Arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine installed in public businesses such as restaurants and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers. While exact dates are debated, the golden age of arcade video games is defined as a period beginning sometime in the late 1970s and ending sometime in the mid-1980s. Excluding a brief resurgence in the early 1990s, the arcade industry subsequently declined in the Western hemisphere as competing home video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox increased in their graphics and game-play capability and decreased in cost; the first popular "arcade games" included early amusement-park midway games such as shooting galleries, ball-toss games, the earliest coin-operated machines, such as those that claimed to tell a person's fortune or that played mechanical music. The old Midways of 1920s-era amusement parks provided the inspiration and atmosphere for arcade games.
In the 1930s the first coin-operated pinball machines emerged. These early amusement machines differed from their electronic cousins in that they were made of wood, they lacked plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, used mechanical instead of electronic scoring-readouts. By around 1977 most pinball machines in production switched to using solid-state electronics both for operation and for scoring. In 1966 Sega introduced an electro-mechanical game called Periscope - an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine, it became an instant success in Japan and North America, where it was the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play, which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come. In 1967 Taito released an electro-mechanical arcade game of their own, Crown Soccer Special, a two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers.
Sega produced gun games which resemble first-person shooter video games, but which were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear image projection in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope to produce moving animations on a screen. The first of these, the light-gun game Duck Hunt, appeared in 1969; that same year, Sega released an electro-mechanical arcade racing game, Grand Prix, which had a first-person view, electronic sound, a dashboard with a racing wheel and accelerator, a forward-scrolling road projected on a screen. Another Sega 1969 release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen, it was the earliest known arcade game to feature a joystick with a fire button, which formed part of an early dual-control scheme, where two directional buttons are used to move the player's tank and a two-way joystick is used to shoot and steer the missile onto oncoming planes displayed on the screen.
In 1970 Midway released the game in North America as S. A. M. I.. In the same year, Sega released Jet Rocket, a combat flight-simulator featuring cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on a screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit. In the course of the 1970s, following the release of Pong in 1972, electronic video-games replaced electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1972, Sega released an electro-mechanical game called Killer Shark, a first-person light-gun shooter known for appearing in the 1975 film Jaws. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a light-gun shooter that used full-motion video-projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the screen. One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade games was F-1, a racing game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari in 1976; the 1978 video game Space Invaders, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games. In 1971 students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the video game Spacewar.
This ranks as the earliest known instance of a coin-operated video game. In the same year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured game, Computer Space, for Nutting Associates. In 1972, Atari was formed by Ted Dabney. Atari created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the first successful electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market. Taito's Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game, its success marked the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. Video game arcades sprang up in shopping malls, small "corner arcades" appeared in restaurants, grocery stores and movie theaters all over the United States and other countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Battlezone and Bosconian were popular. By 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth US$8 billion. During the late 1970s and 1980s, chains such as Chuck E.
Cheese's, Ground Round and Busters, ShowBiz Pizza Place and Gatti's Pizza combined
Sebring International Raceway
Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U. S. its first race being run in 1950. Sebring is one of the classic race tracks in North American sports car racing, plays host to the 12 Hours of Sebring; the raceway occupies a portion of Sebring Regional Airport, an active airport for private and commercial traffic, built as Hendricks Army Airfield, a World War II training base for the U. S. Army Air Forces. Sebring Raceway occupies the site of Hendricks Army Airfield, a training base for B-17 pilots in operation from 1941 to 1946. After the war, Russian-American aeronautical engineer Alec Ulmann was seeking sites for converting military aircraft to civilian use when he discovered potential in Hendricks' runways and service roads to stage a sports car endurance race similar to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race Ulmann was inspired to somewhat re-create in the United States.
Sebring's first race was held on New Year's Eve of 1950, attracting thirty race cars from across North America. The Sam Collier 6 Hour Memorial race was won by Frits Koster and Ralph Deshon in a Crosley Hot Shot, driven to the track by Victor Sharpe; the first 12 Hours of Sebring was held on March 15, 1952, shortly growing into a major international race. In 1959, the track hosted the U. S.' First Formula One race, held as that year's installment of the historic United States Grand Prix competition. However poor attendance and high costs relocated the next U. S. Grand Prix to Riverside International Raceway in southern California. For much of Sebring's history, the track followed a 5.2-mile layout. After a disastrous 1966 12 Hours with five fatalities, the track was widened and lengthened 50 yards for 1967 with the removal of the Webster Turn between the hairpin and the top of the track and replacement with the faster Green Park Chicane; this was closer to the hairpin and allowed a flat-out run through a fast corner to the top of the track and the runway.
