rec.autos.simulators

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

Rich Nag

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Rich Nag » Wed, 17 Jul 2002 07:29:40

Ain't no way in hell that I would pay *anyone* to test their product.

Of course 'tho, we all are running some form of Windows 9x - XP, right [ROTFL]?

Don Burnett

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Don Burnett » Wed, 17 Jul 2002 12:27:10

It's called " funding the development", an investment if you will - seeings
how I wouldn't see any real return on my investment, think I will pass. Beta
testing is hard work, you have to be devoted and put in some serious time in
order to provide some valuable feedback. I really don't think I want to pay
someone for that opportunity.
I wonder why they can't find a publisher for it to fund the development?
Seems like if it is going to be all that is claimed, someone would pick it
up.

Don Burnette



> I MAY pay the $50, but this is in NO WAY a true beta test. One track and
one
> car? Don't think so. :-)

> Image having to go through all of RC2000 with each build? One car and one
> track is an afternoon's playtime in comparision.

> This is more of a bug search, and a way to raise cash.

> David G Fisher




http://www.west-racing.com/forums/index.php?s=7bde3180e288faa8b4ff095...

- Show quoted text -

> > 96&act=ST&f=1&t=255

> > (The poll is at that link)

> > It looks like this game ( http://www.west-racing.com ) is not going to
be
> a
> > simple 'plunk down your $30 for NFS6 at the store and all connection
> between
> > you and EA ends there' traditional sort of a game. The West's have set
> > extremely high goals for this sim, and by all appearances they will be
> > almost exclusively dependent on the Internet sim-racing community to
buy,
> > support, spread-by-word-of-mouth, and develop addons for it.

> > Their website states that a beta-testing stage will start soon (like in
> the
> > next few months) and that while Beta Testers will be required to pay a
> fee,
> > this fee *will* count towards purchase of the game. I regard this as an
> > investment situation that carries a certain amount of risk, with the
hope
> > that the game (and its continuing enhancements and addons) is
worthwhile.
> It
> > is not clear (to me at least) that the Wests can really deliver on these
> > promises, but RL also seems (to me at least) to be the last, best hope
for
> > an open, extensible racing sim that we have for the forseeable future,
and
> > that if we want it to materialize we have to make this risky investment.

> > Are you willing to invest money (and not a small amount of money either)
> to
> > be a Beta Tester for Racing Legends? Vote now!

> > rms


jason moy

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by jason moy » Wed, 17 Jul 2002 14:42:42

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002 03:27:10 GMT, "Don Burnette"


>It's called " funding the development", an investment if you will - seeings
>how I wouldn't see any real return on my investment, think I will pass. Beta
>testing is hard work, you have to be devoted and put in some serious time in
>order to provide some valuable feedback. I really don't think I want to pay
>someone for that opportunity.
>I wonder why they can't find a publisher for it to fund the development?
>Seems like if it is going to be all that is claimed, someone would pick it
>up.

You'd think someone would be interested in publishing GPL 72 as
well...

Jason

Olav Malmi

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Olav Malmi » Wed, 17 Jul 2002 16:50:24


> Uhmmm....

> Scuse me?...
> Drop by the F16 simulator in the Netherlands and you'l find a seperate
> room with a supercomputer to do the math and SGI stuff doing the gfx,
> all in all worth a few million dineros..
> This whole "RL will be compare to GPL as a military simulator compares
> to Falcon 4"  is a load of bull...
> The number crunching power needed to make a sim like everyone desires,
> as in surpassing N2002 by a looooong way, is far from being on the
> normal consumers desktop...
> Papy is on the edge of things currently possible, sure...a bit better
> might be possible..but not the giant leap some people seem to be
> expecting...

Actually, the 0,5 million dollar full scale car simulator here at work
has a physics model that's not even on par with NFS:PU. And it got a
big shiny oven called SGI onyx just to do the graphics.

It seems that the enourmous cost of high end simulators are because
it's not a packaged product, it something that's built once.


> >With years of development time and then many years of use,
> >I'd say most of them use less cpu and graphics hardware than
> >whats available in a new high end pc.

> >The projection systems used may be slightly better than
> >whats standard with a new pc though, not to mention
> >the motion systems :-)  (*)

> >But if RL really is designed for high end use, multiple
> >large screen displays driven by a pc each shouldn't be a
> >problem, so the limitation will be in what you can afford,
> >not in the software.

