Big Red Racing

Here's the readme.txt file incase you didn't read it before
loading. It contains some information not included in the 
manual coz to be honest we did the manual before the game
was finished. We know you wont read it now, but when things 
start to go wrong try reading this as well as the manual
to see if we thought of it ... we should of coz we've been
playing it long enough!!

First a quick note on the big changes

AS an attempt to please our public in the final weeks before
launch we decided to pull the release date to improve our
game yet further. As a bonus, you now have an extra
6 levels including 4 extra vehicles namely Big Rigs and
Helicopters. Due to the hurried nature of the computer biz,
these have not been described in your manual. They are a
bonus so in the words of our US buddies, enjoy....

*NOTE FOR TESTERS*
------------------


If you've been playing a "beta version",you'll need
to delete your ".CFG" file from the racing directory, because
otherwise some of the defaults won't be sensible.


First, some instructions for those reading this before they 
installed .....


 Installing (DOS mode)


Get onto the CD

Type

 INSTALL

 Now type where on your hard drive you want the game data
 do go (ie - C:\BIGRED)


.After installation, either type


 VIDEO
  
  If you want the gripping movie video thing.
  
  A note to shop type people: you can type "DEMO" which loops
  this video as a rolling demo (we try!) 


 RACING
  
  if you want to play the game.



 Guide to the root directory of the CD



This file(!)
 README.TXT

The DOS installer:
 INSTALL.EXE

The WINDOZE 95 installer:
 SETUP.EXE

Stuff to do with the dos installer:
 DOS4GW.EXE
 COPYIT.BAT

Stuff to do with the windows installer:
 COPYIT.BAT
 DSETUP.DLL
 DSETUP16.DLL
 BRR.ICO
 AUTORUN.INF


SETSOUND <dir>
RACING   <dir>
VIDEO    <dir>
MODEM    <dir>
DIRECTX  <dir>



 Playing the Game


** Controls **

 Default keys ( which you can change in the game) are

  Cursors for left/right/accel/brake
  Keypad-0 for nitro.
 Right-CTRL  puts you back on the track if you get hopelessly lost.


** Extra Keys **

 Pause  pauses
 PrtSc  saves a PCX to the racing directory (for the journos: see
        we do try!)
        -Additional: use SHIFT-PrtSc if you're feeling rotten & don't
        like the way we move the horizon to full-distance on the
        screenshots!

 Escape quits the game, or takes you up a level in the menus
  
 Ctrl-Escape is instant-quit from wherever 
 (unless you're in a Windows DOS shell(!))


 F1 is "view the other cars" (shift-F1 cycles in reverse order)
 F2 selects the "Elasticam"(TM) behind-car view.
 F3 is the cabin view
 F4 is the trackside view.


 +/- are the screen size. 
     At full-screen VGA there's a debounce before switching to 
     SVGA mode.
     (Full-screen SVGA is only recommended for people with Pentiums.)

Helicopters


 There's no doubt about it, the helicopters take some getting used to...
 (Well, it'd be pretty boring if all the cars behaved exactly the same
 way, wouldn't it?)

 SO: The controls are BASICALLY the same as all the vehicles, except that
 the nitro key behaves as "upward thrust", and you fall gently under gravity.

 Hovever, you occasionally want to go down faster, and this can be achieved
 by pressing "decelerate" without letting go of the accelerator.
 (not possible on a joystick, but you can't have everything!)

 Oh, and to save you having to use the "up-thrust" key ALL the time, there's
 a sort-of "low-altitude automatic hover" built in. You'll still need to
 thrust up to get over hills & stuff, though.

 General advice: How to turn a tight bend at speed:
 Anticipate the corner, turning the chopper to skid sideways thru the
 corner (even face back at the camera if necessary).
 Don't forget to straighten out "early" as well, or you'll run into the inside
 of the bend.

 (For what it's worth, even Domark's testers had trouble when they first
 tried flying the choppers. Perseverence is all! Trust us: they're great
 when you're used to them!)

  
The Mouse:-

 Mouse movement looks around, but homes back to the "normal" angle.

 On the external view, a "Left-Click" will stop the camera from moving
 back down (For that "looking straight down at the car" viewpoint that
 you've always wanted...)

 Keeping the "Right button" pressed while dragging up & down controls
 the camera's Zoom.

