rec.autos.simulators

If you can get it in your Country, get hold of the latest issue of
PC Format, which has an interview with Geoff Crammond in the "Best of
British" supplement.

Without copying the whole article, here's the main points:

3 screenshots (funny how there are only screenshots of F1GP 1 on the
F1GP II page of Microprose' WWW site ...).

2 close-ups of superbly detailed textured cars (as the game is based
on the 1994 season, in last years sponsorship schemes), namely a Lotus
and a Jordan.  The two cars both look to be light sourced, and have
amazing levels of details (like the front suspension, detail on the
wheels).

Photo of Geoff sitting in front of his PC.  The picture on his monitor
gives us the most important glimpse of what F1GP II is going to be
like, last years Ferrari is coming directly for the camera
(complete with raised nose), at what looks to be the fast straight
round the back of Suzuka (I could be wrong though), the road curving
away to the right in the background.  One word ... stunning!

As to the text itself:

He's been working on the game for two years (since the modem support
was finished for the PC version of F1GP).  He says he's been working
9:00am to midnight!

It *will* have an SVGA option, the graphics engine has spectacular
reflection effects that makes the cars sparkle and shine.  It
currently runs at 20 FPS on a Pentium (it doesn't say what speed
Pentium, if it's a P60, then a 486-100 should run it at the same
speed, if it's a P120, it's time to upgrade!).

For those without the processing power, you will be able to adjust
the detail for faster framerates (apparently, the texture mapping
is by far the biggest system overhead).

He says that the main thing required with F1GP 2 was an upgrade in
graphics, to "catch up".  The PC version of F1GP was only a slightly
enhanced version of the Amiga and ST versions.  There wasn't time to
go into texture mapping.  Introducing the texturing took longer than
he thought, "the aquisition of textures is a separate problem to
having a good engine to display them.". His brother in law does the
tracks, and has just been to Monaco with his camera gathering
textures :)

According to the article, F1GP 2 will be released on PC CD-ROM during
September (optimistic I think!).

From the look of the screenshots, F1GP 2 is going to be a very special
game, and I for one can't wait.

Steve.

: If you can get it in your Country, get hold of the latest issue of
: PC Format, which has an interview with Geoff Crammond in the "Best of
: British" supplement.

: Without copying the whole article, here's the main points:

...[stuff deleted]...

        Is it going to have a Network option?

        I have seen Descent played via LAN and it was VERY smooth,
        so I think it can be done also with F1GP 2 (at least with
        only two human players). This would make the game a TRUE
        classic.

        Kari.

        P.S. The success of Descent & DOOM has showed that people
        want games where they can play against human opponents.. ..and
        everybody doesn't have a modem...

I have a couple of screenshots on my F1GP2 web page. The problem
is that I'm not sure if they are actually from the game.

Can someone fill me in - I honestly don't know.

Has anyone been to the Microprose Web page lately. There is a page
for F1GP2 (World Circuit 2 - Why the hell does the game have two names?)
The graphics on their Web page are mostly from the original F1GP.

BTW, the address of my page is:
 http://www.racesimcentral.net/~sjackson/racing.html

I also started a page for Virtual Karts. This game has really got
me e***d. At present all the info has been taken straight from the
MPS page (I hope I don't get into trouble), but I'll be adding more info
when the game and/or demo is released.

--

                 http://www.racesimcentral.net/~sjackson

Steve.

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 De Montfort University,        WWW     : http://www.cms.dmu.ac.uk/~c2dh/
 Leicester, UK.                 MG WWW  : http://www.mgcars.org.uk/

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