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Archive-name: autos/simulators/introduction
Posting-Frequency: weekly Last-modified: 1999/03/28 Version: 1.13 URL: ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/mcarver/AutoSim/rasfaq.txt Copyright: (c) 1997-1999 Michael E. Carver Maintainer: Michael E. Carver <mcarver@teleport.com> See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge **** Please send any comments and feedback to mcarver@teleport.com **** Welcome to rec.autos.simulators. This is an unmoderated newsgroup for discussions of realistic computer simulations of automotive vehicles, irrespective of the platforms on which the simulations are supported. This includes simulations which have a competitive component (racing simulations) and those which do not. Arcade racing simulators, which give an overhead perspective and which do not attempt to provide realism of handling of the vehicle, would not be appropriate in this newsgroup, whilst discussion of Microprose's Formula 1 Grand Prix and Papyrus's IndyCar Racing would be appropriate. (From the original charter of r.a.s. -- rasfaq@bath.ac.uk) [Editor: While the original charter states that "Arcade racing simulators" should not be discussed in r.a.s., the general consesus is that they are welcome to participate in r.a.s.] This message will be posted every 7 days to rec.autos.simulators. It has some guideline on posting to this newsgroup as well as instructions on how to obtain the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) related to topics discussed in this forum. 1. NETTIQUETTE A lot of people read these newsgroups - over 100,000 at the latest estimate (that's newsgroups not people). Some readers are restricted to tortuously slow connections. Some people pay for their connect time by the minute. Other people just like to read news when the Net is running slowly. If your article contains quoted text please take some time to pare it down to just the key points to which you are responding, or people will think you are a dweeb! Many people have the habit of skipping any article whose first page is largely quoted material. Format your article to fit in 80 columns, since that's the conventional size. If your lines are too long they'll wrap around ugly and people won't read what you write. If you aren't careful and considerate in formatting your posting, people are likely to ignore it completely. It's a crowded net out there. 1.1 The Content and Style of Your Post o It is perfectly legal to reproduce short extracts of a copyrighted work for critical purposes, but reproduction in whole is strictly and explicitly forbidden by international and US copyright law unless given permission by the author. o Would you want to read what you are writing ? Might it be better to email a comment, or even make no comment ? Spelling and grammar flames are particularly dull for the rest of the world, as are posts which follow fifty lines of quoted text with "I agree". o On the Net, most people only know you by the words that you write. People will pay more attention to your thoughts if your writing is clear and easy to read. o Trim down your quotes. Delete parts of the article that you are not responding to such as other people's signatures. Its best to have as little as possible from previous posts. However, do be careful when you "edit" a post. Do not cut it so it appears that someone wrote something they did not. o Humour, and particularly sarcasm, is often misunderstood over the Net with hilarious consequences. A smily, :-), may be advisable. 1.2 Practicalities o Is the subject line both descriptive and accurate ? o People can select the articles which most appeal to them if you include a keyword in your Subject Field with something about the topic you are posting about. Since many different simulators are discussed, it is highly suggested that you start off your Subject Field with a "code" related to the topic you are posting. This will make it easier for readers to choose the posts they wish to read. Also, some news readers can actually filter out specific posts to be read or discarded based on keywords. Examples: Code Simulation CMR Collin McRae Rally CPR CART Precision Racing DD2 Destruction Derby 2 F1RS F1 Racing Simulation GP1 Grand Prix 1 or World Circuit GP2 Grand Prix 2 GPL Grand Prix Legends ICR1 Indycar Racing 1 ICR2 IndyCar Racing 2 MGPRS2 Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2 MTM Monster Truck Madness N1 Nascar Racing 1 N2 Nascar Racing 2 N99 Nascar Racing 1999 