F1 RS - Make my engine louder?

No, you can't make your engine louder. But do not fear! Here's my Tip Of The Day: Lower the sound of the other cars! The sound of the other cars was the reason I had a hard time getting through the first corners (I found out it wasn't due to the well known slight framerate drop at the first corner 'problem'). More than once I drove too slow and lost a lot of places because of this, and also more than once I slipped out of a corner when other cars were around me (also later on in the race) because I was accelerating too much. On top of that I always felt irritated and pushed by hearing cars coming up behind me, as if the we're going to overtake me, while in (sim)reality they we're still 1.6 sec. away! Well, here's how it goes. In the F1RS\CPA\dll directory you'll find a file called Snd_cpa.ini. You've got to change the following parameters: SXD_DIST_SATUR=5 SXD_DIST_FADE=75 The SXD_DIST_FADE option is the most important: this one determines the distance at which another car can he heard (or to be more precise: at which distance the other car's sound will fade in or out). The default setting is way too high: when you're on pole position, a number of 75 will let you hear all cars around, up to the one at the back of the grid (it seems)! No wonder you can't hear your own engine anymore. (And maybe, as I said before, the computer has a hard time producing the sound of 22 cars, hence the framerate drop at the beginning of the race?) Two cars in your neighbourhood is enough to make it impossible to hear your own engine. Lowering this to a very low number will do the trick, but then you may not be able to hear a car coming up behind you until he's beside you. SXD_DIST_SATUR seems to change the overall volume of the other cars. But lowering this from 5 to 1 isn't enough. Especially if you don't alter the FADE setting: being able to hear all 22 car engines will still make you deaf. I found out (after a lot or restarting and quitting) the following setting work great on my computer: SXD_DIST_SATUR=1 SXD_DIST_FADE=15 Now I can hear my own engine at all times. At the start it's still noisy around you, but that's realistic. And when a car comes up behind you during the race, you can hear it in time to be able to cut him off (or let him pass, if you're very polite). I did some testing and found out that my average grading after a few corners in a race is higher now, than with the default setting! Just fiddle around a bit with these numbers, and you'll see your performance will get better. And you're fun with this great game will increase! Jeroen van Engelenhoven

Hi Jeroen, Excellent, excellent post!! Thanks!! =) Cheers! Marc J. Nelson The Sim Project - www.simproject.com

I tried this and my engine sound dissapeared completely.....I could hear the shifting noises and other sounds, but no engine sounds. Anyone else successful with these settings? Is it my ancient sound card? (SB16, about 3 years old) The rest of my system is relatively new, P-II 266, Matrox Millenium, Diamond Monster, 64mb 10ns SDRAM, T2 wheel. I had to change the ini file back to the defaults. Craig Marcho http://www.cmpu.net/public/marcho/

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>No, you can't make your engine louder. But do not fear! Here's my Tip Of >The Day: >Lower the sound of the other cars! >The sound of the other cars was the reason I had a hard time getting >through the first corners (I found out it wasn't due to the well known >slight framerate drop at the first corner 'problem'). More than once I >drove too slow and lost a lot of places because of this, and also more >than once I slipped out of a corner when other cars were around me >(also later on in the race) because I was accelerating too much. On top >of that I always felt irritated and pushed by hearing cars coming up >behind me, as if the we're going to overtake me, while in (sim)reality >they we're still 1.6 sec. away! >Well, here's how it goes. >In the F1RS\CPA\dll directory you'll find a file called Snd_cpa.ini. >You've got to change the following parameters: >SXD_DIST_SATUR=5 >SXD_DIST_FADE=75 >The SXD_DIST_FADE option is the most important: this one determines the >distance at which another car can he heard (or to be more precise: at >which distance the other car's sound will fade in or out). The default >setting is way too high: when you're on pole position, a number of 75 >will let you hear all cars around, up to the one at the back of the grid >(it seems)! No wonder you can't hear your own engine anymore. (And >maybe, as I said before, the computer has a hard time producing the >sound of 22 cars, hence the framerate drop at the beginning of the >race?) Two cars in your neighbourhood is enough to make it impossible to >hear your own engine. Lowering this to a very low number will do the >trick, but then you may not be able to hear a car coming up behind you >until he's beside you. >SXD_DIST_SATUR seems to change the overall volume of the other cars. But >lowering this from 5 to 1 isn't enough. Especially if you don't alter >the FADE setting: being able to hear all 22 car engines will still make >you deaf. >I found out (after a lot or restarting and quitting) the following >setting work great on my computer: >SXD_DIST_SATUR=1 >SXD_DIST_FADE=15 >Now I can hear my own engine at all times. At the start it's still noisy >around you, but that's realistic. And when a car comes up behind you >during the race, you can hear it in time to be able to cut him off (or >let him pass, if you're very polite). I did some testing and found out >that my average grading after a few corners in a race is higher now, >than with the default setting! Just fiddle around a bit with these >numbers, and you'll see your performance will get better. And you're fun >with this great game will increase! >Jeroen van Engelenhoven

You know I think this change does depend on your sound card and you Puter speed maybe. I did the change and it worked pretty good but the really funny thing is it causes my engine to miss B^) At first I though uh oh dang wheel pots dirty already but as soon as I restore the original settings of 5 and 75 it clears out. Weird huh? Aloha, Mike t>...

Wow, and what a tip it was! :) Nice one, that's a keeper for sure. Thanks! Cheers! John

Jeroen, you are a prince among men! Thank you very, very much for that tip and I hope 1998 is the best year of your life so far!! -- Bruce. (At home)

> Hi Jeroen, > Excellent, excellent post!! Thanks!! =) > Cheers! I second that, thanks Jeroen. I had to set mine at satur=3 and fade=75 as i like to watch the race from camara view afer i get kicked off by another car or i crash out myself. I found that with Jeroen's settings the camara view was bad news with silent cars just till they past the view position...not very realistic. Setting 3 and 75 meant that i lowered the overall sounds from the other cars but kept the fade out distance as was, so i'm still able to hear my car above the others, even when they pass me:-( This trick together with setting a vcache of 4096 min/max and a fixed size 128 meg min/max virt swop file has killed of any slow down i had in the first lap with all graphics on (replay disabled) at all tracks. All i have now is a very small slow down when the "new fastest lap" is announced. Mike. -- 18:41 on 12/31/97 From sunny Herne Bay, Kent.UK. mailable also at remove NO-SPAM to mail me.

Does the amount of ram matter when setting the min/max in the .ini file? I keep hearing a setting of 128 but, I thought I heard someone say that this figure can vary depending on your amount of ram. If it does, whats the correct setting for a 32 meg system? Great tip!! Take Care