Sim Road Racing on the cheap

If 30 + road courses from all over the world is enough to wet your whistle, then a mod for Nascar Heat might be the best way to grab some cheap laps At Staples(an office depot type store) they had about a dozen PC boxes of Nascar Heat for $7.99. Combine that with the jewel box F1 2k2 at other mass merchant Stores for under $10 and you will have more courses & mods than you can remember. The Ferrari Challenge mod got a few good mentions here in the past, and if you find the right league, you'll also discover Heat has the 2nd best multiplayer code in the business. It is actually better suited for online road-racing than oval tracking. dave henrie

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> If 30 + road courses from all over the world is enough to wet your > whistle, then a mod for Nascar Heat might be the best way to grab some > cheap laps At Staples(an office depot type store) they had about a dozen > PC boxes of Nascar Heat for $7.99. Combine that with the jewel box F1 2k2 > at other mass merchant Stores for under $10 and you will have more courses > & mods than you can remember. > The Ferrari Challenge mod got a few good mentions here in the past, and > if you find the right league, you'll also discover Heat has the 2nd best > multiplayer code in the business. It is actually better suited for online > road-racing than oval tracking. > dave henrie > >

But isn't the total monetary outlay approximately $17.95 more than the combination of those games is worth?

"John Simmons" wrote... > <snip> > But isn't the total monetary outlay approximately $17.95 > more than the combination of those games is worth? No, that's definately not a fair assesment. Can't speak for NH as, though it drove pretty good, I didn't have enough patience to sort out some gameplay niggles and got rid of it. Consequently, I haven't tried any of the mods, so I can't comment. Still: you can hardly go wrong for just 8 bucks, can you? F1 2002 is by far the best F1 game out there *and* de GTR2002 mod is the best single player racing game period. Well worth the asking price even if you never play the original game nor any of the other mods. Jan. =---

> But isn't the total monetary outlay approximately $17.95 more than > the combination of those games is worth? Absolutely not. F1 2002 (+ mods) provides the best driving simulation experience currently available. But, don't panic John, N2003 with its beautiful net code is possibly the best simulation 'racing' experience available. As for Nascar Heat, well, it's a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type sim.

Where can I go to get the Ferrari mod (and others) for NH?

"SS" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]: > Where can I go to get the Ferrari mod (and others) for NH? > > > > http://mail2.teambattlezone.com/~lucky/files.html This site will get you started. Lucky has been converting tracks for a good time. Make sure you dload the latest patch and use his T tracks. The T tracks feature a time penalty for corner cutting vs the old method of detuning the engine for 10 seconds. dave henrie

Dave Henrie wrote: >>Where can I go to get the Ferrari mod (and others) for NH? Too bad Nascar Heat is so difficult to get in (parts of?) Europe - I can't recall ever seeing NH for sale here in the Netherlands. Seems it has a few interesting mods indeed. Regards, Ruud

"Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> If 30 + road courses from all over the world is enough to wet your > whistle, then a mod for Nascar Heat might be the best way to grab some > cheap laps At Staples(an office depot type store) they had about a dozen > PC boxes of Nascar Heat for $7.99. Combine that with the jewel box F1 2k2 > at other mass merchant Stores for under $10 and you will have more courses > & mods than you can remember. > The Ferrari Challenge mod got a few good mentions here in the past, and > if you find the right league, you'll also discover Heat has the 2nd best > multiplayer code in the business. It is actually better suited for online > road-racing than oval tracking. > dave henrie

or - Netkar = free = awesome 250 gto around Brands Hatch Doug

On Wed, 16 Apr 2003 03:13:26 GMT, Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote: >Combine that with the jewel box F1 2k2 >at other mass merchant Stores for under $10 and you will have more courses >& mods than you can remember. F1 2k2 has gone jewel box? Definitely time to go find it, thx!

Dave, I downloaded the mod and a few tracks, and I agree with you that it's definitely worth a look-see. I've got a few questions though: 1. I downloaded Laguna T, but can't get it to load. The other tracks that I've downloaded/tried (albeit only 2 others) seem to work OK. Is there a problem or a fix for this particular track? 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in the Controllers setting do? 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line with the wheel input? Thanks for the tip on this mod! Bert Dave Henrie wrote:

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> "SS" <[email hidden]> wrote in > news:[email hidden]: > > > Where can I go to get the Ferrari mod (and others) for NH? > > > > > > > > > > http://mail2.teambattlezone.com/~lucky/files.html > > This site will get you started. Lucky has been converting tracks for a > good time. Make sure you dload the latest patch and use his T tracks. > The T tracks feature a time penalty for corner cutting vs the old method of > detuning the engine for 10 seconds. > dave henrie

