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From: Antony Bowers <bowers@cs.bris.ac.uk>
Subject: GPL can be trusted
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Randy Cassidy wrote:
> Antony Bowers <bowers@cs.bris.ac.uk> wrote in article
> <36EEA9BF.565EF70D@cs.bris.ac.uk>...
> > This is long, and so bizarre, you won't believe me, but anyway, here
> > goes.
> 
> ...long enough that I'll *snip*
> 
> The lower top speed and not revving freely issues both sound like
> calibration problems.  Unfortunately, we don't have a "test
> calibration" screen, only a "recalibrate" screen, so it's difficult to
> tell for sure.  

<much good advice on calibratation snipped>

Thanks, Randy, for your informative reply. Calibration 
is the obvious suspect here, and I would not have posted in this 
manner if I was not reasonably sure it was not a calibration 
problem. It looks like I was wrong though. 

My controller is home-built (and home-debugged :). This makes me 
hypersensitive to calibration issues. I clean or change the pots 
at the first sign of spiking, and recalibrate often. I check out
the circuit with a multimeter whenever I change anything.

Last night my throttle pedal failed completely. The mechanical 
linkage between pedal and pot had loosened. If this was happening 
progressively, it could have gone through a stage where, when 
depressed vigourously, the pedal would not turn the pot for the 
first half (say) of its throw, but would for the rest.

This is a possible explanation for everything that happened. I'm 
not sure why reinstalling helped, but maybe I got lucky when I 
recalibrated that time.

I apologise for my previous attention-grabbing subject line. A new 
feeling is now recorded there :)

Others in this thread say they have seen similar inconsistencies in 
GPL. If these are not calibration problems, my experience suggests 
that the gameplay is affected by subtle subjective factors. If you 
are tired, angry, have a slight cold, have had even half a glass of 
beer, your chair has moved a bit or you are wearing the wrong socks :) 
the game can seem quite different.

BTW, a calibration test screen would be very useful. I have wished for 
such a thing many times.

Cheers,

   Anton

-- 
Antony Bowers, Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, UK.
http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~bowers/
