Car Test Report "Pro Street Car 1957", inspired from a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette C1
Versus: Manji Lotus Type 7 Stripe Edition (normal and EVO).
By Laurina Hawks.
About the tester:
Laurina Hawks is a price winning machinimatographer in Second Life, Resident since 2005 (with a different Avatar) and private collector of SL vehicles of any kind: Boats, Airplanes, Cars. She owns a scenic race track and an airfield of her own - in her spare time she runs from sim to sim, always on the hunt for the next impressive build. From time to time (when she is impressed enough) she writes a little report. So, here is another one, enjoy!Report:
I must confess, I am a Fan of Manjis Cars as well as Haru's, with almost the entire shops in my inventory. When I first time experienced the "go in animation" I was thrilled, and used this lovely feature in a movie. I always wait for the message "Inventory full, no more items possible" so I hesitate a bit now, before I fill it up again with tons of vehicles.
Of course I know the great Volkswagon Bus by Scholes Devin, and all about his beautiful racing cars. There is no difference in the Prim and Sculpt Quality between Haru, Manji, Devin and - of course - Motor Loon or Prefabrica. So the cars must have some extraordinary features and perfect driving scripts to thrill me.
Well this time its about Manji and Scholes. Why did I chose Manji? Because he is lazy during the last years! He published his Lotus Evolution model and no more new car since more than a year now, so this little report may motivate him to go on building..the second reason was, that I wanted to compare Oldtimers.
I heard about the 1957 Corvette in a forum and saw pictures. So I went to his sim and looked around. Not five minutes later, Scholes himself sent me a tell, asking if he could assist. Great service! If you write to Manji you can wait months for a reply and if you get one its short and meaningless. So Scholes really is interested in feedback and contact to his customers. Well,the prize of his new wonder is surely one of the highest you can pay in Second Life, so this kind of support is part of his business philosophy.
He gave me the Corvette for testing, and I got in. Amazing enter animation! Driver opens the door, sits down in a very realistic manner turns the key (!) and closes the door after. But that's not all - when you open the menu (click on a car wing) you can also chose a "leaving animation" which is unique for all cars momentarily sold in SL. For me as a machinimatographer this is extremely important, since I really hate this "jump off" from sitting on any prim. Avatars always get kicked, thats not nice.
Ok - Manji of course has also a very nice enter animation, he was one of the first ones to offer that. The Lotus doesnt have doors, its a pure roadster, so you "crawl in", but his other vehicles (exp. the Ise-Tan) offer very good "door open" animations too.
Now for the additional features:
Co-Pilot has also a very nice driving animation (fitting to any avatars size, if not, make it fit with the menu), and can chose between four different positions: on the engine hood (sitting or laying) and on the back of the seat.
You can open and close the engine hood and the trunk, as well as both doors; you also can roll down the side windows. Nearly every part of the corvette is clickable. Manji does offer a very nice "working on car" animation, where the engine hood is open and you sit beside the car to work on the engine. With the 1957 a right click and sit on the front wheel fender (driverside) opens an RP menu with cute poses (including cleaning the hood). Looks nice in movies!
(We will not forget to mention Harus impressive "change tire" animation with his Formula 1).
But now for the most important thing: the driving! All nice animations are worthless if the car is crappy scriptet. Old SL cars did not really drive. It was a mixture of sliding and flying on the ground with an uncontrollable vehicle. So in the early times, driving in SL wasn't really fun, it was pure frustration. This changed with the newer generations, who all offer very reasonable scripting, regarding grip and traction of the cars. Well the best traction ever was offered by Manji with his Lotus Type 7. Getting this car on the street and take the first curve was convincing from the first moment on. A very realistic steering and a real "grip" made this car a fun to drive with. And to be honest: this grip and steer has not been topped yet by any new car. The Evolution model of Manji offers a fifths gear and more speed, so racers will be competetive. But the driving skills of the old model are better.
Handling: to drive the 1957 just get in and hit Page Up to change gears. The car will speed up impressively realistic. It's not that "cannonball" feel you have with most cars in SL, its instead a soft acceleration wich gives you the feel of a real car. The acceleration of the Manji Type 7 is a bit faster but nevertheless realistic.
Reverse Drive: this is a bit notchy with the 1957. You have to type Page Down until you get the message "reverse" in the green messages and then you have to accelerate forward (Arrow Up) to throttle. This is the only really uneasy feature I have to critisize. With the Manji Type 7 its easy: you are in reverse mode, when you hit Arrow Down long enough. If driving forward, Arrow down will brake you down to zero speed and then accelerate backwards. This is very important, since you often hit obstacles in SL, especially on racetracks. Its very comfortable to be right on track again in a fast and easy manner.
Of course you may argument, that its only realistic to "gear into reverse drive" but its simply not practicable in Second Life.
One of the most ugly things with SL vehicles is steering. The problem of scripters is, that they can rotate a linkset normally from the center. This made cars not steering but "rotating" instead of "turning". And to master curves is really a mess. So most scripters try to handle that problem. Same for all those gravitation effects you have to consider. Manji solved this problem best: his cars will turn around a curve quite gently, tipping left or right arrow key will not make the car rotate nearly 90 Degrees as most other cars do. This makes the Manji the best handling over all.
Scholes Devin made a very good job here, even when its not that perfect like Manji, but he touches the olymp with it. And: the car is completely configurable! You can chose simple presets like "Cruise", "Drift" and "Track", which give you an overall good common behaviour of the car. You can also use the tuning function to make your car more handy. One speciality is: the car will NOT turn or react on any steering while airborne. This is simply realistic, but most professional racers will miss it. If you get the 1957 in the air and come back down to earth you will hear a realistic crash noise. This is cute. Manjis Cars react (unrealisticly) in the air as if they were still on track. This makes it easier to handle the car in races, but its more logical not to turn a car in the air...
Resume:
So who has won? The 1957 or the Manji Type 7? None of course, its simply a matter of taste, which you like more. But to give an overview, here are some facts to compare:
Design: 100 Points for the 1957, 80 Points for Manji - The Lotus is a very nice replica, but the Corvette is pure Eye Candy and one of the utmost beautiful cars I have seen so far.
Animations: Manji has cute enter and work-on-car animation, but Scholes offers very much more (different seats for the co-pilot, RP menu for driver), including a getting-off animation, which is unique so far (Stop! Edit: Haru offers get-off animations with the Yasya Model since Version 1.34).
Modifications: Scholes offers a wide range of colors wich also take effect on roof etc., Manji offers only a small range (red, blue, green).
Movable Parts: Manji offers to remove the hood (in connection with a working man animation). Scholes offers much more: open/close doors, open/close soft top (!), open/close trunk, open/close engine hood.
Handling: 100 Points for Manji, 80 Points for Scholes, since the reverse engine drive is notchy and the steering has not the same grip as the Lotus.
Tuning: Manji just offers to turn grip off, Scholes offers comprehensive tuning menus.
Price: Well, both are not part of the lean segment. Manji takes 2500 L$, Scholes will give his juwel away for 7500 L$ which is really burning a big hole into your pocket, but its worth this price.
If you consider the extremely good service, Scholes Devin offers (compared with Manjis Zero Service) as well as the possibility to get generous vendors from Scholes (Manji: none), there should be no complaint about this price.
Pictures:
Corvette 1957
1957 Working Pose
Lotus Type 7 Get In Animation
Lotus Type 7 Work Animation
0 Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen