Grand Prix Legends
Version 1.0
Readme File
8/31/98

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About This Document:

Thank you for purchasing Grand Prix Legends. 

This document contains last-minute information about Grand Prix Legends as well as information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have concerning the game or your computer. Should you experience any problems with Grand Prix Legends, please refer to this file for additional help on answering questions about the game and solving technical difficulties.

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		    	TABLE OF CONTENTS

		  I.	MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
		 II.	GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
		 		Using the 3D Accelerated Version of the Game
				"Focus follows mouse" Issues
				Performance
				Sound Quality Issues
				Modem and Direct-Connect Issues
				TCP/IP Issues
				Graphics Tablet Issues
				Cyrix 6x86 Issues
				Windows 98 Issues

		III.	GENERAL GAME ISSUES
				The Right Shift Key
				Keyboard HotKeys
				Capturing Screenshots
				Repairing Damage and Righting an Overturned Car
				Car Setups
				Flags
				Pit Board
				Championship Points System
				Hot Laps
				Why won't my car roll downhill?
				AI Dynamic Strength Adjustment
			 	Modification of INI Files
	 			Controlling AI for league play
		 IV.    CONTACTING SIERRA 	 
	               



I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
-----------------------

Required:
Pentium-166
Windows 95/98 w/ DirectX 5.0 or later
32 MB RAM
2X CD-ROM Drive
2MB DirectX compatible SVGA Video Card
Mouse

Preferred:
Pentium II-266+
64 MB RAM
3D Accelerator Card (3Dfx or Rendition)
Joystick or Steering Wheel/Pedals

- Full Install: Copies all of the GPL program files to your hard drive (133 MB)
- Typical Install: Installs everything except for tracks to your hard drive (59 MB)*

* Requires the GPL CD-ROM to play


II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES
----------------------------

USING THE 3D ACCELERATED VERSION OF THE GAME

During the installation of Grand Prix Legends, you will be prompted to select the type of 3D accelerator present in your system.  If you have a video card based on the Rendition V1000, V2100, or V2200 chipsets, you should select Rendition Verite Adapter.  If you have a card using the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics or Voodoo2 chipsets, you should select 3Dfx Adapter.  All other cards and chipsets will need to select Software.

The Rendition version of Grand Prix Legends requires RRedline compatible drivers.  If you do not have the drivers or you experience problems loading or playing the Rendition version, contact your video card manufacturer for information regarding obtaining the latest drivers.

The 3Dfx version of Grand Prix Legends requires Glide 2.43 or later.  If you do not have Glide 2.43 installed, or you experience problems loading or playing the 3Dfx version, contact your video card manufacturer for information regarding obtaining the latest drivers.

Voodoo2 users should not enable the 'Force Triple Color Buffering For Glide Apps' option in the advanced properties of the Voodoo2 display control panel.


"FOCUS FOLLOWS MOUSE" ISSUES

If you are using the 3Dfx version of Grand Prix Legends, and you are also using the "xmouse" utility to cause the focused window to follow the mouse, to start the game you must minimize all applications and start GPL from either the Start menu, or from a desktop shortcut.  If you do not, you may see only a black screen with an hourglass cursor.  If this happens, wait a few seconds, press the ESC key, then press ENTER, wait a second, then press ENTER again to close Grand Prix Legends.


PERFORMANCE

Because of the requirements that Grand Prix Legends places on your system, it is recommended that you reduce the number of additional applications running in the background while playing GPL to a bare minimum.

If GPL is running slowly on your system, several options may help to improve performance:

- Run using one of the supported 3D accelerator cards.
- Switch to a lower screen resolution.
- Reduce the number of Computer Opponents.
- Reduce the Detail Bias, Mirror Detail Level, Trackside Objects, and the number of checked graphics options.

It is also recommended that you obtain and install the latest drivers and firmware for all of your hardware devices.

If your machine does not have a secondary cache, GPL will probably run very slowly.  If your machine has an Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX, or compatible chip made by another company, you will need at least 256K of secondary cache for GPL to perform well (512K would be even better).  If your machine has an Intel Pentium II processor, it already has a secondary cache built in, and should perform well.  If your machine has an Intel Celeron processor, GPL will generally perform well, though we have heard of some performance problems when using high speed connections on a serial port.


