Discussion
Righty, Getting a new computer soon with a bit of luck - no idea on what spec or anything, but it'll be good enough to run GTR hopefully. What I really need is someone to talk me into getting the game, im usually a GT man but GT4 has such a terribly bad physics engine that I cant bare to play it anymore.
Another fear is that im (in computer terms) completely lost. Will I be able to get it all up and running in order to play online?? (and join some sort of PH league after a little bit of practice?) I seriously have the abilities of a 6 year old when it comes to computers, how I ever got counterstrike to work a few years back is beyond me!! even so it took weeks to figure everything out.
Also would love to know what you guys are using - keyboards? steeringwheels? pedals? Whats recommended?
Thanks in advance,
Ben CA
(still running an ANCIENT computer at uni with a 6gig hard drive LOL)
Another fear is that im (in computer terms) completely lost. Will I be able to get it all up and running in order to play online?? (and join some sort of PH league after a little bit of practice?) I seriously have the abilities of a 6 year old when it comes to computers, how I ever got counterstrike to work a few years back is beyond me!! even so it took weeks to figure everything out.
Also would love to know what you guys are using - keyboards? steeringwheels? pedals? Whats recommended?
Thanks in advance,
Ben CA
(still running an ANCIENT computer at uni with a 6gig hard drive LOL)
Getting the game running and up to date isn't too hard. Racing online is pretty straightforward too, but its a bit flakey and so sometimes doesn't work for no particular reason. Installing some of the add ons (new cars etc) is slightly trickier, but there are plenty of people here that can help out with that.
I think I'm probably in the minority in that I don't use a steering wheel as the controller. I've got one, but I don't really get on with it... Could just be that I don't trust my desk not to destroy itself when I'm wrestling a wheel thats attached to it. I use a joystick, overall I find it easier to control steering inputs but find that changing the throttle / brake input sometimes unintentionally affects my steering input, especially when starting to brake for a corner. Ideally I'd probably have pedals and a joystick to steer.
I think I'm probably in the minority in that I don't use a steering wheel as the controller. I've got one, but I don't really get on with it... Could just be that I don't trust my desk not to destroy itself when I'm wrestling a wheel thats attached to it. I use a joystick, overall I find it easier to control steering inputs but find that changing the throttle / brake input sometimes unintentionally affects my steering input, especially when starting to brake for a corner. Ideally I'd probably have pedals and a joystick to steer.
Recommended Spec is Pentium 4 2.0GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 1GB hard drive space, 128MB videocard, but I'd aim a little higher than that. I've got a P4 2.8GHz HT, 512MB good quality RAM and a 128MB 6600GT, and my framerates can drop into the 30s with some of the more demanding car/circuit combinations (such as the Maserati's that we race in the league at Assen).
Setup is straightforward, as d-man said. You'll need to leave the CD in the drive to play the game, but then that's the case with most games these days unless you can find an unofficial no-cd patch. The game will automatically upgrade you to the latest version (1.4) when you try to get online, so that pretty much takes care of itself.
I'd recommend a wheel and pedals, but I'm sure it's not essential (I haven't yet been able to match my keyboard time on the GTL demo with the wheel
).
I would have thought you could do this fairly easily, assuming you can have both plugged in at the same time. Haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure multi-controller support is implemented.
Setup is straightforward, as d-man said. You'll need to leave the CD in the drive to play the game, but then that's the case with most games these days unless you can find an unofficial no-cd patch. The game will automatically upgrade you to the latest version (1.4) when you try to get online, so that pretty much takes care of itself.
I'd recommend a wheel and pedals, but I'm sure it's not essential (I haven't yet been able to match my keyboard time on the GTL demo with the wheel
). d-man said:
Ideally I'd probably have pedals and a joystick to steer.
I would have thought you could do this fairly easily, assuming you can have both plugged in at the same time. Haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure multi-controller support is implemented.
BCA said:
I have never got on with any wheel I have tried (but that was many years ago and im sure things have approved) - too light/ over sensitive or too much of a force feedback for no real reason!
The other thing I meant to mention is that sensitivity and force feedback are all adjustable, so you should be able to tailor it to suit you, whichever wheel you're using.
FourWheelDrift said:
what about 2 joysticks, one for steering and one for brakes/throttle?
I guess it you can use two controllers, it doesn't matter if they're wheels or sticks, so it should work.
MarkBarton said:
I've got a P4 2.8GHz HT, 512MB good quality RAM and a 128MB 6600GT, and my framerates can drop into the 30s with some of the more demanding car/circuit combinations
What resolution do you run at Mark? I think I may have a problem as I often drop below 30s and I'm only set at 800x600 with a medium detail setting in the game.
My spec is P4 3.0ghz, 768MB RAM and a 128MB Nvidia 5700 graphics card.
Does anyone know any good benchmarking programs to see if my graphics card is running ok. I've had a search on 3Dguru but there are so many that I can't see the wood from the trees
I run at 1024x768 32Bit with the in game settings as follows:
Player Vehicle Detail: Medium
Other Vehicles Detail: Low
Circuit Detail: Medium
Special Effects: Medium
Vehicle Lighting Effects: Low
Shadows: Low
Track Draw Distance: Near
Max Visible Vehicles: 8
FSAA is off at the moment, but I need to have a play with that. In the meantime the quality is good enough for me (especially with my crappy monitor - might try to squeeze some more out of it when I get a better one though!).
3D Mark 2005 is supposed to be quite good as a benchmarking tool although I haven't used it myself, but your gfx card needs to support Pixel Shader 2.0 or higher (couldn't tell you offhand for the 5700).
Couple of things I did pick up recently though; I ran PC Booster (www.tweakxp.com/article37787.aspx) which claimed to have made some improvements in HDD access speeds amongst other things, and I increased the AGP Aperture Size in BIOS to 256MB. I found a post on RSC that suggested this could give significant framerate improvements, and I did notice it pick up a bit. More info on that here: http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=227120 and here: www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/
The other thing I read was that setting Track Draw Distance to high meant that the game might stutter as you leave the pits, but that after that it didn't have to reload the track grx every lap. I haven't tried that one yet.
I think the 5700 is probably your bottleneck - it comes just about last in all of the current Tom's Harware benchmarks (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html) which I used when deciding on "bang per buck" when I built this machine.
Player Vehicle Detail: Medium
Other Vehicles Detail: Low
Circuit Detail: Medium
Special Effects: Medium
Vehicle Lighting Effects: Low
Shadows: Low
Track Draw Distance: Near
Max Visible Vehicles: 8
FSAA is off at the moment, but I need to have a play with that. In the meantime the quality is good enough for me (especially with my crappy monitor - might try to squeeze some more out of it when I get a better one though!).
3D Mark 2005 is supposed to be quite good as a benchmarking tool although I haven't used it myself, but your gfx card needs to support Pixel Shader 2.0 or higher (couldn't tell you offhand for the 5700).
Couple of things I did pick up recently though; I ran PC Booster (www.tweakxp.com/article37787.aspx) which claimed to have made some improvements in HDD access speeds amongst other things, and I increased the AGP Aperture Size in BIOS to 256MB. I found a post on RSC that suggested this could give significant framerate improvements, and I did notice it pick up a bit. More info on that here: http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=227120 and here: www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/
The other thing I read was that setting Track Draw Distance to high meant that the game might stutter as you leave the pits, but that after that it didn't have to reload the track grx every lap. I haven't tried that one yet.
I think the 5700 is probably your bottleneck - it comes just about last in all of the current Tom's Harware benchmarks (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/index.html) which I used when deciding on "bang per buck" when I built this machine.
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