suggestions for alternative sim forum?

"John Adams" > wrote in message
m...
> Uwe Schürkamp wrote:
>
>> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
>> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.
>
> Not one person responded to my post asking about how to get NR2002 to use
> widescreen resolution so for me this newsgroup has become close to
> useless. I only still come here out of habit. The flight-sim group is even
> more useless. It's a sad state of affairs. All Usenet is really useful for
> now is downloading porn.

Well, you would only really expect to get that sort of tech stuff on
current sims in here - I bet that particular info will be hard to find
anywhere. This group is good for current stuff and for general simming
issues and discussions, like hammering companies for example!

PS - was there such a thing as widescreen when NR2002 was released? If
there's a widescreen resolution then select it and that's it. If there is
one and it won't work then you have hardware issues - maybe the monitor/tv
does not like whatever resolution you're selecting.

I'll have to look into Race 2 Play. As you know, though, I'm not a huge ISI
sim fan I can't even keep up with rFactor any more, that's my biggest
problem with it.

GTR2 is actually ok. My issue there is I lost it in one of my many office
cleanings somewhere along the like. I think it's only $19 so I may buy it
again.

If any of the old Rascarians are up for it, I think I have enough bandwidth
to host us all for a day of NR2003 fun. If for no other reason, just for
the old gang to get together again for a bit

-Larry

"Dave F" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Larry" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I doubt usnet never dies, because there is no way one person can kill it.
>>
>> Which is exactly the point
>>
>> As long as everyone has there Mitch-The-Bitch filters on, it's not so bad
>> around here other than a general aire of bordome about. Hopefully we'll
>> have new things to talk about some day
>>
>> -Larry
>
> Hey Larry :-)
>
> Wish we were still racing. I race at RACER and Race 2 Play pretty much
> exclusively now.
>
> I know that "new things" means iRacing, but I dropped out of the beta
> testing.........2 years ago, and at that time a product was supposed to be
> coming soon. :-/ Something isn't right obviously.
>
> Dave
>

Dave,

You still have my email? If so, email me or send me yours. I'll give you a
call.

-Larry

"Dave F" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Larry" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I doubt usnet never dies, because there is no way one person can kill it.
>>
>> Which is exactly the point
>>
>> As long as everyone has there Mitch-The-Bitch filters on, it's not so bad
>> around here other than a general aire of bordome about. Hopefully we'll
>> have new things to talk about some day
>>
>> -Larry
>
> Hey Larry :-)
>
> Wish we were still racing. I race at RACER and Race 2 Play pretty much
> exclusively now.
>
> I know that "new things" means iRacing, but I dropped out of the beta
> testing.........2 years ago, and at that time a product was supposed to be
> coming soon. :-/ Something isn't right obviously.
>
> Dave
>

Byron Forbes wrote:

>
> Well, you would only really expect to get that sort of tech stuff on
> current sims in here - I bet that particular info will be hard to find
> anywhere. This group is good for current stuff and for general simming
> issues and discussions, like hammering companies for example!
>
> PS - was there such a thing as widescreen when NR2002 was released? If
> there's a widescreen resolution then select it and that's it. If there is
> one and it won't work then you have hardware issues - maybe the monitor/tv
> does not like whatever resolution you're selecting.
>
>

No, there is no widescreen option in the game but sometimes you can make
older games use a widescreen resolution by hacking an .ini file or such.
I've even seen some hacks for older games that have to edit the hex code
in the exe file to run the game at a widescreen res. I searched for such
info on NR2002 but can't find any so looks like I am SOL. Was hoping
someone here might know how. That's what I get for not buying NR2003
when I could have. Now no one sells it so can't buy it anyway and I
don't do eBay.

A lot of older games are quite capable of running at any resolution your
monitor supports but there are apparently a lot of lazy game programmers
out there who only give a few 4:3 resolution options to save them time
and money. From now on I don't buy any games that don't support
widescreen unless there are known hacks that can make them run at
widescreen res.

John Adams wrote:

> No, there is no widescreen option in the game but sometimes you can make
> older games use a widescreen resolution by hacking an .ini file or such.
> I've even seen some hacks for older games that have to edit the hex code
> in the exe file to run the game at a widescreen res. I searched for such
> info on NR2002 but can't find any so looks like I am SOL. Was hoping
> someone here might know how. That's what I get for not buying NR2003
> when I could have. Now no one sells it so can't buy it anyway and I
> don't do eBay.

