Trying to create autoserver for Rally

[power79]

I managed to do some optimizing and now tracks are created much faster, so grab the updated files (http://www.kolumbus.fi/arilai79/RTGen.zip). Few times creation has failed while I was testing so there might be occasional empty track. But if that happens often then report it to me.

I think created tracks are at least almost good enough that competitions could be run using them(Szymek? Wokinger?). I could add jumps later if necessary, but those are easy to add afterwards manually too. And Im still expecting your comments.

[Lanz]

Had no time to test this but im definately in for a competition if hosted on a weekend!

[power79]

Couple bugs fixed. In future I don't write a new message everytime i make some small fixes so just download latest version when you are planning to test it. I was hoping this tool would get more success but maybe everyone is just so busy right now.

edit: Latest version uploaded 12:51(CET). Couple serious bugs found so updating to this version is important.

edit: Small fixes 13:15(CET). I do some more testing later but other than that Im probably done for now.

[Wokinger]

Good job!

This tool would be great for any kind of rally championship.

btw. I see 2 way of developing this tool.
1. Make more tiles.
2. Generate own tiles (whole stage) based on gravel, sand etc. pattern.

[power79]

Good job!

This tool would be great for any kind of rally championship.

btw. I see 2 way of developing this tool.
1. Make more tiles.
2. Generate own tiles (whole stage) based on gravel, sand etc. pattern.

Nice that someone have tested this.

1. More tiles would slow down the algorithm, but maybe not that much. Actually now the algorithm might not use that many tiles cause they are so similar that many of them fit in same spot. Maybe I make algorithm to loop them backwards every other time so it picks more different tiles for tracks. Hmmm.

2. I thought of this first but drawing with pattern could be difficult. I guess I could copy part of tile and use that somehow. But I don't know if it would even end up looking any better than these stages now.

I have quite a lot free time before christmas so I might figure out something new. But after that not so much, so I hope someone is capable of organizing those competitions. I could try to make some tools/scripts to make it easier if needed.

[power79]

Updated version: http://www.kolumbus.fi/arilai79/RTGen.zip

1. Unzip files (RTGen.exe, cutilist.txt, tilelist.txt)
2. Copy them to Turbo Sliders main folder (same folder with editor.exe)
3. Remember to have Wokinger's SL_Rally_Tiles track folder installed (with that exact name): http://student.agh.edu.pl/~wokinger/RMP ... _Tiles.rar

Now there's a 3rd algorithm that draws road shape to png without using tiles. Tiles are still used for background and trees/stones. This is the fastest algorithm but downside is that there's extra files/size (road shape and pattern) to include with the track.

Only problems I noticed were rare occasions when control point/obstacle was placed on road and some overlappings with roads.

Every algorithm gives a bit different looking tracks so if you are building a rally and want to maximize variety then just create a mix of stages with every algorithm.

I don't have time to really improve this anymore but I will fix all bugs that are found.

And comments please. Wokinger was nice for testing and giving feedback. I challenge at least Mike, Szymek and Lanz to do the same.

And have a Merry Christmas you all!

[Mike Nike]

good work, power!
delicious xmas present there.
i tested only the default create 5 tracks yet and checked for checkline errors.
in 1st 2 tracks i found only 1 possibility to maybe cut..
and in 1 track some tile let open some 1-2 pixel of grass.
all in all that still feels like an A+ work there.
i hope for long and challenging evenings on "new to all"-tracks

[power79]

Thanks, Mike.

Sometimes all road tiles don't match completely but that's mostly just few pixels so I didn't care to try fixing it. Probably needs just little editing of tilelist.txt coordinates to get it right. But shouldn't really affect driving.

I hope someone arranges rally championship next year. Getting all the tracks "for free" should help to make it easier. Manually made stages would of course be better quality but I don't think it makes that much difference in rally.

[Wokinger]

I tried to generate by draw, but I got message: "SL_Rally_Tiles folder not found".

[power79]

I tried to generate by draw, but I got message: "SL_Rally_Tiles folder not found".

That algorithm needs to find road tiles to get the texture from them. It should find the folder if RTGen.exe is located in same place with editor.exe (Turbo Sliders main folder) and SL_Rally_Tiles folder is found under tracks subfolders. Does other algorithms save tracks with hash values in that folder?

I can't check any errors this week but I try to look the code later.

[Wokinger]

I tried to generate by draw, but I got message: "SL_Rally_Tiles folder not found".

