rec.autos.simulators

Honestly I would prefer that Nascar 3 stays light on the flashy garphics
this way we will not need a god like system to run the game with the
detailed Grand Prix Legends physics model.  I feel that EA felt that
people will buy a game for the graphics and be able to s***together a
physics model that just ain't realistic.  By the way does anyone know if
Nascar 3 will require a 3d card.

Thank Y'all,

Patrick Shumar

Yes Nascar3  will only support Hardware 3D acceleration..  This means you
will need a 3dfx or Nvidia Riva TNT/TNT2 card.

Cowen

Actually, any card that supports Open GL should do...

Nascar 3 is hardware only.  I read it will support openGL (yay!!!) and
possibly Direct3D.

Brian Short

To bad its the other way around. :)  Its the physics system and especially
the multiple AI each running their own physics system that increases the
system resources needed to run the game.  If GPL requires a 3D card, you can
bet N3 will.  Hopefully by the time N3 ships they will have optimized a lot
of the features of GPL, added more than just the Rendition and Glide
renderers (so OpenGL would be out of beta...but OpenGL is rather pointless
as they game won't be ported, so it would be better to write (although not
as easy) a good D3D renderer since most cards like the Rage Fury, TNT, etc
do a better job of D3D than OpenGL) and other changes.

Flashy graphics are easy and cheap with 3D cards.  Very detailed floating
point (as opposed to fixed precision) multiple bodied physics are fairly
expensive. :)

On Thu, 18 Feb 1999 08:39:03 -0600, "Chris Schletter"

Then what we need now is a "3D physics accelerator"?

A. Renault

hehe :)

: On Thu, 18 Feb 1999 08:39:03 -0600, "Chris Schletter"
:>Flashy graphics are easy and cheap with 3D cards.  Very detailed floating
:>point (as opposed to fixed precision) multiple bodied physics are fairly
:>expensive. :)

: Then what we need now is a "3D physics accelerator"?

Aren't those things about 6km in diameter and built underground?  I doubt
you would want to go to all the trouble just for a game... :)

Stephen

Sure...its called FPU, the floating point unit, of the CPU. :?

So yeah, we basically just need a faster processor. ;)

We've got them already, they're called FPU's.

Trips

On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 09:35:43 -0600, "Chris Schletter"

It was first intended as a joke, but now I'm beginning to wonder if
this could really be done...  Just imagine, a separate processor that
would do all physics calculations...  You just tell it the dimension,
shape, weight distribution and all other important parameters, then
you tell it what is the current direction of each object in relation
to each other and what forces are applied...  You could set gravity as
a constant, so it'd take it into account every time it calculates
something...

This could be applied to several types of games:  flight sims, driving
sims, sport sims, and even in arcade games...  Boy I'm pushing this a
little bit...  Woooh...

Anyway, If it's still possible to take load off the CPU, I wish one of
these'd be made soon...  Remember what 3D graphics accelerators
changed to games graphics, now imagine what physics accelerators could
do for sims...

Ok I'm dreaming out loud here, but what the h... <G>

A. Renault