[RELEASE] Nordschleife Tourist v1.65 beta

Discussion in 'Locations' started by pleclair, Aug 4, 2013.

  1. vittorio

    vittorio Registered

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    Thanks for the update! Impressions after a first ride:
    + Great improvements to trees
    + Car reflections are back
    + FPS improvements on my system (my system is CPU limited)
    (+ Are the tattoos corrected and not floating 20cm above the tarmac anymore? Just wondered after racing because I didn't notice them floating)

    Regarding great cars to drive on Nords beside ISI and URD EGT are:
    * TOURING CAR REVIVAL (http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/19092-TOURING-CAR-REVIVAL-%28Converted-by-xFactor%29)
    * VAZ 21083 LadaCup (http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/17759-VAZ-21083-LadaCup-by-ToS)

    Maybe I should try the URD DTM again but I didn't like the first free preview, they felt like driving on rails.
     
  2. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    And here is the video of the HKS EVO I was talking about earlier:



    I switched on the UI (not AI) after a while, because I felt you weren't fully understanding how quick this thing was. Check out the speed, and more specially the speed at which it accelerate after 200km/h... it's brutal.

    It's when you get to kesselchen where it goes upward for a long while, with most cars, you feel like there is a lack of power, it's not accelerating as it is on the rest of the track, and often, you don't shift the last speed... with this car, you'll see how it goes over there... I think it reached a little over 280....

    And yet, it doesn't feel out of place or too quick... it really feels like a monster time attack machine.

    Enjoy!
     
  3. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    Seems awesome again, Im not sure if its an issue my end but in practise I have time set to 6pm and it seems like midday? bright sky sun over head? I tried a few different times , (not night) and same light still?
     
  4. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    You have a good eye sir :) I indeed fixed all tatoos. I cut part of the new road mesh and made new tatoos this way, so they perfectly fit over the road now, sitting 0.001 above the tarmac. In two cases, I needed to bump it up another 0.001 or 0.002, where there was a large elevation change. One still need fixing, when you get to adenauer I believe.

    The reflections are fully on yes, but I forgot to add the new tree objects, since they don't have the same names. But all other objects, excluding those inside the gp area, since they aren't needed, are included in the reflections.

    It's nice to see fps improvements even with the full trees on! The LODs are rather tightly optimized now, a little too much even in some places, there is a little pop-in in some places. But those LODs were calculated in Max, using the ruler and by guessing on what we should be seeing from a given spot. It's a lot of work, but it goes a long way improving performance, specially with the track being heavy in many ways... First it's huge, and second, the textures resolution is now matching what you would see in today's games... mostly 2048, with some 1024 and 512... I ditched most 4096 if not all... not sure if one still remain...

    As I said, it's becoming increasingly hard to work on it, since I'm forced to split stuff into layers, different max files etc... and I cannot enable all objects at once, so it's a bit tricky...

    that'S why the 64bit plugin is highly needed... for most track, 32bit should be fine, but with something as large as Nord, it's a bit tight.. I end up using 3gb ram very quickly.
     
  5. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    Hmm, it is likely a problem on your end. I haven'T seen this behavior ever, and you are the first to mention it.

    However, if you were using 0.97(x) and had an HDR profile from Tosch, it is possible this profile is still used, and since the HDR code changed a lot since, it is possible this happens?

    I hope you find a solution to your problem, keep us updated and the steps you took to resolve it. It might help others as well.

    Make sure you use the default HDR profile, or the new build 660 profile made from Tosch, earlier today.. Look a page or two prior this last one and you'll find it out.
     
  6. vittorio

    vittorio Registered

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    Awesome! Than thats probably why I didn't notice the tattoos pop in anymore too after the big jump at Pflanzgarten :)
     
  7. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    Just checking, after downloading/unzipping Torsche's HDR profile , I dropped it here(C:\Users\BCC Customer\Documents\rFactor2\UserData\player\Settings\Nordschleife_Tourist) . Is this correct as if so i didnt help. I copied and replaced current profile with the one in Torches zip as well.

    Edit, seems it works for race although when I selected time and only had practise session checked(box ticked and not ticked for race) it didnt work, when I went to next session(race) it worked fine and looks awesome btw. seems its my end getting the session settings correct in game.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2014
  8. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    Nice to see you got your problem fixed.

    The files from the profile must go into Ring_Tourist directory.

    That's odd tho, cause after I first released the very first version, I wanted to change the name Ring_Tourist for Nordschleife_Tourist, but somehow, after changing all paths and all, the track wasn't loading anymore. So I reverted the changes and kept Ring_Tourist. Plus, I thought that it would be better for rf2rank as well.

    So I'll look and see where this directory comes from, it might not be installed anymore, and might date from an older version and stayed around this time.
     
  9. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    yes Nordschleife_Tourist, is the only directory I have after I uninstall and delete all previous builds each time .. strange.. Awesome to drive the SLS around at 6pm on a nice balmy European spring evening. a visual feast and driving orgasm :)
     
  10. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    Yup, this is the spot I had to raise it further :)

    There are a lot of other small fixes like this that might have went unnoticed.

    For once, I fixed many road lines to the side of the road, that wasn't lined up properly and fixed their mappings. I also fixed the audi logo near kallenhard, on the side of the hill.

