Editor for Indycar racing (Long)

A friend of mine programmed an editor for Indycar by Papyrus. My only problem is, I don't know how to transfer it to an FTP site. If someone could tell me how to do this, I'll upload it for you guys. Here's the readme file. Sorry about the enter character. I don't know how to strip it out. IndyEdit Copyright (C) 1994 Jeffrey A. Ross CIS #71561,3161 Introduction: First, let me say thanks for trying out this program. For those of you who don't feel comfortable editing the text files that come with INDYCAR RACING (tm) you now have an easier way to do so. IndyEdit gives you an alternate, and hopefully an easier and more effiecient, way to do so. The programmers at Papyrus have given you a great deal of control over the program's various details/funtions as it is. In addition, they've left various options open for the user to 'tweak'. These include many items pertaining to each track and all of the computer drivers in the simulation. If you're like me you rarely put a dent in the manuals that come with most utility programs so I'm providing two main sections to this manual; a QuickStart section and more detailed area. There's really nothing complex about operating the program so you should be able to get by with the QuickStart section just fine. Features: Tracks - Allows you to edit the following items from each track's text file: 1) Wing type, either Road/Street or Speedway. You will see the difference in the sim. If you load Speedway wings and run on a road circuit you will notice some loss of downforce as well as physically smaller wings on the car. 2) Maximum laps for each race. You can run a 250 lap race at Laguna Seca if you want for example (if you have the stamina that is). 3) Mininum/Maximum opponents/cars to RACE against. The maximum number specifies the most cars that may qualify for a race. The actual number that can possibly qulify will be between the minimum and maximum. 4) Track Record. You can set the track record that is displayed on the initial screen when you've selected a track. This is included if you want to put your personal record here. This only has an affect when you've set the weather to random in the sim. 5) Average temperature and temperature variation for the track. This only takes has an affect when you've set the weather to random in the sim. 6) Best lap (BLAP). You can adjust the absoulte fastest time that any computer car will have for any track. 7) Opponents relative strength (RELS). This sets the upper limit of the computer cars speed for RACING. The opponent strength feature in the INDYCAR program adjust the max speed for both qualifying and racing. Howver, while testing the program I seemed to notice the effect while in practice mode under the Single Race option. 8) You can view any or all tracks at one time. Each track and it's associated data are contained in their own 'window'. You can open, close and move these windows around as you wish. 9) Print the data for each track (must have a printer). Drivers - Allow you to edit/adjust the following items for each driver: 1) Drivers name. 2) Drivers nickname. 3) Drivers hometown, state, country and country abbreviation. 4) Change the chassis. 5) Change the engine. 6) Change the power values for each drivers engine. This is a neat feature. You can adjust the minimum and maximum possilbe values in several different ways; Minimum value only, maximium value only, both min/max values or have the program randomly select values. By varying these values you control the drivers absolute speed. The difference between the two values controls how consistent the driver will be. This is because the value the program finally uses will fall between the two numbers. 7) Print the drivers data. Installation: Unzip the file IE.ZIP to either you INDYCAR directory or unzip it somewhere else and copy all the files to your INDYCAR directory. That's it. If you want to backup you original <track>.TXT and DRIVERS.TXT files you should do so now and I HIGHLY recomend that you do. Ya never know <G>. Requirements: Basically if you can run IndyCar then you can run this program. One exception is that you MUST have a mouse installed and functioning correctly. The majority of the program is mouse driven. Also, if you want printouts of track and drivers data you will need, of course, a printer. A printer isn't mandatory however as the program will warn you if it can't find or 'talk' to your printer. For the technically minded out there the program runs in 640x480 mode with 16 colors (native VGA mode 18). Included Files: <track>.DEF - These files contain the original data from version 1.0 of the simulation. They are used by IndyEdit for restoring/reloading the 'factory defaults' should you so choose. This is done via the save options. <drivers>.DEF - Original data files for the DRIVERS.TXT data. Clasic08.fgf - Data file used internally by IndyEdit. Readme.txt - Installation instructions. IndyEdit.Doc - This file. IndyEdit.exe - Main program file. Ie.hlp - Help file used by IndyEdit. Even though you can view this file DON'T change anything in it. To Run: Change to the INDYCAR directory, or wherever you've located the INDYCAR.EXE file and type INDYEDIT. ************************************************************************ QUICKSTART: ************************************************************************ KEY COMMANDS Alt Q = Quit program. Other keys = If a menu option or prompt has an underline beneath a letter then pressing that key will activate that option/item. ESC = Cancel an operation. MOUSE Left button = Used to open a menu, move a track window or cycle a value. In the Drivers window the left button is used to increase/decrease the MINIMUM engine power via the [-], [+] icons. Right button = When a Track window is open you may point to any item in the window and click the right button to bring up a brief help window telling what the option does. In the Drivers window the right mouse button is used to increase/decrease the MAXIMIM engine power via the 2 small [-], [+] icons. Selecting Menu Options = Generally if