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Wreckage XV45
Copyright (C) 1997,1998,1999 Christos Dimitrakakis
This Guide
----------
I did not have time to write a proper guide.
Email me with questions, if you have any.
INTRODUCTION
------------
Wreckage is an experimental version of a driving simulation, which
is as yet unnamed.
The simulation model feels realistic, but it is innacurate.
Requirements
------------
Around 3MB of free Fast RAM and 1MB Chip
Recommended CPU: 68030@50Mhz
THE SIMULATION MODEL
--------------------
At the moment the simulation is based on a
relatively complex high-level model.
The model includes:
Real Steering Model (improved)
-Power on front wheels adds torque to the body
-Front Wheel Angle While Skidding Adds torque to the body
-Power on front wheels can add lateral acceleration
-Amount of grip on forward and rear wheels has an effect.
Torques due to collisions/forces
Downforce & air friction
Wheel Loads and Powerspins
Engine Power output
Gears
Tyres
The 3D Engine
-------------
4 or 32 colours, lo-res, polygon based
25fps on 68030 (low detail)
Other Features
--------------
Driving Aid(s)
Replays
Race-against-yourself
Cool sound with doppler effects.
There is also reverb during a replay.
Starting The Game
-----------------
At first, the game asks you for the input device.
If you want to use an analog joystick, then you will
first have to get AnJoyPrefs.lha from aminet,
and run it to calibrate your stick.
Car Selection
-------------
Choose a car.
View its statistics with View Car :)
Track Grip
----------
Track grip%
Use 50% for normal road tarmac.
25% is like, wet.
Note that high track grips can decrease your maximum speed.
Bumps
-----
The size of bumps that lie in the fields (mostly)
Large bumps increase your chance of rolling the car
Road Turn Percentage
--------------------
0%=straight, 100%=very steep curves
Oval
----
Accepts values between 0 and 1
0 makes a straight track, while
1 creates a perfect circle.
Values in between produce arcs of different angles.
The turns specified by Road Turn Percentage
are added to this basic track.
**NOTE:
Avoid having a full oval and lots of turns.
This can create points in the track where it
crosses itself. (see the BUGS section)
Speed-Sensitive Steering
------------------------
This reduces your steering effectiveness
depending on your speed
(so that you won't be zig-zaging on straights)
Use large values for:
Slow Cars
Easy Tracks
Use small values for:
Fast Cars
Twisty Tracks
If you enter 0, then this feature becomes inactive.
(I always use 0 btw)
Mouse sensitivity
-----------------
Lower this one and you'll need to drag the mouse a looong way before
the car starts turning :)
************************
* HOW TO PLAY THE GAME *
************************
GAME CONTROLS
=============
Analog Joystick:
---------------
The best control method by far.
Left-Right to steer, Forward-Back to accelerate-brake
Fire Button for HandBrake.
Mouse:
------
An adequate control device.
Moving left-right steers,
Left button to brake,Right Button to accelerate
Both Buttons for handbrake (so be careful)
Digital Joystick:
-----------------
Same as Analogue Joystick, only worse
Keyboard:
---------
Left : ,
Right: .
Accelerate: Ctrl
Brake: Left Shift
Note that the game employs square-law steering.
Also, when using mouse, keyboard or digital joystick
there is an auto-centering facility.
This is more pronounced when using the keyboard/digital joystick
options.
REPLAYS
=======
Press R at any time for a replay
Clicking a mouse button during a replay exits it.
When exiting a replay, you are considered to be restarting a race,
so be prepared to meet with your ghost self doing your previous lap
after that.
THE RACE
========
After 1000 frames, you will be put back on the starting line
along with another car.
This other car actually is YOU, on your previous attempt.
Note that as there is no definite starting and finishing
lines at the moment, the opponent is not doing the best
lap that you have done so far - just your last lap.
If you made a mistake, you can restart a race by pressing Q
At the moment the other car does not appear in the replays.
(as the other car IS the replay - get it?)
QUIT?
