Editing Pacenotes on Reverse Stages

[Pete Mull]

1. I would strongly recommend that before you start you make a backup of the complete ../Maps folder and it sub-folders on another partition of your hard drive so that you have a backup to restore from should things get screwed up.
   
   
2. The first thing to mention is that all of the standard tracks sit in the Maps folder of your RBR setup and most, but not all of the reverse tracks sit in the ../Maps/NS folder of your RBR installation directory.
   
   
3. You will see later that you have to move files from the ..?Maps/NS folder to the ../Maps folder because the Pacenote Editor was written before Rallyesim introduced RSCcenter2010 & RSCenter2011 and the NS folder. Pacenote Editor was programmed to save the edited notes into the ../Maps folder.
   
   
4. If you run RBRdll from a shortcut on your desktop you will be able to look at all the stages that are available in the standard setup. In addition to the standard stages you will see some of the reverse stages are there as well like Noiker II and Tanner II.
   
   
5. The fact that they are visible when you run RBRdll from your desktop means that they can be edited in the same way as normal tracks without having to move files around.
   
   
6. Where they are not listed when running RBRdll and only available from the RSCenter means that you will have to follow the instructions below to edit these reverse tracks.
   
   
7. Editing Reverse Tracks Available Directly from RBRdll.
   
   The first thing to do is to find the reverse track number and make a backup of the eight files that make up the reverse track. Load the reverse track and start the stage – run a short distance into the stage, stop the car and call up the pacenote editor (windows key + N). Click the Save button of the Pacenote Editor and take a note of the file name and directory where the track is being saved to (bottom of screen to the left). Noiker II is saved as ..Maps/track_55_O.dls. Exit the track and return to the desktop.
   
   Using Windows Explorer, locate the eight files in the ../Maps directory for the above track, copy them into a backup folder in case of problems in the future.
   
   Restart the stage using RBRdll from the desktop and edit the stage as per the Pacenote Editor Tutorial. Don’t forget to save your edits and restart the track to check that your edits have worked.
   
   
8. Editing Reverse Tracks Not Available Directly in RBRdll.
   
   The first thing to do is find the track number of the reverse stage that you wish to edit. Run the RBRdll and select the main track of the one you wish to edit. Start the main track stage – stop the car and open the Pacenote Editor and click the save button and make a note of the file name that is saved in the maps folder. Close the stage and exit RBRdll.Now make a backup of the eight files in the ../Maps folder for the file name that you have just got from running the stage. The date of the .dls file should have changed to the current date of your machine because you saved the file.Go to the ../Maps/NS folder of your RBR installation and make a backup of the eight files whose file name is the same as the one you have just backed up from the main folder. Having secured that backup then copy the eight files from the ../Maps/NS folder to the ../Maps folder overwriting the existing files.
   
   Because you have just copied the eight files from the reverse track to the main maps folder you should now be able to edit the reverse stage in the normal way but using the main track name.Open RBRdll and select the main track which now contains the reverse track information. Start the track and make whatever edits you wish to the track and save you edits before closing the track and exiting RBRdll. You can restart the main track again to check and amend the pacenotes until you are happy they are correct for you.
   
   Now copy the .dls file from the .../Maps folder to the ../Maps/NS folder overwriting the old one with the newly edited track information. You can now run the reverse track from the RSCenter just to check that your pacenote edits have worked.Now reinstate your original eight main track backup files to the ../Maps folder and run the track in RSCenter just to check that the main track is running correctly.
   
   
9. Reverse Tracks that will not Edit Correctly.
   There are some reverse tracks that will not edit correctly e.g. Falstone II and Frazier II. Falstone II can be edited from a base installation without RSCenter installed. Editing these tracks will be the subject of another Tutorial.
   
   
10. Workerbee's Explanation
    
    Note: The following is based on RSRBR2010, but 2011 shouldn't be that
    different.
    
    Well, I don't know what the RSRBR guys did with the pace notes (dls) files,
    but at least some of them seem to be screwed up (Falstone II, original track
    26, replaces Falstone track 21, is one of them).
    
    If you have the RBRDLL pace note editor on and activate the "auto select"
    feature, you will notice that the actual pace note calls and the notes shown
    on the left on the pace note bar are different. On the bar there are for
    example "bridges" where there is none etc.
    
    Have a look into the NS folder of RSRBR. The Falstone II pace note file,
    track-21_O.dls is 70k, the original track-26_O.dls is only 20k. This means 50k
    garbage.
    
    For editing pace notes of reversed stages I recommend a second RBR
    installation with a plugin capable of running and editing such tracks (e.g.
    TrainingDay + FixUp). There you would edit the original track (Falstone II,
    track 26) and copy the edited file track-26_O.dls from the RBR tracks folder
    into you RSRBR NS folder, renaming the file to the fake name track-21_O.dls.
    
    I tested this with Falstone II and it works.
    
    Pete, maybe you would like to incorporate this into your tutorial.

 

[Pete Mull]

Note: The following is based on RSRBR2010, but 2011 shouldn't be that
different.

Well, I don't know what the RSRBR guys did with the pace notes (dls) files,
but at least some of them seem to be screwed up (Falstone II, original track
26, replaces Falstone track 21, is one of them).

If you have the RBRDLL pace note editor on and activate the "auto select"
feature, you will notice that the actual pace note calls and the notes shown
on the left on the pace note bar are different. On the bar there are for
example "bridges" where there is none etc.

Have a look into the NS folder of RSRBR. The Falstone II pace note file,
track-21_O.dls is 70k, the original track-26_O.dls is only 20k. This means 50k
garbage.

For editing pace notes of reversed stages I recommend a second RBR
installation with a plugin capable of running and editing such tracks (e.g.
TrainingDay + FixUp). There you would edit the original track (Falstone II,
track 26) and copy the edited file track-26_O.dls from the RBR tracks folder
into you RSRBR NS folder, renaming the file to the fake name track-21_O.dls.

I tested this with Falstone II and it works.

Pete, maybe you would like to incorporate this into your tutorial.

Thanks for that WorkerBee, really helpful, I have a seperate installation on an XP machine so I will use that for testing..... and yes, I'll be only too pleased to incorporate what you have said into the tutorial.

Thanks again,

Pete :doublethumb:

 

[Pete Mull]

Note: The following is based on RSRBR2010, but 2011 shouldn't be that
different.

For editing pace notes of reversed stages I recommend a second RBR
installation with a plugin capable of running and editing such tracks (e.g.
TrainingDay + FixUp). There you would edit the original track (Falstone II,
track 26) and copy the edited file track-26_O.dls from the RBR tracks folder
into you RSRBR NS folder, renaming the file to the fake name track-21_O.dls.

I tested this with Falstone II and it works.

Pete, maybe you would like to incorporate this into your tutorial.

I have the additional tracks and the rally school 2 loaded but when I try to run Falstone II from the Training Day the system gets to Loading: Rally HQ and then just freezes.

I've also loaded Frazier Wells II and the Pacenote Editor shows a very cluttered vertical pacenote bar and when I try to save it the whole lot just crashes and takes me back to the desktop.

Pete

 

[WorkerBee]

I can confirm the behavior of Fraizer Wells II. This one really seems to be screwed up.

Falstone II works well if the installation is correct. There are some known issues with the reversed tracks and/or rs II installation.
You should try to install them again.
Maybe your tracksettings.ini needs some more entries. These are missing in the base installation, unfortunately, so the beast just crashes.

 

[Pete Mull]

I've edited my original post with a tutorial on how to edit reverse stages - if you have any comments, corrections or questions please post them here and I will attempt to answer them.

Pete