Newbies and competitions.

[Overdrijf]

I'm no match for most of you, but for me too, comparing times is funny, so I'dd like to join some sort of competition. Where to start then? Is there a competition with bad drivers? Where do I find that? Thanks for the answers.

[Krys TOFF]

You'll improve fast and be challenging with us if :
-  you race regularly and if you train well top pass Stunts elements with RH,
- download previous replays (example : ZCT69 replays are with zip file of ZCT70 track) and tracks and learn from top drivers tricks,
- join a team and study your teammates replay for ongoing tracks in order to learn new tricks or shortcuts.

I was crappy when I joined Stunts community (some would say I'm still crappy, but I don't care), and I never had raced with "full RH optimization" before too. I had never tried to improve to the max a single corner speed. This require training. But when you'll know the tricks, the possible cuts and also the cars, you'll be able to make a good lap in a few attempts. I don't say you'll be able to do such magic replays as Gutix did at ZCT70, but you'll be able to do a time correct compared to the others.

[BonzaiJoe]

Usually I would say you should race at Zakstunts (http://stunts.mine.nu/zakstunts), but this year, Zakstunts is with special rules for every track, so a better place to start would probably be UnskilledStunts (the name doesn't mean anything, although the level is not quite as high as in Zakstunts). "http://stunts.mine.nu/unskilled".

Go to "http://stunts.mine.nu" to see all the competitions.

[Krys TOFF]

BJ is right, check Stunts portal and you'll see the competitions.
Some more info about competitions :
- SDR will start again in February (for the moment there is ISM special event) and there is both RH and noRH competition at SDR (noRH prooved with DOSBox video recording),
- WSC is with special "no shortcut" rule (always one wheel on or over the road) and will start again only in March,
- Kalpen is with Stunts 1.0 only and not 1.1,
- and WRC Stunts is finished and it should be transfered to inactive competition. Already done.

I would say that, in order to learn and improve, you should try all competitions as a start. Then, focus on some of them if you prefer, according to the rules or the cars used.

AbuRaf70 for example improved a lot in a few months when he started to race all competitions (at the beginning he raced only WSC). And he has the replay sharing help of his teammates too.

[Bernie_Rubber]

I'm no match for most of you

Watch my lessons at ZakStunts Driving School.
http://stunts.mine.nu/zakstunts/index.php?page=school&menu=full

[JTK]

Else.. - what about the vintage Kalpen contest at http://www.kalpen.de? By the way, guys, 6 days to go for the last track of the 2006 season!

[Krys TOFF]

Else.. - what about the vintage Kalpen contest at http://www.kalpen.de? By the way, guys, 6 days to go for the last track of the 2006 season!

I think all drivers racing ISM event will race Kalpen after the 27th, when ISM will be finished. This will be my case anyway.

[CTG]

I won't advertise USC, just check the contest and decide if you like it or not.

[Overdrijf]

I was thinking of trying the SDR NORH races for a start, because it's most like what I'm used to, but I might just pop up anywhere else...

[Overdrijf]

I'm posting this here because I felt it didn't deserve a new topic, but the cpu speed dosbox starts up in is pretty slow. What would be a good speed to put it at, 1500 or so?

[Krys TOFF]

DOSBox parameters really depend of your own computer. I seems the program can be slower on faster computer than on older ones, dunno why. Maybe it's due to XP. I still have a Win9x computer.
With my old computer I don't change CPU speed, I change framerate only (I put it at 10000 instead of 3000).

[Mark L. Rivers]

I'm posting this here because I felt it didn't deserve a new topic, but the cpu speed dosbox starts up in is pretty slow. What would be a good speed to put it at, 1500 or so?

You can try many other information to speed up DOSBox 0.65 reading these links:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=RunningResourceDemandingGames

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=dosbox.conf%2Fcpu

A little guide to make more fluently the game is here (this is an extract of the readme.txt included in DOSBox 0.65):

===================================
8. To run resource-demanding games:
===================================

DOSBox emulates the CPU, the sound and graphic cards, and some other stuff, all at the same time. You can overclock DOSBox by using CTRL-F12, but you'll be limited by the power of your actual CPU. You can see how much free time your true CPU has by looking at the Task Manager in Windows 2000/XP and the System Monitor in Windows 95/98/ME. Once 100% of your real CPU time is used there is no further way to speed up DOSBox unless you reduce the load generated by the non-CPU parts of DOSBox.

So:

Close every program but DOSBox

Overclock DOSBox until 100% of your CPU is used (use the utilities above to check)

Since VGA emulation is the most demanding part of DOSBox in terms of actual CPU usage, we'll start there. Increase the number of frames skipped (in increments of one) by pressing CTRL-F8. Your CPU usage should decrease. Go back one step and repeat this until the game runs fast enough for you. Please note that this is a trade-off: you lose in fluidity of video what you gain in speed You can also try to disable the sound through the setup utility of the game to reduce load on your CPU further.

So press CTRL+11 or CTRL+12 and CTRL+7 or CTRL+8 to regulate the basic parameters about speed/fluently.

I hope this can help you.