Racer v0.8.21 out!

[Ruud]

It's been a while. Enough bugs still that need to be squased but let's not keep things too long.
v0.8.21 is at http://www.racer.nl/download/racer0.8.21.zip (63Mb).
The Blackbox DLL isn't used anymore -now I'm using VLD (Visual Leak Detector), which gave a few important memory leaks.

Known issues:
- Tracked displays Carlswood badly (white); something with the klux lighting

The changes from v0.8.20:
- Added improved process control for physics.async=1; the original process.cpu_affinity_mask now controls
the entire process (all threads). 'process.main_thread_affinity_mask' was added to control the main
thread cores. Additional, when physics.async=1, physics.thread_affinity_mask then controls
the cores on which the physics thread may run.
- 'cache_geodes' didn't work well when cars used data.ar to store .dof models. Common names like 'body.dof'
would conflict and different cars could use the same 3D models.
- Shadowmapping splits are now blended to make smoother transitions
- Shadowmapping per-split filtering can be turned on/off using renderer.shadowmapping.blur (0/1)
- renderer.auto_exposure.filter_gain was read incorrectly and thus had no effect (defaulting to 0.05). Fixed.
- Added wheel<n>.tire_damping_lowspeed and tire_damping_threshold for car.ini. Tires physically stiffen
up when rotating, but at low speed they get a lot of damping. Real life values arond 5.0 for the threshold
velocity and 2500.0 for tire_damping_lowspeed. See also http://racer.nl/reference/wheels.htm#tireforces
- dev.log_last now set to 0 by default since many people will not know what to do with QLOG anyway.
For content developers 1 is highly recommended.
- Removed the 'can't create envmap' error message on some DOF files - it isn't useful anymore.
- Switched Newton from v2.22 to v2.24. Small objects seem to have difficulty when colliding with cars.
- Modified dyn_standard_bump_speca_f.cg to accept 'scale' float parameter. This scales the normal map's
texture coordinates.
- Some large memory leaks fixed inbetween races.
- Renderer could crash in certain mixes of static geometry and custom geometry (particles/skidmarks etc)
- Ini keys with a dot (.) are found and warned about in QLOG. Some cars (F458 test version) had 'fresnel.bias'
defined directly in the ini file, which won't work (use fresnel { bias=xxx } ).
- View dials now have Cg shaders - data/renderer/shaders/viewelt_*.cg. Needed for klux lighting to avoid
very dark dials.
- Added bounce_amount and bounce_alpha properties for shaders to allow for lighting to not mix with the
alpha channel (Carlswood's road incorrectly reflected light; not enough light was reflected/bounced).
See also http://www.racer.nl/reference/shadereng.htm#matglobal
- Added surface 'grip_decline_driveline' property to allow grip to decrease when you go off the driveline.
Needs more work though.
- mirrors.texture.lod_factor set to 1.0 to avoid quickly disappearing geometry in the mirror

 

[KS95]

I have a £35 GPU, I'm not expecting great frame rates But for some reason it hates auto-exposure.. I get good FPS but it's still not smooth..

 

[francomk]

Anyone having this issue, a grey & white menu ?

Is there any easy fixing for this ?

I think it´s not a bug, it´s a feature

 

[DavidI]

But for some reason it hates auto-exposure..

maybe u need to put some curtains around it, it's too modest

 

[luthobu]

Anyone having this issue, a grey & white menu ?

Same on both, also using ATI.

 

[Stereo]

I'm having trouble with dyn_standard_bump_reflect_*.cg,

At some viewing angles reflection goes to 100% where it shouldn't.

The shader in question (body texture, the glass is separate and works fine) has reflect=0.5, tangents=1.

I'm also having trouble with flares - color values above 1.0 don't work so they're extremely dim. I guess it needs a klux value of brightness to go with the new system but I'm not really sure what shader it's even using.



Trying out the Baja, generic models seem completely broken? They're all being drawn at the centre of the vehicle.

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Thanks francomk & luthobu for feedbacks !

The truth is, I liked it as it was before, like the 0.8.14/15 version. Maybe we could do a little vote to see if Mitch/Ruud should change the menu appearance. It's just a detail anyways....

 

[luthobu]

@QCM: You can change the file menu_overlay.tga in the data/images directory to get a
non-white background, but there are still some issues with the buttons (see attach #1).
Also, the cars appear all white now in the car selector.. (see attach #2).

About a vote.. I think we should backtrace the whole thing to 0815 since that is the only
version that works perfectly for me. But then again.. it might not work for anyone else.
Sort of a shot in the dark perhaps, but I am satisfied with 0815 and have been for quite
a while. It just works (see attach #3).

 

[camsinny]

The car selection screen is clearly a problem with the klux.

