rec.autos.simulators

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

Rick

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Rick » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 11:00:23

My 2 cents on auto sim. The only Auto sim I've played to date that actually
could help ( my opinion ) is midtown madness. If played in the cruise mode.
The driver will have to navigate city streets and encounter real life
situations such as stopping at traffic lights, dealing with on coming
traffic and not to mention some wacko tail gating. The list could go on.
Personally, I have my two ***s playing the game and driving the cars as
they would a real car. The real test will be in an actual car in a few
years. ugh!

As for racing sims... well, it does help autosim'ers  learn a little about
oversteer , understeer, skiding ect. As for the downside, there are a number
of issues that worry me.

Flaming - and it's not only the kids but ***s as well. Why? Because they
were wrecked do to, in most cases, warp a bad setup or what ever the reason.
Some of these people blow a gasket and it turns into an all out war.  How
will they act in the real world if someone cuts them off. Will they get out
of their car and start a fight? What if they are coming up on a slower car?
Will they punt them to the side?  Could our kids be learning road rage by
playing these games? I hope not.
And the biggest worry I have is... SPEED.  They, meaning kids and ***s
alike. Will hit speed of 200mph in a sim car. Will they try it with a real
car on a real road?? Well that's about all I'm going to say on this matter..
so.. as for auto sims helping are young drivers...maybe the basic mechanics,
but attitude is everything in the real world.

okay  one more issue.. Rich was saying something about autosim's, pc's
causing eye problems. Believe him. I went through this very same problem.
After playing autosims.. mainly nascar racing. Playing this game put my eyes
under so much strain and stress to the point where I had a hard time moving
my eyes much further then the width of a monitor. My eyes dried out and were
very sensitive to light.. sort of getting the bug eye effect when in bright
light..ugh.. that really sucked...so after a few months away from the game
all is well. A good thing to do after each race is stretch your eyes. get up
away from the pc and look out side and find the furthest away point and
follow its horizon for a few minutes.. sounds stupid but it will help in the
long run. Also there's and eye exercise my doc told me to do. Take a pen,
hold it arms length away and have your eyes focused on the pen and move the
pen left to right, up and down then bring it to your nose. Doing this a few
times will have stretch your eyes. Also looking in to a monitor (crt) is
like looking into your microwave.

Eldre

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Eldre » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 12:10:59


writes:

I don't have any problem looking down the road in my real car.  I just can't
seem to do it in the sims...  :-(

Eldred
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Eldre

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Eldre » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 13:19:48



>To me it looks more likely that you're just focusing on the road too close
>to the car just because that's how you learned to drive (most people do
>it that way) and haven't translated [sim-]racing habit of looking further
>into road driving. I've noticed that I started to look further in a road
>car only when I discovered that that non-transparent thing between
>the windshield and side window really obstructs view in the corners:)

Wow.  I seem to be the only one who has mentioned NOT having problems looking
down the road on the road, but do in a sim.  On the road, I've seen that I
often notice a problem in the road before the car in front of me does...  So
maybe most people DO 'drive the hood' of their road car.  Interesting - I wish
I understood why I see both situations differently.  I'm sure that this
probably has something to do with why I can't drive fast in the sims.

Eldred
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Stephen F

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Stephen F » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:52:09


Agreed.

could

Luckily I have a nice view of the Bernese alps out my office window, but I
still need to remind myself to look out the window.

Then you've never seen me beat the ***out of my computer everytime my
latest FE sim starts to diverge.

cheers,
Stephen

Stephen F

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Stephen F » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 17:02:45




> > I find it has screwed up my focus.  Although I am looking way "down the
> > road" in sims, I am still focusing on a point about two feet in front
> > of my face (the monitor).  Often on the road for real I find myself
> > focusing too close to the car...
> I find this connection very unlikely. If you're implying that your
focusing
> habit makes you look at where you'd have monitor screen, you would be
> focusing on your windshield, meaning that you wouldn't be able to
> really see where you're going, which I hope is not the case ;-)
> To me it looks more likely that you're just focusing on the road too close
> to the car just because that's how you learned to drive (most people do
> it that way) and haven't translated [sim-]racing habit of looking further
> into road driving. I've noticed that I started to look further in a road
> car only when I discovered that that non-transparent thing between
> the windshield and side window really obstructs view in the corners:)

So, I take it back.  It's more likely the 8.5 hours a day of normal office
computing than the 5 hours a week of simming.  I probably should have seen
the logic right away.

Anyway, just so no one is concerned that there is a threat on the roads,
I've overstated the problem by judicious use of the word "often".  I've been
driving for almost 20 years now, and generally am scanning a point anywhere
from 400m - 1km ahead of my car.  Accident free for those 20 years, with 7
deer/moose/bears avoided, and too many wrecks avoided to count, from being
on top of what's happening way up the road.  Driving in Germany and Italy
quickly weeds out those who tend to concentrate on their hood...

We now return to regular programming, and I will refrain from making
outlandish claims... for a few days at least.  :-)

Stephen

Don Jenning

auto sims give a head start on young drivers

by Don Jenning » Fri, 12 Dec 2003 22:06:17

Same here.  I attribute the difference between real road and sim road to
three things:
-- there has never been a time on a real road that I drive as close to the
car in front as I do at Daytona unless I'm in traffic at 6 mph;
-- on the real road, I actually trust the guy in front of me (though this is
undoubtedly unwarranted) more than I do in an online race, with warp and
all;
-- as you get closer to the car in front in a sim, he fills up your view
more than a real car does.  That's why I have much less trouble "driving the
road" at any track where you're not drafting.


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