rec.autos.simulators

             official located (and much prettier) on the WWW at
               http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/wcpchof/wcpchof.html

The WCPCHOF is published every other Monday on rec.autos.simulators, by
request via Internet e-mail, and on the World Wide Web. Direct comments,
questions, membership applications, bloopers, and anything else to Dave
`Gizmo' Gymer at one of the addresses at the bottom of this page.

       Commodore Amiga players might want to check out Edo Nijmeijer's
                             Amiga Hall of Fame
               by contacting Edo at 130...@pc-lab.fbk.eur.nl.

       Edo is, however, currently off-line, so the current contanct is
                 ree...@lucy.cs.waikato.ac.nz (Grant Reeve)

Notes from the editor

  If possible, please use the WWW form for submitting lap times. Eventually
  this will allow me to do updates almost automatically, which will cut down
  on errors and speed up processing.

  Edo, the administrator of the Amiga HoF, is still off line. He or I will
  post something to rec.autos.simulators among other places as soon as he
  returns.

  Thanks to Chris Harris and his "Home For Wayward Web Pages" the HOF and
  the FAQ now have permanent homes where I can keep them up to date much
  more easily. Most sincerest thanks to him and his wife!

  At the risk of invalidating times, I've changed my policy slightly as
  regards hitting other cars. If you touch another car, regardless of
  whether it was on purpose or not, and the lap turns out to be a personal
  best, I request that you not submit it, except for the "rallycross"
  category. This brings the car braking into line with that for wall
  braking. I will not move any existing times, as there is no substantive
  effect on driver scores.

  I'm also considering doing the above for slipstreaming, that is,
  requesting that if you drive a lap and get a tow, you discount the lap.
  The only place where this would currently have any real impact is Phoenix,
  where IV has a 1 point lead over the field with a slipstreaming lap. I
  would not, however, remove any times, but simply request that in future
  drivers observe the new regulation. Please let me know your feelings on
  this matter.

Rules and regulations

  You must use Formula 1 Grand Prix (a.k.a. World Circuit) on the PC;
  players are strongly advised to upgrade to version 1.05. See the FAQ for
  details of where to get the patches from (FAQ details below).

  You need to get a driver ID from me to enter, but I can allot one when you
  send your first record(s) in. I sometimes let people choose their own. So
  if you want to join in, just mail me your real name and e-mail address,
  and your preferred DriverID (if any).

  I do publish times set by cutting corners or chicanes (what I call
  "rallycross" records), but you need to tell me because those times do not
  count towards the championship. Using the grass at the side of the track
  is okay as long as it wasn't used on purpose.

  "Wall braking", that is, using the walls of circuits like Monaco and
  Phoenix instead of brakes, is illegal, except for absolute records. The
  best way to ensure that this is not done is to run with indestructability
  turned off at those tracks. Minor accidental contact with the wall is
  acceptable (but won't do your times any good!). If you make accidental
  contact with the wall and it allows you to drive a time in excess of the
  fastest currently at that track, please enter it for the "rallycross"
  section; if you don't already have a time at that track or you want the
  old time for that track removed and the new one scored instead just say
  so.

  Using AI cars to brake is also illegal. Mere accidental bumping is okay;
  they're pretty stupid so we have to make allowances. However, if you hit a
  car and

  Drafting (slipstreaming) AI cars is permitted, as is using an editor to
  alter the computer cars' power. Player power must be left at the default
  716BHP.  Drafting a human player with two linked machines is not legal.
  There is no restriction on the AI grip setting but players are asked to
  keep it to a maximum of 15, just in case it does have an effect. When you
  submit a record, if possible please let me know if it was clear or if you
  got a tow, so that I can include the information in the WWW page for
  others trying to match or better your times.

  Laps must be driver in one complete go; you are not allowed to drive part
  of a lap, save the game, come back, and then reload if you don't drive the
  rest of it perfectly. You may, of course, simply pause the game (and
  examine the replay). This rule is relaxed for both "rallycross" records,
  and for records in the "perfect" category.