    That texture was made with the same grass that logo was used against, and had that logo in. The thing is, that texture was a 1024 one, and I replaced with 2048.. so I had to do another logo put it against the new texture.

    Instead what I did is create an alpha channel for the audi logo, revealing only the logo, and hiding the grass, and I switched the object to decal and moved it forward a bit so it's on top of the hill.

    I never really noticed the tatoos were so much above ground, its hard to see without 3d. But I noticed it at some point when checking out something else, my car was paused with a wheel just on a tatoo, and the tatoo seemed to go right thru the tires... so I had to fix this! Must have been annoying for those playing with 3d all this time :)
     
  11. Tosch

    Tosch Registered

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    The "Settings Folder" is defined in the gdb file.

     
  12. Tosch

    Tosch Registered

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    There is a small bug in the latest builds. The custom hdr profile does not work if you change it in the current session. You have to leave the track and restart the session (and don't change the profile again) and rF2 will create the file currentprofile.hdp with the settings of the custom profile.
     
  13. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    Thanks Tosch, been trying to nut it out all day lol
     
  14. Racefreak1976

    Racefreak1976 Registered

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    Hey pleclair,

    did a couple of laps in the Darche last night. The road feels much better now even though it was already very good in the beta. I love what you did to the curbs too. Didn't get a look at the treetops.
    What I noticed is, the FPS are ok as long as I'm racing but replays are extremely laggy. Might be my system. I was only doing a practice session without any visible cars on track.
    I've just put 3 AI on with private session active so I could check laptimes.

    Another thing I noticed, you can actually feel the rubber on the track! Is it just my imagination or does anybody else feel this? I don't know how you did this but it's freaking awesome!

    Brilliant work, pleclair! True dedication.
     
  15. Denstjiro

    Denstjiro Registered

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    that is just great.....and here I am thinking I am stupid, trying to figure out why it don't work and not getting anywhere. getting so fed up with rf2.

    thx for the info Tosch.
     
  16. Marc Collins

    Marc Collins Registered

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    Yes, good point to pay attention to pine versus "leaf" trees. The mountains have more pines.
     
  17. Racefreak1976

    Racefreak1976 Registered

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    Noticed another thing just now. My sky seems to be black and white or color inverted. Not sure how to explain.
    You probably already know this, but there is a huge gap in the mesh just before the carussel.
     
  18. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    Regarding the sky, I don't know, I've never noticed anything odd with the sky myself. As for the gap in the mesh, yeah, there is indeed one. There should be a path there, but somehow this part didn't got imported when I originally re-imported all rf1 objects to start over.

    This will be fixed in the next update.
     
  19. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    Actually, I paid good attention to trees... it is easy to see on a satellite image, the leaf trees are round, large, and light green, and the pine tree have a really dark side (more angled) and are a much darker green.

    If you look at the satellite image of Nord, you will see that many mountains have more leaf trees than pines. Probably the smallest ones?

    I have some images close up on the nurburb castle, which happens to be at the top of a mountain, and this one is mostly leaf trees.

    I will likely play some more with the forests, and there are zones inside a leaf tree region where you find a patch of pines, and vice versa, and I've made a few of these, but I will likely make more. It's really easy to go and modify these forests, adding and removing kinds of trees from the probability list, updating the forests in real time.

    I will also likely add more variations of trees later on.. I was very limited before.. the way the trees was layed out, a lot of the same trees repeated in a row... so I couldnt use many trees because they would easily be spotted (like crooked ones).. but with Forest Pack, I can use all trees I want, and set them to a probability that makes them appear how you want. The clusters features also is very nice, grouping similar trees and bushes together like you find in nature.

    But at least, the base forest is done all around track. Modifying it will be fast and easy.


    EDIT: It'S possible that after getting a few crashes in a row and losing my work over and over, I might have created some forests faster than others...if you wish, point me in the right direction and tell me which mountains should be revised?
     
  20. pleclair

    pleclair Registered

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    I changed lots of settings regarding the road feedback in the 1.6 update. I experimented a lot with invididual settings, setting one up by a large amount and see what it does, and setting it to a really small value and see what it changes. Then went for something that I liked. The goal was to be able to feel the difference between the different surfaces. While trying not to overdo it and make it as natural as possible.

    I hope in the future we can make tdf adjustment live in the dev mode. It would help a great deal setting all this up. Cause every time you change the tdf... you spend like 2 mins loading the game back and its hard to remember exactly how it felt 2 mins ago with slightly different settings. By seeing the changes in realtime, it would help a lot!

    The grass should also feel much better now. More bumpy a bit, and a bit more grip. Previously, as soon as your wheels got on the grass, you were almost sure to never get back on the tarmac. Now, if you step off the throttle on the grass, you have a lot more chances to get back on track without hitting the fences.

    After playing AC a bit, it became evident the sand traps weren't slowing you down enough... I tried to get this feeling in rF2, but I wasn't totally able to. The sand now seems to slow you down a bit, but it's not as I want it to be. I'll play with this some more later on.

    I played a bit with the resistance value, and I cannot seem to find any difference when settings it to 0-5000-50000-500000. It's really small, and hard to notice, like I said, after spending 2-3 mins to load the game again, and driving back to the sand trap spot in aremburg.
     

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