Re: [Speed-dreams-devel] Ticket #356 Manual race start and end

[<jpm...@fr...>]

Hi, Joe, Eckhard, all.

Happy to see that you are already tweaking the machine hart ;-)

> I've done some research/prototyping on this.
> Manual race start:
> Starting the game in paused mode is very nice for setting up
> split-screens, debug displays,etc.
> The biggest draw back so far is that when you unpause the ("slow
> resume race" manager) is activated so
> the Ready, Set, Go sequence is a little draw out. The simulation is
> at full speed before Go so it is not too bad.
> I intend to redo this as a raceengine state. Similar to what is
> currently done for RE_STATE_NETWORK_WAIT.

Sounds a good idea, indeed.

> Manual race end:
> An arbitrary or configurable delay before being thrown to the results
> screen seemed to me to be only a moderate improvement.

I agree.

> I've prototyped a post-race cooldown state (RE_STATE_RACE_COOLDOWN)
> that works as follows:
> When the last driver/robot crosses the finish line, you can continue
> as long as you want to (and have fuel). The display shows
> a message "Hit r to goto Results" (See screenshot)

Very good.

> I added these options to the Simulation Config menu (it had room).
> (See screenshot)
> Not sure where they logically fit in best.

Probably not in the "Simulation" Options menu ...

Some other possible solutions :
- make this a race option (see the last screen
  when configuring a quick race, as an example,
  the one where you can select weather, session time/nb laps, ...
  => not sure it is better :-(
- add a new "Race engine" Option menu
- rename the "Simulation" options menu to "Race engine",
  and keep your solution (my preferred one)
- no longer make it an option
- ... ?
  
> Also not sure who would be the domain director for this.
> Jean-Philippe (Game Architecture)?
> It is mostly RaceEngine and LegacyMenu.

Sure something implying 2 "domains" : menus and race engine.

I'm OK for for the race engine part ...
Eckhard, any better idea about the menu ?

Back to the link between the race engine and the menus,
did you checked that it was not breaking the "textonly" mode
(no GUI at all, kind of "server" mode) ?
(textonly is a moule that implements the "userinterface" interface,
 just like "legacymenu" ... but suitable for headless computers
 or "batch" testing/setting up robots ...)

Cheers,

Jean-Philippe.