                          SUPER SKIDMARKS 2 MANUAL

                           Supplyed by BULLDOGS

                        Typed by Pixie di\/ine/Pgn

 SUPER SKIDMARKS 2 MANUAL

 CONTENTS

 * Introduction
 * New Features
 * Memory and System requirements
 * Building a 4 player joystick adaptor
 * Super Skidmarks2 User Interface
 * HD Installation
 * Racing with Super Skidmarks 2
 * Imagine 2 Converter
 * Super Skidmarks Racer Magazine
 * Credits and Greetings

 INTRODUCTION

 This package was suppose to be an upgrade that was due to be released
 several months after the original SkidMarks was completed (Dec 93).
 It was originally intended that we would release a new track editor that
 would be friendly enough for users to create there own tracks.

 Sadly it was not to beand several months later,we decided to simply
 add another two track disks to the original package.These were
 completed some 6 months ago.

 We then found by using a different sprite system we could have 8 cars
 with AGA machines and set about redesigning the sprite converter which
 we are proud to announce has been included in this release for users
 to add their own cars.
 With new cars and new tracks we then thought a quick rewrite of the
 front end was in order.That was 4 months ago.

 It may be due to bad management,too many other projects to distract us,
 general laziness,or just bloody mindedness but Super SkidMarks 2 is
 finally finished,we hope it was worth the wait.......

 NEW FEATURES

 * New 8 car mode for AGA machines
 * Shared screen mode for up to 4 player team racing
 * triple split screen mode forthree players on one Amiga
 * Caravan towing,Wo! what a holiday!
 * 12 new tracks as well as compatibility with original 12
 * New cars including Mini,VW,F1,Cow and Midget
 * New Acid intelligence technology for computer drivers
 * Super view mode for locally linked AGA machines
 * Improved comms support for local and remote linking
 * Competition play with a multitude of challenging series
 * Imagine->SkidMarks car converter for the defined cars


 MEMORY AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

 Super SkidMarks 2 should be run on any Amiga with 1 meg of memory

 Those with more memory will be able to have more than one type of car
 racing at once and may even have some music to listen to while selecting
 options.

 Those with AGA Amigas can enjoy the new hi-res modes as well as racing
 8 cars at once.

 Modem owners can enjoy Super SkidMarks 2 improved comms support and race
 against others over the phone lines.

 Super SkidMarks 2 also supports 4 joystick adaptors. This devce connects
 two extra joysticks to an Amiga via the paralle port.


 BUILDING A 4 PLAYER JOYSTICK ADAPTER

 The simplest and possibly cheapest method is to start with a standard
 printer cable.remove the casing on the DB25 end (computer end) so you
 can see what colour wires are connected to which pins then cut off
 the connector at the other end of the cable (printer end) and strip of
 an inch of shielding.

 As both joystick connectors require GND(pin 17) and 5v(pin 14) unsolder
 the wires connected to pin 18 and 15 on the DB25 connector and solder
 them on top of pins 17 and 14 respectively.This will give you two wires
 at the other end for the extra GND and 5V required by the second
 joystick connector.The best thing to do then is write down the colours
 of each of the wires you will be connecting to JOY3 and JOY4. Then
 tint the wires (add solder to them before soldering to connectors) and
 solder them to the joystick connectors.Good luck!


 THE SUPER SKIDMARKS 2 USER INTERFACE.

 Super SkidMarks 2 includes numerous new options which can all be
 accessed via the user interface.Using the mouse,joystick or arrow
 keys select an option by highlighting the gadget and pressing the
 button or Return key.

 Often the ESC key on the keyboard can be used to exit from one options
 page back to a previous one.

 Certain gadgets allow the user (you) to enter some text.After clicking
 on such a gadget a cursor appears.From the the keyboard type in the text
 and hit return.With a joystick use up and down to change the character
 under the cursor,left and right to move the cursor and fire when finished.


