Blind driver mod? [Accessibility]

Discussion in 'Modding' started by bluegoon, Aug 7, 2021.

  1. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    Hey guys,

    My uncle is HUGELY into cars, but sadly lost his sight due to a car accident when he was younger, he still collects race cars etc, but I'd like to introduce him into virtual driving. Are there any mods with proximity audio queues for corners / edges etc out there?

    Link to paper on RAD (Racing Auditory Display)

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fRclm4OApvvagM3TCIJFeLok6LO_6QI1/view?usp=sharing

    Thanks!
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
  2. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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  3. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Nearly anything is possible with enough time. The game doesn't directly provide adequate information to build a solid picture, but I could imagine analyzing the track AIW file (tells AI drivers how to drive the track, but also provides mostly accurate information on the track surface layout and dimensions) and perhaps providing the information from there. These days even DLC tracks are leaving the AIW visible, not sure that's still able to be automated. (extracting the file)

    Once the track layout is known the game provides exact car position, plus a counter of how far around the track you currently are (which can be directly referenced against the AIW data), so that seems feasible.

    Engine sound can't be redirected, potentially could loop an engine sample through a sound engine (FMOD is easy to set up for a plugin/program) and turn the game engine sound off. Beeps for corners are themselves easy to do, and given the available information that also seems quite feasible (with a little tuning when corner combinations are involved, if necessary - though given we're talking about circuits rather than point to point stages, the human track learning would also help).

    Good info on the link you provided, I was wondering how that would work.

    I can't offer to try and make a plugin, time just doesn't permit. But I don't see why a pretty workable solution wouldn't be possible.
     
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  4. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    Thanks Lazza, amazing info, I love the idea of counting the corners for the driver, so they learn the track in time, allowing them to become faster, it's awesome.

    Yes sadly getting development done with this will be hard, as it's an extremely niche thing, so I understand when people are busy with other projects etc. I should maybe talk to my uncle about setting up a development bounty for this.
     
  5. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    "The next thing you’ll want to do is “find corridors” from the main menu. AI use corridors to get information on the width of the track, what is a legal racing surface as opposed to an illegal surface, and so on. When you click on “find corridors”"

    So it seems we need a way to output real time Corridor data relative to player vehicle position.

    Will need to real-time read these I think:

    double mPathLateral; // lateral position with respect to *very approximate* "center" path
    double mTrackEdge; // track edge (w.r.t. "center" path) on same side of track as vehicle

    I've tried to see if the example dll generates the above's data to ExampleInternalsScoringOutput.txt during a race but sadly it seems only ExampleInternalsTelemetryOutput.txt gets populated by InternalsPlugin.dll
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
  6. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    That data (and the rest) is available in real time through @The Iron Wolf's Shared Memory plugin and there are samples in C, C++ and my Python API.

    Crew Chief (which also uses the plugin) already reads out the names of the corners (as in "the leader has crashed at Parabolica") and also pace notes that can be used to read out the sharpness of the upcoming corner.

    Moving on to the next stage of actually racing against other cars, CC also has a spotter.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
  7. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    Thanks for the feedback, do you know how to enable those specific values in the monitor GUI? Because I don't see them when I do run the Iron Wolf DLL, in fact everything shows up besides those two. Sorry I have no idea how to code so I'm trying my best to just get those two values out.
     
  8. Seven Smiles

    Seven Smiles Registered

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    Not without digging into the code but I don't see what you'd do with them? It needs code written for RAD that reads the SM plugin, that needs support from Brian A. Smith.
     
  9. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    Right, thanks for the insight, guys.
     
  10. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    You don't want to rely on those live values. Track cut zones will override the track edge values. You also couldn't just use them live because they aren't looking ahead at all, plus it's only giving information on the side of the track the car is already on. (with a number of laps you could gather the data and 'draw' the track that way - but you'd need the car driven on each side of the centreline at basically all points of the track too)

    The complete AIW values give a more reliable picture, but still side roads will be shown (at least as far as they stretch perpendicular to that section of track/AIW line). So you'd still need to do some smoothing to provide a good guide.
     
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  11. davehenrie

    davehenrie Registered

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    Load up VIR and use the largest layout. (I think it is the FULL circuit) Halfway down the backstraight is an off camber right hand corner. See what CC calls that.... ;)
     
  12. green serpent

    green serpent Registered

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    How blind is he on a scale of 0-100%?

    If he is totally blind, I think it wouldn't be impossible to create detailed pace cards of a circuit. Would that help?
     
  13. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    Completely, he tragically lost his eyes In a very bad crash around three decades ago.
     
  14. green serpent

    green serpent Registered

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    Sorry to hear that. I think on a very basic track (maybe even just a huge flat area with some cones), it should be possible to at least get a start. Good luck!
     
  15. bluegoon

    bluegoon Registered

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    I think so too! Thanks everyone for the responses.
     
  16. CeeBee

    CeeBee Registered

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    CrewCheief has a co driver mode that can play back prerecorded pace note for RBR and DR2. SO between the actual telemtry you can audibly ask him for, the feedback he can give and the pacenotes, you might be getting pretty close. I dont think crewchief can be configured to deliver pacenote and corner information for rf2 though, probably worth registering ion their forums and asking as the answer (if it can be built) would then be applicabel to all games.
     

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