Riverhead Raceway: How to make a pitline with RPYtoLP? HELP!!!

[john228]

Hey guys. Riverhead is looking great so far, and i have the A.I's Raceline working. Now for pit road... Riverhead has an odd pitroad... It technically doesnt have pits but im making it have a pit road. Im using RpytoLP for my lines and Riverhead's pitroad is outside the track. the entrance is off of turn 2 and the exit is entering turn 3, sort of... But i do not know how to make all the pit.lp's with RpytoLP!


PLEASE HELP!!!!!

 

[fortine_oo]

It is very easy to make all the secondary lp's (min/maxrace, min/maxpanic, limp, pit0, max/minpit0 (and pit1, max/minpit1, if necessary) using reflap. Reflap is "in the game", no need to add any new program. You can view the lp lines in "Single Race" mode, but you can only make new lp's in "Testing Session" mode.

Enter "Testing Session" mode and load your track. Select "Drive". (It will be easier to see what you're doing if you use "Far Chase" driving view.)
To start reflap, simultaneously hold down four keys, <ctrl> + <alt> + <shift> + <~> . If you've successfully started the program, there will be a couple of lines of red text in the upper left corner of the screen.
From here on, "seeing the line" will be referring to a linear series of colored trangles. ***
In order to see the lines you're going to be making, simultaneously hold down two keys, <ctrl> + <~>. You will see an orange line (the track centerline).
To start the recording (of the lp) process, simultaneously hold down two keys, <alt> + <R>. When you drive, you will be layig down a new lp line. It will be a yellow line. The new line will only be visible behind you until you make a full lap. Once you've made a complete circuit, you can save the line anytime/anywhere, it is not required that you save at the S/F line. You must be driving on the yellow line (you can be off a triangle width or so) when you save the line. If the line does not match up at the save point, the ai will hesitate at that point if they are following that line due to exe instructions. To save the line, keystroke </>, this is a temporary save point. You can continue driving the course to see if the line is positioned where you want. If you're satisfied with the line, you must simultaneously hold down two keys, <ctrl> + </> to save the file to the track folder, where it will appear as "reflap0.lp". If you don't save, <ctrl> + </>, the file will not be in the track folder and you'll need to redo the process. If you make and save more than one line per session, the subsequent lines will be "reflap1.lp", "reflap2.lp", etc. You rename each "reflap#.lp" to the proper designation, maxrace.lp, pit0.lp, etc.

Only the race.lp interprets the speed, steering input, throttle response, and braking applied that was used while recording the lap in reflap. The rest of the lp's only record the path, you can drive as fast or slow as you like, it doesn't matter. However, the ai work best when the lines are straight foward, that is, no wandering (no quick movements from straight ahead).

1. The minrace and minpanic are located to the right of the race.lp, always. The maxrace and maxpanic are located to the left of the race.lp, always. The minpit is located to the right of the pit0.lp (or pit1.lp), always. The maxpit is located to the left of the pit0.lp (or pit1.lp), always.
2. The minrace and maxrace lp's are the normal extended racing line boundries of the race.lp. The ai race best when these two lp's restrict the ai's path to bonafide alternate racing lines, where the race.lp is the preferred racing line. An actual alternate racing line may cross over the race.lp when you take a corner with a late apex path, or with an early apex path, then the corner exit would have the alternate path cross over the race.lp again; something resembling a crossover pass where one car overtakes on the inside going into the corner and exits wide while the passed car was on the outside and then cuts low to the inside and retakes the position when exiting the corner. That's not to say the minrace and maxrace lp's cross over the race.lp, they just restrict the ai's path from a maximum outside racing line to a maximum inside racing line.
3. The minpanic and maxpanic lp's afford the ai extra maneuver room when squeezed for space by the min/maxrace lp's, so one or two car widths beyond the min/maxrace lp's is all that's normally needed. The ai rarely use this space, but guard against making them too much wider than the min/maxrace as they approach a corner because they're eventually are going to rejoin the racing line and you don't want them crowding in at the corner entry. On the inside line of the corner, the panic line should be a half car width or less from the minrace or maxrace line.
4. After it's made and renamed (from reflap(#).lp), the limp.lp cannot be seen in reflap. You must temporarily rename it raceline.lp, minrace, maxrace, race.lp, or even one of the pit lp's so you can toggle it on for viewing. Just don't use minpanic or maxpanic, as both of those toggle on at the same time and it might get confusing. The ideal path is to run it on the side of the track that the pits are on. Keep it to the edge of the track, and even run it off the racing surface at the corners or other tight spots. It DOESN'T run through the pits, it stays on the track.
5. The pit lp's. At least two pit lp's are needed to have the ai as error free as possible on pitroad. They need to leave the track and run down pitroad and re-enter the track. It's easiest to lay down the pit lp that is the closest to the pitstalls first, then you can lay down the pit0.lp from that. Then, using the pit0.lp as a guide, lay down the pit lp that's closest to the racing surface, and if it's a narrow pitroad, track on the pit0.lp down pitroad and move it off the pit0.lp and toward the track as space allows. The ai on track don't "see" the cars on pitroad, so they are likely to run into cars coming off pitroad, so try to run the pit lp's off the racing line as much as possible until there's an appropiate place where the ai can rejoin the race traffic at the appropiate race speed. That's also the point/value that you'd use for <merge_from_pit_line_dlong>.
a) pit0.lp: The pace car follows this line for the pace lap and caution laps, so when you make it, try and run the line you would when driving the pace car. This is also the pit line the ai want to be on when they are required to follow the pit lp. It works the best when the pit0.lp is tracking on the race.lp at the dlong value of <merge_to_pit_line_dlong> line. From that point have it move smoothly to the pit road entrance, remembering to leave room (if possible) for the minpit and maxpit lp's. The <merge_to_pit_line_length> is distance added to the <merge_to_pit_line_dlong> value to give the ai some discretion on when they have to commit to the pit lp and pitting. Make sure the total distance doesn't exceed past the point that will allow the ai an easy entrance onto pitroad.
b) minpit and maxpit: For the majority of the circuit, it doesn't matter where these are. As you get close to the <merge_to_pit_line_dlong> point, make sure the outside pit lp tracks on or beyond the outside m--race lp, and the inside pit lp tracks on or beyond the inside m--race lp. The ai will then be able to capture any pit lp, no matter their current location on the track, to begin their transition to the pits.

