Newbie to simulation

[John Levy]

I have never had one of these driving simulators. How helpful have you guys found them to be.
If I decide to do it, which unit do you all recommend?

thanks,
John

[Keith Carter]

While nothing replaces being actully in the car, I've found it very helpful in learning new tracks and experimenting with lines.

[size="1"][ November 12, 2002, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Keith Carter ][/size]

[dc]

And it is aways better when Keith "experiments" ina video game instead of in the race car on the track.

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

[John Levy]

Thanks guys. Now what hardware do you recommend?

[Keith Carter]

What kinda help did you need? A complete PC? The actual game has the minimum requirements of the following:

Windows 95/98 (Although, 2000 and XP seem to work)
Pentium II 233 or higher
32M of RAM
20 Megs of hard drive space
8x CD-ROM Drive
Direct3D Compatible Video Card

Those are the bare minimum to even run the game, but I would suggest higher.

My systems specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon TBird 1.4GHz
512 Megs of RAM
PNY GeForce3 TI200 Video Card
Windows 2000 Pro SP3
Cable Modem (The only way for network play) [img]smile.gif[/img]

Doug has a Pentium II 400Mhz with a GeForce2MX card and he does well enough to have fun in the game but with some of the graphical eye candy turned off. I hope this helped some.

[Keith Carter]

Oh and in addition to that, I'm using my GT Force steering wheel from Logitech that I originally bought for my PS2. It's a USB steering wheel and pedal set up that is picked up as a Logitech WingMan Formula Force GP USB steering wheel by my PC. I've got an old ThrustmasterII steering wheel that I bought a long time ago laying around here somewhere, but that doesn't have Force Feedback.

[John Levy]

Keith, thanks. Yes I was looking to know what steering-pedal system you had chosen.

[Les]

You want alot more hard drive space than is posted there as that is for minimum install. You need to do a full install and have room left to install the mod and tracks. Also a 64 meg video card is good and at leat 512 megs of ram IMHO.

As far as wheels go I reccomend the Act Lab's Force RS. I have had mine for years and it is great. I am actually just getting ready to get a new one as the abuse of friends yanking on the wheels is starting to show. The great thing is though now they offer a clutch pedal which makes it all that much better.

[size="1"][ November 20, 2002, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Les ][/size]