Er is een FAQ over nKpro op het DrivingItalia forum, maar deze is uiteraard in het Italiaans.
Ik heb al een deel vertaald, en anderen op RSC hebben ook een deel vertaald, dus zijn we er bijna.
Het is geen overigens geen officiele FAQ, maar een verzameling quotes van de devs en feitjes die men op dat forum verzameld heeft.
What will be included in the NK-Pro Demo???
The demo will be the final product, therefore there will be a single download with everything included.
The unblocked items will be:
-1 car, the slowest one
-1 track
-Times and AIM display will be switched off in the demo
Everything else, obviously also the possibility to use the MULTIPLAYER part, will need the purchase of the license.
What will be the size of the download?
The press demo for autosimsport with 2 tracks and 1 car was 61MB (zipped)...
However, the runtime of Builder 6, which was quite big is now out of NK Pro, but as a compensation for those who don't have it, it will be necessary to download the .NET runtime.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Which programming language is used for NK-Pro??
The simulation is in unmanaged C++
Which will be the minimum VGA configuration?
The Radeon 9600 is the card we choosed as minimum level to have the game at a minimum of 30 fps. Those with weaker gfx-cards should disable the shaders.
Perfomance with the following configuration:
AMD 2600 XP (2Ghz)
1GB RAM DDR
ATI 9600 Pro 128
At 1280x1024, without anisotropic filtering and Anti Aliasing (which are not of great use anyway as the image quality is always high), in Trackday mode (only one car on the track), with all details at maximum, you get approx. 50/55 fps and never below 45. In doom mode you get 70 fps. Testing multiplayer with 4 more persons (5 cars in total including my own) you stay always over 40 fps, mantaining the smoothness also during race start. And this is without LOD's, that means that all cars were being drawn at maximum detail independant of the distance
Used CPU resources:
The CPU is always used at 100%...as Netkar always "goes as strong as it can". The discussions about relative usage of the CPU have a meaning in e.g. GPL where the frame rate is cut at 36 fps. NKPro however would draw 300 fps if possible, always using 100% of the PC resources (obviously this is not true in dualcore systems or dual CPU's where the usage would be 100/quantity of CPU's).
One of the problems I have at the moment is that the program hangs with the server active...in fact 2 programs running at the same time cause problems and that convinced me to integrate the server into the game, so that the person who hosts doesn't have to do it at 30fps.
Will there be a manual?
Netkar Pro will have a complete manual in Italian.
Will there be an "EXTREME" mode for online play?
We'll have the modes super sim, super real, super natural, super ayu which will be selectable from the server options. In the super ayu mode you won't be able to use ESC to return to the box, you won't be able to change gear ratios and other heavy setup modification on the run, i.e. the "heavy" changes will only be made after the session ends.
License:
A reformat should not effect the existing license, as the system is hardware dependant and doesn't save anything in the registry or in windows/system32 etc.
In case of new hardware, a new license will be necessary. How the process of reactivation will work is still open, but we're evaluating the possibility of making the whole process automatic.
In the worst case, during the first phase of distribution it will be done via email. Considering the number of users we expect to have it NK Pro, it should be possible to analyse each request for a new license individualy.
To make it clear, the game still supports different users...it's not necessary to have two installations, at the moment you switch the user and there's no license for the new user, the full game contents will be blocked...but the usage of multiple drivers is still sopported.
The stats are only updated online, offline only the PB's and Km are registered. Km are automatic, but I don't believe that 10-20-30 minutes drive per week of "the friend" will change the total driven km of a dedicated user significantly. On the other hand the PB system is not automatic like in Namie...you have to go to the track, than you leave the game and IF you want to register the laps you have to press "download". So if you don't want to risk to have your times beaten by your friend, you just don't have to import the laptimes when he finishes to drive with your account.
DEVKIT
When will the DK be available?
It will be available 2-3 months later, because it's completely rewritten in Visual C++.
To add tracks, is it necesary to wait for the DK?
Considering the graphical format of nKPro is very different, yes.
Is it possible for a regular user to create something without being part of a modding team?
You won't need to be part of modding team to have the DK, and with that you can already create tracks and cars.
Will the DK be available for free? (Available to all or authorised by you based on the project it's being used for?)
There won't be any authorisations from us, we need the community to regulate this for itself.
It won't be for free, but prices are unknown at the moment.
