rec.autos.simulators

1. Is there a way to play a group of people in NASCAR2 without paying
costs(aka TEN)? If so, how ? I would really like to do this, but dont
want to pay to play...

2. I want to know a place to get Daytona, Texas, California, Etc for
NASCAR2. Please tell me a place(with good quality tracks) where it will
download straight into the game with me having to mess with setting it
up(dont know how).

                                 Thanks,

                                 BGNFan

There is no Daytona for N2, contrary to what you may have seen elsewhere. As
far as Texas, Cal, etc., fork over the money and get the GNSEP...anything
else is not authorized by the track or NASCAR, and is therefore piracy of a
sort.

One of the most popular servers is "Where to Race", where you can hook
up with others using SODA, F1RS, N2, MTM, and just about any other race
title (that supports IPX/SPX - TCP/IP).

Cheers!

L8BRKR

--
Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing News - http://www.simnews.com

<remove '_*_' before replying>

http://www.zone.com

They do, however, make you use IE3+

Cheers!

Marc

--

(please remove '_*_' when replying)

Sim Racing News - http://www.simnews.com
The Sim Project - http://www.simproject.com

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

On Tue, 10 Mar 1998 16:15:20 -0800, "Marc J. Nelson"

Does CART-PS support free internet racing? Or any other simulator
package support free internet?

Mike

TIA,
John Wehman

----------------------
to reply via emial,
remove the DIE_SPAM_
from my email address

Cheers,
Richard

I was answering the question in the context of available "services," and
thus my comments were "true."  =)

Cheers!

Marc

<remove '_*_' before replying>

net.com says...

How does expensive, dedicated hardware help the performance of
racing sims?  Most of the latency you experience is from the
modems (yours and your provider), that is if you are still using
modems.  The other bug-a-boo of online ***, packet dropout, is
more of a provider or internet usage issue.

I've played Quake on TEN before, it was ***y awful.  Very poor
performance, stuttering, etc.  If you use the standard QuakeWorld
software and one of the hundreds of dedicated public servers,
however, you can get a very good *** experience.  What's the
difference?  QuakeWorld uses very good prediction models, while
the standard Quake through TEN did not.  The software makes a BIG
difference.

A racing sim should benefit from good packet prediction even MORE
than an arcade game like Quake.  While a NASCAR racer moves very
fast, it moves in predictable patterns.  The car cannot spin
around in a circle and fire a rocket, like the player does in
Quake.

Before Quake and Quakeworld, I never knew how fun online ***
could be.  I used Kali and other programs before, but I was
frustrated with the difficulty in getting a good connection and
the internet artifacts in the game.

With QW, however, good games are easy to find through the
excellent programming of id software.  With their software, I've
had many, many hours of great entertainment, all without any
additional expenses except my regular IP connect fees.  I always
make sure I support id software's products because their software
has excellent replay value because of the 'net support.

So, what about NASCAR?  A preview of Grand Prix Legends mentioned
that the game had a fairly advanced networking, complete with
packet prediction.  Since this is the same engine that will be
used for N3, they may be hope in the future for fun, free NASCAR
racing through the 'net.

--
Douglas Bollinger            
Mt. Holly Springs, PA                                              

Egghead: What Mrs. Dumpty gives Humpty when he's a good boy.

 ?? Can you explain this procedure...I'm sorry, I figured myself to be
pretty

Actually, using IRC has nothing to do with the online process, except that
it is a place to meet in order to set things up and exchange IP addresses.
This can readily be done with any other type of chat program or a program
like ICQ.

Alanb

OK, we can argue over whether 'expensive, dedicated hardware' is required
or not. The options are the Quake scenario whereby lots of independent
servers, run pretty much on a piecemeal basis are loosely connected or
the TEN one where a commercial service attempts to provide a homogenous
collection of servers, each capable of supporting rather more
participants than a single Quake server. The former is cheap but it does
not lend itself to officially sanctioned competition where a higher level
of control is required.

'Predictable' only up to a point - as some of the drivers on TEN
demonstrate ;-)

Let's not forget that the consequences of something even slightly
unpredictable in a racing sim is significantly more serious than in a
game like Quake. Crashing out of the race is ever so slightly more
serious than getting fragged ;-)

Again, this is why you need servers to run the game on. Kali relies on
one of the participants PCs - a big drain on the PC's resources, unequal
lag if running with AI and large player to player latencies compared to
player - server ones.

It should support up to 8 players via TCP/IP. BUT it will still suffer
the same latency / resource problems associated with Kali or hosting
Quake on one of the players' PCs. And by then, maybe TEN will be
supporting 30+ drivers in a near warp free situation. Unless they*** it
up, TEN will *still* be better value <g>

Cheers,
Richard