Racer v0.5.2 beta 8.5-9.0 (Windows/Linux)

[IH8COPS]

Also how do you disable the starting horns (beep,beep,BEEP) it's kind of
annoying when developing. ;)

Delete or replace the horn_hi.wav and horn_low.wav files in the audio folder.

[Alex Forbin]

OK, thanks guys.

Alex Forbin

[Nissan Guy]

cant get the car to start, shadows dont work, and when i dowshift the rpm jsut jumps to redline then goes down. help lease

[Redburne]

Why'd you have to put everything(GFX.ini etc.) in to racer.ini? Now i can't use my favourite software raven.
You've installed Racer only to be able to use Raven? I'm flattered ... ;)

Well, if you take a look at this thread, you will find a new version of your favourite software which should now be able to work with the latest version of Racer (your second favourite software, I assume).

[El_Tate]

NO, don't replace anything. Just disable it in racer.ini. So, the project shadow should be enabled IN the car.ini NOT in the racer.ini?.

[Fastlap]

Thanks a lto for this new Version Mr. van Gaal! Will download immediately after work! :trampo:

[DavidIau]

Good work Ruud! Firstly, somethings changed in the graphics dept, everything looks more detailed, and the framerate boost is nice.
I just used the latest tracked's 'add lighting' button to remove the 'unknown geob' errors from a track successfully, without losing material names or any other oddities. Dunno whether the audio positioning bug is fix yet.

[nfsmaniax]

Thanks Ruud Van Gaal.
The improvements w.r.t the AI cars is really awesome - AI driver Terry Flyin' is doing times under 1:17 in the p206wrc around Carlswood_nt.
As was the case with 052b79, I'm having problems with tracked & carlab so I fall back to 050f when I have the need to use them.

[Kiwikidbrad]

yay yay yay :trampo: :trampo: :trampo: :trampo: :drink: :drink: :drink: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

About to download, from reading this thread I may need to play with racer ai settings again :)

[kman2003ko]

yay yay yay :trampo: :trampo: :trampo: :trampo: :drink: :drink: :drink: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

About to download, from reading this thread I may need to play with racer ai settings again :)
Hmm the Racer 052b86 version is slower in FPS than the 052b85 version...in this version im getting 10-15fps in the 052b85 version i was getting 40-50fps...

[Player_01]

very nice, a new version :clap:
but, How can i set details to be higher?? i see your pictures, it looks much better than here :scratch:
anyway Thanks rvangaal!

[Kiwikidbrad]

bug f12 for screenshots dosn't work in windows, have not tried full screen

[DavidIau]

bug f12 for screenshots dosn't work in windows, have not tried full screen
Works in full screen for me.
Another issue with all the recent beta's is Racer crashes on exit if there are lod models for the track. If i move the lod dofs out of the track folder, racer exits cleanly.

[Sawyer]

Finally the AI cars work, a little too good :). Thanks for putting this version out. Great work!

[Boomer541]

Tracked doesn't like to do ambient sounds, closes with fatal error. Also, not all sounds are available in the racer.ini.

AI with some tweaking in the car and racer ini files works quite nicely.

pacejka b9, b10, b11, and b12 are supposed to = 0 or you get those damned Qlog errors, Ruud, shame on you.

Lots of stuff still to check out. Most of the problems have already been posted.

[charlyw_ba]

Great, finally a new beta! :bowdown:
How about new Linux and Mac versions, we're all looking forward to what's coming! :hyper: :yippee:

[miran]

Hmm the Racer 052b86 version is slower in FPS than the 052b85 version...in this version im getting 10-15fps in the 052b85 version i was getting 40-50fps...
Disable the mirrors, they take an awefully lot of CPU power. I get almost 2x as many FPS without mirros as I do with them. User Raven or edit racer.ini directly...

[zuljin]

starter (S-key) doesn't work if "start_stalled=1" set in car.ini, any suggestions? :rage:

[racing klaus]

Great, finally a new beta! :bowdown:
How about new Linux and Mac versions, we're all looking forward to what's coming! :hyper: :yippee:

I´m looking forward to 052f for Mac for being able to test it and having multiplayer.
Seems to be great not to be alone on the roads (AI, Multiplayer), to know where am I (Map) and to have mirrors for to see who is behind me. Sounds great.
Also not to have shadows brighter than the road like now with newer cars in 050f, right textures and more realistic physics are enjoyments I´m looking forward to.


