Playing Ultimate Stunts
When the ultimatestunts game is started, music playback starts, and a
menu interface appears. You can start playing immediately, by selecting
the "Drive!" option in the main menu. Alternatively, you can first change
some things, like cars/players and the track.
When you choose to start playing, the data files are loaded. Depending on
your hardware, this might take some time. When all data is loaded, the game
starts. The control bindings of the game (keys, joystick etc.) can be
changed in the settings, but this is the default for one player:
- Arrow keys: accelerate, brake and steer
- ; and /: Gear up/down, including the reverse gear
- Esc: exit the game
- right shift: change camera mode
- right ctrl: change camera target car
- F1: play the next song in the playlist
Menu functions
This section gives a walkthrough for the menus in Ultimate Stunts. We'll start
with the menu options in the main menu:
Drive!
Selecting this option will start the game. This allows you to start racing with
only a single click after starting Ultimate Stunts.
After exiting the game, crashing or finishing, the hiscore of the track
is displayed, and you can optionally choose to view or save a replay of this
race. If you have reached the first place for this track, then a replay is
automatically saved. The hiscore menu has the following options:
View replay
With this option you can view a replay of your last race. You can use the
same camera controls as during the race.
Save replay
This saves the replay in a file, so that you can view it again later.
Play again
Starts the same race again.
Return to main menu
This brings you back to the main menu.
Set the game type
The main purpose of this menu is to select between a local game and different
kinds of network multiplaying game types. You have the following options:
Local game
This is the default option. In a local game, you don't participate in a
network game: everything runs on your own computer.
Join an existing LAN/network game
If your computer is connected to other computers through a Local Area Network,
this lets you join a network game. After selecting this option, Ultimate Stunts
asks for the port number. Usually, the default port number is OK. Then, Ultimate
Stunts searches in your LAN for game servers. If one server is found, it
automatically connects to that server. If more than one is found, you can choose
between them. If none is found, you get the option to enter a hostname or IP number
manually.
Start a new LAN/network game
This lets you start a new network game. Ultimate Stunts asks for the following
information:
- Port number: Usually, the default should be OK. Selecting a different
port number can be useful in case of a conflict with another application
or a firewall.
- Name of the server: This name is displayed in the list of servers, if
there are multiple servers on the LAN.
- Minimum number of players: This is an important setting: the game will
not start until this many players have joined the game (including the player
who started the game).
After supplying this information, Ultimate Stunts starts a game server, so that
other players can join the game.
Join an existing online game
If your computer is connected to the internet, this lets you join an online
network game. When you select this option, Ultimate Stunts gets a list of
game servers from the Ultimate Stunts metaserver. Because this metaserver can
be reached from all over the world, this gives you the possibility to play with
people in other countries and on other continents. If only one game server is
registered online, Ultimate Stunts automatically connects to that server. If
more than one is found, you can choose between them. If none is found, you get
the option to enter a hostname or IP number manually.
Start a new online game
This lets you start a new online network game. Ultimate Stunts asks for the
following information:
- Port number: Usually, the default should be OK. Selecting a different
port number can be useful in case of a conflict with another application
or a firewall.
- Name of the server: This name is displayed in the list of servers, if
there are multiple servers online.
- Minimum number of players: This is an important setting: the game will
not start until this many players have joined the game (including the player
who started the game).
After supplying this information, Ultimate Stunts starts a game server, so that
other players can join the game. It will also register this server on the
Ultimate Stunts metaserver, so that other players can see it in their server
list.
Select the track
If you want to play on another track, then you can select a track here.
The track page shows the follwing things:
- The name of the currently selected track
- The best time for finishing this track
- Several menu options
The track menu gives you the following options:
Select a track
This lets you select another track from a list of track files.
Edit track
With this option, you can start the track editor. For information on how to
use the track editor, see this page.
View best time replay
When someone beats the best time record of a track, a replay of that race is
saved automatically. With this menu option, you can view the replay of the
best time race.
Return to main menu
Return to the main menu.
Players and cars
You can select the players, and the cars they drive, in this menu:
You can either add a player, or change an existing player in the list. Changing
the player's settings or deleting the player is done in the individual player
menu, which can be accessed by selecting a player in the player selection menu:
Split screen multiplaying (up to four players) is possible by adding multiple
human players to the list.
View a replay
You can select this function from the main menu, and select a replay file
to view it. Note that the best time replays, which are saved automatically,
are not visible here: you can view them from the track menu. Here, you can
only select replays which are saved manually from the hiscore menu.
Settings
In the settings menus, you can change
a large number of settings. The settings are divided into sections, like
graphics and sound, and in each section, you can set a number of variables.
When a variable is changed, the change is applied immediately. Sometimes,
the result of this can be noticed immediately, for instance, when setting
the language, or when changing the music volume.
When you have changed some
setting(s), and leave the settings menus, Ultimate Stunts asks you whether
you want to save the settings. If you choose to save them, Ultimate Stunts
writes the settings to a text file with the name "ultimatestunts.conf", and
the next time you start Ultimate Stunts (or one of the other Ultimate Stunts
programs), these settings will be loaded. If you choose not to save the
settings, the settings are still applied to the current Ultimate Stunts
session, but they won't be reloaded the next time. You can still save them
later by entering the settings menus and leaving them again. Ultimate Stunts
will detect again that some settings are changed, and will ask you again to
save the settings.
Credits and License
Here you can see who made Ultimate Stunts, and you can read the General Public
License. If you think you can do something useful for the Ultimate Stunts
project, please feel free to contact the project administrator.
Exit
Ultimate Stunts can be a nice game, but there is a time for everything, and
it is definitely not healthy to play computer games all day. Please use your
time responsibly, and select this menu option if you really should be doing
other things.