1) From the Windows Start menu, select Programs\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo.
2) If this is the first time launching the game the 3D Configuration program will launch.
3) Use the 3D Configuration program to select the desired Renderer, Display Device, and Game Resolution.
4) After the 3D Configuration completes, the game will automatically launch.
16-BIT VS. 32-BIT COLOR
Because of the large amount of textures used in NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo, it is recommended that 32-bit color only be used on video cards with 64 MB or more texture memory. Note that even for 64 MB cards 16-bit color will likely result in significantly better performance.
TEXTURE MEMORY DETECTION
As part of the 3D Configuration test NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo will attempt to detect the total amount of texture memory available on your video card. Note that as you increase the video resolution more memory is required for the frame buffer resulting in less for textures.
If you would like to try running the game with a higher setting, you may manually edit the "TextureSetSize" value (in bytes) in the REND_D3D.INI. Increasing this value above the detected value may prevent the game from dropping mip levels as more textures are loaded, but note that setting too large of a value may result in SIGNIFICANT performance hits as textures begin to swap in and out of memory.
MIP FILTERING SELECTION
As part of the 3D Configuration test NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo will automatically select the recommended mip filtering, but advanced users may wish to experiment with the values listed below. Note that if you manually select a setting that is too advanced, it might cause mip-mapping to disable, use a lesser setting, or go into a software emulation mode.
Direct3D Mip Filters in the REND_D3D.INI:
Texture Magnification Filters:
1 = point sampling
2 = bi-linear filtering
Texture Minification Filters:
1 = point sampling
2 = bi-linear filtering
Mip-Mapping Filters:
1 = use top mip level always
2 = use appropriate mip level
3 = tri-linear filtering if minification filter is 2
ANISOTROPIC FILTERING
In addition to the above mentioned mip filtering methods, many video cards also support Anisotropic Filtering which is a more advanced mip filtering method and can result in improved visual quality. If your video card and drivers support this feature, you will be able to enable Anisotropic Filtering by using the checkbox in the Quality section of on the game's Graphics Option screen.
TASK SWITCHING
If you experience problems task switching it is recommended that you limit ALT+TAB to times when the 3D world is not being rendered, such as when navigating the game's menus as opposed to when you are on the track.
MOUSE ISSUES
Using animated mouse cursors can create cursor anomalies in NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo. If you encounter problems, restore your windows mouse cursor to its default settings.
SOUND ISSUES
If you find that you have no sound in the game, it may be necessary to go to the Audio tab of your Windows Multimedia Control Panel and select the proper playback device. You may also want to disable the "Use only preferred devices" option if it is currently enabled. Additionally there are a couple of CORE.INI variables which improve the quality of sound on some sound cards. The default values are as follows:
[Sound]
allow_buffer_recreation=1
enable_3d_interpolation=1
force_default_buffer_size=0
You can set allow_buffer_recreation to 0 to disable sound buffer re-creation, which may ever so slightly improve performance, but at the cost of quality for some sound cards. For example, some cards such as Aureal Vortex2 based cards don't seem to work very well when this is not enabled.
When 3D sound is enabled, positions of newly played sounds take some time to reach their destination. On some system this may result in sounds being played loudly for a brief moment, even though they *should* have a low volume given their distance from the listener. The enable_3d_interpolation setting can help to work around this problem. If a system properly (instantly) sets the 3D position of a sound, then this solution, when enabled, might make the sound seem to "fade-in", so setting this to 0 would be called for in those systems. Note that when 3D Sound is enabled, Aureal Vortex2 cards may experience crackling and popping sounds.
The force_default_buffer_size setting default sound buffer read-ahead size to a given value, defined in 1/36 second increments, which may help sound issues on Win2000 machines.
USING MICROSOFT GAME VOICE OR OTHER VOICE CHAT PROGRAMS
By default NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo will run at highest priority. This is perfectly fine for most users, however if you experience problems using Microsoft's Game Voice or other similar programs you may need to force NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo to run at a lower priority by adding a "-kh0" (that's dash K H Zero) command line parameter to the shortcut:
"C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo\NR2002.exe" -kh0
When NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo is first launched you will be taken to the Controls screen where you will calibrate and assign your driving controls. Once this has been done, you'll be able to hit the track in either Testing or Single Player mode. Note that if you wish to customize your player, you will first need to visit the Player Info screen where you can fill in the First and Last Name fields and select the car you wish to drive.
