I made this simple application for race admins who desire an easier method to display custom race control messages on screen.

This application only works locally, so it will not interfere with other insim application running on the server (I think.. so please test it first).




In order for the application to work you must put lfs' insim port on 30000 or any other number you like. You do this by making a shortcut to lfs.exe and adding the insim port parameter:

You can also start lfs normally and press the forward slash button in-game, and type in:

The application will try to connect automagically as I'm using a thread specifically for maintaining a connection to localhost (might be overkill, but who cares).

Once the application has connected to lfs, you will see a small button on the bottom of the screen. Click it and the other buttons pop up. Click it again and the buttons disappear again.

Main usage:
- Clicking a button with the left mouse button will display a static message.
- Clicking a button with the right mouse button will remove any message on screen.
- Clicking a button with the left mouse button AND WITH SHIFT PRESSED will blink the message.

Known quirks:
- After you type in a message in the program, you need to restart the application before you'll see it in-game. Sorry about that, but I'll fix it when I feel like it.
- There is no detection for if the settings.xml is actually there, so dont delete it or mess around with it.

Nice idea!

Cool idea, thanks!

I do declare, that this is a great product! Definitely does what it's supposed to, and I think will prove very useful.

Thanks a lot! This will help us a lot with spamming pink flags in the UF Baby-R league!

greetz

der butz

Thanks guys

And yes, some people in the UFBR league definitely need to be given that flag

thx for this, great tool
i never remember what keys combination i have '/rcm' and '/rcm_all' binded to, now i dont need it anymore

Very cool

Thanks a lot!!

One thing: instead of manually exiting the rcm could you make a "clear message" button? That would definately make the app prefect for a noooob like me!

greetz

der butz

Quote from der butz :

One thing: instead of manually exiting the rcm could you make a "clear message" button? That would definately make the app prefect for a noooob like me!

greetz

der butz

You mean something like:

Quote from mikey_G :

- Clicking a button with the right mouse button will remove any message on screen.

?

Hi,
We need more boxes to add more messages lol, at least 30 lol.

Thanks for ace proggy

Originally I started with 5 boxes but later doubled it to 10, and I honestly can't think of any league that used 30 different race control messages...

So if you really, really need 30 boxes, please explain why and persuade me

Quote from mikey_G :

Originally I started with 5 boxes but later doubled it to 10, and I honestly can't think of any league that used 30 different race control messages...

So if you really, really need 30 boxes, please explain why and persuade me

If it was Butz you could understand mikey - remember hes gotta use up the 30 buttons on his home made wheel..

Yeah, I remember his wheel with buttons sticking out everywhere, it looked hilarious

Hi Mikey,
When I admin a race which is usually done in spectator mode, if I send a race control message and then get distracted then theirs noway of me knowing the message is still showing incar unless I join race. Could your program perhaps change the background colour when a message is sent in LFS display.

Perhaps we could have an Name for each button title like:

Blue Flag >> Please respect the BLUE FLAG at all times

LFS Button name would be Blue Flag and it would send "Please respect the BLUE FLAG at all times"

By doing this the Buttons in LFS could be smaller thus allowing us to have another 2 columns

Just some ideas to make it more user friendly and clearer

Edit Is it possible to have 2 modes of display, when I admin my servers I am spectating, if I see a racer stationary on track it would be nice to send RCM to just that racer with your program as its so simple to use, can your program detect the name of driver I am spectating on and if I am in Player Mode it sends RCM_Ply to just that Racer. Then if I want to send RCM to All I switch to All Mode. mmm interesting subject eh lol.

Quote from Andy King :

Hi Mikey,
When I admin a race which is usually done in spectator mode, if I send a race control message and then get distracted then theirs noway of me knowing the message is still showing incar unless I join race. Could your program perhaps change the background colour when a message is sent in LFS display.

In LFS when RCM messages are sent, be it globally or privately to a driver, spectators will also be able to see the message until it's removed. If the program is not working that way, then you need to provide your exact handling of the app and some screenshots for a bug report.

I could add support for the changing button background, but it's quite useless because you can already see (or you should) what message you're broadcasting.

Quote from Andy King :

Perhaps we could have an Name for each button title like:

Blue Flag >> Please respect the BLUE FLAG at all times

LFS Button name would be Blue Flag and it would send "Please respect the BLUE FLAG at all times"

By doing this the Buttons in LFS could be smaller thus allowing us to have another 2 columns

True, it would clean up the interface on the lfs side, but this also doubles the amount of information to the user, which is something I don't prefer in an easy to understand application.
Maybe, and I really mean maybe, i'll implement it if other users start requesting it.

Quote from Andy King :

Edit Is it possible to have 2 modes of display, when I admin my servers I am spectating, if I see a racer stationary on track it would be nice to send RCM to just that racer with your program as its so simple to use, can your program detect the name of driver I am spectating on and if I am in Player Mode it sends RCM_Ply to just that Racer. Then if I want to send RCM to All I switch to All Mode. mmm interesting subject eh lol.

If I remember correctly insim also exports the playerID of the player you're spectating, and by that you can get the player name, which you need for the RCM command. So yes, I think it's possible to send private RCM's to people through my program.
I think I'll set up the control key for private messages (because I don't really want to add "modes" to my program), so when you're speccing "playerA" and control click on a button he will be the only one receiving it.
Private messages might even warrant an increase in messages for the program, which is something you'd like as well I think


To sum it up, please give me feedback on point 1, I'll consider point 2 if more people start requesting it, and point 3 I'll start investigating when Im around my pc again because I only have my macbook pro with me now (and there is no insim.txt on it)

Hi Mikey,

1) Race messages are not sent to spectators, you only see RCM if your incar. Edit Just found out if I send a RCM as a spectator then jump incar to see if RCM is still showing I cannot see it even though its still active to other drivers. Edit I am a liar lol disregard.

2) I think smaller buttons using a Name for each button would look graphically much neater than "Please use caution re-entering the track at all times" squashed into a space it doensn't fit into coss the sentence is long but not too long for a RCM.

3) If you implemented point 2 you would have enough space to add 2 small buttons at the end of each Named Button, one with "P" and one with "A" meaning A = All and P = Personal RCM's

I need a program like you have created here to admin my servers from spectator mode but giving me the choice of still being able to race and send RCM if I have to. Your program is excellent for this scenario but just needs more input from server admins to help it along.

Hi Mikey

I think your program could become much more usefull with some simple changes.

1) More smaller buttons so we have more messages
2) Allow admin command in a message (After all its only as if you did T and typed it)

So and entry of "/restart" would allow a server admin to restart by clicking a button

/RCM FULL COURSE YELLOW would then be allowed and we could have another button the switched it off

3) Allow multiple commands on one button

So and entry of /msg Sorry Guys a sleeper on the grid |/restart

This would all mean that your program could do what it does now and much much more and be very useful for race admins

Well done

Quote from mikey_G :

[..]
To sum it up, please give me feedback on point 1, I'll consider point 2 if more people start requesting it, [..]

Hi, sry for Bump, but hows going on point 2? Some News? I need this too for an endurance race.

is there one for z?

This works perfectly on Z

this is all i get

Correct me if I am wrong, but in my opinion you have to run this program locally. This means you have to connect to 127.0.0.1 and a port of you choice.

But you need to type the admin-password for the server you want to connect to...

The way you try it would - if it works - give ALL users the buttons to send messages!

oh well that explains alot