Zezo forum:

Post by zezo | 2011-11-05 | 17:10:38

Hello,

VOR support is available at http://zezo.org/vor/chart.pl

It's considered beta because:

- it may break sometimes
- winds are slightly off
- the new inerpolated winds suggest frequent heading changes, but that interferes with crew energy, so you have to make some decisions yourself.

46 Comments

Post by Paula | 2011-11-05 | 18:56:31

Many many thanks Cvetan, you are the best!!

I'm making my way straight to the 'Donate' button located at the top of the chart!

No going back

Post by BennyLava | 2011-11-05 | 20:53:15

Thanks Cvetan, just that the zezo boat speed is (0,5 knt) different from the game boat speed.

Post by zezo | 2011-11-05 | 20:57:48

I'm still using the strange VR winds - rounded off to whole km/h and that may result in slightly lighter wind. That will be fixed in a day or two.

Then you have slight position difference that also adds to the error.

But 0.5 kt seems too much. Are you feeding your crew? ;)

Post by kieran4949 | 2011-11-05 | 21:27:11

Cvetan this is fantastic....from all aboard the Iris Rover...Hurrah... and thank you.

Post by kieran4949 | 2011-11-05 | 21:27:51

I meant Irish Rover!

Post by fabrice | 2011-11-07 | 01:33:40

Fantastic !!!

can you tell us which are the GFS runs used in the game ?

Post by zezo | 2011-11-07 | 02:05:35

The proper ones - same as in recent VR games:

gfs.t00z.master.grbf06 and gfs.t12z.master.grbf06

With what seems like linear interpolation of adjacent wind data.

Post by UniGor | 2011-11-07 | 15:38:41

Is there any way to import my current VOR boat position like there was for the last race?

Post by zezo | 2011-11-07 | 17:35:10

Not yet. I'm thinking about it - I'll at least add fields for lat/lon.

Post by Michel | 2011-11-07 | 16:24:00

Thank you Cvetan for all your Work like Mona Lisa !
Just one stupidd question :
A what hours UTC zezo drive good winds ?

Michel
Any time in my house and as you want

Post by Hydrolift | 2011-11-07 | 17:53:02

Thanks for offering such a superb simulator/route planner.

Obviously you have some reward by being in the lead in the race, but I have now also shown you my appreciation by donating you twice the money I have spent on the add-ons in the game itself so far i.e. 20 EUR.

Post by zezo | 2011-11-07 | 23:12:14

Thanks.

I would keep the router private if I was going for the awards, but it's too much stress to play 8 months without any margin for error, so I would rather not do it. What I can do is to implement subscription based access to a 'Pro' version and collect some money. If this happens people who have donated will be credited with more than the actual amount.

Post by Moderation | 2011-11-08 | 08:52:03

Hello Zezo, thank you for all your work on this product. It does make for easier planning at 2 am :-)

This morning seems a bit more challenging though. It seems they have chosen different winds than you are showing here.

VORG @N 32 20 26 / W 010 05 45 - 8.24 knts @ 76 deg 0240(AST) 0740(CEST)

Post by Moderation | 2011-11-08 | 09:13:15

Zezo - many thanks, you have fixed the winds. Now I can return to sleep while you are perhaps enjoying your morning coffee.

Post by Micke | 2011-11-08 | 10:29:52

Thanks for a great tool Cvetan! I'm guessing you are already using the "Pro" version. Any chance you could tell us how it differs from the version you have on the website?

As Moderation is pointing out, it seems like after wind updates Zezo for a while has different winds than the game. At least yesterday evening I had the "old" 0600 winds in Zezo for about 20 minutes after the update at 1800 UTC, why is that?
It's not a big problem as it seems to get fixed quite quickly but it did cost me 3% crew energy last night before I noticed it :)

Post by zezo | 2011-11-08 | 11:01:08

I use exactly the same thing that's publicly available.

