Hi guys,

I bought Bob's Track Builder ( http://www.bobstrackbuilder.net/images/screenshots.aspx ) and altered my sim to import the x files and textures it creates. This is a really handy tool for creating tracks and has made things much more interesting for me. Finally I have something roughly resembling "modern" graphics

http://performancesimulations.com/files/ToddSim21c.wmv (16MB)

This is the first public video running my artificial engine sound simulation too, btw. Unfortunately I can't play any other sounds at this point while that's running, so there is no tire squeal or differential whine here.

Anyway, just something a little new to show

Discussion thread:

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?p=3389502#post3389502

Whats the track builder for? a game or just for fun?

frenchy

EDIT: I seen it, rTractor :P

Interesting sounds there Todd. Does look a little nicer than before, has there been much other progress since vids of old?

Looks good Todd and I am glad you're making good use of BTB. I like seeing the wheel and I assume this is also showing tyre flex - slow mo close up would be nice. The engine sounds are not bad for a calculation.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

Whats the track builder for? a game or just for fun?

frenchy

EDIT: I seen it, rTractor :P

rFactor was my first target since it's a very moddable platform but as Todd has demonstrated, BTB can be used for any game accepts Direct X. There's a few people using this method for their own projects.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Interesting sounds there Todd. Does look a little nicer than before, has there been much other progress since vids of old?

Not much has been done really in awhile. I work on it in spurts now and then. I had ordered a G25 wheel just after someone referred me to Bob's Track Builder, so I spent a day getting those tracks loaded and rendered. The wheel arrived the next day so I got the clutch and h-shifter running in it. I'm having a blast with it Unfortunately I don't have any FFB coded in yet though. That would take it to another level and be really fun so am looking forward to it. Some day..

Piddy: There's no visible tire flex there. The tires are done with splines in real time so it should be fairly straightforward to distort things however is necessary and make them match the deformations in the physics model. When I do that maybe I'll post another video at the tire, although I must admit getting it as good as it is in LFS will be a challenge I'm planning on writing a new tire model (again) so will probably wait on the visual deformation stuff until then as the new model will be a bit better suited to it.

This is probably a bit too old (EDIT: December 2004 it seems!) and low poly to be of use to you, but i've uploaded it anyway incase you find some use for it.

http://www.bansheestudios.com/RaceCraft.zip

I did do a higher poly version of it somewhere but it exported only for a particular game.

The hardest thing about doing this I note that Bob's Track Builder also doesn't cover, and that's how to deal with the expanse off to the side. I wasn't totally happy with my solution either tbh. Spline modelling is definately a better method on the whole.

And I bet he will still reach S3 (Or whatever he calls each upgrade) before we do!

Joking aside, nice work, i can't imagine how much would have to go into something like this, then again, LFS is just mind boggling.

Quote from Becky Rose :

... The hardest thing about doing this I note that Bob's Track Builder also doesn't cover, and that's how to deal with the expanse off to the side. I wasn't totally happy with my solution either tbh. Spline modelling is definately a better method on the whole.

BTB doesn't do it yet but there are plans for a "Surrond ground" system. Currently it's all in my head and working pretty well despite the few bugs.

For the time being you can do it "relatively" simply using Max as shown in this tutorial ... http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=282160

New one:

http://www.performancesimulations.com/files/ToddSim22a.wmv

Neat tool, Becky. Thanks for sharing. My creator (not Bob's) just let you choose a straight or a turn, followed by the length, turn radius, and number of degrees to turn along with the degree step that decides how fine the mesh is. It was all just a single triangle strip and doing elevation changes required manually typing in the height value. Yuck Bob's is light years ahead of mine

Rpm sounds to be too low, I know it is just temporarily thing, but it still sounds too low, 1500rpm higher would be perhaps nice

tbh it sounds pretty nasty in a sid 6581 way
but the new tracks show more of the physics engine which is always nice to see

Could anyone upload those videos on youtube? Cant download nothing in this computer

Thanks

Quote from JTbo :

Rpm sounds to be too low, I know it is just temporarily thing, but it still sounds too low, 1500rpm higher would be perhaps nice

The rpm is actually spot on. The audio is generated and driven by a pretty complex engine simulation I wrote awhile back. The base frequency matches exactly. It's all the other sims you play that are off

Wow, will you be releasing it within the next 2yrs? In 2yrs you will have quite a sim!

Quote from jtw62074 :

The rpm is actually spot on. The audio is generated and driven by a pretty complex engine simulation I wrote awhile back. The base frequency matches exactly. It's all the other sims you play that are off

Then real life is off too, 5k rpm really does not sound so low in any car I have seen and heard IRL, whatever reason is behind it. LFS may too have engine sound spot on as it is generated on fly, but still it sounds too low compared to RL cars, can't say why it is so, but it just is

Maybe it is ok for 1cyl engine, more cylinders tend to give sound feeling that there are more rpm than less cylinders, or maybe some additional sound like intake/exhaust, don't really know what makes it, but my ears are telling me, there is that much missing and my ears are adjusted to RL engines

Nonetheless, it is very impressive piece of software you are building there and I follow it with great interest

edit: Just did remember that I did some recordings for my mod some time ago, recorded with videocam so really not too great sound quality and perhaps not too useful for anything else than my mod I think.

