Enigma Amiga Life 106/EnigmaAmiga106CD.iso/software/giochi/vgp/vgpmanual.txt

Text File | 1999-08-27 | 31.9 KB | 538 lines

VIRTUAL GRAND PRIX

Welcome to Virtual Grand Prix! Do you want a fast 3d texture-mapped car racing
game, but you have only an AGA Amiga with no 3d accelerator? Do you want to
experience the thrill of 300Kph speed in a real formula car simulation? Do you want
to challenge the improved AI of the simulation of the best drivers all over the world?
Well, now your wait is over...

1. System requirements

To play VirtualGP you need:
·    an AGA or gfx-board equipped Amiga
·    68030/25Mhz or better processor. If you only have a slower 68020 processor
you'll be able to run anyway the game, but the frames-per-second rate will be
low and the game won't be very playable
·    2Mbyte of chip ram, and 4Mbytes of REALLY fast ram
·    16x CD-ROM drive. With slower CD-ROM drives the game will anyway run,
but the anims won't look very good...

The VIRTUALGRANDPRIX (VGP FROM NOW ON) product is provided "AS
IS", without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied,
including, but not limited to, the warranties of quality,
performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular
purpose. All risks as to the results and performance of the
VGP product are assumed by you. Should VGP prove defective,
you (and NOT the developer or Epic Marketing or its dealers)
assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or
correction. Furthermore, Epic Marketing does not warrant,
guarantee, or make any representations regarding the use of,
or the results of the use of, the VGP product in terms of
correctness, accuracy, reliability, currentness, or otherwise;
and you rely on the program and the results solely at your
own risk. In no event will the VGP developer or Epic Marketing
be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential
damages resulting from any defect in the VGP product even if it
has been advised of the possibility of such damages

2. Installing the game

You can play VirtualGP directly from the CD, do a minimum installation on your HD
with the installer script provided, or manually install it.

    Playing from the CD
Double click on one of the "VirtualGP" icons (see next chapter). The game will start,
but you won't be able to save anything (car setups, championship, etc) nor to
configure the game.

    Standard Installer
Double click on the "InstallVGP" icon. Then, go in the partition/directory you have
installed VirtualGP into and double click on one of the VirtualGP icons (see next
chapter). The game will use the "SalvaCarica" drawer created here to store your
data.

    Manual Procedure
Install the game with the standard installer. Then, copy the drawer you want from the
CD to the directory where VirtualGP was installed simply dragging it. You may want,
as an example, to copy the "Dati" directory from the CD to the "VirtualGP" drawer to
be able to edit the "Drivers.config" and "Teams.config" files (see next chapters).

3. Starting the game

On the VirtualGP CD you'll find three "VirtualGP" icons; the standard installer will ask
you which one do you want to install (remember, anyway, that you can always start
VirtualGP directly from the CD):
VirtualGP: this is the "standard", lo-res (320x256) version of the game. It works very
well on slow AGA Amigas (ie 68030/25Mhz) and on most gfx-boards
VirtualGP.Hi: this is the med-res (320x512) version of the game. It requires a fast
processor to be playable (68040/40Mhz minimum), but it's got a far better graphics.
To play it on a gfx-board you need ScreenModes with 1x2 ratio. If your gfx-board
doesn't support these modes, you must go AGA (320x512 DBLPAL is a good
choice) or use the standard lo-res version. There is no 68k hi-res version of the
game (ie 640x512), but a PPC-only one is planned
VirtualGP.DB: some gfx-boards, especially the BVision, give a lot of flickering when
used with VirtualGP. To avoid it, use this version which implements double-buffering

A note on patches: Though VirtualGP was written trying to be as "OS-friendly" as
possible, it may give problems with some patches/commodities. If you are
experiencing such problems, try to disable every patch before running VirtualGP; as
an example, you can boot your Amiga with no startup-sequence, just in case

