GT5 Tuner: A QuickTune and Setup Recorder for Android

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RDAardvark

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Want to record multiple tunes for each of your cars in GT5? Got an Android smartphone? This little app may just be what you are looking for.

The app, for Android only, requires you to enter all the basic settings for a car (default, min and max spring settings, HP, etc). You can then generate and record multiple tunes against each car.

Oppositelock has very kindly agreed to me using the calculations from his QuickTune spreadsheets (His thread can be found here). More recently I have also been able to add his gear ratio calculations to the app.

Version 0.81.0 introduces Car Sets and some zip files containing sample car sets can be found in the 'Car Sets' subfolder of the download page. More on this below, but this will give you access to over 500 cars!

Version 0.81.257 introduces an experimental tune import/export process. The app will automatically copy a tune to the clipboard when you save or load it. You can then switch to email or a web browser and paste the tune. Likewise, you can copy a tune from an email, forum post, etc, and ask the app to try to process it using the 'Import Tune' option on the File menu of the Tune screen.

Version 1.1.4 moves the 'parts' screen so that it belongs to the tune now instead of the car. Some new parameters are also added, namely PP, tyres and engine limiter.

Click here to go to the Android Market where you can download the app.

You can download car sets and a user guide here

Note: There is no iPhone version of this app. But do check out pgagoober's “GTune 5″ app for your iDevice.

Installation instructions and a quickstart guide are further down this post.

The app has been written with a WVGA screen (480 x 800) display in mind, but also caters for smaller screen sizes and some of the large tablets. Android 2.1 is the minimum version it will run on. It may work on other screens sizes and OS versions and indeed I'd be interested to hear back about which phones it does and doesn't work on. I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has a 7" tablet. One thing it doesn't like is landscape mode: This app has been written to stay in portrait mode.

Thanks goes to oppositelock for allowing me to use his Quick Tune and transmission calculations.
A huge thank-you goes to RabbidMaggot for sharing the car data with us all.
And a big thanks you to MikaelK and kebabs for all the testing.

Many thanks to all those who gave me feedback.


To install the app:

Simply download it from the Android Market.


To use the app:

When you start the app, by default it loads the last car you looked at. If this is the first time you have used the app, then the Triumph Spitfire is loaded. The Spitfire is one of several cars 'built-in' to the app.

Before you start entering car data, press the 'Menu' button on your phone. A menu will slide up. Press the 'Settings' option and set your user preferences. In here you can set your preferred version of Quick Tune (Or get the app to ask each time), set your preferred measurement of torque and set the default values for the Tune screen when you clear the current tune or enter the screen for the first time.

If you want to clear the current on-screen data, press the 'Menu' button on your phone and select clear. This only clears the data on the screen and does not affect the saved data.

On the first screen, set all the parameters of the car:
  • Tap on the component setting value, e.g. Default Spring Rate Front.
  • A dialog will appear with the current setting in the middle. The buttons on either side of the value will allow you to change the value.
    - Tapping on the -- button will decrease the value by 1
    - Tapping on the - button will decrease the value by 0.1
    - The + and ++ buttons do the opposite.
    You can also hold down the button and the value will increment/decrement rapidly.
  • There is also a quick-copy button, which is only shown when the component is one of a pair. This button will show the value of the other component in the pair and tapping on the button will copy the value to the current component.

To set the drivetrain of your car, simply tap on the drop down list and then select the appropriate drivetrain from the list - You can scroll up and down this list if it all doesn't fit on your phone's screen. Note: The generic 4WD drivertrain will prevent you from using the Quick Tune calculator.

Pressing the Menu button when on the first screen will bring up a menu. From this menu, selecting the 'File' option will allow you to load and save car setups.

Both load and save show a list of 'car sets'. These are files on your SD card (in the 'GT5Tuner' folder) which contain car setup information. The one exception is the 'built-in' set which contains a sample set of cars to get you started with the app. At first this is all you will have until you download and install more sets.

Extra car sets are available to download from the 'car sets' subfolder where you downloaded the app from. To get you started, I have created three types of car sets for you to try: By Manufacturer, By Year and by Type. These are by no means complete but together they give you access to over 500 cars. Simply download one, two or all three of these and unzip them to the 'GT5Tuner' folder on the SDCard of your phone. At first I would recommend only downloading one of these. Each of these zip files contains several car 'sets', e.g. The 'By Manufacturer' zip file contains individual sets for manufacturers like Ferrari and Toyota and then groups other manufacturers by their initial letter. To unzip the files you will need to have an app installed that can handle zip files. Have a look in Android Market where there are plenty of free apps to do this.

