That, my friends, is why a sim *needs* weather

Sunday's GP at Hockenheim clearly demonstrated to me how much deeper the challenge is when one has to contend with changing weather conditions, and different weather and track conditions on different points of the track. Is the line drying, or is the rain increasing? Can I go offline to cool my tires? Is the 2 seconds I gain in the dry part of the course being offset by time lost tiptoeing around the wet portions. These are all the considerations that differentiate a racing simulator from a driving simulator. I'm not saying a dry weather only sim cannot be brilliant, but in the future, unless the series being represented does not run in the rain, the developers better include a fairly sophisticated weather system. Stephen

I agree with Stephen's points. Thinking about the German GP - there were other aspects that were important to the race outcome: Person on the track - very unusual, hardly something we can expect in a sim; but ruined Coulthards race due to the safety car: Safety Car - does GP 3 include this? It certiantly played a key role in the race outcome, especially as each team only has one pit position. "reactive" driver AI - Rubens excellent win was down to his blistering drive. Many would say that since he has less to loose than the McLarens, he was able to go for it, whilst the McLarens where attempting a more cautious approach. In general, there is a limit to the amount a simulator can capture, but weather is a key step forward. Unfortunately, I won't get the benefit of seeing dry lines emerge with a lowly P2-350. Stephen Ferguson wrote:

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> Sunday's GP at Hockenheim clearly demonstrated to me how much deeper the > challenge is when one has to contend with changing weather conditions, and > different weather and track conditions on different points of the track. Is > the line drying, or is the rain increasing? Can I go offline to cool my > tires? Is the 2 seconds I gain in the dry part of the course being offset > by time lost tiptoeing around the wet portions. These are all the > considerations that differentiate a racing simulator from a driving > simulator. I'm not saying a dry weather only sim cannot be brilliant, but > in the future, unless the series being represented does not run in the rain, > the developers better include a fairly sophisticated weather system. > > Stephen

-- Steven Crook-Dawkins - Research Assistant - University of York. Email Disclaimer ---------------------- The information in this email is confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorised. The views expressed in this email are those of the author, and should not be attributed to the University of York, BAE SYSTEMS or any other party.

But I think it is really cool in GP3 that it is possible that the rain is just in one part of the track (like in Hockenheim yesterday). marc "rrevved" <[email hidden]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:[email hidden]... > On Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:58:42 +0100, Steven Crook-Dawkins<[email hidden]> wrote:

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> > >Unfortunately, I won't get the benefit of seeing dry lines emerge > >with a > >lowly P2-350. > > I would say that would be a function of your video card. > > It runs nicely on my wife's PII-333/Voodoo3-2000 (my old system). > Don't believe the overblown claims that some are making about > mega-systems being required to run this thing. It's not true. > I would say that it is the most processor-friendly racing _sim_ > released in quite a while. It will run smoother than GPL, SCGT > or F1-2000, with a full field. All depends on your system.. > In your case, your video card is the question mark, if you > don't plan to upgrade the CPU any time soon. > > What kind of card do you have? >

Forget weather. I want crazy, laid-off auto workers walking around the tracks during races. Much more challenging than dealing with weather. -- ----------------------------------- Morgan Vincent Wooten GPLRank: +25.51 mailto:[email hidden] http://members.tripod.com/~morganv/ ----------------------------------- Stephen Ferguson <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:39852be3$[email hidden]... > Sunday's GP at Hockenheim clearly demonstrated to me how much deeper the > challenge is when one has to contend with changing weather conditions, and > different weather and track conditions on different points of the track. Is > the line drying, or is the rain increasing? Can I go offline to cool my > tires? Is the 2 seconds I gain in the dry part of the course being offset > by time lost tiptoeing around the wet portions. These are all the > considerations that differentiate a racing simulator from a driving > simulator. I'm not saying a dry weather only sim cannot be brilliant, but > in the future, unless the series being represented does not run in the rain, > the developers better include a fairly sophisticated weather system. > > Stephen > > > >

On Mon, 31 Jul 2000 07:16:44 -0500, rrevved <[email hidden]> wrote: >Don't believe the overblown claims that some are making about >mega-systems being required to run this thing. It's not true. >I would say that it is the most processor-friendly racing _sim_ >released in quite a while. On the other hand it's also one of the ugliest. I've just upgraded my system and can now run F12K in nearly all its glory with 4xFSAA (_all_ its glory with 2x or no FSAA), and boy does it look good. Freaking unbelievable! Lightyears ahead of GP3 (also at full detail and 4xFSAA). Too bad we can't have all the good things from the two games in one. Jan