Path to being the Fastest Pod Racer in the Galaxy

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INTRODUCTION Welcome racers of all ages, sizes, and skill level, to the "one stop" guide to improving at Star Wars Episode I: Racer, or as I lovingly abbreviate it to: swe1r. Here I will be going into details properly preparing the game to be played at a high level, basic driving, proper game completion, advanced driving, track routing, and going into some detail into how skips work and what skips are *currently* known. I suspect that many of you will have read information that is contradictory to what I am about to share, but I would highly recommend looking all the way through the guide, checking out the game on speedrun.com , and then judging anything I might say in the forthcoming sections of the guide. There seem to be a lot of misconceptions about the game, and overall knowledge gaps that I would like to correct. While I am not the best player in the world, I am a top player, so I am at least credible to read the information from. I appreciate you having the interest to read this guide, and I highly recommend joining the discord server that you can find linked on speedrun.com if you have any interest in playing multiplayer or learning further information on the game. You can also contact myself, and other top runners from that discord. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and learn from the guide, and I will likely use this as a reference for making a youtube series at some point in the future, so that may be linked later on. Also, there is a much better guide for beginners if you are only interested in basic, casual improvement. While this will touch on many of the same principles, it has many more in-depth concepts. I would recommend reading the guide posted by Mayannaise labelled as a Beginner's Guide if you would prefer a more laid back guide. SETUP The goal of this section of the guide is not to fix any bugs that you have in running the game, but to properly prepare you for running the game at a higher level. Any bugs/crashes should be asked about in the #support channel in the discord, not here. So what do you need? Isn't the base game enough? Well yes and no. The base game can be moderately unstable, and is incapable of running in a windowed mode. To help this issue, it is recommended that the game be run via dgvoodoo. There are guides to using dgvoodoo are available on the internet so I will not be repeating that information needlessly. After acquiring dgvoodoo, the next step is find a method of capping the fps of the game. The reasons for this will be explained later in the guide, but regardless it is easier to have available ahead of time. The most common methods to do this are via rivatuner or the nvidia control panel. Regardless of which you choose, this is an important step to improving. For learning basic driving, starting with a cap of 60 fps will work. The last step to setting up the game properly is to ensure that you are able to control the pod ergonomically. I personally drive with a controller, specifically a PowerA Switch controller, but a flight stick or keyboard are just as usable at a high level. The individual functions that you will need to pay attention to are as follows: Thrust: this is the go pedal of the pod essentially Boost: this function activates a boost once it is charged Slide: this function is the game's drift mechanic. More on this later Turn: the turning of the pod. This can either be analog or digital depending on the input method chosen. Roll: otherwise known as tilting, this function places the pod on its side. This is split into "Roll_Right" and "Roll_Left" Pitch: this function controls the "angle" of the pod engines. This is split into "Pitch_Up" and "Pitch_Down." Down is the function for charging boost, and Up is the function for floating in the air longer, or driving in reverse. Repair: the function to repair damage to the pod or put out fires Each of the functions should be accessible with each other, and Pitch should NOT be on the control stick that is used for driving if you are using a controller. It is essential to learn to use Pitch as 2 different buttons, or as part of the flight stick controls. To properly map these controls, edit the file "current_control.map" under the Star Wars Episode I: Racer folder for the game, then the data folder, then config folder, then current folder. With everything prepared, now it is time to learn how to race. BASIC DRIVING Congratulations, it is time to earn your driver's license in pod racing. At first glance, achieving a fast time on some of the easier courses seems simple. However, driving in this game is not as intuitive as it may seem. Basic driving can be broken down into the following ideas: boosting, proper lines, sliding, and starting/ending races. Each can change the outcome of a race drastically if done improperly. Boosting: Boosting is defined as the speed modifier added to a pod's top speed. It is achieved by holding pitch down for a second while at a minimum of 75% of the top speed of the pod, and activated with pressing the boost button. This modifier is known as boost thrust, and is a hidden stat that each pod has. The highest boost thrust belongs to Ben Quadinaros, and is a value of 400. Given that every pod has the same top speed at max upgrades, this means that Ben has the highest boosting speed of 1050. In combination with this stat, each pod also has a heat rate and a cool rate. The heat rate is another hidden stat, in which Mars Guo has the longest heat rate. This means that Mars can hold his boost for the longest amount of time. The cool rate is a stat related to the cooling upgrade. The fastest cooling in the game belongs to Slide Paramita, meaning that Slide cools down faster than any other pod. The heating and cooling of each pod have slightly different efficiencies, but it's just important to keep in mind. The most important aspect to boosting is to not underheat. Underheating is when the heat level of the pod is 0. This means that the cooling of the pod is achieving nothing. This is unrecoverable time loss. Additionally, it is better to use longer boosts since there is an acceleration period to the boost. However, unless you are spamming boosts, it won't make much of a difference how long the boost duration is. Proper Lines: If you've ever watched other racing games, then I'm sorry to say that those games have only made this section more difficult to understand. In most racing games, the vehicles have real-ish physics and lose speed while cornering. However, this game has no speed loss from turning alone. What does this mean for lines? This means that the absolute shortest distance that can be traveled is the best possible line. The easiest way to picture this is to imagine going from apex to apex on turns, and hugging the walls as much as needed to do this. The next section will cover a proper method to achieve this on certain corners with pods that turn worse. The idea is pretty simple, but finding and following the best lines is incredibly difficult to optimize, so don't get frustrated if you don't consistently save time or find yourself crashing from trying to take proper lines. It's okay to play it safe at first to avoid crashing. Sliding: Sliding is the drifting of pods that allows for the pod to turn before a corner. Sliding is an important skill to take corners without braking, or at least braking less, as well as adjusting lines properly. Sliding is the lowering of traction, but I'll discuss traction more in depth later. At any rate, it is key to implement sliding into racing in order to improve. It may take time to adjust, but it will help. Starting/Ending Races: The starts and ends of races can make or break good times. It is essential to never miss boost starts. What is a boost start? A boost start is, well exactly as it sounds, starting the race off with a mini boost. This concept is seen in many other racing games, such as Mario Kart. In swe1r, to achieve a