Race Driver: GRID PC Demo Delayed
 
Kicking things off today, Codemasters has announced that they've released a demo for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of their upcoming racing title, Race Driver: GRID. Where's the promised PC demo? According to Codemasters' Rich Tysoe, some last-minute bugs popped up and have forced a short delay. Here's the scoop:  
 
We've had some demo-specific bugs crop up, at the very last minute, and we can't release the demo with those bugs still unresolved. It wouldn't be good for codemasters, and neither would it be good for the PC fans of GRID.  
 
I'm sorry you'll have to wait a little bit longer, but it'll be worth it.  
 
There's no word on when the PC demo will launch. But we'll be sure to keep you posted!

Firstly, thanks to all of you for your patience today. We all know how frustrating it is when waiting for something that you can't wait to get your hands on.
 
Well the great news is, that you CAN! As mentioned earlier, the team here at Codies have worked flat out to fix the issue in the earlier demo and they have succeeded. The PC GRID demo will go LIVE today, at 8pm BST.  
 
The reason for the time delay is to allow our mirrored sites to grab the demo from us and prepare it for you to download. As there are now so many of you waiting, we want to ensure that you have a painless process getting the demo and we have lined up lots of excellent sites for you.
 
We will post links later today with all the mirror sites and of course, you can add to this as you find more. Don't forget you can also win a rare GRID T-Shirt in our forum competition
 
Thanks again!!!!
 
Codies Community Team.

Get the demo now from the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace et le PLAYSTATION®Network!
 
PC Demo coming soon
 
GRID™ Read Me (version Demo 1.0, updated 08-04-2008)  
Thank you for playing GRID™.
 
Contents  
System Requirements
 
 
Supported Controllers
 
 
Known Issues/Troubleshooting
 
 
Force Feedback and Steering Wheel Setup
 
 
Audio
 
 
Further Troubleshooting
 
 
Advanced Features
 
 
Useful Websites
 
 
System Requirements  
Minimum Specifications  
 
Windows XP/Vista. (If running Windows Vista, SP1 is recommended)  
DirectX 9.0c  
Pentium 4 @ 3.0GHz or Athlon 64 3000+  
1GB RAM.  
Graphics Card: GeForce 6800 / Radeon X1300 or above  
DirectX Compatible Sound Card  
Dual Layer Compatible DVD-ROM Drive  
12.5 GB Hard Drive Space  
Recommended Specifications  
 
Windows XP/Vista. (If running Windows Vista, SP1 is recommended)  
DirectX 9.0c  
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.66Ghz or Athlon X2 3800+  
2GB RAM.  
Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 or Radeon X1950  
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card.  
Dual Layer Compatible DVD-ROM Drive  
12.5 GB Hard Drive Space  
Supported Graphics Cards  
 
ATI Radeon X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, HD2600, HD2900, HD3870  
NVIDIA Geforce 6800, 7100, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8600, 8800, 9800  
 
Not compatible with all integrated sound/graphics solutions (inc.Laptops)  
 
TCP/IP mode (2-12 players) Requirements:  
 
Broadband internet connection required - 512kbps + Recommended  
TCP/IP Network  
Supported Controllers  
GRID™ can be configured to use almost any PC controller, however we recommend the following controllers for the best game play experience:  
 
Microsoft X360 controller  
Logitech G25  
Logitech MOMO  
Logitech Driving Force Pro  
Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Pro  
GRID™ provides default configurations for all of the above, meaning that you should be able to plug-and-play, with no tweaking required.  
 
If you are setting up a wheel manually it is recommended that the pedals are on separate, rather than combined axis.  
 
Known issues/Troubleshooting  
i) The game won’t install!  
 
