Need some help with the graphics of my car

Hi

I worked a couple of hours now to get my GTL car into Racer. I started out with the Baja and went from there.Anyway, I need some help:)

1. I got a very blurry rpm gauge and speedometer. Is there a way to clear them up?

Carro1.jpg
Carro3.jpg





2. The shadows are very dark which makes the cockpit dark as the night at some angles. Is there a materialproperty I can change/add to improve this?
Carro2.jpg

Thanks in advance. Probably more questions to come in the future:)
 
  • Tiberius

Hmm, that bug with the blurred gauges, that's a weird one. It's affecting the gauges in the 3D cockpit too, right? Are those blurred gauge faces in the cockpit entered in the views.ini or are they textured polies on the actual car model? What size are the source gauge textures?

Is the car moving in those shots? It's not the motion blur making the gauges blurred, is it?

Your lighting problem, try changing the ambient and diffuse light amounts once you've assigned shaders in the car.shd to different parts, at the moment I'm finding that something like:

Code:
ambient=0.5 0.5 0.5
diffuse=0.8 0.8 0.8

is a good starting point, you can tweak them for different looking materials.

If it would help, I could post you the ini I'm doing for the D-Type, it's far from finished but it's a similar sized/powered car.

I like that model very much though :)
 
Hmm, that bug with the blurred gauges, that's a weird one. It's affecting the gauges in the 3D cockpit too, right? Are those blurred gauge faces in the cockpit entered in the views.ini or are they textured polies on the actual car model? What size are the source gauge textures?

Is the car moving in those shots? It's not the motion blur making the gauges blurred, is it?

Your lighting problem, try changing the ambient and diffuse light amounts once you've assigned shaders in the car.shd to different parts, at the moment I'm finding that something like:

Code:
ambient=0.5 0.5 0.5
diffuse=0.8 0.8 0.8

is a good starting point, you can tweak them for different looking materials.

If it would help, I could post you the ini I'm doing for the D-Type, it's far from finished but it's a similar sized/powered car.

I like that model very much though :)

Thanks a lot for the help Tiberius.

The gauge on the dashboard are low-res textures so thats nothing to worry about. However the rpm and speedo thats in each corner are 128*128 and are fine TGA textures from the Baja. But it just hit me that I won't use them as I prefer using the car dashboard:) One question though. Is it possible to use a high-poly cockpit for cockpit-view and a low-res body for other views?

I will try your ambient/diffuse settings and tune them if necessary.

That D-type you posted in another thread looked fabulous man! Great achievement, not an easy shape to model!


I've gone through the ini file and so far i've done engine/aero/weight/inertia/gears/diff. Gonna finish off the suspension tonight and see how she handles:)
 
  • Tiberius

Hehe, the D-Type is barely started yet. But it was definitely difficult just to get the basic shape there, getting the rear wing modelled is proving fun too :)

Yes, you can use a high poly interior model, just enter it along with the other models, like:

Code:
model_incar
  {
    file=interior.dof
  }
Racer decides which model to load depending on what 'model=' you set for that particular camera (camera section is usually near the bottom of the car.ini), I think you need to set model=1 to get it to use the interior model - look on racer.nl to be certain.

You can also use LODs, you can use LODs on any model including steering wheel and wheels. This will let you use more detail up close and then switch those models to lower detail ones at a distance, or just cut them entirely. I use generic models a lot now, you can have non movable ones which work great for parts like seats, trim, etc.

To use LODs, you enter something like:

Code:
file=body.dof
    lod0_z=40
    lod1_z=150
body.dof is your main high detail body model, that would switch to body_lod1.dof at 40m, which would switch out (leaving no model drawn) at 150m.

Hope this helps :)
 
My car is rather low-poly so I'll wait to create LODs. But I'll definitely try the the "incar" command.

I got the car up and running now, just completed the damper curves. The only thing thats different to GTL physics-wise now is the tires.

I noticed that my textures are actually lower resolution than they should. I use 2048*1024 for the main body. Is there an upper limit in Racer for the texture size?
 
Well, there's a texture section in racer.ini to adjust texture sizes but I think the defaults should be allowing 2048x2048:
Code:
textures
{
  ; Big hack for faster loads during testing
  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=2048
  max_hgt=2048
}

It looks from the pictures like all the textures (track and car) are being shrunk so it might also be your graphics card's mipmap level settings.
 
