GT4 BMW Series 1 Virtual Drive is OUT!!!
- Thread starter amar212
- 1,104 comments
- 102,766 views
nee grapje je kan dus geen rondje rijden met die demo die jij hebt!!
Sorry about the dutch, it was mainly an extraction of the mail I had from BMW to pick up my demo. They did it in dutch.... 
To all my fellow belgium and dutch gt members: I assume that every dealer received their demo's now and so you should be able to pick them up everywhere!
I am now in the position to ;
1) respect my dealer and keep the promise to not give away the name (they should wait handing them out 18-19 sept at the launch of the 1 series)
2) help my gt fiends and let them enjoy the demo as well..
Choice:
I go for 1 but will advice you to contact every belgium dealer in "noord limburg".
I said nothing but enough to those who are willing to do the effort!
good luck!
and......my location gives away a lot of info!!!
edit; I am away for a few hours now, my other passion , rockclimbing needs attention!
To all my fellow belgium and dutch gt members: I assume that every dealer received their demo's now and so you should be able to pick them up everywhere!
I am now in the position to ;
1) respect my dealer and keep the promise to not give away the name (they should wait handing them out 18-19 sept at the launch of the 1 series)
2) help my gt fiends and let them enjoy the demo as well..
Choice:
I go for 1 but will advice you to contact every belgium dealer in "noord limburg".
I said nothing but enough to those who are willing to do the effort!
good luck!
and......my location gives away a lot of info!!!
edit; I am away for a few hours now, my other passion , rockclimbing needs attention!
- 725
k2racer
Yesterday, I sent out e-mails to 5 major BMW dealers in my vicinity (Antwerp) and so far I have only received the answer that the "GT4 BMW series 1 VD disks" have been delayed.
This being the answer from only one dealer (weekend right now...) ! I should be getting replies on the other mails tomorrow.
They are officially launching the BMW 1 series next weekend so I'm deffinitly going to visit some of the dealerships and who knows?
- 660
I was so lucky to lay my hand on a copy of the BMW 1 series virtual drive as well ...
So I'd like to share some impressions.
The Momo wheel
I had some hope to use my Momo Force Wheel, but it does NOT work with the BMW 1 Series Virtual Drive neither.
The sounds
I decided to keep the Ring for the last, and started with Costa di Amalfi ... and oh horror, the first sound that appears when you start the test drive on this track is ... the noise of yelling spectators! The tifosi are yelling and applauding as if they see Nino Vacarella himself winning the Targa Florio
I sincerely hope this is an old version of CdA, and that we wont be bored by this annoying noise over and over and over again in GT4 
. Luckily everything was quiet in New York and on the Nordschleife, so I could listen to the engine sounds on these tracks.
An improvement is the tyre sound, still informing and less disturbing for other people in the living room
Edit : I forgot about the sound of the 120d, which sounds like an 1980's Alfasud revving between 1500 and 2000 rpm
I never drove an 120d but my Golf TDI sounds far better then that.
The Physics
I only drive on road tyres since GT4P, and so I did in the BMW demo. First impression is that the road tyres are more sticky then in GT4P. This is most noticeable at low speed, as at high speed, you loose this advantage due to an increasing instability of the car. Yes, you read this well, it seems like GT4 is finally going the right way in high speed handling. Especially in the fast, turning parts of the Ring at 190+ km/hr, the car becomes very tricky to handle 👍 . A welcome inmprovement over the ever increasing downforce on all cars in GT3, it seems that this BMW is effectively simulating lift at higher speeds!
I tried to compare this effect by zigzagging some cars in GT4P at the faster parts of NY, but the high speed instability seems to be outstanding in the BMW demo.
New York laptimes compared
I chose two cars imo comparable with the in GT terms low powered, haevy BMW 120d (160 hp for 1430 kg) : the 89 MX-5 and the Civic Type-R.
Both cars have a slighly better p/w ratio, but worse handling. Then I made 1 lap on the NY track (which I didnt drive a lot untill now youll see it at my laptimes) :
- 120d : 2.23.575 8,94 kg/hp finish crossed at 150 km/hr
- MX-5 : 2.35.900 7,97 kg/hp 150 km/hr
- Civic : 2.25.800 5,77 kg/hp 170 km/hr
The BMW proved to be a lot faster. This could be due to the higher grip of the tyres in this demo, but it could also be that performances are just boosted to boost sales of the car, which is the aim of the demo after all . Well see when GT4 finally comes out
View
- 1st Person : since my simulator is ready, and started again using GT3 and GT3C with my Momo Force wheel, Im finally converted to the 1st person view, even using the Dual Shock!