To gfx-boards owners: VirtualGP is written to get the most out of the AGA chipset.
The 3d engine is not the standard, copied-from-PC-games chunky algorithm that
many "Amiga games" have, but a native planar 3d engine, especially designed for
the Amiga range of computers, which directly produce planar bitmaps. This means
that, though VirtualGP supports gfx-boards, on many configurations native AGA
screenmodes give the maximum speed (maximum frames-per-second rate).
If you, anyway, want to play VirtualGP under CGFX, be sure to have at least V4.
Some gfx-boards, especially the BVision, give a lot of flickering when used with
VirtualGP. To avoid it, under CGFX turn the BITMAPCACHE option OFF, and use
the "VirtualGP.DB" icon

To 040 processors owners:  on some configurations disabling the DATA CACHE
improves a bit the fps rate; this occurs normally on 040s with slow memory access,
like standard A4000s

Started the game, after a bit of loading, the intro anim will start. Simply press the left
mouse button to skip it. The anims are stored in HAM8, so you need AGA
screenmodes to see them. If for some reason your Amiga cannot display HAM8
screens, the game will anyway run but you won't get any anim. Though it shouldn't
happen, if the anims are giving problems to you simply keep the left mouse button
pressed while the game loads (to skip them).

4. Playing the game

Click the left mouse button to go to the main menu. Here you can select to:
·    play a single race: select one of the 16 tracks available to race
·    start the championship mode: you'll have to race on all of the 16 tracks of the
1998 season, trying to become the world champion
·    continue the championship: after returning here from a race in championship
mode, click on this to go on the next
·    load championship: to load a previously saved game
·    quit to AmigaDOS

Selecting a track or starting the championship season will bring you to the track
menu. You'll see a picture of the track and you can listen to the track info. Click the
left mouse button to choose to:
·    practise the track
·    start the qualify session
·    start the warm-up session
·    go for the race!
·    (only available in championship mode) save the current championship
position. The game will save a file called "Championship.data" (you can make
back-up copies of it, if you want) in the "SalvaCarica" directory of your HD.
You can choose to save the championship in the middle of an event if you
want, maybe after the qualify session but before the warm-up
·    abandon the current event, and return to the main menu. In championship
mode this is legal only after the race; if you abandon the current event before
the race has took place, championship will be aborted

If you select one of the first four options, the selected session will start and you'll go
in the "VirtualPits". Here, you can select the car (on the left), the toolbox or the
computer (on the right).
Select the computer to change options, read telemetry or leave the pits (if you
choose to leave the pits during the qualify session, or the race session in
championship mode, the game will anyway calculate the session results before
returning to the track menu).
Select the toolbox to change your car setup. You'll be prompted by the car setup
menu. During "official" sessions (qualify, warm-up, race) you won't be able to change
the car setup if your car isn't in the pits.
Selecting the car will simply put you on the track. Your engine will be on, so simply
accelerate to exit the pits. During "official" sessions you'll see the car only if the car is
in the pits (as an example, if during qualify you leave your car somewhere on the
track and then return to the pits "by foot" - using the "return to pits" button - the car
won't be there waiting for you); to return to the car simply click where the car should
be...

5. Game Options

If you select the "Game Options" menu from the computer (while in the "VirtualPits"),
you can configure the game in many ways. You can select:
·    Steering sensitivity: to change the mouse/analogue joystick readings. The
linear factor changes in a linear way (of course) the amount of steering - if you
have a very high DPI mouse you should reduce a bit this value, vice versa
with a very low DPI one. The quadratic factor lets you change the sensitivity
"shape": the more you increase this factor, the more the sensitivity shape will
be parabolic, thus giving a very precise steering in the central position, while
less precise (but faster) steering in slow corners. Make some experiments to
find the settings you find comfortable with
·    Input type: to choose whether you want to play VirtualGP with a mouse, a
digital joystick, or an analogue device. The mouse must be in PORT0, while
other devices must be in PORT1. Remeber to calibrate the analogue, if you
choose one
·    Calibrate joystick: to calibrate an analogue device. Center it along the x axis,
then along the y axis, then full accelerate and then full brake. Use the
"Steering sensitivity" menu to control the amount of steering on the x axis
(normally, with a standard Amiga analogue joystick you have to put the linear
factor to about 200%, or 100% linear and 100% quadratic)
·    Switch X/Y: some analogue devices invert the x/y readings. If you find that
when you accelerate the car steers and vice versa, select this option and
everything will work fine
·    Multitasking: to choose whether to turn multitasking on or off. Multitasking is
normally on, but it's turned off by default when you're in the cockpit to get the
maximum speed available from your Amiga. If you want to keep multitasking
on while playing, select this option
·    In-game speech: self-explanatory, turns speech on/off
·    Driving help: to activate some driving help (see next chapter)
·    Save game options: to save the options settings in the "SalvaCarica"
directory. Every time you load VirtualGP again from your HD, the game will
re-load your options settings.

