Papy Cup Monaco

Pictorial Storyboard

Part 2

Back to Part 1

...headed into Ste. Devote...	...out of Ste. Devote and up the hill toward Massanet...	...through Massanet, the Casino comes into view...	...out of Casino, and down the hill toward Mirabeau to complete the lap.
Tony Johns takes his Lotus through Portiers ahead of Cassidy's Ferrari and Hine's Brabham	A harrowing moment exiting the chicane, as Hine encounters a spinning Brabham, which is about to...	...take out Cassidy, a hapless bystander, as Hine, the more fortunate this time...	...slips by. Note the view of the crashing cars in the Brabham's right-side mirror.
Two laps later, new challenge in Hine's mirrors: Sentell coming through...	...around Casino, Hine still leads...	...but under braking into Mirabeau, Sentell takes the place.	Hine's Brabham booms sideways through the tunnel
Another harrowing moment, this time in Massanet, where Hine is...	...lucky to squeak through. At 9 laps, she is wondering, "How much longer can this race go on?"	21 laps in, Hine passes a Ferrari coming out of Tabac	At 22 laps, Sentell closes on Hine's Brabham...
Nearly a lap later, Sentell makes his move...	...down the inside at Tabac...	...note the small size of the F2-based Brabham compared with the Lotus...	...Sentell makes what he would later call...
... his best pass of the race. Moments later, at Gasometer...	...Hine's worst nightmare: distracted by a spinning car, she brakes a split second too late...	...and carries Sentell into the haybales with her. Fortunately, Sentell kindly forgives her later!	Shawn Wise makes a mistake at Beau Rivage.
This is the moment where Shawn's wheel is separating from his Ferrari.	Sentell gets caught in another crash. The precipitator is on the right, almost out of sight...	...the Lotus comes down hard on its front wheel...	...then smacks down on all four...
...and slides to a stop, suspension deranged. But, hooray for Shift-R!	Six laps later, Sentell takes the checker for a well-deserved win. He wasn't the fastest, but he made the fewest mistakes.

Despite my feelings that these screen shots are sensational, and that the race and series they are taken from are fantastic, I'm frustrated by the fact that stills so poorly represent the actual experience. While driving in this race, I was overcome by the stunning reality of the entire process; the sounds and the visual sensations are so real, it's eerie.

Perhaps even more importantly, the psychological factors are very similar to what I encountered while racing in real life. The pressure of trying to go fast without making a mistake, and the problems of overtaking and being overtaken, are exactly the same as what I recall from my real-life racing.

Watching the replay, I was again struck by the incredible reality of the experience presented by GPL. The fluid grace with which the cars move is breathtaking. The cars flow through the corners, flicking sideways, and then - when driven by the skilled drivers like Sentell, Johns, and Yasi - they are caught before the slide gets out of hand. Engines wailing, tires smoking and shrieking, gobs full of opposite lock. The leaders snaking through the turns in close formation, moving over the humps in rapid succession, twitching and sliding at the same places like choreographed dancers - it's awesome!

What an experience!

There is another aspect of racing to consider. GPL actually has the capability to provide a great deal more information about what happened in a race than we have in real life, even today. Modern TV coverage runs cameras at each corner, and has in-car cameras on perhaps a half dozen or so cars in every race. But a GPL replay, provided you have adequate memory, can contain a record of every frame of the race, from every point of view, including a variety of in-car cameras and two complete sets of external "TV" cameras!

At Monaco, a 128 mb computer saved the entire 13-car, 30 lap race plus the last few laps of practice. The race was over 45 minutes long. The replay file is over 30 mb. Considering that not all the cars finished the race, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 minutes of action. Multiply this by the various camera views and you have several days' worth of footage!

Given that, the 58 screen shots in my storyboard above represent only a small fraction of the excitement that occurred during the race. To make the task manageable, I focused on my own experiences in the race, including some of my interactions with a few of the front-runners, and a few other incidents. I could have followed anyone else in the race. A complete account could include hundreds of screen shots!

Consider the possibilities of televised race series involving top sim racers from around the world. The mind boggles!

Footnote: Sharp-eyed readers will note that I am identified only as "G. Driver" (Guest Driver). The developer who invited me to participate in the race wanted to surprise a few people with a ringer, so he asked me to use the pseudonym. In future races, I got to race under my real name!