Hi Bob, how's going with the update?

The v3.1.4 update is still waiting on the next LFS patch. If I had known things were going to be as delayed as they were, I would have officially released the update back in January (or thereabouts) which was when most of the work was ready. For now, I've made very few changes since I posted a test update exe for people to try out.

Given the fairly long break since really working on VHPA though, once I do get 3.1.4 out the door, I'm fairly keen to get working on some big changes for v3.2, such as modelling suspension geometry (covering wheel kinematics*, and the effect of the roll centre on roll stiffness), the ability to create your own tyres and aero (very much undecided about how to do these, but it's very necessary to remove the last few LFS related constraints and peculiarities from the program), and more detailed tyre modelling (e.g. camber effect on grip, actual slip curves, and so on).

*Dynamic track widths and wheelbase bring the need for all positions to be stored relative to a fixed reference point, rather than relative to the wheel positions, else the CoG will move when the wheels do, which would be wrong.

Once this point is reached, I will be much happier to call VHPA "feature complete" and "ready", although certainly not "finished". I'll then start contacting some small car manufacturers and see if I can spark any interest in a) getting some real data to officially showcase some other real cars and b) hopefully even sell some licences.

After v3.2, the only really fundamental changes I am considering are a) switching to more conventional sim approach for acceleration and deceleration testing and b) supporting vehicles with 1 wheel per axle (a big job due to the massive assumption just about everywhere in the program that vehicles have 4 wheels).

Hi Bob, thanks for a fantastic utility!

Since your tool just need a model of the car, wouldn't it be pretty "easy" to make it work for other simulators?
For example iRacing, which i've started to run. What kind of info would you need to know about the cars? And can you get it directly out of Telemetry data or how would you collect it?

In the case of LFS, I used to collect or estimate the data myself to begin with, but later Scawen added data outputs to LFS to give me the raw data this app needs.

I am interested in adding native support for other sims, but I would need to know all the information that needs to be filled in when you press the "Create new vehicle" button, in addition to more detailed info about aero and tyres. And the setup format used by the programs too. Along with what adjustments can and cannot be made, and what range of adjustments are on offer.

So, quite a lot.

Just another Thank you very much post !
Superb work

Downloaded and installed right now!
Looks superb and seems the perfect tool to understand how to tune a particular car

I can not reinstall the VHPaes Windowns 7, he sent me the following message - Component CODLG32.OCX or one of its dependencies not correctly a file is missing or invalid.
Help me.

"Error "Component 'filename' or one of its dependencies is not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid"
You require the additional VB6 controls, available from the downloads page.
Make sure you read and follow the instructions included in the archive."

http://www.vehicle-analyser.com/faq.html

I've only been arsing about with this update for a year and a half. I thought it time to release what I've got done so far.

Quote from Change log :

