[injectorman]

Hi Nigel,
We havent had time to program the ghost car function as of yet, but the plan is to use actual recorded laps. If the car doesnt go into pit during the recorded lap then no it cannot enter. Single speed ghost cars arent worth the hassle and very unrealistic. Random lane changing too seems to sit uncomfortably with me.

Rick

 

[Camber]

QUOTE (injectorman @ 18 Jun 2011, 13:06) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Random lane changing too seems to sit uncomfortably with me.

If you have 2 constant speed ghost cars running around and randomly changing lanes, surely at some stage they are going to rear end one another, it's unusual to have 2 cars running at the exact same speed. I guess it depends on how often they change lanes, though I think it would be annoying having them constantly changing lanes all the time.

- Cam

 

[MrFlippant]

If you have anti collision enabled, then random lane changing is the way to go. If you already know the path the ghost will take, it will be much too easy to make a pass.
Also, for constant speed and random changing, the cars should be set up to complete the lap in as close a time as possible. Scorpius allows much finer speed control than stock SSD chips do, and so two cars could easily be tuned to pretty much the same speed. As such, the rear ending would be almost non existent. Plus, with random lane changing, one would pull into the other lane sooner or later.
This is not to say that a constant speed car is any competition for a real racer. Nor is a recorded lap, no matter how good. The pace car will always need to be better than the driven car, because the human driver will always be better than the computer.

 

[Camber]

I'd be happy to have 2 constant speed ghost cars which stay in their own lanes (or one car on the best line) when having competitive racing. This would be typical of coming up onto back markers in real life, they should hold their line, are going slower and is something you have to plan for as a driver. Slower cars mean you'll be lapping them more regularly so are coming into play more often during a race, a fast pace car might not even be lapped by a slower driver.

Faster programmed pace cars would be great to have something to race against on your own.

 

[b.yingling]

QUOTE (MrFlippant @ 18 Jun 2011, 12:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If you have anti collision enabled, then random lane changing is the way to go. If you already know the path the ghost will take, it will be much too easy to make a pass.
Also, for constant speed and random changing, the cars should be set up to complete the lap in as close a time as possible. Scorpius allows much finer speed control than stock SSD chips do, and so two cars could easily be tuned to pretty much the same speed. As such, the rear ending would be almost non existent. Plus, with random lane changing, one would pull into the other lane sooner or later.
This is not to say that a constant speed car is any competition for a real racer. Nor is a recorded lap, no matter how good. The pace car will always need to be better than the driven car, because the human driver will always be better than the computer.

As per usual, I think Greg is spot on in his recommendations. I've run a lot of laps with a lot of ghost cars. All fixed speed, but I think it will prove to be very, very difficult to get a really good variable speed lap controlled by the computer.

Fixed speed ghosts are the most fun if they are setup to be able to take the tightest corner on the track faster than any of the human driven cars. Our experience: the fun is increased with random lane changing.

I relaize Scorpius is striving for 'realism', but you may find this is one place where a compromise is necessary.

Then again, with sector timing and really, really fine throttle control (and lots of sensors for those sectors), maybe you will manage varable speed pace cars.

 

[injectorman]

Hi Guys,

Yes every LB currently currently gives data for each car regarding the precise moment it reaches each LB, its lane, and weather its sending a change or no change command, the basis for the ghost car and PEARL program. So we have all the necessary hardware and data coming in.
Ghost cars wouls be a recorded lap as mentioned previously.

Another program we are considering is where you record say 20 fast laps and the program edits the data so the fastest sectors are all joined together to form the ultimate ghost car challenge.

Also a Scorpius Smart Car program is in consideration, a car that can analyse traffic ahead and make its own decision to change or not.

Anti Collision is fine, if you use it, I dont, so Im looking for alternatives. Cars changinglanes to ghet an advantage makes sense, but purely at random would be up to personal taste of course.

Rick

 

[ryk4racing]

I have a couple of Scalextric Pacer systems I have used in the past. For those unfamiliar, they were an analog device that recorded a lap and then played it back, with an adjustable speed control. Given their limitations (10sec max lap, one re-sync point per lap) they still provide a decent competitor. It's necessary to drive a smooth lap (driving hard in/out of corners is bad as getting slightly out of sync will cause a crash), but when you finally get a lap that works it can provide fairly stiff competition. It's easy to stay ahead of it, but one mistake and you're playing catch-up the rest of the race.

