Spotter Plugin 2.17

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By: carlomaker and F1Dave
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SPOTTER PLUGIN 2.17
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The spotter plugin version 2.17 is the Windows Vista compatible version.

Brief history:
Version 2.02 was released and found to be incompatible for Vista users. I started to program my own voice recognition software to replace pilfius and Carlo was a great help to tweak the plugin so that this new software could be used. After a few months of developpement, Carlo went missing and the only time I have spoken to him was because he wanted to tell me that he is stopping work on the plugin. Having spent countless hours of my own precious life on this too, I continued and wanted to release my self and asked Carlo for the code to correct the remaining bugs myself. He refused and has not responded to any of my emails since.

Sorry everyone, looks like this is the last version :(

So here goes, the version that will bring Vista users the spotter plugin they deserve.

Basic knowledge of XML will be usefull although not essential if you want to change the Grammars.xml file. Through this file, you can acheive the custom keys sent to rFactor like Pilfius was doing. Race administrator can also call admin commands from their cars. Example: "Clear Yellow" will send out the "/clearyellow" command. Look around in the grammars.xml file. I would have done a graphical interface to manage that file through the SpotterConfig but quite frankly, I don't want to spend more time on this since Carlo will not update it anymore and has dropped the ball.

It does not use pilfius (which does not work under vista) and has it's own voice recognition software (VR.exe). A few bugs have also been corrected in the plugin itself but I don't have the complete list.

A VERY special thanks goes out to everyone at www.simcarracing.com for their support and testing. Without them, this version would have never come out. Join the league... they're very friendly and welcoming, and the competition is tough but fair and clean.

A big thank you also goes out to everyone involved in the developpement and testing of the original plugin.

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Known issues:
- VR recognizes "Twenty Laps" through "Twentynine Laps" without a problem and writes it to the output file but the plugin does not recognize it. Propbably a typo in the plugin code.
-> Can only be fixed by Carlo

- There seems to be a mix up between the "is faster than you by", "Is Slower than you by", "is Ahead by" and "is behind by" messages
sometimes the plugin would say that the driver ahead is faster than you by 20 seconds... but that 20 seconds is a gap, not a lap difference. And then the plugin tells you the same driver is ahead by 20 seconds" or any variation... I did not find any logic in this whole thing.
-> Can only be fixed by Carlo

- When disabling Nascar Mode through hot keys (default hotkey... I have not tried changing them), rFactor Crashes (for me anyways).
-> Can only be fixed by Carlo, although keeping the nascar mode on, I finally find it usefull even in non-oval races it tells me when i'm side-by-side with someone... just have to remember that outside is right and inside is left (outside and inside as in an oval course...)