If you find that you are getting ‘file not found’ errors (or other similar messages) during installation, it may be that your DVD drive is malfunctioning. There are several simple tests you can perform to verify this:  
 
Does the same disc install correctly on a different PC?  
Does the same disc install on your PC using a different DVD drive?  
If you browse the DVD manually, can you locate the ‘missing’ file?  
Try copying the contents of your disc directly onto your hard drive – do you get a standard Windows ‘Insert disc’ error (or similar) whilst copying?  
If any of the above tests succeed, then it is highly probable that there is an issue with your DVD drive. Such problems may not manifest themselves with all discs, so even if other games appear to install correctly then this may still be the case.  
 
To install or uninstall the game you will need administrative privileges within Windows. On Windows Vista, simply enter the administrator password if and when you are prompted for it. On Windows XP, log on as an administrator before running Setup.  
 
ii) I changed my graphics settings – now the game won’t boot!  
 
If you changed your graphics settings and now can’t get into the game – don’t panic! This can occur if you enable an option unsupported by your graphics card, or set the resolution beyond what can be handled by your monitor. GRID™ includes a ‘Safe Mode’ to help under such circumstances, which can either be run using the shortcut under the start menu in Windows XP, or by right-clicking the game in the Games Explorer in Windows Vista, or else by launching the game using the ‘–safemode’ parameter. Safe Mode will simply boot the game using the lowest possible resolution and graphics settings, so that any PC meeting the minimum spec should be able to at least reach the options menu to rectify the problem. Alternatively, simply delete the hardware_settings_config.xml file, and the game will generate a new one the next time it is run.  
 
iii) Visible shearing/tearing  
 
You may experience tearing across the picture. This can be avoided by turning on 'vsync' which is available from the advanced graphical options menu. Please note that this may reduce the performance of the game, and so is disabled by default.  
 
iv) Poor frame-rate  
 
GRID™ has been designed with multi-core processors in mind, and as such will run significantly better when one is available. If you are running in Vista, the game may also require a larger amount of RAM than if you were running in XP.  
 
If the game runs at an unsatisfactory framerate, try turning off some graphics systems from the graphics options menu. Mirrors and Wind Effects can both be disabled for a significant performance increase with little loss in visual fidelity.  
 
More advanced users may want to tweak the settings in the hardware_settings_config xml file, located in your savegame directory. Turning down the shadow mask quality to 0 has been found to provide good framerate improvements for those with older graphics cards.
 
v) The game looks stretched/squashed!  
 
Check that the aspect ratio and resolution settings that you are using are supported by and are applicable to the monitor you are using.  
 
vi) Graphical Corruption Warning!  
 
Using extremely high resolutions on Graphics Cards with less than 512MB of memory may result in graphical corruption. To resolve these issues simply run the game using the safe mode executable.
 
vii) Why can’t I choose a higher screen resolution?  
 
Higher resolutions require large amounts off video RAM. If GRID detects that your primary graphics card has less than 512MB of RAM, higher resolutions will be made unavailable to avoid poor performance and potential graphical issues.  
 
viii) Is ATI’s Crossfire or NVIDIA’s SLI supported?  
 
Unfortunately, due to the working of GRID’s engine, systems which link two or more graphics cards (i.e. Crossfire or SLI) are not implicitly supported. This means you may not see a performance boost from having the second card, and you may even have trouble running the game. If GRID is failing to start properly and your system is SLI or Crossfire enabled, try disabling the technology in either NVIDIA’s or ATI’s control panel in Windows and see if this helps.  
 
ix) Problems joining/creating network sessions  
 
If you are running a Firewall, ensure it is set to allow the game to communicate on the following ports for both inbound and outbound traffic:  
 
TCP and UDP port 3074  
 
x) Graphical corruption on ATI’s Radeon X1xxx cards:  
 
You may experience graphical problems if using a Radeon X1300 through to X1950 graphics card with Catalyst 8.3 drivers. This is down to a problem with this specific version of the drivers, and can be fixed by switching to a different driver version. At the time of writing, the problem must be fixed by rolling back to an older driver version. To do this, first uninstall the Catalyst 8.3 drivers via the control panel (Add/Remove Programs in XP, or Programs and Features in Vista), then browse to the following website: ati.amd.com/drivers. Choose your operating system and graphics card from the lists, and click GO. If the subtitle of the page is “ATI Catalyst™ 8.3 Display Driver…”, scroll to the bottom of the page, and choose “Previous Drivers and Software”. Download and install the Catalyst 8.2 drivers.  
 
