rec.autos.simulators

Here are the results:

Test Machine:  P2-400 w/ 256mb RAM and two Monster2 cards in SLI mode.
                        Diamond MX200 Sound.

All tests had EVERY detail turned on and all 19 opponents active during one RACE
lap at Grand Prix Skill level:

Resolution      France          Monza           Monaco

640x480         56-62fps        68-87fps        48-55fps
800x600         48-58fps        59-70fps        30-41fps
1024x768        21-36fps        24-38fps        18-32fps

For those of you who "sampled" the previous warez version - this is at least a
10fps increase over that version.  Generally the framerate dips during the
starting grid (naturally) during a race and pulling out of the pits during
practice.

Turning off the "fancy stuff" in the rearview mirrors will add another 8-10fps
to your display.  Anything in the Dynamic Lighting will also affect your fps.

As for the game itself - the track detail has been increased at least 300% over
that last beta version floating around.  There are lots more sponsor signs,
banners, billboards, grandstands, and crowds.  The rumble strips are now painted
the various striped colors (specific to the country I assume) and the car and
driver detail is unreal.  In fullscreen replays you can see the drivers EYES
through the goggles.

The crash model is totally realistic and hard as hell.  If you smack a curb too
hard you will knock your alignment out of whack and you will be fighting the
wheel for quite some time.  I did manage to re-align my car by hitting the right
wall (after previously hitting the left wall) and it drove pretty straight after
that.

Wheels will snap off if you look at them wrong and your car will go airborne,
flip, tumble, spin and burst into flames.  You can also sit there in N and rev
the engine until the rods fly out and <tink> <tink> to the pavement in a cloud
of black smoke.

The AI is awesome.  Naturally ( as with all racing games) I had to do a reverse
lap at Monza driving into the pack.  Even with me coming at them at 180 they
were able to swerve and avoid me.  I missed the first 8 cars before I manage to
clip the front left wheel of an oncoming Lotus.  The resulting devestation was
quite a satisfactory display of an awesome damage model.  I haven't seen such a
crash since the old EA Indy 500 came from 8 years ago.

Bottom line:  The finished product kicks ass.  Better get in line early on Wed.
This is going to be one hot title!!!!

Now we can discuss Cris Amon's eye color, etc :-))

Bart

Ayrton McKafre

and

It's top notch.  Don't worry about it.  It's a challenge of course (how easy
do you think it should be to drive a very light car of 400hp with rock hard
tyres), but a very satisfactory one when you're hurling it around Spa at
breakneck speeds.

Mike.

I was begging for posi-track the other day when I got up on the curb and my RR
wheel was about 2 inches above the pavement and my LR wheel was in the grass and
I couldn't go anywhere - my RR just kept spinning.

I was able to slightly perfect a small powerslide move in the Lotus on the
Africa and France tracks but it still is a risky move.  I think I try to hard to
follow the dark-path on the pavement and end up screwing up because I'm looking
at the stripe and not the upcoming track and curves.

It's by far the most realistic driving model I have ever seen.  I can only
imagine what the new NASCAR 99 will be like using this same engine.

Mark Smith wrote

<snip>

Hmm.... shouldn't the Frame counter be locked at 36fps ?

Please explain !

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

I just hit ALT-F and the FPS is displayed in realtime in the lower right corner.

Grand Prix Legends
Version 1.0
Readme File
8/31/98

***********************************************************************
About This Document:

Thank you for purchasing Grand Prix Legends.

This document contains last-minute information about Grand Prix Legends as well
as information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have
concerning the game or your computer. Should you experience any problems with
Grand Prix Legends, please refer to this file for additional help on answering
questions about the game and solving technical difficulties.

***********************************************************************

                        TABLE OF CONTENTS

                  I.    MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

                 II.    GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
                                Using the 3D Accelerated Version of the Game
                                "Focus follows mouse" Issues
                                Performance
                                Sound Quality Issues
                                Modem and Direct-Connect Issues
                                TCP/IP Issues
                                Graphics Tablet Issues
                                Cyrix 6x86 Issues
                                Windows 98 Issues

                III.    GENERAL GAME ISSUES
                                The Right Shift Key
                                Keyboard HotKeys
                                Capturing Screenshots
                                Repairing Damage and Righting an Overturned Car
                                Car Setups
                                Flags
                                Pit Board
                                Championship Points System
                                Hot Laps
                                Why won't my car roll downhill?
                                Modification of INI Files
                                Controlling AI for league play

