New guy, know physics, can't find cars

[Enzo_Guy]

I just downloaded Racer 0.5.4 (see below) and I'm still adapting to the engine versus Gran Turismo 5 and other racing games I play. It looks like a small community but since I'm on a mid-grade Macbook I'm fairly limited as to what I can actually run successfully, but on the flip side my G27 will work (supposedly, still figuring that out and if not there's always that old DFP in the corner). I have most of the best off-the-shelf console simulators (minus Forza, hate Xbox) and I've become bored with their limitations on variety, mindless click-for-parts tuning menus, and lack of customization of the car itself. I wanted a large variety of cars and especially classics (loving those old Alfa Romeos I downloaded), I wanted complete control over the variables of the car itself, and I really wanted to drive unorthodox road cars on dirt/snow rally tracks! Not sure yet if Racer is exactly what I was looking for, either way it's pretty fun so far and the cross-platform add-on coding is an AMAZING feature!

After I've got a feel for this game I'm definitely going to be going deep into the physics part of these cars. I went to tech school for racecar design/technology and I've had a small bit of time playing with other vehicle simulators, my problem is I have ZERO skill of any kind with 3D modeling. I'd be interested in linking up with a modeler to maybe help on the physics side or even someone more adept with the physics to learn from.
IF ANYONE NEEDS ANY KIND OF ASSISTANCE WITH CLASSIC AMERICAN MUSCLE CARS I'd be 100% interested in helping, my family has been involved in hot rodding and mechanics as far back as Flatheads in the '50s (I could disassemble/rebuild a cylinder head before my first girlfriend). Sadly, the lack of reliably documented data on these old cars is so scarce that a developer is often stuck with little more than bogus factory power numbers and merely a best guess for everything else. Well most of those rare/collectible "dream cars" people seek to replicate in a game (often the ones with the least info) are often the ones I can help with the most. Instead of endless days of research that turns up nothing, I have things like true dyno charts (actually from the '60s/'70s, no ringers or tampering) for a '68 Corvette 427 L88 and a '70 Chevelle SS454 LS6 (among many others) or even real world driving time with quite of few of them (even owned a few myself).
My passion is for old Detroit V8 muscle (although I like pretty much any kind of car) and I've been lucky enough to work on and drive many cars that a lot of people will only ever experience in a game. I would love nothing more than to provide any expertise I may have in the development of modification of these cars so that the fans who love them can have the most realistic experience available.

Places to DL add-on cars?
I've pretty much hit www.tracciontrasera.es for everything they have, however I'm seeing cars that seem to no longer exist. On wwwracer-xtreme.com I'm unable to get even a single car to download, Safari claims the link doesn't exist and Firefox just spits a 553 error. Anyone have links for some of these "lost" cars like the '55 Chevy Bel Air hardtop, '72 Chevy Camaro, '69 Mustang Boss 429, '69 and '70 Mustang Boss 302, '67 Ferrari 312 (please!!!!!), '69 Opel GT-A L1900, it's just disheartening that a lot of cars I'd like to try out are floating around but I can't seem to find them! Any help would be much appreciated.

System specs:
Racer 0.5.4
Apple "Blackbook" laptop
Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard
2.4Ghz dual-core
2GB RAM
Intel GMA X3100 integrated video chip
It handles 0.5.4 with some crashing from the menu. With graphics set at high quality and no mirrors/shadows it returns a very consistent 50-75fps and never crashes during gameplay. I doubt this old pile of lard could run 0.8 through Wine without serious issues, if at all.

I have a decently upgraded (in the days of XP and Counterstrike Source haha) PC with a 3.2Ghz dual, RAM upgraded to 4GB (or could have been 8GB), and I dropped in a fairly high-end Nvidia GeForce 512MB card (5700 or 7500 maybe, before the days of the 8800) but it was hit by lightning jumped through a surge protector; I've never felt like replacing the disintegrated PSU and motherboard. My only other Windows XP rig has simply mind-blowing performance with a 1.5Ghz Pentium 4, 256MB RAM (expandable to 512MB!), and a seriously high-tech 64MB video card (ran SimCity2000 like lightning!). I just don't have the hardware to run a game on Windows at all.

