Use Racer in School

imgonna · Jul 25, 2010

Hi

Hope someone can answer a few quick q's:

I am a high school science teacher and I want to use Racer in class to demonstrate / experiment on the effects of water / difference surfaces / tyres on the stopping distances of cars.

1) I assume that the car physics can be edits quite simply via .ini file ??
2) Can I take an existing track and "easily" add some water / gravel etc to a straight or corner?

Thanks in advance as I am keen to use this sim in class.

Stereo · Jul 25, 2010

1) Yes, all the physics are in .ini files. Whether it's simple is a matter of opinion, the model used for tires is fairly complicated.
2) The Surface and Sounds track already has that sort of thing. I'm not sure how easy it would be to add to other tracks.

Cobra · Jul 27, 2010

Hiya, the above mentioned is the best way to go. The Surface and sounds track has the gravel, and the water...well its snow and ice. Since i live in Canada-I know driving on snow and ice-the track is realistic! But I do not know about the water on the track, to sim the hydroplaning....the ice section will do for that-and since I love Racer, can I join your class just to see?? -lol!

Dave Stephenson · Jul 27, 2010

Why weren't you my science teacher?

KS95 · Jul 27, 2010

I was thinking that myself lol.

AMGfan(BPM) · Jul 28, 2010

Where are you from\?

boomer541 · Jul 28, 2010

The water is a real small lake, with the info in the readme you can simulate a slippery water covered road as well as other conditions.

imgonna · Jul 28, 2010

Hi

Thanks for the replies -- ;-)

I am head of science and curriculum innovation in a school in the UK. We have a novel science programme, where the students can choose alternatives to the examined courses -- hence we "play" a lot. (Last year we built speed cameras for example)

The use of Racer is an extension to using Far Cry and Half Life to model real world situations.

I'll press ahead with the suggestions and post back when I've set up some teaching.

Cheers
Glen

mdbobbo · Aug 7, 2010

I seem to remember that one of the track developers even made a speed signal box on one track it showed what speed you where doing when you past it as I recall.
Although I'm not really sure if that track is available at all or just a private track.

I'd say SOME1 made a track but it's a bit confusing because there's a member here with the name "Some1"
as I know from being a commercial driver when our tyres on our vehicles are pumped up to, for example:
25 psi and we take the square Root of that figure = 5 (5 x 5 = 25)
then multiply it by 11
that's the speed a car will hydroplane with one inch of water = 55mph
I actually learned this formula when working for Dunlop tyres and the unusual thing about this is that it does not matter what weight the vehicle is, The only relevance is the psi on the wet road surface.
it seems to make a difference too weather you going up or down hill ( the car that is ) water accumulation reacts different but I do not have that accurate a formula for that.
with in Racer, at present there is a few setting that determine when the tyres let go from a cornering maneuver and drift in a straight line because of kinetic nurture from the car on the vehicles road traction.
But no matter how fast you drive over water you still end up with some traction to the road and it's that which is calibrated as the car slides on the slippery surface.
but even after many 100's of KM driving in racer I have yet to experience hydroplaning as such where the car instead of just slipping on the road also follows any incorporated camber and drifts in that direction whilst have no control over braking, steering etc.
I'm sure Ruud would love to see this aspect of Racers reality incorporated, as Racer is being designed with 100% reality in mind.

QuadCoreMax · Aug 7, 2010

Cool mdbobbo, been thinking the same yesterday about hydroplaning too !

mdbobbo · Aug 12, 2010

Not enough tyre pressure in the wet

just remember to keep those tires pumped in the real world or you might just end up sipping over to the wrongs side of life.... like this

part one it's at about three quarts into this clip
part two and here's the officer going to the rescue of the hapless victims

Harey · Aug 12, 2010

mdbobbo said:
just remember to keep those tires pumped in the real world or you might just end up sipping over to the wrongs side of life.... like this

part one it's at about three quarts into this clip
part two and here's the officer going to the rescue of the hapless victims

he was also going too fast for the weather, looks like he tried to tap the brakes or turn the vehicle.

Not Sure I'd call that thing an SUV looked like a Saturn Vue, which isn't, if you take it off road it will just not work.