NASCAR HEAT Demo Notes (version 1.0) Table of Contents 1. Quick Tips 2. Installation Issues 3. Joystick and Steering Wheel Support 4. How to Improve Performance 5. Specific Video Card Issues 6. Game Controls 7. Compatibility Issues 8. Windows 2000 / Windows NT 4.0 ====================== 1. Quick Tips ====================== * Having trouble beating Dale Earnhart Jr. in Race The Pro? Try loading the advanced setup in the garage to get that extra edge. * At Daytona drafting is the only way to stay competitive. Stay right behind the driver you are trying to pass until you see a good opportunity to pass him. * If you are using the keyboard to race try going to the advanced controls screen and turn your steering speed down to 1/2 or less. ====================== 2. Installation Issues ====================== If you uninstall the game, your saved replays, custom paintjobs, car setups, and other configuration information will not be deleted automatically. You can delete these files yourself from: "c:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\NASCAR Heat Demo" after first uninstalling the program normally. When you run the game, we may warn that your video card drivers are out of date. This occurs when you are running the game on a machine without the most recent video card drivers. Incorrectly installed or old video drivers are one of the most frequent causes of game crashes. ====================================== 3. Joystick and Steering Wheel Support ====================================== When using a joystick or wheel, the controller must be installed and calibrated within Windows before it will work in the game. If your input is "jerky", you should try unchecking the option to "Poll with Interrupts Enabled" in the Windows Game Controller control panel, under the "Advanced" tab. Note that if there are multiple controllers, we will use the first controller in the ID list. ============================= 4. How to improve performance ============================= a. Use the benchmark in the Graphics Options Screen to test the performance of your machine. Keep lowering your detail level and draw distance until the benchmark is at least 35 fps. b. Please note that the benchmark button only tests the speed of the graphics system. The frame rate reported does not take into account the number of cars that you are running. c. Your choice of video card is primarily responsible for determining which video resolutions that you can use in the game. The faster your video card is, the higher the video resolution you can run with a good frame rate. ============================= 5. Specific Video Card Issues ============================= Most problems we have experienced while running NASCAR Heat are due to running the game with old video drivers. Please contact your video card manufacturer for the latest drivers. The following video cards have experienced a problem while running our game: * ATI Rage Pro, ATI Rage Mobility This video card is a first generation video card with very slow performance and graphics artifacts. * S3 ViRGE Series This video card is a first generation video card with very slow performance and graphics artifacts. * S3 Savage 2000 (Diamond Viper II) This video card might shift textures on the objects. If you are having problems with the card, you can edit the options.cfg file (located in the "c:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\NASCAR Heat Demo\Config") and find the line "fix_s3_bug no" in the [GX] section. Change the line to read "fix_s3_bug yes". * 3D Labs Permedia 2 Video cards with this chip are missing some features that make special effects look not as good. * 3Dfx Voodoo 1 This card does not have enough video RAM to run the game well. The video resolutions and the texture resolutions are severely limited. If you want to use your primary graphics card instead of the 3Dfx card, modify the shortcut by appending " -1" to the shortcut as described for the Voodoo 2 below. * 3Dfx Voodoo 2 This card cannot support large textures. Otherwise, the 8 megabyte version looks like most 4 megabyte cards and the 12 Megabyte version looks like an 8 megabyte card. If you want to use your primary graphics card instead of the 3Dfx card, modify the startmenu shortcuts by appending " -1" to the shortcut's target. For example: "c:\Program Files\Hasbro Interactive\NASCAR Heat Demo\NASCAR Heat Demo.exe" -1 You must launch the game using the shortcut for the change to occur. * 3Dfx Voodoo 3 This card cannot support large textures and does not support AGP textures. We recommend the latest video cards from any of the manufacturers. At our office, we run nVidia GeForce series, the 3Dfx Voodoo 5, the Matrox G400, and the ATI Rage 128/Rage 128 Pro/Radeon. ==================== 6. Game Controls ==================== a. In-Game Controls: 'P' - Pause/Resume (note: does not work in Multiplayer) ESC - brings up the Escape Menu -- use the Up and Down keys to choose a selection and press the enter key to select. 'T' - While in Multiplayer, press 'T' to chat -- type a message and press ENTER to send it. b. Camera Controls: F1 - In-Car Views: Switches between Cockpit View and Bumper Cam F2 - Suspension Cam F3 - Chase Views - switches between Near, Medium, and Far F4 - Switches between Reverse-Chase View, Overhead View, and TV Camera View PgUp - Switch to next car PgDn - Switch to previous car Home - Return to player car c. Overlay Controls: TAB - Switch between Position, Leader Board, and Race Board F5 - Show Leader Board F6 - Switch between Position and Race Board F7 - Switch between Tire Status and Damage display F8 - Switch between Pit Adjustment views (see below) Pit Adjustments: Press F8 to cycle between the three Pit Adjustment displays Primary Pit Adjustments: F9 - Fuel Options - switches between Splash and Go and Fill Tank F10 - Tires - switches between Four Tires, Two Tires, and No Tires F11 - Repair - switches between Yes and No F12 - Restore Defaults - resets all pit options to default values Wedge - press '[' and ']' to adjust your Wedge Tire Pressures: Press F9, F10, F11, or F12 to select which tire to modify Press '[' and ']' to change the pressure of the selected tire d. Replay Keys: Left Arrow - Rewind Right Arrow - Fast-forward Down Arrow - Pause/Resume playback SHIFT+Left Arrow - Rewind to the beginning SHIFT+Right Arrow - Advance to the end e. Default Controls: (these keys can be reassigned in the Control Options menu) R - Reverse A - Upshift (if Auto-shifting is not enabled) Z - Downshift (if Auto-shifting is not enabled) C - Clutch J - Look Left K - Look Right The default driving controls will depend on what sort of controller you have. Keyboard: Left, Right - Steering Up - Throttle Down - Brake Joystick: Joystick Left/Right - Steering Button 1 - Throttle Button 2 - Brake Steering Wheel: Wheel - Steering Pedals - Throttle and Brake If you have your pedals on separate axes, you will have to assign them manually in the Controls Options menu. ======================= 7. Compatibility Issues ======================= a. RealJukebox - we have problems running with this software. b. nVidia Reference drivers v 3.68 - the screen may lock up after a long time, requiring a hard reboot. c. ATI Rage Pro - some versions of their drivers have clipping problems. The mirror and the replay screen will have graphical glitches. d. ALT-TAB - We don't recommend alt-tabbing away from the game. ==================================== 8. Windows 2000 / Windows NT 4.0 ==================================== NASCAR Heat will not run under Windows NT. Although we don't officially support Windows 2000, the game will run. If you run under Windows 2000, you might experience the following issues: 1. Poor video card support. Windows 2000 shipped with spotty support for many 3D video cards. If the game crashes or won't run, you should contact your video card manufacturer for the latest Windows 2000 video card drivers. 2. Poor joystick/wheel support. The code to read the joystick in Windows 2000 may produce "jerky" input. We have seen this problem appear on some computers and is caused by how Windows 2000 reads the joystick. 3. Multi-processor support. We have tested the game on a multi-processor systems and the performance was great. *** All NASCAR statistics used in the creation of NASCAR Heat are courtesy of The Official NASCAR Press Preview Press Guide 2000.