Some wip projects

[AndreasFSC]

 

[AndreasFSC]

Just some nice car paint reflections...

 

[AndreasFSC]

Super Touring tracks are almost finished now. The remaining thing is to finish the new water shader to use for Oulton Park.
Trying to make moving bumpmap, and some attempts have been quite successful, but nothing that looks good enough so far.
The challenge is to combine the best from other shaders.

 

[AndreasFSC]

The water shader will look something like this. The water surface "moves" a little bit to simulate waves if a texture animation is used.
I have used the SRPL water a lot this time to find out how to convert a diffuse texture animation (but using a bump map animation) as a bump map. There are probably easier ways to do it, but I think this will be good enough for now.

 

[AndreasFSC]

This Croft evening race looked really good, but the framerate was bad. I hope I can optomize the shaders to gain some performance.

It got better when the field thinned out. The cars still have too much reflection (have to fix that) so that might have something to do with the poor performance. Also have to adjust the track and grass shaders a little bit more.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Tried some racing to see the shader in action (I usually just watch monitor).
I have noticed some things that needs adjusting, but I am quite happy with the looks so far.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Just a little bit of dx8 diffuse rewrite for more consistent light (where it has to be used).

 

[AndreasFSC]

I have made a test shader that has a built in shadow reciever. The good thing is that it makes it possible to control how shadows work. Shadow should be an absence of directional/specular light. But the challenge is to add everything that is needed, as there is a limit for how many instructions the shader can handle, and in directx9 that limit is not that high.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Some good news: I have been able to improve the performance of the most demanding shaders by limiting calculations of things that can't be seen.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Experimenting with ways to add low poly shadows.
It requires a lot of not too long meshes.
I think it improves the visuals a lot and I don't think it effects performance a lot when set to "static".

 

[AndreasFSC]

I wondered why Oulton Park looked so flat. It turns out there were no normals or probably extremely short normals.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Same thing with Snetterton

 

[Incredible Hulk]

One question.
Are You changing materials and shaders inside 3DMax/Blender/3DSimed or you refine/adapt things globally.
I don’t know if it’s possible like in rF to pack just the shaders used on some modded tracks to not interfere with original content or other mods?

I would prefer if you try to go “really wild” with your tracks, adding new texture maps, shadows etc. Modern rigs can handle probably lot more than for what game was optimised long time ago.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Mainly global materials, but also some "special" ones.
The aim is still that they should not cause too much trouble to other tracks, but there could always be some issues if materials are set up in an unexpected way.
Yes it would be interesting to max out things, but at least for me if adding too much things the performance takes a hit.
Maybe it is a game engine thing, or directx9 perhaps? Or some unknown bottle neck in my computer

 

[AndreasFSC]

I can't add any ingame post processing, at least not for the moment, so I decided to try to "include" it in the shaders.
Tried a lot of different unsuccessful things, but at last I found a way to add more shade depth in a way that is simple enough to be included. It is quite hard but also interesting to pack everything (or the most important things) in such a smal space available in the dx9 shaders. Still have a few things to solve, most of it being combining the new diffuse shaders (dx7 and 8) with things needed in the game, like transparency for skies, trees etc.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Testing some unedited tracks with the new shaders, works well so far (but there is always a risk that some cars or tracks will look a little bit worse.) I think I'll release next shader beta very soon.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Status update


Released:

* Reloaded shaders public beta v1.3
- Released new, hopefully improved, version.

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WIP projects, descending priority:

* Thruxton, Super Touring Track pack
- I plan to release updates for these tracks next. Mostly visual updates, to be released soon.

* Super touring
- Next thing to do or in parallel with the tracks. No big plans for the moment, mostly fixes and tweaks.

* Updates to some TinyTweaks, and STCC2 tinytweak.
- Will most likely be transformed to miditweaks with things like talent files, updated normals and other minor things.
Nothing spectacular, just fixing things. Could also be some higher resolution textures. Focus is as usual at standard game contents. This has now turned into "Race Remaster"

* Pit crew patch
- Trying to figure out why it doesn't work with some cars. I think it is related to how the game tries to find the wheel meshes for shadow. It seems these meshes needs to be named correctly (starting with same name as car files?) and be available in the same folder as the inccar file. This helped for Honda WTCC 07, but not for other cars, so investigation continues.
Will eventually move into "Race Remaster"

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Long time/paused projects:

* Test track from Toca2.
- Might continue later, using new shaders and maybe other things I have learnt from Simbin tracks.

* STCC 2003
- Have to balance the performance of the cars and improve the visuals slightly for a more even look.
Haven't decided what to do about car ID's, but will probably reuse ID's, maybe from BTC-T mod.

* Fiesta cup 1998 (Toca 2).
- Exterior is about 90% done. No interior or physics yet, might have to install Toca2 to check for car specs and setup.

* GT3 Huracan
- some exterior details left, then it is time for interior(s) and physics.

* Super Touring Europe and/or Toca World Touring Cars
- add some of Markano's skins as addon series for Super Touring Seasons mod

 

[AndreasFSC]

I hope to be able to finish the super touring track pack soon. Have written a list with things to do.

Not that anyone is forcing me to work on anything of this, just that I get no peace of mind when the tracks don't work with the shaders
I am a silly person

It seems to always be sunset when I visit Knockhill (sun shining from wrong side compared to car reflections ):

Croft works quite nicely, but still have some problems with the new tree shader:

Added some simple shadow casters where needed the most and changed some built in LOD settings so trees doesn't appear from nowhere as much:

Tried some different things with the grass here. Needs some more color balancing:

 

[AndreasFSC]

Don't know if this track will ever be finished. But it is a cool track

 

[AndreasFSC]

The shader for most car materials works quite well now, but the one for metallic paint needs some more work.

First attempt here. I think it needs sharper reflections still, but a little bit better now.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Edited WTCC 2009 mod to work with pitcrew.
If I can get permission by the author(s) it could be a "tinytweak".

WTCC 2005 works for me as it is. The usual "tinytweak" treatment and updated driver names on windows for consistency could be added if that is ok with the author(s).