rec.autos.simulators

Drivers:

Once again a long awaited auto "sim" is upon us. Though the demo is it quite
"small" to the demos that are out nowadays, "some" of the important features are
included in the demo, i.e. the "physics" engine.

As in my last post I asked if, "CART PR: Is it real?" Well, it is pretty close
in my opinion. You can feel rearend start to break "loose" and catch it in time.
You can also tell if you are going into an "understeer". Same old things as in
our "other" sims. BUT....

What is so neat about this sim, is that you can definitely do "four wheel"
drifts in this sim.; ) Very fun indeed. When the front brakes "lock up", you see
no movement in the front wheels. EXCELLENT!: ) When the brakes are "locked" up,
you just skim across some "bumpy" tarmac or terrain. Pretty real to me.

There is one feature I really appreciate, it's the "head panning" feature. I
adapted to this very quickly. I love looking into the "apex".

Doughnuts are neat!<G>

The setup options are a "tuner's dream come true". I am happy with the features
provided so far, especially the "Gurney wing adjustments."

The layout of the menus are self explanatory, very special indeed.

The demo ran great in D3D with my 3dFX card, but there were some pauses. N2
doesn't do this in 95, so what gives? I do see a "z-buffering" problem, though.
On my machine the demo probably ran in the vincity of 27-30fps. Very comfortable
to the eye.; )

Graphically the sim isn't that bad, though the "fish eye" look (terminalogy used
in photograpy) is vastly different. Neat though.

I have notice that there is a glitch in the game. When viewing the "Hall of
Fame" some of the times maybe vastly incredibly fast!! Noted earlier in my last
post, the "Hall of Fame" said the best time for me was "59.18s", yet, when I
viewed the replay, the***pit said, "68.18".. Go figure.

I have already spoken to one of the "GOLD Preview" winners, and this glitch has
already been noted.

So today, I decided to up  my blap somemore, which is now 67.69s.; ) Eat your
heart MARK Blundell!!<G> Hehe.

If you would like to adapt them setup, please email me.

As for the AI, they are exceptional slow, though this is the "demo" of the game.
They don't "compete" enough.

Sorry to cut this short.. I have round to do for the SRGA (Sim Racers Golf
Association): )

take care..

Julian DAta

Hiya Julian,

Undoubtedly you can feel those things, but don't they seem "canned" to
you? My own impression is that there's some decision making processes
between what I'm doing with the wheel and what that translates to
on-screen. Other stuff like being able to dougnut by flooring the gas
at high steering angles, yet when you do that with little or no
steering angle you get no wheelspin - why is that? There is no
relationship between the _sound_ of your engine and exactly what it is
doing, and similarly with the braking. Also, try redlining in neutral
then putting into first - wheels spin like crazy yes? So why does the
rpm show the speed of the _car_ rather than the speed of the engine as
it should be doing? Take a look at SODA for an example of how it
should be done - when you take off and keep your foot on the gas the
engine instantly redlines - the wheels are spinning freely. As you
land this fluctuates as the wheels scrabble for grip and then
stabilises once you are back under control.

I put my full thoughts on this in another message, and since you seem
to be bang on the pace (our fast laps are almost identical!) I'd be
interested to hear your comments on my impressions. So far it seems
like a whole lot of fun for on-line multiplayer, but lacking the
precision required for hotlapping (and lacking the AI for off-line
racing!).

Cheers!
John