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Keywords: GPL Grand Prix Legends hardware FAQ
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Subject: [FAQ] Grand Prix Legends Hardware Frequently Asked Questions
Summary: FAQ for Grand Prix Legends by Sierra Sports/Papyrus Design Group
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Grand Prix Legends Hardware FAQ 
copyright 1998-1999, Alison Hine
http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~alison/gpl/faq-hw.htm 

Many people have asked me about what sort of computer they need to run
GPL well, and whether or not the computer they have now is up to the
task. Here's a compendium of the best information I have right now about
this topic. 

1.1 What frame rate should I get in GPL? 

After a lot of experimenting, I consider it essential to get 36 fps
(there is a handy frame rate counter in the final version). 

I know that humans are not supposed to be able to see anything more than
30 fps, but when my machine is running at 30 fps, the action seems
choppy and I can't control the car as well. By the time I've seen what
it is doing and react, it has gone too far, so my corrections tend to be
late and not enough. This leads to PIO (Pilot Induced Oscillations),
slow lap times, and crashes. 

You may be different, but I've found that I drive much better when my
machine is running at a steady 36 fps. 

1.2 I have a Pentium Classic and 128 mb of memory. When I run GPL, about
one in ten times it runs ok, but the rest of the time, frame rate is
terrible, about 2 fps. 

This is most likely due to a problem with many Pentium Classic
motherboards. Although not all boards have this problem, there are many
which do not cache memory above 64 mb. This means that if GPL loads into
high memory, it will not be able to use L2 cache, and performance will
be dreadful. 

The workaround is to remove all but 64 mb of the memory in your machine.
If GPL now runs fine, this was the problem. I am not aware of any fix;
you'll need to upgrade your motherboard if you want to run with more
than 64 mb of memory. 

2.1 How fast a CPU do I need? 

Papyrus says that the minimum platform for GPL is a P-166, and I agree
with this. I had a P-166 and it ran ok on that machine. However, you
need at least 256k of L2 cache, and (IMHO) a Rendition 2x00 card to get
decent frame rate on any Pentium Classic. You will also have to turn
down a lot of graphic detail if you want to run with any AI cars, or in
multiplayer mode, and you won't want to have more than 5 other cars on
the track even if you've turned the detail way down. 

I eventually upgraded my P-166 to an AMD K6-200, which I overclocked to
75x3 so it is running at 225. More importantly, it is running the L2
cache, which GPL uses heavily, at 75 mhz instead of 66 mhz, and this
helps a lot. I also installed an 8 mb Hercules Thriller, replacing the
Sierra Screamin' 3D which was in it originally. 

This machine is much better now, and can run 5 AI cars with a fair
amount of graphics detail at 640x480, or about a dozen AI cars with all
but what I consider essential graphics detail turned off. It's fairly
good for multiplayer play; I've tried it with up to 4 opponents, and as
long as I turn off enough detail it works fine. 

Papyrus says that the preferred machine is a Pentium II, at least 266
mhz. I heartily agree with this. In the past few days, I put together a
PII-350 with 128 mb of PC-100 memory and an 8 mb AGP Hercules Thriller.
It is awesome. I get a solid 36 fps at 800x600, all graphics details
turned on, and 19 AI cars. When I enter the pits, it's about 24 fps, but
by the time I've passed the last AI car sitting in pit lane, it's at 36
fps and stays there. 

2.2 Is L2 cache essential for GPL? 

On Pentium Classics, yes. GPL is very memory intensive, and without L2
cache, it simply will not be able to perform its tasks efficiently. If
it runs at all, GPL's frame rate is likely to be very poor. 

The situation is different for Celerons. See below. 

2.3 How do I find out if I have L2 cache? 

One to find out if you have L2 cache is to watch the BIOS screen when
the machine is booting. Most BIOSes will report the cache that is
present in the machine on the box of information which appears
momentarily during the boot process, before Windows 95 starts to load.
On my machine, the Cache field is in the lower right-hand corner. 