 

[Ian Strom]

You could technically dual boot Mac OS X and Windows on your macbook.. but then the x3100 becomes troublesome if you wanted to run CG versions of Racer. When I used to run Mac OS X on x86 hardware I used Racer in Darwine/Wine and other wrappers like cider. If you have to use the latest non-cg windows version that is an option.

Anyway, welcome to the community! We can always use more ini wizards who have actually driven a range of real cars that they are working on instead of just guessing.

 

[Stereo]

Places to DL add-on cars?
I've pretty much hit www.tracciontrasera.es for everything they have, however I'm seeing cars that seem to no longer exist. On wwwracer-xtreme.com I'm unable to get even a single car to download, Safari claims the link doesn't exist and Firefox just spits a 553 error. Anyone have links for some of these "lost" cars like the '55 Chevy Bel Air hardtop, '72 Chevy Camaro, '69 Mustang Boss 429, '69 and '70 Mustang Boss 302, '67 Ferrari 312 (please!!!!!), '69 Opel GT-A L1900, it's just disheartening that a lot of cars I'd like to try out are floating around but I can't seem to find them! Any help would be much appreciated.

The bulk of the old content I have is from 2 desktops ago, that hasn't been booted in a while. Stuff I do have along those lines (can't vouch for quality, just that it exists) is pretty much things that appealed to me when I was copying files over:
1932 Ford Coupe, 1934 Mercedes 200, 1936 Bugatti Atlantic, 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB, 1964 Jaguar Mk2, 1969 'Baer' Mustang, Camaro Z28, Superbee, GTO, 1970 Roadrunner [2 versions], Superbird

 

[Enzo_Guy]

The bulk of the old content I have is from 2 desktops ago, that hasn't been booted in a while. Stuff I do have along those lines (can't vouch for quality, just that it exists) is pretty much things that appealed to me when I was copying files over:

1932 Ford Coupe, 1934 Mercedes 200, 1936 Bugatti Atlantic, 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB, 1964 Jaguar Mk2, 1969 'Baer' Mustang, Camaro Z28, Superbee, GTO, 1970 Roadrunner [2 versions], Superbird

The '34 Mercedes 200 Stromline, '69 Baer-modified Mustang, '64 Jaguar Mk2, and one '70 Roadrunner 440-6 (Vit C orange, authors Alex and Shmelby, never saw any others) I can personally confirm as having working links in the tracciontrasera and I have downloaded all of them.

I have a working '38 Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic with the source listed as http://www.motorsport-klassiker.de.vu in the file. It's the black '38, I've also seen a blue one floating around but I'm not sure if it's a separate skin or a different model. The Type 57 I have has a working supercharger (aka "kompressor" since the host appears to have been German), maybe there's also a naturally aspirated one floating around. Should be pretty easy to figure out (assuming the author did his homework) based on the model name variants of 57, 57S, 57T, 57C, or 57SC. A 57C or 57SC denotes the factory supercharged engine, all others would be naturally aspirated. I'm a little rusty on which models were offered in the Atlantic fastback body style, I know it could be had with or without the blower but I *think* only the 57S was the only naturally aspirated model was available. There was one 57SC Atlantic made in each '36, '37, and '38 so if you were correct in saying yours is a '36 it's possibly an SC as well (I'm pretty sure the '36 SC Atlantic was blue), but I wonder why anyone would bother making identical cars with only the year changed (unless they wanted to be accurate when they colored it blue or black). If it's not an SC, I'm very interested in it! Otherwise I might have to start tinkering under the hood of my SC a bit (personal use only unless the author gives explicit permission otherwise) just to see how many bolts are holding that supercharger on there and how much WD-40 I'm going to need to get 'em out!

