News

Hi mk8u.de users, a lot has happened on mk8u.de since the redesign and the VR calculator. The two biggest additions first: time trials with your own ghosts and replays in 3D, for races and ghosts alike. 🏁 Races in 3D Every online race logged with the plugin (v0.36.00+) can now be watched as a 3D replay, with all racers on the course: On the race page under "Race in 3D" → "Open 3D replay" Standings with current place, gap to the leader and active boost Click a racer: the camera follows them and their boosts show on the course Mini-turbos, super mini-turbos, mushrooms, tricks and jumps are shown Play, rewind (also backwards), frame by frame, rotate and zoom with mouse or fingers The data comes from the game's own recording, uploaded by the MK8Logger plugin after the race. Your own line comes exactly from your console (◉), the others from what the consoles in the lobby saw (◎). The more racers use the plugin, the more exact the replay. ⏱️ Time trials and ghosts Bests from the plugin: new time trial bests go to the rankings automatically, with combo and Mii (suspiciously fast times are checked by an admin first). All saved bests can be imported once from the plugin menu. Ghosts: your ghosts from the savegame are uploaded, with lap times and a download of the ghost file. Rankings → "Ghosts": a new view per course with every uploaded ghost, gap to the fastest, laps, combo and save date. Ghosts in 3D: the driving line with a glowing trail, boost flames, mushrooms, tricks and jump shadows, with the camera following the kart. Compare ghosts: up to 4 at once. The colour shows who is faster on which stretch (green) and where time is lost (red), plus gap and distance in total and per lap. Player page → "Ghosts": all ghosts of a player at a glance. More times in the rankings, also from the game's ghost ranking. The rankings now open with "All times" and "Realistic times only". 🏎️ Races and lobbies Race course: all racers as a small animation lap by lap, with items and gap to the leader Items and hits: which items every racer got (with the game's icons) and which items hit them "What's at stake": during a race, what every racer can win as 1st or lose as last Racing / Watching / Waiting: who in a lobby is racing, watching or waiting Screenshots (ScreenshotWUPS) with your races Drivers, karts, tires and gliders with the game's icons, Yoshi and Shy Guy in their colour Countries and regions named as on the Wii U, all flags The VR calculator works with the exact VR values (decimals) from the plugin 🏆 Events Race events in public lobbies: sign up and the races are scored automatically. With points table, bonus/penalty points, live standings and notices in the game. Event mods create events and start the scoring per lobby. 🛡️ Fair play The plugin (v0.35.01+) warns at the race start when a racer was seen with items the game never gives on their place. Admins check the cases. 🔌 The plugin Almost all of this comes from the MK8Logger plugin (Aroma). From v0.28.00 it updates itself. 3D race replays need v0.36.00, ghosts v0.31.00. Download and guide: My account → Plugin, video guide at mk8u.de/tutorial. Have fun racing and watching! 🏁

