The idea is to emulate part of the display in this NASCAR video - to display the live time gap between the current lap and the fastest lap of the session and to predict what position the current player will qualifying in.
This is the first public release of the Qualifying Ticker application. The track map (as featured in this post) is not yet included because of a couple of problems I'm having with it just now. Since this is the first release I'm looking for some feedback. Please post any problems or improvement suggestions you have for the application. More details about how to report bugs or problems can be found in the disclaimer section of this post.
Read the following before you try to run the application:
Download the attached zip archive.
Extract the archive somewhere on your PC.
Open the config.cfg file with a text editor. Find the line in the config file which starts with "LFSFolderPath". After the asterisk you must enter the full path to the LFS folder on your machine (e.g. LFSFolderPath*C:/Program Files/LFS). Save the config file.
If you are not connecting to a local machine you will have to enter the IP address of the machine in the config file under the "HostName" parameter.
If you require an admin password to connect enter it under "AdminPassword"
Open LFS and enable InSim by typing "/insim 29999" into LFS chat. You can use a different port number if you wish but you will need to edit the config file to whatever port you choose if it's not 29999.
There are other various parameters you can change in the config file but I think they should be self explanatory. If you don't understand what a particular parameter means or what it does don't hesitate to ask.
Now run the Qualifying Ticker application by double clicking on the "LFS Qualifying Ticker.jar" file. If the configuration is correct you should see the following line in LFS chat: InSim - TCP : Quali Ticker
If you do not see this line there is a problem either with your configuration or your machine. Post problem details (the config.cfg file, any messages from LFS and the contents of the "LFSQualifyingTicker.log" file in the folder you extracted the qualifying ticker application to if it exists.
Once you have the application connected successfully you can begin to use it. View a qualifying session (either live online or through a replay).
When no laps have been completed in the session yet you should see text on the screen saying "No Laps Completed". The control GUI should also show "Fastest Lap In Session: No Laps Completed" at the bottom.
Once a lap has been completed this lap will be used as the reference lap which others are compared against (and it should be shown on the control GUI). The reference lap is updated whenever someone posts a faster lap than it.
If the player you're currently viewing (the viewed player is someone else or yourself if you're currently driving) isn't on a hotlap (i.e. they're on their outlap) you should see the text "Viewed Player Not On Hotlap" shown in LFS.
If the player is on a hotlap you should see a time gap between the current lap and the reference lap (the fastest lap in the session). The time gap is in seconds. You should also see a predicted position. This displays how the current lap compares with other completed laps in the session at this point of the lap. If any splits have been completed on the current lap the time difference to the reference lap at the last split will be displayed. If the current lap is faster than the reference lap the text will be green, if they are slower the text will be orange (well, LFS thinks it's red, but unless I'm going colour blind I call it orange).
You can use the buttons on the control GUI to view different players (and from different camera angles).
Known Issue
There is a known issue with the GUI at the moment. It relates to this possible bug which I have identified. If this actually happens then the control GUI ends up looking a little strange (the player name is missing for the duplicate player). This is because of the way I'm caching the player names, but I don't think it's a major issue at the moment and hopefully it can be rectified in the future.
Disclaimer
This is an alpha release. It's the first public test. There are possibly bugs in the application, so the wrong gaps and positions may be displayed. If you encounter these problems please post here and let me know. Include a replay of the session if possible and give details (what time it happened in the replay, what the display said and why you think it's incorrect). Thanks. The application does not alter any of the configuration data for LFS and it will only try to write a single log file to your machine (a file called LFSQualifyingTicker.log in the same folder as you extract the application to). The log file will contain some debugging information and may also include details of errors. If you have a problem please include the LFSQualifyingTicker.log file in your post. If you or your computer dies because you used this application I can't be held responsible.
Watching those test videos on youtube and it's one hell of a program... that's great, simply great... I'd like to see a button in the background of this just to get sure it is readable all the way through the lap...
Yes... that is what i meant... e.g. It is set to white colour... when e.g. a white car is crossing the camera in LFS, it gets difficult to see, what the inlay it is saying... could happen especially during on board shots...
The white text colour was only in previous versions. In the current version (0.1 Alpha) the text is either green (if the player is ahead of the reference lap) or orange/red (if the player is behind the reference lap). It should be easier to see now in all circumstances.
New version 0.1.5 Alpha. I've added in a few things plus I've been fiddling about behind the scenes a bit.
The additions in this version:
Clickable track map is in. It's very basic at the moment and it's not scaling to the window size very well either. I'm including it just now to try and get some feedback. Tell me if you like it or hate it so I can decide whether I should spend more time refining it. By default the track map is off, so you'll need to enable it in the config.cfg file (by changing "DrawTrackMap*false" to "DrawTrackMap*true"). Drivers on outlaps are shown in blue otherwise they're shown in black. If you click on a driver on the track map the camera should change to show them. The camera type (e.g. TV, Chase, Heli) stays the same as the last person you were looking at.
Added a message display area to the control GUI. This is shown by default but can be turned off in the config file. This currently shows two things:
The best split times of the session as they are done (so if you're commentating on the session you can say "and amp88 has just set the fastest 1st split time in the session").
The laptime for a driver when they complete a lap and the position that lap puts them in at the time they did it. Remember that the position shown is the position at the time they did the lap. So, if the display says a player did a 1:44.85 and they went into 1st place but someone else does a 1:44.75 a few seconds later the first person will be bumped down to 2nd place. If a driver does a lap that's slower than their best time in the session it shouldn't be displayed.
The overall best splits in the session are shown at the bottom of the control GUI in the same way as the fastest lap was shown before.
I've attached a screenshot of the control GUI for 0.1.5 Alpha below.
As before this is still experimental and Alpha. Please give me feedback and report any problems you encounter. For instructions on running the application please see the post for 0.1 Alpha.
A couple of small updates. The bug I mentioned in the first post where the player name could disappear for duplicate players is now solved thanks to DarkTimes' help in this thread. I've also added in support for showing the best speeds at speed traps round the circuit. The best speed at the start/finish line, all split points and the top speed overall can now be shown. Showing speeds is on by default but can be turned off in the config file.
Hey there, great work amp! I have a request: Is it possible, if you watch in SHIFT + F mode to add a Playername Button somewhere, so if you are broadcasting you can see the Drivernames in SHIFT + F mode.
It would probably make sense to have the player name displayed at all times. I don't know if you can actually determine if someone is viewing in Shift+F anyway.
I have a suggestion tho, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDoeilSRuw.
The timer there, how many sec they are behind the leader.
Would be nice to have for broadcast, instead of the tv director that only updates each lap.
OK, I haven't had much time to work on this lately so here's a progress update. I'm working on getting the player name of the current lap displayed. Something I'm looking for some input on is whether or not there should be a background to the player name. In the attached image the first player name (of Rudolf) has no background whereas the second name (of me) has a light background. So, should all player names have a background? Should none have a background? Should some have a background (e.g. only those which contain black text have a background)? Should all these be options in the config? Any ideas, people?
You should get output on the screen "No Laps Completed", for example, as soon as you start the application, without having to change anything in the config file. Why are you using an older version?
Why wouldn't it run before? Were you getting an error message?
You have to be in a qualifying session (i.e. not a race or practice session) to use the application. If you try starting it during a race or practice session you should still get the "InSim - TCP : Quali Ticker" message though.
I'd like to see a button in the background of this just to get sure it is readable all the way through the lap... 
