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help.txt
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Getting started
-----------------------
Crew Chief requires the .Net framework, version 4.6. This is included in Windows 10 but Windows 7 and Window 8 users will need to install it.
When you first start Crew Chief the app will be installed with no sounds. The UI should have 2 big buttons, highlighted in green. Pressing these will download the sound pack (voice messages) and optional (but highly recommended) driver names. Press them both and when they're both complete, you'll be prompted to restart the application.
For Raceroom and Project Cars, Crew Chief is self contained and needs no other software and almost no configuration. For rFactor 1 based games, rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa there are a couple of extra steps required.
For voice recognition (entirely optional but quite handy and very cool) see below.
If you're stuck or just want to catch up on what's going on with the app, there's a Crew Chief forum here: http://thecrewchief.org
Raceroom:
To use Crew Chief with Raceroom simply select Raceroom from Crew Chief's Game menu and click the Start button.
Project Cars:
Project Cars can be run in 3 modes - 32 bit, 64 bit or Network. I recommend trying Nework first (the app will have access to more accurate information). In Project Cars' Gameplay menu, set UDP to 2 or 3. Select Project Cars (network data) from Crew Chief's Game menu and click the Start button. For some users this might not work due to the way the game sends data in this mode. If it doesn't work for you try selecting Project Cars (64 bit) or Project Cars (32 bit) from the Game menu, depending on which version of the game you're running (for most users this will be 64 bit). Be aware that in these modes the app has to time opponent laps itself, so the opponent laptime reporting will not be as accurate as it is for Network mode.
Automobilista / RF1 / Game Stock Car Extreme / Formula Truck / Copa Petrobras de Marcas:
You need Dan Allongo's plugin for these games. The app will check if this plugin is installed in the correct game folder. If it isn't, the app will offer to install it for you when you start the app with Automobilista / RF1 / Game Stock Car Extreme / Formula Truck / Copa Petrobras de Marcas selected. In most cases all you need do is click the "OK" button in the popup.
If this process fails for any reason, copy the rFactorSharedMemoryMap.dll from the app's plugins folder - usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Britton IT Ltd\CrewChiefV4\plugins\rfactor1\Plugins\rFactorSharedMemoryMap.dll to the Automobilista / RF1 / Game Stock Car Extreme / Formula Truck / Copa Petrobras de Marcas 'Plugins' folder (usually something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Automobilista\Plugins). Once you've done this just select the game from Crew Chief's Game menu and press the Start button.
The source code for this plugin is here: https://github.com/dallongo/rFactorSharedMemoryMap
rFactor 2:
You need Vytautas Leonavičius' plugin for rFactor 2. The app will check if this plugin is installed in the correct game folder. If it isn't, the app will offer to install it for you when you start the app with rF2 selected. In most cases all you need do is click the "OK" button in the popup.
If this process fails for any reason, copy the rFactor2SharedMemoryMapPlugin64.dll from the app's plugins folder - usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Britton IT Ltd\CrewChiefV4\plugins\rFactor 2\Bin64\Plugins\rFactor2SharedMemoryMapPlugin64.dll to the rFactor2 'Plugins' folder (usually something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor2\Bin64\Plugins). You need to enable this plugin from the game's Options->Plugins UI.
Note: 32 bit rFactor 2 is no longer supported.
Assetto Corsa:
You need Morten Roslev's Python plugin for Assetto Corsa. The app will check if this plugin is installed in the correct game folder. If it isn't, the app will offer to install it for you when you start the app with Assetto Corsa selected. In most cases all you need do is click the "OK" button in the popup.
If this process fails for any reason, copy the folder called 'CrewChiefEx' from the app's plugins folder - usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Britton IT Ltd\CrewChiefV4\plugins\assettocorsa\apps\python\CrewChiefEx to the Asstto Corsa python folder (usually something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\apps\python). You might need to enable this plugin in the Assetto Corsa UI. Once you've done this just select the game from Crew Chief's Game menu and press the Start button.
iRacing:
To use Crew Chief with iRacing simply select iRacing from Crew Chief's Game menu and click the Start button.
Startup issues
------------------
If the app refuses to start, or starts then closes itself, try deleting the app's configuration files. To do this go to C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Britton_IT_Ltd\ and delete all the subfolders in there. This will reset all the app's settings to default. Note that the 'AppData' folder is hidden by default on Windows - you may need to change the View settings in the File Explorer Options from Windows Control Panel - look for a setting called "Show hidden files and folders".