Dave, I downloaded the mod and a few tracks, and I agree with you that it's definitely worth a look-see. I've got a few questions though: 1. I downloaded Laguna T, but can't get it to load. The other tracks that I've downloaded/tried (albeit only 2 others) seem to work OK. Is there a problem or a fix for this particular track? 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in the Controllers setting do? 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line with the wheel input? Thanks for the tip on this mod! Bert

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> > Where can I go to get the Ferrari mod (and others) for NH? > http://mail2.teambattlezone.com/~lucky/files.html > This site will get you started. Lucky has been converting tracks for a > good time. Make sure you dload the latest patch and use his T tracks. > The T tracks feature a time penalty for corner cutting vs the old method of > detuning the engine for 10 seconds. > dave henrie

I'm having the same problem with steering input...so I'd also be interested to hear if there's a fix. I also downloaded the setups 'pack' on the site you gave a link to, Dave, but I'm not so sure it's working. It was a self-installing archive sort of a thing but when I get in the game to run a race or practice session, I can't determine whether anything more than the default NH setups are loaded (there's nothing that looks like a fitting setup name showing up in the garage, anyway). Those little hiccups aside, the cars feel pretty good and have very well-done engine sounds. I can imagine that it would make for fun online racing and I'll give it a try once I get the steering stuff sorted out. Thanks, itazura

BRH <"bertrh<no-spam>"@attbi.com> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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> Dave, > > I downloaded the mod and a few tracks, and I agree with you that it's > definitely worth a look-see. I've got a few questions though: > > 1. I downloaded Laguna T, but can't get it to load. The other tracks > that I've downloaded/tried (albeit only 2 others) seem to work OK. Is > there a problem or a fix for this particular track?

I don't recall any problems with it...I'll take a look. Most of the T tracks came out near the end of our TPTCC DTMHeat season, so we haven't had a chance to test them all yet. > > 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in > the Controllers setting do? Overshoot is a range of motion assist. If your wheel or pedals are not showing full travel on the calibration bars, then you can use the overshoot function to get 100%. An example would be the gas pedal. When you press the pedal down, an orange bar shows the range of input. If, when your pedal is fully depressed, you do not see the orange bar fully extended, then you can compensate by using the Overshoot. > > 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a > huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- > steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller > settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line > with the wheel input? The non-linerity setting is probably the culprit. I think I have mine completely zero'd So the more you increase the slider, the more NON- linerity you have. Since Linerity is the preferred choice, this is a poorly named function. Here, the best choice is as little of Non-linerity slider showing as possible. have fun dave henrie > > Thanks for the tip on this mod! >

"Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... <snip> > 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in > > the Controllers setting do? > > Overshoot is a range of motion assist. If your wheel or pedals are not > showing full travel on the calibration bars, then you can use theovershoot

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> function to get 100%. An example would be the gas pedal. When you press > the pedal down, an orange bar shows the range of input. If, when your > pedal is fully depressed, you do not see the orange bar fully extended, > then you can compensate by using the Overshoot. > > > > > 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a > > huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- > > steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller > > settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line > > with the wheel input? > > The non-linerity setting is probably the culprit. I think I have mine > completely zero'd So the more you increase the slider, the more NON- > linerity you have. Since Linerity is the preferred choice, this is a > poorly named function. Here, the best choice is as little of Non-linerity > slider showing as possible. > > have fun > dave henrie

Just to throw a bit more (unsolicited) advice in from memory. Heat also has settings for speed-sensitive steering and low-speed steering lock boost (ala Papy, for maneuvering in the pits and around hairpins) that are adjustable only (iirc) in the options.cfg file. Somebody correct me on that filename if I got it wrong. Setting the speed sensitivity to zero if you use a wheel is important, aside from keeping maybe just a tiny bit for superspeedway action. The amount of low-speed lock boost is infinitely adjustable; a better solution imho than Papy's on-off toggle. MGI built great controller setup into Heat; it pays to tweak it to your tastes. SB

"SS" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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> I'm having the same problem with steering input...so I'd also be > interested to hear if there's a fix. > > I also downloaded the setups 'pack' on the site you gave a link to, > Dave, but I'm not so sure it's working. It was a self-installing > archive sort of a thing but when I get in the game to run a race or > practice session, I can't determine whether anything more than the > default NH setups are loaded (there's nothing that looks like a > fitting setup name showing up in the garage, anyway). > > Those little hiccups aside, the cars feel pretty good and have very > well-done engine sounds. I can imagine that it would make for fun > online racing and I'll give it a try once I get the steering stuff > sorted out. > > Thanks, > itazura >

