Physics patch PLUS
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 First of all, this is a list of modifications that you can YOURSELF make to 
Rally Championship, by means of entering text into a file called 'ral.cfg'
in the 'var' directory. If this file does not already exist, you will need to 
create it. Then just type 'name' = 'variable' to change a setting.

e.g. stickygrass=0

 Each new setting that you change must go on a separate line. You can use 
notepad or edit, or many other programs to edit this file.


 We have not changed the default settings in the program because although 
there are quirks in the physics that seem wrong to the experienced eye, there
has to be a balance between gameplay, realism and control. Also, any changes
would invalidate all the times and data set up so far. Note, if you do change
any of these settings, you will probably find that your replays wont work,
and if too extreme changes are made, I don't know WHAT may happen. The game 
may get stuck, or crash, or worse!!!


Anyway....





 There have been a lot of different views about the physics in Rally 
Championship, ranging from 'Brilliant handling' to 'I've been cheated, this 
is rubbish'. 



I'll try to answer a few questions



1. Sticky Grass

OK, Grass is not sticky, when it is smooth, but the grass in Rally 
Championship represents smooth grass, rough grass right up to downright
rough and bumpy ground over which a car would NOT glide gracefully sideways.

We all agree that to get the best time, whether playing Rally Championship, 
or rallying for real is to stick to the roads, that is what they're there for.
So the grass slows you down to stop you cutting corners, and to keep you from 
just driving anywhere. Grass and rough ground are bumpy, but what would happen
driving on them in real life, you'd probably be grounded or in a ditch as
soon as you left the road. In Rally Championship, although the level of 
detail is high, modelling every little bump in the road is impossible given
current hardware, so this is the best compromise.

Nevertheless, if you want to remove sticky grass, put the following line in 
the ral.cfg file

patchstickygrass=0



2. The gravity is wrong, the cars dont weigh enough

The gravity is correct, and as you may find out, to change it affects more 
than you would think, but I think there are two reasons that it seems light.

The first is that, as I said before, the world is modelled from comparatively
few flat polygons, which have sharp edges, which can cause problems such as
the car skipping over the edges of these and taking off for what seems like
no reason.

The second is that, since its not your car, and you can't get hurt, you tend
to drive a lot faster than in real life, and combined with the first reason
this means that the car is in the air a lot more. Try it (No, don't!) Go on, 
drive at a 45 degree bank at 100 mph and see what happens. (No, really. Don't!)

But, if you want to experiment, you can change the value of gravity. If we 
assume that gravity is currently 100%, you cahn change it by typing

patchgravity=xxx

where xxx = 200 for double gravity, etc. The program will respond to values 
between 10 and 200.

One thing to notice is that if you increase the gravity, you will get more 
grip. IF you reduceit, your wheels will spin and you'll slide everywhere.
There are specific grip factors you can alter later on to counteract this. 



3. Collisions dont damage the car enough

OK, they dont, but we didn't realize that everyone would want them to
be so severe that one crash and you're out (Listening, Colin?). So, similarly
to the gravity setting, where 100% = current damage levels, type

patchdamages=xxx

The program responds to values from 0 to 1000, 1000 being 10x the damage.



4. The car has too much/too little grip 
   The brakes are too strong... 
   You don't slide enough on gravel

Can't please everyone! Believe me, we've heard everything, and we have tried
lots of different values, on some the real ones seem right, on others they
dont, above all, we wanted to have a game that was not too frustrating to
play, yet offered a good learning curve. The first time anyone here played 
Clocaenog, we though 15 mins was a good time. Then 14. Then 13. We're still
shaving seconds off even now! Anyway, to change these values yourselves.

Bearing in mind that 100 is what you have now, and that some factors can 
combine (remember gravity!), and that some aren't STRICTLY linear, you can 
change

patchbrakegrip=xxx	- reduce for longer braking times
patchaccelgrip=xxx	- reduce for more wheelspin
patchslidegrip=xxx	- reduce for more sliding sideways
patchgriptarmac=xxx	- change for more/less grip on tarmac
patchgripgravel=xxx	- change for more/less grip on gravel/snowy gravel
patchgripmud=xxx	- change for more/less grip on mud/dust
patchgripsnow=xxx	- change for more/less grip on snow/ice
patchgripgrass=xxx	- change for more/less grip on grass/rough ground


Remember, these are all variations from what is set already, so setting

patchgriptarmac=50 
patchgripgravel=50

will NOT make tarmac and gravel the same.


All these values can be set in the range 10-200



5. The game wont run fast enough

OK, this isn't really physics, but one of the reasons the game needs a 
powerful processor and graphics card is that a lot of the courses cover 
large wide open areas, and you can see a long way, which requires the 
program to draw a lot into the distance. We have made a setting that will
limit this, and you can reduce the 'drawdistance' by limiting this value.
On some courses, they don't have too much preset drawdistance anyway, 
but most equate to a setting of about 6 to 12. Nevertheless, you can force
the maximum drawdistance by typing

patchmaxdrawdistance=xx

This number should be between 4 and 12



Have fun, and if anyone thinks they've got the perfect settings, we want 
to know. I suspect that people will want more, but have a play. 



Shaun Southern
Physics/3d programmer
Magnetic Fields SOftware Design