Another way is to check the manual for the motherboard, which should
have come with the computer. If it's an older Pentium Classic, it may
not have any L2 cache, but if the motherboard was made after 1996, it
most likely will. Depending on how complete the manual is, you may have
to open the case to look for the L2 chips; the manual should at least
show where the chips are located if they are present. 

2.4 I have a Celeron. I can overclock it to 448MHz if I need to, by
running the bus at 112. Am I likely to have major problems due to lack
of L2 cache? 

No, GPL seems to run well on Celerons despite the lack of L2 cache,
especially if you overclock the Celeron. 

The only issue seems to be when hosting Internet-based multiplayer races
over a DUN connection. The resulting frequent interrupts by the serial
port apparently blows out the L1 cache, making the CPU work harder. 

This can impact online play because when the host's CPU gets busy (i.e.
it's generating less than 36 fps), gameplay on the client machines is
degraded. The frame flow on the client machines can get choppy (called
"frame stuttering") even if the client's CPU is not overloaded. The
workaround is to cut back on graphics details on the host till frame
flow smooths out on the clients. 

If you're not hosting multiplayer races online, this won't impact you at
all and the Celeron should be fine. 

See my GPL Online FAQ for detailed information about regarding online
racing and related issues. 

2.5 What about an AMD K6-2? Will that run GPL as well as a Pentium II? 

I have no experience with the K6-2, although I have run GPL for months
on a K6-200 overclocked to 75 x 2 = 225. This processor worked very
well, and its superior performance in comparison to my P-233 suggests
that the FPU superiority of the Pentium over the AMD K6 was not as
important as running the L2 cache at a higher speed. 

However, the architecture of the new Super 7 motherboards makes it
impossible to run the K6-2's L2 cache as fast as a Pentim II runs its
on-die L2 cache, and benchmarks at Tom's Hardware Guide suggest that a
K6-2 will underperform a Pentium II running at the same clock rate by
perhaps 5 to 10%. 

GPL does not currently have any way to take advantage of the K6-2's
3DNow! parallel FP unit, although if Papyrus were to release an OpenGL
driver for GPL, this could change. 

Still, cost considerations may make the K6-2 a viable alternative to a
Pentium II setup for a high-performance platform for running GPL. 

2.6 If I go with a K6-2, will I have an upgrade path for the future? 

On the horizon are several interesting new K6/Socket 7 processors from
AMD. The first is the K6-2-400, which should be available shortly.
Compared with the earlier K6-2's, the 400 features improved internal
architecture which should give performance close to or equal to that of
a Pentium II running at the same clock speed. 

Experience with GPL running on L2 cacheless Celerons suggests that at
CPU clock speeds of 400 and above, L2 cache becomes less important.
Therefore, a Super 7 motherboard, PC-100 memory, and a 400 mhz K6-2
seems likely to be an excellent setup for running GPL. 

Even more interesting is the upcoming K6-3, or "Sharptooth", due out in
late 1998 or early 1999. The K6-3 features on-die L2 cache, like the
Celeron 300 A and 333, but running at full CPU clock speed. Thomas Pabst
of Tom's Hardware Guide believes that this will allow the K6-3 to
outperform a Pentium II running at the same clock speed, and I would
guess that he's right. 

The K6-3 will be available at up to 450 mhz, and will go right into a
Super 7 motherboard, providing an upgrade path for those who go with a
K6-2 before the release of the K6-3. 

My guess is that a K6-3 at 400 or above would be a superb platform for
GPL. I wouldn't be surprised if a K6-3/Super 7 combo finds its way into
one of my older machines sometime soon. 

2.7 What's after that from AMD? 

By mid 1999, AMD expects to release the K7, which will go into a new
type of motherboard known as "Slot A". Based on Digital's Alpha
technology, the Slot A bus will be significantly superior to the Pentium
II's Slot One. The K7 will be able to support much larger L1 and L2
cache on die than the Pentium II, and is also expected to have a
superior FPU and run at very high CPU clock speeds. A number of other
innovative features should make it blindingly fast compared with
anything available today. 