I don't believe we should revert to 0.8.15 as the latest works for me (and most it seems). The white colour scheme was decided on some time ago - probably something to do with looking more like the GTx series (IIRC they used a white colour scheme for one of those menus, rFactor did too at some point)

TBH the whole menu system needs to be revised, not just the colour scheme. These days it's somewhat archaic not to have a car rotating in the background (ala rFactor, etc.) or at least a "beauty" screen where you can view your car, similar to a car selection screen but with a nice environment.

Anyway, I've noticed that the 3d dials seem to now have shaders but the digital (i.e. non-rotating) dials seem to be "attached" to the rotating ones.

 

[QuadCoreMax]

...These days it's somewhat archaic not to have a car rotating in the background (ala rFactor, etc.) or at least a "beauty" screen where you can view your car, similar to a car selection screen but with a nice environment...

You're right, Racer GUI needs an update, imo.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Ruud mentioned a long time ago about a nice model/track scene for the car select screen...

It'd be pretty cool to have that one I think Endo may have set up, which was a black room, with a grey splodge on the floor from a down-lighter, and it looked a little like a studio lighting set up.

Just something simple for now... in theory if the menu background is a track chosen just for the menu (say contents of track folder "menu") then we could have anything... just as long as it was fairly light and fast loading.

Thinking GT5 Prologue menu backgrounds kinda thing!?

Dave

 

[luthobu]

Thinking GT5 Prologue menu backgrounds kinda thing!? Dave

A simulator that emulates another sim? seems kind of bogus.. or?

 

[ammods]

I think we should backtrace the whole thing to 0815 since that is the only
version that works perfectly for me. but I am satisfied with 0815 and have been for quite
a while. It just works

0815 worked for me as well, i'm a little disappointed with the newer versions, as in the shader setup worked, now it doesnt in the newer versions and i'd loved to have made mods for this game, if you could see my Mod folders you'd say the same thing. anyway...maybe this is something that can be considered, a simpler way to get cars ingame, without having to jump through rings of fire so to speak...

 

[boomer541]

Yes, the baja is screwed up and desperately needs fixing, also the strange reflection on the tires!

Also we need to have tracked fixed.

Nothing like two steps forward, three back!

 

[Mr Whippy]

Shaders are a problem, but fundamentally content like meshes and textures will always be needed. I'm happy to help people get stuff working at it's best if they have got to the point where shaders or trackEd are holding them up badly.

Ie, I'd get Max2010 to do tracks... and as for shaders, well nothing will help there except lots of reading and tinkering. I hated shaders at first but I've clued myself up enough now to have got my head, mainly, around the basics I need to know

Dave

 

[ammods]

i've got max2011, tracks are already loaded in max, just need a little help getting them across. have a v8supercar mod, i could port across but havent a clue about the new shader system

 

[Mr Whippy]

Use Max2010 maybe?!

Depends if Some1's dof exporter and Cam's geometry.ini population script work in 2011... hmmm, not sure.

Max 2010 is nicer anyway. This stupid value input spinner thing in 2011 is doing my head in. Why does the UI have to be so damn 'fancy' looking when all it does is take a few inputs. Clarity is king here... hopefully there is a UI tool to change it back but I've not spotted it yet

Dave

 

[luthobu]

A slight improvement here. Added the new shadowmapping.cg and hdr.cg and got a fairly decent quality with TOD=0610. But my FPS has dropped like a cannonball..

 

[Stereo]

Okay, 20% FPS increase on my end - no idea how it'll compare for other people, so please report whether this helps.

Open up, shadowmapping.cg, and replace the old CheckCoords with this (just throw /* */ around it to comment it out I guess)

bool CheckCoords(float4 shadowCoord,out float z)
{
  z=shadowCoord.z;
  return (shadowCoord.x >= 0.001f && // Check if we are inside the projected area
         shadowCoord.y >= 0.001f &&
         shadowCoord.x <= 0.999f &&
         shadowCoord.y <= 0.999f) ;
}

 

[ammods]

Use Max2010 maybe?!

Depends if Some1's dof exporter and Cam's geometry.ini population script work in 2011... hmmm, not sure.

Max 2010 is nicer anyway. This stupid value input spinner thing in 2011 is doing my head in. Why does the UI have to be so damn 'fancy' looking when all it does is take a few inputs. Clarity is king here... hopefully there is a UI tool to change it back but I've not spotted it yet

Dave

script works fine in 2011, my problem is with the fact that they changed the shaders in racer, thats where my problem is, i can get a car in2 racer but it just doesnt work with the new shader system
hope this clears up any misunderstanding

 

[DavidI]

Can anyone explain how the shadow is blurred in Cg? I can't follow the code and what it does.