Creating GPaedia for a CSM mod with team selection

Sometimes in a season more than 11 teams are participating.
In a CSM mod it is possible to provide a team selection e.g. for team11.
We will now learn how to create gpaedia with GPaediaMaker for such a mod.
The 1992mod by kerley, celinho and friends will be our example.

Preparation

To create gpaedia for an existing mod you have to examine the mods structure at first.
Responsible for team and driver data are the performance files.
The globalvars.ini file shows how special features like driver replace and/or team selection are implemented and which variable to use for this.
The 1992mod creators did not stick to the real team and driver order but used their own order instead.

1992 mod Teams and Drivers
performance file order (# = reality)
 1 = McLaren Honda #1
 2 = Williams Renault #3
 3 = Ferrari #10
 4 = Benetton Ford Cosworth #9
 5 = Jordan Yamaha #15
 6 = Tyrrell Ilmor #2
 7 = Minardi Lamborghini #11
 8 = Lotus Ford Cosworth #6
 9 = March Ilmor #8
10 = Ligier Renault #12
11a = Footwork #5
11b = Dallara #10
11c = Larrousse #14
11d = Brabham #4
11e = AndreaModa #16
11f = Fondmetal #7

1 = McLaren,Honda
  1 - Ayrton Senna
  2 - Gerhard Berger

2 = Williams Renault
  3 - Nigel Mansell
  4 - Riccardo Patrese

3 = Ferrari
  5 - Jean Alesi
  6 - Ivan Capelli/Nicola Larini (15-)

4 = Benetton Ford Cosworth
  7 - Michael Schumacher
  8 - Martin Brundle

5 = Jordan Yamaha
  9 - Stefano Modena
 10 - Mauricio Gugelmin

6 = Tyrrell Ilmor
 11 - Olivier Grouillard
 12 - Andrea de Cesaris

7 = Minardi,Lamborghini
 13 - Christian Fittipaldi/Alessandro Zanardi (9-11)
 14 - Gianni Morbidelli

8 = Lotus Ford Cosworth
 15 - Mika Hakkinen
 16 - Johnny Herbert

9 = March Ilmor
 17 - Karl Wendlinger/Jan Lammers (15-)
 18 - Paul Belmondo/Emanuele Naspetti (12-)

10 = Ligier Renault
 19 - Thierry Boutsen
 20 - Erik Comas

11a (11) = Footwork Mugen Honda
 21 - Michele Alboreto
 22 - Aguri Suzuki

11b (12) = Dallara Ferrari
 21 (23) - JJ Lehto
 22 (24) - Pierluigi Martini

11c (13) = Larrousse Lamborghini
 21 (25) - Bertrand Gachot
 22 (26) - Ukyo Katayama

11d (14) = Brabham Judd (# -11)
 21 (27) - Eric van de Poele/Julian Bailey (12- fictional)
 22 (28) - Giovanna Amati/Damon Hill (4-)

11e (15) = Andrea Moda Judd (# -12)
 21 (29) - Alex Caffi/Roberto Moreno (3-)
 22 (30) - Enrico Bertaggia/Perry McCarthy (3-)

11f (16) = Fondmetal Ford (# -13)
 21 (31) - Andrea Chiesa/Eric van de Poele (11-)
 22 (32) - Gabriele Tarquini
The globalvars.ini team selection variable is the main structure to manage the driver/team selection:
[team11]
Var1			=Footwork
Var2			=Dallara
Var3			=Larrousse
Var4			=Brabham
Var5			=AndreaModa
Var6			=Fondmetal
...
modify			=team11drivera,team11driverb

Creating the CSV tables

The next step is filling the driver-, team- and track-tables with the seasons data bearing in mind the mods special order.
At this point we need not yet care about the team selection, but will input all necessary data at once.
For the team.csv we thus get 10 + 6*team11 = 16 columns.
For the driver.csv we get 20 + 6*2 team11-driver + 9 replacing drivers = 41 columns.
Have a look at the examples 1992mod_teamtable and the 1992mod_drivertable to get an impression how this done.

We now should have 3 CSV data files and 3 CSV format files. The latter is only necessary, if the mods gpaedia is not in standard format, as in this case. As the free format feature of GPaediaMaker is documented in detail in the GPaediaMaker Guide (1991mod example), I will not go into this here any further.
The CSV files will be put (together with the circuit information text files) into "GP1992", a subfolder of the exe files folder.

