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The highly anticipated Nascar 4 Demo has caused quite a stir in the sim-racing world. The premise of Nascar 4 has been the GPL physics engine modified to fit the 3500lb Winston Cup cars of Nascar. Fans of these types of simulation programs have beckoned for this since the release of the original Nascar title by Papyrus-something to create more realistic handling for the stock-car faithful.
For those who want to know if their system can handle the program, Papyrus has listed some basic recommendations.
Minimum Operating System Requirements:
- Win95, Win98 or ME
- Pentium, II 266 MHz processor or better
- 64 MB of ram
- 8 meg Direct 3D compatible video card
- DirectX 7a
- Also be sure to have the latest drivers for your sound and video cards.
*For best results we recommend a PIII 500 MHz or higher with 128 Megs of RAM and a 32 MB direct 3d compatible video card.
There are 2 tracks included in the demo version.
Dover: 1-Mile Oval Track with 24 degree banking in the turns.
Michigan: 2-Mile "D" Shaped Oval with 18 degree banking in the turns.
One of the first things you will notice after you install Nascar 4 is the video mode selection feature. This video card configuration will allow you to select the video mode and color depth in one fell swoop before the game is started. Using the Options menu you can also go back at any time from within the program and reconfigure the settings to capture the maximum frame rates possible with your equipment. This can be useful in situations such as online competition where your CPU is already taxed by the packet transfers or for just changing resolution to gain a few frames per second. The video configuration menu will actually test your system when a change is made and inform you of the current settings' average FPS.
The next step is to enter your player information, select the car you want to drive and edit the default screen chats to your liking. From there, you can choose between a testing session or a Multiplayer session. Right now, there are no AI cars to race with, so there are only two choices. The testing session is, as its name indicates, for racing offline. Spend a good deal of time here before going online. You can drive forever and put together the perfect setup. The problem I always have going into the test session is time: on my system this takes forever to load. I hope this portion is improved quite a bit for the final version.
I found all of the menus easy to access and quite thorough. Track selection is simple and although there are only two tracks available in the demo, the selections shouldn't become bulky as the final version is completed. The menu screens and pull-downs are well organized and very user friendly. The track selection screen shows an aerial view of the track with page tabs to inform you of the weather conditions, track configuration and race length. One nice feature for the novice player is a dialog box that appears with an explanation of your choices when your mouse pointer rests on a particular selection. After you become familiar with the operation of the program, this feature can be turned off.
Controller configuration is done via the DirectX driver or a generic driver. The same menu also allows you to choose which driving aides you wish to utilize. Button assignments, calibration and the ability to select a sequential shifter, manual or automatic shifting as well as support for a gated shifter are all right there at you finger tips. For an extra bit of realism, you can even include a working clutch. For the less experienced drivers, Papyrus has added an automatic clutch, anti-lock brakes, traction control, and a stability option. Gone is the need to edit the ini files to tune the Force Feedback settings as this is now in the in-game menus. With a quick calibration of the controller and the assignment of your controller buttons, you can move to the race screen.
Time to head out into the garage to "kick the tires and light the fires" to coin a phrase from one of the visitors from our forums. The setup screens in the N4 garage are quite involved and inclusive. This allows more real world tweaking than ever before, something that was lacking in the previous Nascar Sims. N3 tried to remedy some of this with the inclusion of grille tape and front and rear sway bars. With this version, Papyrus has added a track-bar adjustment, which was excluded from the previous versions. One parameter that is still missing from the in-car adjustments is a brake bias setting that's tuned from the drivers' seat.
When you enter the garage area of N4, there are adjustments such as caster, rear camber, more realistic compression and rebound parameters for the shocks, and a ride height adjustment. Brake bias and front toe-out complete the suspension setup package.
The selection of screens via page tabs in the garage area gives you more unique parameter adjustment choices. They include the options to select a race or qualifying engine, change weight distribution and also an interface between transmission and final drive ratios. These ratio adjustments provide the means for the best transition speed between pit road and the track.
With the set-up tweaked and saved, it's time to head out to the track and measure the performance. Be forewarned: success & pleasure on the track will be hugely dependent on your knowledge in the garage area. The physics of Nascar 4 has changed quite a bit from the last version. With all of the driving aides turned off, I noticed some very different handling characteristics. Having driven GPL on the converted ovals from Nascar 3 and Nascar Legends, I can feel a few of the same sensations from that physics' engine yet they are now somewhat changed by the considerable weight differential of the Winston Cup stock cars. The visual effects of the uneven surfaces and the transfer of weight around the chassis are evident through the windshield. Some have said this is distracting and not very realistic; however in the real thing your eyes and brain work together to mask those effects. In any sim where you have to rely solely on visual input to discern the movement of the car, every bit of visual stimuli is essential. On the other hand, I don't get the sensation of speed. At places such as Michigan, even in a test session without any other cars around you to dull the cognition of speed, the car just doesn't give the perception of 200-MPH velocity. I do enjoy the challenge of the updated physics and I'm looking forward to the box version to see what's in store. I'm impressed by the fact that there is a learning curve here. The cars' performance is not so dumbed down that any child can just hop in the behind the wheel, hit the gas and race the track. The renowned Papy-push is still present and it seems that some of the garage parameters do not do much to change the performance or the feel of the car. From the physics point of view, it's still not on par with GPL and probably never will be, but it is certainly an improvement from what we had.
Here's a little excerpt from T.J. Majors on his first drive of the new physics engine in Nascar 4. I assure you that T.J. is no novice when it comes to driving a racecar.
"I punched the gas pedal and quickly heard the new rev-limiter kick in. I eased off the gas a bit to stop the tires from spinning and the next thing I see is: wall. grass...wall, grass... wall,grass stop. Ok, a bit frustrated and yet amazed at the difficulty I was determined to get this thing on the road again. I finally babied the car around for a few laps gaining speed rapidly when I heard the tires start to break loose again. I tried to save it but before I know it, the thing is pointed towards the infield and I'm in the spin-cycle again. I pointed the bullet forward yet another time and eased on the gas. This time I got quite a few laps in before hitting the brakes a bit too hard going into turn one and I was doing laundry again. " Not so easy huh TJ?"
When you're done on the track and come back to the track screen you can click the tab to display a nice long readout list of up to 30 laps worth of lap or speed times depending on which option was selected. Viewing a replay can be just a couple of clicks away if you have something you want to view or save from your practice session or online races. All of the VCR controls are straightforward and easy to use.
Multiplayer is convenient if you download Internet Race Finder (IRF 2.2). With it you can easily find others willing to race. Once you decide on a server, IRF inputs the IP and takes you right there. Hopefully an interface like GameSpy or Vroc will be developed for the final version.
 
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