God know how my system will fair given my track record with ISI games, can someone just confirm that this Sony protection can be safely removed without screwing your PC up?
I installed the demo, started it, configured controls, clicked time trial, pc frozen, had to reboot. Started it again, had to configure the controls this time too, clicked on weekend race, went okay, it's good but I don't feel fully connected to the car and the sounds aren't that great. Closed the game cause I had to go cook. Had lunch and came back. Started it again, wow what a surprise, my profile was there but controls and preferences that I chose before are default now. Configured again, clicked on weekend race, game closes and jumps to desktop. Started it again, configured wheel, clicked on time trial, game closes and jumps to desktop too. Gotta love it.
EDIT: Tried the same thing 4 times (2 with race and 2 with time trial) and it still closes. Guess my GTR 2 Demo is going back to the SimBin
^^ Have you checked the config files aren't read only? In XP just right click on your GTR folder and go to properties then click on read only until you get a clear checkbox.
any idea if its possible to use pedals from msff and dfp wheel? i didnt manage to get it working...i could either use only pedals OR only wheel, not both...
gave this demo a shot, quite disappointed with gtr2 overall. Although i wasnt looking forward to it that much as i was to gtr1 back then part of me was quite eager to try it.
After about an hour or so playing it i find in all departments where i hoped it would excel it failed. The new graphic engine wasnt that great and as many of you already pointed out looked strangely cartoony. The handling and feel of the car is very similar to gtr1 but with a few improvements as now you can actually feel your car is oversteering and doesnt suprise you like gtr1 did. Tracks looks nice but they looked nice even in gtr1 so not much of an improvement there. Also not sure if the gtr races race on the new Cataluniya layout as this was the old track before they changed one of the corners after the short middle straight.
Most of the sounds used in gtr1 have been kept the same, eg skid sounds, gravel sounds... tc sounds and so on....although not that important when buyig a new game you hope to get something new and improved and to me gtr2 is same in this department in gtr1... even the menu music is the same.
The new and improved damage engine is nowhere to be seen, smacked the car a few times ito the walls (was raining ) but the results were similar as in gtr1, a slight dent in the car, or a big chunk of the bodywork flies off...
overall the demo hasnt convinced me to buy gtr2, will give it a few more tries but i dont think ill be wasting money on this. Keeping in mind is just a demo the full game might be slightly better but at this late stage before release it will be very limited for them to change anything which i probably doubt they have in mind doing anyway....
Had a good bit of fun in GTR2..you can feel whats going on better than the 1st one, still doesn't have the same feel of LFS..but I was impressed. Graphics are okay, bit too cartooney here and there but overall quite nice. Sounds reminded me of the 1st one, didn't really sound any different. Until LFS cars start sounding like cars personally I perfer GTR2's engine sound, even if it doesn't sound dynamic, mostly becuase it isn't.
It thermalled my computer after an hour or so of driving..hit the 70C cutoff on my cpu. Time to clean it out a bit me thinks.
I've done GTR and GTL and found them both wanting in the ways outlined in so many posts above. I started to download the demo and was reading this thread at the same time. I got to 21% and thought "What the hell am I doing? It'll be another £35 down the tubes! Stop it!'
What the heck is wrong with firefox??? i downloaded the demo once only to see the download progress bar restart??!? :mad: then i let it finish a second time and now it restartedagain??? this is making my head reel, i am very very mad.
The physics are a massive improvement although the curbs still have that horrible pulling feeling. The GUI is still annoying and messy to get around. Atleast they seem to have dropped arcade mode, have they? I was forced to play at 640x480 and minimum graphics settings on a P4 64bit @ 3.0GHz, 512MB RAM, 5200FX... and I was getting miserly FPS. I therefore am in no position to comment on graphics. The main reason why I won't be buying this though, is the FF. Its horrible - the same old canned random bouncing with a lot of effects that feel like they shouldn't be there. The sounds sound are exactly the same as GTR1 (or so I think) and are really uninformative however "nice to listen to". I may be sounding quite harsh - its really not that bad but LFS is still my first love. In any other game (apart from ~50% of the time in nK-P) I feel like I'm in front of my computer play a game. In LFS I know what's going on. They've gotten the tyre physics right now. If they get the suspension physics and the FF right in GTR 3 I might consider buying that. Maybe they'll get a good package all round by GTR 6 or 7. I was expecting better from 2 TBH.
I wanna play it - I'm missing out by putting up dexion shelving in this heat. And I've got to wash my race suit, get the F3 car up an running for the weekend (), pick up the girlfriend, tidy the bedroom (before she arrives ), and stuff like that. But it seems so much worse knowing that you lot are testing a new sim (even if I'm positive I'll agree with Axus and Toni).
Definately an improvement over GTR1, the graphics look great (to me atleast) with everything maxed. Framerates are pretty amazing too considering the graphics settings. Damage has improved a fair bit. Physics to me feel alot more solid, more like I'd imagine a car of this type to feel. Sound is as good as it ever was if you can get over the 'OMG SAMPLES' phase.
Overall I'm tempted to preorder this. Incredibly tempted..
