rFactor2 - Making a top-down mod/racer!?

Discussion in 'Modding' started by FuNK!, Jan 22, 2014.

  1. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    I've played many top-down racing games before and can't really get free of their charme. MRO or the more modern Real World Racing game are really fascinating - at least for me!
    So I just played with the idea to make a top-down mod for rF2. I know...this is somewhat "strange" from the point of view to use a real simulation game and engine to build an arcade game upon it. Anyway, I like the idea and just want to give it a try :D

    The following screenshot was just taken from the game without any change, just positioning the free move camera into a top-down perspective.
    [​IMG]

    So now I'm just wondering what would be needed to get the top-down feeling into rF2!? A track with a default top-down TV-camera or maybe better a car with a default top-down camera. But would it be possible to fix the camera in a north-south orientation while the car is turning? What would be needed to get a more arcadish physic for this mod? ...Questions upon questions!

    For more inspiration on this topic you may have a look here and here :)

    Finally now I'm really curious what reactions will follow on this topic and who may be interested in giving some constructive input :cool: Cheers!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 22, 2014
  2. DJCruicky

    DJCruicky Registered

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    I think it would be best to mod a track.
    Delete all cameras and make 1 camera, set it very very high above middle of track. This camera would need to have a high zoom lens setting to zoom down on the car.

    When a player drives the car they need press the Page Down button to get this camera view. That's it I guess, unless you want to mod the car too to make it easier to drive as it would be hard as nails to drive.

    try the track LongFord, I think this track already has something like this, you need press PageDown a few times to get this view.
     
  3. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    thx for the input ;)
    at least some tracks have this helicopter camera but I guess all of them aren't fixed into a north-south direction...but I will take a closer look later :D

    oh and of course the cars will need to be moded..but I guess this wont be a big issue ;) I guess it will be much harder to get something like a trackmap plus corner annoucements or an fast line display...
     
  4. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    I just tried the camera editor in dev mode...it's really complicated and non user friendly :(
    Is there any other tool or maybe a comprehensive tutorial on the camera editing?
     
  5. Prodigy

    Prodigy Registered

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    I think nothing in rf2 modding is user friendly :D
     
  6. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    hm that's a different story xD
     
  7. Andreas Binz

    Andreas Binz Registered

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    Absolutely not my fav. but a very nice idea. Adding more options is good.
     
  8. MarcG

    MarcG Registered

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    Great idea, I loved Supercars II on the Amiga...Great memories. good luck with any project on this :)
     
  9. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    Made some further investigations and I'm afraid to say that rF seems to be not capable of fixing the cameras to a north-south direction. This will make it hard to generate the right feeling :(
    Above this it seems to be much easier just to make whole new game (e.g. with the Unity game engine) instead of making a rF2 mod. Anyhow I think I will keep the whole idea in my mind but go further with other works, especially my R/C mod ;)
     
  10. Michael Borda

    Michael Borda Car Team

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    For say, a swingman camera, you can set the middle value to 0, i.e. something like OrientationRate=(1.4, 0, 0), and I think more or less you have what you want, you might also want to set the first value to 0 for hills. I think that's what you're after?
     
  11. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    In principle this is the solution...BUT the camera is connected to the car so every movement will cause jitter now :( tried several settings and combinations but didn't found any solution for this :(
    Above this if you switch to a different car by pressing the - or + key, the camera orientation will be reset to the actual car. This way the north-south-direction is lost. Even if you are pressing the numblock enter the orientation will be reset.

    Any further ideas on this? I really hoped this top-down perspective would be achievable with a trackside camera because they only focus on the car but don't follow it's movements like the onboard cams...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 30, 2014
  12. FuNK!

    FuNK! Registered

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    by accident I found a solution for one of my problems xD first the camera jittered so driving was really hard...now I found an other mod which has a helicopter onboard-cam which hadn't any jitter :cool: (sidenote I'm working with rF1 as I haven't properly prepared my moddev install from rF2 yet)

    here is a little preview-video!


    but a new problem occurred as now the perspective is strange (zoomed out by FOV, not by offset etc.) so side objects do look distorted :( anyhow this could be compensated with special tracks used for top-down-racing ;)
    I will keep playing with the values, so maybe I even find a better setting for the camera ;)
     

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