The Ultimate ETS2 Dashboard V1.0.240504

Here comes a very detailed insight into my current development since it might take some time until the next release!

(Normal text is the general bullet point, italic text contains more details or some sort of explanation for my decision)

I am currently running a massive amount of tests for the real time ETA and ETE to make them more accurate after realizing that those values are incredibly inaccurate outside of my previous tests. Mind you, it will never be perfect, at least not given the current circumstances, mostly due to the following reasons:

• Obvious reasons such as:
  • different engines and cargo weight -> different acceleration (I currently test with a 500hp Scania S 4x2, 2550Nm / 1000-1300 rpm, Opticruise GRSO 925R and 20.8t apples which all seemed like a fair average to test with)
  • if you are unlucky and hit a lot of red lights, you will take longer (my tests are not taking traffic lights into consideration since they can randomly impact the test values and I prefer baseline values that are as close as possible to reproducible)
  • driving behavior is different from player to player (speed limits, stopping at stop signs, overtaking etc; I test with sticking to speed limits (max 80 for easier comparison) and stopping at stop signs, using auto retarder on cruise control and traffic is off, more about that in the next point)
• Traffic:
  • Obviously traffic will always be different especially when mods are used
  • BUT! since the ETS2 telemetry gives no traffic data, I can't estimate any kind of impact on the ETA or ETE due to traffic. So even my test values will be kinda inaccurate for the most part because I turned off traffic for testing to have a consistent baseline for every test and to make the test values as much as possible only depend on the actual distance; traffic will very likely slow you down in comparison to these test values
• Gameplay features:
  • I did include tolls in the test values, so they are somewhat accounted for
  • I purposefully did not plan any test drives through border controls; I can't take these into consideration since most of the map doesn't include them and it would fake the results for baseline values; on a bit of a longer drive you already have two per border, if you go through 3 countries, you have 4 border controls, each like 30 seconds pure control, with traffic active make it sometimes up to 10 minutes to even get to the border because of traffic; if I would take this into consideration and apply the same code to an estimation of for example Germany to Spain, you would be much faster than estimated since you don't have to wait for border control
  • There are also no ferries used, but they would only be a marginal difference in the times since they usually take like 10 to 60 seconds to use and appear once or twice per average drive; arrive at ferry, wait for loading screen (depending on machine; I have a pretty bulky PC so I can't take these into consideration for baseline values out of fairness) and then driving off the ferry area again, not relevant enough for an estimated time
• Last but not least; GPS Data:
  • ETS2 Telemetry has no single bit of GPS data; the API doesn't know where the player currently is, what country, what town, what region, highway or road or whatever
  • The only indication you get is "Map Scale"; now for everyone unfamiliar, there is three scales; 1:19 for out of town, 1:3 for in town and 1:16 for UK region. I am currently running these tests to find the most accurate Scales per "KM-category" and try to find some sort of pattern to make it a little easier to estimate, especially on longer distances
    • Small example: On a 200km drive it is much easier to estimate the scale since you probably will only go through 1 or 2, maybe 3 towns, the rest is mostly consistent 1:19 scale; with a 1000km or even 3000km drive this estimation becomes almost impossible since I can't know how many towns you have on this route, how much highway, what countries you go through (since different countries have different highway truck speed limits) and all that

With these tests I am trying to find the most suitable, average values that as best as possible work for these different "KM-categories" to roughly estimate the ETA and ETE in real life with what I have at my disposal. I am currently focusing on 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000, if I find a pattern, great, if not, I will check 100, 300, 500, 700 and 900 as well, if still no pattern I will only make rough estimations for 2000, 3000 and 4000. No matter if I find a pattern or not, I will test the high distance estimations as well and try to make them as accurate as possible while keeping a compromise with realistic work load and code amount. The longer I work on this dashboard, obviously the more precise it might get, especially when I run out of ideas before SCS updates more stuff to play around with into the Telemetry API; but I still have to work my main job and I also wanna spend time with my fiancé, friends and family

You can see the current test run so far in the attached picture or in the link below (this is about 10% - 15% of what I expect I need to get to something remotely acceptable)

Realtime ETA and ETE Test Progress

• Bugfixes:
  • "Total Distance" showing up correctly again