Windows XP - Fix - Slow Stage Loading in RC2K + more fixes

Mobil 1 Rally Championship
Rally Championship 2000
Windows XP
Windows XP Pro

SYMPTOM: Stages take more than 2 minutes to load after selecting "Continue" from a Service Area screen. This applies to Time Trial and Championship modes.

DETAILS: After selecting "Continue," the Service Area screen remains visible for about 70 seconds. Followed by a black screen. Followed by a 'frozen' load screen for about 50 seconds. Finally the loading bar begins. The stage then starts and plays normally. When exiting the stage, the screen then 'freezes' again for about 20 seconds before going to the menu loading screen. Altogether, this has an impact of wasting about 3 minutes per stage.

FIX: Turn the log file off. Simple huh? [It took many hours and a GREAT deal of patience to figure this out so please... return the favor some day.]

To turn the log file off, enter the following command into the ral.cfg file using a text editor or Ralwiz:

logfile=0

Enjoy the new 10 second loads and 9 second unloads.

MORE INFO: There is one report that this may be caused by installing Rally Trophy. I also have RT installed but I installed it before RC so I cannot verify any relationship.

The Windows priority settings have NOTHING to do with this bug. Setting a lower priority actually slows the loads down by 10 or 20 seconds. My system runs fine without any priority mods (actually better). Maybe everybody should install Rally Trophy and see if it fixes the priority issue.

Furthermore, I have the original Logitech WingMan Formula Force and it works great ... even with the Profiler running! (All the latest drivers of course.)

Enjoy,

Matt Jernigan

p.s. Would someone please do me the favor of putting this in a FAQ somewhere so I don't lose it?

New Information Just In

Fix - Wheel or Other Controller Slow to Activate at Start of Stage

It has been discovered that setting a lower priority for ral.exe in Windows is still necessary (at least in my machine). Although I did not experience many of the problems that the priority issue fixes, I did discover that my wheel took a few seconds to activate at the start of a stage (if I played more than one stage--the wheel always worked for the first stage). Setting the ral.exe priority to "Normal" fixes this problem as well.

One workaround is to Alt+Tab to Windows if you discover that your wheel is not responding during the stage countdown. This forces the game into pause mode and allows the controller driver to finish loading. Some people have trouble getting back to RC from Windows. Windows may freeze up when returning to RC. Try both methods: Alt+Tab, or click on the icon in the task bar.

The best workaround, however, is to use the lower priority fix. This can be done manually every time you run ral.exe, or you can make it permanent using the quoted instructions below. Some users have had trouble with the permanent method. This is probably due to patching ral.exe after applying the lower priority fix, or not following the instructions exactly.

"Manual" Lower Priority Fix:

1. Run Rally Championship.
2. Once in the main menu hit Alt+Tab to return to Windows.
3. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager.
4. Click the Processes tab.
5. Find ral.exe in the list and right-click on it.
6. In the popup menu select Set Priority -> Normal.
7. Click Yes in the Task Manager Warning message box.
8. Close the Windows Task Manager.
9. Alt+Tab or click back to Rally Championship.

"Permanent" Lower Priority Fix:

---

Thanks to: Tom's Rally 2000 site, Peracer, Dave King, Mr Overshoot, srosadiuk, for this information.

First of all, make sure you have the latest patch/mod installed, then follow these instructions.

Firstly you will need to download and install the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit from Microsoft's website, this is a 6.62Mb download.

Save the file somewhere safe it is named "act26". Run this application it will install various components and give you a shortcut in your programs group to the "Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit" strangely there is no shortcut to the program we need to use. You will have to search your HDD for the program "QFixApp.exe" and run it, then follow the instructions to use the QFixApp tool to apply this fix.

1) Select "Ral.exe" as the file you wish to apply this fix for.

2) Under the "Fixes" tab select the "Clear" button.

3) Select "LowerThreadPriority" and then the "Run" button. If you aren't running the NoCD version, make sure you have the Rally CD in the drive. The game should run correctly.

4) Exit the game and select "Advanced" button.

5) Select "Create Fix Support" button and this will add a registry entry so that this fix is used every time the game is run. It will also add an item to the "Add/Remove software" list in the control panel.

---

New "Permanent" Lower Priority Fix

I created a sharable database file with Microsoft's Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit so that you no longer have to download the toolkit to apply the patch yourself. Simply download the file, unzip it, and open/run/double-click the SDB file and you are done. The file type (sdb) should be recognized by WinXP as an "Appfix Package". What this file does is tell Windows that all "ral.exe" programs should run with a lower (or Normal) thread priority. This should work with all versions and patches of ral.exe.

You can find the file either in the "File Archive" forum or possibly at the following addresses:

http://www.activescore.com/cgi-bin/rally/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=5&TID=537&SID=19
http://filer.case.edu/sxj80/WinXP%20Rally%20Championship%20Thread%20Priority%20Fix.zip

Note: If you are having trouble with the SDB file, see post #6 below.

--------

These should be my final comments for RC and Windows XP.

Matt Jernigan

Just for the record:
I loose my Force feedback when I shift form RC to Windows and back.

---

Matéo Juanitogan (07 Jan, 2004 08:50):
More info added once again. A more simple fix to the thread priority issue. --mj.J

---

---

Pete Chapman (07 Jan, 2004 22:41):
Thanks, I will try this with Windows 2000, where I can't get to the application toolkit stuff

---

Let me know if Win2000 knows what to do with an SDB file. The SDB file is compatible with WinXP and Win2000 but Win2000 and WinXP Home may not include the program that installs SDB files (C:\WINDOWS\system32\sdbinst.exe) and I might need to provide it. Also, SDB files are usually placed in C:\WINDOWS\AppPatch but can really be applied from anywhere that the user has read and execute rights (I keep mine in my RC directories so I can find it when a new machine installation needs it).

So far I have only tested this on WinXP Pro machines and it works great without loading any of the toolkits.

---

doG (07 Jan, 2004 18:52):
Just for the record:
I loose my Force feedback when I shift form RC to Windows and back.

---

---

Matéo Juanitogan (11 Jan, 2004 09:06):
Curious. What wheel? What driver version? What Windows flavor?

---

I have a Ferrari wheel on XP, don't know what drivers are installed.

---

Matéo Juanitogan (11 Jan, 2004 09:06):

---

doG (07 Jan, 2004 18:52):
Just for the record:
I loose my Force feedback when I shift form RC to Windows and back.

---

Curious. What wheel? What driver version? What Windows flavor?

---