rec.autos.simulators

thanks!

tom

--
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

--

Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief
Gamer's Alliance Sports
www.ga-sports.com
---------------------------------
Gamer's Alliance, Inc
Sports Network Coordinator
www.gagames.com
--------------------------------
"I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

Tom's interest is clearly in GPL and, with that in mind, a TNT board is
DEFINITELY NOT the way to go. And that's not just MHO.

The difference in the drivability and enjoyment one realizes from GPL when
using a TNT card rather than a 3Dfx or Rendition card is profound! Having
owned both cards, I've experienced this first hand. For example, on my
P2-450, I typically see 24-28 fps on a full-field starting grid with the
Banshee. The frame rate quickly reaches the optimum 36 fps, as the field
strings out. On the same machine with comparable graphics settings, a TNT
card, under best case conditions, NEVER exceeds the frame rate achieved by
the Banshee under worst case conditions. The TNT card achieves no more than
15-17 fps on the grid. That's hardly drivable at all and is far from
allowing one to drive at the limit of his or her ability. As you surely must
know, frame rate has a tremendous impact on GPL drivability.

My irritation stems from the ever-increasing frequency of "journalists" in
technical arenas offering advice, guidance, opinions, and recommendations
that is, at best, misleading, and frequently simply dead wrong. Had you
followed the posts in this newsgroup more closely, read the original post
more carefully, and used both cards with GPL, I can't imagine how you could
recommend a TNT card to someone interested in Papy sims! You should realize
that, since you choose to carry your "Editor-In-Chief" title with you into
newsgroups, your posts tend to carry a little more weight, at least with
newcomers.

GPL is an immensely challenging and entertaining sim that deserves to be
enjoyed by as many people as possible. To make such a recommendation to a
newcomer deprives him, and potentially many more like him, of the
opportunity to enjoy this cutting-edge sim. In my opinion, such a
recommendation is, being in your position of perceived authority, reckless
and irresponsible.

My advice is that you modify your signature by dropping the
"Editor-In-Chief" and just go with:

"I'm not a technical expert, I'm a journalist." - Tony Wyss

Some specs of the Leadteck Winfast 3D S320 II ( a tnt2) , from my
local pc magazine (this info its not on riva site, they dont want you
to know a new chip is due next month)

RIVA TNT2 128 bit 3D/2D Accelerator
5M Triangles/sec (Peak)
250M Pixels/sec (Peak)
AGP 4X/2X  Support
250MHz RAM DAC
Refresh rate up to 240 MHz
Optimized for Katmai CPU
Digital Flat Panel Interface w/ Scaling and Centering (Option)
NTSC/PAL TV output support
16/32MB, 166MHz SDRAM on Board
Support DirectX6 & OpenGL ICD

Ok I was gonna but a new system just at the start of Feb but because
of seeing this ad I am in the PC  world  *** , wait for next product
:) .
Another factor was that a TNT with GPL+the opengl patch basically all
ppl say it sucks big time.

support the damn 36 fps at 800x600 at the least.
I am waiting also to jump on the glide bandwagon , but since a TNT is
in some cases superior that 2 voodooII in sli mode. And since VodooIII
is going to give you the same performance as 2 VoodooII in SLI (and
still 16 MB maximum ram on board, and the 16 bit textures that 3dfx
loves). You know what  the TNT2 is going to do to VoodooIII, a HULK
SMASH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really hope that in 2 months the papy team has put its act together
regarding the ppl who wants to buy the superior systems and no some
kiddy 3dfx crap. Full OPEN 3d API support NOW!!!!!!!!

Regards.

? The Null-A (TM) Corporation 1999 All Rights Reserved.

--

Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief
Gamer's Alliance Sports
www.ga-sports.com
---------------------------------
Gamer's Alliance, Inc
Sports Network Coordinator
www.gagames.com
--------------------------------
"I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

Nothing personal intended, Tony. It's just that if you insist on carrying
"Editor-In-Chief" around with you, it's incumbent on you, and all
journalists, to be careful and considered before rendering opinions. One
final bit of advice: Referring to yourself as "someone in my position" is
rather megalomaniacal and distasteful, though it does have some redeeming
comical value. Take care.

Cheers,

--

Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief
Gamer's Alliance Sports
www.ga-sports.com
---------------------------------
Gamer's Alliance, Inc
Sports Network Coordinator
www.gagames.com
--------------------------------
"I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

Exactly! Now have a good day!

Cheers to you.

  What video card gives the best results
with this chip?

Looking at the original post now I would guess he's asking about the video
card in GPL but that had to be implied. Am I some sort of *** like you
suggest I am for telling him TNT? I hope not. Sorry to all that were
offended, I guess. If you read his question you can understand why I said
that. As for you saying I'm not an authority, that is your opinion sir, I
was only trying to be of help in the first place.

Regards,

--

Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief
Gamer's Alliance Sports
www.ga-sports.com
---------------------------------
Gamer's Alliance, Inc
Sports Network Coordinator
www.gagames.com
--------------------------------
"I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

It's in the mirrors- Nvidia's openGL driver doesn't accelerate them.  
If you add the line:

MirrorsEvery = 8

to your core.ini, then the TNT will perform well, with laggy mirrors
of course.  I get slightly lower fps than you in the starting grid,
but quickly peg-out at 36 fps during an actual race.

If GPL was the only game one would play, then a Voodoo 2 would be a
good choice.  The Voodoo is getting to be old technology, however,
and upcoming games will really start to show this.  My main game is
Quake2, and I'm quite happy with my TNT for this.  Quake3 will show
an even larger disparity between TNT and Voodoo technology.

Anyway, video boards are a semi-religious topic on USENET and I
hardly want to continue this thread.  I just wanted to make it clear
that a TNT is quite usable with GPL, even thought it's not the
optimum choice.

--
Douglas Bollinger
Mt. Holly Springs, PA   17065

Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.

And on a celeron 450 with a rendition 8meg I get 30+ on the grid and 36 by 2nd
gear.

For sure, fyi I get mid 20's grid and 36+ by the first turn at 374 cpu
speed.With a thriller 8 meg and all graphics and all ai cars.

Especially when Papy writes their code optimized for the rendition chip!Of
course the original post asked which video card worked best with a
celeron cpu with the GPL reference only implied. In fact the post was
more in reference to overclocked celerons.

Ditto.

All papy sims to date have been written for rendition chips, so If GPL and N2
etc are your priority then get a thriller 8 meg. If however you also run games
that support a 3dfx then it is probably a better choice overall. The tnt is a
great chip but until somebody sorts out the driver problems and support issues
it is questionable for certain apps including GPL.
I am certainly no tech genius but the previous info is fact according to many
sources.
JM
ps: as for overclocked celerons! they kick ...