Someone asked me a question about applying simulation biases. In a nutshell, the person wanted to apply simulation bias settings to a race, and then select another bias settings to apply to the same race. There was some confusion over how bias settings work (there can only be ONE bias setting for each track/surface/dist type (sprint/route) category loaded at any time). I took the opportunity to explain how one might use ES to do side by side comparisons of the effect of different bias settings on the simulation. Thought others might wonder the same....


Remember three things:
* In order for a bias setting to be applied to a race the "Use Bias Settings" option has to be on.

* The bias settings for that race have to be loaded. How biases get loaded into the program is described in the User's Guide. Essentially, they get loaded when you connect to a database that you've stored them to, or they get loaded from a Sim Settings File when you tell the program to load them from such a file.

* Bias settings get applied to races on a track/surface/dist(sprint/route) matching basis. Only ONE bias settings per track/surface/dist can be loaded at a time.

Given the above, it is difficult to compare the effect of _different_ bias settings on a race-by-race basis. It is possible:

You'd have to create multiple Sim Settings files, each one containing the same bias CATEGORIES (track/surf/dist), but with different values for those biases. You'd sim once with biases on. You'd then go to the Sim Settings Dialog and select "Load Settings From File", and select a different sim settings file. This would overwrite any __loaded__ biases with the biases from the file. You'd then sim again, now with the new biases.

The above method isn't very practical on a race-by-race basis. However, the method outlined below shows you how to use ES to do a side by side comparison of the effect of different bias settings on the simulation.


A) Create all of your biases. They'd be saved out in individual Sim Settings Files. You create the bias settings either through the Tuning Wizard, or by manually creating bias settings using the Sim Bias Settings dialog. REMEMBER - the end result has to be a Sim Settings File. The Tuning Wizard creates this as part of the process. If manually creating these settings, then you need to use the "Export To File" button in Sim Settings Dialog to create a sim settings file explicitly.

B)Use ES to load all of the races that you wanted to study. The "File Menu->Load Card(s) command (NOT load by date) would be most useful here - you can multiply select the cards.

C) Once your cards were loaded in ES, you'd then connect to a database. Using the "Store All Loaded Races" command would cause ES to simulate all races (silently), and store the necessary info to the connected DB. You could then evaluate performance with the SPAT/Profiler for that DB.

D) You could then go to the Simulation->Sim Settings Dialog and load a _different_ simulation settings file. This would replace your existing biases with the ones in the file.

E) At this point, with the new biases for the same categories loaded, you would want to EXPLICITLY use the Run All Simulations command. This would force a re-simulation of all the races with the new biases.

F) Again, Store All Loaded races. Here you'd have another choice. You can overwrite the existing races in the database you used previously, or you could create a new database (connect to a different database) so that you could compare the two (or three, or four...) side by side via SPAT/Profiler.


-Nathan