Question for the guy behind the green curtain

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pack529holycross
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Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by pack529holycross »

In using the software for a Pack event, and now entering into the realm of Corporate Event Derby Services, I was wondering if you could incorporate an additional column into the projected derby stats section of the sofware. This additional column would display the image assigned to that data file that Grand Prix Organizer uses for the Drivers Licenses. Having this column and added graphic display next to the drivers name /data would allow the kids to see their picture up on the screen, as well as substituting company logos for the pictures to show the logos up on the big screen during the competition.any thoughts to the complexities involved in this upgrade?


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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

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I have a couple of concerns:

Just how visible will it really be?

Can it be done while still supporting a minimum 800 x 600 screen resolution and up to 8 lane tracks (8 racers on the screen)?

Really these two are interconnected.

I'd expect to see some image functionality in V8 of GPRM, but I have reservations on showing images on the list of racers for the current heat.

As for GPO, it stores the images right in its data file. To pull images from there would be more complicated than if they were just stored on the hard drive. It would be easier to get GPRM and DerbyDMV to work together in that respect, since DerbyDMV uses images where they reside on the hard drive.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by Darin McGrew »

We used photos of the cars themselves for our derby last month. It worked well, but we had only 4 lanes. With 8 lanes, you'd need much smaller photos, or you'd need two rows of photos. (I am reminded of Jakob Nielsen's advice about thumbnail images, although you won't have control over how useful the images your customers use are.)

Photos of the cars have the advantage of helping verify that the right cars are in the right lanes.

Photos of the kids might help identify who is racing, but their names are already being displayed. And for the "hey, that's me on the screen" effect, we recorded short snippets of video of each kid saying "ready, set, go" and used one of those snippets to start each race.
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by derbyspeed »

Darin McGrew wrote:We used photos of the cars themselves for our derby last month. It worked well, but we had only 4 lanes. With 8 lanes, you'd need much smaller photos, or you'd need two rows of photos. (I am reminded of Jakob Nielsen's advice about thumbnail images, although you won't have control over how useful the images your customers use are.)

Photos of the cars have the advantage of helping verify that the right cars are in the right lanes.

Photos of the kids might help identify who is racing, but their names are already being displayed. And for the "hey, that's me on the screen" effect, we recorded short snippets of video of each kid saying "ready, set, go" and used one of those snippets to start each race.
Darin, that is a really cool idea. My wife was asking me how we were going to top this year's race - new track, timer, software, 2 TV's showing who's up and on deck, plus a video camera hooked to a TV for viewing in the back row. I really like the idea of the snippets of video with the kids in it.

This year (my first year as cubmaster) we let the scouts stage their own cars - that was a big change from all the Cubmasters from the previous years. It was so nice to keep the scouts more involved than to just watch!

You have just raised the bar in Derby fun for the kids!!! :D
Mike Webb

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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by Darin McGrew »

For several years, our MC has been asking the kids to say "ready, set, go" to start each race. The problem is that it takes some kids a long time to work up the nerve to say those three words. With the video, no one is waiting around while the kids say "um, uh, okay, uh, (giggle), um,..." All that is edited out.
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by derbyspeed »

Darin, I was also wondering what kind of software you were using to show the pictures of the cars - I didn't see that option on the GPRM?
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by Darin McGrew »

derbyspeed wrote:Darin, I was also wondering what kind of software you were using to show the pictures of the cars - I didn't see that option on the GPRM?
We use our own software. The scheduling algorithm is the one described at the bottom of the Chaotic-Rotation Methods section of my race methods document. It produces PPN-like schedules.

This year, we used newly rewritten software. IIRC, the guy who wrote it used MS Excel. The exception was the "ready, set, go" videos, which he handled separately from the race scheduling and results.
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by gpraceman »

derbyspeed wrote:I didn't see that option on the GPRM?
Yet... V8 will have some photo capability. I just don't know yet if that will include showing a photo (car or racer) for each current heat's racer or just for the heat winner. It will likely also show the photo on the new track record pop-up screen.
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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by pack529holycross »

I recommend that you offer two visual options for the projected data... standard the way it is now,.... and an option that ONLY shows current heat schedule, spread out across the entire screen, increasing the size of the rows to include decent size images of car/logo/driver.... THEN when the race is complete - POP UP top three drivers/image/time over top of the current data.

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Re: Question for the guy behind the green curtain

Post by derbyspeed »

My head is already spinning from all the nice features of GPRM! :shock:

The biggest problem I had with it, human error, I had the schedule set for a 4 lane track but it only let me use 3 lanes. I had clicked off a lane in the testing section and didn't realize it. I actually also thought it didn't make a difference if it was clicked off.

Either way we just ran 3 lanes. Would have been a little better race with 4 but the time limit worked well for what we needed.

The only other thing is when I wanted to print the 2nd round scoresheet I realized it prints all the rounds so I had to go to the pages I needed and only print those. Just a matter me running it for the first time at a complete derby race. I had practiced quite a bit with it before but not the same when the pressure is in front of the crowd.

I truly love all the data you get out of the software!

I still like the video clips that you did Darin, will have to remember that for next year.
Mike Webb

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