Racer

[Ruud]

Welcome to RaceDepartment.
As RSC has been offline for quite a while, RaceDepartment has been gracious enough to host a temporary Racer forum.

To kick it off, here is Racer v0.8.0. Warning: all things are set to target relatively high-end graphics card. nVidia 7950+ somewhat. Onboard cards will not do.

The download is at http://www.racer.nl/download/racer080.zip (42Mb).
If you have an ATI card, Cg shaders may not work due to a bug in Cg 2.1. Try the patched racer.exe from http://www.racer.nl/download/racer081a_patch.zip (1Mb).

Hope you can enjoy it!
Ruud

The patch (really a preview of v0.8.1, so interesting for nVidia users as well) changes these, although no data files are included you can check out some things already:
- Added envmap.live_track.sides_per_frame to set update count of live envmap
- Car.ini camera<n>.view variables were read, but never used. Removed loading them, they are (and were) obsolete.
- LOD (level of detail) for objects is now adjusted to take into account the camera FOV (normal FOV=50).
- Split fullscreen_shaders directory into LDR and HDR variants (data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr and _ldr).
- Added car.ini engine.idle_method to avoid throttle being slightly open all the time. See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/engine.htm
- Now enforcing engine.stall_rpm to be at least 100 rpm less than idle_rpm to enable the new idle_method 1.
- Added engine.braking_torque_curve to specify a curve for the engine braking instead of the linear parameters.
(the Lambo now uses such a curve for demonstration)
- Modified smoke particles to have no velocity. Also increased the brightness somewhat.
- Bloom map was 16-bit, now 8-bit.
- Added car.ini audio.skid audioset based on skid amount (around 0..2). This allows subtle scrub sounds before
going to screeching & screaming.
- Added 'gearwhine_off' audioset for gearwhine under deceleration circumstances.
- Fuel consumption was based on engine output torque, added internal friction (engine braking torque) in fuel use calculations.
- Renamed racer.ini variable 'collision.report_car_trk' to 'collision.report_car_track_collision'
- Added car.ini's reboundstop_len and reboundstop_k for much the same as a bumpstop, only to prevent wheels falling through susp<n>.maxlen
see http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/suspensions.htm#reboundstops
- susp<n>.restlen no longer needs to be smaller than maxlen. It ignored precompression that way.
- Added fuel.rof to overrule the fuel grams/liter parameter. Normally it's around 700 for regular petrol.
- Added views.ini 'invert' field (0/1) which inverts the variable (like 'factor' which multiplies it)

The list of changes since v0.7.3:

- Bugfix: OpenGL3.0 drivers would crash Racer due to a mistake in getting some extension function pointers.
- Bugfix: track's with special.ini gfx.time below 1000 (10am) were not interpreted correctly.
- Bugfix: turning on projected lights no longer kills some 3D dials
- Heavily modified Cg shaders. Also added a lot more. See http://racer.nl/tutorial/gpushader.htm
- Projected lights used alphafunc, which made lights on semi-transparent object pixely.
- Added car.ini's model_reverse_l/r models for true rear lights. This should do away with the views.ini hack to add reverse lights.
- Modified live track envmapping to not do all sides every frame. Lots faster.
- Removed dbg_stats tree in racer.ini (it was obsolete).
- Added 'clouds' script command for Cg-shaded skies, added 'clouds' uniform float parameter for Cg shaders (0..1).
- Also added 'clouds' in a track's special.ini (env.clouds)
- Added resolution.vsync to sync to display frequency or not (0=max fps, 1=sync, >1=set interval)
- Added moving helmet (+pilot body) model option in car.ini. See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/helmet.htm
- Raised the number of possible flares for each car to 20 (was 10)
- Simple (single-polygon) shadows for car views without a body model are now turned off.
- Removed 'fx.sky_enable' option. The sky is always on.
- Removed 'gfx.reflections' option. Was/is obsolete.
- Added graphics.show_names to be able to indicate driver names floating above cars.
- Added mirrors.texture.fbo setting to render into an offscreen framebuffer object (faster)
- Added mirrors.texture.fbo_samples setting to enable anti-aliasing of the mirror.
- Added HDR rendering basics (renderer.hdr.enable=1). Uses data/renderer/shaders_hdr directory if enabled, shaders_ldr otherwise.
- Added Bloom rendering for HDR mode (renderer.bloom.enable=1).
- Split data/renderer/shaders directory in two: shaders_ldr and shaders_hdr. HDR is the way to go. LDR will be deprecated.
- Added ini.auto_lights setting (0/1) to determine with time-of-day controls a car's light automatically
- Added shader 'reflect' material property for reflective Cg shaders (in the same line as diffuse, ambient, specular etc).
Use this in conjunction with [dyn_]shader_reflective_v/f.cg for example.
- Added car.shd/track.shd 'motion_blur' variable to turn off motion blur velocity map generation for certain shaders (wheels mostly).
- Added auto-exposure settings for HDR rendering (racer.ini:renderer.auto_exposure.*)
- Added fx.sun.auto_time_of_day to track real current (PC) time for the time of day in Racer
- Added fx.sun.fast_time_factor to set time speed. Normally 0 for no time change, 1 for realtime, >1=faster than realtime
- Added fueltank in cars. See data/cars/default/car.ini (fuel.* settings). Currently in alpha. No fuel means no throttle.
- Added fuel view variables for views.ini files (for cars). See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/fuel.htm for details.
- Added formatting option for views.ini; 'float_1' displays a value with 1 decimal (for example: 123.4).
- Added 'sample_hold' option for view elements to get slow-updating dials (mostly useful for digital dashboards)
- Added fx.sun.flare option to remove sun flare. It doesn't match with the Cg sun position.

