rec.autos.simulators

Clark

I've got a Tseng4000 graphics chip (1meg) on my mother board, no fancy
bus either, just an old, 1994-vintage 486 motherboard upgraded with a
DX4/100. Would putting a faster graphics card in one of my EISA slots
still make a major improvement? Or am I already limited by my slow
bus?

Also, what graphics board did you buy?

I had the same problem until about a week ago. ICR1 and ICR2 have very
different driving models - i.e. ICR1 was easy :) The key to improving
your laptimes is smoothness - honestly ! Be smooth and progressive
onto the throttle and brake. Don't just slam them into the floor
(this, by the way, was my biggest problem). If you are progressive you
spend less time sliding and more time accelerating / decelerating The
other trick is that speed into the corners is less important than
speed out of them. It is critically important to get a good line
through the corners. Keep it tight and get a good apex and you will be
able to accelerate out of the corner much more quickly. If anyone
disagrees (or agrees !!) with this advice I would be interested in
their comments.

I don't consider myself to be an ICR2 expert either ! I have managed a
52.8 at Long Beach (but not with the setup that was posted here - I
could only manage a high 53 with that). Also, have a look at some
replays of other drivers to see if you can pick up any pointers. The
king of Long Beach appears to be Michael Wollenschein who has done a
low 51 second lap. The replay of that lap is available on his home
page. Sorry, I don't have the URL to hand (I've just upgraded (!?) to
32 bit Netscape and it trashed all my bookmarks) but if you do an
altavista search (www.altavista.digital.com) on Michael's name you
will find it, and some other ICR2 pages.

As for processor speed affecting lap times, well I don't know. I can't
see why it should - but then again I am using a P90 :)

I downloaded a setup of the net and the person that set it up said he
had done a 52.9.  I took that setup and barely got under 56 seconds
(with warm tires!).  I understand that setup's and driving style are
linked, but how could I still be 3+ seconds off the pace?!?!?!  I then
loaded in my setup and only did a 55.6?

I am convinced that CPU speed and memory help with lap times.  I am
running a 486-100/8 megz.

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Where you racing? It sounds like Long Beach to me, by the times you
mention. I've been struggling with Long Beach for around two weeks
now, and I've broken in to the 52s just once (52.9). I'm usually
around 53.1-53.9, on a clean lap.

Laguna seems easy to me compared to Long Beach, and I beat Michgan's
"Track Record" in a few hours. But with Long Beach, it seems that even
the smallest mistakes leave one struggling to keep under 56. In fact,
for me, most of the problem comes at the last turn before the final
straightaway. I find I can usually get to it in 43 seconds... but what
happens during that turn determines whether I get a 53.1 or a 56, and
I've been left many times swearing as I do a slow 180 coming out of
it. Anybody else see this as the most critical part of the course?

Let us know if you find any difference using different CPU or graphics
card. I have a 486-100/12, so we're in the same boat.

In icr2 the need to have good frame rates is much higher than in icr1, because
the cars are _so_ much more twitchy. You'll need to have a very fast response
time in order to drive fast and safe, and only with a high frame rate can your
response be fast enough. Personally I'm waiting to gather some cash and buy a
pentium pro 200mhz model... the machine i got now (486/100/8megs) is just too
slow, and i don't wanna drive on vga (no way hose)

Tommi Pajari

I've been driving with Michael W.(Wolenstein, I believe)'s setup at Long
Beach, and the best I can do is a 52.964, while he is in the 51s with it,
so I have to admit it ain't my setup that's hurtin'!

I am not using a great steering wheel tho- CH products yoke (flight pro,
or whatever) and CH pedals. They should be good enough, I would think. One
thing I do notice is that I must typically cut my wheel-lock in half from
what everyone else is using, i.e., 18 is typical for people with good
wheels, it seems. I use 9, even as low as 7, and that hurts when I get in
a bind- forget K-turns after a spin!

I'm in the same boat as you- but getting a new machine, whoa... that'll be
another year... at least! I turn everything off except tire marks, road
surface, and wall detail. It's good enough frame rate for me. I'm afraid
F1GP2 will blow my machine out of the water... But hey, we're all going to
have to get it... right? I bought Descent II yesterday, and was pleased to
discover it is *faster* than the old one, so you never know, maybe at low
detail FIGP2 will be plenty fast.

The ICR2 cars are definitely "twitchy", as you put it. I've only been
racing on a computer for 4 months, and only with ICR2, but it wasn't
really until a month ago that I decided it was *me* and not the game that
sucked! I still wish the game had a lot more features, and made some
aspects of testing setups less tedious, and gave us some sort of
line-analysis (just a visual line on the track respresenting my lap would
be enough... perhaps color-coding it to show speed/accelleration/braking-
that would improve my times *immensely*!).

It is a great and highly ***ive game... I think of it almost as
"computer chess on wheels"; no other computer game can really compete with
it for me.

I had a Tseng4000/1MB when I purchased NFS.  Soon after I returned to the
store for a graphics card.  I don't know about EISA (I've only had ISA and
now have PCI.)  I bought a Diamond Stealth 64 PCI (2MB/DRAM) and have been
pleased with the video performance.  If your Tseng4000 is anything like mine
was, it is SLOW.  You should get much improvement over it.

Clark

Believe me, he is the king when it comes to one fast lap. I have done
some races via modem with him. In qualifying he did beat me every time
but as far as I remember he never finished a race in front of me. <g>

Oh, his URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ATB.

Or  you could check my homepage at .../homepages/GNaujoks.

Georg Naujoks

But the leaders went 243 mph with Mendards, and I even managed a 240.8 with
an *ILMOR* engine....

I used his setup to get pretty consistent 53.3's, and of course I'm nowhere
near the pace either.

It does, but I have only a 486/DX2-66 with 8MB.

--

Brian Wong                              Systems Engineering Group (Servers)

In my OPINION, it makes it easier to do the really fast laps, but not much.
Better drivers can always get more out of even minimal systems - check out
50.8 seconds at Long Beach for evidence.  However, the processor speed DOES
help a faira mount in race situations, where the system can really bog down
and get very choppy, making it VERY hard to control.
--

Brian Wong                              Systems Engineering Group (Servers)

Gregory Fung

Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Papyrus Racing Organization 95 Champion
IICC3 Ground Effects/Rebel Alliance Lola-Ford-Firestone

BTW, is anyone out there using a setup that does not include a Pentium and
getting to run in hi-res?  I mean with some details, too.  I can run hi-res
on my Am486/DX4-100 but I basically just get the track, walls, and surface
texture.

Clark