SOUND QUALITY ISSUES

If you experience any problems with the quality of the in-game sounds, try reducing Max # of Sounds Heard on the Sound & Gameplay section of the Options screen.


MODEM AND DIRECT-CONNECT ISSUES

If you experience problems dialing out with your modem, and the modem is installed properly and is being recognized in the Modem Control Panel, it is recommended that you reduce the 16550 UART FIFO buffers to their lowest setting:
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open Modems
3. Highlight the modem and click Properties
4. Choose the Connection tab and click 'Port Settings'
5. Move both sliders to their left-most position

It is recommended that you use the DirectInput joystick driver with the "poll with interrupts enabled" option checked in the Advanced tab of the Game Controllers Control Panel.

If you experience problems with playing games reliably over high-speed connections, try selecting lower speeds for the connection on the multiplayer screens.


TCP/IP ISSUES

If you connect to the Internet using a modem, and wish to play GPL over the Internet, connect to the Internet before starting GPL.  If you do not intend to play GPL over the Internet, there is no need to connect before playing the game.

If you have a local area network, and your network card is dynamically assigned an IP address (using DHCP), you must tell GPL to use an alternate method of determining your machine's IP address.  

Using Notepad, create a file named core.ini in the same folder in which gpl.exe exists containing the following two lines:

[Communications]
alternate_ip_addr_lookup = 1

Note, however, that if you use this alternate method, and your only TCP/IP connection is via a modem, and you have your Internet properties set to automatically connect to the Internet, and you're not connected to the Internet when you start GPL, Dial-Up Networking will start up when you launch GPL.  This may cause GPL to not function properly, and/or your machine may connect to the Internet.


GRAPHICS TABLET ISSUES

If you have a graphics tablet connected to a serial port on your computer, you must disable GPL's "direct connect" multiplayer option.  There is a bug in the drivers for some tablets that causes the drivers to become corrupt when GPL looks for serial ports on your computer.  If this occurs, you will need to re-install the drivers for your tablet.

You can disable GPL's direct connect multiplayer option by using Notepad to edit the app.ini file in the GPL directory, to change the 0 to a 1 (the digit one) on the disableDirectConnect line.

[ Communications ]
disableDirectConnect = 1 ; Disable Direct Connect


CYRIX 6x86 ISSUES

GPL uses a Pentium instruction which is not supported by the 6x86, and as such GPL will not run on this CPU.  It will run on later Cyrix chips such as the MX and MII, the AMD K5 and K6, in addition to all genuine Intel Pentium chips.


WINDOWS 98 ISSUES

On some Windows 98 machines if user profiles are enabled applications will encounter problems when attempting to change the screen resolution or color depth.  If you experience this problem, it is recommended that you disable user profiles: 
1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Open Passwords
3. Choose the User Profiles tab and check 'All users of this computer use the same preferences and desktop settings'.


III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES
------------------------

THE RIGHT SHIFT KEY

Due to rather wacky behavior on the part of Windows with regard to the right shift key with the NUM-LOCK state active, GPL ignores the right shift key.  Any mention of the shift key in the documentation or in-game help screens is in reference to the left shift key only.


KEYBOARD HOTKEYS

The following list of keyboard hotkeys can be used from within the car:

	ESC - Return to Pits/Retire
	F1 - Help Display
	F2 - View Replay (Single Player Only)
	F3 - Options (Single Player Only)
	F10 - Toggle Driving View
	PAUSE - Pause/Continue Game (Single Player Only)
	ENTER - Type/Send Chat Message (Multiplayer Only)
	ALT+F - Toggle Frame Rate Display
	SHIFT+R - Car Reset (see section below)
	SHIFT+T - TellTale Reset
	
Additionally the following hotkeys are available to control the replay and live feed views:

	C - Change to Next Camera
	V - Change Focus to Next Driver
	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 Replay
	Keypad6 (Right Arrow) - Frame Advance
	Keypad7 (Home) - Rewind to Start
	SHIFT+Keypad4 - Rewind
	SHIFT+Keypad6 - Fast Forward
	Keypad. (Del) - Switch to Live Feed Mode
	

CAPTURING SCREENSHOTS

There are two methods of taking screenshots during the game.  First you can press ALT-PrintScreen to capture the current screen in the clipboard, allowing you to exit GPL and paste it into the paint program of your choice.  Secondly, and useful if you want to take a number of different shots at once, pressing just the PrintScreen button saves sequentially numbered PBF files (gplss##.pbf) to your GPL directory.  After exiting GPL you can then use the included pbf2tga.exe program to convert them to a usable TGA format.


