I have updated Qual Control v0.2 to Event Control v0.31. Now you don't need to be an admin to manage stuff and there's more things that can be done. Now there's race directors who can do all the important stuff, and I have added automatic grid-reversing for top[x] drivers (you can specify the number), director chat messages, better restarting and ending sessions...

Check the updated first post for detailed info, and follow the link in the end of that post to the official thread in the programmers forum for the zip file which includes an executable ready to use.

I know there has been quite a commotion going on with the leagues sub-sections thread being closed and all, so I'd like to ask if we still have the possibility to ask for leagues' banners to be uploaded to the rotation as people used to ask for it in that same thread.

At the Fun Racing League we are trying our best to continue with our steady process of growth promoting the league by posting news items, using lfsforum events calendar, posting events to spdo's event DB, and now we have finished our dynamic userbars showing league stats (yet to be approved) and we would like to change our existing banner for this new one (attachment) which includes basic info about our league style so potential new drivers can know at a glance the style of racing we offer.

Sincerely, these days it's getting hard to get a league to grow if you don't offer live broadcasts and have the fastest guys participating. Even if it is a good, clean and well managed league like ours, we can just hope to receive a little help to get our advertising efforts to reach to the public. Please don't stop offering this help which means a lot to us smaller and new leagues

Is this actually my CInsim library??? I don't know anything about outgauge and didn't know that it could be used with my lib Anyway, I haven't touched it since 2008 so the main update I guess is to grab the newest insim.txt in the docs folder and rename it to insim.h and use that for the header file of my lib.

Also you have to look for the line that sets the size of buttons text and remove the comment in it so you can write text into buttons (you have to specify the size of the C string to up to 240 chars).

In my experience the way I learnt most about how insim works, even after having read the whole insim.txt and having programmed my own example applications was using DarkTimes' InSimSniffer. It should be mandatory to use it before trying any attempt to program using it.

Now, about buttons, sending commands, abd stuff... you just have to read the insim doc. It's not that hard, all text editors have a very nice funtion called FIND, and even though there is a lot of information in insim.txt you can always search things and play with them.

Anyway, the main problem is people trying to pick a big project when they do not even understand the basics of programming, and they try to do things that are too hard for them by imitation and not understanding how it works...

Hi, we have been working on the Fun Racing League dynamic userbar and we think it's ready to be used, so it would be nice if you could add it.

It should be linked to this URL
http://www.funracingleague.com ... userbar.php?nome=makakazo

And please use [frl] tags if possible.

It looks like it's already working, though we have to do the final tweaks and finishing touches to the base userbar. Thanks guys for your support

EDIT: Anyway... I have noticed that the result obtained when rendering the text is not optimal. I don't know if it's a matter of the library used, the ttf font, or the browser, or a combination. I like the shape and size of the text, but sometimes some letters overlap in a wrong way, or get stretched oddly, causing little imperfections of 1 pixel. Please take a look at the userbar attached and notice the odd separation in the username "YACOMO87" between the letter CO and MO and also in the word PODIUMS in several places.

Do you know what might be causing this? Also, when I generate this userbars locally with my own WAMP installation that I got to work for tests it doesn't look exactly the same. Id it the GD library acting different in different versions?

Last edited by MaKaKaZo, Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:44.

I have "finished" working on this userbar stuff but I can't try it myself, my admin pal has to upload the files and do the testing on a mirror image of the site (I don't have a dump). I think it might actually work on the first try.

I just wanted to post the contents of the final php file that is supposed to receive requests and outputs the corresponding userbar. Isn't this a little bit too simple? Even before trying I have a feeling this might not work.
PS: If everything goes OK we'll try and investigate on the mod_rewrite and .htaccess way to do it so it looks better



@ Dygear:

I'm already doing everything you say The same script that uploads the results to the DB calls the function to generate/update the userbars for each driver who took place in that race. Anyway, we have to call the script once for everybody in the DB to generate all userbars based on the data collected so far.

an

Quote from Dygear :


<?php 
$png = imagecreatefrompng('./stdBackgound.png');

// Place data on to the userbar.

[B]imagepng($im, "{$username}.png");[/B]

imagedestroy($im);
?>



Do I need to use "{$username}"? I used just imagepng($im, "$username.png");

Last edited by MaKaKaZo, Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:23.

Thanks for the quick reply

That's a lot of info and I'm quite tired now. Tomorrow I'll take my time to analyse everything in detail, and I'll check if we have availability in the host to use mod_rewrite and .htaccess files. I think with this we'll be able to eventually get to it via trial/error

I know this is not directly an LFS addon question, but some insight would be very appreciated.