 HD INSTALLATION

 Those with a hard disk system will want to install Super SkidMarks 2 onto
 their hard disks.From workbench simply drag the Super SkidMarks 2 drawer
 on the program disk onto your hard disk,this will copy all the files
 required to run Super SkidMarks 2 from your hard disk.Then click on the
 HDCar install utility.This will unpack the cars from the data disks onto
 your hard disk.Unfortunately we are unable to offer the opportunity
 to do the same with the tracks disks at this time,we are sadly not in
 the position to risk sales because of the nature of piracy still rampant
 in the Amiga community.However we promise to include a TrackDisk install
 utility in the first issue of the "SkidMarks Racer" magazine (see later in
 this manual for details).


 RACING WITH SUPER SKIDMARKS 2

 Instead of a large section on what buttons to pressand where,along with
 a detailed description of when and where to slow down and speed up,the
 following is a quick list of helpful hints and tips to get you in the
 spirt of things........

 * Stay cool,a frustrated driver is a bad driver.
 * Taking your finger off the button is uncool (see above).
 * Use the horn to vent frustration (pull down on the joystick).
 * Drunk driving is for idiots,crash for the night or call a cab.
 * Bounching off other cars is an essential skill,practice it.
 * Telling people to buy Super SkidMarks2 will make you friends for life.
 * Subscribing to SkidMarks Racer is a totlly wise thing.
 * Writing SkidMarks poetry is good for the soul.
 * Banging on big drums dancing naked is good for you too.
 * Approaching corners at a wide angle is sensible.
 * Pulling 360 degree turns in mid air is not.
 * Racing the formula one series is for nutters.
 * Winning the formula one series is insane.
 * Building a 4 joystick adapter is a rewarding projact.
 * Racing backwards with caravans attached can be tricky.
 * Replacing audio samples in the sfx drawer with your own is possible.
 * Sending email to acid@iconz.co.nz may get results.
 * Adding memory to your Amiga allows greater variety of cars in races
 * Driving two cars at once is an interesting possibility.
 * High speed mid air collisions are to be encouraged.


 CREATING YOUR OWN SKIDMARKS CAR IN IMAGINE

 Included on the Super SkidMarks2 program disk is a drawer containing
 the files you need to add your cars to Skidmakrs.You will of course
 need access to Imagine 2.

 RENDERING IN IMAGINE

 Some familiarity with Imagine ie required for those wanting to add
 their own cars to Skid2.A sample object has been included.

 1.Copy the Kart drawer from the program disk onto your herd disk.
 2.Run Imagine 2.
 3.Open the SkidMarks project which can be found in the Kart drawer.
 4.Open the Kart subproject.
 5.Select all frames and then select Render.

 Note:

 Select Preferences in Imagine and check that the EDLE variable is set
 to 255 resulting in the best anti-aliasing Imagine has to offer.

 The latest version of Imagine 3 we have is still unable to treat a
 genlock background properly and hence produces poor results when
 rendering SkidMarks cars (anti aliases the car to the background
 colour.....yuck!).


 RENDERING YOUR OWN CAR.

 To render your own car you must still use the SkidMarks project file
 included on the disk.This contains among other things:

 * Correct angles for the 800 rotations
 * Best iso-metric lens setting
 * Bright green genlock background colour required by converter
 * Correct file format (ILBM 24 bit)
 * Correct light sources and angles

 First up,from the detail editor load the Kart and your own car.
 Scale your own car to that of the Kart.Then orient it's global axis
 to that of the Karts:

 * Select your car
 * Press shift R (rotate global axis)
 * Point x-axis forward
 * Point z-axis straight up
 * Point y-axis towards left side of car
 * Press shift M (move global axis)
 * Position axis in centre of car 3 units above ground level
 * Save your car

 You may also need to change your car's colour to suit SkidMarks.
 Use only reds,blacks,greysand whites.

 To render your own car,go to the Action Editor and select the red bar
 in the "TYRES" field.Replace the Kart.iob filename with that of your
 own car.Save changes and render the first 32 frames of your car.