6. Driving Help

VirtualGP is a real simulator: the dynamics of a real formula car is accurately
reproduced to give you the maximum realism available in a computer simulation.
This means that you must be a real driver to be able to get the most out of (and to
fully enjoy) VirtualGP. But if you aren't a crack racing-driver, don't worry! VirtualGP
lets you turn on some driving help, if you find it too difficult to keep the car on the
track!

From the "Game Options" menu select "Driving Help". Here, you can choose the
following:
·    Fake downforce: at 0Kph a formula car doesn't receive any additional
downforce from wings, because downforce increases with the speed.
Unfortunately this means that in slow chicanes the car is difficult to control; to
avoid this problem, you can select a minimum downforce that the car
ALWAYS gets, independently from the speed
·    Cars damage: turn off this control to have undamageable cars in the game!
Otherwise low speed crashes will mess up your chassis settings (you'll have
to return to the pits to fix them) and high speed ones will simply destroy your
car! This option affects mechanical failures too
·    Best line help: only available when driving with a digital joystick, this option
tries to auto-correct a bit your line when you enter a turn (but only if you don't
make a very big mistake!)
·    Yaw angle limiter: also known as "God's Hand"(!), it prevents your car from
spinning too much (especially when you go on the grass). This option is
STRONGLY SUGGESTED for inexperienced drivers
·    Auto transmission: self-explanatory; when you turn on this option, with a
digital joystick you can use the fire button to accelerate
·    Race/Qualify duration: you can choose whether to race the full distance, or
have shorter sessions

7. The Car Setup

In the "VirtualPits" you can change your car setup. Being VirtualGP a real formula
car simulator, you have quite the same car settings options a real car has:
·    Tyres compound: soft tyres give better grip, but tend to wear out earlier. You
can make some laps with the same tyres and then use telemetry to determine
how much they wear out, so that you can choose how many pit-stops will be
required in the race. Remeber, however, that you must choose the tyres
compound during free practise, and then keep them for the whole event
·    Chassis: here you can choose from some sub-menus:
·    Camber: this is a very important setting, controls the degree of
inclination of the tyre in respect of the ground. When in turns the car
tends to roll, and rolling changes the angle between tyre and ground
(because of multi-link suspensions), so to keep the tyre perpendicular
to the ground while in turn you must change this setting. Of course this
setting depends on the type of turns, on the springs/antirolling settings,
etc. It also influences a lot the car behaviour when jumping over kerbs,
because kerbs change car inclination, and when exiting slow turns.
You can use telemetry to discover the right camber settings
·    Springs: you can change the spring rate for front and rear springs. Stiff
settings give you less rolling and faster car response, but the car tends
to become nervous in uneven tracks or on the kerbs
·    Antirolling bars (sway bars): these limit even more the angle of roll of
the car, thus are very useful in fast turns. Again, they shouldn't be too
tight in uneven tracks or if you use a lot the kerbs
·    Shocks: VirtualGP simulates 4-ways shock-absorbers used in real
formula cars. You can control separately shocks damping when the
suspension goes in compression (because of a kerb, as an example)
or rebounds (because of a pothole), and this for low and high
frequencies (LF - HF), so that you have four settings for each damper.
These settings are very important, because they influence the car
behaviour not only in uneven tracks but also during mass-transfer
transitories.
·    Brake balancing: this is self-explanatory, the lower the setting, the
more brake power will be delivered to your rear tyres.
·    Wings: this controls your wings settings; the higher the setting, the more
downforce you have but, of course, the less will be your maximum speed. The
numbers represent the amount of downforce (in Kg) you receive at 100Kph
·    Gear box: lets you alter gear ratios
·    Refuelling: the amount of fuel you want loaded in the car when you return to
the pits. When practising, or in qualify sessions, you can go out with very low
fuel, but when racing you must choose whether to start with a lot of fuel, and
make less pit-stops, or be lighter but make more pit-stops. This setting can
ALWAYS be changed, even during a race, because it doesn't affect the actual
amount of fuel of your car but the fuel that will be loaded the next pit-stop
·    Save/Load setup: you can save as many as three different car setups for
every track. The setups will be saved in the "SalvaCarica" directory.