One of the wierd issues with Heat is that the setup folders are NOT created until you actually visit a track and LOAD a setup. So you have two choices: Load the game and load a track, enter the garage, load a setup and exit...repeating for each track. Or you can use Windows Explorer to add the setup folders manually. Remember too that the garage function is not available on the easy difficulty setting...only on the two harder settings(advanced(?) and hardcore) Also each mod has it's own directory tree, so if you unzipped the setup files for a mod into the first setup folder inside the Nascar Heat folder, you would be assigning those setups to the Winston Cup Stockcars. Finally. A waring I "SHOULD" have included in my original post. If you buy Nascar Heat, do NOT attempt to install it anywhere but the default pathway. You CAN place it on other drives and other partitions, but getting the various mods to install and work cleanly will be made much more difficult if you attempt to install Heat elsewhere. dave henrie

Dave, One last question -- On the mods such as Ferrari and even IRL Heat, 5th and 6th gears are available. But when I go into those gears, the car bogs down terribly. Are these gears actually supposed to be functional, or are the cars actually limited to only 4 forward gears (as in "default" Heat)? Thanks! Bert Dave Henrie wrote:

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> "SS" <[email hidden]> wrote in > news:[email hidden]: > > > I'm having the same problem with steering input...so I'd also be > > interested to hear if there's a fix. > > > > I also downloaded the setups 'pack' on the site you gave a link to, > > Dave, but I'm not so sure it's working. It was a self-installing > > archive sort of a thing but when I get in the game to run a race or > > practice session, I can't determine whether anything more than the > > default NH setups are loaded (there's nothing that looks like a > > fitting setup name showing up in the garage, anyway). > > > > Those little hiccups aside, the cars feel pretty good and have very > > well-done engine sounds. I can imagine that it would make for fun > > online racing and I'll give it a try once I get the steering stuff > > sorted out. > > > > Thanks, > > itazura > > > One of the wierd issues with Heat is that the setup folders are NOT > created until you actually visit a track and LOAD a setup. So you have two > choices: Load the game and load a track, enter the garage, load a setup > and exit...repeating for each track. Or you can use Windows Explorer to > add the setup folders manually. > > Remember too that the garage function is not available on the easy > difficulty setting...only on the two harder settings(advanced(?) and > hardcore) Also each mod has it's own directory tree, so if you unzipped > the setup files for a mod into the first setup folder inside the Nascar > Heat folder, you would be assigning those setups to the Winston Cup > Stockcars. > > Finally. A waring I "SHOULD" have included in my original post. If you > buy Nascar Heat, do NOT attempt to install it anywhere but the default > pathway. You CAN place it on other drives and other partitions, but > getting the various mods to install and work cleanly will be made much more > difficult if you attempt to install Heat elsewhere. > dave henrie

Dave, One last question -- On the mods such as Ferrari and even IRL Heat, 5th and 6th gears are available. But when I go into those gears, the car bogs down terribly. Are these gears actually supposed to be functional, or are the cars actually limited to only 4 forward gears (as in "default" Heat)? Thanks! Bert

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> > I'm having the same problem with steering input...so I'd also be > > interested to hear if there's a fix. > > I also downloaded the setups 'pack' on the site you gave a link to, > > Dave, but I'm not so sure it's working. It was a self-installing > > archive sort of a thing but when I get in the game to run a race or > > practice session, I can't determine whether anything more than the > > default NH setups are loaded (there's nothing that looks like a > > fitting setup name showing up in the garage, anyway). > > Those little hiccups aside, the cars feel pretty good and have very > > well-done engine sounds. I can imagine that it would make for fun > > online racing and I'll give it a try once I get the steering stuff > > sorted out. > > Thanks, > > itazura > One of the wierd issues with Heat is that the setup folders are NOT > created until you actually visit a track and LOAD a setup. So you have two > choices: Load the game and load a track, enter the garage, load a setup > and exit...repeating for each track. Or you can use Windows Explorer to > add the setup folders manually. > Remember too that the garage function is not available on the easy > difficulty setting...only on the two harder settings(advanced(?) and > ***) Also each mod has it's own directory tree, so if you unzipped > the setup files for a mod into the first setup folder inside the Nascar > Heat folder, you would be assigning those setups to the Winston Cup > Stockcars. > Finally. A waring I "SHOULD" have included in my original post. If you > buy Nascar Heat, do NOT attempt to install it anywhere but the default > pathway. You CAN place it on other drives and other partitions, but > getting the various mods to install and work cleanly will be made much more > difficult if you attempt to install Heat elsewhere. > dave henrie

