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AGPLapTime 1.2 by Rene Smit June 1997 This document describes AGPLapTime, a utility with which you can log your races in World Circuit/Formula One Grandprix. This utility is freeware. If you want to complain, ask questions or exchange deeper thoughts about AGPLapTime, SplitTime or F1GP feel free to contact me: E-Mail: rsdi@xs4all.nl WWW: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsdi/ Contents: ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. DISCLAIMER 2. DISTRIBUTION 3. WHAT IS REQUIRED? 4. WHAT IS AGPLAPTIME? 4.1. Usage 4.1.1. -c option 4.1.2. -b option 4.1.3. [<logfile>] 4.1.4. -w option 4.1.5. Examples 5. HOW DO I ANALYZE THE LOGFILE? 5.1. AGPLap 5.1.1. [<logfile>] 5.1.2. -w option 5.1.3. -t option 5.1.4. -/+[H/C]slfpr ... options 5.1.4.1. examples 5.1.5. Example output 5.1.6. Log entries 5.1.6.1. lap time, setup and fastest lap entries 5.1.6.2. pitstop entries 5.1.6.3. retirement entry 5.1.7. Tyre grip 5.1.8. Statistics table 5.1.8.1. table contents 5.1.8.2. example 5.2. AGPLapD 5.2.1. Usage 5.2.2. The interface 5.2.2.1. the AGPLapD window 5.2.2.2. the Info window 5.3. AGPLapMix 5.3.1. Usage 5.3.2. Examples 6. THANK LIST 1. DISCLAIMER ============= I hereby state that I am not responsible for any damage or loss of data, whether or not caused by using either AGPLapTime or AGPLap. If it crashes in the middle of an important race then that's not my responsibility. Please make sure it works properly on your system first. If you have any problems, try to run F1GP without AGPLapTime. If you're sure AGPLapTime causes problems for you please (e)mail me personally, and I'll try to solve them. 2. DISTRIBUTION =============== You may copy AGPLapTime to everyone as long as you copy the original lha file containing the following files: - AGPLapTime F1GP logger (c) 1995-97 Rene Smit - AGPLapTime.doc Documentation file - AGPLapTime.doc.info - AGPLap Logfile analyzer (c) 1995-97 Rene Smit - AGPLapD Logfile viewer (c) 1995-97 Grant Reeve - AGPLapMix Logfile mixer (c) 1995 Grant Reeve - libs/f1gp.library F1GP library (c) 1995-97 Oliver Roberts The f1gp.library was made by Oliver Roberts. The version of the library included here is 35.2 (8.2.97). AGPLapD and AGPLapMix were made by Grant Reeve. 3. WHAT IS REQUIRED? ==================== - Any Amiga. - F1GP from Microprose, any version (European F1GP, World Circuit or the A600 WWW version). - Oliver Roberts' f1gp.library, necessary for AGPLapTime to work. f1gp.library is included with AGPLapTime in the directory 'libs'. You need to copy the library to your libs: directory. If you already have one from the latest f1gp-ed, you don't need to do that as the f1gp.library supplied with f1gp-ed is always the same or newer as the one included here. 4. WHAT IS AGPLAPTIME? ====================== AGPLapTime is a utility that logs interesting information while you're playing F1GP. Here is a quick list of most of the things that are logged: - Lap times: Every time a car passes the start/finish line, the laptime and cumulative race time is logged, as well as the tyre grip. See section 5.1.6.1. - Fastest laps: If the laptime improves the fastest lap of the session, the horsepower, opposition level, speed factor, frame rate and race distance (if it's a race) is logged. See section 5.1.6.1. - Setup: Front/rear wing, brake balance, gear ratio's, tyre compound, traction control on/off is logged. See section 5.1.6.1. - Pitstops: At each pitstop the damage and pitstop duration is logged. When leaving the pits, the tyre compound is logged. See section 5.1.6.2. - Retirements: If a car is involved in a fatal crash this is logged right away, as well as the yellow flag and car removal delays, and the position of the car. See section 5.1.6.3. Besides the player's car, computer cars can be logged too, although they are not very interesting (unless you want to analyse their strategies while changing several settings in F1GP-Ed, for example). If only 1 player is being logged, the logfile will grow the size of about 4Kb for a full-length race. With 25 computer cars as well, it will get about 100Kb, but usually it's smaller. 