Concept2 Forum

Een nieuwe versie is klaar. In deze versie alleen de aanpassingen voor Vista.

Ik las dat het nu niet lang meer zal gaan duren tot versie 2.1. De vorige aankondiging van deze versie is alweer een hele tijd geleden (november 2006).

Hennie

Zou er ooit een RP voor Mac komen??

Veel Concept2 bezitters gebruiken Mac, blijkt uit een poll!!

Would be nice!

Goed weekend allemaal!

Hoi allemaal,

Dit kwam ik net tegen op het forum van digital rowing, het is al van juli 2007. We kunnen nog wel even wachten denk ik?

Hi folks,

First, my humble apologies for not giving more info about 2.1 and 2.2 sooner. I had knee surgery in April to reconstruct the ACL and to repair damaged cartilage, and spent 6 weeks on crutches followed by two months of rebuilding the lost muscle. It's taken me until now to catch up with everything, and keeping you posted on 2.1 etc was one thing that slipped.

So, finally, here's an update. Although it has taken us much longer than expected to get through the major development work, we're now all but ready to release 2.1 beta. We ended up building 2.1 and 2.2 together for a number of reasons, so we're almost ready with the 2.2 beta as well.

I'll stick my neck out and say we expect to release the 2.1 beta by the end of September, which is just a few weeks away, and the 2.2 beta should follow within a few weeks after that.

Now for a quick tour of the new features that will be in 2.1 and 2.2. First 2.1:

The core change in 2.1 is moving to the next generation Online Rowing system. We have renamed this and from 2.1 on will refer to this activity as Online Rowing rather than Internet Racing. This is because most people don't actually use it to race, rather they row together online. You can of course still use it to race!

To build this new Online Rowing system, we have:

- Built a completely new server from nothing

- Replaced the entire session sequencing core of RowPro

- Completely replaced the networking between RowPro and the server - it was using TCP Ports 80 and 9100, now the entire Online Rowing session uses UDP Port 9300.

This networking change may seem a bit obscure, but the fact we were using TCP and are now using UDP is one of the most critical and fundamental changes in the entire system.

The main differences you'll see in the 2.1 beta will be as follows:

- The Check-in panel and the Start panel are now combined into one Check-In and Start panel. This panel has a built-in Chat window where you can chat everyone in your session without having to select any names.

- The session setup process is now done completely differently, so the problems of the past with needing to set up quick races to replace mis-started scheduled races should now be totally gone.

- While you're in Check-In, your PM3/4 is in warm-up mode. This enables you to have a warm-up row until the race starter clicks Prepare to Start.

- The boats now show in the same lane for everyone, in the order listed in Check-In, whereas before 'you' were always in the nearest lane. This prepares RowPro for 2.2 where there can be more than one erg per PC.

- The boats onscreen are now about 30 times more accurately positioned than in the old system. Basically they are where they’re meant to be now, whereas before they were sometimes up to a boat length out of position.

- While you row, the bottom half of the PM3/4 display shows your position relative to the leader and the person ahead and behind you. If you've raced at the BIRC, CRASH-B or the Euro Open etc, you'll recognize this.

- Results for each boat are posted to Oarbits as the boat finishes, instead of after everyone finishes. The old problem where some results were not posted should now be totally gone.

- A Finish panel pops up when you finish, again with a built-in Chat window where you can chat everyone in your session who has finished, while others in your session may still be rowing.

There's more, including some stuff that's not about Online Rowing, but you get the idea by now I'm sure. This should be a far better system, more accurate, more reliable, easier to use, and just better all round.

Now to 2.2:

The core change in 2.2 is enabling RowPro to connect to more than one erg at a time. This is mainly for RowPro School Edition and the upcoming RowPro Gym Edition. We may also make this available in some Home Edition licenses - this has not been finalized yet.

The main developments you'll see in the 2.2 beta will be as follows:

- RowPro will connect to up to 16 ergs, depending on the license purchased. The ergs may have PM3 or PM4 monitors or a combination of these.

- There is a new Venue button in Session Setup where you can create a Quick Venue Race or load up a pre-defined one. Your RowPro PC doesn't need to be connected to the Internet for Venue Races.

- There can be up to 16 lanes onscreen in both Online Rowing and Venue Racing

Over the coming months we plan to extend these core Venue Racing features. The main developments will be:

- Making it possible to have Venue Races online, so multiple local ergs can race with multiple remote ergs

- Making it possible to join ergs into multi-crewed boats: 2x, 4x and 8x boats

- Enabling the PMs to be connected to the RowPro PC via their serial ports in 'daisy chain' fashion rather than all being connected via USB

- Creating an online Regatta Manager where schools and gyms can map out an entire day's scheduled races.

As you can see, there is a huge amount of stuff - maybe you can see why it's taken so long to get it done and released.

I think that more or less covers it for now.

The 2.1 beta will be an open release, so anyone who wants to can use it.

Please note the new Online Rowing system and the existing Internet Racing system are not compatible with each other at all. To participate in the new system, you need RowPro 2.1 or later; to participate in the existing system you need RowPro 2.0 or earlier.

As always, your comments, questions and feedback are most welcome.

Pete
Digital Rowing