8. Driving The Car

If you select the car in the "VirtualPits", you enter the cockpit and your car will be put
on the track. To exit the pits, simply accelerate without steering. To return to the pits,
enter the pit-lane (your speed must be below 90kph or you'll get a stop&go penalty)
and when you are near to your pits (the pit-stop icon will be displayed on the
top-right corner of the screen) simply decelerate - your car will be refuelled and your
tyres will be changed automagically.

VirtualGP lets you control the car with a digital joystick, a mouse or an analogue
device:

    Digital Joystick
A digital joystick isn't the most suitable device to control a car. Anyway, VirtualGP
implements a pseudo-intelligent and very intuitive algorithm that works this way:
·    When you center the joystick, no steering is done (of course)
·    When you steer left or right, the algorithm steers as much as it is possible
depending on your car conditions (wings settings, tyres type, suspensions
etc.), thus preventing too much understeering (a common mistake of
inexperienced drivers). Thus when entering the turn simply approach it with
the right speed and line, then turn. During the turn you choose the line simply
braking/accelerating; All you have to do is to use the gas/brake pedals to
make the trajectory (ok, try it because it's more difficult to explain than to try
yourself!)
·    To accelerate, simply push the joystick forward, and backward to brake.
Because, again, a digital (yes/no) device is not very good for gas/brake input,
when you accelerate the game doesn't abruptly give full throttle, but starts to
open from zero to full throttle in about 1/2 sec., thus giving a "smoother"
acceleration (and preventing your rear tyres from immediately loosing grip -
the same thing happens when you throttle down or brake). This means that
you can choke the throttle while in slow turns by simply quickly and repeatedly
pushing/releasing the joystick
·    To shift gear you can either push the fire button or use the up/down cursor
arrows on the keyboard (whichever you prefer).

If you select the "Best Line" driving help, the game will try to correct your line a bit
when entering the turn (of course if you don't make a very bad  mistake)!
If you select the "Auto Transmission" driving help you don't need to shift gear
manually, and you can use the fire button to accelerate; further, if you play VirtualGP
with a two-buttons joystick (or with a CD32 joypad) you can use the second button to
brake. Remember, however, that to go into reverse (0 gear) you still have to do it
manually (with the cursor keys).

    Mouse
A mouse gives you a far better control over the car, as you are able to choose the
amount of steering (moving the mouse left or right). If you want, you can change the
mouse sensitivity from the "Game Options" menu (you may want to change it track
by track, maybe to reduce it in fast tracks to have less steering but better control and
vice versa). Remember to clean your mouse, if it gives erratic readings there is no
point in using it!
To accelerate/brake use the right/left mouse buttons. Because they are a digital
input, they work in the same way as described above for digital joystick.
To shift gear you can use the up/down arrows on the keyboard, the third mouse
button (if you have one) or the joystick fire button.