There may also be an error logged in the Windows Event logs - look for .Net errors in the Application Logs section.
Properties
-------------------
The app includes a rather rudamentary preferences screen accessed by the "Properties" button. Many many aspects of that app's behaviour can be customised here but it's important to note that you don't have to make any changes to these properties to get the app to work correctly - the defaults are sensisble settings and the app doesn't need any configuration (except for swearing - see below).
We've added a search capability to the window. Most of CC options apply to all simulators, but you can also search for game specific preferences by typing ACS, AMS, R3E, rF1, rF2 or pCars to filter accordingly.
Swearing
-----------------
Because swearing is cool and I'm a 12 year old stuck in a middle-aged body, this has its own help section. Swearing is disabled by default so once you've got the app working you'll want to enable it because swearing is cool. Look for a checkbox in the Properties screen called "Use sweary messages" (search for "sweary" using the search box) and tick it. The app will swear where appropriate - it's not like listening to an Eddie Murphy gig and doesn't happen very often but it does help add a bit of personality to the messages.
Personalisations
------------------------
The "My name" dropdown menu in the top right of the main UI allows you to select from a list of names which the app will use to address you, from time to time. These are incorporated into existing messages so for example, rather than just saying "box now" the app will say "box now, please Jim". There are lots of variations and they sound quite good, if you are lucky enough to have a first name that's in this list. How often you hear these personalised messages is controlled by the "Min time between personalised messages" property. The old default value (30s) is a bit low - 60s sounds better. The Personalisations come in the form of a mini-sound pack which is downloaded and managed by the app (they used to require lots of manual faffing) - if new personalisations are available the "Download personalisations" button will he highlighted in green. Swapping between personalisations requires an app restart.
Pit exit position prediction
----------------------------
Version 4.9.3.0 adds rudamentary race and track position predictions for pit exit. This is based on a benchmark pitstop time which uses the time difference between your best lap's sector3 and sector1 times, and the corresponding times on your inlap & outlap.
Benchmark pit times can be measured during a practice session with the 'time this stop' / 'practice pitstop' / 'time this pitstop' / 'pitstop benchmark' voice command, or by pressing the "Pitstop prediction" button before make your practice stop. Do some hot laps to get a baseline laptime, then issue this after your 'box this lap' command, and do a full race-simulation pitstop. Maintain race pace on your outlap until you finish sector1. The app will calculate how much time you lost and use this when you pit in the race. If you don't measure your own benchmark pit time the app will measure the time your opponents lose due to pitting and use this instead - note that this means pit exit prediction data won't be available until after at least one of your opponents have completed a pitstop.
If the app has usable benchmark data and you request a pitstop *before you reach sector3*, it'll tell you where you should come out and what the traffic will be like when you hit sector3. You can also request this data at any time with the 'Where will be be after a stop?' / 'Estimate pit exit positions' / 'What will happen if I pit?', or by pressing the "Pitstop prediction" button during a race, even if you've not requested a pitstop (the app will derive its estimates on every lap regardless or whether you actually pit).
At the time of writing there's more work to be done here and some more features that may be added.
Voice Recognition
-------------------------
You'll need to install the Microsoft Speech Recognition runtime which is here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=27225
From this page click 'Download' and select the right version - for most users this will be x64_SpeechPlatformRuntime\SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi
Once you've installed this, you'll also need to install a language pack - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=27224
Again, from this page click 'Download' and select the right version - for most users this will be MSSpeech_SR_en-US_TELE.msi (US users) or MSSpeech_SR_en-GB_TELE.msi (UK users).
This is not the same as the voice recognition technology built into Windows - it isn't installed with Windows by default.
Crew Chief will use the "Default" recording device for voice recognition - this can be selected in the "Recording devices" section of the Window Sounds control panel.
Voice recognition can be configured to be always-on (it listens continuously and responds when it recognises a command) or in response to a button press. To assign a button to a activate voice recognition, press the 'Scan for controllers' button at the bottom of Crew Chief UI. This will populate the 'Available controllers' list. Then select the controller you want to use from this list and select the 'Talk to crew chief' item from the 'Available actions' list. Then click the 'Assign control' button and press the wheel / controller / keyboard button you want to use for this action. By default you have to hold this button down while you talk - this can be changed by selecting a different 'Voice recognition mode'.