                 IV.    CONTACTING SIERRA        

I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
-----------------------

Required:
Pentium-166
Windows 95/98 w/ DirectX 5.0 or later
32 MB RAM
2X CD-ROM Drive
2MB DirectX compatible SVGA Video Card
Mouse

Preferred:
Pentium II-266+
64 MB RAM
3D Accelerator Card (3Dfx or Rendition)
Joystick or Steering Wheel/Pedals

- Full Install: Copies all of the GPL program files to your hard drive (133 MB)
- Typical Install: Installs everything except for tracks to your hard drive (59
MB)*

* Requires the GPL CD-ROM to play

II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
----------------------------

USING THE 3D ACCELERATED VERSION OF THE GAME

During the installation of Grand Prix Legends, you will be prompted to select
the type of 3D accelerator present in your system.  If you have a video card
based on the Rendition V1000, V2100, or V2200 chipsets, you should select
Rendition Verite Adapter.  If you have a card using the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics or
Voodoo2 chipsets, you should select 3Dfx Adapter.  All other cards and chipsets
will need to select Software.

The Rendition version of Grand Prix Legends requires RRedline compatible
drivers.  If you do not have the drivers or you experience problems loading or
playing the Rendition version, contact your video card manufacturer for
information regarding obtaining the latest drivers.

The 3Dfx version of Grand Prix Legends requires Glide 2.43 or later.  If you do
not have Glide 2.43 installed, or you experience problems loading or playing the
3Dfx version, contact your video card manufacturer for information regarding
obtaining the latest drivers.

Voodoo2 users should not enable the 'Force Triple Color Buffering For Glide
Apps' option in the advanced properties of the Voodoo2 display control panel.

"FOCUS FOLLOWS MOUSE" ISSUES

If you are using the 3Dfx version of Grand Prix Legends, and you are also using
the "xmouse" utility to cause the focused window to follow the mouse, to start
the game you must minimize all applications and start GPL from either the Start
menu, or from a desktop shortcut.  If you do not, you may see only a black
screen with an hourglass cursor.  If this happens, wait a few seconds, press the
ESC key, then press ENTER, wait a second, then press ENTER again to close Grand
Prix Legends.

PERFORMANCE

Because of the requirements that Grand Prix Legends places on your system, it is
recommended that you reduce the number of additional applications running in the
background while playing GPL to a bare minimum.

If GPL is running slowly on your system, several options may help to improve
performance:

- Run using one of the supported 3D accelerator cards.
- Switch to a lower screen resolution.
- Reduce the number of Computer Opponents.
- Reduce the Detail Bias, Mirror Detail Level, Trackside Objects, and the number
of checked graphics options.

It is also recommended that you obtain and install the latest drivers and
firmware for all of your hardware devices.

If your machine does not have a secondary cache, GPL will probably run very
slowly.  If your machine has an Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX, or compatible chip
made by another company, you will need at least 256K of secondary cache for GPL
to perform well (512K would be even better).  If your machine has an Intel
Pentium II processor, it already has a secondary cache built in, and should
perform well.  If your machine has an Intel Celeron processor, GPL will
generally perform well, though we have heard of some performance problems when
using high speed connections on a serial port.

SOUND QUALITY ISSUES

If you experience any problems with the quality of the in-game sounds, try
reducing Max # of Sounds Heard on the Sound & Gameplay section of the Options
screen.  Additionally, if you are using a Diamond Monster Sound card, try
reducing the acceleration level in the Monster Sound control panel.

MODEM AND DIRECT-CONNECT ISSUES

If you experience problems dialing out with your modem, and the modem is
installed properly and is being recognized in the Modem Control Panel, it is
recommended that you reduce the 16550 UART FIFO buffers to their lowest setting:
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open Modems
3. Highlight the modem and click Properties
4. Choose the Connection tab and click 'Port Settings'
5. Move both sliders to their left-most position

It is recommended that you use the DirectInput joystick driver with the "poll
with interrupts enabled" option checked in the Advanced tab of the Game
Controllers Control Panel.

If you experience problems with playing games reliably over high-speed
connections, try selecting lower speeds for the connection on the multiplayer
screens.