Slightly OT - anyone know if the GTR1 press demo had Starforce on it? Or any other reason why that worked with good FPS and all other ISI sims have either had non-exsistant FPS (rFactor MP Test, GTL) or freeze on the menu screens (GTL, GTR1 demo 2)?
So far I've only done about 20 laps in both cars but I must say that I'd like to do a lot more. It's been long time I have been racing on a real, good F1 standard track. Still a bit unsure how long I will play this demo, but I must say that in my books it's quite good.
The cars seem to be a bit too pushy for my tastes, though it may be a setup issue. The cars are different enough and feel different. But the whole driving feeling is a lot better than in GTR1. Slow corners are still tough, but that's always how it is with new sims.
Graphics - nothing special here. My comp (AMD64 3500+, Gef7800GT and 1 gig ram) could run it with full graphics at 1600x1200. With full grid. The tracks look awful, so few polygons I expected better graphics but luckily it was the better driving feel I got. No antialiasing though...yet
Gotta tweak it a little bit though. At times it certainly feels that the game is driving my car, not me. But again, I'm at least very positively surprized
I love when they make claims on things they didn't even make. How can something made 5 or 6 (maybe even 7?) years ago be ground-breaking?
The fact that Simbin didn't upgrade to pMotor 2 proves they are not interested in making a sim. Even if pMotor 2 is not all that good, it is still better than the first engine by quite a large margin. Of course, it can't even begin to shake a stick at LFS.
I didn't put a lot of time in it yet, and I may have to do some controls tweaking. Overall, it's ok. Nothing more and nothing less. The physics seem to be a big improvement indeed but I just still don't feel connected to the car. Something's definitely missing. But I guess we're spoiled with LFS (tyre) physics.
The graphics...meh. It just doesn't float my boat. I don't have a state of the art PC atm but it did run quite smoothly. The cars look pretty good, but the track doesn't really impress me graphics wise. I definitely like the interiors of the car, I hope the GTR's will get better interiors soon in LFS.
I do like the extra immersion stuff LFS doesn't (yet) have, like a mechanic giving you the signal to go out of the pitbox, the flag guy, etc. Might seem unimportant but I think it really adds to the immersion.
The sounds...sampled so it lacks the function of providing good feedback but it does sound good I guess.
The menu interface...crowded, arcady...but smooth. Rfactor has a "graphically intensive" menu system but it reacts like poo. At least this one allows you to go through menus without waiting for... the menus.
I'll play it some more in the next couple of days to get a better impression, but there's no immediate "click" , which in my case mostly means I'll lose interest in it quite fast.
the demo is actually pretty fun it feels much easier to ride near the limit now. i have only had one race and 4 laps of practice before that with the ferrari. and i didnt crash once.
If you push very hard it is easy lose grip
maybe its just because i had very low expectations for this game.
oh joy, i dont even think im going to mess with it, graphics these days are getting out of hand, and companies like EA and stuff make games look like crap if you lower the graphics on them just a little bit, but even when EVERYTHING is at low... it still runs terrible... right..
LOL for me it was exactly the same experience as the GTR1 demo 2. Again the bloody control page got confused because my Logitech FF GP (I use the pedals so I can get a clutch pedal) has a button that always registers as being pressed, which LFS, N2003 and GPL all ignore when setting controls up but no GTR has to be awkward, so after unpluging the FF GP I set the rest of the controls up, identical to GTR1. Then I get a real treat I get to see a bit of video of a TVR on the menu page and listen to (the same?) music. Then I click 'Time Trial' get a sense of deja vu here as everything freezes and the music goes into an annoying loop. OK never mind lets turn the PC off and see if 'Race Weekend' works for me. Nope another restart later and it seems it's just like the old demo, although the Press demo worked fine. Bit pathetic really they can't design a menu screen that doesn't crash.
Running on 800 x 600 x 16
AA off (and not forced in ATi drivers)
Dx 7
57hz (lowest) fresh rate.
I just had a 10 lap race with full grid and with AI difficulty set to 105% and I had a great fight in the middle of the pack with good FPS (1280x1024x32 DX9 high settings with A64 2500 Mhz, GF 6600GT). I liked the way I could force the car to a small oversteer with throttle in order to go out faster from the slower corners. In some cases I even had to save spins with fast countersteers.
I also like how the light conditions change throughout the day.
On the other hand I can't really tell at the moment if the car behaves realistically under wet conditions or not, I need more time . But it causes quite dramatic fps drop which should be decreased (I mean the drop . I hate the effect how the curbs force the car to go out to the grass. And finally the FFB effect: when I started first without checking the options, I felt almost no FFB. Then I changed to the predefined MOMO FFB setup and then I could feel really strong effects although many of them felt to be artificial and not very apropriate.
All in all IMO LFS is still the king in terms of driving feel but I am waiting for the final release to see the netcode and the possible improvements.
) but the results were similar as in gtr1, a slight dent in the car, or a big chunk of the bodywork flies off...
), pick up the girlfriend, tidy the bedroom (before she arrives 
I expected better graphics but luckily it was the better driving feel I got. No antialiasing though...yet 
