README File for International Rally Championship ------------------------------------------------ 19th November 1997 Here we document some things left out of the manual due to last minute changes before mastering the CD. (1) Install program Unfortunately, the install program needs Direct X to run. Most PC's will have a version of Direct X, but if your's doesn't, and the error message 'this program requires ddraw.dll' or similar appears, then simply run setupdx5.bat to install DirectX5 onto your computer first. (2) Accelerator cards Not all accelerator cards support all of the functions required to enable Rally to be displayed correctly in accelerated mode, so when accelerated mode is selected, on certain cards, effects such as smoke and brake lights may be missing, and for levels with fog on, the program may have to return to 8-bit mode to display correctly. Also, beware - not all accelerator cards actually accelerate. Some require a lot of memory to be installed to actually be of any use. Otherwise, they have to swap memory in and out of the computer which renders them too slow to use. (3) Video Cards Since we use the latest version of Direct X, version 5 to interface the game to the video hardware drivers, some video card drivers may be out of date. If you have problems such as the screen going blank with only maybe a mouse pointer visible, then please check that you have the latest versions of the drivers, or failing that, possibly turn off some of the functions of the card until the game runs correctly. (4) Replay Keys 1-9 offer many different camera views of the replay. Keys F1-F3 toggle between the replay bar, the overlay or no display. Keys F5-F7 toggle between both player 1 and player2 in a 2 player replay. Note: Replays are not available in Network link Mode. (5) Network Session Number To facilitate more than one game of Rally to be played across a network all players should agree on a session number ranging between 0 and 99. All players must set their session number to the same value and then link up together. (6) RAL.CFG This file which resides in the "var" directory is a text file that can be used to cure some problems with Rally. There are several keywords which if entered into this file will allow you to fix problems, disable certain functions, etc. To make a keyword active, enter the name of the keyword followed by a number, usually 1, e.g. "forced3d 1". If the keyword is missing, the value 0, or the line preceded by a semicolon, then the value is 0 The keywords and their usage are as follows forced3d 1 ; This forces the program to use d3d drivers, not ; card specific drivers nommx 1 ; This disables mmx code on machines which have MMX built in forceno3dcard 1 ; This disables 3d Hardware support of any type, useful ; if your program crashes noaudio 1 ; This disables the sounds in the program to test if you have ; problems with your sounds force16bittex 1 ; The program will try to use 8bit textures in preference to ; 16 bit. Put this line in to force 16 bit textures noaudio 1 ; Disable all pcm audio and do not access direct sound ; driver. Only if sound is causing a problem. nocdaudio 1 ; Disable all cd audio and do not access cd audio code. ; Only if cd audio playback is causing a problem. forceprimary 1 ; Normally, if we detect two cards and the second supports 3d then ; we will use this card for accelerated modes. If the player wishes ; to use their primary card (ie if it is better at 3d) then this ; option will ignore the second card. Also it will not access the ; d3d drivers for any secondary cards if the drivers for the secondary ; card is causing crashes. nofmv 1 ; To disable the short fmv clips during the game if these are causing ; problems (maybe the lockup just after playing a game?) nofiltering 1 ; To disable bi-linear filtering - might speed up some of the slower ; 3d cards by a few frames eg Rage II noreplay 1 ; To disable replays if these are causing problems (7) Refuelling in Custom Rally This option was erroneous in the manual and has been removed.