For GPL, which runs quite well on a PII-400 with every option turned on,
a K7 would probably be overkill, but it will be interesting nonetheless.

3.1 Can I run GPL if I don't have a Rendition or Voodoo card? 

Yes. There is a software-only rasterizer which will work with any 2D or
3D card. 

3.2 Will GPL run well in software-only mode? 

No. There simply aren't any machines that are fast enough yet to do
everything that GPL needs in CPU, and do it well enough to run GPL at
anywhere near its best. If you have a PII-450, and you turn off most or
all of the graphics details, you may get decent frame rate. 

Suitable 3D cards are so cheap and so powerful these days, it simply
doesn't make sense to try to play GPL without one. You can do it, but
you will not experience the game in anything like its true splendor, you
will probaly not enjoy it very much, and you will be wasting your time,
IMHO. 

3.3 Ok, so what 3D accelerator should I buy? 

There are a lot of Voodoo cards out there, and a lot of fans of Voodoo
cards. Magazine reviews and benchmarks seem to show that the Voodoo 2
far outperforms any other video card, hands down. 

But. The benchmarkers are running games which are optimized for the 3Dfx
architecture. GPL, which is also optimized for the Rendition
architecture, is a very different story. 

The 3Dfx architecture has great fill rate, but the Rendition
architecture is superior in several other ways. According to sources
within Papyrus, the most important for GPL is that, unlike the Voodoo,
Rendition cards do not distinguish between texture map memory and frame
buffer memory. This means that a Rendition card can render the scenery
behind the car, and then simply point to that area in memory and say,
"paint this in the mirror". 

A Voodoo card, on the other hand, must copy the texture containing the
rendered scenery from frame buffer memory to texture memory, and the CPU
has to re-synch with the video card when it needs to do that. This is
not good. 

Rendition cards also draw polygons, while machines with Voodoo cards
must have the CPU do this, a task which is CPU-intensive. Since GPL's
sophisticated physics engine is also CPU-intensive, it's better to have
a video card that will offload as much of the tasks as possible from the
CPU. 

Hence, in all but extremely high end Pentium II's (350 and up) the
Hercules Thriller yields significantly better performance in GPL than
Voodoo cards. The slower the machine, the more noticeable the difference
seems to be. Even a pair of SLI'd 12 mb Voodoo 2 cards in a PII-300 are
slightly outperformed by an 8 mb Herc Thriller, and with only a single
Voodoo 2, it's no contest; the Thriller wins hands down. 

On the other hand, in a PII running its front side bus at 100 mhz (i.e.
PII-350's and above) a pair of SLI'd Voodoo 2 cards may well be faster
than a Thriller. 

One of the beta testers compared GPL running on a Thriller and on twin
Voodoo 2's in the same machine. This machine is a PII overclocked to 448
mhz, with an ASUS P2B motherboard and 128mb PC100 RAM. He ran back to
back comparison tests under various conditions. Here is what he
concluded: 

    "While the Thriller holds its own at 800x600 , with a slight advantage
    while in the thick of a race, it falls way short at 1024x768. Also the
    filtering of the V2 is considerably better for seeing in the distance -
    and that, coupled with excellent frame rates at 1024x768, still make the
    V2's the choice for me in GPL. 

    "The difference in color saturation didn't mean much to me. Although for
    sure the Thriller was a bit prettier but more pixelated looking, [due
    to] the filtering I guess." 

So if you've got the bucks for a high end PII, and two Voodoo 2's, that
may be ultimate the way to go. 

If you go with a Thriller, note that it's important to have the 8 mb
version; this allows less texture thrashing - and better speed -
compared with a 4 mb Thriller. 

Rendition 2100 cards (I have a Diamond Stealth II S220) also work ok,
but an 8 mb 2200 card seems to be much better than a 4mb 2100. If you
already have a 2100 card, try it, but at this point I wouldn't buy one
with GPL in mind; I'd go for the 8mb 2200. 

