Racer v0.8.24 released!

[Ruud]

v0.8.24 is out.
Expected problems:
- Carlswood's kerbs seem to have a problem with bumpmapping. They're using static bumpmapping which haven't changed yet (to world space). Might be the tangent creation, hm.

Get it at: http://www.racer.nl/download/racer0.8.24.zip

Changes:
- dyn_standard_bump_reflect_*.cg rewritten to work in world space. Faster & reflection
is now also affected by the normal map (quite noticable).
- Same for dyn_standard_bump_*.cg; it now also takes the bumpmap's alpha for reflectiveness (specular).
- dyn_standard_bump_speca_v/f_cg was removed; use dyn_standard_bump_reflect*.cg instead (which does
the same thing).
- Controller stick_friction threshold velocity decreased from 20 m/s to 5 m/s (hardcoded).
- Added 'u' to position logging (normalized lateral position on the track)
- Added projected lights intensity: car.ini's lights.light<n>.color (default=4 4 4). In klux. Check
the Lambo's car.ini.
- async now runs the physics thread full throttle; it must run on a separate core if you want to avoid
it impact the other threads.
- TrackEd reworked to use the full render engine. Flashing also works again. Stack overflow fixed.
- Wheel setup screen now includes friction/stick friction/damping/inertia sliders.
- Added car.ini car.ff_friction, ff_stickfriction, ff_damping and ff_inertia factors to tune force feedback.
- Also added car.ini car.ff_gain, which modifies the ff_friction etc values directly (default=1.0)
- Added console commands 'ff friction <x>', 'ff stickfriction <x>', 'ff damping <x>' and 'ff inertia <x>'
for live setting of FF values. Absolute numbers for the controller, not car relative (0..10000).
- Fixed typo in NightSaturate() (no green in B&W color) in hdr.cg
- Tangents now generated in 4 coordinates (was 3). Mirrored UV seams are now being duplicated
to avoid tangent trouble where UV and mirrored UV parts meet.
- Modeler can now show tangents (T to toggle). It already did normals (N to toggle).
- Tangents were never used as VBO's; now they are (slightly faster).

 

[boomer541]

1 step forward 100 steps back!

I cant get any of my cars to run, racer crashes, these are cars that ran in 0.0823!!!!!!

Qlog:
Sat Nov 27 02:23:35 (INFO): [racer/3752] Loading car 'imp'
Sat Nov 27 02:23:41 (FATAL): [racer/3752] Exception 0xC0000005, flags 0, Address 0x004F6A82
(this dialog text is stored in QLOG.txt)
OS-Version: 5.1.2600 (Service Pack 3) 0x300-0x1
0x004F6A82 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\qlib\qdebug.cpp (line 375): QCrash()
0x004124D7 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\d3\dtexture.cpp (line 671): DBitMapTexture::FromBitMap()
0x0041FB87 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\d3\dshaderloader.cpp (line 355): AddMap()
0x00610065 [racer]: (filename not available): _getch
0x6167742E [(module-name not available)]: (filename not available): (function-name not available)

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

 

[Some1]

There are some issues with the dyn_bumpmapping, I have some white blocks on my bump mapped tyres, while other bits look ok... maybe to do with the new UVW stuff!?

Same here, something fishy going on with the bumpmapping...

 

[DavidI]

Boomer are those cars using the dyn_bump_speca shader? Ruud said he deleted it and to use dyn_bump.
The Racer waltz: two steps forward, one step back, a quick blow to the shins & repeat

Racer's a lot like golf, you get a few good holes, a few bad ones, wrap a few clubs around trees, swear as your leaving you'll NEVER do this again

& next thing u know, u'r standing at the 1st tee again

 

[Ruud]

1 step forward 100 steps back!

I cant get any of my cars to run, racer crashes, these are cars that ran in 0.0823!!!!!!

Qlog:
Sat Nov 27 02:23:35 (INFO): [racer/3752] Loading car 'imp'
Sat Nov 27 02:23:41 (FATAL): [racer/3752] Exception 0xC0000005, flags 0, Address 0x004F6A82
(this dialog text is stored in QLOG.txt)
OS-Version: 5.1.2600 (Service Pack 3) 0x300-0x1
0x004F6A82 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\qlib\qdebug.cpp (line 375): QCrash()
0x004124D7 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\d3\dtexture.cpp (line 671): DBitMapTexture::FromBitMap()
0x0041FB87 d:\source\trunk\dev\src\libs\d3\dshaderloader.cpp (line 355): AddMap()
0x00610065 [racer]: (filename not available): _getch
0x6167742E [(module-name not available)]: (filename not available): (function-name not available)

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Happens when trying to add non-mipmapped textures in SRGB (not linear) mode. v0824 fixes that. Temporary measure would be to set mipmap to 1 for the car.shd's shader textures (or to comment them out; the default is 1 anyway). SRGB didn't work with compression=0 correctly, that's also fixed in v0.8.24.

