rec.autos.simulators

The original DOS and Windows versions of CART Racing and IndyCar Racing
2 were great sims in their day, but the tracks appear rather plain by
today's standards, especially in comparison with the other tracks
available for GPL. Fortunately, Papyrus upgraded five of the original
tracks with enhanced graphics for the Rendition Ready versions of ICR2.

After the Rendition Ready ICR2 was released, I participated in an effort
by The Sim Project (http://www.racesimcentral.net/) to enhance the remaining ten
tracks. The resulting 3D Kits are still available at The Sim Project,
and can be used to enhance any Rendition Ready version of CART or ICR2
prior to conversion into GPL. The resulting conversions are much more
visually exciting than the unenhanced original tracks.

However, the Rendition Ready version of CART is no longer available. The
version currently being sold has the Rendition Ready logo but is not
actually Rendition Ready.

In anticipation of renewed interest in CART/ICR2 for conversion to GPL,
I've reworked the original 3D kits and developed new versions which can
be applied to DOS and Windows versions of ICR2 or CART, including the
All American Sports version of CART currently available from Sierra
(http://www.racesimcentral.net/). The new kits plus the GPL Track Converter
allow owners of any version of CART or ICR2 to have visually exciting
versions of most of the CART tracks in GPL.

For information about downloading and installing the 3D Kits:

  http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Click on Help, then Add-Ons, then Tracks.

If you're not sure if your version of CART or ICR2 is Rendition Ready,
go here:

  http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Click on Help, then Add-Ons, then CART Racing Versions.

If you need to buy CART, try here:

https://store.sierra.com/ObjectBuilder/ObjectBuilder.iwx?processName=...

This appears to be the original, truly Rendition Ready version of CART.
Please let me know if you find out!

Alison

http://www.racesimcentral.net/
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

- Papyrus Cart is the same as Indycar Racing
- There are 2 versions of Indycar Racing II, one of them a rendition
version
- With your new 3d kits, it doesn't matter which Indycar II version I
have, the new 3d kits will convert the tracks so they will look just
as good as with the rendition version?

Andre

<snip>

--
don

"Getting hit by a meteorite is an accident...
  everything else is driver-error."

The only practical difference between DOS/Windy and Rendition versions
of CART/ICR2 for GPL conversion is that there are no kits right now to
bring the DOS/Windy versions of the Papyrus-enhanced tracks (Laguna
Seca, Elkhart Lake, Portland, Michigan and Phoenix) up to
Rendition-Ready visual standards.  Michigan and Phoenix are available
from NASCAR sims anyway so that's no problem.

Depending on the level of interest, I might consider putting together
kits to bring Laguna, Elkhart, and Portland up to snuff.

Alison

Remove the spam blocker NOSPAM to email me.
http://eaglewoman.maximumspeed.com

I spent this evening reading your setup-guide included in the GRE
utility. Excellent clear writing, excellent setup tool, Ricardo
Nunnini's site allready gave me lots of insight on car setup, and the
excellent guide and GRE only helped me getting further and further in
understanding the car setup in GPL.
A big thank you to you and your brother!

Andre

Oh yes, pleeaaase :-)

Greetings from Germany, 50km away from the Nordschleife :-),

Michael Staab
--
Meine Grand Prix Legends Homepage: http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~mstab/
Mitglied in der CAR, Verein fr PC-Rennsimulationen http://www.car-ev.de/
Staabi's Mountain Bike Classics http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~mstab/mtb/
" To race is to live, everything else is just waiting"

1 - with a few cosmetic changes (intro logos), yes

2 - three actually, with the Windows version (see below)

3 - I vbelieve that's true, but Alison knows for sure.

Andre, here's a post I made in another thread, maybe it helps:

* Actually the original DOS-ICR2 came out in late 1995 and pre-dated
Rendition.  

* There was also the Windows release of ICR2 (summer '96?), which was
not Rendition-enhanced.

* A DOS/Rendition-version of ICR2 came with many V1000 Rendition cards
in late 1996 (but was not sold separately).

* The first edition of CART Racing (which had Steve Smith's "Winning"
handbook included) had Windows, DOS, and DOS/Rendition versions.  I
don't remember the release date, but both manuals are copyright 1997.

* I hear that later (classic/budget) releases of CART Racing do *not*
include the Rendition version (even if the box says it does).  Buy
carefully.

   If you have the Rendition version, you'll have a separate Rendition
executable and added directories (5?) for the Rendition-enhanced
tracks.  Search your CD...

"But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was
nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into
a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark

Thanks

I have the original DOS version of ICR2 and the install script did not run
perfectly for me so I fiddled with it :)  Here are the steps anyone with
the DOS version can take and it will work...

Download my 3Dkits subfolder that worked for me:
http://members.xoom.com/gplprc/icr2/3Dkits.zip  (4MB)

1. Copy your ICR2 folder to C:\ICR2 for easy conversion.
2. Extract 3Dkits.zip to C:\ICR2\3Dkits using WinZip
                                 ^^^^^^
3. Change to the C:\ICR2\3Dkits folder
4. Type: copy pack.exe c:\icr2
5. Type: copy unpack.exe c:\icr2
6. Type: install /a    to install the HQ version of available tracks.
7. At the last prompt, choose N.

   Do you wish to move your old tracks to a spare directory,
   delete them, or do nothing with them at this time?
   [Move, Delete, or Nothing][M,D,N]? N

8. When coverting the tracks, be sure to convert the HQ version of tracks
that have 2 entries.

Thanks for the upgrade Alison!

Happy converting!
Jason.

Heh. Glad I'm not the only one who spent ages messing about with it
before I succeeded (by following the instructions exactly :-) That's not
to say I don't appreciate the effort that went into the graphics
package.... looked like a lot of work, and that's just writing the
instructions!

Andrew McP

I took about an hour staring at constant "bad command or file name"
messages until I figured out that the path directory was set incorrectly
in my autoexec.bat... after that it worked fine, now I just have to work
on some setups :-)

--
Cheers!
Graeme Nash

Thanks!

Kurt