On Sun, Nov 30, 2003 at 08:40:44AM -0800, Joseph Weinstein wrote:
> Hi all. What are people's opinions on the most realistic software and
> hardware
> for playing at racing on the computer?
Software:
Grand Prix Legends is still considered the classic "very accurate
handling physics" simulator. It's very hard to learn, which you might
expect from an accurate simulator of a car that has 500 HP, weighs
1200 pounds, has skinny 60s-technology tires, and no downforce.
Live For Speed is a recent grassroots effort that has reached the
level of "pretty darn good". Their goal is to make a true to life racing
simulator. Currently there are about 7 different touring type cars,
from a VW GTI look-alike to a high-powered Lotus Seven look-alike.
There are three tracks with multiple variations and...a parking lot
for autocross, complete with a course cretor for placing cones and
timing gates. They are at "stage 1" out of three in their plan. It
costs about $20 and can be downloaded from www.liveforspeed.com. They
also have a fully functional demo with three cars and one track.
Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed is a definite departure from the
arcade-game-ish nature of the rest of the Need For Speed series. They
teamed up with Porsche to simulate driving and racing all sorts of
Porsches all the way back to the original 356. There is a historical
mode that starts you in the 50s with enough cash to buy a model 356 to
race. As you win races, you are awarded money which allows you to buy
newer cars as time advances. There is also a "factory driver" mode
which is a somewhat silly scenario in which you play the part of a
Porsche test driver candidate who works his/her way up to Chief Test
Driver by performing various feats of skill. The trials range from
"Beat my time on the skid pad" (yes, an autocross!) to "Deliver this
911 Turbo to a customer across town within 3 minutes, and DON'T
SCRATCH IT!".
Those are my picks. Each of them can be played online against other
drivers, although I've only ever raced online with Live for Speed.
Now for the hardware:
Porsche Unleashed and Grand Prix Legends are fairly old, so a computer
that's a few years old, or a bottom-of-the-line modern computer should
be able to run them just fine. Live For Speed is a bit more needy; my
setup is an Athlon 2500 (P4 2.5GHz equivalent) with a Radeon 9500 Pro
graphics card.
You definitely should get a good force-feedback steering wheel. Most
people recommend the Logitech MOMO Force steering wheel. It's also
compatible with most of the Playstation 2 games, including Gran
Turismo. That's what I have, and I think it's very well built and
works well. You can find one for around $100 if you look around.
Check www.pricegrabber.com and www.shopper.com. Note that Logitech
makes another product with a very similar name, which is cheaper and
not as good: the MOMO Racing Force. You want the MOMO Force, which
has a red shell and red/aluminum pedals with a black leather steering
wheel.
--
john@idsfa.net John Stimson
http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
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