rec.autos.simulators

Got the NASCAR demo and I tried a little experiment - adding a Taladega
directory to Indycar and trying to run that track. Logically it should work
coz the two games are bascially the smae code - and the TXT and DAT files
are similar - but thats the key word - in the DAT file there must be something
to make the difference - I also tries putting an INDY - michigan - track in
NSACAR - same thing - 'unknown track data' or something - nayone been able
to make it work (ie by modifying the DAT file) hows about a conversion
program to mkae the tracks cross compatible - hey NASCARS on Toronto or
Autrialia or Indycars on a highbanked oval - or the Brickyard 400 race !!!
Alex Davies

Hey ...this sounds like an idea that Papurus can charge us $40 for ...
an expansion kit for NASCAR with the INDY track !!

Don't hold your breath for Indy or Daytona, kids.

Hopefully we'll see C***te, though.
--



IWCC:   http://www.racesimcentral.net/~zyllyx/welcome.html        MM#6/JA#07/RM#1/DW#17

: directory to Indycar and trying to run that track. Logically it should work
: coz the two games are bascially the smae code - and the TXT and DAT files
                                      ^^^^^^^^^
I read an article in which Papyrus said that the game was rewritten
from scratch.

<stuff deleted...>
: Don't hold your breath for Indy or Daytona, kids.

The calendar file has two Daytona entries and one Indy entry.  This
doesn't mean that they will be released, but at least someone had
thought about these tracks when writing the calendar for Nascar
Racing;-)  If these are relased, I wonder what the format will be.
Naturally I hope we will see only one expansion pack containing the
"missing" nine tracks, but my bet is we will see "7 track pack" and
"speedway pack: Daytona & Indy".

I'm using floppy version of Nascar, so the idea of putting only two
tracks in one CD doesn't give me headache;-)

: Hopefully we'll see C***te, though.

Hopefully we'll see all of the remaining nine tracks...

To answer the original question in this thread: IndyCar and Nascar track
files seems to be guite different.  For example VGA-Michigan in Nascar
is about 0.9 MB as IndyCar Michigan is 1.3 MB.

Pasi.

I surmise from the On-Line questionaire on their BBS that they will
offer additional "track-packs".  The question was "Would you pay
$30 for additional tracks" (paraphrase).  I said "no".  I'd pay
up to $20 for them, and $10-$15 for anual car sets, I think.

 -Steve
--
  The opinions expressed above are those of the author and not SPSS, Inc.
                      ---NASCAR-#7-#28-#51---

   Steve Adams        "Space-age ***nomad"       Fax:   (312) 329-3558  

: <stuff deleted...>
: : Don't hold your breath for Indy or Daytona, kids.

: The calendar file has two Daytona entries and one Indy entry.  This
: doesn't mean that they will be released, but at least someone had
: thought about these tracks when writing the calendar for Nascar
: Racing;-)  If these are relased, I wonder what the format will be.
: Naturally I hope we will see only one expansion pack containing the
: "missing" nine tracks, but my bet is we will see "7 track pack" and
: "speedway pack: Daytona & Indy".

: I'm using floppy version of Nascar, so the idea of putting only two
: tracks in one CD doesn't give me headache;-)

: : Hopefully we'll see C***te, though.

: Hopefully we'll see all of the remaining nine tracks...

: To answer the original question in this thread: IndyCar and Nascar track
: files seems to be guite different.  For example VGA-Michigan in Nascar
: is about 0.9 MB as IndyCar Michigan is 1.3 MB.

: Pasi.

Its alex again - well I did mention in the original thread that there are
differences in the two files - but the data structure is similar - the
NASCAR one is probably better compressed - explaining the size diff.
Well I'm not much of a programmer but someone should be able to jimmy up
a program that can convert the .DAT files for either games - how diff that
would be I don't know (As I said I'm no programmer - but hey I could be
done) I know its not exactly the same (ie this is easier and the two game
engines are basically the smae)but theree are progs to change Doom1,2 wads
to Herectic (Doom3) which has all new graphics and a modified exe file.
On NAascar I think its evident that ICR and NAs are the smae engine - the
NAS one just a further development of it - the physics involved are the
same though NAS does simulate damage better - as I only have the demo(actually
I'm not too hot on NASCARS) i can't see if the damage is determinate on how the
car is hit - angle force etc. If it is cool - a major improvement over ICR (
the flying wheels were cool , but as soon as I realized nothing else got
damaged - graphically or really - it sucked - no bent bodywork etc.) The
engine takes into account Downforece only in how the car handles - ie spins
and how it turns - it is not graphically represented and this is where both
the ICR and later NAS engine fails - there is no modelling of the vertical
plane - in accidents the cars do not leave on horizontal plane - no flying
cars, flips etc.
Rather than modelling the SVGA ***(which is very nice to look at - wont
run on myDX2 let alone P90) Papyrus could have invested 6months to a year
extra investigating the vertical plane in a better update of the ICR engine
and use it in NASCAR - then a Indycar 2.0 with SVGA all the tracks on CD
etc could use the new engine and we would not have those stupid 'ghost'
cars and flipping cars as tires ride over other tires - can you imagine
all the cool crashes you could record to show your friends. . . .
You never know though F1GP2 (world circuit2) might model the vertical !!!
And F1 is my prefferred sport (nomore bumperF1 cars a la F1GP (the first one)
Alex Davies

Papyrus says that they started from scratch for NASCAR.

No offense, but this isn't too likely.  There's a lot of information which
is obviously pretty different between the two.

Frankly, as someone who uses ICR as a simulator rather than a game, I don't
really care about the damage.  In IndyCar, if you break something, you're
basically out of the race, and that's fine with me.

I seriously doubt it, really.  Think about it in terms of a business.  (That's
what this is to Papyrus, MicroProse, etc).  It would be cool to have it, but
how many more people will BUY it because of that?  Would it be worth six
months to a year of lost revenue?  I *seriously* doubt it.  Papyrus did SVGA
in response to a LOT of user/customer feedback.  I turns out that it's harder
than it looks, and that it sucks down a huge amount of cpu power.  Remember
that ICR runs in 320x200 mode; I don't know what NASAR is using in SVGA mode,
but I think it's 800x600.  If so, that means ICR has to recompute as many as
64K pixels, while NASCAR has to do as many as 480K - 7.5x the data.  Certainly
it's true that the NASCAR view uses less motion area than ICR, but that just
closes the gap.  (This is also why the outside view from NASCAR is SOOOO
slow - it has a WHOLE LOT of pixels to recompute every frame.)

--

Brian Wong                              Product Marketing Engineering

415-336-0082                            Palo Alto, CA 94303

many as

It's "just" 640x480, but htat's plenty to bring any CPU/graphics card
combination to its knees. For smooth response and easy playing,
the standard 320x200 resolution is still the only way to go.,

I always opposed the big cry for SVGA, because unless you are in
a flightsim where barely anything changes in the view of the player,
you will get major CPU utilization to keep up. If they had spent more
time on coding their darn Pace CAR, I'd be a hppier customer right now.

Peter