Racer v0.8.12 is out

[Ruud]

Yep, it's going a bit quick, but this is all for targeting a non-moving target, v0.9.

v0.8.12 is at http://www.racer.nl/download/racer0.8.12.zip for download

The changes are:

• Added camera.auto_switch_director_track_cam setting to avoid automatic track/director camera mode switches. By default it's off.
• Lighting/shadowing fixes in shaders (dyn_standard_bump*.cg, dyn_standard_bump_speca*.cg)
• The Baja had some bad shaders (metal parts in car.shd)
• Modeler gave a lot of QLOG errors.
• Modeler ASE imports now show a dialog if too many indices are used in 1 geob.
• Accepting new graphics options would crash Racer
• Added auto-calibration for controls (not too useful for consumer controllers though).See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/ctrlset.htm#values
• Shadowmapping now done using a texture atlas instead of a texture array. This for ATI cards.
• On ATI, shadowmaps could not only be a Z-channel. ATI seems to need color buffers.
• More tweaks to get ATI to work better. Our experiments show that alpha_to_coverage is very poorly supported, but at least shadowmapping seems to work better. nVidia cards recommended.
• sky_daynight*.cg fixed to do the same as sky_*.cg, only with an added night texture.
• Halo effects in shadow mapping improved through the use of Z information
• Added dyn_standard_speca_f.cg shader for 1 texture with specular control using alpha.
• Cg parameter passing in the render engine was cached. Lots faster.

 

[gtpdzbiz]

Nice updates, though for track objects, when setting depthwrite=0 , Z-sorting has some problem when occluding car objects

 

[Lipton]

Ruud, do you have any idea why whenever I try to run something CG it always gives me errors. My laptop has a gForce 9500m GS with 512mb and i`m sure it`s not the cause of the problem. Dials still invisible for me in this version.

 

[luthobu]

0812-nocg looks good here. Just a quick test in a 1024x768 window to see if it runs well..
.. and so it does

Edit: if anyone needs a "basic" ini for this version, let me know and I'll post one.

 

[Ruud]

Ruud, do you have any idea why whenever I try to run something CG it always gives me errors. My laptop has a gForce 9500m GS with 512mb and i`m sure it`s not the cause of the problem. Dials still invisible for me in this version.

What is the error?

 

[Some1]

No new issues noticed.

Ruud, could you please fix the light flare bug (G5) at least for 0.9 final? Thanks!

 

[Mr Whippy]

Looks ok here too so far. Will tinker properly later to see how the visuals have changed from 0.8.11 > 0.8.12... need to keep a good track on what is changing to make sure bugs are not sneaking in! (ie like the double reflection rendering that was evident before etc)


Dave

 

[MitchVL]

You forgot to mention the CSM flickering fix Ruud.

 

[KS95]

All things that reflect seem to be flickering for me.. have done in the past few versions actually. And my frame rate is really low on this version for some reason..

 

[mpsco]

Thanks for ATI version


After end race or press Esc

"Fri Jul 09 21:45:44 (INFO): --- application start ---
Fri Jul 09 21:45:44 (WARN): DGPUShaderManager::Init() Geometry shading is not supported on this card.
Fri Jul 09 21:45:44 (WARN): DGPUShader:Load(data/renderer/shaders/particles_spark_v.cg): CG ERROR : "The profile is not supported."
Fri Jul 09 21:45:44 (ERR): DFBOTexture ctor: OpenGL error (1282): invalid operation''

Full Qlog: http://hotfile.com/dl/53667170/d002552/racer_qlog_.7z.html (ATI 3650 512Mb ddr2)

 

[Ian Strom]

With bloom and motion blur off and using nocg car and track:
CG on the left and noCG on the right. (and a 200FPS difference between the two)

Oh, and here is with blur and bloom on using the same car and track:

hehe

On Carlswood (again, bloom and blur off) is.. well, something I have never before seen in Racer. :tongue:
It goes away if you have your brakes on or if you turn on the lights.
It only happened once and I have not been able to replicate it yet.



When I saw what is below the first thing I thought was "I say, what a simply super day!" and then I though. "wait, where did I get that line? ahh, right, monty python's flying circus! the Salad Days sketch "


Seems they have it on youtube nowadays.

I am just playing around a bit and having some fun right now.
*Edit, I am leaving for a few days and will not have access to Racer so I will not be able to play around for a while.

