VHPA v3.1.4 [updated 26/03/10]

[Bob Smith]

Evenin' all

The hardcore set-heads among us may find this of interest. It's the replacement for my beloved GRC.

What it does
Allows you to open any LFS setup, analyse the effects of various parameters on vehicle handling and performance and, through understanding of the information presented, help alter setups to achieve the results you wish with minimal trial and error testing.

What it does NOT
Modify, tweak, or any alter the cars in LFS in any way, shape or form that is not already possible directly through LFS.

Please read the FAQ and the manual for answers to common questions, and explanations for basic program functions. Use at own risk, etc. I have also made a collage of all the different screens in the program [updated for v3.1.3].

Visit program website - 06/10/08

Feedback is always welcomed and encouraged, so don't hold back on posting. All suggestions/feature requests/GUI changes will be considered. Can't promise more than that.

Anyway, enjoy.

[Davo]

Holy crap. That looks absolutely brilliant Bob. I can see a hell of a lot of work has gone into it its gona take forever to wrap ym ehad around all these settings hehe. need a readme help file stat. Cheers, Im off to have a play

[DC2]

Yes i think it´s brilliant too!I think many people will have fun with it!

Thx for the gift bob!
( I´m waiting for a german translation =P)

[Tweaker]

Help a noob out I can't run it. j/k

No I got this message, and if anyone else get this error, you do type the following in the Start > Run window:

Windows 95, 98, or Me:
regsvr32 \windows\system\COMDLG32.OCX

Windows NT or 2000:
regsvr32 \WINNT\system32\COMDLG32.OCX

Windows XP:
regsvr32 \windows\system32\COMDLG32.OCX

If you just don't have the file, use this: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/utils/Comdlg32.zip and put it in your System32 folder.

_____________________

Cool program Bob

[ajp71]

Wow that tool is amazing. One problem I've encountered was a crash when I tried to do an ultra precision acceleration calculation for the BF1 (division of 0).

[Tweaker]

Originally Posted by ajp71

One problem I've encountered was a crash when I tried to do an ultra precision acceleration calculation for the BF1 (division of 0).

Did the same for me with the FO8.

[Bob Smith]

OK noted, when I get back to the coding PC I'll find out what line it's dying on. Never had that come up before, but that's why I've decided to try some public testing. You could have waited longer before finding that problem though, sure knocks my confidence!

Edit: I'll add a little now I've a moment...
* Springs, Damping and Steering analysis is yet to be worked on.
* Blowing the tyres has been disabled, a flat tyre crashes the program with the new deformation code I'm using. This needs to be addressed.
* LFS setups can be opened but not written to. I've intentially left that out for now.
* Aero physics are still simplified, aero device heights and aero drag centers are not modelled yet. They will change (slightly) aero balance, and deceleration/acceleration figures.
* Grip loss with tyre temperature is only accurate for +/- 20 degrees of the optimum temperature. This will be improved once I can make the equations more sophisticated.
* Diff settings do not affect acceleration (yet).
* A big note about the skins, I haven't asked for any permissions, nor do I know who the authors are. I just found some nice skins from my skins_x folder and took some screenies. If you know the author, or are the author, I ask for permission to use your funky looking skins to give my app some colour. I have no problems changing them for others.
* The name is only for my Uni project, it's final name is yet to be decided.
* Translations will be added once all the features are in place, atm I'm changing strings all over the place.

I think that covers the main issues atm.

[sil3ntwar]

I get this error. Im guessing i need some VB runtime files. Im on vista but that shouldnt matter too much.

[Bob Smith]

I've just re-uploaded the zip to include the VB6 runtime DLLs. It tripled the size of the zip but I can't see 1.8MB being too taxing even for dial-up users.

It should just extract and run now, on any system (although never tested on Vista, still haven't put the Vista beta disc in since I burnt it off...)

[sil3ntwar]

Still gives me the error. I guess Vista users will have to miss out. All 3 of us

[Stuff]

If all else fails, you could try manually registering the .dlls and .ocxs. On XP the command is: regsvr32 path\to\file.dll

And! Nice xmas present too! A lot of features that will be very handy to everyone. Thanks a ton for this

[Christian Held]

Woot! This is amazing. Thanks for that!

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by ajp71

One problem I've encountered was a crash when I tried to do an ultra precision acceleration calculation for the BF1 (division of 0).

