Article on GPL in EVO magazine, scanned and uploaded...

[Remko]

These pages were scanned from the May 2002 issue of UK carmagazine EVO (site) (http://www.evo.co.uk/)
Sorry for the big download size (the big pages are 300-400k each), but I tried to keep it at a size where one would still be able to read the printed text. ;) The fact that almost all text was printed white on a black background, meant I had to keep image quality sharp.
Thought you'd like to read it:

Opening Spread (see next page to read the text) (http://www.totalnfs.net/Remko/GPL-spread.jpg)
Page 1. (http://www.totalnfs.net/Remko/GPL_1a.jpg)
Page 2. (http://www.totalnfs.net/Remko/GPL_2b.jpg)
Page 3. (http://www.totalnfs.net/Remko/GPL_3c.jpg)
Page 4. (end) (http://www.totalnfs.net/Remko/GPL_4b.jpg)

[Cheyenne]

Remko, thank you so much for posting that, it's a very good read! My own GPL online experiences are nonexistent as my game crashes when entering the multiplayer screen. I do hope to get it worked out, however, and when I do, I hope to not crash into anyone, but you never know! &(

[Wazza]

wow looks very good.. and lots of fun..
:HB:

i know the graphics havent been fully tweaked here.. ;)

[WCSting]

Chey, I'd love to help with your problem. I'd need some info though...

PC specs. (particularly the CPU, gfx card and drivers, O/S, etc)
Your core.ini file and a picture of this screen would also help a lot as well as the level of add-ons you have installed.
http://www.m2mag.com/gpl/gfxsettings.jpg

[Cheyenne]

Thank you, Sting!

My hard drive (E) where I keep GPL and most of my other games just went down today. I have all the data backed up as of this morning though, and I should have it replaced by this time tomorrow. I will post the Core.ini and the screen as soon as I'm back up and going. Thank you again!

[D_Man]

WOW - what a coincidence - my drive for my games is the E drive and most of my downloads are on my F drive :D

Dave

[Cheyenne]

Just an aside to my GPL installation...

I have never experienced the "Normandie" crash bug in NFS-Porsche until the day I installed GPL. Since that time it has happened with some frequency, the classic pattern, the game crashes to desktop at a certain part of the track. So, it seems something that installing GPL did, some setting or registry change that affected my PU performance, or am I way off base? Does anyone have an idea of exactly what GPL changes when it installs?

Hi, D_Man!

Not really such a coincidence. It's smart to keep things "separated", your data from your opsys and your semi-permanent apps from your temporary data. it helps prevent serious data loss. Glad to hear you are either partitioning or using multiple drives. Very intelligent of you -^

[WCSting]

That is so weird... :confused:

[Ashwin91]

Hey Chey,

Maybe too much RAM?GPL is an old game.So maybe it could be RAM.I think only.

Yours,
Ashwin

[WCvXd]

I dont think that GPL would make any changes to the registry that would effect your NFS:PU installation. GPL puts very minimal data into the registry...basically just program entries so windows knows where gpl is. That has to be either coincidence or just a product of your harddrive failing. gl to ya

[Jone]

I think the "Normandie" crash bug only occures with the Geforce cards. You have a Radeon? Think you said so in the FPS thread.

Maybe your system is ready for the anual "format all HD's and reinstall everything" :)
If you have several partitions/drives you could always install XP or Win2K and se if you can get it going on a fresh install.
If you can't get the multiplayer thing sorted out, I would suggest you ask for help in the rec.autos.simulators newsgroup. If it is a known issue of any kind, you'll get help there.

BTW: You have installed the 1.2 patch, d3D patch, disco fix and if needed the fast CPU patch?
I don't think missing one of them should create any problems like you have, but you should have the disco (disconnect) fix if you go online, and the fast CPU patch if your CPU is faster then 1.4 GHz.

Jone.

[Cheyenne]

Hmm, I'll take this in reverse order...

