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Board » General Discussion » Public testing new HTML5 client

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Posted by
freudenoli


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2013-03-04 21:03:54
2020-06-13 02:35:14 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
hi kroppyer,
many thanks for taking the time for such an exhaustive answer, very much appreciated!
I completely understand that you do not want to completely change the character of the game, these changes would just increase the user-friendliness in my opinion...thanks for keeping it in mind :-)
Posted by
freudenoli


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2013-03-04 21:03:54
2020-06-13 14:16:55 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
it also very much depends on where you want to go with this game...in the moment its a very niche page for like 100 permanent players...its great that you can play for free, but, no offense, the design of the homepage and the game itself is super basic, like video games of my youth 40 years ago...that has its own charme but is not very attractive for the masses...probably most of the players are intellectuals with a PhD :-) ... I played the timed newport race, and it was ok for 4 hours to sit in front of it and sail, but it needed constant attention...for longer races that's not really doable for most people to tend to their boat 24/7, they need tools to autopilot their boats for a night or a day and still be somewhat competitive...also, I am sure the top players here use their own private weather routers to plot their courses for the multiday races...and without using a router its impossible to win any of the 3+ day races here I would guess...so in order to attract more people you would need to provide some sort of routing help, and a 6h predictor does not really help much in that regard...also, the polar graph is not really helpful as it is, at least for lower windspeeds you cant see anything...an indicator for optimal VMG upwind/downwind would help for example...
what's really great on the other hand are the races itself and the variety of races and boats...and the different rankings with the yearly champions etc...

ok, I stop here...apologies for my ramblings...
Posted by
PhilC


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2020-06-05 16:13:17
2020-06-13 18:20:33 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Hi,

I just started using SailOnline last week and have been really enjoying the races.

I sold my software company a 18 months ago and woudl be happy to make contributions to improving the overall experience. I can see some immediate areas that could benefit - including this forum.

Do you guys have any systems for tracking feature request and task assignments. I'd be willing to sponsor a Jira site or something similiar.

Clealy this web site and forum needs a significent overhaul - would be interested in understanding if there are any plans for that.

Here is my Linkedin Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/copelandphilip/
Posted by
ij


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2018-06-09 20:33:19
2020-06-13 19:24:54 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
freudenoli said:
also, the polar graph is not really helpful as it is, at least for lower windspeeds you cant see anything...
Have you perhaps tried the dev version? Append ?version=dev to the race URL and reload the client. There's an improvement to this so you can see 1-6kn polar much better than previously. Currently there are like 150+ changes pending in the dev version so perhaps there's something else too which you might find nice/useful/etc.

--
i.
Posted by
Zorba777


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2020-06-06 08:22:54
2020-06-15 15:59:52 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Hi Kroppyer,

Just some small suggestions that may have been made already.

1) When opening the html5 client it starts in max zoomed out position that shows the entire race. On longer races like the current Auckland to Fiji it takes me about 10 to 15 clicks on the "+" button to zoom in to detailed view that shows me the next 6 to 12 hours of racing. If there is space for it another button that instantly takes me to that deeper zoom with just one click would be useful.

2) In the steer tab on the right side I would rather see the Delayed commands (DC) displayed directly underneath the boxes where a new course can be set. It's so easy to forget that some DC are still set. The polar graph that is now visible under the course commands could be toggled with a "Show/Hide"button. And that would free up the 2nd tab, which is now devoted to the DC.

That's it for now. I think the new client is really good already. Couldn't spot any bugs.
Posted by
ij


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2018-06-09 20:33:19
2020-06-25 22:09:10 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
It would be tricky to realize 1) because the WX has not yet been loaded when the initial zooming takes place so no idea how far the predictor will go. I guess it could be possible to find out polar max speed and use that as a rough guide. However, there's small improvement to this in the dev version as it zoom to the remaining course rather than entire race but of course it won't help when still near the start in a long race.

Can't you zoom using other means than with + button which is kind of slow?

2) I can consider adding it but I need to find some place for that show/hide thing (the most obvious place is taken in the dev version for selecting the polar curve mode). ...And the next thing people will tell is that they want to see the both polar and DCs at the same time :-). It would make the steering tab quite crowded.