Originally Posted by Tweaker

Did the same for me with the FO8.

That issue is now fixed, I've re-uploaded the zip.

Otherwise glad to see responses are positive.

[[RCG]Boosted]

Originally Posted by Tweaker

Help a noob out I can't run it. j/k

No I got this message, and if anyone else get this error, you do type the following in the Start > Run window:

Windows 95, 98, or Me:
regsvr32 \windows\system\COMDLG32.OCX

Windows NT or 2000:
regsvr32 \WINNT\system32\COMDLG32.OCX

Windows XP:
regsvr32 \windows\system32\COMDLG32.OCX

If you just don't have the file, use this: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/utils/Comdlg32.zip and put it in your System32 folder.

_____________________

Cool program Bob

Originally Posted by sil3ntwar

Still gives me the error. I guess Vista users will have to miss out. All 3 of us

rrrrrrrrread
surely works for vista too

[Highsider9]

Amazing Tool, nice work.

[flyby3d]

Really good work you are doing!! I'm really looking up to the finished product!

As a side note... I noticed that you give a Tyre Spring Stiffness that is calculated with some formula that, I guess, still comes from your GRC.
If you output data from inside the game, you can actually read the value used by the game and it's quite different from the ones that you are suggesting.
Most noticeably, it is not dependent that much on tyre pressure...

[Tweaker]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

Otherwise glad to see responses are positive.

The only other thing I have to say or ask is.... How will it help me with my setup? I haven't a clue what this stuff does or what it means. Perhaps you need to put a noobish/basic mode on it to explain things like "better grip vs worse grip", instead of grip cooeficients and all that crazy stuff . Because some of the terminology and advanced areas of this are a bit far out for me. I'd rather make my setup in LFS and drive it to be honest... unless I can find the benefits of using this.

[Navid]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

With the nice surprises of Patch V and RayOK's Layout thingy, it's time I added my own gift to the basket.

you should add one more gift too, lfs tweak for V patch ( just kidding )
thanks for this new program, I'm going to download it as soon as possible.
Good luck

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by flyby3d

As a side note... I noticed that you give a Tyre Spring Stiffness that is calculated with some formula that, I guess, still comes from your GRC.
If you output data from inside the game, you can actually read the value used by the game and it's quite different from the ones that you are suggesting.
Most noticeably, it is not dependent that much on tyre pressure...

Heh, that's funny, I was using my own "made up" code in GRC, but now I've switched to the same code as LFS runs, thanks to a helpful Scawen. So, they should match.

I had noticed it giving some funny results though but hadn't got around to chatting with Scawen again, letting him have some time away from LFS at xmas.

As to a simplified output mode, I'm really not sure what is best. I could create a fixed scale barchart from the grip co-efficients. Hmm, perhaps one column for grip coefficient, and another for relative grip (so the affect of downforce can be observed)? Tyres tab is a bit full though, hmm.

The difficulty is though that no setting is ever really just "better", more just different. You improve one thing, under certain conditions, but unprove something else, or even the same thing under different conditions. I'm not convinced I could make a simple interface meaningul, and certainly not accurate.

[noel_cr]

O.o Amazing utility! great job Bob Smith

[anbiddulph]

whats the unknown picture?

me gets exited (and ready to gen me hart broken )

[Bogey Jammer]

finally, the legendary setup analyser is true and is so powerful

I was going to write my personal setup analyser but this one saves my precious time

I love the .set reader

[JTbo]

Managed to crash it, runtime error. I had XRT setup loaded, looked trough tabs, set few units from preferences, loaded that same setup to setup viewer, then closed that and opened another setup, it did not opened setup, but complained about runtime error.

Runtime error 383
Text property is read-only

After bit of looking I have found out it does it always when opening RAC setup, no matter what I do before.

Looks nice software, waiting those suspension parts now, no pressure but could you get them done this evening ? Just joking

Great job, keep it up

[wsinda]

Some random remarks / suggestions:

- The main window is a bit too high. On my 1024x768 screen, part of the window is behind the taskbar. (I have auto-hide for the taskbar switched off.) It would fit if you make the tabs less high - by using smaller bitmaps, or by making them text-only.

