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NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS
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MPG video available at our web site.
IMPORTANT: read the section relative
to download problem in this FAQ
BEFORE going there!!!
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Hi F1/Racing sims fans,
As i got many EMails since my last posting
concerning our F1 simulation Starting Grid,
here are answers to questions people asked the most:
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* This is the Starting Grid FAQ v0.14
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* Faq maintained by Nicolas Eypert
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Q:What is Starting Grid
A:A F1 sim for the PC, for the basic information
browse thru our WEB SITE [link lost in import]
Q:Who is Laurant Weill
A:The chairman of VISIWARE.
Q:Who is Nicolas Eypert
A:one of the developers of the game.
Q:Who is the guy sleeping on our website?
A:He is the programmer doing the AI of the pilots.
Q:When the game will be out?
A:The game WILL be out on september (hopefully :-)).
Q:Who is the publisher ?
A:Cannot answer yet cause of non disclosure agreements
but it's a big one.
Q:Is it a 'console' game ?
A:Not at all,this is a F1 sim which is particulary aimed
at the PC market (althrough there will be some options
in the game to make it playable to beginners).
Q:What hardware config will be necessary to run the
game at an acceptable frame rate?
A:
Minimum:
P75
8MB
Very Good: (20fps VGA full textures)
P120/133
8/16 MB
Best: (20fps SVGA full textures) (30fps VGA full textures)
P166
16MB
NEW:
Just tested it on a PentiumPro 200Mhz
it run at 50 frames/sec in lores
and 25 in hires!!!
Q:What about network play?
A:Currently we work on serial/modem/parallel/IPX
You'll be able to play 2 to 6 at the same time
over a local IPX network, plus we'll probably
have an upgrade with TCP/IP support.
Q:What season is in the game?
A:The 1996 champ.
Q:Is there a paintkit ?
A:Currently you can paint your car from the menus
and we are trying to have an helmet paint kit
in the final version.
Q:Are wheels supported?
A:yes, we currently support 3 differents wheels.
Someon asked wich wheels we support. In fact
we support all type of analog devices.
As now we tested the game with :
Formula T1
Mad Catz (cheap and cool)
plus another one i cannot find :-)
Q:Will the display support 3D accelerators?
A:Yes and No, i cannot give the names but
several 3D chips could make it in the
initial release or will be used in
special versions, but as these chips
are not widely avaible it is hard for
us to tell more about it now.
Q:Is the game WIN95 or DOS?
A:Both.
Q:Will the game run under OS2?
A:As someone requested it, we will check to make sure
the game runs under OS2.
Q:Will the different weathers be in the game (wet races...)
A:Yes we have sunny/mid/wet races.
Q:is the melbourne grand prix in the game?
A:yes and the whole datas related to the 1996 season.
Q:what about the replay?
A:we know many people like (as we do) long replays,
at the moment our replays are more like thoses of
F1GP(2) than IndyCar: short but complete.
We will try to improve this, and at least
let the players with free MB of ram have
long replays.
Q:Do you drive as one of the real drivers or
make up your own team ?
A:Both, you can be one of the stars or create
your own team.
Q:Is there a demo version in the plans?
A:For us it's to soon to release a playable demo
but betas testers will get a playable prog soon.
Q:Is there a BETA testing program in the works ?
A:Yes and No. Our initial intention was to
give some betas to people who are really fans
an could help us. We've been contacted by many people
who wanted to be beta testers, we started to talk
with a guy (very well known for his good work on
his web pages and utilities for various racing games)
but he made a fatal mistake which will cost to all
of you (well almost all of you), we sent him
a N.D.A (Non Disclosure Agreement), the mistake he
made was that he cross mailed to us (by mistake) a message
which was for one of his friends,in which he was saying
that as soon as he gets the betas he'll send it to him !!!
Not to say that we were very disapointed :-(
Currently there is only one beta tester, this guy is testing
our program because we met him (he is from France).
you can ask him for his impressions on the game if you want,
but he will not give you confidential infos!
Any person interested in beta testing the program now
should be able to provide EXTENSIVE references and
preferably live in France (we should be able met him).
Thanks for understanding us.
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Downloading Problems on our web pages:
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Many people reported download problems
conerning the video we put on our
site.
The problem seems to be that with some
browsers (like Netscape) the file you
get has not the same size as it should
be.
For those of you who are interested here are
the correct file lenghs:
sgvid.arj 1456473
sgvid.a01 1456504
sgvid.a02 1456494
sgvid.a03 1456482
sgvid.a04 1456487
sgvid.a05 1456493
sgvid.a06 1456500
sgvid.a07 1456484
sgvid.a08 1456452
sgvid.a09 1456442
sgvid.a10 1456498
sgvid.a11 1456452
sgvid.a12 26472
Please note that you can check for
file integrity by using
ARJ t *.*
Here is why this happens:
(The solution was posted by
Danny Brands, thanks Dan!)
This is a problem on our side.
Our webserver has correct MIME types
for most file types but not for
ARJ files, as the site is not on one of
our computers we have to contact them
to fix this problem wich might take some days.
As a solution, try to set your browser to
force MIME types to binary or to igoner MIME types.
(sure you know how to do it)
Thanks for understanding.
Note: A cool guy (Ken Tarvin) got the video
and put it on his ftp site
so if you want you can get it at:
ftp.cts.com/users/sd/b/bahnzo/
Other infos that might be of interest:
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Many people made comments on the pictures they
saw on our Website (www.visiware.com):
The pics you can see there are 2 months old
and trust me the visuals have improved a lot
since then (the cars in particulary).
So we will update the pics and post videos
(mpg/avi) as soon as we can (i'll post here to
inform you, or watch our site a the end of the week).
Do not hesitate to email me any other questions,
as we are very intested by any constructive
comments/requests users can have.
Nicolas Eypert/Visiware France
developer on starting grid.
Or
www.visiware.com
Thanks for reading.
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Nicolas Eypert
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Games Development
www.visiware.com
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