Another dangerous section was the Warehouse straight, where the organizers installed a left-right turn to move the track away from the warehouses and buildings after a crash where during that 1966 12 Hours a privately-entered Porsche went into one of the warehouses and into a crowd, killing four spectators. The circuit was changed and shortened in 1983 to allow simultaneous use of the track and one of the runways, major changes in 1987 allowed use of another runway. Further changes in 1991 accommodated expansion of the airport's facilities, allowing the entire track to be used without interfering with normal airport operations and bringing it close to its current configuration; the hairpin was removed in 1997 due to a lack of run-off, replaced with what became known as the "safety pin". Gendebien Bend was re-profiled to slow the cars' entry to the Ullman straight; the track is owned by IMSA Holdings, LLC through its subsidiary Sebring International Raceway, LLC via its purchase of the Panoz MSG in September 2012.
It is leased by the Sebring International Raceway, LLC, which acquired the facility from Andy Evans in 1997. The track is recognized for its famous, high-speed "Turn 17", a long, fast right hander that can make or break a car's speed down the front straight; the corner can fit up to 3 cars wide. Skip Barber Racing School held numerous programs at the facility, including a scholarship opportunity for young racers; the World Endurance Championship runs a round called the 1000 Miles of Sebring, run concurrently with the famed 12 Hours. This race was first run with Toyota Gazoo Racing winning overall. Sebring International Raceway consist of three tracks: the Full Circuit, the Short Circuit, the Club Circuit; the course of the track itself is 3.74 miles long. It is a seventeen-turn road course with long straights, several high-speed corners, technical slower corners. Many of the turns and points along the track are named for the early drivers. Due to Florida's flat nature there is little elevation change around the track and little camber on the surface, providing a challenging track for drivers when it rains.
Sebring is renowned for its rough and changing surfaces. The course still runs on old sections of World War II-era landing fields that were constructed of concrete sections with large seams; the transitions between sections are quite rough and sparks fly from the undercarriages of the cars as they traverse them. Much of the track has intentionally been left with its original concrete runway surface; the 12 Hours of Sebring is renowned as a race, harder on machinery and drivers than Le Mans, is seen as an ideal preparation run for the famed French race. The track surface has 0.7 miles of concrete. Mario Andretti, a 3-time 12 Hours winner, said that one of the hardest parts about the original Sebring track was "finding the track to begin with." There had been many accounts of drivers retiring due to accidents at night, quite because they got lost on the runway sections and couldn't find the track again. Some drivers got lost during the day because the track was poorly marked down with white lines and cones.
Sebring is most notable for hosting the 12 Hours of Sebring, sanctioned by the FIA and IMSA, as part of many major endurance racing series, including the World Sportscar Championship, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, ALMS, now, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. This race is the second of four races in t
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content, product reviews; the magazine was founded in 1988 as U. S. National Video Game Team's Electronic Gaming Monthly under Sendai Publications. In 1994, EGM spun off EGM ², which focused on expanded tricks, it became Expert Gamer and the defunct GameNOW. After 83 issues, EGM switched from Sendai Publishing to Ziff Davis publisher; until January 2009, EGM only covered gaming on console software. In 2002, the magazine's subscription increased by more than 25 percent; the magazine was discontinued by Ziff Davis in January 2009, following the sale of 1UP.com to UGO Networks. The magazine's February 2009 issue was completed, but was not published. In May 2009, EGM founder Steve Harris purchased its assets from Ziff Davis; the magazine was relaunched in April 2010 by Harris' new company EGM Media, LLC, widening its coverage to the PC and mobile gaming markets.
