Airio LFS Tracker Frequently Asked Questions
Personal Settings
First section of the FAQ tries to clarify some matters that may trouble
Airio users concerning their personal setting.
There was talk about personal settings, but how can I access those?
Press Shift+i (or type !opt) which will call for Airio
buttons to be displayed from the server. If there are currently other buttons
shows, the first press of Shift+i just hides them. In that case press
Shift+i once again and the screen should appear in a form similar
to the one shown below:

The personal options screen is probably the most prominent of
all Airio features, be it only for the eye. You can select user language
there, items to show or hide, and you can choose other settings as well.
All the options are saved into your profile and applied again the next time
you connect. If one instance of Airio manages more servers, these settings
are common to all, just like e.g. your nickname is.
Nice, but if I need to change some of these settings for a racing event
and then back, do I really have to click on all those buttons again?
There are direct commands available to allow you to change your settings
without the above shown graphical user interface (GUI). Take a look at the
!show command; it includes most options. You may enter e.g. !show
–SCDPWM which will turn off options specified by the capital letters.
Following abbreviations can be used: K = kick reasons, S
= spectate reasons, C = entered commands, B = race best values,
G = good/great times, D = distances travelled, T =
timing info in splits, P = points, I =general info, W
= LFSW data, N = button interface, M = (my) own data. FULL
version of Airio allows also the following: F = soft splits, O
= race progress, R = rank info.
To turn some of the options back you may call !show +PW and you
may also combine options to turn on (+) and off (–) something
into one command. Once you have the command line you need for the event
racing, save it as a hot key (bind) so that you may easily choose the right
settings at any Airio Powered server. To set language you may use !lang.
Comparison base can be set by !comp.
There's too many data around, I'm lost. Can I simplify things, see less
messages?
Airio allows you (personally) to turn off any/all messages you don't
care about. Basically, if you have all options turned on, you'll be almost
flooded with data – about you, about other people and generally about the
current race and Airio actions (such as spectating or kicking people). This
all will be no doubt overwhelming, at least from the start.
Solution is easy. Press Shift+i to open personal settings menu.
By simple clicking you may turn off any info you (currently) don't need.
This way you may "unsubscribe" from receiving kick and spectate reasons,
showing LFSW stats of connecting people, showing race best times, showing
points gained in race etc. Once you are able to comprehend the basic data,
you may turn on more options.
The quick way to hide most of Airio output is the !silent command.
Then you'll be receiving only system warnings and other essential data,
such as why you were spectated or kicked, nothing else. Use the command
again to return to standard mode, receiving selected types of messages.
Admins may use !noisy command which for them turns on all messages,
so that they can have better overview. Due to the sheer number of messages
received then this is not a mode recommended for racing.
How come I don't see good split/sector times of other people displayed?
Good split/sector time reporting is running all the time and if you don't
see any "Good split x" messages, it may be caused by two factors:
1) Under current settings the "good" values are lower
than you would expect. Type !good to see the list of all good/great/top
split and sector times for your current car (or track default car). Anything
below the values shown will be reported as good. You cannot change these
values for yourself. They are part of Airio configuration file and must
be changed there, if necessary. In fact there is only one value for "good"
values specified, and that is a good (total) lap time. Splits and sectors
considered to be good are calculated from this single value by percentage
distribution using current WR. This way it is ensured all "good" split and
sector times have correct relations valid for the particular track. Configuration
requires a single value, all the rest are calculated and are naturally the
same for all racers in the same car.
2) You have turned off good times reporting. If
you don't see good times messages and you know that someone is doing good
times according to point 1), you have turned off good times reporting for
yourself. Press Shift+i and turn it back on (the text Good/great
times must appear in yellow).
Timing Data
Timing data are very important for many people and Airio tries to give
you as much as possible. If you don't grasp the meaning of all the values
seen when racing or hot-lapping, read below.
What are all these numbers I see in buttons at the top of the screen
on each split? It does not make any sense to me!
To save space the numbers there have no labels, yet they give you most
important timing data and are the primary source of information about how
is your current lap going. The timing data are updated on each split and
they are colour-coded. After five seconds the colours disappear, but the
values remain for later inspection. Take a look at the following picture
showing an example of timing data:

Here we have 7 buttons. The first one says where you are and what the
timing data are compared to. L2S1P means you are in your Lap
2 on Split (or Sector) 1 with data compared
to your Personal best (more on that later). Then we have a button
with split time. It is the time reported by default on each split
by LFS, there's nothing surprising in it, you all know similar values. 3rd
button shows time difference between your current split time
(2nd button) and time on this split you did in your best lap
somewhere in the past. Positive values mean you are slower than you were
and are shown in red. Negative values show your have improved on this split
and are shown in green to give you clear visual clues. On the picture the
red +0.25 means I'm this much slower on 1st split than I was when making
my server PB.
