Select a Link from the table below to see the Tips:
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This page contains general tips on PC Driving Games, tips on how to get the most from your games, driving and handling tips, advice on tactics, and other guidance, etc. For game CHEATS select the link above, or at the bottom of the page.
4X4 Evolution Game Tips:
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To find extra cash, go to the following places:
Farm Road Track = Under the train trestle in the middle of the pond.
Restricted Area Track = Go straight after passing thru gate 5, go to the aircraft hanger with the jet, in one corner you will find the cash,
Laguna Del Ray Track = Off to the right there is a small island offshore, the cash is at the top of the island.
Black Gold Track = Between gates 6 & 7 find the fenced in area, there is a box of cash here.
Treasure Bay Track = There is a beached tanker on the right, go round the other side where the water is and find the chest in the side hull.
Truck Stop 101 Track = Go to the "hidden" highway, drive along the right hand side of the road, eventually you will come across a cash chest.
Rally Championship (RC) Game Configuration Tip:
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The Rally Championship patch v4 is now available from the simracing news website, which gives a new ral.exe file, and also allows configuration of the games physics settings (much complained about by some people!) If you do not have one already, make a ral.cfg file (using notepad or similer) and save it to your rc\var directory. Using this text file (once the patch has been installed) you can specify all sorts of settings to make the cars brake longer, reduce or increase grip on various surfaces, etc, etc. Check out these sites for the patch (when you download it read the patch.txt file for all the details of what can be changed):
Simracing News Website:
The Official RC Website:
After some experimentation today, my ral.cfg file has the following lines:
patchstickygrass=0
patchdamages=50
patchbrakegrip=50
patchslidegrip=80
patchmaxdrawdistance=10
These settings turn off the sticky grass, so you do not suffer major slowdowns when on the grass, they reduce the amount of damage done by 50%, decrease the braking power by 50%, (so the car takes twice the distance to stop) increases the cars sliding slightly, and reduces slightly the amount of graphics drawn in the distance (to speed up the graphics frame rate). This has transformed the game. Before these changes it was a good game, pretty realistic (once the steering sensitivity had been sorted out) and looked great. Now, the car brakes better, steers better, slides better, and seems to fly along even quicker than before. It now feels awesome, the game Colin M Rally should have been! Get the patch, make the changes (you may want slightly different settings to me, but use mine as a guide if you like) and enjoy.
Re-Volt Driving Tip:
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Use The Walls - Scraping the walls reduces your speed slightly, but not much. And not as much as spinning out at the many tight corners. In Toyworld, the Museum, and the Toytanic Courses, there are may places where you can make a tight turn at maximum speed just by using the walls. You can also use the walls to bounce off. On some of the really tight turns, hit the wall just before a turn on the opposite side and it will send you in the right direction.
Driver Tip:
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Can't complete the training mission in Driver for the PC? but you want to play the game? Backup the file DRIVER\DATA\MLADDER.DML first!
Edit the DRIVER\DATA\MLADDER.DML file in Notepad or a similar text editor, by removing the two lines:
INTERVIEW
QUITONFAIL
Save the file, then you can start Driver and go straight to the missions without having to go through the training mission!
Viper Racing Tips:
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- Want to drive a Lamborghini? Pause the game, select "options", select "hacks",. Now type "morepowerthebetter" and you will now have a nice fast Lamborghini at your disposal.
- Tip - If you choose Career mode, it is important to concentrate on the chassis setup and the upgrades instead of the speed and acceleration. The cars default speed will be good enough anyway.
- Tip - If moving from a standstill, try to reduce wheelspin as much as possible, you will get away much quicker. When starting a race, don't forget to change into first gear before the race begins.
- Tip - Keep the cars RPMs high and in the redline. Even though the car sounds like it won't go any faster, it will if you keep it in the power band.
- Tip - In Career mode, save the game immediately after your last good result, but before you spend money on upgrades that might not work out. This way, you have the option of going back to the saved game and trying other upgarades.
- Tip - In Career mode, if you don't win a class, you get to keep whatever money you've accumulated and start that class all over again. Especially in the easy Amateur class, you may want to do well enough to pick up some bucks, but not so well that you win it. Stockpile the cash and buy better upgrades further down the road.