    Analogue Device
An analogue device (joystick, steering wheel, etc.) gives you full control over the car.
Before you can use it, you must calibrate it (see the Game Options chapter above)
and choose the right steering sensitivity. Then, simply use it in the standard way.
To shift gear, use the two fire buttons that analogue devices normally always have.
A note on potentiometers: VirtualGP works with quite every pots type, as long as
they are <500 kOhms: with 500 kOhms VirtualGP gives the maximum resolution
available, but gives problems in DBLPAL/DBLNTSC ScreenModes because with
these modes the AGA chipset doubles its speed, thus doubling the pot counter
readers speed (the pot counters go in "wrap-around"). With these modes you MUST
use pots <250 kOhms (ie, half the maximum value), otherwise you won't burn your
Amiga's circuitry - don't worry! - but you won't be able to play VirtualGP.

Apart from controlling the car, you can use the following keys on the keyboard:
·    ESC: opens a menu, whence you can select the "Instant Replay" (a replay of
the last 40 secs, use the right/left cursor arrows for fast forward/still motion) or
to return to the "VirtualPits"
·    F1-F6 function keys: select six different camera views. F1 and F2 are quite
the same, they are the inside-cockpit view: the only difference is that F1
enables the "VirtualCockpit" feature that simulates the driver's head motion,
very useful in slow corners (F1 automatically returns to your car, too)
·    F7-F8 function keys: give you some info about your position, lap-time, best lap
time, etc.
·    F9 function key: shows the current standings of all drivers
·    F10 function key: cancels any previously displayed info
·    DEL-HELP: let you see and follow your opponents
·    TAB: restores the car. If you find yourself spinning on the grass, press it
·    1-5 (numeric keypad): select one of the five different programs available for
your board computer; 1 displays the fuel left and the current position, 2 the
current speed, 3 the average speed of the last lap, 4 the average fuel
consumption per lap and 5 the prospected laps (these two options, very useful
during race sessions, must be started/reset by pressing the 0 key)
·    Cursor Keys: up/down control gearbox, left/right control the instant replay

9. Using Telemetry

Telemetry gives you useful information about car setup, best line in turns, brake
points, etc. You can turn telemetry on whenever you want, during free-practise as
well as during qualify/race sessions.
From within the "VirtualPits", select the computer and turn telemetry on. Then, return
to the cockpit, reach the track's finish line and then make a complete round (the
telemetry icon will flash in the top right corner of the screen, indicating that telemetry
is active). When you pass again the finish line, telemetry will be turned off
automatically, and you can go in the "VirtualPits" and select, from the computer, the
"Read Telemetry" menu to see the data gathered so far.

From the read telemetry window you can select five options (in the top left corner of
the window):
·    SPEED/RPM: shows you the speed of the car (in kph), the engine RPM and
the gear inserted
·    GAS/BRAKE: shows how you used the gas/brake pedals, very useful to
discover the brake points in the track
·    G'S/ROLL: shows the lateral G force and the angle of roll of the car, very
useful for camber settings
·    TYRES: shows the temperature (in Celsius Degrees) and the wearing out of
your tyres (a red bar), useful to discover the right tyres compound
·    SKIDDING: shows the amount of skidding of your front and rear tyres, very
useful to find a good car balancing. If you see, as an example, that the car
has too much understeering ("push" car) you can try to increase the front wing
setting, change the suspensions settings, increase the camber or so.

The above information is displayed in the bottom part of the read telemetry window,
while the top part displays the track's layout and the line you followed (very useful to
understand if you did some mistakes), your current time and the distance from the
finish line. To "move" on the track you can either click in this part of the window or
use the scroll-bar/scroll gadgets below.