I've successfully downloaded a Camaro Z28 from each '69, '72, and '84. Once again a little more info would be needed there. The one I'm specifically looking for is listed on racer-xtreme as a '72 RS/SS. Unlike the '67-'69 first-gens where a Z28 was a hardcore 302-powered homologation car for the SCCA Trans Am series, by '72 the Z28 package was merely a watered-down shell of the first-gen Z28 and the second-gen sported the larger and more street-friendly 350 motor. The '72 SS was the last year a big-block SS Camaro would ever leave the factory (same story as the Z28, nothing more than an emissions-choked step backwards from the earlier SS cars and RS was just an appearance package still) and sported the once-revered 396, which was technically punched out to 402 by '72 although the 396 moniker was kept for marketing purposes. After checking out the screenshots of both cars, they are definitely different models and each has the accurate badging and other minor appearance details specific to each, so it's safe to assume there are two different versions going around. I actually used to own a second-gen Camaro Z28 with a mild 350, Muncie M21 4-speed, and 4.10 gears, unquestionably the most fun car I've ever had. The specs were average, but contrary to what the paper said no car has ever put a s***-eating grin on my face even half as much as that thing did!

A Superbee could actually refer to several things. I have downloaded a '70 Dodge Coronet Superbee 440, and the link is active. I've haven't seen any other Superbee variants in my web-based travels.

Same situation with the GTO, I've got a '67 GTO 400 from a currently active link. If it's a different GTO then I'd really like to know how I go about getting it!

A '32 Ford Deuce and a Plymouth Superspoiler? You have my attention! I have never come across either of those!

EDIT: '61 Ferrari 250 link is dead, I do not actually have that car.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

As an off-topic query, would there be a community interest in me creating a sort of tech support and tutorial type thread geared specifically for native Apple OSX users? I noticed any info for Mac users is vague, widely scattered, or just dead links. Thankfully I've got a decent handle on the Mac OSX itself so the only place I'm really in the dark are game-specific issues, I wouldn't mind sharing some of my tips and tricks for making things work smoothly. I just don't know how many people are even running the native OSX version, I'll gladly put it together as long as there's actually someone interested!

Tried out ControllerMate for mapping controller functions on a PS3 DualShock controller (easy connect and simple on/off buttons to get a feel for control mapping). Limited to 10 functions unless I drop $25? No thanks, ControllerMate's user interface is no more comprehensible than straight text coding to me and twice as annoying. But I did get it to make the PS3 controller buttons fully operational with Racer, if I felt like fine-tuning it could have performed better. I just wasn't wasting the time a controller.

Now it's time for the fun part: G27 coding time!

 

[Stereo]

Let's see... I'm not loading these in the right version (I don't have 0.5.2 anymore), so shaders won't work.
The Atlantic I missed the year on, it's a '38 Type 57SC from the same source.
It is the '69 Camaro Z28 that's probably easy to find.
The Superbee is also listed as 1969 Dodge SuperBee in the car info. it looks like this.
GTO is a '69 Judge, picture. The ini doesn't have any other hints in it. Looks like it might be a beta. The model's complete, it's just a shader issue hiding bits.
1970 Superbird
1970 Roadrunner police car
1932 Ford has particularly bad shaders. You can get it at http://nmurdoch.ca/ford32_yellow.zip temporarily (until next time I clean the folder) since I'd rather not permanently host everything.

The Ferrari 250 SWB is sort of a problem. The author's site was shut down in 2009 and the readme explicitly doesn't allow people to rehost it, nor any way to contact the author. Which makes it against the rules to post a link to it on RaceDepartment.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

Thanks for the Deuce, the way it looks matters very little to me. I just wanted to get my hands on something with a Flathead V8 to see what I can do with physics.

While I would have loved to already been into a few cars, I've spent the last 12 hours with no luck on the G27 (I don't sleep very often lol). I'm pretty quick on the trigger with almost anything native OSX but this one has me pretty dumbfounded. My HID monitor shows the buttons working but the game just can't seem to pick it up, not even with the proper vendor/product codes.

 

[Stereo]

I haven't tried old versions in a while. Control.ini should only need something like

controllers
{
  mouse
  {
    enable=1
    ...
  }
  keyboard
  {
    enable=1
  }
  joystick0
  {
    enable=1
    index=0
    force_feedback=1
    ...
  }
}

Changing the index in the joystick section might make a difference, then again maybe not.

The control setup in 0.8.x versions shows what controls on the controller are being used at the bottom, like so: http://i.imgur.com/lU5ya.jpg. In this case the steering is X (-1000 to 1000), throttle is Y, and brake is RZ. Plus 'B 3, 5' says what numbered buttons are pressed.