 
The Joystick :-


 There's a joystick configure screen under "Options...Joystick"
 Quickly:-

 Plug in your stick.
 Click on "Recalibrate"
 Waggle the joystick(s) around to its extremities.
 Centre it/them.
 Hit a fire button.

 Click on "analogue"(*) if the stick is an analogue one (ie - not a
 "gamepad") and you'll get true "stick position = steering wheel position"
 steering.
 You'll find it feels totally different (less prone to oversteer).

 If you tick the "pl1"/"pl2" options, it automatically sets that player
 to use that joystick as accelerator/brake and steering.

 If you want to arrange things in another manner, you can do it on the
 "control defining" screen by moving the stick instead of pressing a key.

 Win 95 has proven to be a big obstacle in the selection of joysticks
 and wheels. Please please please check that you have calibrated your
 wheel or stick correctly. Here's how we did it....

 Select the prefences box (START -> SETTINGS -> CONTROL PANEL) then
 choose joystick option. For a "normal" stick usually choose joystick
 one with 2 axis and 2 buttons then click calibrate waggle the thing
 around and test it to make sure.

Steering wheels and pedals

 Support has been added for the Thrustmaster formula T1 and 
 virtual pilot pro wheels and sticks..

 Choose "configure joystick" and click on the control mech for the
 player you want to have wheel control.

 "PEDALS" is for pedals where the two pedals are totally independant: eg
 ch-pedals in "car mode": The brake pedal is mapped onto the X axis of
 stick 2, and the accelerator to the Y axis of stick 2.

 "PEDALS2" is for ch-pedals, thrustmaster and others, in "aeroplane mode",
 where the brake pedal and accelerator pedal both share the X
 axis of stick 2.

 For pedals where the brake & accelerator share the Y axis of stick 1,
 "joystick" mode is the one to choose.

 We suggest that you use analogue control for a realistic feel to the
 game.

 Again Win95 confused some of our guys in testing

 Wheels are done in the same way select as joysticks custom select
 2 axis and waggle wheel in calibrate then test to make sure.

 Pedals gave us the most problems... Usually you have to have an additional
 joystick. Plug the pedals into the joy port and the wheel/stick into
 the double adapter then coming out of the port.

 Configure the wheel/stick on joystick 1 and the pedals on joystick 2.
 We used the pedals as a custom 2 axis (2 button for what it was worth) and
 then tested it (calbration wasn't really needed for some reason).
 One pedal adjusted one axis and the other adjusted another axis
 in plane mode. We then chosen "PEDALS2" as the chosen joystick controller.

 We have found that the Thrust Master pedals should be configured as second
 joystick like the cp products pedals. However these pedals affect the x
 axis in the test program. Having sucessfully calibrated the pedals, chose
 option "PEDALS2" as the joystick controller.

(*) Or Analog. Hello, American type people.

The sound :-

 We use the miles drivers for creating sound effects in Big Red
 Racing. These drivers have been used in many games before so you
 may find you have another game which works with them.

 The install utility runs a program called SETSOUND. This 
 establishes which card is installed in your machine. Should you
 change your sound card after installing the game, or say if you 
 have installed Racing on a file server and more than one 
 person plays the same copy of the game with different sound card
 options: run SETSOUND to create a new sound driver. 

 Next time you run the Racing, and are prompted with enter your 
 name, type in a new name. You will then be promted with a 
 create new config. By answering yes to this (hit Y), the new name 
 will use the new sound driver yet keeping the old driver intact.
 


2PL Split Screen:-

  
 Player 2's default keys (again, alterable) are:-
 
 Q,A,R,T for driving
 ALT     for nitro

 Left-CTRL for "putting on track"

 Player 2, being on the left end of the keyboard, gets F1..F4 for the views...

 F1 gives PL2 control of the mouse
 F2,F3,F4 are the same as 1PL mode

 ...And Player 1 gets to use F9...F12 instead

 F9 gives PL1 control of the mouse
 F10,F11,F12 are PL1's view keys (see F2,F3,F4)

The Tapedeck:-


 When playing a recording...
 F5 is "slow down / rewind" (let go, & the speed speeds up to normal)
 F6 is "pause"
 F7 is "speed up" (again, let go & it slows back down)
 F8 is the "play" key

 ESC quits the recorder
 F1,F2,F3,F4 behave as for the normal game.

2PL Modem Game


 The modem game has to be played by launching it thru the 
 modem launch program called modem. This is a similar 
 prog to that that DOOM uses so people should be reasonably
 aware of whats going on. You simply type modem at the  
 command line.

