Flashing lights

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Rui Santos, Aug 5, 2019.

  1. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    One thing i would like S397 to implement was to split the lights and flashing lights in two different buttons. Flashing lights feature is important, specially in endurance races...
     
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  2. davehenrie

    davehenrie Registered

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    agree with Rui, the danger of NOT creating a separate control for the blinking is the sim may interpret the blinking as not driving with your lights on and throw a DQ.
     
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  3. Flinty72

    Flinty72 Registered

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    While it is a fair request & would be great to have, I don't think flashing headlights in a sim really affects the driver in front & certainly not an AI driver if offline racing.
     
  4. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Affects?? What do you mean? The purpose is not to upset the driver in front, lol... This is a MUST HAVE request, lights are used in several situations in race! The most experienced guys know what i'm talking about, and the S397 guys too for sure ;)
     
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  5. Stevy

    Stevy Registered

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    Great Idea! With the coming online competition this is a must feature.
    I would even say replace the normal headlight switch with the flash.
    Tbh you don't really need the main headlight switch. Make the light automatic like in iRacing.
    With this also nobody will forget it or can turn it off to crash people in the dark.
     
  6. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Not a bad idea Stevy, but this is a true simulation :D let us choose when to turn lights on or off...
     
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  7. Bill Worrel

    Bill Worrel Registered

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    Could you describe those situations for those less experienced?
     
  8. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    No, you'll find out when you need it. Anyway Davehenrie almost explained it in his post.

    The main purpose of this thread is to reach S397 staff, they know for sure what i'm talking about!
     
  9. Bill Worrel

    Bill Worrel Registered

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    There are many ways to reach S397 staff and since this is a discussion forum, I'll ask others experienced in night driving:

    What are the appropriate situations to flash your headlights during a race?

    I suspect it has no affect against the AI, so obviously during a MP race.
     
  10. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Is this what you want?

    It's a bit of code I've scratched together, it needs a bit of tidying before it's ready for beta testing. It reads the shared memory to find whether the lights are on or off prior to flashing them. As the headlight control is a toggle it reads it again to check they are in the same state afterwards. In the video I turn the lights on initially then the program flashes them (twice). I turn them off and it flashes them again (leaving them off) before I turn them on again.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
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  11. davehenrie

    davehenrie Registered

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    yes, that is the idea, there are a couple of problems I have read about from leagues. Some users have used a macro to quickly activate the headlights on and off. They wrote they had issues with the lights finishing and still being on. (sometimes the lights would finish turned on, other times turned off) One of the complaints about the rules enforced by rF2 is the short time allowed to drive without your headlights on at night. Users have posted that manually blinking the lights was enough to get a DQ.
    Keep at it. Thanks for looking into this area.
     
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  12. Bill Worrel

    Bill Worrel Registered

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    How many flashes does that do and for how long?

    Here's a rule I found from an endurance league:
    "A sequence of flashes must last no longer than 2 seconds and cannot include more than 4 flashes."
     
  13. Andregee

    Andregee Registered

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    I use Xpadder with a profile. If I drive with lights on, it flashes 5 times and keeps light on if I drive without headlights it switches the light of after flashing.
     
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  14. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    That's 10 x 20 mS flashes, but that's just a number I picked.
     
  15. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Bill, you already know the answer, of course in SP it has no effect, as the AI is dumb to those inputs, but in MP, when a LMP2 car reaches a GTE car they are REALLY useful! It should be implemented, guess it might not be that hard to do that...
     
  16. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Exactly Seven Smiles, but i want it integrated in the simulator ;)
     
  17. Bill Worrel

    Bill Worrel Registered

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    Thanks, so you're flashing the GTE car when you're coming up on them at night. But won't the GTE car receive a blue flag (except if it's for position) and in the new Le Mans and other mod tracks, a blue light?
     
  18. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Never integrate what can easily be added on. I said that :cool:
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  19. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Some people only see blue flags when they hit their head, sometimes a flash, even in a league when you need to warn a driver that you're approaching is useful...
     
  20. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Yeah, my program is smart enough to give an extra toggle if that happens.
    I have been DQ'd but it was after a few seconds.
     
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