On my birthday I got 5 messages from forums NONE from my family. Bunch of bums.

My bad, I can't tell what timezone I'm in. I saw the 6pm start and didn't read any further. DOH!

Looking forward to the FOXs.

Hey there, sorry about bailing on the race last night but I was starving. I came home from work at 5:45 jumped strait on the computer and if I's known that the practice was going to take an hour I'd have eaten then as it was I was famished by 8 and lost concentration on lap 2 or 3 (can't remember) by then I had to stop and eat. Next round I'll have eaten before the race starts.

Well I have to say I'd be tempted to link this forum thread as proof of your tenacity. Frankly I'm not sure that all the negative comments are well founded. I've no idea how much you 'could' run an entrant in the 24hr race but I don't see why shooting high should be seen as silly. If I was given the option of racing and putting a package together I'd aim for what would make my life 'comfortable' in terms of budget. Then if I don't get what I'm looking for I'm sorted and if I get less then it'll just be a little tougher. That sounds what you are aiming for so just keep at. I have never heard of anyone achiving anything worthwhile without at least a little bit of a fight for it.

And as for the dissenters claiming you are expecting too much, can you imagine a driver out there who is looking to come second? Really? No.

http://www.drivebeer.com/main.html

And

http://www.myspace.com/jvofficial

Do they really need more money!?!

I had a quick look and I couldn't see what you were offering a company in terms of wanting to sponsor you. You need to tell them about the coverage, articles in mags, spots on the radio, anything that will actively promote thier brand. They need to know who and how many people thier branding will reach so they know if it is a worthwhile venture. Is there local TV coverage of your events? Is there coverage in trade mags? How many people will attend the 24hr kart race?
If a company knows that they are buying sponsor ship on a Kart this is likely to win a chapionship that noone but the people in attendance will ever see then why would they sponsor you? However if they know that it will reach an estimated audience of 20000 folk in europe on the Motorsport channel then they might be more interested. Think not what you can do for them but what they can get out of you.

Good luck and let us know how you get on (so the rest of us can fleece some company into putting up some opposition for you )

Sorry to spoil the fun but that does leave the country (main land at least), you'd need to take a ferry to the Shetland Isles (unless I'm hugely mistaken). Besides, you need to revise it to get off the motorways, use A roads as a preferance and when you get to Scotland (especially the highlands) take a few B roads, just for fun.

The Rig:
Antec P180
Tagen 420W PSU
Epox 8NJPA nForce 4 MOBO
Sempron 2800+ @ 2.2
Geil Value 3200 RAM 1GB @ 229 2.5 3 3 6 1T
ATI Radeon X700Pro 128Mb @ 505 1152
Onboard Sound
WD 80Gb SATA
Sony DVDRW
Cooling:
Zalman 7700Cu
Zalman NF700Cu
Zalman NB47J

The input:
MX1000 mouse on Icemat 2
or
Logitech Formula Force GP or something similar. Just waiting till the G25 comes out.

The output:
19" Crt @ 1600*1200
Stereo Speakers from HiFi

Will post some piccies on the internals later the external is not very good as, in reality, my desk is too small for a 19"CRT so it sits WAY too close to my face and the chair I have is NASTY.

That is one hell of a setup GrandSurf but why two shifters? Does the readout next to the shifters show telemetry info?

the game is CPU limited mainly, the 9700 should ensure that you can run at a higher res or with aa/af if you could already play the game smoothly at a lower res. Just be warned, the Catalyst drivers are odd sometimes, get the latest Omega tweaked drivers and you should be ok.

Lets face it, hot lapping is about finding the fastest time that is still legal in the HLVC, therefore I have no problem with the racing like this. In the Reverse rally on blackwood my friends at the LAN decided that rather than negotiating the left right before you enter the rally part they would simply steam over the hill, onto the gravel and get a much straighter line into the next corner. That is quite clearly cheating but due to the fact that the game did not black flag them they assumed it was legal. So long as the rules are the same for everyone, it is still fair, if not sensible.

Considering what I got up to in my mums Corsa after passing my driving test there is NO WAY I'm getting a bike. I trust that I'd be safe and all but it's all those other buggers on the road that make it unsafe. At least in a car I've got a ton of metal as protection from thier ton of metal.

