SOME HELP WITH SERIES.STR FILES
L. J. Abels a.k.a. E3Racer
LJAbels@att.net

IT'S BEST TO VIEW THIS FILE IN FULL SCREEN MODE!!!

This is just some info that gets asked here on the DTR forum quite a bit, so I thought I'd throw together this quick guide to answer these questions:


You need to use the FOLDER NAMES of the skins that you want to use in a Series... NOT the name in the SKIN.STR file.



EXAMPLE of a SERIES.STR:

class = DIRT Modified <---IMPORTANT--SEE NOTE****
difficulty = 15.000000
num events = 25
large series = 1

[display names]

english = NES 2004 Regular Season <---This is the series name you "see".



...(SKIPPING DOWN TO DRIVER SECTION)...

[driver 8]

name = Tim Tanner Jr   <----You can put in ANY name you want **
car = NES-2004-TimTanner18\\0   <--FOLDER NAME of the skin + "\\0" ***
number = 18   <------Any one or two digit NUMBER between 1-99 **


** NOTE: These override what's in the SKIN.STR file.
*** NOTE: "\\0" = "slash, slash, zero" ...not the letter "O".
**** NOTE: ALL of the skins that you use in a Series must reference to a chassis (CAR FOLDER and CAR.STR file) that are ALL in the same CLASS of chassis.
The example above is "DIRT Modified".




EXAMPLE of the first few lines of the "CAR.STR" file:

de2 filename = car.de2
high res texture name = 512texture
low res texture name = 256texture
alpha texture name = alpha
class = DIRT Modified
chassis damage resistance = 1.000000
x axis rotation = -0.02
visual height adjust = 0.4

[display names]

english = Big Block Type 2

<END OF EXAMPLE>



A FEW MORE NOTES:
1. Whenever you create a new series OR modified (even slightly!) an existing series, you have to start a "New Career" in order to even see the series in the game.

2. If you still get "NON-EXISTING HOUSE CAR" ("Non-Existing Shop Car"???), and you quadruple checked ALL of the above, you've probably made a typo.
I avoid this by COPYING the SKIN FOLDER NAME and pasting it in the SERIES.STR file.
DTR2 is EXTREMELY "picky" about typos and such, so you HAVE TO make sure EVERYTHING IS EXACT!




The info below isn't easily findable or readably available, as far as I can see.

Depending on what size "Field" you choose to race against in a series, certain "[driver #]" are omitted.
The following can be cut & pasted into your series.str file for quick reference -BUT EACH LINE MUST START WITH THOSE SEMI-COLONS!


;Travis Senter:
;Large field leaves out drivers; 4, 9, 13, 18, 22, 27, 31, 36, 41, 45, 50, 54.
;The medium field uses all 59 drivers.
;The small field leaves out drivers; 11, 23, 35, 47.
;So if you want the maximum amount of opponents just leave the default
;skins in for those drivers ex: 4, 9, 18, 22, etc. exact numbers courtesy: ;Duane Turner!


(Actually, there are 60 medium field size opponents: 0 thru 59).

I left the credits in there so we don't forget who supplied this important info.

You can also put these:

;omitted from LARGE field
;omitted from SMALL field


...directly above the correct cooresponding "[driver #]". AGAIN, make sure these lines start with a semi-colon!

In any case -DO NOT REMOVE ANY [driver #]'s from the series.str file!

Hopefully this will answer the question to "why don't certain drivers/skins show up in a series?".

As far as I know and experienced, these numbers are correct. If anyone sees something different, please reply to my email.