  Use of a game editor which permits wing settings outside of the normal
  limits (0 to 64) is not permitted.

  If your time is pretty good, within say 1.5s of the fastest, I and
  everyone else would probably be interested in a GPperf log file of it.
  Send it on in and I'll add it to those available from the WWW pages. Even
  if it's not your best time, if it's close send it anyway!  To make life
  easier for me, please name the file Pxx-ddd.PRF, where "xx" is the track
  number (01 for Phoenix through 16 for Adelaide) and "ddd" is your DriverID.

  I prefer people to include their setup details, but do not require it. You
  may use any tyre compound. Note that up to and including version 1.03, a
  bug in the game allowed you to set very fast times during the race at
  Mexico; such times are illegal.

  Feel free to tell me anything else you think important when you send times
  in. I'm always willing to discuss the rules. Many people ask what format I
  like the results in; as long as all the information is there I don't
  really care, but I usually recommend something like the following.

    DriverID: DPX

    Standard (no corners cut, no save/restore):

    Phoenix:
      1m16.743  30-Feb-95  64/50:04F:25,33,41,49,57,65  Clear
    Interlagos:
      1m13.342  27-Jul-96  30/10:02R:25,33,41,49,57,65  Slipstreamed

  The setups and slipstreamed/clear indication are, of course, optional.

The scoring system

  The scoring system was inspired by the IICC HotLaps system, but has a new
  twist. The fastest time at each track scores a fixed number of points;
  slower times score in proportion, down to a cutoff point which is some
  fraction of the fastest time slower (this is all based on the average
  speed, rather than the actual time). A more mathematical explanation
  follows.

  Given C (the "cutoff speed fraction"), F (the "fastest time score"),
  and H, the highest speed at the track, we can say that an entry of speed
  N (the "normspeed"), where N=H*(1-C), scores 0 points, and that an entry
  of speed H scores F points. The range of speeds over which entries score
  points (the "points spread"), is of magnitude P, where P=H*C. So an entry
  of speed S scores P points, where P=(S-N)*(F/(C*H)).

  The current values of C and F are to be found on the WWW pages.

  The net impact of this is that two similar times score similar points; the
  greater the difference between two times, the bigger the difference
  between the points they score. The nature of the scoring system means that
  you gain points for improving your times even if you don't improve your
  position at each track, and that you can't lose points unless the fastest
  time is beaten.

Miscellaneous

  If you know non-Internet people who might like to join in, either read the
  "hosting" page on the WWW version or ask me to mail it to you.

  The full lap record listings are only available on the WWW; the plain text
  versions sent via mail and news contain only the top 10 standard times.

  The driver list is only available from the WWW; you should know who your
  are, and I don't want to be mailing out too many files!

  Even with the Qtyres patch, you will never be able to match qualifying
  times in a practice session, because the fuel load is heavier.

  It appears that the game randomly degrades the player car's power. A fix
  is available as part of the latest GPlap (version 5.0); see the FAQ for
  details. The FAQ is posted to rec.autos.simulators and the amigaf1gp
  mailing list on the first Monday of every month, and is on the WWW pages
  as http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/f1gp-faq/faq.html.

  Ivanhoe (IV) has spotted a potential future problem; on 24 January 1995 he
  pointed the following out to me.

    Due to the rapid decrease in time necessary to complete the laps in
    F1GP, especially in Imola (-0.853s in 30 days), I have done a little of
    calculation and discovered a potential problem to arise in the future.

    If the average rate of decrease does not change it follows that on or
    about the 15th of April 2002 a driver will break through the 0m00.000
    mark, hereby driving at an average speed which exceeds the speed of
    light.

    As you probably know this will entail problems with causality, meaning
    that it will be possible to cross the finishing line before even
    starting the lap.

    When it comes to this, there may be organisational difficulties too
    because you will have to post the HOF before the laptimes are driven.
    Now how are you going to do that, eh?

  I guess we better hope that F1GPv2 comes out before 2002.

dgy...@GDCARC.co.uk
Dave.Gy...@laUNChpad.unc.edu