Dedimania forum

Another thing, since i see wrong infos in stats...

In dedimania.Authenticate you are supposed to send the right game info, ie TMU is only for the old TMU and not TMUF, TMN is for the old TMN-ESWC and not TMNF !


Note: I have no way to really control the kind of script, so if i see wrong infos i will probably one day decide to invalidate server accounts which use wrong scripts.....

Records times / checkpoints sanity checks

Here are the actual sanitity checks done by Dedimania :
* A record with unconsistent cp times will not be stored any more (ie: 1st cp should be >0, any cp should have a time > of previous, last cp should be same as the record time).
* A record with only one cp on a map which is known to have more should not be stored any more (i hope ^^).
Sadly i have not way actually to be absolutely sure about the number of cp of a map, so refusing records with different number of cp than the stored one would make many problems 

Note that logically :
- all servers scripts should make those sanity checks before sending, then give to the player the info directly (so he knows what happened), and not send it to dedimania !!!
- servers scripts should be able to know the real number of cp and make sanity checks on it !
- servers scripts should also take a validation replay, at least for the best player time, then use it to verify that it is really the good times/cp/map uid before sending to dedimania : it would really avoid all unwanted wrong records (don't tell me that your script never make it, none can really control some rare race conditions because of connection problem with the dedicated or some other very unusual problem).



About the Future...

Main goal:
- remove unwanted wrong records.
- reduce cheat records number.
- eventually give access to the top1 replay
- don't use too much more server ressources....

Problem:
- actually Dedimania can't have real confidence about the number of checkpoints of the map, and also can't be sure that the sent best times and checkpoints times are really for the considered map, and were really drove.

Solutions
- first do the indicated sanity checks before sending to dediamnia
- send also the validation replay, at least (and at most, to save network, cpu and disk ressources) for the best time sent. It will permit to verify that the map uid/player login/player time of the best sent time is ok, and will eventually permit anyone to get and validate the replay.
Also, Dedimania will then consider that at the first time with checkpoints and a validation replay which seems ok, the number of checkpoints will be sure, and so next times will be accepted only if the number of checkpoints is the same.
- when possible send the ghost replay of the best time when the script think it is the next top1 (ie it is better than the top1 it knows). I say possible because the ghost replay can only be saved on disk, so the script can read it quickly only if it is launched on the same computer as the dedicated.
- not easy for Laps (best lap), because there is not a validation replay of a lap alone. Is there any other script than Fast which handle best lap in Laps mode ?  please tell it, you are welcome to give your opinion about it...


Any ideas are welcome.   


Note: I don't know when changes will be done, Dedimania is not ready for it and will not be at least until january 2009, and scripts will have at least 2 more months to be adapted... Btw waiting march to think about it for your script or plugin would not be a good idea 

Now the scripts can just use that url : http://dedimania.net:8002/Dedimania
The :8002 to :8034 ports are now randomly balanced and redirected to the real used ports on Dedimania side, so using any of them will give the same thing as 8002 !


Devs:
- the status pages  http://dedimania.net:8001/stats now show the stats for all real ports servers.
- the 8001 has a very low use now, so you can use it to test scripts and so be sure to see your test server on the 8001 port of the stats page.

Hi devs,

2 small api changes :

- 'TotalRaces' and 'TotalPlayers' (for the Map) are backed in dedimania.GetChallengeRecords response

- the low limit for records is now 8s (it was a decision made long time ago together with Xymph but i had forgotten it ; and actually there is no record below 8s -except my own test maps-, so it does not break anything).
The goal is to not waste ressources for nothing : times on ultra short maps are meaningless, more lucky random than driving.
note: the low limit will not be increased another time, you can build 9/10s maps without worrying about future records