If you want to test voice recognition, set it all up and press the Start button in Crew Chief, then press your voice recognition button and ask "Can you head me?". If the app can understand you it'll respond with "Yes, I can hear you".
The app understands lots of command including:
"how's my [fuel / tyre wear / body work / aero / engine / transmission / suspension / pace / delta best ]"
"how are my [tyre temps / tyre temperatures / brakes / brake temps / brake temperatures / engine temps / engine temperatures]" (gives a good / bad type response)
"What are my [brake temps / tyre temps]" (gives the actual temps)
"what's my [gap in front / gap ahead / gap behind / last lap / last lap time / lap time / position / fuel level / best lap / best lap time]"
"what's the fastest lap" (reports the fastest lap in the session for the player's car class)
"keep quiet / I know what I'm doing / leave me alone" (switches off messages)
"keep me informed / keep me posted / keep me updated" (switches messages back on)
"how long's left / how many laps are left / how many laps to go"
"spot / don't spot" (switches the spotter on and off - note even in "leave me alone" mode the spotter still operates unless you explicitly switch it off)
"do I still have a penalty / do I have a penalty / have I served my penalty"
"do I have to pit / do I need to pit / do I have a mandatory pit stop / do I have a mandatory stop / do I have to make a pit stop"
"where's [opponent driver last name]"
"what's [opponent driver last name]'s last lap"
"what's [opponent driver last name]'s best lap"
"what's [opponent driver last name]'s irating"
"what's [opponent driver last name]'s licens class"
"what's [opponent race position]'s last lap" (for example, "what's p 4's best lap", or "what's position 4's last lap")
"what's [opponent race position]'s best lap"
"what's [opponent race position]'s irating"
"what's [opponent race position]'s licens class"
"what's [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]'s last lap"
"what's [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]'s best lap"
"what's [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]'s irating"
"what's [the car in front / the guy in front / the car ahead / the guy ahead]'s licens class"
"what's [the car behind / the guy behind]'s last lap"
"what's [the car behind / the guy behind]'s best lap"
"what's [the car behind / the guy behind]'s irating"
"what's [the car behind / the guy behind]'s licens class"
"what tyre(s) is [opponent driver last name / opponent race position] on"
"what are my sector times"
"what's my last sector time"
"who's leading" (this one only works if you have the driver name recording for the lead car)
"who's [ahead / ahead in the race / in front / in front in the race / behind / behind in the race]" (gives the name of the car in front / behind in the race or on the timing sheet for qual / practice. This one only works if you have the driver name recording for that driver)
"who's [ahead on track / in front on track / behind on track]" (gives the name of the car in front / behind in on track, regardless of his race / qual position. This one only works if you have the driver name recording for that driver)
"tell me the gaps / give me the gaps / tell me the deltas / give me the deltas" (switch on 'deltas' mode where the time deltas in front and behind get read out on each lap. Note that these messages will play even if you have disabled messages)
"don't tell me the gaps / don't tell me the deltas / no more gaps / no more deltas" (switch off deltas mode)
"repeat last message / say again" (replays the last message)
"What are my [brake / tyre] [temperatures / temps]"
"What time is it / what's the time" (reports current real-world time)
"What's my fuel usage / what's my fuel consumption / what's my fuel use" (reports the per-lap or per-minute average fuel consumption)
"What tires am I on / what tire am / on / what tire type am i on" (reports the tyre name you're currently using, if available)
"Calculate fuel for [X minutes / laps] / how much fuel do I need for [X minutes / laps] / how much fuel for [X minutes / laps]" (estimates how much fuel you'll probably need for this many minutes or laps)
"Give me tyre pace differences / what are the tire speeds / whats the difference between tires / compare tire compounds" (Raceroom only - gives lap time deltas for the best lap on each tyre type that's been used during the session, across all drivers in the same car class as the player)
"This is the formation lap / formation lap / rolling start": Enable manual rolling-start mode (used by some online leagues)
"Standing start / no formation lap": Disable manual rolling-start mode
"Where should I attack / where am I faster / where can I attack": If the app has enough data, will report the corner name where you're gaining the most time on the guy in front
"Where should I defend / where am I slower / where is he faster / where will he attack": If the app has enough data, will report the corner name where you're losing the most time to the guy behind
"Read corner names / corner names / tell me the corner names": read out each corner name when you hit the mid-point of the corner, for this lap only (useful to test corner name mappings)
"Damage report" / "How's my car" / "Is my car ok?": report any damage the car has sustained
"Car status": report any damage the car has sustained, tyre and brake temperature status and fuel / battery status
"Session status" / "Race status": report race position, gaps, time / laps left in session
"Full update" / "Full status" / "Update me": combines all of the above three status reports (will produce a very verbose response)