My only complaint is the lack of reference in this view. And this is even worse in the BMW demo because of a small detail : the G-meter. This device can be interesting during the replays, but I wonder who has the times to consider this information in a turn at limit speed? The only thing this left-right moving ball does to me is distract me and make the lack of reference even worse.
PD should at least make this unselectable.
- 3rd Person : both 3rd person views are unchanged to GT4P, imo theres still not enough visibility in the close view, and the far view makes me dizzy because youre swept from 10 meters to the left to 10 meters to the right all the time !
However, there is an improvement in the gauges : the tachometer gauge (rpm) is now larger scaled, which makes it more useable then the (too) small gauge in GT4P.
Replays
The same options here as in GT4P. A good improvement in GT4P is still there : its theO-button that can be used to swich the music on and off.
Crash effects
The new shock effect helps making impacts more realistic. Too bad this is only in 1st person, and theres no punishment for crashing in the other views.
The collision physics urgently need to be improved, as otherwise many online races will have to be decided on the green table or by a moderator.
Wall riding is still rewarding, especially in Costa di Amalfi. Braking way too late, and being stopped by a wall can be faster then driving regularly fast. In typical GT-style, when you touch a wall, the car is supported by an invisible force over its entire length : even if only the rear of the car touches the wall, the front will remain aligned in the direction of the car before the impact. In such a case, the car should at least start spinning.
On the Ring, youre often stopped by an invisible wall, even if theres a hill of grass, on which the car could go up to be thrown in a spin, causing a delay that you dont want to risk.
The only punishment you have now is that a collision looks really stupid in the replay.
180 Sec limit
This limit is a nice way to learn the long Ring part by part (at least the first), but Id like to know anyway if theres a cheat to get rid of it!
Summary
👍 Positive evolution : the much more challenging and realistic high speed dynamics
👎 Negative evolution : return of the noise of spectators yelling at Costa di Amalfi
So I'd like to share some impressions.
The Momo wheel
I had some hope to use my Momo Force Wheel, but it does NOT work with the BMW 1 Series Virtual Drive neither.
The sounds
I decided to keep the Ring for the last, and started with Costa di Amalfi ... and oh horror, the first sound that appears when you start the test drive on this track is ... the noise of yelling spectators! The tifosi are yelling and applauding as if they see Nino Vacarella himself winning the Targa Florio
I sincerely hope this is an old version of CdA, and that we wont be bored by this annoying noise over and over and over again in GT4 . Luckily everything was quiet in New York and on the Nordschleife, so I could listen to the engine sounds on these tracks.An improvement is the tyre sound, still informing and less disturbing for other people in the living room
Edit : I forgot about the sound of the 120d, which sounds like an 1980's Alfasud revving between 1500 and 2000 rpm
I never drove an 120d but my Golf TDI sounds far better then that.The Physics
I only drive on road tyres since GT4P, and so I did in the BMW demo. First impression is that the road tyres are more sticky then in GT4P. This is most noticeable at low speed, as at high speed, you loose this advantage due to an increasing instability of the car. Yes, you read this well, it seems like GT4 is finally going the right way in high speed handling. Especially in the fast, turning parts of the Ring at 190+ km/hr, the car becomes very tricky to handle 👍 . A welcome inmprovement over the ever increasing downforce on all cars in GT3, it seems that this BMW is effectively simulating lift at higher speeds!
I tried to compare this effect by zigzagging some cars in GT4P at the faster parts of NY, but the high speed instability seems to be outstanding in the BMW demo.
New York laptimes compared
I chose two cars imo comparable with the in GT terms low powered, haevy BMW 120d (160 hp for 1430 kg) : the 89 MX-5 and the Civic Type-R.
