Look What The Cat Hacked In - S03E04

- What's what
- FAQ from last episode
- Code me some code
- Q&A

 

Cant wait to see what is the cat up to now

 

To a two hour endurance stream with Abarth 595, on Monza oval.

 

Thats just 1 lap isnt it.

 

A 2 hour stint in the Abarth 595 takes exactly the same amount of time as 2 hour stint in the LaFerrari. And you drive in circles anyway.

 

Live now.

 

You could make a detailed summary?

 

• "Definitely we will try to put system with drive through" - about start. Also something about that server plugins will be able to assign drive through to drivers.
• Better "movement" of other cars in MP.
• Discuss AI issues/changes etc.
• Shows a GT3 5 lap race with AI on Silverstone and then another one on Mugello. Some nice side by side action @ Mugello.
• GT3 with Abarth 500 on Vallelunga. Nice pass between AI's MP4-12C and GTR. Once they started lapping 500 it wasn't great (can't say if it's better since I rarely drive with AI). Stefano said it's an improvement but it's not perfect.
• New info about server settings when loading (will try to put it in UI before joining) also it's visible in pits menu.

Q&A

• From live chat:
• No plans on FMOD updates, unless there's a bug they will update it.
• Vive box still unpacked, but Stefano finished his mysterious task that he was working on for months so has more time now
• Moving dials on dashboard? - Not right now.
• Plans for pitstops during P session - thinks it's a reasonable thing.
• No driver changes but yes for timed races.
• Downshift protection still doesn't work right - "you are right".

From previous streams:

• Replay improvements - At the end of each session replays are saved, not overwritten anymore. So when you will close AC you will have a list of files in my documents folder.
• Tyre centrifugal growth - it's coming
• 1.7 won't be here for F1 race. Once Stefano will say "we're closing features for 1.7" during on of his streams it will probably mean it's one-two weeks away.
• About extending number of pitboxes - possible but they won't be doing it now, people will report bugs (CPU issues)
• No Trento Bondone in console version
• No plans for visual tyre wear
• CPU power isn't a limit for AC (on #PCMR that is). From the physics point of view, not number of cars on track

As usual I didn't get all of the stuff.

 

I assume that means "extending beyond 24"? I would still like to see 24 pit boxes @ Zandvoort (and even Magione if possible).

 

Yes. If I'm not mistaken the guy who was asking wrote 28 as an example.

 

As a developer myself (even tough still in the learning phase and with very less success than Stefano) what I enjoyed the most about this stream were the smiles Stefano had when he saw AI's getting 3 wide into a corner, or anything else remarkable, like you can really see him proud of his work...Might be a little thing but says a lot about how passionate and dedicated he is, in my opinion!

Inviato dal mio LG-D802 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

Could you explain what Stefano said of the pit stop? Will we have real sanctions?

I do not understand the summary well.

 

Since it was told in the stream that CPU performance in consoles is a limiter, i want to point out a performance trick that can be done in the code in order to save some clock cycles. I almost positive that @Lord Kunos knows this already, but it might be helpful to other fellow programmers who reads this forum.

If you have a logical expression whose set of clauses is connected by logical OR operators, most modern compilers returns true as soon as the first of the clauses is true, thus not computing the remaining clauses. A simple example would be a expression (A OR B). If A is true, the program returns true without even checking the value of B.

A more elaborate example can be seen by looking at the code displayed in the stream, the variable attack_on_straight was computed in the line 1492 and its value would be stored in a register or in the cache. In the line 1497 we see the following expression inside an IF statement:

Code:

(radar.distanceToApex_L > odata.distToPass || attack_on_straight)

Checking whether is true or not is faster for the attack_on_straight clause than the radar.distanceToApex_L > odata.distToPass clause because for the former it's only necessary one memory access to check the value, since it has been previously computed. For the latter, however, you need at least two memory accesses plus a comparison operation. With the above order of clauses, therefore, we need a minimum of three CPU operations to compute the whole expression.

However, if we chance the order of the clauses:

Code:

(attack_on_straight  || radar.distanceToApex_L > odata.distToPass)

The minimum amount of CPU operations would change by three to only one, thus saving some clock cycles in some situations. One can say that this trick is no big deal but when you have tens of thousands of lines of code that needs to run fast in a limited hardware, some tricks like the aforementioned one would matter.

 

I just couldn`t stop watching Stefanos FFB clipping in every corner .. missed the whole race

anyway I like changes to AI, anything bit more dynamic is helping and if by any chance we get algorithm for defending (If player is in certain distance, take different line) it would rise the AC SP value a lot .. "little" things like that are why we overlook some flaws or missing things .. good job

 

I don't know what could be these CPU issues, I race on a league that use 36~40 slots and we never had any issue:


START AT 4:35

 

And how many guys in your league are running a minimum spec PC?

 

Problem is likely in single player if the CPU has to calculate 23 or more AI cars. That is a good reason for Nords tourist having 32 spots, it can´t be raced with AI being a point to point track.

 

Thanks for the stream, interesting as always.

 

I would like to see all tracks extended with up to 30 boxes to suit leagues online, but then just limit the AI to 24 for offline to avoid CPU issues.

 

I agree with this, or make the launcher pop up a warning about too many AIs if a big number of AI opponents is selected.