Grand Prix question

[DerbyAddict]

We upgraded our track to 4 lanes and now I am in the process of testing GP with 4 lanes instead of 3. I noticed that with four lanes, I can always generate a chart no matter how many boys I have entered or how many times in each lane.
If I go 3 lanes or 5 or six or whatever, once I get above a certain amount of boys (varies with lanes) it reduces me down to 2 round PPN like Stan's and Cory's PPN generator on Stan's pages.
Is this correct? Is GP calculating the PPN charts differently? Is 4 lanes the "magic" number? Thanks for any insight.

[gpraceman]

GrandPrix Race Manager will yield some more charts (differing numbers of lanes, cars and runs per lane) than the web based PPN generator will. To achieve a chart with a certain number of runs per lane, GPRM will add a Bye racer to the chart if the PPN generator cannot otherwise yield a chart. This assumes that you have selected the adding a Bye racer upgrade option. The web based generator will not add the Bye racer, since it does not yield a "better quality" chart. In these situations, I felt it was better to have a chart with a Bye racer, than no chart at all.

Even with 4 lanes, you will find combinations of runs per lane and number of cars that it will not be able to yield a chart for.

[Cory]

Is this correct? Is GP calculating the PPN charts differently? Is 4 lanes the "magic" number? Thanks for any insight.

The underlying algorithm is exactly the same in both "products", GPRM and PPNGen. It is possible, however, that certain "generators" may exist in one place and not in the other, which may account for some of the discrepancies you've seen. That is, the two PPN implementations, PPN.DLL (called by GPRM) and ppngen.html, may be slightly out of sync.

But it's more likely due to Randy's explanation -- he has added an additional layer of intelligence which can create charts containing byes. Any such charts can also be created via PPNGen, provided you explicitly specify an additional car -- i.e. you can provide that extra layer of intelligence yourself.

[DerbyAddict]

Thanks, I think I understand (big emphasis on "think"). I guess we're just falling into the sweet zone of the generator. I'm happy because it lets the boys run 16 times.