 

[Brendon Pywell]

Oran Park works ok ...

 

[davidiau]

My 9600GT also stutters and belches along unplayably. I'm just about to to try the latest drivers, but I doubt they will fix anything. I tend to think its more an optimisation problem with Racer, than drivers or card. Well, i hope, cause I won't be developing anymore if i can't even run it.

 

[davidiau]

Did some testing, I can run at most 800x600x32 above 30 fps on an E8200 (2.6GHZ core2 duo) CPU with 4Gb Dual channel ram and a 9600GT. 1024x768 stutters around 15-20fps, nVidia control panel settings all at default.

 

[bendy]

Did some testing, I can run at most 800x600x32 above 30 fps on an E8200 (2.6GHZ core2 duo) CPU with 4Gb Dual channel ram and a 9600GT. 1024x768 stutters around 15-20fps, nVidia control panel settings all at default.

As I mentioned on the last page, try adjusting the settings in the nvidia control panal so the anti-aliasing mode is set to "enhance the application setting" it worked with very convincing results for me

 

[davidiau]

As I mentioned on the last page, try adjusting the settings in the nvidia control panal so the anti-aliasing mode is set to "enhance the application setting" it worked with very convincing results for me

I meant to mention i'd tried altering that and other settings, to no avail.

 

[boomer541]

Ruud,
Qlog errors for racer081a
(WARN): [racer/1824] renderer.use_vbo=1, but this is currently buggy. Using 0.
fixed by setting vbo=0

(WARN): [racer/1824] WorldMotionBlur: FBO multisampling not supported; no OpenGL EXT_framebuffer_multisample extension; set motion_blur.samples to 0

(WARN): [racer/1824] WorldMotionBlur: requested full-screen dev filter (data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/hdr_bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg) but not found
fixed by copying from racer080

(ERR ): [racer/1824] DFBOTexture: multisampled FBO's not supported in this OpenGL context; setting samples to 0 (renderer.motion_blur.samples)

After updating nVidia driver:
(WARN): [racer/3860] DFBOTexture: hardware only supports 8 samples; reducing requested 16
I don't know where to set this from 16 down to 8, Anyone can supply an answer.

Got the new driver from: "http://wwwdriverdetective.com/"
This is a very good tool and fixed the black spot shown in the attached image.

My graphics card is an nVidia 7300LE and runs about 25 fps on Carlswood.

Thanks for 080 Ruud, Sure did make me work to get it working! Now to check it out and find any bugs. I thank you for fixing the lights when they project onto an animated tree.

 

[Ruud]

Hey Bruce,
Actually we already have it just put the following in the car.ini, I put it right after the number of wheels in the car section. It is just a this is just a percentage of the total feedback (0-1)...

ff_factor=0.26

Not really what Bruce was talking about; this is force, Bruce was talking about friction (also force, but another kind). Indeed, with high-end hardware here we have 'static friction' which keeps the wheel a bit rigid until you start driving. Didn't know the G25 was smooth enough to let you feel different levels of friction like that. Have to get myself one one day...

 

[Ruud]

I meant to mention i'd tried altering that and other settings, to no avail.

I'm updating Config to be usable to set a base quality level. This then at the lowest level turns off HDR/bloom etc and should select the right Cg shader to handle the necessary post-processing things.
For now, try turning off hdr.enable, bloom.enable, velocity_map and auto_exposure.enable for example.

 

[davidiau]

Ruud, any idea how Racer handles nVidia SLI setups? i COULD whack in another 8600gts card & SLI it with the 9600GT, but that's a bit of messing around esp if Racer doesn't like SLI (or vica versa)

 

[Tiberius]

Not really what Bruce was talking about; this is force, Bruce was talking about friction (also force, but another kind). Indeed, with high-end hardware here we have 'static friction' which keeps the wheel a bit rigid until you start driving.

Indeed, I'm talking about the friction in the controls.ini, the overall resistance to turning the wheel caused by friction in the steering linkages, rack etc. Like the friction you get if you jack the front wheels off the ground and turn the wheel from lock to lock.

Didn't know the G25 was smooth enough to let you feel different levels of friction like that. Have to get myself one one day...

G25 is alright for the money, for £200 you're not gonna match high end hardware though, after feeling the limits of the tyres and the weight shifting around when you're driving IRL it's a bit of a culture shock .

