Configuring the Simulator
From VGPedia
- Index:
- VGP3 System Requirements
- Installing VGP3
- Configuring the Simulator
- Starting the Simulator
- Controlling the Simulator
- Driving
- Car Setup
- Installing New Content
From the main menu select ‘OPTIONS’, then select the subsystem you want to configure.
Contents |
VIDEO
The ‘VIDEO’ menu is used to modify how VGP3 displays the virtual world on your system.
- Resolution:
VGP3 usually starts in standard 800x600 video mode. Use the arrows to select a different resolution. If you select a resolution not available to your hardware, VGP3 will fall back to standard 800x600, 16bit per pixel video mode.
- Color Mode:
VGP3 starts in standard 16bit per pixel (thousands of colors). Use the arrows to select a deeper color depth (more colors)
- Depth Buffer:
The depth buffer is used to remove hidden lines. VGP3 starts in standard 16bit mode, which may not be enough. If you are experiencing visual artifacts, such as far objects “flickering” because they are not properly hidden by near ones, try to increase this setting
- Stereo 3D:
If your hardware supports it, output is displayed in full stereoscopic 3D. Do not turn this option on if you are just wearing red-cyan glasses (see the Postprocessing Effects paragraph below); to use this features you need an OpenGL stereoscopic 3D (quad-buffering) compliant gfx-board and a true 3D monitor/screen. Pay attention to the fact that your gfx-board may require additional setup from an external control panel (in order to enable OpenGL quad-buffering 3D), in that case refer to your hardware documentation
- Max Texture Size:
VGP3 comes with a standard set of high-resolution textures, and modern gfx-boards should have no problems at all with them. However, if your gfx-board is an old one you may experience a low framerate with big textures; in that case, you may try to reduce the maximum texture size
- Anisotropic Filter:
Increases the look of oblique textured objects, such as, for example, tarmac or grass textures. It’s a costly effect, increasing this setting increases the rendering quality but framerate may be reduced
- Texture Compression:
Enables texture compression. If your gfx-board has limited video memory framerate will probably improve by enabling texture compression; in that case, final texture quality will depend on your gfx-board
- 3D Shaders:
VGP3 uses the programmable shader pipeline technology of modern gfx-boards through the OpenGL GLSL extension in order to improve the final rendering quality of the virtual world. However, depending on your hardware, these effects may be simply unavailable (if your gfx-board doesn't support GLSL shaders) or too slow to be useable; in the latter case, you can turn 3D shaders off to get a better framerate
- Vertex Arrays:
As of this writing, this feature still isn’t available
- Offscreen Rendering:
Tell VGP3 to render the 3d world in an offscreen buffer. Apart from improving shadows quality, offscreen rendering allows for postprocessing effects to be applied to the final rendering (this setting is required for anaglyph stereoscopic 3D)
- Postprocessing Effects:
Select one of the installed postprocessing effects for the final rendering of the 3d world, such as anaglyph stereoscopic 3D (to be used with red/cyan glasses), full screen anti-aliasing, motion blur and so on. Available only if 3D Shaders and Offscreen Rendering are “on”. Depending on your hardware, these effects may or may not be available on your gfx board. Pay attention to the fact that some effects may be costly features and may require a lot of graphics power, so turning them on may drop the framerate
- Gfx Detail:
Controls the level of detail of objects, the higher the level required, the more polygons will be used to draw objects. Increases the look of curved surfaces, but may affect the framerate
- Shadows:
Turn on or off shadows in the 3d world. Available only if 3D Shaders is “on”
- Reflections:
Controls the level of reflections. This setting mainly affects mirrors, the higher the detail required, the better the reflected world will look in the mirror, but framerate may be reduced because of the more graphics load.
AUDIO
Controls the volume of the different sound sources. You can modify the master volume (the topmost slider) or selectively adjust the volumes of music, sound f/x and so on.
INPUT
The Input menu lets you select the primary input device to be used for driving the car (mouse, keyboard or joystick/steering wheel).
You can also assign commands to keyboards keys or joystick/wheel buttons: click the command button, then press a key (or a button on the joystick/wheel); the key/button assigned will be displayed along the command.
If you want to play VGP3 with a joystick or steering wheel, connect it to your system before starting VGP3, then start the simulator and select "Steering Wheel" as the primary input.
The bottom right button can be used to configure the joystick/wheel or keyboard input
CONFIGURING A JOYSTICK/WHEEL
VGP3 is usually able to discover by itself how to map the steering wheel, however it may be necessary to manually configure the axis assigned to the gas and brake pedals. First of all, if you're using a steering wheel with separate gas and brake pedals readings you should click the "Enable Separate Brake" toggle button. Then, use the "<" and ">" buttons to cycle through the various axis until you find the joystick/wheel axis that correctly map the gas or brake pedal - you can discover it by pressing the gas or brake pedal, when you find an axis that "moves" the red bar accordingly to the pedal, this is the right axis. The red bar should go to the maximum (right) when you press the pedal and to the minimum (left) when you release it, if exactly the opposite is happening click the "Invert Axis" button. When you're done, click the bottom left button.
If your input device supports Force Feedback, you can turn it on. The sliders can be used to control how Force Feedback is delivered to your input device.