On the next screen, you can either generate a Quicktune by tapping on the Quicktune button, or simply tap on each component and change its value, thus recording a favourite setup of your own.

There are three other buttons on this screen:
  • Parts: Specify which extra parts and tuning upgrades you have on the car.
  • Transmission: Allows you to record the gear settings of the car. From within this option you can also access oppostitelock's gearing calculator.
  • Misc: Here you can record notes about this tune, e.g. fastest laps, track, etc. You can also record ballast settings.
Note: If the QuickTune button (or the Transmission button) is disabled, it means that the app does not have a complete record of the car's settings. This is most likely due to zero values for Spring rates, or the Drivetrain being set to the generic '4WD' - Quicktune needs to know where the engine is.

Pressing the Menu button when on the last screen will allow you to load and save tunes for the current car setup.

Note: If your device has one, you can use the optical trackball to navigate through the app.


Please note that I built this software as a way of learning Java for android. I am not a professional programmer and am giving you the software for free. I have only tested it on my HTC Desire, One S and Transformer Prime and there is no guarantee it will work on your phone. It may crash, freeze or generate weird and wonderful setups on your phone.
 
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The program works as described on my HTC Inspire (which is pretty much a branded Desire), I'll try out the settings when I get home later. Once polished and such, I'd definitely buy this from the Market.

Thanks!

EDIT...I'd also like to tell people you can install the APK file via gmail. Just email it to yourself, and install it through the Gmail app on your phone.
 
The program works as described on my HTC Inspire (which is pretty much a branded Desire), I'll try out the settings when I get home later. Once polished and such, I'd definitely buy this from the Market.

Thanks!

EDIT...I'd also like to tell people you can install the APK file via gmail. Just email it to yourself, and install it through the Gmail app on your phone.

That's a brilliant idea - I never thought of that. Thanks for this.
Thanks for the feedback. I found a major bug in the program and have updated it - Please download again and reinstall.
Many apologies.
 
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EDIT...I'd also like to tell people you can install the APK file via gmail. Just email it to yourself, and install it through the Gmail app on your phone.

Why not just use a QR code?

img.php


There we go, feel free to add id to the first post if you want - and in case of any app updates, just change the url part. Seems like the easiest way to get the app :)
 
Why not just use a QR code?

img.php


There we go, feel free to add id to the first post if you want - and in case of any app updates, just change the url part. Seems like the easiest way to get the app :)

Superb! :) Many many thanks for this!
 
hello i have downloaded the link via qr code on my desire, but it just comes up as a quickoffice document?

True, something bugs when you download the file using stock browser. Just rename the file to Gt.apk and launch, works great.
 
I hope you finish the load/save/delete feature. Many, if not most, of us here will be grateful for this app once that is done. We don't have to use notebooks anymore for our drag/race/drift setups.

This can be the cure for the lack of this feature in the game.

Go big! Contact PD... :)
 
I hope you finish the load/save/delete feature. Many, if not most, of us here will be grateful for this app once that is done. We don't have to use notebooks anymore for our drag/race/drift setups.

This can be the cure for the lack of this feature in the game.

Go big! Contact PD... :)

Thanks for the feedback. What phone are you running?

Edit: Also, what info do you record in your notebooks? The save function would record the initial settings on the car and the 'Your tuning settings'. Would that cover what you are doing?
 
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Ah! I was so excited to use this, but I am also getting just a bunch of text. I have a T-Mobile Mytouch 4g, which doesn't have an HTC equivalent, its unique to T-Mobile.
 
It just came in as a gobleygook text document

Ah! I was so excited to use this, but I am also getting just a bunch of text. I have a T-Mobile Mytouch 4g, which doesn't have an HTC equivalent, its unique to T-Mobile.


Can you both try Vatrox's earlier suggestion:


True, something bugs when you download the file using stock browser. Just rename the file to Gt.apk and launch, works great.
 
Yes, it indeed works this way - tried with both stock Internet browser and Miren. Both download the file as -1.txt. Navigate to the download directory (/sdcard/download for stock; /sdcard/miren_browser/downloads for Miren) using file manager (I recommend either ASTRO or EStrongs), rename the app to GTtune.apk or something and just install, works fine.

Also, I've got a suggestion - could you please change the drivetrain selection menu so that it actually says FR, MR, FF, etc? Not a big difference, but I guess most of us are used to this way of naming it - it's just faster and easier to find the right one on the list... And also, make FR the default choice as it's the most popular one - I am a lazy, lazy guy :P

I'm thinking about something like this:
[FR] front engine/rear drive
[FF] front engine/front drive
[MR] middle engine/rear drive
[RR] rear engine/rear drive
[F4] front engine/AWD
[M4] middle engine/AWD
[R4] rear engine/AWD

Rest is just fine, looking forward to the save tune function - and when it's done, you could also think of a way to edit generated tunes.
 
