Racing: Safety Car and Pit open indication

[TFalke55]

Hi
during the Kyoto 250, a single day race event, I noticed that it is difficult to see the pace car instruductions over the normal message system (blue or yellow flags were shown by LFS)

so my requested insim should include:
a button showing the track condition (green - yellow - red)
another button showing the pit condition (open/closed)
complete control over the insim only by admins
visibl to all persons on the server
if someone enters pits when they are closed, this someone will get a stop'n'go penalty


thats all

thanks
Zz0

[JO53PHS]

I have no idea how to code it, but would it be something like this?

[TFalke55]

yeah... well at least, when theres a caution that the button is yellow, and when everything is clear the button is green. A bit like on CTRA servers but now controled by the admin.

[DarkTimes]

It sounds like a good program, but can't the admin just use race control (/rcm Message) commands? You could put them on your hot keys.

[burnsy1882]

how do you want it controlled? in-game buttons that only the admin can use, or a separate gui outside of LFS?

[mcgas001]

What determines weather the pits are open or not? :)

[TFalke55]

how do you want it controlled? in-game buttons that only the admin can use, or a separate gui outside of LFS?

ingame buttons would be the best solution, i think, but if it is too difficult an outside GUI would be fine

What determines weather the pits are open or not? :)

basically the first laps under full-course yellow the pits are closed until the whole field is lined up behind the safety car. After that the pits are opened by the race control (admins).

[JO53PHS]

It sounds like a good program, but can't the admin just use race control (/rcm Message) commands? You could put them on your hot keys.

Thats what we did, but many times they were 'blocked' by blue flag or yellow flag messages.

[burnsy1882]

ok, give me a little bit, got most of it done, just need to position the buttons, and make sure that racers are added to the db correctly. first, spend a little time with family, as it's easter.

i think this program may come in handy for other people too.

EDIT: just thought of something else to put in it...

[JO53PHS]

ok, give me a little bit, got most of it done, just need to position the buttons, and make sure that racers are added to the db correctly. first, spend a little time with family, as it's easter.

i think this program may come in handy for other people too.

EDIT: just thought of something else to put in it...

Thanks soo much - this will help us a LOT for the Kyoto 500 :)

[TFalke55]

EDIT: just thought of something else to put in it...
hmm easteregg? I'm curious what it will be :)
Thanks soo much - this will help us a LOT for the Kyoto 250 :)
I hope you mean Kyoto 500, as it takes a year til the next Kyoto 250 :D

[JO53PHS]

I hope you mean Kyoto 500, as it takes a year til the next Kyoto 250 :D

yes :x:D

[burnsy1882]

i'll be on our server, [FG] Racing, testing it out right now if you'd like to stop by and see it, and if you have other ideas, can tell me there. plus it'd help with bug finding.

[burnsy1882]

ok, here's the final version of the program. let me know if you'd like any changes to it, i'd be happy to do it. definitely give it a try and find any bugs that i wasn't able to. i tested it thoroughly, but bugs are sticklers. will be adding this to our main program as well.

[TFalke55]

sry for the silly question but:
how does this program work? I mean what do I have to do to get it to run?

[JO53PHS]

I can't get it to work :schwitz:

Probably because I'm an insim n00b. I type /insim= and then the port number. Then I open up the Application... and then nothing else happens... Am I stupid or is there something wrong? :D

Lol @ Falke - We're both having the same problem :razz:

[burnsy1882]

I can't get it to work :schwitz:

Probably because I'm an insim n00b. I type /insim= and then the port number. Then I open up the Application... and then nothing else happens... Am I stupid or is there something wrong? :D

Lol @ Falke - We're both having the same problem :razz:
sorry, it was late by the time i finished.

edit the config.ini file for the ip, insim port number, and admin password used on the server you want it to connect to.
then the other options allow you to change other optional functionality.

rcm clear - enter the time in milliseconds to wait to clear the RCM messages on screen
admin command - change this to whatever you want to access the admin menu, whatever you change it to, you add $ in front
the language translations allow anybody to use the application with any language, and to change what the messages and buttons say

[TFalke55]

hmm, when i connect it this is shown

Race Control System
Version: 1.0.0.0
Kevin Burns
Connecting
Eine Ausnahme vom Typ FullMotion.LiveForSpeed.InSim.Exceptions.InSimHand lerExcep
tion+NoVersion wurde ausgelöst.
System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal

EDIT: works now, accidently a wrong digit
EDIT 2: would it be possible to give the driver entered the pits the penalty after leaving? Normally the drivers who enter the pit need to pit. E.g. they are damaged and would be a risk for others, or they would run out of fuel. So they could do their pitstop and are repaired, leaving pits and then get the penalty.

