Pacenote

A rally championship driven on notes you wrote yourself

KM/H

Q / E start a corner · H, 1-6 its severity · L T O X / modifiers · R crest · J jump · K caution · Z rewind · hold F fast

How to play

Every stage is driven twice. On the recce, in daylight, you drive it slowly (or let the autopilot drive) and write a pace note for every corner as you reach it: its direction and how tight it is. On the race, at the stage's own light, Mira reads your notes back about 2.4 seconds ahead by default (Settings offers 3.0 or 1.9 s), and the note is painted in pale ink on the road at the edge of your headlights. She reads only what you wrote.

Note	Tightest radius	Safe on dry gravel
HP hairpin	under 15 m	under 39 km/h
1	15-25 m	39-50 km/h
2	25-40 m	50-64 km/h
3	40-60 m	64-78 km/h
4	60-90 m	78-96 km/h
5	90-140 m	96-120 km/h
6	140-220 m	120-150 km/h

Marks under the number: a bar is long (it turns more than 100°), a closing wedge is tightens, an opening wedge is opens, a dotted line is don't cut, and ! / !! are cautions. An arc is a crest, an arc with a gap a jump.

Race: W / ↑ throttle, S / ↓ brake, A D or ← → steer, Space handbrake, C camera, Esc pause. Recce: Q / E start a left / right corner, then H or 1-6 for its severity; L long, T tightens, O opens, X don't cut, / caution; R crest (Shift+R over crest), J jump (Shift+J big), K caution; Backspace deletes the last note, Z rewinds 150 m, hold F to go faster on a straight, Tab opens the notebook, P switches the autopilot.

Race: hold your thumb on the lower part of the screen to drive; slide it left or right to steer, slide it down to brake; lift it to coast. The round button is the handbrake. Recce: the autopilot drives. Tap L or R as a corner starts, then its number in the fan; a row of modifiers stays up for two seconds. The middle buttons write crests, jumps and cautions, delete the last note, rewind 150 m and open the notebook.

Gamepad: left stick steers, the right trigger is throttle, the left trigger brakes, A is the handbrake, Start pauses. On the recce the d-pad left or right starts a corner, up and down pick its number, A writes it and B cancels it; then up is tightens, down is opens, A is long and B is a caution. X writes a crest, Y a jump, LB a caution note, Back rewinds.

Service park: after the second and fourth stage of a rally, and between rallies, the crew has 30 minutes. Repairs, tyre changes, setup and new parts each take minutes from that clock (repairs between rallies are free of it); go over and 10 seconds per extra minute is added to the next stage's time, nothing is refused. Parts cost the coin you win on the stages.

The stage card scores time, notes, clean driving and position, and flags every note that lied: grey for cautious, amber and red for too kind, and red for missed corners.

SAVED

Pacenote

WARMING THE LAMPS

About Pacenote

Pacenote is a free 3D rally game about the oldest skill in the sport: writing your own pace notes. You drive No. 37, a white rally car, with Mira as your co-driver in the Northern Gravel Championship: four rallies of six stages, 24 stages in all, over loose gravel, wet tarmac, packed snow and a mountain at night. Every stage is driven twice. The recce runs in daylight, slowly, while you write a note for every corner, crest and jump. The race runs at the stage's own light, from late afternoon through dusk into night, and in the dark the road exists only inside two headlight beams that reach about sixty metres into the dust with the stock lamps, and less in rain, fog and snow.

Mira never invents a note. She reads exactly what you wrote, a couple of seconds ahead of the car, and the note appears in pale ink on the road at the edge of the light. A note that was too kind can put you off the road, and the stage card shows exactly which note lied and what the corner really was.

How to Play Pacenote

Recce: the autopilot drives the stage at recce speed (or switch it off and drive yourself). As each corner starts, mark its direction, then its severity from hairpin through 1 (slowest) to 6 (nearly flat). Add long, tightens, opens, don't cut or a caution where they apply, and mark crests and jumps as you reach them.

