The first time you load up a track that you haven't driven on before the load time may be longer than normal. This happens because on the first load we build a collision database for the track as well as compile the shaders the track requires. This only happens once and from then on load times should be fine. In addition, changing some settings, such as turning HDR on and off, will requires the shaders to be recompiled and this again will lengthen the load time until all tracks have been re-processed.. Long story short, once you have your settings where you want them, and all the tracks have been loaded once, load times should come down to acceptable amounts of time...
I think those of us familiar with rF1 need to accept there will be some info given for rF2 that is 'old hat' to us (hehehe... see what I did there? ).
Actually, it's not HAT anymore (although you still need to mark gmt's as HAT if they are to be driven on). It's the same general idea, just a different format to support the new collision system...
Scott, how that "sort of a HAT" file is generated in rF 2? Still only based on a regular track version, we have created (so in order to have all that tiny little bumps, they have to be modeled in the regular version, thus having impact on framerates) or the track creator makes a separate version of his track - a "reference" version, with highly detailed road surface, only for that "sort of a HAT" file to be generated? EDIT: Now I see that in the meantime, Tim have released some track modding documentation, so maybe my question might be already answered there
Does all that you said apply to the Developer mode as well? Does it recompile everything if you make a 'small' change? Do/can you tell it to force recompile? Is it possible to load without compiling certain things (i.e. you're testing a shader in-engine and don't care about driving the surface or vice-versa)?
During track development it's often faster to use the viewer rather than running rF2 Developer--you can get in, see you changes, and get out much quicker. I save development mode for when the track is mostly complete and I need to start working up AIW, cameras and sound...
Thanks Scott! I wasn't sure yet if the Dev mode was replacing the viewer, since I didn't recall hearing anything about its inclusion again.
