B-Spec Grinder 2.5.2: Automate Remote Races

  • Thread starter yonis
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Hi Yonis - thought I'd provide you with a bit more feedback.

I came home to check on the status of the widget - looks like it got stuck at the 'selecting drivers' state again. According to the log, it ran 6 races without any problems this morning. Then at some point after that, it didn't get past the driver selection portion for the rest of the day.
 
tezster
Hi Yonis - thought I'd provide you with a bit more feedback.

I came home to check on the status of the widget - looks like it got stuck at the 'selecting drivers' state again. According to the log, it ran 6 races without any problems this morning. Then at some point after that, it didn't get past the driver selection portion for the rest of the day.
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For those following along, the 'selecting drivers' hang is bound to happen at some point given enough time, probably due to server lag on pd's side (trying to get a live status of all your friends and all of their drivers).

@Yonis: would it be possible to put a time limit to select drivers? Say after 60 seconds (or 5 minutes, w/e) if the app remains in selecting drivers phase, the app reloads or does some kind of subroutine magic to rerun the script? Just a thought.
 
Got a Line 66 error during a race this time, with race length still set to 'any'. Hmm, guess its time to disregard the conclusions I was trying to come to a page or so ago.
 
Method36
@mentalagain: does your line 66 come back after switching back to 'any length' and reloading? The first time I saw that error was after messing with the race length... it was also the last (so far) after switching it back.
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Yes, I have seen it since putting it back as well. Initially I thought that it was due to that however it doesn't appear so.
 
At a high level, here are the things I'm noticing are happening so far.
  • During off-work hours, when the load on Polyphony's servers is undoubtedly higher, the number of server errors we're receiving spikes dramatically, causing more problems.
  • During race setup, the Widget must not receive an error from the server. If it does, it must either attempt the fetch again or restart the entire process if that fails. Right now there is mixed success on recovering when it fails to start a race.
  • Receiving bad data from the server during a race is generally acceptable, but needs to be followed up with a state check.

Here are the things I want to tackle next, based on feedback, in rough priority order.
  • Even more stability fixes. I want to be able to run this thing without having to reload it every couple of hours. That includes not reloading the Widget by itself; that's a hacky solution that doesn't address the underlying problems.
  • Adding a priority selector UI for the people on your friends list, and a similar priority selector for which of your own drivers the Widget should use. This would be a drag and drop UI; you have a well of entries which have the equal "random" priority, then you have a "preferred" well where entries are chosen in the order that they are specified.
  • Appearance preferences for changing the colors used in the UI.
 
stry67
Is the no url being specified error being ignored yonis? :(
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Just so you guys know, I'm a feedback whore. :) I'm checking in on this thread frequently and reading every post. Thank you for all of your bug reports and comments, positive and constructive.

The "no URL specified" bug is tricky because I don't know why it's happening, and it hasn't happened frequently on my account... I have some theories which I will test though.
 
Yonis I give you huge props for going out of your way and putting all this time and effort to put a FREE and EASY app for the whole gtp community which isn't exactly small either. People should stop complaining and realize how awesome this is at it's core-automatic Bspec!

Anyways top marks for this "app" I'm very satisfied with it's running today. I only had one problem but that was on my end because my router signed me out. Good job :)
 
I agree with everyone giving props and mad praise because I think it's a awesome tool to get by the what I think is the most annoying aspect of remote racing and that's populating the grid. It's a pain in the arse and what i think is the most useful part of this, not the fact ya can set it to run un-attended.
And for those making comments about not complaining go *&&^%5 #$^. The developer won't know he has problems unless people tell him. Now that I have seen ya mention it Yonis, I know yer aware of it and trying to find it and duplicate it. Like I said earlier, this problem only occurs on my win 7 computer, not my XP puter so therein something bout Win 7 or perhaps something I have set on it is causing the problem and maybe not even the widget itself.
 
yonis
At a high level, here are the things I'm noticing are happening so far.
[*]During off-work hours, when the load on Polyphony's servers is undoubtedly higher, the number of server errors we're receiving spikes dramatically, causing more problems.
[*]During race setup, the Widget must not receive an error from the server. If it does, it must either attempt the fetch again or restart the entire process if that fails. Right now there is mixed success on recovering when it fails to start a race.
[*]Receiving bad data from the server during a race is generally acceptable, but needs to be followed up with a state check.

Here are the things I want to tackle next, based on feedback, in rough priority order.
[*]Even more stability fixes. I want to be able to run this thing without having to reload it every couple of hours. That includes not reloading the Widget by itself; that's a hacky solution that doesn't address the underlying problems.
[*]Adding a priority selector UI for the people on your friends list, and a similar priority selector for which of your own drivers the Widget should use. This would be a drag and drop UI; you have a well of entries which have the equal "random" priority, then you have a "preferred" well where entries are chosen in the order that they are specified.
[*]Appearance preferences for changing the colors used in the UI.
Click to expand...

