GPL Demo impressions (& tips)

I have tried the GPL demo (the Glen) for a couple of weeks,and assuming that otherwise it is the perfect sim,there ar only two small things that I noted: On the photo,it looks as if the Watkins Glen track in real life has a lot of height differences,and that you have a very scenic view from the higher parts. However,I have nvere experienced that feeling in the demo....to me it feels basically flat. Sure,there are some hills at the horizon,but you never have that feeling that you yourself are ascending or descending a hill,except for maybe during the first rise. However,I just did some fiddling with the graphic settings in order to try to increase the frame rate (I get 15-20 fps on a AMD K6 200,with settings at approx. 75 %) One unexpected consequence of this was that when I turned the settings all the way down,I actually got better impression of where the road was going,... ascending/descending,or leaning left or right. After turning on some features again,I discovered that the main reason for this was the absence of road texture.....it seems ,at least to me, that the road texture was masking the surface of the road to much,so you couldn't see where it was going. Removing the threes also had improved the environmental understanding somewhat,but not as much as I had thought originally. I also got a much better understanding of how the roadsides where inclined after removing these two features. The other thing that bugs me somewhat is the absence of "road texture" feedback.... you dont really hear when you leave the track and end up on the grass or on gravel. It's a pity,because sound is the best way (IMHO) of providing these clues...short of buying a FF wheel,of course. Regards, Robert S?derberg If replying by mail,remove the word INGENSPAM from the adress.

at 15 to 20 fps you are only getting a rough appreciation of GPL's handling and physics feel. Until your graphics can be turned down or your system beefed up to achieve about the 36fps maximum, then your inputs and the responses are being chopped up. I too have had that complaint about lack of feeling to track height changes. But not for GPL. I think my first big sim was ICR2 and that overexagerated the height impression so that almost everything since has a rather flat feeling. The closest tracks for up and down I've seen are in the Motorsims AMA demo. But that is getting soundly critisized for other issues. Try the AMA demo, make sure to get it updated to at least version 1.3, then ride at Mid Ohio. It snakes up and down quite dramatically. Back to GPL. Included in the full game is the Nurburgring. I believe there and at Spa you will get a very good impression of up and down. dave henrie

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> I have tried the GPL demo (the Glen) for a couple of weeks,and assuming > that > otherwise it is the perfect sim,there ar only two small things that I > noted: > On the photo,it looks as if the Watkins Glen track in real life has a lot > of > height differences,and that you have a very scenic view from the higher > parts. > However,I have nvere experienced that feeling in the demo....to me it feels > basically flat. > Sure,there are some hills at the horizon,but you never have that feeling > that you > yourself are ascending or descending a hill,except for maybe during the > first rise. > However,I just did some fiddling with the graphic settings in order to try > to increase the frame rate > (I get 15-20 fps on a AMD K6 200,with settings at approx. 75 %) > One unexpected consequence of this was that when I turned the settings > all the way down,I actually got better impression of where the road was > going,... > ascending/descending,or leaning left or right. > After turning on some features again,I discovered that the main reason for > this was > the absence of road texture.....it seems ,at least to me, that the road > texture was > masking the surface of the road to much,so you couldn't > see where it was going. > Removing the threes also had improved the environmental understanding > somewhat,but > not as much as I had thought originally. > I also got a much better understanding of how the roadsides where inclined > after removing these two features. > The other thing that bugs me somewhat is the absence of "road texture" > feedback.... > you dont really hear when you leave the track and end up on the grass or on > gravel. > It's a pity,because sound is the best way (IMHO) of providing > these clues...short of buying a FF wheel,of course. > Regards, > Robert S?derberg > If replying by mail,remove the word INGENSPAM from the adress.

Yes ,I know,I know...I'm getting a new processor in couple of weeks. I was just trying it out with my current system in the meantime. Unfortunately,with all settings at the bottom,I got max 30 FPS... Thank you ,...I'll try the AMA demo but,..I'm not switching GPL for something that maybe is criticized for its physics(?),no matter how scenic :-)) I wasn't looking specifically for track height changes...I only wanted the sim tracks to reflect the feeling in those parts that actually exist in the real-life tracks. Regards, -- Robert S?derberg If replying by mail,remove the word INGENSPAM from the adress.