rec.autos.simulators

1:  How come my best setup off line can't keep up with ANYONE online?  I get
out there and guys fly past me.... turn sideways hit the wall ahead of me and
go on as if nothing happened.

OK so I'm using a joystick...is everyone out there using some kind of wheel?
Would a wheel make THAT MUCH difference.  

2: On the "list of available races" screen I understand the "players column" to
indicate how many of the available slots are in use.  But what about the other
columns?  Here is what I think they mean...please tell me if I am correct.
D=damage (realistic or arcade)???
Y=yellow flags enabled
P=pace lap???
F=fixed setup???
M=haven't got a clue!!!
%=no brainer...percent of regular race
Ping=no idea

The book doesn't give up much info on connections.

3: What about "address book" what's it's function???

4: What EXACTLY does "clock zapped" mean?

I swear I'm not as stupid as it looks but if Pappy would elaborate in the
manual I wouldn't have to look like a dope!

Thanks.....

(Don't use NO***in E-mail)

You think in the storm we've found the eye of the calm.....Bill Mallonnee,
Vigilantes Of Love

Warping can be very bad though. I have been leading the field
and all of a sudden I am magically in 4th place. This kind of thing
makes me wonder if we are really racing each other or just
fooling ourselves.

--

Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

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

I've found that, 1. Braking help must be off, and 2. Set-ups are
important.  After much tweaking I've found cars that are somewhat
competitive.  Also, the fact that I've done much better in the fixed
set-up races leads me to conclude that set-up are at least as much to
blame as my driving inexperience.

--
Jim

There are alot of fast drivers using joysticks, but most opt to use a
wheel

D=realistic A=arcade

correct

correct

correct

driving mode
A=arcade

You can use IP address' to connect directly to a race host
(ie:204.32.456)

Doug Bishop wrote ...
yes

yes

yes

yes

I think this is the simulation mode, "A" for Arcard and blank for Realistic

right on

A measurement of the speed of your connection.  I think it's actually the
number of miliseconds it takes for a signal to go from your PC to the server
and back.  High numbers mean high warp, basically your PC is spending most
of the time guessing where the other cars are until they send a signal to
the server and then the server sends it to you.  Your PC instantly corrects
their position and they appear to be jumping all over the place.  Anything
over 300 is too hard for me to have fun with, under 200 will give you a
fairly good race, under 100 will be almost like you're at the track.  I just
checked the Alpha arena here, and had 9 races with pings from 72-190, one
with 345, and one that just said "bad!"  I'll pick one of the under-100
races if I'm racing.

The internet races are hosted on servers set aside just for that purpose.
But anyone with sufficient connection speed can host a race of their own on
their own PC using a TCP/IP connection.  Those have specific internet-type
addresses in the format 255.255.255.255:17710 or something like that.  If
you know someone hosting races, you can put their address in N3's "address
book" and connect to their races directly instead of in an internet arena.
Much more stable connection, from what I've seen.

The actual race is being run on the server's copy of N3, while you're seeing
the race on your own copy.  As often as possible with the connection, the
server is synchronizing everyone's copy, both in terms of where everyone is
on the track and in time.  I believe that when the timing of your copy and
the server's copy get far enough apart, the server throws up it's hands and
says "clock zapped".  Someone may post a correction to this non-technical
partial guess ;-)

This leads me to another question......

Since everyone is seeing their own hard drive copy of the race, if I have
selected a car to use which is an "add in" paint job (not one of those shipped
with the game....do others see me driving this car or one of the standard cars
from the original CD?  

I have noticed when connecting to some races that my car shows up in the pits
as one of the 3 digit numbered cars (say 103) when I am driving #1.  After a
few seconds it changes to the one I have programmed in (such as c00_1.car).  Am
I the only one who sees it this way?

I also had one race where my car didn't display at all when driving from the
"chase view"  When I switched to "cockpit view" it was fine.

OK so that was more than 1 question......

(Don't use NO***in E-mail)

You think in the storm we've found the eye of the calm.....Bill Mallonnee,
Vigilantes Of Love

  As far as I understand it...if the other drivers don't have your
special car, then the game replaces it with one of the default premade
cars.  If...you are in a league setting you can upload your car to that
group and a common carset made, then everyone will see your car because
they will have it also...but in pickup races, I don't think they can.
dave henrie

edb