Saved Games tools
Posted: 25.10.2012, 22:06
Hi there,
This post will be long...
As I said on the other topic, I'm going to include some tools for saved games on the Slot Editor (which will have its name changed again for GP2 Race Master or GP2 Race Utilities, following RacerBG suggestion, unless a better name comes up). I'm creating another thread about it cause I think it would be less confusing if we can discuss the saved game tools separately.
I'm going very slowly with this becouse I'm not sure about all the features I should add (and how to interface them). I won't be able to upload big files for a while (home internet won't be available, only the crappy 3G), so there's no hurry.
First, let me give an overview about the saved games thing.
There are several features I wish GP2 had and several features GP2 has, but not how I'd like they were. Patching the game for those things is beyond my skills now, but some of them can be added or faked by hacking saved games. Few years ago, I asked Rene Smith if he had some information documented about GP2.exe and saved game files so I could try a little thing: decide pitstop strategy for each ccs. Rene was very kind to send me much more information than I could ever imagine and that information has been very useful to hack my saved games and a friend of mine who hosts a "manager" game in which each player manages a racing team (and races are run with ccs only) uses some of my tools so managers can decide car setups for their drivers, pitstop strategies and other things.
So lets talk about what we can do...
CC setups:
You can edit a general setup for all ccs using the track editor or Ale's CC cars setup Editor. But everytime you start a game session, GP2 changes the rear wing values for some things at random, adding 1, 0 or -1 to the rear wings of their cars. In theory, this is nice becouse in real racing the wing values always change between teams and drivers in every series, becouse of several reasons like driver preference, car limitations, different setup approachs, different engineerings, different data collecting proccess, etc, etc, etc...but in GP2 it is a problem sometimes becouse higher rear wing values = slower car. And it has much more impact in cc performance than random grip range, car bhp, etc...so you may sometimes see the top team of your carset, which has 10 or 20 more bhp than the others, underperforming at an oval track becouse of this. And it's random. It's nice and competely necessary to have random factors in game, specially racing games, but sometimes you want to make a historically accurate race and this thing will brake it.
Besides rear wings, there are other things which are not random but we can also set in the saved game and give individual values for each drivers. Editable CC setup parameters include wing values and gear values. These are much more useful for "manager" leagues than usual GP2 races.
CC Pitstop Strategy
Again, you can setup general lines with Track Editor or Ale's Pit&Lap Editor. But you can only change the % of cars which take each strategy and GP2 will sort everything out at random again. It's good becouse we are not supposed to know our opponents strategies, but I can't say how many time I've seen a fast cc being assigned with a strategy which would only work (in real life) for cars starting in the back of the grid. This is not realistic cause GP2 does not account for grid positions when assingning strategies.
Luckly, by editing the saved games, we can assign individual strategies for evey car.
Car Failures
We have the Car Failure Probability factor in GP2Edit. GP2 uses it to decide if a car will fail or not in the session. When the car will fail seems to be random as well as the failure type. Failure type in GP3 is related to the magic data and in GP2 there are some factors in the track file which seems to be related to it, but I couldn't really use it to have any control about the failure types (maybe it's one of the many things which were not finished at GP2 realease, like track banking and wet weather (no original GP2 track has banking, but its available in unfinished for in the Track Editor and there's no wet wheater too, but the wet sounds are there and you can hear them with GP2Edit).
Like everything else, it's good that failures are random, but more things should be taken in account: we see in F1 how some tracks are harder on some car parts than others. At some tracks you will see a lot of engine brakes, at others there will be punctures, brake problem at others, etc...
Sometimes, failures are very different between teamates (there's always that unlucky driver), and we should be able to simulate that too.
Limitations.
Most of the tools limitations come from the fact that saved games are...saved games. You must save the game, exit the session, use the tool and then load the game again. It's not as good as patch to GP2, but it's a workaround.
Some of the features can't be properly implemented for Quickraces becouse some of the random part is made at the race start and then it can't be undone. Rear wings can't be changed once the session starts. You can change pitstop strategies, but the fuel is already loaded. In fact you change change the amount of fuel loaded too, but it's trickier and I'm not sure I'll be able to put this in the editor (but maybe I can).
For championship and non-championship races it's easier, becouse initializations are made at the first Free Practice (and last through all qualifying seasons) and at the Warm Up (and last through the race).
Car failures are initialized at the begining of each session, but they can be changed anytime.
Features proposed:
Setup normalization: this is simple, you have the option to make sure all cc setups are the same. So performances and results will be much closer from what you expect, based on GP2Edit values.
Individual cc setups: this is useful for management leagues. You'll be able to change wings and gears for each car.
Better failure calculations: the ideia is to be able to load a file with probabilities for each driver and with probabilities for each failure type on that track (maybe each type for every team, every driver, etc...), so the editor makes the calculations and export them to the saved game.
Failure assignment: this may spoil much of the fun, but maybe someone would want to see Mansell's car failing at the last lap, so you'll be able to assign which cars will fail, the failure laps and how they will fail.
The same two failure features might be used in similar way to pitstop strategy. When making calculations. the editor will try to take the grip position and the tyre type in account.
So...do you have any suggestions or requests? I'd like to make this the most useful possible, so maybe other peoples opinions can improve my ideas.