Jone:I think the "Normandie" crash bug only occures with the Geforce cards.Yes, from everything I know, that is true. I had never before experienced any problems with Normandie. I do have an original Radeon DDR 64 (full retail model) it's not overclocked in any way (nor is the CPU). I had always counted myself lucky, as Normandie is one of my all time favorite tracks. An hour or so before I installed GPL, I had been playing NFS-Porsche online, and I believe I had run in a pit that had raced Normandie several times. And immediately after isntalling GPL, I played a bit more PU (hmmm, was a bit intimidated by 1967 Grand Prix cars and needed something familiar! :) ) and boom, Normandie backwards, about 5-6 seconds into the race, desktop. Things usually go fine on a restart of the game, I can then even run Normandie. But that happens now very often the first time Normandie is run in a session. I can almost count on it, not quite, but mostly. I am very srcupulous about logging all the details when I install any piece of software, where it is, what options were selected during install, what version, etc. I also almost run a Disk Image before installing anything. The only thing proximate to my beginning to experience the Normandie-to-desktop crashes is GPL. I'm not arguing with anyone about its effect, just stating that I hadn't really done any software meddling in the week prior. I also did NOT (shame, shame, shame) do a disk image before installing GPL, which I could kick myself for. Very bad form. If I had, I could find out whether it was GPL in a matter of minutes by simply restoring the previous image (growlll). Well, I'll run an image of C now and then restore my latest and see what happens.Maybe your system is ready for the anual "format all HD's and reinstall everything"That could certainly be a possibility. Luckily I have a image of drive C with the opsys and all the basic drivers installed (with nothing "broken") so I can start from that image and just install away. Still, that is a lot of work (but it's what I do for a living anyway - Pyhsician, heal thyself? ^_^ )

Of GPL patches, I have the 1.2 and the d3D patches installed, not the "disco" or the "fast cpu".

WCvXd: I too have heard good things about GPL and how it is a very "simple" piece of hardware as far as hot it treats your system. Still, by purely circumstantial evidence, the case looks bad. I'll know in a few minutes. I've got the new drive in and am restoring the data... now. I will restore C with a previous image and see if I get a Normandie crash. If I do, I can always analyze the registry changes that GPL has made and manually recreate them until I get the problem again or I don't. I will try that before anything else. I supposed it could have something to do with the hard drive failing, I will know soon :D (I hope!).

Ashwin: that is also a possibility. I am running two times the amount of ram the mobo is supposed to support (512mb supported but running dual 512 mb sticks, so 1gb ram), but it has always worked beautifully for me. I could remove a stick and see how it performs.

WCSting: Very, very weird. I thought being a Radeon user (ooh, that sounds naughty) that I was immune from that. Well, I'll know better what's going on in the next half hour or so. Reports to follow! &(

[Kemperz]

Thats is a very interesting read. I would love to play GPL on line, well period, but I can't find the game ANYWHERE &( I've looked long and hard, but well, I'm sure I'll find it around one day. Looks like a blast of a game!

[rms]

GPL does not like >512meg ram. At least that is what I have always heard. Try pulling that extra dimm if you have crashing problems.

rms
rsquires@flash.net

[Cheyenne]

Hmm, well, er, I have run NFS-Porsche several times from an older disk image, and NO Normandie-to-desktop crash. I restored the image I just made today and, uh, NO Normandie-to-desktop crashes again. Hmm, could it have been a failing hard drive? It al seems fine now. Going to try some GPL and have a look-see. -^

[Domagoj]

Huttu has no chance... :) GPL may be the most realistic, but the main point is it's a game of slow speeds, no matter how realistic it is - there's no comparison with NFS1's difficulty, no matter how unrealistic it is...sorry Gregor, "world's best virtual racer"? Absolutely no chance...:)

Wait till NFS6 - let's see where he'll be - still playing GPL? :) Same with most NFS racers tho, and masters of all racing games to be honest, once most masters of a game get really good, they're afraid to leave and master the next one because they're too comfortable - NFS4 is a shining example of this (well NFS5 has had the most waiting time of all NFS games before the next release, so it doesn't really count)...

Anyhow, the master of one game is one thing - not to be taken lightly - but mastering the same thing and sitting there in a position of mastery for years is a bit different from jumping around here and there, having to constantly learn and finally master a number of games - which basically means no time to rest on your laurels of specialized mastery - it's mastery on a whole other level, where one specializes on a number of titles, but this means no time to master all cars in one game, although it more than makes up for it if using only the fastest cars from each game - plus it happens over the same amount of time, so far more is actually accomplished, and could have been accomplished by those others who chose to sit pretty instead. Multi-game mastery will have to be the real test if anyone wants to have a somewhat accurate assessment of who the best virtual racer is - although that will never be totally accurate since there are so many games out and so many competitive racers, but for certain mastering one game won't cut it if you want that title, even though it is arbitrary...

