AIW and CAM file Editor

[benquin]

I was using the mouse to navigate, so the requirement for ENTER to validate a field, might be my problem.
(I was already displaying the Alpha line with A)
I'll follow up later...

Thanks.

[benquin]

Validating each field with ENTER fixed my problem.

Great tool, thanks again!

[powerslider]

Originally Posted by guitarmaen

New functions:
- You can now add new cameras as a copy of the highlighted by pressing CTRL-A

- You can set the WP_PERP values by pressing CTRL-P (don't know if you need this function - but I needed it for a special track where these values were not set for the pitlane) Attention: This function assumes that there is no banking at this point.

That's all for this release.

Hi! I just now caught up to this new release (the end of August was a blur for me, between vacation time, then catching up at work ...and a certain skirmish with some GPLEA guys...).

When I last visited this thread I was trying to figure out how best to add cameras around my Bob's Track Builder circuits. rickylix suggested starting with a different track's CAM file and using this tool to move them where I wanted them. I didn't have an opportunity to try that before going on vacation, but now it seems I won't need to!

Still, I am apprehensive... Am I, as a complete novice in working with the CAM file and camera placement, going to be able to figure out how to use this tool?

I'm at my office now, so I can't test it. Instead, let me just ask you where I should look for guidance:

1) ReadMe file?
2) Help feature?
3) mouse-over explanations?
4) PMs to guitarmaen?
Are there step-by-step instructions? If you have a "CAM file editing for Dummies," please point me in that direction!



Thanks.

[benquin]

There's a link in Post #37 that have F1C CAM file explanation which help understanding the CAM file format. (If the link doesn't work, a little google should find it for you)

GuitarMean is usually very present and helpful on the forum.

I'll be watching the answer/clarification because I'm also close to adding Camera on my BTB\Zmod2\3DSimed created track.

[powerslider]

Thanks, benquin, but the link in post #37 is to the Camera Toolbox, a totally different tool...

I just opened the ReadMe file for version 3.05 and found this encouraging information:

"You will get some help how to use this tool if you press the "h" key when running the tool. Additional help you get by right-clicking on some labels. The secret on this help is that you can add your own remarks by writing into this help window. It will be saved into the help file if you press the update button."

So maybe, with this help function, the tool will be intuitive enough for me to figure out without having to ask more questions. I'll try it out tonight and post a progress report!

[benquin]

Sorry for the wrong link, I though it was to the Camera Tutorial for F1 2001.

Here it is:
http://forum.racesimcentral.com/show....php?p=3421034

it's a good start in understanding the format, before playing with the editor.

The file is : cam_tut.pdf

[powerslider]

Thanks! Dennis Grebe's tutorial is a great read--very helpful in understanding what you can do. Are the functions and terms and labels he describes the same as those that guitarmaen uses?

(Again, I'm at my office, and I'm not permitted to load the AIW and CAM file editor on this computer, so I can't check for myself right now.)

[benquin]

From what I saw, the only difference relates to small changes/additions from F1 2001 to rFactor .CAM files, but main functionnality/naming looks the same.

I'll be waiting for your progress report, I'll probably follow your footsteps for my cameras, while we wait for BTB terrain...

[powerslider]

Yes, we seem to be at the same point in the development of our tracks:

Very excited about what we have, and anxious to take them to the next level.

Hopefully, before the end of the year, we can see them finished and released to the rFactor community, who will stand in AWE of what is possible from BTB!

[guitarmaen]

@ powerslider
I don't want you feeling like 'standing alone in the forest', sorry for that.

Here is what I do when I create new cameras:
- select cam nearest to the point where want to to have a new one (note: the new camera is a copy of the selected with slighly different coordinates)
- press CTRL-A to add a new cam
- move the new cam to the desired position (with CTRL-Arrow keys)
- move the microphone (little square) near to the cam position - better nearer to the track for better (louder) sound (SHIFT - Arrow keys)
- press '=' key for setting the height (second) coordinate of the microphone 1 meter above the nearest waypoint.
- look at the just generated height coordinate (which is 1 m above the nearest wayoint) and decide for height of the cam by your own (2. field of cam position - don't forget to ENTER)
(Note: If want to have it higher than the mic than you have subtract the value and vice versa, e.g. Nearest Waypoint is -4.3 than the mic is -5.3 - one meter above and the cam should be about 3.5 m above the ground, then you have to set the height of the cam to -7.8)
- move activation radius roughly to the desired position ( CTRL - KP Arrows)
- set the radius of activation radius (PAGE UP and DOWN)
- (only necessary for STATIC CAMS but also ok for TRACKING CAMS when pressing END-key in the game) setting orientation of the camera:
1. field : up (positive) and down (negative) : -0.1 in most cases is a good value (don't use 0, take 0.000001 instead)
2. field : direction (please press h for a matrix of directions)
3. tilt : never used it, explore by yourself
- now you have to set all other important variables (FOV, ClipPlanes, etc.) manualy by typing into the fields.

