F1RS - another satisfied F1 racing fan (long)

Well I finally got my copy of F1 Racing Simulation. I made the dumb mistake of trying to save $20 in brokerage fees by having it shipped via 1st class air-mail from www.interact.com during the Christmas season and after a mail strike. It took 28 days from the time it was shipped to when I got it. Caused me to make several irritated calls to Canada Post and Customs about this. Its been about 36 hours since I've installed F1 RS and I've not been doing much else but racing since that time. I liked the French demo version back last September. The English demo was better. The full game is incredible. More than I expected. The F1RS team have created a work of art with this. It is so enjoyable to race. After getting used to the feel of the car and experimenting with some setups that I downloaded its such an immersive experience to feel the car on the edge of its traction limits as it loses grip and then regains its through a corner. I've had the settings on Pro with ABS, anti-skid and anti-spin for now. Without anti-spin on, its too hard for me to control rear wheel spin even in 3rd gear. Just for reference, my system is a PPro200 with 128MB, Monster3dfx, AudioPCI and TSW wheel and pedals. The graphics are just awesome. No dropping of frame rate with highest detail and full view of 21 cars. I especially like the Variable Weather with about 4% humidity. I started a 100% race at Imola. It was lightly raining and there was no announcement to change to rain tires. The road had a light haze to it and the distant mountains were barely visible though the fog. Within about 15 laps, the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Another 5 laps and it felt burning hot with a deep blue sky. 10 laps later it started to get hazy again. I haven't seen it actually start raining heavily enough in a race to have to change to rain tires mid-way in a race yet though. That would be really cool. Watched most of a full race at Spa that started with rain and kept it up for the full race. The spray effects are very well done both from within the car and from an outside view. I thought that the Imola track seemed really different from what I remembered with GP2. Particularly where you go under a sort of arch at the top of a hill about 3/4 of the way through the track. In GP2, it was possible to take the gentle right corner flat out passing under the arch and then slowing down for a left. In F1RS, there is a very tight chicane right after the arch. Haven't checked actual race footage but maybe this was one of the changes in track layout for 1996. Anyways, I loaded up GP2 and was amazed at the slide show that I saw. A few months ago I was saying that it was playable (I used all graphics except sky at 21fps). It was terrible looking and the car seemed be very hard to control with the jerky movements. Anyways, I never made it around to the corner that I thought looked different. I just couldn't stand it with F1RS just a click away. Goes to show what a solid 30-40fps will do to ones definition of smooth. The AI is generally very well done. There is good honest competition possible. Although, at least on Pro level, they are somewhat too forgiving and will yield even though they are in front with the line if I force them. They are probably smart to do so since otherwise they would be in an accident with me around <g> There are a few bugs and design flaws that I've encountered. Many of these I've seen posted by others here. Oh yea, I installed the 1.05 patch first thing. 1) sound problems. As I posted in another message, with the initial install, the program would crash after about 10 minutes into racing with a protection error in module WAVX2BVR.DLL. Changing the WAVX2 entry in the cpa.ini file to WAVPW fixed this problem. At least it hasn't occurred in about 20 hours of racing. However, I still get one or the other channel breaking up occasionally. It just affects the motor sound. The gear changes and voice announcing still come through. In fact the motor sound usually comes back when a gear change occurs. Tried changing the SXD_DIST_SATUR and SXD_DIST_FADE variables but this didn't fix this problem. 2) The pit menu that comes up when making an unscheduled pit stop drastically needs to pause the game. Its frustrating to be fiddling with arrow keys to set the amount of fuel. At least being able to type the amount of fuel would be faster, but in reality, this information would already have been conveyed to the pit crew before entering the pit. 3) Not a major problem but after an unscheduled pit stop, you are still notified of pre-scheduled pit stops and for a couple of laps after that there is a 1 second pausing or hesitation in shifting when passing the pits. 4) Occasional crashes when going to Replay from the Pause menu. 5) Would be nice to have a Reload item on the Pause menu. 6) Should save the most recently used car setups as the default for each track. Well that about it for now. None of these problems are severe enough to keep me from enjoying this great game. I know its going to be around for a long time. Thanks to everyone involved in making F1 RS. Dave.