Yes, it indeed works this way - tried with both stock Internet browser and Miren. Both download the file as -1.txt. Navigate to the download directory (/sdcard/download for stock; /sdcard/miren_browser/downloads for Miren) using file manager (I recommend either ASTRO or EStrongs), rename the app to GTtune.apk or something and just install, works fine.

Also, I've got a suggestion - could you please change the drivetrain selection menu so that it actually says FR, MR, FF, etc? Not a big difference, but I guess most of us are used to this way of naming it - it's just faster and easier to find the right one on the list... And also, make FR the default choice as it's the most popular one - I am a lazy, lazy guy :P

I'm thinking about something like this:
[FR] front engine/rear drive
[FF] front engine/front drive
[MR] middle engine/rear drive
[RR] rear engine/rear drive
[F4] front engine/AWD
[M4] middle engine/AWD
[R4] rear engine/AWD

Rest is just fine, looking forward to the save tune function - and when it's done, you could also think of a way to edit generated tunes.

Thanks for this Vatrox: I'm using Dolphin and it seemed to work fine when I tested it.

Thanks also for the app suggestions. I too would like to tinker with the generated setup and then save that. I'd also like to be able to save gear ratios with a setup. I'll see what I can do, but it all eats into track time and as you know I really need the practise.
 
One more thing I forgot to add, there's a great project hosting provided by Google itself if you are looking for a place to host the app - it has to be open source though, so I'm not sure if you are interested.

Anyway, take a look at http://code.google.com
Hosting at http://code.google.com/hosting/
Free hosting without any third-party sites, code database, bug tracker and reviews - it's great :)

One of projects I follow, just so you know how it looks like - http://code.google.com/p/xfdroid/
 
One more thing I forgot to add, there's a great project hosting provided by Google itself if you are looking for a place to host the app - it has to be open source though, so I'm not sure if you are interested.

Anyway, take a look at http://code.google.com
Hosting at http://code.google.com/hosting/
Free hosting without any third-party sites, code database, bug tracker and reviews - it's great :)

One of projects I follow, just so you know how it looks like - http://code.google.com/p/xfdroid/

Can't really open source the project, as the calculations are OppositeLock's plus I'd really like to keep developing this myself for the foreseeable future: I'm using it to help me learn how to program for the Android machines.
 
81 downloads and counting!

How are people finding the app? Does it work? Is it easy to use or too cumbersome? What would make it easier to use?

All feedback and criticism is very welcome.
 
Aha! Victory! It's working, now I have to wait until I'm home to test it though. You seem open to suggestions, so I would like to suggest that you put Valtrox' advice on the first post, as it fixed it for me immediately. I had to download a file manager to be able to find it, but changed the file name worked perfectly.
 
81 downloads and counting!

How are people finding the app? Does it work? Is it easy to use or too cumbersome? What would make it easier to use?

All feedback and criticism is very welcome.

The overall functionality of it is nice. It would be helpful if it incorporated the touchscreen keyboard for entering values.

As far as the settings it generates, I find the ride height in particular somewhat dubious, but that's entirely open to debate...
 
agree with the poster above me, the keyboard intergration would be very nice. and i share the same doubts on the ride hight.

but other than that the app does what it should. thank you very much for your work!

one ideea that crossed my mind would some sort of export to .txt functionality.
 
Just checking in. Everything looks good, elginge.

As I said in the main thread, I agree that some of the formulas still need a bit of work. The toe system in particular is, frankly, crap. I see some people mentioned ride height, I'm hoping they could elaborate on what they would like to see regarding output. Personally, I like a lot of suspension travel so I could see why people might find it bit conservative. I would also like to implement rake somehow, but the exact method for doing so eludes me at this point. Please keep the suggestions coming. Keep in mind though, it's very easy to say something doesn't work. What really helps us most is people who can say "This is how I'd do it instead..." and provide a new perspective on a problem.
 
Regarding keyboard input, I actually made a concious descision to omit this as a) I didn't completely understand then how to limit user input to just numbers
b) the + and - buttons seemed to work well in stepping up the values, especially as you can hold them down and the value will step quickly.
c) I can limit the values reached using the + and - buttons. Additional code would be needed if the user inputs anything outside the allowed range.

I'll see what I can do about this in the next release. I'm working on the load function at the moment, but would like to have a few more things in there before I release another version for testing.
 
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