Racer

[Ruud]

Welcome to RaceDepartment.
As RSC has been offline for quite a while, RaceDepartment has been gracious enough to host a temporary Racer forum.

To kick it off, here is Racer v0.8.0. Warning: all things are set to target relatively high-end graphics card. nVidia 7950+ somewhat. Onboard cards will not do.

The download is at http://www.racer.nl/download/racer080.zip (42Mb).
If you have an ATI card, Cg shaders may not work due to a bug in Cg 2.1. Try the patched racer.exe from http://www.racer.nl/download/racer081a_patch.zip (1Mb).

Hope you can enjoy it!
Ruud

The patch (really a preview of v0.8.1, so interesting for nVidia users as well) changes these, although no data files are included you can check out some things already:
- Added envmap.live_track.sides_per_frame to set update count of live envmap
- Car.ini camera<n>.view variables were read, but never used. Removed loading them, they are (and were) obsolete.
- LOD (level of detail) for objects is now adjusted to take into account the camera FOV (normal FOV=50).
- Split fullscreen_shaders directory into LDR and HDR variants (data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr and _ldr).
- Added car.ini engine.idle_method to avoid throttle being slightly open all the time. See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/engine.htm
- Now enforcing engine.stall_rpm to be at least 100 rpm less than idle_rpm to enable the new idle_method 1.
- Added engine.braking_torque_curve to specify a curve for the engine braking instead of the linear parameters.
(the Lambo now uses such a curve for demonstration)
- Modified smoke particles to have no velocity. Also increased the brightness somewhat.
- Bloom map was 16-bit, now 8-bit.
- Added car.ini audio.skid audioset based on skid amount (around 0..2). This allows subtle scrub sounds before
going to screeching & screaming.
- Added 'gearwhine_off' audioset for gearwhine under deceleration circumstances.
- Fuel consumption was based on engine output torque, added internal friction (engine braking torque) in fuel use calculations.
- Renamed racer.ini variable 'collision.report_car_trk' to 'collision.report_car_track_collision'
- Added car.ini's reboundstop_len and reboundstop_k for much the same as a bumpstop, only to prevent wheels falling through susp<n>.maxlen
see http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/suspensions.htm#reboundstops
- susp<n>.restlen no longer needs to be smaller than maxlen. It ignored precompression that way.
- Added fuel.rof to overrule the fuel grams/liter parameter. Normally it's around 700 for regular petrol.
- Added views.ini 'invert' field (0/1) which inverts the variable (like 'factor' which multiplies it)

The list of changes since v0.7.3:

- Bugfix: OpenGL3.0 drivers would crash Racer due to a mistake in getting some extension function pointers.
- Bugfix: track's with special.ini gfx.time below 1000 (10am) were not interpreted correctly.
- Bugfix: turning on projected lights no longer kills some 3D dials
- Heavily modified Cg shaders. Also added a lot more. See http://racer.nl/tutorial/gpushader.htm
- Projected lights used alphafunc, which made lights on semi-transparent object pixely.
- Added car.ini's model_reverse_l/r models for true rear lights. This should do away with the views.ini hack to add reverse lights.
- Modified live track envmapping to not do all sides every frame. Lots faster.
- Removed dbg_stats tree in racer.ini (it was obsolete).
- Added 'clouds' script command for Cg-shaded skies, added 'clouds' uniform float parameter for Cg shaders (0..1).
- Also added 'clouds' in a track's special.ini (env.clouds)
- Added resolution.vsync to sync to display frequency or not (0=max fps, 1=sync, >1=set interval)
- Added moving helmet (+pilot body) model option in car.ini. See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/helmet.htm
- Raised the number of possible flares for each car to 20 (was 10)
- Simple (single-polygon) shadows for car views without a body model are now turned off.
- Removed 'fx.sky_enable' option. The sky is always on.
- Removed 'gfx.reflections' option. Was/is obsolete.
- Added graphics.show_names to be able to indicate driver names floating above cars.
- Added mirrors.texture.fbo setting to render into an offscreen framebuffer object (faster)
- Added mirrors.texture.fbo_samples setting to enable anti-aliasing of the mirror.
- Added HDR rendering basics (renderer.hdr.enable=1). Uses data/renderer/shaders_hdr directory if enabled, shaders_ldr otherwise.
- Added Bloom rendering for HDR mode (renderer.bloom.enable=1).
- Split data/renderer/shaders directory in two: shaders_ldr and shaders_hdr. HDR is the way to go. LDR will be deprecated.
- Added ini.auto_lights setting (0/1) to determine with time-of-day controls a car's light automatically
- Added shader 'reflect' material property for reflective Cg shaders (in the same line as diffuse, ambient, specular etc).
Use this in conjunction with [dyn_]shader_reflective_v/f.cg for example.
- Added car.shd/track.shd 'motion_blur' variable to turn off motion blur velocity map generation for certain shaders (wheels mostly).
- Added auto-exposure settings for HDR rendering (racer.ini:renderer.auto_exposure.*)
- Added fx.sun.auto_time_of_day to track real current (PC) time for the time of day in Racer
- Added fx.sun.fast_time_factor to set time speed. Normally 0 for no time change, 1 for realtime, >1=faster than realtime
- Added fueltank in cars. See data/cars/default/car.ini (fuel.* settings). Currently in alpha. No fuel means no throttle.
- Added fuel view variables for views.ini files (for cars). See http://www.racer.nl/tutorial/fuel.htm for details.
- Added formatting option for views.ini; 'float_1' displays a value with 1 decimal (for example: 123.4).
- Added 'sample_hold' option for view elements to get slow-updating dials (mostly useful for digital dashboards)
- Added fx.sun.flare option to remove sun flare. It doesn't match with the Cg sun position.

