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.

 

[Tiberius]

Nothing wrong with 50k+ polies if you handle it properly, my Capri is around 50k all in, the XJ-S (the one on the other thread, yes it's mine :wink2 is just over 40k and I haven't put the underbody details on yet.

What you need to do is manage the models properly, keep some bits separate so that you can then add them as separate models (see generic models on racer.nl). That way you can keep different parts of the car separate and then do LODs (level of detail), which are just lower detail models which replace the high detail ones when you move a certain distance away.

So, you might have a really highly detailed bodyshell model but then have that replaced with a lower detail one without smaller details like window wipers, door handles etc at 30 metres, then have perhaps a really low poly one which comes into view at 100 metres. Same with parts like the engine and chassis, you might really want to put them in so you can see them when you're looking at the car up close but you can set the LOD distance so that they disappear when you're over 25 metres away...then Racer won't need to render the engine models on any cars on track which are further than 25m from you. Also, you can do the same for the other models, like the road wheels and even the steering wheel.

Doing the LODs takes a bit more work but if you set them up right you can keep the high detail but really improve your framerates.

Tutorials, if you try google there's a few to be found online specific to Max...it looks though like you know the basics which is great. I tried Max a while back but couldn't get into the workflow so went back to Blender so can't really help with learning Max, but once you learn it, it's a good program to use

Nice concept :thumb:

 

[Tiberius]

Heheh, double post...thought that only happened on RSC

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Thanks for the links and comments guys. Will have a look at it straight away.

2o6, the wheels and steering wheel are separate models

Very useful post there, Tiberius. Sounds very interresting with lod. So far i've only used the simplest kind of modelling and borrowing stuff from the Murcielago.

Congrats on the XJS man, looks extremely nice! Great to see how far Racer have come. I can only dream to make something like that. My goal with this car is mainly towards physics and setups, but I need a nice body to go with it

EDIT: One quick question. I've used .bmp for textures before. I've seen the other cars use .tga. Should I get a hold of Photoshop instead of PAINT?

 

[2o6]

Thanks for the links and comments guys. Will have a look at it straight away.

2o6, the wheels and steering wheel are separate models

Very useful post there, Tiberius. Sounds very interresting with lod. So far i've only used the simplest kind of modelling and borrowing stuff from the Murcielago.

Congrats on the XJS man, looks extremely nice! Great to see how far Racer have come. I can only dream to make something like that. My goal with this car is mainly towards physics and setups, but I need a nice body to go with it

EDIT: One quick question. I've used .bmp for textures before. I've seen the other cars use .tga. Should I get a hold of Photoshop instead of PAINT?

Use GIMP. It's free.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Use GIMP. It's free.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one. Thanks, downloading now

 

[AMGfan(BPM)]

BMP is too heavy files.

 

[Alexander Knoll]

BMW 320si WTCC 2006

arty2:

 

[Alexander Knoll]

Beast!

Hi Tom,
looks great!

LG Alex

 

[boomer541]

Animated trees on Carlswood have white edges fixed track.shd file by setting alphafunc =128 instead of =1.

Love the impact sounds!

ufo.jpg shows a sun reflection possibly?

Got the sun intensity to work using the following settings in racer.ini renderer section with special.ini intensity=10:
fog=0 ;1
use_vbo=0 ;1
; HDR rendering (high-dynamic range)
enable=0 ;1
; Bloom on top of HDR - needs hdr.enable=1
enable=0 ;1
motion_blur
method=0 ;4
samples=0 ;16
The rest of the settings are the default, the result shown in renderer.jpg.

Now, about that sky...
Thanks for the info, Bruce, but I want to use a 360 deg. panoramic photo of the track in the skybox without having to use something that doesn't look like the real background which is the way Ruud did carlswood.

Pehaps he can shed some light on how to do it, just perhaps!

Otherwise I'm getting good fps and things are starting to look good.

one bug found, dust is not dark at night and hradlights don't illuminate the car in front.

 

[KS95]

Great looking Beemer DF!

 

[Tiberius]

Now, about that sky...
Thanks for the info, Bruce, but I want to use a 360 deg. panoramic photo of the track in the skybox without having to use something that doesn't look like the real background which is the way Ruud did carlswood.

