rec.autos.simulators

Is the game from Motorsports Simulation going to have force feedback?

Is it D3D, OpenGL or Glide? Or combos there of?

Will it be 3D accelerated only?

Please tell me the game will have 'ZERO nada none no' popup with max
detail engaged?

I'm confused about the online version be downloadable. Is it going to be
like Warbirds where the game is free but to play online it will cost a
said fee?

Will the game have  a 'garage' section similar to Motocross Madness or
more like Burnout?

How true will the off track physics be? i.e. in the grass, gravel, etc

Will this be the first game that gets the 'wheelies' done right? :)

How did you manage to get permission from all those tracks, riders, and
the AMA themselves to include them in your game?

What are the other race tracks you plan on including in your AMA full
product(s)?

I see no obvious 'chase view' in any of the screenshots?

thanks for your reply in advance
Destroy

We are planning to implement force feedback for sticks and wheels.

The game was originally developed using OpenGL but we moved over
to D3D some time ago. We have the ability to support card-specific
rendering like Glide too.

Yes. There is no software renderer.

Well, this depends on your computer, but that is our goal.

The online version will be available for free download (similar to WB).
All other aspects of our pricing are not yet announced :)

Hmm, not sure we'll have nitro & clutch stages (!) but it is certainly
more of a detailed (motorcycle) simulation rather than an "arcade game".

We will support many surface types other than the racing track asphalt.

You'll have to tell us that :) I'll let Matt answer this more fully
if he's around later!

I'll have to refer you to our press releases on our web page. They contain
all the***details! New information is posted every so often, so check
back if you're interested.

We're not yet ready to announce which exact tracks are going to be in
the game, but there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10.

We have a chase view, but those shots on the web page are of an
early alpha. We didn't necessarily get a shot of all our neat
camera views up on the web page :)

Hope it helped! BTW - haven't I seen you posting on the yahoo
amasuperbike club page? Your handle rings a bell...

--
Cheers,
Stephen

Stephen Wilkinson               "Programming is like Pinball.
VP of Development                The reward for doing it well is
Motorsport Simulations Inc.      the opportunity to do it again."

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

We hope to have interesting controllable wheelies.

It's not really very hard to get the model to wheelie...
the challenge is controlling it on a PC!
Right now, I usually have the torque capped on my test
setup so I can't wheelie. ;)  

I have a combined throttle/brake analog on my desk right now.
When the front wheel comes up I tend to drop the throttle too
far trying to put the wheel back down too quickly.
When I move it too far like this and dip into the braking
part of the combined analog axis I slow the front wheel and
lose it's gyro effect. So not only am I out of control in
pitch, but laterally as well! ;)  (I have my controls setup
to combine front and rear braking torque commands from a
single analog half axis, sort of like a car's "brake balance".)  

Some of my wheelie trouble is probably "rider error"
on my part... I expect I'm letting the wheel come up at
too slow a speed where the bike is less controllable.

Anyway, just an example to show that it will probably
take some practice (and "due care and caution" at first! :)  
to get around all the limitations of the PC controller
interface for the most complex of our riding models.
Riders will probably also want to experiment to decide
what control signals they prefer hooked up to the
analog inputs. Motorcycles have an awful lot of
controls on them that would benefit from analog
control.  (I'm looking forward eagerly to the
possibilities for more than 4 analogs with
USB technology, though I'm not sure whether I
personally have enough coordination to use
more than 4! :)

One of the things I'm concentrating on right now is
adding "Compensator" algorithms that will
automatically make small adjustments of the steering
and rider body positions (in addition to the player
input commands) to mimic an experienced rider's
instinctive control of the bike. This will be used
where the complex model is less stable than it
should be, and also be used heavily as "Rider Aids"
in the easier driving models, and with controller
setups with fewer analog signals.

--
Matthew V. Jessick         Motorsport Simulations

Vehicle Dynamics Engineer  (972)910-8866, Fax: (972)910-8216

"Just don't scare away the novice gamer by not including enough help
so that they can gradually increase the difficulty settings and really
appreciate the complexity of the more  true-to-life motorcycle
simulation we've ever experienced (this is my wish anyway...)!"

Now that's more like it!
;o)

A. Renault

My interest in this area comes from my experience with
the "Training Staff" for the WarBirds (TM) large scale
online flight sim. As a veteran player, I teach new
players basic skills and more advanced tactics online
each week. I deal with new people all the way from the
"Fly East? Compass? Huh?" ;) level to advanced stuff.
I find that the newer players can be more
in tune with the "sense of wonder" and the fun of
learning a new sport than we "old-timers" are
sometimes, and want lots of them around for that
reason (as well as the usual business reasons! :)

--
Matthew V. Jessick         Motorsport Simulations

Vehicle Dynamics Engineer  (972)910-8866, Fax: (972)910-8216

Warbirds callsign: =para=

A lot of thought has gone into what assistance features are needed to learn
to drive the bike versus what features are needed to make the game playable
on most computers versus what features we will absolutely turn off during
actual races. In most cases, when it comes to driveability and playability,
we try not to remove elements of the simulation - opting instead to make
them more manageable.

Basically, it's got to be hard enough that you want to spend an evening in
practice shaving a half second off your time. But not so damn hard you know
you'll never be able to get your time down.

    -MSM

--
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark S. Miller                       "Be regular and orderly in your life,
Director of Design                    that you may be *** and original
Motorsport Simulations, Inc.          in your work."

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

<SNIP>

An evening to shave off have a second?  I'll spend a week to shave off a
1/10th of a second.

Eric Franzen

So, you havn't seen a works corsa Ducati then...

/Bj.O.rn

[snip]

We are supporting analog gauges, but not at the time those screenshots
were made :) You're right in that the one pictured in the shots is a
temporary
dash, however, quite a few of the competition superbikes have various
forms of digital (LCD/LED) readouts in the***pit. We will be supporting
both types of guages.

Hehe - we'll certainly do our best!

Cheers,
Stephen

Stephen Wilkinson               "Programming is like Pinball.
VP of Development                The reward for doing it well is
Motorsport Simulations Inc.      the opportunity to do it again."

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

The Milestone/VIE (now EA) superbike game replicates this dash quite nice
:-) So, when will they release it.... ***y hell, I saw the demo in
Ducati's personell restaurant in june, during the World Ducati Weekend....
And yes, I have the demo... :-)

Bj.O.rn, Ducati '98 900 SSie