- Tip - Brake first approaching corners, then turn in. If you try to turn while braking you will almost certainly lose the car. Think *GPL* braking and you will be alright.
TOCA 2 Driving Tips:
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To drive consistently fast at TOCA 2 you need to master some basic driving techniques. By default, the TOCA 2 car is setup rather conservatively. Gear ratios give a good balance between acceleration and top speed, downforce gives good cornering ability without affecting top speed, and the suspension gives predictable handling. However, To drive competitively, you need to do the following:
- Don't Use Downforce: - Get used to driving without any downforce. You will soon get comfortable with zero downforce at all times and you will stop thinking about the setup option to add it even being there. Having no downforce does not mean spinning out all the time! Driving without downforce makes the cars faster.
- Use Stiffer Suspension Settings: - This is probably the fastest way to set the car up in most cases. The car is not quite so loose, and it also feels more precise when making controller inputs. Lower values tend to even out bumps on the road and reduce the effects of crossing rumble strips but also make the car roll when cornering hard, making steering less precise. High values give a stiffer suspension that aids precise steering but makes the car skip around on uneven surfaces, thus increasing the chances of losing control at unexpected moments, especially if your steering is not smooth.
- Lift Off The Brakes to Steer: - Lifting off the brakes at the right moment helps you to point the car in the right direction. Practice makes perfect? Try to lift off the pedal at exactly the moment you want to turn in, the weight transfer should help you to turn easier.
- Gears: - You may get a slightly better time in TOCA 2 by using a higher gear rather than downchanging to a lower gear. If the speedo reads the same speed while cornering, you will generally see an advantage in your overall laptime. Try to downshift only when it is really necessary. Use a high gear ratio for first gear, this reduces wheelspin when in the low gear (at race starts or hairpins) and increases acceleration.
Want to race TOCA2 via the net? Easy, go to HERE: or Try HERE: for all your TOCA2 on-line needs.
Formula One Racing Simulator (F1RS) Tips:
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- Tip - For extra speed in qualifying, take advantage of the "qualifying engine" option in the garage menu. Selecting a high RPM redline will result more speed and acceleration at the expense of reliability. Be sure to switch it back before the race.
- The default set-ups suffered from terrible understeer. Download car set-ups from the net or alter the set-ups yourself to overcome this. EG: by increasing front grip (more front wing, less rear wing, lower ride heights, softer front anti roll bar, stiffer rear anti roll bar, etc).
- Tip - Keep your brakes applied on the start line until the red lights go out. The car can start rolling forward on some circuits resulting in a false start.
- Tip - F1 cars have very powerful brakes which are accurately modeled in F1RS. You can brake much later and deeper for most corners than you think. With practice, this results in faster laptimes.
- Tip - Watch the computer controlled cars for tips (Say Schumacher) using the Page Up or Page Down keys, and by closely studying the driving techniques, gearing setups and braking points can be learned.
- Tip - The best method of improving poor frame rate at the start of races on a slow PC is to reduce the number of AI cars. Halving the number of competitors from 21 to 11 can increase the fps on a slow PC by a huge margin. Switching off the replay option also speeds things up.
- Tip - If you've Qualified on Pole by a small margin, But theres still some time to go in the qualifying session, park your car out in the middle of the track (say just before or just after a tight turn). You won't be towed away and the AI cars will slow down enough to cost them at least half a second per lap as they drive around you.
- Can't hear your cars engine? Easy, Lower the sound of the other cars! In the F1RS\CPA\dll directory you'll find a file called Snd_cpa.ini. Change the following lines:
SXD_DIST_SATUR=5
SXD_DIST_FADE=75
- The SXD_DIST_FADE option is the important one. It determines the distance other cars can be heard. The default setting is too high, when you are on pole, a number of 75 will enable you to hear all cars around. Lowering this line to a very low number will do the trick, but you may not be able to hear a car coming up behind you until he is beside you. SXD_DIST_SATUR changes the volume of the other cars. The following settings work seem to work best?