TCP/IP ISSUES

If you connect to the Internet using a modem, and wish to play GPL over the
Internet, connect to the Internet before starting GPL.  If you do not intend to
play GPL over the Internet, there is no need to connect before playing the game.

If you have a local area network, and your network card is dynamically assigned
an IP address (using DHCP), you must tell GPL to use an alternate method of
determining your machine's IP address.  

Using Notepad, create a file named core.ini in the same folder in which gpl.exe
exists containing the following two lines:

[Communications]
alternate_ip_addr_lookup = 1

Note, however, that if you use this alternate method, and your only TCP/IP
connection is via a modem, and you have your Internet properties set to
automatically connect to the Internet, and you're not connected to the Internet
when you start GPL, Dial-Up Networking will start up when you launch GPL.  This
may cause GPL to not function properly, and/or your machine may connect to the
Internet.

GRAPHICS TABLET ISSUES

If you have a graphics tablet connected to a serial port on your computer, you
must disable GPL's "direct connect" multiplayer option.  There is a bug in the
drivers for some tablets that causes the drivers to become corrupt when GPL
looks for serial ports on your computer.  If this occurs, you will need to
re-install the drivers for your tablet.

You can disable GPL's direct connect multiplayer option by using Notepad to edit
the app.ini file in the GPL directory, to change the 0 to a 1 (the digit one) on
the disableDirectConnect line.

[ Communications ]
disableDirectConnect = 1 ; Disable Direct Connect

CYRIX 6x86 ISSUES

GPL uses a Pentium instruction which is not supported by the 6x86, and as such
GPL will not run on this CPU.  It will run on later Cyrix chips such as the MX
and MII, the AMD K5 and K6, in addition to all genuine Intel Pentium chips.

WINDOWS 98 ISSUES

On some Windows 98 machines if user profiles are enabled applications will
encounter problems when attempting to change the screen resolution or color
depth.  If you experience this problem, it is recommended that you disable user
profiles:
1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Open Passwords
3. Choose the User Profiles tab and check 'All users of this computer use the
same preferences and desktop settings'.

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES
------------------------

THE RIGHT SHIFT KEY

Due to rather wacky behavior on the part of Windows with regard to the right
shift key with the NUM-LOCK state active, GPL ignores the right shift key.  Any
mention of the shift key in the documentation or in-game help screens is in
reference to the left shift key only.

KEYBOARD HOTKEYS

The following list of keyboard hotkeys can be used from within the car:

        ESC - Return to Pits/Retire
        F1 - Help Display
        F2 - View Replay (Single Player Only)
        F3 - Options (Single Player Only)
        F10 - Toggle Driving View
        PAUSE - Pause/Continue Game (Single Player Only)
        ENTER - Type/Send Chat Message (Multiplayer Only)
        ALT+F - Toggle Frame Rate Display
        SHIFT+R - Car Reset (see section below)
        SHIFT+T - TellTale Reset

Additionally the following hotkeys are available to control the replay and live
feed views:

        C - Change to Next Camera
        V - Change Focus to Next Driver
        SHIFT+C - Change to Previous Camera
        SHIFT+V - Change Focus to Previous Driver
        Keypad1 (END) - Fast Forward to End
        Keypad4 (Left Arrow) - Frame Rewind
        Keypad5 - Play/Pause Replay
        Keypad6 (Right Arrow) - Frame Advance
        Keypad7 (Home) - Rewind to Start
        SHIFT+Keypad4 - Rewind
        SHIFT+Keypad6 - Fast Forward
        Keypad. (Del) - Switch to Live Feed Mode
...

read more »

If you don't have the time, I'll convert them to Jpg's and put them on a
seperate webpage AND post the link in the ras newsgroup!

Bart

If you don't have the time, I'll convert them to Jpg's and put them on a
seperate webpage AND post the link in the ras newsgroup!

Bart

Are you going to be in line on Wednesday or playing your Warez version?

rob.

So how exactly did you come up with these fps if it is capped at 36 then how
can you say your getting 60's.
 I too have the 1.0.0.0 version and from intensive frame rate watching on
both versions I have to conclude that there is absolutely no increase in
frame rates.
 One major change I have found is the AI cars. In the Beta I could quite
easily go from last to first in the first lap. I was getting a bit worried
about that but with this version I am on the limit just trying to stay with
the pack.