Physics patch PLUS ------------------ First of all, this is a list of modifications that you can YOURSELF make to Rally Championship, by means of entering text into a file called 'ral.cfg' in the 'var' directory. If this file does not already exist, you will need to create it. Then just type 'name' = 'variable' to change a setting. e.g. stickygrass=0 Each new setting that you change must go on a separate line. You can use notepad or edit, or many other programs to edit this file. We have not changed the default settings in the program because although there are quirks in the physics that seem wrong to the experienced eye, there has to be a balance between gameplay, realism and control. Also, any changes would invalidate all the times and data set up so far. Note, if you do change any of these settings, you will probably find that your replays wont work, and if too extreme changes are made, I don't know WHAT may happen. The game may get stuck, or crash, or worse!!! Anyway.... There have been a lot of different views about the physics in Rally Championship, ranging from 'Brilliant handling' to 'I've been cheated, this is rubbish'. I'll try to answer a few questions 1. Sticky Grass OK, Grass is not sticky, when it is smooth, but the grass in Rally Championship represents smooth grass, rough grass right up to downright rough and bumpy ground over which a car would NOT glide gracefully sideways. We all agree that to get the best time, whether playing Rally Championship, or rallying for real is to stick to the roads, that is what they're there for. So the grass slows you down to stop you cutting corners, and to keep you from just driving anywhere. Grass and rough ground are bumpy, but what would happen driving on them in real life, you'd probably be grounded or in a ditch as soon as you left the road. In Rally Championship, although the level of detail is high, modelling every little bump in the road is impossible given current hardware, so this is the best compromise. Nevertheless, if you want to remove sticky grass, put the following line in the ral.cfg file patchstickygrass=0 2. The gravity is wrong, the cars dont weigh enough The gravity is correct, and as you may find out, to change it affects more than you would think, but I think there are two reasons that it seems light. The first is that, as I said before, the world is modelled from comparatively few flat polygons, which have sharp edges, which can cause problems such as the car skipping over the edges of these and taking off for what seems like no reason. The second is that, since its not your car, and you can't get hurt, you tend to drive a lot faster than in real life, and combined with the first reason this means that the car is in the air a lot more. Try it (No, don't!) Go on, drive at a 45 degree bank at 100 mph and see what happens. (No, really. Don't!) But, if you want to experiment, you can change the value of gravity. If we assume that gravity is currently 100%, you cahn change it by typing patchgravity=xxx where xxx = 200 for double gravity, etc. The program will respond to values between 10 and 200. One thing to notice is that if you increase the gravity, you will get more grip. IF you reduceit, your wheels will spin and you'll slide everywhere. There are specific grip factors you can alter later on to counteract this. 3. Collisions dont damage the car enough OK, they dont, but we didn't realize that everyone would want them to be so severe that one crash and you're out (Listening, Colin?). So, similarly to the gravity setting, where 100% = current damage levels, type patchdamages=xxx The program responds to values from 0 to 1000, 1000 being 10x the damage. 4. The car has too much/too little grip The brakes are too strong... You don't slide enough on gravel Can't please everyone! Believe me, we've heard everything, and we have tried lots of different values, on some the real ones seem right, on others they dont, above all, we wanted to have a game that was not too frustrating to play, yet offered a good learning curve. The first time anyone here played Clocaenog, we though 15 mins was a good time. Then 14. Then 13. We're still shaving seconds off even now! Anyway, to change these values yourselves. Bearing in mind that 100 is what you have now, and that some factors can combine (remember gravity!), and that some aren't STRICTLY linear, you can change patchbrakegrip=xxx - reduce for longer braking times patchaccelgrip=xxx - reduce for more wheelspin patchslidegrip=xxx - reduce for more sliding sideways patchgriptarmac=xxx - change for more/less grip on tarmac patchgripgravel=xxx - change for more/less grip on gravel/snowy gravel patchgripmud=xxx - change for more/less grip on mud/dust patchgripsnow=xxx - change for more/less grip on snow/ice patchgripgrass=xxx - change for more/less grip on grass/rough ground Remember, these are all variations from what is set already, so setting patchgriptarmac=50 patchgripgravel=50 will NOT make tarmac and gravel the same. All these values can be set in the range 10-200 5. The game wont run fast enough OK, this isn't really physics, but one of the reasons the game needs a powerful processor and graphics card is that a lot of the courses cover large wide open areas, and you can see a long way, which requires the program to draw a lot into the distance. We have made a setting that will limit this, and you can reduce the 'drawdistance' by limiting this value. On some courses, they don't have too much preset drawdistance anyway, but most equate to a setting of about 6 to 12. Nevertheless, you can force the maximum drawdistance by typing patchmaxdrawdistance=xx This number should be between 4 and 12 6. Master switch Finally, all of the above options (except draw distance) are enabled only with fizpatch=1 To allow quick on/off setting for comparisons or best times tables. Have fun, and if anyone thinks they've got the perfect settings, we want to know. I suspect that people will want more, but have a play. Shaun Southern Physics/3d programmer Magnetic Fields SOftware Design