4.1 Usage ========= AGPLapTime should be started from cli/shell with the following synopsis: AGPLapTime [-w] [-c] [-b <bufsize>] [<logfile>] The options _cannot_ be concatenated (e.g. -wc). 4.1.1. -c option ---------------- By default, computer cars are not being logged. To turn this on, specify the '-c' option. Note that in multiplayer games a player's car controlled by the computer is not a computer car. 4.1.2. -b option ---------------- The '-b' option specifies how large the buffer for the logfile is. Because I can't write logged data to disk while you're in the cockpit I use a buffer. This buffer can be flushed to disk during F1GP menu interaction if you give it the flush command: ctrl-f. The buffer is flushed too if you quit AGPLapTime, either by giving the ctrl-c command, or by quitting F1GP. These commands can be given by pressing the corresponding key combination in the cli AGPLapTime is started from, or with a special program like 'break' in your c: directory (after finding out it's process number with 'status'). The default buffer size is about 10Kb. If the '-c' option is specified this default size is about 128Kb. People that are low on memory may have to specify a smaller buffer size with the '-b' option. The given size must be in kilobytes. If the buffer overflows, there are no records logged anymore until the buffer is flushed. There will appear a message telling you that some records are lost if this happens, so make sure your buffer is big enough! After flushing the buffer it will always be empty again, unless an error occurred while trying to write to the file. 4.1.3. [<logfile>] ------------------ The default filename for the logfile is "agplap.log". You can specify a different name by just typing it on the command line (it may not start with a '-', or it will be interpreted as an option). 4.1.4. -w option ---------------- The '-w' option will enable automatic writing. Once you get out of the cockpit or you're in accelerated time, and this option is specified, AGPLapTime will write out (flush) the buffer to the logfile right away. For this option to work, you need at least v37 of the OS. There won't appear a message that the buffer is saved, unless there was an error. Also, an empty buffer will be saved right away when AGPLapTime is started, to be able to start AGPLap with option '-w' righ after that. 4.1.5. Examples --------------- AGPLaptime phoenix.log will log only players' cars, with a 10Kb buffer which will be flushed to the file "phoenix.log" upon exit, or upon receiving the flush command. AGPLaptime -w -c -b100 imola_cc.log will log all cars, with a 100Kb buffer which will be flushed to the file "imola_cc.log" automatically. 5. HOW DO I ANALYZE THE LOGFILE? ================================ There are two tools to analyze the logfile: AGPLap and AGPLapD. 5.1. AGPLap =========== A seperate tool called AGPLap can be used to output the logfile in ASCII format. Call it from cli/shell with the following synopsis: Usage: AGPLap [-w] [-t] [-/+[H/C]slfpr] ... [<logfile>] Everything between [] brackets is optional. All options are case insensitive. It may look a bit complex at first sight, but it isn't :). The options consist of three optional parts: New in v1.2 is that retirements after the race is over do not influence the total race time in the statistics. 5.1.1. [<logfile>] ------------------ The default name for the logfile is "agplap.log". You can specify a different name on the commandline as long as it doesn't start with a '-' or a '+'. 5.1.2. -w option ---------------- The '-w' option will enable logfile notification and makes AGPLap wait forever after printing all log entries until ctrl-c is pressed. Whenever there are new entries written to the file, AGPLap will print them right away. This way you don't need to print the complete logfile every time you take a look during a race. This option can best be used in conjunction with the '-w' command of AGPLapTime: if you go into accelerated time you will see computer cars being logged (if enabled) straight away. Don't ask me of how much use this is, but I use this to test stuff. 5.1.3. -t option ---------------- This option will suppress the output of the statistics table. This table is explained in section 5.1.8. (Statistics table). 