Some previews from GTR press demo.

[cpd]

I thought I'd post some previews from the hugely impressive GTR press-demo that I tested recently (thanks Johan Roos & Simbin for providing this wonderful demo!)

To be frank, this is the best virtual driving experience in these sorts of cars I've come across. What is really awesome, apart from the vehicle sounds (my god are they incredible - and so accurate!), the car physics in simulation mode, and the beautiful graphics, is that little LCD display in every car.

It's an Australian invention, called MoTEC. Why the big fuss about a simulated race-car data-logging display? Well, not only does it work fairly accurately, but, Simbin have gone 1 step better.. Going into the car setup pages reveals a MoTEC button.. Click it, and what should load? The actual MoTEC interpreter software, for the real MoTEC data-logging displays! It even has the full functionality to connect to the real data-logging displays, and you can connect Lambda sensors (air/fuel mix sensors) to it if you have them.

This software, although not graphically impressive, has some real power, in terms of analysing your performance in the car, and virtually every aspect of car performance you could imagine. Don't forget to read the included PDF manual for the MoTEC interpreter software- it is a must so you understand all of the functions.

Without further delay, here are some previews:

[cpd]

More previews:

[cpd]

If you look closely at those lap charts above, you can see that they give you a very large amount of information.

You can see what speed I was doing through each corner, and at various intervals along the track, along with engine RPM, and throttle percentage. You can also see little blue boxes alongside the track, with various numbers on them going up to 6. Those indicate where I was changing gears, and what gear I changed to.

You can also download this demo yourself, if you will excuse me for a moment, I'll dig up the public link for it.

Okay, here is the link:
http://download.boomtown.net/en_uk/a...ew.php?id=4999

Message from Simbin:
They want to make it perfectly clear that this demo was never meant for public release, is not fully bug tested, does not have even close to all the final features enabled and was only simply meant as a 'driving experience' demo for press to write previews

Please notice that. It is awesome this GTR, but it is an early demo.

[cpd]

Attached is a preview from inside the Lister. I've provided it in high-resolution to give you an idea of the awesome detail that Simbin Development Team has put into the interiors of all the cars in its official FIA-GT simulation.

[lackadaisical]

wow looks like an amazing game, a real competitor for PS2's Gran Turisom

[discocandy]

yes I'm playng the demo for a couple of says now..
trow all your other games away.. this is the best sim i've ever tried.
i've had the pleasure to drive in a real gt3 car so i know a bit how they react..
you must be really carefull with the throttle..
it spins so damm fast hehe..
you really get a sense of the power in the car.
can't wait till it's released.
Didyou make those pics ingame?? i can only drive by myself..(practice and just drive.)
no other cars.

[cpd]

discocandy: The pics from the telemetry were from in-game, but the others come courtesy of Simbin Development Team's friendly press department.

When anything more comes along, they'll notify me via e-mail. I'm currently waiting to see what the Diablo GTR will be like. I've seen a rendering of it, but I want to find out how it drives and sounds in relation to the real one.

The real GTR, when the setup is nicely fine tuned to the track drives almost like an open-wheeled car with a close body on top. People get scared by the old Diablo reputation for being difficult to drive and having a reputation for snapping into hard-to-catch oversteer (that was to do with the higher centre of gravity caused by the big engine), but the GTR is quite user-friendly, unless the setup is not fine-tuned for the track, where they can turn into oversteering monsters.

Also, a lot of the problem of the car spinning quickly is to do with the Doug Arnao's Lister setup included with the game. It's not entirely ideal. It is an understeery setup, that was apparently supposed to make things easier for novice drivers.

On the diff settings, you want to set them to 40%/50%, and set the power to about 35% if I remember correctly. That makes a big difference in getting the power down, and you want to soften the front shock-absorbers by "two clicks" and reduce the front anti-roll-bars by "two clicks" as well, according to a message from Simbin's Ian Bell.

Making those changes makes the car a little more co-operative, and the suspension changes seem to make it more compliant and it rides the bumps a little easier, although I do think you trade off a little bit of turn in sharpness.

You can also make time up from turn 5 through turn 6 by coming out of turn 5 in a higher gear, and using the torque of the engine rather than revving hell out of it.

That is one thing that I remember Ivan Capelli advising people who took the Master GT Maserati program when they were trying to go quickly around Varano. You relied on the prodigious torque of the 3200 GT to do the work, rather than always revving it to the rev-limit.

And besides, the Lister with a Jaguar V12 7.0 litre engine doesn't rev very high anyway. It will go to 6400rpm, but in reality it usually runs at around 4000-5500rpm. There doesn't seem to be a point in revving the engine all the way to 6400rpm - it feels like it hits around 50-6000rpm and says okay I've had enough so change to the next gear please.

When you start to think about it, Simbin has managed to make GTR pretty darn realistic in the simulation mode. If you drive the car nice and smoothly, and really drive it cleanly it rewards you. If you throw it around the track, and drive it harshly, it will scold the driver.

One thing not to do is to be going slower through the turns with the wrong cornering lines, and then try to compensate by using the throttle harder coming out of the corners. It's more easy to spin doing that.