**snip**

**PiranMOTO Open DD, Season 7 Round 4**
**Friday 27th** at **19:00 UTC**
Live stats at https://piranmoto.co.uk/events/101

Last edited by Racon, Fri 3 Jun 2022, 12:11.

PiranMOTO PIE (PHP; InSim; Easy) - Windows EXE running a PHP InSim framework

** Please consider this a beta release at this time! **

PIE is designed to be give easy access to InSim functionality with the PHP programming language (ver 7.2, CLI mode). It takes care of connection to InSim (and optionally OutSim and OutGauge) and maintaining the connection, and calls a user-defined function on receipt of any packet. It can be used to connect to an LFS client (local mode) or an LFS server (host mode) and comes with some basic commands and debugging.

PIE is a commandline executable that reads a PHP file (refered to as a PIE script) and optionally a text configuration file. PIE then uses the settings provided to initiate a connection to InSim. Once connected, PIE will wake from sleep at the specified frequency to run a 'tick'. During this tick, PIE will process any incoming packets, call any pending callback functions, and return to sleep. PIE runs at between 5 and 50 ticks per second, default 20.

PIE scripts consist of PHP functions that are called by PIE as appropriate, such as at startup, on receipt of a packet, at a pre-specified time, etc.

There are functions available to do common tasks such as sending packets, speaking to chat, etc., and a PIE object provides constantly-updated InSim information and a data store.

Functions that are called on receipt of an InSim packet are called with a parameter which consists of all the packet data, unpacked into an associative array. Some packets with combined values have additional indexes for the separated values, and all text fields have been made safe for windows (0 byte stripped, raw SkinID bytes converted to SkinID text string).


Requirements:

• Windows or emulator
  
• LFS v0.7+ (InSim v9+)
  
• Visual C++Redistributable 2015 (often already installed) (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145)
  

(You do NOT need to install PHP)


'Hello world' demo:

Last edited by Racon, Tue 11 Feb 2025, 14:43.

**snip**

Live stats at https://piranmoto.co.uk/events/100

Last edited by Racon, Thu 26 May 2022, 16:54.

I see what you mean with the lights now. I'm planning on smoothing them out with the rest of the curves, and the light texture will be fine-tuned a bit better to match. It'll still be three distinct sections, but they'll curve gently along their length and have a less angular transition between them.

Thanks for the setups, I will give them a thrashing over the weekend :thumbs: To be honest I'm really not skilled enough to drive this thing anywhere near the limits - it's all I can do to get through the roundabout section of the ring without crashing. It's no less fun though

About a bigger version, maybe, but I've got a lot of other modding to do and not much time to do it. It's derivatives-allowed though, so anyone is welcome to make a bigger version if they're impatient. (This one does have aero, btw, quite a bit. It might not feel like it, but without any it is barely touching the ground at about 100kph )

Speaking of the fragility... we're running this tonight on DD at an offroad fig 8 (round 5, 20:30 UTC). Fingers crossed!

**snip**

Last edited by Racon, Thu 19 May 2022, 17:52.

Thanks for the kind words. It's a strange vehicle for sure

Quick fixes: I've updated the rear lights and allowed all tyres.

To-do: I'm still thinking about the overall shape, more details, how much more I need to cut for wheels etc., and possibly adding fairings for the knee supports. I will save the smoothing for after another WIP update.

**snip**

Last edited by Racon, Wed 11 May 2022, 18:39.

Vehicle mod: PIRAN PF ONE
Details page: https://www.lfs.net/files/vehmods/8EFF4E

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

Light and powerful 4WD in a unconventional configuration

DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

Inspired by Phil Frank's Nike One as seen in Gran Turismo, the PF One is best described as a crazy 4WD electric motorbike. It's light, powerful, four-wheel drive with monsterously big tyres, and all in a configuration that's unusual and versatile. It loves zipping through traffic, going sideways around rallycross tracks at insane angles, or close open-wheel racing on an oval. All the speed is amplified by the driver's proximity to the road - it's an odd feeling looking upwards at an MRT driver.

