Gerhard Potgieter

Nadeo recently launched TrackMania Nations Forever (TMNF), the successor of their previous free racing game TrackMania Nations (TMN).

Being part of CTWUG we have a few avid gamers on the network and one of the games we played allot was TrackMania Nations (TMN). So with the new TrackMania Nations Forever (TMNF) I thought I would give it a go and set up a server, and as with every game on the network users prefer a stats page aswell. So after searching high and low on the web I couldn’t find a stats solutions for TMNF that produced stats based on real time results, the closest I got was TMOS - TrackMania Offline Server, so the obvious thing to do was write my own solution.

Running a dedicated TMNF server required ASECO, Automatic Server Control, to generate statistics in realtime to a online database or local database. It took me about 2 days of programming to get a stable running bug free site. I called it AsecoStats cause it is based on the Aseco 2.1.4 for TMNF.

The index page displays live server stats like how many players are currently online, current track, list all player names and best times that are currently online aswell as the Author records aswell as the best time for the track.

The Players page displays all the current players that ever played on the server aswell as their total wins and total time played on the server.

When you click on the player name you will be transfered to a page detailing all the tracks the player has ever raced aswell as their best time for each track and poll position

On the Tracks page is a list of all the challenges (tracks) ever played on the server with their author, best time and what player achieved this time.

When you click on the track name you will be transfered to a page that details all the players that ever played that track aswell as their poll position and their time.

This is all I did for now as this is the first beta version (v. 0.9b), and what the users wanted to see for now. The pages is written in php and utilizes Aseco 2.1.4 for TMNF’s mysql database. I haven’t decided on a license for it yet but if interest is big enough I will possibly release this under GNU.

For the next release I’m looking into a point system so users can get a overall server position and not just per track. Please leave your comments as to what you guys think of this and any suggestions is also welcome.

Ubuntu Hardy Heron finally got released today. The Linux community have been counting down the days for the official release and its finally here. Not only did the Ubuntu community do what it does best and produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but Hardy Heron will have Long Term Support (LTS) with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop editions. With  hundreds of improvements and the addition of the latest version of Firefox amongst other outstanding applications, no wonder more and more users are converting to Ubuntu with every new release, and this one has no exception.

Hardy Heron not only comes with the latest version of Gnome, but also boasts superb productivity tools, music and video support, office applications that completely integrate with the proprietary office applications out there and a tested and stabilized platform for a faster and safer browsing experience using Firefox 3.

I just finished downloading the ISO’s for both the server and desktop editions and as soon as I get home tonight I will upgrade my server to Hardy Heron. All and all I’m looking quite forward to playing with the new release and know it will be a pleasant experience just like all the previous releases.

Big up to the Canonical Team for creating this fine operating system for no cost at all. More info about the features of release can be found on the official Ubuntu website.