Cockpit or Chase viewpoint?

[DC_Tox]

I used to drive only from the cockpit view, more realistic and funny... until yesterday :D

I tried the "chase" view and improved my times significantly on Silverstone and Monza (about 2 secs), probably because I can see better the car's position relative to the track (including sliding amount, other cars' positions...). I feel also "safer" when feathering the curbs/walls/grass borders of the track and can follow more efficient lines.

What's your opinion and your favourite viewpoint?

[Ashwin91]

That is interesting.I have tried the "chase" view,I suppose it did not work for me&( .But you are right,you can see more clearly where the car is "going":D .So my vote will be yes cockpit,lol

Yours,
Ashwin

[D_Man]

It's your game, you paid for it so play it how you want ;)

However, I think the majority of guys like the "realism" of GPL and that is its main attraction. The imersiveness of the cockpit view - especially with a norrower FOV - is what makes me love this game.

By now I know the original tracks well enough to drive them in my mind. I don't need to see ahead as I know what's there.

I like the seat-of-the-pants racing and the sliding through corners and chase view just doesn't do it for me.

Dave

[DC_Tox]

I forgot to say how I voted: cockpit :D

Although I'm faster with chase view (rookie effect maybe :") ) I still prefer the cockpit view ;)

[WCOutlaw]

Sometimes I'll blip into chase view, just to read car diags (check temps and speed on long straights) but I can't race like that... Cockpit or no go for me... :)

[Myshkin]

They did this poll a little while ago over at Race Sim Central, and it came out >90% cockpit, <10% chase view. While I agree with Dave, saying that it is your game, play whatever view you want with whatever non-authentic setups and add-ons you want, beware the rabid GPL-realism fanatics that almost call the F10 view cheating... almost.

I learned using the cockpit view and never really even gave the chase view a chance, because it was not the same experience for me. Like Phil, I only switch over to check out the temps, revs and speed, which is especially useful while tweaking gears and such for a race.

[WCvXd]

cockpit cockpit cockpit! I raced for a few weeks in a league here recently where most of the guys were extremely slow, but the worst part about it was that they drove with the f10 (out of car) view. Using this view, you have no way of knowing when someone comes up behind you, or even if you do know they are there, you dont know what side they are gonna pass you on until they are along side of you. This is a huge hazard in my opinion. Needless to say, I no longer participate in that league. ;)

[DC_Tox]

Now I'm worried :(

I also prefer cockpit view, as I wrote above, sometimes drive F10 when learning a new track, to switch to cockpit after a short training. I definetely race on cockpit view online, or I wouldn't see in the mirrors (geeez...I'm sloooow...at least I have to keep the way clear ;))

BUT, and here comes the trick, I can't get a stable FPS on some tracks from cockpit view...:( Around 30-32FPS on the most complex parts...maybe it's also because I installed some graphical patch to improve the look (I can't live without, now that I tried them!!!)

On chase view, on the other side, FPS is stable to 36... (no cockpit to show, probably, means more FPS...)

And we can't even talk about the best add-on tracks, that are also slower. (Le Mans, Solitude, etc...)

I already reduced some detail (resolution to 800x600 or even 640x480, almost nothing in the reaview mirror, detail bias reduced by 30%) but, if I go further down, the game will lose much of the appeal, and I'm not happy about 640x480 either...=((

Do you know a good method to gain FPS with the lower possible loss of "quality" of the game? Are there parameters who "give the boost" to FPS and thus are the first to be removed? Shall I remove those beautiful patches for the tracks/cars or use the lower resolution ones? =((

[DCMattius]

I mostly use the chase view. Except when John's around, I use the cockpit view :rolleyes: I mapped a button on my wheel to switch between them. There are different blind spots for each, but I use the different views and my stereo to tell where the cars are. I have the PC hooked up to my stereo and I can tell pretty well which side the car is on. I've noticed the chase view in GPL is different from the chase view in SCGT. In GPL, the car doesn't rotate. That's probably why I'm not crazy about SCGT. I use the bumber view in Porsche though.

Matt

[WCOutlaw]

Dave, if you're not getting full FPS on the standard tracks from cockpit view - you'll need to consider taking some of the "extra" graphics off - the newer cockpits, etc. - as these can often increase the workload...

Other than that, I wouldn't know - I have to use Win98 (my machine is XP) to play GPL, because I narrowed it down to my CPU not being powerful enough to run XP AND contend with GPL...

Good luck,

[DC_Tox]

Thanks Phil,

that's exactly what I'm doing to reduce the processor's workload: reduce cockpit detail by switching back to original Papy cars, at least until I have a better video board, since a new CPU is not foreseen soon (I got my Athlon T-Bird @ 1.2GHz only last year)

I have the chance to get from my brother a used, top-end 128Mb GeForce3, cheaper and probably better than a low-end GF4. I know that most of the job is done by the processor, but he's now running GPL at top detail level, 1024x768 and all car/track updates, at steady 36FPS. His CPU is not so far from mine, so the Graphics board should have some merit in it too...

And huh...BTW...I have now a very old Nvidia TNT2 with only 32Mb of SDRAM and still AGP 1x, a present from the same brother when he got the GF3 ;)