11 New Tracks Pack

QuadCoreMax · Feb 13, 2013

It's quiet in here, so ya all tired of Racer or what ?

This is the biggest tracks release in Racer history (correct me if I'm wrong)...so we should celebrate this event...

Make free publicity & stuff, any idea is welcomed, to get more people attracted & above all, aware of Racer amazing features & capabilities !

Harey · Feb 13, 2013

Nope, some of us have a life beyond our computers lol (just saying).

I tried out some of your tracks, Freehand never worked for me (same issue as tormento19). Atlantis, seems very... circular lol. Atzara is a decent track, but I noticed if you cut the final curve too much, you end up jumping for what looks like, no real reason (messed up spline?). Avernaz, it seems like all of my cars have traction issues with (my Omni GLH-S just kept spinning out for no real reason), and the grass really slows you down on the sides of the road. Boujma I actually like, though there was a curve that caught me a little off guard, with every car I've driven it seems like, starts out wider then as the hill crests down, it sharpens, but I was able to go quite fast around it with my Countach, and an old F1 car went even quicker.

Thats all I've driven thus far. None are I would say bad, but I can see flaws in some of them.

QuadCoreMax · Feb 13, 2013

@ Everyone having Problems with FreeHand

The cause seems to come from my old testing traffic scripts which I haven't finished yet.
Please try this :

1. In special.ini, edit the triggerline section like this :

Code:

triggerline
{
  count=0
}

2. In traffic.ini, edit like this :

Code:

waypoints
{
  count=0
}

3. In geometry.ini, there seems to be some wrong flag number for surfaces only, so edit like this :

Code:

objects
{
  concrete
  {
    file=concrete.dof
    flags=4
  }
  crossing
  {
    file=crossing.dof
    flags=4
  }
  curb_1
  {
    file=curb_1.dof
    flags=4
  }
  curb_2
  {
    file=curb_2.dof
    flags=4
  }
  facade
  {
    file=facade.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_1
  {
    file=facade_1.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_2
  {
    file=facade_2.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_3
  {
    file=facade_3.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_4
  {
    file=facade_4.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_5
  {
    file=facade_5.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_6
  {
    file=facade_6.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_7
  {
    file=facade_7.dof
    flags=2
  }
  facade_8
  {
    file=facade_8.dof
    flags=2
  }
  lotinner
  {
    file=lotinner.dof
    flags=4
  }
  sidewalktree
  {
    file=sidewalktree.dof
    flags=0
  }
  sky
  {
    file=sky.dof
    flags=3
  }
  terrain_1
  {
    file=terrain_1.dof
    flags=4
  }
  terrain_2
  {
    file=terrain_2.dof
    flags=4
  }
  terrain_3
  {
    file=terrain_3.dof
    flags=4
  }
  terrain_4
  {
    file=terrain_4.dof
    flags=4
  }
}

If that should still not work, try playing with the textures tree in racer.ini, mine looks like this :

Code:

textures
{
  ; Big hack for faster loads during testing (does not work for DDS images)
  enable=1
  ; Quality; 1=max, 2=halfsize, 4=1/4th etc. Must be power of 2.
  quality=1
  ; Support texture compression? (default is 1 (on) unless shaders specifiy compression=0)
  compression=1
  ; Maximum texture size; useful to cut down on really big texturemaps
  ; or supporting ancient gfxcards that can only deal with 256x256
  ; texturemaps.
  max_wid=4096
  max_hgt=4096
  ; Stub texture name; if not empty, this image is loaded instead of the actual texture
  stub=
}

I hope that should fix it !

I just saw some missing curbs polies in Freehand, my generation 3D object scripts have messed up some of them, since I'm trying to filter the overlapping & inter-penetrating procedural polies reducing so the polycount...I'll give a deep check asap.

& yes Harey, Atzara last curve isn't smooth at all, so I'll see what I can do, this is a tough decision, keeping it like this or remodel the whole, maybe the last choice is the wisest. Other than that, I'll replace all curbs with simple flat 3D model & add surfaces frequencies/effects on all released tracks.

