Racer v0.8.14 is out

[Ruud]

Is it Friday? Yes, so v0.8.14 is here.
Get it at http://www.racer.nl/dl_beta_win.htm

Changes:

• Shaders fixed for ATI cards again, so it should run again on that. No shadowmap filtering though; the ATI path doesn't support for-loops, nor PCF for depth filtering. Cg shaders are compiled with '-DATI' when running an ATI card (#ifdef ATI).
• Tracked & Modeler recompiled for new fmodex.dll
• Modeler/DOFFix's model optimize now also try to optimize submaterials (Multisub materials where only 1 submaterial is really used). Needed for Swiss Stroll's .dof files.
• CSM now uses PCF correctly (nVidia only, ATI doesn't seem to support free PCF)
• Flares reworked a bit regarding visibility, which was with respect to the camera direction, now a view vector from camera->flare. Billboarding keeps normal and direction, to avoid wide flares (like for a 3rd brakelight) to rotate wrt the underlying brakelight geometry.
• All shaders now render into 1 render target (RT). This had an effect on bloom though, so the bloom brightness pass was modified (in data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/bloom_bright_f.cg).This also fixes problems with blending materials, although the shaders will all need to output the base texture's alpha to work correctly when blending.
• AI didn't reset correctly with Shift-R (it would try to start driving immediately)
• AI throttle playing before the start is improved
• Fixed standard_bump*.cg shadow generation, which was non-existant
• Added 'graph step' variables: susp0.piston_velocity, damper_force, arb_force and length to visualize damper behavior.
• Sky shaders now 'stick' the Z coordinate to the far plane. This alleviates the need for an internal very far projection matrix, so no projection matrix switching takes place while rendering the scene.
• Using 2 layers for sky shaders with both layers set to 'depthfunc=always' didn't work correctly and was drawn in 2 passes instead of 1. Fixed (and used in Carlswood_NT).
• Added shader 'cast_shadow' global option. If set to 1, any geometry with this shader is skipped during the shadow generation phase (so it won't cast a shadow in the final render).

 

[Mr Whippy]

I'm looking forward to downloading and trying it out!

Just a question though, does any of this impact the shadow recieving capabilities of decals on track surfaces?

I was having trouble with that in 0.8.12.


Many thanks

Dave

 

[camsinny]

WOW!
Thanks Ruud!!
I'm getting TWICE the FPS as the last version, awesome!!
Sparks now work straight away too, was wondering if I was missing something.

Can't wait to have a proper play with this tomorrow.

Thanks again!!

###EDIT###
Is there anything we can do with the FMOD designer? or is everything coded directly into racer?

 

[Eholov]

All tracks don't have sky...

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Racer Default Settings :

Fri Jul 30 17:15:42 (INFO): --- application start ---
Fri Jul 30 17:15:42 (WARN): DGPUShader:Load(data/renderer/shaders/shadowmap_debug_f.cg): CG ERROR : "The profile is not supported."
Fri Jul 30 17:15:42 (ERR): DFBOTexture ctor: OpenGL error (1282): opération non valide

---------------
What's great :

- smoke looks optimized => less lagging
- sparks working again
- increased FPS
- TrackEd working again

Shadows :

Have by default blocky shadows, if I tweak the CSM split distances (i.e. 1 3 10 30), I get smooth shadows results in-car. Sometimes, some shadows will disappear & then re-appear 2/3 seconds later, what's not the case for all them.

Looking around, I found some more infos about shadow mapping, looks really interesting & complicated :

http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&sourc...aevZ4O&usg=AFQjCNHHvwEukW9hX8-9q7JIRgvn-tqDCA

About replays, how do they work ?
When replaying, pressing s will make the game freeze...How can I generate my own rpl file ?

Thx Ruud & Racer Community !

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Once replaying, the sun flares won't work as excepted. (using visibility_method=0 in frustum)

I noticed since the 0.8.10 version, some rendering priority issues, like smoke will emit in cockpit. In Shift for example, you have a vhf file which rules that kind of stuff. So wheels/tyres/tread are normally the first elements in the vhf list & after you have the bodykits.

Also, some random flickering resulting in little white lights flashing in the background.

 

[2o6]

Using an ATI Card, neither the tracks or the cars have shaders.

 

[twister77]

Well, Racer is definitely becoming nicer and more polished with every new beta release. My question is about sparks that cars occasionally produce. I was wandering is there an option to turn that effect on or off, as it is quite a light show. I could't find that option on my own. Thanks..


EDIT:
I have found the way how to turn on/off or modify the sparks. It's in the data/renderer/particles.ini

 

[cepwin]

Downloaded it and tried it with default car and track. Looks great! Ran into two issues:
1. My wheel (G27) feels very sluggish...the car (lambo) was very tight. I suspect there is an adjustment I need to make in the control setting...please advise.
2. When I went into full screen my 'puter control was messed up when I exited the game. A reboot fixed it but I'd like to fix this if I can.
I'll certainly be keeping an eye on your sim...the lambo was gorgeous.
BTW...I passed your web site along to a gentleman who is involved with an on-line show about sim racing (InsideSimRacing.tv.)