 

[KS95]

What kind of imagehost is that?! O_o

 

[luthobu]

Edit: deleted.. YASP (yet another stupid post)

 

[Alex Forbin]

I've noticed a couple of things...
1. Motion blur doesn't work. (FBO type 4)
2. Live environment is broken. (even when turned on in racer.ini)
3. Dynamic bump mapping works but appears to want a different normal map when used on tires?
4. The new shadows look better, but I have noticed (as others) that they need the new GFX section (copied from Carlswood_nt) to stop the odd flickering
when you apply the brakes.

Alex Forbin

 

[MitchVL]

All things that reflect seem to be flickering for me.. have done in the past few versions actually. And my frame rate is really low on this version for some reason..

This version should be faster than previous versions, i personally went from 45 to 70 fps.
Have you tried using a racer.ini from a previous version?

I've noticed a couple of things...
1. Motion blur doesn't work. (FBO type 4)
2. Live environment is broken. (even when turned on in racer.ini)
3. Dynamic bump mapping works but appears to want a different normal map when used on tires?
4. The new shadows look better, but I have noticed (as others) that they need the new GFX section (copied from Carlswood_nt) to stop the odd flickering
when you apply the brakes.

Alex Forbin

1. Known problem and being worked on
2. There is a render once toggle in the live track section, might that be the problem?
3. Ruuds cup of tea
4. flickering when braking? Explain further


@mpsco
Great to see it running smooth on other ATI cards.
ATI does not support geometry shading, im sad to say, but that should not matter, geometry shaders will probably never be used. Strange to see that spark shader warning, do you see sparks when grinding against walls? The FBO warning can be ignored since it seems to run fine on your system.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Well, running it here, and it's almost the best release yet.

I like the new ambient level adjustment on normal angle, much more natural looking now! Later it could be controlled with some clever logic based on the sky appearance. Ie, clear, heavily overcast, etc etc...

Live env-map is working fine here, I run 1 side per frame at 75fps or so and it looks good enough imo!

Shadows are loads better too, less halo and much more solid feeling!


No motion blur as Alex said, but I actually prefer it without in some ways. The image looks less blurry generally. It would be nice to have this as an easy to mod factor in the fs_filter file (currently bloom_shadows_f.cg)... or even more such factors to constants.cg? Ie, 0...1 for bloom factor and blur factor, then you can tweak to taste (as I have done in the paragraph below for bloom), or even tie those into Racer graphics sub-menu sliders?!



The only mod I have done to the base install is return the bloom mix factor to 0.5 as per 0.8.11... A factor of 1 just seemed excessive. 0.5 looks perfect! Others seem to have found this the only tweak needed too!


I'm fairly happy generally. FPS seem to have crept up since the first CSM version by a fair margin. Hopefully with my new gfx card I can get back to 1600x1200... 1024x768 is a bit low, and accentuates the blurriness... that is probably why this version without motion blur is so nice in that regard, getting some sharpness back!


I'm just generally very excited that this is starting to be on a par with GT5 and FM3 etc, but has so much more potential than either! Exciting stuff

Dave

 

[KS95]

Hmm..well my old 0811 ini got me an extra 6-10fps..hmm.. :/

 

[Alex Forbin]

This version should be faster than previous versions, i personally went from 45 to 70 fps.
Have you tried using a racer.ini from a previous version?



1. Known problem and being worked on
2. There is a render once toggle in the live track section, might that be the problem?
3. Ruuds cup of tea
4. flickering when braking? Explain further

Thanks for the quick feedback Mitch.
1. cool
2. The render once toggle was the problem alright. Live maps are working fine now.
3. ok
4. If I don't copy the GFX section from Carlswood_nt to the special ini of a current track I get odd looking random shadows that will disappear anytime I use the brake. Someone else mentioned the same effect earlier. I haven't had time to analyze it further yet, but will asap.

Thanks
Alex Forbin

 

[gtpdzbiz]

I noticed there is a sharp parting line on self shadowed object between light/dark areas.
And adding a Desaturate function to the final fs shader gives the color some natural touch.

Will racer support accumlate buffer Motionblur with fullscreen shader? I noticed FM3 used this technique to generate impressive screenshots.

p.s. There isn't any framerate differences for me though

 

[gtpdzbiz]

double post, deleted