Rally99 : more ON-THE -ROAD screenshots

Hi I am getting very edgy with the latest screenshots coming for Rally 99. It is quite obvious the " drive any where" is not going to be there but the same invisible wall as the old Rally championship. I certainly hope to be proven wrong ......but I am getting that sickening feeling .........urrgh ( study the shots carefully and you will see the slight difference between the grass near the road and the grass all over ) -- regards =========================================== Singapore

Actually Leong... after talking with Richard Vanner on the telephone the other day, he told me that most of the shots (and demo) were taken by a computer generated "player" running the best possible line. That should clear some things up for you and we should be getting preview code VERY soon and we'll let you know what we think. -- Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief Gamers Alliance Sports www.ga-sports.com ------------------------------- Network Developer Gamers Alliance, Inc. www.gagames.com ------------------------------- "I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

My view, based on some screenshots of stages posted at rally99.com is that there is driving freedom, right up to the visible obstacles placed beside the stages (fences, trees, walls, buildings, ditches). There is a shot of a Megane way off the road, exploring a riverbank. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but it looks to me like Magnetic Fields has done a very good job of compromising between driving freedom and the amount of terrain they need to create. In a tight rally, certainly a forest rally, 6 feet off the road is about 4 feet too many! I for one want the boundaries pulled in, to realistically model the claustrophobic nature of a rally stage. Sideroads? Block them with spectators and marshall cars. If I wanted to go explore alternate paths and sideroads, I would buy Midtown Madness. Put fences on the other side of ditches. If I wanted to drive through fields, I would buy a tractor sim. I hate invisible walls as much as anyone else, but if I am restricted in my driving freedom by a very visible, very real, and very hard obstacle, then I am satisfied. I've done timed stage rallies... driving freedom is not how I would describe them. Threading the needle comes to mind. I want to hit things if I go more than about 20 feet off the road, I want to hit them hard, I want them to rip the wheels off my car or trash my rear differential, and I want to be left cursing and steaming with a DNF. If I wanted high-speed, wide open driving, I would buy Need For Speed. Magnetic Fields has cleverly chosen some of the twisty, nastiest rally stages to model. This isn't a wide open sahara rally... the real British rallies are horribly tight, you are surrounded by stone walls,fences and sheep, and you better be incredibly precise with your car placement. Just my opinion Stephen : Actually Leong... after talking with Richard Vanner on the telephone the : other day, he told me that most of the shots (and demo) were taken by a : computer generated "player" running the best possible line. That should : clear some things up for you and we should be getting preview code VERY soon : and we'll let you know what we think. : -- : Tony Wyss, Editor-in-Chief : Gamers Alliance Sports : www.ga-sports.com : ------------------------------- : Network Developer : Gamers Alliance, Inc. : www.gagames.com : ------------------------------- : "I'm not an athlete, I'm a baseball player" - John Kruk

<yells incredibly hard and loud> "YES !!!!! That's what we want !!!!" CMRally wasn't that bad on that aspect. It was still too large, and the damage was way unrealistic, but it wasn't "that" bad compared to previous efforts. I mean, look at most of the Rally stages around the world. The track is not 30feet wide. It's what 15feet wide, not more most of the time ? 15feet is not large, I mean go too hard into a corner and you will s***a tree, or a rock, or a fence, or another big tree. Rally99 will be easy to see if it's realistic or not. Take the car at the most realistic mode of handling and damage.. and crash hard at 60mph into a corner and head-on into a tree. If your rally isn't over, the title will be crap. Simple as that. -- -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -- May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