(Deutsche Version unten) Hi everyone, mk8u.de has a completely new look, and it has gained a lot of features over the last few weeks. Here are the highlights. NEW DESIGN Every lobby, race and player now has a page of its own with its own address, so you can link and share anything directly. Light or dark, German or English, on your phone as well as on your computer. The Live start page shows what is happening on Pretendo at a glance. You can hide or reorder its sections. NEW FEATURES Live status: in running lobbies you see who is racing, who is watching and who is waiting for the next race. What's at stake? For every racer in the running race: how much VR they win as 1st and lose as last, calculated with the game's real VR formula. VR calculator: try out how Mario Kart 8 hands out VR, or recalculate a race. Events: tournaments in ordinary public lobbies, scored automatically, no screenshots needed. Sign up, race, follow the live standings. Player pages with rivals (nemesis, favourite opponent, even match), your driver/vehicle combos, results per course, VR history and a head-to-head comparison. Combo meta: which driver/vehicle combination really wins, overall and per course? Rankings: time trials of all 48 courses with archive and hack detection. Each player now counts with their best time. Time trial bests straight from the game: new records go to the rankings automatically. Upload your earlier bests with one click in the plugin menu. Countries and regions with flag and official name. JOIN IN: USE THE MK8LOGGER PLUGIN Almost all of this depends on one thing: the MK8Logger plugin for Aroma. A race is only logged when at least one person in the lobby uses the plugin. Results, VR changes, courses, rivals, combo meta, events and "What's at stake" only exist because someone races with the plugin. The more of you join in, the more complete the picture gets for everyone. How to (takes a few minutes): Sign in at mk8u.de and link your Pretendo profile under "My account". Download the latest plugin (mk8logger.wps) and your token file there. Copy mk8logger.wps to SD:/wiiu/environments/aroma/plugins/ and the token file to SD:/wiiu/token/. Restart your Wii U and race as usual. The plugin does the rest. Already installed? Then please get the current version. It adds the time trial upload, the import of your bests, in-game event notices and "What's at stake". The full guide is at https://mk8u.de/docs/user-guide. Everything about the site is in the manual under "About". Thanks to everyone who is already racing and logging. See you on the track! Best regards mickres aka Achim / mk8u.de Hallo zusammen, mk8u.de hat einen komplett neuen Look bekommen und ist in den letzten Wochen um viele Funktionen gewachsen. Hier das Wichtigste im Überblick. NEUES DESIGN Jede Lobby, jedes Rennen und jeder Spieler hat jetzt eine eigene Seite mit eigener Adresse. Du kannst also alles direkt verlinken und teilen. Hell oder dunkel, auf Deutsch oder Englisch, am Handy genauso wie am Rechner. Die Live-Startseite zeigt auf einen Blick, was gerade auf Pretendo los ist. Bereiche kannst du ausblenden oder umsortieren. NEUE FUNKTIONEN Live dabei: In laufenden Lobbys siehst du, wer gerade fährt, wer zuschaut und wer auf das nächste Rennen wartet. Was steht auf dem Spiel? Für jeden Fahrer im laufenden Rennen: wie viel VR er als Erster gewinnt und als Letzter verliert. Berechnet mit der echten VR-Formel des Spiels. VR-Rechner: Probier aus, wie Mario Kart 8 VR verteilt, oder rechne ein Rennen nach. Events: Turniere in ganz normalen öffentlichen Lobbys, automatisch gewertet, ganz ohne Screenshots. Anmelden, mitfahren, Live-Rangliste verfolgen. Spielerseiten mit Rivalen (Angstgegner, Lieblingsgegner, Auf Augenhöhe), deinen Fahrer-Kombis, Strecken-Statistik, VR-Verlauf und direktem Vergleich mit anderen. Kombi-Meta: Welche Fahrer-Fahrzeug-Kombination gewinnt wirklich, insgesamt und je Strecke? Toplisten: Zeitfahren aller 48 Strecken mit Archiv und Hack-Erkennung. Pro Spieler zählt jetzt die beste Zeit. Zeitfahr-Bestzeiten direkt aus dem Spiel: Neue Rekorde landen automatisch in den Toplisten. Deine bisherigen Bestzeiten lädst du mit einem Klick im Plugin-Menü hoch. Länder und Regionen mit Flagge und offiziellem Namen. MACH MIT: NUTZE DAS MK8LOGGER-PLUGIN Fast alles davon lebt von einer Sache: dem MK8Logger-Plugin für Aroma. Ein Rennen wird nur erfasst, wenn mindestens eine Person in der Lobby das Plugin nutzt. Ergebnisse, VR-Änderungen, Strecken, Rivalen, Kombi-Meta, Events und „Was steht auf dem Spiel“ gibt es also nur, weil jemand mit dem Plugin mitfährt. Je mehr von euch dabei sind, desto vollständiger wird das Bild für alle. So geht's (dauert ein paar Minuten): Auf mk8u.de anmelden und unter „Mein Bereich“ dein Pretendo-Profil verknüpfen. Dort das Plugin (mk8logger.wps) und deine Token-Datei herunterladen. mk8logger.wps nach SD:/wiiu/environments/aroma/plugins/ kopieren und die Token-Datei nach SD:/wiiu/token/. Wii U neu starten und ganz normal fahren. Den Rest erledigt das Plugin. Schon installiert? Dann hol dir bitte die aktuelle Version. Sie bringt den Zeitfahr-Upload, den Bestzeiten-Import, die Event-Hinweise im Spiel und „Was steht auf dem Spiel“. Die ausführliche Anleitung findest du unter https://mk8u.de/docs/benutzerhandbuch. Alles über die Seite steht im Handbuch unter „Über“. Danke an alle, die schon mitfahren und loggen. Wir sehen uns auf der Strecke! Viele Grüße mickres aka Achim / mk8u.de

