Baffled by press

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Promag, Oct 27, 2014.

  1. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    Hello Noel,

    I am not longing the old RF1 UI, I regret features available before and lost in the new and in theory improved UI.

    If as I tried (not in the last build 880 I recognise), by dropping the SMICON or ICON in the mas file of the alternate or virtual drive they were recognised by the UI I wouldn't object so much.

    That is not the case to my limited knowledge.

    In some builds the UI worked differently for alternate or virtual drives for mas files (in one case the helmet and driver suit weren't loaded in the UI nor painted when you ran the car on track).

    I have done so many packages that effectively packaging is not a problem, and even if it takes a bit longer than just copying files I am a big fan of the packaging model for the added security and integrity it brings (I designed years ago a very similar system for packaging applications and maintaining centralized inventory of busisness applications distributed on thousands of workstations).

    It is just that making all the SMICON ans ICONS is very tedious and not needed (proof if is that by a second click the UI can paint your alternate or virtual drive skin in the UI), They should be purely optionnal (for instance if the modder wanted to paint the car on track instead of in the garage).

    Imagine the work for integrating the E.S. in the actual UI.

    Please correct me if I am wrong.

    Thanks again.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 13, 2014
  2. hexagramme

    hexagramme Registered

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    I can't wait to try it out!

    I also have a spiking throttle, impossible to race anything at the moment...
    Not 100 percent gas on the the straights, and about 3-4 percent gas when I brake for corners and coast.
    Son a a bitch that is annoying!!

    I have found the G27 potentiometer cleaning guide as well.
    I'm just a hopeless retard when it comes to taking electronic things apart, and my nervous worrying nature makes me quite bad at this stuff.

    But I am trying to man up though, and yesterday I split the throttle pedal apart almost completely.
    When I get home in a bit, I'll try to disassemble the potentiometer and clean it with some contact cleaner.
    Hopefully I'll be back in business, so I can try out that mod tonight.

    Cheers, and thanks for the tip about the mod.
     
  3. hexagramme

    hexagramme Registered

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    Love the nature of your reply...

    Yes indeed, my entire speech about that stuff was meant to be that of a "sim racing Nazi".
    Of course. I'm glad you read between the lines.

    Seriously, do you think sim racing does or ever will appeal to the masses of gamers around the world?
    I mean a sim like rF2? Where the very point is to tweak and experiment, to get everything to your liking?
    And then spend years perfecting your driving style(s)? Is that mass appeal?

    Or do you think we need to make a distinction between games and sims?
     
  4. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    In my case I didn't even open the potentiometer, I just sprayed by an opening and it worked fine. The most tedious part is unscrewing the incredible amount of screws. I happened the first time after a year and to my surprise the problem never reapeared again.

    As it is an insidious problem that goes on slowly, you will improve your times after the cleaning.

    Cheers.
     
  5. Guimengo

    Guimengo Guest

    I don't enjoy GTs so I don't race them, but I agree the AI has been Brazilianized. With the open wheelers, especially F-ISI, F-Renault and Indy, the AI is erratic with their common and longstanding minor adjustments on corners etc, but they have been very proactive in divebombing, forcefully blocking, and veering well off the racing line. It's been mentioned numerous times, quite a few by me, there is awareness by the team so it's just a matter of wait and see.
     
  6. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    Yes I have added skins/vehs in rF1. rF1 didn't have car thumbnails though. It didn't generate them on the fly or anything like that. It just loaded the full car model and displayed it on the spinner just like rF2 does when clicking on the tuning button. The downfall is it isn't loading a simple 512x512 DDS file as you click through the car list. It actually loaded the full 3D model and skin as you clicked on cars which added a little lag. I don't know much about UI development but something tells me you could make a custom UI that would give that same behaviour to rF2. I'm sure Eduard Mallorquí could answer that.
     
  7. Domi

    Domi Registered

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    If you don't approach them, surely it won't. Almost all current simracers started playing casual racing games, simcades etc, and some of us finally discovered simracing, for one reason or another. And surely a lot of potential rF2 simracers are somewhere else because first impression of rF2 is very poor, not only UI but also the realroad thing, bad graphics/performance etc.
     
  8. Saabjock

    Saabjock Registered

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    I've been sitting here on the sideline watching this thread deteriorate. We certainly don't need this constant bickering guys.
    I'm sure most of you own multiple sims.
    If one is not satisfying your needs at any given moment, you can always take a 'break' and drive another for a bit.
    There is absolutely nothing wrong in doing that.
     
  9. ErnieDaOage

    ErnieDaOage Registered

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    Hex a quickfix would be to set the min and max on your throttle with the settings itself. So you can play there with a deadzone i think its called in other sims.
     
  10. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    I agree that generating these thumbnails takes a lot of extra work. I did it once for several cars and it's tedious. I think I can write a tool to make this easier. So far I just created a new showroom that defaults to a good zoom level and rotation for a 512x512 thumbnail.

    Hmmmm.. The problem will be matching up the screenshots to the correct veh file.. I can't think of a way to fully automate this. I can take a folder full of screenshots and auto crop and export them as DDS. The problem will then be deciding which files are for which veh.
     
  11. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    Thanks Noel,

    I just feel that SMICON and ICON should not be needed, the fact of loading the full model as in RF1 is perfectly adequate in my opinion. Having the option of painting the car on track or from a picture is an improvement.

    But then you should be able to simply drop the image in the alternate or virtual drive mas file of the car and have the UI paint them to avoid the need of repackaging which was not recommended by Tim (my Darche are version 1.85 and would give a mismatch on line).

    May be you could automate with naming conventions, but the fact that the image must be square makes difficult the automatic crop of a rectangular picture or screenshot, and this crop takes it's time to do.

    Cheers.
     
  12. speed1

    speed1 Banned

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    Some comments are so narrow-minded. It's really scary in what a world some seem to live.

    It's a simulation and a game and it must not only belong to you it should be for everyone, at least should each intrested individual get a chance to test it and like it, and no champion is ever fallen from the sky.

    I don't think that's the right way to exclude people just because they may be different or beginner. I'm sorry but I just have a smile for when I read exaggerated pseudo comments,.............rf2 is for special people and should be stay a niche product..........etc., and ISI can see how they survive,........the most important is some selfish have what they need..........oh my god !
     
  13. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    As you say a quick fix, but in my experience once it begins it quickly goes worse.

    Cheers.
     
  14. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    Loading of the full car in spinner view takes several seconds in rF2, is probably the reason they went back to using icons for menu.
     
  15. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    I've made some progress. Basically my tool will monitor the screenshots folder for new BMP files. When a new one comes in it will crop the file and then bring my tool to the foreground showing the cropped image. You then type the name of the car (matching the veh name for example) into a text box and then click save. When you click save it creates a subfolder with the name you gave it and then exports the two dds files into that folder and deletes the original bmp. When your done you just need to drag the two dds files into your MAS.

    Right now I am hung up figuring out the command line options for the Nvdxt tool to make the correct file. I normally use the photoshop plugin to make dds files.

    Does anyone happen to know the options I need for nvdxt to make a thumbnail?
     
  16. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    Sorry I can't help you on this one (nvdxt).

    How do you solve the problem of cropping correctly a 1920 by 1080 grab in my case to 512 by 512 (the car can end badly cropped in the sqare format if done automatically) ?

    Maybe you could invoke the preferred image editor ( program as a parameter to your tool) for the user to adjust manually the crop?

    It would be a great utility if the UI remains as is.

    Bye Noel.
     
  17. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    If you use the custom showroom I created it will be perfectly zoomed for a 512x512 image. This assumes you're running 1280x 720 (which is a good windowed resolution). So the F12 screenshot will be 1280x720 with the car centered and zoomed perfectly. My tool knows exactly where to crop to center the car at 512x512 (assuming you're using my showroom at 1280x720).
     
  18. Lgel

    Lgel Registered

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    Has your showroom been released yet or is it a WIP?
     
  19. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

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    If you use the custom showroom I created it will be perfectly zoomed for a 512x512 image. This assumes you're running 1280x 720 (which is a good windowed resolution). So the F12 screenshot will be 1280x720 with the car centered and zoomed perfectly. My tool knows exactly where to crop to center the car at 512x512 (assuming you're using my showroom at 1280x720).
     
  20. TypicalAnalytical

    TypicalAnalytical Banned

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    Great tip!
     

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