- Strength: scales intensity of Force Feedback
- Linearity: this setting controls whether you want forces to be mapped in an "exact" (linear) way on your device, or a non-linear mapping that "boosts" low forces to higher levels. Reducing linearity may help you feel better the car in low-speed turns
- Prediction: increasing this value may give better (quicker) results if your input device has a lot of delay, but prediction may introduce force "spikes" or unrealistic reactions so don't increase it too much if you don't need to.
- Damping: smooths down force "spikes", can be used if you feel the steering wheel pushing/pulling left/right too quickly, especially on straights.
CONFIGURING THE KEYBOARD
If you want to drive using the keyboard you can modify how the input is filtered; because keyboard input is digital in nature (on/off), unless some sort of filtering is applied it will simply be impossible to drive a car that requires analogue input (steering wheel, throttle and so on).
- Steer/Gas/Brake Incr Rate: Controls the increase rate of steering, throttle, brakes when the corresponding key is pressed; the higher the value, the quicker the input is applied to the car (ie the steering wheel is rotated faster, the throttle is applied immediately and so on)
- Decr/Incr with Speed: Controls how the input is increased or decreased with car speed; as an example, you may want the steering wheel to react slowly at high speeds and quickly at low speeds
- Decr with Steer: Controls how throttle and brakes are used when some steering is being applied; the more you increase this value, the less throttle or brake pressure is applied when the steering wheel is rotated (useful in slow corners)
NETWORK
This menu controls the VGP3 networking settings
- Check for/Notify of Updates
If turned on, VGP3 will connect to the VGP3 website to check for updates
- Car Password Protection:
As of this writing, this feature is still unavailable
- Max Online Players Number:
The maximum number of players allowed in online races. This setting is used only if you’re hosting the race
- Max Online AI Cars Number:
The maximum number of server-controlled AI cars in online races. By default, it’s zero, because online races are usually intended to be a competition between real (virtual) drivers; however, you can mix some AI cars, if you want. This setting is used only if you’re hosting the race
- Visible Front/Rear Cars Number:
If you’re hosting the race on a low-bandwidth connection you can limit the amount of data you send to clients by limiting the number of cars each client actually sees. Clients will see only the first n cars preceeding (and following) them, this saves you bandwidth (because you’re sending each client only the first n cars position and not everybody) but will reduce the visual realism
- Upload Server Bandwidth and Connection Quality:
Currently unused
FEEDBACK
The Feedback menu controls fine-tuning of aural, visual stereoscopic and force settings
- Screen Height:
The height (in meters) of your screen or monitor. This setting is only meaningful when used in combination with stereoscopic 3D modes, and is used by the VGP3 engine to calculate the correct level of stereo parallax
- Screen Distance:
Distance (in meters) of your screen or monitor from your head. This setting is only meaningful when used in combination with stereoscopic 3D modes, and is used by the VGP3 engine to calculate the correct level of stereo parallax
- Stereo 3d Level:
The "amount" of stereoscopic 3D (depth) effect generated by VGP3. If you're experiencing "ghosting" effects, eye strain, flickering or anyway you're not comfortable with the final 3D effect, reducing this value should cure the problem
- Left/Right Speakers Angles
Direction of the left/right speakers, angles are measured in degrees, positive to the left. The VGP3 engine may use those values to better calculate aural feedback such as spatializing or doppler effects
- Left/Right Speakers Distances
Distances (in meters) of left/right speakers from your head. The VGP3 engine may use those values to better calculate aural feedback such as spatializing or doppler effects
- Steer Force
Scales intensity of Force Feedback on steering wheels/joysticks
- Steer F Linearity
Controls whether you want forces to be mapped in an "exact" (linear) way on your steering wheel/joystick, or a non-linear mapping that "boosts" low forces to higher levels. Reducing linearity may help you feel better the car in low-speed turns
- Seat Force
Currently unused.
GAME
This is a misc menu, controls various aspects of the game/simulation
- Player Name:
The name of the user, will be displayed in the drivers roster
- Player Number:
Select the car number you want to drive
- Select Driver Before Event:
Overrides the previous setting, let you choose the car before a new event
- Session Duration (Qualify Time, Race Duration and so on):
How long the sessions should last
- Max Offline AI Cars Number:
How many AI cars there will be in a standalone race. You may use this setting to reduce the number of AI controlled cars in order to increase framerate on slow hardware
- Allow Mechanical Damage:
Turn this option on to get cars damaged by accidents and wear and tear (Note: tyres wear and tear is always computed and cannot be disabled) - as of this writing, this feature still isn’t available
- Allow Wet Races:
Turn this option on to get random wet conditions when racing - as of this writing, this feature still isn’t available
SAVE/LOAD OPTIONS
Select ‘SAVE AS DEFAULT’ to save the settings, so that they will be the same the next time you play VGP3; otherwise, if you’re just experimenting (maybe new screenmodes or graphics details) but you don’t want to modify the settings you usually play VGP3 with, select ‘USE BUT DON’T SAVE’. ‘LOAD DEFAULT’ will revert to the last settings saved.
Important Note: Settings are saved in the ‘opzioni.config’ file in the ‘config’ directory. If you want to revert to factory game settings simply delete this file.
