Pace Car Issues

[Brian Johnson]

I keep having issues with the pace car stopping on the racing surface. Whenever the pace car is used it constantly stops on the track surface. It appears to be stuck as it will move forward a few feet then stop again. I am using the AIW editing that is built into BTB because I am having issues learning the one made by ISI. Does anyone know why the pace car is doing this?

 

[Brad Dibble]

I do not know why that is happening, but I suspect it has to do with the center (mian) path, sometimes when an aiw file is greated the paths are not completely smooth, this causes problems for the aiw controlled cars. I suggest using the ISI AIW or Guitarmean's AIW editor to view and edit the pain and fast paths. You can find Guitarmean's editor at rFactorcentral in the addons-mod tools subdirectory. the editor comes with help files that explain the basic use of the editor, they are a bit confusing at first but after you use it for a while you will appreciate how powerful a tool it is.

 

[R Soul]

There's a video for the official ISI editor on rfactor central:
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=AIW Video Tutorial (video by madcowie)
There are also a couple of videos on youtube:

(think of this as the sequel to madcowie's video)
and

With those four tutorials combined, plus the stickied AIW thread on this forum, you should have all the info you need. Make plenty of backups of your AIW file as you go.

 

[Dingo-J]

I keep having issues with the pace car stopping on the racing surface. Whenever the pace car is used it constantly stops on the track surface. It appears to be stuck as it will move forward a few feet then stop again. I am using the AIW editing that is built into BTB because I am having issues learning the one made by ISI. Does anyone know why the pace car is doing this?

I take it the other cars can race over this surface just fine? Because it sounds to me like a car stuck in gravel pit material (like the road is assigned that material instead of "road"). Actually the BTB AIW is very powerful and can generate some really good AIW if you know how to use it. I've never had BTB output bad AIW before, so I'm doubtful that is the issue. Having the waypoints too far apart in the AIW can sometimes cause some wierd issues, but once again BTB takes care of that for you.

Maybe you could post a screen grab from withing BTB of the paths (turn on the center line, pit, and corridors) so that we can get a better idea of what may be happening.

 

[Brian Johnson]

It appears as though the pace car only has issues on the front stretch when turning into the pits. The car is now stopping on track then disappearing and reappearing in the pits running into a building.

Here is the center line and corridors.

These are the corridors down the front stretch.

This is where the pace car stops.

This is where it reappears.

 

[Dingo-J]

It appears as though the pace car only has issues on the front stretch when turning into the pits. The car is now stopping on track then disappearing and reappearing in the pits running into a building.

Here is the center line and corridors.

Ok - couple things: you're using the same road for pit in and pit out. Unfortunately the AI cars are not smart enough to understand this concept are cars will be crashing head-on into each other. Also, not really sure if that is messing up anything having the corridors on top of each other like that -maybe someone else knows? Even if you want to use the same road, I would suggest making it so the pit in uses one side of that lane, while the pit out uses the other, and keep the corridors seperate - even if this track isn't made to have scheduled pit stops.

The pace car is stopping right where the pit lane starts and breaks off from the center line. I would look next at where your "pit in" and "pit out" gates are positioned. The Pit In gate, in this case, should probably be positioned just off the track, say once the cars pass the backs of the stands. I'm thinking you may have inadvertantly placed it on the main track right at the beginning of where the pits break off from the centerline. OR (as I think through it) it could be that the pit in and pit out gates are confusing the game logic because a car passing through the pit in also passes through the pit out a the same time.

I really think this pit lane needs to be cleaned up and seperated out for things to work 100%.

As for the Pace car appearing in the pits in that odd spot - check the Aux2 position. That's probably exactly where it is. The Aux2 position controls where the pace car sits when in the pits.

 

[Brian Johnson]

The pit in timing gate is off the racing surface. It is setup so you hit the pit out gate first then the pit in gate, so when u come back the other way the last gate you hit is the pit out gate. The aux 2 position is off to the right side as you leave the pits so I'm not sure why its appearing over near the building. The only car having issues is the pace car, the ai cars don't seem to have any issues going in and out of the pits.

 

[Dingo-J]

Why not at least test some different situations... like right at the beginning of the pits keep the lanes seperate and reduce the size of the pit in and out timing gates so they dont overlap. Also, for kicks and giggles try putting the Aux 2 position on a part of the pit lane where, once again, the corridors are not overlapping.

Sorry but it's the most obvious issue I see that needs to at least be tested. I've used BTB to make and test well over 20 tracks and have never had this issue pop up. Your pit lane is the only non-standard thing I see. So at least do some tests with it and see what happens. You can always save your test track under a different name so if nothing pans out you dont have to re-undo what you undid!

 

[Brian Johnson]

ok I can try. I have completely redone the corridors and everything in the aiw multiple times and the issue never stopped. Ill try seperating the pit in/out and see how it goes.