ICR2 Patch Review

I just installed the patch and thought I would share my thoughts with everyone. 1. The traction bug appears to be fixed. The car feels more stable and handles more predictably. I can now coast through the first two chicanes at Australia (as the manual suggests) without spinning out and hitting the wall. 2. There is a frame rate display which can be toggled with ALT-F. This may be in a readme file somewhere but if it is I missed it. This option defaulted to off. Users of the DOS version on the DOS/WIN95/MAC CD reported that there is no way to turn the frame rate display off in that version. 3. There is a problem saving your driver information. For some reason the drivers2.txt file got set to read only by the patch (as matter of fact, all the files in the cars95 directory got set to read only). This will probably create a problem editing cars with the paintkit also. Just turn off the read only attribute on the files in the cars95 directory and everything should work fine. 4. This patch does not modify the paint kit, so if you re-installed ICR2 as the readme from the patch suggests you'll need to re-patch the paint kit. (I consider this to be a minor point). 5. I do not know if the yellow flag bug was fixed or not.

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>I just installed the patch and thought I would share my thoughts with >everyone. >1. The traction bug appears to be fixed. The car feels more stable and >handles more predictably. I can now coast through the first two chicanes at >Australia (as the manual suggests) without spinning out and hitting the wall. >2. There is a frame rate display which can be toggled with ALT-F. This may be >in a readme file somewhere but if it is I missed it. This option defaulted to >off. Users of the DOS version on the DOS/WIN95/MAC CD reported that there is >no way to turn the frame rate display off in that version. >3. There is a problem saving your driver information. For some reason the >drivers2.txt file got set to read only by the patch (as matter of fact, all >the files in the cars95 directory got set to read only). This will probably >create a problem editing cars with the paintkit also. Just turn off the read >only attribute on the files in the cars95 directory and everything should work >fine. >4. This patch does not modify the paint kit, so if you re-installed ICR2 as >the readme from the patch suggests you'll need to re-patch the paint kit. (I >consider this to be a minor point). >5. I do not know if the yellow flag bug was fixed or not.

Thanks for your excellent observations. Let me add for anybody doing the patch, give yourself a good hour to go from unzipping and reading documents to the time you can actually run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to do it's job, constant disk accessing... So far, I agree that the patch seems to have addressed the "weight shift bug"- my car seems to feel much more solid to me, I can now actually save near-spins, for example. All in all, the whole model just seems better to me.

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> I just installed the patch and thought I would share my thoughts with > everyone. > 1. The traction bug appears to be fixed. The car feels more stable and > handles more predictably. I can now coast through the first two chicanes at > Australia (as the manual suggests) without spinning out and hitting the wall. > 2. There is a frame rate display which can be toggled with ALT-F. This may be > in a readme file somewhere but if it is I missed it. This option defaulted to > off. Users of the DOS version on the DOS/WIN95/MAC CD reported that there is > no way to turn the frame rate display off in that version. > 3. There is a problem saving your driver information. For some reason the > drivers2.txt file got set to read only by the patch (as matter of fact, all > the files in the cars95 directory got set to read only). This will probably > create a problem editing cars with the paintkit also. Just turn off the read > only attribute on the files in the cars95 directory and everything should work > fine. > 4. This patch does not modify the paint kit, so if you re-installed ICR2 as > the readme from the patch suggests you'll need to re-patch the paint kit. (I > consider this to be a minor point). > 5. I do not know if the yellow flag bug was fixed or not.

I just want to add that the FM sound now seems to be much better with the -f switch, if you like to run that way.

You're right, the car feels a little better. But, I'm wondering if anyone has seemed to get a little slower framerate. Maybe 1-2fps. I run in VGA, Dos, with a 486-75, with no grass, asphalt or wall textures. Skids, smoke, car textures are all on, and horizon, object and grandstand textures are set to auto with min. at 15. I run in FM sound with 6 cars drawn ahead, 1 behind, hearing one and 31 cars total. Before the patch I'd consistently see the track objects, horizon and grandstands usually without flicker. Now after the patch the grandstand texture begins to flicker, sometimes shutting off all together. Just wanted to know if anyone else has noticed this or is it my imagination. Joe

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>>I just installed the patch and thought I would share my thoughts with >>everyone. >>1. The traction bug appears to be fixed. The car feels more stable and >>handles more predictably. I can now coast through the first two chicanes at >>Australia (as the manual suggests) without spinning out and hitting the wall. >>2. There is a frame rate display which can be toggled with ALT-F. This may be >>in a readme file somewhere but if it is I missed it. This option defaulted to >>off. Users of the DOS version on the DOS/WIN95/MAC CD reported that there is >>no way to turn the frame rate display off in that version. >>3. There is a problem saving your driver information. For some reason the >>drivers2.txt file got set to read only by the patch (as matter of fact, all >>the files in the cars95 directory got set to read only). This will probably >>create a problem editing cars with the paintkit also. Just turn off the read >>only attribute on the files in the cars95 directory and everything should work >>fine. >>4. This patch does not modify the paint kit, so if you re-installed ICR2 as >>the readme from the patch suggests you'll need to re-patch the paint kit. (I >>consider this to be a minor point). >>5. I do not know if the yellow flag bug was fixed or not.