- Currently, the top half of the window shows the "Vehicle Data" and the "Settings" section next to each other. Perhaps you should make them switchable, i.e. show one or the other, with a button to toggle between them. Reasons: (1) the "Settings" section is too small to show all data at once, or even all tabs; (2) many people will read the vehicle data occasionally: they will tweak the settings, and check the analysis results.

- The "Live Settings" tab doesn't really belong to the "Settings" section. Maybe it should be in a section of its own.

- It's hard to see which tab is selected, probably because you chose a lowered border instead of a raised border.

- Corresponding tabs in the "Settings" and the "Analysis" sections do not have the same text label.

- In the setup reader, some values in the "Steering" section have more decimals than they have inside LFS.

- When calculating acceleration, I think the 0-100 km/h time is less important than e.g. the 40-140 km/h time. The latter tells you how fast the car gets up to speed when coming from a turn onto a straight. So, it could be handy if you could choose the start speed for this calculation.

- A possibility to compare 2 setups would be nice.

- When plotting a graph, use gray for the grid lines and black only for the X and Y axis.

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by JTbo

After bit of looking I have found out it does it always when opening RAC setup, no matter what I do before.

Thanks for reporting that, I think I know exactly what the problem is there, will check & fix when I get home.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- The main window is a bit too high. On my 1024x768 screen, part of the window is behind the taskbar. (I have auto-hide for the taskbar switched off.)

Yeah, it is awkward, but I don't want to squash anything up. It was designed to fit on a 1024 resolution screen without the taskbar, with a couple of pixels to spare. Aside from the visual disparity it shouldn't obscure any text, though.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- Currently, the top half of the window shows the "Vehicle Data" and the "Settings" section next to each other. Perhaps you should make them switchable, i.e. show one or the other, with a button to toggle between them. Reasons: (1) the "Settings" section is too small to show all data at once, or even all tabs; (2) many people will read the vehicle data occasionally: they will tweak the settings, and check the analysis results.

- The "Live Settings" tab doesn't really belong to the "Settings" section. Maybe it should be in a section of its own.

I had considered something quite similar, where data, settings and live are all seperate and three quarter width where settings are know. Then use the remaining quarter width on the left hand side to display a combo box to switch between the three, and maybe leave the "photo" permanentally on display on there.

I took the quick and easy option for now.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- It's hard to see which tab is selected, probably because you chose a lowered border instead of a raised border.

I had considered adding some colouring. The behaviour of the tab control is something I have little control over though.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- In the setup reader, some values in the "Steering" section have more decimals than they have inside LFS.

The setup reader shows exactly what is stored in the .set file, nothing is rounded for neatness as it is in the LFS garage.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- When calculating acceleration, I think the 0-100 km/h time is less important than e.g. the 40-140 km/h time. The latter tells you how fast the car gets up to speed when coming from a turn onto a straight. So, it could be handy if you could choose the start speed for this calculation.

I was thinking of adding a completely customisable option, where the user selects start and end speed, then time and distance are displayed.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- A possibility to compare 2 setups would be nice.

Yes, it would. Something to consider at a much later date, once everything is fleshed out.

Originally Posted by wsinda

- When plotting a graph, use gray for the grid lines and black only for the X and Y axis.

I had thought of doing just that. Would also need to make the second set of torque curves on AWD vehicles a darker gray so they don't blend in.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Lible]

Amazing work

[Bladerunner]

Looking good so far Bob...Can't wait for a beta release to play with

[mrodgers]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

Download test version
Programmed in VB6 (with little use of API calls ). Yeah, it's slow.

A little slow? Sheesh, it was a screaming download for me! 10 kb/s! Seriously, that is screaming for me on dialup, LOL. (normally I see 4 kb/s )

Ok, it's slowed down to 4.56 now. Only 3 minutes left for 50% more, hehehe.

[anbiddulph]

Originally Posted by mrodgers

A little slow? Sheesh, it was a screaming download for me! 10 kb/s! Seriously, that is screaming for me on dialup, LOL. (normally I see 4 kb/s )

Ok, it's slowed down to 4.56 now. Only 3 minutes left for 50% more, hehehe.

you poor guy, i normally get 250KB/s

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

Thanks for reporting that, I think I know exactly what the problem is there, will check & fix when I get home.

Finally got around to looking back at the code today, the bug was as expected, I have fixed it and re-uploaded the zip. RaceAbout setups now open fine. Otherwise no changes since the Christmas Eve release.