Frustrated by racing against the AI? Don't forget racing against humans on the Microsoft Gaming Zone. You can regularly find some excellent drivers there looking for a race.

Aldrew Enterprises, a manufacturer of a racing cockpit called "The Tub," has announced a price reduction of $600, bringing the price down to $2,200. If you're looking for complete immersion in your racing sim, check out their cool products at the Aldrew Enterprises web page.

If you are interested in making your own tracks, make sure you get Arne's Martin's track editing guide at Arne Martin's track page.

Also, Steve Chow has an excellent track page. There are about 40 tracks now available for CPR, including the Ring!

NOTE: Each program should have installation instructions included in the zip. Please do not email us with technical problems or installation questions on programs not written by us. In that file should be the original author's email... please contact them for any other problems. NEW USERS: You will need to get a zip utility to use these programs.
 

1.01 Patch by Microsoft (3.7 MB). This is a must-download item. The fixes are numerous and include better AI, better driving model, and graphics options. Get it.

Triglide.dll by Terminal Reality (27 K). Drop this file into your CPR directory and, voila, you can know select 3Dfx in the graphics options. It does not work with Voodoo Rush cards.

Power VR cart.dll file from NEC (31 K). Fixes hardware issues for PowerVR cards (the "black box effect"). Once unzipped, the cart.dll file should be placed in the CPR folder. It will add PowerVR as an option to the Renderer menu (in the Graphics options). "Sky textures" and "mirrors - everything" should also be selected. You need to have CPR version 1.01 for this file to work.

CPR Edit by Terminal Reality (767 K). Allows you to create and edit tracks! Important: The editor is very powerful, but the learning curve is steep and the editor is not particuarly user-friendly. In addition, the download does not include a manual or help files.

PaintKit by Terminal Reality (148 K). A utility which extracts the textures from a car and saves them as a tga file, allowing you to modify them with your favorite paint program. The utility then recompiles the modified tga file back into a new pod file called "usercar.pod", which is automatically used by CPR instead of the default "Racecar.pod".

Arne Martin's Updated Tracks. Check out this site for improved and corrected tracks for CPR!

Toolbox utility by David Radecki (323 K). This utility allows files to be extracted for any of CPR's pods and compilied back in again. In addition, it now converts RAW files and ACT palette files. Graphic files can be converted to Windows bitmap (BMP-256 colors) or targa files. ACT palette files can be converted to Paintshop Pro palettes (PAL) and back again to ACT files.

1997 CART Car Set v1.1 by Devin Pruzin (391 K). Complete car set with tobacco and alcohol advertising.

1997 Drivers File by Bradley Lang (3 K). A new "drivers.txt" file with the correct driver and team names. Works well with Devin's car set above.

1998 Car Set by Jeff Antley and Dave Radecki. (1.35 MB). This is a complete 1998 CART car set.

1998 Team Update by Tim Williams (22 K). Reflects all the changes to the team lineups for the 1998 season, including driver switches, tire changes, etc. These are text changes and do not make graphic changes to the cars.

"Get Rid of the Foggie and Make It Andretti" patch by Fil (21 K). Replaces Carl Haas with Michael Andretti throughout the sim. The only remnant: Carl's picture in the driver info.

Switcher Utility by Phil Henzig (133 K). This package makes it easier to switch between custom car and track sets.

Rookie Race Setups by Jim Getzen. Setups for all 17 tracks based on the grip settings of the Rookie skill level.

Professional Race Setups by Jim Getzen. Setups for the tracks based on the grip settings of the Intermediate and Professional skill level. Most tracks are included.

Check out The Apex for additional setups.

Need help in diagnosing a car handling problem? Would you like to learn more about the options in the CPR garage and how each of them affects the handling of the car? Then you need our CPR setup guide.

The tips are categorized into frame rate tips, helpful tips, and fun tips.

Frame Rate Tips
-- Set the "draw ahead" (clipping) to 15 or 18, using Cntrl-H to decrease it and Cntrl-F to increase it. This has a dramatic affect on the frame rate, and you may not even notice the graphical difference.

-- Make sure "poll interrupts" is unchecked in your Game Controllers control panel (this option is under the "Advanced" tab.

