Racer v0.8.27 released!

[Ruud]

Hopefully quite close to v0.9RC1.

Get it at http://www.racer.nl/download/racer0.8.27.zip (75Mb)

The changes:
- move_cg=1 didn't offset correctly: cameras, wipers, generic models, brake calipers, exhausts, dials, helmet, carlights Z/far.
- 'rewind' commands for live rewinding (if RTD logging is on)
- Default font made a little bigger again
- onspeedlimiter.rex gets executed when the speed limiter is turned on.
- Shadowmapping tweaked for director and other cameras.
- Fuel consumption reset to 0 when standing still (was 99.9 L/100km).
- A missing controller (defined in a controls file) would crash Racer
- Using something other than default.ini in racer.ini's ini.controls now works (can be saved)
- 3 profiles available in the controller setup screen.
- The names above the cars were black - fixed with floatingname_*.cg shaders.
- The wheel blur models would show in the car selection garage.
- Added grass smoke particles
- Select car/track screens sped up by loading only part of the car.ini/track.ini files. Assumes 'car' is at the top though (!).
- Selecting a car, then exiting would crash.
- When cars stood still, too much was damped away and the differential wheels would rotate a bit.

 

[Alexander Knoll]

THX testing^^

 

[Alex Forbin]

Nice release, the rock solid stationary wheels are great. The only problem I see right now is that the minimap is corrupted if none exists for the track.

Alex Forbin

 

[Some1]

Ruud, did you try to fix the shadow problem with the SMD cameras as well? Because, in v27, SMD car chase cam still has the shadow splits centered at the camera location, not car location...

 

[Ruud]

Ruud, did you try to fix the shadow problem with the SMD cameras as well? Because, in v27, SMD car chase cam still has the shadow splits centered at the camera location, not car location...

Things did change indeed; I'll have a closer look at a chase cam. Which car & camera index exhibit the problem?

@Alex: the minimap was indeed painted without spline.ini present. Fixed already for v0.8.28.

 

[Some1]

Things did change indeed; I'll have a closer look at a chase cam. Which car & camera index exhibit the problem?

Here's the one I've been using for chase cams.

camera0
{
  name=Chase Close
  offset
  {
    x=0.0
    y=1.5
    z=-5.0
  }
  angle
  {
    x=15.000000
    y=180.000000
    z=0.000000
  }
  follow
  {
    pitch=0
    yaw=0
    roll=0
  }
  fov=72
  model=0
  wheels=0
  view=0
  src
  {
    mass=6
    k=300
    damping=90
    maxdist=5
  }
  dst
  {
    mass=1
    k=200
    damping=70
    maxdist=1
  }
}

 

[Ruud]

I see what you mean, the focus stays near the camera. Try the patched racer.exe (also fixed that minimap problem btw) at http://racer.nl/download/racer0827b.zip

 

[Some1]

I see what you mean, the focus stays near the camera. Try the patched racer.exe (also fixed that minimap problem btw) at http://racer.nl/download/racer0827b.zip

Oh yes, finally! Thanks, it works now!

I do get some strange shading caused by the shadows probably. If I get time, I will look into the shadowmapping shaders...

 

[Alex Forbin]

I see what you mean, the focus stays near the camera. Try the patched racer.exe (also fixed that minimap problem btw) at http://racer.nl/download/racer0827b.zip

Hmm, I seem to have hit a timewarp. Other than the menu it works fine.


Alex Forbin

 

[DavidI]

'its just a jump to the left'...

Something missed on the changelog:
Tyre smoke on tar is fixed & looks great, not shooting off in beams.

The dust clouds added to the grass 'smoke'? look good too, they DID need something else.
Wheels stay still now when they should.

 

[krsman3d]

By far the best version for a long time.

I have noticed though that the wheels sometimes get locked up and and start spinning when accelerating from a standstill. Must have something to do with the new fix.

And another issue is still present. When auto-exposure is on, I get screen stuttering. It is not that noticeable when the framerate is high, but when it drops to 40 or so it is.

 

[DavidI]

I've noticed car shadows in trackcams seem to disappear at times. Shots below from the same track cam, i just moved the car towards the cam a bit. Maybe the camera angle has something to do with it? The shadows are very washed out compared to what u see from a car-cam

 

[Some1]

I've noticed car shadows in trackcams seem to disappear at times. Shots below from the same track cam, i just moved the car towards the cam a bit. Maybe the camera angle has something to do with it? The shadows are very washed out compared to what u see from a car-cam

I think the shadowmapping uses 3 splits, and what you see there is the 3rd split, which is very low res.

 

[camsinny]

I still think that replays should work better before 0.9

 

[Ruud]

'its just a jump to the left'...

Something missed on the changelog:
Tyre smoke on tar is fixed & looks great, not shooting off in beams.

Actually I never fixed that, so it might pop up again. I've never seen it though.
Anybody getting NaN when hitting the guardrails?

 

[Ruud]

And another issue is still present. When auto-exposure is on, I get screen stuttering. It is not that noticeable when the framerate is high, but when it drops to 40 or so it is.

The auto exposure is calculated by downsizing a full scene frame to a 2x2 image. If you don't have the bandwidth, that gets pretty slow every time it is calculated. So I don't really consider it an issue other than that it's not really suited for h/w I'm afraid.

 

[Ruud]

I think the shadowmapping uses 3 splits, and what you see there is the 3rd split, which is very low res.

I might decrease the 3rd split distance (now 1000m) a bit to make things better. But then it will need to fade out the last split. With CSM you have to end things at some point...

 

[Mr Whippy]

I think the shadowmapping uses 3 splits, and what you see there is the 3rd split, which is very low res.

Hmmm, maybe the split distance should be ignored in the z axis? So the offset is actually more like 10m there, not 100m which it might be!? (all in z axis?)


Yeah Ruud, the last split looks soft, the blurring does that to it, plus it's really long distance.

I think a 450-500m last split, with fading, would work ok.

Here I use 4 splits, no blurring, and I'm really happy (settings on another thread)... blurring seems to make shadows look softer at bigger distances, which means you want to run smaller split distances.
Is there any way to turn blur off for some splits?
How about blur that only appears on nearby splits at very low world relative speeds? (when moving you can't really spot the blurring anyway so it's costly for little visual benefit, only really noticeable when you stop on close splits)

Dave

 

[ammods]

can i make a request, shouldnt be too hard to implement, of it maybe already there

a way to look at the car camera wise ie with wr2, i press "v" and it allows me to rotate th camera to see all angle of the car, which in turn allows me to get some awesome screen shots, for posting releases

maybe it's already there i dont know..thanks alot

 

[Some1]

I might decrease the 3rd split distance (now 1000m) a bit to make things better. But then it will need to fade out the last split. With CSM you have to end things at some point...

Indeed, even in Mafia II you could see the "end of the shadows".

can i make a request, shouldnt be too hard to implement, of it maybe already there

a way to look at the car camera wise ie with wr2, i press "v" and it allows me to rotate th camera to see all angle of the car, which in turn allows me to get some awesome screen shots, for posting releases

maybe it's already there i dont know..thanks alot

It has been there from the very beginning. Just select an external car camera (keys 1-9) and then use the numpad to rotate: 4 and 5 - left and right, 2 and 8 - up and down, 1 and 3 move closer or away and with 'plus' or 'minus' you can increase or decrease the FOV.