:really: :trampo: :rolleyes2

[rvangaal]

The engine redlining when downshifting because controls.blip_throttle is set to 1. The sounds nice with the Spoon, but you can set it to 0.

F12 not working is strange, but I for example have an nVidia GF6800 which has a bug with glReadPixels(), which means the minimap is broken, as are screenshots. That's gfx drivers v67.02 (same with the latest official drivers, 66.<something>).

The pid is a proportional-integral-derivative controller, standard stuff in engineering, lots of info on the web. I'm currently skipping the integral part, since that needs a history of values, so costs more CPU time and memory to implement, and P and D seem to do an ok job.
Remember the AI doing 50 before if no AI line was defined? They'd accelerate, decelerate, all very stomp on the throttle, stomp on the brakes, instead of getting to a speed and sticking there. PID does that with the error: output=p*error+d*derivative_of_error. So here for throttle for example Racer uses: error=desiredVelocity-actualVelocity. Then it uses the above formula to calculate the throttle pedal position. As the desiredVelocity comes close, the output goes down so it nicely stays somewhere near desiredVelocity (actually a bit below it, but well). Same for steering. This made AI car controlling smoother, which was very important for bypassing other cars.

[english_beans]

Nice ai ruud! some fun to be had with computer racers now :bg:

some1: perhaps you could add a plane to your shadow.dof and apply the shadow tex to it... then u could make a shader for it also.

Mike.

[some1]

some1: perhaps you could add a plane to your shadow.dof and apply the shadow tex to it... then u could make a shader for it also.
I think i already tried that... :(

[Alfanut]

So far, this technique has worked on each car model I have tried. It's the same as shown in the Honda Spoon car.ini:

graphics
{
; Car models used
shadow
{
model
{
; Projected shadow model
file=body.dof
use_shaders=0
}
}
}

In racer.ini -- project_shadows=1 (changed from '0')

The file=body.dof assumes that your car's main dof is named 'body' - in some instances this may need to state the model's primary body file.

I'm not sure if I happen to have a copy of the car model in question here but I would be happy to help solve this problem for anyone experiencing the car shadow projection difficulties.

I have adapted about a dozen different car models so far, had some problems with Iroker's Montreal but managed to get it right as well.

Let me know how else I can help?

[Alfanut]

Is it another Windows 98 compatibility problem?

1. Replays can not be saved.

2. Track cams are inoperable during replays, only the first (cam0) works.

3. RACER utilities; i.e., modeler, tracked and such do not display the complete options menus.

Other than that, racing is fun again. Frame rates, using two cars at the Montreal track, yielded an average of 34 fps, 25 fps at Monza. Not bad at all.

[wheel4hummer]

Well, at first I was angry because my windows stopped working, and I have to reinstall it. But, now I am happy because it gets a pretty good framerate on my sisters computer. Although I have to run it in 640x480, 16 bpp, I get 50FPS. And, thats pretty good for a 2.2GHz P4, 256MB RAM, and 64 meg integrated graphics! I cant wait until I get my Dell up and running though! Or, I might convince my sister into getting a Nvidia 5250 or something :trampo:

[PeTeY]

Umm i don't know if anyone noticed this but the digital display on the S200 Spoon isn't measuring any form of anything that i know.... i thought it would be a good idea to fix this then re upload.. incase someone downloads this and thinks that it's The most unrealistic thing ever.. because it say bout 29 when your doing 110kmh/velocity

[DavidIau]

Is it another Windows 98 compatibility problem?

1. Replays can not be saved.

2. Track cams are inoperable during replays, only the first (cam0) works.

3. RACER utilities; i.e., modeler, tracked and such do not display the complete options menus.

Other than that, racing is fun again. Frame rates, using two cars at the Montreal track, yielded an average of 34 fps, 25 fps at Monza. Not bad at all.
In WinXP here, the trackcam only stays on the first camera also.

