Here are my observations of the differences between the beta, (v0.2.0.0), and
the final version (v1.0.0.0), of GPL, some of which I understand, and some of
which I dont.
Okay, okay, first of all, yes I downloaded the early Warez version, while I
waited for the final version to appear here in the UK. I am not defending this
course of action, but now that Ive spent my 34.99 in Dixons, and deleted the
old version, my conscious is clear...!! (flame away lame burgers..........)
Let me tell you about the system Im using currently. I have a P200 pentium,
(actually a P133 with an overdrive chip), 4 meg video card and a 12 meg voodoo
2, and the frame rate is pretty poor at about 13-15 fps. I believe this to be
due in part to the inferior FPU, included in the overdrive chip from Evergreen,
believe me, Ive read every post about improving fps in r.a.s over the last few
weeks., and tried every tweak, and still no improvement. Not to worry, Im
investing in 450mhz PII in the next few weeks, so Ill soon be running at 36
fps, (you know it makes sense..!) I also have a Thrustmaster NASCAR Pro wheel
and peddles, and even though the TM gets plenty of bad press in r.a.s., Im not
a heavy user, and it seems to suit me fine, (I can feel the flames starting
already...)
Anyway regardless of the fps, I still find the game very playable, if a little
difficult to control. With the demo, and before any major tweaking, I was only
getting 10 fps on a good day, which made the Lotus at the Glen almost
impossible to control. At this point I decided to look for the warez version,
to see if there was any way I could make the game more playable by adjusting
the setups. (I would never had even considered the warez version, if it had not
been for the fuss it created in this newsgroup, so blame yourselves!).
Having found the beta version, (v0.2.0.0.), I proceeded to swap the Lotus for
the Ferrari, and spend my life at Monza, Spa and the Ring. After gradually
switching off more and more detail, (only the groove, horizon, wall textures
switched on, plus trees at Monza, you cant run at monza without the trees for
god sake), I finally arrived at my 12-15 fps average.(If you switch everything
off, not only does it only increase the fps by about 10%, or in my case 1 fps,
but it makes the game look strangely like Indy 500, and a bit like GP2!!)
Any after many many laps at the Ring, my best lap was still only 11:48.68,
which although nowhere near the 8:17 I was reading about at in r.a.s., I still
felt was pretty good considering the technical restrictions of my system. I
moved back to Monza, where after maybe 200 laps, I could still only just
scratch the edge of 1:37, even after going round the dial on setups. Even
though I was hopelessly un competitive, I just love throwing the Ferrari into
the Curva Grande, and struggling to fly through Ascari on full power. I also
spent an enormous amount of time at Spa, finally managing to nail down a 4:04
lap. I then setup a race, so that I could watch where Bandini and Amon were
changing gears and braking, and you could just imagine my horror to see Graham
Hill set a fastest lap of 3:30 after only the first lap..!!, 34 seconds faster
than I had been. This was a low point in my GPL career.
As I could not download any setups in the beta, and I did not have the great
"Four-Wheel-Drift" manual by Steve Smith, I was not sure whether it was my
skill level, my setups, the low fps, the TM wheel, or a combination of all of
these that was making me so much slower that everyone else in the world. Still,
I continued lapping at various circuits ands loving every minute of it.
Last Sunday I managed to pick up my copy of the final version of this great
game, and could not get back home quick enough. After installing, and spending
a great deal of time reading the "FWD" manual, I set up my wheel and peddles,
put on my driving socks, started my engine and headed straight to Monza, the
circuit I felt that I knew best.
The first thing I noticed was that my average fps had dropped to a consistent
12-13fps, with very little variation. This was quite noticeable when doing the
first few recon laps, as the game played a little jumpy, but perseverance is my
middle name and I continued for about 10 or so laps, before coming into the
pits to look at my setup. Imagine my surprise when I check my lap times to find
I had gone over 2 secs quicker on my 7th lap at Monza, than I had gone in the
previous 3 weeks with the beta..!!! Even though I did not feel that I was
driving as smoothly or fast, I seemed to have improved dramatically. Off to Spa
next, and the same again, within 2 laps I was 6 secs faster, even though I felt
more ragged!