REPAIRING DAMAGE AND RIGHTING AN OVERTURNED CAR

During most training, practice, and race sessions you can simultaneously press <Shift> and R to be placed upright on the racing surface with repaired damage, a fresh set of cold tires, and a topped off fuel tank.  However after pressing Shift-R, a message may appear at the bottom of your screen indicating that the track is not clear.  If this occurs, you will need to wait for the approaching drivers to pass before you will be allowed to use Shift-R.  Note that Shift-R is disabled in Pro race sessions and in both the Grand Prix practice and race sessions.


CAR SETUPS

Each players' car setups in Grand Prix Legends are chassis specific, and will be stored in individual track directories located in GPL\Players\Player__Name\Setups with the file extension of the setup designating the chassis that the setup was designed for.  These are as follows:

Brabham: setup_name.bb_
BRM: setup_name.br_
Coventry: setup_name.co_
Eagle: setup_name.ea_
Ferrari: setup_name.fe_
Lotus: setup_name.lo_
Murasama: setup_name.mu_

In each case the final digit in the extension will designate the car class, with 1 being Grand Prix, 2 being the Advanced Trainer, and 3 being the Novice Trainer.  Thus a setup for a GP Lotus would have the extension .lo1 while a setup for a Novice Trainer Lotus would be .lo3


FLAGS

As you drive around the tracks, you will notice that corner workers, or flaggers, are stationed around the circuit at strategic locations.  They will display a variety of flags depending on the situation.  Note that any time you can see a flag, it is being directed at you.  For example, if you see a black flag, it definitely is intended for you, and not for another car which might be near you.

Blue: The blue flag means that a car is approaching you from behind and may wish to pass.  This is an advisory flag only.  You are not required to let the car pass.  In races, the blue flag is only displayed if the car behind is one or more laps ahead of you.  This usually means that it is a faster car, so pay more attention to it in races.

Held Yellow: Means that there is trouble ahead and you are advised to use caution and avoid passing.  There is no penalty for passing under a yellow, as in 1967 there was little or no communication between corner workers and the race steward.  Use your own judgment.

Waving Yellow: This indicates a more serious condition than a held yellow, usually involving the track being partially or completely blocked.

Green: Displayed after a yellow incident area, indicating that it is safe to race again.  Also used to start the race.

White: Indicates a slow-moving car ahead on the racing surface.  This is usually a car that has suffered some sort of mechanical problem, or a car recovering from an incident and getting back up to speed.

Black: Displayed only at the start/finish line.  Indicates that you have violated a rule and must report to your pit for additional information.  There are two conditions under which you will receive a black flag:

	Jumped Start: If your car rolls too far out of your starting block before the green flag falls, you will be penalized according to the severity of the infraction.  You will see the black flag, after which you must enter your pit stall and wait until the penalty board disappears.  The time that you must wait will be appropriate to the advantage you gained from jumping the start.  You have several laps to enter the pits and receive this penalty after being given the black flag.  If you fail to do so, race control will stop scoring you and you will be disqualified.

	Backwards Travel: If you travel in a direction counter to race traffic for too long (and it doesn't take long, so when you spin, make sure you get your bearings before re-joining the track), you will be disqualified from the session.

Checkered: Indicates the end of a session or race.  Shown only at the start/finish line.  After you have "taken the checkered", you will notice that the corner workers all around the track will be waving various flags to indicate the end of the session in case you missed it.


PIT BOARD

The pit board is used by your team to convey vital information to you as you approach the start/finish line on each lap.  The pit board in GPL functions very much like pit boards used by race teams in 1967.  The most important thing to know is that some of the information on the pit board is always one lap old (except at the Nurburgring).  This is due to the time required to collect the information and then post it to the board.  The pit board is slightly different between Practice and Race sessions, as follows:

Practice: P# indicates your current position in the standings for this practice session.  If it shows P1, then you have the best time so far in the session.  M### indicates the number of minutes remaining in the session (this is always current).  In the middle of the pit board you will see the time of the last lap you completed.  The item beneath this depends on whether or not you are P1.  If you are P1, the bottom item will be the first four letters of the driver's last name who is currently P2, along with the difference between your best time and his.  If you are not P1, the display will be similar, but will represent the driver who is currently P1 (on pole), and the difference between his best time and your best.

