The multiplayer was perfect tonight. It's not a surprise though. A year ago
I wrote about Ratbag and how multiplayer "could" be done better but because
Powerslide was an arcade game, devotees of a certain sim tried to dismiss
the comparisons. Ratbag has now taken their "arcade" technology and applied
it to a sim which is what I expected they'd do eventually.
From 12/17/1998:
After being hanged for disagreeing with a CERTAIN group of r.a.s. regulars
about GPL's online capabilities, I thought I'd post something they might
find interesting. While I think the people at Papyrus are obviously loaded
with talent, I still realize (like I'm sure the Papyrus employees would
readily admit) that there are many, many other talented people in the sim
industry. They don't all start and end their careers with one company
either.
Whether or not you are interested in the style of racing game, the
technology I'm about to describe should interest everyone here.
The developers of Powerslide have created something very special. They have
developed a graphics engine which runs at 60 fps and 300,000 polygons per
second. The cars have 800 polygons compared to the avg. of 150-300. Smooth
as silk. And yes, the physics model is VERY advanced (150 variables and 33
graphs define the relationship between variables) so don't try and tell me
that the physics model is so weak which enables a high frame rate. The
graphics engine is cutting edge and that's why it runs so fast.
What I've been TRYING to explain to some of you is that the arguement that
online *** technology has hit the wall and we have to accept the status
quo is not true. The Powerslide developers have created a unique internet
multiplay system which is fantastic. They use innovative compression
techniques (remember this) and quaternionic orientation smoothing to deal
with internet latency problems and their system compensates for the
deficiencies in a network. It has a system of even information distribution
and synchronisation between the different players that allows the game to
continue smoothly even if a player(s), including the host, drops out.
Telling people to "get a new ISP" is poor advice. Telling them that there is
no way to make intenet racing better due to the condition of the internet is
wrong. There are MANY very talented people who are spread out among the
different developers in racing sims who are able to do some fascinating and
innovative work. That's why I get annoyed with some of you who are so damn
quick to just***on the developers of sims. You might want to open your
eyes and stop with the bu**shit comments that I read so often and start
researching what these talented people are creating.
David G Fisher