I believe that the main reason for the improvement was down to the default car
having a much more competitive setup than either the demo or the beta version.
Well at least now I know that my previous attempts to set the car up had been
hopelessly wrong, and now that I had the "FDW" manual, I should be able to
tweak my setup to be better.
I then downloaded the Doug Amarno set ups from Alison Hines, "Eagle Woman"
site, and gave them a try. Both the Monza and Spa setups seemed to be very
skittish, and proved very squirrily under braking. Being a purist, Im not keen
on using other peoples setups, (sort of like cheating I think), and I like to
set cars up to suit my style of driving, (stiff, low and controllable).
So last night I returned to Spa, (what a track..!!), armed with the default
Ferrari setup and the manual, and set about setting the car up to my liking.
After many return trips to the pits, and some spectacular crashes into several
of the buildings along the back straight, I set the damage to realistic, and
went out for a full blown training session, in an attempt to bring my lap times
down. On lap 17, after an almost incident free lap of shortshifting and five
sixths power, I managed a 3:45.38, which represents a massive 19 secs faster
that my previous best. I then watched Dougs 3:25 lap of Spa in the Lotus, and
saw several areas where I could improve my braking and gear changing, but by
this time it was midnight, and I did not want to annoy my wife any further than
I needed to.
Even though Im still significantly slower that the top AI drivers, I feel that
I know where the improvements to my setups and driving strategy can be made.
And when I get my P2 450, and 36fps, I believe that this will only help my
times.
Another change I have noticed is that the linearity slider seems to be much
more sensitive. When using the beta, I was setting the linearity under the "a"
of linear, which is where I set it when I first installed the final version.
This made the car impossible to drive, where only the slightest movement of the
wheel sends the car from one side of the track to the other, and made braking a
life and death decision. I have now set the linearity to about the middle of
the scale, which seems about right for the moment. Has anyone else noticed
this, or is it just me?, (unique or freak?). I will try moving closer to the
left hand end, once I get a little more competitive.
I also noticed that the TV1 & TV2 camera angles have changed from the beta to
the final, certainly at Spa, which I think is an improvement.
I really enjoy the driving experience of GPL, and even though not having the
fastest system in the known universe, with a little perseverance and
dedication, I am extracting as much enjoyment from the sim, more than equal to
the effort I am putting in to it. GPL is certainly the most realistic sim Ive
driven, (I was a heavy user of GP2, as a GP2 league driver), and Papy should be
congratulated on their major achievement.
Watch out my fellow GPL drivers, Im hoping to lock wheels with you very soon,
on a circuit somewhere......
SteveG
you may consider installing an abit bh6 mb celeron300a combo. i just did
that to my "old" 200mmx. i run it at 374-450mhz and it runs 36fps with all
graphics and cars. the mb cost $105 and cpu cost $170, a 350pII cpu is
$675!! and my system is faster
In fact you can even get the 300a for $140. It's just a joke compared to
the
prices for the p2 chips - same performance for about 25% price. Oh well,
Intel introduced the celeron to take out AMD and I'm now replacing my AMD
with a Celeron, and Intel has overclocking to thank for that.
rob.
>you may consider installing an abit bh6 mb celeron300a combo. i just did
>that to my "old" 200mmx. i run it at 374-450mhz and it runs 36fps with all
>graphics and cars. the mb cost $105 and cpu cost $170, a 350pII cpu is
>$675!! and my system is faster
I've personally got a P2-233, but my parents still have their old 486 in the
ba***t.. They're thinking of upgrading next week.. and I suggested to them
exactly what they should buy (My dad was going to buy a P400 with 64 MB
SDRAM and a No-Name motherboard (basically everything else ***
components)..
I've managed to convince him to go for the ABIT BH6 mb with Celeron 300A
processor, 64 mb pc-100mhz RAM, and quality parts for a CHEAPER price than
the system he was looking at (he was getting ripped).. (going to overclock
to 400)
I know that he should purchase the "retail" chip, as opposed to "oem", but
what about the motherboard? Does it really matter if it is the "retail"
version, or not?
Can anyone give me any advise?
Oh.. what was the best brand of memory?? Was it Samsung? (rings a bell for
some reason). Anything I should avoid?
Thanks
doktorB
