 Rendition could be interesting anyhow, for the
reasons stated above.

--
Wolfgang Preiss       \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.

Uni des Saarlands       \ and U.S. law. You have been warned.

Hello Wolfgang

try http://www.computerprofis.de
or  http://www.alternate.de

You can also search in the (very big) ads part of c't (maybe the library
of your university has it?).

Have a nice weekend
                            Holger

Sierra (Papyrus) is finally giving in to the hardware standard, so
exclusive
Rendition support is history...

I bought my Intergraph Intense 3D in the UK, because I couldn't wait to
drive ICR2 with 30 fps... ;^) Meanwhile there are V2200 cards from
Diamond
and others (?) out in Germany, look around. Carefull, there are supposed
to
be compatibility problems with ICR2/N2 with V2200 (don't know details).

Today I just would not buy a 3D card just because it supports 2 or 3
games
natively...

l8er
ronny

--
Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure,
kiddo?"

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

% But then, I see people claiming that the GPL demo looks better in
% Rendition than Glide mode. It seems as if Papy is dedicated to native
% Rendition support, and since I'm almost exclusively interested in
% Papyrus' sims, it might be worth it anyhow. BTW, are Rendition cards
% even for sale in .de? You say you bought yours in the UK, and I
% couldn't find one here.

Can't answer on where to find, but...  While there are some "visual"
aspects of the Rendition I like, I get better performance out of my
Voodoo2.  But then I should for 2 reasons, my Rendition is the first
version Verite chipset and my CPU is a PII 300.  It seems that (at least
with the first generation Verite cards and I think to some degree with
newer ones) that there's only a minor improvement of performance as the
CPU horsepower goes up.  While with the Voodoo2 chipset, there seems to
be an large increase of performance as the CPU horsepower rises.  Except
for the the lack of anti-aliasing in the Voodoo version of GPL, I think
if Voodoo owners would lower the gamma setting to match the color
saturation, the visuals would begin to look closer to the Rendition
version.  As a matter of fact, I find the Rendition version a little too
"muddled" after running long periods with the Voodoo.

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

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