# 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 alt: 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!
- Set the game type
- Select the track
- Players and cars
- View a replay
- Settings
- Credits and License
- Exit

# 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.