rec.autos.simulators

I just got N4, and while I really like it I am having a couple of
problems.  First, the performance at times is just horrible.  On an
empty track I can get upwards of 60 fps, but in some situations it drops
down to less than 10.  I have all the detail settings at minimum, and I
am running it on a 900 MHz machine with 256 meg of RAM and a 32 meg
Radeon.  Even Tribes 2 performs better than this!  The weird thing too
is that the slowdowns are not necessarily just when there are a lot of
cars on screen.  Sometimes I get these slowdowns just running down the
back straightaway with only a few cars in sight.  Anyone have any tips
on how to improve performance?  Is Papyrus addressing this?

Secondly, the AI seems screwy at times.  I've seen cars jump right into
the pits as soon as we go green.  I'm also constantly getting cut off
and pushed around by the AI drivers.  I might be wrong here, but I was
under the impression that real NASCAR drivers observed a certain amount
of courtesy in passing situations.  The AI drivers on the other hand
will blindly follow their line even when you are trying to pass them.  I
guess I could just learn to anticipate that, but it seems somewhat
unrealistic.

Anyway, I hate to sound like I'm complaining, because overall I really
do like the game.  I'm just wondering if other people are having these
problems and if they are being addressed.

Regards,
Hal

Hi,

Sounds like you haven't patched the game yet.  Get it from Papy's website.

As far as I know, N4 doesn't like Radeons that much.  It works much better
with a Geforce2+ using OpenGL.

The patch fixes the AI somewhat, but here's a tip - get ***!  The AI will
move out of your way if you bump it, also known as a 'contact pass' lol.  If
you need to put the AI into the wall, do it.  Just don't use this strategy
online or you won't make any friends.

good luck!

    -Phasor

I do have the 1.1 patch.  As far as I can tell that is the latest.  The
AI is still a problem.  Just today, I was in the back of the pack on a
yellow flag, and an AI car came up and shoved me into the wall.  The
weird thing is, it almost always seems to be the #5 car.  So I have
taken him out of the opponent roster, but I haven't had a chance yet to
see whether that makes a difference.  I don't know if there is some AI
quirk associated with that driver, or whether it is just because that
car is normally in last place, and the AI gets weird when it is in last
place.

Also, as far as the passing goes, I think I've got that figured out.
The AI drivers almost always go from inside to outside coming out of a
turn, and vice versa going into a turn.  If I'm actually next to them
before they do that, they see me and avoid me.  But if I happen to be
overtaking at that time, but not quite up to them yet, they don't seem
to be able to account for that.  So I can sort of work around it, but
unfortunately that makes it more difficult to employ late braking into a
corner or high exit speed out of a corner as a passing technique.  I'm
not a racer but I used to work with racers a lot and I'm told those are
legitimate and frequently used techniques.  It would be nice if the AI
could predict forward a little and recognize when someone is about to
pass them.

If you're going that slow with a 900mhz machine...You need to check your
settings.  People are getting better frame rates than you with 600mhz
machines.

Are you running open gl or d3d?  try both, many find N4 running faster in open
gl.  Also, do you have Vsynch turned off?  This is found at
Control Panel/Display/Settings/Geforce/Additional Settings/Open GL  
And turn Vertical Sync to always off.

Michael Loos
Gasoline Alley...The Fastest Show In Radio!
Nationwide Saturdays at 10:00 pm Eastern - 7:00 pm Pacific
Find your local affiliate at
www.GasolineAlleyOnline.net

D3D (normal or Tnl HAL?) or OpenGL?  I had better luck in D3D with the Tnl HAL
configuration and am just now tinkering with OpenGL fairly successfully.

I was having what many Radeon owners were experiencing in OGL with screen
lockups....go to http://www.racesimcentral.net/
for a really great tip on OpenGL for Radeons.  

Also you might try adding the following line to your C:\windows\system.ini file

under the [386Enh] section:

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

It seems to have helped my Win98 system.  I think that windows tries to access
the swapfile too often...this setting reduces the swapfile activity which can
cause the game run slow intermittently (sp?) and since you have 256 MB RAM you
shouldn't need the swapfile very often.

not sure which patch you said (in a later post) that you had but the first
patch was 4.1.0.0.1    which addressed some multiplayer issues.  The latest
patch is 4.1.1.0.0 (US) which addressed lots of issues including a seriously
flawed AI.  Most people have reported a vast improvement in the patched AI
although some still beef about it.

I'm running a PIII 600 w/256MB PC100 RAM
Radeon All-in-wonder AGP 32MB (mother board has only 1x AGP)

N4 Graphics:
all Quality and effects ON
Cars drawn 10 ahead 3 behind
Car detail HIGH
world view setting lowest

Drawing distance:

Ahead 30%  (this seemed to make a big difference)
Mirror 15%

Bottom line is you have a significantly faster machine than mine. and I don't
recall seeing FPS down to 10 ever.  You sholdn't have to turn "everything"
down.

Good luck

Doug B.

(Don't gimme NO***in E-mail)

OpenGL, Vsynch off.

successfully.

OpenGL.  I will try D3D and see if that is an improvement, but from what
I've seen on message boards so far it seems like most people are having
better luck with OpenGL.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=15590

Umm, yes, I was the one who posted that tip here.  :o)

C:\windows\system.ini file

Already done that too.  :o)

Played a couple more races today, still seeing the same AI problems. The
AI acts screwy for the last few cars, no matter who they are.  I even
checked a couple of replays to see if I was imagining things.  They are
definitely bumping players out of the way.

Thanks.  I'll try turning the draw distance down, that's one thing I
hadn't tried yet.

Regards,
Hal

Well I tried reducing draw distance, and that seemed to help in some
situations.  However I don't really think this is a graphics issue.  The
two worst slow downs that I have experienced were in situations where no
other cars were on screen.  These happened while racing at Daytona,
playing against my son on a LAN, with 18 AI opponents to fill out the
field.  The first time was coming out of the pits under a yellow flag.
Frame rate dropped to 8, even though there were no other cars on screen.
The second time came again under yellow, when I was racing down the back
straight to catch up to the pacing line, which was all the way on the
other side of the track.  Here I saw about 12 fps.  Normally I get frame
rates in the 20 - 30 range when racing, and 30 - 60 when qualifying.  Is
there an issue with either the AI or the network layer slowing things
down?  At this point I don't think graphics has much to do with it.

I had similar problem. I solved it by turning off  3d-sound.
TS

Thanks, but that didn't help either.