[zuljin]

starter (S-key) doesn't work if "start_stalled=1" set in car.ini, any suggestions? :rage:

solved: Starter key is not assigned by default, one has to assign it through controls setup menu :trampo:

[Outlaw]

The pid is a proportional-integral-derivative controller, standard stuff in engineering, lots of info on the web. I'm currently skipping the integral part, since that needs a history of values, so costs more CPU time and memory to implement, and P and D seem to do an ok job.
Remember the AI doing 50 before if no AI line was defined? They'd accelerate, decelerate, all very stomp on the throttle, stomp on the brakes, instead of getting to a speed and sticking there. PID does that with the error: output=p*error+d*derivative_of_error. So here for throttle for example Racer uses: error=desiredVelocity-actualVelocity. Then it uses the above formula to calculate the throttle pedal position. As the desiredVelocity comes close, the output goes down so it nicely stays somewhere near desiredVelocity (actually a bit below it, but well). Same for steering. This made AI car controlling smoother, which was very important for bypassing other cars.
This working brilliantly! And, yes, i noticed that disired velocity is little below it actual value as you said. Ai car accelerates little slower always...

Another thing that is bothering me that ai is nervous when you close to him. It is ok when he follows you (he trying not to crash in you) But when you go side to side or especially when you follow him too close (bumper to bumper) it look not good. Is there any way to reduce this for 2 last situations? For example - it is ok when you go side to side and he trying to go wider not crash in you, but he always go too wider and crash...

[miran]

PeTeY: The speedometer on that car shows the speed in m/s and not km/h. To fix that, you have to set the conversion factor (which is 3.6) in view.ini. Can't remember the exact syntax right now...

[f50]

PeTeY: The speedometer on that car shows the speed in m/s and not km/h. To fix that, you have to set the conversion factor (which is 3.6) in view.ini. Can't remember the exact syntax right now...

var=velocity
factor=3.6

really you should use velocity_wc so that it works in replays, but either will work for just playing around.

[nihil8]

Holy god! Ijust saw 80fps on my notebook. I'm still trembling.... Same deal with the track cams though; only one will work in the replay

[DavidIau]

Tip: If you want some extra fps in 2k/XP, open task manager, then start racer, then switch back to task manager and change the Racer process from normal priority to high priority. I get between 3-15fps extra by changing Racer's priority. Racer wont start high priority though, it crashes stating it can't connect to 127.0.0.1. But if you change it after its started, it works fine.

[persist]

http://www.atomicred.com/jaek/my_commentary/hellsyeah.gif


High prio process in the task manager is rocking my world.

[Teancum]

Just a question before I get a chance to download this: has the alphafunc=gequal command been fixed from beta 7.9?

[f50]

Well, ruud, after testing 8.6 out for a while, I really like the improvements you've made:)

A couple things to think over:
-You have mipmap=2 set as default, where it used to be set as 1. it looks much better with 1 on my Radeon 9800pro, so just curious why you changed the default?
-Shadow.tga files no longer show up when projected shadows are turned on. any plans on fixing that? not all cars have projected shadows, and even ones with them could use the shadow.tga for added effect (as has been discussed in the past)
-An idea for default shadow models for cars without that gfx section in the car.ini. Have racer use the car's defined body model as the shadow model if one hasn't been explicitly defined. That way no car will be shadow-less. The only drawbacks are of course render time and the fact that the body models dont' have wheels, so your wheels have no projected shadow. hmm...just wish we could use the old system from .5final, really, it worked great.

any plans on fixing up the FF effects as well? i dont' personally have an FF wheel, but i hear from some people who do that the FF is kinda wobbly or just plain weird in the betas.

[Boomer541]

If a car doesn't have a body.dof file and you want "projected_shadows" you have to make one (or get the car maker to do it), include wheels, etc., name it bodyshdo.dof, texture it all black and put it in the "graphics" section that you copy from the infamous Spoon. set the projected_shadow=1 in racer.ini and enjoy.

BUT BE PREPARED FOR A LOT OF QLOG ERRORS!!!!!!

