Hi, folks! I've been wanting to do something for a very long time and I thought it was too hard and I didn't have much time, but recently, I decided to try and found I could very well do it. I've already told a few about this, but anyway... here it goes.
In the shared zip file, you will find:
- A DOS TSR program called stpeek.com
- A FreeBasic program called watchpeek.bas and its Debian-based GNU/Linux 64 bit binary as well as its Windows executable
- One of the Stunts builds we're currently using, stuntsp.exe
I'm sharing my binary of Stunts because what I've done currently only works with this binary. I can investigate a little and make it compatible with others, but generally, I can't make it compatible with "any" Stunts binary. It'd be a matter of selecting a few official ones later. So with this one, it works.
To try this, you copy stpeek.com into some directory that will be accessible to you while you're running DOSBox. For example, it could go into the directory of Stunts. I like having Stunts under c:\games\stunts when I start DOSBox and I put this TSR at C:\, but it'll work in any case. Then, you run watchpeek and it will show some numbers. For now, press a key and it will ask you for the path to a track file. Provide the path and it'll display a very crude and bad looking map of that track. Run DOSBox, then stpeek.com. It'll create a file at C:\ (relative to DOSBox) called LIVEDUMP.DAT, so make sure something is mounted at C:\. Then run stunts with stuntsp.exe. Ensure you can see both the DOSBox and the watchpeek windows at the same time and get in to drive a track. You should be able to see your dot following the track. If something fails, please tell me. I would like to see this tested in different environments.
Of course, the whole purpose of this isn't just to have a track map. I can plug this output into anything, for example, my 3D engine. Also, I can create a small server program to gather data from all pipsqueaks that connect to it and you'd be able to see all together on the same track map or in the same 3D realm. See what I mean? I'll be testing these things soon, but I need to do some calibration to enhance how this works.
Currently, the "connection" is made via disk. The TSR writes to the file within DOSBox and the watcher picks it up by reading the file over and over again. This is not very nice. You can make it better by mounting a RAM drive to run Stunts, but I found that even with a slow hard disk, it's sufficiently fast. I am considering other ways of sending the data outside DOSBox.
Let me know your thoughts!
In the shared zip file, you will find:
- A DOS TSR program called stpeek.com
- A FreeBasic program called watchpeek.bas and its Debian-based GNU/Linux 64 bit binary as well as its Windows executable
- One of the Stunts builds we're currently using, stuntsp.exe
I'm sharing my binary of Stunts because what I've done currently only works with this binary. I can investigate a little and make it compatible with others, but generally, I can't make it compatible with "any" Stunts binary. It'd be a matter of selecting a few official ones later. So with this one, it works.
To try this, you copy stpeek.com into some directory that will be accessible to you while you're running DOSBox. For example, it could go into the directory of Stunts. I like having Stunts under c:\games\stunts when I start DOSBox and I put this TSR at C:\, but it'll work in any case. Then, you run watchpeek and it will show some numbers. For now, press a key and it will ask you for the path to a track file. Provide the path and it'll display a very crude and bad looking map of that track. Run DOSBox, then stpeek.com. It'll create a file at C:\ (relative to DOSBox) called LIVEDUMP.DAT, so make sure something is mounted at C:\. Then run stunts with stuntsp.exe. Ensure you can see both the DOSBox and the watchpeek windows at the same time and get in to drive a track. You should be able to see your dot following the track. If something fails, please tell me. I would like to see this tested in different environments.
Of course, the whole purpose of this isn't just to have a track map. I can plug this output into anything, for example, my 3D engine. Also, I can create a small server program to gather data from all pipsqueaks that connect to it and you'd be able to see all together on the same track map or in the same 3D realm. See what I mean? I'll be testing these things soon, but I need to do some calibration to enhance how this works.
Currently, the "connection" is made via disk. The TSR writes to the file within DOSBox and the watcher picks it up by reading the file over and over again. This is not very nice. You can make it better by mounting a RAM drive to run Stunts, but I found that even with a slow hard disk, it's sufficiently fast. I am considering other ways of sending the data outside DOSBox.
Let me know your thoughts!
It's the first time we have it in an official R4K race! Hope to see you guys there!
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It not necessarily is about teams, but it well might.
I'm very upset because I lost everything I had written when I was trying to upload the image file by dragging it. Recommendation: if you're going to include an image, do it first, then type! Otherwise, just do it by "browse" button. Avoid dragging.