"how much fuel to the end" / "how much fuel do we need": report how many litres or gallons of fuel the app thinks you'll need to finish the race
"is the car ahead in my class" / "is the car ahead my class" / "is the car ahead the same class as me" / "is the car in front in my class" / "is the car in front my class" / "is the car in front the same class as me" - responds yes or no
"is the car behind in my class" / "is the car behind my class" / "is the car behind the same class as me" - responds yes or no
"what class is the car ahead" / "what class is the guy ahead" / "what class is the car in front" / "what class is the guy in front" - reports class name, or "faster" / "slower" if the app doesn't have the class name
"what class is the car behind" / "what class is the guy behind"- reports class name, or "faster" / "slower" if the app doesn't have the class name
"what's the sof" / "what is the strength of field" (iRacing only)
"how many incidents do i have" / "what's my incident count" (iRacing only)
"what's the incident limit" (iRacing only)
"time this stop" / "practice pitstop" / "time this pitstop" / "pitstop benchmark": time the next pitstop (sector 3 + sector 1 time) to work out home much tome overall a pitstop costs - practice session only
"where will I be after a stop?" / "Estimate pit exit positions" / "What will happen if I pit?": play estimate of traffic and race positions on pit exit, if you were to pit on this lap
"don't talk in the [corners / braking zones]" / "no messages in the [corners / braking zones]": delay non-critical messages if the player is in a challenging section of the track
"talk to me anywhere" / "messages at any point": disable message delay in challenging parts of the track
"set alarm to [hour] [minutes] [optional am/pm]" / "alarm me at [hour] [minutes] [optional am/pm]": sets the alarm clock at the given time, supports both 12 and 24 hour format and multiple alarms
"clear alarm clock" / "clear alarms": clears all the alarms set
"pitstop add [X liters]" (adds X amount of fuel next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop tearoff / pitstop windscreen" (enable next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop fast repair / pitstop repair" (enable fast repair next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop clear all" (clears all selected pitstop options, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop clear tyres (clears all tyre selections" next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop clear tearoff / pitstop clear windscreen" (clears tearoff selection next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop clear fast repair" (clears fast repair selection next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop clear fuel" (clears fuel refueling next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change all tyres" (change all tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change left front tyre" (change left front tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change right front tyre" (change right front tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change left rear tyre" (change left rear tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change right rear tyre" (change right rear tyre next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change left side tyres"(change left side tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change right side tyres"(change right side tyres next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change tyres pressure [ new value ]" (change right rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change left front tyre pressure [ new value ]" (change left front tyre next pressure pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change right front tyre pressure [ new value ]" (change right front tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change left rear tyre pressure [ new value ]" (change left rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop change right rear tyre pressure [ new value ]" (change right rear tyre pressure next pitstop, this option is iRacing only)
"pitstop fuel to the end" / "pitstop fuel to the end of the race" (add the fuel amount the app calculates you'll need to finish the race, this option is iRacing only)
Text to speech
--------------
The app contains lots of opponent driver name recordings (several thousand) but this is only a small faction of the opponent names you're likely to encounter. The app can use Windows' built in text to speech functionality to create sounds for missing driver names. These TTS names will sound wrong and immersion-breaking, but they can be quite useful. Windows 10 includes a default voice called David (on English versions) which is the least-worst option. Windows 7's TTS voice is hopeless. I don't know what other versions sound like.
There are 3 basic TTS modes - disabled (the default, no TTS is used, if the app doesn't have a driver name recording it refer to the driver using generic terms, or drop some messages relating to this driver). 'Only when necessary' mode (enable TTS, enable "Only use TTS when there is no alternative") will use TTS only when the app has no alternative, so you'll hardly ever hear TTS names. If you ask "who's in front?" and the app has no driver name sound for this opponent, it *will* use a TTS sound instead of saying something daft like "I can't pronounce that". If you disable 'Only when necessary' mode, the app will use TTS names rather than generic terms in exactly the same way as it would use real driver name recordings. So you'll hear quite a lot of TTS names which will sound pretty bad.