Structuring the output with ini files

As with GPaediaMaker the CSV files are responsible for data, the ini files will control the output. They normally reside in the exe files folder to easily run them by dragging and dropping them onto txt2gps_ff.exe.
We will create six different gpaedia collections, each of them put into a different (sub-)folder whose name is defined by the value of the variable %team11%.
Normally menu files are created together with the gpaedia. As they are not team dependent, we only need them once. Hence we will make a special ini file for them.

This is how the ini file with %team11% = Footwork will look like:
;--- gpaedia_1992_ff_footwork.ini ---
;--- GP4 GPaedia Maker configuration file ---

; language variables (0 to 4):
; %ln% ==> en, de, es, fr, it
; %language% ==> English, Deutsch, español, Français, italiano

; gps: language files to create
;     create: yes=1, no=0 (optional, default is 1,0,0,0,0)
gps = 1,1,1,1,1

; define season variable %season%
season=1992
; last_year (default: %Season% - 1)
last_year = 1992

; input path for constant txt files
in_path = %program_path%\data\

; input path for edited csv and txt files
var_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\

; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\GPaedia\Footwork

; gps file names (normal)
ln_gps = %season%_%language%.gps

; gps file names trackspecific
track_gps = %season%_%language%-%tracknum%.gps

; tracks forced for trackspecific files
forced_tracks = 3,9,11,12,15

; trackinfo filename (default: "%ln%_%trackname%_%season%.txt")
trackinfo_file = %ln%_%trackname%-%season%.txt

; Process cornerdata 1=yes, 0=no (default: 1)
corner_data = 0

; Use user defined format files (default = 0)
user_format = 1

; Generate str menu files (default: 0)
;make_str = 1
; team/driver switches
The other 5 ini files for gps generation are quite similar, only the out_path and the team/driver switches are different:

Dallara
; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\Dallara

; team/driver switches
sw_team 11=12
sw_driver 21=23
sw_driver 22=24
Larrousse
; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\Larrousse

; team/driver switches
sw_team 11 = 13
sw_driver 21 = 25
sw_driver 22 = 26
Brabham
; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\Brabham

; team/driver switches
sw_team 11=14
sw_driver 21=27
sw_driver 22=28
AndreaModa
; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\AndreaModa

; team/driver switches
sw_team 11=15
sw_driver 21=29
sw_driver 22=30
Fondmetal
; output path for created gps files
out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\Fondmetal

; team/driver switches
sw_team 11=16
sw_driver 21=31
sw_driver 22=32
As you see the team/driver switch effectively selects the wanted columns.

At last the menu files are created and put into a folder "ldata":

;--- gpaedia_1992_ff_str.ini --- ;--- GP4 GPaedia Maker configuration file --- ; language variables (0 to 4): ; %ln% ==> en, de, es, fr, it ; %language% ==> English, Deutsch, español, Français, italiano ; gps: language files to create ; create: yes=1, no=0 (optional, default is 1,0,0,0,0) gps = 1,1,1,1,1 ; define season variable %season% season=1992 ; last_year (default: %Season% - 1) last_year = 1992 ; input path for constant txt files in_path = %program_path%\data\ ; input path for edited csv and txt files var_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\ ; output path for created gps files out_path = %program_path%\GP%season%\ldata ; gps file names (normal) ;ln_gps = %season%_%language%.gps ; gps file names trackspecific ;track_gps = %season%_%language%-%tracknum%.gps ; trackinfo filename (default: "%ln%_%trackname%_%season%.txt") ;trackinfo_file = %ln%_%trackname%-%season%.txt ; Process cornerdata 1=yes, 0=no (default: 1) corner_data = 0 ; Use user defined format files (default = 0) user_format = 1 ; Generate str menu files (default: 0) ; 1: make str files with gp names from track.csv ; 2: like 1, but gp name of track 1 is always "Albert Park"; compatible with CSM using TSM make_str = 2

If we want to run all seven ini files at one stroke, a batch file (put into the exe path) will do it:
REM --- gpaedia_1992 batch ---
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_andreamoda.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_brabham.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_dallara.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_fondmetal.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_footwork.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_larrousse.ini
txt2gps_ff.exe gpaedia_1992_ff_str.ini

Checking the result

Now that the gpaedia and menu files are created, we should look into each folders gpaedia.log file to see if they contain warnings (">>>WARNING ...") and if the processing has generated the correct gps resp. str files.
As examples you can examine the gpaedia_andreamoda.log and the gpaedia_menu.log here.

Installing the gpaedia and menu files

As this is explained in the GPaediaMaker Guide - chapter "GPaedia and CSM mod" - I will not repeat it here.


Download: GPaediaCSV_1992mod