10. Customizing VirtualGP

VirtualGP lets you change a lot of things to suit it to your needs/feeling. You can
change drivers and teams stats, change the team you race for, etc.
·    Drivers: drivers are controlled by the ASCII file "Dati/Drivers.config". You can
edit this file with a standard text editor (of course you need to put the Dati
drawer in the "VirtualGP" directory somewhere on your HD - see the manual
installation chapter for more info). You may change the names of the drivers,
and change drivers' skill, the number which immediately follows the driver's
name: the higher the number, the more skilled will be the driver.
    You can change drivers' stats if you think that the current stats don't resemble
real drivers, or you can lower everyone by, say, 50 just to get a more playable
game! The asterisk (*) in front of a driver's name selects him as you (ie you'll
be that driver the next time you play VirtualGP). The other three numbers are
the driver's colors, don't change them. After you have made your changes,
save the new file (in ASCII format)!
·    Teams: the file "Dati/Teams.config" controls teams stats. After team's name
(you can change it) there are five numbers: they control the chassis, the
aerodynamic efficiency, the engine power, the reliability (1000 represents a
car that has never mechanical failures) and the number of speeds of the car
(valid values are only 6 or 7). The higher the number, the better is that car's
feature
·    Tracks: in the "Piste/" directory you'll find a sub-directory for each track. In
these sub-dirs you'll find a file called "Pista.config". This controls some stats
about that track. The only number to your interest is probably the first, which
controls the number of rounds; the other numbers represent the maximum
speed reachable and the wings set-up for your opponents (they're expressed
in "strange" measurement units, leave them as they are for now), the
(average) fuel used to complete a lap, an internal-only number and the level
of "roughness" of the ground (in hex). Again, if you want to change something,
you have to copy the whole "Piste/" drawer on your HD.

You may be interested in changing other files contained in the "Dati/" directory: as an
example you may want to change the game's textures or so. Refer to the next
chapter for more info.

11. Future Plug-ins

Many plug-ins are currently being developed for VirtualGP, and if the game has
enough success, will be probably available for registered users. Currently, they
include:
·    PPC support. This plug-in will let you take advantage of a PPC processor, if
present. The whole 3d engine will be re-coded for PPC, and probably there
will be a 640x512 hi-res version
·    Multi-player. This will let you link two Amigas (via null-modem links) and play
VirtualGP head-to-head with a friend
·    Texture editor. The "Dati/" directory contains some ".data" files that control the
in-game textures. They are stored in a custom format, but with this plugin you
will be able to paint your personal textures and convert them from standard
IFF ILBM files to the format used by VirtualGP
·    Car editor. The "Blocchi/" directory contains many ".3do" files. These are the
3d cars' shapes. This plugin will let you change the cars' colors/textures
·    Track editor. More a stand-alone program than a plugin, it lets you design
your own tracks
·    Background editor. Maybe you don't like very much the pictures that come
with the game, and this plugin will let you change them

Remeber that some of the above plugins are only planned, there is no warranty that
one or more will be eventually available. Many of them will be released only if the
game has success.

12. Game Hints

VirtualGP is a simulator, so probably the best hint I can give you is to buy a good
sports driving manual (ex-drivers like A.Prost, A. de Adamich or S.Sthor like to write
such books). Anyway, here you are some VirtualGP-specific hints:
·    Follow opponent's car to learn the best line and the gear to enter turns with
·    Avoid kerbs if possible (especially with very rigid settings), otherwise be quick
on reverse-steering; try to jump over them while accelerating to transfer mass
to the rear, keeping your rear tyres on the track, but remember that with very
low gear it's best to choke the throttle. If you find it too difficult to enter a turn
with a low gear, try to enter it with an higher one (ie enter a 1st gear turn using
your 2nd one): you'll have less torque when exiting the turn, thus a more
controllable car.
·    Don't steer too abruptly at first, especially when accelerating on a low gear,
ESPECIALLY if you have very low downforce (wings settings low).
·    Remember that when you brake you have only little directionality.
·    Pay attention to car setup, especially on camber/springs/shocks; camber
influences car behaviour a lot in fast turns and on the kerbs.
·    When qualifying, heat your tyres, because tyres temperature influences a lot
the grip. Avoid the grass/gravel because they not only have a far worse grip
but also because they dirty your tyres, and you'll need some rounds to get
them clean and hot again.

