+- Forums (https://www.vdrift.net/Forum)
+-- Forum: Project (https://www.vdrift.net/Forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Development (https://www.vdrift.net/Forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Thread: Releases (/showthread.php?tid=1381)
- thelusiv - 12-17-2010
I think some users will complain, and that's definitely a con. But think of the pros:
- removes license issues from releases so they can be packaged for GPL-only distributions (Debian, etc.)
- makes the release package much smaller
- provide some data that is known working and can be used as a reference for getting to the other cars up to par
- will make users go check out cars.vdrift.net
http://wiki.vdrift.net/List_of_cars
http://wiki.vdrift.net/List_of_tracks
- NaN - 12-17-2010
A grep for Dick Maurer gives(TL creator):
C7
CO
M8
MC
MI
SB
TL
TL2
XG
Are they GPL?
- thelusiv - 12-17-2010
Good question. I'm fairly certain that most of them were imports he did from Racer cars on racer-xtreme. I am fairly certain the TL and TL2 were originals of his though. I'm having trouble coming up with much on the forums, it seems the search function doesn't like very short search phrases like "CO". I'll look more carefully at his post history later, and maybe try to email him.
- NaN - 12-17-2010
Too bad there is no origin/history info in the about.txt files. Back to the TL2.
- joevenzon - 12-17-2010
thelusiv Wrote:I think some users will complain, and that's definitely a con. But think of the pros:Don't forget, there are instructions on the wiki for getting cars and tracks from the data repo, and a list of both:
- removes license issues from releases so they can be packaged for GPL-only distributions (Debian, etc.)
- makes the release package much smaller
- provide some data that is known working and can be used as a reference for getting to the other cars up to par
- will make users go check out cars.vdrift.net
http://wiki.vdrift.net/List_of_cars
http://wiki.vdrift.net/List_of_tracks
The big con outweighs those pros. It's not acceptable to say "hey go find them and install them yourself, it's only a few steps and you only need to install an SVN client and they might not actually work anyway depending on if there have been data changes since the last release." If we really want to go after those pros, we should go down the path of the auto-updater.
- charlieg - 12-18-2010
I agree with joe here. I think if you want to trim down the main game data, either you need a larger add-on pack (high maintenance) or have some kind of cars/tracks download tool built in to the game.
- thelusiv - 12-18-2010
Hmmm, good point about data formats changing. What about this: release with only the cars/tracks that are licensed freely and working properly, and provide another package (as charlieg suggests) that includes as many as possible cars and tracks that are working properly (for instance, do not include cars that roll over on every turn, or don't drive properly for other reasons).
I think we could maintain a list of which data is in what state, and automate building a "vdrift-data-good" package from that, reducing maintenance overhead. (In the past we did this with vdrift-data-full and vdrift-data-minimal packages.)
- joevenzon - 12-19-2010
thelusiv Wrote:In the past we did this with vdrift-data-full and vdrift-data-minimal packages.
The reason we stopped doing that was that it was a lot of work and full data is huuuuge. Just the minimal package (which is what we've been releasing) is like 500 MB.
- thelusiv - 12-19-2010
Yeah, I remember. Maybe a "vdrift-data-best" package is a better approach. I think users might be happiest with an executable package that's ~30 MiB and a optional data package that's ~500 MiB.
- joevenzon - 12-19-2010
I still don't really like it if we're not including executables with the same data that people have been used to getting, but I'm fine with two versions of the packages: minimal w/ executables, medium w/ executables... as long as you handle making the minimal package. :-)
- thelusiv - 12-19-2010
No problem, that sounds good.
- NaN - 12-23-2010
Sound and replays fixed. Will focus on suspension, weight distribution.
- thelusiv - 12-24-2010
OK, I am still working on getting documentation up to date, and setting up some package builders. I'm trying to decide if I want to use this:
http://www.scons.org/wiki/AccumulateBuilder
or this:
http://www.scons.org/wiki/DistTarBuilder
I'm awful tempted to write my own Python script to do it, and have SCons call it, because both of those involve introducing a bunch of new code...
- NaN - 12-30-2010
Fixing weight distribution revealed another issue. Changing the weight distribution of the 350 for example from the current to a realistic one 53:47 makes it almost impossible to drive using keyboard. You'll get some nasty power and lift-off oversteer effects.
The question is how to handle this. Adjust car parameters to make them easy to drive(like atm) or implement some stability control, steering assist.
- joevenzon - 12-31-2010
My opinion is: realistic first, easy for keyboard players later. :-)