For the rest, you're right, since I can't reload anything in my tracks (the 2 reload commands - shaders + track), it's annoying to restart each time the tracks for each variable that I tweak. I'll duplicate Carlswood & G25 playing from there, with custom surfaces & automated RSX scripts that goes thru a wide range of values over a certain lap of time...

Any other solution / hack is welcomed, since I can't debug fast enough my tracks which annoys me a lot...

Mr Whippy · Feb 13, 2013

I just find FPS really low... not sure why they are so low.

I can run a well converted nice looking rFactor track at about 75fps here, but this runs at about 25fps which is just not so great.

Not sure why... maybe just needs a lot of optimising?!

Generally they are nice tracks, but I think they are all missing some spirit, some character. Maybe have one a night course, another set in some mountains with steep cliffs along one edge? Maybe one in a heavily wooded area so you can't see too far and it's almost like a tunnel of trees. Add a coastline to another?

Just stuff to add interest.

Just go play NFS4 for 30 mins and you suddenly feel each track has some real character and memories associated to driving there.

Hmmm

Good work though. It's nice to see someone making and releasing tracks for Racer!

They are hard to do, and even harder to do well, and even harder to make excellent, and even harder still to maintain and keep bug free with Racer changes... so nice work on the efforts you do put in

Dave

Stereo · Feb 13, 2013

QuadCoreMax said:
For the rest, you're right, since I can't reload anything in my tracks (the 2 reload commands - shaders + track), it's annoying to restart each time the tracks for each variable that I tweak. I'll duplicate Carlswood & G25 playing from there, with custom surfaces & automated RSX scripts that goes thru a wide range of values over a certain lap of time...

Any other solution / hack is welcomed, since I can't debug fast enough my tracks which annoys me a lot...

Only one I know of is using an older beta (I use 0.8.44), not sure what the actual problem is 'cause some tracks do work ok (Carlswood usually, I have a 3 material track that always works).

Mr Whippy · Feb 13, 2013

On my tracks I can reload shaders tens or hundreds of times.

Reload track fails more often but I usually get five or ten goes before a crash.

I rarely use reload track though since the only update is geometry and you can see that in 3D app... In my experience if its right there its right in Racer

My wish would be a prog like Shady that loads a dof you specify and let's you tweak shader values etc in real time

Dave

QuadCoreMax · Feb 14, 2013

I'm also frustrated not being able to increase the FPS I get. As you can see, I'm trying to keep the textures & shaders count low, but that doesn't seem to have any impact.

It's true all tracks are missing some personalization & character. I'll update my 3D objects collection & implement more stuff. Just to recall anyone wishing to put his 3D objects, here's how :

1. In Tracked, load the track you wish
2. In Animated Objects > Creation > Load DOF to choose your 3D object in dof format.
3. In the 3D scene, Shift + LMB (Left Mouse Button) to decide your dof position
4. Execute in Tracked/Animated Objects/Creation > Create

Anyway, concerning the reloads, have done some more tests with same end results, I can't find in Carlswood_nt any real difference, so I'm baffled, for sure it's 377kb big which is really nothing, lol.

I tried on Freehand to reload with textures in TGA format, no go, then I tried changing the file structure, same problem, some other stuff but nothing...

When 'reload track' in Carlswood, all modified special.ini variables seems to be processed by Racer engine correctly, but I have like a hallucinogenic view with all kind of colors interpolating really fast & after 3 seconds vanishing slowly to stabilization, lol.

Dave, here's a little RSX shading app which does something like Shady which I never used unfortunately :

Code:

while 1
{
    send "reload shaders" to console
    wait 5000
    interrupt
}

Keep your car.shd open, best is having 2 screens & begin to tweak your variables, materials & shaders. I'm using quite often...

