Racer v0.9.0 RC8 Released

A new beta is available at http://www.racer.nl/dl_beta_win.htm.

The changelog:

v0.9.0 RC8 (01-11-2013)
-----------------------
- Added 'float eye' passing to fullscreen shaders (postprocessing) as a Cg uniform (0=left/1=right).
- Modified shadowmapping.cg; it could compile badly due to iSqrtSample being used as a constant
and a local variable in one line.
- Added 'splitter' console command in Racer itself. I.e. 'splitter 500' will do a 500x500m grid split
from <trackname> to <trackname>_split. Copy the track itself first from <trackname> to <trackname>_split
and let the splitter overwrite things in the _split version of the track.
- Added 'atlas optimize' command, to generate an atlassed version of the track in <trackname>_atlas.
Much like the splitter above (first copy the track). Not fully working yet.
- Added dev.argument_tracing option in racer.ini for explicit argument stack tracing. Only useful
when you have a crash that requires more information than just the function stack trace. Only
a few arguments are supported inside Racer. Slows down the program if used.
- Const sized arrays in Onyx are now possible: const int MAX_ELT=5; int a[MAX_ELT];
- Font rendering now much more crisp.
- car.ini wheel<n>.tire_model.relaxation_length_lat (and _long) of zero is now accepted (uses instantaneous slip angle/ratio)
- Onyx fork() command to spawn off SPU processes.
- Onyx improvements; peephole optimizer, #ifdef/#define/#else/#endif, #error "message"
- Onyx deg2rad(), rad2deg(), atoi(), atof(), split(), acos(), asin(), atan2(x,y) functions.
- Slipratio clamping in car wheels is now configurable in racer.ini: dbg_car.max_sr (defaults to 1.5)
- Combined slip method #10 (SimilarityMarno) is a validated method that is being used in production at Cruden.
It still isn't optimal though when trying to get drifting cars for example.
It uses a mix using slipRatio and slipAngle (slip=length(SR,SA), Fx*=SR/slip, Fy*=SA/slip).
- Added ProcessCount(), deg2rad() and rad2deg() internal functions to Onyx.
- Improvements for the DirectShow replay exporter; replay.video.muxer, replay.video.yuv_convert
Codecs are still an issue; the Windows Media 9 one seems most stable for now (but slow).
- Added racer.ini replay options for automation of replay movie files (requires dedicated configuration files).
- Added Cg shaders for the simple polygon shadow underneath the car.
- Fixed atmosphere extinction for a lot of the dyn_*.cg shaders.
- racer.ini's gfx.check_opengl_errors is now collapsed into dev.opengl_checks.
- Added car.ini body.yaw_damper magic torque for drifting car control.
- Onyx 'continue' for for/while/do-while/loop.
 
But don't we get explosive bump stop springs/damping and some other bugs with the latest beta?

Also we get a partially implemented new sky system that breaks extinction rendering and some other features (we seem to get double extinction rendered into everything)

Also some z-buffer stuff here is new and doesn't work right so shadows are flickering under the ground surface a lot of the time.


So a few problem areas that make it not ideal to develop content for from a physics POV, nor a visual/gfx POV.

Dave
 
I just comment out the damping forces right now and it's fine. I hadn't really noticed the shadow problem, other than the frame skip being set too high (i just have it render all frames at all splits).
I wondered why I couldn't get the extinction to look right, now I know.

I think it's about time to send out a search party for Ruud, it's been longer than ever without an update and I'm seeing a power boat sim at Cruden now, so I'm thinking that he must have the water shader fixed.

Alex Forbin
 
Just having a quick play in RC8.

I can't seem to feel any issues with the bump stop springs/dampers now... not sure why... maybe I need to do more testing for now?!


The whole new sky stuff really needs fixing properly (the problem here is analogous for us to the whole Mz vs Fy*scrub radius issue)

Ie, kLux curves are a function of the TOD/sky appearance, just as Mz is a function of Fy and scrub kinematics. Having to author either of these to match the other except in explicit cases just means authors spend *aggesssss* making content look/feel right when it could just be automatic (and is in any other game engine it seems)




Shadows feels broken still.

Blurry nearer the camera still, sharper further away, but it seems more noticeable and worse than it has done for the last few years now. Cars look pretty good 50m away from a track camera but get very blurry as the car approaches...?

Camera behind a car is getting stuttering shadows even though it should be the closest ones and not skipping frames.

