Virtual Steward 0.3e

Sorry, another bug fix, these two could have waited but they were too stupid to let them live in the wild. No need to download if everything is working fine.

Fixed the window size problem on first run, while I was there added a maximized flag.

Changes log:

- Checkpoints for merged replays. By placing checkpoints along the track, when generating a merged replay, players will stop at each of them and wait for all other cars, then start again from there together, like good friends do. For instance, you could place a checkpoint in front of every turn to get a more meaningful comparison.
- Added a dialog for generating merge replay (sliding car icon left of save button). Clicking the "Create" button will generate a merge lap for every selected player/lap (right click/gray ones). Since best laps are automatically selected on load, just click the gray bar over the players list to select all of them, this way you can easily generate a merged replay will all the best laps of each player.
- In the player panel there are now two lap's lists: the usual one sorted by lap number and a second one sorted by lap time.
- Some bug fixing and anomalies managment.

I've received reports of merged replays with many cars failing to load both on AC and VS, I've not been able to reproduce the problem, I kindly ask anyone encountering this to send me a link to an uploaded replay file, my dataset is somewhat limited and I appreciate any help in collecting more replay file samples.

Bug fix: if when opening a replay the track is fully zoomed out, this should fix it.

New version changes log:

- Added replays list tab, on load the app will search for replay files in settings specified folder and populate a list grouped in different ways (car, track, etc.).
- Added a merge replay function. By clicking the "+" button instead of "Load replay" the selected file will be merged with the currently loaded one
- Addedd real-time replaying buttons

This will probably be the last update for a while, I'll try and work on the auto-discovery of incidents when loading a replay but, beside that, I kinda run out of ideas. I mean, I can think of many replay editing features but they would be out of scope. So, if you can think of some features to make race steward's lives easier, just let me know.

Updated version changes log:

- Added a basic reporting tool
- Added the customization of some app element, in case you want your league logo in the app.
- Added a basic track lines generation tool

Reporting tool

Honestly it took much more time than I imagined, hence the .2 version, to honour it. This is how I envisioned the workflow:

Every player should:

- Open the replay file
- Look for their incidents
- Right-click the involved cars
- Click the "Create report" button
- Add his honest, unbiased take on the event in the comment section
- Click the "Save" button

This will create a file for every report in Documents\Virtual Steward\Reports\<replay file name>.

- Send all the files to race steward and feel guilty about all the incidents he could have easily avoided

The race steward should:

- Copy all the files he received from players in Documents\Virtual Steward\Reports\<replay file name>
- Open his replay in Virtual Steward
- Click the "Reports" tab, the app should have auto-loaded all reports
- Start checking all reports (I suggest right-clicking the green indicators and placing them near the upper slider, to make them follow it and use the lower one to revise the incidents)
- There is a four states flag to help keep track of the advancement (it cycles gray-green-yellow-red on every click)

Tha assumption here is that all players and the race steward have a replay file and that it is syncronized enough to make the reports comparables. I'm not part of any league so I couldn't test with different replays of the same race. I also wanted to differentiate the report list depending on being a player vs steward. To do that I check the reporting player name saved in the report file against the first car in the loaded replay file (which in AC is always the recording player), you can still force the "steward mode" in the settings, in case you need to.

If the steward doesn't have a replay file, like it's the case for open lobbies with day long racing, when saving the report, the players can choose to generate a Virtual Steward replay file of the last 5 to 60 seconds, it will have the same name of the report but the .vsreplay extension. The steward must then click the "Open folder" button and select any report file in the folder, the app will load all the reports and, when selecting one, will load the related replay file.

Customization

If you run a league and want your custom logo in Virtual Steward, just remove the underscore from the "_Custom.ini" file in the "Custom" folder. You can then edit the file itself or the sample images I included.

Customizable elements: app title, running app icon (the one in file explorer is embedded in the .exe, no can do), banner image in help dialog, text in help dialog, additional image in help dialog, map logo.

Track lines generation

Since there are some maps lacking track lines out there, I made a tool to generate them from a player lap. Keep in mind that those are only for Virtual Steward visualization, I can't make AC "fast_lane.ai" file. They are obviously an aproximation just for visual purpose (having something to look at if you load one of such maps).

- Open the replay file
- If there are no track lines a "Create track lines" button should appear under the players list
- Right select at least a player with at least a selected lap so that a lap line will appear on the map
- Click the "Create track lines" button
- In the dialog you can select the track width, be aware that any edit will be undone when you move the width slider
- You can do some basic editing by right click dragging the black cursor that should have appeared on the map
- Click the "Save" button.

Lines will be saved in Documents\Virtual Steward\Maps and have priority over AC lines. If you find some new AC lines you have to delete the Virtual Steward ones to make the app load them.

How to create reports, player side:

How to check reports, race steward side:

How to create track lines, both sides:

I released an updated version of the app, following the changes log:

- Added the replay time on the status bar
- Added a follow mode to the green indicators. Right click will make them red and they will follow the upper slider.
- Changed selection mode for incident evaluation. Ctrl+Right click: clear selection list and select that car. Right click: select/deselect that car. Shift+Right click: select car and nearby ones (legacy mode ).
- Added a "merge laps" functionality. Clicking on the "S" in the player panel will create a new player for every selected lap, every player will have just one lap and all of them will start at the beginning of the replay. You can than compare the laps by dragging the sliders and see where you lose time. Keep in mind that these cars will move differently than the others in the replay timeline.
- Added the "Save only visible cars" to AC save.
- Added customizable car images instead of rectangles.
- Addedd an option to set the minimun size for cars.
- Addess lap's number to sliders bar.
- Bug fixing and some additional option

To create a "merged replay" as in Jack Vos post:

- Open the base replay.
- For every player you want in your merged replay, select the laps with right click and click "S".
- Should appear a new player on top of the list for every selected lap while other player will be auto-hidden.
- Use the map to compare the laps and check everything is as you intended.
- Save to a new AC replay file with following options checked:

"Save in Assetto Corsa format"
"Save only visible cars"

- Open the replay in Assetto Corsa

When comparing to online players, ping delay will mess up lap timing, if you notice that other cars are already slightly ahead on the start line, move the cars as close as possibile to the line, then use the small arrows in the lap list (should be visible between the "S" and the "1") to align the cars as best as possible.

PS: I made some last minute changes (of course I did) I probably messed things up.