The purpose of creating this is to provide a great place for myself and anyone else to share things we've done to optimize this sim. I hope by providing this we can ease the transition for all newcomers and veterans into this sim. Feel free to post anything you've discovered or read about, add to or improve my own contributions, or anything else and I will update this list to keep everything in one place.

Before we get into that, it will be beneficial to explain where certain features are and how to use them. They will be referred to throughout the post.

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Learning Center:

The first is the PLR file. This is a little text document, one for each profile you have, that contains most of your configurations. In it, you change all sorts of settings, many of which are not things you will find in the settings menu in the game, but are important to configure.

To get to this file, navigate to your "ARCA Remax" folder.
Then navigate to your "UserData" folder
Then to your profile folder, which will be your name. (If you have another profile and want to make the same change, you will have to do that one as well)

Here you will find your PLR file. The file will be in the format "your name".plr.
Your computer may not recognize it as openable, but if you double click it and use the "open with" function, you can open it with either notepad or wordpad.

Now the tricky part, how to edit whats inside. The only thing you want to change is what is between the quotations. These are usually in the form of a number. The exact changes will be discussed for each individual fix that uses this.

This text is huge, but there's a trick to finding what you need without looking at each and everyone. In notepad and wordpad, if you click "Edit" up top, and then go to "Find...", or simply press ctrl+f, it will take you to a search function. Then, just type in, exactly, what comes in front of the "=" for that setting and it will highlight it in blue. (You will understand once you see it)

Thats it, just save the file, overwriting your old one, and then exit. Just don't change anything if you don't know what it is! =)

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Optimazations:

Name: In Car Rear View Mirror Fix
Issue: When you're in the "In Car View", the view out the rear view mirror is difficult to use because it is obscured by bars and your car in general.
Fix: Edit values in your PlR file.

Open your PLR file (described above) and find this:
Self In Cockpit Rearview="4" // add values for any that should be visible (0=none): 1=rear wing & wheels, 2=body & susp, 4=cockpit, 8=steering wheel (15=all)

The default value, is 4. Change this value to whatever you want based on what you want to see. I recommend just setting it to 0, so that it now looks like:
Self In Cockpit Rearview="0" // add values for any that should be visible (0=none): 1=rear wing & wheels, 2=body & susp, 4=cockpit, 8=steering wheel (15=all)

Save, exit, and now your rear view mirror will no longer be cluttered making it much more useful!

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Name: Laps displayed
Issue: The sim by default shows laps as how many have been run. If you're anything like me, you get confused by this, and would like it to show the lap your on, the format that is given in tv broadcasts.
Fix: Edit values in your PLR file.

Open your PLR file (described above) and find this:
Show Extra Lap="0" // 0 = show laps completed, 1 = show lap you are on

The default value, is 0. Change this value to 1 so it now looks like:
Show Extra Lap="1" // 0 = show laps completed, 1 = show lap you are on

Save, exit, and now you should no longer be confused about what lap your on.

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Name: Hud Tachometer Removal
Issue: You have a tach already and want to get rid of it without losing gear and fuel info.
Fix: Add two files to your Vehicle folder

First you will need to download the files. They are available for download at:
RapidShare Link

The download is a .zip file. Extract them into your Vehicles folder. To find this open your ARCA ReMax folder, then your GameData folder, and in that you will find your Vehicles folder.

The two files that will be added are called: HUDTEXTURE.TGA and NEEDLE.TGA. If done correctly it will look like this:

Adding these files will give you a cleaner interface and remove the redundant tach. But you will still see your gear and fuel info.
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Name: Add Numbers to Tachometer
Issue: If you race using the swingman view or still want to use the HUD tachometer you will notice the tach is just generic and doesn't show numbers.
Fix: Replace a file in your Vehicles folder

First you will need to download the file. You can get it from:
RapidShare Link

The download is a .rar file. You'll want to extract this into your Vehicles folder. To find this open your ARCA ReMax folder, then your GameData folder, and in that you will find your Vehicles folder.

