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.

 

[2o6]

I'm really confused. I got Cg support on 0.73, but this one I can't even get racer to start.

QLog:
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [noqapp/1588] --- application start ---
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [noqapp/1588] 1 processor(s); setting affinity to 0x1
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [racer/1588] Racer version: 0.8.2 (Apr 24 2009/14:29:50)
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (WARN): [racer/1588] WorldMotionBlur: FBO multisampling not supported; no OpenGL EXT_framebuffer_multisample extension; set motion_blur.samples to 0
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] DGPUShaderManager:MakeObject(data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg): can't create CG fragment shader program
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] DGPUShaderManager: [data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg] CG ERROR : "The compile returned an error."
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/motion_blur.cg(67) : warning C7050: "color-0002" might be used before being initialized
(0) : error C6002: Instruction limit of 96 exceeded; 174 instructions needed to compile program
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (ERR ): [racer/1588] Exiting on compile error.

 

[davidiau]

I'm really confused. I got Cg support on 0.73, but this one I can't even get racer to start.

QLog:
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [noqapp/1588] --- application start ---
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [noqapp/1588] 1 processor(s); setting affinity to 0x1
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (INFO): [racer/1588] Racer version: 0.8.2 (Apr 24 2009/14:29:50)
Thu Jun 11 23:33:36 (WARN): [racer/1588] WorldMotionBlur: FBO multisampling not supported; no OpenGL EXT_framebuffer_multisample extension; set motion_blur.samples to 0
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] DGPUShaderManager:MakeObject(data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg): can't create CG fragment shader program
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] DGPUShaderManager: [data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/bloom_motionblur_vign2_f.cg] CG ERROR : "The compile returned an error."
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (WARN): [racer/1588] data/renderer/fullscreen_shaders_hdr/motion_blur.cg(67) : warning C7050: "color-0002" might be used before being initialized
(0) : error C6002: Instruction limit of 96 exceeded; 174 instructions needed to compile program
Thu Jun 11 23:33:37 (ERR ): [racer/1588] Exiting on compile error.

I'd guess downloading the latest nVidia? drivers and installing them?

 

[citronized]

I'm using an intel iMac and did have a problem initially. I tried full screen and it extended past the borders so that I couldn't see the 'accept' button or any others for that matter so I couldn't change back. Being a newbie I just downloaded racer again to get the original .ini file. I've found the only resolution I can reliably use is 1280x1024. I tried changing to my Mac resolution in the racer.ini file but it won't accept my resolution of 1680x1050
I agree with you, it is a great sim and given me hours of fun

I've you tried changing the value of resolution.render_aspect from 1.333 to 1.6 ? I think it should do the trick, for iMac screens when using resolutions like 1280*800 or 1680*1050…

 

[davidiau]

Movable models have been disabled since very soon after their introduction.
Ruud has made indications that they may be coming back however.
I hope that they will use a model in it's original form instead of needing a lot
of dimensional tweaking like they did before.

Alex Forbin

I can confirm this to be true. GraveDigger had moving suspension for about 2 revisions of Racer before it stopped working. I've been intending to write some Cg to move GD's suspension, but as Racer has issues with heavy vehicles I've so far devoted my time to more doable projects like Cg'ing Mugello.

 

[citronized]

Thank you David. Don't know how some Cg code may interact in game, so I won't try this (hard) way. I'm just hoping Ruud will reintroduce this function as soon as he can, for many race cars, suspensions arms are so obvious, it could give Racer's a much realistic look, though.

 

[davidiau]

Thank you David. Don't know how some Cg code may interact in game, so I won't try this (hard) way. I'm just hoping Ruud will reintroduce this function as soon as he can, for many race cars, suspensions arms are so obvious, it could give Racer's a much realistic look, though.

Agree with all of that, I think ur right there isn't any suspension data to feed to Cg to calculate with, it'd be more of a kludge. it isn't as simple a concept as a 'spinning radiator fan'

 

[francomk]

Hello again, people!

This track is simple and really great.
Congrats, Fredrik!

 

[GizmoPower]

Last I tried setting up Gravedigger, I still had issues with wheels popping below ground on hard/long jumps. Has Racer's suspension improved recently for heavy vehicles? Without modifying Racer.ini? I could get GD to work if i used a normal car weight and rescaled/fudged everything else to suit, but using real weights & values is prefferable. I've also got a Monster truck jumps track I'd started making, orignally to test GD with...

davidiau:
Yes I know what you mean, and yes I faked it!!
If I set the vehicle to say 2 tonn I get problems like you mention about wheels popping below ground. The weight now is 1 tonn, And "sometimes" it still does popp the wheels below ground when rolling, not yet on heavy jumps....
I dont think theres nothing realistic in the INI. It´s just trying and failing cind of setup. But it´s great fun!!

I´ve been watching your threads about GD and hoping for a release, but I see that there are problems due to Racer that makes this difficult to complete.
Is that track by any chance something you would like to share?
It would be great fun testing my Monster Chevy there!!
Understand if not.

Harey:
That body I found in .3ds format somwhere and converted to .dof. Can´t remember where..?

