README File for International Rally Championship
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5th September 1997
Here we document some things left out of the manual due to last minute
changes before mastering the CD.
(1) Install program
Unfortunately, the install program needs Direct Draw to run. Most PC's will
have a version of Direct X, but if your's doesn't, and the error message
'this program requires ddraw.dll' or similar appears, then simply run
setupdx5.bat to install DirectX5 onto your computer first.
(2) Accelerator cards
Not all accelerator cards support all of the functions required to enable
Rally to be displayed correctly in accelerated mode, so when accelerated mode
is selected, on certain cards, effects such as smoke and brake lights may be
missing, and for levels with fog on, the program may have to return to 8-bit
mode to display correctly.
Also, beware - not all accelerator cards actually accelerate. Some require a
lot of memory to be installed to actually be of any use. Otherwise, they have
to swap memory in and out of the computer which renders them too slow to use.
(3) Video Cards
Since we use the latest version of Direct X, version 5 to interface the game
to the video hardware drivers, some video card drivers may be out of date. If
you have problems such as the screen going blank with only maybe a mouse
pointer visible, then please check that you have the latest versions of the
drivers, or failing that, possibly turn off some of the functions of the card
until the game runs correctly.
(4) Replay
Keys 1-9 offer many different camera views of the replay.
Keys F1-F3 toggle between the replay bar, the overlay or no display.
Keys F5-F7 toggle between both player 1 and player2 in a 2 player replay.
Note: Replays are not available in Network link Mode.
(5) Network Session Number
To facilitate more than one game of Rally to be played across a network all
players should agree on a session number ranging between 0 and 99. All
players must set their session number to the same value and then link up
together.
(6) RAL.CFG
This file which resides in the "var" directory is a text file that can be
used to cure some problems with Rally. There are several keywords which if
entered into this file will allow you to fix problems, disable certain
functions, etc. To make a keyword active, enter the name of the keyword
followed by a number, usually 1, e.g. "forced3d 1". If the keyword is
missing, the value 0, or the line preceded by a semicolon, then the value is 0.
The keywords and their usage are as follows
nommx 1 ; This disables mmx code on machines which have MMX built in
forced3d 1 ; This forces the program to use d3d drivers, not
; card specific drivers
forceno3dcard 1 ; This disables 3d hardware support of any type, useful
; if your program crashes
logfile 1 ; This produces a logfile of startup code helpful for us to
; find faults
(7) Refuelling in Custom Rally
This option was erroneous in the manual and has been removed.