The next two buttons show sector data (sectors are parts of track between
splits). First you can see your current sector time, that is 4th
button from the left. (Note that split 1 = sector 1, so the sector 1 time
is always the same as split 1 time.) 5th button shows difference of this
sector time and your best sector time done earlier. It uses the same
colour codes and principles as split difference button – positive values
are red and mean your are slower then you can be, negative values are green
and show you have improved in that sector. Lapper users may not be used
to sector times, but they really give you very important and interesting
data. In a very short time you'll know what a good sector time is, just
like you know what split/lap time can be considered as good.
Two buttons remain. The values there have different colour and they are
informative only. 6th button from the left (one before last from the right)
shows what lap time you may achieve, if you drive the remaining parts of
the lap the best way you ever did. It is simply a possible lap time.
On lap finish this number shows total race time. The last button shows your
current speed on the split point, in miles per hour or kilometres
per hour according to your personal settings. That is also a very interesting
value giving you an indication of how fast you can be in the sector you
have just entered. Very soon you will know that if your speed at lap end
is below 175 kmph on BL1 in FBM, you basically have no chance to get good
1st split, because you did not go through the last chicane in the best possible
manner.
Lets look at another example:

Here we are on lap 4, split (sector) 2, times compared to personal best.
Split time is 53.76. Reasonable value, still +0.15 over what
my 2nd split was when I did my personal best. Sector 2 time is 29.65.
Once you'll know the sector times better, you'll be able to say that even
this is a nice value. Still, it is +0.12 over my best ever 2nd sector
on this server. If I'm able to do the remaining 3rd sector in my best recorded
way, my lap time would be 1.13.89. Maybe I still have a chance to
really make this fine time, because my speed at split 2 was 155.21
kmph. Once again, in a short time you'll know what speeds in splits give
you a possibility for improvement in the upcoming sector.
There was a mention above about comparing my split/sector times to something.
What are the options?
By default the split/sector times are compared to your personal best
(PB in short). These are the values you see after typing !pb,
!sb or !tb, the best split/sector times you (or other people)
ever did on the server. If you make a new lap PB, your personal best split
times will update to show the splits on that particular lap. If you improve
in some sector, the time will be updated in your stats and you'll have a
new theoretical best (TB in short), which is the sum of best sector times
you ever did.
Now, if there's P as last letter in 1st button of split timing
data (see above), it means your times are compared to your personal best
on the server, as was just explained – split times are compared to splits
of your personal best (real) lap, sector times are compared to your personal
best (theoretical) lap.
But you may choose other comparison base. The easy and obvious one is
WR (world record). It will show as W in the splitting data and your
times will be compared to current world record. Most people can expect
to see there huge positive (red) numbers as time differences. Still, for
some this comparison may be interesting.
Timing data may also be compared to session best (shown as
S). When you connect to server, you start without best split/sector
times in this case. As you are racing, the timing data are gathered and
updated on every improvement according to the same principles that are used
for PB data. Times are compared to your best splits/sectors you were able
to make during that one session (connection). When you reconnect, you start
again with empty data. If you want to delete the so far gathered session
best data without reconnecting (e.g. on every race start), type !clsb
or just !cs. Session timing data will be erased and you may start
to gather new ones.
Another selectable comparison base is your LFSW best (shown as
L). If Airio is configured to download your own PB data from LFS
World and you have such data available, you may compare your split/sector
times to the best values you did on any existing server. If you improve,
Airio will download your data again and new values would be used as the
comparison base.
FULL version of Airio also offers comparison to custom time, called
Target (and displayed as T). First you select the lap time
you want to achieve by typing e.g. !target 1:14.00 and then you choose
comparing split/sector times to the value.
How do I change the comparison base?
It is part of your personal preferences. Press Shift+i and select
one of the four above mentioned options. Notice on the following picture
that the last letter in 1st button has changed, just as the comparison base
has changed.

Here we are on lap 3, split 3 (which is lap finish on BL1), timing data
compared to Session best. The lap (split 3) time is 1:14.35
and it is an improvement of –0.16 over my previous best lap time
in this session or since the last session data erasure. I was able to do
3rd sector in 20.22 seconds, good value for me. Comparing to my previous
best in this session I improved by –0.34. Because we are at the lap
end there can't be displayed possible lap time. The 3.56.50 represents
in this case total race time. Current speed at lap end is 174.22
kmph. It is a speed sufficient for good, but not great split 1.
General
When I type a command and someone tries to copy the command using T
and up arrow, not only the command but also my name is copied, meaning nothing
happens.
This is something of a compromise, and (unfortunately) it may not be
changed and keep the other core functionality. Airio hides all commands,
which are messages starting with exclamation point, !. All such messages
are always hidden. You can use admin commands or use commands in server
console, without anyone seeing what you are doing, which is a very good
thing.
What you see displayed when someone uses user command, is a replication.
