Copyright 1999-2001 by Robert Rathbone
To do the full install, run the Setup.exe, which will install Points Calculator and all the support files. If you are using the upgrade file (WCPoints106u.zip), simply unzip the contents of this file into the folder where Points Calculator is installed and allow the files to overwrite their earlier counterparts.
The first time you run Points Calculator (or the first time after updating to a new version), the program asks where NASCAR Racing 3 and/or NASCAR Legends are installed. You don't have to specify either path, but by specifying the correct paths will allow Points Calculator to default to the proper "exports" folder (where N3 and NL puts STNs) when you add races. Also, HTML defaults are available on this dialog, and a description of these follows later. This dialog is available from the menu under "File|Options," also described later.
Points Calculator now supports specifying a file to open on the command line. This allows you to drag and drop a file on the Points Calculator .EXE or shortcut. It also allows you to create a file association to allow you to simply double-click the file to open it. I originally intended to have the setup create this file association automatically, but the facility in Microsoft's Development Studio for creating setups doesn't support this very well. Since I didn't want to add stuff to the registry that I couldn't remove if the program was uninstalled, I decided to allow you to do it yourself if you wanted it. I've enclosed a .REG file that adds the file association for PCF and Points Calculator. Simply double-click the REG file to merge it with the Windows registry. You will have alter the paths in the .REG file to match the location of WCPoints.exe if you didn't install to the default folder.
To start a league season, you will need to create a new PCF file. Select "File|New" from the menu and you will see a dialog that lets you set the base properties of your new season. Type a name (without extension) for your file, specify which Papyrus title this file is intended to be used with (NASCAR Racing 3 or NASCAR Legends), and whether this season is for an online or offline league. Once the file is created, these three items cannot be changed, as they determine how STNs and points are handled. A fourth item on this dialog, the number of races dropped, can be modified later at any time, so if you don't know what you want to set this item to, leave it set at 0. You can always come back ("File|Properties") and change this number later. Now click "Create" to continue.
Now you have a new season ready, but no races. Click the "Import" button at the bottom of the program window and you will see a dialog that allows you to import STN files. Clicking the "Add" button will open a dialog for selecting STNs, which will be added to the list on the left. This file selection dialog supports the standard Shift-Click and Ctrl-Click methods for multi-selecting files.
Online Leagues: For online leagues, each STN represents a different event, and the results will be imported as such.
Offline Leagues: If this season is for an offline league, you will see a note near the bottom of the dialog reminding you that the files you add to the list will be merged into a single event. Merging STNs works under the premise that in an offline league, each human driver races against the same AI driver list. Therefore, when the STNs are merged, any driver that appears in more than one STN is assumed to be an AI driver and is ignored. The only drivers that remain should theoretically be the human drivers. These human drivers are then ranked according to the criteria in the offline settings ("Tools|Offline Settings" menu), and then starting and finishing positions as well as points and bonuses are calculated.
Once there are STN files in the list, you can view/edit the results read from an STN by selecting it and clicking "Edit." The race editing dialog that opens shows race information on the top half and a driver results list on the bottom half. The list of drivers can be edited by either adding/removing drivers or even editing the line of information. You can change this driver to another one, or change where he finished, or what points was awarded to him. However, in offline leagues, editing the start, finish, points or bonus fields is pointless since these will be recalculated according to driver ranking criteria when the races get merged during importation. Another button on the race editing dialog is labeled "Recalc." What this button does is recalculate the race results. For instance, if you were editing the results and decided the driver that finished 4th broke league rules and you removed him. Without the recalc button, there would be a gap in finishing positions. Yes, you could manually edit the drivers below the gap and renumber them, and the points, and the bonus... But clicking the "Recalc" button does this for you automatically. It recalculates the starting positions based on qualifying speed, renumbers the finishing position from top to bottom, assigns the points based on finishing position, and then awards bonuses. You as the league admin have the power to totally change (or mangle!) the results of the race, so bear this power responsibly!
After you're satisfied with the race results, clicking "Import" will move these results into the race list on the program window. Offline league STNs will be merged into a single race, while the online ones will create one race for each STN.
Now you can click the "Calculate" button and see the point standings!
To support N4, it is important that you set the N4 path to the N4 folder. Points Calculator has to be able to read the tracks folder in order to get the track lengths needed by the time/speed conversions. The N4 path is set in the Options dialog (File|Options). The program will not be able to open a PCF designated for N4 without this path.
While there is some information missing from the N4 export file that was present in N3 and earlier STNs, most of the missing info can be interpolated. The only piece of info that can't be interpolated from the HTML file is the number of lead changes and so it will be missing for N4 races.
When creating a new PCF file, you can now specify which lap reporting method you want to use: speed or time. Qualifying will still be stored as speed, but you will be able to select how you want it displayed.
For N3 PCFs, you will now need to specify which lap reporting method the STN you are importing is using. When you open the "Import" dialog you will see a drop-down list at the bottom which will default to the lap reporting method specified in the PCF properties. Select the method used by the STN you are importing. If you are unsure which method the STN is using, add it to the import list and click "Edit." Check the qualifying values to see if they look sensible. If they don't, click "Remove" and try it again with the other method selected. Once you're satisfied, click "Import" to import the list of races. Whichever method you have selected only applies to the STN you are currently adding (when you are selecting files from the open file dialog). Changing the method will not affect the files already in the list, so you can files using both methods in the list before you actually import them.
This menu merely mimics the buttons at the bottom of the program window.
So far, this menu only features an "About" dialog that shows what version of Points Calculator you are using. The HTML file you are now reading is the only "online" help available.