 Then run the converter program supplied on the program disk.
 Click on select-file and find the first frame of the car you just
 rendered.SkidMarks.imp/kart.pix/pic.001 or some such.

 Then click on SHOW-AGA to view the first 32 frames in the SkidMarks
 format.You may need to change the x and y offsets to centre your car
 in the frame,more than likely you dhould alter the objects axis position
 and size from within Imagine.
 The four varibles on the right of the screen adjust the dithering limits
 used by the converter.By changing these variables and then clicking on a
 frame of the car below you can fine tune how different shades are
 reproduced by the converter.

 Problem Solving.........

 * If the car is being clipped it is either too large or it's axis is
   not correctly centred,the x offset variable in the converter may
   also require adjustment.

 * If your car points the wrong direction when driven the orientation
   of the axis needs adjusting (see the rotate global axis description
   above).

 * If your car looks like crap the chances are you need to change the
   colour attributes in the detail editor.We only use red(255,0,0)
   black(0,0,0),grey(160,160,160) and white(255,255,255) colour
   settings.

 * Turn off phong shading for all attributes as it simply slows
   down rendering,increase specularity for panels you want to
   reflect light (body and windows but not tyres),don't bother
   trying to use textures.

 * Make sure for tyres that reflection and specularity are off,
   nothing looks worse than shiny tyres.

 * If your car looks too good (better than any in the Acid garage) then
   please send us the file,we might offer you some money or even a job.

 * If you are having problems adding textures to faces then don't bother
   the best method of adding amall detail to cars is to attach objects
   in the form of 3D text or structured drawings.


 SUBSCRIBE TO THE SKIDMARKS RACER MAGAZINE

 Publishing our own magazine will enable us to release new tracks and
 beta versions of upgrades,run competitions and most of all keep in
 touch with all of you SkidMarks racers.Send the enclosed registration
 card today!

 All being well the first issue of SkidMarks Racer will be mailed first
 week of April and we plan to include the following:

 COLOURING COMPETITION

 Two new tracks will be incuded in issue one of SkidMarks Racer.Your
 job will be to add the trackside detail using your favourite Amiga
 paint program.

 CAR MODELLING COMPETITION

 After the success of the "Imagine Build my Hot rod Competition" in
 Amiga Format last year we want to do it again.This time we will be
 expecting the entries to be "race ready" using the Imagine-Skidmarks
 converter included on Skids2's cover disk.

 FULL HD INSTALLATION UTILITY

 Subscribers to SkidMarks Racer will at some time also recieve a
 utility to install the 4 SkidMarks track disks on their hard disks.

 GRANDPRIX LICENSE

 All those who fill in the grandprix registration section will be
 listed in the magazine.We'll encourage everyone to contact others in
 their area to organise race meetings at a local venue and/or run
 tournaments using a BBS to schedule playoffs.
 If you can get enough people interested why not set up a venue,
 charge an entry fee and give away some prizes.Don't forget to take
 some photos so we can feature the event in the SkidMarks Racer
 magazine.

 ARTICLES WANTED

 If you have a story to tell be it about driving your own car or a
 party you had where everyone ended up playing SkidMarks till the sun
 came up we want to hear about it.Any hints and tips regarding driving,
 setting up your modem etc.Would also be appreciated.

 Credits:

 Andrew Blackbourn           programmer
 Simon Armstrong             mechanic
 Rodney Smith                artist#1
 Hans Butler                 artist#2
 Anthony Milas               musician
 Mark Sibly                  blitz guru
 Kurt Butler                 buildings
 Sonic                       novice
 Ted Bailey                  moo man
 Giles Hunter                long distance nag man
 Greetings Blitz Users       what a bunch
 Marcus Dyson                what a dude
 Net Surfers                 what a waste

END OF DOC..........

        This manual was typed on the 31/3/95 by Pixie-Di\/ine/PGN,
        because I had nothing better to do.