Hope this helps you as a first starting point.
Don't hesitate ask questions.

[powerslider]

Well, I'm happy to report that it works almost exactly the way you describe! I'm now well on my way to covering my Basse-Terre track with replay camera positions, but I wanted to stop long enough to thank you and to report on my success and ask for a little clarification.

Thank you so VERY much (recht vielen dank!) for posting step-by-step instructions. I tried to follow them exactly, and only ran into a few problems I'll discuss below so you can explain to me what I did wrong.

• I brought up the AIW and CAM file Editor application
• I clicked "Load rF AIW file"
• Then I navigated to my track folder in rFactor and double clicked on BasseTerre.aiw
• (My Basse-Terre circuit, having been created in Bob's Track Builder, only created a single tracking camera, anchored to the first node I put down when I first laid it out. Therefore, since there was only one, I didn't have to "choose" a camera to duplicate.)
  I clicked on the 'C' box to reveal the camera position(s)
• I pressed Ctrl-A to create a second camera
• I used Ctrl-Arrow Keys to move this camera to my desired location
• I used Shift-Arrow Keys to move the microphone associated with this camera to the same location
• Then I tried pressing the '=' key to change the height setting coordinate number for the microphone to 1 meter above the closest waypoint, but the coordinate number didn't change. What did I do wrong? Since that didn't work for me, I found I could select and change the height coordinate number in the field, then press Enter to save the change. Remember to press the Enter key after every change you make. A couple of times I made two changes, then pressed the Enter key and discovered that only my last change was saved.
• I used Ctrl-Keypad Arrows to move the activation radius circle into the same relative position as that associated with the original camera position: about 200 meters west-northwest of the camera position.
• (Please explain what this activation radius represents, and the effect of a larger activation radius as compared with a small one.)
• I couldn't figure out how to apply your directions with regard to "orientation," but then I note that you wrote this is important primarily in connection with static cameras, and all the cameras I've created so far have been tracking cameras like the original created in my BTB track folder. (BTW, how do I create a new static camera when I don't have one in the file to copy?)
• I couldn't figure out how to get the "matrix of directions" to come up by pressing the 'h' key. Whenever I pressed h, the application typed an 'h' in the last selected field. I assume these orientation instructions will work once I'm dealing with a static camera?
• After adding three new cameras, I clicked "Save Camera file" and the program created a new file: 'knwqfcpo.cam'
• Your program cleverly creates an 8-character file name using random letters. It was then easy to use Windows Explorer to find that file in my BasseTerre track folder and--after deleting the previous 'BasseTerre.cam'--rename 'knwqfcpo.cam' to be the new 'BasseTerre.cam'

So, other than my uncertainty as to the effect of the placement and size of the activation radius circles, and as to how to create static camera positions when I have none to copy, I'm VERY pleased with the results!

Having now described my uncertainty as to how to create static cameras, I'll now go back and see if it's a simple toggle I can change with a click of the mouse. If so, I'll be back "here" shortly to edit this post!

Thanks again for this great tool and for the clear instructions that even this Dummie could follow.

[guitarmaen]

Ok, a lot of questions

- '=' doesn't work: this seems to be because you're using a different type of keyboard (english) than me (german) and your '=' is not at the same place. For '=' I have to press SHIFT - 0 (zero), maybe this works for you, but I will change this key code with the next release.

- activation radius (AR): with the AR you determine when this cam will be activated, so if the activated car comes into the activation circle then this cam is activated, when the car drives out of this circle and into another circle then this cam will be activated. For this to run properly you have to cover the whole track with ARs. They can overlap or not but over the track the should overlap only slightly from one cam to the next. Look how it's done in ready made tracks.
That's how I do it, but if you look on some tracks, you will see that the ARs are all nearly the same size and they are far away from overlapping ( they scarcely cover the track). In this case the activation algorithm works a little different and I haven't understand to the last detail.
But here is what understand: of course, what I said before counts her also. So when a car drives into a AR (circle) then this cam is activated. But which cam is activated when a car is located at a point not covered by any of the cams AR. For my understandig it is the cam with the AR nearest to this point.

- toggle between STATIC and TRACKING: No this is not yet implemented in my tool. Today you have to create a new cam (TRACKING), do the positioning things and then save the cam file. Open this new cam file with an ASCII (Text) - editor and scroll down to find the last cam generated (give it unique name before). Each cam in this file begins either with TrackingCam=NAME or StaticCam=NAME.
So all you have to do is to change TrackinCam into StaticCam then save, rename and next time you will open it you will have a STATIC cam where you can make copies from.
But as I said 'not yet', I think it will be part of the next release.

- h-key doesn't work: Ok, every time you klick into an input field in order to change this field you have to confirm this change with the ENTER-key. If you don't ENTER you change nothing, but the cursor-focus remains in this field (waiting for an ENTER). That's why you only get 'h's in the selected field. So if you want to use the h-function you have to finish the field update modus with ENTER.

I think that's all for now.

