Hi there -
in the last days I gathered the following snippets of GPL information
from Papy's Mike Lescault (and the approval of posting this):
1. Target Platform:
The targeted 30 fps on an unaccelerated P100 mentioned in the
Sierra Interaction Preview is not correct. The game is still in
PRE ALPHA phase and so it is obvious ,as many things can change, that
there are no definitive minimum requirements.
The minimum requirements at THIS TIME is a P5-133. It can easliy be
the case that minimum requirements could end up going even higher
(unaccelerated).
2. 3d-accelerators: GPL will support 3Dfx, Rendition and 3D3.
3. GPL AVI: The GPL AVI posted 2 or 3 weeks ago was done on a
P5-200 MMX with a Rendition V1000 card.
4. Analog clutch: GPL will feature an analog clutch!!!
5. 3d-cockpit: You will be able to turn your head to the left and right
with Papy's virtual***pit perspective. This works so:
You press the 'look left' button and hold it down and your view
will shift to the left; you release the button and your view will
snap back to the center.
6. Multiplayer: 8 players will be the maximum supported in multiplayer
mode. Unfortunately you cannot save your race results to play a
whole multiplayer season. (Multiplayer seems to work as in N2)
7. Slipstreaming: Slipstreaming will be done even MORE realistic as
in previous Papyrus sims! (As Papyrus is one of the few sim producers
that featured a realistic slipstreaming, this sounds pretty
surprising!) (Forget slipstreaming models in GP2 or Ubi's F1 -
it's very unrealistic i.m.o.)
8. Lift-offs: Some of the old race tracks (like the old Nurburgring)
had some precarious jump sections in which the cars lifted into the
air with all 4 wheels! In GPL you must be careful to step from the
throttle if your rear wheels are in the air, so that you don't
damage the motor by over-revving it!
Mike pointed out though that most of the cars had rev limiters
(which I didn't know), but that it is still not a good thing for the
motor to push the throttle with the rear wheels in the air!
9. 'Spectator Areas': Papy plans to have a replay mode called
'spectator area'. You can choose from several spectator areas of a
track to watch a replay as if you would be right at the track and
not as if you watched the replay on a TV camera.
This will be an unmoving, none-zooming view which will enable you
to watch the cars spectacularly 4 wheel-drift out of the corners etc.
This view will also give a good impression of speed which autozooming
views do not.
10. Things done and things to do:
As mentioned earlier GPL is still in pre-alpha phase.
The physics, some of the graphics, multiplayer and collisions are
in place right now.
Fully functional replays, sound, special effects and the damage
model still have to be implemented.
(The sound in the AVI is just a placeholder not the final sound.)
11. Tracks featured: Which tracks will be featured is still uncertain,
as Papyrus is still in licensing negotiations with some tracks.
Lead Programer Dave Kaemmer mentioned a couple of tracks in his
CGW Gamespot interview.
Mike said he will give me a list of featured tracks for which the
licensing negotiations are done. He has to check this list with
GPL Producer Matt Sentell to get an 'ok' and I will post this list
here as soon as I get it.
That's it for now.
Cheers -
Thorsten Rueter