Topics

1

Issues with version 4 / Missing laps with version 4.1.0.137 and Smart Sensor

« on: December 25, 2018, 07:27:11 PM »

Hi All
I have been holding back using the latest version because there is some incompatibility between RCS64 and the SmartSensor (software vers 14).
For instance, one of the issues is that when a car is in pit mode (sensed by the SS) there are no brakes.
This means that you have to coast inside the pitlane. Instead with the RCS64 version I was using before (.127 I think - where there was still the "GO" option in the pit menu) with SS ver 12 I could use the brake button to stop the car in the pitlane where ever I wanted.
So there is something wrong here. The worst part is that this incompatibility is creating some issues with counting laps.
Despite this, I decided for our latest series (3DTM) to give a new version a try. Main reason is that is more responsive than version .127.
Also I like that one can set the tyres wear such that they can last longer than 100 laps.

It was ok to live with the missing brakes in the pit. What I was not expecting was that during practice/quali/race we are missing lap counting: once in a while one or more driver will not see their lap counted where going over the APB.
Why do I think that this is an issue with the SS? Because I did some testing where I unhooked the SS from my laptop and there were no missing laps.
My laptop is a dell latitude with 16GB of RAM and i7-5600U CPU@2.60 GHz.
I dock the laptop on a dockstation where I have two monitors and all the usb cable attached (FTDI, SS, mouse, etc).
My update frequence is set to 1. But even changing to 5, 10 or whatever has not really helped much.
One interesting thing: I have done lots of tests running laps against a pacecar (fixed speed). The pacecar never misses a lap. It seems that only the IDs controlled by a human are affected.
I can rule out that is an issue with the apb or the cable: I have two APBs and two cables and the issue is there no matter which APB/cable I use.

Our races are pretty long: we do mini endurance races of 30 min each. Each driver misses between 5 to 10 laps per race. Couple this with the lack of adjusting lap counting via software (basically I have to pass the car manually over the APB during a track call to put in the missing laps) and it makes for a very frustrating experience.
The situation is so bad that we are now back to version .127

I know that this is not going to be fixed because you guys are not supporting RCS64 but I would like to know if I am the only one with this issue.
thanks
g
 

2

Issues with version 4 / Winner audio message is not always correct at the end of race

« on: August 31, 2015, 10:57:44 PM »

I have noticed several times that when a (endurance) race is finished, the audio message of the winner ID is most of the times wrong.
Last weekend I noticed why it was most of time times (sometimes it would get it correctly)...Basically the audio message will announce as winner the ID of the car that last pass over the S/F line. With last I do not mean the last position I mean the last car that will conclude the last lap before the race is over. If it happens that is the car that has the most of the laps (basically the winner) then it would be the correct announcement. But most of the times is not.

I am not sure that this happens in GP mode as I have not raced in this mode for a very long time.   

3

Issues with version 4 / Issue with timed session (pract/qual/race) when PB before pit exit option

« on: August 30, 2015, 02:52:33 AM »

In analog mode, if you enable the option "PB before pit exit" together with the option "count lap when exit pit lane (this work only with pit sensor)" then a timed session (like 10 min pract) will not have the timer started (count down from 10 min to 0) - actually the timer will be 00:00:00 no matter the settings- and no laps will be counted. When the cars goes over the S/F line the sound associated with the ID will be played but no count or timing will be recorded.

I think this is an issue related to the fact the SS (in my case) will be disable when RCS is set to analog, but the option that requires the lap to be counted when going over the pit exit sensor screws up the logic of the program.

gio

4

Future Development / Tyre Profile as part of the event settings

« on: May 09, 2015, 09:18:54 PM »

The more I switch between different type of race/event the more I think that the tyre profile should be part of the settings of an event. As it is now, you have to go to the tyre profile tab and select which tyre profile should be applied to your race.
I have three types of tyre profile I use: R1R for the ISC event, RCS64 for nascar, and TyreTruck for running Fly trucks. I use these profiles for different type of single events. But every time I switch between different events, I found myself forgetting about changing the tyre profiles.
 
