rec.autos.simulators

GPL Weather

Bruce Kennewel

GPL Weather

by Bruce Kennewel » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

I would imagine that the final product would include a "Pause"
feature...the same as all the Papyrus sims to date.


> .. yeah, but you crash your car whilst viewing it (there's no pause
> button!). I think Byron was saying he wants to be able to see  in real time
> what his laptimes are.

--
Bruce.
----------
Bruce Kennewel

GPL Weather

by Bruce Kennewel » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

Fair suck of the saveloy, Byron!  B-I-G difference between travelling a
few laps when setting up a car and not being able to save a race 70 laps
into a 120-lap RACE :o)

And anyway...my comment regarding Papy foot-shooting was in reference to
the possible commercial effect....not my personal likes or dislikes.
Have another decko at it and you'll see what I mean.

Meantime, use your "replay" feature to check your lap times as you
complete each one.  That's the trick to it :o)

Oh....and stay off the green stuff and remain on the black stuff!



> > Come off the grass, Byron!

--
Regards,
Bruce.
----------
John Walla

GPL Weather

by John Walla » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

On Mon, 24 Aug 1998 18:55:31 -0300, Rafael Medeiros


>Yes, i also understand Papyrus point ,but i guess this game will become a
>frustrating experience if  there isn't, at least, the possibility to go into
>the pits for a repair.What about the online races ?To much lag clones or as
>good as MTM2 in the zone?how many at a time?Will be there a Sierra private
>server to play the game?I know you can't answer everything but ... these would
>be great.

You don't need a Sierra private server, you make your own. It's a bit
like Quake - you setup a server (just by connecting to the internet
and launching GPL), others enter your IP address and connect to your
system and away you go - it's easy, and very convenient. Not like F1RS
or MTM2 where you are waiting around at the menu for people to join
and then hoping everyone stays connected while you go to the track, in
GPL the server loads the track and clients can join or leave anytime
they like throughout practice.

As for how good it is and how many at a time, I know but I'm not sure
how much I can openly say. If I were to tell you my 'phone bill for
the last month you might get some idea though - it was one scarily big
bill but I STILL thought it was worthwhile :-)  The lag depends on
your connection and the state of the internet - you and God have more
influence on that than Papy do!

Cheers!
John

John Walla

GPL Weather

by John Walla » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00



I recall GP2 being slammed for it's myopic avoidance of internet play,
yet I also recall it being the biggest and fastest selling game at the
time - what a disastrous decision that was.

As is often pointed out, r.a.s. is a small subset of the entire sim
market, where the common denominator is that we are all online. That
tends to skew the thinking as far as the importance of being online is
concerned. Of all companies making sims Papy and MS will have
excellent data as to how significant the online community actually is,
comparing total sales of N2 and CPR against signups and usage on NROS
and IGZ.  I don't see it as being that big a deal - yet. That time
will come, but so far it's something excellent for us to have but
really not all THAT big a selling point. Undoubtedly failure to
include it will lose some sales, but if you are looking from a
bean-counter's perspective you have to ask whether the time spent
developing and improving on-line play would yield a larger ROI if set
to work developing weather/injuries/<insert name of feature>. Luckily
for us online types some companies like Papy, MS, Ubisoft are looking
to future sales and working on online stuff, but the level of
influence is small as yet.

All IMO of course :-)

Cheers!
John

Conkli

GPL Weather

by Conkli » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

my question is www.won.net gonna have GPL up to play with others?

Joe Conklin
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/network/5312/
remove spam to reply


>This is so rare an occasion David that I feel compelled to comment.

>   I AGREE COMPLETELY!

>  I put any sim company who places no emphasis on online/OnOffline/Offline
as clueless and
>one that won't be around for long. The first company to release a sim with
a competitive
>physics model and with an OnOffline multiplayer setup (see here
>http://home4.swipnet.se/~w-41236/OnlineRacing.html) will blow everything
off the globe
>IMO!


>> Hopefully it will be as good as MTM2 in the Zone. I race people from all
>> over Europe, South America, and even Australia and it's pretty damn
smooth.
>> There was bad news awhile back that Papyrus wasn't much concerned with
the
>> internet racing (how the hell they could make that decision is beyond me)
>> but beta testers pushed for improvements and I hear it is much better
now.
>> If it doesn't provide quality online racing, I won't have much time for
it.

