WO3 and 3SE lap time calculations

[G'Kyl]

I don`t know if this has been posted before. If so I apologize, but I haven´t found anything in the forums after using the search engine.

Anyway, here it comes: Since I have been playing WO3SE for a lot in the last two days and was wondering about how often I was able to equal my previously achieved lap times (see Porta Kora - Fastest Lap thread for evidence of my discovery ;) ), I gave those times a closer look. And behold, it`s no wonder I keep seeing the same times over and over again. It`s as simple as this: WO3 rounds up digits after the comma to a multiple of 4. Well, to be more precise, my guess would be it doesn`t round them up but counts in steps of 4 hundrets of a second rather than counting every hundredth. I suppose this has been done in order to preserve processing time for other calculations.
I don`t say it`s a bug or badly programmed or anything. Just find it intersting to have found that out without ever noticing. :)

Ben

[xEik]

Sorry to disappoint you but this is really old news. :P Maybe further explanation is in the old forums.

The 0.04s steps are only for PAL times. Besides sometimes you'll find a time with a step of 0.02s
Weird but it sometimes happens.

[G'Kyl]

Hm, that`s what I was afraid of. But after searching the forums I thought maybewhy not give it a shot and present an all-new discovery many years after the game had been released.....
;)

[Lance]

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whatever the reason it was done, to gain processing time for something else or some other purpose, the odd thing is that the NTSC version of the game does not do this, but uses increments of .01
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[G'Kyl]

Maybe that's why the contrails are missing in the NTSC version? ;-)

[Lance]

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according to one of the Leeds studio developers of WO3, they may have just accidentally overlooked that detail before the final 'image' of the game was made for North American release, just as the ''Pirhana''-instead-of-''Piranha'' mistake was overlooked on all versions of WO3, which was developed and released very quickly because Sony wanted it early enough for a marketing season. they did an amazingly fine job, especially considering the short time they had and the pressure they must have been under
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[G'Kyl]

You`re right, they did. The only sad thing is that they "had" to release WO3SE in order to finish some issues up that may have been in the original version had they been given more time.
Oh, I knew of course about the accidental "feature off" switching. I hope noone took my above comment serious. :)

Ben

[Lance]

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i hardly ever know when anyone is serious; i have images switched off ;)
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[G'Kyl]

Same here. I prefer doing smilies the old fashioned way. :) Which reminds me, though, that sometimes I have indeed difficulties telling jokes from serious comments in real life. Must get better at interpreting and stop trying to make sense from words alone. ;)
Errr, anyway.

[Lance]

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i can see your old-fashioned smilies, but when i use them they are automatically converted to images while yours are not. yet we both have BB code enabled and html code disabled. curious
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[xEik]

There are options to disable posting graphical smilies both in your profile settings and in the 'post reply' page

[Lance]

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thank you. it never occurred to me to change them. though i'll probably still leave it as is since it's likely most people prefer to see them as graphics
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