I'm sure we can do better, with Python for example, where we hijack the variable we want & generate automatically all values until we happy in-game, visually talking. I'll try that idea asap, indeed it would just suppress the need of retyping new values to see the shader/material effects.

Harey · Feb 14, 2013

QuadCoreMax said:
@ Everyone having Problems with FreeHand

The cause seems to come from my old testing traffic scripts which I haven't finished yet.

I hope that should fix it !

I just saw some missing curbs polies in Freehand, my generation 3D object scripts have messed up some of them, since I'm trying to filter the overlapping & inter-penetrating procedural polies reducing so the polycount...I'll give a deep check asap.

& yes Harey, Atzara last curve isn't smooth at all, so I'll see what I can do, this is a tough decision, keeping it like this or remodel the whole, maybe the last choice is the wisest. Other than that, I'll replace all curbs with simple flat 3D model & add surfaces frequencies/effects on all released tracks.

For the rest, you're right, since I can't reload anything in my tracks (the 2 reload commands - shaders + track), it's annoying to restart each time the tracks for each variable that I tweak. I'll duplicate Carlswood & G25 playing from there, with custom surfaces & automated RSX scripts that goes thru a wide range of values over a certain lap of time...

Any other solution / hack is welcomed, since I can't debug fast enough my tracks which annoys me a lot...

on FreeHand I did everything you said, then on a quick glance before it would go back to the menu I noticed it was saying it couldn't load the cars, so I removed the traffic.ini completely and that resolved the issue. seems like a very big city, and easy to get lost in lol, I like it.

and I'll look a little closer at Atzara, because i know if i cut that corner in my GLH-T I flew to the opposite side of the track.

QuadCoreMax · Feb 14, 2013

Harey said:
...I noticed it was saying it couldn't load the cars, so I removed the traffic.ini completely and that resolved the issue. seems like a very big city, and easy to get lost in lol, I like it...

Cool Harey, at least something is fixed !

You'll probably like Mystical Circles, 21 km of city roads with nice long curves where you can feel all the lateral G-Force on your steering wheel. I think it's a good one for new Pacejkas profiles test sessions, too.

At some point in time, they will look like GTA 4 or Mafia 2, still I'm thinking a lot about how I'll get the job done via some Python scripting & get the geometry file filled with all the data (Animated objects for the most part) automatically...

tormento19 · Mar 10, 2013

Discovered the Freehand bug on the traffic file, now works fine!

QuadCoreMax · Feb 22, 2014

Hey all,

Long time no news, I hope you're all fine !

Like I revealed some days ago, I'm now proudly & officially an Unity 3D dev / member & been releasing some days ago, the race tracks to Unity 3D for the biggest happiness to all serious racers / drivers worldwide.

Here's the link :
NextGen Racing Studio

Please give it a look, share it on your social networks, I already have some Unity members showing some interest.

What we have been discussing those past months with Racer updates & all the stuff missing, can now be found on Unity Asset Store ; shader programs like Shader Forge or simulators like UnityCar or Edy Physics Vehicle or anything else like real-time TOD systems, or volumetric & procedural smokes / clouds that all can be 'combined' with my Unity Package.

Please support me, as I've been supporting & providing you those years with Racer content. If you want to cooperate / collaborate with me, don't hesitate to contact me, I'm so open-minded that you can talk about anything with me.

Thanks for your attention !

QuadCoreMax · Sep 17, 2015

Recent Racer versions didn't run very well on my AMD surround gaming / work system, so I'm sorry to tell you that I won't be able to update right now.

Still, I'm continuing all the amazing work of all these years & I'm proud to announce that you will find all tracks updated for Assetto Corsa & for Racer when / if Racer evolves to a more stable AMD version with all the 'fixed' features.

********************************************************************
Please consider donating as it take lots of time to develop
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Racer-Max - Free Tracks & Cars For Racer Simulator

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Thanks for your understanding as I do it almost full time & don't earn much right now.
The most important in Life, is to love yourself & do what you love the most.