 

[GizmoPower]

Yes! It was intended to you Tiberius!
Tanx again!

I just can´t get that bastard airborn.... Done some nice slides with it.. spooky!

 

[glyn]

Thanks, as usual with you guys, spot on information. Going to go over to the other forum

 

[Tiberius]

Heheh, good luck getting it airbourne :wink2:

This is the BIG problem I ran into, Racer doesn't have any kind of airbourne physics (but then a car sim shouldn't need them ). I did try a lot of tweaks on a later version (which I no longer have unfortunately) but even with perfect weight distribution and two matched aero wings front and rear doing body lift, you've got no air control at all, once you go fast enough for the body lift to lift your wheels from the ground you're totally at the mercy of physics, usually it's explosive stuff :shame:

It's fun to see it lapping Carlswood, fun to see a 150ft airliner in a car simulator at all...but probably a much better idea spending time on vintage fast Fords :wink2:

 

[Bad Driver]

The Non-Cg version is discontinued ?

Hi ! i am using the 065 non-Cg version of racer

The latest betas 0.80-0.82 do not run on my pc because i have an old Nvidia FX card so i want to ask if the Non-Cg version is discontinued.

After a short period the REPLAY becomes laggy - the framerate drops to ~1fps !! - is there anything to edit in the racer.ini to fix that ?

Many tracks appear dark or strange , are those made for the Cg version or they're made for older versions ?


thanks

 

[Tiberius]

Hi. 065 is still there, but it'll most likely be the last non-cg version of Racer. Even so, you could still edit cars/tracks to run on 065 no problem, but cg looks better and with all due respect, things don't stay the same forever - eventually you have to upgrade just to run new programs. I wish I could still run my old Compaq desktop, but things change

Tracks looking dark etc - welcome to Racer, you'll need to get used to editing config files in notepad I'm afraid. I guess you're downloading old tracks from places like racerxtreme.com? There's virtually nothing made for cg yet, most cars/tracks are quite old now hence you will probably get a few issues with some of them, and dark tracks is one of them.

Lighting has changed quite a bit over time, a lot of tracks (and cars even) are still around from the old days of Racer 050 and before. You probably need to change the lighting a bit, for that you'll need to open the special.ini file (found in the folder for that track). It's been a while, but you can try increasing the ambient light in the section where ambient, specular etc is - try increasing ambient light a bit, or if ambient isn't in there, add it in - something like:

ambient=2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0

This should make things a lot brighter for you.

About the replays, the only time I used to get bad lag with them was years ago on my old P4 2.0 computer when I was running Racer 050. What processor are you running? They do eat some power but it shouldn't really notice on most computers now.

Hope this helps :good:

 

[Bad Driver]

The replays (F2) run very smoothly for the first 2-3 minutes and then suddenly i get 1 fps , so it's not a cpu problem.

Also i forgot to mention that the Keyboard assigned SHIFTS don't work !! I assign for example SHIFT2 to J and nothing happens when i press it while playing.

 

[C14ru5]

With the thread for this track at RaceSimCentral having been unavailable for a while, I didn't know about this local development thread. (Thanks for the e-mail, FSR!)