That algorithm needs to find road tiles to get the texture from them. It should find the folder if RTGen.exe is located in same place with editor.exe (Turbo Sliders main folder) and SL_Rally_Tiles folder is found under tracks subfolders. Does other algorithms save tracks with hash values in that folder?

I can't check any errors this week but I try to look the code later.

I tried in SL_Rally_Tiles and tracks folder.

OK. It works now.

[power79]

I tried in SL_Rally_Tiles and tracks folder.

OK. It works now.

Good. I could add possibility to "manually" locate the folder if someone has problems.

OT: Ski Jump International 3 (SJ3) is now finally freeware! yay.
http://www.nomasi.com/sj3/index.html

And there's even Polish website with active competitions :
http://www.sj3.pl/

[power79]

I am in progress of trying something new but it's quite complicated to build so I thought before trying to finish (I have already done quite a lot of it), I thought asking here if there will be any interest for this kind of rally stuff at all.

So plan is to have a Rally Mod where Wokinger's famous SL_Rally_Tiles are the default tiles and it would also include RMPTS cars. This would make it easy to download generated tracks from my server (only need to dl pat and trk file).

Autoserver would have 40(?) newly generated tracks. It would start a new 4 stage rally every half hour (19:00,19:30,20:00 etc.) if server is up and there are player(s) connected. At the end of the registration phase server would choose the 4 stages out of the 40 based on connected players so that if you have already driven stages 1-8 earlier, it would choose stages 9-12 and so on.

And you would have only one chance to drive a recorded time in those stages (so no wanking). If you end up driving a stage second time (if multiple players are connected stages are chosen for the least advanced player) your time would not be recorded for competition. Also no disconnections would be allowed during cup (you miss those stages you don't finish and you will be given default stage time for them). Of course cheating (competing with more than one profile) would be possible even though my software does check both player id and IP address. But I don't think anyone would see the trouble of cheating a race like this. Races would also be driven in ghost mode so that nobody accidentally or intentionally could ruin others stage time.

The winner would be the one who drives those 40 stages with best combined time. Everyone could drive stages in their own pace. I thought maybe a month would be enough time for everyone to drive through all the stages (I can't keep the server up all the time). There would be website where you can check results and server status (TS.com front page doesn't seem to list Mod servers).

So does anyone think this could work and be fun, or should we just wait for Szymek to finally start the real rally cup? I am pretty sure I can get this to work but if there are no interest then I think I just give up. I don't have that much extra time anyway.

[Whiplash]

I would rather see you spending your time on some other tools. I was actually just about to contact you and ask you for that.
1. Why don't you create your own car editor? Seems like Mike will hardly get some time to improve his one.
HERE you can read some of the suggestions. I hope you saw his tool already.

2. What you think about some kind of tool for cup/tournament points/times organizer. Instead of playing around with the excel all the time, maybe there is possibility to get some easier way for this.
For example, you could allow 2 basic way of information organizing - points and lap times. Basically, all the community members who organize some competition should pick your tool in order to save his time while sorting and publishing results.
That would prevent THESE kind of solutions.

P.S. I'm sorry to say this, but I didn't like that rally thing that much.
On another side, your tool for video editing is just a perfect hit. So, making similar tools that I mentioned will be much more useful.

[power79]

I would rather see you spending your time on some other tools. I was actually just about to contact you and ask you for that.

Yeah, I know you don't care about rally. But I don't really have much time now for anything else, even this project needs to be finished soon or put on waiting list for some better times.

1. Why don't you create your own car editor? Seems like Mike will hardly get some time to improve his one.
HERE you can read some of the suggestions. I hope you saw his tool already.

Haven't seen it. But seems difficult as I don't know much at all about creating cars and don't really know what the editor would help anyway. You just have the values and you can't test them outside the game. Better track editor I had in mind at some point but it would be too big project right now. And maybe Ande improves these things for new version himself.

2. What you think about some kind of tool for cup/tournament points/times organizer. Instead of playing around with the excel all the time, maybe there is possibility to get some easier way for this.
For example, you could allow 2 basic way of information organizing - points and lap times. Basically, all the community members who organize some competition should pick your tool in order to save his time while sorting and publishing results.
That would prevent THESE kind of solutions.

This could happen if I would (again) have more time. Also I would like to have some real demand for this and more detailed plans what it should be like. If there's no hurry then I could spend some time for it every now and then.