The incar line worked great. Thanks Tiberius. I think the graphics look good too. Not much difference to GTL. Really nice to work with too, loads very fast and easy to make changes in the ini files. Good job Ruud!
Carro5.jpg




However I struggle with the shadows. When I adjust the ambient and diffuse settings it doesn't change much. As you see below the it changes from a bright color to very dark shadow as the shadow moves.
Carro6.jpg
Carro7.jpg
 
  • Tiberius

Nice, but it looks like you're missing shaders :)

If the shader for that part is working correctly, a good test is to set

Code:
ambient=1.0 0 0

if the shader is working your object will glow bright red, if it doesn't glow then your shader isn't working ;-)

Another test you can try is to change the assigned texture for that shader, if the texture assigned to those parts of the car doesn't change, your shader isn't working.

Start with simple shaders, will make life much easier for you. something like:

Code:
shader_body
{
ambient=0.5 0.5 0.5
diffuse=1.0 1.0 1.0
layer0
{
map=body.tga
}
}

This is the most basic shader around, it's all you need to get a matte material. Once you're certain that your shaders are working, you can start adding other stuff to the shaders, Cg shaders and reflections etc.

It's about time Racer had some more good racing cars, it's just a shame that AI can't use different skins for the same car at the moment.
 
The material name needs to match the object, the texture name could be anything in the car folder. Or for that matter, any folder you know the relative path to. The Lambo Murcielago ghost really should use "map=../lambomurcielago/lambobody.tga" and stuff, there's no need to duplicate all the textures.

Tiberius, I've thought about a shader that shows different AI as different textures but I haven't found a good way to do it yet.
 
Earlier today I calculated the pacejka coefficients for my tires. However I have yet more questions for you guys:)

See below figure for my pacejka curve for lateral slip at camber=-10 degrees (thin lines for camber values>-10). When I take into account the effect of camber I want the lateral coefficient to increase with negative camber and decrease with positive camber. Right now the lateral coefficient is increasing with negative camber for positive slip angles, but for negative slip angles negative camber gives lower grip. Is this correct?
How is positive slip angle defined?
Should it be opposite effect for right-hand side compared to left-hand side? i.e. opposite sign for coefficients a8 and a112 for one side?

EDIT: I did a test and it was correct the way I did it. No need to change sign on a8 and a112:)
 

Attachments

  • PacejkaFy.jpg
    PacejkaFy.jpg
    17.7 KB · Views: 249
WoW great car!
Special feeling to drive but great!
I got a QLog from the pacejka, there is some thing wrong...here:
Code:
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): Pacejka warning; with 2 degrees of inclination angle,
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): lateral force (Fy) goes UP (unexpected) from 0.000 to 1.812N.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): This may indicate a sign error in a5/a8/a111/a112.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): Pacejka warning; with 2 degrees of inclination angle,
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): lateral force (Fy) goes UP (unexpected) from 0.000 to 1.812N.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): This may indicate a sign error in a5/a8/a111/a112.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): Pacejka warning; with 2 degrees of inclination angle,
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): lateral force (Fy) goes UP (unexpected) from 0.000 to 1.813N.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): This may indicate a sign error in a5/a8/a111/a112.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): Pacejka warning; with 2 degrees of inclination angle,
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): lateral force (Fy) goes UP (unexpected) from 0.000 to 1.813N.
Tue Feb 09 11:01:09 (WARN): This may indicate a sign error in a5/a8/a111/a112.
....but i'm sorry i can't help to fix, because the pacejka is the book of seven secrets for me....may be Dave or cosmo° can help....

lg
alex
 
  • Tiberius

Earlier today I calculated the pacejka coefficients for my tires. However I have yet more questions for you guys:)

Hmm, pacejka is a bit of a black art, I'm only just starting to understand it better.

Surely more camber should give you more grip, on all the pacejka sets I have here, grip does increase with camber. you're not simulating extra camber with the 'camber' slider along the bottom, are you?

AFAIK, Racer doesn't currently use a112, or the other higher values, someone correct me if I'm wrong - (although looking at DF's Qlog, Racer is reading a112 it?).

I'll download the car later tonight (on my laptop at the moment, grrr..), it looks great so far :)
 
OK, I totally forgot to comment this.

I have found the correct sign for a112 and a8 to produce the correct camber effect. I checked ingame and it gave me higher grip for more negative camber. I only used the slider bar to produce the figure Tiberius:D In car.ini I specify the camber values and a8 and a112

However at 0 slip angle it produces 1.8N because of these coefficients. 1.8N is a very small force so I chose to accept it:) This is the reason for the QLOG error...


EDIT: I use a G25 with 720 degrees on the wheel. The force feedback is very important on this car as the pacejka coefficients has made it a little more twitchy than in GTL
 

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 73 7.4%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 102 10.3%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 144 14.5%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 271 27.4%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 396 40.0%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.4%
Back
Top