This post will be long...
As I said on the other topic, I'm going to include some tools for saved games on the Slot Editor (which will have its name changed again for GP2 Race Master or GP2 Race Utilities, following RacerBG suggestion, unless a better name comes up). I'm creating another thread about it cause I think it would be less confusing if we can discuss the saved game tools separately.
I'm going very slowly with this becouse I'm not sure about all the features I should add (and how to interface them). I won't be able to upload big files for a while (home internet won't be available, only the crappy 3G), so there's no hurry.
First, let me give an overview about the saved games thing.
There are several features I wish GP2 had and several features GP2 has, but not how I'd like they were. Patching the game for those things is beyond my skills now, but some of them can be added or faked by hacking saved games. Few years ago, I asked Rene Smith if he had some information documented about GP2.exe and saved game files so I could try a little thing: decide pitstop strategy for each ccs. Rene was very kind to send me much more information than I could ever imagine and that information has been very useful to hack my saved games and a friend of mine who hosts a "manager" game in which each player manages a racing team (and races are run with ccs only) uses some of my tools so managers can decide car setups for their drivers, pitstop strategies and other things.
So lets talk about what we can do...
CC setups:
You can edit a general setup for all ccs using the track editor or Ale's CC cars setup Editor. But everytime you start a game session, GP2 changes the rear wing values for some things at random, adding 1, 0 or -1 to the rear wings of their cars. In theory, this is nice becouse in real racing the wing values always change between teams and drivers in every series, becouse of several reasons like driver preference, car limitations, different setup approachs, different engineerings, different data collecting proccess, etc, etc, etc...but in GP2 it is a problem sometimes becouse higher rear wing values = slower car. And it has much more impact in cc performance than random grip range, car bhp, etc...so you may sometimes see the top team of your carset, which has 10 or 20 more bhp than the others, underperforming at an oval track becouse of this. And it's random. It's nice and competely necessary to have random factors in game, specially racing games, but sometimes you want to make a historically accurate race and this thing will brake it.
Besides rear wings, there are other things which are not random but we can also set in the saved game and give individual values for each drivers. Editable CC setup parameters include wing values and gear values. These are much more useful for "manager" leagues than usual GP2 races.
CC Pitstop Strategy
Again, you can setup general lines with Track Editor or Ale's Pit&Lap Editor. But you can only change the % of cars which take each strategy and GP2 will sort everything out at random again. It's good becouse we are not supposed to know our opponents strategies, but I can't say how many time I've seen a fast cc being assigned with a strategy which would only work (in real life) for cars starting in the back of the grid. This is not realistic cause GP2 does not account for grid positions when assingning strategies.
Luckly, by editing the saved games, we can assign individual strategies for evey car.
Car Failures
We have the Car Failure Probability factor in GP2Edit. GP2 uses it to decide if a car will fail or not in the session. When the car will fail seems to be random as well as the failure type. Failure type in GP3 is related to the magic data and in GP2 there are some factors in the track file which seems to be related to it, but I couldn't really use it to have any control about the failure types (maybe it's one of the many things which were not finished at GP2 realease, like track banking and wet weather (no original GP2 track has banking, but its available in unfinished for in the Track Editor and there's no wet wheater too, but the wet sounds are there and you can hear them with GP2Edit).
Like everything else, it's good that failures are random, but more things should be taken in account: we see in F1 how some tracks are harder on some car parts than others. At some tracks you will see a lot of engine brakes, at others there will be punctures, brake problem at others, etc...
Sometimes, failures are very different between teamates (there's always that unlucky driver), and we should be able to simulate that too.
Limitations.
Most of the tools limitations come from the fact that saved games are...saved games. You must save the game, exit the session, use the tool and then load the game again. It's not as good as patch to GP2, but it's a workaround.
Some of the features can't be properly implemented for Quickraces becouse some of the random part is made at the race start and then it can't be undone. Rear wings can't be changed once the session starts. You can change pitstop strategies, but the fuel is already loaded. In fact you change change the amount of fuel loaded too, but it's trickier and I'm not sure I'll be able to put this in the editor (but maybe I can).
For championship and non-championship races it's easier, becouse initializations are made at the first Free Practice (and last through all qualifying seasons) and at the Warm Up (and last through the race).
Car failures are initialized at the begining of each session, but they can be changed anytime.
Features proposed:
Setup normalization: this is simple, you have the option to make sure all cc setups are the same. So performances and results will be much closer from what you expect, based on GP2Edit values.
Individual cc setups: this is useful for management leagues. You'll be able to change wings and gears for each car.
Better failure calculations: the ideia is to be able to load a file with probabilities for each driver and with probabilities for each failure type on that track (maybe each type for every team, every driver, etc...), so the editor makes the calculations and export them to the saved game.
Failure assignment: this may spoil much of the fun, but maybe someone would want to see Mansell's car failing at the last lap, so you'll be able to assign which cars will fail, the failure laps and how they will fail.
The same two failure features might be used in similar way to pitstop strategy. When making calculations. the editor will try to take the grip position and the tyre type in account.
So...do you have any suggestions or requests? I'd like to make this the most useful possible, so maybe other peoples opinions can improve my ideas.