 First select you name using the cursory up and down thing 
 like the install program.The instructions I think are quite 
 explanitory and easy to understand.
 
 Now select your modem type from the list provided once you
 have both got the right modem set up, choose the connect 
 option. To establish if you have got the right modem strings,
 try to connect. If the modems response to initalisation is to
 return an error or even not answer at all, try returning to DOS
 and attempt to connect again, try swithing the modem off then on
 and attempt to connect again and finally try to switch your 
 computer off then on and attempt to connect again. The init 
 strings used are the same that are used on DOOM, so if all else
 fails, check that DOOM works and edit the MODEM.INI file.

 
 The MODEM.INI file looks something like this :- 
 

 ;
 ;Big Red Modem Interface
 ;

 DEVICE      Pace Linnet 32 Plus vfx
 INITSTRING  AT &C0 F8 \N0
 HANGSTRING  AT Z H
 DIALSTRING  ATDT
 BAUD        9600
 PORT        1
 LINE SPEED  19200
 TELEPHONE   
 NAME        


 Hopefully the above should be fairly self explanitory. But
 just in case:
 

 Note all strings and numbers start at the 13th position in!

 DEVICE      is the name of the modem.
 INITSTRING  is the string used to initialize the modem.
 HANGSTRING  is the string used to hang up the phone. 
 BAUD        is the speed the modem talks to the outside world.
 PORT        is the serial port the modem is connected to.
 LINE SPEED  is the speed the serial port talks to the modem.
 TELEPHONE   is the default number to call when you dial.
 NAME        is your name.
 
 Having corrected the strings and the correct baud rates
 again attempt to connect upon getting your strings right you 
 should see you modem respond with an OK. You can experiment 
 with the modem strings by using the chat mode to chat directly 
 to your modem. When in chat mode, all modems should respond with
 OK when you type +++ (then wait a second or two) +++ and then 
 then AT followed by enter. If this doesn't work then its likely
 you haven't set the baud rates properly.
 
 
 Assuming your modem choice is correct, (read what 
 appears in the modem response box if ), one person must choose 
 to dial while the other chooses to answer the phone.

 Having established a connection, you will then be able to chat to
 each other by typing stuff on the keyboard and watching the 
 response box.

 Press escape to exit and then choose to play the game. At the time
 of writing, you still then have to select the modem game from 
 within racing, (short cut keys M for multi play then M for modem). 
 By the final cut this will be the defaulted to when the game
 is run.


Network Options

DOS Racing runs on IPX network we use Novell although it has
been tested on other networks with an IPX protocol driver
running on top.

The problem with network driven games are usually due to a
disparity with the speeds of the various computers on the net.

If you have problems with the network version of racing there are
a few parameters that you can play around with. These parameters
are stored in the config file that is loaded in when you choose
your name at the start of the game. To look at your config file
use a text editor such as edit to load in the file "YOURNAME".CFG.
Look thru the file and find the refernce to netspeed followed by
three numbers separated by spaces.

The first parameter is the number of 70ths of a second that have
to have passed between the computer sending out packets during
the game. If your computer is particularly fast say a p120, you
may find that it is flooding the network with game packets. Slower
computers have no choice but to listen to what the fast computer
is saying and therfore not redraw the screen smoothly. In instances
like this slow down the fast PC by increasing this number and speed
up slower computers by reducing this number.

The second parameter is a similar value, but it is for the original
signing up the particular player to the net game. As the net game
starts, the game BROADCASTS to the entire net that it is about to
start playing racing. A broadcast is recieved by all PC's on the net
and so you should try to reduce the amout of these particular writes.
Do this by inreasing the second parameter.

The third parameter was added to help the computer that could not
keep up with the rest of the game. Simply put, if the game recieved
a message updating the position of the other players at reletively
long pauses in time, the car would appear to jerk from it current
place to the next. The third value adds what is called interpolation.
What this does is to make a guess at where the car is going and
let it contiue in that direction until it is told next time where it is.
By its very nature, the computer is guessing where your opponent is
going and so sometimes depending on how regularly its getting messages
from the other player, it gets it wrong. The result is a warping effect.
A car will warp from one location to another. If you find this effect
irritating to remove it, make the third parameter a zero.

Command Line Options


use "RACING -CFG <yourname>" to bypass the name-entry screen
use "RACING -NOSOUND" to avoid loading a "wrong" sound driver


