Does Using A FF Wheel Make the FPS Take a Hit in GPL? And other questions?

Finally made the jump from console racing after lurking here for a year. Trying to get by on my 266 PII with an old Hercules Stingray card. Working quite well 17 fps at the beginning and 24 -27 fps out alone, which I reckon is good enough for my old eyes. Now I need a wheel, there is an original NASCAR for $39.99 at EB and Logitech FF at Future shop for $109.99 (all prices in CDN$). Apart from the money issue I worry that the FF will take processing power and drop my FPS (which right now is ok, I think, but marginal) Any thoughts? Euan " On the Information Highway of Life I'm Driving a Dodge Dart" Gilmour p.s. Other questions I've had since I've been lurking 1. Why is CPR so shitty? Is it MS animosity? Didn't the patch fix it? Is it completely useless? GameSpot liked it, or does that say more about GameSpot? 2. Having trouble finding a lot of the tracks I used to see on the web. i.e.. Riverside. Is there a place where they all are? The Pits is the link I get on most pages but it's down. Is that recent? Permanent? 3. Besides GPL what games should I get, given my system constraints? (What I'm thinking about is other Sierra games to use for tracks for GPL). I picked up CART RACING yesterday in the delete bin. From the GPL Web sites I take it that it is IndyCar II? Is it exactly or are there any changes that screw with the Track conversions for GPL? Should I get Sprint Car or N2 or N3 or N99? 4. As for CART RACING (Indy Car II) I don't think it actually has the IMS. Is that out there some where? Are new teams & drivers out there? 5. Planning on Hooking up SCGT too. What are good web resources for it? Has anyone built La Sarthe for it? 6. And in a shameless attempt to start a long hypothetical thread, I like the idea of GPL II being 80's turbo cars I think that would be great especially trying to learn to handle the lag. But what year should they use? If it was 1982 would Giles be available for all races? Should it be early in the era where half the grid still had Cosworth's? (That would be very interesting but hard to program in that it would be two totally different physics algorithm).

Euan Gilmour wrote in message ...

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>Finally made the jump from console racing after lurking here for a year. >Trying to get by on my 266 PII with an old Hercules Stingray card. Working >quite well 17 fps at the beginning and 24 -27 fps out alone, which I reckon >is good enough for my old eyes. Now I need a wheel, there is an original >NASCAR for $39.99 at EB and Logitech FF at Future shop for $109.99 (all >prices in CDN$). Apart from the money issue I worry that the FF will take >processing power and drop my FPS (which right now is ok, I think, but >marginal) Any thoughts?

I think ALL FF wheels make a hit on the CPU. The old Logitech wheel, the LWFF was one of the less cpu intensive wheels, I could use it in GPL on my PII 233. I couldn't use the Microsoft wheel without BIG hits on the FPS, but the LWFF hardly affected my FPS at all. Lol SF.

I had a Microsoft Sidewinder FF joystick when I was playing Sports Car GT (SCGT) and had to turn FF off to prevent a slide show (PII 333, Voodoo3). When I got my LWFF, I could see no discernable difference between FF on and off. Same with other games - NFSPU, Nascar 3, GPL, etc. So yeah, all FF peripherals will load the CPU to some extent, but the Microsoft wheels seem to be by far the worst. "SpeedFreek" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:9fogm2$5aem6$[email hidden]... > Euan Gilmour wrote in message ... > >Finally made the jump from console racing after lurking here for a year. > >Trying to get by on my 266 PII with an old Hercules Stingray card.Working > >quite well 17 fps at the beginning and 24 -27 fps out alone, which Ireckon > >is good enough for my old eyes. Now I need a wheel, there is an original > >NASCAR for $39.99 at EB and Logitech FF at Future shop for $109.99 (all > >prices in CDN$). Apart from the money issue I worry that the FF willtake > >processing power and drop my FPS (which right now is ok, I think, but > >marginal) Any thoughts? > > I think ALL FF wheels make a hit on the CPU. > The old Logitech wheel, the LWFF was one of the less cpu intensive wheels,I

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> could use it in GPL on my PII 233. I couldn't use the Microsoft wheel > without BIG hits on the FPS, but the LWFF hardly affected my FPS at all. > > Lol SF. > > >

The frame rate hit with the Guillemot, or old Logitech, is really small, maybe 1-2 fps (maybe less, can't really remember). The MS wheel has quite a noticeable frame-rate hit, particularly the USB version (surprisingly), bad enough that I had to return mine. I currently use the Guillemot Ferrari with the pedals from a MS precision racing wheel (both wheels plugged into 2 usb ports), and it's an awesome combo. And force-feedback is definitely worth using. "Euan Gilmour" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:v9OT6.389097$[email hidden]... > Finally made the jump from console racing after lurking here for a year. > Trying to get by on my 266 PII with an old Hercules Stingray card.Working > quite well 17 fps at the beginning and 24 -27 fps out alone, which Ireckon > is good enough for my old eyes. Now I need a wheel, there is an original > NASCAR for $39.99 at EB and Logitech FF at Future shop for $109.99 (all > prices in CDN$). Apart from the money issue I worry that the FF will take > processing power and drop my FPS (which right now is ok, I think, but > marginal) Any thoughts?

Guillemot and Logitech both use I-Force, don't they? Microsoft would presumably use DirectX. I wonder if that is the difference. "Simon Brown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:w3QT6.11468$[email hidden]... > The frame rate hit with the Guillemot, or old Logitech, is reallysmall, > maybe 1-2 fps (maybe less, can't really remember). The MS wheel hasquite a > noticeable frame-rate hit, particularly the USB version(surprisingly), bad > enough that I had to return mine. > > I currently use the Guillemot Ferrari with the pedals from a MSprecision > racing wheel (both wheels plugged into 2 usb ports), and it's anawesome > combo. And force-feedback is definitely worth using. > > "Euan Gilmour" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:v9OT6.389097$[email hidden]... > > Finally made the jump from console racing after lurking here for ayear. > > Trying to get by on my 266 PII with an old Hercules Stingray card. > Working > > quite well 17 fps at the beginning and 24 -27 fps out alone, which I > reckon > > is good enough for my old eyes. Now I need a wheel, there is anoriginal > > NASCAR for $39.99 at EB and Logitech FF at Future shop for $109.99(all > > prices in CDN$). Apart from the money issue I worry that the FFwill take > > processing power and drop my FPS (which right now is ok, I think,but > > marginal) Any thoughts? > >

Dunno to be honest. I don't think it's that simple though, since GPL uses DirectInput, so even on a Guillemot Ferrari, you are still using DirectX. I read somewhere that the MS wheel uses a lot of CPU cycles generating it's FF effects, so that's probably it. Either way, a good reason not to get one :) "Haqsau" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:Ot8U6.19571$[email hidden]... > Guillemot and Logitech both use I-Force, don't they? Microsoft would > presumably use DirectX. I wonder if that is the difference.