[WIP] Frequently Asked Questions

KS95

RACER Moderator
Alright people, help me out :) Go ahead and tell me what's wrong with it, and if you could right some additions to it, I'd ve very grateful :D I think I'll probably be putting each of the four sections (do we need any more?) in different posts for the offical thread.

Also, if someone's interested in starting that update checklist/tutorial kind of thing that was mentioned, please go ahead.

This is what I've got so far for the FAQ:

Table of Contents
1. General
- Which version of Racer should I run?​
- Where can I download cars and tracks?​
- Why are there not many cars/tracks that work with the current version?​
- What are the minimum/recommended PC specs for Racer?​
- How can I change the time?​
- How can I change the weather?​
2. Cars
- How can I change the version of a car made for an older Racer? (for recent versions)​
- How can I update cars for recent versions of Racer? (090 final)​
3. Tracks
- How can I update tracks for recent versions of Racer? (090 final)​

4. Shaders
- How can I update non-CG shaders to CG-shaders?​

5. Mac and Linux
- How can I connect to a multiplayer host?​

6. Troubleshooting/Common Problems
- Game does not run.​
- The game has a low FPS(frames per second)/is slow or choppy.​
- Laptops powered by Optimus graphics cards (nVidia GT 520-550m).​

General
Which version of Racer should I run?
There are severall good versions of Racer you could run:
  • v0.8.xx (beta): The most recent versions. They have fixes for previous bugs and run smoother, although require a relatively modern GPU (graphics card). Most content will not run unless it has been updated, this could be quick fixes or could be more complex. Requires a Windows operating system, although an emulator such as WINE for Mac/Linux could work.
  • v0.6.5 (stable): The most recent stable version. Can run on older computers and more smoothly on computers with ATI graphics cards. Should support the older content, although may not support the newer.
  • v0.5.4: The highest version with native Mac support, will not require a Windows OS or emulator.
  • v0.5.0 (final): The last final release. Is quite out of date, but will also run on Mac natively and supports multiplayer on Macs.
Where can I download cars and tracks?
You can find most of the cars/tracks that have been made for Racer here on the official forum or here.
Why are there not many cars/tracks that work with the current version?
There have been a lot of changes in Racer during it's development that have caused the older content to no longer work without updates. There are however some easy fixes that can be done, see this thread.
What are the minimum/recommended PC specs for Racer?
These are the minimum and recommended specs for the most recent versions of Racer (0.8.x):
  • Minimum:
CPU: 2 Ghz Single Core​
Ram: 1GB​
GPU: Preferably nVidia, GT210 or similar. (although if you want to run Racer "out of the box", a GT240 or GT430 is recommended)​
  • Recommended:
CPU: 3 Ghz Dual Core​
Ram: 2+GB​
GPU: Preferably nVidia, at least GTS250 or similar. (although if you want to run Racer "out of the box", a GTS250/GT450 or higher is recommended)​
How can I change the time?
To change the time of day ingame, use the console: 'SHIFT' + '[' (or '@', '#', '`') to open the console, then type 'time 1800' to set the time of day to 18:00 for example.
How can I change the weather?
There are numerous codes for changing the weather. Open the console by pressing 'SHIFT' + '[' (or '@', '#', '`'), then type 'clouds 0.5', or 'rain 1', 'snow 1', 'thunder 1' for example.
Cars
How can I change the version of a car made for an older Racer?(for recent versions)
If the car was made for an older version of Racer (such as 0.8.8) that uses CG-shaders, you can change the version number by opening the car.ini. Then in the car section, look for "version=" and change it to 090. Done!
carversion.png


How can I update cars for recent versions of Racer? (090 final)
Please see this thread.


Tracks

How can I update cars for recent versions of Racer? (090 final)
Please see this thread.


Shaders
How can I update non-CG shaders to CG-shaders?
The CG shaders found in newer versions of Racer aren't all that different to the old shaders. They mostly use the same format but with a few additions to how they are wrote. Click here for more information and how to update. (See '1.3 Shaders')

Mac and Linux
How can I connect to a multiplayer host?
(Answer by 'macracer')

050f works with multiplayer. But only two macs. You have to turn off firewall on host and host should have a fix IP adress, for those create a new network environment and try 192.168.0.98 (TCP/IP). Then open racer.ini from joining mac, scroll down to "multiplayer" and enable=1. Server_remote=192.168.0.98 should be host IP; use_remote=1 and the other leave like it is.

Now join both macs, open racer, host and join.​


Troubleshooting/Common Problems
Game does not run.
  • If you have an ATI card do the following: Open racer.ini with Notepad (or similar software), press 'Ctrl' + 'F'. Once you do that, type "ATI=". Change it from "ATI=0" to "ATI=1" unless this has already been done automatically.
  • If you have an older PC or graphics card (or onboard graphics) you should try downloading an older version of Racer, such as v0.655 - a lot more cars/tracks will be compatible with that version as it is the last stable non-CG shader version.
The game has a low FPS (frames per second)/is slow or choppy.
If the game is choppy but does not have a low FPS, do the following:
  • Open racer.ini with Notepad (or similar software), press 'Ctrl' + 'F'. Once you do that, type "auto_exposure". Below the "auto_exposure" title, you should find "enable=1", change it to "enable=0". This does not affect the graphics very much, it just means that the exposure level will stay the same while driving. You may have to change the time to accomodate for this.
If the game doeshave a low FPS, there are a few things you can do to improve framerates:​
  • Disable shadowmapping: Open racer.ini with Notepad (or similar software), press 'Ctrl' + 'F'. Once you do that, type "shadowmapping". Under the title "shadowmapping" you will find "enable=1". Change that to "enable=0" and your FPS will improve, however you will not have as nice shadows.
  • Disable motion blur: Open racer.ini with Notepad (or similar software), press 'Ctrl' + 'F'. Once you do that, type "blur_alpha". Change "blur_alpha=0.x" to "blur_alpha=0".
Laptops powered by Optimus graphics cards (nVidia GT 520-550m):
For Racer to run correctly, you need to go into the nVidia control panel and manually set racer.exe to run with nVidia graphics.
 