5.1.4. -/+[H/C]slfpr ... options -------------------------------- This is the part that lets you select which entries you would like to see. Also, the '...' means you can specify it as many times as you like. It starts with either a '-' or a '+', then is optionally followed by a 'H' or a 'C', then followed by 0 or more of the characters 'slfpr'. By default, all log entries are printed. A '-' option will then skip a certain type of entry. The options and entries are mapped as follows: Option Entry Type s setups l laptimes f fastest laps p pitstops r retirements Also, an 'H' or 'C' can further specify entries. If the 'H' is specified, then the following options only affect human player cars. If the 'C is specified, then the following options only affect computer cars. If neither 'H' or 'C' is specified, then the following options will affect all cars. If there appears a '+' option however, all entries will _not_ be printed, except all the specified ones, including the '-' options. So the '+' is dominant: once for a certain type of car (human or computer) a '+' option is specified, the '-' options will turn into '+' options for that type of car. 5.1.4.1. examples ----------------- +C print human player entries only. -Hfs +Cpr print all human players entries except fastest laps and setups, and also all computer pitstops and retirements. +lp print all laptime and pitstop entries. +p -Cf print all computer fastest laps, and pitstops of all cars. + print no entries. 5.1.5. Example output --------------------- Track 1: Phoenix, Race Car Driver Lap CP TG LapTime BestTime SessionTime Difference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Setup [64/48] 14R [26,32,39,45,51,57] TC on; C-compound %39 Rene Smit 0 24 86 -:--.--- -:--.--- 0h00m09.339 + 0:07.588 Setup [64/46] 12R [27,33,39,45,51,57] TC on; C-compound *38 Grant Reeve 0 26 86 -:--.--- -:--.--- 0h00m10.343 + 0:08.592 %38 Grant Reeve 1 12 88 1:32.123 1:32.123= 0h01m42.466 + 0:12.914 *39 Rene Smit 1 21 88 1:46.394 1:46.394= 0h01m55.733 + 0:26.181 *38 Grant Reeve 2 12 90 1:32.231 1:32.123 0h03m14.697 + 0:20.418 %39 Rene Smit 2 22 90 Pits in FW 0h03m48.073 %39 Rene Smit 2 24 -- Pits out on C's 0h04m08.837 pit 20.764 %38 Grant Reeve 3 8 92 1:26.362 1:26.362= 0h04m41.059 + 0:16.884 *39 Rene Smit 3 24 88 -:--.--- 1:46.394 0h05m42.135 + 1:17.960 *39 Rene Smit 4 24 -- Retired 61; 8% 0h05m50.992 0:03, 0:30 %38 Grant Reeve 4 8 92 1:30.496 1:26.362 0h06m11.555 + 0:22.813 *38 Grant Reeve 5 8 92 1:31.839 1:26.362 0h07m43.394 + 0:27.930 *38 Grant Reeve 6 8 92 1:21.849 1:21.849! 0h09m05.243 + 0:26.661 FL 1:21.849 Grant Reeve, Ace, 716 HP, SF 16384, FR 10.0, 100% *38 Grant Reeve 7 -- -- Retired 268; 35% 0h09m40.286 0:03, 0:30 This logfile was made during a multiplayer game, and the computer cars were logged too, but have been filtered out here by using the '+C' option. The top line tells you what each column means. This column layout refers to laptime entries but certain columns are related to some other entries too. This is what each column means: - Car The car number. It is preceded by one of the following characters: . '*' if a player is in control of the car. . '%' if the computer has control of this player's car in multiplayer mode. . '#' if this is a computer car. - Driver Driver name. - Lap Lap number. Races begin with lap 0 at the start. Other sessions start with lap number 1. - CP Car position. In non-race sessions this is the ranking in the fastest lap table. - TG Tyre grip. This is explained in section 5.1.7. (Tyre grip). - LapTime Lap time. Is '-:--.---' on first lap out of the pit. - BestTime Best personal time in the session. - SessionTime Session time. In the race, this is the exact race time which starts at the green light. - Difference Race only, this is the time difference between this car and the leader. 5.1.6. Log entries ------------------ I will now explain each log entry type in detail with use of the example. 5.1.6.1. lap time, setup and fastest lap entries ------------------------------------------------ Everytime a car crosses the start/finish line a laptime entry is logged. If this is the first one in a session, a setup entry is logged as well. The following is printed in this case: Track 1: Phoenix, Race Setup [64/48] 14R [26,32,39,45,51,57] TC on; C-compound %39 Rene Smit 0 24 86 -:--.