Messages

1

Stunts Questions / Re: stunts@kalpen.de

« on: June 04, 2019, 12:40:30 AM »

Do you wish us to add this version for download to our page?

If you want to do it, that would be great  I think of Kalpen as the canonical place to download the various PC versions of Stunts, so it seems fitting that this version should be there, rather than in an arbitrary place like my site.

2

Stunts Questions / Re: stunts@kalpen.de

« on: June 02, 2019, 08:44:16 PM »

I do feel Kalpen is the natural home for this download. In the meantime, I can upload it to Southern Cross next time I update the site (which might take a little while), if no other site takes it up beforehand.

3

Stunts Related Programs / Re: The Protocol - Ideas on unification and integration

« on: April 13, 2019, 12:39:25 AM »

Now, what can we build on it?

*Puts on pestering end-user hat*

I pine for the day when I no longer have to clone and then massage the database in order to do stuff like this 

4

Car creation with Stressed / Re: On Speedgate's strange powergear-like behaviour

« on: April 11, 2019, 02:12:47 AM »

From having looked at Speedgate's RES file, I'm pretty much certain its downshift bug exists because of an abnormally high maximum RPM (byte 33h), well beyond the end of the torque curve. When you downshift a high-revving Speedgate, you don't get engine braking; rather, the car keeps its speed while revving higher than would otherwise be possible. If you do that while driving at a sufficiently high speed, you get powergear-like behaviour, which I haven't yet investigated closely enough to be able to describe in detail.

I looked up Speedgate in the wiki and there's a reference about a "mild pseudo-anti-powergear". Does this line refer to the same feature I'm talking about?

Not really; I wrote that passage long before we noticed the downshift bug. I believe the first pipsqueak to take advantage of that bug was Gutix, in his winning Z104 lap, though back then I think few, if any, among the rest of us understood clearly what was going on.

Anti-powergear refers to the ramp slowdown feature of the Countach. The Speedgate, like some other cars, is affected by slowdowns when landing from jumps at very high speeds. Nowadays I'm not actually sure if the same bug is involved in both cases, and I probably wouldn't use the term "anti-powergear" were I writing that article right now.

How do you guys feel about maybe loving this weirdness a little?

I find it rather difficult to warm to that bug because it feels too close for comfort to powergear on demand, which I tend to think of as a Niva-class anti-feature. In the past, I have even thought about publishing an alternative Speedgate with a working rev limiter... On the other hand, it could be interesting to explore which driving techniques would be needed to use the downshift bug to its fullest extent. And in any case, I will give Speedgate a go in the current R4K track 

5

Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: DOS and DOSBox memory systems and Stunts

« on: April 08, 2019, 03:34:10 AM »

Both this and Cas' investigation about corner signs have been moved to this board, which in turn has been renamed to "Stunts Reverse Engineering", as it had been suggested.

6

Competition 2019 / ZCT212 analysis

« on: April 07, 2019, 09:00:01 PM »

Top 4 analysis for ZCT212:

Code: [Select]

Splits FIN MAR CTG DUP
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 22.30 22.55 22.70 22.70
2 39.20 39.45 39.95 40.25
3 53.60 54.20 54.75 55.55
4 60.10 60.65 62.15 61.95
5 68.55 68.90 71.15 70.15
6 81.60 82.50 85.90 86.65

Sectors FIN MAR CTG DUP
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 22.30 22.55 22.70 22.70
2 16.90 16.90 17.25 17.55
3 14.40 14.75 14.80 15.30
4 6.50 6.45 7.40 6.40
5 8.45 8.25 9.00 8.20
6 13.05 13.60 14.75 16.50

Gaps FIN MAR CTG DUP
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 0.00 0.25 0.40 0.40
2 0.00 0.25 0.75 1.05
3 0.00 0.60 1.15 1.95
4 0.00 0.55 2.05 1.85
5 0.00 0.35 2.60 1.60
6 0.00 0.90 4.30 5.05





Two remarks. Firstly, this was a tough track, with multiple spots where one subtle misstep (for instance, a fumbled gear change at the loopcut) could derail one's plans entirely. Carrera tracks do have a penchant for being unforgiving, one (in)famous example being Z86. Secondly, the final cut was absolutely decisive, as comparing FinRok's dream line by the first roof and Marco's spotless take on the second tunnel with everything else reveals. In particular, I have lost a podium place by not realising quite how much that would matter enough (my purple sectors 4 and 5 weren't worth much when followed by a somewhat careless final cut -- in fact, I had to abandon a partial replay with even better sectors 4 and 5 because I couldn't pull off a sufficiently good sector 6 before the deadline).