A couple could be turned into a combined question:

Q: Which version should I run?
A: There are several good options.
0.8.xx beta: Most recent. Needs a relatively modern GPU. Most content won't run until it's been updated. Requires Windows (or emulator, such as WINE)
0.6.5: Good content support, runs on more hardware. Also requires Windows (or emulator).
0.5.4?: Highest version with native Mac support.
0.5.0f: Last final release, quite out of date. But supports multiplayer on Macs.

etc.
 
Thanks Stereo, that was helpful. I've added a Troubleshooting/Common Problems section and changed/added a few things :)
 
Tried the "motion_blur" fix for low fps. Went from 148 to 78 and got 458 kb of Qlog errors, all the same.

The best way to fix low fps is to get a better graphics card and it should be an nVidia.
 
Yeah, don't touch motion_blur=4, that messes with the renderer. It's not well labeled, but a lot of things other than motion blur rely on that setting to work (since method 4 enables FBO rendering)

If you want to cut out motion blur (and it does give a 20% fps increase for me), you should be changing blur_alpha from 0.3 to 0.0.


A bigger FPS increase is to disable shadowmapping in racer.ini.
shadowmapping.enable=0 // 1 to enable shadowmapping

This gives me about doubled fps, but of course no more nice shadows.
 
Okay, I scrapped the motion blur method=0 fix and changed it to blur_alpha and added the shadowmapping fix.

Perhaps you smarties should come up with a recommended graphics card list?
 
Depends on people's opinion of drivable...but I find I can drive at anything above 20fps.
For that it seems anything above a NVIDIA GT210 @ 1024x768
From there it depends on the GPU's RAM more than speed really, though a faster shader clock with more shader cores will help.
So minimum spec would be NVIDIA GT210 IMHO, recommended would probably be NVIDIA GTS250 or above
RAM it seems doesn't particularly matter, but minimum of 1GB, rec of 2 would be good.
Any processor really, I don't see that affecting FPS too much...though I'd assume multiple cores would be recommended as I'm sure Ruud will probably incorporate some threads onto different cores at some point to speed things up.

Quick Summary: (Left OS out as Ruud might actually recommend an older OS)

Minimum Specs (Latest Beta)
CPU: 2gHz Single core
RAM: 1GB
GPU: NVIDIA GT210 or similar

Recommended Specs (Latest Beta)
CPU: 3Ghz Dual core
RAM: 2+GB
GPU: NVIDIA GTS250 or similar

Not sure on the specs for the stable or anything...I've not touched that in years. Probably anything later than 2000 will run that.
 
I think that camsinny specs would apply well for Racer betas up to v0.8.8, but I am not to sure about that GT210 at all, especially for the latest Racer versions..

If someone wants to run Racer 0.8.3x straight "out of the box", without doing much optimization, more realistic specs should probably be like this:

Minimum Specs (Latest Beta 1024X768)
CPU: 2gHz Single core
RAM: 1GB DDR
GPU: NVIDIA GT 240, GT 430

Recommended Specs (Latest Beta 1024X768)
CPU: 3Ghz Dual core
RAM: 2+GB DDR2/3
GPU: NVIDIA GTS 250 or higher 2xx series; NVIDIA GT 450 or higher 4xx series
 
Just noting that out of the box settings, my GTX 460 can run 1920x1080 easily. I usually go smaller though so I can have .ini files onscreen and edit/reload them :p
 
I assume cause on faster cards, the bottleneck isn't the screen size - I get 160fps with default settings at 1024x768, which only drops to 135fps at 1920x1080. Whereas on my old card, that probably would have been nearly proportional to the number of pixels (less than half the framerate).
 
I have a GTX 285 which is that same as what Ruud was using a few versions ago, cost me $300 but was well worth the price.

Gyral or swiss mountain are the two tracks that kill fps, I only get about 50 fps on them well over 100 on almost all other tracks.
 
....To change the time of day ingame, use the console: 'SHIFT' + '[' (or '@', '#', '`') to open the console, then type 'time 1800' to set the time of day to 18:00 for example.

:wink: G15 Racer commands/Text Block with swapped EN language keyboard to QWERTY. That's why I asked Ruud/Mitch to look after it, I'm getting a lot of confusion/bad reflexes. Same in Crytek Sandbox 2.

shoz cqrpoints
shoz cqrbbox
reloqd scripts
qi perfor,qnce

mapped to my 18 custom commands buttons for 1 Racer Logitech profile.

I use Shift + ³ or ² on my G15 Azerty keyboard to enable console once EN swapped. That's why all the struggle at the beginning...
 
Minor updates (finally though!) - Cars and the new Shaders section.

Comments and additions very welcome! :)
 
You should consider adding the following instruction for users with laptops powered by Optimus graphics cards (nVidia GT 520-550m)- you need to go to the nVidia control panel and manually set racer.exe to run with the nvidia graphics. Otherwise, it crashes with CG errors.
 
Have made some minor content updates and improved organisation. Also added a table of contents.

I'd massively appreciate some contributions to the FAQ, perhaps some common Qlog errors and fixes. Anything is welcome!
 

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