Thoughts on latest GP500 BETA.

Are you testing this at the Zone? Is one of the future sims rumored to use this graphics engine GP3? The graphics (based on the AVI) look to be close to Rally Championship in quality. Photorealistic. David G Fisher

Just this minute got back from a multplayer test session of GP500 and it even more impressive than before. Highlights include, Brilliant performance even on slower PC's. I tried racing on an Old Pentium 200 MMX with a Voodoo 1 card and even on a IPX Lan race with 12 riders plus 4 AI riders I was getting a good 15 to 20 FPS. The graphics were more than adequate (about equivalent to SCGT at 640x480) and control was quite easy even at this less than optimal frame rate. I also tried an AMD K3 at 350MHz with a single Voodoo 2 and it performed exceptionally well. On a beaten up PII 350 with Voodoo 2 SLI I was able to get 30 to 35 FPS in traffic at 800x600 and 16 bit rendering with the longest view distance, detailed smoke and most other graphics options set to medium or max. Quite frankly I am astounded at the efficiency and quality of the graphics engine. I know other people are also impressed and this engine will be used on a few future car sims is the gossip I heard! The FPS is maxed out to 60 and I believe this should be easily achieved on a PIII 450 with either a Voodoo 3 3000 or TNT 2 Ultra. The TNT 2 Ultra should be able to achieve this with 32 bit rendering. Although the quality of the graphics was amazing on the Voodoo based PCs there was significant decrease in banding and more vibrant colours on the TNT 2 based PCs running at 32 bit rendering. The game also ran quite well on NT Workstation PC's and Windows 2000. Did quite a few laps using the MS Sidewinder Precison Pro. You can use the hat on the joystick to simulate moving forward and back on the seat and lean off the seat left or right. This will take a bit of getting used to! After a few aborted attempts with these set to manual I chickened out and set them to auto. I raced around Phillip Island with the Physics set to Intermediate and default bike settings. I tried Biaggi's Yamaha (where are the brakes), McCoys Honda twin ( brilliant manouverability but crappy acceleration), Doohan's Honda (how does he race this thing), Kenny's Modena (similar to the Honda Twin) and the Suzuki (very precise steering but ho hum brakes). My best lap was with the Honda Twin at 1:42. The different bikes definately have different feel. The bike setup has a terrific amount of choices but I was concentrating more on the physics and joystick aspects so didn't play with them much. All the usual stuff is there plus several different engine tunes to pick from. Ride a big bang or screamer, your choice! Wheelies, powerslides, suspension load/unloading, white line slipping, tank slapping wobbles etc are all there. Even the 2cm height difference between the tarmac and grass was simulated at Phillip Island. On several occasions I found myself highsiding after either losing traction temporailiy as my back wheel hit the ripple strip or white line or by sliding along the ridge caused by this height difference. The first corner at Phillip Island can be taken in fifth at around 240kmh which is a bit better than you can achieve in EA Superbikes. Tyre tempereture was monitored and visible as a topside picture of the bike with the tyres indicating a range of colours from light blue for cold to red for hot with green being the natural selection for the optimal temp. Split lap times are enabled but there is no telemetry to help witht he bike set up. The AI riders had the individual characteristics of the real GP stars. By combining the different physics of the bikes and the AI riders unique "personality" it was like watching the real thing. Phsycho outbreaking moves from Barros are a norm and power slides from Doohan a thing to watch! Apparent;y the AI of the riders takes into account their position during a race. Somebody like a Doohan will race to win whilst some other riders are content to sit in third place and not risk a pass just for the sake of being second! AI is also supposed to allow the slowing down of riders if they have a large gap near the end of the race to reduce their risk of crashing. The sound was okay but too hard to tell how good in the noisy environment of 20 odd PC's making the lovely 500cc noises! One amusing aspect is the cheering and applause that greets you after you do a 250KMh face plant into the sand! The BETA supported EAX and A3D but I am not sure if they will both exist in the released code. This game is being created by a group of sim and bike ethusiasts and the attention to detail is staggering. I can't wait for the next session! P.S. Once again I will say that this is a personal opinion. I am not an employee of Hasbro/Melbourne House/Infrogrames/Beam or Microprose. Feel free to ask any questions but better still have alook at teh Gp500.net site to get the facts from the devlopers themselves.

GP3 is too far into its devlopment so I dont think they will use this engine.I do know of a couple of sim (sequels) that will most probably use this engine but I can't really say anything because false rumours can hurt a company or group of programmers. Sffice to say it is suitable for cars and bikes. The most amazing thing is the wuality even on low spec PC's.

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> > Quite frankly I am astounded at the efficiency and > > quality of the graphics engine. I know other people are also impressed > > and this engine will be used on a few future car sims is the gossip I > > heard! The FPS is maxed out to 60 and I believe this should be easily > > achieved on a PIII 450 with either a Voodoo 3 3000 or TNT 2 Ultra. The > > TNT 2 Ultra should be able to achieve this with 32 bit rendering. > Are you testing this at the Zone? > Is one of the future sims rumored to use this graphics engine GP3? The > graphics (based on the AVI) look to be close to Rally Championship in > quality. Photorealistic. > David G Fisher

Well what I've heard there's no build of GP3 yet, so in theory it's not to late for it to use the same GFX engine, although it's very unlikley. However I think that GP500 will outperform GP3 (considering GP3 will be a PSX game too probably..?). Anyway we will see. Stefan Petrovic GP500.Net > GP3 is too far into its devlopment so I dont think they will use this > engine.I do know of a couple of sim (sequels) that will most probably use > this engine but I can't really say anything because false rumours can hurt a > company or group of programmers. Sffice to say it is suitable for cars and

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> bikes. > The most amazing thing is the wuality even on low spec PC's. > > > Quite frankly I am astounded at the efficiency and > > > quality of the graphics engine. I know other people are also

impressed > > > and this engine will be used on a few future car sims is the gossip I > > > heard! The FPS is maxed out to 60 and I believe this should be easily > > > achieved on a PIII 450 with either a Voodoo 3 3000 or TNT 2 Ultra. The > > > TNT 2 Ultra should be able to achieve this with 32 bit rendering. > > Are you testing this at the Zone? > > Is one of the future sims rumored to use this graphics engine GP3? The > > graphics (based on the AVI) look to be close to Rally Championship in > > quality. Photorealistic. > > David G Fisher Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.