edition NFS Need For Speed NFSSE Need For Speed Special Edition S1 Screamer 1 S2 Screamer 2 SCGT Sports Car GT SODA SODA (Short-Course Offroad Drivers Association) TOCA TOCA (Touring Car Contructors Association) Touring Car Championship o If you are following up an article to create a new article, please remember to delete the References: line in the header. This will help the readers who use a threaded news reader; otherwise your new topic will be mixed in with an old one. o Please do not post large binary files like GIFs, JPEGs, MPEGs or WAVs to rec.autos.simulators. They will fill the Usenet disk partitions at some sites. Some people cannot select which articles they want before they have to download them. Post them to alt.binaries.simulators.autos newsgroup with a short post to rec.autos.simulators to notify anyone who is interested. o Please do not post "test" messages to rec.autos.simulators. You should *never* post a test article to a regular newsgroup, even to the "newusers" groups, even with a polite subject line like "test, please ignore." It's an expensive waste of Usenet resources, and if you do it, you're guaranteed to get lots of angry mail. Check for local test newsgroups first, if you have access to one, it's strongly recommended that you use it rather than a global test group. To test a world-distribution newsgroup, use rec.test, misc.test or alt.test. However, use these newsgroups only when you are testing distribution, and not just for casually testing a newsreader. Various sites will "auto-respond" to any message posted to misc.test, which is one way of knowing whether your message got through or not. But if that's not what you're testing, the auto- responses can be pretty annoying, and you should put the word "ignore" in your subject line to suppress them. You can also try restricting distribution on your test post by changing the "Distribution" header on your post to "local". 1.3 Handling Frequently Asked Questions o If you are asking a basic question, please check the FAQ's first. If the FAQ is has expired on your system, see section 2 for information on how to get a copy. o If someone posts a question about something that was resolved recently, please answer the poster via email. Rehashing something that was just discussed is a waste of bandwidth unless you have something new to add. ("Please don't dominate the rap, Jack, if you got nothing new to say" -- New Speedway Boogie, Robert Hunter) o Many news reading programs allow you to filter the articles in a newsgroup to ignore articles from a particular author or on certain subjects using a KILL file. If you're using rn or its brethren, see the rn KILL file FAQ in news.answers. 2.1 Known FAQ's for Simulations discussed in rec.autos.simulators. o F1 Racing Simulation (F1RS) FAQ is available at: http://www.f1racingsim.com/faq.htm o Grand Prix I/World Circuit (GP1) FAQ is available at: http://www.grandprix1.com/tips/faq.shtml o Grand Prix II (GP2) FAQ's are available at: http://www.grandprix2.com/gp2faq.htm http://www.internet.dk/hjemmesider/petetoft/gp2faq.txt o Grand Prix Legends (GPL) FAQ is available at: General FAQ: http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/faq.htm Hardware FAQ: http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/faq-hw.htm On-Line FAQ: http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/faq-online.htm o IndyCar Racing II (ICR2) or CART Racing FAQ is available at: http://www.teleport.com/~mcarver/icr2faq.htm ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/mcarver/AutoSim/icr2faq.txt o NASCAR Racing II (N2) FAQ is available at: http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/Features/N2FAQ.txt 2.2 Contacting Auto Simulator vendors. o Bethesda Softworks http://www.bethsoft.com o Codemasters http://www.codemasters.com o Electronic Arts http://www.ea.com o Europress http://www.europress.co.uk o Extreme Competition Controls http://www.ecci.net o K2 Interactive (Verbal Commander) http://www.k2i.com/ o Microprose http://www.microprose.com o Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/games/ o Papyrus/Sierra On-Line http://www.sierra.com/ o Psygnosis http://www.psygnosis.com/ o Thomas Enterprises http://soli.inav.net/~thomas o ThrustMaster http://www.thrustmaster.com o Ubi Soft http://www.ubisoft.com o Virgin Interactive Entertainment http://www.vie.com o Virtual Vehicles from Interactive I/O http://www.interactiveio.com o Visiware http://www.visiware.com User Contributions:
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