> >      _
> >Mats Lofkvist

> >(*) Motion systems doesn't seem to be used as much for
> >    military aircraft like fighters as for the large
> >    commercial stuff though. The motion systems just
> >    aren't fast enough for small agile aircraft, and
> >    even if they were fast enough there will never be
> >    a motion platform that can produce enough G's to
> >    fully simulate a fighter (**). Most of these
> >    limitations applies to racing sims also, so it isn't
> >    obvious that even the pros will use motion platforms
> >    for racing sims. (Maybe a platform doing rotations
> >    only could be useful.)

> >(**) The only aircraft simulator I have heard of that
> >    could simulate sustained G's really is a real
> >    aircraft set up to simulate another type of aircraft,
> >    so I don't think this solution will apply to any
> >    racing sim with less than the Ferrari F1 budget :-)

--
Olav Malmin
remove .spam when replying
Ruud van Ga

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Ruud van Ga » Wed, 17 Jul 2002 21:35:35

On 16 Jul 2002 09:50:24 +0200, Olav Malmin



>> Drop by the F16 simulator in the Netherlands and you'l find a seperate
>> room with a supercomputer to do the math and SGI stuff doing the gfx,
>> all in all worth a few million dineros..
...
>Actually, the 0,5 million dollar full scale car simulator here at work
>has a physics model that's not even on par with NFS:PU. And it got a
>big shiny oven called SGI onyx just to do the graphics.

Consumer PC's/Gfx cards do tend to catch up pretty fast. An SGI Onyx
(1) is really no match for a Geforce4, although with high-bandwidth
data, sure, a SGI is faster.
But for pure rendering power, you really need the latest SGI stuff. An
old Onyx will go for a couple of thousand $'s on Ebay. :(

Don't take support on those though; it will cost you a multitude of
what the machine has cost (on Ebay that is).

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/
Pencil art  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/

Uwe Schuerkam

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Uwe Schuerkam » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 01:45:26


> The hardware thing I have wondered about. Just don't see how they can get
> all the stuff they talk about working at a playable fps on today's
> computers.

maybe by not rushing it to the stores? ;-) Development teams
are under so much deadline pressure these days there is hardly
time to optimize things. Fix bugs, recompile, see if it still
works, fix more bugs, rinse, repeat.

Just think of GP3/GP4. I don't think it ever went through an
optimizing process apart from setting compiler flags. (if at
all, EVER  heard of 3d anyone?).

This is where C&T have a chance (and probably have had the
chance in the years before) to shine. It's their baby, and I
guess they're going to take care of it well.

Cheers,

Uwe

--
Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
PGP Fingerprint:  2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F  67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Uwe Schuerkam

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Uwe Schuerkam » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 01:55:53


> by the fan base. If this one fails to see light of day like WSC did, there
> is going to be quite a bit of flaming and angry posts, especially from the
> folks that payed for being a supposedly tester.

As I wrote to a racing friend, you'll have to decide when the
"hill of things you've thrown away is bigger than the ones you
use" (to quote Del Amitri's great song "Another Letter Home").

I am prepared to shell out $50 or so for the beta test, just to
fund the Wests. I think they deserve it, and I've wasted more
money on other things that now sit on my shelf (nearly wrote
"shit on my self" there, what a typo that would have been for
google groups, eh? ;-)

Cheers,

Uwe

--
Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
PGP Fingerprint:  2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F  67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Schoone

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Schoone » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 02:36:49

There is a flipside to that as well.  With them being so close to the
product there is no one pushing them to make completion dates.  New features
continually slip in which adds to the development and testing time and
making the system more complex.
"Feature creep" is the cause of many a missed deadline in the software
industry.
If they manage their time and resources well and stick to a plan it will
probably go fine but if they are coding by the seat of their pants then it
could be a long time coming.



> > The hardware thing I have wondered about. Just don't see how they can
get
> > all the stuff they talk about working at a playable fps on today's
> > computers.

> maybe by not rushing it to the stores? ;-) Development teams
> are under so much deadline pressure these days there is hardly
> time to optimize things. Fix bugs, recompile, see if it still
> works, fix more bugs, rinse, repeat.

> Just think of GP3/GP4. I don't think it ever went through an
> optimizing process apart from setting compiler flags. (if at
> all, EVER  heard of 3d anyone?).

