rec.autos.simulators

it's always interesting to here the views of guys who've seen the later
versions after the demo.

Have they kept that letterbox, non-full-screen view in the product and
if they have, do you get used to it eventually.

I've just started with the demo and I find the letterbox and the huge
visible***pit really irritating. What's your view ?

Andy

l8er
ronny

--
Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure,
kiddo?"

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

The Letterbox is and will stay for the final product.  There is several
reasons for that..

Think about a non-letterbox GPL.  Take all of your screen and put it at the
bottom.  Now take the black part at the bottom and add it to the top.  What
is left ? Sky... only sky. Nothing but sky. Who cares, take that out and
increase the framerate.  The letterbox makes the game a little bit
"historical", thus being a 1967 simulator.  Finally, all of the previous
Papyrus titles have this "letterbox", it's just not apparent.

Nascar1 and 2 have the***pit.  The actual screen in Nascar2 is very
little, around 35% of the screensize. Icr1 and Icr2.. well (non-rendition)
it's plain blue sky.

Finally, letterbox makes our peripherical view better IMHO, since we do not
focus on anything under or above us, somehow (and it will be usefull when
you press ESC, you will see in the final version what Im talking about...).

The huge***pit is how they saw in those days. It's a simulation, remember
?

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard, (-o-)
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Member of the r.a.s. Ego-maniac club
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Excuse me for being provocative (I'm dumb speaking)
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

    GPL spoils you on everything else.  =)

Cheers!

Marc

* No animals were harmed in the making of this e-mail *

Seriously though, if modern day F1 is what you want to drive then of
course GPL can't slake that thirst (although who knows what TSP can do
with it). However, if you talk simply about "driving" then nothing
else comes close. Believe me, I spent a long time with F1RS and
enjoyed it a lot, just as I did with ICR1, GP1, ICR2 and GP2 before
it, but the last time I loaded F1RS was the day I got GPL - honestly.

F1RS and GP2 are good, but they are simply "racing by numbers" -
here's the 100m board - brake. Into second, ease gas, etc. GPL
transcends that to really give you the dynamic of the car, part of
this is the game engine and part of it is just the era it represents.
In GP2 or F1RS your margin for outbraking someone is minimal due to
the short stopping distances. In GPL you have quite a lot of latitude
and can go VERY deep into a corner, but you have to really fight to
hold the car afterwards. So too with downshifting, the timing of which
can either help or hinder your braking depending upon your skill,
again just like real life. There's much more I could describe, but NDA
forbids it for now and it's all just words anyway. All will be
discussed ad nauseam when it is released I'm sure :-)

I agree F1RS is probably best for modern day F1....probably. GP2 wins
out in some departments and IMO it's far from cut and dried. For pure
racing and for driving fun and realism GPL stomps everything into
little pieces and then drives over them - twice. ;-)

Cheers!
John

I think you will really need to wait and drive the finish product before making a
statement like that.  Although I have never played F1RS, I know John probably has
and from his perspective, you can't even compare the two.

The joy of sliding a wingless car through the turns just can't be had in modern
racing simulations.

Like I said.  I have not played F1RS so I'm not knocking it.

--
Brian Tate
BTate80    on TEN
Assist LA for THOMAS ENTERPRISES HAWAII ACE LEAGUE  http://dithots.org

    And I usually find wing settings one of the easiest componets to
understand the effects of on in a setup! (It looks like it will be a
definate "suspension learning experinece" with GPL).  These cars must of
been some beasts to drive!  You really earned the title World Champion
back then.  (They should have recieved some sort of medal for even racing
the 'Ring alone!).  I wonder how much practice time they were allowed
before the race to learn it! (to go fast you'd have to have it memorized
pretty good to know what was around the next corner, we'll have no
problems with this I'am sure!)  Speaking of the 'Ring, that track is
going to be hard to get the right setup for the car so it runs well
around the whole track.  Wiht all of those turns (174?) I guess our
setups will amount to a "happy balance".

Later,
John

snipped comments I fully agree with

This is actually, what I wanted to express. Reference sim for modern F1
is F1RS, reference sim for historic F1 is GPL. Of course, GPL has a much
(MUCH) more sophisticated physics engine than any sim (for home use)
ever
had. I just got the impression, that one could not enjoy F1RS after
racing
GPL. This would be like loosing interest in CART2 because of the much
better physics in F1RS.

This will be the case for me, too. But after some heavy driving (or
flying?) the GPL cars I know, I will miss darting through Hungaroring
in my new Ferrari... ;^)

l8er
ronny

--
How to get rid of censorship in German game releases
<http://www.gamesmania.com/german/maniac/freedom/freedom.htm>

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

If GPL has the "great physics" then the driving experience provided in
F1RS can hardly be realistic, eh?

Cheers mate!

I didn't stop playing N2 just because F1RS came out with much better
physics... I LOVE Nascar racing! Phew, did I make myself clear now? ;^)

l8er
ronny

--
How to get rid of censorship in German game releases
<http://www.gamesmania.com/german/maniac/freedom/freedom.htm>

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

Oh, no, I didn't mean to imply that at all - I said it as a statement
of fact ;-)  (In my case at least, YMMV).

It's a bit like driving a BMW M3 Evo on a racetrack and then driving
your own BMW 318iS home afterwards - you can still have fun in the
318iS, but it's just not the same....

Oh I don't know - darting around Monaco in a Ferrari is rather fun in
GPL - watch out for those lamposts...!

Cheers!
John

R:

You almost enjoy it as much. When I state the other racing games I mean in a
definate multiplayer enviroment. GPL will have it's day in the sun but I'm
in no hurry.

BH

l8er
ronny

--
How to get rid of censorship in German game releases
<http://www.gamesmania.com/german/maniac/freedom/freedom.htm>

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!