--- -:--.--- 0h00m09.339 + 0:07.588 It first prints the track name and session mode. The session mode is one of the following: - Practise Circuit - Free Practice - Qualifying - Pre-Race Practice - Race The string ' (wet)' is added if it's a wet session (only for pre-race practise and race). 'Practise Circuit' stands for the 'Practise any circuit' option in the main menu. The race is either a quick race, a non-championship race or a championship race. It then prints the setup: front and rear wing, front or rear brake bias, gear ratio's, traction control (TC) on or off, and finally the used tyre compound. This tyre compound isn't always the same as selected in the garage, e.g. in non-race sessions this compound will be the one you selected from within the car. So, it's always the compound you're driving on at that moment. A normal laptime entry will look like this: %38 Grant Reeve 4 8 92 1:30.496 1:26.362 0h06m11.555 + 0:22.813 Here, a car just finishes lap 4 in position 8. The laptime is 1:30.496 and his personal best time is 1:26.362. In case the car sets a best session time, a fastest_lap entry is logged: *38 Grant Reeve 6 8 92 1:21.849 1:21.849! 0h09m05.243 + 0:26.661 FL 1:21.849 Grant Reeve, Ace, 716 HP, SF 16384, FR 10.0, 100% After the best laptime a '!' is added so fastest laps can be recognized if printing of fastest_laps entries is skipped. This will be reset for each session. If the laptime is an improvement of the personal best laptime, a '=' is added. The fastest_lap entry starts with 'FL', followed by the time, the driver name, the opposition level, horsepower value, speed factor SF, frame rate FR, and finally a short session name (Prac, FrPr, Qual or PRPr) for non-race sessions, and the race distance in percentage for race sessions. If you happen to drive a fastest lap, and drive exactly the same laptime in another lap, a fastest_lap entry will be logged again. The speed factor (SF) is some sort of grip value for this particular car. For a player's car this value will almost always be equal to 16384. For computer cars it will be that too, unless you're using F1GP-Ed and you've specified a different speed factor, or you've installed the Local Speed Factor patch. In that case the SF value will be near or equal to F1GP-Ed's SF value, where slower computer cars will have a slightly lower speed factor. 5.1.6.2. pitstop entries ------------------------ Pitstops consist of a pair of entries. When a car comes in for a pitstop, a pits_in entry is logged (when the car is put onto the jacks): %39 Rene Smit 2 22 90 Pits in FW 0h03m48.073 If the car has damage, any broken wings are logged. 'FW' means the front wing, and 'RW' means the rear wing is broken. When the car comes off the jacks, a pits_out entry is logged: %39 Rene Smit 2 24 -- Pits out on C's 0h04m08.837 pit 20.764 The tyre compound is printed which was chosen from within the car during the pitstop, C-compound in this case. In the 'Difference' column the duration of the pitstop is printed, preceded by the word 'pit'. 5.1.6.3. retirement entry ------------------------- If a car has a fatal crash, a retirement entry is logged, right at the moment of the impact: *38 Grant Reeve 7 -- -- Retired 268; 35% 0h09m40.286 0:03, 0:30 The number after 'Retired' is the segment number where you crashed. You can use this number to locate the track position with the perf file viewer GPDisplay. The percentage shows where you crashed compared to the total lap, e.g. if you crashed halfway a lap it says 50%. In the 'Difference' column are two times printed: the first one is the yellow flag delay, and the second one is the car removal delay. This should be an indication of how long it takes before the road is clear again. Note that if the car is involved in another fatal crash right after the first one, another entry is logged. If two cars fatally crash against each other, their entries contain the same session time. Normal crashes are not logged, but if there is a crash, the damage can be seen in the pits_in entry if the car drives into the pits. 5.1.7. Tyre grip ---------------- With each laptime entry and pits_in entry the tyre grip is logged. This value indicates the condition of your tyres, and it changes while you're