Question about CSM Mods & updating a car (Also tracks.set file?)

Just curious but
recently when Excalibur released his beautiful C33 Sauber
I updated my Central GP4 laptop edition & later wanted to also update the
higher resolution CSM mod version.

Looking in my GPSaves/carsets/ 2014 Central GP4/Data I saw wadcache with cars.wad & updated it
Later I saw no change so looking further saw the cars folder with the individual LOD's & TEX files
updated those & all is fine now

But I was curious ....so how does this all work in CSM?
Are those cars & anim WADs in wadcache just some temp file since it is a cache...that gets rebuilt each time you use the
mod or is it because I updated both the wad & the cars/sauber folder with the files?

As I said it is working fine but I was curious how this CSM deal works as it is all new to me
since returning to GP4

Thanks for any info



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2014 01:18PM by flying.

PS: I think I see now what happens

While watching the CMS mod load I saw in the readout updating cars.wad etc.

This whole CSM deal is quite cool in many ways

Ok I have a new question & sorry I know it probably has been asked
but I cannot find any answers via search....

Now that I have 3 CSM mods
1996
2009
2014

I see tracks are always defaulted to last mod used

Is there a way to have multiple tracks.set files?
I am not sure if each mod can have its own tracks.set file

I only see one track.set file in GP4

Just wondering how others do it.
Can I have season specific tracks.set files etc?


Thanks for any info



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2014 01:20PM by flying.

Good to see you're figuring it all out

Tracks are tricky. There are multiple ways to get tracks into the game and they do not like competing with each other. You have to pick one method, and then make sure all other methods are not getting in the way. The main methods are:

TSM

TSM is designed to partner CSM. You build a track profile in TSM and then select it for use in CSM.

If you use TSM you should disable GPxTrack (uncheck the GPxTrack box on the main GPxPatch screen).

GPxTrack

My preferred method is to use GPxTrack (which reads the tracks.set file you are refering to). You already know how to use GPxTrack because we use it in the gp4cc, but in case anyone else doesn't, read here.

One thing to note here: Some CSM mods have their own tracks.set file. Mine do not, so when you edit tracks.set using the GP4 Central mods, you are editing your GP4 folder's own version. Other CSM mods will see the changes. Some people may not like this as it is counter-intuitive to using CSM in the first place, but there is a reason that's too boring to go into here. If you want the mod to have its own tracks.set file simply put one into the 2014\Data\GPxPatch folder.

As above, if you use GPxTrack you should disable TSM by selecting "None" in the track profile.

=====================================================


Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2019 10:16AM by TomMK.

Thanks Tom

Yes in my search I just found an older 2012 post of yours on magic data tutorial
& was playing with TSM a little bit.
I still have not really got it together & I am just playing with it to create a 2014 season that mimics
the actual season etc. same for 2009 & 1996

But so far it is pretty confusing
As when I want to add tracks to TSM I seem to get mixed results
So far your way has worked best & I will continue to use that method you mentioned in
your tutorial.

Also thanks for this heads up about selecting it for use in CSM
That was a stumbling block as I kept trying to figure how to make
a tracks.set file & select it in GPX instead

Like you I prefer to use GPxTrack as it is intuitive
But can I make a tracks.set file? Or should I just make a tracks folder in each CSM mods data folder?
If I do that each time I open a CSM mod I think the GPxPatch will just be set to what ever the last mod used correct?

Ideally I was hoping to have just one track data folder/library & then point various GPx tracks.set to the tracks I wanted for that mod
That way not have so many copies of tracks on HD


Thanks again


Edit: Oh I think I may have it now

I finally figured to ignore windows claim it could not open that file & now have it open in WordPad
Nothing special so I should be able to make a few & try

Thanks



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2014 03:41PM by flying.

Well ok that making a 2009 tracks.set file works even with
links just to my track library outside of game folder on HD

But just curious is that why my menu has forward as well as back slashes?

I did not use any forward slashes in the links within the tracks.set file

Is that just how some DAT files read? Just curious but glad this works
Will be easy to load specific tracks.set files for each mod

Thanks

The tracks with names in capitals are getting those names from somewhere else, not GPxTrack. Possibly the GPaedia file.

Tracks names are determined from several places, in this order of priority (I think):

1 - .ini settings file in same folder as .dat
2 - within the .dat file itself (edit using GP4Builder)
3 - gpaedia file (.gps)

Since the .ini file overrides all others it's easiest to just use that, I find.

Try creating some .ini settings files for your tracks, like we use with the GP4CC tracks. There are some templates in Grand Prix 4\gpxpdata\track\gp4, or take one from a GP4CC track.

=====================================================


Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

Thanks very much for that tip Tom!

Worked Great Tom Thanks Again for help





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2014 04:57AM by flying.