Absolutely not!
F1GP/World Circuit is a game. It is by no means realistic. The car
drives itself. It steers in on its own, and when you want to pull out
to pass, the game sticks you in a programmed alternate groove (and that
groove sometimes, such as one spot at Imola, is halfway off the Tarmac).
The car will not roll down hills by its own mass. If you spin sideways
on a hill, the horizon is unchanged, as though part of your car is floating.
For a true car simulation on the Amiga, see "Indianapolis 500: The Simulation"
by Papyrus, sold by Electronic Arts. These are the same people who recently
made the award-winning "IndyCar Racing" for the PC market (if only they'd
make it for us now!). In I500, the elevation change (banked turns) aren't
just for show. They're actually >there<. The car hits them, the car gets
light when coming off them, the car will roll down them unpowered. The
mouse control is great, also. Fiddling with the stiffness of the suspension
or with the anti-roll bars, and you can have lots of fun driving a difficult
race car, sliding it through the turns. Try to see how long you can keep a
slide and get away without having the sudden return of traction send you
head on into the wall.
I500 uses the 1989 Indy starting field, and also the 1989 track
configuration (the apron was removed last year). Also the computer
cars never put all four wheels on the apron, as that would result
in a penalty that year.
Another thing I500 has over F1GP/WC is that the computer cars are not
oblivious to your presence. You can race side by side through the turns,
either on the inside of another car or outside of it. Try coming out of
a corner on the outside in F1GP! The computer car will smash into you.
Not so in I500. The computer car driver realizes you're there and adjusts
his line accordingly, giving you room on the outside. When you come upon
slower traffic, they will, if possible, stop their own dicing and pull into
line, to let you past. Be careful, though -- some of the drivers will pull
out to pass someone before checking their mirrors. It's quite a heart-
stopper when you're 170 laps into the race and a guy does a little weaving
right into your path before realizing his error and pulling back into line.
Heck, you can't even race side by side on the inside of someone in F1GP.
The computer cars will take the normal line and smash into you then too.
F1GP/WC looks nice, but is not a realistic simulation of car control
and racing competition. It would be a thousand times better if the
car did not drive itself and had mouse control (like the very old, very
out-dated Ferrari Formula One). But as it is, it's a game when compared
to a true simulation like I500. Sigh. Now if only Papyrus would make
IndyCar Racing for the Amiga, so we can have their great simulating with
road racing. Unfortunately the PC version has funky texture mapping and
stuff added and I think Papyrus is reluctant to dumb the graphics down
to the fast simplicity of I500 and F1GP. Texture mapping! Sod that!
Frame rate and a good judge of the edge of your car is all you need.
(Say, how about Jaegar doing a racing sim? If the other cars can be bigger
than the one-inch planes in FDPro2, at least.)
As for the original poster, from Maine... where the heck did you see
F1 cars on TV recently in America? The season hasn't begun yet!
Surely you wouldn't dare confuse IndyCars with Formula One cars...
My my, good thing this isn't crossposted to rec.autos.sport.
(This has, however, been crossposted to rec.autos.simulators.)
Note to PC readers: No, the Amiga version of F1GP, made before the IBM
version, doesn't allow the user to turn off steering help and traction
control.
--
: Another thing I500 has over F1GP/WC is that the computer cars are not
: oblivious to your presence. You can race side by side through the turns,
: either on the inside of another car or outside of it. Try coming out of
: a corner on the outside in F1GP! The computer car will smash into you.
: Heck, you can't even race side by side on the inside of someone in F1GP.
: The computer cars will take the normal line and smash into you then too.
I have noticed several times that the AI cars in F1GP *do* stay wide
if you go up the inside but *only* if you have put yourself on the
inside within their view..If you go braking late into a corner and
slide up the inside quickly they have already entered turn mode and
won't stay out for you. Lets just say they have poor peripheral vision<g>.
Yeah I think I500 is more realistic but WC has a lot more depth to it
just because you can race on any of 16 tracks.. I agree that the
physical modelling of F1GP is not up to that of I500 and IndyCar but I
think they've done a great job with the tracks (I'm not sure of the
Amiga version because I have a PC). To be able to model one track
accurately (IMS) is good but you must admit that to be able to model
all 16 tracks with fairly accurate detail is a feat!(And it doesn`t
require 8 megs to load all of them like ICR either).
I agree with you on the fact that all this texture mapping in ICR
hurts the game..Hopefully, in the next incarnation of WC/F1GP, we
won't see gameplay sacrificed for texture-mapping up the wazoo..
BTW with the current engine and tire grip editors for the PC version,
just about all the problems with too-easy competition have been
addressed as well.. You can now get a competitive field with times
almost identical to the real thing (by lowering the player's engine
power as well).
Just defending a game I love!...:)
RQ (btw I am going to get ICR but only when I can upgrade to a 486 or
Pentium).
> Anyway, I have recently seen a game advertised in
>Creative Computers ads and others called Domark F1
>racing: Turbo 2, or some such name. Has anyone
>seen this.
Originally dubbed 'VROOM' this brilliant game later became distributed
by Domark and was mysteriously renamed F1. On an unaccelerated 500 it
screams, and the link modes are terrific. It's not at all realistic though,
just lots and lots of arcade fun.
--
|~~~| Heath Doerr | "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone
|* | Purdue University | who says differently is selling
| | West Lafayette, IN | something."
What kind of a version do you have?I have Amiga version of F1GP,made
before the IBM version,and it allows me to turn off all possible help
modes.
>--
* Tampere University of Technology *
--
*************** Tampere University of Technology ***************
*************** I promise I won't promise a thing! ***************
------------------------------------
>>Note to PC readers: No, the Amiga version of F1GP, made before the IBM
>>version, doesn't allow the user to turn off steering help and traction
>>control.
>What kind of a version do you have?I have Amiga version of F1GP,made
>before the IBM version,and it allows me to turn off all possible help
>modes.
And you'll notice that none of them is steering help and traction control.
They cannot be turned off. That makes F1GP more a game than a simulation.
The IBM version does allow turning of steering help and traction control.
Many players don't have the patience to turn them off and really >learn<
the courses though. So for now, the best car control for road racing on
Amiga is the ancient Ferrari Formula One. F1GP just looks nice.
--