(snip) 2) The pit menu that comes up when making an unscheduled pit stop drastically needs to pause the game. (unsnip) Hit the 'P' key, the game will pause. Then hit the Backspace key and the pit menu comes up. Make your adjustments, then hit Backspace again to enter them, hit 'P' to un-pause and away you go. I agree with your other comments concerning the pitting procedure......it would be nice just to be able to hold down the left or right arrow keys for fuel quantity instead of having to tap away at them. Likewise the slider controls for the car setup adjustments......looks cute but not very efficient. It would be preferable to have the ability to type the setting into the appropriate space. But these, as you say, are niggly little things and really are incidental to how brilliant the on-track experience is. -- Bruce. (At home)

I agree F1RS is brilliant - but I think you need to turn all the aids off right from the start for the full experience - ok the learning curve & initial frustration is greater - but it reaps rewards in the long run and you can develop your setups without major overhauls when you decide to turn off the aids in the future. Tony

As of now I'm am relying on the French demo to satisfy my F1 cravings until my copy arrives in a couple of weeks, but may I ask, where did you find the English demo for download? Thanks Ben

>I agree F1RS is brilliant - but I think you need to turn all the aids off >right from the start for the full experience - ok the learning curve & I agree. If you turn off all the aids like A.B.S. & traction and others, and race against the Amatuer level with no damage, you will get good training. The worst you will do is go off the track and that is a good penalty. The gravel trap is modeled MUCH better than GP2, even though you can still get out, you mostly need to go down to 1st gear. -- Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

On Mon, 12 Jan 1998 23:23:17 +1100, Bruce Kennewell

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>(snip) >2) The pit menu that comes up when making an unscheduled pit stop >drastically needs to pause the game. >(unsnip) >Hit the 'P' key, the game will pause. Then hit the Backspace key and >the pit menu comes up. Make your adjustments, then hit Backspace again >to enter them, hit 'P' to un-pause and away you go.

Thanks for the pointer. I didn't think of hitting the Pause key after the dialog comes up. Normally, pressing pause disables all keyboard input. This works great. Actually, it does auto-repeat but much too fast once it kicks in. Anyways, since the game can be paused while adjusting the fuel and tires, it not really important to me how long it takes now.

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>> Its been about 36 hours since I've installed F1 RS and I've not been >> doing much else but racing since that time. I liked the French demo >> version back last September. The English demo was better. The full >> game is incredible. >> Dave. >As of now I'm am relying on the French demo to satisfy my F1 cravings until >my copy arrives in a couple of weeks, but may I ask, where did you find the >English demo for download? >Thanks >Ben

It was posted in November if I recall for about a week, then pulled. I was just fortunate to grab it before it disappeared. I don't think that it can be found anywheres now. Sorry, I'd email it to you but 30 MB is a bit large <g> Dave

Never stopped Damon and Jean last year!;) - I call it total realism. BTW I love Monaco with all driving aids off-especially the section after the tunnel-swimming pool etc-awesome!!

Oh well, my full version will be here in about a week. I think I'll be able to wait. I was glad to read you review of the game. Thanks. Ben

>via 1st class air-mail from www.interact.com Just a correction to my previous reference to Interact CD's address. It should be http://www.interactcd.com/ They don't deserve a typo for their excellent service. Dave

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998 06:48:44 -0600, "Greg Cisko"

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>>I agree F1RS is brilliant - but I think you need to turn all the aids off >>right from the start for the full experience - ok the learning curve & >I agree. If you turn off all the aids like A.B.S. & traction and others, >and race against the Amatuer level with no damage, you will get >good training. The worst you will do is go off the track and that is >a good penalty. The gravel trap is modeled MUCH better than >GP2, even though you can still get out, you mostly need to go >down to 1st gear.

Yes, going without aids and on Amateur is an interesting experience also. There are different ways of experiencing various aspects of the racing simulation without being subjected to the greatest reality that the simulation offers all at one time. Eg. to experience the damage model and permanent penalty it gives, its necessary to have other aids to compensate at the beginning. Having permanent damage makes me drive much more carefully than when there is nothing to prevent me from ramming another car that is in the way without any consequence. Dave.

>to compensate at the beginning. Having permanent damage makes me >drive much more carefully than when there is nothing to prevent me >from ramming another car that is in the way without any consequence. IMHO the consequence is that you could very well spin out or en up off the track and way down in the field. -- Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

Racing on Expert ....Ive turned off the aids I was using before...chosing only to use Auto Shift..yea yea...but I like it. hehe. Anyway racing at 25% distance with 11 opponents at Spa is a major blast...having traction control off is a revelation. Runing 4th last night 9th lap of 11 and spun off DAMN...fun fun fun...sim is brilliant. Pierre Pierre PAPA DOC Legrand Infamous Pink Flamingo Pilot...