I've tamed the sci-fi a little, and countered what I can, but you're still going to have to suspend a few disbeliefs... wheel hub mechanisms that somehow mimic a double wishbone perfectly, the capabilities of the human neck, how exactly the driver got in there in the first place, that sort of thing. (Take those issues up with Phil )

I've added a fair whack of downforce with a proper aerofoil shape to the front wings, wing followers, and an enormous combination deflector/diffuser at the back to complement the combination tail / wedge-stabiliser. It might be too little force for that stubby a chord, but I didn't want to overdo it. It'll still lose the back going over the WE1 crest if you're not careful, and you feel the lack on the brakes under 60mph/100kph.

To do:

- Smoothing mesh (all over)
- Add detail (interior, roll bars)
- Make skinable
- Headlights/front indicators?
- Handlebar fix
- Any tweaks/changes from feedback.

Huge credit to CyberMob's Acer: I had found some potential and ruined it in several different ways with endless tinkerings back at the 4-wheels-and-a-board testing stage - he brought it back from the dead with his fixes, improved the handling all around, and made it worth continuing with. Much thanks Acer :thumbs:

--

Sources:

Brake/Indicators: CC0 (https://pixnio.com/media/plastic-texture-dark-blue-geometric-shape)
Leather: Free commercial use (https://www.textures.com/download/Leather0071/15488)

COVER SCREENSHOT:

Beautiful! I've put it up at PiranMOTOStreetRacing for online racing (!vote to change track if it's on another)

You asked for it, you got it 😉

4 TOC layouts, 2 rounds each for the T16 and the UF Pickup, and many, many, many crossovers 💥🚑 🏁

Tracks loaded in !vote menu, go get 'em!



**CORRECTION: Interval is not as listed... it's Piano!**

Last edited by Racon, Thu 28 Apr 2022, 21:50.

Special event: Choose your own Combos! *(uh-oh)*

We're going to sneak a quick special event into the schedule before we kick off season 7, with our racers choosing the combos. *(what really?)*

Suggest the car/track combinations you'd like to race most on our discord server, we'll all vote on them, and then we'll run the 7 most popular for this week's event. *(oh god no)*

To keep it relatively sane, we'll require that in each combo we must have either a car or track that we've raced before. One new thing at a time! *(well that's something at least)*

If it's a track that's not in the server's !vote menu (list available at https://piranmoto.co.uk/servers), let us know so we can upload and check it in time. *(just no)*

Voting will be open until Weds evening, combos will be announced and readied on server for practice on Thurs. *(we're all going to die)*

Be Brave!

I've got all kinds of grass layouts over on PiranMOTOGrassRacing, but no small ovals. The closest is Rony's, but it's probably bigger than you're looking for. (!v to vote layouts)

I'm happy to host any layouts you make, there's some good grass places in WE if you can find the right patch of lumpiness. I could maybe transplant one of the old banger ovals onto grass

EDIT: Clean racing on Grass and Street servers! Not everyone knows PM does anythign other than DD

Last edited by Racon, Thu 21 Apr 2022, 18:50.

**snip**

Last edited by Racon, Wed 4 May 2022, 17:31.

A quick update, version 0.1g, to make use of the new mod filtering system: Carlim now uses the /cars and /mods commands when setting a whitelist, to hide cars for which there are no whitelisted options.

**snip**

**PiranMOTO Open DD, Season 6 Round 15**

**Friday 15th** at **19:00 UTC**

Live stats at https://piranmoto.co.uk/events/95

Tracks highlighted in server **!vote** menu on server

Full schedule on PM Discord

Last edited by Racon, Thu 21 Apr 2022, 17:31.

I don't know if it's related, but I was helping someone out with the the insim SCH packet and it isn't working as expected. If I set CharB to 105 (lower case i), LFS seems to receive 57 (9 key) and turns hazards on instead of toggling ignition. I hadn't used that packet before so I have no more useful info than that I'm afraid, no idea if it has always been so.