[powerslider]

Thanks for the explanations! Later today I'll see if Shift-0 (zero) works for me to locate microphones the described "one meter above the nearest waypoint." ...but right now I have to log out and go to work!

One last quick question:

How do I get your program to display the x/y/z location data for my track's waypoints? (I actually just need it to display the 'y' elevation data, so I know how high to place cameras.) Of course, if the Shift-0 works, I won't need any other reference data!

[guitarmaen]

Ups, my tool displays all waypoints automaticly after loading the AIW-file. But what I can read between the lines from your last post is, that you don't have any waypoints at this time.
In this case I have to say sorry, but my tool doesn't create any waypoints and it will not create any in the future, because my tool knows nothing about the track - all information is derived from the waypoints and some other variables.
What you can do with my tool is to generate (or update) the optimal path line for the AIs, change the boundaries of the track (maybe for less cutting a corner without punishment) and - yes - you can also edit xyz-coordinates of the wayoints itself, but every change here implies changes to other variables depending on the track layout itself. You can also change garage, grid and pit positions, but in most cases you can only edit what's there before (that's what the word 'change' implies)
To be honest, I wrote this tool mainly to edit existing (but bad made) AIW files. Later I integrated also the camera editing.
What you need is the AIW-editor from ISI, with this tool you can set the waypoints for the track and the pitlane properly. Also the track boundaries can be generated here - to say it in one word - ALL.

[powerslider]

I'm afraid you misunderstood me. I have created an AIW for my track, numbering 2,040 waypoints. These waypoints are displayed in your tool.

Shift - 0 does not work for me to move a microphone 1 meter above the nearest waypoint. When I had one of my cameras selected I pressed Shift - 0 and there was no change to any of the values in any of the fields.

So my question is: can I select a single waypoint on my track using your tool so that that waypoint's x/y/z coordinates are displayed in the field boxes? I spent a couple of minutes last night looking at all of the fields and options, but couldn't figure out how to do that. Please explain if and how I can use your tool to display that information for individual waypoints, especially the 'y' elevation data I need so as to assign the correct elevation to each camera on my hilly tracks with more precision than "trial and error."

Thanks!

[guitarmaen]

Ok, now I have it (think so).
But in the Cam edit mode you cannot select or move to a special waypoint.
You have to go back to to the waypoint edit mode (clicking on c) .... that's the reason why I created the '=' function.
Anyway, to make long explanations short...
here is a new release with the '=' function changed to CTRL-h.

Hope this works

[powerslider]

Thanks! I'll try version 3.06 when I get home from work in about an hour.

And if I understood you correctly, by clicking on the 'C' a second time to remove the camera layer, I return to the waypoint editing mode. I'll take another look at that, as well.

[benquin]

It's great, everything will be clear and obvious when I'll start with Cameras.
I will test this as soon as I can. Tonight, I'm leaving my PC to rest as I'm going to do lapping on the track I'm modeling, should help me fine tune some turns.

[powerslider]

Happy to be the Pathfinder for the BTB faithful! Onward and upward!

[guitarmaen]

@powerslider & benquin

Hope, I'll be one of the first to know, when you have finished your work. If you like to, I would be pleased to make a good 'optimal path' for the AIs for you.

[powerslider]

Originally Posted by guitarmaen

@powerslider & benquin

Hope, I'll be one of the first to know, when you have finished your work. If you like to, I would be pleased to make a good 'optimal path' for the AIs for you.

I'll gladly accept that contribution, especially if you can solve the problem I have with AI slowing down more than necessary for a left kink/jump. A couple other people experienced with AIW optimization have already looked at that, though, and left shaking their heads, so I won't think less of you if you can't solve that one! It seems rFactor just has a problem with AI "catching air" AND changing direction at the same time.

[powerslider]

Well, 'Shift - h' doesn't work for me either...

But it's not a problem now that I realize I can go back into waypoint edit mode by clicking "off" the 'C', click on the spot on the track where I want the next camera, and note the elevation ('y', the middle column) of that waypoint so I can place the camera just above that point (or high above it, if I prefer). Benquin, don't be confused by the fact that the camera elevation numbers are displayed as negative numbers. They are in the same relationship as the positive numbers associated with your waypoints.)

OK, now I've got to go get ready to umpire...

[guitarmaen]

No it's CTRL h, I'm a little bit confused, because CTRL a works for you as well.

[powerslider]

OOOPS!

Sorry, I guess I was just in too big a hurry earlier...

I just checked again and Ctrl - h works great! The 'y' value for the selected camera microphone instantly changed to 1 meter above the nearest track waypoint, just as you said it would! Thanks! That certainly streamlines the camera adding process for us BTB builders

[powerslider]

I just created a new topic in the BTB subforum with my suggestions as to how to use this tool most efficiently to add and position cameras for BTB tracks:

http://forum.racesimcentral.com/showthread.php?t=297828

Thanks again guitarmaen, for giving us this great tool, then making it even easier for us camera-starved BTB guys to use! If you see any errors I've made, or would like to provide more information about the functions I haven't yet fully explored, please let me know!