And few years of experience with VR games ;)

Just a small hint - the TWA providing best VMG when reaching and running does not always end in 5, so you can squeeze 1% speed if you set the perfect one. But that information lives an simple spreadsheet in the form of TWA/Speed/Speed*cos(TWA)

About your second point - I saw the source of the problem this morning, so it should not happen any more.

Post by Micke | 2011-11-08 | 21:29:08

Thanks for the hint! Are you willing to share your spreadsheet or should I make my own? Do you know how the interpolation between TWA's is done? Is it linear, quadratic or some other method?

Post by Einar | 2011-11-08 | 11:53:56

Made my donation. Many thanx for great tool. NORepa

Post by mj | 2011-11-08 | 14:29:17

you have earned my donation too, thanks, boat "janimar" out.

Post by WrongButton | 2011-11-08 | 17:00:20

Would be nice if it could display results of two different starting points at same time. I can't make it do that, even in different browser windows. Makes it hard to do analysis of how to cover that guy you are trying to beat.

Donation sent. Excellent software.

Post by zezo | 2011-11-08 | 17:31:15

Thanks. It won't be easy to do two boats in the same chart, but it should be possible to open two windows/tabs:

Open first window, set staring point, open second window, set new starting point.

BTW during the previous I had a collaboration with a guy developing google maps based tools, and we had a way to import tracks/isochrones there.

Post by Moderation | 2011-11-08 | 23:41:25

Are you using that method of importing to Google maps now or does that method still work?

Post by PatH | 2011-11-08 | 22:36:33

It seems that my boat is always going faster than the model predicts. I also note that it keeps suggesting the MS vice the Light Spinaker (which is better at these wind speeds and directions). I was wondering if the model has the full set of sails available with the pro-sail package or if the polars were slightly off?

Great model by the way. Wish I had the time to generate something like this. Small donation sent!

Post by Odin | 2011-11-09 | 08:43:53

Have you checked the "Pro sails" box? Right click in map to select.

Post by PatH | 2011-11-09 | 23:34:42

Oh, don't I feel like an idiot!! Thanks much for the pointer. Fair winds.

Post by Moderation | 2011-11-08 | 23:26:15

ZEZO - small donation sent. Your efforts are worth infinitely more but I do have a boat. She is a demanding mistress and uses all my extra cash.

Post by Fair_Winds | 2011-11-09 | 14:38:54

Great stuff zezo - I suppose it is you yourself who are in the lead of the race? :)

Do you know where to find the polars for this race? I have looked around and could not find it anywhere, the format doesn�t matter that much, but .xls .csv or .txt would be the best. (I use to build up my own little spreadsheet for each race, but for thisone I have no polars...) Should really appriciate if you could give me a hint where to find them!

Thanks! (donation sent awhile ago - you are definitely worth some money for your efforts!)

Post by PatH | 2011-11-09 | 23:35:40

They are posted as images on the Volvo Ocean Race Game Facebook Group.

Post by Micke | 2011-11-10 | 08:19:38

As PatH said, you can find them as jpeg images here:
http://wiki.volvooceanracegame.com/wiki/Category:Sails

If anyone finds the polars in any other form please share! It's a lot of work to transfer the polars from the jpeg's to a spreadsheet.

Post by zezo | 2011-11-10 | 08:59:45

http://zezo.org/vor_polars.zip

Post by Odin | 2011-11-10 | 12:08:46

Thank you.

Post by PatH | 2011-11-10 | 15:15:00

Thanks. A much more useable set of files.

Post by Micke | 2011-11-09 | 14:47:26

Now we're approximately seven days off Fernando which means Zezo can route us that far. At the moment we can chose to "Go To Fernando", "Go To Cape Town" or set our own destination. Would it be possible to have an option "Go To Cape Town via Fernando"?

Post by zezo | 2011-11-10 | 09:10:51

That's possible, the question is if it of any use ;

I've had gates integrated in the game in the North Atlantic leg of the last VORG and they worked reasonably well.