Having used the Pacers, I'm sure with multiple sync points per lap a very good competitor could be produced. Sure, it will still not work as well for laps driven on the edge of control, but I have no doubt one could record a smooth lap that would handily beat a constant speed ghost, and rarely crash.

I would want the option of random lane changing also (with anti-collision enabled). It would be even better if the car changed lanes based on other traffic. I don't like knowing for sure what the Ghost is going to do.

Being able to save and edit these lap recordings would be a great assist in getting a good lap for playback.

 

[injectorman]

Hi Guys,
Just a short note to let you know a beta version has arrived so we are very close now.

Rick

 

[Profoxcg]

So can u store info in the chip rick like you wanted?
Do you think pearl will be possible? (this is where you program you desired racing line correct?)

 

[injectorman]

Some info will be stored, some will just enter and leave, eg throttle data to RMS via car.
Let me explain more.....Scorpius is unique in that it broadcasts lots of various data on channel 25 (a dongle is required).

Example driver name is included in car throttle/brake data, along with the last LB it crossed, which lane and wether it gave a lane change command or not. This is sent 10 times a second and still room for more or faster etc. The data is used to work out actual fuel useage, false start detection. pit detection, fuelling, pit lane speed detection and auto name/ID entry in the RMS.

Hey using brake and throttle data we could even simulate brake pad wear.

The data will be also be used later on for calibrating recorded ghosts cars on playback and for the "thinking car" program, where the car can actually plan a race stategy based on other cars positions ahead by itself. Interesting.

So my point not all info will be "stored". Some will.

PEARL will have to be a function of the chip. A program would have to be run to allow the car to memorise your route. Then taken off rails and rebooted to normal mode. Not something you only do once or on rare occasion.

Im guessing the car chip has enough processing power to memorise 32 LB preferences but Id have to check with John.

Rick

 

[Profoxcg]

thanks let us know. PEARL is going be huge if possible.

 

[injectorman]

Ok John says lots of room left in RAM and EEPROM, and additional processing time negligible, and yer its big

 

[stoooo]

Just a quick suggestion. Somebody earlier mentioned being able to export the results/data to a spreadsheet. Could you also provide an export to HTML feature that would export a pre-formatted HTML page that can be readily uploaded to a web server ? This would make it easy for those clubs with their own websites to quickly post up event results. For those running ongoing championships, it could also export the current championship standings so that the current page could be simply overwritten with the new one rather than having to hack at the HTML code on the server.

Or (and this is the complicated version) allow export of the data to something like a MySQL DB so that dynamic web pages could be built against the current data set, and simply refreshing the page would update it. But that might be overcomplicating things

Stuart.

 

[h00ch]

I believe outputting a file to CSV format would make it suitable for importing into both a spreadsheet and a database.

 

[stoooo]

QUOTE (h00ch @ 6 Jul 2011, 15:05) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I believe outputting a file to CSV format would make it suitable for importing into both a spreadsheet and a database.
Agreed. It could also be fed into a 3rd party HTML formatting utility. But it would be nice to have an export feature that directly produces an HTML file just to speed up the process.

 

[injectorman]

Hi Guys,
A few screen grabs of the new RMs coming soon.

Heres a beauty, the LB set up page. Allocate ANY LB to ANY purpose.

Race manager page showing in particular black flag set up, stop'n'go or timed etc.

Explanations on every aspect of the RMS

Tips of the day

This is the race page, note fuel, blag flag.

The drop'n'drag system for setting up races is unreal.

Just tried the auto car/name/ID entry into racr register, man Im excited

Real false start detection working now, speeding through pits next.

Real fuel to 1/100th of a litre based on actual throttle is working perfectly.

"Quick Race" is also a beauty.....

Stay tuned.....

Rick

 

[minus]

Kudos to you Rick

The LB setup is really nice, any chance this goes to mac as well?

minus

 

[mondo]

Looks great Rick. Love the first shot with assignable LB funtionality. Good thinking.

Cheers
Ray

 

[injectorman]

QUOTE (minus @ 8 Jul 2011, 19:18) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Kudos to you Rick

The LB setup is really nice, any chance this goes to mac as well?

minus
No but Mac users can install Windows I guess.

 

[diegu]

Wow!