"shift-R" {|;^)>

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ;-) Ok you got a point here :) -- David : 1 / Frank : 0 ;-D -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -- May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I think we have the same experience of rallies, Francois. I grew up in Ontario, so I was a regular standing on the side of the Tall Pines rally, freezing my ass off, waiting for a glimpse of Carl Merril and his latest, greatest euro-imported Escort Cossie to come along and devour the local talent. Of course, the Sprongls would have none of this and usually sent him back hom to the US with his tailpipe between his legs :) I journeyed to quite a few Quebec rallies and also dabbled once or twice myself in the "gravel pit" series (couldn't risk my daily driver) but mostly did TSDs. These rallies were *narrow*, and every little mistake was punished *hard*. I watched the Sprongls emerge from one particularly fast corner minus the back right wheel, suspension and most of the bodywork. "Driving freedom" is definitely not the way I would describe typical Canadian and British rallies. In-car shots from the Sprongls showed Frank (or is it Dan?) shifting about every second or two to keep the Audi turbo spooling. An interesting contrast was to watch the same stage in-car with one of the Subaru drivers (forget his name at the moment). The Impreza had so much torque compared to the Audi, he could just leave it in 3rd. so, maybe we will be the only two people who will be happy if Magnetic Fields "artificially" limits our freedom to roam. cheers Stephen :>I want to hit things if I go :> more than about 20 feet off the road, I want to hit them hard, I want them :> to rip the wheels off my car or trash my rear differential, and I want to :> be left cursing and steaming with a DNF. If I wanted high-speed, wide :> open driving, I would buy Need For Speed. Magnetic Fields has cleverly :> chosen some of the twisty, nastiest rally stages to model. : <yells incredibly hard and loud> : "YES !!!!! That's what we want !!!!" : CMRally wasn't that bad on that aspect. It was still too large, and the : damage was way unrealistic, but it wasn't "that" bad compared to previous : efforts. I mean, look at most of the Rally stages around the world. The : track is not 30feet wide. It's what 15feet wide, not more most of the time : ? 15feet is not large, I mean go too hard into a corner and you will s***a : tree, or a rock, or a fence, or another big tree. : Rally99 will be easy to see if it's realistic or not. Take the car at the : most realistic mode of handling and damage.. and crash hard at 60mph into a : corner and head-on into a tree. If your rally isn't over, the title will be : crap. Simple as that.

The idea of " no invisible wall" is so that you will be more aware of your limitations and the limitations of the car , the traction, the road surface THEN WHEN you are not paying attention you should be punished by going completely off-road into a ditch , off the cliff, or whatever. As with the RALLY CHMPSHIP, bad drivers are actually using the invisible wall to bounce back to the road. This spoils the fun of the rally. Imagine going completely nuts at the corner , over shoots and then bounce back to the the track ( at slightly reduced speed ) This rewards bad driving. | >I want to hit things if I go | > more than about 20 feet off the road, I want to hit them hard, I want them | > to rip the wheels off my car or trash my rear differential, and I want to | > be left cursing and steaming with a DNF. If I wanted high-speed, wide | > open driving, I would buy Need For Speed. Magnetic Fields has cleverly | > chosen some of the twisty, nastiest rally stages to model.

Quoted text (7 lines)

| | <yells incredibly hard and loud> | | "YES !!!!! That's what we want !!!!" | | | CMRally wasn't that bad on that aspect. It was still too

large, and the | damage was way unrealistic, but it wasn't "that" bad compared to previous | efforts. I mean, look at most of the Rally stages around the world. The | track is not 30feet wide. It's what 15feet wide, not more most of the time | ? 15feet is not large, I mean go too hard into a corner and you will s***a | tree, or a rock, or a fence, or another big tree. | | Rally99 will be easy to see if it's realistic or not. Take the car at the | most realistic mode of handling and damage.. and crash hard at 60mph into a | corner and head-on into a tree. If your rally isn't over, the title will be

Quoted text (12 lines)

| crap. Simple as that. | | | | -- | -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> | -- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ | -- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ | -- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. | -- May the Downforce be with you... | | "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but

they don't realise | how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world." | | | |

Surely it is the nature of the road width restriction that is debatable. I don't see the point in having the freedom to drive all over the countryside - that is not how rallying works. But when you limit the width of the road use something that more accurately represents real life rally hazards - banks, ditches, trees, spectators (Carmageddon mode anyone ?), etc. Then when a car strays off the road make the impact (sic) more realistic and not just glance off it. This is the objection to the glass wall effect - it does not reflect the true effect of straying off the road. To defend its use from a programming point of view I would guess that it is easier to perform collision detection on a continuous, smoothe barrier around a track than on a collection of randomly shaped objects. This would help to keep frame-rates up. The problem then is how to code the car physics to look as if you have hit real objects. I suspect the coders simply take the easy option and nobble the cars performance rather than go through any sort of crash physics. John

Hey nice somebody who likes the North American / Canadian Rally championship :-) I fully agree with you. I don't have much viewing of the International Rally Championship, except for the 5minutes of report here in Quebec per 2weeks. But each time I see those reports, the roads are as tight there as here, except for I remember the Sprongls last year on a simple slow right corner, around a lake. They just slided the car a little too much, and boom their rally was over, with their right rear wheel completly inside the chassis because of the hit. Oh I think it was Frank that can do miracles with his Turbo :) But of course, Rally 99 is based in UK, with roads that are close to ours. Gravel, gravel, sand and more gravel :) . Roads are not large, corners are tight. The McGeer's are the ones in the Subaru (I think). I agree the torque is incredible on his car, I think it's how he likes it. If Rally 99 can show us the same experience in car handling and off-road racing situations as in real life, it will be great. Im really hoping for this -- -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -- May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."