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Grand Prix 4 - Oh my god... What rubbish

9 posts by 8 people · 14 Jun 2002 22:50 UTC - 19 Jun 2002 22:14 UTC

J Beckett 14 Jun 2002 22:50 UTC#114864
After spending 10 minutes with a hacked copy of Grand Prix 4, I have decided not to buy it (and thankful I was able to try the hacked copy). Two years ago my computer cost about 1200ukp to build (for Grand Prix 3, oddly enough). It is an Athlon 750, 256Mb RAM, Soundblaster Live, and Matrox G400 Max graphics card. My computer ran Grand Prix 3 with everything switched on, at 1024x768, at 30+fps (with a few little addons). I just tried GP4 out - with everything on at 1024x768, in a practice session at Melbourne asking for 30fps, it recorded a pretty constant rate of nearly 800 percent processor occupancy. Turning things down enough to get constant 50fps or more (still only in practice) made the game look pathetic. I am NOT about to buy a 2Ghz processor, motherboard, fast memory and expensive graphics card to play a game who's graphics are not that much of an advance on GP3 (they actually look worse in places). I was a huge fan of both GP1, GP2 and GP3 - but this is the end of the road (perhaps I'm getting old!) It almost shames me to say it, but Gran Turismo 3 makes GP4 look pathetic. And it's at least a year older, and the hardware to run it costs less than any of the components to upgrade a 2 year old PC.... and the PS2 itself is older than 2 years... I really am getting cynical, aren't I... Jonathan Beckett [email hidden] (btw I'm a professional software developer who could buy the various upgrades, not a little kid griping about my Dad's computer). Jonathan Beckett ([email hidden]) http://www.kafooey.com
Quoted text (14 lines)>On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 22:50:24 GMT, [email hidden] (J Beckett) wrote: > >>Athlon 750, 256Mb RAM, Soundblaster Live, >>and Matrox G400 Max graphics card. > >[snip] > >> asking for 30fps, it recorded a pretty constant >>rate of nearly 800 percent processor occupancy. > >Odd. > >On my P3-1000/GeForce 3/512mb/SBLive, GP4 is *dead-smooth*. >DX8.1/29.41 drivers ..
Perhaps the answer is the GeForce card and the extra 250Mhz. Still - do the maths - the cost of upgrading still comes out at more than the price of a console... Jonathan Beckett ([email hidden]) http://www.kafooey.com
On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 22:49:51 -0500, rrevved <[email hidden]> wrote:
Quoted text (14 lines)>On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 22:50:24 GMT, [email hidden] (J Beckett) wrote: > >>Athlon 750, 256Mb RAM, Soundblaster Live, >>and Matrox G400 Max graphics card. > >[snip] > >> asking for 30fps, it recorded a pretty constant >>rate of nearly 800 percent processor occupancy. > >Odd. > >On my P3-1000/GeForce 3/512mb/SBLive, GP4 is *dead-smooth*. >DX8.1/29.41 drivers ..
A Matrox G400 is ancient relative to a GF3. Fillrate for one. Ruud van Gaal Free car sim: http://www.racer.nl/ Pencil art : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/
True, but most people upgrade because they can/want to, not because they HAVE to necessarily. John "J Beckett" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted text (24 lines)> >On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 22:50:24 GMT, [email hidden] (J Beckett) wrote: > > > >>Athlon 750, 256Mb RAM, Soundblaster Live, > >>and Matrox G400 Max graphics card. > > > >[snip] > > > >> asking for 30fps, it recorded a pretty constant > >>rate of nearly 800 percent processor occupancy. > > > >Odd. > > > >On my P3-1000/GeForce 3/512mb/SBLive, GP4 is *dead-smooth*. > >DX8.1/29.41 drivers .. > > Perhaps the answer is the GeForce card and the extra 250Mhz. > > Still - do the maths - the cost of upgrading still comes out at more > than the price of a console... > > > Jonathan Beckett ([email hidden]) > http://www.kafooey.com >
GP4 looks great compared to GP3. I have two systems side-by-side, and last night I set-up a race at the A1-Ring, one machine running GP3, and the other machine running GP4. The comparison was amazing. I'd never realised how crap the graphics on GP3 were, even at 1280x1024, until I'd seen GP4. GP3 now reminds me of GP2 ! I think then answer is to get some decent hardware, GP4 is not really designed to run on two-year-old technology. It's a sim for today and for the next couple of years. I'm fortunate in that I have recently upgraded my main machine, to an Athlon XP2000+, 512Mb DDR, and a GeForce4 Ti 4600. With this spec GP4 will run at 1280x1024 at max detail and effects, at around 35-40 fps. It looks great, and nothing else I've seen can touch it graphically. Johnny.
