rec.autos.simulators

If you are not familiar with this, check http://www.racesimcentral.net/
in
a suburb of Chicago, and do modem racing with N2 (Now it will be
NR1999) with a friend. He heard about the Nascar Silicon Motor Speedway
at the Woodfield mall (about 20-25 miles away). So last thursday we took
a day of vacation (we work at the same place) and went to check it out.

This speedway is a computer simulation/game where up to 20 human
drivers can race around C***te or Richmond. The game engine is
based on the 3dfx chipset, and the game was written by people in their
head quarters (not papy :-). There are 20 different cars you can drive.
Each one is suspended by cables and hydraulics and give a very realistic
Forcefeedback effect (I ended up with a bruise on my back). Each car
is painted like the real thing, and all are representations of their real
Winston Cup counterparts (I drove Dale's #3 the whole day). Each car
has 2 seats, a switch to start the engines, a real gear shifter and a
clutch.
The cars are metal and the tires look like real Nascar rims and tires.
The driving model is so good that you only need the clutch for 1st
gear. Also I stalled on a banked turn and put in the clutch, shifted to 1st
and popped the clutch as I started to roll down hill. The engine started
without throwing the switch :-) The default track is C***te and you can
run Richmond on Wednesdays if you qualify. To qualify, you need to do
better than 30.5 secs per lap at C***te. My buddy & I qualified for
Richmond on our first race :-) The cost is $8.50 for a 12 lap race. You can
get a dollar off each race if you become a member. Membership cost $5
so it is worth it IMHO. It is interesting to note that many of the Nascar
drivers
are on the board of directors of this company (or something like that).
The ForceFeedback effects are so strong that it really takes about 30
minutes to recover after each race (until you become adjusted to it).

The racing itself was great fun. The sensation of speed was 100x better
than any computer game. I'll probably go back at some point, but if
you live near one of these places, it is definitely work checking out.
They even have leagues!

--
Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

Greg,

I heard there is one in phoenix Arizona. I might just drive 4 hrs just too
go play this. I live in southern Ca and it does sound like fun!

Mike

Greg,

Scratch that!! Its just down the road..Iam off to Irvine tomorow!!

Mike

Now if they'll just build one here in NASCAR Country....

I can see one somewhere near the real C***te Motor Speedway with some of
the rabid folks we have here, they'd make a fortune!

--
Ken

Go #43 and #44

"If I went 'round claiming I was Emperor because some
 moistened bink lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away" - Peasant

volksy (at) geocities (dot) com
volksy (at) yahoo (dot) com

  I've stopped by the SMS in Woodfield as well.  I didn't drive, but I
watched for quite a while.  Everything looked pretty good.  Except for one
thing.  Why on Earth do the cars lean to the right when they're on the
banking?   Is it a visual effect for the driver?  From outside the cars,
it's totally oposite the way it should be.

-Bill

--
Bill Mette      | "A person is smart.  People are dumb."
MCSNet, Chicago |                        - K MiB

In real life, when you are turning left, inertia is
pulling your body to the right, and you are stuck
against the right side of the car.

In an SMS car, of course, you aren't really moving
at all.  To simulate the inertial forces pulling
you to the right during a left turn, the car has
to lean to the right and let gravity pull you down.

While it looks odd to an outside viewer, the
driver's internal coordinate system is tuned into
the inside of the car and what is seen on the
screen.  The driver will "feel" like he is
leaning to the left, because he sees the left-
hand banking of the track.

--
Pat Dotson
IMPACT Motorsports
http://www.impactmotorsports.com/pd.html

Hi Bill,
    It's not a visual they're after, rather a G-Force feedback that is being
simulated here. Imagine making a hard left turn in your car, your body tries
to slide to the right, with whatever force pushing back & "IN" on your right
side. At first at Silicon Speedway, I felt that the hydraulic car-FF was
over exaggerated, but as I got better & smoother the FF got less choppy &
started to be of some value to my senses. Still didn't qualify for the 3DFX
Cup though :-(, had good enough times in solo Hot-Laps, but not with other
traffic around :-( You think pick-up races on TEN are bad :-0!?!
Happy Lappin',
Wade Tschida

I would think to simulate G-forces on the right side of the body?

-Larry

  Thanks for the replies all.  As usual, the technogeek in me was thinking
more about what the car should be experiencing instead of the driver.

-Bill
--
Bill Mette      | "A person is smart.  People are dumb."
MCSNet, Chicago |                        - K MiB