Edit: It worked when sending 'V' in upper case, the view changed as expected.

Last edited by Racon, Sun 10 Apr 2022, 23:32.

**snip**

Live stats at https://piranmoto.co.uk/events/94

Last edited by Racon, Fri 15 Apr 2022, 12:05.

Nice find, thanks!

Steering lock is one of those things where I have conflicting info - most Lions seem to be listed at between 18 and 24 metres turning circle, but that corresponds with 15 to 20 degrees of turning angle. 35 degrees of steering as we have now is a 9 metre turning circle, so we're already pushing the boundaries of the data I found

Having said that, it is important to me that this can be used by everyone who wants to, for any purpose... including drifting. Once you throw the back of this thing, it just keeps going and going and going, maybe a bit more steering angle would be useful for that. People who want lower angles can always do it in the setup.

I am thinking maybe when they list turning circle instead of steering angle, that they mean it in real world terms, ie, the space it needs to turn including the overhang. These turning circle calculators don't include overhang, which would make a big difference and render my numbers above useless.

"Imagine no possessions" says the man playing a white Steinway piano in a mansion on a 70 acre estate?

**snip**

Last edited by Racon, Thu 7 Apr 2022, 20:36.

If there's not going to be many places to brake, let's make 'em count

How about a corner that goes on forever, tightening as it goes, last thing before the sprint to the line?

Quote from Victor :

Using the league feature as an organiser
We were wondering if this is too complex? Many people do use the season and rounds feature so I think that's understood.

Though it might be a bit of work to fill it all in, when this was created there was a need for many options because of different league setups and requirements.

But the sign up isn't used at all I think. So with regards to the question asked earlier, is this too complicated to setup and / or use?

I've used it for a while, it's good. It does take a while to get our info in there, but our setup is not standard. (I'm a webdev too, I feel your pain in trying to cover all these possibilities neatly )

The changes proposed look like they will fix all the problems we have

Quote from Victor :

We may do away with the car selection for events and replace that with a free-form text field where you can enter anything you want (to mention what cars will be used). The same for tracks, so you can e.g. indicate a layout name, if used.

I thought maybe the free-text could override the setup you have now, which is great for organisers if they know which cars they are using. Maybe also a default set in the season settings? For example I would then use the text 'Various' until they were chosen, then fill them in properly. Rony would do the same with 'TBC'.

If you leave the possibility of having full data in there, you could use it elsewhere - on the mod page, for example, or an icon on the mod's cover pic.

Quote from Scawen :


Description Existing Proposed
----------- -------- --------
Website section title: Leagues -> Events

Collection of Seasons: League -> Series
Season: Season -> Season (no change)
A round in a season: Round -> Round/Event (interchangeable)
An element of a round: Event -> Session



That looks to be the best fit for covering everyone without going crazy.

I think it's one of those things where you can clarify endlessly, but never really get rid of the last bit of fuzz. We use 'event' for 'a round in a season' just because we have rounds within those and it was sometimes clunky to distinguish.

Quote from MrWave :

okay, I'm really bad at this, how do you apply a DT penalty? Is there an admin chat command for that, or do you have to send a specific inSim packet? if the latter, then which packet, because I can't find the right one?

Yeah, you can use a text command for that: /p_dt USERNAME

One thing to watch is that you must use the smaller MST packet for sending the commands to the host, not the larger MSX packet. (I have a check in my 'say' function that looks for a leading slash and uses MST if it finds it, MSX if not.)

The current lap is in NLP or MCI data, if you have that turned on.

https://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/InSim.txt

One useful thing I can see missing from the forum calendar system is a non-default or free-text option for the fields.

For DD, we're running 21 races with various cars at various venues, but the event goes into the calendar as 1 practice at BL1 because that's as close as I can get.

If it's too much to put free-text options into each field, maybe just an 'other' option for the fields, and a separate short text field for notes?

I appreciate we're a bit of an edge case, but I've seen it outside our case too. I've practised a standard config for a race advertised in the calendar, only to realise it was actually a layout track when I got there.