P.S. I'm sorry to say this, but I didn't like that rally thing that much.
On another side, your tool for video editing is just a perfect hit. So, making similar tools that I mentioned will be much more useful.

Don't worry, I wasn't expecting any excitement from you. I was more asking from the usual rally crew we have here.
And I don't do this stuff just to be more useful for some. I also want something fun out of it for myself (hint: i like ts rally).

[Whiplash]

If I get some free time, I'll contribute by creating some less irritating and better looking cars.

[power79]

Ok, I give up on this new rally project. I guess it was a bit too "crazy" when you think about it. Maybe I continue it later or figure out something else.

Hopefully Szymek starts new rally cup soon.

[Mike Nike]

power giving up on rally project sounds bad..

11.3. is my personal "10th ts birthday". i actually liked to host quite some stuff, already ordered a server, but need to pay it with a creditcard i dont have yet.
so, 250 lapwank sessions are ok to me... but nice would be some rally action, which is basicly the same though^^.

[power79]

Well, I gave up as it seemed no one was really interested of that idea I had. My old rally server would still work but it wasn't that popular anymore last time I kept it running. There hasn't been any new rallies either that I could put there and the old ones are pretty much wanked to death.

If someone has an interesting idea for rally autoserver, I could maybe work on it, but it could take longer time as I am quite busy with other stuff at the moment.

[Whiplash]

I'm interested in any kind of wanking. But I didn't like cars and tracks of the rally you already hosted. Track design was pretty much amateurish, and the cars handling was pretty much unnatural and weird.

[power79]

I'm interested in any kind of wanking. But I didn't like cars and tracks of the rally you already hosted. Track design was pretty much amateurish, and the cars handling was pretty much unnatural and weird.

I think you only tested few lousy tracks I made so maybe Wokinger's feelings doesn't get hurt by those words. Cars were same RMPTS cars that all rally competitions has been driven. I think you should just get used to them, but of course you can also show us better rally cars as you are good car maker. To me, driving with those cars is fun as it is with most of the cars in the game (same also with your realistic F1 test car).

Multi-Stage rallies can't be really that great design, cause you have to have many tracks made for one rally and in competitions you only drive (once) one lap with them. And I really didn't originally designed that server to be that much wanking as it was. Driver's ended up quitting once they made one mistake and waiting for server restart to try again (i did that too). Purpose was to drive all stages from start to finish and not just wank perfect stage records. But I guess that was fun too and maybe its all that you can really do with autoserver.

[power79]

Something different:

I added whole Dakar 2015 to server (no prolog). Because it's a such long rally I decided to use scheduled starts. So new rally starts every 2 hours if someone is at server then. Today's only possible start will be at 20 CET. I might drive it myself just to test if it works correctly, but Im not yet sure.

I don't really expect any participation for this as it is long rally and all, but it's there if someone wants to take a shot. And I guess this way it would be possible also arrange that Dakar rerun at some point.

Default stage time (for unfinished stages) is now 15 mins because of that one really long stage. It's not best way to use default stage times like that but better way would require too much work.

[power79]

First test ended up in a jungle (sorry Tijny!). I had made in my old code a stupid (errorcheck)restriction to raceidle value (600) which wasn't enough for the longest stage. I guess i thought i would never put so long stage to my server. Well, it is fixed now, I put server up again tomorrow. It is damn long rally so not something you drive everyday, but maybe in future I could try this scheduled system with shorter rallyes too.

The races start always at even hours (12,14,16,18,20) CET in case someone is planning to go through it.

[power79]

I drove full rally this morning and my driving sucked but no technical problems so hopefully server now works correctly.

With the exception of possible idle drivers the server moves forward pretty fast (on purpose) so there's not much time for chatting, but you should have enough time to check the results of the stage and rally. You can of course also check records from this crude web page: Rally Rankings. It is not updated in real time, but I update it maybe once a day when there is new results. Dakar 2015 is the last listed rally there (located above the total points tables at bottom).

[Tijny]

Good work, power. Yesterday I was a bit deflated after the jungle stage got aborted and seeing my results go down the drain, but I would love to do the whole thing again at some point. It would be nice to gather a bit of a crowd though, what about scheduling an unofficial meeting time this weekend?

P.S. I don't mean to be intrusive about this, but I still think 20 seconds between stages is too short , because 1) everybody is muted outside that 20-second interval, 2) people want to have some time to study the results, and 3) stages are so long that a bit of respite in between is in order.