The screenshots in this section are showing the Launcher component exercising the multi-threading and display update aspects (running a test cycle). What you see is pretty much what the administrator will see while the launcher is running. Even with all ten of the schedules running, there was negligible impact on CPU usage, and at this time, the program only uses about 3MB of memory.

It starts out displaying some info about the DeMONS configuration at the top of the dialog box. Below that is the list control that shows all of the N4HOST sessions that are configured. I have chosen to limit the number of hosts to 10 per machine. Learn it, live it - this number is more likely to go down than up.

Notice the flag icons in the left-most column. These flags indicate the current state of the N4HOST schedule. Notice that they start out with blue flag icons. This means the hosts are configured and ready to be started.

The flags will change as the status of the host changes. Yellow flags mean that the schedule has started but is waiting for the next race to start. When the flag turns green, this means that the host has launched N4 and is running a race. When the race is over, the flag turns yellow again. When the flag turns to checkers, the schedule is finished.

This is where configuration of a client and it's hosts begins.

Client Name - This field allows you to name the client. It is assumed that there is only one client per machine because you can run multiple n4 servers from a single install of N4. However, it is possible (but not at all reasonable) to install N4 on a given machine multiple times. In this case, each install of N4 will be a different "client". Not only would this be confusing, it would be a complete waste of disk space due to the nature of N4.

Path to sim - This is the path to the simulator. The program will attempt to find the path in the registry, and if you want this to happen, you MUST correctly install N4 from the CD. If it cannot find the path in the registry, it will automatically prompt you to browse to the path. At any time you can click on the browse button on the right side of the edit field. The Registry button causes the program to attempt to find the path in the registry (just in case you manually hose up the path in the edit field and want to recover).

Current Hosts - This listbox contains a list of currently configured hosts. If you haven't added any hosts yet, this listbox will be empty. The names in this listbox will match the "Server Name" field shown in the tab below. The buttons next to this list box allow you to Add new hosts, Delete the currently selected host, Configure the currently selected host, or set up a Schedule for the currently selected host. The field on the right side shows the approximate bandwidth required to support the hosts that are currently specified. As noted on the dialog, only 10 hosts can be configured per client (due to bandwidth available to any given machine, regardless of connection).

Host Name - Enter the name you want to appear as host/server name. I think this is also going to match the WON user ID for the host, but I'm not sure. If anhhyone has any idea about the max length of this field (given the possible correlation with other fields opn the dialog box), let me know.

Allow Remote Admin - This set of controls allows you to control whether or not the client can be administered remotely. I suggest that you do NOT allow anyone but yourself to do this (the reason for the password), because there are just some folks out in the wild that take great pleasure in corrupting our fun. If this checkbox is not checked, all admin functionality is restricted to local iuse of this program.

Allow Public Setup - This set of controls allows you to permit public setup of *single-race* schedules. This means that someone can connect to your client and start a race without your intervention.

Connect To Nanny Server - A "Nanny Server" is a server that can accumulate results and maintains a list of races/hosts that are currently available. Initially, only RaceServer.net will be available as a Nanny Server, but to accommodate peope who don't want to be part of RSN, this set of controls allows you to not participate.

Processor - Since multi-processor machines are so inexpensive now, I figured there might be someone out there running one (or more). To give N4 as much processing time as possible, this setting allows you to manually select a processor on which to to run ALL of the DeMONS components. A similar capability is provided for each N4 host as well.

CORE.INI Settings button - This button will probably be disabled in the initial release, but it will bring up another dialog which allows you to change stettings in the CORE.INI file. Only the most advanced users will need this functionality.

Host Admin

When you click either the Add button or Configure button, a new dialog box will be displayed which allows you to configure the selected host. This dialog box (currently) contains five tabs.

Administrative section - pretty clear cut. Questions or comments?

Connections section - The top half is fairly simple to grasp. The bottom section is how you tell the session whether or not to show the race on WON. The default is to use TCP/IP and IPX only, and not to show the server on WON.

General section - The alternate results file allows you to take the result file provided by the sim, and massage it into a custom appearance. This is done by providing a template text file containing the formatting you desire, coupled with data keys defined within DeMONS. You can create virtually ANY kind of file you want, including XML, delimitted text files, HTML, or whatever trips your trigger. The test button will allow you to test your template file using a canned results file generated by N4 and provided with the DeMONS/2 software suite. You can also choose to run a batch file after each race.

Lists section - This allows you to use a master invite/muzzle list for the current host. The master list is maintained by the manager component, and allows you to have to maintain only one list of invites or (perhaps more importantly) muzzled drivers.

Host Availability

This tab allows you to allocate the host to a different person for each day of the week. If you're not allowing the host to be remotely administered by others, you can pretty much leave this tab alone (except for maybe changing the everyday password to something other than "password".

For a screen shot of the graphic chart, go here.

Connections

This tab allows you to specify the host's server connection port and the number of cars allowed to connect via a given protocol.

Schedule Timing

The Timings tab provides identical functionality when compared to DeMONS/1. This is the heart of the scheduling capability of the program, providing the server administrator with the ability to specify how often and/or when to run races. The most difficult of these timing settings to maintain is using a "specific date/time". DeMONS/2 does not attempt to resolve overlapping start times because it would be almost impossible to do so. Therefore it is up to the admin to keep it straight in his own head.

On a positive note, DeMONS/2 will automatically skip events that are late because the previous event was late in finishing.

Lists

This tab allows you to specify a unique invite list and muzzle list for the current host. These lists are *different* from the master list and will be replaced by the host lists if you elected to do so on the first tab.

Default Race Settings

The Default Race tab allows you to specify settings you will use most/all of the time whenever you schedule an event. If you intend to ALWAYS race with realistic damage, yellow flags, and forced cockpit mode, toggle those items ON here, and those settings will become the default for each event you schedule in the future.

If you see anything that doesn't belong, or if you don't see something that should be on this tab, let me know.

Read Me

This dialog allows you to configure individual events that are to be run within a "schedule".

Schedule Configuration

This dialog box provides you with a list of scheduld races and their settings. Since all of the settings wouldn't fit in the list control at the top of the dialog, the remaining settings are shown at the bottom of the dialog box when a race is selected (by clicking on it).

General Settings

This tab allows you to pick the track, vehicle type, and weather (among other things). Papyrus hasn't released a truck pack, and I haven't even heard a rumor that they are going to, so please don't ask me about it.

Emnvironment

This tab is where you set the actual race parameters. I tried to make it look as much like the defauilt race settings dialog as possible. Most of this stuff is the same as in DeMONS/1, but they are organized with more attention payed to their specific category of functionality.

This final tab contains settings thatare not yet enabled (and may not ever be enabled). I put them here so I wouldn't forget to consider them at a later date (depending of the din from the throngs of would-be worshippers).

This is a screen shot of a componentthat is eventually going to be included in the server components, and is meant to import a N4 results file, and optionally massage it into a custom appearance, save the standings in a database, and create standings/statistics web pages (html) from the accumulated results. This program will aso be able to operate on a commandline basis so that the launcher can perform the necessary steps without human intervention. In the interest of fair play among other developers, I will probably also allow the administrator to specify whatever program (and command line arguments) he wants to use (instead of this one).