It wasn't supposed to be at all.
Damn right. People tend to forget that you get what you pay for.
Pay nothing, get nothing.
No, we aren't forgetting at all. We are trying to make sure that this
thing doesn't get to the final stages with the glaring flaws it currently
has. As far as quality new driving sims go, Papyrus products are our
our only hope. They can't fix things that they may not know are wrong.
They aren't stupid, but they may well be too close to the product to
see many problems which may be obvious to others.
How many driving "sims" have come out in the past 12 months?
Lots. How many have driving/physics models that are even remotely
grounded in reality? Zero. The last released "sim" being one of
the most pathetic, F1RS. After so many resounding disappointments,
I kept telling myself that there was always Papyrus. They, at least,
could be relied upon to give us a thoroughly engineered and
deeply satisfying sim, right?
At this juncture, the answer to this is - "wrong".
Here we appear to have yet another product where the
emphasis is not on the driving experience, but on
eye candy graphics, and the shallow special effects
of off-track excursions. Kudos to GPL for the absolutely
amazing attention to detail of how the vehicle behaves
when off the track, bounding through ditches, flipping
over fences, and tumbling down the fairway. Kudos
to GPL for the incredibly convincing engine fires,
ever increasing clouds of smoke from an abused engine,
the visual effects of the tire sidewalls as they increase
and decrease in speed, and the detail seen in the
rear view mirrors. All of this stuff kept me wowed for about
an hour. After that, I was ready to get into the meat of
the demo and do some really hard driving.
Too bad for me.
This thing has some real problems with physics.
Gravity seems to have taken a holiday. As has
the section of the physics model that deals with
slides. Really hard driving is going to put a
vehicle in some really steep slides. GPL handles
very mild slides quite well, but falls flat on its face
when anything serious is encountered. Doesn't
matter what speed either. Can be low and slow
in first or second gear, but hang on and grab the airsick bag, we're going
to get real dizzy in a real hurry.
Add to this the utter and complete lack of sense of speed
that is probably akin to the kind of sense that you might
get while driving a Lincoln Continental of that period,
and you have a real bear of a car to drive anywhere
at any speed.
So who are we to say how the physics of mid-sixties
GP cars should be resolved? How do we know how these
cars actually handled?
Most of us don't. Nor do I personally care. If the physics here are near
"reality", it doesn't matter, because it is not relevant
to the situation. The "reality" is that the control of a
real world vehicle is largely based on "seat of the pants"
information about the motion of the vehicle. Particularly
in a developing slide/spin situation where the chassis/tires are
communicating this information fractions of a second before any
massive changes in vehicle position occur. We are involved
in PC simulations, which will never, for the vast majority
of users, communicate this kind of motion information.
There are going to have to be some handicaps in these situations
to allow better control.
So who gives a rip anyway?
Anyone who is a serious sim racer, and wants a fulfilling
driving/racing experience all day long, every day.
There is a ton of arcade driving "sim" garbage out
there filled with eye popping graphics and special effects.
What we need now is something that we can really drive.
Papyrus, we do hold you to a higher standard. Tweak this thing
until it drives in a credible manner.
Karl Heinz
Has it ever crossed your pathetic little brain, that it's maybe YOU that are
completly ***at driving games. Take some time out of your ***ing life to
play a game (it is only a game afterall) and practise. I was ***at GPL at
first, but I learn't from MY mistakes, looked at replays from other guys,
and am now performing cracking laps all the time.
What are you running this thing on? I cannot credit how anyone can say
driving the GP car doesn't have a sense of speed!!!!!
Regards
DM
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To reply remove < .nospam > from my e-mail address
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"Black holes are where God divided by zero."
Looks like you may know how to drive, but haven't "learn't" how to spell
yet!