BRH <"bertrh<no-spam>"@attbi.com> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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> Dave, > > One last question -- On the mods such as Ferrari and even IRL Heat, > 5th and 6th gears are available. But when I go into those gears, the > car bogs down terribly. Are these gears actually supposed to be > functional, or are the cars actually limited to only 4 forward gears > (as in "default" Heat)? > > Thanks! > > Bert >

to install it anywhere but the >> default pathway. You CAN place it on other drives and other >> partitions, but getting the various mods to install and work cleanly >> will be made much more difficult if you attempt to install Heat >> elsewhere. dave henrie > > No the gears work if they are available. The problem USUALLY is the default setup. 5th or 6th gear are just waaaaay to low...something like .60 or less when 4th gear is usually over 100. We generally set the gearing to .95 or .90 depending on the final gear ratio. Just head into the garage and look on the left side of the setup screen the other gears are shown there. You can adjust them to a closer ratio. dave henrie

Thanks for the head's up. Now that I've loaded the correct setups, the steering and gearing problems are gone and the ferrari mod really does feel great. I'm downloading a couple more of the tracks now. I've actually owned Heat for a long time, but had never explored the various mods out there. Got to love the online racing community for breathing new life into so many sims. itazura

FYI -- The Laguna Track runs fine in original Nascar Heat (WC Cars), but crashes out to the desktop in the Ferrari mod when I try to enter the track (ie - "Practice") Dave Henrie wrote:

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> BRH <"bertrh<no-spam>"@attbi.com> wrote in > news:[email hidden]: > > > Dave, > > > > I downloaded the mod and a few tracks, and I agree with you that it's > > definitely worth a look-see. I've got a few questions though: > > > > 1. I downloaded Laguna T, but can't get it to load. The other tracks > > that I've downloaded/tried (albeit only 2 others) seem to work OK. Is > > there a problem or a fix for this particular track? > > I don't recall any problems with it...I'll take a look. Most of the T > tracks came out near the end of our TPTCC DTMHeat season, so we haven't had > a chance to test them all yet. > > > > > 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in > > the Controllers setting do? > > Overshoot is a range of motion assist. If your wheel or pedals are not > showing full travel on the calibration bars, then you can use the overshoot > function to get 100%. An example would be the gas pedal. When you press > the pedal down, an orange bar shows the range of input. If, when your > pedal is fully depressed, you do not see the orange bar fully extended, > then you can compensate by using the Overshoot. > > > > > 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a > > huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- > > steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller > > settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line > > with the wheel input? > > The non-linerity setting is probably the culprit. I think I have mine > completely zero'd So the more you increase the slider, the more NON- > linerity you have. Since Linerity is the preferred choice, this is a > poorly named function. Here, the best choice is as little of Non-linerity > slider showing as possible. > > have fun > dave henrie > > > > > Thanks for the tip on this mod! > >

FYI -- The Laguna Track runs fine in original Nascar Heat (WC Cars), but crashes out to the desktop in the Ferrari mod when I try to enter the track (ie - "Practice")

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> > Dave, > > I downloaded the mod and a few tracks, and I agree with you that it's > > definitely worth a look-see. I've got a few questions though: > > 1. I downloaded Laguna T, but can't get it to load. The other tracks > > that I've downloaded/tried (albeit only 2 others) seem to work OK. Is > > there a problem or a fix for this particular track? > I don't recall any problems with it...I'll take a look. Most of the T > tracks came out near the end of our TPTCC DTMHeat season, so we haven't had > a chance to test them all yet. > > 2. In Heat in general, what exactly does the "Overshoot" setting in > > the Controllers setting do? > Overshoot is a range of motion assist. If your wheel or pedals are not > showing full travel on the calibration bars, then you can use the overshoot > function to get 100%. An example would be the gas pedal. When you press > the pedal down, an orange bar shows the range of input. If, when your > pedal is fully depressed, you do not see the orange bar fully extended, > then you can compensate by using the Overshoot. > > 3. I'm using a MOMO Force, and I find that I need to turn the wheel a > > huge amount in order to get the car to turn. What needs adjustment -- > > steering lock within the car set-up or non-linearity in the controller > > settings? Which direction to adjust to make the steering more in line > > with the wheel input? > The non-linerity setting is probably the culprit. I think I have mine > completely zero'd So the more you increase the slider, the more NON- > linerity you have. Since Linerity is the preferred choice, this is a > poorly named function. Here, the best choice is as little of Non-linerity > slider showing as possible. > have fun > dave henrie > > Thanks for the tip on this mod!

BRH wrote: > FYI -- The Laguna Track runs fine in original Nascar Heat (WC Cars), but > crashes out to the desktop in the Ferrari mod when I try to enter the track (ie > - "Practice") Make sure Ghost Mode is turned off in the Setup screen. I remember that being a common problem with new tracks in the past. -jde