rec.autos.simulators

That's strange........
I attended the PRI trade show this week and there were lots of new racing
simulators on display.

Hmmm...I would think that in order to make that a "fact" and not an
opinion, one need to provide proof of some kind. Aside from the 5 words
you posted, I see none.

rF
GTR2
Race2Play
Iracing.com

There are just 4 of the reasons <I> am e***d about the future of sim
racing.

I personally think that,next to flight sims, racing sims are the most
realistic form of *** available and race simming in the coming years
will only get more realistic and immersive. the day will come when all
top real life racers will have to have sims in their practice arsenals
to stay on top of their game.

all also like to your list of reasons why sim racing is not dead

1. dedicated physics processing units

2. ageia physx api integrated into sims

3.upcoming ferrari project from blimey

4. dx10

rF, running the 1979 mod alone, is more fun than should be allowed.
Join a league, see the world, have fun.

What is boils down to is:  "You're bored because you're boring."

In my view in 2006 sim racing has continued to evolve at a reasonable
pace. Whether 2007 will bring a 1998 type revolution remains to be seen.
Hopefully we will see significant developments in sim technology and
some organisation bought to the chaos that is only accessible for the
real sim enthusiast limiting the appeal.

As a sim enthusiast myself I would love to see iRacing, Blimey, ISI,
Simbin & Race2Play etc. all succeed with a significant growth in sim
racing drivers, some healthy competition and plenty of choice along with
availability of online drivers in the genre of choice.

The success criteria will vary between these products and their target
markets, but I genuinely wish them all well, if nothing else for my own
selfish reasons.

Cheers
Tony

The racing sims will improve, but the newness is gone. There isn't
going to be any sudden leap in the physics or the graphics, just
a steady progression over time. There will be more competing titles,
splitting up the field.

Regarding PC based games, racing sims are a pretty small percentage
of total sales. My evidence here is that GTR2 sold for $20 in the
USA when it was first release. Need For Speed Carbon, an arcade
racer sold for double that. Fligh Sim X (ten) sold for even more.
It seems that the role playing games dominates sales for PC games.
In the USA, the console games are outselling PC games.

This may be cruel, but what percentage of NR2003 racers have jobs?

If you look at the developments in the early nineties - F1GP, ICR,
Nascar, ICR2, GP2 etc. the improvements with each title were great,
rendering previous titles obsolete (providing you had the hardware to
run them). Major physics changes, move from VGA to SVGA, sound card
development (the first Soundblasters over Adlib cards!), move to
accelerated graphics cards (Rendition, 3dfx etc.) plus a major leap in
processing power.

I do agree with the splitting of the field though, to grow sim racing it
needs to move out of its niche grouping. The answer probably lies with
better organisation and a more outward facing approach. Which would
appear to be the way we are heading in 2007.

In 1999 I believe it only seemed to be flourishing because the
relatively few sim racers were all in VROC together!

Cheers
Tony

On Dec 19, 3:07 am, Tony Rickard

.
.

Therein lies the problem. The niche group (us) wants dead on balls
accurate physics to simulate the car in question. The far larger market
of potential driving enthusiasts wants "fun" without the high learning
curve. Take for example, the "modern" GPL demo. If that was available
as a full product at retail, all tracks, cars, sounds, etc. updated to
the present level, it would still be a flop, sales wise anyway. There
are so few ppl. who will spend the time required to learn to sim drive
a car, despite the sensational eye candy and long term enjoyment from
taming any of the 1967 GP cars.

I suppose Simbin/Blimey attempted to bridge that gap with the
multilevel physics options for GTR and GTL (amateur, semi-pro & Pro),
but I have no idea how well they did with sales. NASCAR (and perhaps
F1) would be the logical choices to attract the broadest market, but
both licenses are tied up with companies who are satisfied with the
sales from the initial release and not a long term approach, like Papy
did with the NRxxxx series. They (Papy) continually added to the
product over the life of the sim and made it better each time. EA puts
out a ***NASCAR title (I refuse to call it a sim) and then abandons
it. There hasn't been a F1 title in 6 years, IIRC due to Sony.