 

[Ruud]

There are some issues with the dyn_bumpmapping, I have some white blocks on my bump mapped tyres, while other bits look ok... maybe to do with the new UVW stuff!?

Looks fine in 3DS Max using Xoliul shaders and the Metal Bump 9 viewport renderers with my normal map... hmmmm.

Dave

For the specular problem, try modifying dyn_standard_bump_f.cg at the end to verify parameters; that's what I always do. The specular influence comes from the bumpmap alpha now:

line 73: float4 bumpColor=tex2D(normalMap,IN.tc0);
line 94: float reflectiveNess=bumpColor.a;
line 100: float3 litColor=baseCol*diffuse+specular*reflectiveNess;
line 117: out0.rgb=finalColor;

Modify line 117 to out0.rgb=reflectiveNess for example, and you visually see what it is doing. Does that work? You can see that line 100 applies the reflectiveNess to specular, so either 'specular' is wrong (out0.rgb=specular) or reflectiveNess. Backtrace from there. Debugging source code isn't that hard. ;-)

As for the white spots; I saw those on the F458 steering wheel as well. Something to do with orthogonal UV mapping I think, but as it happens on Mugello's walls, that can't be right (in Racer). Where's the latest Mugello that exhibits the problem anyway?
The problem btw is the tangents not being calculated correctly. Perhaps ending up at (0,0,0); you get NaN somewhere in the shader because of that, then it does finalColor=max(finalColor,255), which for NaN is 255, which is 255klux white.


@DavidI: if you could mail me a link or the track?

 

[Some1]

As for the white spots; I saw those on the F458 steering wheel as well. Something to do with orthogonal UV mapping I think, but as it happens on Mugello's walls, that can't be right (in Racer). Where's the latest Mugello that exhibits the problem anyway?
The problem btw is the tangents not being calculated correctly. Perhaps ending up at (0,0,0); you get NaN somewhere in the shader because of that, then it does finalColor=max(finalColor,255), which for NaN is 255, which is 255klux white.

Actually, it does finalColor=min(finalColor,255) (dyn_standard_bump_f.cg:115).

It seems the calculation of normal N goes awry at some places:
(notice the black triangles)



This is out0.rgb=N;

EDIT: It seems the tangent is indeed broken. This is 'out0.rgb=tangent.rgb':

 

[DavidI]

Something to do with orthogonal UV mapping I think, but as it happens on Mugello's walls, that can't be right (in Racer). Where's the latest Mugello that exhibits the problem anyway? @DavidI: if you could mail me a link or the track?

Cg Mugello isn't released, its a wip development mess atm with lots of unnecessary textures & files in its folder. I'll clean it up & give u a download link in the next 24hrs.

Also using standard_bump looks ok (no white objects), but doesn't seem to actually bumpmap.

Did u mean 0825 above, as 0824 is what we are using now?

 

[Mr Whippy]

Just some feedback on the force feedback stuff.

All works pretty intuitively.

ff_gain nicely scales the ff_frictions,damping and inertia up and down.

ff_factor just scales the Mz/castor/kpi forces.

ff_damping doesn't seem to do anything here.

ff_frictions feel like they are harder the faster you turn the wheel, nice settings for dead ahead and general weight suddenly feel much firmer when you try steer quickly to correct a slide. Not sure if the friction is working nicely in that regard.

ff_inertia seems to work better as a friction, it's got nice weight dead ahead, but doesn't seem to ramp up the resistance if you need to steer much more quickly. I've used 3.5 here for the factor and it's fairly good.


Hmmm

Dave

 

[luthobu]

I cant get any of my cars to run, racer crashes

Strangest thing.. as long as I did not add content it worked (lambo + carlswood), then
I added 1 car + 1 track, and *boom* - the dreaded error-popup. So I'll stick with 0815.

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Just some feedback on the force feedback stuff.

All works pretty intuitively.

ff_gain nicely scales the ff_frictions,damping and inertia up and down.

ff_factor just scales the Mz/castor/kpi forces.

ff_damping doesn't seem to do anything here.

ff_frictions feel like they are harder the faster you turn the wheel, nice settings for dead ahead and general weight suddenly feel much firmer when you try steer quickly to correct a slide. Not sure if the friction is working nicely in that regard.

ff_inertia seems to work better as a friction, it's got nice weight dead ahead, but doesn't seem to ramp up the resistance if you need to steer much more quickly. I've used 3.5 here for the factor and it's fairly good.


Hmmm

Dave

Could you tell us how you've set the variables in car.ini + in your custom default_G25/G27.ini file ? Was wondering why Ruud didn't integrate those in the lambo car...

Anyway, first tests with the GUI settings seems to be quite handy...Console commands too !

 

[Mr Whippy]

The variables just go under the car.ini, car tree.

car
{
ff_factor=0.7
ff_friction=1
ff_stickfriction=0.5
ff_damping=0
ff_inertia=2.5
ff_gain=1
}


For example... so alongside the existing ff_factor

The G25/27 is default as Racer defines it... right from the G27 base file iirc.


