Introduction
System Requirements:
Hardware:
The following minimum hardware requirements must be met prior to the installation of Race Analysis V3.0.
- 250 Megabytes of hard drive space
- A graphics card the supports DirectX 9.0c shader version 2.0
- A minimum screen resolution of 1280 by 786 that supports 32 bit color
Software:
- Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
- The .NET framework version 3.5 (if this is missing the installer will prompt you to download and install)
- If a prior version of Race Analysis exists on your system please backup your files and remove it via the Control Panel prior to installing the latest version.
- A W3C compliant Web Browser (IE6 or greater, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera etc.).
Additional Notes:
The demo version of the software will expire after a period of time, it is also limited to 15 minutes of simulation time. All other features are fully functional.
Key Features:
The 3D world:
- A fully interactive 3D world.
- A 'follow' camera that allows you to center any boat with a single mouse click and follow it through the simulation. You can zoom in/out and rotate to any angle.
- A 'free' camera that allows you to fly anywhere in the 3D space, including underwater!
- 3D Animated boat models.
- Models are created using the Open Source 3D modeling software called Blender3D.
- YOU can create and use additional boat models or request that we add them!
- Any modeling software able to export DirectX .X files will work.
- 3D static models.
- As with boats you can create and use your own models!
- Is there a unique can, nun or pier you'd like to see? Model it, add it and then share it! We'll add user submitted models to our download page.
The Data:
- The minimum data requirements to create and view a simulation is
latitude and longitude and the associated timestamp.
- You can import GPX log files recorded by your GPS.
- You can import data from a NMEA 0183 log file (text).
- Race Analysis V3.0 supports all or a subset of the following:
- True Wind Angle
- True Wind Speed (knots)
- Apparent Wind Angle
- Apparent Wind Speed
- COG
- SOG
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Pitch
- Roll
- When available Race Analysis V3.0 will use the actual recorded data, if not available data such as COG, SOG and VMG are calculated based on the position data.
- When boat specific weather data is not available the option to
add global weather conditions exists.
- Multiple weather locations are supported and applied based on the timestamps and then weighted based on the distance from the boat and the weather station.
- GPS tracks can be turned on and off in the display.
- True and Apparent Wind indicators are show graphically.
The Analysis:
All available telemetry data is displayed as a grid at the bottom of the screen.
- You can sort any data column in either direction. If you want to know who has the best VMG (based on the course and their next waypoint), click VMG, who's the slowest? Click it again.
- Want to see how you did from one beat to the next? Want to know if Barber Hauling helps you point? Set up two boats, use the same data set, offset one in time and you can race against yourself!
- Does easing the main to flatten the boat help?
Version 3.0 adds an entire data analysis section where you can plot the collected data in literally hundreds of ways!
- Filter your data based on any of the collected data types (SOG, COG, VMG, Roll etc.
- View your actual polar data! When should we shift to a different sail?
- Export entire datasets as XML.
- Save any of your plots as JPGs or BMPs.
- Print your plots.
- Graphically compare differences in performance leg to leg and against other boats.
The Configuration
All configurations are saved in what's know as a profile. Profiles are created and edited in one place. You can even import routes and waypoint data from GPX files!