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Using an ATI Card, neither the tracks or the cars have shaders.

I'm using 2 ATI cards in PCIe, running Racer on 3 screens without no issue. All shaders/mats are present.

Well, Racer is definitely becoming nicer and more polished with every new beta release. My question is about sparks that cars occasionally produce. I was wandering is there an option to turn that effect on or off, as it is quite a light show. I could't find that option on my own. Thanks..

If not, you could always tweak the texture, so it won't render the sparks. Same thing for sound.

Downloaded it and tried it with default car and track. Looks great! Ran into two issues:
1. My wheel (G27) feels very sluggish...the car (lambo) was very tight. I suspect there is an adjustment I need to make in the control setting...please advise.
2. When I went into full screen my 'puter control was messed up when I exited the game. A reboot fixed it but I'd like to fix this if I can.
I'll certainly be keeping an eye on your sim...the lambo was gorgeous.
BTW...I passed your web site along to a gentleman who is involved with an on-line show about sim racing (InsideSimRacing.tv.)

1. In data\controls, you can create your own G27 settings profile & use it directly in racer.ini. Don't forget to set your Profiler as well, check the whole car physical properties & FFB settings too. So you have 3/4 different places to look after.

 

[JagerMan]

Very impressed. I have a ATI card and had trouble before, but i can now run racer at full quality graphics with good fps, thanks Ruud!

Edit: That was only on carslwood, on other tracks the skies are missing and blured. The cars are fine apart from some small graphic glitches

 

[luthobu]

Hm. Lots of wierd stuff.. the sky is miscolored, the mirrors, the light, the reflections.. seems like it is related to env rendering. Both the cg and no_cg are useless on my computer. Sorry. But, tracked works! Yeah!

Another thing.. the sounds.. it sounds like the cars are falling apart.. where do I adjust the *clonk* level?

 

[twister77]

If not, you could always tweak the texture, so it won't render the sparks. Same thing for sound.

Hmm, your answer is not really helping me..

 

[camsinny]

Hm. Lots of wierd stuff.. the sky is miscolored, the mirrors, the light, the reflections.. seems like it is related to env rendering. Both the cg and no_cg are useless on my computer. Sorry. But, tracked works! Yeah!

Another thing.. the sounds.. it sounds like the cars are falling apart.. where do I adjust the *clonk* level?

Hmmm
Sky on my track is working fine here, it's the exact same skydome as carlswood.
Try coping that over since the CG skies need a certain skydome to work properly

 

[luthobu]

@camsinny: thanks for the tip. I did however notice that I now can run the cg version (with an ATI x600) with fbo, bloom and the works. I'll do some tweaking and see what I can achieve. But it does not look promising at the moment. Still, if I get it to work and it looks ok I'll post an ini.

EDIT: Whoa! I got CG working! Well, sort of.. I had to disable some basic car shaders:

dyn_standard_reflect..
dyn_standard_bump_reflect..
dyn_standard_reflect_window..

So.. yes.. it is very crippled.. but it only seems to apply to the cars.. the track looks good!
See the attached screenie. The no-cg has not been tested to the extent I normally do, but
it will be done.

Screenshot 1: CG Carlswood with crippled CG lambo..
Screenshot 2: CG Carlswood with NOCG lambo..

 

[boomer541]

Thanks Ruud for the update!

Works straight out of the box but there are a few bugs:
No sparks or crash sounds on replay and replay can't be saved.
F12 - no screenshot.
Qlog - What's "safety changed: SAFE" for?
Baja1 gives Qlog error and for the umpteenth time here's the file that fixes it.

Here is a water cg that is quite good for water like on my Surfaces and sounds track except for the reflections are all fouled up and way too bright. See image. Perhaps some one can help fix the cg's or shader, thank you.

 

[BVSX]

Great release, many improovements i see, BUT! After doing couple of laps in Murcielago on Carlswood, i presed F2 to see Replay, then "C" to change camera, I pressed "C" 3 or 4 times, then i saw a BLUE SCREEN! and my PC restarted

 

[Alex Forbin]

I agree the replay is knackered. I've been asking for ages to get the sound fixed on it, it's
such a disappointment to watch your perfect lap and hear the tires squeal every time you let off the gas, and the engine only uses the last sound that was playing when you went to replay.

Griping aside this is a great improvement in framerate.

Alex Forbin

 

[KS95]

Speaking of replay. I'm not sure if it's still like this on this version (it's not running very well with 1Gb of ram ) but any throtlle_off sounds would continuously repeat during the replay, that was annoying lol.

 

[AMGfan(BPM)]

Great release, many improovements i see, BUT! After doing couple of laps in Murcielago on Carlswood, i presed F2 to see Replay, then "C" to change camera, I pressed "C" 3 or 4 times, then i saw a BLUE SCREEN! and my PC restarted

LOL your pc was listening