[WIP / Instructions] How to create a custom benchmark run

[Salah-ad Din]

The game offers a special feature, you can create custom benchmark runs, either to watch the beautiful tracks and cards, to test if your settings will even keep the fps high enough on tracks with 8 cards or more, or just for fun.

This is how you do it:


Step 1: Create the raw benchmark file

Go into your DiRT 2 main directory and create a textfile, like "new document.txt". Go into the folder settings within your system configuration and flag the option "show known file extensions". Now change the file extension of your textfile from "txt" to "xml". Now we get the file "new document.xml".

Now name the file to your desire, for instance "benchmark_one.xml" or whatever you like.


Step 2: Edit the benchmark file & benchmark options

Now open the "benchmark-one.xml" (or whatever you named it) with a text editor (Wordpad will do just fine for instance).

To make things easier I will provide an example of the benchmark options first and then explain them. Copy this into your benchmark file and edit it to your liking:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<config skipreplays="true" outputfilename="DiRT2_Benchmark" hardwaresettings="hardware_settings_config.xml" >
<track country="london" name="battersea" route="route_1">
<car name="sti" number="1" />
<car name="bmw" number="1" />
<car name="e9r" number="1" />
<car name="cr4" number="1" />
<car name="sor" number="1" />
<car name="sti" number="1" />
<car name="350" number="1" />
<car name="mer" number="1" />
</track>
</config>

• skipreplays="true" --> set this to "true" or "false" if you want to see the replay after the race or not.

• outputfilename="DiRT2_Benchmark" --> You can change the name of the output file. The output file will be created in your ...\Documents\My Games\DiRT 2\benchmarks folder.

• hardwaresettings="hardware_settings_config.xml" --> Shouldn't be changed. The benchmark will use your ingame settings which are stored in this file. You can also change any settings ingame, during the benchmark, so no need for xml editing.

• track country="london" name="battersea" route="route_1" --> You can use whatever track you like. For a list of track names, browse to the DiRT2 installation directory and look at the folder names within the 'tracks' folder.

• car name="sti" number="1" --> Every new line stands for one more car in the race. Add lines or erase lines for more or less cars. The maximum number of cars in a benchmark is 8. For a list of car names, browse to the DiRT2 installation directory and look at the folder names within the 'cars' folder.

Step 3: Create a shortcut & edit the target line

In your DiRT 2 main directory there is the "dirt2.exe". Create a shortcut for this file. Now open the properties of the shortcut. The target line should look like this:

E:\DiRT2\dirt2.exe

Change it to that:

E:\DiRT2\dirt2.exe -benchmark benchmark_one.xml

Obviously the filename should be changed if you named your benchmark file differently.


Step 4: Start the benchmark & output file

Start the benchmark by double-clicking on the edited shortcut. As mentioned before, the output file can the found after the benchmark run at: ...\Documents\My Games\DiRT 2\benchmarks



/edit:

Known problems:

1.) After the benchmark the replay-cache-file remains on the harddrive (size 1,95GB).

Solution: Manually erase the file "replay.pbf" from the directory: C:\ProgramData\Codemasters\DiRT2\DataCache\**euer Benutzername**\replay

[Salah-ad Din]

With the help of Helli (aka Hellshaper) from a german pinboard I figured it out. Enjoy.