Tracker Ideas

[DeadWolfBones]

Hello drivers,

We're in the process of developing new tracker software to help drivers, teams, and spectators track the action in IGTC races.

Starblue, the coder for the software, is going to make the tracker open source and thus free for all league admins to download and use. This means that your suggestions can help lots of LFS users, in and out of the IGTC, for a long time to come.

I encourage you to take a look at the current tracker software by WolleT here (http://moe.lfs-tracker.de/), as we will be using it as inspiration for most of the core features. Your suggestions here should be for features that you feel are missing from or underdeveloped in that software.

Thanks!

[banshee56]

When you look at the extended statistics of a driver, you can see the gain/loss via green/red highlights on the lap times for the drivers directly ahead and behind the driver you are looking at. What we currently cannot do is to compare two (or more) drivers of our choice. This can be handy when a driver ahead/behind you is only there because of pit sequences or other odd circumstances.

[DeadWolfBones]

Hmm, that's a good one.

[DeadWolfBones]

A quick look at the alpha testing going on.

This insim display is just a mockup used for testing purposes. The final tracker will have a traditional web display.

:D

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1708/lfs00000063qc5.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lfs00000063qc5.jpg)

[joshdifabio]

Please compare drivers at the last mutual sector. The MoE tracker doesn't do this and, as such, gaps between cars can be very inaccurate.

For example:
Team X is on lap 100.0
Team Y is on lap 99.2

The MoE tracker would say that the gap is 1 lap. What it should do is compare the total times at the last common sector. So, Team Y's total time at 99.2 laps minus Team X's time at 99.2 laps. This way the gap would be the last known gap, and not an inaccurate guess for the majority of the lap.

This would still not be perfect, as you would be computing gaps using different lap numbers for each gap as you go down the field, however it would be a much better way of doing it than the MoE tracker imo.

Let me know if this is unclear.

[DeadWolfBones]

Please compare drivers at the last mutual sector. The MoE tracker doesn't do this and, as such, gaps between cars can be very inaccurate.

For example:
Team X is on lap 100.0
Team Y is on lap 99.2

The MoE tracker would say that the gap is 1 lap. What it should do is compare the total times at the last common sector. So, Team Y's total time at 99.2 laps minus Team X's time at 99.2 laps. This way the gap would be the last known gap, and not an inaccurate guess for the majority of the lap.

This would still not be perfect, as you would be computing gaps using different lap numbers for each gap as you go down the field, however it would be a much better way of doing it than the MoE tracker imo.

Let me know if this is unclear.

I get what you're saying, and I think that's what we're currently trying to do. At the moment you'll only be show as +1 lap on the car ahead if you cross a given sector line a full lap after the car ahead of you.

[joshdifabio]

I get what you're saying, and I think that's what we're currently trying to do. At the moment you'll only be show as +1 lap on the car ahead if you cross a given sector line a full lap after the car ahead of you.

Yes, that would be perfect.

I look forward to seeing it finished :).

[Scott_Michaels]

There is a slight problem with that. If a car DNF's, the gap to the car infront will always show as the gap just before that car DNF's.

[DeadWolfBones]

There is a slight problem with that. If a car DNF's, the gap to the car infront will always show as the gap just before that car DNF's.

Not really. The car behind would complete more laps + sectors than the car that was formerly ahead (the DNF'd car) and would thus pass it on the tracker. It would never be an issue.

[Scott_Michaels]

My situation would only apply to a car running last, where there is nobody behind them to pass them when they stop.

[hotmail]

hey,

i had some idea about a pentaly list in the tracker.

in the rules is standing:


3) Cars issued a DT, SG, or 45S penalty must complete the penalty within three (3) laps, or the given penalty will be upgraded to the next level of severity.


is it a idea when you give some one a pentaly that the tracker is showing that you have 2 laps or 1lap left to finnish the penalty


i hope you know what i mean..

greats,

Reintjan

[hotmail]

an other idea,

a option for a driver that is showing how long he is driving.
for example if you are doing 2 stint behind eats othere it will show ~1h 45min , if you chance driver and the same drive take the car again the timer (stopwatch) will start over new..

[Gil07]

My situation would only apply to a car running last, where there is nobody behind them to pass them when they stop.

It would be lapped? :shrug:

Or am I not getting your point?

Nice ideas too, hotmail. Will ask my team if they have any suggestions, can't think of anything atm.

[DeadWolfBones]

hotmail,

The first idea is a good one and I'll see if we can implement it. The second is already on our prospective features list. :)

Thanks!

[DeadWolfBones]

My situation would only apply to a car running last, where there is nobody behind them to pass them when they stop.


I see what you mean.

We can set the tracker up to recognize when a car has gone to spectate and freeze its lap count... the gap will then be shown in laps rather than the last recorded sector gap.

[joshdifabio]

I see what you mean.

We can set the tracker up to recognize when a car has gone to spectate and freeze its lap count... the gap will then be shown in laps rather than the last recorded sector gap.

Going by what you said previously, surely once the retired car is lapped by the cars ahead, the gap would automatically appear in laps instead of time?

If this is coded how I'd think it would be, it would not matter if a car retired; the existing code would work as expected.