 

[aadilf1]

?

.

The control setup in 0.8.x versions shows what controls on the controller are being used at the bottom, like so: http://i.imgur.com/lU5ya.jpg. In this case the steering is X (-1000 to 1000), throttle is Y, and brake is RZ. Plus 'B 3, 5' says what numbered buttons are pressed.

Internet Version? what does that do it said it on the top xD

 

[Enzo_Guy]

I haven't tried old versions in a while. Control.ini should only need something like

controllers
{
  mouse
  {
    enable=1
    ...
  }
  keyboard
  {
    enable=1
  }
  joystick0
  {
    enable=1
    index=0
    force_feedback=1
    ...
  }
}

Changing the index in the joystick section might make a difference, then again maybe not.

The control setup in 0.8.x versions shows what controls on the controller are being used at the bottom, like so: http://i.imgur.com/lU5ya.jpg. In this case the steering is X (-1000 to 1000), throttle is Y, and brake is RZ. Plus 'B 3, 5' says what numbered buttons are pressed.

That's the issue, it doesn't appear there. The game refuses to acknowledge there is a wheel hooked up, despite my System Profiler, USB Prober, and Gamepad Monitor all picking it up and knowing exactly what it is.

 

[Stereo]

?

Internet Version? what does that do it said it on the top xD

Internet Version is the free version, there's also the commercial version for motion simulators.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

Well, I may have found the problem...

 

[Stereo]

Here are the other ones - '69 Superbee, '69 GTO, '70 Roadrunner (cop version), '70 Superbird (#43 R. Petty)

I believe the context for these not being generally available is that they aren't up to release standards ini-wise (and all use views.ini from Sven's Cuda), I got them as a prize in a contest on RSC. But, as it's been nearly 8 years since then, and they never were released in more complete form, no harm.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

Thank you! I'll definitely be poking around inside that GTO to see what I can get it to do.

Still trying with this wheel, though.

 

[KS95]

As an off-topic query, would there be a community interest in me creating a sort of tech support and tutorial type thread geared specifically for native Apple OSX users?

Yes, massively! I don't use it myself but there are plenty of users that ask for help and I wouldn't know where to start. Go for it and I'll make sure it get's sticky'd.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

Yes, massively! I don't use it myself but there are plenty of users that ask for help and I wouldn't know where to start. Go for it and I'll make sure it get's sticky'd.

And HOLY MOTHER OF SATAN do we need a tutorial on this wheel junk!! I got the game to recognize the wheel once in both the console and options screen, then it crashed when I tried to save. Now the SAME EXACT control file (saved a backup) fails to get the game to register the joystick. I'm about to shoot a Windows PC just to vent!

Screw it, I'm downloading VDrift...

 

[KS95]

Screw it, I'm downloading VDrift...

You give in to easy, mate

 

[Enzo_Guy]

You give in to easy, mate

I've spent nearly 3 days just trying to get a wheel to work! But I'm back at it, I downloaded VDrift and as soon as I ran it I got an error message. I'm not even getting into that, trashed and forgotten.

SUCCESS! I GOT THE THROTTLE TO WORK!

Except now it's just stuck on WFO...

I got the throttle to stop being jammed at 100% and got the brake dialed in. The steering was nothing short of lunacy. After all sorts of stuck left, stuck right, would turn one direction, etc I looked at the console and saw the game's orientation compared to the wheel's X axis was BACKWARDS! When I turned the wheel left, it corresponded as right in the game, I'm not sure if that was an error on my part or not but either way I just dealt with it and did the axis in reverse (works now).

Latest issue is my car is permanently stuck in 1st gear, buttons won't shift and even if I set it to automatic in the console it won't shift up.

 

[Enzo_Guy]

I was able to get the basics going. I have a basic gas/brake layout with paddle shifters and a 90-degree rotation with force feedback.

With the steering and control values, many of them are unsupported or any given information is irrelevant, leaving me to do everything entirely blind. There may be a way to use all of the functions and I'll have to experiment further with it.

 

[KS95]

Lol well you're getting somewhere, it's worth it in the end