TSM - a revolution in GP4 track stuff :)
Posted by b-tone
ZaZ has made this thing that makes working with tracks much easier. Its part of CSM, and not too surprisingly is called TSM 
Heres a run down of what it does, so heres hoping you can understand.
(This is why the 2005 and GP2 betas have been delayed a bit, but more on those later
)
These pics are also for something else, so just ignore the extra stuff on the first one.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
3 - When you start csm, click on CONFIGURE
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - This is TSM. For configuring tracks. This version is kind of a quick one, so its not fully supported, but seems to work fine so far, and most known problems are solved - its just the unknown ones causing trouble. Zaz just doesn't want lots of abusive emails, thats why he's shouting at us :p
2 - 'Global Tracks' is where you can see what tracks you have installed, and you can also change some settings relating to them.
3 - 'Set tracks per set' is where you can define a track set for your mods.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - 'Installed Tacks' - This is where you can see what tracks are installed. They are listed according to the folder name.
2 - 'Folder Name' - the location where the track is installed. They are all inside a new 'Tracks' folder in you GP4 directory. ie. C\Program Files\Grand Prix 4\Tracks\Lausitzring etc
3 - 'Name' - this is the name of the track that will appear in the track selection menu. Just one of the many amazing tricks that TSM can do
4 - 'Adjective' - this will show up in some game screens where you see 'French Grand Prix' etc.
5 - '.wad file' - this is the track wad file. TSM renames all the appropriate things in the wad, so you don't have to. So a brno.wad containg monza.col, spa.bin, phoenix.??? will work perfectly (i think)
6 - '.dat file' - the track dat file, obviously.
7 - 'Loadingscreen' - you can install a loading screen with the track which will show when you load that track.
8 - 'Create new track'. If yuo want to install another track just click this and a blank template (with 1 to 7 boxes) will appear, and you can fill in the name, adjective etc and browse for the dat, wad and bmp. These will be copied into your new tracks folder (named in 'folder name'
. If you browse for A.wad and then browse again for B.wad, A.wd will be overwritten.
9 - 'Delete Track' - this will delete the track from your hard drive, so use cautiously
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - Here you choose which set you want to define a track order for.
2 - Some sets have subsets, so choose it here if needed.
3 - Tracks - not sure what this does :|
4 - 'Profiles' - here is where you can load a profile. A Profile is a list of tracks like:
Track1=istanbul
Track2=monza
etc.
If you loaded that profile above, you would have the track installed in the 'istanbul' folder as your slot 1 track. 'monza' in slot 2 etc
Profiles are '.ini' files stored in the main 'Tracks' folder. So one day you might have 1979.ini, 1988.ini, DTM2005.ini etc
5 - Here is the 17 tracks that make up the Profile. (I'm not actually sure if a set needs a profile, or can just have a list - Zaz? I guess you do need a profile, and one will be created if its not there already.)
6 - 'Add Profile' to create a new profile.
7 - 'Delete profile' - again use cautiously.
So once you create a Profile - lets say 1988.ini - with the tracks you want to use for the 1988 mod, then that will be stored inthe set (in the CSm.ini) and when you load the 1988 mod you'll also load the tracks as defined in the 1988.ini profile.
If you want to try the 2005 cars on the 1988 tracks, then just load the 2005 set and change the profile to the 1988 one, and when you start up you'll have all the 1988 tracks in the right order without having to do any renaming.
So the good thing is you can change track order simply, you can save track sets (profiles), and perhaps most important you dont have to worry about the file names inside the wads. So users can just install the tracks according to the instructions, and track makers can call the files what ever they want.
So if its easier to name them Phoenix.bin etc then so be it
The down side (how can there be one??) is that user have to install tracks. This takes about 5 seconds and is so simple all of us should be able to manage it.
Another possible bad thing is that you should 'install' all the default tracks as well. but thats not too much trouble, and an easy installer thingy might appear.
For track makers you need to think about installation of your tracks. I remember in GP3 you had to install belini tracks into a belini folder.
So for me thats probably wisest if you plan to release many tracks. so you could have 'Tony\Brno', 'Tony\Norisring' etc.
And in the future tracks might be able to share some resources, so if you make some solid installation rules for your tracks, you should be able to safely assume users have followed instructions.
ie. You might release 'Jerez95' and instruct to install it to 'Tracks\Horatio\Jerez95' and later you want to release a texture only update for 'Jerez88' so this time you instrcut to install to 'Tracks\Horatio\Jerez88', and in some ini you would define something like 'Base=Jerez95' and it would use the 'Jerez95' files and add anything from 'Jerez88' to it.
but all that doesn't work yet, and may never - its up to Zaz so perhaps he'll tell me off for saying too much :p
Any questions?
____
Tony
Heres a run down of what it does, so heres hoping you can understand.
(This is why the 2005 and GP2 betas have been delayed a bit, but more on those later
)These pics are also for something else, so just ignore the extra stuff on the first one.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
3 - When you start csm, click on CONFIGURE
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - This is TSM. For configuring tracks. This version is kind of a quick one, so its not fully supported, but seems to work fine so far, and most known problems are solved - its just the unknown ones causing trouble
. Zaz just doesn't want lots of abusive emails, thats why he's shouting at us :p2 - 'Global Tracks' is where you can see what tracks you have installed, and you can also change some settings relating to them.
