Details, Details, Details

Car Reflection Update Rate:
This attribute specifies how fast and smooth you want the reflections to be on your car from objects like buildings and lights sources. The higher you set this, the more realism you get from the game, especially in city streets with neon and bright white lights. You really shouldn’t turn this completely off, unless you have a real old card or a budget card...

Pretty boring looking, huh?

Much better, realism!

Performance hit (FPS)	Off	On	Difference
RADEON 9800 XT	41.2	36	5.2
Tachyon G9500 PRO	38.9	34.5	4.4
ASUS V9280S	37.5	32.7	4.8
Chaintech GeForce4 MX440	38.8	31.5	7.3

On to Car Reflection Detail...

Car Reflection Detail:
This setting is pretty self-explanatory. This adds depth and realism to the shadows and lights that reflect off your car’s paint job. Higher settings will give the reflections more realistic curves, less jagginess in other words, and gives the reflection a true-form shape. Turning this setting up to the maximum makes the car look a ton better and definitely gives you a more enjoyable experience, especially in well lit areas of each course.

Basically, reflections are dulled out or not present.

True reflections from light sources make for a much better picture, and adds realism.

Performance hit (FPS)	Off	On	Difference
RADEON 9800 XT	42.3	36	6.3
Tachyon G9500 PRO	39.1	34.5	4.6
ASUS V9280S	36.1	32.7	3.4
Chaintech GeForce4 MX440	37.5	31.5	6

Car Shadow:
This setting allows for shadows to be visible on the ground from the car, in respect to the light sources on the screen. Again, another settings that adds realism, but fairly unimportant in this game due to the fact that you’ll be going too fast to ever sit back and say “I wonder how my shadow looked when I flew by that Focus?”

No shadows here. Still a great picture.

Notice the shading to the rear and to the left.

Performance hit (FPS)	Off	On	Difference
RADEON 9800 XT	39.5	36	3.5
Tachyon G9500 PRO	35.5	34.5	1
ASUS V9280S	33.4	32.7	0.7
Chaintech GeForce4 MX440	32.1	31.5	0.6

Car Headlight:
Enables your headlights to illuminate objects in front of you like the road, buildings, signs, etc... If you care to play the way the developer intended, to get a real feel for the game, leave this setting on.

No lighting effects or projectors from your car’s headlights.

Realistic projected lighting!

Performance hit (FPS)	Off	On	Difference
RADEON 9800 XT	39.6	36	3.6
Tachyon G9500 PRO	35.6	34.5	1.1
ASUS V9280S	36.1	32.7	3.4
Chaintech GeForce4 MX440	N/A	N/A	N/A

Car Geometry Detail:
Honestly, one of the most important attributes to set. Settings this too low will give you shapes that are not true in form, such as tires that are octagonal, instead of being rounded off.

Take a look at the tires here... Yuck!

True form makes the game a lot more realistic.

Performance hit (FPS)	Off	On	Difference
RADEON 9800 XT	36.7	36	0.7
Tachyon G9500 PRO	35.1	34.5	0.6
ASUS V9280S	34.3	32.7	1.6
Chaintech GeForce4 MX440	33.1	31.5	1.6

Crowds:
No need for pictures on this one. Do you want crowds at the beginning and the ending of your races or not? Virtually no hit in performance (maybe 1 FPS at the beginning of a race).