I'm sure the underlying system here is improved technically, but some hard coded settings (new z-buffer stuff??) and fine-tuning settings are hurting the end result.

We also went from 1024px maps to 512px maps. That seems really low given most screens are nearly 2000px wide these days.

Shadows even at their best will never look anything but blocky. Surely 1024px was the minimum you'd ever want!?





Lots of scripts don't seem to run properly until you reload them after the car is loaded first time.




It'd be really nice to fix up these fundamentals.


Racer just seems to always be a few steps away from perfection and so much potential, but there always seems to be bad choices made.

Ie, the new Zbuffering, the new Sky system? Why?

All they have done is make things look a new type of wrong and will require a new type of wrong workflow and content creation :(


Cheers

Dave
 
Is anyone interested if I spend some time sorting shadows/sky shaders (back to the old ones as much as possible) for this version of Racer?

I can then just post an update pack of bits and pieces so people can use this version of Racer with reliable looking graphics vs older versions.

I can also release my 'sky pack' so you can get nicely calibrated sky image/tod sets for your tracks too!




I've kinda not been keeping track of the latest versions since they were never really bug-free and sticking to RC5c was easier...

...but it seems perhaps the primary issues with RC8 are just things we could fix by reverting some shader files so we get the old shadow/splits shading, and sky shading.

It looks like the physics bump/rebound spring/dampers are now fixed, and I'm sure Cosmo said the differential issue was resolved too.




Only real issue it seems is the MF5.2 tyres still pull to the left, markedly when braking.
Tested several MF5.2 sets on zero kinematic/symmetrical cars. Not sure where the pulling left FF forces are coming from but they are there!


Cheers

Dave
 
Why it crashes all time ? :O
My computer:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U rated @2.3GHz
RAM: 6GB
OS:Windows 7 64bit
Video Card: GeForce GT 740M
 

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Hmmm, weird.

I think there is a way to disable the shadows. It looks like perhaps it's the shadow shader that isn't happy, or the material that is also referenced in the error log that is having issues with the shadow casting part of the shadow mapping shader...

Hmmm

Dave
 
You could change the burn shader to just a standard shader. That might fix it.
Go to the data/ carlswood_nt/ track.shd and find the section below..

vf_road
{
; The road uses specularity but burned through the red channel to get a coarse gloss map
specular=1 1 1
shininess=4
scale=7.5
vertex_shader
{
file=standard_v.cg
}
fragment_shader
{
file=standard_detail_burn_a_f.cg //<-Change this to say.. file=standard_f.cg
; Burn specularity through alpha
;file=standard_burn_a_f.cg
}
}

Once you change the "file=..." as above save the file and try again.

Alex Forbin
 
You could change the burn shader to just a standard shader. That might fix it.
Go to the data/ carlswood_nt/ track.shd and find the section below..

vf_road
{
; The road uses specularity but burned through the red channel to get a coarse gloss map
specular=1 1 1
shininess=4
scale=7.5
vertex_shader
{
file=standard_v.cg
}
fragment_shader
{
file=standard_detail_burn_a_f.cg //<-Change this to say.. file=standard_f.cg
; Burn specularity through alpha
;file=standard_burn_a_f.cg
}
}

Once you change the "file=..." as above save the file and try again.

Alex Forbin
It still crashes noting changes. May be my computer system crashes ? The older racer 0655 working fine.
 
This is my racer.ini setup

This is the part you need to change...

; CSM shadow mapping
shadowmapping
{
; Enable shadow mapping? If enabled, changes the Cg shader directory to
; data/renderer/shaders_hdr_csm (!) instead of data/renderer/shaders_hdr
enable=1 ,
; CSM shadow mapping
shadowmapping
{
; Enable shadow mapping? If enabled, changes the Cg shader directory to
; data/renderer/shaders_hdr_csm (!) instead of data/renderer/shaders_hdr
enable=1 <====== Change to 0

Alex Forbin
 
This is the part you need to change...

; CSM shadow mapping
shadowmapping
{
; Enable shadow mapping? If enabled, changes the Cg shader directory to
; data/renderer/shaders_hdr_csm (!) instead of data/renderer/shaders_hdr
enable=1 ,
; CSM shadow mapping
shadowmapping
{
; Enable shadow mapping? If enabled, changes the Cg shader directory to
; data/renderer/shaders_hdr_csm (!) instead of data/renderer/shaders_hdr
enable=1 <====== Change to 0

Alex Forbin
Now i get this error,game loading a some sec and then crash
 

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