3 - 'Set tracks per set' is where you can define a track set for your mods.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - 'Installed Tacks' - This is where you can see what tracks are installed. They are listed according to the folder name.
2 - 'Folder Name' - the location where the track is installed. They are all inside a new 'Tracks' folder in you GP4 directory. ie. C\Program Files\Grand Prix 4\Tracks\Lausitzring etc
3 - 'Name' - this is the name of the track that will appear in the track selection menu. Just one of the many amazing tricks that TSM can do
4 - 'Adjective' - this will show up in some game screens where you see 'French Grand Prix' etc.
5 - '.wad file' - this is the track wad file. TSM renames all the appropriate things in the wad, so you don't have to. So a brno.wad containg monza.col, spa.bin, phoenix.??? will work perfectly (i think
)6 - '.dat file' - the track dat file, obviously.
7 - 'Loadingscreen' - you can install a loading screen with the track which will show when you load that track.
8 - 'Create new track'. If yuo want to install another track just click this and a blank template (with 1 to 7 boxes) will appear, and you can fill in the name, adjective etc and browse for the dat, wad and bmp. These will be copied into your new tracks folder (named in 'folder name'
. If you browse for A.wad and then browse again for B.wad, A.wd will be overwritten.9 - 'Delete Track' - this will delete the track from your hard drive, so use cautiously
______________________________________________________________________________________________
1 - Here you choose which set you want to define a track order for.
2 - Some sets have subsets, so choose it here if needed.
3 - Tracks - not sure what this does :|
4 - 'Profiles' - here is where you can load a profile. A Profile is a list of tracks like:
Track1=istanbul
Track2=monza
etc.
If you loaded that profile above, you would have the track installed in the 'istanbul' folder as your slot 1 track. 'monza' in slot 2 etc
Profiles are '.ini' files stored in the main 'Tracks' folder. So one day you might have 1979.ini, 1988.ini, DTM2005.ini etc
5 - Here is the 17 tracks that make up the Profile. (I'm not actually sure if a set needs a profile, or can just have a list - Zaz? I guess you do need a profile, and one will be created if its not there already.)
6 - 'Add Profile' to create a new profile.
7 - 'Delete profile' - again use cautiously.
So once you create a Profile - lets say 1988.ini - with the tracks you want to use for the 1988 mod, then that will be stored inthe set (in the CSm.ini) and when you load the 1988 mod you'll also load the tracks as defined in the 1988.ini profile.
If you want to try the 2005 cars on the 1988 tracks, then just load the 2005 set and change the profile to the 1988 one, and when you start up you'll have all the 1988 tracks in the right order without having to do any renaming.
So the good thing is you can change track order simply, you can save track sets (profiles), and perhaps most important you dont have to worry about the file names inside the wads. So users can just install the tracks according to the instructions, and track makers can call the files what ever they want.
So if its easier to name them Phoenix.bin etc then so be it
The down side (how can there be one??) is that user have to install tracks. This takes about 5 seconds and is so simple all of us should be able to manage it.
Another possible bad thing is that you should 'install' all the default tracks as well. but thats not too much trouble, and an easy installer thingy might appear.
For track makers you need to think about installation of your tracks. I remember in GP3 you had to install belini tracks into a belini folder.
So for me thats probably wisest if you plan to release many tracks. so you could have 'Tony\Brno', 'Tony\Norisring' etc.
And in the future tracks might be able to share some resources, so if you make some solid installation rules for your tracks, you should be able to safely assume users have followed instructions.
ie. You might release 'Jerez95' and instruct to install it to 'Tracks\Horatio\Jerez95' and later you want to release a texture only update for 'Jerez88' so this time you instrcut to install to 'Tracks\Horatio\Jerez88', and in some ini you would define something like 'Base=Jerez95' and it would use the 'Jerez95' files and add anything from 'Jerez88' to it.
but all that doesn't work yet, and may never - its up to Zaz so perhaps he'll tell me off for saying too much :p
Any questions?
____
Tony
So it's implemented into CSM? Too bad for non CSM users
Looks like just the tool I need!
[1991] [2003] [2004] [gp2 world series]
Looks like just the tool I need!
[1991] [2003] [2004] [gp2 world series]
Bang the pro CSM Drum!!!! HAHA
All looks good...well done Zaz and thanx for the idiots guide Tony :p
Please click my sig!
All looks good...well done Zaz and thanx for the idiots guide Tony :p
Please click my sig!
note that this is just a quick hack to CSM 1.25 which i somewhat abandoned :P
next CSM version (which is coming) will have a different TSM.
nonetheless, it looks harder than it actually is. you can create a new carset and install tracks in a a few clicks without ini editing
The only thing you would need your keyboard for is for giving a name to the carset and/or track. but even that is optional :p
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
next CSM version (which is coming) will have a different TSM.
nonetheless, it looks harder than it actually is. you can create a new carset and install tracks in a a few clicks without ini editing
The only thing you would need your keyboard for is for giving a name to the carset and/or track. but even that is optional :p
Sweeeeeeeeeet, hail to CSM and the developpers of it! Great stuff! Can't wait to get on it! :D
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Nice gaz plant :P
But great work anyhow
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2005 12:52PM by Lo2k.
