rec.autos.simulators

Sorry if this has been answered 100 times, but I haven't been able to
find a specific yes or no before I buy Nascar 2, so please excuse me.

1. Is Nascar 2 playable over Kali 95/DOS and/or Kahn 95/DOS?

If #1 is  yes, then:

2. How many (Kali) players can be in a race at one time?

3. How is the performance online, and does it suffer as more Kali
players are added as it does in other Kali/Kahn sims?

4. What number of human opponents can race without having problems?

Thanks for any input.

Gary R.
WB - Icer

As long as the ping to the other players is good it is great but thats
the key, good pings.

     According to the Nascar2 docs up to 8 can hook up  for a race. However,
you won't get eight on Kahn.
     To answer number 3 and 4 ...yes the connection suffers as you add
drivers. And the best connections I have had are with only one other
driver in the race with me.
     Having said that I have raced with one other person on the other
side of the country at Talladega, 39 car field (2 humans) and no warping
at all. And I have found that I can race under good conditions consistently
with the same people on different days and at different times. I'm no modem
expert but I have good luck with those who have 28.8 modems and better
luck with those having 33.6 modems (i always ask). As far as the platform
goes, It doesn't seem to matter, imho. I run a 486dx4-120 with 16megs of ram
and a crappy Trident 9440 vlb card and I can successfully host races on
Kahn/Dos. I use a USR 33.6 modem (internal). Until recently I was using a
14.4 Hayes modem and had nothing but trouble on Kahn.
  AOL users usually have trouble as well as those with 14.4 modems and
Winmodems. Also a few I've run into who are running out of Kahn for
Win95 have troubles. My personal opinion, regardless of platform, is that
running Nascar2 out of Windows is like doing the 100 meter dash with an
elephant stuffed up your rear. Many who are used to running N2 out of Dos
have joystick/wheel calibration problems when using Kahn/win95.
   I'm no expert on this. I'm pretty new at it. But I ask each and every
person I race about their equipment and such. So these conclusions are
apt to change as I gather more info. Hope I helped and sorry for the length.

Regards,
Greg
Gavel on Hawaii & TEN & Kahn/Dos

This is purely technical advice, so take it for just that. I haven't
used Kahn or Kali with N2, as I have no shortage of racers who are but
an Ethernet hop or two away... :-)

The player with the best connection must play the role of the server.
If everyone is connected over a phone line, you will have trouble as
descibed above.

However, if you can get a single computer hooked up over a fast
connection, have that computer "answer." This will likely improve the
game dramatically.

I realize it's not practical in every case to have your server hooked
up over a sub-100ms latency, but for those people who do have access
to a fast net connection and want to play, they should serve...

---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus

: Sorry if this has been answered 100 times, but I haven't been able to
: find a specific yes or no before I buy Nascar 2, so please excuse me.

: 1. Is Nascar 2 playable over Kali 95/DOS and/or Kahn 95/DOS?

I have raced Nascar2 with Kahn95 several times with one other racer
 with no problems.  I have not tried Kali95 but it should work good
also.  

: If #1 is  yes, then:

: 2. How many (Kali) players can be in a race at one time?

Nascar2 limits max to 8 network racers but I tried racing with
three and one guy was disconnected after two laps.

: 3. How is the performance online, and does it suffer as more Kali
: players are added as it does in other Kali/Kahn sims?

Performance is good for two racers, but I would recommend racing
with opponents with low ping times, less than 400ms if possible,
this reduces the warping effect.  Also I would recommended using
as few computer racers as possible, I usually limit to 10 or less.

: 4. What number of human opponents can race without having problems?

I would like to try with 3 or 4 racers but it's hard to find other racers
with low ping times.  Kali claims the new version 1.1 of Kali95 is faster
but I havn't tried it yet.
: Thanks for any input.

:  
: Gary R.
: WB - Icer

Mike.

I would assume 8, as what is supported by IPX in the game

Probably, I found that Latency was quite considerable.  I think you
have to take into consideration your ISP, and the time of day you are
racing.  What I have read on sites about Quake, and Internet play,
playing after 1:00 am to about 5:00 am is the best time.  I do not no
if this applies to Kali/Kahn, and if anyone is around at those times.

Not sure on that one