     ============================================================
     An Extremely Brief Summary of Changes in the 1.5a Patch
                             12 May 2001
     ============================================================


     The major changes since 1.3 are principally in yellow-flag and
     pitting behavior.  To our knowledge there are no remaining
     issues regarding yellow flag behavior.

     Send your comments to feedback@mgiracing.com!  We love to know
     about things that are not working in the product, so that we can fix them,
     even if it does take us several months to do so.

--------------
STABILITY
--------------
        - DirectX: fixed reference count bug when terminating mip traversal early. 
        - DirectX: disabled creation of vertex buffers for project point... fixes bluescreen in Win2K. 
        - Loading: Handle partial file reads (yes, this was lame)
        - Loading: retry failed reads

--------------
GAME
--------------
        - Shorter rolling start
        - emit results.txt in all modes
        - use config_dir/driver_name.tga as in-game driver picture, if present
	- mod support
	- support multiple controllers
	- support slider0 and slider1 axes
	- 1.5a: fixed ff thrashing at controls-options screen

--------------
AI
--------------
        - Pitting traffic-management overhaul
	- "ai car parks in pitlane" bug fixed
        - Yellow-flags overhaul
        - Cars leaving pits at California don't hose traffic
        - Pacecar gets off track if final lap
        - Better pack shakeup
        - Cars start rolling start at more appropriate position

--------------
MULTI
--------------
        - Pole sitter disconnect?  Start race anyway.
        - Ask for password when using -server: cmdline to connect to password-protected servers
        - Don't send empty chats
        - Fixed incredibly dumb packet recycling bug
        - Less sensitive to crazy data
        - Perma-kick: kicked users cannot reconnect for N minutes, optionally
        - dedicated server: "chat" command for console communication
        - latecomers no longer get incredibly good qualify times
        - "impatient server": server auto-approves everyone after N seconds, optionally
        - Rudimentary cheating detection
	- Report cheaters more explicitly
        - Rolling starts cosmetically different; side effect of yellow overhaul
        - use config_dir/driver_name.tex as car texture for remote human cars, if present
        - No black flags when passing on rolling start
