RD2 mod: Formula Ford World Circuit Championship Season

jbodin · Post by **jbodin** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 3:51 am

I just uploaded the installer to the Blackhole Motorsports Race Driver 2 "Files" section -- it should be available soon under the "Mods" area:

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/RDRIV2/downloads

From the readme file:

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Race Driver 2 Formula Ford World Circuit Championship

by John C. Bodin

Brought to you by Blackhole Motorsports
http://www.bhmotorsports.com/

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This program will install a modified Championship Season for the Formula Fords. This new Formula Ford World Circuit Championship Season includes 30 tracks with working AI which be available for all activities listed under "Simulation Modes," which includes Free Race, Time Trial, Multi-Player, Network, and Online modes. This modified Formula Ford Championship Season should not affect your career mode.

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INSTALLATION

(1) Run RD2FFWCCSeason.exe

(2) If you installed Race Driver 2 to some place other than the default directory, then you will need to enter the correct path to Race Driver 2 directory. The installer will automatically choose the default installation directory, along with the proper path, as follows:

C:\Program Files\Codemasters\Race Driver 2\

If you used something other than the default installation directory, make sure you point the installer to the root of your Race Driver 2 installation directory

(3) After you run the installer, the new championship season will be automatically installed, and the tracks should be available for open racing in any mode listed under "Simulation Modes."

(4) Enjoy!

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Modified Formula Ford championship season and AI files by John C. Bodin, 2004

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The Formula Ford World Circuit Championship Season includes the following tracks, complete with functional AI:

Oulton Park Fosters
Vallelunga
Oulton Park
Mantorp Park (short)
Road America
Laguna Seca
Nurburgring GP
Hockenheimring
Adria
Nurburgring Sprint
EuroSpeedway
Norisring
Donington Park
A1-Ring GP
Zandvoort
Surfers Paradise
Kyalami
Bathurst
Mantorp Park Long
Southfield Heights
Brands Hatch Indy
Adelaide
Phillip Island
Eastern Creek
Barbagallo
Hidden Valley Raceway
Oran Park
Sandown
Pukekohe
A1-Ring Short

In some cases, the AI should give you a good battle with the difficulty cranked up to 110%; in other cases, the AI is only mediocre. I may try to improve the tracks that are weak, but this should keep you all busy for now.

Enjoy!

-- JB

J_Cauthen · Post by **J_Cauthen** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:01 am

Many thanks John... I'll jump all over this one! The Formula Fords are my favorite of the lot. It will be nice to have some new tracks to race them on, with functional AI. 90% AI has been giving me all I wanted so far

BTW, how do I get your Active Cockpit mod to work in the full game? Do I simply just copy the exe file to the TOCA2 utility folder and run it from there? The one that worked with the demo also works with the full game, right?

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:11 am

Thanks John, this is great. I would have paid full price for just the Formula Ford part of the game if it had inlcuded this many tracks. Excellent work.

JC, I believe John released a full version of the Active Cockpit utility over at www.bhmotorsports.com

jbodin · Post by **jbodin** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:33 am

FWIW, if you have a modded X-Box and you'd like to try the new 30-track Formula Ford Championship Season files on the X-Box, you can download just the files in a zipfile format here:

http://irlheat.bhmotorsports.com/RD2FFW ... nFiles.zip

The aib.big file would go in the following folder on the PC:

..\Race Driver 2\GameData\cars\

The champ.big file would go in the following folder on the PC:

..\Race Driver 2\GameData\chamship\

The AI is good at some tracks (when cranked up to 110%), and only so-so at others.

Enjoy!

jbodin · Post by **jbodin** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:35 am

J_Cauthen wrote:BTW, how do I get your Active Cockpit mod to work in the full game? Do I simply just copy the exe file to the TOCA2 utility folder and run it from there? The one that worked with the demo also works with the full game, right?

Glad you guys like!

The ACC utility for the full version of the game is available in the "Utilties" section on the BHMS site -- you can find it here:

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/RDRIV2/downloads/2913

Enjoy!

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:32 pm

BTW lovers of the Formula Fords:

I noticed on the Codemasters forums for TOCA RD2, that one Barry Pomfret has posted, stating that his was the FF car Codemasters used to get their info and sound for the FFs in the game. He was asking how people liked the FFs in the game, but mentioned he was still waiting for the full version of the game to be sent to him.

I didn't reply (no one has, makes me sad

), but someone who is more of a real sim racer may want to let him know that we all love them! I am very curious to see his impression once he gets the game.

I'll drop the link here:

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/ ... adid=37299

J_Cauthen · Post by **J_Cauthen** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:47 am

John,

This Active Cockpit tool of yours is simply amazing. What a difference it makes in the realism! I was racing the Seat Leon's with it last night and I thought it was very interesting how the windshield tint obstructs your view as you're making a dip with the car. It's like the car is yawing down, yet your head is still going up from the climb. That angle is exactly like I would expect in real life. It adds the right amount of 'fog' to the simulation and boosts the quality thereof.... super!

The whole active cockpit mechanism elevates TOCA 2 to a new level, IMO. Little waves of euphoria traverse my neural network as I sense its benefits

Codemasters owes you a commission for this feature my friend!

J_Cauthen · Post by **J_Cauthen** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 9:51 am

sf_z wrote:Thanks John. I'll definitely load that one tonight. The FFs are a kick to drive even at bleah tracks like Vallelunga. It'll be fun to catch air at Zandvoort and Bathurst.

I can testify to one of these sf_z... I raced at Zandvoort last night - what a blast in the Formula Fords. There are a couple of turns where the AI (set at 90% as I have it anyway) is a little bit tenuous, but the rest of the track they run pretty aggressively, IMO. This is a great venue for the FF's. I'm not sure I have the cahones to run Bathhurst in a FF just yet though

jbodin · Post by **jbodin** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 3:47 pm

Thanks for the glowing praise on the ACC utility, JC -- I like it a lot myself. Without the ACC function, RD2 feels VERY "flat" and arcade-like to me, but with the ACC enabled, it's an entirely different beast. Every time I run at Bathurst, I have to pat myself on the back!

Glad you guys are enjoying the Formula Ford season as well!

FWIW, I hadn't really played around with the Seats yet, but someone on another forum was requesting a custom season for them (along with all the DTM and V8 requests I've been receiving). So, on a whim I went ahead and put together a 30-track season for the Seats, too (similar to the Formula Ford 30-track championship), then I started working on getting functional AI going for them as well. The season works fine -- easy access to 30 tracks now -- but the AI is still a little shaky.

Once I figure out how to nail the AI for the Seat cars, though, I should have a process in place (via several batch files to automate things) that will allow me to quickly and easily generate functional AI for ANY car I choose, with minimal effort.

You know what that means . . .

Stay tuned!

BTW, if you find any tracks where the AI for the Formula Fords is just completely deficient, please let me know, because I can fix that when I release a more all-encompassing AI package.

-- JB