[Cheyenne]

Oh, boy, I'm not going to say anything, not a thing, no-sir! Uh-uh. Going to keep quiet this time :D

[D_Man]

Greger Huttu has apparently mastered every racing game he plays. Have a look at his times for Rally Trophy, Nascar 4 etc. He doesn't only limit himself to GPL and has to some extent "retired" from playing it as his main game.

I believe that if he played NFS games, he would be extremely good at them as well. However, he appears to prefer sims.

Dave

[Spiderman]

I can just see Greger sitting in his igloo bawling his eyes out. 8)~

edit:

Sims Dave? I thought there was only one sim? :confused: ^_^


edited for spelling :")

[DC_Spd]

No there's more than one sim...and Huttu does seem to be able to master any and all. Gotta give him credit there.

[Jone]

Kemperz:

Take look at this thread:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&scoring=d&q=%22where+to+buy+gpl%22&btnG=Google+Search
Sort it buy date if it's not already.
This is a very common question at rec.autos.simulators. If you have luck, you can find it as low as $5.

Domagoj:

Greger Huttu is no longer on top of GPLRank. Luke McLean is. Greger just said he'd probably raced his last GPL race. His focus is on Nascar 2002.
Greger used to race in the MoG league (Masters of GPL). His been driving inferior cars (BRM & Cooper) but has done quite well. He has never won a race tho. What's remarkable is that he has never caused any accidents. Other top 10 drivers has. Luke McLean was actually kicked out of MoG for bad driving.

And you keep refering to the NFS titels as games. So would I. Wake up! Enter the world of simracing!
I started out with NFS PU, and it was good fun, but move on guys. There are so many excellent drivers that are so much faster than me in NFS PU. Why do they spend their time mastering an inferior game like NFS PU? The physics are bad and the AI and the multiplayer capabilities is a joke!
C/D off? Come on! NFS6 will not necessary be any better than NFS PU. They say it's based on MCO physics.
Many people say they like racing production cars on open roads. They don't find it appealing driving open wheel cars on tracks. That was my opinion to. But I know now it doesn't matter. All that matters is how the car handles and the action that takes place.
I remember I got a little offended when someone said he used to race NFSP PU when he was feeling "lame" and needed to relax. I now know what he meant.


Hmmm.. :") Got a little carried away there! Just had let it out.
Didn't mean to offend anyone. Feel free to disagree with me. :)

Jone.

[WCvXd]

I have to agree with Jone on this one. Absolutely none of the NFS series of games could be considered anywhere close to a "sim" All of em are simply arcade style games.

As far as racing sims go GPL is the most accurate and difficult ever made. If you give it a serious try for a week or 2, you will realize how much more difficult sim racing really is. GPL really pays off when you get good enough for league racing. For me and a whole lot of other guys, there is no racing experience that comes close to a league race. In PU you might race upwards of 8 minutes on MC, but when you strap in for a 45 minute race at Nurburgring or a 60 lap race at Zandvoort.....nothing comes close. PU only took me a few months to...not "master", but get really good at. It has taken over a year of a whole lot of practicing and racing in GPL to get where I am today, and im only half way there. I can hold my own in GPL, but there are about 500 other racers out there that can still rip me a new one at any given track. Its an endless game for me...

I think that huttu still races gpl. He was in the Masters of GPL race this past saturday, but I believe that he disconnected before the start or something. I know that he races NASCAR 2002 and N4 before that. Ive also heard that he did alot of F1 2001 a while back. Ive been driving racing sims since Microprose's Grand Prix and NASCAR Racing 1. None of them have came close to GPL. If one can "master" gpl, then all others should be a piece of cake.

[D_Man]

I agree John that GPL is an endless (seemingly for me at least) learning experience. I have been playing semi-seriously since late August last year although I got the game in March 2001. At first it was just too difficult and I gave up. I went back to it when I retired from PU and eventually managed to stay on the track for more than two laps. I sort of dabble in GPL now. I have the odd off-line race and do a few laps each day at one of the tracks.

