Edit: New, much simpler version with GUI below It’s lovely to have an rFactor with only the 60s F1 cars and just click Select All to race against them. And just the 60s F1 tracks so you don’t have to scroll through all sorts of irrelevant and often confusingly-named others. __________________________________________________________________________________ I have about 150 tracks installed (multiplied by all their variants) and a similar number of cars. With the present UI this means it's hard to find my way around, also possibly slows loading rFactor. I never want all this content available at one time so I came up with a way of dividing it into subsets and only selecting a subset of tracks and a subset of cars. It's all done with the magic of symlinks and a Windows batch file First you have to create the subsets. Add a new folder rFactor 2\UserData\ContentStorage In there put the familiar Locations and Vehicles folders and a new one SafetyCars Now decide on the subsets you want and make a folder for each under Locations and Vehicles I went with Australasia Europe F1 Fantasy Historic Karting New (tracks I haven't tried yet) NorthAmerica SE_Asia UK and F1 Historic Karts LMP Novel OpenWheelers Saloons Sports Sports_GT but you can make whatever categories you want. 4. Now move all your content into your folders (and SafetyCars) as you like 5. Finally, delete rFactor 2\Installed\Locations and Vehicles Now you're all set. All you need is some batch file magic which I've attached. To use it: Extract rF2_content_selector.bat from the zip and save it somewhere It has to be run as Administrator so that it can set up symlinks https://windowsreport.com/make-files-apps-run-as-admin-windows-10/ In brief: make a shortcut to the file then set "Run as admin" in the shortcut Run it It asks Do you want a specific SUBSET (S or Return) or ALL content (A)? : if not goto 12 If you've previously selected content it asks whether you want to change. If not, goto 12. Press TAB until the set of locations you want is shown Press Enter Press TAB until the set of vehicles you want is shown Press Enter It starts rFactor 2 Launcher (At this point there is a temporary symlink pointing to all your content so the Launcher is happy) Once the rFactor 2 Launcher is loaded If you selected SUBSET earlier it deletes the temporary symlink and all rF2 can see is your selected Locations and Vehicles subfolders. Voila! When you start single-player only the tracks and cars you've selected are present. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Once you have used it to select a subset you must always use it to start the Launcher. If you want to stop using it, answer A to "All content" That will leave a symlink set up to all content, without that the Launcher will re-install the "missing" content. Similarly if you want to start a Multiplayer session running content that is not in your subset. ___________________________________________________________________________________ To completely uninstall it Remove the directory rFactor 2\Installed\Locations (removes the symlink) Remove the directory rFactor 2\Installed\Vehicles ( " ) Create new Locations and Vehicles directories Move your content back from rFactor 2\UserData\ContentStorage ___________________________________________________________________________________ Here it is in use Code: rFactor 2 Content Selector V0.4 =============================== Do you want a specific SUBSET (S or Return) or ALL content (A)? : Currently Locations is set to "UK" and Vehicles set to "LMP" Do you want to change content? (Y/N): y Available sets of tracks: Australasia Europe F1 Fantasy Historic Karting New NorthAmerica SE_Asia UK Press TAB until the set of locations is reached: Europe Using Location set -- Europe -- Available sets of cars: F1 Historic Karts LMP Novel OpenWheelers Saloons Sports Sports_GT Press TAB until the set of vehicles is reached: F1 Using Vehicle set -- F1 -- (Note: Simlink to ALL location/vehicle files so Launcher doesn't re-install them) Starting rFactor 2 Launcher... Once the rFactor 2 Launcher is loaded Press any key to continue . . . Only Locations "Europe" and Vehicles "F1" present ___________________________________________________________________________________ In c:\...\rFactor 2\UserData\ContentStorage I have this folder structure Code: Locations Australasia Europe F1 Fantasy Historic Karting New NorthAmerica SE_Asia UK SafetyCars Clio_PC CorvettePC CorvettePCLights ISI_MercedesSLS_SafetyCar_2012 Vehicles F1 Historic Karts LMP Novel OpenWheelers Saloons Sports Sports_GT ___________________________________________________________________________________ One small gotcha: if the Launcher installs a new file it will go into the currently selected Locations or Vehicles subfolder. Just cut and paste it to which subfolder you want.
More awesome work! But this is beginning to depress me, and I'm beginning to seriously wonder why haven't Studio397 hired you already?! Does it really take an unofficial modder to quickly improve the UX on his own? Especially with your fantastic work on the gearbox and lights simulation also. Please don't let my opinion on this discredit your work, which I think is amazing. But why aren't you getting paid for doing this? And/or why aren't Studio397 working on stuff like this themselves.
Haha! I'm available But just like everyone else modding cars and tracks and stuff, I'm just doing it as a hobby, driven by the need to do things just a little bit better (or the way I want them anyway). This one I knocked out in a few hours and as long as I resist the temptation to add features, maybe a GUI, it's finished.
Seeing as S397 are neck deep in unravelling and rewriting the unfriendly ISI method of coding the UI I would imagine, from a business side, that it would be false economics to bother adding to the old UI.