I'm still not entirely happy that friction is working exactly as you would want it. Not sure how/why etc. It's good having it there, way better than none at all... just need to tweak it and play with it more

Ruud, what kind of info is sent to the wheel to do friction etc, from Racer? Just basic requests for the inertia, friction and damping amounts?

Would be interesting if we could scale back the friction when Mz grows... that way we can get the weight around dead ahead, but lose some when we want to feel the Mz etc. Sounds like a fudge of mighty proportions, but we are dealing with relatively cheap FF wheels here

Dave

 

[boomer541]

Ruud makes changes we find the bugs!

Baja created problem on my SNS track otherwise all other cars and tracks ok after changing ALL mipmap=0 to mipmap=1.
Baja shaders apparently affect the gravel bump map.

Non cg cars and track work also.

I like the new headlight setting! Good job Ruud! I'm almost a happy camper!

 

[QuadCoreMax]

v0.8.24 is out.
- Modeler can now show tangents (T to toggle). It already did normals (N to toggle).

I got some muti-colored flickering planes all over the place & a crash. If I wireframe the Modeler view before & then N or T press, no crash, but still weird planes rendered.

OS-Version: 5.1.2600 (Service Pack 3) 0x100-0x1

0x6925A43F [atioglxx]: (filename not available): atiPPHSN
0x6925B8C9 [atioglxx]: (filename not available): atiPPHSN
0x6925CBDE [atioglxx]: (filename not available): atiPPHSN
0xA0FF0000 [(module-name not available)]: (filename not available): (function-name not available)
0x006D0061 [modeler]: (filename not available): (function-name not available)

Also, have the same crash as Alex when saving my wheel settings (inertia & damping) & then trying to return to the wheel settings...Same for auto-detection.

Hm, I'm using a custom default_G25.ini file which won't get updated with the new wheel settings, instead once saved, in racer.ini, I have => controls=default.ini with none of the saved values I've set.

Anyway, using the default.ini & editing the wheels settings ingame works correctly, no crash...

 

[Mr Whippy]

Hm, I'm using a custom default_G25.ini file which won't get updated with the new wheel settings, instead once saved, in racer.ini, I have => controls=default.ini with none of the saved values I've set.

Anyway, using the default.ini & editing the wheels settings ingame works correctly, no crash...

There needs to be profiling for this properly really.

Sometimes I want keyboard and sometimes I want my wheel, so I've used h.ini and k.ini, but as you said it causes problems.

I guess this is where you want to copy the default.ini once you have set the wheel up right... it's just doing it each time there is a new version.

Ruud, if I create a generic G25 setup can you use it in the Racer deployment, so at least it should auto-detect the general stuff in future. The G27 profile works ok for most stuff but some buttons are different and not so nice (probably because G27 has 6 on-wheel buttons, but G25 only has 2...

Dave

 

[Mr Whippy]

Shadow defaults imo are still really bad.

I'm struggling when seeing these defaults, to justify the cost of them on FPS.

Blurring seems to be the biggest waste of time, it just makes shadows look less convincing, especially once a car gets about 100m away the shadow just looks like a big blob... and seems to cost a further 15-20% of FPS!

Just driving on a test Mugello, and the over track cameras looking down just see a splodge to one side of the car, not a solid cohesive shadow... blurring off and increasing the split distances, and adding a 4th split makes it look better, more realistic, and gets about 10-15% more fps!


Imo, blurring should be to improve quality, but it seems to just hurt quality and fps. Surely that isn't ideal?


Not a negative sentiment generally, we can easily fix these settings up. I'm just curious why we are moving towards these defaults that are actually not so nice, and ultimately more costly.


Dave

 

[2o6]

I don't mean to interject, but I haven't really kept up with the new versions since 8.14.


I need help; old style shaders don't work, and I can't seem to figure out how to convert a model to cg, I change the filenames from a car that has cg shading (Tried both the Murcielago and the Espace III, to no avail) but nothing is working.

 

[Alex Forbin]

I don't mean to interject, but I haven't really kept up with the new versions since 8.14.


I need help; old style shaders don't work, and I can't seem to figure out how to convert a model to cg, I change the filenames from a car that has cg shading (Tried both the Murcielago and the Espace III, to no avail) but nothing is working.

The first step is to comment out all of the lines in your shader for mipmap=0, this will keep your car/track from crashing racer.

Alex Forbin

 

[luthobu]

The first step is to comment out all of the lines in your shader for mipmap=0, this will keep your car/track from crashing racer.

Really? That might explain a thing or two.. shame really.. I like to use mipmap=0 at times..
but I guess I am the only one.. LOL

 

[Alex Forbin]

Ruud says it's fixed in the next release.

Alex Forbin

 

[Ruud]

I'm still having the problem with racer crashing when autodetecting the DFP. While it's not a big deal to me, some new users might have a problem.

How do you use your DFP then? It can't find the joystick, but does it detect it? Is it only when you try 'autodetect'?