SXD_DIST_SATUR=1
SXD_DIST_FADE=15
- Now you should be able to hear your own car engine at all times. At the start it will still be very noisy around you, but that's realistic. When a car comes up behind you during the race, you can hear it in time to take the appropriate action.
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Many people had various problems with F1RS, V2 cards not recognised, slowdowns at race starts, etc, if you go through this list it should cure most of the common problems:
- Set the min & max virtual memory to the *same* amount, eg:- F1RS requires a min of 128Mb? its no good setting the min to say 100 and the max to 130 as the computer will take up valuable time
figuring out what the *actual* file size should be? if you set the min & max to the *same* the computer spends zero time on it as the file size is set!
- Is your pc set-up ok to run games generally? do you run other games and do they run ok? If not you might want to optimise your pc so that it is biased for games? See my "Optimising your PC for Games": section for more information.
- How much memery do you have? F1RS can be played with 32Mb SDram, and it will run ok, but with 64Mb or 128Mb it really flies?
- Did you do a *full* install when you installed the game? if not, do it, as this will speed up the whole game in general and especially switching between menu screens.
- You are running it in *3Dfx* mode aren't you? Make sure that when you installed the game it recognised your 3Dfx card, and that when the game starts it runs the f1voo.exe file and no other file? Sometimes f1rs can move two important files during the istall process, and this means it cannot *see* your 3Dfx card? check your windows/system directory for Glide.dll & sst1init.dll. If they are there then fine, if they are not, copy them from your original f1rs cd to the windows/system directory and f1rs will now be able to see your 3Dfx card ok. NB: It is recommended that you have at least a 4mb D3d card, but a 3Dfx card is highly recommended.
- Patches, make sure you have installed the latest patches for the game as these do improve performance. The last patch was v1.09 (get it from any of the many good F1RS sites, just search for ubisoft & f1rs on the net?)
- Have you made the recommended changes to the sound files in the game, this improves the first corner slowdowns that some people suffer? To alter the sound files read the section above on lowering the other cars sounds.
- Generally *less* wheel lock is preferred to more, only increase the lock if you cannot get around the slow corners (hairpin at Monaco?) NB: Also remember the default set-ups understeer badly, so tweaking the set-ups is essential to getting the most from the cars (or download some set-ups from the net).
- Make sure the UBI.INI file in your \windows\ubisoft directory is set to "3dfx=1" to get the 3Dfx version running.
- Your *not* using a Cyrix cpu or an AMD K5 cpu are you? as these will either only run F1RS very slowly, or not at all!
- Make sure you are specifying in your windows game controller (in control panel) that your controller is a *race car controller* and not a joystick. Otherwise it places a deadzone in the calibration. In control panel, game controllers, go to "Add" and select custom, switch on the "special characteristics" radio button, and select "is a race car controller"
Grand Prix 2 (GP2) LAN Tips:
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Want to play GP2 on a LAN, you need a program called GP2LAP. Last time I looked you could get it from HERE:
When you download the program, read the included readme file. Its a dos program (as is GP2) and a bit tempremental, but I've had it working on my home LAN (under win95) before now.
Make sure all the installations of GP2 are exactly the same on each pc, If you do use any patches or utilities, even load them on each pc in the same order!
Monster Truck Madness (MTM) Tips:
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Instead of racing in a monster truck you can race in a huge car eating dinosaur. Select Ctrl-3 to see a great chase-plane view of it.
There is a hidden soccer field on the Highlands Rally course and people can play monster truck soccer with a giant soccer ball that is sitting there waiting to be used.
Ultimate Race Pro Tips:
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- Tip - Learn the hand-brake turn, which is very useful in the games many hairpin bends to gain an advantage over the computer competition. To do it properly you need to get the timing perfect.
- Tip - Your car doesn't suffer any damage in non deathmatch modes, so use all of your armor points to increase grip and acceleration.
- Tip - Voodoo 2 require a driver from 3Dfx in order to make the cards work with the game. Get the driver from the MicroProse or Kalisto Web sites.
NASCAR Racing Tip:
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Look in your nascar\tracks\taladega directory for a text file called TALADEGA.TXT. Approximately 3 lines into the file, there is a line called SPDWY. Change the first 1 to a 0. Now you can do up to mph through the straights in good weather
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