TTS sounds tend to be much quieter than the recorded sounds, and aren't filtered or compressed. To make their volume balance with other sounds there's a "TTS volume boost" property which increases the TTS sound volume by this factor (so 1 means 'no increase', 2 - the default - means double the volume). The default is 2 and seems to work well. The TTS engine tends to add some silence before and lots of silence after the TTS sound. The app will attempt to trim this ("Trim end of TTS sounds" and "Trim start of TTS sounds" properties). Note that in some circumstance this can result in a Wave file that can't be played. It seems to be most sensitive to trimming the start - the app will only allow the start to be trimmed if the resulting sound is more than 1 second long. If you find the app hanging when playing TTS sounds, reduce these trim values.
Command macros
--------------
The app can send sequences of key presses in response to voice command or some specific (hard-coded) in-game events. These can be used for anything you like, but their primary function is to ease the pain of navigating the awkward in-game pit menus. The app comes with a default set of command macros which (at the time of writing) are for PCars2 and Raceroom only. More will be added for other games. The default commands can be found in [install folder]/saved_command_macros.json. If you want to make your own, copy this file to a your Documents folder, in a subfolder called CrewChiefV4 (i.e. Documents/CrewChiefV4/saved_command_macros.json) and edit it as you like.
The first thing you need to do is to update your key assignments in-game so they match the keys that the command macro will send.
Raceroom
default key bindings:
"Pit Menu Toggle": q
"Pit Menu Select": e
"Pit Menu Up": w
"Pit Menu Down": s
"Pit Menu Decrease": a
"Pit Menu Increase": d
"Pit Request Toggle": r
"Real-time Chat": c
Ensure that there's a least one Pitstop Preset defined (from the in-game pit menu).
You can request a pit stop by saying "pit request", "in this lap" or "box this lap". This will open the pit menu, select 'pit request' and close it again after a few seconds' delay (so you can see what's selected).
You can also cycle pit presets with the voice commands "next strategy", "next pit preset", "previous strategy", "previous pit preset".
If you want to manually navigate the pit menu with voice commands, use "pit menu toggle", "pit menu up", "pit menu down", "pit menu left", "pit menu right" and "pit menu select".
PCars2
default key bindings:
"Car Management": e
"ICM Menu Up": w
"ICM Menu Down": s
"ICM Menu Left": a
"ICM Menu Right": d
"Pit Request Toggle": q
"In-game Chat Box": t
You can request a pit stop by saying "pit request", "in this lap" or "box this lap". This will open the pit menu, select 'pit request' and close it again.
In pCars 2, you can select strategies with the voice commands "strategy one" / "strat one", up to "strategy four" / "strat four". In R3E you can cycle through pit presets with "next strategy" / "next pit preset" and "previous strategy", "previous pit preset".
If you want to manually navigate the pit menu with voice commands, use "pit menu toggle", "pit menu up", "pit menu down", "pit menu left" and "pit menu right".
iRacing
default key bindings:
"Lap Timing Black Box": F1
"Standings Black Box": F2
"Relative Black Box": F3
"Fuel Black Box": F4
"Tires Black Box": F5
"Tire Info Black Box": F6
"Pit-stop Adjustments Black Box": F7
"In-car Adjustments Black Box": F8
"Mirror Adjustments Black Box": F9
"Radio Adjustments Black Box": F10
"Select Next Control": UP
"Select Previous Control": DOWN
"Increment Selected Control": RIGHT
"Decrement Selected Control": LEFT
"Toggle Selected Control": SPACE_BAR
You can change the black boxes by saying one of the following commands: "black box lap time", "black box standings", "black box relative",
"black box fuel", "black box tires", "black box tire info", "black box pit stop", "black box car", "black box mirror" or "black box radio"
You can navigate the by saying one of the following commands: "menu next", "menu previous", "menu increase", "menu decrease" or "menu toggle"
Advanced command macros
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As you can see from the previous section, key press macros are complicated and a bit dumb - the app has no idea what state the pit menu is in so it has to either make lots of assumptions or work quite hard to put the menu into a known state.
There are 2 macros for adding fuel. In both cases, for them to work in R3E the selected pit preset must have fuel *selected* (i.e. highlighted green). One uses the logic of the app's 'Fuel' event to calculate how much fuel is needed to finish the race ("fuel to the end" voice command), the other uses the amount of fuel requested in the voice command ("add fuel, 100 litres" or whatever). These macros opens the pit menu, navigate to the fuel option and attempt to reset it to zero litres. Because they can't know how much fuel might already be set on this menu they have to press the 'decrease' button lots (150) times. This ensure it's at zero before they then add the calculated or requested amount of fuel.
