rec.autos.simulators

I am seriously impressed. I have bought and raced the papy Nascar titles
since Nascar 1 on my 50Mhz Dx2. The result today is far better than I ever
believed was possible.

Yesterday I had some time to spare, and loaded the Jasper setup at Watkins
Glen. At last I got the "feeling" when the tires were up to temp, and I
pushed hard for 10 laps or so. I just have to rave about the handling of the
car! I was absolutely on my limit, mashing it through the gears, heel-toeing
and on the edge. Every lap entering the back straight with a touch of
opposite lock - the FF effects telling me exactly what the car was doing, so
I wasn't even close to losing it. Onto the kerbs in the exit of the final
turn every lap because my entry was just a tad too fast, watching the lap
time steadily falling into the 1m13s.

Never before has a Papy sim been this controllable. You can balance the car
perfectly on the brakes, get the rear to step out just a tad on entry, and
you can feel the chassis squirming under you when you are *** the
anchors. And you can also be late hitting the brakes, and save the car from
situations previously lethal. Even the Kerbs can be used, carefully, but
still usable. You know when you've lost or gained a tenth...when you're
pushing too hard or when you knew you could have carried more speed into a
turn.

Tweaking the setup brings some expected reactions, especially when you
stiffen all the corners up. The car starts jumping, jacking on it's shocks,
the suspension complaining from the load of the monster racer. There still
is some low-speed understeer I'm not happy with, but still very much an
improvement over N2002.

As a real-life racer without the $ these days, this is indeed a pretty good
compromise. And if you're not using a clutch and a proper shifter, you don't
know what you are missing...

Just had to get this off my chest, and no, I'm not employed by Sierra ;)

Setup:
modified Actlabs perf. pedals w/clutch
GPL shifter
Logitech wingman ff wheel

/Matt Knutsen
www.gplea.org

Andre

Um, well I dunno if I'd be allowed to do that by the gplea guys ;)

Seriously, I'd love to, but I haven't even finished my personal car, I have
to drive some more first..

/matt

    Hmm...I have seen several regulars here in the past decry FF
precisely because it DOESN'T tell you exactly what the car is
doing.  Since I am an intermediate driver (at best) and have never
driven a real racer, I don't know if this is true.  I find FF mainly
useful for keeping the car going in a straight line (the feedback
sort of "locks" me into a turn, esp. at the ovals).  But (using
the MS wheel) I don't notice any telltales letting me know that I
am on the edge of spinning out...

    John DiFool

--
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Reach heaven far too high
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Well, yeah..I guess it depents on what you're "feeling for". In my case, as
an example, coming out of the outer loop(?) at the Glen, when you get to the
point where you can floor the throttle the rest of the way out, I think the
FF gives very good feedback. But, I'd agree - it gives only subtle hints
which you have to combine with what the eyes see. Sometimes the car just
snaps round, or on ovals, if you turn in too sharply you might start a slide
that won't be saved no matter how much lock you put in. And I don't think
there's a way that you can feel that through the wheel only.

Imo, what the FF does very nicely, is to confirm what you see with your
eyes, adding to the seat-of-the-pants feel that needs somehow to be
recreated in a simulated environment. When you are *** the brakes, and
say your right front loses a bit of grip, you can feel the car pulling to
the left through the FF, let up on the brake a bit, and so on.

I used to run the MSFF as well, but I think it gives more spongy FF details
than the logi, it just doesn't seem to have the same power.

/matt k