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Need for Speed: Shift

2 replies [Last post]
Mon, 08/16/2010 - 03:01
geneb

Ok, first of all I've got to say, EA's QA sucks so hard it's forming an accretion disk.  In order to use this game in my setup (3072x768), I had to turn down just about all features to keep it from crashing.  That being said, when it finally worked, it was fraking AWESOME.

Here's some in-game shots of it.  My friend Dave is driving.  The pictures are blurry because it's hard to take low-light photos without a tripod.  The shutter speed is VERY slow.

Here's a short video of it running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ol9vFbnNw

Many thanks to the guys at Nthusim for making this possible!

More photos of the setup can be seen on my blog at http://geneb.simpits.org.

g.

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Tue, 08/17/2010 - 04:47
#1
BHawthorne
BHawthorne's picture
Moderator

Very cool. yes Ya, NSF Shift is a resource pig as far as a game but once you tweak the settings and just get it to work it can be a really addicting game to play. I like it and GRID both. From what I undersand NSF has a new title coming out soon and also GRID 2 soon so the game devs are still at it churning out money makers.

One of the hardest things I've delt with in all of my builds isn't the screens or projector alignment, it's actually getting good low light shots. It's ben driving me nuts for a year now. I think I've stumbled upon a solution for myself though using Logitech webcams though. I'm very impressed with the C910 1080p webcam and will also be experimenting with the C510's that are half the price of the C910 but still very big CCD sensor in them. I almost went Canon DSLR 1Ti just to get good low light, then I realized that is waaaaay too much $$$ just to get a low light solution for video and stills. But if anyone out there is looking for BOTH a good entry level DSLR and excellent low light video capture the Canon 1Ti and 2Ti are both really nice. Noone realizes just how good the recent Canon DSLRs are for video capture. Google it and you'll be surprised. The video clips look professional. Now, if I only had income and not out-go, I'd pick up two Canon 1Ti for video capture of my projection. The Logitech webcam will do the trick for me for the forseeable future though.

Any news about the driving seat you're using? I didn't know you have a racing simpit too. Is it a new kit design? smiley

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Tue, 08/17/2010 - 05:52
#2
geneb

I just have a huge problem with the game freezing.  The machine is running a quad core i7 @ 3Ghz with 8GB of 2Ghz RAM and a GTX260.  There's no excuse but piss poor QA on EA's part.  Did you know you can't abort the first race at ALL?  The only way to quit before that point is to end-task the game.  Idiots.

Anyway....if you've got a DSLR (I use a Nikon D50), just use a tripod and a remote trigger (so you don't shake the camera) and it'll do fine for low-light work.  I'll have to take a peek at the webcam to see how that works.  I'd rather have something stand-alone like the Flip though.  It's very handy.

The driving setup is something Rob & I threw together in 2004, shortly after Need For Speed:Underground came out.  It actually took longer to paint than it did to build. :)  The controls are a Logitech Momo FF wheel w/pedals.  The seat came from the drivers' side of a 1993 Corsica.  I think I paid $16 for it from a "pick-a-part" junkyard.

I'll warn you right now - if you start playing racing games on your big screen setup with "real" controls, do NOT drive a real car within 8 hours or so.  You'll have tuned your reflexes to dealing with things at 100+ MPH and it will completely screw you up for the sedate world of neighborhood streets.  Dave found out the hard way when we first set that thing up for NFS:U.  He nearly pitched his Ford Bronco into the Puyallup River when he tried to drift it through a 25MPH corner at 50. :)  We'd been playing it from about 9pm to something past 3AM.

Instead of 12 hours from bottle to throttle, it would be 8 hours from NFS to throttle. :)  Fortunately now that I live out in the sticks, he's got a long stretch of straight road to work out the lead foot problem before he hits any speed traps.  He also found himself racing up to stop lights and then slamming on the brakes when on his way home Saturday night.  He figures stopping a bit past the crosswalk is a little too agressive. :)

g.

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