an item (drivers name for example) is colored WHITE then clicking on it will change it or call up another menu. Example: In the Drivers window if you click on an engine name (ie; CosXB) the you will cycle through all possible engine names. ************************************************************************ TRACKS|DRIVERS WINDOWS ************************************************************************ Features common to both the Track window boxes and the Drivers window. Open a track or the Drivers window: Click on the TRACKS option on the top menu bar. This will open another menu showing all tracks available for editing/viewing. Click on a track name to open that track's window. Click on Drivers. There is only one window and it contains information on all drivers. Close a track/Drivers window: Click on the checkered flag icon in the upper left corner of the window. If the flag is yellow it means you've made some change to the data. You will also be warned that changes have been made. Note: You may still close the track window. The changes you've made are still there, they're just not saved. You won't lose the changes until you actually quit the program. This goes for the Drivers window also. Move a Track window: This only applies to the track windows. Click the left button a hold it on the name of the track at the top of the window. Then drag the mouse to where you want to move it. Release the left button when you've got it where you want it. Save data: Click on the floppy disk icon at the top right (yes my bitmap art needs work <G> ). This will open another window giving you the possible options. You can: Save as is to disk - Save what you got so far. Load defaults - Loads the default data that came with the original INDYCAR program files. Print data: Click on the printer icon (2nd from right at the top). Another menu will pop up prompting you to ready your printer. Then just press any key to start printing. ************************************************************************ TRACKS|EDITING ************************************************************************ Each option in the tracks window(s) contains the following: Option Name [-][+] Icons Current values Just click on the plus/minus icons to cycle or increase/decrease the values. If you click with the right mouse button a help window will appear telling you more about the option in question. ************************************************************************ DRIVERS|EDITING ************************************************************************ Viewing from left to right you will see: 1) Drivers name 2) Drivers car number (cannot be changed) 3) [-] Icon. For DEcreasing the Min/Max engine power values. 4) Bar graph showing engine power values from 0 on the left to 999 on the right side. From 0 to min value is colored in RED. From this min value to the max value is colored GREEEN. 5) [+] Icon. For INcreasing the Min/Max engine power values. 6) xxx - Digital readout of Minimum engine value. 7) yyy - Digital readout of Maximum engine value. 8) Chassis name. Abbreviated name of the chassis. The program writes the full names when you save the file. 9) Engine name. Same as chassis but it applies to the engine. Change Drivers Name: Click on the name. A box will pop up showing the remaining data for the driver; Nickname, hometown and country etc.. You can change any item by hitting the key coorsponding to the letter that is underlined. Example: to change the drivers Country hit the 'C' key. Note: You can enter new data for you, driver 1, but it will NOT be changed in the sim. I'm not sure why. I guess that Papyrus has this data in another file somewhere. Change Chassis/Engine: Click on the current chassis or engine displayed. Changing Min/Max Engine Power: Here's the fun part. You have several ways to changes these values: Mouse click - You can click on either the Plus or the Minus ICONs to increase/decrease the values. Or, you can click on the bar graph itself. !!!NOTE: The program uses both mouse buttons; LEFT button affects the MINimum value and the RIGHT button changes the MAXimum value. You can't increase the minimum value above the maximium value or decrease the max value below the min value and so on. Click on the ICON to the right of the menu title "Engine Power". It's a small icon with a GREEN/RED horizontal bar on it. This will bring up a menu giving you 4 options. These options affect ALL drivers engine power settings 1) Change MIN values. Hit the '1' key and type in a new min value. 2) Change MAX values. Hit the '2' key and type in a new max value. 3) Random MIN values. Hit the '3' key and the program will generate random minimum values. The values will be anywhere from 0 up to but not including the current max value for EACH driver. 4) Random MAX values. Hit the '4' key and the program will generate random maximum values. The values will be anywhere from the min value up to 999 for ALL drivers. What value is this you ask? I dunno, but it could make for a more interesting race. You'd have some cars screaming around the track and some that can barely get out of their own way. By selecting a wide range between the min and max values you'd create a driver, or drivers, whose ability would be pretty unpredictable. At the very least it allows you a fine degree of control over each computer opponent. For instance: While testing the results one time I had entered a MIN value for all cars at 1 and a MAX value at 999, then ran a single race (practice session) at Michigan. Of the 5 cars on the track (I've got a slow computer) one was going so fast I couldn't catch him, one was running at about 130mph, one at about 165mph and one at around 65mph. This was with an Opponent Strength setting in the sim of 100%. If you've set the min/max VERY low the cars will actually just sit there on the track. This is feature that is fun to 'play' with; creating a more varied field of drivers. ************************************************************************ DISCLAIMER ************************************************************************