Share your trial times (STK 0.8)

[Ancalagon]

To run the ghost you just have to replace them in your STK config folder (for me, on Ubuntu,it is in my_personnal_folder/.config/supertuxkart/).
The problem is that the game only load the files named "track.replay" so you can only have one ghost by track. If you want to drive against different replay you will have to change manually the name or the place of the different replay files.

Let's take an example: (in case this post seems obscure to some future reader)

In my replay files library* I have three replay files for the Scottland track:

• mine, "scottland.replay"
• E-Dragon record, "scottland-edragonrecord-thetime.replay"
• one upload by bonnifarz, "scottland-bonnifarz-thetime.replay"

Today I want to challenge E-Dragon record so I go to the config folder where the replays are saved, and I rename my replay "scottland-mine-thetime.replay" and then rename E-Dragon's one "scottland.replay".
After that, I run supertuxkart in ghost mode (in a linux console supertuxkart --ghost, do not know how to do it on windows) and when I launch the Scottland track I will find on the start line my kart and the kart E-dragon used for his record. Then I just have to beat him to a pulp,to sportly try to overtake him, for my personnal pleasure.

Just be cautious, if you want to save the replay of this run the game will overwrite the actual scottland.replay ie the one of E-Dragon's run, so be sure to have another copy somwhere else. (or upload it once more from the forum ^^)

*Yes it's an idea I found quite interesting: if everyone were to upload their replay files, a newcomer can easily choose among those files the ones closer to his personnal performance, maybe a little faster, and then by trying to overrun them progress at a faster pace that only trying by himself.
I mean now, between the level of an expert IA kart and some record, there is a wide gap which could be difficult to fill if ones doesn't have the motivation induced by a kart running at the same speed as you that you can learn off.

[hiker]

Also: In F-Zero X it was possible to drive with 3 ghosts at the same time, which is really cool in my opinion.

I am not really sure if having more than one ghost would add that much to the game tbh. But the actual code should already be able to handle more than one ghost, it's a matter of how to combine various races into one replay file.

But we might just settle for a single ghost only, but perhaps picking one from a list of ghosts, e.g. depending on your level (or automatic in challenges, e.g. depending on difficulty different ghost recordings will be used).

I am aware that more features are needed (e.g. show some graphical effects for skidding or so). There are already some hooks for that in place.

And yes, for you high-speed racers it will be difficult to follow your ghosts. We will certainly make sure that any ghost data we use in challenges (or tutorial) will be easy but challenging enough.

Cheers,
Joerg

[bonifarz]

*Yes it's an idea I found quite interesting: if everyone were to upload their replay files[...]

As soon as we have more replay files here, I would like to collect them in the header of the topic, just as I do with the times in the boards. I thought the simplest thing for now is to provide one zip file in the first post containing all replays arranged in subdirectories by player name, so you can just unpack replays without renaming them (drag and drop). The compression rate on a bunch of replay files should be quite nice, too.
In case some players run STK on windows and do not know how to add the flag --ghost to enable playback of replay files:
Just make a new shortcut for the game, r-click, properties, then paste the flags at the very end of the "target" field. (Some other useful flags: --check-debug, --track-debug, --slipstream-debug)

[Ancalagon]

Some new records

XR591: 00:35:60-01:10:57, 18-20 skids, 4 shortcuts (the last two, I didn't/won't manage to perform the first one, with the tricky jump)
Subsea: 02:20:70 (sorry I've forgotten the time of the first lap, something like 01:12:... maybe). Skids? too many ^^, no shortcuts
Amazonian Jungle: 00:36:18-01:10:25, 25-26 skids, no shortcuts.

I've put all my replays of those record and the previous ones in the same file, feel free to use them

STKreplays-jungle scotland mines subsea xr591-Ancalagon.zip

(734.53 KiB) Downloaded 458 times

[E-Dragon]

I´m trying to make a replay of nearly every track now.
It´s hard, but I already got 10 new ghosts ( most with new records ).
After this I will release it on this threat, so you all can have an alternative E-Dragon-ghost for most tracks.