[DeadWolfBones]

Going by what you said previously, surely once the retired car is lapped by the cars ahead, the gap would automatically appear in laps instead of time?

If this is coded how I'd think it would be, it would not matter if a car retired; the existing code would work as expected.

The problem would be that the car in last place would never cross another split line and hence the gap would never update.

We've added a feature that allows to set a car as a DNF, though, which means the gap to cars ahead will be calculated a different way (in laps) from there on out.

[DeadWolfBones]

A snapshot of development atm:

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3760/trackerca0.png

[DeadWolfBones]

Just about race-ready version of the tracker:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/396/gapsmw8.jpg

Gap * = gap calculation with an old bug involving mis-ordered packets when the gap was too small (LFS bug).

Gap 2 = corrected version with brand spankin' new gap calculation code developed by Starblue in true MVP fashion. :D

The tracker we'll be using tomorrow is still a very early version of this new software, and probably still has bugs. Therefore it is to be used as a guide only. It will not count for binding race results.

One important thing to note is that unlike the MoE tracker, this one does not display (at the moment) the gap to cars more than a lap ahead as "+X laps." Instead, the gap is given in the number of seconds since the car ahead crossed the same sector line on the same lap. So if the car ahead is 3 laps ahead, the gap (on Blackwood) would be shown as something like "+185.50s." We think this will actually be useful to the teams, as it will be easier to track whether you're losing or gaining time to the car a lap ahead.

Another is that DNFs will not be shown on the tracker and they will retain the gap they had prior to the DNF. Not a major problem, though, and will be fixed in future versions.

The link to the tracker page will be PM'd to team managers and co-managers tomorrow before the race, and announced again in the race server after qualifying.

:thumbsup:

[joshdifabio]

The problem would be that the car in last place would never cross another split line and hence the gap would never update.

Ah, I assumed you'd be using x.y laps instead of time to show large gaps, but actually showing the time difference does sound more attractive. Personally, I'd flag a car as a DNF if it hadn't crossed a split line in more than n minutes. This could automatically correct itself if the car resumed racing more than n minutes later. For me, n would equal 5! :)

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the finished article some time in the future, it sounds very promising.

Edit: One other point; it would be good if the tracker could be mirrored on other servers to spread the load. It's output could be made available in XML format on the host server, with a generic PHP (for example) script publicly available which would parse the XML file and creates a proper HTML output. This way, anyone could create a mirror without needing to be given direct access to any database.

[DeadWolfBones]

I just want to thank Starblue for all the work he did over the last couple weeks coding this tracker from scratch, and for how well it worked during this race (aka: flawlessly).

:nod::thumbsup:

[danowat]

Yeah, the tracker was awesome during the race, it worked flawlessly.

[Lotesdelere]

Very nice and usefull tool, good job, well done :thumb:

It would be nice to see the number of pit stops done in a future version ;)

[SamH]

As mentioned last night, an AJAX wrapper is a simple addition and would be great for any team not near the top of the list! :)

[Starblue]

As mentioned last night, an AJAX wrapper is a simple addition and would be great for any team not near the top of the list! :)
I'll have a look at it :)
I'm using Firefox here and when the page auto-refreshes it stays scrolled where it was, so I had no trouble following teams on the last positions :)
Temporary workaround for people using the tracker with other "non-scroll-friendly" browsers: reduce zoom / text size in the settings (e.g. View->Text Size->Smallest in Internet Explorer menu) so that you can see all teams without scrolling :)

Starblue

[Starblue]

Personally, I'd flag a car as a DNF if it hadn't crossed a split line in more than n minutes. This could automatically correct itself if the car resumed racing more than n minutes later.
[...]
Edit: One other point; it would be good if the tracker could be mirrored on other servers to spread the load. It's output could be made available in XML format on the host server, with a generic PHP (for example) script publicly available which would parse the XML file and creates a proper HTML output. This way, anyone could create a mirror without needing to be given direct access to any database.

Nice ideas :)


It would be nice to see the number of pit stops done in a future version ;)
It's already on the planned feature list :) Watching the race without pit stop info was quite exciting though...as I had no clue about who had to pit again, every time the leader stopped I was surprised.."Oh, no he has to pit and lost the lead!" :D

Starblue

[Gil07]

Thank you for the wonderful tracker tool, without we'd have been completely lost on track after my disco... :)

[BenjiMC]

Yeah, great job by starblue. Now i just gotta do my bit and make it look a bit nicer :)

[SamH]

I'll have a look at it :)
I'm using Firefox here and when the page auto-refreshes it stays scrolled where it was, so I had no trouble following teams on the last positions :)
Awesome! :thumb: It'd also kill off that annoying clicking refresh sound in IE, too ;)

[DeadWolfBones]

Just a little post to tell you about current and future tracker development.

Our goals for next round, aside from getting the tracker operating in a stable manner on the IGTC site webspace, are to:

1) Implement a page for each team, which will provide statistics (updated in realtime) for fastest lap, average lap over a stint, gaps to the car ahead and the car behind, a comparison of laptimes to said cars, and lots more data relevant to the teams individually.

2) Implement tracking of qualification results and automatic grid placement. This will save some of the time spent trying to corral everyone into the proper grid slot.

There's lots more to come, but those are our primary goals at the moment.

:tilt: