Racer FCS out-of-this-world idea

[Ciro Pabón]

I have been playing Racer for a while, I guess most of you have downloaded it (haven't you? then, shouldn't you? ). I am not too much into playing , I am learning about the simulation equations. I find this interesting bit on the site page:

The ULTIMATE future (but don't hold your breath):
...
Live driving with real life races. Consider Fox' GPS system & a multicast machine that pushes the locations of the cars to servers, where you login, select a car and drive along with the real guys. Yummie! (too bad collision detection will be impossible though). But ooh, this is already patented and being worked on in F1. Cool.

Does anybody know about this? Being worked in F1? What's Fox' GPS system?

[manchild]

Good graphics but car behavior is silly. Lamborghini behaves worse than 2CV.

[DaveKillens]

I wish I could respond with a verifiable source, but all I can do is recall from memory. Next season's cars will have additional electronics, a track signal information display (rule 8.9), and a GPS system that informs the race controller of the instant location of the car.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, MC, as I see it, this program is impossible unless you have a steering wheel and pedals, including an analog clutch. You can understand that if you tried to drive a real Lamborghini Diablo with a mouse, well...

I wonder if you have tried it with all the gadgets. Anyway, this is one of the problems with the programs that try to follow the real behaviour of cars: they are extremely hard to drive, as it happens in real life, or so I believe: I am not PC racer expert.

All the other "arcade" simulators are forgiving and not good if you want to simulate real racing: they will make you a worse driver. Better spend the money on some kart time.

There is no Citröen 2CV for you to compare with the Lamborghini Diablo it brings as a default, but perhaps you wish to try to race in the Citröen HY Camionette . (here is the file, 2.45 Mb):



Dave, thanks for the info. Actually, I knew about the GPS on board. I've seen proposals to show the position of the cars on the track (as NASCAR does) but I've never heard the proposition of allowing you to race in a simulator against the real drivers on the real track while the race is going on.

This is what I wonder about: how advanced is that and when will they release this game? I bet they are going to be millionaires with it, and the CONCEPT is really astounding. Imagine how this could be applied for training in many areas, not only racing simulation. So, is there any "insider" or perhaps someone has heard any rumours?

[Tom]

You'll have to explain to me how to downoad it and then what to do, I'm not PC illiterate its just there's something wrong with the net here which means all the text is far too small to read. (Interestingly it's alright on F1T)

Just tell me what to do to get it and as long as I don't have to pay I'll be fine.

[Ciro Pabón]

Tom:

1. Download the 17 Mb zip file here: Racer053b30.zip.

2. Open the zip file and copy the "racer" directory you'll find inside, to any place on your computer (for example, to Program Files). There is no installation rutine to follow nor you have to register anything. Simply, copy the directory.

3. Download the 3.99 Mb FMod for Windows program here (is a sound system for Windows) and install it. Then, copy the fmodex.dll file (you'll see it in the top directory of FMod) to the racer directory. You can uninstall FMod (you don't need it for the game, just the fmodex.dll file).

4. Double click on config.exe on the racer directory. Change your screen resolution to your taste. I use a mouse for the controls, so the Controls/Preset file I use is "Racer controls - defined ingame by menu". If you have a joystick, steering wheel or pedals, you'll configure them here (I don't, but "a friend of a friend of a friend" has and I can ask him if you need further help )

5. Double click on racer.exe. If you use a mouse, move the mouse left or right to steer, or up and down to accelerate/brake. If you have a steering wheel, well, ask somebody that knows more than I do.

That's it. Anywayt, if you wish more tracks or cars, go to Race Sim Central, to the sub-forum named Racer Free Car Simulator (here). You have to register to post, but you can see and copy the cars and tracks files in the respective sub-sub-forums without registering.

If you are hooked (or if you wish to "correct" the behaviour of cars, as probably Manchild would do) you can use the Pacejka.exe program to change the tire grip response. I posted something about the Pacejka magic numbers in this forum, without awakening great interest on them, but you know I am persistent .

If you are really, really hooked, there is a track editor (tracked.exe), a complete modeler (modeler.exe) to import 3DO or other files, a GPL exporter (GPLex), a spline generator (curved.exe) and a joystick/pedals/steering wheel editor (joystimm.exe). In general, what I like about this game is that you can edit ANYTHING and the physics package is open source and based on the Millikens textbook. I know several racing teams use this program. There is a system to configure Artificial Intelligence cars, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Tom]

It won't work, my incompetance I reacon, I installed the fmod file wrong I think.

I'm trying the updated version, then I'm stumped.