We at Fun Racing League are trying to do dynamic userbars to be used here in the forums and we've come to a wall. We have a php script that generates and deploys a dynamic userbar containing some driver data fetched from the DB.

The thing is, right now that script receives an lfs username and generates the userbar at that moment and delivers it. I thought that would be very resource consuming as the userbars would be generated time and time again for no reason.

So I thought the right way would be to generate/update all userbars on a certain event, that is when we upload new race results (at that moment userbars must be updated). Then all those userbars are saved into a folder as they are created as png images. Then we have a php file that translates a request to a png image. For example:
1.- Race results are uploaded (in this process userbars are automatically generated and saved into the directory http://www.funracingleague.com/images/ubars
2.- Then we have a php file like this: http://www.funracingleague.com/userbars.php?lfsname=makakazo that the only thing it does is to return this image http://www.funracingleague.com/images/ubars/makakazo.png

I think this is the right way to do it. Anyway, right now I don't know exactly how to do some of the things. For example I don't know which functions should be used to store the png generated userbars in the web server, and also I don't know how the php file in point (2.-) does the translation from a GET request to the actual userbar stored. I don't have much knowledge of HTML, though I think that these things can be done rather easily.

Am I on the right path? Any suggestions/tips?

Thanks in advance

I'm sure there must be other insims that do this, but I don't know if they are available for the free public.

Anyway, this was designed in a very simple way with a very simple programming library. I have posted it on the programmers forum for people to take a look at it and understand the basics of insim. I just posted it here because I thought that some people might want something like this so they have it done in an easy way.

Quote :

Changelog:

v0.42

• Now uses CInSim v0.6 (more stable and efficient).
  

v0.41

• Director commands for penalties.
  
• Director commands for RCM messages.
  
• Chat commands (!ecmd) now is a button screen instead of chat lines.
  

v0.4

• directors.cfg merged into config.cfg for easier config.
  
• Added new commands for race directors for some basic server configuration (!elaps, !equal, !etrack, !ecars, etc.)
  
• !eon and !eoff for turning Event Control completely on or off (for admins only).
  
• Uses new CInSim v0.4 library.
  

EVENT CONTROL v0.42

This is another application/tutorial I've written in basic C/C++ using my "CInsim" library. You can find the C++ CInsim library and my previous basic applications here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=47717

All the source code is provided, of course, as well as a code::blocks project file

This application is an event manager (server oriented) developed for the Fun Racing League (http://www.funracingleague.com/). It was originally designed (as Qual Control) to enforce HARDCORE qualify sessions, in which the use of Shift+P and Shift+S is forbidden, so people can only do realistic pitstops by driving into the pitlane and stopping on the yellow spots.

The current version allows further control over race directing, and introduces the figure of the RACE DIRECTOR, which is a driver appointed as such who can execute all Event Control's commands except for the ones to quit the application, and turn it ON or OFF. These race directors don't need the admin password of the server and are just added by editing a simple text file. Race Directors can configure the server for a race (track, cars, laps, weather, restart, end, etc.), but can't kick or ban users, change slots, and use advanced host configuration commands.

It is an ideal tool if you manage a league and you want to have non-admin drivers handling things like race director chat messages, restarting/ending sessions, reversing top grid drivers for consecutive rounds of a race, sending drivers to spectators, etc.



QUICK START

You have to edit the config.cfg file with a text editor and fill the three required fields: IP, insim_port and admin_password. Then run the executable (The PThreads dll must be in the same directory).

Optionally, you can edit the config.cfg file to add up to 50 lfs license names who will have access to all race director's commands.

All players who join the server using the admin password have automatic access to all commands.

When the executable is launched the application will connect to the server and a welcome message should appear. There can be drivers in the server when the application starts, but be warned that the first thing it does is send everybody to spectators.

Start running!


USAGE AND FEATURES

Basic user commands:

• !ehelp or !erules : Shows the intro screen.
  
• !ecommands or !ecmd : Shows the available commands in the chat, depending on the level of the user.
  

Race Director commands:

• !em [message] : Sends a preformatted (auto-color, auto upper case) Race Director message through the host chat.
  
• !eopen or !eop : Opens the track for free driving. People can use shift+p and shift+s and rejoin again whenever they want.
  
• !eclose or !ecl : Closes the track. Everybody is sent to spectators and nobody can join the track (they are automatically sent to spectators again if they try).
  
• !ehardq or !ehq : Restarts a hardcore qualify session. In this no rejoin after shift+p or shift+s is allowed. Succesive restarts of /qualify are on hardcore mode until !eopen or !esoftq is used.
  
• !esoftq or !esq : Restarts a soft qualify session. In this spectating and telepitting are allowed at all times.
  
• !erace or !erc : Restarts the race.
  
