I have a number of saved setups for the same car from different friends, obtained (with permission) from the TTs. Each has its particular attractions and challenges for me and I wish to combine their 'best' attributes into a single setup of my own. My question is, can the set-up data in the save files be copied into a spreadsheet or something where each of the variables for multiple setups can be displayed in adjacent columns on one page for easy comparison, perhaps alongside the stock set-up values? Best I can think of now is loading each of the set-ups and taking multiple screen shots and manually compiling the data...
The setup data can't be copied into a spreadsheet directly but can be entered by hand. If you do enough setup work you can likely understand the differences as a whole but they will, in large part, be the preferences of the relevant drivers rather than anything significant. The first thing to do when adopting someone else's setup is check the tyre temps and adjust the tyre pressures and cambers to suit your own driving style. Without this step you may be giving away grip. You may be able to just look at the changes from the default setup and see what he's trying to do without having to drive that setup. In AMS2 it's most likely the downforce that will have the most effect since it's adjusted for each circuit (and unless you load a track specific setup or make the changes manually the last setup change will be applied to every circuit - hopefully this will be fixed in a later update). After downforce, the bars may be adjusted to suit driver preference. Every so often changes are made to fix an issue with the default setup. When comparing setups make the changes one by one on your own setup to see which ones have the most effect, if any. It's likely none will have a significant effect on lap time, only on the consistency with which you match that time, lap after lap - unless there's something wrong with your baseline setup - and if there is then this method will highlight it. Whenever your lap time improves from a setup you should be able to revert to your own baseline setup and match it very closely. Generally the setup doesn't make you or the car faster but may make you more consistently able to drive at your fastest. If you're getting the best from the tyres, the tyre temps should tell you that. Setups don't normally have much effect unless you're driving at the limit so if you're not matching the AI at over 100% at most circuits you're not near enough to the limit for the setup to have any effect and changes to your lap time are more likely to be from your driving.
The short answer is that you cant. Because pCars2/AMS2 use a complete chaotic way of encrypting and hiding setups so you cant even look into the setup that is used/installed in your car without re-loading a setup with this name in the setup menu. Hehe eventhough this setup is actually allready loaded in your car But conserning how important/unimportant it is to use your own custom setup you just have to check some of the LB lists. Its only the few slowest laptimes that use the Reizas default setups. All faster drivers use their own custom setups. Hehe except a few stubborn drivers who is able against all odds to compete with the default thing. Conserning how to manually compare setups my own method is to use the setup description to signify where a certain setup does diffrentiate from the default parameters. Example: If the default RiHi is 25/65 and my custom has a rihi of 30/60 I include in the description H3060.
OK and thanks.. What a shame we can't just port our set-ups into a spread sheet. It seems like it should be simple. But if the files are encrypted and hidden, then I'll just consider it another SNAFU and move on.
snafu /snaˈfuː,ˈsnafuː/ INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN noun noun: snafu; plural noun: snafus a confused or chaotic state; a mess. "an enormous amount of my time was devoted to untangling snafus" adjective adjective: snafu in utter confusion or chaos. "our refrigeration plant is snafu" verb verb: snafu; 3rd person present: snafus; past tense: snafued; past participle: snafued; gerund or present participle: snafuing throw (a situation) into chaos. "you ignored his orders and snafued everything" Origin 1940s: acronym from situation normal: all fouled (or ****ed ) up .
The game itself is encrypted because SMS doesnt want people being able to make mods for it. But the setups are not encrypted in game so much as they are just difficult to compare back and forth. It's just a cumbersome system.
Is this modding thing really the reason? I just thought it was to minimize the possibility of cheating by altering the setups. But ok it sounds reasonable. But what pisses me off related to this is the idiotic way of renaming (and probably also re-encrypting) ALL saved setups for a car when you just want to save 1(one) setup for the car. ByTheWay: In as example iRacing the setups are also encrypted(somewhat) but when you are messing with 1 setup then the game dont mess with all other setups for that car. Encrypted yes but goofy no
I was basing that off some things I heard on the board regarding why Reiza didnt allow mods (that is, SMS wont allow it). I think you may be more correct. Now that I look at it again, that makes a lot more sense if we are considering the option of literally exporting setups to spreadsheets or something. I just know there was some discussion at some point about setups that were "locked" in game, but I have never found a case where you couldn't actually just look at a setup yourself. So they're not encrypted in the sense that you cant look at them, but it's such a pain to compare two setups that I figured there was some hyperbole going on.