=====
to quit, press Esc when racing
------
CAR HANDLING
============
Basic Notes
-----------
This game simulates loads and powerspins, so keep these things in
mind. The "Throttle Help" Driving Aid helps, but not a lot.
Easy driving helps more :)
Be careful when accelerating with a rear-wheel-drive car, as
spinning the rear wheels may cause trouble.
With a front-wheel drive car, dont accelerate too much in a
curve or you will understeer.
Note that even on rear-drive cars, acceleration may cause
understeer.
Try to avoid cutting corners, as traction is reduced
outside the road. Plus, you might just hit on a large
bump and start flying:). However, some cars perform better
off-road than others.
Rally Curves
------------
The best technique is to brake or let go of the accelerator
just before entering a curve, then start accelerating again.
Or use the handbrake:)
Some Driving Theory
-------------------
OK, trying to simplify things here, a bit, but it might help.
Each tyre can (and will) exert forces on the car body
through its suspension.
The maximum magnitude of that depends on the following:
The reaction force between tyre and ground
The friction coefficient between tyre and ground.
Reaction force increases when the tyre is pushed down, wether that
is done by adding weight, or by increasing downforce. The effect
is the same.
Now, when you're racing, the car yaws, rolls and pitches. These
movements actually change the amount of force applied to each wheel,
so the reaction force has to change in order to equal the other
force.
So, when you decelerate, weight is "shifted" to the front pair of
wheels. That makes them more effective and it means that you can
turn more. It also means that the rear wheels will have less load
and thus less grip, so you're very likely to oversteer.
This phenomenon is much more important in fw drive or 4w drive cars,
since when you accelerate in those, (lateral) front grip is not only reduced
by weight shifting, but also because a part of the total grip
available in the front tyres is "consumed" towards accelerating.
(This is also the reason why a rear-drive car always accelerates
better than a front-drive car of the same horsepower.)
So, the moment you let go of the accelerator, much more grip becomes
available on the front wheels, which means you can turn more.
This technique is useful to correct understeer or to deliberately
cause oversteer.
Braking is similar, although braking will also "consume"
grip (so it may cause understeer).
Hand brake is different. Handbrake only acts on the rear wheels.
This is what happens.
Firstly, you brake.
This means, you deccelerate=> weight is shifted to the front wheels.
So now, front wheels have more grip than before, and rear wheels
have less grip.
The important thing here, is that you also lock the rear wheels.
This means that as much grip as possible is consumed from the rear
wheels for the puprose of breaking. This means that the lateral
acceleration that the rear wheels can provide is greatly reduced.
So, you do a cool rally curve.
As for rear-wheel drive cars, there is no definite answer, since you
can get either understeer or oversteer when you accelerate. You can
only learn to predict (and use) either of these situation by
practicing.
4w-drive cars have the added complexity of them being 4w-drive!
However, you'll find them much more stable than either front or rear
wheel drive cars, until you get close to their limit - they then
become difficult to control. In general though, it is much easier to
get out of a difficult position when having a 4w-drive car than any
other car, once you have become adept.
Oppositelock?
Yes, this is a technique that you must learn to use, although it
is not something that should be used for all curves. Your final aim
here is to do a very smooth drift while in the curve, and bring the
car round so that it has been completely "straightened" up at the
exit of the curve, ready to "devour" the next straight!
THE FUTURE
==========
Unfortunately I have not had much time for Wreckage lately.
XV45 is the definite final version of Wreckage. If I find time in the future I
will bring out Wreckage II - dunno what I will call it yet.
THE AUTHOR
----------
Christos Dimitrakakis (aka Olethros)
email: olethros@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2520
SnailMail: 4 Agias Sofias Str
Drama 66100
Greece
Please contact me regarding any problems with the game
THE BUGS
--------
Yes, There are bugs.
HARMLESS BUG:
------------
If the turns in the road create an intersection at some point,
then it is quite possible that the 3D engine will start displaying
the wrong part of the road and you WILL get all confused. However,
the chance of this happenning is small.
This bug is not fixable, and is merely annoying, plus it will not be
able to exist in the new, flexible world engine (under construction)
(check the source for some sleepless nights..)