• !eend : Ends race and goes to lobby screen.
  
• !erev [opt] : In lobby screen, reverses the grid order of the top [opt] number of drivers. If no number is used, by default it's 8.
  
• !ecars, !etrack, !eweather, !ewind, !equal, !elaps, !ehours, !emustpit, !ecanreset (all like original LFS host commands).
  
• !espec, !ecars, !etrack, !eweather, !ewind, !equal, !elaps, !ehours, !emustpit, !ecanreset, !efcv, !emidrace, !eclear, !ep_dt, !ep_sg, !ep_30, !ep_45, !ep_clear, !ercm, !ercm_ply, !ercm_all, !ercc_ply, !ercc_all (all these commands work exactly like the originals).
  

Admin commands:

• !eon : Turns Event Control ON. This is efectively like restarting it.
  
• !eoff : Turns Event Control OFF. Event control stays completely hidden and silent until an admin uses !eexit to quit it, or !eon to turn it on again.
  
• !eexit or !eex : Closes Event Control (must be launched again externally).
  

Messages are sent to drivers to notice about several conditions and rules are shown at beginning, trying to make what's happening as easy to understand as possible.


I have posted it on the programmers forum (it's highly focused to be a tutorial on insim). The zip file is attached there, but I post this announcement here for non-programmers that might be interested in it:
Link to the thread: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1403034

Last edited by MaKaKaZo, Sat, 4 Sep 2010 19:57. Reason : updated version

I have added a new application called "Qual Control" in the first post, a simple qualifying session manager whose only purpose is to enforce hardcore sessions. I have made a thread for it: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1403034

Quote :

Changelog:

v0.43

• Now uses CInSim v0.7 (more efficient).
  

v0.42

• Now uses CInSim v0.6 (more stable and efficient).
  

v0.41

• Director commands for penalties.
  
• Director commands for RCM messages.
  
• Chat commands (!ecmd) now is a button screen instead of chat lines.
  

v0.4

• directors.cfg merged into config.cfg for easier config.
  
• Added new commands for race directors for some basic server configuration (!elaps, !equal, !etrack, !ecars, etc.)
  
• !eon and !eoff for turning Event Control completely on or off (for admins only).
  
• Uses new CInSim v0.4 library.
  

EVENT CONTROL v0.43

This is another application/tutorial I've written in basic C/C++ using my "CInsim" library. You can find the C++ CInsim library and my previous basic applications here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=47717

All the source code is provided, of course, as well as a code::blocks project file

This application is an event manager (server oriented) developed for the Fun Racing League (http://www.funracingleague.com/). It was originally designed (as Qual Control) to enforce HARDCORE qualify sessions, in which the use of Shift+P and Shift+S is forbidden, so people can only do realistic pitstops by driving into the pitlane and stopping on the yellow spots.

The current version allows further control over race directing, and introduces the figure of the RACE DIRECTOR, which is a driver appointed as such who can execute all Event Control's commands except for the ones to quit the application, and turn it ON or OFF. These race directors don't need the admin password of the server and are just added by editing a simple text file. Race Directors can configure the server for a race (track, cars, laps, weather, restart, end, etc.), but can't kick or ban users, change slots, and use advanced host configuration commands.

It is an ideal tool if you manage a league and you want to have non-admin drivers handling things like race director chat messages, restarting/ending sessions, reversing top grid drivers for consecutive rounds of a race, sending drivers to spectators, etc.



QUICK START

You have to edit the config.cfg file with a text editor and fill the three required fields: IP, insim_port and admin_password. Then run the executable (The PThreads dll must be in the same directory).

Optionally, you can edit the config.cfg file to add up to 50 lfs license names who will have access to all race director's commands.

All players who join the server using the admin password have automatic access to all commands.

When the executable is launched the application will connect to the server and a welcome message should appear. There can be drivers in the server when the application starts, but be warned that the first thing it does is send everybody to spectators.

Start running!


USAGE AND FEATURES

Basic user commands:

• !ehelp or !erules : Shows the intro screen.
  
• !ecommands or !ecmd : Shows the available commands in the chat, depending on the level of the user.
  

Race Director commands:

• !em [message] : Sends a preformatted (auto-color, auto upper case) Race Director message through the host chat.
  
• !eopen or !eop : Opens the track for free driving. People can use shift+p and shift+s and rejoin again whenever they want.
  
• !eclose or !ecl : Closes the track. Everybody is sent to spectators and nobody can join the track (they are automatically sent to spectators again if they try).
  
• !ehardq or !ehq : Restarts a hardcore qualify session. In this no rejoin after shift+p or shift+s is allowed. Succesive restarts of /qualify are on hardcore mode until !eopen or !esoftq is used.
  