> This is where C&T have a chance (and probably have had the
> chance in the years before) to shine. It's their baby, and I
> guess they're going to take care of it well.

> Cheers,

> Uwe

> --
> Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
> Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
> PGP Fingerprint:  2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F  67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Code

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Code » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 03:02:33



Maybe. :-)

David Er

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by David Er » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 03:58:18


> On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 20:55:18 GMT, Don Burnette

> > by the fan base. If this one fails to see light of day like WSC did,
there
> > is going to be quite a bit of flaming and angry posts, especially from
the
> > folks that payed for being a supposedly tester.

> As I wrote to a racing friend, you'll have to decide when the
> "hill of things you've thrown away is bigger than the ones you
> use" (to quote Del Amitri's great song "Another Letter Home").

> I am prepared to shell out $50 or so for the beta test, just to
> fund the Wests. I think they deserve it, and I've wasted more
> money on other things that now sit on my shelf (nearly wrote
> "shit on my self" there, what a typo that would have been for
> google groups, eh? ;-)

> Cheers,

> Uwe

This is my feeling as well (looks on shelf and sees the boxes for the five
(!5!) video cards I've gone through in the last year and a half). $50 for
seeing if the "little guys" can still make something unique in a world of
cookie cutter programming and mass market pandering is worth the risk as far
as I'm concerned.

David

Carl Ribbegaard

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Carl Ribbegaard » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 05:43:34

But isn't a papy-quality sim with the extendability of F1-2002 exactly what
we want?
Every time I start an F1-200X Mod, I quite soon shut it down and start up
Nascar 2002 instead ;-)

/Carl

Don Burnett

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Don Burnett » Thu, 18 Jul 2002 12:32:07




> > On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 20:55:18 GMT, Don Burnette

> > > by the fan base. If this one fails to see light of day like WSC did,
> there
> > > is going to be quite a bit of flaming and angry posts, especially from
> the
> > > folks that payed for being a supposedly tester.

> > As I wrote to a racing friend, you'll have to decide when the
> > "hill of things you've thrown away is bigger than the ones you
> > use" (to quote Del Amitri's great song "Another Letter Home").

> > I am prepared to shell out $50 or so for the beta test, just to
> > fund the Wests. I think they deserve it, and I've wasted more
> > money on other things that now sit on my shelf (nearly wrote
> > "shit on my self" there, what a typo that would have been for
> > google groups, eh? ;-)

> > Cheers,

> > Uwe

> This is my feeling as well (looks on shelf and sees the boxes for the five
> (!5!) video cards I've gone through in the last year and a half). $50 for
> seeing if the "little guys" can still make something unique in a world of
> cookie cutter programming and mass market pandering is worth the risk as
far
> as I'm concerned.

> David

I remember a group of some unknown guys, that had a concept, put it
together, and distributed it "freely" amongst the *** community, to get
it out there. That title's shareware version got immensely popular, and when
these guys released a full version I believe it made them quite a bit of
money, not to mention very popular. Of course, I am talking about "Doom".
There are several ways to skin a cat, it will be interesting to see if
paying for beta testing, to help fund partially the development of the game,
will actually work.
If it were me, I believe I would take an approach more like the former
rather than the latter. If you don't have the resources, build a workeable
shareware version, with just enough meat to it to capture an audience. Once
word starts spreading, it will spread throughout the internet and folks will
be clamoring for the full product. Once there are a  lot of folks making
noise about wanting the product, finding financial backing either through
the private sector or the general public should not prove too difficult.
Just , of course, mho. And again, no, I would not pay anyone for the
priviledge of putting my time in for beta testing. Beta testing is much more
than "playing a game", it is hard work and takes a lot of dedication. I am
afraid what you'll get is several folks that are willing to pay to see what
all the hype is about, just not sure how valuable they will become as true
beta testers.

Don Burnette

David Ciemn

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by David Ciemn » Fri, 19 Jul 2002 11:11:53

"I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
expansion."

Ooohh..what kind of *** are you experimenting with? To have such thoughts
even enter your head.

DC


> On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:02:33 GMT, "Jan Verschueren"

> >You guys are kidding, right? $50 is under anyone's curiosity threshold,
> >surely?

> I think the problem with the price is that people don't realize
> exactly how ambitious this project is.

