DONT BUY GP4!!!

I have been really looking forward to getting GP4 after buying every other sim Geoff Crammond ever made. I love the GP series. Unfortunately, I ignored the bad reviews on the newsgroups as I thought they were dealing with beta code for the game and the final product would be far better. Lets start with my system spec - I run an AMD 1400 with 512 ram and a Geforce 3 TI 500 card. Not exactly a slow system. (BTW, F12002 flys on this system and at higher resolutions). The game auto detects the optimum resolution at only 1024 X 768 , (which is bloody low compared to other F1 games), and it looks very pixelated and worse still very slow. There are some very bad refections visible in the cockpit which dont look very realistic either. At the start of a race, I am running 300% processor occupancy and the slowdown is total pants. It is a bloody slideshow. I would 'geusstimate' that I am getting 10 fps at the start of the game and I dont have all the detail turned on either. It is unplayable at this stage and reminds me of playing GP2 years ago with the sky turned on at Monaco. By the way, I am playing the European GP on GP4 which is not as graphically intense as Monaco so I assume it gets worse for more complicated tracks. I have had to play the game using the keys because after an hour of fiddling, I couldnt get the Cyborg joystick throttle/brake to work at all. (It works first time in other games). Also, the menus, as well as being clunky and akward to use play have this really annoying music which I had to turn off after 3 mintues. I hate to say it but F12002 is light years ahead and I will be returning my GP4 to EB later today. GP4 is a real backward step for the GP series and to be honest, GP32000 is better to play and less pixelated because you can run it at higher resolutions. It is such a let down!

:-) wrote:

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> I have been really looking forward to getting GP4 after buying every other > sim Geoff Crammond ever made. I love the GP series. > > Unfortunately, I ignored the bad reviews on the newsgroups as I thought > they were dealing with beta code for the game and the final product would be > far better. > > Lets start with my system spec - I run an AMD 1400 with 512 ram and a > Geforce 3 TI 500 card. Not exactly a slow system. (BTW, F12002 flys on this > system and at higher resolutions).

AMD 1400, GF4 4200, 512MB here, same res. > > The game auto detects the optimum resolution at only 1024 X 768 , (which is > bloody low compared to other F1 games), and it looks very pixelated and > worse still very slow. There are some very bad refections visible in the > cockpit which dont look very realistic either. Bloody low? Are you normally using 1600x1200, or what? No reflections here. > > At the start of a race, I am running 300% processor occupancy and the > slowdown is total pants. It is a bloody slideshow. I would 'geusstimate' > that I am getting 10 fps at the start of the game and I dont have all the > detail turned on either. It is unplayable at this stage and reminds me of > playing GP2 years ago with the sky turned on at Monaco. Something is very wrong with your system. I have great fps during start even in the rain... Graphics drivers? snip > Also, the menus, as well as being clunky and akward to use play have this > really annoying music which I had to turn off after 3 mintues. Yes, the menus are now as stupid as F12k's menus. Ok and Cancel button on the left and right side of the screen! Who the fuck thinks that is user friendly (GUI designer, trying to calm down again... ;) The music is always the first thing I turn off, quite easy actually. -- l8er ronny Your mouse has moved. Windows must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now?

"Sebastion Melmoth" <[email hidden]> wrote > >Bloody low? Are you normally using 1600x1200, or what? > >No reflections here. > Maybe GP4 didn't detect his video card correctly and is running in > software mode. I don't believe GP4 has a software mode. Although the requirements don't specifically say "3D card required" it does say "Directx 8.1 compatible card required". Also the in-game options don't offer anything but my 3D card as render device. -- Frode

Ronald Stoehr <[email hidden]> wrote: Do you have a reccomended graphics card? I also have an AMD 1.4, but the performancer of GP4 is bad for me. Set to Auto detect/settings I get max 15fps. I currently have an NV GeForce MX400 64MB Thanks for any advice. Regards Martyn BTW - after patching GP3 with the latest track patch and car set, it looks far superior to the current look of GP4. Will continue to try GP4, but a this rate am likely to go back to GP3.