I agree. GP4 looks much better than GP3. GP4 was a beast to configure graphically - for me at least. I spent about 4 hours straight (yeah, I know. I got nuthin' better to do :>) ) tweaking the graphics alone. But I finally ended up with a really good looking game that has a good frame rate based on the CPU occupancy numbers. And my machine isn't state-of-the-art (Athlon 1gig cpu and GeForce 3 card). I thought this game was shit, but after tweaking the hell out of it, I'm thinking its only a bit worse than F1 2002. Well, maybe a little more than a bit worse, but fairly fun nonetheless. Todd "Johnny Moda" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:aei8nc$ehk$[email hidden]... > GP4 looks great compared to GP3. I have two systems side-by-side, and last > night I set-up a race at the A1-Ring, one machine running GP3, and theother
Quoted text (7 lines)> machine running GP4. The comparison was amazing. > > I'd never realised how crap the graphics on GP3 were, even at 1280x1024, > until I'd seen GP4. GP3 now reminds me of GP2 ! > > I think then answer is to get some decent hardware, GP4 is not really > designed to run on two-year-old technology. It's a sim for today and for
the > next couple of years. I'm fortunate in that I have recently upgraded mymain > machine, to an Athlon XP2000+, 512Mb DDR, and a GeForce4 Ti 4600. Withthis > spec GP4 will run at 1280x1024 at max detail and effects, at around 35-40 > fps. It looks great, and nothing else I've seen can touch it graphically. > > Johnny. > >
ymenard 16 Jun 2002 20:40 UTC↳ reply to JTBurn#114461
>"JTBurn" <[email hidden]> wrote > GP4 was a beast to configure graphically - for me at least. I spent about4 > hours straight (yeah, I know. I got nuthin' better to do :>) ) tweakingthe > graphics alone. Turn off all the graphics and put the res in 640x480 and you'll see that it's 95% the same as GP3, 90% the same as GP2 and perhaps 75% the same as World Circuit (aka. GP1 circa 1989). -- -- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard> -- http://www.ymenard.8m.com/ -- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez Corporation - helping America into the New World...
"J Beckett" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted text (41 lines)> > After spending 10 minutes with a hacked copy of Grand Prix 4, I have > decided not to buy it (and thankful I was able to try the hacked > copy). > > Two years ago my computer cost about 1200ukp to build (for Grand Prix > 3, oddly enough). It is an Athlon 750, 256Mb RAM, Soundblaster Live, > and Matrox G400 Max graphics card. > > My computer ran Grand Prix 3 with everything switched on, at 1024x768, > at 30+fps (with a few little addons). > > I just tried GP4 out - with everything on at 1024x768, in a practice > session at Melbourne asking for 30fps, it recorded a pretty constant > rate of nearly 800 percent processor occupancy. > > Turning things down enough to get constant 50fps or more (still only > in practice) made the game look pathetic. > > I am NOT about to buy a 2Ghz processor, motherboard, fast memory and > expensive graphics card to play a game who's graphics are not that > much of an advance on GP3 (they actually look worse in places). > > I was a huge fan of both GP1, GP2 and GP3 - but this is the end of the > road (perhaps I'm getting old!) > > It almost shames me to say it, but Gran Turismo 3 makes GP4 look > pathetic. And it's at least a year older, and the hardware to run it > costs less than any of the components to upgrade a 2 year old PC.... > and the PS2 itself is older than 2 years... > > I really am getting cynical, aren't I... > > Jonathan Beckett > [email hidden] > (btw I'm a professional software developer who could buy the various > upgrades, not a little kid griping about my Dad's computer). > > Jonathan Beckett ([email hidden]) > http://www.kafooey.com >
Think you are VERY wrong. Martin.

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