Both cars have a slighly better p/w ratio, but worse handling. Then I made 1 lap on the NY track (which I didnt drive a lot untill now youll see it at my laptimes) :
- 120d : 2.23.575 8,94 kg/hp finish crossed at 150 km/hr
- MX-5 : 2.35.900 7,97 kg/hp 150 km/hr
- Civic : 2.25.800 5,77 kg/hp 170 km/hr
The BMW proved to be a lot faster. This could be due to the higher grip of the tyres in this demo, but it could also be that performances are just boosted to boost sales of the car, which is the aim of the demo after all
. Well see when GT4 finally comes out
View
- 1st Person : since my simulator is ready, and started again using GT3 and GT3C with my Momo Force wheel, Im finally converted to the 1st person view, even using the Dual Shock!
My only complaint is the lack of reference in this view. And this is even worse in the BMW demo because of a small detail : the G-meter. This device can be interesting during the replays, but I wonder who has the times to consider this information in a turn at limit speed? The only thing this left-right moving ball does to me is distract me and make the lack of reference even worse.
PD should at least make this unselectable.
- 3rd Person : both 3rd person views are unchanged to GT4P, imo theres still not enough visibility in the close view, and the far view makes me dizzy because youre swept from 10 meters to the left to 10 meters to the right all the time
!However, there is an improvement in the gauges : the tachometer gauge (rpm) is now larger scaled, which makes it more useable then the (too) small gauge in GT4P.
Replays
The same options here as in GT4P. A good improvement in GT4P is still there : its theO-button that can be used to swich the music on and off.
Crash effects
The new shock effect helps making impacts more realistic. Too bad this is only in 1st person, and theres no punishment for crashing in the other views.
The collision physics urgently need to be improved, as otherwise many online races will have to be decided on the green table or by a moderator.
Wall riding is still rewarding, especially in Costa di Amalfi. Braking way too late, and being stopped by a wall can be faster then driving regularly fast. In typical GT-style, when you touch a wall, the car is supported by an invisible force over its entire length : even if only the rear of the car touches the wall, the front will remain aligned in the direction of the car before the impact. In such a case, the car should at least start spinning.
On the Ring, youre often stopped by an invisible wall, even if theres a hill of grass, on which the car could go up to be thrown in a spin, causing a delay that you dont want to risk.
The only punishment you have now is that a collision looks really stupid in the replay.
180 Sec limit
This limit is a nice way to learn the long Ring part by part (at least the first), but Id like to know anyway if theres a cheat to get rid of it!
Summary
👍 Positive evolution : the much more challenging and realistic high speed dynamics
👎 Negative evolution : return of the noise of spectators yelling at Costa di Amalfi
- 660
The difference between the New York tracks are small if there are any. It looks brighter to me, as there was the difference between Midfield in GT3 and GT3C. But I could be wrong.cobragt
Nürburgring looks much better then Costa di Amalfi, but here it could be the environment which is easier to model. I'm not a specialist in visual details, sorry.
Yes, I saw them somewhere too, but I think they disappeared when there was a thread erased because of discussing p2p sending of the demo.GTChamp2003
- 334
Unfortunately, these codes not freeze the time limit timer, they only freeze the total lap timer. Nachbrenner made them and you can find them here :
http://www.xploderfreax.de/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=363&forum=5&0
http://www.xploderfreax.de/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=363&forum=5&0
- 200
- Higgiracer
I´m from Germany where the 1er BMW will be presented next friday an i will visit every possible BMW dealer til i get the demo.
I´ve already contacted 5 Dealers nearby and 4 of them didn´t know, what i was talking about !
One of them told me, that they sold the last CD (!!) of the Demo in June and that it will be hard to get one of them !!!
Stupid suckers !!
But a female employee of the greatest BMW dealer in Aachen has contacted me last thursday and told me, that the demo has just arrived. She promised me to call me up as soon as she would be able to get a grip on the dvd.
But i think it´s gonna be the "3-minutes-limit" demo.
Oh yes, by the way: my thread about P2P according the BMW Virtual Demo was erased and i understand that ! Even if the demo is a free give-away, there are some copyrights we have to respect.
I will never start a thread like this anymore !
Promise !
I´ve already contacted 5 Dealers nearby and 4 of them didn´t know, what i was talking about !
One of them told me, that they sold the last CD (!!) of the Demo in June and that it will be hard to get one of them !!!
Stupid suckers !!