The scale: severity comes from the corner's tightest radius: a hairpin is under 15 m, a 4 is 60 to 90 m, a 6 is 140 to 220 m. The how-to-play card shows the whole table with the safe speed on gravel.

Notebook: at the end of the recce every note is listed in order with the distance links between them. Change or delete any note before you race.

Race: a five-second countdown, then the stage at full speed. The ribbon at the top shows the current note large and the next two small, with the same note painted on the road ahead.

Stage card: your time against par and eleven rival crews, then four scores: time, note accuracy, clean driving and position, with stars and prize money. The audit marks every note that was too kind, too cautious, wrong way or missing.

Controls

Keyboard: W or ↑ throttle, S or ↓ brake, A D or ← → steer, Space handbrake, C camera, Esc pause. On the recce, Q and E start a left or right corner and H or 1-6 give its severity; L, T, O, X and / add modifiers; R a crest, J a jump, K a caution, Backspace deletes, Z rewinds 150 m, hold F to fast-forward a straight, Tab opens the notebook.

Touch: one thumb. Hold the lower part of the screen to drive, slide left or right to steer and down to brake; the round button is the handbrake. On the recce the autopilot drives and the note pad sits along the bottom: L and R at the ends, the severity fan above your thumb.

Gamepad: left stick steers, the right trigger is throttle, the left trigger brakes and A is the handbrake. On the recce the d-pad starts a corner and picks its number, A writes it, X and Y write a crest and a jump.

Tips

Be honest, not brave. A cautious note costs the audit one or two points; a kind one costs four to eight and can put you off the road.

Mark a corner as it begins. The audit matches a note to a corner of the same kind that starts up to 60 m ahead of it (or 15 m behind it).

Use the rewind. If you were late or unsure, go back 150 m and write it again.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the corner severity scale work?

Every corner is graded by its tightest radius. A hairpin is under 15 m, a one is 15-25 m, a two 25-40 m, a three 40-60 m, a four 60-90 m, a five 90-140 m and a six 140-220 m, nearly flat. On dry gravel a four is safe at about 78-96 km/h and a two at about 50-64 km/h. Lower numbers are slower corners.

What does a note that is too kind cost?

A note one step faster than the real corner costs 4 audit points and two or more steps cost 8, against 1 or 2 for a note that is too cautious; the points come out of the 250 you can earn for notes. The road punishes it again in the race: you arrive too fast, slide wide and leave the road. Trees, and walls above 18 m/s on Col de Vaux, are a crash worth 12 seconds and 18% damage; on Kirkfjell a snowbank costs 3 seconds and 55% of your speed but no damage. The stage card names the note and what the corner really was.

Why do the headlights only reach so far?

At night the road exists only inside your headlight pool: 60 m with the stock lamps in clear air, less in dust, rain, snow or fog. In a fog bank it can fall to about 33 m, while Mira calls each note at least 45 m ahead, so the call always arrives before the corner is lit. That is why the notes you wrote on the recce matter. Two headlight upgrades, bought at service, take the stock 60 m to 80 and then 100 m, and an anti-fog lens recovers some of what fog takes.

Does Mira ever correct my notes?

No. Mira reads exactly what is in the book, by default about 2.4 seconds before each note at your speed (Settings offers 3.0 or 1.9 seconds, and a call never comes less than 45 m ahead). If you wrote nothing for a corner, nothing is called. You can fix any note on the notebook page before the race, and rewind 150 m on the recce to write a note again.

What does Continue keep?

The championship as it stood at your last save, stored in this browser: the stage you are on, your notes for every stage you have recced, every stage's best score, time and stars, your car and parts, your coin and Jokers. The game saves at every stage card, at the end of every recce, on every notebook edit, at the service park and podium, and when you hide the page. A race in progress is never saved, so Continue returns you to that stage's board (or to the service park or podium if that is where you saved) with no time recorded; a Joker you already used to restart stays spent.