I'd say this is more UX actually. It's function over form. If he put some of his ideas and code to Studio397 I'm sure they could use it and add the functionality to the new UI. But yes, I appreciate they have a hell of a task. I'm just getting frustrated seeing unofficial addons like this which are fantastic, and nothing new from the official channels.
Yes I've suggested https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/new-ui-api.63998/ that they include an API to the UI (perhaps more to the data behind it) to make it easier to make add-ons to the UX.
I completely agree. But all the work you've done so far should be included in the core of the game itself in my opinion. Flashing headlight tool, gearbox simulation tool, content subset tool or filter. All these things I'm 'hoping' will be included in the new UI but I've seen no indication of that yet. I'm hoping they have someone employed who is doing all this behind the scenes. If not, they have your details here @Seven Smiles
Dopey me saw UX in your first post and thought it was a typo and you meant UI. I then see Seven Smiles use UX. Curiosity wins and I use the free 24hr hotline to Professor Google. Knowing what UX is I now see what you meant. My apologies.
I have an improved version. It sets up a dummy "rFactor" folder with links back to the original but populates it with only the Locations and Vehicles you specify in a data file. As it's all done with links it's practically instantaneous, doesn't modify the rFactor installation at all and takes up virtually no HD space. V1.6 @Dave^ edition Allows the modfile to be dragged and dropped on to ModMaker.bat V1.8 Minor change: temporary_copy folder follows any change in rf2dir V1.9 Make sure the temporary_copy folder is successfully created Now there's a GUI wrapped round it (ModMaker.bat is included in the .exe) (If Steam is not running it will start it, otherwise the Launcher starts to download all the stuff it thinks is missing) Code: c:\> ModMaker.bat 1960s_F1_UK.modfile.txt rFactor 2 ModMaker V1.6 Using 1960s_F1_UK.dryrun.modfile.txt Name: 1960s_F1_UK rf2dir: c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2 temporary_copy: c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\temporary_copy "Steam.exe" is running Creating rFactor copy in c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\temporary_copy\1960s_F1_UK Added Location CRYSTAL PALACE 1969 Added Location Silverstone90s Added Location BrandsHatch Added Vehicle Brabham_1966 Added Vehicle Ferrari_312_67 Added Vehicle Historic Challenge_EVE_1968 Starting rFactor 2 singleplayer... rFactor loads and runs When you exit Code: c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\temporary_copy\1960s_F1_UK deleted. Press any key to continue . . . The data file contains Code: # Comment name=1960s_F1_UK Location=CRYSTAL PALACE 1969 Location=Silverstone90s Location=BrandsHatch Vehicle=Brabham_1966 Vehicle=Ferrari_312_67 Vehicle=Historic Challenge_EVE_1968 You can make copies with different content as you like. ____________________________________________________________________________ Technical stuff that doesn't affect most people By default it puts the copy in a folder in rFactor 2\UserData\temporary_copy but if you add a line to the mod file you can put it anywhere you want, even on another drive. temporary_copy=c:\temp Also if your rF2 is not installed in the default path it can be overridden in mod file rf2dir=<path to rF2 install> Similarly for the command to start Steam SteamCmd=<Steam.exe command> There are two more options, for fault-finding: verbose=2 prints stuff as it's working dryrun=1 does everything but skips loading rF2
You are a very smart guy So if i understand this correctly I could have all of my install on another drive and only link to it saving space on my main harddrive ?
I suppose so but why not just install rFactor on the other drive? I suppose a modified version of what I’ve done (one with permanent symlinks rather than temporary ones) could split the install but the most obvious split is to put the Steam download folder on another drive. I had already done that after I saw it suggested here somewhere. This one maybe https://forum.studio-397.com/index....-by-moving-workshop-folder.59125/#post-931830
Been playing around with this today, I'm sure I had something similar for SCGT. I can get the early version to work fine, but the "simpler" version leaves me a bit confused. What am I supposed to do with the data files once I have them? I've tried double-clicking the bat file, which just tells me how to creat the data files, and I've drag-n-dropped the data file onto the bat file, which does nothing... Am I being dumb?
You have to open a command window and run the batch file giving it the name of the mod file. Like this Code: c:\> ModMaker.bat 1960s_F1_UK.modfile.txt I’m "old school" so that’s obvious to me, I’ve never thought a dragging a data file onto a batch file, I don’t think Bill Gates has either I made a start on a gooey version but got over ambitious with features and work on it slowed to a crawl.
I tried to create a shortcut with that and that didn't work either. Just waiting for a new see to turn up so I can finish building my pc, so I'll start afresh and try again. Ta.
Every day is a school day - I didn't know you could drag and drop on to a batch file. It required a single edit and works nicely
Awsome. While I've got your attention... Your exe for creating the career.blt file for the rankings, could you edit that so it opens the rankings site on the upload page? I created a bat file yesterday to run your exe, then open the website, but it would be much neater if it was all in one package.