Rain

I am aware that rFactor doesn't have rain, but I have a theory that might work and I'd like to ask the pros if they think it's worth pursuing. Although,,, it might be too late seeing as rF2 is just around the corner.

Krunch's skybox follows you around the track and is not static, so we could add to the skybox and put a cylinder in the centre close to the car with a few layers of animated rain texture. This way where ever the camera is it will see the rain.
I don't know how it would work on the winshield yet, I have to think about that one, cause cameras are in all different spots and cars are different shapes.

Here is an example.

rfrain.gif
 
that's cool. good thinking, i hope it works.
Since the skybox terrain is on the horizon.gmt, i think that leaves skyboxi.gmt clear, so that might be a candidate, just resize it rather much smaller and apply the rain animation?

If BTB had a 'wizard' for creating rF rainy road the way The Lonely does it that would be cool too. an option for "export wet version as well?"
 
that's cool. good thinking, i hope it works.
Since the skybox terrain is on the horizon.gmt, i think that leaves skyboxi.gmt clear, so that might be a candidate, just resize it rather much smaller and apply the rain animation?
Let me take a raincheck on that. I need to go learn what horizon and skyboxi is. But I'm thinking more so to attach it to Krunch's skybox (If it is ok with Krunch that is)

If BTB had a 'wizard' for creating rF rainy road the way The Lonely does it that would be cool too. an option for "export wet version as well?"
Good Idea!
 
I just did a quick and dirty job trying to get this idea to work, and it didn't for at least one of any number of reasons.
i made rain00.dds, rain01.dds, rain02.dds, resized skyboxi fairly small, set it as render in the scn, plopped them in the tracks sky directory, but nothing as yet. The track still loaded though, so that was a good sign :) as i said it was a quick and dirty effort and 2:30am.

but it got me thinking, there is no reason at all to involve the skybox. Any gmt object can be defined as movable...
 
I think that would just be for the centre of the skyboxi, so wherever the player moved it would stay centred around his/her vision. I wouldn't have thought the circumference would be an issue but simply bring the rain texture closer. I don't know for sure though, 'cause i couldn't get it working :)

Anyway, late at night i wasn't interested in trying to get it to appear, so i started on the horizon.gmt, just to see if would work. Well, yes, i got the rain texture on the horizon, i didn't rescale the horizon at all but had the rain texture painted all the way around. Problem is i couldn't get the animation working. That was my first try at texture animation using 3dsm so i probably had something set wrong.
 
Make sure you have rain.dds included too, the base model would have rain.dds then in the same folder put rain(00-03).dds. rain00.dds will will be exactly the same as rain.dds. 01, 02, and rain03.dds would be the different ones. Then in the animation sequence specify 0,1,2,3.

Almost got my system back up and running. :sweat:
 
i tried it with rain, rain00, rain01, rain02.dds but it would just stay as rain.dds. i set some parameters in 3dsm for the sequence and framerate etc but still no good. i might leave it up to you now that your're just about set up with your machine.

I don't see any reason why someone with the skills couldn't get this to work, but i wonder why no one has done it before now.
 
I made 2 octagons, one inside the other to give it some depth, added it into the skyboxi instance, made 4 textures, animated them and that's about it.
I think it will need a sphere or something of the sorts, because you can see the ring where the rain material stops. It might need 2 textures, one with a straight down view for top and bottom and the side on view that's already in it.
It all depends on how serious it is taken. I more so just wanted to see if it would work, I don't know how far I will pursue it.
I am looking into getting the tires to leave a tire footprint that has a different grip value (is that what it's called when a tire drives over a wet road and pushes the water aside?), so if your following a car and stay in it's tracks you will have more grip as is in real life. In the tdf you can specify an object to be used instead of the Tex, which can be set up for this instance, but I am struggling in finding a way to get the tires to leave a trail.


It works trackside because It follows the cam, the cam is the centre point of the object..


Code:
//-------------------------------------------------------
//-- Thanks to Neil Faichney (Krunch) for the following -
//-- Skybox structure and textures!! --------------------
//-------------------------------------------------------

Instance=skyboxi
{
  Moveable=True
  MeshFile=skyboxi.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False Render=False
  Pos=(0.0,0.0,0.0) Orient=(0.0,0.0,0.0) // move and rotate whole skybox if required
  Instance=CLOUDS
  {
    Moveable=True
    MeshFile=horizon.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False
    Instance=NightLight00Glow
    {
       Moveable=True
       MeshFile=horizonlights.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False
    }
    Instance=Sky
    {
      Moveable=True
      MeshFile=Sky.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False
    }
    [B]Instance=rain
    {
      Moveable=True
      MeshFile=rain.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False
     }[/B]
  }
}
 
Well, bloody brilliant. Even more so that you're pushing the wet weather grip thing further.
:good:

I though rain might need some sort of dome on top, but good idea including an inner and outer shape for depth too.

Com8 has included moving clouds :)cloudy:) and an outstanding looking wet road surface in his newest release Mainz-Finthen as well. Things are looking up for rF!
 
I'm stuck on something. When going fast, in my peripheral vision, the rain is coming straight down and it doesn't look right. I thought to have the sides of it with the rain going sideways, but it wont rotate, so if you rotate the camera left, you see the left side of it. It stays locked facing north like it has a gyroscope holding it in place. I am trying to find a way to make it stick with the camera and rotate with the camera, that way I can have rain on the side going sideways. Any suggestions?
 
I think it's cool you're pushing the envelope, but I have my doubts as to the final outcome:

1) How are you going to implement user-controlled windshield wipers?
2) What's the equivalent of wipers when you're in a car without a windshield?
3) If we really want rain, we can always load a Simbin title.
4) Can you finish this before rF2 is finished and renders your efforts obsolete?
5) From my experience, racing in the rain sucks, but racing on a drying track can be fun if you're the one who figures out when traction is available, so a dynamic version is more desireable than a static version of rain.
 

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