[burnsy1882]

i believe you can still do your normal pitstop, you have to complete the penalty the next time you go around to the pits, but yes, it can be changed to have it give the penalty on the pit exit if you'd like.

[TFalke55]

i believe you can still do your normal pitstop, you have to complete the penalty the next time you go around to the pits, but yes, it can be changed to have it give the penalty on the pit exit if you'd like.

It would be better. I did some Online tests minutes ago, and when someone got a drivethrough because he entered the pit under yellow and closed pits, he just drove through the pit, without pitting and the penalty was over.

[burnsy1882]

ok, here's just the newly compiled exe with the penalty at the exit of the pitlane.

[TFalke55]

sry that i make you work so much :shy: is it possible to combine the two ehm, exes? In your latest one you get an penalty when you exiting the pits in the "closed pit" situation. When you are pitting and the pits are open when you enter, and during the pit stop the "closed pit" is called, you'll get the penalty.

I just wanted to say that if you enter the pits under "Open Pitlane" and the situation changes, you shouldn't get a penalty.
If you enter the pits under "Closed Pitlane" you should get the penalty at the pit exit.

sry that I didn't said it at the beginning. You've done a great work. I really love it and it will help racing :thumb: :thumbsup:

[burnsy1882]

not sure i follow you. are you saying that if a racer enters the pits while the pitlane is open, but then the pitlane is closed, the racer gets no penalty?

[TFalke55]

not sure i follow you. are you saying that if a racer enters the pits while the pitlane is open, but then the pitlane is closed, the racer gets no penalty?

yep that's what I meant. If a racer enters the pits, before the pitlane is closed, he gets no penalty, if the racer enters the pits, after the pits were closed he gets a penalty. When I said I'd like to have the penalties given at the pit exit, I just wanted to avoid, that the racers just drive through the pits (when the closed-pit-entering penalty is set to DT), and lose less time then the ones who (have to) pit.

Sry that I didn't said it clearly.

[burnsy1882]

obviously you said it clearly enough, as i understood. ok, i'll see what i can come up with. having henry right now help me with some threading in the program to help speed it up.

[JO53PHS]

Do you need to be the owner of a server to get it to work... because I am trying to get it to work on a dedicated server hosted by someone else that I have admin rights to.

How do you find the IP of the server if you're not running it... :scratchch

[burnsy1882]

you don't necessarily need to be the owner, but yes, you need to know the ip address, the insim port number enabled in the config file of the server, and the admin password in the config file. you'll have to ask the person who owns/rents it to tell you the ip address.

the other thing you could do is make the ip address 127.0.0.1 in the config.ini file, and run the program along side the dedicated server program on the physical server.

basically you need to know the ip address if you're gonna run the program on your computer to connect it to the server, or leave it at 127.0.0.1 if the control program is uploaded to the server.

[JO53PHS]

Now that I've put in the IP, I get this when I start 'er up...

InsimHandler experienced an innner failure
System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal

[evilpimp]

Now that I've put in the IP, I get this when I start 'er up...

InsimHandler experienced an innner failure
System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal

That's odd the inner failure has 3 n's I wonder what that means.

[DarkTimes]

That's a typo in LFSLib.

[JO53PHS]

Is there anyway an n00b like me could fix that :scratchch

[DarkTimes]

The app works for me. It probably just can't find the LFS host in question. Check to make sure you have the correct IP address and that the host is initialised to the correct port. Also if you are connecting to a host on a different computer, make sure your app can get through any firewall which might be up.

[burnsy1882]

yeah, that error is because the program cannot connect to the specified ip address or port number you gave in the config.ini. make sure that both are correct for the specific server you want it to connect to. the insim port number to fill in the config.ini file is the one enabled in your dedicated server's setup.cfg file. and if you're running the program on your computer, you need to find out what the ip address of the server is to allow it to connect, otherwise if you've uploaded it along side the server, just leave it at 127.0.0.1.

[burnsy1882]

ok, here's the latest one with the fixes. still waiting to do the threading, but this at least works.

[mcgas001]

How comes you want to do threading? Why do you need to?

[burnsy1882]

that way they can continue to click buttons, while it waits the specified time they set until it clears the RCM messages in game. could probably do it with a timer too, but henry likes to make programs complicated ;)

[mcgas001]

Use the threadpool then.

ThreadPool (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3dasc8as(VS.80).aspx)

[burnsy1882]

you can find the program here now: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=40857