I think Gerger tried F1 2001, but soon moved on to other games - notably Rally Trophy :D

If you look at the rankings in GPL now, both Greg Stewart and Luke McLean are lowering their ranks quite markedly. Greger may well slip back to the number 3 position, but he will always be THE alien ^_^

Dave

[WCSting]

Originally posted by rms
GPL does not like >512meg ram. At least that is what I have always heard. Try pulling that extra dimm if you have crashing problems.

rms
rsquires@flash.net

I think it depends entirely what O/S you're running Roger. I'm running 512 now on WinXP and its perfect.

Interesting comments here about Simracers... ;)

[Myshkin]

I'm now running 768 MB with WinXP and GPL is fine.

And did Dom say GPL is a game of slow speeds? Errr okay so it won't keep up with a GT1 from PU but a '67 F1 Lotus in GPL goes faster than the 993 in PU. I think I've done about 208 MPH off a draft before in GPL. Maybe he meant perceived speed... well true you aren't running through a village bouncing off the walls, you actually have to slow down for turns and such.

As far as the definition of "sim-racing", a simulation simulates real-life (right?), as NFS, GPL, F1 200x, SCGT all do, so technically I would say they are all sims (they all have something real about them) and none are a complete sim (you would not be fooled even for 5 secs, if you saw a video of any of these, that they were real) but they of course differ in their realism.

[Spiderman]

@Mysh

As far as the definition of "sim-racing", a simulation simulates real-life (right?), as NFS, GPL, F1 200x, SCGT all do, so technically I would say they are all sims (they all have something real about them) and none are a complete sim (you would not be fooled even for 5 secs, if you saw a video of any of these, that they were real) but they of course differ in their realism.

I agree with that 100%. GPLers all seem on some kind of crusade to destroy other gamers illusions. A game is a game. Some prefer the illusion of speed some the illusion of realistic control. They are not real just illusions. Some people just want a hard time hehe. No harm in that.

[Jone]

I'm not on a crusade to destroy anyone's illusions. My first post was a little harsh. I didn't mean to harass any NFS fans. But Domagoj was kind of begging for it )=)
I do hope I'm able to encourage people to take a look at something even better than NFS PU. :)

And I would not call NFS PU a sim, I think there is a major difference. The creators of titles like GPL, Nascar2002 and F1 2001 aimed to get as close to the real thing as possible. The creators of NFS PU and MCO did not. They made it easier to drive because the mainstream market don't want it to difficult, and because an advanced physics model would be more expensive to develop. If you make a simulator, you wan't the cars to behave like in real life. If the cars are able to jump 10 meters above the road, land on the rear bumper, hit the stone fence and continue with a minimal loss of speed and with just a few scratches in the paint, you either wasn't very successful simulating real life, or you didn't really try.
I'll have to accept tho, that other people have different opinions on what's important, real world handling or other things.
When I started playing NFS PU early 2001, I was very impressed with how real it felt. I didn't think that it was possible at the time
to make something as realistic as GPL.

Jone.

[Spiderman]

I don't want to start another GPl war Jone but I have played the game and though I didn't go online (too many damn downloads for me to be bothered) I did kick the AI to pieces on all the tracks on the original game. I did it not because I liked the game but to prove a point to some of my old team mates. There is an opinion out there that we don't play it because it is too hard. Not at all. I don't play it because it is a pain in the arse to install then you need all the necessary stuff to play against others and most importantly I prefer a game that is fun to play not for the fact it makes me one of the 'elite'.

edit:
That is why I have come back to PU. :) I forgot what fun was for a long time in the search for 'authenticity'.

[D_Man]

Hey Rob, you do realise that the performance of the AI in GPL scales to suit your speed :)

If I did a 1:04 in qualifying at Watkins Glen the AI would adjust to be competitive at that speed, but if I did a 1:10 they would be slower - neat coding by any standard.

BTW, my personal definition of a sim is a game that strives to be as realistic as possible given the limitations of the medium. Arcade racers seek to be as accessible as possible to the widest audience. Each has it's own separate objectives - usually sales versus realism :D

I personally play both arcade racers and sims - and when it is all said and done they are all just games :HB:

Dave

[[XR]Evo]

Aww come on, lets just admit that Domagoj is the best sim racer in the world, we know that's all he wants to hear...I've never read anything intelligent from him, he must be good at racing instead...This is probably going to sound unintelligent, but I want to hear why he deserves the 'title' (lol, I agree, just games indeed)...

[Spiderman]

I agree Dave each to his own.

I only played for two weeks as a challenge and put better times than all the WC players except Stingo and I think WCvxd and that was close. I was playing with a joystick with one axis and two buttons so I think I did OK.

edit

Jim Clark Graham whatsisface and the others never gave me a break and they had wheels :D

[Myshkin]

Hahaha Rob :rolleyes: Kicked the AI to pieces did you? &( Sheesh sometimes I think Rob has an inferiority complex. I don't know anyone that plays GPL because they want to be 'elite'... I just play it because it is fun, it's a challenge, it is open enough that tracks can be made and car gfx can be improved... and it's fairly straightforward.

And I do think many people don't play it because of the learning curve... but that doesn't mean if YOU don't play it, it is because it is too hard.. you might just not like it. And that is fine. I installed it a year and a half ago, and did not get into it because I had trouble upgrading the gfx, and with the unmodified gfx it just didn't seem to be worth it to learn. Then I stopped playing PU and got everything in GPL working... and suddenly I was enjoying myself with the challenge and it was pretty.

Of course, it must not be a difficult game to learn, after all, Spidey kicked the AI's butt already. :rolleyes: For us 'non-elites' though, we are still struggling to rise above mediocrity in this game. I've been at it a year now and I still suck. Despite Rob believing that we are all equally capable, I don't think I will ever get to 'alien' aka 'elite' status, since I will probably move on when something else interests me.

Hehe a little bit of hypocrisy there, Rob? Well, be happy that you are better than us 8)~

[Spiderman]

Only proving a point Mysh :D

Now I have my thrustmaster oooh... Two axis' just like my old team mates :D Man I never knew I was doing things the hard way. The game is not worth the hassle of the install. I am not totally computer illiterate but that really does my brain in.

edit:

My point being that if I can do it with a stick and no split axis then it is not a sim. It can't be can it? The hardest thing of all was trying to figure out what my speed was because at times it seems I was hardly moving but in the replay it was saying 190mph.

[Cheyenne]

Oh, gosh, it sounds like Myshkin believes he just seriously spanked Spiderman! <spank>. Personally, I'm not sure myself, having never played the AI yet. I still have trouble just doing 10 laps in a row in training! ^_^

Ooh, Spiderman! "Thrustmaster"! Would it be appropriate for a person of the female persuasion to try one of those? Would it then be a "Thrustmistress"? Or, perhaps, a "Lady Thrustmaster"? Hmmm? Intriguing possibilities, especially with "Force Feedback"?

&( ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ &(

Now I know I've been working too hard lately! :rolleyes:

[Spiderman]

He is always spanking me Chey :D He loves me really ^_^

No force feedback I'm afraid. Thrustmistress? Hmmm you have a point it is very naughty sounding hehe. But I love the little monster. Thanks to D_man it works as I want it to now.

[WCvXd]

Actually Rob, using a non split axis was the way the game was intended to be played. "Realists" as they call em play the game using right foot braking...and some non-realists do the same. In the real f1 cars, people were unable to use left foot braking because the steering column split the brake and the clutch in effect keeping the left foot only being able to access the clutch. Using right foot braking is the same as not using a split axis.

And the fact that you were using a joystick doesnt mean anything. One of the best guys in the world at GPL used a joystick just until recently...Wolfgang Woeger I think his name is. There are plenty others as well...its just what you feel comfortable with. Look at Malcom...he always drove PU with a joystick and was just as good as anyone else who had a wheel.

Dave is right about the AI. If you are slow, then they are gonna be comparably slow, but they wont mimic inconsistency...meaning if you crash alot, then they arent gonna crash alot.

Mike: I guess that 'sim' racing is a perceptual thing. Games like PU might have supposedly realistic physics and accuracy as far as car detail goes, but I dont think that categorizes them as a full blown sim. I just dont think that it goes into enough detail to be a sim. But then you can argue what level of detail is needed to be a sim? Who is to decide? ....like I said, its a perceptual thing.

