rec.autos.simulators

Just uploaded to http://www.racesimcentral.net/~dgymer/f1gputil/

GPCSetup, a tool to alter the computer cars' setups.
Not perfect, but the best I can do right now.

-- Gizmo
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~dgymer/
--
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Launchpad is an experimental internet BBS. The views of its users do not
necessarily represent those of UNC-Chapel Hill, OIT, or the SysOps.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

It would be great to have the camera angles from beside the driver's head
(forward and backwards), the rear wing or facing the driver (ala Hill at
Silverstone). it also makes it more realistic...

just my 0.01 cents of thoughts

cu..

- student of information management & technology
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   "Attends-moi, ce ne sera pas long." - "Wait for me, I won't be long."
Gilles Villeneuve * 18-1-1950 (Richelieu,Canada) x 8-5-1982 (Louvain,Belgium)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      "Jean, La Ferrari non ti merita"

I have looked a bit at the disassembly of the code that handles the
computer setup. It copied the front wing value (which is the same for all
computer cars at a certain track, randomized this (ended up a bit lower
or a lot higher upto +12), then copied this into the car's private data
for both front wing and rear wing. So it seems like it always ends up
with the same value for both wings unless you patch the code.
Maybe this is why the effect of Dave's GPCSetup is not that noticeable.

It also randomized the tyre choice btw. GPLapTim doesn't record setups
of computer cars, but the counterpart on the Amiga I'm working on does.
For example, in USA, most cars started on C's, some on D's.

I will look some more at the brake balance.

I like the one on the Amiga. It would be great to have it on the pc too!
It's great to look from the front or the rear of the car really low.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rene Smit AKA The SDI, Technical University Delft Faculty of Computer Science

      <A HREF="http://dutian.twi.tudelft.nl/~smit/sdihome.html">WWW</A>

: As there's some interest, I'll dig out what needs to be changed in the
: exe file, and write a simple editor ASAP (everyone has VBRUN300.DLL
: and THREED.VBX in their Windows set-up don't they?).

Come on now.  Don't make it for windoze!  Write it for DOS.

I can't!  Coming from the Amiga, I'm not used to such primitive forms
of user interfaces :-)  Seriously, using Visual BASIC for Windows
would allow me to finish a complete editor for F1GP in a few days.
Imagine writing something similar that ran under DOS.  Only problem
is, I can only find a few minutes here and there to spend on writing
non-business code :*(  Providing you've got the DLLs and VBXs already,
the executable itself will probably be under 50k.
            _________    ___________________________________________

DO it Steve !
I'll collect some money in the LFRS-ranks and you could take a day off at work!
;-)

**********************************************************
De most civilised nations are as close to barbarism as the
most polished iron is to rust.
                       Rivarol
***********************************************************

Yes yes! In fact, for simple changes, if you (Steve Smith, or anyone
else)  send me the details of what bytes to change where, I can easily
add another utility to my growing GPTools collection (log2hof, GPFPS,
GPCSetup).

[Interactive? User interface? Me command line dude, you WIMPI! :-]

-- Gizmo
http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/
--
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Launchpad is an experimental internet BBS. The views of its users do not
necessarily represent those of UNC-Chapel Hill, OIT, or the SysOps.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Please send me a copy when something is sorted.. god do I love that game! :)

Ray Ko
School of Information Science, University of Portsmouth (UK)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

(Valid until August 1996)

URL : http://www.pbs.port.ac.uk/~sis4381/
(Until August 1996.. or it could be on the move)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                      "Desperation is not attractive"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

With millions of people World-wide upgrading to Windows '95, I think
that there really is a need for a good "control centre" for F1GP that
runs under Windows and prevents novice users from having to dip into
DOS to apply all the patches.  I was in the process of writing a
something along these lines, but stopped because GP II was supposedly
coming out soon. However, I spoke with a friend in the trade, who
told me that a Microprose employee had told him that there wasn't a
hope in hell of Microprose shipping GP II before Christmas.  So, I've
started working on it again.  Although we have lots of amazing patches
for F1GP/WC, I don't believe anyone has actually written something for
Windows that lets you combine everything.  If you want to see just
how brilliantly useful something like this can be, check out Oliver
Roberts' F1GP-Ed on the Amiga.

When it is finished, it will do everything that GPED can do, as well as
changing the external view camera setup (my own invention, ported from the
Amiga version of my editor), crash damage (ala GPDAMED) including the way
the marshals react to crashed cars (ala GPFLAG). Obviously, the user interface
for this will not be a case of entering numbers on the command line, but will
instead have stuff like scroll bars for setting time delays in seconds,
accident speeds in MPH etc.  As well as this, the utility will allow GPLAPTIM,
GPPERF and GPGAP to be configured using the same method.  It will build the
user a batch file in their F1GP directory, and on clicking on a button or
menu option will launch the batch file to run F1GP/WC with the patches
enabled/configured where needed.

Plus, I'm thinking of including a bridge between the performance of the real
cars and drivers and their computer representations in F1GP/WC.  Anyone
who's seen my Amiga editor (F1Ed) will know that this means a kind of built
in "database" where you enter in real recorded lap times from qualifying
and races, you then give the editor a horsepower range to work with (eg.
the slowest team to have 700 BHP, the fastest 1000 BHP), and it will go away
and produce the appropriate BHP figures for the teams, and the qualifying
and racing figures for each driver.  My tests with the Amiga version of F1GP
proved that although far from faultless, this method generally put the right
cars in the right place on the grid.  For instance, last year Michael Schumacher
and Damon Hill often qualified in pole, whilst Jos Verstappen would be back
in about 10th, and the Pacific cars would be way down at the back of the grid.
O.K., you can do this by inventing the figures yourself, but by using this
system, you don't really have to think about it, just copy type a few lap
times :-)

For other editor writers, the offsets of the .exe file will all be in the
ini file (my idea to make it easy to add new versions of GP.EXE without
having to rebuild or redistribute the application).  The .ini file will be
commented, so you'll be able to see what needs changing just by reading it.
Also, the data file that the application uses to save all of these settings
will be in Windows .ini file format, (a) because it's very easy to write the
code for Windows, and (b) it makes it very easy to distribute your own data
files by email or usenet (without even needing encoding).  For instance,
part of the file may look like:

[Teams]
1=Benetton,Renault,775,1,2
2=Tyrrell,Yamaha,765,3,4
..

[CarColours]
1=33,135,255,135,8,255,141,5,135,56,36,5,5,5,5,5
2=33,160,160,8,0,160,160,160,160,84,36,160,135,135,160,160
..

With such a potentially short lifespan, the editor will of course be freeware,
and I expect to have something ready to distribute in a couple of weeks,
although this will not be a finished version. I've found some space on a WWW
site for it, and the URL will be posted here when it's ready.

Sure, I could have written all this to run under DOS, but when everyone will
soon be running Windows '95 or some other kind of GUI on their computer, what's
the point?
            _________    ___________________________________________