Notable contributors to Electronic Gaming Monthly have included Martin Alessi, Ken Williams, "Trickman" Terry Minnich, Andrew "Cyber-Boy" Baran, Danyon Carpenter, Marc Camron, Mark "Candyman" LeFebvre, Todd Rogers, Mike Weigand a.k.a. Major Mike, Al Manuel, Howard Grossman, Arcade Editor Mark "Mo" Hain, Mike "Virus" Vallas, Jason Streetz, Ken Badziak, Scott Augustyn, Chris Johnston, Che Chou, Dave Ruchala, Crispin Boyer, Greg Sewart, Jeanne Trais, Jennifer Tsao, artist Jeremy Norm Scott, Shawn "Shawnimal" Smith, West Coast Editor Kelly Rickards, Kraig Kujawa, Dean Hager, Jeremy Parish, Mark Macdonald. Writers who served stints as editor-in chief include Ed Semrad, Joe Funk, John Davison, James Mielke, artist Jeremy "Norm" Scott, Seanbaby. In addition, writers of EGM's various sister publications – including GameNow, Computer Gaming World/Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, Official U. S. PlayStation Magazine – would contribute to EGM, vice versa; the magazine is known for making April Fools jokes.
Its April 1992 issue was the source of the Sheng Long hoax in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. The magazine includes the following sections: Insert Coin Letter from the editor - the editorial Login - Letters from readers and replies by the magazine Press Start This section contains a general article about video gaming EGM RoundTable - discussions around video games The Buzz - industry rumors The EGM Hot List - background information about a critically acclaimed game Features - feature articles The EGM Interview - interview with a person from the gaming industry Cover Story - preview of the game featured on the magazine cover Next Wave - previews of upcoming games Launch Point - short previews of upcoming games Review Crew - review section Review Recap - recapitulation of the review scores from the preceding issue Game Over - Commentary articles on video gaming related topics EGM's current review scale is based on a letter grade system in which each game receives a grade based on its perceived quality.
Games are reviewed by one member, except for "the big games", which were reviewed by one of a pool of editors known as "The Review Crew." They each write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average a B- or higher from the three individual grade: "Silver" awards for games averaging a grade of B- to B+; the current letter grade system replaced a long-standing 0–10 scale in the April 2008 issue. In that system, Silver went to a game with an average rating from 8 to 9, Gold to a game reviewed at 9 to 10, Platinum to a game that received nothing but 10 ratings; until 1998, as a matter of editorial policy, the reviewers gave scores of 10, never gave a Platinum Award. That policy changed when the reviewers gave Metal Gear Solid four 10 ratings in 1998, with an editorial announcing the shift. In addition, they gave the game with the highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award.
If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version is disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4, which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, which won the Platinum award for two separate versions of the game. In 2002, EGM began giving games; as there is not always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies. A team of four editors reviewed all the games; this process was dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to the staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month. Though the scores ranged from 0–10 on the previous numerical scale, the score of zero was never utilized, with exceptions being Mortal Kombat Advance, The Guy Game, Ping Pals. EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002, it is edited by a different staff. Sometimes the content was more focused to
Brake
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, axle, or to prevent its motion, most accomplished by means of friction. Most brakes use friction between two surfaces pressed together to convert the kinetic energy of the moving object into heat, though other methods of energy conversion may be employed. For example, regenerative braking converts much of the energy to electrical energy, which may be stored for use. Other methods convert kinetic energy into potential energy in such stored forms as pressurized air or pressurized oil. Eddy current brakes use magnetic fields to convert kinetic energy into electric current in the brake disc, fin, or rail, converted into heat. Still other braking methods transform kinetic energy into different forms, for example by transferring the energy to a rotating flywheel. Brakes are applied to rotating axles or wheels, but may take other forms such as the surface of a moving fluid.
Some vehicles use a combination of braking mechanisms, such as drag racing cars with both wheel brakes and a parachute, or airplanes with both wheel brakes and drag flaps raised into the air during landing. Since kinetic energy increases quadratically with velocity, an object moving at 10 m/s has 100 times as much energy as one of the same mass moving at 1 m/s, the theoretical braking distance, when braking at the traction limit, is 100 times as long. In practice, fast vehicles have significant air drag, energy lost to air drag rises with speed. All wheeled vehicles have a brake of some sort. Baggage carts and shopping carts may have them for use on a moving ramp. Most fixed-wing aircraft are fitted with wheel brakes on the undercarriage; some aircraft feature air brakes designed to reduce their speed in flight. Notable examples include gliders and some World War II-era aircraft some fighter aircraft and many dive bombers of the era; these allow the aircraft to maintain a safe speed in a steep descent.