Race: P# indicates your position in the race at the time you last crossed the start/finish line.  L### indicates the number of laps remaining in the race.  The two items in the middle of the pit board indicate, in a manner similar to that in Practice, the drivers who were ahead of you (top item) and behind you at the completion of the previous lap, along with the gap up to the driver ahead, and the gap back to the one behind.


CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS SYSTEM

The points system which is used to determine the championship for drivers and constructors is the same as that used in the 1967 season.  In a race, a win is worth 9 points, second is 6, third is 4, fourth is 3, fifth is 2, and sixth is worth 1 point.  The season is divided into two halves, with the first half comprised of 6 events and the second half containing 5.  The drivers' championship is determined by combining each driver's best 5 results from the first half with his/her best 4 results from the second half.  In other words, the result from one race is dropped in each half.

Constructors' points are awarded in each race according to the highest finishing position attained by any car in that team's stable.  For example, if Clark and Hill (who both drive for Lotus) finish first and sixth, respectively, then the Lotus team receives 9 points (counting Clark's victory).


HOT LAPS

GPL installs a hot lap replay for each track which you can select from the View Replay menu.  These are laps that were driven by the beta testers and several members of the development team, and can be very helpful in learning how to get the most out of a particular car or track.


WHY WON'T MY CAR ROLL DOWNHILL?

Whenever your car comes to a complete stop, the brakes are automatically applied and held on until the car is forced to move by the engine (or an impact :-).  This means that if you come to a full stop on a hill, the car will sit there without you holding the brakes on manually.  If the car is moving even a little bit, this automatic brake application will not occur and the car is free to roll.  You will find this feature particularly helpful on tracks where the race is started on an uphill or downhill section, as you can use the throttle to keep the engine revs up without having to hold the brake on while waiting for the flag to drop.


MODIFICATION OF INI FILES

Much of the behavior of GPL's Computer Opponents is controlled by various parameters stored in the games INI files.  Global AI behavior is controlled by the gpl_ai.ini file, individual driver personalities by the driver.ini, and track specific information in each of the separate track.ini files.  

The interaction of these variables is quite complex, and it is NOT recommended that you alter their default settings.  Please keep in mind that the results may be quite unpredictable and it would be quite easy to make the game completely unplayable.  Don't say we didn't warn you.  If needed you'll find the original files on CD which can be copied and pasted into your GPL directory.


CONTROLLING AI FOR LEAGUE PLAY

For those wishing to run off-line leagues, the following lines in the gpl_ai.ini are the parameters that can be set to have a controlled and level AI playing field.  This file is found in your GPL directory and can be edited with a simple text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad.

[ driver_modeling ]
global_driver_mod_scaling = 1.000000 ; scaling coefficient for all driver personality parameters loaded from DRIVER.INI

	Scales the driver personality modifiers, so setting this to 0.0 will cause all drivers to have parameters of 1.0.  Using this plus disable_random_modifiers together (see below) would cause all AI cars to drive basically the same (with only chassis/engine modeling affecting their speed/performance).  Setting it to a number between 0.0 and 1.0 will diminish the skill parameters without eliminating them entirely.
	
[ magic ]
disable_random_modifiers = 0.000000 ; set to 1.0 to prevent random driver modifiers (0.0 = modifiers allowed)

	Use this to prevent random skill/personality modifiers from occurring.  This will prevent very fast or erratic behavior that can sometimes occur because of very luck or unlucky modifiers.

npt_override = 0.00	; set to > 0.0 to override normalized player time

    This is the main one for controlling AI speed.  Setting it to 1.0 would make all AI cars run at their baseline time.  Below 1.0 causes faster cars; above 1.0 slower.

override_difficulty_hype = 0.0 ; override difficulty hype adjustment
(0.0 = no, 1.0 = yes)

	Probably don't usually need to modify this one but it can be enabled to have the AI ignore the hype modifiers for the difficulty level (Novice -> GP) and duration of the race.

