Discussion
Does anyone play this?
I just downloaded and bought it yesterday. (www.rfactor.net)
rFactor's graphics engine, gMotor-2, is used in GTL. gMotor-1 is used in GTR.
Initial impression is a good one. My only criticsm is the choice of field-of-view, and somewhat clunky in-car graphics. Some sound effects are oddly exaggerated too, like the plinking of gravel bouncing off your panels. But the physics is state-of-the-art, with good feel in both touring cars and open wheelers.
I took a F3 car out for a lark, and it behaved as expected. Hard to drive the thing on the limit at low/medium speeds. At high speed, downforce helps to keep it on track, but the high power-to-weight ratio plays havoc when you slow down. Slight understeer during turn-in, and if you get too enthusiastic on the throttle to nudge the rear-end outward, it will send you fish-tailing to oblivion.
The included tracks are disappointing, as they seem somewhat fictional. Same with the included cars. But if you take a look around - at RSCnet.org for example - there are numerous mods for tracks, cars, and championships (F3 Euroseries, V8 Supercars, Porsche Cup, Kalami, Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, Silverstone, etc.). The main website advertises a very promising official F1 mod in the near future (judging by how hard driving an F3 car is, I hate to think about driving an F1 car, properly simulated), and there is an official Stock Car mod as well.
>> Edited by Jungles on Friday 26th May 14:46
I just downloaded and bought it yesterday. (www.rfactor.net)
rFactor's graphics engine, gMotor-2, is used in GTL. gMotor-1 is used in GTR.
Initial impression is a good one. My only criticsm is the choice of field-of-view, and somewhat clunky in-car graphics. Some sound effects are oddly exaggerated too, like the plinking of gravel bouncing off your panels. But the physics is state-of-the-art, with good feel in both touring cars and open wheelers.
I took a F3 car out for a lark, and it behaved as expected. Hard to drive the thing on the limit at low/medium speeds. At high speed, downforce helps to keep it on track, but the high power-to-weight ratio plays havoc when you slow down. Slight understeer during turn-in, and if you get too enthusiastic on the throttle to nudge the rear-end outward, it will send you fish-tailing to oblivion.
The included tracks are disappointing, as they seem somewhat fictional. Same with the included cars. But if you take a look around - at RSCnet.org for example - there are numerous mods for tracks, cars, and championships (F3 Euroseries, V8 Supercars, Porsche Cup, Kalami, Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, Silverstone, etc.). The main website advertises a very promising official F1 mod in the near future (judging by how hard driving an F3 car is, I hate to think about driving an F1 car, properly simulated), and there is an official Stock Car mod as well.
>> Edited by Jungles on Friday 26th May 14:46
Finally got the hang of driving F3 cars. Quite satisfying. 
A completely different experience to playing TRD3 and similar sim-wannabe games. Smoothness of controls is a requirement in this game, not a luxury.
There is a movie-making feature too, but it only converts replays into avi files, which are huge. I had to use Windows Moviemaker to convert to WMV format.
Taking advantage of all that, here's a short clip of me playing about in an F3 at Toban Short (3 megs, and pardon the cheap background music, I don't know how to turn it off):
http://s8.quicksharing.com/v/3110639/
A completely different experience to playing TRD3 and similar sim-wannabe games. Smoothness of controls is a requirement in this game, not a luxury. There is a movie-making feature too, but it only converts replays into avi files, which are huge. I had to use Windows Moviemaker to convert to WMV format.
Taking advantage of all that, here's a short clip of me playing about in an F3 at Toban Short (3 megs, and pardon the cheap background music, I don't know how to turn it off):
http://s8.quicksharing.com/v/3110639/
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