Bruce the various daytime versions of LeMans sound like conversions of
the 4 different tracks that were made way back for the LM 2001 and LM
2002 mods for the pre F1c ISI sims. So you are probably getting a track
that was converted to F1c and then converted again to GTR. The 2pm start
time in the gdb sounds like just a straight default from other F1 start
times. There was no need to edit the gdb to have accurate start times
since the enviroment was pre-drawn, hardcoded as it were, and sims the
mods were originally based on did not have any 'time of day' abilities.
So these tracks were made long before there was the ability to blend day
to night. They are, at best, a compromise, suited for online racing
where you run 5 or 6hours on the day track, then exit (manually keeping
track of scoring) load up the dusk track for a short 1 or 2 hours, again
exiting with manual scoring. And repeating the process for a long night
run followed by dawn and day sessions.
There wasn't any 'time of day' blending until F1c, and that mainly
involved the darkening/lightening of the horizon. For GTR they improved
on the F1c bit, but obviously tracks like the conversions would not suit
a time of day shift since the enviromental coloring was done by hand vs
the cpu computing the time of day.
RSDG's F1c version of Le Mans can cycle thru the entire
day/dusk/night/dawn/day race in 19 laps.(if you base the 24hrs on the
shortest period F1c will accept, 5% race length)<a 10% race distance
would take 38 laps to fully cycle through, etc.> If you have properly
set up your plr file, the track's sky will darken, the car's lights will
come on, and then reverse the procedure til the daylight fully takes over
again. Not anywhere near as PRETTY as the old LM tracks but it does add
some immersion if you see some cars headlights switch on earlier than
others and you don't have to exit and load up another track with all the
cars starting fresh again.
What you have was a nice work-around 3 years ago but now is obsolete
when compared with the upcoming enviromental code from ISI. I beleive
the next version of the ISI software, based on their Motor2 engine and
showcased first by rFactor and then GTR2, will have even better
enviromental lighting abilities. Due to the tighter lockdown of the GTR
code, it is harder for plain folks like yourself to quickly dig into the
track files and setup a gdb for a true 24hr effect. I hope rFactor will
remain an easily editable affair. We can already guess that First's
effort not be one that suits open modding.
dave henrie
