Splits: What are they, why they're coming, what it means

Discussion in 'Surf' started by Teddi, May 9, 2020.

  1. Teddi

    Teddi Well-Known Member Bear

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    So I'm currently in the process of defining all the split zones for our Surf maps, working my way through the easy maps first. As there's been some discussion internally and with some surfers I've realised it might be handy to explain exactly what splits are, what our system tries to do and what it doesn't do.

    So what are splits?
    Often in competitive speed-based competitions splits are used to measure a competitors speed between two points. Sometimes this can be as generic as a time-trial (think running a course x amount of times ala Mario Kart) or splitting up a course into "segments" where you're timed for each segment, with these segments being recorded upon a successful run. You can also have a combination of the above which is sort of what our system does.

    So how does the [BB] split system work?
    It's based off running a normal time-trial and splits will only be recorded if a new PB is also recorded. It's a mostly independent system that shares some events and other surf mechanics such as the start line and the finish line. Everything in between that is the split system working off it's own accord.

    Splits themselves aren't directly linked with an index to a PB, but we can symbolically calculate it as a set of splits should always be based off your latest PB.

    So why?
    Because enough people have asked for it and it does help to a lesser degree help improve a potential route. It's also better than sync which is a pretty low bar to beat at this point, but I digress.

    How many of my splits do you actually record?
    We only keep your latest splits (per map) recorded. At the moment we don't feel there's much value keeping an entire backlog of splits because when a new route is discovered or an optimisation found, it can mean another split technically becomes worse. This happens from vidya speed runs to Olympic level competitions.

    Can I compare my PBs with x record?
    Not at the moment, possibly in the future. This is a system that really needs more data in it before we can consider comparing it to say, all-time. The other issue is because we only ever keep your PB splits it's more likely that this will only compare well against all-time as opposed to seasonal.

    Gold / Red / Green, what are we using?
    Red / Green and you're racing against yourself.

    Linear vs Staged, how does this work?
    So this one was a tricky decision to work out, and even then there's exceptions.
    When it comes to linear maps, this is the more simplistic of the two and there's just various "splits" scattered throughout the map where it feels it makes sense. If you feel more / less splits should be added to a given map - lets talk!

    For staged: we've taken the stance that a split 'generally' is the time you leap from a platform and leap on to the finishing platform and if there's a transition then that isn't included. Like I said there's exceptions but we're trying to remain consistent about this. Some maps the split will end "after" the stage teleport and other maps may have an extra split in a stage because it's longer or it makes sense.

    Wait, I've already hit my PB ceiling?! I can't get better times!
    All I can recommend is keep trying, or we can offer to potentially wipe your current PB times (this wouldn't impact your actual time-trial records).

    Wait, I'm new / don't care / this is stressing me out!
    If you're a new player, you'll see absolutely nothing in terms of split information until you've landed your first successful time-trial for a map. If you don't care / don't want to see this information: this can all be turned off in F1 > Settings and if you have time-trials disabled, same applies as if you were a new player.

    So if we have splits does this mean we have 'checkpoints'?
    In terms of the stage system - that's what we consider our checkpoints mostly.

    For linear (and to a lesser extent staged), not really. First of all we have a platinum save / load state system that we feel currently does the job well enough (with room for expansion) but secondly we haven't defined a specific point in space for each split location and some splits are actually made up on multiple area definitions to try and ensure that consistency.



    If you have any questions or points you'd like to raise, feel free to drop them below.
     
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  2. 12max345

    12max345 Member

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    Can we have splits show up side by side instead of fading out so by the end of the run, we not only see our pb frozen, but we can see how we performed on each split in case we miss it during the run?
     
  3. Kaiden

    Kaiden Administrator Community Manager

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    I don't think you'd want multiple pop-up boxes showing each split, on maps with many splits your UI would be covered. Maybe enable print splits to chat so you can scroll up at end of run? You can also go into F1 > TimeTrial and view your split time there.

    upload_2020-5-10_23-4-41.png
     
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  4. 12max345

    12max345 Member

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    Ah, I see. Thank you, that is much nicer.

    Also, I found this while playing on mesa revo:
    https://i.gyazo.com/607759de83820dc9d845f91bc052f043.png
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2020
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  5. Teddi

    Teddi Well-Known Member Bear

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    I'll have to investigate Revo, that error basically appears if for some reason the split triggers aren't registering you passing through them.
     
  6. nevo

    nevo New Member

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    I was having the issue last night if the splits corresponding to my prior PB and not my current PB. For example on ethereal, I beat my PB twice in the same map, and the active splits corresponded to the past PB, and not current.
     
  7. Teddi

    Teddi Well-Known Member Bear

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    Splits don't directly correspond to any given PB directly. When a new PB is earned the split data that was used for that run overrides your last data automatically. The above only happens if for some reason not all of the split points were hit (in which case it prints an error to chat).

    Edit: turns out there was a minor issue where the split data wouldn't be synced down correctly after getting a new PB, but on the server-side it was fine.
     
  8. eth9n

    eth9n [BB] Sub Admin Sub Admin

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    Any possibility of our splits being able to be compared to #1 All Time and #10 All Time?
     
  9. Teddi

    Teddi Well-Known Member Bear

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    Eventually yeah, but due to how we've added this feature it's going to take time for the data to pour in or else there's going to be plenty of "no split data for #1 all-time".
     
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