7

General Chat - ZSC / Re: Licensing tracks and replays

« on: April 02, 2019, 02:03:37 AM »

3. Stressed is GPLv2-licensed; Cartography is MIT-licensed -- both are FOSS.

4. Adapting JTK's phrasing: I hereby declare all tracks, cars and mods ever designed by me free for download, copying, usage (especially racing), copying, modification and distribution, unless explicitly specified otherwise ^*.

*: Worry not -- other than the programs I have released under GPL or MIT you won't find anything specifying otherwise in the things I have published up to this day.

(The readmes of my cars include phrasing like "by the community, for the community" that, however imprecisely, already expressed that intent. I usually license stuff I create which isn't code as CC-BY-SA; around here, however, the only license I feel like reaching for is the WTFPL  )

8

Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: On corner signs

« on: March 20, 2019, 05:30:50 AM »

I figure I could make a few more tests and create such page. Actually, there should be some hub in the wiki or here in the forum that leads to topics on research, the internal workings of Stunts, etc. Many aspects of it are a lot more useful than this one and several have already been exposed, only separately.

Thanks for adding it to the Wiki, and also for the other edits -- that article about the replay file format had been a glaring omission! About the hub/category, though the Modding caegory had been created with that in mind, "Internals" is probably a better name for this sort of thing.

(By the way, I'm thinking about moving this topic to the "Stunts Code Extraction" subforum, so that it is easier to find.)

9

Competition 2019 / ZCT211 analysis

« on: March 19, 2019, 03:11:49 AM »

Here is a top 6 analysis for last month's race -- it's been a while since we last did that, and also it is a nice opportunity to try it out with multiple cars:

(From the second table on, Audi times were corrected by the car bonuses to fit the Ranger ones.)

Code: [Select]

Splits MAR SEE DUP DRE OVE HER
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 41.15 41.95 34.60 43.25 34.95 35.25
2 74.25 75.05 59.50 77.90 62.70 63.70
3 109.80 109.95 88.25 113.75 91.95 93.70
4 125.60 126.65 101.15 130.85 105.00 106.90
5 148.80 149.75 118.75 156.15 123.85 126.80

Bonus MAR SEE DUP DRE OVE HER
1.00 1.00 1.29 1.00 1.29 1.29

Corr. Splits MAR SEE DUP DRE OVE HER
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 41.15 41.95 44.49 43.25 44.94 45.32
2 74.25 75.05 76.50 77.90 80.61 81.90
3 109.80 109.95 113.46 113.75 118.22 120.47
4 125.60 126.65 130.05 130.85 135.00 137.44
5 148.80 149.75 152.68 156.15 159.24 163.03

Sectors MAR SEE DUP DRE OVE HER
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 41.15 41.95 44.49 43.25 44.94 45.32
2 33.10 33.10 32.01 34.65 35.68 36.58
3 35.55 34.90 36.96 35.85 37.61 38.57
4 15.80 16.70 16.59 17.10 16.78 16.97
5 23.20 23.10 22.63 25.30 24.24 25.59

Gaps MAR SEE DUP DRE OVE HER
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 0.00 0.80 3.34 2.10 3.79 4.17
2 0.00 0.80 2.25 3.65 6.36 7.65
3 0.00 0.15 3.66 3.95 8.42 10.67
4 0.00 1.05 4.45 5.25 9.40 11.84
5 0.00 0.95 3.88 7.35 10.44 14.23





Some of the highlights:

• Sectors 1 (GAR-esque) and 3 (flat out) do suggest a Ranger advantage under those bonuses.
• Other sectors, however, gave the Audi pipsqueaks enough margin to (barely) remain in contention. There was the high speed outer line in sector 5, and, in my lap, one extra shortcut in sector 2 that wouldn't be as useful with the Ranger due to the lower attainable speeds.
• While one would be forgiven for thinking nothing interesting would happen in sector 3, it turns out that Seeker managed to claw back almost the whole gap to Marco there, centisecond by centisecond.
• Following that, Marco managed to fend off the challenge with a quite excellent line through sector 4 (the first dual-way sector).
• Marco's lap also features an interesting inner dual-way cut through sector 5. Among the top 6, the only one to attempt a somewhat similar line was Heretic -- the alternative provided by outer line, though, meant the inner line was rather less effective with the Audi than with the Ranger.

10

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 18, 2019, 11:37:49 PM »

There's an option to skip empty cells and leave gaps in Excel, but not in the web one I've used to look at the spreadsheets above.