Knut Omdal Tveito:
Takker!

 

[Harey]

davidiau:
Yes I know what you mean, and yes I faked it!!
If I set the vehicle to say 2 tonn I get problems like you mention about wheels popping below ground. The weight now is 1 tonn, And "sometimes" it still does popp the wheels below ground when rolling, not yet on heavy jumps....
I dont think theres nothing realistic in the INI. It´s just trying and failing cind of setup. But it´s great fun!!

I´ve been watching your threads about GD and hoping for a release, but I see that there are problems due to Racer that makes this difficult to complete.
Is that track by any chance something you would like to share?
It would be great fun testing my Monster Chevy there!!
Understand if not.

Harey:
That body I found in .3ds format somwhere and converted to .dof. Can´t remember where..?

Knut Omdal Tveito:
Takker!

probably the same place I found it called Chevy Van, when you look at it and its actually a Ford Econoline lol

and the weight problems has been why my Peterbilt was kinda stopped dead in its tracks, though other issues with the ini also rendered it useless for no more than a prop.

 

[Tiberius]

Hi. Nothing there that points to any problem.

What graphics cars/operating system are you using? If your gfx card is an ATI or is a GeForce older than a 7950, you might have a problem.

Try turning the detail right down with config.exe and see if you can get it to run.

 

[Tiberius]

I'm really confused. I got Cg support on 0.73, but this one I can't even get racer to start.

Looks like your gfx card is too old to do the motion blur...was getting much the same errors with my old one, same with the multisampling bit :-/

What card is it?

 

[Tiberius]

Knut Omdal Tveito:
Takker!

What da hell is a takker? Some street slang for stapler?

You don't wanna know the fun I had with the B707 on that track a long time ago :tape:

Looks good :thumb:

 

[glyn]

Thanks, I tried the 1.6, didn't seem to make any difference so I deleted all resolutions and entered my own as the only one. as you can see by the pic it's a bit stretched but I can live with that. It certainly makes the whole driving experience more fun. I tried setting full screen to 1 earlier and just got my normal view plus 4" of flashing desktop on the right. I've also learned to save a copy of the racer.ini file in case any mods don't work.

 

[Ian Strom]

I get an odd slow pulsing of the 3D env's lighting with motion blur on... Not that I actually like motion blur.
Once it gets turned off all is well and FPS is back up to 200ish or so.

The effect can be seen here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7643750-272

I dunno if I have ever seen this before or if it is a known issue. I quickly scanned the 0.8.2 thread and did not see it so I shall post about it.

Rig:
Phenom x4 9950BE @ 3.0Ghz
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
4GB DDR2 (can't remember what speed I have it running at)
256MB Radeon HD 3850 w/ ATI Catalyst 9.5

Don't tell me to get an nvidia card. I am going to grab a Radeon HD 58xx series a month or two after they come out.

 

[2o6]

I'm roughly 75% done with this car.

It has/needs

- Exterior model is completely done and textured

- window textures need work

- Two different wheel designs, both hubcaps. Needs at least two more, both upper level rims.

- brake calipers (front, maybe rear......undecided)

- Interior is roughly 50% textured......need to actually design the Digital gauge cluster, HVAC/stereo controls

- A steering wheel........the current one is borrowed from the Fiat Panda.

- a proper .ini.........the current one is also borrowed from a Fiat Panda, so the car doesn't drive very well.

- Lights. That'll be the last thing I do.

- A better shader. The current one makes the car a bit too reflective for my tastes. It's OK, but I'll have to work on that too.

The variants of the car, (Coupe-Cabriolet, Wagon, Panel Van, 3-door, Sedan) also need work, with the Sedan, 3-door and Coupe cabrolet being the farthest along, respectively. The Panel Van and Wagon need a lot of work.

Here we go! Have a look at my newly baked textures! Not the best, but I'm proud of it.

What do you think?

 

[davidiau]

Get an nVidia card.
Lol. ATI doesn't fully support Cg, as it's an nVidian technology.
HDR is using Cg shaders, maybe later catalysts? I don't see there being any other option until either a) ATI fully supports Cg, probably when pigs fly or b) when Ruud implements openCL or other ATI & nVidia compatible shading language, possibly about the same time as ATI implementing Cg.

 

[GizmoPower]

What da hell is a takker? Some street slang for stapler?

You don't wanna know the fun I had with the B707 on that track a long time ago :tape:

Looks good :thumb:

LOL! Takker is tanx in Norwegian....

I remember reading you where experimenting on B707. Sounds fun! :dance2:
Did it leave the ground at all?

 

[boomer541]

Working on the go-kart section. It just takes time to get the elevation changes to look right.

I'm also working on a six mile long track that is taking a bit of time also.

Glad everyone likes this great track!

 

[foxo]

Imho you should start modelling real cars, maybe making concepts is not your thing?(no offence)

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

lol. Where are you from Gizmo?

Have you tried increasing the wheel rate? A soft tire will compress under load, but the .dof model is not compressed. If you set the wheel rate very high then maybe the wheels stay more on the ground. Just a thought.