Yeah, that is what I think, but he didn't look happy, at all, in the car on Sat. Out of all the cars coming round Club his car looked worst, not slowest just more on edge. Maybe it was for show, in which case I applaued him for trying but it just looked like the car was a b1tch to drive. I was hoping to see the smooth and clean style of Button and what I saw was him struggling and sawing at the wheel like the historics!

If you look at the way that certain drivers respond to the way the team treat them Prost at Ferrari, Hill at Williams, DC at McLaren, they have a marked difference to when the team is being built around them, Prost at McLaren (until Senna joined), Button at BAR, DC at Red Bull. I think that the button down rigure of the McLaren team has somewhat deflated JPM. I can only imagine that if given a car that was as quick and reliable as Fernando Alonso then he would be as quick, if not quicker. The problem stems from the fact that if you are not bum chums with Ron Dennis then you don't get listened to or appreciated at McLaren. How many times did we here about Mika this or Mika that in a race where DC outperformed Mika (it did happen). The same thing happened when Kimi joined, if DC had an excellent race but Kimi was hampered by something then Ron would say DC was solid and then go on to apologise about Kimi. I think looking at McLaren history if Alonso and Montoya team up I think the Monsta will stay away and quickly vanish. What Monty needs is the support of a team for a year or so to rebuild his confidence, he really is an excellent driver but if you are not cinvinced the team is behind you and your car keeps failing it would be easy (especially for the more emotional drivers) to get disheartend. Lets not forget that during the F3 days of DC v Barichello DC could win from anywhere on the grid and regulalry beat Rubens. In the second half of the season a friend of Rubens (i can't remember if it was Senna or not) had a chat and boosted his confidence. After that, Rubens was untouchable and took the championship. The bigger questionmark in my mind is Button, what the hell is happening?

Looking at the way he F1 boys drove compared to the GP2 I'd say that F1 is pretty easy. If you screw up on the first lap you just claim it was a 'racing incident' even if you do take out another driver with your hopeless attempt at recovery (here's looking at you Ralph - do you know what your mirrors are for?). For Alonso it was easy, his car was glued to the road he had no significant challenge and the pit stops are done by guys that train relentlessly for it. GP2 on the other hand, Lewis Hamilton fought hard to get though the pack and up to first place, when he did he was pushing hard to get a bit of a lead, he managed, but every lap looked just a little more ragged than any of the F1 boys, because he was pushing and the car is not as well stuck to the road. WRC is in another class I'm not sure the two are compareable (Open wheel single seater to modified road car). There is no question in my mind that the best of both worlds are very good but the race of champions each year has proven that the F1 guys can adapt to WRC pretty quickly, I've not seen a WRC driver adapt as quickly to F1 (Colin McRae was pretty swift in his test a while back).

At the BMW F1 experience thing I finished 2nd with a 1:41. Like Tristan says in his post, it takes to the end of Beckettes to get the throttle/steering sorted, stowe is your first touch of the brakes and the calibration was way off. The rest of the lap was difficult for me as I had some pretty awful relections from the glaring sun on the big perspex guard around the encloseure. If it had been setup well and had an option for no driving aids it would have been worth going back. Did anyone get a shot of the Toyota driving experience, the queue was too long for me but the competition looked pretty steep (fastest time was a 1:14, but I never saw what that the track was actually Silverstone, just assuming it was)

Well this is me back in my flat, having spent the weekend at silverstone. I will post a link to all my photos later, once I've vetted them for the photos where the camera decided to focus on the catch fence

Friday is the THE BEST day to attend. No crowds, full access (except granstands that make you further away from the action than the cheap seats), and the cars and drivers are really being tested. Didn't get down in time to see the F1 boys do thier stuff but arrived as the GP2s were warming up. As we were walking from Club to Abbey the first car went by and it was just fantastic the energy involved in even a GP2 car is incredible. We wanderd up the hill to Bridge and took a few shots before hedding further round to the complex for a few slo-mo close up shots, that haven't come out Then we headed for the F1 Village, took photos of the cars on display etc usuall stuff, sadly never got a chance to return to the Red Bull place to pick up a copy of thier newsletter but nevermind. The BMW Sauber Experience is great dispite what Tristan says. You will not get closer to an actuall F1 car and the energy when he moves from one end to the other and revs the engine is something to behold. The other niceities like the chance to try your hand at the pit stop challenge, the information and starting proceedure test (I got a reaction time of .174 to JVs .047) are less frustrating than the simulator (I came second, once you get to copse and realise that all you have to do is follow the driver aids there is little else to do). Thier cake and coffee was good and Andy is a great driver and very entertaining to watch in the Touring Car. The demonstration they give with the F3 car was more amusing as they were unable to get the clutch to bite properly so, on the attempts I saw, he moved quite a bit slower than he should have, much to the mirth of the crowd. Then we headed off to the becketts esses and the Porche guys were very loose all through that section, they sound great and move around MUCH more than the single seaters.