Hi everyone, A quick note about the site. Over the past hours you'll have noticed that mk8u.de went quiet at times — no new races showing up, empty time trial rankings, and in one case a race that had long since finished still sitting in the dashboard marked "active". Here's what's behind that, and what I'm doing about it. What's going on The logger doesn't get its data from the game directly. It reads it from the Pretendo website at mario-kart-8.pretendo.network. But that website is itself only a viewer: it displays whatever the actual game server has in its database. That's where the problem is. When that website goes down, the logger goes blind — even though the game server itself is running fine and you can race as normal. From your side it looks like nothing is happening, when in fact all that's missing is the window the logger looks through. The website is run by Pretendo on a volunteer basis and is currently being rebuilt. That's outside my control, and it's not a complaint — the whole project is volunteer work, and without Pretendo there'd be nothing here to log in the first place. What I'm doing about it I've taught the logger a second route: it can ask the game server for the running races directly, the same way your console does. If the website goes down again, the logger no longer has to go down with it. This is built, but not tested and not switched on yet. What this means for you Once the new route is live, you may notice two things: - On a running race, not everyone in it may be listed by name. The player count (e.g. "7/12") is still correct — that comes straight from the server. Only the list of names below it may be shorter. - Players the logger hasn't seen before may show up as "PID 12345678" for a while instead of their Mii name. The name gets filled in as soon as the logger learns it. That's because this route gives us the races, but not a ready-made list of who's in them. The logger has to piece that together itself. Nothing changes about your data: the same information is stored as before, it's just fetched a different way. Your own accounts aren't affected — there's nothing for you to do, enter, or change. Also fixed The bug where a finished race stayed marked "active" is sorted. Races now get closed properly even when no connection is getting through at all. Your stats stay clean too: downtime isn't counted as time spent playing. As long as Pretendo's website is up, you won't notice any of this — the logger keeps using the same route it always has. The new one is just a safety net for when it isn't.

The logger now covers time trials. The new "Rankings" menu entry shows the leaderboards of all 48 courses, live from the Pretendo server. NEW: Rankings • Pick a cup and a course to see the top 10 time trial times • Switch between the best and the worst times • "All records" tab: the record holder of every course at a glance • Players the logger already knows from gatherings are marked and link straight to their profile NEW: Time archive The Pretendo interface only ever returns the 10 best and 10 worst times per course. The logger therefore polls both ends every 10 minutes and stores every time permanently, so times that later drop out of the top 10 stay visible. • "Current list" / "All times" toggle • "Recently added" tab with the newest finds • New dashboard widget with the latest recorded times • If Pretendo is unreachable, the current list falls back to the last archived state instead of showing an error NEW: Detection of implausible times Within a genuine top 10 the times sit close together, usually less than a second apart. A hacked time is separated from the honest field by a large gap and is now marked in red. • "Realistic times only" switch hides them • Positions are renumbered accordingly, with the original position in brackets • The record overview picks the fastest plausible driver when filtered NEW: Best times in the player details Clicking a player now also lists their best time per course below the VR points, with their position and a link into the list the time is visible in.

Plugin: - uploads only at the end of the race - all uploads are now in a background thread mk8u.de: - performance improvements (dashboard, statistics)

- VR Upload now in a background thread - Aroma v25+ required, do not install on Aroma v24 and before

Hi mk8u.de users, you can now compare VR Points history across multiple players in a visual chart. Select two or more players in the Gatherings filter and click "Compare VR Points" to see their VR progression side by side — with per-player color coding, VS Race/Battle tabs, and a daily filter toggle. The same comparison is also available directly from the Statistics page: Leaderboards: Each Top 10 list (Sessions, Gatherings, Playtime, VR Points, etc.) now has a "Compare VR Points" button at the bottom to compare all ranked players at once. Most Common Duos: Each pair has a chart button to compare exactly those two players. Most Common Trios: Each trio has a chart button to compare all three players. I look forward to your feedback! Have fun testing! Achim (mickres)

Hi mk8u.de users, you can now configure your dashboard. You can activate or deactivate the widgets and arrange them. I look forward to your feedback! Have fun testing! Achim (mickres)

Hi mk8u.de users, on your profile page you can now download a beta version of the MK8Logger Aroma Plugin. With this plugin you can track your VR/BR points via mk8u.de in realtime and sync between different consoles. You can also track your guest (2nd player) if you play the 2 player online game. The 2nd player should also be shown in the gathering as a guest player. This function is in early alpha. Read the manual! Please set these options for VR/BR ppoints upload: Update Interval: 10 Enable VR points reading: true Upload VR to mk8u.de: true Set this option for syncing between consoles (on both consoles): Sync VR from other consoles: true This plugin is still in development. So use it at your own risk. I look forward to your feedback! Have fun testing! Achim (mickres)