Yes, with GPL there was a modified rastd3d7.dll which allowed for
widescreen variations with the dx7 limits.

The Matrox Parhelia worked in surround gaming mode with NR2002 so it
would seem possible:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/matrox.../page_15.shtml

Can't find any patches though

Cheers
Tony

Dave F wrote:

> I know that "new things" means iRacing, but I dropped out of the beta
> testing.........2 years ago, and at that time a product was supposed to be
> coming soon. :-/ Something isn't right obviously.

I think any target dates have always been a closely guarded secret
though and I don't believe the product was "imminent" back then, it was
the start of a long project. In order for iRacing to succeed it needs to
be very very good to hook the millions of Gran Turismo racers into PC
sims in addition to the small existing market.

I don't think we will see any form of soft launch or pilot to a sim
group like us, this is going to be a marketing onslaught and the product
will have to deliver in all areas.

Of course in the meantime ISI, Blimey! & Simbin have been doing a pretty
fine job evolving their sims. RACE07 demonstrates how far the current
gmotor2 sims have gone and with Lizard in development things look pretty
good.

iRacing will be a revolutionary concept, but whether it will be enough
to blow away the current developers targeting the hardcore sim racers we
just don't know. The big question will be in the time it takes for the
iRacing revolution to happen if the Blimey!, ISI & Simbin evolution has
got just as far in the meantime.

Either way it seems a pretty good future for sim racing fans.

Cheers
Tony

"Tony R" > wrote in message
news
> John Adams wrote:
>
>> No, there is no widescreen option in the game but sometimes you can make
>> older games use a widescreen resolution by hacking an .ini file or such.
>> I've even seen some hacks for older games that have to edit the hex code
>> in the exe file to run the game at a widescreen res. I searched for such
>> info on NR2002 but can't find any so looks like I am SOL. Was hoping
>> someone here might know how. That's what I get for not buying NR2003 when
>> I could have. Now no one sells it so can't buy it anyway and I don't do
>> eBay.
>
> Yes, with GPL there was a modified rastd3d7.dll which allowed for
> widescreen variations with the dx7 limits.
>
> The Matrox Parhelia worked in surround gaming mode with NR2002 so it would
> seem possible:
>
> http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/matrox.../page_15.shtml
>
> Can't find any patches though
>
> Cheers
> Tony

Don't forget that GPL was letterboxed to start with though - a simple
matter of chopping off the top and bottom blacked out bits. To do that with
NR2003 means chopping stuff out ie like critical dash items perhaps. Maybe
that's why it's not been done?

Tony R wrote:

> Yes, with GPL there was a modified rastd3d7.dll which allowed for
> widescreen variations with the dx7 limits.
>
> The Matrox Parhelia worked in surround gaming mode with NR2002 so it
> would seem possible:
>
> http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/matrox.../page_15.shtml
>
> Can't find any patches though
>
> Cheers
> Tony

Oh well, too bad. It's like the ISI F1 '99-02'. It doesn't show any
widescreen resolutions in the options and yet all the later ISI based
games do so obviously it is capable of widescreen.

Uwe Schürkamp wrote:

> Is that "F1 Challenge"? I had the box in my hands the other day and
> thought "well, I could give this one a try again", but if it doesn't
> support 1680 x 1050 then I'd have to run it in 1024x768 or something
> similar (mind you, RBR looks ok in that res, too).
>
> cheers, uwe
>

Yes, F1 Challenge. It has some widescreen resolutions listed like
1280x768, 1280x800 etc. so you are not stuck with a 4:3 res but it is
only showing a max of 1600x1200 when I want 1680x1050. I had a 4:3 CRT
monitor when I first installed the game so maybe I need to uninstall it
and install again for it to recognize the new monitor resolutions? All
the later ISI games show 1680x1050.

NR2003 fully supports widescreen...

-Larry

"Byron Forbes" > wrote in message
...

> Don't forget that GPL was letterboxed to start with though - a simple
> matter of chopping off the top and bottom blacked out bits. To do that
> with NR2003 means chopping stuff out ie like critical dash items perhaps.
> Maybe that's why it's not been done?
>