- Trial extension: 60 days
Cache to improve Hud performance
Table opening for TableTracker (Full Tilt, Party and PokerStars only)
Database Housekeeping. Replaces the old way of clustering/vacuuming/analyzing
- Hud: Config window should now popup in front of windows and is now centered on the screen rather than the table.
Hud: New drawing method, should be much more efficient and less resource intensive
PokerStars observed tables can now only import 30 hands per session (30 minutes required between sessions before new hands can import) REQUIRED BY POKERSTARS
Export: Groups hands by table, and in order (improves speed when re-importing)
- Hud: Crashes
Hud: iPoker tournaments not being recognized
Hud: iPoker showing lifetime stats of Hero after sitting out
Hud: iPoker tournament tables not being recognized
Hud: Stats remaining on screen after table closes
Import: Everest 6/2 max limits
Import: Some tournament import issues with dates
Import: Rare continuation bet problems
Import: flg_x_has_position
Import: Party hands with invalid dates will no longer import
Report: Cache preventing certain filters from working
TableTracker: Displaying multiple entries for single player in table list
I know it's been a long time coming, but there have been a lot of changes since the last release. Hud performance and stability has improved dramatically. This was accomplished primarily with two changes:
1. A new drawing method
2. Introduction of a cache
The new drawing method reduces the resources that the Hud uses and makes a huge difference when you have many tables open. The cache reduces the resources used by PostgreSQL when you have very large databases. The combination of the two means that no matter how large your databases are or how many tables you have open at one time, PT3 should have little problem working for you now. I'm sure there are still some problems remaining, but they are hopefully now few and far between. If you experience a little bit of lag, try disabling logging. PT3 logs a lot of information and that can cause some resource usage as well.
Important Cache Information
In order to use the cache, you need to update it. You do this using the new Housekeeping feature, which replaces the old cluster/vacuum/analyze functionality. The new housekeeping feature allows you to cluster, vacuum, analyze and update the cache on one or all of your databases. You just tell it which actions to perform on which databases and it does them all for you without any further interaction from you. Keep in mind that the housekeeping actions can be time consuming and doing them all on a lot of large databases can take a tremendous amount of time. Also, if you haven't defragged your hard drive recently, you may want to do so after clustering and vacuuming, but prior to analyzing and updating the cache. Defragging before clustering may help, but the act of clustering and vacuuming may fragment your hard drive. At any rate, it should speed up the caching process.
TableTracker Table Opening
Also in this release is the ability to launch poker sites and open tables directly from the TableTracker interface. The table opening functionality is still a little basic and only works on Party, PokerStars and Full Tilt. We are working on adding support for the other sites PT3 supports and will have that to you as soon as we can. We will also be improving the interface, making it much easier and more useful and adding some highly requested features.
Other Points of Interest
The cause of the slow importing of exported hands has been found. It wasn't really a bug, but rather a problem with an optimization not being utilized. When PT3 imports, it keeps session information cached in memory so that it doesn't have to query the database after each hand to determine if the session information is already in the database. This only works when hands from a single session are in close proximity of each other. With the export, PT3 would not keep the hands in any particular order, so when importing, PT3 would have to constantly query the database for session information. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done to improve the speed of existing exported files, but in this version it groups the hands together by table, so this should not be an issue with exported hands in the future.
A few of the annoying non-crashing, non-lag Hud problems have also been resolved. The Hud should appear without issue on tournament tables. It should also never show your lifetime stats (by not realizing you're the hero at the table). The stats should always be consistent between the table stats and the popup stats as well.
Some of the import problems have also been fixed. The problem with Everest 6 max tables is fixed. Tournament dates issues have been fixed. Problems with continuation bets and the flg_[street]_has_position column has been fixed as well. Unfortunately, to see these changes, hands must be purged and re-imported.
Trial Extension
We've decided to extend the trial period again with this beta version. This version will give you an additional 60 day trial to test PT3 if you haven't already purchased it.
The Future
I'm pretty confident that this release will fix the majority of Hud problems, so it's finally time for us to move on to other items. Our overall plan is to fix the remaining bugs and then bring PT3 up to par with PT2 in terms of features missing. That is our main priority, in addition to a few more TableTracker features. From there, we will add more site support and additional features that don't exist in PT2. These features should be added fairly quickly, so expect releases more often. If you have submitted a bug report support ticket and have not yet received a reply and this version doesn't fix your problem, do not despair. I plan on fixing a lot of the minor problems that have been submitted for the next beta.
We appreciate those of you who have been patiently waiting for fixes. We understand it's frustrating and admire those of you who can handle that frustration in a constructive manner. Thank you. I hope that we will make your patience pay off.