*Note that these will only work correctly if you use Litres as your unit*.
Another point to note here is that these fuelling macros press 'decrease' 150 times quite quickly to ensure the fuel amount is zero before they start increasing it. When things are configured correctly it works well, but it's a lot of key presses and if something goes wrong the end result may be undesirable.
The macro feature can also be used to automate chat messages. There are examples for pCars2 and R3E. Again, these just send sequences of key presses.
There are a few special key press commands in save_commands_macros.json to help ease the pain of wiring these things up. The "actionSequence" element is the list of key presses. These usually refer to action items in the keyBindings section at the top of the file. However, they can also be plain keys - e.g. [..., "a", "b", "c", ...].
- To send a fixed number of multiple key presses use "{MULTIPLE,153}Pit Menu Decrease" (presses the Pit Menu Decrease key 153 times).
- To send a number of multiplekey presses based on some app logic, use "{MULTIPLE,Fuel}ICM Menu Right" (presses ICM Menu Right however many times the Fuel event told it to). This requires specific application code to work but i'm happy to take requests :).
- To send a number of multiple presses based on the voice command that triggered the macro, the voice command needs to use a special format with the number range to recognise in curly braces - e.g. "add fuel, {1,150} litres" (recognises "add fuel 0 litres" up to "add fuel 150 litres", in steps of 1). Use "{MULTIPLE,VOICE_TRIGGER}Pit Menu Increase" to press (in this example) Pit Menu Increase the number of times recognised in the voice command.
- To send a sequence of key presses from some free text, use "{FREE_TEXT}sorry, my bad". Each of the keys after {FREE_TEXT} will be pressed in sequence. Only letters, commas, hypens and full-stops are supported. This is to make chat macros more straightforward (e.g. ["Real-time Chat", "{FREE_TEXT}good pass", "ENTER"]).
Hopefully the game devs will make these menus or the actions they trigger easier to use for 3rd party apps. But until they do, these complicated automated interactions are always going to be flaky.
Pace notes
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The app can record and playback messages recorded by the player as they drive around. The distance around the lap when a recording is made is saved, so when these messages are played back they trigger at the same point on the track. This allows you to drive slowly round and make audio notes about how to handle particular sections of track, and these are played back as if an instructor was sitting along side you.
These pace notes can be shared between users - just ensure they're copied into the correct folder structure under your Documents folder. The app expects them to be in /Documents/CrewChiefV4/pace_notes/[game-name]/[car-name]/[track-name]/ (e.g. /Documents/CrewChiefV4/pace_notes/pCARS2/F3/Donington GP/. If you omit the car-name part of this path, the pace notes will be available for any car class.
Recording pace notes:
To record new pace notes, you need to run the speech recognition feature in 'hold button' mode, and you need to assign a button to the "Start / stop recording pace notes" action.
Start a practice session and press the 'Start / stop recording pace notes' button. The app will now record any voice commands you make instead of passing them to the speech recogniser. The voice recordings along with the distance-round-track will be saved in a folder inside the CrewChiefV4 folder in your Documents folder (which is automatically generated), with the game name, car name and track name (e.g. /Documents/CrewChiefV4/pace_notes/pCARS2/F3/Donington GP/).
Drive slowly around the track and when you reach a point on the track where you want to record a pace note (say, you're approaching a braking zone), hold the "Talk to Crew Chief" button down and record your advice (perhaps something like "brake at the 100 metre board, put the left side wheels in the pit exit lane. 3rd gear, turn in late and hard") and release the button when you're done. Drive to the next point where you want to record something and repeat the process. Keep doing this until you're satisfied you've got all the pace notes recorded that you want - note that you can do this over multiple laps, or even multiple sessions (if the app spots existing pace notes in your Documents folder for the same game / car / track combination it will add to it). When you're done, press the "Start / stop recording pace notes" button again and the app will save all the data.
In PCars, PCars2, R3E, AC and iRacing it should be possible to record pace notes while watching a replay, instead of driving.
Doing this creates a set of .wav files and a metadata.json file which contains supporting information allowing the wav files and the track distance to be matched up. The wav files can be filtered and modified as you like - just ensure they aren't renamed.