If you already have a Voodoo card or a Rendition 2100 card, you may want
to hold onto them and see how GPL runs on them in your machine. After
all, you can always upgrade if necessary. 

But if you are contemplating buying a 3D card for optimum performance in
GPL, and have anything less than a top-line Pentium II, please strongly
consider an 8 mb Hercules Thriller. 

3.4 But I already have a Voodoo card, and I need it to play
Quake/F1RS/Incoming/Whatever. Can I still play GPL? 

If you already have a Voodoo card, don't be dismayed. GPL runs fine on
Voodoo cards; you may simply have to run with less graphics details
and/or at a lower resolution than you could if you had a Thriller. Also,
you may find that the colors appear a little more washed out on the
Voodoo card, although adjusting the Voodoo's gamma settings may offset
this. 

Also, if you also play games which work better on a Voodoo card, note
that a Rendition card coexists quite nicely with a Voodoo card - or a
pair of Voodoo 2's for that matter. I've got a Voodoo 1 card and a
Thriller in both of my machines. 

3.5 Will the Thriller replace my existing video card? 

Yes, the Thriller is a primary video card and will replace your regular
2D or 2D/3D card. If your video controller is on the motherboard, you
will need to disable it. 

A Voodoo Graphics or Voodoo 2 card, on the other hand, is 3D only and is
an add-on card which supplements your computer's 2D capability. It will
coexist alongside your primary 2D or 2D/3D card (such as a Thriller or
other Rendition card, or Matrox, Cirrus, S3, etc.) 

Note that the Voodoo Rush and Voodoo Banshee cards are 2D/3D cards and
replace your primary card, so you can't have both a Banshee and a
Thriller in the same machine. 

3.6 What's AGP, and is it better than PCI? 

AGP is a different slot architecture, optimized for video, unlike PCI
which runs a variety of controller types (sound, ethernet, SCSI, etc.)
Most PII's have an AGP slot, but most Pentium Classics do not. 

There are a number of cards for the AGP slot, including an AGP version
of the Thriller. As far as I know, most current video cards do not take
advantage of the AGP's advanced features, so you are not likely to
notice a great deal of difference between the performance of an AGP card
and an otherwise identical PCI card. 

Assuming you have an AGP slot, using an AGP video card does have the
advantage of freeing up a PCI slot for other things. 

3.7 Where can I get a Thriller, and how much will it cost? 

I found my AGP Thriller through BestBargains.com for under $140 in late
August 1998. PCI versions are even less. Compared with a pair of Voodoo
2's at $500 or more, the Thriller is a steal. 

3.8 What about the next generation of Rendition cards? 

There is a third generation Rendition chipset, called the RRedline,
under development. I have heard that cards based on this chipset are
supposed to be out by Christmas, but the Rendition web site -
http://www.rendition.com - does not seem to forecast any date. If you
already have a Voodoo or Rendition card, you may want to consider
waiting for the new Rendition cards rather than buying a 2200 now. 

OTOH, if you're like me, you won't be able to stand the wait! 

3.9 Will I be able to run the Rendition version of ICR2/Papyrus CART
Racing on my Thriller/Stealth II S220/other Rendition 2x00 card? 

Apparently there is considerable diversity of experience on this topic.
I've collected a number of newsgroup postings and emails from people who
have tried it (I haven't tried this myself). Check here to review their
suggestions. 

4. Will the full version of GPL run in Win98? 

Yes. The issues with the demo version in Win98 have been resolved, and
GPL runs in Win98. I've seen it running in Win98 at Papyrus, and several
of the beta team are running it on Win98. 

However, as a matter of personal preference, I stuck with Win95 for my
new machine. I've found that OSR2 seems to be the most stable and
compatible version of Windows at the moment. I suspect that there is
somewhat more risk of incompatibility with sound card drivers and such
in Win98, so to avoid potential hassles with the new machine, I went the
conservative route and stayed with a known quantity. 