The priority selector can simply be a text box for ppl to fill in PSN separated by comma. That may simplify the coding and give u more time with stability issues.
 
Testdasi
The priority selector can simply be a text box for ppl to fill in PSN separated by comma. That may simplify the coding and give u more time with stability issues.
Click to expand...
True. I shy away from doing things like that because I'm a visual designer and I like things to look nice and work very easily. :) Plus, I'd like this to be a portfolio piece someday!

I could try adding a hidden setting which just takes text, I suppose. Depends on how many people want it right away as opposed to next week.
 
Just had a chance to try it now. Yonis, thank you its working great on Windows 7 64-bit.

I'm using the Netherlands server after the warning about the UK server since I have a EU PSN account.
 
mentalagain
TypeError: urlObj.result has no properties (Status.js: Line 66)
TypeError: urlObj.result has no properties (Status.js: Line 66)
TypeError: urlObj.result has no properties (Status.js: Line 66)
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This one is now definitively fixed in my dev version. One down, several more to go!
 
yonis
True. I shy away from doing things like that because I'm a visual designer and I like things to look nice and work very easily. :) Plus, I'd like this to be a portfolio piece someday!

I could try adding a hidden setting which just takes text, I suppose. Depends on how many people want it right away as opposed to next week.
Click to expand...
Lol count me in the impatient "now" camp. :D

And from a business perspective, u want to give users a functionality right away and then improve on it. Just ask PD! :D My $0.02
 
Testdasi
And from a business perspective, u want to give users a functionality right away and then improve on it. Just ask PD! :D My $0.02
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Just don't add any level or daily-use restrictions. ;) :lol:

But seriously, the app is great. 👍 Saves me a lot of clicking, and I don't mind the occasional reload if it hangs (not very often, mostly due to PD servers being crap).
 
I love the fact that i can Start this App before I go to sleep, Leave it running while I leave to work.

I have a APP on my Phone, which allows me to Remote Control my Laptop at home, So during the day I jump on my phone and check the Status box on the computer from my phone, If I see it has some Errors, I'll simply Reload the App from my phone, and it'll continue on it's Way!


Thank you Yonis! If i have any Error lines I'll post a Log of the Exact lines tomorrow.
 
This is awesome Yonis ,thankyou. I've almost finished my Long Service Leave and return to work Monday. I can't remote host races at work, and when at home I want to play the game instead clicking a mouse. Now I'll be able to host at work and sleep, and I can play the game when I have the time instead of trying to repay other hosters.

ypmud
02/25/11 11:35:05.892: Could not successfully retrieve data! Will try reconnecting in 5 minutes.
02/25/11 11:35:05.893: Data was as follows:
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
URL: https://eu.gran-turismo.com/gb/api/gt5/remoterace/
POST Data: job=7&replay_save=0&_=
Response: ----------------------------------
Could not load URL with POST
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
02/25/11 11:35:07.607: Command hasn't gone through. Try it again.


thats what i get when it loads the UK settings :(
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I just tried this for the first time and got the same error when I chose Australia. I set it to US like Yonis suggested and it has run three flawless races so far 👍

tezster
Just so you know, it can take awhile before information is updated. I've waited as long as 15-20 hours before someone I added as a friend was accessible as a remote racing friend on the webpage (which of course has nothing to do with the widget but is a delay on the GT5 server end).
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Exactly. I've seen it take over 24 hours to fully add a new friend onto the website.

Rich77
Yonis I give you huge props for going out of your way and putting all this time and effort to put a FREE and EASY app for the whole gtp community which isn't exactly small either. People should stop complaining and realize how awesome this is at it's core-automatic Bspec!

Anyways top marks for this "app" I'm very satisfied with it's running today. I only had one problem but that was on my end because my router signed me out. Good job :)
Click to expand...

+1. My sentiments exactly.

Any chance you could add "current lap/total laps" to the display?

EDIT: Seven races now, working like a charm.
 
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balsaq
I've had this too. Nothing a restart doesn't seem to fix, but seems to be a problem somewhere.
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Yeah a restart solves the problem. But its wasting time.. i left it running this morning, just got back 10 hours later to find it stopped working about half an hour after i left..
 
Skyle
I had this message:
02/26/11 12:11:27.687: API Bug: We were sent race info that is not ours! Try again.
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Don't worry about that one, it should sort itself out. I am making it less aggressive about refetching info though as it takes a few tries before the API will spit out the correct information.
 

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