[Spiderman]

I haven't got a clue about half of what you just wrote VXD. It's that kind of techno babble that puts me off 'sims'. I am terrified of talking like that one day &( Slider full left or full right. Slider 90% right. That I understand :D

With any car game we are talking about hand eye coordination and learning the parameters of the game. If Hutu came to PU without practice he would be dead meat and you know it. In time he would improve. That improvement comes down to patience/PRACTICE/controller. I never played GPl in anything but the original game. I downloaded masses of files to upgrade the graphics but I ended up with a mess. That annoyed me I must admit and maybe put me off the game for life.

I played modern F1 games like F1cs2000 and f12001 instead and found them just as much a learning curve as gpl was but at least the updates worked and I knew I was going bloody fast and exactly how fast at a glance. In the end it was the kind of people I met playing these 'sims' that sealed it for me. Although there are nice friendly people out there playing these games the majority were looking down their noses at 'lesser' games and 'lesser drivers' in the same games. It happens in PU I am sure but not to the same extent.

[Myshkin]

Robby-pooh is right, it may have been a spank as Chey italicized :) but it was a caress, not in anger :") Like I said before I'm not one of those people that demand "reality", I'm not a big racing fan, I'm just a computer dork with a wheel and a tendency to argue :help:

I just got snippy because Rob seemed to be implying that GPL was a breeze, an easy, silly game that only those deluded "realists" play but is actually very boring. I don't care whether he likes it or not, but I do like the game and I don't think I'm an idiot because of it... even if Rob thinks so. Now Rob will say "But I didn't mean YOU, you bloody Yank, I meant those silly purist buggers" or maybe he won't but he is making generalizations and as I am a GPL-head I feel the need to defend myself.

However, I grant that there are a people that think that GPL is the only game worthy of the 'sim' tag, and I think they are actually in the minority. There was a big fuss on Sim Central over whether people should build fantasy tracks... and it seems that the majority came down on the side of 'let people build what they want and race what they want' without much of the snobbery that Rob describes... there was some but not a lot.

[Spiderman]

Now now! Everybody be cool :D It's only a damn game not a religion I am having a dig at. Come on, behave.

Mysh, Stop caressing me there baby... :) You bloody nutcase. ;)

[SOUL]

I think nfs5 is a sim
not all cars are hard to drive after all in real life and the same is true in nfs5
I can tell each car when im driving it just by the way it handels etc
Please tell me what is Wrong with the nfs5 physics model
seems to me i can make the cars do dougnuts drive backwards into 180 spins etc it is certainly an entirely different animal then any of the others in the nfs series
if you hit a wall you spin out flip etc.
now you can argue all you want about the dammage models to the cars ie you take a huge jump on normandie and your car is still driving etc but.. that does not take away from the excelent driving physics in nfs5
there is not the level of control over settings that you find in some sims but again this dosent take from the physics model of the actual driving portion of the game.

I have done nose wheelies power drifts spun out driven on 2 wheels and alot of other crazy stuff in nfs 5 that tells me the driving model is alot better then people seem to think
does the fact that crashes in gpl sometimes get a little to much energy take fr0m it being an excelent sim not at all.
does the fact that nfs5 crashes are too easy to survive take from it not at all.
gpl car reset your damage is 100% fixed in all but pro mode
nfs5 dammage on deal with your car till race end if its dammaged !
what is more real ?
i think you could say nfs 5 is a game and gpl a sim from the content of each
nfs 5 actually has a game you can play evolution mode factory driver etc
where as gpl offers the cold harsh reality of a championship season and training mode not too much of a game there


I feel nfs5 offers something for everyone like to drive arcade style grab a 00 porsche or gt1
feel like a brutaly hard sim go with 78 turbo at alps or spyder on most any track.

too be quite honest alot of modern cars are even easier to drive then nfs 5 makes out .

just my 2 pennies
Soul

[WCSting]

"Thrustperson" maybe...??? :D

Oh.. and to the rest of you... its whatever makes your bum run... that's what you're going to do, so go and have fun. I wouldn't put PU in my PC again if you paid me, but that year I had was the best consistent period of fun I ever had. Eyes of the beholder and all that, innit?

[WCvXd]

C'mon Rob....techno babble?! Youve driven a car havent you? You know your left foot from your right foot? You know which pedal is which? Do you know what steering column is? Use some sense man! ;) maybe you just didnt want to read the post...

^_^ Im just giving you a hard time Rob...I know how much you like that. ;)

[WCSting]

Actually he doesn't drive John...