[ mechanical ]
mechanical_failure_chance = 5.000000 ; chance in 10000 (!!) per ACTIVE
AI car for induced problem/failure each interval

	Set this to a 0.0 to prevent AI cars from having spontaneous mechanical problems.


IV.CONTACTING SIERRA
=======================

A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales
B) Technical Support
C) Legal Information


A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales
----------------------------------		

United Kingdom

Cendant Software International Limited	
Main: (0118) 920-9111
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fax:   (0118) 987-5603
Disk/CD replacements in the U.K. are £6.00,
or £7.00 outside the UK. Add "ATTN.: Returns."

2 Beacontree Plaza,			
Gillette Way,				
Reading, Berkshire			
RG2 0BS United Kingdom


On-Line Sales
CompuServe United Kingdom:GO UKSIERRA
Internet United Kingdom:  http://www.sierra-online.co.uk


THE SIERRA NO-RISK GUARANTEE
The Promise: We want you to be happy with every Sierra product you purchase from us. Period. If for any reason you're unhappy with the product, return it within 30 days for an exchange or a full refund...EVEN IF YOU BOUGHT IT RETAIL. (Hardware ordered direct must be returned within ten days.)  Please send back your product, signature required if mailing via US Postal Service.

The Only Catch: You've got to tell us why you don't like the game. Otherwise, we'll never get any better. Send it back to us and we promise we will make things right. (If you bought it at a retail outlet, please send your original sales receipt.)

* Returns valid in North America only.

Disk and or Manual Replacement:		

Product Returns:
Sierra On-Line Returns
4100 West 190th Street
Torrance, CA  90504

Sierra On-Line Fulfillment	
4100 West 190th Street		
Torrance, CA  90504				
		
NOTE: To replace your disk(s) please send only Disk #1 (or the CD) and copy of your dated Receipt, if less then 90 days.  After 90 days please include a $10 handling fee along with Disk / CD #1.  For Documentation, please include a $ 5.00 handling fee and a photocopy ONLY of disk #1.  Payment should be made at the time of your request.  Sorry, no credit cards.	

* Returns to this address valid in North America only.


B) TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-------------------------

United Kingdom

Cendant Software International Limited offers a 24-hour Automated Technical Support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (0118) 920-9111, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Internet or CompuServe sites.

Cendant Software International Limited	
2 Beacontree Plaza,			
Gillette Way,				
Reading, Berkshire			
RG2 0BS United Kingdom	

Main: (0118) 920-9111
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Fax:   (0118) 987-5603

http://www.sierra-online.co.uk



C) Sierra Warranty & Legal Information
-----------------------------------
You are entitled to use this product for your own use, but may not copy, reproduce, translate, publicly perform, display, or reduce to any electronic medium or machine- readable form, reproductions of the software or manual to other parties in any way, nor sell, rent or lease the product to others without prior written permission of Sierra.  You may use one copy of the product on a single computer.  YOU MAY NOT NETWORK THE PRODUCT OR OTHERWISE INSTALL IT OR USE IT ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER AT THE SAME TIME.

UNAUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIONS: SIERRA WARRANTS ONLY THAT THE PROGRAM WILL PERFORM AS DESCRIBED IN THE USER DOCUMENTATION. NO OTHER ADVERTISING, DESCRIPTION, OR REPRESENTATION, WHETHER MADE BY A SIERRA DEALER, DISTRIBUTOR, AGENT, OR EMPLOYEE, SHALL BE BINDING UPON SIERRA OR SHALL CHANGE THE TERMS OF THIS WARRANTY.

IMPLIED WARRANTIES LIMITED: EXCEPT AS STATED ABOVE, SIERRA MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT. SIERRA DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SOFTWARE IS FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE NINETY (90) DAY DURATION OF THIS LIMITED EXPRESS WARRANTY AND IS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

NO CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES: SIERRA SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES, EVEN IF SIERRA IS ADVISED OF OR AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS MEANS THAT SIERRA SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR FOR DAMAGES OR COSTS INCURRED AS A RESULT OF LOSS OF TIME, DATA OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, OR FROM ANY OTHER CAUSE EXCEPT THE ACTUAL COST OF THE PRODUCT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SIERRA'S LIABILITY EXCEED THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THIS PRODUCT. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.


Copyright (1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc.) 