--
i.
Posted by
ij


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2018-06-09 20:33:19
2020-06-30 08:33:59 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Stable version of the client was updated yesterday (2020-06-29). Long list of changes (new lines added here and there to make it easier to read):

- Day/Night mode, see Settings if you don't like the defaults.
- Automatic contrast correction for fleet boat colors.

- Complete overhaul on network logic to allow client side retries. While the default timeouts are quite lax, please let the us know if you encounter challenges in starting up the client.
- Clock offset correction at the start of the client. Stable offset should no longer cause problems to the client. If clock is changed (jumped a lot) by something after the start of the client, client reload may still be necessary to recalculate the correction.

- Predictor takes the current performance into account. Other improvements to predictor accuracy with more accurate starting point.
- Improvements to predictor and DC dot consistency during the towback period.
If you depended on predictor during towback, the time markers are now different from the previous to match the DC delays that must be used.

- Land polygons participate in the zoom in/out effects.
- Boat type related layouting improvements.
- Boat type based boat lists have been added (only available in multiclass events).
- Setting for default weather step added.

- Support for polar curves >30kn if different from the others.
- Polar curve drawing order derived from the difference to the current TWS.
- Polar curve modes added (low TWS, <=30kn, default).

- New chat messages alert triangle added.
- Boat keys can be added to map (with the same max limit as in legend bottom left corner). These are known to suffer from small visual glitches that are hard to fix.

- VPP polar link added.
- Quick help added.
- VMC added to steer tool info box (when VMC instrument is enabled).

- WX slider tics added (black = absolute hours, red = WX updates, wide green band = race start time).
- Improvements to the initial zoom in, zooms to the "remaining" race course.
- Allow disabling initial zoom (to workaround missing marks issue with Chrome).
- Clicking a boat name on chat or on boat legend highlights the boat.

- Ability to degrade into chatless contingency mode if chat messages cause problems to the core functionality of the client. Once the problem is resolved, the client automatically leaves the chatless mode.
- Automatic reauthentication support added (needed when the IP network changes).

Please let me know if encounter some problems with it. If the updated versions fails to work for you, the old version is accessable by appending ?version=old to the URL and reloading the client.

--
i.

--- Last Edited by ij at 2020-06-30 08:36:00 ---

--- Last Edited by ij at 2020-06-30 08:36:50 ---
Posted by
Zorba777


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2020-06-06 08:22:54
2020-06-30 14:55:48 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Hi ij. I like the new improvements and the zoom is a bit better already with zoom in on remaining course.

Another suggestion which is just a small aside. Even though we usually sail in open sea there are occasions when I would like to see a satellite image of the area (or the small island where I just took a BBQ). Under Helpful Links in the Misc tab a link to the Bing map could go straight to the location of my boat by parsing in the coordinates. E.g. this this
shows the start in Orakei for the next race.

It's an easy way to add something visual at no server cost.

Another useful link would go to the current weather map on Windy. Again we can parse in the current coordinates of the boat. E.g. https://www.windy.com/?gfs,52.656,-13.206,6,i:pressure,d:picker

For the SOLers that's a quick way to compare different weather models etc..

--- Last Edited by Zorba777 at 2020-07-05 06:10:49 ---
________
edited to make a link out of a long url causing column overlap

--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2020-07-11 16:08:37 ---
Posted by
outlaw


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2012-06-01 13:37:55
2020-07-09 12:18:47 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Using "Restore Previous Session" in Firefox completely breaks the dashboard clock "TIME UTC" and any number of thins that depend on the clock (dc countdown, predictor line etc).
Posted by
dark_n_stormy


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2009-06-02 07:17:37
2020-08-13 05:29:21 - Re: Public testing new HTML5 client
Small UX suggestion, but it would help my eyesight if you could put a slightly grey/transparent box or background behind the text along the top that indicates position and distance left (as well as the lat/long text on the right when scrolling around the map).

I noticed that the night version of the client looks like it has this feature, so hopefully, it's a relatively easy fix to add it to the daytime version. I often have the TWD and TWS buttons selected and when I do it can be very difficult to read those info boxes along the top.

Thanks for your work on this.

PS - not sure anyone has mentioned it but having HTML5 is huge for being able to check my boat on the go on my phone! Has been a savior when I forget to set a DC and find myself out on the golf course! This is the way of the future

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