[Spiderman]

Cars have pedals? My god it's worse than I thought! My thrustperson has a throttle you push forward to increase speed and pull it back to make it sound less harsh. I pull back on the joystick slightly and the car slows down depending how hard I pull. Sorry if this goes above anyones head hehe. Oh yes left/right is easy just ease it left and you go left and ease it right to..well you get the picture ;)

I forgot the gears lever! I have a rocking switch. If I push the left side it goes down a gear, right and it goes up a gear. Clutch button 1. rear view button 2 left right hat switch, little blinking lights buttons 3 and 4, hazards button 5 and missiles button... no hold on wrong game :)

[WCvXd]

There you go Rob...you are getting the hang of it. All you have to do now is get the rear view mirror adjusted and you will be good to go.

[Spiderman]

You can take a lot of the credit for that John. I feel I'm halfway up that damn curve at last. Pedals indeed hahaha. Pump faster man he's catching us... ^_^

[WCSting]

I seem to remember reading about a year ago that Mercedes-Benz was designing a car that was controlled completely with a stick (maybe two thrustpeople...)
Heck, if a billion-dollar fighter jet can be controlled like this, why not a dumb old car...?

[Domagoj]

Yeah I saw a clip a while ago on the news about that Benz, and the hapless goon trying to drive it - it could be driven "hard", but hey they need fools to drive it at a snail's pace so they can say "hey look at me! you can do it too!". It's just a normal joystick right on the center console. It's not even that great a thing to have a stick control, even if does become a fad - much better than that will be on its way soon...

[Spiderman]

Snail's pace? grrrrrr . hehe. What is in the pipeline then Dom? Is it voice control or something like that? Man things are going so fast that the stick control didn't even get mainstream and we are going beyond that already.

Yes we did a complete thread on stick V wheel a while back. There are some interesting concepts out there.

[Spiderman]

I suspected I was a little bit faster than when I used to play and now I know it. It has to be the controller. I beat my old 2001 online rec on cote fw 2:16.*** by over a second offline on my eigth attempt in a 78 turbo 2:15.***. Cote was always my favourite track and the 78 my favourite car so the comparison is good and not a fluke. This ability to brake and leave some throttle on is a good idea. I am all for it.

edit for spelling :)

http://www.btinternet.com/~vvp/peddles.jpg

[chris]

Great article on GPL. :) (Yes, an old thread revived I know).

[FeZ]

You must be real bored if you revive threads from 2002 :D

[chris]

Just saw it on the who's online thing. :)

[Frank N. O.]

Lol, that was unexpected Chris, but interesting thread and article. I love the quote about GT cars vs Grand Prix cars :D How right they are indeed! I'm in the special license now and on a city track in a Saleen S7 and I lost time becase I instinctively wouldn't brake when driving over a bump down left to a slow left hand corner until I learned that the car wouldn't oversteer, in fact many cars can't oversteer even if you floor the throttle, except the Nissan Group-C car at Le Mans, holy heck 1st gear is useless for wheelspin and 2nd not that much better, but dude did I get heavy vibes running flat out at near 360 kph down Mulsanne.

Btw did you notice: Comming Soon: World Sports Cars, lol I remember that title back from the NFS-days, dude there were several sites made thinking it would come out fast, there were test-videos with cars driving, like the silver Esprit GT1 etc. but it never made it :(

After trying many games I still say that GPL seems to act the most authentic of any cargame/sim I've tried, including ToCA2 Touring Cars (the old classic from 1998), Porsche, GT4, Project Gotham Racing 2, F1C, GTR etc.

Frank

[chris]

WSC was a shame wasn't it. The two brothers I hear are at it again with a thing called Racing Legends.. Hmm, by the time they've finished it, I might be retired.. ;)

[Frank N. O.]

Yes it was a shame that WSC was never finished, it looked so good both in terms of graphics and physics from the Lotus video. I don't know how the brothers are doing but I do wish them success.

Frank

[chris]

Well, they still have their site West Racing IIRC. But I think it's mostly become an off-topic discussion because of the slowness of the developers to show anything meaningful other than an beautifully modelled race-car transporter. ;)

Back at the time of WSC, it had everyone in awe. Now we can get nearly the same in F1C mods, or even in the GTR game we have pretty much what WSC was trying to be.

How technology progresses.