I think this is not the correct approach: the tyre wear tab should be the place to go for editing/creating tyre profiles. Not the place where you have to set the tyre profile to be used in the event tab. Instead, in the single event tab, one should be able to chose which tyre profile to use from the drop down list of available profiles (similar to the driver name/ID assignment that is the single event tab). And this value should be saved as part of the event settings. When one changes between different events, the correct tyre profile should be used.

5

Issues with version 4 / Track condition - the sliding bar is not precise

« on: April 22, 2015, 11:39:33 PM »

Hi
Another issue that we have is with the sliding bar for the track condition. It is not clear which tyres we have to use. Before there was the icon on the left-hand side of the dashboard but now has been replaces by the race flag (green/yellow).
The race flag icon does not add any info to the current race experience.

I know that a voice message is played but with 4 drivers and 7 cars going you do not pay much attention to the voice announcements. The slide bar is nice to see where the condition of the track is going but especially with transition zones (wet/damp and damp/dry) it is very difficult to guess which tyre types suit best your needs.

Another thing that would be nice to avoid car carnage is to let the grip response to develop slowly like for the brake performance when the tyre wear out. As it is right now, you hear "track is wet" and the your car flies out like a missile because of the throttle delay is immediately apply. This is quite severe if you are coming on a nice straight.

6

Issues with version 4 / adjusting damage points through the keyboard

« on: April 20, 2015, 10:25:07 PM »

I might doing something wrong but during a race I am not able to use the keyboard to add or remove damage points to a driver ID. I know that in the previous version, Q would add a damage point and A would remove it to ID 1, so would W and S for ID 2 and so on.
But in this version it seems not working. Also, it would be much easier to allow this when the track call is still on.

7

Issues with version 4 / First car setting overwriting other cars

« on: April 20, 2015, 03:07:47 AM »

This does not happen all the time and I do not know how I trigger it.

Opening the car setting window, when I click on a car to select it and this car is not the first one in the list, what happens is that the first car's setting (pic and all) overwrites the one that I have just selected. Has anyone seen this bug?

8

Issues with version 4 / Brake Points in Events does not get saved

« on: April 08, 2015, 07:00:38 AM »

When saving an event (like a race, GP, qualify, etc.), the number of Brake Points does not get saved. All the other settings change, like fuel level warning, sec to track call, etc.

Also would be nice to be able to save for an event the Tyre Profile. For instance, I have created and saved an event for Truck racing and created a dedicated tyre profile. When I switch to another event, let's say ISC Race then the tyre profile does not get changed and it is very easy to forget to change. Even better would be to be able to select a tyre profile in the race event page.

cheers
gio

9

Issues with version 4 / When controllers are unplugged cars run away

« on: December 21, 2014, 09:10:49 PM »

This issue came up during the beta testing of RCS, but neither Martin nor Andy were able to reproduce.
With RCS64 up and running on your box (no matter if in racing or just in one of the setting page), car on the track and controller plugged in the power base, the car will start moving as soon as you press the trigger on the controller.

Now physically unplug the controller from the power: the car will start running at full speed!

Has anyone else seen this happening on their set up? It might be related to some settings that I have configured on the power base through the tower?
 

10

Future Development / Series: A big mystery

« on: December 20, 2014, 10:13:56 PM »

I am still confused on how you guys expect us to use this function. Without a proper manual is a bit hard to guess and the video manual just hints at how this could be used.

Anyway, I wanted to create a series of events where i can set the number of events like in a championship. Basically at the end of each
event the points are given to the drivers based on their ending position for the race. Optionally, it would be also nice if extra points could be given for best lap in the qualifying event.   

Also, a series can be paused to be resumed later. Even better if the settings and results could be exported on a file to be shared between different machines where RCS64 is installed (I am thinking here at a scenario where races are run on different tracks over a period of time). 

