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PC REQUIREMENTS
ALL SIMULATORS
Personal Simulators are real-time 3D applications, so your PC (Personal Computer) will need to have sufficient computing and graphics horsepower.
Practically, most desktop PC's manufactured in the last year or two will do just fine. (For older desktop PCs, a new graphics card might be required.)
Laptop Computers:
Many laptops, even new ones, do not have the high-performance 3D graphics hardware required for our Personal Simulators. If buying a new laptop, please look for a so-called "multimedia" or "gaming" model. See “Graphics” below.
Other considerations:
Operating System:
Although Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP Home is acceptable, we suggest that you choose "Windows XP Professional Edition" instead of the standard "Windows XP Home Edition". The professional edition is more reliable and worth the extra investment. Windows Vista will also work if you have the most up to date video driver software installed.
Warning: if you are using Windows 2000, be sure to double check that you have DirectX Version 8.1 or higher; if not, then download it at no charge from Microsoft's Web site.
CPU and memory (RAM):
Look to processors such as Intel's Pentium 4 (not Celeron) family. For memory, we recommend at least 512MB of RAM; 1024MB (1 Gig) would be better.
Graphics capabilities:
Avoid so-called "on-the-motherboard” or” integrated CPU-graphics systems" such as those made by Intel since their support for real-time 3D graphics is sometimes limited. Instead, look to special graphics-accelerated chipsets Graphics cards) such as nVidia GeForce FX or GeForce 6 series, or better. You'll want at least 128MB of video RAM (more would be better). A desktop PC with a separate graphics card is best!
For the Off-Highway Truck Personal Simulator, we recommend the nVidia GeForce 7 Series (for desktop PCs) or GeForce Go 7 Series (for laptop PCs), with at least at least 256MB of internal ("onboard") video RAM. However, better performance will be obtained with 512MB of video RAM
USB ports:
Remember that you'll need at least two USB ports for connecting your two PC joysticks. (If your computer requires a USB mouse, then you'll want to have at least three USB ports in total.)
Disk Space and Speakers / headphones:
You will need at least 100 MB free space on the PC's hard disk, and quality speakers for the sounds generated by the Personal Simulator software. If you have multiple Personal Simulator stations, then use headphones at each station instead of speakers.
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