If you're already running Win98, most likely it will be fine. Try GPL
and see how it works. 

5.1 What is an appropriate racing wheel for GPL? 

If I were going to buy a wheel for GPL, my priorities are precision,
durability, and good ergonomics. GPL has special requirements in that it
is a huge advantage to have the pedals on seperate axes, and also it
gives the option of configuring an analog clutch, which can help you
coming off the grid and also recovering from spins. Also it provides
glance left/glance right functions, which can be assigned to buttons on
the controller. These are very useful when you are running in traffic. 

Here's my order of preference: 

1.ECCI CDS4000, with dual pedal switch, $1000 to 1300. Until recently,
this setup had two drawbacks: no clutch, and the buttons were on the
front of the wheel, not the back (my personal preference is to have the
shifters on the back, and glance left/glance right buttons on the
front). However, ECCI has announced paddle and clutch pedal options
which should be available soon. The quality is so high and the precision
is so great that if cost were no object, I'd have one. (Thanks to Brant
Herbert for bringing these new options to my attention.) 

2.Thomas Super Wheel, with dual pedal switch and fingertip shifters,
$500 or more. An optional clutch pedal may soon be available. Note that
the cheaper TSW 2 is not suitable for GPL because it can't have the dual
pedal switch option installed, and can't have fingertip shifters either.
The full TSW is excellent, of superb quality, very durable and very
precise. If you can afford it, go for it! 

3.Thrustmaster GP1 wheel and CH (non-Pro) Pedals, about $50 for the GP1
and $60 for the CH Pedals. One of the GP1's fingertip paddles can be
configured as GPL's analog clutch, and the CH Pedals can be run in
dual-pedal mode. The CH pedals are excellent, and very durable. The GP1
is TM's usual poor quality, so be prepared to replace the steering pot
frequently when it gets noisy. You can modify the GP1 so it gets 270
degrees of travel; see my web page for details. 

4.CH Wheel and CH (non-Pro) Pedals, about $60 for the wheel and $60 for
the pedals. Again, the pedals are excellent, and the wheel seems
durable, but the wheel's ergonomics are poor, with only about 170
degrees of travel and a spring that is much too light. Also, this setup
has no analog clutch. BTW, don't get the CH wheel/pedal combo; the
racing-only pedals in that package are terrible, virtually useless. 

5.Thrustmaster NASCAR Pro (known as Formula 1 outside the US), about
$110-120. I am not overly fond of the pedals in this combo either, but
at least they can be put on separate axes. The whole wheel has a rubbery
feel, and seems to suffer from the usual Thrustmaster durability
problems. However, the desk clamps work well. 

Unfortunately, I know of nothing suitable in between the GP1/CH Pedals
combo and the TSW in terms of cost, unless you build your own, which is
what I did. See Lew's Wheels and Wally's World of Wheels for info on how
to build your own wheel, but hurry; Wally is taking his site down on
Oct. 15. 

Update: A German reader, Olaf Port, has purchased a new wheel from
Fanatec called the Le Mans, and speaks highly of it. Here's what Olaf
has to say: 

    "I just came back from Berlin and found my new Fanatec Le Mans Racing
    Wheel sitting in front of my desk at home. The first thing I did of
    course was set it up and fire up the GPL demo - which turned the face of
    my wife a little bit red, but you have to have principles and
    priorities.... :-) 

    "Setting up was easy; the wheel runs smooth with the built in
    Thrustmaster T1/T2 driver in Win95b. The wheel itself feels very nice;
    it is covered with rubber. It's easy to mount and sits firm with two
    clamps on the table. Turning feels good; it seems to be much more solid
    than the somewhat shaky Thrustmaster wheels. The pedals are a bit
    unusual, because they have a just short way to go between no throttle
    and full throttle. But you need just 10 minutes of driving to get used
    to it. 