But now the tactical decision to go close to the island or farther West depends on South Atlantic weather systems that are too far ahead to see. And when you get close enough the possible Western route may pass close to South America naturally, so you won't need a gate. But it will depend on decision you've made a week earlier - where to pass the doldrums.

One of the problems with gates is that some people find them disturbing, and want them optional. And this complicates the user interface.

So the answer is "We'll see". I'll add the gate in few days if there seems to be some use for it.

Post by Laiska | 2011-11-10 | 11:01:50

Hi,

now that we can not use pacotool to place our boats on zezo charts, could we please have the shortcut format info here. I mean, there used to be a spcial URL formula that would help you to place the starting point on an exact location.

Thx,
Laiska

Post by zezo | 2011-11-10 | 20:18:22

The lat=x&lon=y parameters in the url are the position, but they are in decimal degrees.

I'll add inputs for D M S position soon, but I'm still recovering from the sleep deprivation caused by being #1 ;)

Post by Laiska | 2011-11-10 | 23:02:43

Yeah, you are doing great!

But could we please have the exact format of the URL?

http://zezo.org/vor/chart.html/lat=0&lon=y seems not to work

Post by zezo | 2011-11-11 | 08:52:28

Forgot to mention that it works on the fullscreen version - http://zezo.org/vor/chart.pl?....

Post by Laiska | 2011-11-11 | 17:53:33

Thx, now it works!

Post by gregma | 2011-11-11 | 20:43:42

I'm curious about the predicted boat speed and the actual boat speed calculations. For example. In the Sailing Simulator, I have it 2 day predicted track. I set the start to be 34.36 N and 14.03 S. I have Pro sails turned on. It says I should head 220 degrees with a C0 sail and should be doing 19.5kt. However, in the game, if I head 220 degrees with a C0 sail, my speed would be 3.56kt. That's quite a difference! What am I doing wrong?

Greg

Post by WrongButton | 2011-11-12 | 01:33:18

I'm getting a result from the simulator with the wind 180 degrees out from the game wind. I verified right time stamp, reloaded the page, no better.

I actually am getting good results for points close to where zezoorg is but back around 34N, 15W the wind field is not right.

Post by zezo | 2011-11-12 | 10:32:19

Thanks for the report.

There was a bug in the interpolation of the winds. It resulted of reversed wind direction in specific cases (winds from different/opposite quadrants)

This was OK to the south because of prevailing NE winds, but caused problems a bit to the N an areas with adjacent SW/SE wind

Should be OK now.

Post by Moderation | 2011-11-14 | 23:55:26

Hello Zezo,
There may be a minor glitch in the sail choice data grid the sim is using at around TWA 120
Moderation was located at 7deg 10' 26deg 24' at 22:30 CEST showing winds 13.1kts @78*
The sim is recommending MS on a course of 198(TWA 120)to give 15.5kts This is not possible unless auto sails are off. Or am I supposed to turn off auto sails to get this?

Post by manzana | 2011-11-15 | 13:39:35

Dont show the VOR contextual menu and i can't select Pro-Sails...

Thanks a lot, is a very good work.

Post by pgfiore | 2011-11-19 | 00:19:50

Sorry folks, I did not catch the above Cvetan's hint:
"the TWA providing best VMG when reaching and running does not always end in 5, so you can squeeze 1% speed if you set the perfect one. (...) TWA/Speed/Speed*cos(TWA)"

ok,for example LS 142 142/9,152/9,152*COS(142) = -1,371545316

And? I'm feelin' quite dumb now!

Post by zezo | 2011-11-19 | 01:55:20

That would be 9.152*cos(radians(142)) = -7.21

The difference is really small for most wind speeds. More like 0.2% most of the time.

It would be a bit worse if the optimizer started at TWA 40, but it starts at 42 which is better estimate.