rec.autos.simulators

You didn't answer the question...What are the MINIMUM system
requirements. Not all of us are running P111 500's.

Glenn

I suggest you look at direct competition to GP3.  They will offer online
racing.  Even titles already released offer that.  Look at how many people
with digital connections offer GPL races.  Look at the popularity of Europe
servers in Ubisoft's game service.  It's just an arrogant attitude from
Geoff to think that the Net is not ready for "his" game.  TCP/IP packets are
the same whatever game your racing.  It's pure bollocks and game developpers
like Papyrus and RatBag have proven that road course driving is possible.
Even high-momentum cars like Formula 1, it's very easy to create a stable
prediction code for it.

The popularity in "watching" Formula 1 is completely different from the
people who play Formula 1 games.  If so, then Football games shouldn't have
any multiplayer, since the audience for them all-around the world doesn't
even have a computer, neither Internet connections.

Hmm... better to have multiplayer than to have no multiplayer.  It's the
YEAR 2000 for Christ's sake!!! ;)

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.WeRace.net
-- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

And the online-racing market for sims is still negligible.  Even the
fraction of GPL purchasers who race online through internet servers is
negligible (<1%).  I am happy to be the dissenting vote and to say put your
resources into inproving the offline play.  And yes, I have raced online and
enjoy it, but rarely have the time for it, as do most people outside of
r.a.s.

Stephen

Please let's stop being elitist and look at the big picture here.  Games
that are released in the year 2000, whatever the type, simply CAN'T be
released without at least multiplayer ***, if not online community tools.
It's pure arrogance today to still look at the net and say "pffff... market
is too small".

Tell that to Quake 3.  Or Half-Life.  Or Unreal Tournament.  Or Ultima
Online.  Or <insert the majority of flight sims>.  Or <insert online RPG's>.
Or <insert any ***y game!>

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
-- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

There are a good number of GPL fans in Australia with whom I have raced trouble
free from my location in Northeast USA.  I race on European servers regularly
with low latency, and rock solid connections.  You make it sound as if it can't
be done and the GP3 developers are smart for not trying to do something
impossible.  I can assure you that it can be done, even with my 33.6 modem.

Don McCorkle

CAN'T.... says who?  I am looking at the big picture.  Even a mass-market
game with good Internet play built in, like Midtown Madness, demonstrates
that the majority of players, in the year 2000, are playing offline.  The
Zone server rarely has more than a hundred people there, out of sales of how
many units?

No, the elitist attitude at the moment is the one that says that, just
because there are 200 satisfied racers on VROC, everybody in the world must
go multiplayer racing, and that this is the number one priority in the
feature set to be included in the upcoming sim.  The elitist attititude is
the one that says GP3 is unworthy of consideration if it doesn't support
multiplayer ***, because the lowly proletaria who play offline are a
dying breed.

Hey, wonderful if it makes it into the game, but my opinion remains that it
is not a make-or-break feature for the game.

Stephen

The number of people actually using the on-line feature is irrelevant. Very
few people will ever use the LAN option as well.

Why should GP3 have internet multiplayer? -Because other, competing racing
games have it, that's why!!

It's basic marketing logic. I doubt, when really pressed, few people would
actually say interchangeable covers on their cellphone is a make or break
feature, yet those irritating Nokia's (hate those "tunes" they play instead
of ringing) sell by the bucket load.

Granted, more people buy cellphones (even those who don't really need them)
than simracing games, but I hope you get the general idea.

Oh, and BTW: on-line racing is more than just VROC and even that's bigger
than 200 regular racers.

Jan.
----

Will there be a demo before it's release? (to prevent me from desperatly
buying F1-2000)

and will that silly feature to turn around (that gear between 1st and
neutral) be gone?

Thank you for the answers.

Actually, there is a preview that I read today at

http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdr.cgi?depart/mar00/race2000.html

that says there should be a formation lap present. Great news!

Thanks James,

hope you'll be able to forward some of these "not sure's" later this
weekend.

When you answer "possibly..", does that mean that you asked it and it
was not yet decided by the developers to put it in or not?

Some remarks...

On Sat, 11 Mar 2000 01:05:36 +1100, "James Pickard"

Now this is a big YES!!!  :-)

So this is in telemetry now also?

Ok, but WHAT will they consist of? Changes to the core (warmup lap if
not in GP3, pacecar, still improved AI...) or only cosmetical things
like new carshape, textures and tracks?

Slowdown due to no frame skipping????

<grmbl>   :-(

If They read this: why not just put TCP/IP in it, officially
"restricted" to local networks, but quite easy to hack around?  :-)

But it doesn't really tell us a lot either...

Is this good or is this bad?

HI GUYS!! LOVE YOU ALL!!  ;-)

If you need someone to betatest keyboard (Norman seems only using his
handheld steeringwheel  :-)  ) Please contact me via
http://www.racesimcentral.net/'ll send you a
postcard <G>

JoH

========================================
Jo Helsen    EDP Operations BF Belgium

========================================

Heheheheheheh ;-)

Go ahead.. and make my day!

-- 8)
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...
-- http://www.WeRace.net
-- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

DISASTER!!!

Geoff needs me for this one. PLease send him my coordinates;  :-)

JoH

On Sat, 11 Mar 2000 01:24:17 +1100, "James Pickard"

On Fri, 10 Mar 2000 11:15:26 +0100, "Stephen Ferguson"

There are big pictures and there are big pictures <g>. Right now, online
play is pretty tiny, but will it stay that way? Maybe, but I think not. By
not getting in on the act now, Geoff Crammond & his team are falling behind
the market leaders. This is the sort of area where to learn what is
required you really have to get it out into the big wide world and get the
feedback; even a very extensive beta testing program cannot provide the
level of information required. For that reason alone I would urge any sim
developers to include online play - R&D is essential and it's a lot cheaper
getting the buying public to do it for you ;-)

Cheers,
Richard