rec.autos.simulators

Anyone else notice blind spots in the new mirrors?

Yea, there is a blind spot in the mirror.  It was a trade-off we had to
make.  Basically, you could have this blind spot, and get a good idea how
close cars are racing beside you (they'll appear larger in the mirror).
The other way, the cars would have that "closer than they appear" look.
Through testing, we realized that would not really work well.  You could
never know "how close" the car beside you was.  

Adam
Papyrus

I knew there was going to be some controversy over the mirrors.

Here's the deal on the mirrors:

The rear view mirror gives you a view of what's directly behind you. When a
car moves outside to the left or right of you, you can't see it anymore.

The side view mirrors give you a view of what's directly alongside you. It
starts from approximately the front of the car and goes back to the C post
(the point where the rearmost roof pillar meets the body). When a car is to
the rear of the C post, you can't see it anymore.

This leaves a blind spot in the rear quarter panel area on both sides. The
spotter does a pretty good job at telling you when a car is alongside, but
you have to use your "situational awareness" as well. If you see a car in
your rear view suddenly move left and drop out of sight, you have to assume
that he has a fender alongside. Wait a second or two and see if the spotter
calls "Car low". If not, it's probably safe to move down.

The best way to figure out what is going on is to pull alongside a car in
the pits. Then you can switch between the arcade views and the inside view
to get a feel for where the car is in relation to your car.

I think, after you get used to them, you'll find the new mirrors a
significant improvement over the old ones. You can actually tell how close
you are to another car in the side view mirrors. This will help promote
safer side by side racing in the NRO.

Dave (davids) Sparks
Late Night League
http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

yes but the spotter helps you out when they are in the
blind spot

Now all we need to do is teach the AI how to pass more aggressively.
Bill.

I think the new mirrors will take some getting use to but they are more
realistic than before if you looking in your reatview mirror and a car ther
is alot more blind spots then there this is in the game.I do have one
little problem though the Spotter he is wrong on when you clear are
sometimes.

Robert

I just got a copy last night, and the rearview mirror looks
WAY different than in Ncar1.  I can only see out of about
the BOTTOM HALF of the mirror, the top half is black.  If
Papy hadn't added the spotter, I'd be crashing all over.
Anyone else noticing that?  The mirror is nearly useless,
you can't tell WHO it is behind you?  I can't anyway.  I
have a 17" monitor, running in 640x480 SVGA, S3 Virge
chip....

The game is AWESOME though, great job!!  Papy made GREAT
STRIDES in upgrading this game, superb!  I wish the
speedometer didn't go away, and pit board on every lap, but
I can deal with that, the graphics are great, the racing is
much more realistic, absolutely TERIFFIC!  The spotter is
the touch d'jour!, biggest improvement.

-=mc

in the mirror).
<<snip-snip>>

Here's my comments.  I found the spotter to be superb in its
implementation so I found myself not using the side sections of the
mirror.  If you could select a one-piece mirror with only a rear view
that had a wider view things would work better.

Question: I noticed that the manual says that the mirror is NASCAR
approved.  Does this mean that NASCAR approved how it worked in reality
or how it should work?

If the mirror is not going to change, then the spotter needs to be more
intelligent about notifying the driver when a car is in the blind spot
and is attempting to pass.  The driver needs to know this before the
other car gets under him.

Thanks,

David Martin

----- repost -----

I knew there was going to be some controversy over the mirrors.

Here's the deal on the mirrors:

The rear view mirror gives you a view of what's directly behind you. When a
car moves outside to the left or right of you, you can't see it anymore.

The side view mirrors give you a view of what's directly alongside you. It
starts from approximately the front of the car and goes back to the C post
(the point where the rearmost roof pillar meets the body). When a car is to
the rear of the C post, you can't see it anymore.

This leaves a blind spot in the rear quarter panel area on both sides. The
spotter does a pretty good job at telling you when a car is alongside, but
you have to use your "situational awareness" as well. If you see a car in
your rear view suddenly move left and drop out of sight, you have to assume
that he has a fender alongside. Wait a second or two and see if the spotter
calls "Car low". If not, it's probably safe to move down.

The best way to figure out what is going on is to pull alongside a car in
the pits. Then you can switch between the arcade views and the inside view
to get a feel for where the car is in relation to your car.

I think, after you get used to them, you'll find the new mirrors a
significant improvement over the old ones. You can actually tell how close
you are to another car in the side view mirrors. This will help promote
safer side by side racing in the NRO.

Dave (davids) Sparks
Late Night League
http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

I can't verify if this adjustability made it into the shipping code as I
don't have a copy at home yet, because we haven't gotten our office
copies yet. (Perhaps that will be of slight solace to the pre-order
folks...)

Besides the already mentioned blind spots, has anybody notices that
cars in the rear-view mirror are actually MIRROR IMAGE?
(Well, in the side-view mirrors, anyway)

Good job Papyrus!