But great work anyhow
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2005 12:52PM by Lo2k.
It forces me use CSM more
wow, amazing work zaz! It just keeps getting better and better! Thanks loads your work is truely appreciated ;-P
will it be possible to have 19 tracks?
with the 2005 mod you'll be able to use 19 tracks (34 actually, so room for uqbar, a1 ring etc) but you can't have a 19 race championsihp. i recomend you dont use the championship anyway as its 'flawed'
@DJSKYLINE - its not abandoned. its just part of the future thats handily be bought back to the past so we can use it today and not wait until tomorrow
gazplant??
____
Tony
@DJSKYLINE - its not abandoned. its just part of the future thats handily be bought back to the past so we can use it today and not wait until tomorrow
gazplant??
____
Tony
ok thanks b-tone, great work
Why didn't you told me, Zazzy!?! LOL
Great work, this' surely gonna be very useful in development of MP2005! Thank you so much!
How are things from "the other side" going on, btw?!
Great work, this' surely gonna be very useful in development of MP2005! Thank you so much!
How are things from "the other side" going on, btw?!
a note to all track makers.
if it becomes possible to make new versions of tracks by just merging a textures folder, like i said above, then it would be good when making tracks - especially fantasy ones, but also real ones - to name textures with some meaning.
so you might want to add your own prefix (uqbar_blah.tex etc) and then name them so it makes sense - so if you have a dunlop texture you could call it uqbar_dunlop.tex or uqbar_dunlop_turn8.tex etc.
then if someone was to make an add they could easily find the textures to edit.
maybe even a universal prefix '_GP4_' or something, so you can borrow textures from other tracks, and when sorted in explorer you'll find them all easily.
this goes for pitboxes too - maybe fantasy tracks would be better with some standard plain pitboxes, and if you've planned the track as afantasy 2005 f1 track you can release the 2005 pitbox add on with the track.
i dont know what you think, but it would make things much easier to change later on. for instance one dtm pitbox set could be released that would probably fit all fantasy tracks.
@Diego - i contacted samuele on gp4italia about this, and other things, so i can send the 2005 beta to someone involved if you want to see how it all works, and how to get 19 tracks working
____
Tony
if it becomes possible to make new versions of tracks by just merging a textures folder, like i said above, then it would be good when making tracks - especially fantasy ones, but also real ones - to name textures with some meaning.
so you might want to add your own prefix (uqbar_blah.tex etc) and then name them so it makes sense - so if you have a dunlop texture you could call it uqbar_dunlop.tex or uqbar_dunlop_turn8.tex etc.
then if someone was to make an add they could easily find the textures to edit.
maybe even a universal prefix '_GP4_' or something, so you can borrow textures from other tracks, and when sorted in explorer you'll find them all easily.
this goes for pitboxes too - maybe fantasy tracks would be better with some standard plain pitboxes, and if you've planned the track as afantasy 2005 f1 track you can release the 2005 pitbox add on with the track.
i dont know what you think, but it would make things much easier to change later on. for instance one dtm pitbox set could be released that would probably fit all fantasy tracks.
@Diego - i contacted samuele on gp4italia about this, and other things, so i can send the 2005 beta to someone involved if you want to see how it all works, and how to get 19 tracks working
____
Tony
From a developer point of view, I would say that if you go into renaming, it would be fine to rename pitboxes (and textures) using a number.
Thus first pitbox would have a prefix like _pitbox01 and last one _pitbox11.
This way some people like me or Zaz could make applications to easily swap pitboxes. A feature that has been asked many times before.
Thus first pitbox would have a prefix like _pitbox01 and last one _pitbox11.
This way some people like me or Zaz could make applications to easily swap pitboxes. A feature that has been asked many times before.
yep, that would be best for pitboxes.
and you're a bit behind the times - pitbox patcher has been around for ages :p
and its part of csm now
but i'm not sure how TSM affect pitbox patching,a nd addtowad functions.
but the idea is to seperate sets and tracks, so doing the swapping/patching at the track end is much better.
but you're right - standard pitbox texture names are a must
____
Tony
and you're a bit behind the times - pitbox patcher has been around for ages :p
and its part of csm now
but i'm not sure how TSM affect pitbox patching,a nd addtowad functions.
but the idea is to seperate sets and tracks, so doing the swapping/patching at the track end is much better.
but you're right - standard pitbox texture names are a must
____
Tony
@Tony
Great, it can be very very useful! So, if you can, send me the beta, as I'll be developing the MP and Samuele doesn't have a broadband connection... Thank you very much!
@All
Merry Chirstmasn to you all, guys!
Great, it can be very very useful! So, if you can, send me the beta, as I'll be developing the MP and Samuele doesn't have a broadband connection... Thank you very much!
@All
Merry Chirstmasn to you all, guys!
another amazing sequence of csm, special thanks Zaz
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