> If this project is pulled off (and that's a big if, I'll admit) the
> difference between Racing Legends and GPL or N2k2 or F12k2 will be
> like the difference betweena military-grade flight simulator and
> Falcon 4.0.  One of them is a simulator meant to be literally
> interchangeable with real-world experience, one of them is a computer
> game with simulation elements.

> That ambition is why people are so e***d about this project.  I, for
> one, am tired of driving half-assed computer games.  The pinnacle of
> auto simulation is currently held by Papyrus and ISI.  Neither of them
> has produced a game with a sophisticated aerodynamic model.  Neither
> of them has produced a game with an accurate damage model.  Neither of
> them has evolved their tire model beyond 3 independent contact
> patches.  Neither of them has produced an accurate weather model.

> I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
> multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
> it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
> modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
> expansion.

> $500 is peanuts compared to what it would cost were I to actually
> invest the time and money into building a race car.

> Jason

Remo

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by Remo » Sat, 20 Jul 2002 05:01:25

If your willing to spend $500 for such a game, perhaps you'd be interested
in some lovely oceanfront property in Kansas?

DW


> "I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
> multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
> it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
> modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
> expansion."

> Ooohh..what kind of *** are you experimenting with? To have such
thoughts
> even enter your head.

> DC



> > On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:02:33 GMT, "Jan Verschueren"

> > >You guys are kidding, right? $50 is under anyone's curiosity threshold,
> > >surely?

> > I think the problem with the price is that people don't realize
> > exactly how ambitious this project is.

> > If this project is pulled off (and that's a big if, I'll admit) the
> > difference between Racing Legends and GPL or N2k2 or F12k2 will be
> > like the difference betweena military-grade flight simulator and
> > Falcon 4.0.  One of them is a simulator meant to be literally
> > interchangeable with real-world experience, one of them is a computer
> > game with simulation elements.

> > That ambition is why people are so e***d about this project.  I, for
> > one, am tired of driving half-assed computer games.  The pinnacle of
> > auto simulation is currently held by Papyrus and ISI.  Neither of them
> > has produced a game with a sophisticated aerodynamic model.  Neither
> > of them has produced a game with an accurate damage model.  Neither of
> > them has evolved their tire model beyond 3 independent contact
> > patches.  Neither of them has produced an accurate weather model.

> > I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
> > multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
> > it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
> > modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
> > expansion.

> > $500 is peanuts compared to what it would cost were I to actually
> > invest the time and money into building a race car.

> > Jason

elrik

Will you pay $50 to Beta-Test West Racing's Racing Legends ?

by elrik » Sat, 20 Jul 2002 06:36:06

How well does it handle in tight corners vs smoother high speed curves?

Elrikk


> If your willing to spend $500 for such a game, perhaps you'd be interested
> in some lovely oceanfront property in Kansas?

> DW



> > "I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
> > multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
> > it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
> > modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
> > expansion."

> > Ooohh..what kind of *** are you experimenting with? To have such
> thoughts
> > even enter your head.

> > DC



> > > On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:02:33 GMT, "Jan Verschueren"

> > > >You guys are kidding, right? $50 is under anyone's curiosity
threshold,
> > > >surely?

> > > I think the problem with the price is that people don't realize
> > > exactly how ambitious this project is.

> > > If this project is pulled off (and that's a big if, I'll admit) the
> > > difference between Racing Legends and GPL or N2k2 or F12k2 will be
> > > like the difference betweena military-grade flight simulator and
> > > Falcon 4.0.  One of them is a simulator meant to be literally
> > > interchangeable with real-world experience, one of them is a computer
> > > game with simulation elements.

> > > That ambition is why people are so e***d about this project.  I, for
> > > one, am tired of driving half-assed computer games.  The pinnacle of
> > > auto simulation is currently held by Papyrus and ISI.  Neither of them
> > > has produced a game with a sophisticated aerodynamic model.  Neither
> > > of them has produced a game with an accurate damage model.  Neither of
> > > them has evolved their tire model beyond 3 independent contact
> > > patches.  Neither of them has produced an accurate weather model.

> > > I'm willing to pay $500 for an auto sim with 10 tracks, passable AI,
> > > multiplayer capabilities (even if only LAN), and 1 class of car if
> > > it's actually 100% accurate to the tiniest detail of physical
> > > modelling.  Even without any chance or hope of further support or
> > > expansion.

> > > $500 is peanuts compared to what it would cost were I to actually
> > > invest the time and money into building a race car.

> > > Jason


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