The Saab B 17 dive bomber and Vought F4U Corsair fighter used the deployed undercarriage as an air brake. Friction brakes on automobiles store braking heat in the drum brake or disc brake while braking conduct it to the air gradually; when traveling downhill some vehicles can use their engines to brake. When the brake pedal of a modern vehicle with hydraulic brakes is pushed against the master cylinder a piston pushes the brake pad against the brake disc which slows the wheel down. On the brake drum it is similar as the cylinder pushes the brake shoes against the drum which slows the wheel down.. Brakes electromagnetics. One brake may use several principles: for example, a pump may pass fluid through an orifice to create friction: Frictional brakes are most common and can be divided broadly into "shoe" or "pad" brakes, using an explicit wear surface, hydrodynamic brakes, such as parachutes, which use friction in a working fluid and do not explicitly wear; the term "friction brake" is used to mean pad/shoe brakes and excludes hydrodynamic brakes though hydrodynamic brakes use friction.
Friction brakes are rotating devices with a stationary pad and a rotating wear surface. Common configurations include shoes that contract to rub on the outside of a rotating drum, such as a band brake. Other brake configurations are less often. For example, PCC trolley brakes include a flat shoe, clamped to the rail with an electromagnet. A drum brake is a vehicle brake in which the friction is caused by a set of brake shoes that press against the inner surface of a rotating drum; the drum is connected to the rotating roadwheel hub. Drum brakes can be found on older car and truck models. However, because of their low production cost, drum brake setups are installed on the rear of some low-cost newer vehicles. Compared to modern disc brakes, drum brakes wear out faster due to their tendency to overheat; the disc brake is a device for stopping the rotation of a road wheel. A brake disc made of cast iron or ceramic, is connected to the wheel or the axle. To stop the wheel, friction material in the form of brake pads is forced mechanically, pneumatically or electromagnetically against both sides of the disc.
Friction attached wheel to slow or stop. Pumping brakes are used where a pump is part of the machinery. For example, an internal-combustion piston motor can have the fuel supply stopped, internal pumping losses of the engine create some braking; some engines use a valve override called a Jake brake to increase pumping losses. Pumping brakes can dump energy as heat, or can be regenerative brakes that recharge a pressure reservoir called a hydraulic accumulator. Electromagnetic brakes are often used where an electric motor is part of the machinery. For example, many hybrid gasoline/electric vehicles use the electric motor as a generator to charge electric batteries and as a regenerative brak
PlayStation (console)
The PlayStation is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The console was released on 3 December 1994 in Japan, 9 September 1995 in North America, 29 September 1995 in Europe, 15 November 1995 in Australia; the console was the first of the PlayStation lineup of home video game consoles. It competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn as part of the fifth generation of video game consoles; the PlayStation is the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch. In July 2000, a redesigned, slim version called the PS one was released, replacing the original grey console and named appropriately to avoid confusion with its successor, the PlayStation 2; the PlayStation 2, backwards compatible with the PlayStation's DualShock controller and games, was announced in 1999 and launched in 2000. The last PS one units were sold in late 2006 to early 2007 shortly after it was discontinued, for a total of 102 million units shipped since its launch 11 years earlier.
Games for the PlayStation continued to sell until Sony ceased production of both the PlayStation and PlayStation games on 23 March 2006 – over 11 years after it had been released, less than a year before the debut of the PlayStation 3. On 19 September 2018, Sony unveiled the PlayStation Classic, to mark the 24th anniversary of the original console; the new console is a miniature recreation of the original PlayStation, preloaded with 20 titles released on the original console, was released on 3 December 2018, the exact date the console was released in Japan in 1994. The inception of what would become the released PlayStation dates back to 1986 with a joint venture between Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo had produced floppy disk technology to complement cartridges, in the form of the Family Computer Disk System, wanted to continue this complementary storage strategy for the Super Famicom. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "Play Station" or "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, work began.
Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would be dubbed "The Father of the PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities. Kutaragi was nearly fired by Sony because he was working with Nintendo on the side without Sony's knowledge, it was then-CEO, Norio Ohga, who recognised the potential in Kutaragi's chip, in working with Nintendo on the project. Ohga kept Kutaragi on at Sony, it was not until Nintendo cancelled the project that Sony decided to develop its own console. Sony planned to develop a Super NES-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super NES cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design; this was to be the format used in SNES-CDs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.
The product, dubbed the "Play Station" was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show. However, when Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realised that the earlier agreement handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was unacceptable and he secretly cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 am the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips' global headquarters in the Netherlands and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.
After the collapse of the joint-Nintendo project, Sony considered allying itself with Sega to produce a stand-alone console. The Sega CEO at the time, Tom Kalinske, took the proposal to Sega's Board of Directors in Tokyo, who promptly vetoed the idea. Kalinske, in a 2013 interview recalled them saying "that’s a stupid idea, Sony doesn't know how to make hardware, they don't know. Why would we want to do this?". This prompted Sony into halting their research, but the company decided to use what it had developed so far with both Nintendo and Sega to make it into a complete console based upon the Super Famicom; as a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in US federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of what was christened the "Play Station", on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the aforementioned brand new game system was revealed.
However, it is theorised that only 200 or so of these machines were produced. By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and softw
RFactor
RFactor is a computer racing simulator designed with the ability to run any type of four-wheeled vehicle from street cars to open wheel cars of any era. RFactor aimed to be the most accurate race simulator of its time. Released in November 2005, rFactor did not have much competition in this market, but it featured many technical advances in tire modeling, complex aerodynamics and a 15 degrees of freedom physics engine. RFactor was developed by Image Space Incorporated, developing simulators since the early 1990s for both commercial and military purposes; the isiMotor2 on which the game is based is a direct successor to the engine used in previous titles developed by ISI, most notably F1 Challenge'99–'02, released through EA Sports. The isiMotor2 engine was used in many other simulation games. RFactor has a detailed interface during offline race sessions or online games, allowing players to control the mechanical setup of their cars, chat to other players and enter the racing arena in their vehicle.
The player's car can be driven from multiple viewpoints, but the two most popular are termed the cockpit view and swingman view. Most players say vehicles are best controlled using a computer steering wheel, although a joystick or keyboard can be used; the keyboard is used for some actions, like requesting pit service and adjusting brake bias. This is analogous to buttons on modern racing car steering wheels and most computer wheels have buttons that can be mapped to keystrokes; the player can jump directly from the racetrack to the control interface by pressing the escape key, or entering their pit box. RFactor has two classes of Open Wheel Challenge and sedan cars. Open Wheel Challenge vehicles are open wheelers, including 100 HP training vehicles, F3-like cars and F1-like cars; the sedan cars range from compact yet sporty to American Muscle cars. They include stock cars. On May 10, 2006, ISI announced a deal with Intel to add the BMW Sauber F1.07 Formula One car to the game. The vehicle was demonstrated at the 2006 European Grand Prix.
The deal was to be to promote the upcoming Intel Core 2 processor. The BMW Sauber was added in 2006; the respective cars of 2007 and 2008 were released as official add-on. Developer ISI did not seek to license any racetrack at all. RFactor was released with just five facilities, comprising 10 layouts, including some which were reverse races; the facilities were Orchard Lake, Mills Metropark and Toban Raceway, Joesville Runabout and Sardian Heights. In updates, an extra layout for Sardian Heights have been added, Essington Park and Jacksonville were added. Several real world tracks, but with fictitious names, were added to the game as part of an update released in 2006, such as Barcelona, Brianza and Nuerburg. In addition to the stock vehicles and circuits available in rFactor, a steady stream of unofficial mods has become available. A large number of modifications were released, including ones that recreated seasons from Formula One, NASCAR, IndyCar and V8 Supercars. Cars from the racing games Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed: Shift, Shift 2 Unleashed and Test Drive Unlimited were converted into rFactor with the mod Shift Street.