[Funto]

As a side note, that makes me think of what happens with many console games when you are idling on the main menu: you have a demo of the game where it plays by its own, showing what the game looks like in several levels.
Maybe we could do something similar using the replay files you guys create.
Just a thought

[hiker]

As a side note, that makes me think of what happens with many console games when you are idling on the main menu: you have a demo of the game where it plays by its own, showing what the game looks like in several levels.
Maybe we could do something similar using the replay files you guys create.
Just a thought

We already have a demo mode (but at this stage it needs a command line flag to be activated). Adding ghost data (instead of AI) wouldn't be difficult.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Funto]

Cool, didn't know that, that's great! I think ghost data might show cooler gameplay than AI plus that would allow to make demos of modes that don't have AI (battle, future soccer mode).

[bonifarz]

We already have a demo mode (but at this stage it needs a command line flag to be activated). Adding ghost data (instead of AI) wouldn't be difficult.

This is exactly what i meant with demo/spectator/TV mode.

I've put all my replays of those record and the previous ones in the same file, feel free to use them

I´m trying to make a replay of nearly every track now.

Those efforts are appreciated. Of course, there is no need to count skidding etc if there are replay data available. Thanks for sharing.

[E-Dragon]

Got Ghost data for every track except Around the lighthouse, Zengarden and Minigolf (I don´t think I will ever try those soon).
I´ll post the data tomorrow but first all my records in those tracks :

Shiny Suburbs: 1:20:19 (new)
Bovine Barnyard: 0:45:75 (new)
Fort Magma: 1:08:22 (ghost is 1:08:44)
Green Valley: 1:31:45 (new)
Hacienda: 0:59:12 (new)
The Island: 1:25:05 (new)
Amazonian Journey: 1:08:66 (new + shortcut)
Blackhill Mansion: 0:55:01 (new)
Old mine: 1:09:89 (ghost is 1:10:48)
Oliver´s mathclass: 0:17:89 (new)
shifting sands: 1:05:53 (new)
Scotland: 1:04:87 (new)
Northern Resort: 1:02:29 (ghost is 1:02:41)
Snow Peak: 1:02:61 (ghost is 1:02:72)
Startrack: 1:18:85 (new)
Subsea: 1:18:61 (new)
XR591: 1:06:06 (new)

All new records will be uploaded then .
I tried to keep the ghosts for these tracks without new records as near as possible to those records.
If there´s something wrong please tell me and I will correct.

[bonifarz]

Yes, I think there will be a couple of new times as people start to experiment with replays, which can be a big help.

Btw, this must be the first time I managed to beat one of the top times, and here is a replay of it:

minigolf.00.54.25.zip

a replay file for a two lap ghost

(151.51 KiB) Downloaded 440 times

Could be better, as I even got parachuted here

[E-Dragon]

As promised here it is:

[bonifarz]

Well, it has been quite a while since i last updated this topic. The boards should be up to date now, and the topics header has been changed to put more emphasis on the use of ghost data. I have also added a bunch of replay files there including all of those already posted here (and only two cheap ones from my side). The compression rate is slightly higher than with a zip, and the files are renamed for drag-and-drop.

[Alayan]

This subject is somehow dead but anyway interesting.

Some improvement of my times, or times on tracks where I still hadn't (seeing E-Dragon times, I mainly focus on improving myself, and am already happy of still owning 2 records ^^) :

Improvements :
Green Valley : 01'30"89 (time of march so do not know exactly, but the same 4 shortcut normally and some more skids)
Around the Lighthouse : 23"62 (march also, 2 shortcuts)
The Old Mine : 01'19"76 ; no shortcut and already with time I know I could do a little better, but seeing the difficulty I had in the past I am happy to improve it in some tries
The Island : 01'30"98

New time :
Fort Magma : 01'19"08 ; not really polished

[Wuzzy]

What about rebooting this thread for STK 0.9?
:-)

[ArDanWol]

Sounds fun! I've got some really fast lap times on XR591!