Does the sound frequency seem low (when quick revving) or is that because of the capturing? Speaking about which, is it possible to capture at 30fps? Te slightly choppy framerate doesn't always do justice to whats really going on

On a sidenote, does your sim support separate throttle/brake axes? From the looks of the black bar it still seems to be combined. Might be interesting how it handles trailbraking, etc.

Good looking video, I especially like the track because of the bumps (1 thing I really miss in LFS).

Quote from mikey_G :

Good looking video, I especially like the track because of the bumps (1 thing I really miss in LFS).

Yes, this is what I miss in LFS too, in old Blackwood there was really nice bumps on long straight, but they put new surface on it

Quote from JTbo :

Then real life is off too, 5k rpm really does not sound so low in any car I have seen and heard IRL, whatever reason is behind it. LFS may too have engine sound spot on as it is generated on fly, but still it sounds too low compared to RL cars, can't say why it is so, but it just is

Maybe it is ok for 1cyl engine, more cylinders tend to give sound feeling that there are more rpm than less cylinders, or maybe some additional sound like intake/exhaust, don't really know what makes it, but my ears are telling me, there is that much missing and my ears are adjusted to RL engines

Nonetheless, it is very impressive piece of software you are building there and I follow it with great interest

edit: Just did remember that I did some recordings for my mod some time ago, recorded with videocam so really not too great sound quality and perhaps not too useful for anything else than my mod I think.

Thanks for the input. What do you think of this one? Better or worse? Ignoring the high frequency ringing and other artifacts...

Edit: Accidentally posted 22a.wmv again. Here's the new one:

http://www.performancesimulations.com/files/ToddSim23a.wmv Niels: This one is at 50fps I think. The capturing process doesn't effect the sound frequency so that's not the thing.

Quote from AndroidXP :

On a sidenote, does your sim support separate throttle/brake axes? From the looks of the black bar it still seems to be combined. Might be interesting how it handles trailbraking, etc.

It's combined right now. Virtual RC Racing had no need for split axis so I didn't include it. I'll add it though. Will need it for KartSim for sure anyway

Quote from jtw62074 :

Thanks for the input. What do you think of this one? Better or worse? Ignoring the high frequency ringing and other artifacts...

Edit: Accidentally posted 22a.wmv again. Here's the new one:

http://www.performancesimulations.com/files/ToddSim23a.wmv Niels: This one is at 50fps I think. The capturing process doesn't effect the sound frequency so that's not the thing.

I would say that it is damn good compared to previous, rpm is surely very close to what I would except to hear
Can't say that there is now error at all in frequency, it is quite lot of work to adjust correctly in sample based engines at least, lot of testing and comparing or that is what I had to do.

Don't know if you find this useful at all, but here is recording from coil negative side (ignition pulses) from something bit over 1000 to 6200rpm where limiter cuts it, you can hear limiter cutting spark at end.

Here is same as video clip in car.

Can't wait to see your next updates

Ok, you were right after all. I know what the problem was. The previous examples were (supposedly if I wasn't making a mistake, which is entirely possible) running the left/right banks of the engine through the left/right speakers. The idea was that a dual exhaust system would sound like that. Apparantly I must not have been doing it right, which would cause the frequency to be a lot lower than it should have been.

The new video there has both banks combined running through both speakers. That does sound a lot better, more natural, and bumps up the frequency to where it should be. Thanks for pointing that out. That was good constructive criticism

Will check out your links.

Quote from JTbo :

Can't say that there is now error at all in frequency, it is quite lot of work to adjust correctly in sample based engines at least, lot of testing and comparing or that is what I had to do.

By the way, there is a method to the madness when it comes to finding the rpm of a recorded sample. What I do when working with samples is run a program that plays a sine wave with a frequency controlled by a scrollbar at the same time the recorded engine sample is playing in a loop. Just adjust the frequency to match and resonate with the recorded sample and then you can calculate the rpm quite accurately from that.

I posted somewhere else here on how to do that if I'm not mistaken. If you're interested a search might turn up that thread. The idea is that the base frequency where it resonates equals how many exhaust pulses you have per second. So considering # of cylinders and whether it's a 2 stroke or 4 stroke engine it's easy to calculate. If there's interest maybe I can put up a little proggy to play the sine wave and show the rpm directly after you input # of cylinders and 2/4 stroke. Any interest, folks?

i absolutely hate my computer.. i can't see the video at all no matter what i use..
and nothing seems to be helping and i've had this problem for so long now i dont know what the hell caused it

i do hear sound though..