With the release of the SDK, many new venues were created and released as unofficial addons to the game. Many of the circuits for rFactor were converted from other games, including GTR, GT Legends, TOCA Race Driver, Grand Prix 4 and Grand Prix Legends. RFactor is an evolution of F1 Challenge'99–'02, but without the licensing of Formula One circuits and teams; as such, rFactor's initial release only included four fictitious circuits, with about a dozen layouts within these facilities and there were about six vehicle classes, including two open wheel and four sedan classes. Among its most notable features was a rich interface for creating custom game contents, which made it possible for amateurs to create additional vehicles and tracks for the game. On August 1, 2006, ISI released the full update, with many changes and new features, including the new 2006 BMW Sauber F1 and a much requested manual. Another notable and requested feature was driver-swapping, which allowed to change drivers during the race, enabling up to 24 hour events like Le Mans.
A feature was added to allow the AI to "learn a track", which teaches the AI the ideal way to drive a particular circuit. As of v1.150, the AI was improved. RFactor advertises an advanced tire model, aiming to be much better than the Pacejka model used in most simulators. RFactor's tire model simulates a non-linear tire use cycle according to wear. F1 Challenge proved to be popular for online racing over the Internet through GameSpy, which allowed any player to find available games. RFactor has extended this in several ways; the central server is handled by ISI themselves, so finding other games is the same. However, the central server will show all races and practice sessions over a web interface known as Racecast. There are career statistics available for registered drivers; the game server can be run from a dedicated program, free from the need to render graphics. It can run mixtures of computer controlled vehicles. In an evolution from F1 Challenge, the circuits now include all layouts at a particular facility, which reduces the need to
Ride height
Ride height is the amount of space between the base of an automobile tire and the lowest point. Ground clearance is measured with standard vehicle equipment, for cars, is given with no cargo or passengers. Ground clearance is a critical factor in several important characteristics of a vehicle. For all vehicles cars, variations in clearance represent a trade-off between handling and practicality. A higher ground clearance means that the center of mass of the car is higher, which makes for less precise and more dangerous handling characteristics. However, it means that the car is more capable of being driven on roads that are not level, without the road scraping against and damaging the chassis and underbody. Higher ride heights will adversely affect aerodynamic properties; this is why sports cars have low clearances, while off-road vehicles and SUVs have higher ones. Two well-known extremes of each are the Hummer. For armored fighting vehicles, ground clearance presents an additional factor in a vehicle's overall performance: a lower ground clearance means that the vehicle minus the chassis is lower to the ground and thus harder to spot and harder to hit.
The final design of any AFV reflects a compromise between being a smaller target on one hand, having greater battlefield mobility on the other. Few AFVs have top speeds at which car-like handling becomes an issue, though rollovers can and do occur. By contrast, an AFV is far more to need high ground clearance than a road vehicle. Lowering a car's suspension is a common and inexpensive aftermarket modification. Many car enthusiasts prefer the more aggressive look of a lowered body, there is an realized car handling improvement from the lower center of gravity. Most passenger cars are produced such that one or two inches of lowering won't increase the probability of damage significantly. On most automobiles, ride height is modified by changing the length of the suspension springs, is the essence of many aftermarket suspension kits supplied by manufacturers such as Eibach and H&R; some cars have used underslung frames to achieve a lower ride height and the consequent improvement in center of gravity.
The brass-era cars of the American Motor Car Company are one example. Self-leveling suspension systems are designed to maintain a constant ride height regardless of load. Vehicles not equipped with self-leveling will pitch down at one end; some modern automobiles have adjustable suspension systems, which can vary the ride height by locating the suspension mounting points, depending on road conditions and/or the settings selected by the driver. Other, simpler suspension systems, such as coilover springs, offer a way of manually adjusting ride height by compressing the spring in situ, using a threaded shaft and adjustable knob or nut. 18-wheel tractor-trailers have to take the ground clearance of both their tractor and trailer into consideration on certain areas of uneven terrain, such as raised railroad crossings. Their long wheelbase means that such terrain could catch the undercarriage of the trailer in the wide space between the axles leaving the truck stuck with no means to extricate itself.
In some areas buses are required to have a ground clearance of at least 100 mm. Too much ride height can cause the vehicle to have a higher center of gravity, which could cause the vehicle to be unstable, or flip. Breakover angle Loading gauge Speed bump
