Trackname: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Version: v 3.0
Date of release: February 2014
Racing sim: NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Author(s): Ian Smythe & JR Franklin

Type: Real

AI: Yes

Physics support: CUP, GNS, CTS & PTA (specially DW12 mod)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

[1] FEATURES & CONTRIBUTORS
[2] A.I. NOTES
[3] KNOWN ISSUES
[4] PROBLEMS?
[5] CREDITS
[6] AGREEMENT OF USE

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[1] FEATURES & CONTRIBUTORS

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    * 2013 Sprint Cup weekend race logos (as close as streams/photos will allow)
    * New wall & sky textures, lights, crowd blah blah blah.
    * New Infield objects and infield road course model
    * Whelen Pit Entry/Exit light system.
    * Updated cameras
    * Updated Back Stretch flag (All trackside objects only)

As ever, JRFranklin has spent considerable time working on the Cup, GNS and CTS AI for this track and has again produced gems who are both realistic to race with and have the occasional wreck all on their own, however your attention is drawn to the following...

DW12_race.lp
This file is for the forthcoming Indycar DW12 mod (and other PTA based open wheel mods).
To get the best results, use weather settings of 50F CLEAR, with an opponent strength of between 97-99%.

For best results, we strongly advice for the greatest offline racing experience, you use the provided fast setup for each class.


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[2] A.I. NOTES

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The A.I. for this track were constructed using the following:

1.  the original retail default papy_ai.ini
2.  the default fast setups for each physics (CUP, GNS and CTS)
3.  the opponent strength set at 97%. 

Ratings for the car sets used in testing and in developing the A.I. for this track are from the NRatings program (http://www.tjeuten.be/software/nratings) using the MasGrafx Full Season V3.1 ratings formulas. 

The speeds the A.I. and you (The Player) can obtain are NOT realistic on this track and are generally faster than the real life speeds at Homestead.  Grip levels have been adjusted to enhance the offline racing experience, allow tight racing and create a "sense of speed" to you, The Player.  The enhanced grip also allows the Player to maintain control after  a slight incidental contact with the A.I. which previously would reslut in a spin out and allow you, The Player, the ability to "save" a car that has begun to spin.

We went to great efforts to make the A.I. and racing as realistic as possible. At the same time, we also took some liberties with the A.I. tools available in the track.ini to enhance the "fun" factor. We're confident that you'll enjoy the offline racing experience against the A.I. the way we have set them up for you. 

We also made an effort to get the A.I. to have an occasional random wreck that would bring out some cautions to further enhance the realism.  In trying to achieve this, we first went through the entire track and made sure that the proper surface designations were in place to allow for cautions when wrecks and spinouts occur.  In addition, we had to "push the envelope" a bit with the settings in the track.ini. This required getting the A.I. to race a little tighter, change lanes and be a little more aggressive.  As a result, the end user may experience an early wreck or 2 between the A.I. at the beginning of a race. This is because at the start of a race, the pack is at its largest and tightest. Testing revealed that once a couple of early wrecks occurred, then the A.I. seemed to settle down and spread out.  However, once another random wreck occurred, the restart would re-tighten the pack and as the saying goes....."Cautions can breed more cautions".  Kind of like real life racing!

In summary, to enjoy the best results, we recommend that you use the default fast setups provided with the track and car/truck sets containing ratings as described above. Your results and A.I. behavior, however, may vary depending on the type of mod used, the ratings of your specific car set, different setups used, driving style, skill level and countless other variables that make it practically impossible to predict the results that you will achieve while racing on this track.

We hope that you enjoy the Homestead racing experience!

J.R. Franklin


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[3] KNOWN ISSUES

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The A.I. will checkup early in the race, it is especially noticable if you start from the back, this is because they have been programmed to "race" rather than follow the car in front, so in laymans terms, their programming goes something like this "You are too close to the car in front, cannot overtake here, slow down a little", this will result in a checkup that goes way back up the line, and is really noticable when starting from the back.  After 3 or 4 laps at most, checkups are no longer an issue as the pack has spread out a bit allowing the cars to race more.

We feel that creating the A.I. is better this way overall because once everything has settled down, they will actually race you, defend, try to overtake etc. etc. rather than just following the car infront blindly and never overtaking.  In short, we consider it an acceptable compromise to make the racing better later on.

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There is always a night sky in your mirror, even during the day, again this is a limitation of the games graphics engine - blame Papyrus - oh we can't can we?

DAY TO NIGHT TRANSITION:
This can be seen on all graphics levels, the amount of trackside objects, and detail varies depending what level you are on.

Minimal:
You will see the Day to Night transition only and no other trackside objects.

Some:
As above but with some added infield RV's, some objects will not transition.

All:
Everything including the Full switching on lighting system, Pitlane Club, Haulers, 3D Crowd, and their cameras.

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The billboards are best guess and they're not quite in the right position, unfortunately I do not get live race coverage over here (in UK) so have to rely on photos and internet streams for my NASCAR fix.

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[4] TROUBLE REPORTING

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Problems? Report to Smiffsden facebook page, or the track threads at SRD or NR2k3Tracks:

http://www.simracingdesign.com/nr2003-general-discussion/
http://nr2k3tracks.proboards.com/index.cgi


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[5] CREDITS & THANKS

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CREDITS:
Track Development:
Ian Smythe

A.I. Development:
J.R. Franklin

Beta Testing:
J.R. Franklin
Ian Smythe
All the V8Thunder.co.uk League drivers.

Contributions:
J.R. Franklin
Crowd mip courtesy BOWTIE: http://ewracing.com/ewracing/n2k3_3d_objects.htm

If you appreciate our work, please consider a small donation to help with the costs of keeping the Smiffsden server running, thank you.


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[6] AGREEMENT OF USE

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Storage or Use of this track by installation into a racing simulator constitutes agreement with this and the following statements:

1) This track may not be sold or distributed for commercial purposes, or money exchanged for this track or any part thereof.

2) This track may not be redistributed or hosted on a server without written consent of the original author.

3) This track cannot be modifed without written consent of the original author.

4) Pieces of this track (not including the .ptf file) may be extracted and used for other tracks, but cannot be used in projects for commercial purposes, and credit to the original author should appear in a readme that is distributed with the new project.

5) This track must always maintain an unmodified copy of this readme in whatever form itis distributed.

6) This track is covered by implied intellectual property laws, in that it is the property of the author.

7) This track is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 

Copyright 2014 Ian D Smythe.