And that's a GeForce 3 [email hidden] (Martyn) wrote:

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>Ronald Stoehr <[email hidden]> wrote: > >Do you have a reccomended graphics card? > >I also have an AMD 1.4, but the performancer of GP4 is bad for me. >Set to Auto detect/settings I get max 15fps. > >I currently have an NV GeForce MX400 64MB > >Thanks for any advice. > >Regards >Martyn > >BTW - after patching GP3 with the latest track patch and car set, it >looks far superior to the current look of GP4. Will continue to try >GP4, but a this rate am likely to go back to GP3. >

This is clearly way too early inthe morning for me. Make that a GeForce 2 and I think I've now answeed my own question. [email hidden] (Martyn) wrote:

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>And that's a GeForce 3 >[email hidden] (Martyn) wrote: > >>Ronald Stoehr <[email hidden]> wrote: >> >>Do you have a reccomended graphics card? >> >>I also have an AMD 1.4, but the performancer of GP4 is bad for me. >>Set to Auto detect/settings I get max 15fps. >> >>I currently have an NV GeForce MX400 64MB >> >>Thanks for any advice. >> >>Regards >>Martyn >> >>BTW - after patching GP3 with the latest track patch and car set, it >>looks far superior to the current look of GP4. Will continue to try >>GP4, but a this rate am likely to go back to GP3. >>

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> At the start of a race, I am running 300% processor occupancy and the > slowdown is total pants. It is a bloody slideshow. I would 'geusstimate' > that I am getting 10 fps at the start of the game and I dont have all the > detail turned on either. It is unplayable at this stage and reminds me of > playing GP2 years ago with the sky turned on at Monaco. > > By the way, I am playing the European GP on GP4 which is not as

graphically > intense as Monaco so I assume it gets worse for more complicated tracks. i also had some trouble with gp4 at the first attempt. but after reinstalling my system (which was needed for other reasons) i found that it suddenly runs much better :) i have only a geforce2mx, two years old, it seems it doesn't do good anti-aliasing, or not at all, so i have some rough pixels there. before reinstalling i tried it at barcelona, during the lap the po was ok, but on the main straight my po raised to 800% ?!? this is all gone now, fortunately. about everything else i can't say much, tried it only for a couple of hours yet. stefan

> i also had some trouble with gp4 at the first attempt. but after > reinstalling my system (which was needed for other reasons) i found thatit > suddenly runs much better :) i have only a geforce2mx, two years old, it > seems it doesn't do good anti-aliasing, or not at all, so i have somerough

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> pixels there. > > before reinstalling i tried it at barcelona, during the lap the po was ok, > but on the main straight my po raised to 800% ?!? this is all gone now, > fortunately. > > about everything else i can't say much, tried it only for a couple of

hours > yet. > >The graphics engine is poor - it relies on CPU to do most of the world not handing off to graphics card. However, with some detail knocked down i can play 1024 x 768 with PO spike of 130 starting a race and between 70-80 in a race so it can be done.

Check out the GP4 forum at http://www.sportplanet.com/hg/ You'll find lots of posts about tuning a graphics.ini-file in the GP4 root directory. Optimizing settings will make a world of difference, believe me. The autoconfig sucks big time and will for example sometimes not enable T&L support. On Sun, 8 Sep 2002 13:37:57 +0200, "Stefan Roth" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>> At the start of a race, I am running 300% processor occupancy and the >> slowdown is total pants. It is a bloody slideshow. I would 'geusstimate' >> that I am getting 10 fps at the start of the game and I dont have all the >> detail turned on either. It is unplayable at this stage and reminds me of >> playing GP2 years ago with the sky turned on at Monaco. >> >> By the way, I am playing the European GP on GP4 which is not as >graphically >> intense as Monaco so I assume it gets worse for more complicated tracks. > >i also had some trouble with gp4 at the first attempt. but after >reinstalling my system (which was needed for other reasons) i found that it >suddenly runs much better :) i have only a geforce2mx, two years old, it >seems it doesn't do good anti-aliasing, or not at all, so i have some rough >pixels there. > >before reinstalling i tried it at barcelona, during the lap the po was ok, >but on the main straight my po raised to 800% ?!? this is all gone now, >fortunately. > >about everything else i can't say much, tried it only for a couple of hours >yet. > >stefan > >