I hate Soda

Anyone able to play SODA offroad? No support for 3fdx makes this game run real slow on my P200MMX (64meg 10ns) Matrox Millenium2. After playing Moto Racer 3DFX, i tossed Soda. Any ideas?

Then don't drink it!

It was basically unplayable on my 133/ET6000 combo. Dog slow. I suppose I'm spoiled, because I can't even bear to play anything at 320x200 now. It looks hideous. I have a Screamin' 3D here, so I put that in, and it runs good for hot lapping, but still slows way down with computer controlled trucks running. If you really like the game, my suggestion would be to get one of the new Rendition 2200 cards. They're cheap (if you consider $100 cheap to be able to play a 15 dollar game -heh), and much better than the 1000's. That' what I'm considering (I also have a Monster), but I haven't yet. If the Voodoo2 is out at the end of this month, I'll probably just get that and quit playing SODA. Unfortunate, cuz I love the game. :( -- http://www.users.fast.net/~fusion1 (dirt bikes, rat bikes, rental car abuse...)

Hell, I got it for Christmas, thank God!! Had emailed them after saw the demo asking if the interior graphics would be better in full version and never got a response. compared to Nascar 1 & 2 they suck!! Also never heard back about my many requests as to why the packaging claims to support wheel and pedal driving devices yet I have never been able to get my Ch Virtual pilot Pro and/*or* my CH Pedals to work right when they work fine in N1 & N2!!! Suffice it to say that the only storage space SODA currently occupies in this house is on the CD which makes part of a great decorative mobile <G>. Ron -- Ron Riekens II Co-Owner/Driver Pacific Rim Racing/Medallion Motorsports [link lost in import] NASS'98 BGN Series #97 Pontiac NASS'98 N1 Points Statistician [link lost in import: /~frelance//n1/] ICQ# 1780898 Internet *** Zone ID Ron_R2

>Then don't drink it! Spoken like a true fan of "Realistic" sims..... Uh huh, yeah, right! Ron -- Ron Riekens II Co-Owner/Driver Pacific Rim Racing/Medallion Motorsports [link lost in import] NASS'98 BGN Series #97 Pontiac NASS'98 N1 Points Statistician [link lost in import: /~frelance//n1/] ICQ# 1780898 Internet *** Zone ID Ron_R2

>Anyone able to play SODA offroad? No support for 3fdx makes this game >run real slow on my P200MMX (64meg 10ns) Matrox Millenium2. After >playing Moto Racer 3DFX, i tossed Soda. Any ideas? Similar setup. PPro200&Mil2 8mb. Frame rates are not pod-esque, no, but am i alone in thinking this is one of the best, fresh, sims i ahve seen in along time. It's a damn shame that the D3D/3dfx patch has been canned. Oh well. Grab a few setups, some of the kick-ass tracks on the net and enjoy. It's great. Z.

>Also never heard back about my many requests as to why the packaging >claims to support wheel and pedal driving devices yet I have never >been able to get my Ch Virtual pilot Pro and/*or* my CH Pedals to work >right when they work fine in N1 & N2!!! I don't know much about your controller, but my T2 and pedals setup without any problem. -- http://www.users.fast.net/~fusion1 (dirt bikes, rat bikes, rental car abuse...)

Perhaps it could have been, there is certainly a lot to like in SODA with the excellent driving and racing, as well as some new features like internet world records. Unfortunately there's an equal amount to dislike, with frame-rate needing work to be playable, dated graphics and uninvolving sound. SODA is IMO the best off-road racer as far as driving is concerned, but I'm equally convinced that as far as sales are concerned Monster Truck Madness had it well beaten. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Cheers! John

> Anyone able to play SODA offroad? No support for 3fdx makes this game > run real slow on my P200MMX (64meg 10ns) Matrox Millenium2. After > playing Moto Racer 3DFX, i tossed Soda. Any ideas? Yeah...Do yourself a favor and check your system out. You have enough power to run the sim, but of course the FPS is less than perfect (can't have it all)...Perhaps just a simple adjustment of the graphic options is in order? Although lacking in the graphics department (with mediocre frame rate to match), SODA is (physics wise) one of the finest sims available. =) Cheers! Marc -- Marc J. Nelson Sim Racing News - http://www.simnews.com <remove '_*_' before replying>

> There's a lesson in there somewhere. Hmmmm....How about Papy concentrate on ground-based racing, instead of messing with the flight-sim stuff (Reno Racer)? In other words, stick to what they know best and better support for their products. Cheers! Marc -- Marc J. Nelson Sim Racing News - http://www.simnews.com <remove '_*_' before replying>

No problem on my system with any way including fps and smooth running. I do have P233mmx, 64mb 10ns, udma hd, s3 chipset for video card, and TX chipset for motherboard. And it runs perfect, unless I have less then 10mb of free ram. Which is usually about 100kb for me.

>It's a damn shame that the D3D/3dfx patch has been canned. Yup, a sure fire sign that the developer doesn't believe the game has a future, IMO. Joe

> Also never heard back about my many requests as to why the packaging > claims to support wheel and pedal driving devices yet I have never > been able to get my Ch Virtual pilot Pro and/*or* my CH Pedals to > work right when they work fine in N1 & N2!!! N1 and N2 are DOS games. SODA is a Win95 game. So the fact that your controller works in DOS is only of passing relevance to whether you've sacrificed the appropriate poultry to get it to work in Win95. However, once you get it properly configured in Win95, making it work in SODA is a matter of selecting the controller. ---Jim

>Yup, a sure fire sign that the developer doesn't believe the game has >a future, IMO. Would you disagree with that conclusion though? I don't think I could, much as I like SODA. Cheers! John

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>>Yup, a sure fire sign that the developer doesn't believe the game has >>a future, IMO. >Would you disagree with that conclusion though? I don't think I could, >much as I like SODA. >Cheers! >John

I'd go further and say any game being released currently without D3D/Glide support at the moment is going to fail straight away. Soda was a pleasure to drive, but frame rate issues did limit people's appeal. A D3D patch was certinely needed, Glide would have been a fine extra. Z.