 

[Ruud]

Ruud, any idea how Racer handles nVidia SLI setups? i COULD whack in another 8600gts card & SLI it with the 9600GT, but that's a bit of messing around esp if Racer doesn't like SLI (or vica versa)

SLI should be independent of application, so I'd expect a boost in any case. I do own a 9600GT or 9500GT (not really sure ) at home so I will try soon whether Racer runs there.
What I see here with my 8800GT at work is that as I use more features, at some point the card seems to exhibit 'swapping' of onboard<->graphics memory, leading to severe stuttering. Reducing AA levels and such helps. Also, I don't set the nVidia control panel's MSAA level to anything, since that is all done inside Racer. No need to try and anti-alias a single polygon being drawn to the screen (which is what happens if you turn AA on in Racer with FBO's).

 

[Tiberius]

Ruud,
Qlog errors for racer081a..

Boomer, most of those are caused by your hardware, a 7300 can't do the multisampling.

After updating nVidia driver:
(WARN): [racer/3860] DFBOTexture: hardware only supports 8 samples; reducing requested 16
I don't know where to set this from 16 down to 8, Anyone can supply an answer.

From Racer.ini:

; (Method 4 only) Number of samples for multisampled FBO (0=no multi-sampling, >1=samples); only works on nVidia cards 8xxx series and up
    samples=16

I (think) I set this to 8 or lower...you'll get no anti aliasing but should lose the error and things should run much faster.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ruud]

Tiberius is right on the sampling warnings. I've modifed the warnings a little to state 'your hardware doesn't support...'.

 

[Pere N]

Not available for Mac?

 

[davidiau]

Some more results, I thought changing max texture and or texture quality to low might help, I tried setting max texture to 512, and then texture quality to 1/16 and gained a whopping 3 fps.
I would have thought these would have had more effect than they did? or is there something else going on here? This PC can play crysis with reasonable graphics settings and resolution, why not Racer? Or am I underestimating Racer graphically compared to other games/sims now? I

Qlog shows nothing interesting:
Tue Apr 14 22:37:31 (INFO): [noqapp/4900] --- application start ---
Tue Apr 14 22:37:31 (INFO): [noqapp/4900] 2 processor(s); setting affinity to 0x1
Tue Apr 14 22:37:31 (INFO): [racer/4900] Racer version: 0.8.1 (Apr 9 2009/13:47:10)
Tue Apr 14 22:37:32 (WARN): [racer/4900] renderer.use_vbo=1, but this is currently buggy. Using 0.
Tue Apr 14 22:37:32 (WARN): [racer/4900] WorldMotionBlur: requested full-screen dev filter (data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/hdr_bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg) but not found
Tue Apr 14 22:37:32 (INFO): [racer/4900] Audio: setting speakermode to 5 (5.1 surround, system default is 5.1 surround)
Tue Apr 14 22:37:33 (INFO): [racer/4900] Loading track 'carlswood_nt'
Tue Apr 14 22:37:33 (INFO): [racer/4900] QNClient:Connect() attempt to 127.0.0.1:25000
Tue Apr 14 22:37:33 (INFO): [racer/4900] QNClient: connected to server (our clientID=71)
Tue Apr 14 22:37:38 (INFO): [racer/4900] exitfunc()
Tue Apr 14 22:37:38 (INFO): [racer/4900] ef 1
Tue Apr 14 22:37:38 (INFO): [racer/4900] ef RET

 

[AMGfan(BPM)]

Beast!

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Tutorials for using 3dsmax with RACER

The last couple of days I've started modeling a car I'm working with Inventor and Solidworks. I was wondering if anyone could point me to some information or tutorial for using 3dsmax (materials settings etc.) and how to export correctly for RACER?

I've used Zmodeler before, but I thought I'd try 3dsmax this time. Any help appreciated.

Here's some pics of the car. Any input on the car design would also be very helpful:good:

 

[Tiberius]

David. Core Duo E8500, 4GB RAM, BFG 9800GTX+ here...not a really high end machine but fairly good, I'm running other games and getting really good frames.

I think the multisampling is the killer here, racer.ini is set to 16x. I cut it to 4x and went from 50fps to 120 with HDR and blur on...a bit of aliasing but still nice enough to drive, can always crank it right up for nice screenshots (that's what we used to do with anti aliasing, right?).

Try cutting the multisampling samples= to 4 or 8 in racer.ini and see what happens

 

[camsinny]

I currently have multisampling set to 1. Technically this isn't multisampling, but it doesn't really have jaggies and isn't super-smooth. Just the way I like it.

I'll have to post my .ini sometime as I'm pretty happy with it. I play racer on a laptop these days with 3GB or ram, a 9600M GT and a duo 2.2Ghz. I get about 20 ish fps so it's not TOO bad. Still playable. Just.

I'll be investing in a new desktop soon hopefully.

Good to see Ruud hanging around here! :victory:

 

[Pere N]

Not available for Mac?