create cup challenge

[jgf]

In my own plodding way i figured out creating a challenge, but can find nothing online for a couple of questions (I fear many of the GTL sites have followed RSC, Blackhole, and Nog rip into the dustbin of history).

Is there a limit to how many races can be in a challenge?

Can you set a different number of laps for the races? (All the challenges I see have a global setting, whether five or ten or fifty laps.) Alternately, can you set a global time for the races, such that each would be thirty minutes or two hours or whatever?

 

[Zipdrive]

Is there a limit to how many races can be in a challenge?

I've done 12 in the past with no issues in the racing sense. The issue you will have though is on the Menu screen that shows the Race Locations. There is only 8 spots in the menu that show the tracks, any more then that will "overflow" out into the lower menu area. To get passed this you can split the Challenge in two or more "Rounds" with 8 tracks each.

Can you set a different number of laps for the races? (All the challenges I see have a global setting, whether five or ten or fifty laps.) Alternately, can you set a global time for the races, such that each would be thirty minutes or two hours or whatever?

Yes you can change the number of laps, but all tracks chosen will use the same number of laps. You can not have different laps for different tracks. I've never raced more then 20 laps per session so I don't know what happens if you do a race with say 40 laps and the cars need to pit around lap 30 something.

Time for you to experiment. Just make sure to have backups of any and all files you alter.

 

[jgf]

Thanks. I know GTL isn't designed for such but was trying to create a "season", as in many other sims, of about 12-15 races each about an hour long. If I can set a global time for events this will almost work as I wanted (I assume even if 12 events would not fit on the screen properly the challenge would still progress through all to the end).

 

[Zipdrive]

Unlike GTR2 having the option of either Laps or Time, GTL is stuck with just Laps. It ignores any reference to "race time" in any of the Challenge.gdb files

When I done 12 races I had no problems with going from one race to the next. It was just the menu that looked like crap.

 

[jgf]

Well, rats. That means it only works with similar tracks; having, for example, Monza and Nurburgring in the same event would be ludicrous since a reasonable number of laps at Monza would entail hours at Nurburgring. I've long wondered why some prefer GTL, with all its limitations, to GTR2 (I've kept it mainly to install mods or tracks which I then convert to GTR2, otherwise it's just single races under clear blue skies).

 

[Zipdrive]

Yep you would have to use tracks with similar length. If you look through some of the SIM_XXXXX and CUP_XXXXX.GDB files you will see that the RaceTime= and RaceTimeScaled= entries have been commented out. I think when I removed the // from that line so as to activate the option either GTL ignored it or crashed. It's been many years since I've done any "under the hood" changes to GTL.

I still enjoy GTL for what it is, even with it's limitations. Granted if you want more versability in modding, car classes, championships, etc GTR2 is the way to go.

I have a complete GTR2 install with all the stock GTL cars, plus some add-on GTL cars from various modders that I've converted because it was easier to put them into different classes and not have them hidden in the menu because they had to be associated with "other makes" like in GTL. Still if I want to do old school racing I just fire up Power & Glory.

 

[jgf]

Yes, that associating a car with another car is a major pain; but I still have two GTL installs, one virtually "off-the-rack", the other heavily modded. Though GTR2/P&G (two separate installs) and GPL (with second install for the '67 historic mod) account for the majority of my sim time. But vying for that time are also rfactor (two installs), N2k3 (with two installs of the GTP mod, one converted to F1), RBR, and even the old, but still fun, Rally Trophy. Now all I need is a mod that gives me 36 hours in a day.

 

[Zipdrive]

I remember when I installed my first car mod into GTL and couldn't find the damn thing in the menu under it's own listing. The car(s) showed up as a drivable option in the menu under the GTC-TC-76 vehicles but not as it's own standalone option. The car, a Ford Mustang Cobra II IMSA was associated with the Chevrolet Corvette. Who woulda thunk it.

I have 3 GTL installs. A new "out of the box" install just for backup purposes, then one which has only addon tracks and cars skins plus a few visual tweaks, then finally a modded version with many of the available add-on cars, tracks and some visuals tweaks. The latter install of which has a GTR2 counterpart install which I tend to use more.