DIRECTINPUT JOYSTICK DRIVER
If you have a DirectInput joystick/wheel and you can't calibrate it in NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo, exit the game and ensure that the device is properly set up and calibrated in the Windows Game Controllers Control Panel applet.
OPTIMIZED JOYSTICK DRIVER
In addition to DirectInput support, NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo also includes an optimized joystick driver. The optimized driver may provide more precise joystick input than can be obtained with DirectInput, but is only compatible with standard PC joysticks. Note that joysticks which are designed for DirectInput, such as USB or ForceFeedback controllers, will not work with the Optimized driver.
GEARBOX SELECTION
NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo offers 3 different gearbox choices. In Sequential mode controls assigned to the Shift Up and Shift Down commands are used to change gears in the following sequence: reverse, neutral, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. In Direct Selection mode, you may assign a control to shift directly to any gear, or to neutral. The H Pattern mode is intended for use only with controllers featuring a gated shifter such as the ActLabs RS Shifter. In this mode, you may shift directly to any of the forward gears as well as to reverse gear. Once the shifter is moved out of an assigned gate, the transmission will shift to neutral automatically.
DRIVING AIDS
"Automatic Shifting" equips your car with an automatic transmission. The automatic transmission shifts more slowly than its manual counterpart, resulting in slower lap times for the experienced driver.
"Automatic Clutch" equips your car with an automatic clutch. While the manual clutch can provide greater shifting precision, it requires proper heel and toe downshift technique and therefore is recommended only for experienced users. The manual clutch is not available if Automatic Shifting has been selected.
"Anti-Lock Brakes" equips your car with an anti-lock braking system. While anti-lock brakes make the car easier for the novice driver to control, the experienced driver will be able to brake more efficiently with this option turned off. NOTE: If braking has been assigned to a button or a key rather than a controller axis, this aid will be turned on and cannot be turned off. Otherwise, the car would be very difficult to control while braking.
"Steering Assistance" makes it is more difficult to spin the car. This aid is particularly useful for novice drivers and for those who are steering with buttons or the keyboard, but disabling it will provide greater steering precision. NOTE: If the steering has been assigned to buttons or keys rather than a controller axis, this aid will be turned on and cannot be turned off. Otherwise, the car would be very difficult to control.
"Traction Control" equips your car with a traction control system. While traction control makes the car easier for the novice driver to control, the experienced driver will be able to accelerate and corner more efficiently with this option turned off. NOTE: If the throttle has been assigned to a button or a key rather than a controller axis, this aid will be turned on and cannot be turned off. Otherwise, the car would be very difficult to control while accelerating.
"Show Ideal Racing Line" causes the ideal racing line around the track will be highlighted. This line is a guide for the fastest racing line around the track, and is color coded red and green to indicate braking and acceleration zones. Note that this aid is functional only in Testing sessions. The aid may be turned on or off while in the car by pressing the R key.
SPEED SENSITIVE STEERING
By default, NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo uses a speed-sensitive steering ratio such that at low speeds your steering ratio will be set to somewhere between 7:1 and the ratio defined in your car setup. NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo does this to make it possible to exit your pit stall when pit road is crowded. You can disable this feature by editing the following line in your CORE.INI, changing the 1 to a 0:
[Hack]
steer_ratio=1 ; Enable low speed ratio override
CAR SETUPS
Each players' car setups in are stored in individual track directories located in "Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo\Players\Player__Name\Setups".
TAKING SCREENSHOTS
At any time within the game you may press the PrintScreen button on your keyboard to take a screenshot. These will be saved into your NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo directory as sequentially numbered TGA files (NR2002SSxxx.TGA). These files may be viewed in most 3rd party image viewers.
SAVING AND VIEWING REPLAYS
Replays can be saved from the Race Weekend screen by clicking on the folder icon under the 3D window. You will be prompted for a filename. To view the replay later, or to view replays which you have obtained from other players, select the Replay Theater option from the Main Menu. Replays are stored in the "Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo\Replay" directory. To view replays obtained from other players, simply copy them into the Replay directory before starting the game.