• !esoftq or !esq : Restarts a soft qualify session. In this spectating and telepitting are allowed at all times.
  
• !erace or !erc : Restarts the race.
  
• !eend : Ends race and goes to lobby screen.
  
• !erev [opt] : In lobby screen, reverses the grid order of the top [opt] number of drivers. If no number is used, by default it's 8.
  
• !ecars, !etrack, !eweather, !ewind, !equal, !elaps, !ehours, !emustpit, !ecanreset (all like original LFS host commands).
  
• !espec, !ecars, !etrack, !eweather, !ewind, !equal, !elaps, !ehours, !emustpit, !ecanreset, !efcv, !emidrace, !eclear, !ep_dt, !ep_sg, !ep_30, !ep_45, !ep_clear, !ercm, !ercm_ply, !ercm_all, !ercc_ply, !ercc_all (all these commands work exactly like the originals).
  

Admin commands:

• !eon : Turns Event Control ON. This is efectively like restarting it.
  
• !eoff : Turns Event Control OFF. Event control stays completely hidden and silent until an admin uses !eexit to quit it, or !eon to turn it on again.
  
• !eexit or !eex : Closes Event Control (must be launched again externally).
  

Messages are sent to drivers to notice about several conditions and rules are shown at beginning, trying to make what's happening as easy to understand as possible.

Last edited by MaKaKaZo, Sat, 5 Jan 2013 12:56. Reason : update

Quote from brandons48 :

Sounds simple enough - I'll give it a go.

Any preference on numbering etc. ?

Not really. Usually everybody uses the same skin (at least everybody in the same team), so numbering doesn't make much sense. You can put a 666 on it And thanks!

Here's a mpr replay of the funniest round we have had. It's an old replay, but it's still gold. There are so many highlights that's it's hard to mention them all

Hi, I'm looking for an UFR skin themed around "destruction", "hell", etc. with a white base and decals/drawings on black so you can change the base colour with the color sliders and still see the black decals.

This is aimed at a team game we play which is a "sprint deathmatch", where two teams must fight to have one racer finish a 3 lap race, with everything allowed. The team that gets a finisher first is awarded one point.

We use the default UFR skin with different colours using the color-sliders. The idea is to have an agressive skin which is black and white so you can have a yellow, light red, light blue or green car with the same skin just by using the sliders.

I've tried to do some but I totally fail as an artist, mine don't look scary, which is the point

Anyone up for it? I would include the skin in a promo video I'm planning to do

I withdraw from this league. Good luck to the rest of the drivers.

Liked the idea, liked the video

4/5

There are some cool lightning effects and skies (loved the moving skies), but I didn't believe the rain and the wet surface. The overlay in the first scenes looks unnatural, you don't see rain like that. And no water-spray from the car just doesn't feel right, even more unnatural. Lightning and reflections are nice, but you didn't get the whole wet road thing to look realistic.

Anyway, it's nice to see people trying new things and you have very good skills so keep it up!

4/5

I liked the movie overall, the action was fine. But I think you set high contrast and brightness and maybe even saturation and I don't like how it looks, too artificial.

I've been watching the replays, and there's so much stuff to look into that I think admins should review the whole races and not just wait for protests to be filled.

Announcing the safety car rule just before the race without giving any further details on how it was going to work wasn't a good idea.

You have to think first on what's the purpose of the safety car, which obviusly is to make the races safer. In real life its work is to keep everything under control while they are getting debrish and cars safely out of the track so there's no danger when they resume the race. In LFS we can have people spectate after rolling over and even admins can do it with a command. Having a SC in LFS is just for the show, to look realistic and cool, but it's not needed at all.

Considering that in this track most people had setups that didn't allow hard braking the safety car was more of a risky car. In the end I think that the safety car was more a step back than forward.

I'm more of the opinion that you just have to let people race and if someone flips over or gets stuck he just goes to spectators. That and a no overtaking under yellow flag rule is enough.

Also, I can't help but point out that there was a lot of insulting going on again against admins and drivers. I hope that the admins fix this, even if it means kicking people out of the league for bad behaviour.

Quote from oldnavy :

Other:
We would like to ask to all drivers after crash not to use Shift+p or shift+s becasue of Safety car

What is the procedure then? Will we be instructed to uso shift+p or shift+s after some time or do we have to remain upside down for all the race?

You should be more concrete about safety car rules. People will be able to overtake safety car to unlap themselves if they are one or more laps behind the leader?

People without any teammate participating have it way harder in all sessions for this oval race, because drafting is in itself unfair if you have no one to practice it or to do it during quali-race. I didn't like this oval race since the beginning because it's not really so representative of individual skill like other races.

I vote no. It takes too much time.