Future driver versions (i.e. 8.4 and later) should be fixed so that this problem no longer occurs.  
 
xi) Very poor performance using high graphical settings on Vista:  
 
On Windows Vista, if you have not installed the recommended Service Pack 1 patch, you may experience poor performance when running on a high-end card, at high resolutions and detail levels. To fix this, you must install Microsoft’s SP1 patch, available online from Microsoft’s Download Center: www.microsoft.com/downloads (search for “Vista Service Pack 1”). In the near future, the patch will also be available through the Windows Update service.
 
Force Feedback and Steering Wheel Setup  
As well as saturation and dead-zone controls, the following force feedback wheel options are available in the GRID™ controller setup screen. Modifying these values may increase the amount of 'oscillation' felt in the force feedback - eg. the wheel vibrating slightly when driving straight.  
 
i) Force Feedback Strength  
The overall strength of force feedback. Higher values may increase the level of oscillation.  
 
ii) Force Feedback Weight  
Higher values make the force feedback feel 'tighter' - only small changes in wheel orientation are required to cause large forces. This increases the perceived strength, but removes some of the subtlety and smoothness.  
 
iii) Steering Linearity  
Negative values make the steering concentrated around the centre of the wheel - moving the wheel only a small way will give you most of the steering response, and then moving the wheel all the way to full lock will give only a little more. Positive values do the opposite - moving the wheel around the centre accomplishes little, but as you approach full lock you start to get the full steering effect. Wheel linearity is very much an issue of personal preference. You may find that using negative values requires the force feedback weight to be decreased in order to reduce oscillations.  
 
Audio  
i) Performance  
 
The audio system in GRID has been designed to scale greatly, to suit all machines and cards.  
 
Software  
This option gives you a stereo software mixer. This gives the maximum compatibility with all sound cards but does not make use of all their features. You can select DSP, but this will consume extra CPU time.  
 
OpenAL  
This option uses the OpenAL system, and is designed for use on Creative Labs Audigy and X-Fi cards. It allows the selection of high DSP quality and supports hardware audio acceleration on Vista, unlike other Audio options.  
 
DirectSound3D  
This option uses the Windows XP DirectSound3D format, to take advantage of drivers for systems that do not yet support OpenAL natively. The quality and performance of this translation depends on the compatibility of the underlying DirectSound3D driver and your 'hardware acceleration' settings in Windows. If the DirectSound3D driver has bugs (e.g. some RealTek systems) performance suffers.  
 
ii) Drivers  
 
You should ensure you have the latest drivers for your soundcard. If your drivers aren't up to date, you may not be able to choose OpenAL or DirectSound3D mixing, or you may be limited to DSP being LOW or OFF.  
 
Further Troubleshooting  
If you are still experiencing problems the please contact our customer support where we will be more than happy to help. Details can be found in your GRID™ manual or on the Codies website – www.codemasters.com. You can also see if other users are experiencing similar problems by visiting the GRID forums which are accessible from the main Codemasters website.  
 
Advanced Features  
If your system has a motion platform, then GRID™ should be able to control it. This feature is completely untested beyond checking that the basic data output is correct, and as such should be used entirely at your own risk. The output format is designed to be compatible with the "Live for Speed" outsim motion platform format. To enable, just open the hardware_settings_config.XML file and edit the motion attributes:  
 
<motion enabled="true" ip="192.168.0.10" port="20777" delay="1" extradata="0" />  
 
enabled – Set “true” or “false” to enable or disable the motion platform  
ip - The IP address of the motion platform  
port - The port of the motion platform  
delay - the time between data updates from the game (1/100ths second).  
extradata - This should always be set to “0”