-Commercial details:
There will be 3 types of mods:
1) Free mods for nKpro. You only need a nKpro license to use it.
2) Pay mods. You need both an nKpro license as well as a license for the mod.
3) Total conversion, sold separately from nKpro. You don't need a nKpro license for this.
Obviously, types 1 and 2 are very different (for us) from type 3, that will require a commercial approach and a different type of support.
Why is keyboard support going to be included?
NB: There aren't going to be any driving aids for keyboard use.
If someone who usually plays FPS's, RPG's, etc. (and obviously doesn't own a steering wheel) will be able to play netKar with a keyboard, it's possible he will develop a liking for simulations and aquires a wheel.
Obviously, the server configuration allows settings which oblige players to use a controller or restrict them to the cockpit view, like already available in other simulations. But this doesn't mean it's necessary to withold thousands of people from trying out nKpro and possibly developing a passion for it.
Why won't there be AI available in version 1.0?
Well, the absence of AI in v1.0 of nKpro isn't because we are against it, in the past we've experimented with it, but these were not encouraging. And having limited resources (read: CPU power) available that is mostly already being eaten up by our physics engine, to have both, the AI has to be simplified, or the code will become too heavy. It's certainly not an option to ccut down resources on the physics model. Inserting virtual drivers, to compare yourself to, but aren't actually convincing, just to feature "revolutionary, selfevolving artificial intelligence" would be contradictory, and there are some very good example of games that do just that. It's definately a feature that can (dertainly from a commercial point of view) be insterted in a future update, but to do it properly we would need more time, research and optimalisation. Just keep in mind, nKpro isn't the end of the line, it's a starting point where we will work from, with the same effort which we are making to finalise v1.0.
Future and development
nkPro won't be a stand-alone sim (like in 1.0 and that's it), but a platform that will be progressively expanded an enriched with new packages, which doesn't solely mean cars and tracks, but also new features that will be continually produced and tested.
This will always keep nKpro fresh and advanced. This way, players and drivers won't have to wait long to obtain the software and developers will have a little bit more room to concentrate on single aspects of the simulation.
GRAPHICS
Dx9
Shaders, normal maps and bump mapping are supperoded by the engine.
Talking about shadows, three models have been tested (lightmaps, shadowmaps, stencil shadows), to end up with a 4th solution.
Finally shadowmaps will not be present in nKpro 1.0 (since they are heavier and less definite), but they will be supported when the dk is out and the need of realistic time changes will be more evident.
Video formats
NKpro supports the native mode of the monitor, so lots of resolutions and ratios (4/3, 16/9...) will be supported.
[b]Multimonitors
By now there is no multimonitor support.
FOV
There will be a satisfying driving view 4 everbody. Driving view has been studied to offer a corrcet visualization of
distances, heighs and depth.
Steering Wheel visualization
3 options:
Wheel that rotates (with its display)
"freezed"wheel and display
no wheel with "freezed" display
Dirt on visor/visor change
We have thought about it, and we're testing it, since it could decrease the performance a lot (*it seems that this feature has been implemented)
Doom mode
In doom mode there will be a first person view.
You won't see youself
You won't see other drivers walking around (of course you'll se them if they are in their car)
There will be some limits in the "walking environment"
You won't be able to knock other drivers down (*nooooooooo!!!! *)
In doom mode you'll be able to cratch and to look 4 instance at the effect of setups on real camber and toe in.
Photomode
it is basically a particular replay that adds some filters (like blur) and goes much slower than normal replay.
There is then "gigh definition slow motion effect", that interpolates car movements to give the effect of high definition rate cameras that sometimes are used in F1
Rims
By now the solution used is 2d rims with a 3d effect provided by the normal maps.
Grass
The grass has a variable thickness
Why there are no arms in cockpit view?
Arms have been tested, but some problems have emerged, like how to manage arms movements when the steering wheel rotates a lot, or the fact that "virtual arms" are always "late"
So it has been excluded by now since it is not a priority.
Moreover to use the virtual cockpit is important to see it well.
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Voor 7% gewijzigd door
Zamorano op 11-01-2006 00:57
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netKar PRO 
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volgens mij doe ik hier en daar nog wat fout. Heb je een replay van die 1.28? Kan ik kijken hoe het moet :strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/77131/crop5d0893753034a_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
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