Edwin Solhei

GPL Weather

by Edwin Solhei » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00


> At that time you can "feel" how much better a corner can be
>taken and estimate how much more time is in you and your current setup
>if you can string a lap together. The fun part, for me, is juggling
>all these figures in my head and comparing them to what I estimate my
>competitors can do, just as Clark, Hill etc had to do back in them
>days.

This is so true IMHO. When I lap race around the Glen, I can jugde the
"quality" of the lap pretty good. 90-95% of the time I *know* if the lap is
good or not. And i gotta say that feeling is so special... to know that
you've just pulled off a clean fast lap... And then as you come around the
track after yet another lap you get the confirmation on the pit-board!!
Man, I cant wait to race these tracks... just the thought of racing around
Spa - trying to slip passed one of the AI's. Going flat-out down the
Masta-straight at speeds close to 200mph surrounded by other cars. Or the
slipstreaming around Monza - passing other cars and be re-passed within a
few seconds - again!

Just imagine the feeling of completing a good, fast lap around Zandvoort. A
track that was soo slippy due to all the sand on it. Now imagine that
feeling you'll have when *you know* you've just done a great lap!!

Ohhh how I want this thing now... I want Clark, Hill and Hulme - the Lotus,
Ferrari and Eagle - the Ring, Spa and Rouen.... and I want it fast!!! :))

All the best,
Edwin Solheim
REMOVE SPAM-GUARD IN ADDRESS TO REPLY!
Check out "The Paddock - a legendary site..." for
some cool GPL-stuff!!
[http://home.c2i.net/thepaddock)

David G Fishe

GPL Weather

by David G Fishe » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

You can do the same thing with MTM2 and CPR. I've done it that way a few
hundred times myself I'd guess. The Zone basically just helps you locate
friends and strangers for a TCP/IP race and then steps out of the way. F1RS
is a different story unfortunately. I may be wrong but I think they will be
offering TCP/IP racing in the new version released this winter. No licensing
restrictions.

Dave
DmndDave


>You don't need a Sierra private server, you make your own. It's a bit
>like Quake - you setup a server (just by connecting to the internet
>and launching GPL), others enter your IP address and connect to your
>system and away you go - it's easy, and very convenient. Not like F1RS
>or MTM2 where you are waiting around at the menu for people to join
>and then hoping everyone stays connected while you go to the track, in
>GPL the server loads the track and clients can join or leave anytime
>they like throughout practice.

David G Fishe

GPL Weather

by David G Fishe » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00




>>  I put any sim company who places no emphasis on online/OnOffline/Offline
as clueless and
>>one that won't be around for long. The first company to release a sim with
a competitive
>>physics model and with an OnOffline multiplayer setup (see here
>>http://www.racesimcentral.net/~w-41236/OnlineRacing.html) will blow everything
off the globe
>>IMO!

>I recall GP2 being slammed for it's myopic avoidance of internet play,
>yet I also recall it being the biggest and fastest selling game at the
>time - what a disastrous decision that was.

It seems to me from everything I read and hear that online *** is now and
will be in the future, the key ingredient of PC games. At least that's what
I see here in the States.

GP2 was then, this is now. It was understandable (to me at least) that GP2
didn't provide online play. I doubt it would  have been very good anyway.
Last summer I thought POD was impressive with it's online play, now it
pretty much stinks compared to others released in the past year. There was
even a significant jump between CPR and MTM2. Whatever sims/games that have
been released recently or will be in the near future will be used by us for
another year at least, or 2 maybe? The online community is growing very fast
and the developers need to plan for the future as well as the present.

Racing game developers should be pushing online racing more than anyone.
Real racing is all about going head to head with opponents. That's it's
greatest appeal.  Who better than to take advantage of the internet than
them?

