Wow, what is going on with turnout. Last Capp season Tuesdays were always quite full.
I was kind of afraid all our talk about overcrowded rooms and asking for volunteers to sit one out might lead to people staying away because they thought there wouldn't be room. Hopefully that's not the case.
I agree with RDA, the weirdness going on with online right now is having a bit of an impact on everyone, especially with all the hype surrounding it. I don't think it's quite as bad as some people are making it out to be and shouldn't prevent us from racing in some form, but there is something definitely going on and it isn't good. I'm hoping the upcoming maintenance/patch will address the issue but since it seems like this "bug" has progressively gotten worse with each update I'm not holding my breath. We'll just have to wait patiently and see what happens.
On a different note, as I mentioned in the lounge last night I pulled my 50" tv next to my 32" "windshield" so I could play around with the multi-monitor setup and it worked surprisingly well. Obviously there was a size difference but I tinkered around with the settings and got it to where I really didn't even notice. It was very cool!
The whole thing is surprisingly easy to setup and get going. You pretty much just turn on "multi-monitor" setting, tell it how many monitors and which one is which, press "initiate client mode" on the side PS3's, and that's it! There are settings you can adjust to get the perspecitve, angle and size correct and those take some tinkering but even that is pretty easy. I was able to adjust the side tv while I was in the lounge, I could exit out of client mode and make some adjustments and when I'd re-initiate client mode it would go right back to it. I didn't have to leave the lounge or anything which was incredibly convenient. This is why I only did 2 full laps during practice, I was tinkering. lol
I can't wait for the 3 monitors to arrive, even this "half experience" was incredible. To have stuff whizzing by in my peripheral vision adds a sense of speed/danger I've never felt in a racing game. The added visual input, being able to see all kinds of scenery and cars off in the distance, really made me feel like I was at the track and not in my living room. The best part was being able to see when cars were beside me (at least on my right-hand side), I went 2-wide through turns with people and always knew exactly where they were which made it so much easier to avoid contact. Being able to see more of where your going was a real benefit too, I felt much more confident in the positioning of my car because I had so much more reference. It's hard to explain, but it allowed me to drive a little better.
Anyway, here's a quick pic and vid of the setup I was using last night. These were taken before I got it dialed in, but you get the idea.
I'm racing Friday assuming I get back from chicago thurs night as planned.