driving. The grip has an initial ('cold') value which depends on the tyre compound, the track and the weather conditions (wet or dry). Here is a list of all cold values for all compounds: Dry conditions Wet conditions Tracks A B C D Q(warm) W Slicks W ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2,4,7,10,12,13,14,15 82 85 88 89 83(99) 78 01 57 3,1,6,8,9,11,16 81 84 86 88 82(98) 77 00 56 5 80 83 85 87 80(96) 75 00 55 I have added the 'warm' values for Q-compound tyres too, which gives the highest possible grip for that track. The optimum values for the other compounds can be extracted from the logfiles: while warming up the tyres the value will increase until they reach optimum grip. It will stay constant for a certain number of laps (this will influence your pit strategy) and drops at the moment the tyres are wearing out. It will then take a certain number of laps (depending on the track and compound) before the value drops below the cold value. From the example above you can see that in Phoenix the optimum grip for C's is 92. For all other race-compounds on all tracks the warm value is about 6 higher than the cold value too. In wet races the tyres don't warm up, so the grip value will then stay constant. These grip values are not the original values that the game uses. I have scaled them to be between 0 and 99, taking slicks in the wet as a minimum and the highest possible Q value as a maximum. I did this to keep the output small and to make it more intuitive to read. 5.1.8. Statistics table ----------------------- This table is printed at the end of each session, and shows statistics about the session. It's most interesting for a race and if there is more than one driver. There are statistics in several columns for each driver. 5.1.8.1. table contents ----------------------- This is what each column means: Finishing position | Car number | | Total race time | | | Fastest lap | | | | Lap in which fastest lap was done | | | | | #Laps led | | | | | | #Laps done | | | | | | | #Pitstops | | | | | | | | Average pitstop loss | | | | | | | | | Average tyre grip | | | | | | | | | | #Laps done per compound | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FP Car Race_Time Fast_Lap FL LL/TL PS Avg_Pits AG A B C D Q W Average pitstop loss shows the relative amount of time that is wasted with a pitstop. It's the difference between two normal laps and the two laps involved with the pitstop, including standing still. The cars are sorted on laps done, then on race time. 5.1.8.2. example ---------------- Here is an example of statistics for a race: FP Car Race_Time Fast_Lap FL LL/TL PS Avg_Pits AG A B C D Q W ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 6 1h42m06.850 1:13.893 65 52/78 2 0:29.308 93 57 21 2. 1 1h42m32.094 1:14.361 77 27/78 1 0:23.688 93 78 3. 9 1h43m14.608 1:14.911 57 0/78 1 0:19.058 93 45 33 4. 25 1h44m47.039 1:14.057 70 0/78 4 0:39.463 94 23 55 5. 22 1h45m22.844 1:15.889 76 0/78 1 0:18.916 93 78 6. 2 1h45m47.383 1:15.043 78 0/78 3 0:42.236 92 29 40 9 7. 38 0h42m49.197 1:19.318 24 0/27 5 0:44.181 93 6 21 5.2. AGPLapD ============ Another way to analyze the logfiles is to use AGPLapD, a graphical logfile viewer. It's not a graphical substitute for AGPLap, since it doesn't show race times or lap times, but only time differences for each lap. This implies that it's only interesting if you log computer cars too, but there is another tool called AGPLapMix which can combine several logfiles into one (see section 5.3. AGPLapMix). AGPLapD will not work with non-race sessions, so make sure your logfile only contains one race (AGPLapMix helps you with this). Besides the time differences, AGPLapD also shows pitstops, retirements and a driver list. AGPLapD was made by Grant Reeve. New in v0.2ß2 is that it now works properly with versions lower than V39 of the operating system. 5.2.1. Usage ------------ You start AGPLapD from cli/shell with the following synopsis: AGPLapD [logfile] You can also load the log file from within the program. 