If we are talking about the first xlsx, I suspect the problem has to do with a handful of merged cells I used for layout. In any case, here is a text version of the lap tables:

Sunrise

Code: [Select]

Cas dreadnaut Duplode Marco Overdrijf sd4000
Lap # Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total
1 01:24.60 01:24.60 01:20.25 01:20.25 01:17.65 01:17.65 01:34.55 01:34.55 01:24.70 01:24.70 01:28.60 01:28.60
2 01:22.15 02:46.75 01:11.95 02:32.20 01:08.60 02:26.25 01:23.45 02:58.00 01:25.30 02:50.00 01:19.40 02:48.00
3 01:15.25 04:02.00 01:18.35 03:50.55 01:07.75 03:34.00 01:29.80 04:27.80 01:16.85 04:06.85 01:26.40 04:14.40
4 01:18.55 05:20.55 01:11.60 05:02.15 01:05.85 04:39.85 01:19.00 05:46.80 01:16.30 05:23.15 01:19.60 05:34.00
5 01:14.90 06:35.45 01:11.35 06:13.50 01:05.90 05:45.75 01:14.25 07:01.05 01:15.10 06:38.25 01:17.70 06:51.70
6 01:15.55 07:51.00 01:11.90 07:25.40 01:07.20 06:52.95 01:16.00 07:54.25
7 01:05.15 07:58.10

Lap count 6 6 7 5 6 5
Final lap elems. 8 25 1 34 6 45
Elem. at 8:00 Tunnel after jump Flooded road before slalom First hill drop Just before leaving 2nd hill Bottom of 1st ramp 180° banked corner, 1st half

Sundown

Code: [Select]

Cas dreadnaut Duplode Marco Overdrijf sd4000
Lap # Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total Lap time Total
1 01:33.30 01:33.30 01:23.10 01:23.10 01:18.60 01:18.60 01:30.05 01:30.05 01:26.15 01:26.15 01:28.95 01:28.95
2 01:24.65 02:57.95 01:13.75 02:36.85 01:11.10 02:29.70 01:14.70 02:44.75 01:17.15 02:43.30 01:23.45 02:52.40
3 01:18.70 04:16.65 01:13.85 03:50.70 01:11.70 03:41.40 01:13.70 03:58.45 01:17.15 04:00.45 01:19.55 04:11.95
4 01:22.10 05:38.75 01:14.30 05:05.00 01:13.70 04:55.10 01:15.30 05:13.75 01:17.70 05:18.15 01:24.75 05:36.70
5 01:19.95 06:58.70 01:12.90 06:17.90 01:10.35 06:05.45 01:15.85 06:29.60 01:18.55 06:36.70 01:20.40 06:57.10
6 01:15.55 07:33.45 01:13.00 07:18.45 01:16.25 07:45.85 01:17.90 07:54.60
7

Lap count 5 6 6 6 6 5
Final lap elems. 40 19 29 9 5 41
Elem. at 8:00 Chicane after bank. corner Chicane on hilltop Hill drop before loop First bridge ramp 180° banked corner, 1st half Right turn before tunnels


11

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 18, 2019, 03:23:42 AM »

I didn't add charts to the previous spreadsheets... They aren't fully representative (I have no idea about how to plot the incomplete lap), but anyway here they are!

12

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 18, 2019, 02:29:52 AM »

Final standings of today's races:

Sunrise

1. Duplode -- 7 laps; 1 element; first hill drop
2. dreadnaut -- 6 laps; 25 elements; flooded road before slalom
3. Cas -- 6 laps; 8 elements; tunnel after jump
4. sd4000 -- 5 laps; 45 elements; first half of 180° banked corner
5. Marco -- 5 laps; 34 elements; just before leaving second hill
DSQ. Overdrijf -- 6 laps; 6 elements; first ramp (late submission)

Fastest lap: Duplode #7 -- 1:05.15

Sundown

1. Duplode -- 6 laps; 29 elements; hill drop before loop
2. dreadnaut -- 6 laps; 19 elements; chicane on hilltop
3. Marco -- 6 laps; 9 elements; first bridge ramp
4. Overdrijf -- 6 laps; 5 elements; first half of 180° banked corner
5. sd4000 -- 5 laps; 41 elements; right turn before tunnels
6. Cas -- 5 laps; 40 elements; chicane after banked corner

Fastest lap: Duplode #5 -- 1:10.35

(Technical note: the element counts refer to how many track elements were completed in the final, incomplete lap. The element mentioned after the count is where the car was at 8:00.00, and the first element after the completed ones. For instance, if someone reached the finish line at exactly 8:00.00, the count would be 0, and the described element would be "start/finish icy road".)

For complete lap charts, see the attached spreadsheet.

13

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 17, 2019, 10:05:34 PM »

By the way, I though I had posted thts, but apparently not:

Overdrijf, Sunrise (22 seconds late)

1:24.70
2:50.00
4:06.85
5:23.15
6:38.25
7:54.25

8 min at at the bottom edge of the first ramp.

14

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 17, 2019, 10:00:31 PM »

Cas, Sundown:

1:33.30
2:57.95
4:16.65
5:38.75
6:58.70

8 min at chicane after the banked corner near the end.

15

Live Races / Re: Sunrise / Sundown (2019-03-17)

« on: March 17, 2019, 09:49:30 PM »

sdasdasd