This is what the infamous Spoon does:

(INFO ): [racer/756] --- application start ---
(INFO ): [racer/756] Pixfmt 10: 24 color bits, 16 depthbuffer bits, 8 stencil bits, 1 alpha.
(WARN ): [racer/756] Can't import DOF 'body.dof'
(WARN ): [racer/756] Highest LOD failed to load; skipping model
(WARN ): [racer/756] RModel: can't load body.dof
(WARN ): [racer/756] DPipe: Trouble (RCar:PaintProjectedShadow)
(WARN ): [racer/756] DPipe: emission color not expected as set
(WARN ): [racer/756] OpenGL: 0.2 0.2 0.2 2.0, DPipe: 0.2 0.2 0.2 2.0
(WARN ): [racer/756] DPipe: Trouble (RCar:PaintProjectedShadow POST)
(WARN ): [racer/756] DPipe: emission color not expected as set
(WARN ): [racer/756] OpenGL: 0.2 0.2 0.2 2.0, DPipe: 0.2 0.2 0.2 2.0
ad infinitum...

Doesn't anyone look at thier qlog, apparently not!!!!!

Those "C-key" cameras need fixing, Ruud, as you only allow cameras 0 thru 9 to be used, Carlswood has at least 14 cameras that you now don't let us see, pity

Why do you have +/- keys for car camera zoom when keypad 1 and 3 do the same thing, wasted effort IMHO!

I'm done ranting now.

Remember, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!

[andy89]

Great.... but i don`t seem to find the linux version :scratch: is there any??

[DavidIau]

Great.... but i don`t seem to find the linux version :scratch: is there any??
Sorry, not yet. Windows only for now.

[Mr Whippy]

Hmmm, not tried it yet...

Is there any REAL fixes or additions here?

As for car shadows, I think that people should build them for the cars. The old shadow method is so poor. The projection is always flat, so on hills half the shadow is hidden, the other half hovers over the ground.

New shadow models, you can texture an alpha gradient (i did it on the Murcielago release, check the shader and car.ini, but the most recent version to these ones, made shadows stop working again. But the version just before that they worked just so ya know).
They allowed GT3/4 style shadows, with blurring/opacity fading off with the height of the model.
Also, the base of the model could have another inverted plane underneath it with the old shadow texture applied. This then projects the shadow onto the surface underneath like the old one, except it follows hills.

Simple and effective, but the last betas it stopped working, then we got stencil shadows and I got all confused and stopped bothering. Still confused now and have stopped bothering. All these changes just need 100% time to follow and work out.
Would be nice to just have a long pause, make some standards (make a good complete standard car and track with all the new features in it), so authors who no longer have lots of time to follow developments/forums can come back and see the "sdk" type examples and just adjust their models to suit.

Not a mumble, I know Racer has always been like this, but there are so many changes going on now graphics wise that I'm lost :D
Was nice in the old days when changes were all out of our hands, but now we need to implement all these new things in our car.ini's or models, and have no "peer" type models or examples to work from...

Cheers

Dave

[andy89]

when will the linux version be released?

[miran]

Why do you have +/- keys for car camera zoom when keypad 1 and 3 do the same thing, wasted effort IMHO!

Uhm, +/- change the FOV angle while 1 and 3 move the camera back and forth. Two quite different concepts. IMHO being able to change the FOV angle has always been one thing that I thought was missing from the keypad functions. I'm sorry to hear you think that's wasted effort... :(

[Alfanut]

Track cams appear to act the same in any Windows OS. Yes?

This option is really one of my favorite parts of RACER. Let's just say I'm more concerned how well things work rather than how pretty they look...

APOLOGIES!!!

SHOUTING THIS (pardon me) - IT SEEMS THAT THE DIFFERENCES WERE IN HOW THE NEW BETA WAS INSTALLED ON MY MACHINE.

S A V I N G ** R E P L A Y S ** I S ** W O R K I N G !!!!!

Due to the many different versions of RACER on my machine it would seem that beta 8.6 wants to be in the primary 'SIMS' directory.

A few changes later and saving replays works just fine.

[Alex Forbin]

Would be nice to just have a long pause, make some standards (make a good complete standard car and track with all the new features in it), so authors who no longer have lots of time to follow developments/forums can come back and see the "sdk" type examples and just adjust their models to suit.

Nooo!! We just got Ruud back, don't send him away yet! ;)

Alex Forbin

[miran]

Alfanut: Why would the fact whether track cameras are working or not be in any way dependant on the OS? They don't work, period. Or full stop, whichever you prefer. And replays didn't work in 8.5 but they do in 8.6 and 8.7. Has nothing to do with where Racer is installed. Mine is installed in G:\Racer052b87\. No SIMS directory anywhere and replays work as expected (cameras being an exception to that of course)...