Half Rate="0" - Enables a super-high physics rate which uses more CPU power to calculate extra vehicle physics parameters and gives a more realistic feel to the car. This will normally make your lap times slightly slower as the car is more difficult to drive quickly over the curbs.

No AI Control="1" - The computer will never take control of your car (so you can still drive when the race has finished).

AutoBlip="0" - Removes the brake assistance icon from your telemetry laps (this is a bug in the game). Obviously this is assuming you don't actually use brake assistance.

Tire Sampling="1" - Should make the car's reaction slightly more realistic over sharp curbs.

Other Volume Ration="0.70000" - Lowers the volume of the other vehicle engines so they don't totally drown out your own (this was recommended by one of the game developers).

LCD Display Modes="7" - Allows you to see all pages on the in-car steering wheel display in the cockpit view (Lap Time, Pit Stop/Fuel, Tyre Temp, Driving Aids, Engine and Brake Temp).

Locked Pit Cam="0" - Allows you can stay in the cockpit view during pitstops.

Crash Recovery="0" - The game will not automatically leave your car upright after a crash (you can end up stuck upside down for good). It is more realistic.


4. Setting Up Your Steering Wheel.

This is one of the most important steps when you are setting up a racing sim and in the EA F1 games it is more important than ever - these settings can easily effect the lap times you are capable of driving.

There are some general settings which seem to suit most steering wheels but these are the three steering wheels I have used with F1 2002 and F1 Challenge;

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback
Logitech Momo Force
Thrustmaster Ferrari F1 Replica;
*Review link posted for the Thrustmaster F1 steering wheel as not many people seem to know about it;
http://www.gamefaction.com/hardware...ackracingwheel/

I must be honest and say I never noticed much difference between the three of them in terms of lap times but the Momo has slightly more degrees of travel until you reach full lock (it is also probably the most comfortable to use).


First of all you should setup your steering wheel and pedals correctly using Windows 'Game Controllers' - each steering wheel has it's own unique page here and some have more options than others; some wheels also come with their own software (separate from Game Controllers) which you can use to adjust the axis properties.
It's best to leave most of the axis, steering and sensitivity settings in this Windows based software at the default settings, however with certain wheels (Microsoft) you might want to increase the sensitivity of the actual steering wheel axis slightly as this can improve turn-in.
Other than that the main thing you should do in Windows is make sure your pedals are setup to use 'split' (or 'separate') axis - this means each pedal will be assigned it's own separate axis and they will work independantly (meaning you can use both pedals at the same time for more advanced driving techniques). If you don't do this (and instead leave the pedals using a single 'Combined' axis) they will override each other and you will only be able to use one pedal at a time.
For the Microsoft and Logitech wheels this 'split'/'separate' axis setting is normally found in the Windows 'Game Controllers' page but for the Thrustmaster Ferrari F1 wheel this setting can only be changed by using the profiler software that comes with the steering wheel (installed from the CD).

Now I will go through the in-game steering wheel settings from the F1 Challenge Controllers Options pages;

The Calibration page is quite simple - you use it to assign your pedals, steering wheel, clutch button and any keyboard commands you might want. One thing you should do here is remember to calibrate your pedals two or three times in a row (click on accerator, press the pedal, click on brake, press the pedal and repeat a few times) - this should make sure you have full pedal travel. You need full pedal travel - in other words when you press the accelerator down very slightly when stationary in 1st gear the car should react and start creeping forward straight away - if you have to press your throttle pedal halfway down before the car does anything your pedals are not set up with full travel. On some wheels (Microsoft) the game will only recognise half of the pedal travel the first time you calaibrate them but if you calibrate them a second time it often recognises your pedal setup properly (split axis etc) and then gives full axis travel for each pedal. So it's worth doing this to make sure your pedals are setup correctly.
You can also test this by looking at the red real-time axis displays on the Calibration page (in-game) - you will see a red steering axis display which should mimic your steering wheel and you will also see two red pedal axis bars which should accurately follow what you do with your pedals; so if you press a pedal fully down the axis display should be completely red and if you fully lift from a pedal the red axis bar should disappear (you should also press both pedals down fully at the same time and make sure both pedal axis bars are completely red - this means you pedals are setup as 'separate' axis correctly).

You should try to map most of the important keyboard functions to the buttons on your steering wheel (depending on how many buttons your wheel may have). I have a Logitech Momo now so apart from the gear shifters it has 6 buttons spare. It's mainly down to personal preference but these are the functions I have mapped to my steering wheel - Pit Limiter, Clutch, Look Behind, LCD Display Cycle, Request Pit and Neutral. I don't use Traction Control so the TC override button is useless to me and although I would like Launch Control mapped to the wheel I use the other functions a lot more.

The 'Digital Rates' are only for keyboard. Some people think these settings effect steering wheels too but I'm pretty sure they don't (after lots of testing) and I can only look at the game from my own experience. If you have assigned a clutch button to your steering wheel then that is the only button where the Digital Rate setting will have an effect. In a real car the clutch would normally be analogue so it wouldn't engage or dis-engage in an instant - as a result the game allows you to adjust how quickly (in percentage) the F1 clutch will react when you press the button on your wheel. I have mine at 10% (the minimum setting) so when I let go of the clutch button at the start of a race there is more time to get the throttle amount correct before the clutch actually dis-engages (and there is less chance of stalling). It sounds more complicated than it is. My advice for the digital rates would be to set them all to the minimum setting (10%).

'Speed Sensitivity' has been discussed a lot and I often find that people use very different settings for it (even with similar wheels). This setting effects how fast the car reacts at high speed but there seems to be some confusion as to which setting you have to use to lower or increase the sensitivity in the game. You would expect that the higher settings (percentages) would make the car more sensitive at high speed and the lower settings would make the car less sensitive but this is not the case for most steering wheels - for all of the steering wheels I have used I had to set a very low 'Speed Sensitivity' percentage to make the car react quicker at high speed.
A lot of people look at the Speed Sensitivity setting as if you are adjusting 'lag' in the steering axis - so at 0% there is no lag (or delay) when you turn the wheel at high speed and at 100% there is quite a big delay when you turn the wheel... this is also my view of the setting and as a result I normally set it to 0% because I don't want any lag at all. However on certain wheels (Microsoft) I found that the car was actually too sensitive at 0% and I had to increase it to around 20%.
So the 'Speed Sensitivity' setting can be trial and error and if you use a very low setting the car can seem far too