    "Resumee: If you want to have a solid, easy to install wheel with pedals
    I can recommend it. At around 90$ here in Germany its a bargain. It is
    certainly not inferior to the Thrustmaster wheels, which sell at a
    higher price." 

I have no information about availability of the Le Mans wheel outside of
Germany, although the Fanatec Web site lists distributors in several
European countries. Perhaps if enough of us pester them, they'll find a
distributor for North America. 

There is also a new wheel from Saitek. There's a new review of this
wheel. If anyone has any experience with this wheel and GPL, please let
me know. Click here for a review of this wheel. 

Another reader, Peter Ashley, comments: 

    "I needed to solder a 10k resistor between (I think) x1 ground and y1
    ground to get TM pedals to work with a Diamond Monster sound card. TM
    took a shortcut that works with most cards, but not the monster." 

5.2 Should I buy a Force Feedback wheel? 

GPL doesn't support force feedback. The feeling at Papyrus seems to be
that current FF techology is not good enough to provide the kind of
subtle information that would be useful to a driver, such as having the
steering go light when the car begins to understeer. So they haven't
done it. 

I saw a recent interview with Dave Kaemmer, in which he said FF isn't
supported right now. This might be read as leaving the door open for it
in the future, but they'd have to do a patch to get it into GPL. In the
past, Papy has been loath to do patches. 

5.3 I'm having trouble calibrating my controller. Sometimes the
calibration goes away after I calibrate it. How do I calibrate it
properly? 

This advice from beta tester Achim Trensz: 

    "The calibration feature can be tricky, as during calibration, sometimes
    the assignment gets lost. 
    
    "My workaround is to delete the player_name folder, to calibrate from
    bottom to top, and to press throttle and brake and then keep them
    depressed while calibrating the remaining axis." 

I believe it's not necessary to delete the player's entire folder, but
only the controls.cfg file within that folder. You'll find that folder
in the players folder within the GPL installation. For example, if I
installed my copy of GPL in the default location, the file to delete
would be: 

    C:\SIERRA\gpl\players\Hine__Alison\controls.cfg

5.4 What about digital controller cards like the PDPI Lightning 4? 

I had very good results with a PDPI L4 installed in my P-233. Control
seemed more precise, and I believe frame rate improved as well. I tried
this in my new P2-350, and got similar results. I feel like I can really
feel the car now, more than before. Also, I seem to be able to run with
somewhat more graphics detail when racing online, although I still need
to cut back dramatically compared with the full detail 800x600 settings
I use offline. 

Check CombatSim.com for a review of the L4, and also see Games Domain
for another review. 

When I tested the L4 (July, 1998), I had to hack the registry a bit to
make the L4 support a Thrustmaster wheel & pedal unit. However, I on my
P2 installation, I had newer drivers which eliminated the need for
registry hacking, at least with my homebuilt controller, which uses
normal 100k pots. 

Also, there can be issues with controllers that have pedals that switch
from single to dual axis, such as the Thrustmaster T2 and CH Pedals.
This issue may require jumping through some hoops every time you want to
switch between a game which intelligently allows you to assign a game
function (such as brake or throttle) to a desired controller axis (e.g.
GPL and F1RS), and games with inflexible (I'm trying hard not to say
"stupid" here) controller configuration mechanisms (e.g. MTM2 and
MS-CPR). 

PDPI's new driver has features which address these issues. I haven't
tried these features yet, as I am only running GPL right now. If it
works as planned, this new driver will not only resolve these issues, it
will eliminate the necessity for hardware joystick switching devices
such as the Joyswitcher and the CH Products Joystick SwitchBox, and
software configuration switchers such as Alex Poplowski's Joystick
Switcher. 

Contact PDPI for the L4 and their latest driver. 

6.1 How much memory do I need to run GPL? Will more memory make it run
faster? 

Papyrus says the minimum is 32 mb. I think having 64 mb may speed things
up at certain points, but I don't think it will make a huge difference
in overall frame rate. 

