rec.autos.simulators

today I tried, after many months, the GP2 with my new machine, PII350
with Voodoo2 - a machine I bought for GPL - and the grand old GP2 felt
very good indeed, especially after I had turned off all the helps!  
(And I use my own variation of the classical 'Zanardi-controls'.)

I guess the abilities I've achieved in GPL made me understand, how
well this old sim really was made. And now I could be quite good in GP2!

I actually do own also f1rs and mgprs2, which are really nice to my eyes,
and which are also quite nice to drive. But it was quite ashtonished
to find out (again!), how well thought the old GP2 really is! And how
good the AI is there. (An unimportant example: I started Monza and made
a lot of mistakes. Somebody from the back drove to the rear of my car
and his whole car went to two pieces! Just in the first chicane of
Monza. Never seen that before...)

Well, anyhow, the old GP2 seems to be a very competetive alternative,
to mgprs2, when I start "practising for the races to come" in March -99.

Arto

You can correct small spins as they start, but once the car goes past
a certain point in the physics model and starts to spin, there is no way
to prevent it or lessen it, you can lock the brakes and stop it momentarily
but as soon as you release the brakes it resumes the spin as if the physics
model has decided there is no possible way to correct it. In GPL the physics
model feels way more realistic, it feels like you have FULL capibilities to
correct or***up spins without any rigged artificial behaviour as seen
in GP2. Don't get me wrong, I was a huge GP2 fan from the time of release
and spent many 100's of hours driving it and updating the car sets, right
up to the release of GPL, for it's time GP2 physics were excellent,
especially brake locking etc. it revolutionized racing simulations.

I remember at the time requesting here on r.a.s. to Papyrus programmer
(at that time) Jim Sokoloff that Papyrus' next simulator had to have at
least an equal level of brake locking and wheel spinning in the physics
model to be better than GP2, I'm glad that they got the physics right in
GPL and I can only hope that GP3 or Nascar3 will only take the racing
simulation level up another notch to the point of feeling more and more
real.

On another point, my time spent in GPL has also payed off amazingly in
GP2 and F1RS, much better driving control in these older sims now that
I am able to control the cars in GPL, the funny thing is that at it's time
GP2 did the same to improve my control in older sims such as ICR2 and NFS1.

I will still load up GP2 and F1RS now and then to take a few laps around
each F1 track before each Formula1 race throughout the season, just as I
still load up ICR2 now and then to take a few laps around Elkhart Lake.

Luckily the huge hardrives these days have loads of room for older games
that were only 20 megs or so, it makes it easy to leave the games on the HD.
I decided not to bother with MGPRS2 since it didn't look like much of an
improvement over F1RS (a beautiful and fun sim whose physics model has never
felt quite right for me, but just perfect for turning a few fun laps of
modern F1 to get in the mood for seeing Schumi and Mika fight it out in the
real thing)

Seeyas on the track.

--John (Joao) Silva
(fan of many racing sims but currently ***ed to GPL)

Stephen

: Hi GP* folks,

: today I tried, after many months, the GP2 with my new machine, PII350
: with Voodoo2 - a machine I bought for GPL - and the grand old GP2 felt
: very good indeed, especially after I had turned off all the helps!  
: (And I use my own variation of the classical 'Zanardi-controls'.)

: I guess the abilities I've achieved in GPL made me understand, how
: well this old sim really was made. And now I could be quite good in GP2!

: I actually do own also f1rs and mgprs2, which are really nice to my eyes,
: and which are also quite nice to drive. But it was quite ashtonished
: to find out (again!), how well thought the old GP2 really is! And how
: good the AI is there. (An unimportant example: I started Monza and made
: a lot of mistakes. Somebody from the back drove to the rear of my car
: and his whole car went to two pieces! Just in the first chicane of
: Monza. Never seen that before...)

: Well, anyhow, the old GP2 seems to be a very competetive alternative,
: to mgprs2, when I start "practising for the races to come" in March -99.

: Arto

Glad to see you have returned to ICR2
I just got the rendition version working so I am extrememly happy. long live
ICR2!!!

[...]

In what way is that good AI?

--
Cheers, Tilman
               Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall,
               Aleph-null bottles of beer,
               You take one down, and pass it around,
               Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall.

  The  same  happened  to me when going back to GP2 after playing
F1RS for a while. Seemed much easier all of a sudden.

--
Cheers, Tilman
               Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall,
               Aleph-null bottles of beer,
               You take one down, and pass it around,
               Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall.

It was a better between me, Andretti and Villeneuve. (Renault only had 1 car
in there first season,
So I am no2 to Jean Pierre Jabouille (equal no1 !!!)

Its taking ages (full length grand prixs from 1977-)

Best Regards to all!!

Ben Summers