I agree that the handling of the car "feels" better now, esp. at circuits like Australia. The patch also adds three new car setups to the game: QUALACE, QUALFAST and QUALEASY. Might be a good thing for rookies like me :-).

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> Let me add for anybody doing the patch, give yourself a good hour to > go from unzipping and reading documents to the time you can actually > run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to > do it's job, constant disk accessing... > So far, I agree that the patch seems to have addressed the "weight > shift bug"- my car seems to feel much more solid to me, I can now > actually save near-spins, for example. All in all, the whole model > just seems better to me.

I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min.

>> Let me add for anybody doing the patch, give yourself a good hour to >> go from unzipping and reading documents to the time you can actually >> run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to >> do it's job, constant disk accessing... <snip> a 486-sx33 upgraded to a dx4-100, so it isn't the worlds fastest. But I'd say it was the (slow) speed of hard disk that was the critical factor, in my case. Maybe you have smartdrv running? I wonder if that smartdrv would make a difference regarding the constant disk-accessing. I know from my own programming experience that (as a lazy shortcut) I could often shorten my programming time by skipping all the system-dependent buffering and just doing all disk accessing willy-nilly. Some of the programs were real disk-chuggers, and slow as hell! But hey, the bottom line is that for the first time in a *long* time. I'm using ICR2 again! I am pretty happy about that. And I think it is plenty good now for me to have fun with it. BTW, I threw out all my old setups; I now realize they were all based on the flaws encountered whenever racing for the 10 or 15 minutes, and even the generic ones provided by Papyrus seem more solid than mine ever felt. Sort of nice to start over. Also, didn't Papyrus give us some new generic setups for qualifying? I can't remember quite how they used to have it, but I think there are now 3 qual setups for each track.That's a nice extra.

>> >> run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to >> do it's job, constant disk accessing... >> >I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 >and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. That's pretty slow there; I think the problem is available memory. I run a 16MB SMARTDRV disk cache and got it in about 2 minutes with a crappy Western Digital IDE drive. Clark Archer Speed Tribe IVGA #3920 1996 Lola Honda Firestone

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> >> run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to > >> do it's job, constant disk accessing... > >I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 > >and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. > That's pretty slow there; I think the problem is available memory. I run a > 16MB SMARTDRV disk cache and got it in about 2 minutes with a crappy Western > Digital IDE drive.

Well it all depends on where you time it. I didn't time it but made an esitmate so I could be off but in anycase it was fast and quick. From the time I had unzipped the patch re-installed and patched it was about 5 min. No biggy, I used a 4MB cache under Win95 DOS box. The actuall game patching was like 30secs to 1 min. ken

Sounds like you oughtta install a disk caching utility (SMARTDRV.EXE for example). -- John C. McCanless Department of Electrical Engineering University of ***ia

>> Let me add for anybody doing the patch, give yourself a good hour to >> go from unzipping and reading documents to the time you can actually >> run the patched ICR2. The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to >> do it's job, constant disk accessing... >I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 >and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. I bet it's time for Jon to defrag his HD. It did take mine about 15 mins, dx2-66 and ancient Conner 420MB Gregory Fung Vancouver, B.C., Canada

>I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 >and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. I have a P133 with 32mb EDO and a 2.5gig Quantum Sirrocco and had 28mb SpeedCache installed.. took just over 2 mins for me..

ABout a 25 minute, disk-chugging wait for the patch to finish: >I bet it's time for Jon to defrag his HD. It did take mine about 15 mins, >dx2-66 and ancient Conner 420MB Nope, just defragged it to run Longbow. I think the difference is that you guys must have smartdrv running. I don't know for sure, but if I have to reinstall it ever, I will definitely try that; the patch appears to have no disk buffering at all.

Yeah, this was the first time in ANY racing game that Papyrus gave us more than one qualifying setup. That's good help for the ICR2 novices. -- +------------------+--------------------------------------------+ | G. Warren Abao | Official BBL Jacksonville Jaguars Website: | +------------------++------------------------+------------------+ | SPOOOOOOOOOOON!!! | BBL Jacksonville 1-0 | IFL Chicago 11-6 | +-------------------+------------------------+------------------+

The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to Ummm...5 mins?...are you sure you downloaded the right patch! I'm on a Pent-120 and it took roughly 30 mins.

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> The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to > > > do it's job, constant disk accessing... > > I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 > > and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. > Ummm...5 mins?...are you sure you downloaded the right patch! > I'm on a Pent-120 and it took roughly 30 mins.

Yup less than 5 min and the patch was done. Here is the file date : ICR100_2.ZIP 1263569 -- Kenny Ho

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> The patch itself must have taken 25 minutes to > > > do it's job, constant disk accessing... > > I don't know what kind of system and HD you have but my AMD 5x86-160 > > and Quantum 1.08G Fireball did the whole upgrade in about 5 min. > Ummm...5 mins?...are you sure you downloaded the right patch! > I'm on a Pent-120 and it took roughly 30 mins.

Took 5-10 mins on my Cyrix 166+