However, with 32 mb you will be able to save only very small replays. As
I recall, with 32 mb I could save only a lap or two at the shorter
tracks. With 64 mb I could save about 7 to 10 laps of solo play (i.e. no
AI or remote players) on tracks like Kyalami and Monza. Trying to save a
replay of an entire lap at the Nurburgring was marginal. 

With 128 mb, it's possible to save enormous replays. I have replays of
most of the Papy Cup races, which are Intermediate Long races (roughly
25 to 30 laps at the shorter tracks) and we usually have a dozen or more
players. Almost all of the replays include the entire race and the last
part of practice, except at Zandvoort where there were almost 20 players
and a lot of smoke and dust was generated, which takes up a lot of room
in replays. There, I have all but the first lap of the race. These
replay files are typically 20 to 25 mb in length. 

So, regarding memory, I suggest getting as much of it as you can afford,
and the faster the better. 

Update: there is an exception to this. Many Pentium Classics do not have
the capability to cache memory above 64 mb, so installing more than 64
mb memory could actually cause GPL to run much worse. See the frame rate
and CPU sections of this FAQ for details. 

6.2 Do I have to upgrade to SDRAM or PC100 memory to get the best speed
out of my computer? 

In my experience, going from 32 mb of 70 ns FPM SIMMs to 32 mb of 10 ns
SDRAM on my P-233 made only a marginal difference in GPL's frame rate,
perhaps because GPL uses L2 cache memory deftly to avoid using main
memory as much as possible in mission-critical tasks. 

The SDRAM did, however, make a big difference in frame rate in MTM2, for
what that's worth. 

Regarding PC100, you only need this if you have a 100 mhz motherboard
and a CPU that can be run at 100 mhz or better. If you're running your
motherboard at 66 or 75 mhz than the older SDRAM or even EDO or FPM
SIMMs should be fine. 

7.1 Does the sound card make a difference? 

Steve Smith says: "If you mean, which manufacturer, probably not. If you
mean, which kind of sound card, emphatically yes. The second-generation
PCI sound cards, like Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live! and Turtle
Beach's Montego, offer impressive audio improvements: the sound is
cleaner, with less artifact (that annoying background static), and
individual "voices" (engines, tires, etc.) stand out in kind of sonic
bas-relief, so you can hear distinctly when Jimmy Clark is overtaking
you, for instance...and on which side! Plus a greater dynamic range and
support for full 4- or 5-speaker surround sound. 

"Moreover, you will get a small but welcome lift in the frame rate; as
much as 10-15% if you've got the "sounds heard" slider set to 8 or more.
All this for less than half of what a good legacy sound card like the
AWE 64 cost a year ago." 

7.2 How does the sound card affect frame rate? 

As far as I know, the principal issue with sound cards revolves around
the inefficiency of the DirectX sound driver. If there is not enough
memory in the sound card, and you select more than four engine sounds in
GPL's Options, frame rate can be adversely affected due to the thrashing
of sound samples in and out of the sound card's memory. The DirectX
driver is not very efficient at dealing with this issue. 

One Papyrus engineer is using a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold; he says that
this card has sufficient memory for him to run more than four sounds
without impacting frame rate. I think he can run about 8 sounds, and is
delighted with the results. 

Another GPL developer suggests waiting for the new Vortex 2 based PCI
sound cards, which are due out soon. 

Another benefit of a sound card with more memory might be that you might
be able to use different, larger sound samples for the engines in GPL
without impacting the frame rate, again because texture thrashing would
be avoided. 

7.3 Do some sound cards work better than others in GPL? 

Some people report various problems with some of the newer sound cards.
Unfortunately, I have no experience with these problems and can offer no
help other than suggesting that if you have difficulties, try the latest
drivers for the sound card, and reduce the number of sounds in GPL's
Options. 

At present, I am using Soundblaster 16's in both of my machines. They
may not be fancy, but they are cheap and reliable, and they work. 
