Oh wow, thanks for all the feedback! Now, that's gonna be a long answer :-)
First a plead: I've met some of you already in the chat, but it would really help us if we could get some info's from the others who played it. Press <F11> in the game to get a FPS display. Please tells us how much FPS you get and tell us some system information about the computer on which it did run. Mine for example would look like that:
FPS: FPS between 30 and 40 with default settings. 60 FPS with 800x600 resolution.
System: Kanotix (Debian Linux Sid) and Windows 98 (no joke)
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Card: GeForce 6200
Memory: 512 MB Ram
Some problems have been found by now (thanks to bitplane, gfxstyler and Monochrome for finding them). We're working on another beta to fix those issues:
- It will crash when you press <space> or <enter> in the game and the "Start" button still has the focus. This will actually happen each time when you clicked that button with the mouse and press one of that keys in game. Currently avoid crashes by not pressing those keys in game or by starting the game using exactly those keys in the menu.
- The <Auto> resolution in the graphic settings won't work on linux. It will just use the last resolution which was selected.
- the screensaver is not disabled
- some problems with mipmaps on intel 945gm express chipset
About controls and steering:
The best way to play it is probably with an analog joypad - no denying that. But i've also completed all tracks with keyboard quite often and can give you one hint: Do change the default settings. We used the arrow-keys as default, because everyone seems to expect those. But the game can be played far better with 2-hand-settings. I play usually with <left> for brake and <down> for acceleration and do the left, right steering with two keys which can be reached good with the left hand.
Another common problem is that many players seem to except more of an "arcade" style of steering, while we decided to use more of an "simulation" style of control. Our reason for doing so was, that this allows players to get a better intuitive feeling for the controls in the long run. Unfortunatly it needs some time to get used to that. So far we've found no way to avoid that, so if you've got an idea...
@zeno60: We discussed already it already in chat, but lets tell everybody: The focus in our game is completly on racing. So the full version will deliver far more challenging tracks. What you're playing now are basicly the tracks to learn the game. The last level in the demo does already give you an idea of what to expect, but it's still just one of the medium tracks.
@Virion: irrEdit did not exist when we started developing this game. Also i'm working mostly on linux so i've not actually checked it out yet. What we are using is a combination of dynamic light, speculars and lightmaps. The lightmaps are baked in maya and we are using a slightly modified .obj format to merge a .obj with lightmaptextures with a normal .obj file.
Love the no barriers, really makes you have to break and accelerate around corners. Reminded me a little of a race game I used to play, I want to say Wipeout, but can't remember exactly. Are you going to add power-ups/weapons to the full version?
