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Readme for ICR2/N2/N3/N1999.NL to N2003/N2002/N4 Converter

Released exclusively at, and only at, The US Pits Christmas 2006

Not for resale etc. etc. Copyright Dave Noonan.

For Sim Editing tools please visit www.sim-garage.co.uk.

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New in Version 2.10 support for Trans-Am physics (see below). 

The AI for the ovals has been vastly improved thanks to Dave Boyle. 

Please note you should be using Papyrus's patched N2003 as otherwise you will have problems at some of the short ovals or qualifying at Nurburgring.

1. Introduction

This program will convert tracks from ICR2/CART, N2,N3, NL, and GPL
to N4. Note that you can convert tracks from the original CDs. 
However, you must have an installation of N2003,  N2002 or N4 (the full program) with 
all the track data on your hard disk. You should also have about 50Mb
free on the drive which holds your Windows temporary folder.

2. Conversion Process

To convert make sure you have correctly set the directories for 
the sims you are converting from and N2003, N2002 (or N4).  

You should be entering the main application directories for the source
(e.g c:\sierra\nascar3 , c:\sierra\gpl etc) .

and destination

(e.g c:\n2003 )

If the source sim directory is correctly set then you will see 
a list of tracks to choose from. 

Select a track and hit the convert button.
You will get an error message if the incorrect N2003, N2002/N4 directory 
has been set or you run out of disk space.

For each conversion there is also the option to convert patch files.
This is at your own risk as I cannot test every variation of patch for each 
track but the results can be excellent and should there be a problem you can 
always convert again without the patch files.

3. Tracks Available.

GPL Kyalami,Mexico,Monaco,Monza,Mosport,NurburgRing, Rouen,Spa,Watglen,Zandvoort

ICR2 Surfers Paradise,Elkhart/Elkhart HQ, Detroit,Laguna/Laguna HQ,
Long beach,Mid-Ohio,Portland/Portlnad HQ,Toronto,Vancouver,

N2/N1999/N3 Evergreen,Gateway,Heartland,Hickory,I70,Louisville,Memphis,Mesa,Milwaukee,
Myrtle,Nazareth,Pikes Peak

NL Greenville,Ontario,Riverside,Thompson,Wilkesboro

4. Troubleshooting

Do not run N2003CVF from inside Winzip.
Also ensure N2003, N2002/N4 are closed before converting.

Your most likely error is not setting the N2003, N2002/N4 directory correctly
or running out of disk space. It has also been known for the converter to 
fail when there are many files in the Windows 'temp' folder which may need 
cleaning if you cannot convert.

For more hep please goto www.sim-garage.co.uk which includes a walk-through of using the converter.

5 Trans-Am support

All tracks are Nascar, Trans-Am and CTS ready. The AI for all the road circuits has been tuned for the different series. 

Thanks to Achim Trensz <fast> Trans Am set-ups are available for all the road tracks. 

An attempt has been made to model the Trans-Am tire wear. You should be able to get to about 150 miles before the wear goes red and experience relatively small loss of grip. However, you should note that Papyrus's tire model can cause tires to go from yellow to red very rapidly. For example, a spin can cause a puncture even when the tires are just yellow. A smooth experienced driver will be able to take the tires to red but if you are prone to mistakes you should probably fit new tires when the wear indicator is yellow (75-80 miles). I should also add these mileages are not an exact science and you may achieve better wear with careful driving.

At most of the road tracks the AI has been set to achieve the Nascar Season 2003 Rank Base times at 95% strength. If you do not know of the wonderful Nascar Rank go to:- http://www.schuerkamp.de/zope/nrank/


Credits.

A very big thanks to Dave Boyle for his AI for Nazareth,  North Wilkesboro, Pikes Peak, Spa
Louville, Gateway, Hickory, Thompson, Evergreen, Greenville, I-70, Myrtle Beach, Memphis, Mesa Marin,
Milwaukee, and Ontario. Dave spent many hours developing the AI for these tracks and the results are excellent and make these tracks a whole lot more fun to drive.

Achim Trensz has given hours of his time testing the tracks and giving me masses of good feeback. There's no doubt his contribution has greatly improved the converter.  In addition he has kindly allowed his set-ups to be used as the fast set-ups for Trans Am. Many thanks Achim!.

Thorsten Rueter contributed his excellent camera sets for Portland and Nurburgring and thanks to Rich Stevens for the Spa camera set. 
I should also add that the other camera sets for road tracks are conversions of Greger Huttu's GPL cameras.

Nigel Patterson was a great help in getting the N2003/N2002/N4 formats initially decoded.

Also, a big thank you is due to Greger Huttu, & Wolfgang Woeger for all their testing and feedback.

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone at The Pits for their constant support and feedback.


Dave Noonan October 2003 
 




