Ok, here's my opinion if F1.
Oh dear.
I have a P200MMX 32MbEDO Orchid Rghteous 3dfx.
F1 runs at about 25-30fps BUT...
It STUTTERS like mad - not like the GP2 slowdown where time slows
but rather it just skips frames which makes it much much worse (Geoff Cramond
got it right after all guys). It's very very noticeable even on the graphically
light tracks (eg Silverstone). It has nothing to do with drawing depth, it has
nothing to do with how many trees it has to draw. It even stutters when you are
sideways on and can only see the grandstands. It don't think its 3dfx texture
caching (as with GLQauke) because you can spin on the spot, going round and
and it's like spin-stutter-spun-stutter :(
The track texture is awefull. At low speeds you do get a sense of moving but
driving about 90mpg the track textures start to slowdown, stop and even crawl
backwards - you lose all sense of forward motion!
The track design is fantastic, the trackside objects are great. The trees look
worse than in GP2 and the cars, well the cras look like they were designed by
Salvador Dali - all stretchout ond warped.
I run GP2 immediately after playing F1 for a couple of hours - I was so glad
to be back! No texture crawling, no stutter, proper handling, a***pit (which
I though I could do without).
If you assume F1 is an arcade racer (which B.C and Psygnosis have been saying
all along and not to compare it with GP2) then we can ignore car handling,
setup, control options (the suck BAD in F1), driving aids etc etc and just
look at the graphics side. Even here F1 fails terribly.
Apart from the track texture sliding backwards, the graphics are fair. It's
the sort of game which looks fantastic in screenshots but doesn't work when
it's all moving. Pop-ups never hit me in the face in GP2 like they do in F1.
Take Monaca - you will drive round a corner and see a tall building slowly
appear from the top down - the upper part suspended in the air as the lower
polygons are drawn in - yuk. That doesn't happen in GP2.
The sound, whilst being based on in-car samples, just doesn't work. GP2
is lightyears ahead i this area as well.
The menu system if crap. If you go into a single race it takes 20 keystrokes
to get out of it! No per-track setup. Options aren't saved when you quit. Car
AI is terrible. No lockups, no wheel spin, no cars leaving track - curbs make
very little difference.
All in all it looks like a two year old console game which has been hacked to
run on a PC. Oh it is.
If BC/Psygnosis fix the stuttering, the track texture and the stetchy bend cars
the this would be a find arcade racing game. Even then the pretty graphics
will still look good in screenshot but make the game look worst than GP2 when
running.
Rob.
<snip>
Oooh err. I suppose F1 is the pretty, young thing ;)
>I have a P200MMX 32MbEDO Orchid Rghteous 3dfx.
>It STUTTERS like mad
Rob...there must be something wrong with your system. I have a lowly
P133 and it runs smooth as silk. I did get stuttering at one point
but this was Norton or my Virus checker kicking off in the background.
Always disable all those Win95 system tray things before starting the
game. As a friend suggested last night maybe for Win98 Microsoft
should think about a special mode (like safe mode) that you could boot
into for Win95 games that would have a minimum of drivers etc loaded.
You may be able to do this already with the System Policy Editor.
Agreed...I have noticed this also...especially when watching others
play the game. The track appears to float backwards and forwards.
Agreed...Tracks are amazing. The relief on the tracks is impressive.
The cars do look pretty long for some reason.
I have accepted the game purely as an arcade racer. It isn't GP2 and
it never will be (although if both games were merged some how it may
be near perfect - with the addition of network support of course).
There are pop-ups but they don't detract too much from the enjoyment.
Agreed...very disappointing. Especially in replay mode. The cars are
far too high pitched. If you get on the grass (not that I every do
you understand) and you're revving hard to get off and blipping the
throttle it starts to sound like the "red-alert" siren on Star Trek!!
Oh how bad is this....VERY bad! Terrible menu system.
Inexcusible! I await the patch.
Agreed...it displays the GP1 AI system ie the computer cars follow the
racing line like they're on rails even if it means they drive into you
as you pass them.
Think this is a bit harsh.
At the end of the day I really enjoy it. F1 is the very attractive
"one night stand" of F1 ***. The "instant gratification" of
jumping straight in for some fun. GP2 on the other hand is "the
wife". Initially maybe not as exciting but its here you're going to
spend most of your time and here you're going to do memorable things.
Mark McCall
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