[DaveKillens]

I followed Ciro's instructions, and was successful in getting the game running. I didn't go too far, but there's lots of mods and add-ons you can apply.
I have a wheel, and a smidgen of sim racing experience. The Lambo as presented has a weird setup, with tons of understeer. But it seems to have a very high moment of inertia, and the tires lose grip at moderate slip angles. And even force feedback works admirably.
It appears to be the best totally free sim available, and delivers a decent experience. I recommend it to anyone wishing to try out sim racing.
I have a new sim game, GTR2, and it too has a Lamborghini, and thus comparisons can be made. It's a much more polished package, and the driving experience is of a higher level. And I can really hustle the Lambo around the track, with a higher level of enjoyment and performance.

[manchild]

3. Download the 3.99 Mb FMod for Windows program here (is a sound system for Windows) and install it. Then, copy the fmodex.dll file (you'll see it in the top directory of FMod) to the racer directory. You can uninstall FMod (you don't need it for the game, just the fmodex.dll file)

Why is this necessary? I don't do it and sound works fine. I didn't play with mouse but with keyboard just as I did with GP3, GP2

Tom, when you download it, make a folder on your desktop for example, name it "racer", than open zip archive with winzip program select all files and folder in there, click EXTRACT and than select that racer folder you just made. After that open folder and click config.

When you're finished with configuration, select file named racer and drag it on desktop while holding ctrl. That will be your shorcut to program. It is better to make folder in Program files as Ciro suggested but if that is to complicated for you it can work this way too.

[Ciro Pabón]

@MC: you have to install fmodex.dll because in the last version the developer did not include it.

You can check the thread at Race Sim Central, for example (I know I read the observation somewhere on the Racer Free Car Simulator web site, but I am unable to find it again).

@Tom: are you receiving some error message or simply the program "hangs"? There are hardware minimum requirements and you need DirectX8 or later version. If you are unable to read the instructions at the Racer FCS site, have you checked the font size of your browser (View/Text size menu, if you are using Internet ExploDer)?

By the way, I wish you a happy Saint Andrews's day. First time we see the celebration here in Colombia. We are used only to Saint Patrick's: "we, Colombians", are very grateful towards Irish Colonel James Rooke that helped the "patriots" and gave his life intentionally in the crucial battle, and "we, Spaniards", are not very happy with the guy that helped the "traitors" in the same crucial battle . My older daughter arrived home yesterday with a couple of saltires (and, horror of horrors, her brand new driver's license! She wishes to try the GTO... ).

@DaveKillens: you can try to use Pacejka.exe to change the grip properties. I wont go into the precession and inertia control (I don't know how to tune them) but I know you can if you try hard enough.

@Everybody and his dog: the amount of documentation given in the Racer FCS site is amazing! I can recommend the following "jewels", that I've read ardently during the last week:

- Richard Chaney's equations (and simple program and comments on its source) for simulating rigid bodies, including the gyroscopic precession and quaternions for rotation states (!). It's a little dense but if you have some knack for mathematics, you'll get it, one page at a time.

- Michael Sayers's Symbolic Computer Methods to Automatically Formulate Vehicle Simulation Codes. It's fascinating, describes the AutoSIM language, definitely for people that are into computing science and have some taste for cars (hello, dear brothers! ).

- SAE 850219: Steering Geometry and Caster Measurement. I wish I have read this thing many years ago, instead of having to check and recheck camber and caster after each measure with the Brembo sensors (and wishing you had a "prophet" instead of a test driver!). It explains clearly, if you have some knowledge of vehicle tuning and are at ease aligning a car, how to measure caster in terms of the thrust line of the non-steerable wheels. This is a must for the "aficionados" ("amateurs"?, "lovers"?) to tuning.

- Virtual Labs and Simulations: awesome, I repeat, awesome straight line acceleration simulator. I dialed my car (not without a little effort, let me tell you) and gave me back my exact best time for 0-60 on the first attempt, and that without going into the abstruse parts of the program.

Anyway, I have to stop. Children are waiting to be picked. I just wish to repeat the main question I posted:

Does anybody knows if and when and who is going to give us a simulator that allows you to race against the big guys in your PC in real time? Or is it an urban legend?

[Tom]

Ciro, don't let her near it!!!

Thanks for the St Andrew's day thing, I had haggis yesterday.

The error message was something to do with the sound thing, I suppose it's just another thing clogging up the memory in the end though, thanks anyway Ciro.

[joseff]

At the risk of sounding too lazy to download & install, I have a question:

How does it compare to TORCS?

I was heavily disappointed with that one.