GPDisplay V0.02

Public Release Beta Version

3 October 1995

ABOUT THIS VERSION

I finally got sick of not releasing this software, and people keep asking for copies to play with, so I decided to release the current version I am up to in development, to let everyone be happy. When my exams and other uni stuff finish soon, I will then be able to sit down and produce a nice proper full release version. This full version will be shareware (probably about 5 UKP registration), but completely uncrippled for those of you who can't part with any of your precious money ;)

OVERVIEW

This program will display perf files saved from AGPPerf, or directly from AGPPerfs memory. It allows comparison and analysis of up to 4 perf files at once, plus it has some (very) rudimentary editing facilities.

USAGE

Run GPDisplay from a CLI, with up to 4 perf files on the command line, or from WorkBench.

GPDisplay [noactivate] [file1] [file2] ... [file3]

noactivate
This tells GPDisplay to open it's screen behind everything else, so that it won't interrupt anything else you might be doing (like loading F1GP)

file1
This should be a valid perf file. If it is not, an appropriate error message will tell you you're an idiot. :) You can actually specify a number from 0 to 15, and GPDisplay will load the track data for that particular track.

file?
If you specify "memory" for any of the 4 filenames, GPDisplay will attempt to load this perf file directly from AGPPerfs memory. This, of course, will only work when AGPPerf is running too. It makes a COPY of AGPPerfs memory, so once you have grabbed the perf file, you can then continue to do whatever you like with AGPPerf, without damaging the perf file you copied.

Once the program is running, you should see a screen with 3 windows on it:

Graphs window

This window shows some graphs. Funny, that.

Speed
This is a graph of the cars speed. The bottom of the graph is 0 kph, the horizontal lines are in 100 kph steps. This graph is scaled automatically so that the top is either 300 kph, or whatever the highest speed is that is reached if it's above 300 kph. If you select mph, then the minimum top will be 200 mph, and the steps will be 100 mph.

RPM
This is a graph of the cars rpm. The bottom line is 7000 rpm, and the other line is 13000 rpm. the graph is scaled automatically so that the top is either 14000 rpm, or whatever the highest rpm is that is reached if it's above 14000 rpm.

Gears
This is a graph of the cars gears. The bottom line is Neutral, and the top line is 6th. 1st to 5th gears are in between. Reverse is under the bottom line, and Spin gear is above the top line.

Time
This is the time differential graph. If you have more than one perf file, then this graph shows the time difference between the perf files at any particular segment. Whatever perf file is ahead at a segment, is at the bottom line. Other perf files are above that line depending on how far behind they are at that segment. The horizontal lines are in .1 second increments if the maximum time difference reached is less than 1 second, and in 1 second increments if the maximum time difference is greater than 1 second. The maximum difference displayable is 10 seconds. The maximum minimum difference is .1 seconds. This graph is also autoscaled.

Info Window

This window shows more specific info about a perf file. On the left side, it shows the cars setup plus other info from the perf files header. On the right it shows info about the current segment.

Overall Perf File Info:

  file:
    This is the file name.

  car:
    This is the car number.

  [flaps]
    These are the flap settings of the car.

  [gears]
    These are the gear ratios.

  tyres:
    These are one of the following: A,B,C,D,Q,W

  HP:
    This is the horse power the recording was made at.

  best:
    This is the best lap time in the whole perf file.

Segment Info:

  inp:
    User inputs as the car crossed the segment.
     A=acellerate, B=brake, L=left, R=right.

  spd:
    The cars speed at this segment, in kph.

  rpm:
    The cars rpm.

  gr:
    The gear the car is in.

  seg:
    The number of the current segment. Pit segments start are
    labelled "pit".

  ?:??.???
    Current lap time at the start of the segment.

Map Window

This window shows the track map, with the perf files plotted in too. The track outline is drawn in black, and so is the start line and curbs. The current segment edge that is being looked at is drawn accross the track in white. If you select "show dir arrow", then a line will extend from the highlighted segments center to the center of the next segment, so you can see the direction of forwards. The line in the window-highlight colour around the track is F1GPs best line, the one you see if you use the best-line help/cheat in F1GP. The perf files are then drawn in too.

Keys and Mouse functions

esc - quit
Quits.

1, 2, 3, 4 - select a perf
These keys select the 1st to the 4th perf file.

left-button in Info Window.
This will select the clicked on perf file.

a - save as
This brings up a file requestor to save the currently selected perf file.

l - load perf
This brings up a file requestor to load a perf into the current perf.

p - load pc perf
This brings up a file requestor to load a pc perf into the current perf.

m - load perf directly from AGPPerf
This will attempt to load the contents of AGPPerf into the current perf.

Del - clear perf
This clears the current perf

c - clear track
This clear everything - all perfs, and the loaded track.

F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 - select split
These keys jump the current segment to the start of the lap (F1) through to the end of the lap (F5) in quarters. These segments are the same segments that Rene Smit's Splittime utility uses, so you can see what the split times were on a perf file.

F10 - extract best lap
This key extracts exactly the best lap out of the currently selecteed perf file, throwing away all the rest of the perf file.

left-cursor, right-cursor
These keys move the currently selected segment left or right (see highlight in Graph Window).

shift left-cursor, right-cursor
These keys move the currently selected segment left or right by 16 segments.

left-button in Graph Window
This selects the clicked on segment. Holding the button down will scroll the selected segment around.

-/+ (on the main keyboard)
These keys change the horizontal zoom level of the graphs.

[, ] - tag start,end
These specify the start or end of a range in the perf file to the current segment. You can't see the range you select at the moment.

x - delete tag
This will delete the range you selected with [ and ].

h - hide tags
This will clear the current tags.

up-cursor, down-cursor
These keys change the current map zoom level.

keypad keys:

7, 8, 9,
4,    6,
1, 2, 3

These keys scroll the map around in appropriate directions.

5
This key centers the map on the current segment.

Menus

These should be self explanitory. The ones you can't select are ones I haven't implemented yet, or which you can't use at that point in time.

BUGS

When you load a track, with NO perf files, then you can't view it.

OTHER STUFF

I wish to thank the following people, for giving me ideas and info and stuff: Rene Smit, Trevor Kellaway, Oliver Roberts, Edo Nijmeijer, Rob Buis.

THE FUTURE

* I plan on adding things.