About two weeks ago, I began developing the go-kart track on my own inside Blender, not knowing about this joint effort, and certainly without having any topographic data map as reference. I'm still fine-tuning the elevations, and I haven't done any UV mapping yet, so it'll be a while until I'm done. Boomer541, if you want I can give you my Blender/.3ds files as soon as I'm happy with the state that they're in. I believe the best end result can be achieved if we each try our own methods of establishing the topography of the track, and then compare our results afterwards, don't you think?

There [is] a tree in the go-kart area that I don't have info on that would look nice.

It's an unusually symmetrical-looking [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_pine"]Scots Pine[/ame] - I have three-four transparent textures of this tree type that can be suitable both for the single tree on the karting track and for the 4+ trees on the ridge going from the Glomma Papp tower and down to Butcher's corner. If anyone would like to see the textures (either to use them directly on a low-poly model or to use them as reference for a more intricate tree model), just send me a Personal Message and I'll provide them for you.

 

[boomer541]

C14ru5:
Great to know someone else is doing this also. Using the topo FSR posted is working ok quite nicely, just slow tedious work to get it to look good.

I'm texturing with the existing textures but have no info about any of the buildings in the go-kart area or trees which you can do if you know what they look like.

If you pm me with your e-mail address we can swap .blend files. I don't need, I think, the .3ds files but they could be useful.

 

[C14ru5]

If you pm me with your e-mail address we can swap .blend files. I don't need, I think, the .3ds files but they could be useful.

That sounds fine, except that this forum requires that I have a post count of 15 before I can send you a PM... Either we must continue to exchange files publically, or you'll have to do the contacting. Or wait until I've spammed this forum with a dozen posts (not going to happen).

In this post, I've attached the track draft that I worked on until now (.blend format and .3ds just in case). The only thing that's completed is the road path itself, with an elevation profile that I'm happy with. No camber/banking, curbs, road widths, terrain or UV mapping has been done. You may compare it to your work if you like.

Meanwhile, I'll work on the tree, the (track marshal?) building, the ads and the flagpoles.

 

[boomer541]

Sounds good, I'll take a look and give my comments.

It didn't open with anything useful, contact me and we can try again.

You can find my e-mail adress on my web page at:

http://personal.my180.net/~hojaboom/index.html

 

[Tiberius]

Try adding a line:

free_shifting=1

at the top of the controls.ini file, under the global bit:

global
{
free_shifting=1

That should get it working :good:

 

[hondahead95]

No. When I click the download link, it just shows a helluva lot of text. But it doesn't download a rar file. I'm using a Mac, so winRar and 7zip aren't an option, I use "The Unarchiver"

 

[Ian Strom]

The problem is that a noob setup the server.
See, the server is telling you browser that the .rar file is text and because the browser that you use does not go by extension, well, it does what it does with text files, displays them.
The server can and normally should be setup to specify the file type.. but some admins just suck and rely on browsers to go by extension 100% of the time.

If you have a direct link to the file then you can hold option while clicking on the link. Otherwise you can change browsers.
Alternatively, (if you use Safari)you can copy the URL from the URL bar when it is opening it as text and paste that into the downloads window.

 

[glyn]

I've been having an issue when trying to download cars from TraccionTrasera.com. It comes up with the code that's embedded in the .rar file. Anyone else have this issue?

I'm using an iMac and Firefox, no problems at all. Stuffit unzips the files perfectly

 

[Ian Strom]

Ewww! stuffit! bloated garbage nowadays.(it`s only excuse for being on any of my Macs is for .sitx archives)

Everything else is handled by "The Unarchiver"
It is a really great app.

 

[boomer541]

Ran racer, selected Lambo in quick race, ran race, pressed Esc, on menu clicked select car, racer crashed. See attached image that pops up.

Anyone else have this error and/or know how to fix?

 

[Tiberius]

Ran racer, selected Lambo in quick race, ran race, pressed Esc, on menu clicked select car, racer crashed. See attached image that pops up.

Anyone else have this error and/or know how to fix?

Boomer, that's a weird one. Sounds like what I sometimes get if I go to the select car screen and try to view a car which is using generic models..

Usually I don't get any problems with Racer at all unless I do something to make it crash.

Anything in the Qlog? Maybe just a memory hiccup? That hex code means nothing to me, I'm useless at reading any more than a Qlog.

 

[boomer541]

Further investigation indicates that it is somehow related to the car cg shaders as running a race with a car that has no cg shaders does not fail.

Can you duplicate the problem?

Hope Ruud takes note as it does look like a racer bug!

 

[glyn]

Wings

Hi guys, my S600 has sprouted wings at Mt Panorama

 

[boomer541]

That's the track overlay being too high! LOL