rec.autos.simulators

After perusing the Indy 500 entry field this morning I decided I wasn't
as interested in buying the Indy expansion kit and converting it to ICR2
as I had been.

But then I had the idea of copying the Michigan track to a new directory
called US500 and adding the U.S. 500 to my schedule in May.  So you would
have two races run at Michigan, if you were running a season.

It didn't work.  I added the U.S. 500 on the calendar (under the same
name as the /track directory it's stored in, US500), I changed the
michigan.dat and michigan.txt files to us500.dat and *.txt respectively,
and changed the name of the track in the (newly renamed) us500.txt file,
but I get an error when I try to load the track in the game.  Any idea
what I'm doing wrong or not doing?  Or is this just impossible?

--
            |I do not drive no green cars, don't ask me|

    RoR-Alucard: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~tjames/pig/pigdog.html
      "It's a magazine... or something" - D. Futrelle ^^^^^^

: When you add the race to the calendar file insert the following line
:         7  5 0 0 MICHIGAN

OUCH!  Did I really issue the save/send before I fixed the above.  The
first 2 numbers are supposed to be the month and day of the race.  That
should read:
         5 27 0 0 MICHIGAN

"I hate when that happens!"
--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

[snip]
: But then I had the idea of copying the Michigan track to a new directory
: called US500 and adding the U.S. 500 to my schedule in May.  So you would
: have two races run at Michigan, if you were running a season.

: It didn't work.  I added the U.S. 500 on the calendar (under the same
: name as the /track directory it's stored in, US500), I changed the
: michigan.dat and michigan.txt files to us500.dat and *.txt respectively,
: and changed the name of the track in the (newly renamed) us500.txt file,
: but I get an error when I try to load the track in the game.  Any idea
: what I'm doing wrong or not doing?  Or is this just impossible?

I don't think you need to copy the track to a new directory with a
different name.  You should be able to edit the calendar file and the
michigan.txt file.  In the michigan.txt file add the number of laps for
the additional race to the LAPS line:
        LAPS 250 250
When you add the race to the calendar file insert the following line
        7  5 0 0 MICHIGAN
Then edit your calendar file line for the old Michigan race, changing
the first 0 to a 1.  This will indicated that this is the second race at
Michigan.  

Of course I haven't tried this, but the theory is based on how the files
work in NASCAR where they visit each track twice.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Well unless you do some major editing (like the guys at The Pits creating a
Daytona track), the new track name must have the same number of letters as the
original track.  So you will need for the new track to have 8 digits (perhaps
U.S.500 would work).  Also, you need to hex edit the mighigan.dat file to change
not only the file name to the new name, but there should also be two internal
references to Michigan that also must be changed.  Good luck with it.

--
Eric T. Busch

Emory University