Remember that car-racing (and motorsport in general) champions are first of all very
good test drivers, and that they spend hours in finding the best car setup - no one is
able to enter the cockpit and make immediately a pole-position! Here you are some
hints on car setups:
·    First of all, change springs settings to keep the car on the track! Soften
springs in uneven tracks, harden them otherwise
·    Find the right wings settings/gear ratios setup; to do that, put everything to
default values (leave camber to 0), make some laps, change the wings
settings and gear ratios accordingly, make some other and compare the time -
go on this way until you find the settings that let you do your PERSONAL best
lap time (don't look at your opponents'). To have a rough idea on how to setup
wings and gears, read the track info in the track menu (this will tell you if the
track is a fast or slow one, as an example). Remember that normally drivers
increase the front wing setting a bit more than the rear one to compensate the
natural understeering of a formula car
·    Try to insert or remove antirolling bars - on tracks with very fast turns it's best
to insert them, on tracks with very slow ones (where you must use the kerbs)
it's best to remove - anyway, antirolling bars normally are NEVER removed
totally (lots of drivers use them a bit at Montecarlo too!); again, make
experiments until you find your best lap time
·    Play with shock absorbers: as a role of thumb, use soft settings when the
ground is uneven (or you use a lot the kerbs), and stiff otherwise (normally
hi-freq settings are used to absorb track "roughness" while lo-freq ones are for
the kerbs); soften front dampers if the car tends to understeer ("push" car), or
soften rear ones if you have the opposite problem (oversteering - "loose" car),
trying to keep the compression settings a bit tighter than rebound ones (this
gives you a better car response in fast chicanes, though it makes the car jump
a bit more over kerbs...).
    You can use telemetry to discover from the "SKIDDING" menu if the car has a
good balancing: front and rear tyres' skidding should be quite the same in
medium-speed turns, though a well-balanced car normally shows a bit of
understeering ("push") when entering turns and a bit of oversteering ("loose")
when exiting.
    Remember however that there isn't a standard way to find the correct
dampers settings, because they depend heavily on the track and on your
driving style. They must be found tyre per tyre, practising the track.
·    Change brake balancing accordingly to the track: if you can, try to put more
braking power on your rear tyres (settings of about 33-35%), because of
formula cars mass distribution; if you find, anyway, that the car tends to spin
while braking increase the settings until you have a drivable car
·    Try to increase the camber settings to lower your lap-time: first of all, try to
increase only the EXTERNAL tyres BY THE SAME AMOUNT (ie if the track
turns normally to the right, try to change your LEFT tyres camber settings to
the RIGHT, otherwise increase your right ones to the left). Go on this way
(normally for low turns values of 2-3 are enough, on fast turns it can be more,
especially without antirolling bars), you'll "feel" a better tyre grip in the turns.
Then, if the track has some difficult internal turn, try to increase your
INTERNAL tyres too. When you have found the settings that give you your
personal best lap time, you can try to get the car more controllable by using
for front tyres a different camber setting than for rear ones: as an example,
you can increase camber on front tyre(s) by 0.5°/1.0° to have a better car
response in fast turns. Remeber that telemetry could show you the angle of
roll of the car in every turn, so that you can have an idea on how to set the
tyres camber
·    If you use a lot the kerbs you must find a setup that let you do it without
loosing the control at every turn. You should avoid, of course, jumping over
kerbs while abruptly steering - but if the car still doesn't behave well, you
should change the springs/antirolling bars/shocks/camber settings. If the car
tends to spin too much you should soften the rear settings and/or reduce front
camber, otherwise you must soften the front ones if the car is "shot" towards
the opposite corner of the track

These are only general-purpose hints, of course: it's up to you to find the best car
setup for every track and to win the Virtual Championship!

* * *

Many efforts were done to let VirtualGP be the best car racing simulation available
on any platform. This is the result. Enjoy it!

This game is dedicated to the loyal Amiga users all over the world.