This screen has a drop down list at the top that allows you to choose which point or stat report to view. The grid below it displays the results of the report. To the right of the drop down list is a button marked "HTML." This button opens a dialog allowing you to customize titles, captions, colors and the background image before the the HTML is exported.
This dialog has three tabs full of options to customize the HTML page you're wanting to export.
Text Tab: These text boxes to allow you to customize the headings and captions of the exported HTML file. You may use the defaults in these text boxes, or you may customize them as you desire. These boxes allow multiple lines for added flexibility - just press ENTER to move to next line (like a word processor). Since the text in these boxes are going to HTML anyway, you can even embed HTML codes to do advanced things. For example, you can bracket the text in a box between <EH> and </EH> to cause the text to be emphasized (italics on most browsers). However, you may have to experiment with this, since I've done little testing of embedded HTML. It's possible that embedded HTML codes might conflict with the codes I'm using to export the file.
Table Tab: These checkboxes enable/disable the chosen colors for the table listing the drivers. When disabled, the HTML page uses the default for that item. There are also three layout values for tweaking the appearance of the table.
Page Tab: Page oriented options for colors, background image, and choice of font and font size.
Buttons:
In order to accomodate drivers who may miss races for whatever reason, some league admins like to allow drivers to drop a set number of races in order to cover these missed races or other bad finishes. Points Calculator allows you to specify between to 10 races to be automatically dropped from the points calculations. Races aren't cut across the board; rather, a drivers worst finishes are merely marked as "dropped" and are ignored when the points and bonus are calculated.
If, for instance, a season has 15 races and the league admin has specified that drivers can drop 3 races, then the program only counts each driver's best 12 finishes. Also, since dropped races are re-evaluated each time you go to the "Points and Stats" screen, the dropped races can change as the season progresses. For example, suppose the league's rules allow 1 dropped race, and John Doe's worst race so far has been 38th, that will be his dropped race. However, suppose in the next race, a wreck puts him out early, and he finishes 43. Now the 43 finish will be his dropped race.
Although the number of dropped races can be changed at any point during the season, unless the league rules change in mid-season there is no reason to do so. Points Calculator counts at least one race, so if you've specified 3 dropped races and you've only ran 3 or fewer races so far, the points will show one race reflecting each drivers best finish.
Once the .STN files have been read in, the data is stored in an MS Access 97 database. The "reports" are stored SQL strings in WCPoints.DAT, so if you have Access and are familiar with SQL queries, it's possible to add to and/or alter the existing reports without the having to recompile the program.
I'm offering this program as freeware. Suggestions for additions/changes are welcome, and small donations (based on the program's value to you) will give me the incentive to continue to enhance this program.
Just to cover my own tail end...
While I see no way that this program can affect your installation of NASCAR Racing 3 or NASCAR Legends, you install this program at your own risk and I cannot be held responsible for any damages resulting from its use. The installation program does install Visual Basic runtime and other support modules, as well as DAO 3.5, the Microsoft Jet database engine, so if any "damage" resulting from the installation of these support files is probably the fault of Microsoft. ;)
Nov. 28, 1999 - v1.0
- Original release of v1.0
Dec. 1, 1999 - v1.01
- Added ability to export reports to HTML files.
- Added support to read .STN files created using an offline.cfg file.
- Removed report showing winnings since it's not accurate anyway. The field is still in the database, but not being used at this time.
Dec. 12, 1999 - v1.02
- Multi-file capabilities added to support administering multiple leagues.
- Added "official" support for NASCAR Legends.
- Added command line support for opening files (for drag-drop and file associations).
Dec. 20, 1999 - v1.03
- Enhanced the HTML support to allow more customization of the export web page, adding ability to choose colors and background images.
- Ability for the league admin to drop up to 10 of each driver's worst races.
Jan. 25, 2000 - v1.04
- Added recent files capability to the files menu. In addition, the last file opened can be optionally reloaded when the program starts.
- Full support for offline leagues is now implemented. For offline races, STNs are merged into a single event, with the results calculated as if the human drivers had raced head-to-head.
- Elimination of the need to manually edit STNs before they are imported. The results can be modified as they are imported (and after) as the league admin sees fit.
- Results of individual races can now be viewed and edited. While not available yet, I hope to add the ability to export individual race results to HTML in a future version.
- Added the ability to edit the driver list. Drivers can be added, removed, or modified. They can also be "Excluded" so that they are ignored in any imported STNs.
- Corrected the way the dropped races are handled. Now, rather than a driver's finish being totally ignored, only the points and bonus earned for a dropped race are ignored.
Jun. 12, 2000 - v1.05
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a bug where offline league settings weren't being saved properly
- Fixed a bug importing NASCAR Legends points when not using custom points
- Fixed bugs using the program in locales that don't use a period (.) as a decimal separator
- Fixed problems when importing a truncated STN (missing info below the list of driver results)
- Drivers with no name in the STN are now ignored
- Car numbers are now ignored
- Modified the "Events" total (number of events ran by the driver) to not include missed races
- Separated qualifying provisionals from "missed race" provisionals (designated Prov and DNS respectively)
Enhancements:
- Support for importing STNs from NASCAR Racing 1999 and NASCAR Racing 2
- Ability to "spot" a driver extra points via a "Handicap" field
- Rudimentary "Rookie of the Year" support
- Completed Prize Money support for showing a driver's winnings
- Ability to export STNs to HTML
- Ability to hide and rearrange columns in the reports
- Additional HTML options, such as choice of font and font size, table colors, border colors and size, alternating row colors, etc.
April 3, 2001 - v1.06
- Added support for NASCAR Racing 4
- Fixed the long standing issue where the program assumes that the lap reporting method used is speed.
Submit bug reports, suggestions, comments, etc. to:
Robert Rathbone
349 Sipes Road Unit #10
Cleveland TN 37311