Physics: Added weight transfer due to body rolling and pitching
Physics: Added support for non-wheel driven propulsion by constant thrust (should allow simplistic modelling of jet or rocket propelled vehicles)
Physics: Added modelling of drivetrain inertia (using fixed engine inertia for now)
Physics: Improved engine friction torque curve
Physics: Engine brake reduction now works by applying throttle to counter act engine brake torque, so fuel is burnt
Physics: Vehicles now get lighter when they burn fuel, and centre of gravity shifts appropriately
Physics: Vertical load on each tyre now comes from the dampers as well as the springs
Physics: Added dynamic caster angle that varies with body pitch
Physics: Fixed damped suspension deflection to include ARB effect
Physics: Improved clutch logic for fasting pulling away (now limits input torque but adds loss while slipping; used to just scale the input torque)
Physics: Differential settings now influence engine torque reduction to tyre traction limits (during acceleration simulation only)
Physics: Improved tyre temperature vs friction curves
Analysis: Added live damper response graph (shows suspension response from static condition to live state)
Analysis: Added level ride frequencies to springs analysis
Analysis: Added level ride form to adjust spring stiffness to create level ride (with three options; stiffen, soften, and average)
Analysis: Add rebound:bump damping ratio to damping analysis
Analysis: Added brake and brake balance to list of available deceleration graphs, as well as all graphs previously available for acceleration
Analysis: Added throttle to list of available acceleration graphs
Analysis: Added custom searches to deceleration analysis
Added support for Volkswagen Scirocco in Live for Speed
Added support for ABS in the setup
Removed dyno engine button, this now happens automatically, so long as input data is valid
Switched to using ABS and TC settings from the vehicle setup, removed duplicate options from user preferences, and the live view now respects the TC / ABS settings too
Deceleration testing can be indepenently configured to use the brakes or engine braking
Engine data table is now resizable, and displays 1 extra decimal place precision on output figures
Engine data table now has column for engine torque as percentage of peak (normalised torque)
Added intermediate time step option to acceleration run (500Hz)
Added belleville stack calculator
Added more car data links
Relaxed some vehicle input parameter limits
Fixed suspension deflection calculation bug
Fixed infinite loop bug in wheel inertia calculation, much faster algorithm now too
Fixed live longitudinal accelerations components not summing to the correct total
Fixed loaded radius being displayed instead of rolling radius (circumference value was already correct)
Fixed crash when cancelling the file dialog box in the vehicle auto-loader
Fixed acceleration loop cutting out prematurely after a gear change
Fixed crash that would occur if engine data table started at less than the engine redline, and the redline was at less than peak power
Fixed crash that would occur if engine limit rpm was set to less than engine idle rpm
Fixed incorrect tyre compound data being used on startup
Fixed suspension push graph not resizing with window
Fixed vertical scale lines on distance vs time graph
Fixed initial spring and tyre loads during first frame of deceleration calculations
Fixed missing tyre slip ratios in deceleration CSV outputs
Fixed incorrect loads on the tyre contact patch when spring motion ratios are in use (meant vehicles could decelerate, and potentially accelerate, too fast)
Fixed incorrect steering analysis when first selecting a vehicle
Fixed some vehicle data values slowly decreasing due data truncation after internal unit conversion - values are now lightly rounded
Fixed incorrect longitudinal CoG position displayed in pitch diagrams in drag race window

Download v3.1.4 from the usual place: http://www.vehicle-analyser.com/download.html

:lovies3d:

Neat. Thanks Ben .

great work! so good to see that you keep developing this amazing tool

Yeah it had got put on the backburner for a long while but I've still tons of ideas on how to improve it. Finding the time can be difficult though. I'm usually most motivated if I'm doing something for my job that relates to it, then I only have to work something out once, but just code it up twice. Like the improved tyre temperature vs friction curves I added just the other day.

From now on I'm going to try and keep the updates a little smaller, so hopefully they can occur more frequently. The size of that change log is a bit intimidating.

Wow!

Superb

Maybe the next update could make the program fit to a 1024*768 screen?

I got excited like a kid on christmas, but after installing I get this error when I try to run it:


Never had any problems with previous versions etc..
Can't wait to waste whole nights analysing and tweaking my setups with this awesome tool, once again



EDIT: I fixed it, apparantly installing the new version over the old one caused the error. After completely removing the previous version and re-installing the new one, it worked! YAY!

Hmm, I'm unsure what could have been causing that. Thanks for reporting the issue though, and your solution.

What bat file, and what are you copying to system32? If you're missing a runtime dll, putting it in the same directory as vhpa.exe should work.

My internets are so slow atm I can't search for shit, but Google vb6 runtime dll or go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887. Should install fine if you right-click and run as admin, certainly no need for weird bat files afaik.

Hi. are there language packs for VHPA? .I'm interested on introducing this tool to my league and It'll be great if it is in Spanish. Thanks in advance.

Sadly there are not. I have always intended on making in translatable, perhaps I should I make that my next goal, as I don't know when I'll make time to work on any more features.

Bob, good afternoon,

I need help on several occasions tried to install VPHA 3.1.4 on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, says that a file is missing, supplement with *. OC, I could not hit. You can not install VHPA already included for the entire process or installation please teach me how to correct this program will install the W7.

Thks

Hi pjuniorbra,

I'll try to help if I may.
Have you installed the additional files found here?
http://www.vehicle-analyser.com/download.html#VB6

I too have Win7 64bit and the program runs properly.

As Squelch suggests, it does just sound like you're missing some the VB6 runtime files. For installing them, or the first time the run you program, you generally need to run as administrator. Once the program has successfully loaded once, you can run it normally.

I'm about to start working on VHPA again as I had a few emails come in with requests and suggestions, so if there is anything you'd like to see, please post away!

It forgets where my setups folder is. It's tedious to navigate my folders for each time I want to load up a setup, i.e comparing setups, and so on.