5.2.2. The interface -------------------- After you start the program, there will appear two windows, the AGPLapD window which contains the graph, and the Info window which contains the list of drivers. You can activate either window from the Windows menu. There are two other menus: File and Prefs. From the File menu you can load a new log file, clear the current logfile, or quit. From the Prefs menu you can change screenmode, colours and fonts, and you can save and load the preferences in several ways. 5.2.2.1. the AGPLapD window --------------------------- This window shows a grid, with the lap number on the x-axis, and the time difference to the leader on the y-axis. So the leader's trace is always at the bottom of the graph, right on the x-axis (except for pitstops). Traces of the other drivers are drawn according to their gap to the leader. A pitstop is drawn as a bold vertical bar, as the driver stands still in the pit. The height of that bar is exactly the amount of time the driver was on the jacks in the pit (usually about 8 seconds for a regular pitstop and about 0 seconds if one or two wings needed to be repaired). A retirement is drawn as a little box at the end of the trace. A black trace going from left to right indicates the leader, who is then lapping other cars. If it initiates from another driver's trace, or if it crosses one, it means that that driver is being passed by the leader. If it's the lowest black trace, he's lapped once, the next one means lapped twice, etc. 5.2.2.2. the Info window ------------------------ All drivers have unique colours (as long as they are available), and are sorted on their race position. They are listed in this window with the same colour as they are drawn with in the AGPLapD window. In that window you can see a cursor (a vertical line) that's on lap 0 after loading. In the Info window's title bar you can see that lap number, and the number of cars. You can move the cursor with the cursor keys; with shift there will be 10 laps skipped at once. 5.3. AGPLapMix ============== With this tool you can combine upto 64 log files together into one big log file. Thereby it can filter out any unwanted sessions. Actually, the most interesting use of this tool is to mix several races, which you can then view with AGPLapD or AGPLap. You can mix log files from different tracks together. This is, of course, pointless. AGPLapMix was made by Grant Reeve. 5.3.1. Usage ------------ AGPLapMix <mode> <inlogfile> [car#[/new#] [car#[/new#] [-aText]]... [inlogfile] [car#[/new#] [-aText]].... <outlogfile> mode=A[BB...BB] A is: m=mix a=append B's are: f=strip free practice q=strip qualifying e=strip pre-race r=strip race p=strip practice Mixing the logfiles is the most interesting (make sure they are from the same circuit). Appending will just concatenate the logfiles. Behind each logfile you can specify any number of car numbers that you want to include. Each car number can be renumbered by adding a '/' with the number to the old number. This is necessary if the logfiles contain double car numbers, because double numbers will mess up pitstop times with AGPLap. AGPLapMix supports car numbers from 0 to 63. Besides this renumbering you can additionally append some text to the driver name with the '-a' option followed by text. The total length of the name cannot be more than 23 characters. If the name will be too long it will be cut off. Finally, specify the name of the output logfile. 5.3.2. Examples --------------- * You have a log file containing a qualifying session and a race at USA, and you want to filter out everything except what you and your teammate did in the race. You are in car 39, he is in car 38: AGPLapMix mq usa.log 38 39 output.log * You have two log files, of races at Imola, where you are in car 39 and you are called "Grant Reeve" :). You want to combine the two files together so you can compare how the two different versions of you went: AGPLapMix m imola1.log 39/1 -aA imola2.log 39/2 -aB output.log imola1.log will become "Grant Reeve A" in car 1, and imola2.log will become "Grant Reeve B" in car 2. 6. THANK LIST ============= I would like to thank Grant Reeve for encouraging me and for making AGPLapD and AGPLapMix. Thanks to Oliver Roberts for beta-testing, and to other people that have reported bugs. Thanks to Robert Schaftlein for sending me a cheque! Finally, thanks to Trevor Kellaway, who has made GPLap for the PC, which inspired me to make a logger for the Amiga too.