New Items GrandPrix Race Manager V16 Sneak Peek

[gpraceman]

If you are coming to the Mid America race this year, you can get a sneak peek at the upcoming GPRM Version 16. It is a major redesign. You will find it more intuitive, user friendly and sleeker. It will also have support for Macs.

It is also not too late to provide feedback on improvements that you would like to see.

 

[Vitamin K]

If you are coming to the Mid America race this year, you can get a sneak peek at the upcoming GPRM Version 16. It is a major redesign. You will find it more intuitive, user friendly and sleeker. It will also have support for Macs.

It is also not too late to provide feedback on improvements that you would like to see.

Linux support? /images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif

(I kid, I kid.)

 

[gpraceman]

Linux support? /images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif

(I kid, I kid.)

Technically, it should. However, we will not be marketing it as such. Providing support for Windows and Mac OS's is enough of a challenge.

 

[Kinser Racing]

I would love to see you get rid of the, what seems like linear race patterns, and include a greater randomization of cars in certain lanes. After pre-staging cars for the last couple of years it's easy to see that the cars are not really randomized. For instance, I would frequently notice that cars during a particular race would be separated by a specific number of cars.

 

[gpraceman]

I would love to see you get rid of the, what seems like linear race patterns, and include a greater randomization of cars in certain lanes. After pre-staging cars for the last couple of years it's easy to see that the cars are not really randomized. For instance, I would frequently notice that cars during a particular race would be separated by a specific number of cars.

That is really a function of the scheduling method that you choose. None will schedule cars at purely at random. There is always some underlying number logic that dictates when a car races and in what lane.

The Perfect-N Type schedules, which I assume that you are using, were created by Stan Pope and Cory Young. They provided the generator to me (in DLL form) and others for incorporation into our software. How those work is described at http://stanpope.net/math.html. To modify that method would require Stan and Cory to provide an updated DLL. Seeing as Cory has dropped off the face of the Earth, that may not happen.

The Phase Shifted Lane Rotation method was created by Warren Kalsow. The other Lane Rotation methods are just basic shifts of cars. It is not hard to see the number pattern in any of those.

The Dynamic scheduling method was something that I created in order to maximize the number of racers to win at least one heat. The first run for each racer is random, but subsequent runs will be based on the results of previous runs. It has the effect of getting slower racers running against slower racers and faster against faster.

I can always consider adding a new scheduling method. However, that likely would not make it into Version 16, as there is still so much other work to do.

 

[gpraceman]

I will also add that with Perfect-N Type and Lane Rotation schedulers, you can click on the Advanced button in the generator screen. Then check the randomize option. This will randomly remap the car numbers to new numbers. It doesn't affect how the schedulers work, but it will make the schedules look more random.

 

[Vitamin K]

Technically, it should. However, we will not be marketing it as such. Providing support for Windows and Mac OS's is enough of a challenge.

Oh, very cool. Did you move to a cross-platform toolkit?

If you're supporting non-Windows stuff, did you move the software away from .mdb as the data format?

 

[gpraceman]

Oh, very cool. Did you move to a cross-platform toolkit?

That is correct. So, since I have to convert GPRM from one language to another (and one GUI toolkit to another), I decided to give the user interface a major face lift. I love the new look and hopefully others will as well.

If you're supporting non-Windows stuff, did you move the software away from .mdb as the data format?

Correct also. Data files will be Sqlite. V15 started using them, since I needed a database that our DerbyWeb software would be able to tap into. Sqlite data files provide the flexibility to be used by both desktop and web apps and on multiple OS's. Access data files did not.

 

[Vitamin K]

Correct also. Data files will be Sqlite. V15 started using them, since I needed a database that our DerbyWeb software would be able to tap into. Sqlite data files provide the flexibility to be used by both desktop and web apps and on multiple OS's. Access data files did not.

Awesome! Do versions 15+ still retain the ability to import older data files?

 

[gpraceman]

Awesome! Do versions 15+ still retain the ability to import older data files?

Unfortunately, no. Though, I may create a small app to convert a MDB file into a Sqlite file. However, it would only work on Windows.

 

[Vitamin K]

Unfortunately, no. Though, I may create a small app to convert a MDB file into a Sqlite file. However, it would only work on Windows.

Ahhh...wondered about that. MDB support on non-windows platforms is...nontrivial. /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif Might be some Java projects that can do it, but I haven't dug deep enough to be sure.