>>Yup, a sure fire sign that the developer doesn't believe the game has >>a future, IMO. >Would you disagree with that conclusion though? I don't think I could, >much as I like SODA. Hard to say. I do know that NOT supporting modern 3d technology is one sure way to make sure it doesn't have a future though. Joe

We talk a lot about how we hate new games that have great graphics and no driving feel or poor physics, I don't think we can say this about SODA. I think SODA has one of the best driving models out there. You can really see where all the development effort went with this one. I don't know how long the game was in development, but I think there was a trade off in that the CPU cycles are being used to calculate suspension movements and the full 3D physics the car is being subjected to. Remember you can't roll a car in Papyrus Indycar or Nascar. The coders for SODA may have been working on this before D3D looked like a winner and probably before the 3Dfx overtook the Rendition in game support. Since Sierra and Papyrus had at least some involvement in it's creation or at least in selling the product it naturally has Rendition support. If SODA had came out a year ago it would have been racing sim of the year. It had all the things we asked for: great physics, driving feel, full 3D movement of the car, networking over lan, internet, and modem, and a built in track designer. If the game had D3D or 3Dfx it would have been everything anybody would want. In my opinion, anybody with 233MHz and up who likes racing sims should get a copy. Jerry

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:52:04 -0800, "Marc J. Nelson" >Hmmmm....How about Papy concentrate on ground-based racing, instead of >messing with the flight-sim stuff (Reno Racer)? In other words, stick >to what they know best and better support for their products. Not quite the lesson I had in mind :-) I see no problem with diversifying, and indeed any lessons learned from modelling aerodynamics in 3 dimensions could be profitably applied to their sim market, and vice-versa. There's also the issue of becoming stale, and it's always nice to do something completely different I don't know much about Reno Racer at all, and I suspect that Papyrus coding it is perhaps like using a hammer to crack a nut, but I don't know the background or the ins, outs and shake-it-all-abouts so I'll refrain from judgement until such time as I do. I'm quite looking forward to it though - Plane Crazy looks fun, and I recall GeeBee Air Rally (or was it Bee Gee's Hair Rally?) on the Amiga which was kind of fun. At long last a fun flying product where I don't need to trim anything or tune a radio to a VOXEL (or something) - heaven. Cheers! John

Hi John! I think was Bee Gee's Hair Rally. :-) Seriously, you played that as well?! I thought I was the only one... Personally I was rather pleased to hear Papyrus was working on a flight sim since they virtually define simulated vehicle physics. I think Reno Racer will be quite fun, although they need to be careful and provide the game with purpose, something I feel Looking Glass failed on with Flight Unlimited. Of course FU2 is a much better game and simulator, but if FU did fail as a product, it would surely be through lack of goal variety for the player. Oh, and a VOXEL is generally a graphics term or a single entity, not a radio transmitter! You're probably thinking of a VOR. Mail me personally if you want to know more about this subject. <GGG> Mike.

> > At long last a fun flying product where I don't need to trim > > anything or tune a radio to a VOXEL (or something) - heaven. > Oh, and a VOXEL is generally a graphics term or a single entity, not a > radio transmitter! You're probably thinking of a VOR. Mail me personally > if you want to know more about this subject. <GGG> I think he's referring to WarBirds in that comment... trim effects are modeled and VOX is in use (player to player voice transmissions) I'm looking forward to Papyrus' air race sim too... I think ICI did a stellar job on flight modeling in Warbirds, but I still want to see what Papyrus does with the genre... Between Reno Racer and GPL this summer, i'm not anticipating getting much actual work done... Trips

On Tue, 24 Feb 1998 21:14:45 GMT, "Mike Laskey" >I think was Bee Gee's Hair Rally. :-) Seriously, you played that as well?! > I thought I was the only one... No, I played it. Actually I recently tried it on the Amiga Emulator and wondered why I ever bothered! Some games in those days were awesome (Boulderdash and Bubble Bobble I spent hours with on the emulator!) but BeeGee was a bit boring. Still, it was racing :-) Hey, spot on. Load up - oh look, nice graphics - fly around, crash - fly around, crash - fly around, land - quit - delete... Okay thanks - next time I can't sleep I'll call you and you can explain all about them VOR thingies :-) When is someone going to release a flight sim where I don't have to fly the 'plane, I can just sit in my seat, drink champagne and chat to any cute girls that happen to be unfortunate enough to be seated near me? :-) Cheers! John

Damn, that would be unfortunate <g>. Anyway, I'd just like to point out that that scenario never happens in real life, only in Hollywood's depiction of life!!! Anyone here who _ever_ was fortunate to start a relationship with they somebody met on a plane? I didn't think so! That's why there aren't any sims about this. Did Maxis write SimPlane? No. :-) Mike.

>Anyone here who _ever_ was fortunate to start a relationship with they >somebody met on a plane? I didn't think so! That's why there aren't any >sims about this. Did Maxis write SimPlane? No. :-) Funny reference. If you've ever seen the secrets in SimCopter, you'd know that their male designers are more interested in meeting cute guys than girls Tim