[ODE] Re: Simulating Wheels

[DjArcas]

> > People make conscious decisions to compromise certain parts of the
> > simulation - they don't start out by not thinking of the idea of
> > doing it perfectly!
>
> Bah! Weak people! :)
>
> No but seriously, it never seems like anyone's interested in realism in
> these commercial games, even though their claiming it's totally real and
> so on, and they put lots of hours into making the visuals look very
> realistic... but that doesn't help me if there is no engine, no
> adjustable differentials, no adjustable brake bias, not proper wheels,
> just a box (well, with nice textures and a goodlooking mesh) floating
> around on a track, which is rotated a little when you turn the wheel.
> That doesn't fool me. I wonder why nobody's interested in selling a
> realistic sim, is it because it would be too difficult to drive for the
> little kids buying the stuff, or is it because the people buying
> computer games only have seen cars in sci-fi movies, and therefore don't
> have a clue as to how they behave and are controlled, so that they'll
> complain that it doesn't feel real when it actually does?

Because people write games to make money... liveforspeed is brilliant, but
my god has it got a learning curve.

I worked on Burnout2, at the very other end of the spectrum, it's aimed at
the lowest common denominator, pick up and play arcadey goodness - but that
excludes no-one.

LiveForSpeed, OTOH, REQUIRES a steering wheel, and many hours of practise
before you can even get around the track properly - not so many people are
prepared to put that time in.