*sam* Posted Jul 25, 2008, 5:21 pm	* Improvements to the process that decides to call a pre-emptive timeout in the wilderness when all players drop unexpectedly * Improvement to the NPC decision to let you escape, in the wilderness * Some extra checks to make sure that dynamically patched decals and custom skins have been received properly, before attempting to use them in-game. It might also be an idea to add an option to skip dynamic texture patching altogether, if you?re persistently having trouble with it? * Efficiency improvements to the AI ?run away? pathfinding, which I think is the major cause of the lag/connection drop problems in some recent events. I have other ideas to implement in the next few days to reduce the lag/drop problem further.
*jimmylogan* Posted Jul 25, 2008, 5:41 pm	Thanks for these Sam... Once again you are being proactive as well as reactive. :-) JL
*sam* Posted Jul 25, 2008, 5:44 pm	No problem ... Lag/connection drops and decal-related crashes are pretty serious so I had to prioritise them.
Lord Foul Posted Jul 25, 2008, 9:38 pm	Thanks for diving right in and making these improvements Sam. Much appreciated.
Flaming savage Posted Jul 26, 2008, 9:20 am	Grascias.
4saken Posted Jul 27, 2008, 3:14 am	last few games i played had almost no lag, about 1-3 seconds maybe, so looks like you nailed it.
*sam* Posted Jul 27, 2008, 11:41 am	Quote: last few games i played had almost no lag, about 1-3 seconds maybe, so looks like you nailed it.  Cool. I will be making more improvements too.. at the moment the AI 'thinking' is all done just before the move is simulated (hence, lag , which sometimes caused connection drops). Really this should be done while the humans are making *their* decisions.
Jety Posted Jul 27, 2008, 5:02 pm	Actually this raises a really interesting point. I've often wonder if the AI 'cheats' by one move. I've wondered if when you hit the spacebar the AI then makes it's next move by looking at the move you just made, which would seem pretty unfair. This is usually most pressing when you're playing chicken and need to decide to swerve left or right to keep from getting rammed. It will be nice to know that the AI made up it's mind and committed to it's move before I hit the spacebar and enter my own move.....
Crix Makin Posted Jul 28, 2008, 4:52 pm	I don't think the AI looks at what you've done. For a start, it regularly crashes into me. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it acts on where it 'thinks' you're going to be, much as we do with Ctrl+G. That would explain why if you do something unexpected, it crashes into you.
Nekojin Posted Jul 28, 2008, 10:22 pm	Crix Makin said: I don't think the AI looks at what you've done. For a start, it regularly crashes into me. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it acts on where it 'thinks' you're going to be, much as we do with Ctrl+G. That would explain why if you do something unexpected, it crashes into you. I'm pretty sure that it does look at what you're doing before it sets its move. Sometimes, at the start of races/deathraces, I'll swerve left or right to try to do a PIT maneuver on the next driver. I've had many instances where the NPC car will start swerving to avoid me on the SAME turn that I start MY swerve.