It is artificially output text looking like normal message, but it is not
a normal message. If you try co copy it, it will be copied including the
name. On the other hand you may for yourself turn off display of all other
people's user commands, which helps to keep the chat area clear of countless
messages and info.
I know it is not exactly an expected behaviour, but the advantages are
in my view much larger that this one inconvenience. It hides limad/admin
commands and allows people to choose to display/hide other people's commands.
In case you want to issue commands that will be seen by everyone and that
can be copied in the usual fashion, just replace the starting ! with
$. Note that by this you (sort of) force your will and actions on
other people, which is a thing generally not natural to Airio.
Administration
Even administrators may have their questions about running Airio.
Can I run Airio on my LFS servers?
Yes, you probably can. Airio is a console application running under
.NET Framework 2.0, so newer Windows systems and also Linux computers
may be used. In case of Windows you need to install .NET Framework 2.0 (or
higher) distributable. On Linux and other Un*x systems the Mono 2.0 runtime
is required. For instance, in a Debian-based distribution (such as Ubuntu),
you need to install at minimum these packages: mono-runtime, libmono-corlib2.0-cil,
and libmono-system2.0-cil.
You also need to use dedicated LFS servers. Airio has no special
hardware requirements, even older computers may run it with ease. It requires
reliable and stable TCP communication line to server(s) though, it is best
when they are local, running at the same computer as Airio. Running Airio
remotely (on another PC, connected to LFS server using IP) is good for testing,
but due to unreliability of such connections it is not suitable for extensive
use on heavily loaded servers, because communication errors may occur leading
to bad packets being received and Airio disconnects.
Could I get some Airio configuration primer? Something I really must
do to get the system going as fast as possible?
Sure, no problem. First download the latest Airio distribution file and
unzip its contents to some folder. If you want to connect Airio only to
one LFS server, there's just one thing you really must do: To define data
necessary for connecting to the server. Open Airio.con.1.txt and
fill in all three available items. Save the file, run Airio.exe and
everything should work. (Well, assuming the LFS server is started, and the
entered connection data are correct.) In case you want to start 2nd server,
just create a copy of Airio.con.1.txt file renaming it to Airio.con.2.txt.
Inside the file update connection data so that they point to the 2nd server.
Save the file and if Airio is already running, just wait a while, it should
connect within 5 minutes.
Are the stats between servers synchronized? If so, how often?
Well, the stats between servers connected to one Airio instance are not
in fact synchronized for a simple reason: They are one and the same.
It means that when you improve your time or change some personal setting
(e.g. nickname) on one server, it is immediately visible and applied also
on the remaining servers, no time delay. One Airio instance can be theoretically
connected to any number of servers. All these servers then use one common
data repository. Synchronizing such data repositories between two or more
Airio instances is not supported though.
Does Airio support Web statistics?
Not directly and not by itself – it is rather a matter of some (PHP,
ASP) scripts reading data from statistics files, picking the required information,
sorting it and displaying on a Web page. You may get Web statistics from
Airio using one of two approaches:
1) You may create custom script using data from
Airio STA files. If you'd like to do this, read the appropriate section
of the Admin Manual (or look
inside and guess, if you're looking for names and split/lap times, you'll
need Airio.sta.un.txt and Airio.sta.cr.txt). These files are
updated every 5 minutes.
2) If you have a script reading LFS Lapper's PB.txt
file, you may set up Airio so that it exports its data into the file
at specified intervals. You then just redirect your existing script into
Airio folder and it is done. Default update interval is 60 minutes, but
you may change that.
Can I export/use statistics of just one of the connected servers?
No. All servers connected to one Airio instance use common statistics,
it is not possible to separate the data. That is a major feature of Airio.
If you need separate stats, you need to use separate Airio instance connected
only to the particular server.
If I decide to switch to Airio, do I lose all gathered LFS Lapper data?
Just as Airio supports exporting its stats into LFS Lapper's PB.txt
file it supports importing contents of the file. When setting up Airio copy
the latest PB.txt (or PB.elp) file into its folder, run Airio
and type !imp. Note that the import overwrites existing Airio data
and you should therefore call it just once, early in the setting stages.
Try using !sb and similar commands and see if the data were imported
correctly. You may then delete the PB.txt file and let Airio start
to accumulate its own data. Note that while import from Lapper uses all
available information, during export into PB.txt you lose many data
that are specific to Airio (settings, points, race times, etc.).
Can I run Airio together with LFS Lapper?
Oh, well, it will work, but soon you'll see this mode really isn't possible
to maintain. There would be clashes in output both to chat and buttons,
clashes in commands as well, and generally it will create very unfriendly
environment, especially with LFS Lapper version 5.8 and newer. The simpler
Lapper 5.7 can coexist with Airio more reasonably, still due to overlapping
features and messages it is better to test both tools separately and stick
with just one in the end.
© EQ Worry, 2010
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