REPLAY CONTROLS KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
C - Change to Next Camera
V - Change Focus to Next Driver
CTRL+N - Unfocus Current Camera from Driver
CTRL+V - Change Focus Back to Player Car
SHIFT+C - Change to Previous Camera
SHIFT+V - Change Focus to Previous Driver
Keypad1 (END) - Fast Forward to End
Keypad4 (Left Arrow) - Frame Rewind
Keypad5 - Play/Pause
Keypad6 (Right Arrow) - Frame Advance
Keypad7 (Home) - Rewind to Start
Keypad8 - Slow Motion Mode
SHIFT+Keypad4 - Rewind
SHIFT+Keypad6 - Fast Forward
Keypad. (Del) - Switch to Live Feed Mode
S - Display Standings (Full-screen replay only)
Space - Toggle On-screen Display of Replay Controls
DRIVING CONTROLS KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
ESC - Open ESC menu (Use Arrows and ENTER to Navigate)
F1 through F9 - Pit Service Controls (Use Arrows and SPACE to Navigate)
PageUp & PageDown - Change Driving Views
PauseBreak - Pause Game
PrintScreen - Take Screen Shot
F - Toggle Framerate Counter
G - Toggle Gauges in External Driving Views
H - Display Keyboard Shortcuts
M - Toggle Mirror Detail Level
N - Toggle Car Interior Display in Mirror
O - Toggle Trackside Object Detail Level
S - Toggle Speed/Gear/Flag Indicator
V - Change Focus to Next Driver (Car must be stopped)
CTRL+V - Change Focus Back to Player Car
SHIFT+V - Change Focus to Previous Driver (Car must be stopped)
CTRL+I - Toggle Lap Info Messages
CTRL+L - Check Leader Position
SHIFT+R - Return to Pit
SHIFT+T - View/Reset Tachometer Telltale
PITTING
When pitting, use the animated pit sign as a guide to position the car for an optimal stop. If you are too far forward in the stall or not close enough to the sign you will not receive service, and in order to receive left side tires you must take care to not stop too close to the inside pit wall.
COMMAND LINE OVERRIDE FOR GAME .INI SETTINGS
You can override any of NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo's .INI file options from the command line. The command line overrides will not be saved to the .INI file, so there is no need to backup the .INI file. The format of a command line override is as follows...
-ko"numeric_id:section_name:key_name:value"
...where...
numeric_id is the ID of the .INI file that contains the value to be overridden. The mapping is as follows:
0 = CORE.INI,
10 = APP.INI
20 = PLAYER.INI
40 = TRACK.INI
50 = ADDRESS.INI
section_name is the name of the section within the .INI file in which the key exists. [PLAYER], for example. The brackets ([, and ]) should not be specified.
key_name is the name of the key. lastPlayer, for example.
Lets say you want to be able to launch the game and have it automatically switch to one of multiple players you have created. To do this, you would need to override the lastPlayer key in the [Player] section of APP.INI. So if you had two players, John Smith and Fred Jones, you could create separate shortcuts to launch the game for each:
"C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo\NR2002.exe" -ko"10:player:lastPlayer:Smith__John"
"C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2002 Season Demo\NR2002.exe" -ko"10:player:lastPlayer:Jones__Fred"
The first command line would launch NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo with the player John Smith. The second command line would NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo with the player Fred Jones.
CONTROLLING REPLAY MEMORY
By default NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo will try to use a much free memory as is available for replays. This should be fine for most users, however if you find that you need to force this to a larger value to save longer replays, or wish to force it to a smaller value if performance is suffering, you may edit the "replayMemoryOverride" value in [Replay] section of CORE.INI. This value is in KB, so for a 64MB replay buffer you would set this value to 65,536 (64MB x 1024KB/MB).
Note that when NASCAR« Racing 2002 Season Demo is run as a dedicated server only a minimum 512KB of replay buffer will be used to maximize performance and minimize the load on the server. If you wish to save replays from a dedicated server you will need to override this value.
Sierra's end user license agreement, limited warranty and return policy is set forth in the EULA.txt, found on the CD, and is also available during the install of the product.