Papyrus might view GPL as a niche product, it's appeal will probably be
limited, but if they hadn't provided TCP/IP racing it would have been a huge
mistake because it is a RACING sim. Even if the amount of people who take
advantage of it is small. Once you get comfortable with the cars, create
setups, and learn the tracks, you want to be able to race others and get the
adrenalin pumping. I would be shocked if Papy doesn't  provide good online
racing in N3 and ICR3. MS seems to be making it a top priority with it's
last 3 motorsport releases (CPR, MTM2, and Motocross Madness). It will do
the same in upcoming racing titles I'm sure. As far as a selling point, MTM2
would have a fraction of it's fans if it couldn't be raced online, and I bet
MCM will follow along the same lines. There are one million people signed up
at just the Zone. Just a few months ago, their record for total amount of
people online at any one time was 10,000. Now I regularly see 14-15,000.
There is about 100 playing MTM2 on any weekday night and already that many
playing MCM.

The bean counters would know the facts, but I just disagree that the appeal
of online racing, and *** at this point is limited. I think in the last
year the stage has been set for online ***/racing to be a major feature
of most titles. Some of the developers seem to be making it a big priority,
and the others will hopefully follow. From this point on, I just don't see
any excuse for them not to do so.

Dave
DmndDave

David G Fishe

GPL Weather

by David G Fishe » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

I should add that I do understand that many people outside the U.S. don't
have unlimited, low cost internet access and this certainly limits the
appeal of online racing for them. Is that supposed to change?

Dave
DmndDave

L. Andre Min

GPL Weather

by L. Andre Min » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

<snip... much e***d chatter about GPL>

Here, here, now Edwin... get a grip.  It won't be long. Breath deep...
easy, now... easy...  ;')

Andre

P.S. I've got a P233MMX, 32 Meg SDRAM, SB 64AWE, but alas, an S3 Virge
vid card.  :-(

I'm thinking about putting in a Rendition based card as my primary card,
with 3dfx board alongside. Is this still possible with the later
generation boards?  Where will be the best performance be found for N2,
GPL, and N3: Rendition or 3dfx?

Thanks...

Arthur Axelra

GPL Weather

by Arthur Axelra » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

You probably want to pick up another 32mb.
And either a Thriller (Rendition V2200) or a Voodoo2, or both will be the
best bet. Though the Voodoo2 will give you the best performace but the
Rendition the best image quality.

Arthur
s t e a l t h
r a c i n g
http://www.***sys.com/stealthracing.html



><snip... much e***d chatter about GPL>

>> Ohhh how I want this thing now... I want Clark, Hill and Hulme - the
Lotus,
>> Ferrari and Eagle - the Ring, Spa and Rouen.... and I want it fast!!! :))

>> All the best,
>> Edwin Solheim

>Here, here, now Edwin... get a grip.  It won't be long. Breath deep...
>easy, now... easy...  ;')

>Andre

>P.S. I've got a P233MMX, 32 Meg SDRAM, SB 64AWE, but alas, an S3 Virge
>vid card.  :-(

>I'm thinking about putting in a Rendition based card as my primary card,
>with 3dfx board alongside. Is this still possible with the later
>generation boards?  Where will be the best performance be found for N2,
>GPL, and N3: Rendition or 3dfx?

>Thanks...

Marc J. Nelso

GPL Weather

by Marc J. Nelso » Wed, 26 Aug 1998 04:00:00

What John meant about coming_and_going whenever someone feels like it,
is that unlike MTM2/CPR - where you have a meeting area, GPL allows
you to join a parctice session ALREADY in progress.  No more re-
grouping.

If the time is set for say 40-min, and you've got to go eat din-din,
then you can rejoin the practice afterwards (provided no booting from
the host/paticipants have occured.  You can disconnect from the 'net,
and then dial into your sever at anytime to rejoin.  Pretty neat!  =)

Cheers!

Marc


> You can do the same thing with MTM2 and CPR. I've done it that way a few
> hundred times myself I'd guess. The Zone basically just helps you locate
> friends and strangers for a TCP/IP race and then steps out of the way. F1RS
> is a different story unfortunately. I may be wrong but I think they will be
> offering TCP/IP racing in the new version released this winter. No licensing
> restrictions.