I have not addressed the race.lp, since, 1) you say you already have that done, and 2) there's a bit more involved than the rest of the lp's. I would still recommend you make the race.lp using reflap.

To get the ai to use the pit lp's correctly, you will also have to enter the proper values in the track.ini.
[ AppRuleEnterPits ]
pit0_entrance_point0_dlat = ; 1 of the left/right points that must be passed between to not receive the black flag for getting onto pit road
pit0_entrance_point0_dlong = ; dlong is the distance along the dlong of the track that they first point is located
pit0_entrance_point1_dlat = ; the other left/right point (basically the total width of pitroad + pitstalls)
pit0_entrance_point1_dlong = ; dlong is the distance along the dlong of the track that they first point is located

[ pit_lane_0 ]
; AI stuff
merge_from_pit_line_dlong = ; dlong at which cars leaving pits will merge to race
merge_to_pit_line_dlong = ; dlong for calculating transition to pit line
merge_to_pit_line_length = ; distance added to merge_to_pit_line_dlong, gives the ai some discretion on hooking up to the pit lp's
pit_lane_start_dlong = ; dlong where where the pitroad/pitstalls begin, pitspeed compliance line
pit_lane_end_dlong = ; dlong where you can accelerate off of pit road and not get flagged for speeding
slow_pit_line_dlat_offset = ; track-specific dlat_offset of 2nd slower pit line (0 if N/A) (copy from a track that has similar length pitstalls)
begin_stall_entry_offset = ; offset at which to begin entering the pit stall (copy from a track that has similar length pitstalls)
begin_stall_approach_offset = ; offset at which to begin approaching the pit stall
stall_exit_goal_dlong_offset = ; goal dlong offset (ahead) for the pit stall exit fuzzy line (copy from a track that has similar length pitstalls)
stall_exit_goal_dlat_offset = ; goal dlat offset for the pit stall exit fuzzy line (a negative number if pitroad is to the left of thr track) (copy from a track that has similar length pitstalls)
lane_merge_dlong = ; dlong to remain on the apron when exiting the pits or you will receive a black flag (subsurface must be apron to at least this distance)


*** The color of the triangles are associated with various lp designations, the track centerline, and a new line that is be recorded (made).
orange_When no new lines have yet been saved, the orange line is the track centerline. If you have made a new line (that is yellow), when you hit the save keystroke, it will change from yellow to orange. It will continue to represent the new line until you save another line, then it will reflect the path of the newest line. While you remain in the current session, you will no longer be able to see the previously made/saved line(s) once you save another new line.
To see the different lp's once you've made/renamed them, these are the keystrokes needed to view them and the color(s) of the lines:
raceline_<ctrl> + <0>_green
minrace_<ctrl> + <1>_dark green
maxrace_<ctrl> + <2>_dark green
pit0_<ctrl> + <3>_red
minpit0_<ctrl> + <4>_dark red
maxpit0_<ctrl> + <5>_dark red
pit1_<ctrl> + <6>_blue
minpit1_<ctrl> + <7>_dark blue
maxpit1_<ctrl> + <8>_dark blue
minpanic & maxpanic_<ctrl> + <9>_purple (these two lines are on/off simultaneously)

This is about as basic as I can describe it. It will probably take a few trys to get it all working properly.
More info:
LP Files
ai...WHAT'S THE TROUBLE, WHAT'S POSSIBLE, HOW TO DO IT
The Pits &bull; View topic - N2003 Track Tutorials

 

[artofspeed]

I'm not complaining because I grew up going to Riverhead every Saturday night, but why did you have pit road starting off of turn two? Is it not possible to have the start of pit road off of three and have it come out of four? Like I said, I'm just asking because I loved Riverhead and kinda miss it today even though I'm surrounded by short tracks here in NC. I would check out the Bowman Grey track at Bullring because they have a pit road design you might be interested in for Riverhead. Any way, keep up the good work and May the Force be with you.




EDIT; Forgot to tell you that at Bullring, Bowman Grey is called Madhouse because they modeled it after the show that was on the History Channel