-- Set the Sound Quality to "Normal 8-bit".

-- Turn off the map ("m"), the leader board ("o"), the sky (Ctrl-N), and the steering wheel (in the graphic options). Make sure your mirrors are set to "cars only." Turn off hills and buildings (Ctrl-B). While you lose some eye candy, if you are serious about racing, you won't notice it anyway.

-- If possible, get a 3Dfx card or a fast D3D card (such as the Diamond Viper 330).

Helpful Tips
-- Are you still uncomfortable with your steering settings (the speed sensitivity and non-linear sliders)? Here are instructions for establishing settings that enable you to drive comfortably and accurately: steering.zip.

-- If you are working on your setup and are following the familiar routine of test driving, returning to the garage, making changes, then test driving again, make sure that you are using the "test drive" button in the in the upper right corner of the Garage menu. Using "test drive" (instead of going to the Race menu and selecting a practice session) will keep the current track in memory, so that the track only has to be loaded once. It will save you a lot of time if you had been going to the Race menu and reloading your track each time.

-- If you are looking for maximum speed (and who isn't?) make sure that the "race car performance" realism option is turned off . If this option is left on, your engine's performance will reflect its real-life counterpart, which almost always means performance will be something less than optimal. By turning race car performance off, all cars perform optimally, allowing you to choose the car/driver you like.

-- When racing at the Zone, you may not be able to keep up with other racers if the host has the "race car performance" realism option turned on and you are using a car which has an engine with a lower performance rating. I feel that race car performance should be turned off when racing on the Zone to give everybody an equal chance. However, to be on the safe side, a wise choice when Zone racing would be Alex Zanardi -- he was good at all tracks.

-- Here is a tip for Zone users: When Zone racing, your realism settings (pitting, crash damage, tire wear, etc.) are changed to match those of the Host. To keep your "solo" settings from being altered, create a new driver in the opening CPR screen, and then use that driver, instead of your "solo" driver, when you race on the Zone. When you create the new driver, make sure the other settings (controls and the like) are setup the way you like them.

-- Suffer from twitching handling? Here are three things that can help: (1) increase the non-linear steering setting in the Controls menu, (2) decrease the steering ratio in the Garage (under suspension - axle), and (3) reduce the front wing angle. Many people overlook that last one, and it makes a big difference.

-- When you are driving and have the map displayed, if you hit "R" the map will rotate so that it is always oriented to your position on the track. This can make it easier to determine where you and the other cars are on the course. Hit "MRM" to change the map view to a more enlarged version and "MRM" again to return to the original map view.

-- If you like to drive from behind the car (the "near chase" view), type EC to put up the MPH, type EC again to get KPH, and once more to turn it off.

Fun Tips
-- If you want to substitute your name for the real-world driver's name, you can do so by editing the "drivers.txt" file in the "races" folder.

-- Hit "v" to get an outside view of your car, then type "head" to see your head pop off. You'll need to press "d" when you're done to get the dashboard back.

-- Typing "CAR" while you are driving will turn your car into the pace car (you will need to switch views by hitting "v" to see the effect). It can be a strange experience -- when I tried it, I got into some sort of trouble and the front of the car raised up, doing a "fender ballet" for a minute or so. Wild.

-- If you are racing on the Gaming Zone and find yourself out of a race, consider pulling over (well out of the way of traffic) and hitting "K" to switch your view to the other cars in a race and "V" to switch the camera angle. It can just be fun to watch some racing, and it can be a great way to pick up some driving tips if there is a skilled driver in the race. Just make sure to return to your own car (press the "Home" key) when the winner crosses the finish line and drive across the line yourself. Otherwise the race will be waiting on you before it can some to an end.

Here are some other good sites:

Official Pages
CART.com
Microsoft's Site
Terminal Reality's Site

Fan Sites
Arne Martin's CPR Track Page
Steven Chow's CPR Track Page
CART Paradise Racing
The Apex
The CART Precision Racing Playground
Rapid Performance Motorsports
CART Precision Racing Car Sets
Red Wolf's Underground Garage
The Racer's Edge

Questions or comments about this page? Contact Jim Getzen. Please don't contact me about technical support issues -- thanks.