Heat Settings

Use this view to set up heat parameters.

To open the Heat Settings screen -

• Click on the Quick Heat button in the Left-bar or on the Home Page
• Or choose "Run a heat " from the Views list in the Header Menu
• Or press F3 on your keyboard F3
• Then click on the Heat Settings tab

 

This is where you choose:

• Heat template (optional)
• Heat racing options
• Scoring and point attribution

Ultimate Racer manages either Quick races or Race Events. A quick race is made of a single heat. A race event is made of several heats having the same settings but different starting grids.

The heat settings are common to quick race and race events.

Saving favorite settings (Quick Heat only)

Ultimate Racer allows you to save your favorite heat settings. Example, it's convenient to create two heat settings when you use to play either with "Lap limited" mode with 30 laps or 100 laps. This avoids to reconfigure a heat each time you want to play. Here, you can create two heat settings favorites:

• one with "Lap limited" mode and 30 laps
• another one with "Lap limited" mode and 100 laps

Selecting a heat setting in the combo box automatically restores corresponding heat settings and options (described belowr).

The "Add" button creates a new favorite heat setting. The "Delete" button deletes the current selected one.

The heat settings are saved each time the combo box selection is changed or the view is closed.

You can also describe the heat rules (optional

Heat settings and options

Heat name:

Heat name. For information only.

Heat class:

The class is basically used to group heats to generate reports. The heat class can be customized in the advanced setting dialogue.

Heat mode:

Select here the heat mode you want to play. Following modes are available:

• time limited: the heat ends after specified minute duration (format hh:mm:ss)
• lap limited: the heat ends when all slot cars have completed the specified number of laps. In case of crash & burn heat (see here after), the heat is completed for a burned car.
• practice: never ending heat. The heat manager just counts laps.

Nb laps:

Number of laps setup used by "lap limited" mode.

Duration:

Heat duration in minutes. Format: mm:ss. Used by " time limited" heat modes.

False start penalties / laps:

Number of uncounted laps if the driver makes a false start - means having started the heat before the lights became green.

False start penalties / seconds:

Cuts lane supply during specified number of seconds when the driver makes a false start. Works only with appropriate hardware.

Fuel management:

Click on the "Fuel management" check box to enable/disable the fuel management. The fuel management set up is described here.

Cut power - out of fuel:

Cuts slot car supply when the slot car is out of fuel. Works only with appropriate hardware.

Permitted deslots:

Type here the maximal number of allowed deslots for all cars during the heat. A small ambulance button is displayed on each driver/slot car race pane when this value is not empty. This the number of slot car deslots. Each time a car deslots, a click on the ambulance button decreases the number of remaining deslot. The slot car is eliminated when it has no more deslots: its laps are not counted anymore. Note: clicking on the ambulance button with <crtl> key pressed increase the number of remaining deslots.

The ambulance is not displayed if "Permitted deslot" is empty (deslot not managed). A value of "0" means NO deslot is allowed. A value of 2 means 2 deslots are allowed. The third deslot eliminates the car (crash & burn!)

Coast time:

This is the time period after power is turned OFF to continue to monitor for lane/starting pos triggers (cars coasting across the lane sensors). This value can be either positive or negative.

Negative value means the coast time starts BEFORE the limit time is reached in case of time limited heat. Ex.: in case of a 3min heat with 5s of coast time, the effective heat duration including cost time is 3min.

Positive value means the coast time starts AFTER the limit time is reached in case of time limited heat. Ex.: in case of a 3min heat with 5s of coast time, the effective heat duration including cost time is 3min and 5s.

Manage sections:

When checked, the race manager queries for each slot car remaing section at the end of the heat. This is used to compute a virtual track position at the end of each heat segment (in case a driver forgets where they ended the previous segment that they participated in). The calculation is based on the ratio of the elapsed time between the power off and the last lane trigger for each driver and the average lap time computed at the end of the segment. The number of track sections is defined as a circuit attribute.

Even start:

If checked, switch on lane power when the heat starts. Allows all cars to start heat at the same time.

Sounds on/off:

Switches on/off all sounds during the heat.

Sort driver panes:

Displays the slot car / driver panes according to their position in the heat. The heat leader is the first displayed race pane, the second slot car / driver is the next one, and so on.

Realistic finish:

When checked, waits until all the cars have crossed the finish line before ending the heat.

Several options directly change the lane supply as described here.

Point attribution - scoring

• The point attribution is used to score drivers at the end of the heat. Points are given to:
• best lap average speed: points are given from the first best median speed to the last scored one
• best lap: points are given from the first best lap to the last scored one
• winner / best place: points are given from the heat winner to the last one
• per lap. note number of point per lap. Only "position 1 is managed as the other do not make any sense.
• per deslot: "0" means the driver has desloted. He does not score at all. Otherwise the driver scores as many points has remaining pemitted deslots.
• per reaction time: points are given from the best reaction time to the worst
• per false start: point penalties applied (they are negatives...)

Example:

3 points for the heat winner corresponds to 3 points / Best position – 1.

2 points for the best lap average speed corresponds to 2 points / Best speed – 1.

1 point for the second best lap average speed corresponds to 1 point / Best speed – 2.

So if driver wins the heat and has the second best speed, it scores: 3 points (heat winner) + 1 point (second best speed) = 4 points

The driver having the best speed scores 2 points