Sat:
Arrived early, set up on the exit of Club with a view from the exit of Stowe down through Vale and up to Abbey. The GP2 race was great, as was the Porche Supercup, the F1 guys were amusing (Kimi getting distracted by the Helicopter Display team as they flew over as he entered Vale). Sadly there was very little 'action' and even JPM, recognised as a oversteer master seemed to be keeping it neat and tidy on the wide exit of club making for some very boring viewing. The action into Vale looked good most of the time which sort of compensates. Moved round Becketts again for the Historics, I figured with little areo and lots of power there would be a lot of action but they were mostly sensible and got through most times unscathed. The sound of the historics is better than anything all weekend long, the volume of the F1 and GP2 are easily more but the growl from the late 60's and early 70's are just unmatchable. The helicopter display team were awesome. Football? Was there football on? Oh yes, you simply could not move for folk wanting to watch the football. On the exit of copse we saw that people had turned thier back on the GP2 race to look at the screen behind them!?! What the hell were they thinking?!?

Sunday:
Wind had changed and it was lots busier than Sat even though we arrived an hour earlier. The wind was now blowing from Club up to Stowe with the net result of the embankment sheltering us from the breeze that kept temperatures in check on Saturday and that the cars were now braking into Vale and into a head wind rather than with a tale wind so less chance of a lockup Anyway we got a decent spot further down the embankment than Sat (dissapointing as on Sat we could see over the catch fence, now all my shots would be through the catch fence). They changed the schedule, now the porche supercup would be on before 9, which was good because having been ther since 7 I was getting a little bored. The Porche Race was as interesting as the F1, the lead man never looked challenged and we saw no action our end of the circuit. The GP2 race was fantastic, a stunning drive from the Brits, Lewis Hamilton and Adam Carroll. (#SPOILER# Lewis, outside, Becketts, 3 cars, stunning #END SPOILER#). Then the driver parade was good, nice chance to get a shot of the drivers up close (they came really close to the exit of Club so my Mum got a few photos of her star, DC). Race was boring save for the 'experience' and I found it very difficult to find out who was doing what, also, if you DO go to a GP make sure you can positively idetify all the drivers from the side of thier helmet, some of them look VERY alike in the heat of a midday sun. Then to finish was the historics, by then most folk had left already which I though was odd as the historics are great and again I enjoyed them 'racing' more than the F1 cars. We stayed at Club to watch the historics this time and watched one burst into flames as it exited Vale, the driver parked up then jumped out, can't say I blame him.

All in, a very good weekend. Not convinced grandstand tickets are worthwhile, very sure that if I go again I won't actually watch the race but instead use that time to go see the F1 Village and maybe watch the race from inside an air-con hospitaity cafe. Very sure I want to see F1 again but on a different circuit, Monaco still appeals but Sepang, Suzuka and Spa are the top 3. If you do go next year, make sure you are circuit side no later than 7:30am if you don't have a grandstand ticket as all the best slots were taken by 7 and the rest were filling up rapidly. Definately stay till the end of the support races as when we left the traffic only took us and hour to get through. Definately park in the main car parks if you can, due to the traffic management you'll get out sooooo much sooner than anyone else. Go to the BMW Sauber Experience and get the earplugs, you WILL damage your ears otherwise, just don't use them on Friday.

Last edited by yegadoyai, Mon 12 Jun 2006, 17:59.

I'm aware that all clients would require the PPU if that route were chosen, the advantage behind the Unified Shader moel is that is allows developers to use the GPU on a graphics card as a programmable processing unit. This means that (in ATIs implementation) you could have a graphics card for physics and a graphics card for graphics, they don't even have to match! I think this will mean it will be open to enough folk to consider.