Playing back pace notes:
If there are pace notes for the game / car / track combination you're using in your Documents folder, you can start this running with the voice command "start pace notes" and stop it with the voice command "stop pace notes", or you can assign a button to the "Start / stop playing pace notes" action. When the pace notes are being played, each of the messages in the session will be played when you reach the point on the track where it was recorded. They will continue to be played until you press the button again or make the "stop pace notes" voice command.
There's a sample pace notes set available for Raceroom's Macau circuit in the WTCC 2014 - 2017 cars. You can view it in action here https://youtu.be/hz7lu23ckUE. You can download it here http://crewchief.isnais.de/ExamplePaceNotes.zip. Unzip this to your Documents folder so it creates a directory structure like the ones described above, then when you start a WTCC session at Macau you can start the pace notes playing with the "start pace notes" voice command or "Start / stop playing pace notes" button.
Track Landmarks(corner mappings) recording.
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Please, keep corner mappings tight (from turn-in point to corner exit). Do not include straights!
To get the best results, the begin-distance should be taken at your typical turn-in point and the end-distance taken at the point where your wheels are pretty much straight-ahead. For some corners this is easy and very clear, in others not so much so in those cases just use your best judgement.
To start recording a track landmarks file, the first thing you have to do is assign 2 buttons - one to start/stop the recording ("Start / stop track landmarks recording" action) and one to add start/end point ("Add Start / end track landmark" action).
Start a practice session and wait until you're on track then press the "Start / stop track landmarks recording" button, now you can start adding landmarks by pressing the "Add Start / end track landmark" button. The first press on the button will be start point of the track landmark, the 2nd press will be end point.
Once you have added all the landmarks press the "Start / stop track landmarks recording" butten to end the recording, this will produce a file called trackLandmarks.json located in C:\Users\[user name]\Documents\CrewChiefV4\track_landmarks\[game]\[track]\trackLandmarks.json.
Track Landmarks(corner mappings) consists of:
-Track Name or Raceroom ID and list of:
-landmarkName
-distanceRoundLapStart
-distanceRoundLapEnd
-isCommonOvertakingSpot (default false)
This file will contain default corner names ("turn 1", "turn 2" and so-on). All corners will have isCommonOvertakingSpot set to false. Edit the file to change the isCommonOvertakingSpot value to 'true' where appropriate. You can also modify the corner names in this file. Note that, if you want the app to use these corner names, they will have to exist in C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\local\CrewChiefV4\sounds\voice\corner_names\
You can request new names on the Crew Chief forum.
Please share you recordings with the rest of the commmunity by uploading to the Crew Chief forum and we will include it in our next update.
To load your newly added landmarks file you have to restart the app!
Manual formation lap
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Some online leagues run a manual formation at the start of the race. Lap 1 of the race is run in formation at a slower pace (even if the game doesn't know this), with the actual race starting when the lead car crosses the start line, or when player's car crosses the start line. Using Crew Chief in this situation would result in lots of annoying an unhelpful calls during the formation lap.
To prevent this, and attempt to provide some useful information during this lap, the app has a manual formation lap mode. This is always disabled when you start the app, and can be enabled or disabled with a button press ('Toggle manual formation lap mode') or a voice command ("This is the formation lap / formation lap / rolling start" to enable, "Standing start / no formation lap" to disable). When it's enabled the app will assume that the opening lap is driven in formation and not under race conditions, and that the race starts at the start of lap 2. If you enable manual formation lap mode during the practice session or qualifying, it'll remain enabled for the race (and for subsequent race starts until you switch it off or restart the app).
There are 2 additional options in the properties screen:
'Manual formation 'go' when leader crosses line'. If this is enabled, the 'go go go' call will be made when the leader crosses the start line. If it's disabled the 'go go go' call will be made when the player crosses the start line.
'Manual formation lap double-file start': if this is enabled, the app will assume that your rolling start is double file. It will expect you to start the race on the same side of the track as your grid position (regardless of who drops out in front of you). It will expect you to be behind the guy who was placed on the grid directly in front of you, on your side - the app does *not* check the position of cars which are not on your side of the grid (so the 2 pace lines don't have to be lined up properly with each other). If this is disabled, it will expect a single pace line starting the race in grid-order.
If a car drops out of the pace lap or crashes, the app assumes that he'll rejoin at the back and start from the back. Things can get messy if there are formation lap incidents and the app can only do its best here :)
Once the race starts at the end of the formation lap, the app will give its regular racing calls (so you don't need to switch this mode off during the race).