rec.autos.simulators

1. Is the field suppose to be spread out? I was qualifing for a 80 lapper at
Silverstone. THe difference betweent he fastest and slowest time is like 17
sec (1:31 by Clark and 1:48 for the other Ferrari)  Is it suppose to be like
that or is something wrong?

2. What is a good time at Silverstone? My best lap is 1;33:50

3. My frame rate at the start really bites. I seem to be getting 14 or 26
fps when i am sitting on the grid (the letters for the fps are too small,
too hard to see even at 1024x768 res) Is there a light I suppose to look for
for the start or do they use that stupid flag man? It seems like sometime he
sticks it up and not wave it. Sometimes he would. What am i suppose to do?!?

4. Is there anyway I can check for damages on my suspension? I am asking
because I do tap walls quite often. If the steering wheel stay straight,
does it mean i am okay?

5. I remember in GP2, there are a few "greatest crash sites". I am wondering
if there are any of those for GPL because is fun to see cars flying on top
of you :)

6. Can I damage my car if I ride on the curbs too much? (like the ones in
Monaco and Silverstone)

Frame rate gets better soon, as the race gets going.

He will wave it eventually. Learn to find him from where you are on the grid.
You can count seconds under your breath from when you go to the track
to give yourself a better guess about when it will wave.

Usually. However a deflated tire might not show up that way.
The easiest way to detect a deflated/ing front tire is by understeering
into the hedge on the next fast corner ;)

There are so many I can't choose ;)

Dunno. I usually smack the guardrail or cliff or bridge soon after
I get that out of shape so I couldn't say ;)

- Matt

Was this your first outing (race or training) at Silverstone? The
"global hype" system attempts to spread out the qualifiers so that at
least some of the slower cars are lapping at around the same pace as
your most recent laps - so initial qualifying spread is large but as you
get faster the spread narrows until eventually, I assume, all cars are
lapping at their full potential.

Put in a few laps in training/races and assuming your doing a reasonable
lap time I think the spread may narrow dramatically.

How much detail is turned on. I recently found a tip here of swicthing
drivers arms off which gives a noticable fps boost. Also, the "mirrors
patch" (allows you to update mirrors at a fraction of main view frame
rate - mirrors every 3 frames is acceptable + significantly boosts fps)

do?!?

GPL is a sim thus they simulate the start mechanism of that era - i.e.
man with green flag. I think he just raises the flag and then after a
variable time drops it to indicate the start.

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Not long after GPL came out and people started fiddling with the various
.INI settings there were a couple of gpl_ai.ini files that tried to bring
the gap (globally) into line with history.  Problem was that it improved the
situation at some circuits but made the gap unrealistically small at others.

--
Regards,
Bruce Kennewell,
Canberra, Australia.
---------------------------

The qualifying times are loosely based on the original spread. In 1967, the
gap to Clark on pole to Guy Ligier was 9.5 seconds. As Global hype kicks in,
you will find the slower cars speeding up more rapidly than those at the
front. I think Sierra used a bit of artistic licence here so that people of
all abilities would have at least one car to race with.

My best is a 1:29.xx but people are at least 3-4 seconds faster than that
here
do?!?

Wait for the flag to drop, just as they did in 1967. Of course, if you are
in a lowly position it is more difficult to see the flag and you might want
to keep an eye on the other cars.

If you are able to continue driving just keep going. There are no pitstops
in GPL. I have managed to complete a GP distance after deranging the
suspension on lap 20. It aint easy but it's possible.

Err. Just checkout your replay after a typical pickup race on VROC <G>

You are more likely to damage the car by hitting a wall following your
efforts to ride kerbs.

Have fun

MS

IMO, it's designed that way so that you'll always have cars you can race
with, as your personal speeds improve.

do?!?

It seems the biggest hit on framerate is sounds, and you have all of them on
the grid.  Everyone's fps are smallest at the start.

Once you get in your car offline, the flagman waits a random amount of time
to raise the flag (no waving, just holds it up).  Then after another random
amount of time, the flag drops and you're off.  It seems that once it's
raised, it's somewhere between 1 and 5 seconds before it's dropped.

I haven't noticed any degrees of damage after contact.  If the damage is
past a certain point, your car pulls to one side and you have to drive with
the wheel slightly turned to stay straight.  If the damage isn't past that
point, you don't notice any effect.  (That's not with full damage on, I
haven't got to that point yet ;-)

Seems quite a way apart.  I've never raced against a full field, but now
race against 14 AI, which gradually improves the more you race, and the
spread from 1st to 15th is only about 3 seconds, no matter which circuit
I'm at.

If you really want to compare yourself to others then anything near or
below 1:30 is a good starting reference point.  However, don't let that
put you off any ideas you may have of racing online.  Unless you come
across idiots like me, but that's another story. :-)

That's probably ok for the start of a race.  Once the cars get under way
and start to spread out you should be aiming for 36fps.  You could press
the pause key, but I think the game does not give an accurate enough
reading whilst it is paused.

On most occasions a good test of car damage is to see if centre steering
keeps the car going straight, like you say.  However, there can be the
odd occasion when damage seems to place itself directly under the rear
axle of the car and it becomes very difficult to avoid the back end from
coming round when in corners.  I find that if I hit something and the
car is going straight and it doesn't show any signs of being extra loose
in the corners then I'm normally confident that I got away with it. :-)

I'm not aware of any, though I would be interested in something of the
kind that shows anything a bit out of the ordinary in GPL.  In other
words crashes would have to be something special to ring my bell.  I
sometimes save replays of things that are a bit different or appeal to
me in some way.  For instance I have a shot of me at Mosport heading
through the 3rd gear dip of turn 4 towards the right-hand climb with the
tail*** right out, wheels smokin' like crazy.  I saved it because
at the time I just don't know how the car didn't spin round.  It was
made all the better by the fact that an AI car had some mechanical
problem and was currently pootling through the same section on the right
hand side of the track.  It looks great from the AI in-car to see my
Lotus come flying by almost sideways, then get gathered up and disappear
up the hill. :-)

Don't think so.
--
Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington)

No person's opinions can be said to be
more correct than another's, because each is
the sole judge of his or her own experience.