The other thing that bugs me is the way drivers are selected for a series. Basically, the order in which they are selected needs to match the order of the controllers/cars on the far right-hand side. I find this very confusing for two main reasons: first there is no way of telling that there is a match between the drivers order and the controller; second as drivers/cars/controllers are already set on another page I do not see why this needs to be done again. On top of this there is no way (or I was not able to find it) of including pacers in a series.

Bottom line: I am not using this feature at all (I have created my own excel file and I need to put in points at the end of every race). To be honest, when this feature was announced when under development I had big hopes  for it. But in its current implementation (or the way I understand it) is a big let down.

11

Future Development / Better design for the dashboard

« on: December 20, 2014, 09:54:45 PM »

The dashboard for each driver requires a bit of redesign. For instance, the fuel and tyre values are the most important bits of info during a race but they are placed far apart from each other and the font is quite small making hard to gauge their level with just a quick glance at the screen. Most of the dashboard is occupied by 3 huge fields that contain timing information.

I would recommend to have Fuel and Tyre values next to each other and placed on the left side of the dashboard (close to the car pic). Use only one field for the timing showing "current time"/"best time". As for the difference in time between your current and the fastest lap use the general area on the left of the screen where currently it shows the position of each driver/car and how many laps behind the leader car. Basically I would put here the fastest lap next to the id of the driver and for each other driver I would put the different in time from the fastest.

During the pit stop, it is not clear which dashboard is yours given that the only info is the controller colour placed on the far right and the menu options for the pit stop are on the far left. How about using the id colour as a border around the whole dashboard for that particular driver/car?

12

Future Development / Better fuel level warnings

« on: December 20, 2014, 09:35:56 PM »

It would be nice to have an extra audio warning for the fuel level below 10%. Also in the dashboard, when the fuel level is below 10% then the background colour of the field should go from yellow to red.

13

Future Development / Pace cars switching to safe speed when event ends

« on: December 20, 2014, 09:33:23 PM »

When an event ends (e.g., race), with the option “Race end” set to “all cars same lap”, the pace cars should switch to safe speed as set per car settings. I have my pacers set at fixed speed using the option “recorded” because I want to remove a lap every X laps. When the race ends, the car that I control switches to the safety speed as set in the car set up, but the pacers keep going at the recorded speed until the race end condition is met (all cars go through the s/f line of the last lap). This could cause the pace cars to bump into the human-controlled cars as these are not going at a slower speed. 

It would be nice to have each pacer to run at safe speed when they met the race end condition. Also, when the race for a pacer car ends,  the "Finished" label should appear in the dashboard in the pacer ID field as it is the case for human-controlled cars. 

14

Future Development / End of the race information for pacers

« on: December 20, 2014, 09:27:17 PM »

At the end of the race, I would like to see for the pacer cars information related to the lap number that was skipped (if this option is enabled) and the lap number of when the pit stops have been executed (again if this option is enabled).
If more than one values need to be presented (for instance, skip ever 5 laps in a 20 lap race would require 4 values) then provide the sequence of the lap numbers (for instance, if in the 20 lap race lap #2, 7, 13, and 18 have been skipped then in the cell for that particular pacer show "2,7,13,18"). Similar for the pit stop.

In this way we can have two types of information: how many times a lap has been skipped or how many times a pit stop has been performed plus the exact lap when one of these events has happened.

The # of the lap when a pit stop is done could also be useful for normal car as well.   

15

Future Development / Random pit stop for Pacer car

« on: December 20, 2014, 09:17:57 PM »

As it is implemented right now, the pacer will pit exactly on the n-th lap as set in the Laps-to-pit value. So, if you are racing against a pacer then you can base you pit strategy knowing when the pacer is going to stop. It would make things more interesting if the pit stop would be selected randomly within the laps-to-pit value (similar to how the the skip every n-th lap is implemented).

On the dashboard of the pacer the lap-to-pit count down should be disable by default. To me showing it looks more like a debug information. However, whether to show it or not could be controlled by an option in the pacer car settings.