Shouldn't be hard, all you really need is a basic shader that outputs baseCol*lightColor but doesn't receive fog (I think ).

Trees - hmm, looks like I'm doing something wrong here, tried changing the alphafunc and they're still glowing at the edges :-/

 

[AMGfan(BPM)]

lol

UFO!

 

[Ruud]

I target for 3DS Max with ASE exports. TrackEd does a lot of work to get single .ase track files converted to track dofs in one go.
Also, Modeler's ASE importer has been improved a bit. For tracks, using only one multi/sub material level is important.
As for textures, v0.8.2 will support also DDS (RGBA, DXT1/3/5). With Photoshop you can get a DDS exporter from nVidia.com.

 

[Alexander Knoll]

I target for 3DS Max with ASE exports. TrackEd does a lot of work to get single .ase track files converted to track dofs in one go.
Also, Modeler's ASE importer has been improved a bit. For tracks, using only one multi/sub material level is important.
As for textures, v0.8.2 will support also DDS (RGBA, DXT1/3/5). With Photoshop you can get a DDS exporter from nVidia.com.

Hi Ruud,
sorry for OT, i'm right that the TrackEd is buggy atm?
I can't see or add any spliene.....or timeline...
The new features (Pit/in/out/speedlimit) are not working too....
Or do i some thing wrong?

LG Alex

 

[gtpdzbiz]

Good to hear about dds support, so it means hdr textures can be possible?

 

[Ruud]

Hi David,
witch driver version do you use?
I got the 182,50 working with:
AF 16x
AA 16xQ
...

Try turning off fullscreen anti-aliasing in the nVidia control panel. Racer does AA internally (motion_blur.method=4, samples=8 for example). In the end, it just draws the anti-aliased scene texture (all done offscreen in an FBO) with 1 polygon (rectangle) to the screen. For that render pass, AA isn't going to help anymore.

 

[Ruud]

Animated trees on Carlswood have white edges fixed track.shd file by setting alphafunc =128 instead of =1.
...
one bug found, dust is not dark at night and hradlights don't illuminate the car in front.

That last one is intentional; rendering all the cars for projected lights costs a lot of framerate so I decided to take it out for now, as it doesn't often make a huge impact.

As for the first; a real solution is to do things like rFactor seems to do; have 1 pass that renders with depthwrite=1 and depth testing enabled, but with a high alphafunc to Z-buffer/render only the opaque details of the tree. Then add a 2nd pass where alpha blending is turned on, but depthwrite=0 and depth testing possibly off. That would add the fuzzy edges of the trees; you get sort errors there but the gist of the tree is ok, since that is Z-buffered.

However, .shd files don't support multiple passes yet. An intermediate solution would be to render the tree twice using 2 objects at the same spot but with different materials (tree_opaque and tree_transparent for example). Not too great.

 

[Ruud]

Hi Ruud,
sorry for OT, i'm right that the TrackEd is buggy atm?
I can't see or add any spliene.....or timeline...

That's probably the bloom bug disabling carpoints and such. Try disabling bloom and run TrackEd again.

 

[Ruud]

Good to hear about dds support, so it means hdr textures can be possible?

Not sure. I have RGBA8 and DXT1/3/5 working, but I haven't tried 16-bit yet. Might be good indeed for sky textures perhaps. Other textures don't really need I think, at least, Half Life 2 doesn't seem to, and who am I to judge them.

 

[EngineOfDarkness]

Try turning off fullscreen anti-aliasing in the nVidia control panel. Racer does AA internally (motion_blur.method=4, samples=8 for example). In the end, it just draws the anti-aliased scene texture (all done offscreen in an FBO) with 1 polygon (rectangle) to the screen. For that render pass, AA isn't going to help anymore.

So basically, racers AA and AF Setting (also non "Motion Blur" Settings you have somewhere in racer.ini) work now? They never did for me in older Versions and I never tried it once since then.

Edit:
filter
{
max_anisotropy=8
}
does not work (no motion blur (Cg/ FBO etc) involved)!

Oh.. crucify me, I misread anisotropy for anti aliasing...

Does Racer even have antialiasing without motion blur/ etc ?