I'm not sure how the Client/Server nature of physics works in the game but with the advent of physics processors and the Unified Shader models would it not be posible to do some basic CFD (Computed Fluid Dynamics) for areo on the client side? Clearly the areo for a car is static in a simulation, normally, but with the huge processing power that will soon be available can we not utilise it to further the physics? I understand that real (true) CFD is supercomputer terratory and non realtime but for a simple model computing for a set number of nodes on the car/track we could get a basic dynamic for calculation of turbulance, downforce, drag etc that would be more real for following another car in close quarters. As I understand the model currently used uses a table of values to calculate the values at any given speed, but does not take into account the angle of the wing to the wind. Clearly the whole track would not need to be modeled just the area prior to the cars and the area just after, a train of cars would increase the amount of processing but after a while it would settle out as only groups of cars would affect each other. I think i remember speaking to someone about this a while ago and they thought it would make too small a difference to the 'feel' for it to be worthwhile. Just typing while I think this, it could also be used to calculate the realtime venturi effect and ground effect (if they are not the same thing).

Regardless of the driving model I certainly think that the unified shader should be used as soon as possible (early next year, I know) to give interactive smoke and debris effects some real 'life'.

I think the main appeal with LFS for me is the mouse control. It enabled me to get more of my, less than enthusiastic, friends playing. Once they tried it they wanted more so we buy the full thing, now they are getting wheels and playing regularly. LFS is the the first real simulator (that I know of) that was interested in keeping the simulation aspect but try and be open to all users. The fact that it also has an excellent online community and (for my experience) superb, online, lagless play makes it a sure fire winner. If it gets a graphics makeover then I will be untroubled but for me it is more important for a racing sim to have clean lines and high res so you can make out the racing line, kerbs etc and LFS does that very nicely. Improvements to the lighting would be my first non simulation request as I think that HDR, true diffuse lighting, reflections etc would improve the immersion level far more than just adding more polys or higher detail textures. However I'm more than happy for the devs to sit and tinker with the physics and balancing issues.

I've been racing the demo for ages so on default setup I think I've had a low 36 on blackwood. At the weekend we were racing in the mid 36s for a decent race distance. I'm pretty sure a 35 i posible but I cant get the braking into the right hander after the long straight right when using the mouse and I lose about .2 - .3 in that sector alone. Racing with the wheel is left to the other cars as they are more fun but to keep a level playing feild for our LAN group, everyone races the demo and uses a mouse so I haven't had much time using a wheel on the XFGT.

Hello all, I'm off to Silverstone for the first time this weekend, anybody know of the better places to catch the action, clearly the section from maggots down to chapel is good. I'm going fri/sat/sun so I hope to have a good idea of where to be by Sunday but any insider info from an experienced Silvertstone attendee would be nice.

Thanks

DC for the win?

Sorry, I'm at work and didn't scan the headlines. Apologies

MODS:

Delete this thread

(I can't see how)

Recently unveiled at E3 it sounds like a cracker. I've heard that at the moment the 'value' wheel of choice is the Logitech MOMO. At $300 this is not a 'value' offering but, do you think it will be worth it?

Metal construction
6 speed gate
Padle shifters
3 pedals

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ ... 10/logitech_gaming_wheel/

Is there an alternative at this price range? I thought all 3 pedal sw/pedal setups were £500+

I'm looking to replace my Formula Force you see.

I have had the demo for AGES, with the intention to getting the full thing 'sometime'. That time came and now I have the full thing, however we will continue to race the demo at LANs (for the majority) and it is one of the best 'demos' about and is very good at getting people interested in the game. Perhaps the problem is that a racing game inherently does not lend itself to demo versions. If you were to limit the max race length for the demo version or something similar I think it would be better than no online at all. People that are 'casual' users and unlikely to ever buy the game will not be unduly bothered by only being able to compete in 10lap races. Whereas a 10lap online race is enough for anyone who is interested to get a very good idea if they want to go for S2.

The thought of a 2 day lan event dedicated to LFS is an awesome concept but as I'm the only person (in our LAN group) that has completed a 2 hour race I doubt that the rest of them would make the half hour mark. I wanted to do a 24hr event in stints just like the real thing, but the only other person up for it couldn't manage an hour of racing before getting distracted.