--
Marc J. Nelson
The Sim Project - http://www.simproject.com

* No animals were harmed in the making of this e-mail *

Byron Forbe

GPL Weather

by Byron Forbe » Thu, 27 Aug 1998 04:00:00

Something that I wish to clarify here too Bruce. I like and almost insist on it staying
as is under *race* conditions, but I'm sure that everyone, including your good self, will
find it very tedious after a while in testing. I have trashed other games, etc that were
otherwise good because of tedious annoyances like this. I don't want to know about pause
keys, replays, etc. I just want to be able to see the time of the lap I just completed in
*practice/testing* on the lap board or whatever!

  PS - if they don't s***this then don't expect me to be "off the grass" too much! A
mediocre driver like me needs good setups! :)


> Fair suck of the saveloy, Byron!  B-I-G difference between travelling a
> few laps when setting up a car and not being able to save a race 70 laps
> into a 120-lap RACE :o)

> And anyway...my comment regarding Papy foot-shooting was in reference to
> the possible commercial effect....not my personal likes or dislikes.
> Have another decko at it and you'll see what I mean.

> Meantime, use your "replay" feature to check your lap times as you
> complete each one.  That's the trick to it :o)

> Oh....and stay off the green stuff and remain on the black stuff!



> > > Come off the grass, Byron!

> --
> Regards,
> Bruce.
> ----------

Byron Forbe

GPL Weather

by Byron Forbe » Thu, 27 Aug 1998 04:00:00




> >  I put any sim company who places no emphasis on online/OnOffline/Offline as clueless and
> >one that won't be around for long. The first company to release a sim with a competitive
> >physics model and with an OnOffline multiplayer setup (see here
> >http://www.racesimcentral.net/~w-41236/OnlineRacing.html) will blow everything off the globe
> >IMO!

> I recall GP2 being slammed for it's myopic avoidance of internet play,
> yet I also recall it being the biggest and fastest selling game at the
> time - what a disastrous decision that was.

> All IMO of course :-)

  Well, the way I see things, is that if you have a computer capable of running GPL then
you would be a very good chance of also being on the net. Inet growth is explosive and
competition is bringing connection costs down as I write this. The pre GP2 Inet and the
pre GPL Inet populations are enormously different. And I dare say that GPL will have
appeal and considerable sales appeal 12 months after release whereby the Inet population
will be massively greater again.
    If GP3 was being released now with an OnOffline implementation, would this effect GPL
sales? You bet it would! Even for those not on the Inet yet, can you imagine their
motivation to get online knowing that when they do that they can race it online against
people all over the world! The computer *** industry is dominated by the likes of Quake
and other online multiplayer games. The sim racing community is much smaller than it would
be otherwise because of a lack of attention to this crucial element. Why it has been
neglected I do not understand!
   It seems to me that Papy is happy to dominate the local U.S. market and keep them happy
with NROS. It will take another company to spark them into action by cutting into this
base of drivers with an international solution. I was surprised when myself and Christer
Anderson were told by former Papy employee, Mike Lescault, that Papy had toyed with an
OnOffline idea for Hawaii but scrapped it and his general attitude seemed to be that they
couldn't care less about it! Sad indeed! Hopefully they know something about up and coming
data transfer technology that no one else on planet earth is aware of to date? Doubtful!
Byron Forbe

GPL Weather

by Byron Forbe » Thu, 27 Aug 1998 04:00:00


> For instance, NASCAR2 has been available as an on-line game in the
> United States for over a year (TEN and before that, Hawaii).  Here in
> the Antipodes we are still awaiting such a thing to become available.
> Official reason from the major on-line *** service here is "not
> enough customers interested in that type of on-line ***".  This is
> very true...there just is not a large enough population to warrant the
> expense of a server being setup to run something like NASCAR on-line.
> Australia, with a population of 16 million, wwould have only a very tiny
> percentage who would actually have NASCAR racing, let alone the need or
> wish to run it on-line.

  Main reason being, as you almost imply, is that there is no sim setup to do so that
particularly interests Aussies or anyone outside the U.S.
If GP3 is networkable I'd say we'll see a change to this REAL fast! Maybe even GPL, though
I think it's more "cultish".

   Also Bruce, if you haven't already, check this out!  
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~w-41236/OnlineRacing.html


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