Difference between revisions of "Boats Tab"

Revision as of 06:27, 13 October 2014

The following control panels are on the Boats tab:

Boat data

The GetUser control at the top of the panel is where you place a copy of the GET message which the Virtual Regatta game sends to the game server to retrieve boat data. Obtaining the correct message string for your boat is quite complex and is described in detail in Importing Boat Data.

Click on the icon beside this control to send the GET message to the game server. The data returned from the server is displayed on the panel below the control. If you click the icon more than once in a 10 minute server cycle the data returned will a repeat of the previous data and it is ignored with the message "Same or old boat data".

Select Auto update in to make VRTool to update the boat positions automatically every 10 minutes.

Tip: If you want your chart to be right up to date you should synchronize the Auto update timer with the game server cycles. First you need to establish exactly when the game server cycles. Once a race is in progress the server cycles at a fixed number of minutes past the hour, and then every ten minutes. For example if the first cycle is at 8 minutes past the hour, the subsequent cycles will be at 18, 28, 38, 48 & 58 minutes past the hour. Often this information is published on the VR game forum, but you can figure it out yourself by clicking the icon a few seconds after each minute until fresh data comes through. When this happens cycle the Auto update in control off and on again. The VRTool update is now synchronized with the server. You will have to do this each time you re-start VRTool. If your PC is gets it's clock time from the internet it will stay in synch with the game server as long as VRTool is running (unlike the VR game console which loses time continuously). For this sort of thing it's really helpful to have desktop clock with a sweep second hand. ClocX is an excellent free one, and it does other good things too!

Remote boats