How to implement pit exit blend line violations

Discussion in 'Wish Lists' started by Keeper, Feb 24, 2021.

  1. Keeper

    Keeper Registered

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    A suggestion for S397 about how pit exit violations can be simulated reasonably, so that leagues don't have to go through a replay and check everyone's pit stops at circuits where a big advantage can be gained by moving onto the racing line sooner than one should.

    Create a new object plane just like the timing lines -- let's call it material xblend. It gets placed at the end of the pit exit blend line. The game then begins a check when someone crosses xpitout to see if xblend is also crossed before xfinish. If not -- penalty. Use a new variable in the GDB, "Blend = True", for tracks that have this feature, so as not to break every existing track that does not.

    Two minor issues: 1) Obviously it doesn't penalize people for crossing the blend line as long as they go back within the limits at the point where the xblend object is placed. As there's little to be gained from doing so, this is very minor. 2) Theoretically it's possible for a circuit to have the xfinish be placed between xpitout and where xblend would be, but I don't actually know of any circuits like that -- even places like Anderstorp or Keimola where the pits are not within the start/finish line area, the finish line is not within the pit exit lane. (EDIT: Oh wait! Talladega is potentially one, depending on where cars are to be allowed back onto the banking.) This rare but potential issue could be resolved with another variable flag -- perhaps one that indicates a specific timing sector line to be the point before which xblend must be crossed.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
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  2. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    I think you may not understand the blend lines being talked about.

    @Keeper I think if the game were to implement something then having a blend line object that the modder can extrude from the blend line itself (so it's like a wall on the track-side of the blend line, I'm assuming the collision code would work fine even if it's long and twisting) would be the neater solution, avoid cars leaving the pitlane then re-entering and not getting detected. Along with the same caveat of tracks that don't support it, and preferably an .rfm option on whether to enable it as well (plus a server option to override). There is the issue of the lane potentially being blocked by an incident and cars having to cross the blendline, but the game could 'see' a yellow flag in such a scenario and ignore it (and maybe flag it in the results, for admins to check later or live).

    This new object could be added at the same time as adding an outlap-only object (or two) to allow outlap completion (like at Nords) that then can't be abused on subsequent laps or during a race.

    Unfortunately these gameplay fixes, which I think are relatively easy to implement, rarely get picked up by the devs. At least so far. Can only hope this sort of stuff gets looked at eventually, but given the state of play in other areas we may need to wait a while more...
     
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  3. Keeper

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    I came up with the solution above out of simplicity. A long curved blend line object would be too complex whereas a single plane at the end of the blend lane is simple to implement and generally has the intended effect. It's unlikely anyone would bother to cross the blend line then go back in to hit the xblend object, as there wouldn't be anything to gain by doing so -- other than passing a damaged or intentionally slow car as you mention, and thus a penalty wouldn't be warranted anyway.
     
  4. Keeper

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    ...and then every car on every racing lap also would get a cut-track penalty. Worse yet, the first two cut-track results are simply warnings, so even if that worked the way you think it would (and if it did, tracks actually would do that), it would be pointless to stop blend line violations unless there are at least three pitstops in the race.
     

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