This will replace the rFHUD.mas file. It will ask you to overwrite. Just click yes.

This should help you guys that use the swingman view, and anyone else that wants to use it, know what RPM your at.

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Name: Improve Sounds
Issue: There are some unnecessary road and wind noises that make it difficult to hear tire squeals, something you need to hear without having the benefit of the sensations while driving a real stock car.
Fix: Remove several files from your sounds folder.

First, find the Sounds folder. To get there, go to your ARCA ReMax folder, open your GameData folder, then to the Sounds folder. Now before I get into what to delete, I recommend making a back up of this folder just in case you don't like it.

Ok, now open the ARCA folder in the sound folder and you will see 4 folders, the three we want are Exterior, Hoosier Tires, and Interior. You will be deleting some files from these.

First, the Exterior folder. Open it and remove the named wind.wav. Thats it for that one.

Second, go to your Hoosier Tires folder. Definitely remove the road.wav, and you may want to remove dirt.wav and gravel.wav as well for tracks like DuQouin.

Third, go to your Interior folder. And remove the wind.wav from that one as well. Thats it for that one.

Ok, now start the game up and go into the Graphic/Audio Options in the Game Settings. On the audio side, change the Sound Effects setting to 100% and change the Engine setting to about 50%. Test this out and then play with these values to get a nice balance between the sound effects and the engine.

This should make the tire squeals much more audible and help let you drive it at the limit, easier.

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FPS Fixes:

Name: High resolution skins.
Issue: You can still have the high resolution skins, which make the cars look nice, without using high detail car models. This will improve FPS considerably.
Fix: Edit values in the PLR file.

Before opening your PLR file. Start the game up and go into the Graphic/Audio Options in the Game Settings. Change the Opponent Detail to Low. Then exit back out.

Now open your PLR file (described above) and find this:
Opponent Texture Override="-1" // For opponents' vehicle textures: -1=use Opponent Detail, 0-3=override value

The default value is -1. Change this to values 0-3 depending on what resolution of skin you want. These are the values:
0=Low
1=Medium
2=High
3=Full

Chances are you can change it to 3. If still not acceptable fps with big fields then use lower values. This would be what it would look like if you used a value of 3.

Opponent Texture Override="3" // For opponents' vehicle textures: -1=use Opponent Detail, 0-3=override value

This should give you a nice boost of fps, particularly with a lot of cars in the field.

Well done David, thank you

Glad to help. Like I said, everyone, feel free to post some additions, and I will add them to the list. I have a couple other changes on my mind and will add them soon.

Remove tach from the hud. Look at the last post on the first page for link and directions
http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?t=313887

this will gain you some fps
http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?t=314016

here are a couple different things
http://www.dmp-racing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1713

some gauges I use I think they are pretty cool
http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?t=314164&highlight=gauge

I have removed some sounds so I can hear my tire sqweel better if you are interested hit me up on team speak its just to much to type.

David feel free to take this stuff edit into your list for easier reading.

For those that race in the hood or roof camera views, you can add a Tach that actually has numbers on it.

You can download it at simmotorsportspaintshop
You have to be a member. Or I could email you the file.

ScreenShot

Was gonna ask about sounds as I couldnt hear my tyres scrubbing at all. Now if someone can tell me how to keep my foot on the accelerator and shift gears without the revs hitting the limiter I'd appreciate it.

Great guide btw, thank you.

this is super David, thank you! :-)

Damn, followed Daves sound file advice but I still cant here the tyres. :-(

Allen, I updated the guide to add that you'll want to change the sound volume's for the engine and sound effects. I forgot about that deal. Hopefully that helps.

Hey david just so you know that Tach change also changes the Tach for every outside car view not just the swingman. The other file I sent you takes the swingman and moves it out away from the car. The default swingman is really close to the car.