rec.autos.simulators

The most annoying thing for me is the behaviour of the grass off the track -
you can run off onto the grass with very little penalty.  In fact, you can
accelerate quite hard when on the grass - a joke.

The graphics are okay in some ways but at the end of the day, there's less
detail than GP3 and yet the game runs slower (or at least choppier.)  The
other cars in game look very drab.  If only they were as detailed as the
spinning cars in the menu.  I suspect that the tracks are more accurately
modelled than GP3 but can't really confirm this.  Even so, the lap times
aren't anything like the real-life ones.  Some of the tracks look very
rushed - especially Europe which looks very sparse.  Is Suzuka *really* that
bumpy?

The AI is well below par.  A good example is the ridiculous way that the AI
cars navigate the fast chicane at Albert Park - they completely cut across
the ripple strip taking a very strange line at impossible speed.

After all the talk about a 200Hz physics engine, I was really looking
forward to realistic handling.  I'm sorry to say that the physics aren't
even in the same ball park as GPL or GP3.  One thing I do like is the sense
of speed which seems reasonable to me.  This is an area where other games
seem to suffer IMO.  GPL, GP3, F355 Challenge etc all seem to lack a true
feeling of speed.  This is something which has often puzzled me and I guess
only a physics expert could explain.

The sound is quite good - I like the way the car screams similar to the
sound of on-board camera views on TV.  The wind sound is a nice touch too.
The downshifting doesn't sound quite right but not too bad.  The sound of
other cars on the track isn't nearly as good as GPL or GP3 2000 - seems a
bit random.

The replay facility is terrible. 'nuff said.

Oh well, at least I didn't have any problems getting the game working.
Every graphics setting I tried seemed to work fine.  On my GeForce2  I tried
12.90, 21.80 and 6.31 drivers - all worked fine (6.31 was slightly slower)
My Logitech Wingman FF worked flawlessly with split axis pedals and there
were no dead zone problems.  I really can't comprehend the problems that
other people are reporting.

A wasted day?  Well, not really - the game is quite fun, but I really can't
take it serious enough to devote large amounts of time to it.  Roll on GP4
(though there's a lot of work to be done from GP3).

Rob

The grass point is frankly weird! One of the things I like about F1 2001 is
the grass performance - at last we have something that feels realistic.  One
wheel too far off line, and you're off - into losing the back end and any
sort of grip at all.  As far as accelerating hard is concerned, then I
presume you're joking!  Anything but the slightest subtle touch on the
accelerator just sends the car into a spin on the grass!

If you think the graphics are less detailed than GP3 and more choopy, then
you definitely have a video driver issue.

Iain

OK - I'm using an Athlon 800 with a 64MB GeForce 2 MX400 256 MB RAM.  One of
my main gripes with GP3 is that it is limited to 25fps.  I think this may be
the only reason that some people might think F12001 is smoother since it has
no frame-rate limiting.  On my system, I can show a full grid (with full
detail) at 1024x768 without any slow down i.e. occupancy never goes over
100%.  F12001 runs at about 50-60fps when I'm the only car on the track or
if I select minimum detail (which looks appalling)  but with a comparable
level of detail enabled to GP3 full detail, the game is very choppy when
other cars are around.  TOCA 2 is a good example of a game that has a smooth
graphic engine - 60fps - constant.

Windowed mode makes no difference on my system - as I say I'm getting
roughly 50-60fps when there are no other cars around.  I would suggest that
anyone who notices an improvement when running a game in windowed mode has a
system or graphics configuration problem.

No, the game runs quite well, often with a very high frame rate, but also
often with a pretty poor frame rate.  The high***pit view runs much slower
than the default***pit view for no apparent reason.  Incidentally, the
***pit view makes it very difficult to see upcoming corners - it feels like
driving 'blind' compared to the high***pit view.

Ever touched the grass in GPL or GP3?  No comparison.

Nope - the tracks *are* more detailed in F12001 than they are in GP3 but the
other cars look nearly as bad as the cars in GP2.  The smoke and dust
effects aren't too bad.

Yes, grass has dramamtically less grip than tarmac - but not in F12001.  I
can run off onto the grass at 200 mph and come straight back onto the track
without any real effort at all.  Realistic?  Yeah, right.

I am *officially* taking all further opinions in this group with a huge
grain of salt.

This is adjustable by tweaking the terrain.ini file. There is a version
available on HG forums that makes the grass much bumpier (as I expect it
would be in a stiff race car!). This makes it a lot harder to put a wheel or
two on the grass and carry on regardless.

Thanks, I'll give it a try, but I'm not a big fan of tweaking games in this
fashion - surely this must destroy the integrity of hotlaps etc?

As for the grass, my point is, which sim is better? Which sim doesn't have
magic "grip" grass? It's not perfect but I find it acceptable, If you put a
rear tire off in a turn, your going to spin. Also. I have seen plenty of F1
cars go off into the grass (and gravel) and come back on the course. Haven't
you?

I wasn't aware that anyone had asked me but I've tried the game on maximum
difficulty with all aids off.  I've tried virtually every graphic setting in
the game and am now using 800x600 with most settings on medium.  My
judgements about the graphics are based on trying all settings from lowest
to highest and then forming an opinion.

What makes you say that?

Andre