At PuurData, we have a PS4 in the office, complete with a racing seat and F1 2017/2018. You get quite a lot of information during the game, but we wanted to take it a step further. The PS4 game F1 2017/18 allows you to send telemetry data via the UDP protocol. And as it happens, we have a great solution for collecting data. We’ve set up an Elasticsearch server with Elastic, Kibana and Logstash. We receive around 6,000 log lines per lap, and each log line consists of around 100 variables. Think of things like tyre temperature, throttle position, steering angle, engine status, brakes, etc. You can view the full list in the downloadable ‘conf’ file. So you receive a huge amount of data that you can analyse and visualise (in real time). The example below shows a graph plotting lap time, fuel level, engine temperature, gear position and speed against time. If you were to simulate a race weekend, you’d receive around 150 million data points!

Linux server with Elastic, Kibana and Logstash;
– PlayStation 4;
– Game F1 2017 of 2018;
– racing seat with steering wheel (that makes it more fun)
– The ‘conf’ file;
– Racer with an ego who can handle a dent (everything can be analysed, after all!).

Step 1 -> install the Elastic server

Provide a Linux server, preferably, with at least 4GB of RAM, a couple of cores, and sufficient disk space. Install Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Logstash on this. How to do this is described on the website of Elastic.

Step 2 -> download the ‘conf’ file HERE and amend it if necessary and ensure Logstash is started with this file.

Step 3 -> configure the UDP port and IP address within the game on your Playstation. This can be found on the screen that appears when you press ‘options’ whilst driving. Ensure the IP address is the server's address and the UDP port must match the one in the ‘conf’ file.

The ‘conf’ file was created for F1 2017. This is a good example of how to collect and analyse real-time data. Good luck and have fun!