My thoughts about the records and times widgets...

[reaby]

Well, well, well...
As we all know (by this far) relying the game client data for the records and times widgets has it ups and downs..
Ups are the damn fast refreshing.. downs are obvious: the game client sends sometimes valid, but wrong times to the widgets, which confuses a lot.

So, What you think?
Should there be a change for the widgets to be more precise but with slower refresh speed.
This also means a bit more transferred bytes from server as the widgets needs to redraw every 10 seconds if a new record is being driven.. or more or less.. I haven't benchmarked how much the widgets actually generate xml, but i think it's gonna be something like:

• 50 - 200kbytes every refresh for each connected player, if widgets are redrawn from start (easier to implement)
• 5 - 20 kbytes if we implement it using helpers that just updates the players data to the widget (takes more time to make it work, also has additional 50ms to 250ms delay since maniascript updates and thingies (if i recall right) )

Anyway something needs to be done.
I think we should try the later, since it's better to keep the data transfered quite low, that also might enable some animations added, since we have the buffered data still at widget.. if the whole widget gets redrawn we lose the buffered values obviously...

[Dommy]

Ill say something not related to mechanisms of these widgets, but the widgets themselves. (Maybe not in this controller, but in most of them)

These screen spamming widgets should be less visible (or even hidden by default). If it's possible, even something like "hover to display records widget" would be better imo. About 80% of the players in TrackMania are casuals/demo users
who dont care about the records or even dont know what dedimania is.

Every time i join multiplayer server ("non-pursuit" ) Im getting spammed by tons of times I dont really urgently need in my life. Every time I have to turn them off by myself, or look at them because it's not possible to disable it. I Just want to race against the others to get some LP. And probably most others do same.



Example of how to have the widgets and dont have them at once. (Hover mouse on the edge of the screen to slide out the widget.)

[Nerpson]

Truth has been spoken.

[oliverde8]

Ill say something not related to mechanisms of these widgets, but the widgets themselves. (Maybe not in this controller, but in most of them)

Hey, well actually we have multiple different behaviours for those widgets that the user can configure(Not the admin). But yes by default they are permanently active.

1) There is a button on the widget it self that moves the widget to tab-view, the widget only displays when you click TAB.
2) Another button on the screen changes the widget so that it only displayes when driving very slowly. This works well on most maps but is not practical for RPG maps where you tend to slow down a lot.
3) And of course you can disable them completely or move them to different positions.

Example of how to have the widgets and dont have them at once. (Hover mouse on the edge of the screen to slide out the widget.)

I quite like this idea

More on the subject reaby what I like about our widgets is that they are fast, damn fast. When I play on other servers with 100 players and see widgets lagging like hell it makes me proud of our widgets.

Yes they sometimes don't display the correct information but it is relatively rare, I think it is a compromise. Other controllers do it the other way if people don't like our method then can always switch our build their own widgets.
And last, I think that if that the errors the game returns need to be fixed by Nadeo, but well I don't expect it to be fixed before year 3000. That is why I quite stoped playing I am tired about their policies they are much better games out there that WORKS.

That is my idea of course.

Edit : Reaby the main problem is't the size of the communication, it is the number of communications happening between the dedicated & the players & the controller. We smaller size it will be slightly faster but you won't be able to cope with much more players.

[reaby]

Example of how to have the widgets and dont have them at once. (Hover mouse on the edge of the screen to slide out the widget.)

I quite like this idea

I like it as well, so it is now available at dev branch
there is no hover, but you need to click the title

More on the subject reaby what I like about our widgets is that they are fast, damn fast. When I play on other servers with 100 players and see widgets lagging like hell it makes me proud of our widgets.

True, but every now and then there is wrong values at start of race. which kinda bothers me alot.
Anyway, needs thinking which is more important, super fast update speed versus, even it produces false times some times. Lets keep it the way it's currently though...

[oliverde8]

After a month I have just seen the new widgets & wooooow. Reaby they loook amazing. Really like them a lot.

I hope we merge everything to the night so that you guys can try it out as well

[endbase]

Looking forward to it ! Just checked it out on DEV looking realy nice indeed

Where are you gonna merge it on nighty or master ?

Greetz Base

[hackie]

Ill say something not related to mechanisms of these widgets, but the widgets themselves. (Maybe not in this controller, but in most of them)

These screen spamming widgets should be less visible (or even hidden by default). If it's possible, even something like "hover to display records widget" would be better imo. About 80% of the players in TrackMania are casuals/demo users
who dont care about the records or even dont know what dedimania is.

Every time i join multiplayer server ("non-pursuit" ) Im getting spammed by tons of times I dont really urgently need in my life. Every time I have to turn them off by myself, or look at them because it's not possible to disable it. I Just want to race against the others to get some LP. And probably most others do same.



Example of how to have the widgets and dont have them at once. (Hover mouse on the edge of the screen to slide out the widget.)

Its a race game so it all about times , and eXpansion already has a nice clean hud.
I also tought eXpansion had a auto hide function, when you start driving the widgets get hidden.

I also tried the dev version of expansion with the new widgets.
When you want to keep the widgets ( so not hide ) then its a bit anoying cause now you see those blue vertical lines in the middle of the screen. ( in the pic from Domino they are red )


Maybe you need to make it so that people can set their own settings on a server. ( I think it already does )

Just some thoughts.

Anyway , nice work team Reaby and Oliver.

[oliverde8]

I also tought eXpansion had a auto hide function, when you start driving the widgets get hidden.

Yes it does,

I also tried the dev version of expansion with the new widgets.
When you want to keep the widgets ( so not hide ) then its a bit anoying cause now you see those blue vertical lines in the middle of the screen. ( in the pic from Domino they are red )

Maybe you need to make it so that people can set their own settings on a server. ( I think it already does )

We had some returns by other players on the subject. I really like them, Reaby did an excellent job. We will probably have both version and leave the decision to the server admin.

Here is the ticket about it : https://github.com/eXpansionPluginPack/ ... issues/182

Anyway , nice work team Reaby and Oliver.

Thanks a lot,

[hackie]

Bit oftopic but :

I tried some plugins to gether info about the server , like netlost plugin , and a plugin that should create a ingame vieuwer for some info about the server. ( admins only )


I never see any extra widgets / windows with advantage info.

Could you not make a screen shot with all plugins installed , like :


http://abload.de/img/default-displayrxu48.jpg