rec.autos.simulators

  Overall I'm quite enjoying it so far.  I've a few reservations about
the physics model.  If it's accurate then those porsches are strange
beasties indeed.

  The graphics are very good indeed but a bit slow on my system (Celeron
at 458 MHz and a V3 3000).  Seems to have a bit of frame stutter
sometimes.  Definitely very good to look at.

  It's hard to get used to driving "road" cars after all the time on
GPL.  Especially those big old 50s Porsches which wallow like nothing
else.  The 50s and early 60s section of the game was over pretty
quickly and was pretty easy really.  Those beasts seem pretty much to be
"keep your foot to the floor and hope" - not much subtlety and the
wallow is just horrible.  Some of the more modern cars seem much nicer
to drive.  The golden era cars are much harder work - they've actually
got enough acceleration to make braking a worthwhile tactic
occasionally.  But is it me or did they decide at some point that
pushing the brake was merely an advisory that you'd like to slow down.
There seems to be no stopping power whatsoever.

  Generally I'm enjoying it but the cars feel really sluggish and
unresponsive.  I'm not sure how much that is the fact that they're meant
to be road cars and how much that is a product of the physics.

  I'm having lots of difficulty getting the 3.5 patch.  I can't find it
anywhere on the EA web-sites.  Can someone point me in the direction?
I've yet to try online (a bit more practice might be advisable).

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
     UPDATED WWW: http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Normally I'd call myself something of a physics weenie and certainly I have
a few reservations also. Then I decided I was having too much fun travelling
sideways and decided to forgive it with the wonderful escape line "of course
its no GPL but..... :)" Early Porsches  were kinda strange based on my own
real misadventures with my brothers 356B Super 90.

Are you sure that you actually have the brakes working? I had some trouble
initially getting PU to recognize my brake pedal on its seperate RZ axis.
Once I finally got it hooked up there was some braking force present.

You  really need to go into the garage and start buying some performance
parts before you can get rid of the wallows.

If you attempt to connect using the multiplayer button Internet games you'll
find that the EA server will download the 3.5 patch automatically.

David

I've noticed that on my system while using a seperate axis for braking, that
the brakes do not work until the pedal is depressed about half of the way.
That is.... the brake lights do not come on until the pedal is pressed quite
far.  I don't know if the brake lights are late, if the brakes are faulty,
or if my wheel setup is wrong.  It's a bit frustrating, but braking is not a
required skill for most NFS games (this one included).  The only time I feel
that I need to use the brake is when use of the hand brake is required in
the drving school tests.

Goes without saying.

Tune them!  Oh, and don't forget you have swing axles back there.  Seems a
pretty accurate interpretation on EA's part, based on an uncle's old 356B.

Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade.  Also remember you are getting up to 300kph.  In
the modern era (which I don't enjoy much) you will definitely need to brake,
especially before some of the launching ramps in Normandie.

Stephen

I'm not attempting to wind you up Andrew, but I think NFS-PU deserves credit
for delivering a driving model that, if not 100% realistic, is a very
significant step
forward from earlier NFS games.

There is a world outside GPL.

--
Steven Crook-Dawkins

If anybody is driving through virtual Normandie tonight and the find a
virtual bonnet, virtual door (bright yellow in colour) would they mind
e mailing them backl to me.

Regards Mike

On Fri, 07 Jul 2000 11:44:13 +0100, Steven Crook-Dawkins

Heh heh... it's totally unrealistic (in the sense that only an idiot would
crest a blind hill flat out in real life) but when I graduated to the fully
modified big boys at the end of the modern era, I almost felt like flapping
my arms in the air (roller coaster style) the first time I lifted off one of
the hills in Normandie and watched the Earth recede wayyyyyyy below me.
Eventually I came back down on top of a nice stone wall.  Better hang time
than Michael Jordan.  Think I left my body panels right beside yours.

Stephen