"Car Dealership": Up-/download car configurations

[NRGDEAD]

Hi there,

When first using HLT, it was asking a lot of questions about each car I put in. Mostly, I had to do research, ie for the gear ratios.
So I figured, it would make a certain amount of sense to have a central database, just like for the tracks, where users can submit their cars (if they're standard issue and not completely customized) for certification, and then other users can just download them if that's what they drive.

Cheers
NRG

[Harry]

Absolutely, I plan to implement a similar feature like that for Tracks. They are created by users too and can be submitted. There are several caveats on the vehicle side. As I do not want to make this a moderated / manual process (like Tracks - which create a lot of on top work for me), there needs to be a much better automatic quality assurance. Duplicates will create problems too. Furthermore, I want to complete the vehicle spec first, before starting a big collection. Items currently missing are all those adjustments (tyre type, tyres pressure, suspension settings ...) one want to store on a by vehicle and by lap basis, furthermore I want to add some classification too, to allow better comparison between similar cars). I contacted some vehicle database providers too, but none of them has been able to provide the data needed.

- Harry

P.S. Will be version 18 or 19...

[NRGDEAD]

I would suggest to use some XML format for the car definitions. This way you can append additional fields later if you need to, while being backwards compatible. And it could easily be implemented into other Apps. Or there could be an editor for "real" computers running OSX/Windows/Linux to easily create and edit cars.

In terms of verification, maybe a simple rating function could do the trick: A car is declared "unverified" when uploaded. People can then download it, and rate it "accurate" or "wrong data". After a threshold number of votes, it'll be labled "accurate" or "inaccurate". Or it could just be removed from the database.
Also, this could be extended to the users submitting cars. If a user gets a certain amount of positive reputation, his creations have a lowered threshold.
This is of course not perfect, but I think it reduces your personal workload alot in terms of the car database.

[Harry]

LapTimer does not use XML for data accessed frequently as it adds too much overhead. It is not a problem to expand the data scheme later - either using XML or LT's database. The problem is you need to fill in missing data for all existing cars. So I believe it is better to first do the full scheme (at least 90%) and let users fill it in afterwards. Will think about a crowed quality management like proposed, thanks for that

- Harry