But a female employee of the greatest BMW dealer in Aachen has contacted me last thursday and told me, that the demo has just arrived. She promised me to call me up as soon as she would be able to get a grip on the dvd.
But i think it´s gonna be the "3-minutes-limit" demo.
Oh yes, by the way: my thread about P2P according the BMW Virtual Demo was erased and i understand that ! Even if the demo is a free give-away, there are some copyrights we have to respect.
I will never start a thread like this anymore !
Promise !
But I guess there's people with a better eye for graphics who can inform you better on this subject.
I'll post feedback as soon as I've tried these.hrm
doesnt yours have the 3 minute limit Buggy Boy?
its hard to see the entire nurnburgring in 3 minutes
ive been thinking, if there is a version of the demo that doesnt have the timelimit, maybe we could take the file that has it out and replave it on our timelimited demos (sortof like jow we can put different tracks on prologue)
doesnt yours have the 3 minute limit Buggy Boy?
its hard to see the entire nurnburgring in 3 minutes
ive been thinking, if there is a version of the demo that doesnt have the timelimit, maybe we could take the file that has it out and replave it on our timelimited demos (sortof like jow we can put different tracks on prologue)
- 21
I played the latest, or one of the latest build on the Power Unlimited Gameplay in Holland. It had the full Nurburgring circuit, with all the track text marks and everything.
And it rocks. Badly. But what impressed me most, was the new Paris at night track. Wow. Just wow. It has so much atmosphere. Where PGR2 *really* lacked in night races (but looked good overall), GT4 shines it seems. And yes, there are jaggies. But those just come with every PS2 game in a certain degree I guess. The great, artistic visuals of this game make up for every little jaggie to be seen.
And then there's the physics offcourse! Although I couldn't play that much, it did really show off all it's goodness.
This game is set to be impressive. Very, very impressive. Hopefully Polyphony get the online mode right, that is my only concern at this moment. Everything else seems to be spot on. Can't wait for this game!
And it rocks. Badly.
But what impressed me most, was the new Paris at night track. Wow. Just wow. It has so much atmosphere. Where PGR2 *really* lacked in night races (but looked good overall), GT4 shines it seems. And yes, there are jaggies. But those just come with every PS2 game in a certain degree I guess. The great, artistic visuals of this game make up for every little jaggie to be seen.And then there's the physics offcourse! Although I couldn't play that much, it did really show off all it's goodness.
This game is set to be impressive. Very, very impressive. Hopefully Polyphony get the online mode right, that is my only concern at this moment. Everything else seems to be spot on. Can't wait for this game!
- 2,648
Sonic CircleI played the latest, or one of the latest build on the Power Unlimited Gameplay in Holland. It had the full Nurburgring circuit, with all the track text marks and everything.
And it rocks. Badly.
And then there's the physics offcourse! Although I couldn't play that much, it did really show off all it's goodness.
This game is set to be impressive. Very, very impressive. Hopefully Polyphony get the online mode right, that is my only concern at this moment. Everything else seems to be spot on. Can't wait for this game!
any new tracks?
- 21
Let me try to remember..
I saw the Paris at night one. A Hong Kong one, which no one raced at while I was at the stand. Then Tsukuba, Capri, Fuji, the Nurburgring, New York. And the rally track which was in Prologue, Grand Canyon.
Don't remember more actually. But couldn't hang around the GT4 setup all day, had our own stand to attend at
I saw the Paris at night one. A Hong Kong one, which no one raced at while I was at the stand. Then Tsukuba, Capri, Fuji, the Nurburgring, New York. And the rally track which was in Prologue, Grand Canyon.
Don't remember more actually. But couldn't hang around the GT4 setup all day, had our own stand to attend at
- 21
Can't tell exactly from 120 seconds on Fuji Speedway. But the physics definitely felt really good, (even) more true to life then in GT4: Prologue.
I'll get my BMW demo really soon now, and then i'll write up more.
I'll get my BMW demo really soon now, and then i'll write up more.
- 541
Could someone of you give me that disc?
- 541
What I mean is that someone can borrow me the demo disc.
- 541
Or if someone can sell it to me?
- 541
Thank you! But no one can borrow it to me? Send it to me by mail...
- 541
I don`t want to make a registration on Ebay...
