Racer documentation

Documentation

Enough documentation to keep you busy for some time.

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There are a few documents that are a jumpstart to pages on this site based on things you want to do. It might be easier to start from there than this list of documentations. Go to the How-To pages by clicking here.

The documentation on this official Racer site can be used as a reference text. However, writing tutorials is a lot of work and I'd rather spend that in coding and stick to the easier reference texts. For interstyle documentation, WIKI exists. Currently 2 Wiki sites exist that contain tutorials/descriptions for Racer. Wiki allows editing by whoever likes to, so it's THE place for a fast growing user created manual. Use them well!

Subject	Documentation
The game	Driving Racer
Background information	Racer's features
	Legal notes / licensing
	The future of Racer
Also installed	Curved (Windows only program to modify torque curves for example)
	CarLab (car physics editor, no longer supplied)
	Pacejka Player (tire force curve editor)
	Modeler (importing foreign model formats like ASE, VRML)
	TrackEd (arranging your track)
	Shady (shader editor, no longer supplied)
	GPLex (3DO to VRML exporter)
	Config (Windows only; quite old and mostly obsolete)
	Buildar (convert models into a compressed file format for faster load times and copyright protection; Windows only)
	DOF Fix (fixing older .dof files which are slightly incorrect)
	Ini (modifying .ini files in batch files)
	Log2mat (convert ASCII log files to MATLAB)
	Mat2Log (convert MATLAB files to ASCII)
	RTD2ASCII (convert RTD log files to ASCII) (v0.9.0RC6+)

TUTORIALS & REFERENCES

Here are some tutorials that present a hands-on approach to various things you can do with Racer. Those marked 'X' are on external sites. Reference-style documents are presented below.

Subject	X	Tutorial
Background		Racer's directory and file structure
		Ini file basics (the building blocks of Racer)
		Developing car & tracks (content) for Racer; useful tips
		Getting more out of Racer
Graphics		Customizing the graphics
		Racer's engine limits
		Shader tutorial
		Shader engine reference
		Materials (physical properties for shaders)
		GPU / Cg shaders
		GLSL shaders (future)
		GPU Shading for tracks
		GPU Shading for cars
		HDR rendering (high dynamic range) in v0.8.0
		Playing with time of day
		Animation (based on skeletons in Max)
		Using GMax to create content
		Time of Day (TOD) editing
		Checking texture map resolution with stub textures (visualizing mipmapping)
		Adding Oculus Rift support (v0.9.0RC7+)
Advanced graphics		Multiplayer using multiple computers
		Multiview (side screens on separate PC's)
		Surround rendering (side screens on a single PC; for example with the nVidia 690 graphics card)
		Stereoscopic 3D rendering (with active shutter glasses) with Quadro's (3D Vision/Oculus Rift not yet supported)
Importing		Importing SCGT cars
		Importing SCGT tracks
		Importing GPL/N4 skies (requires Racer v0.5+)
		Importing GPL tracks (advanced)
Controls		Control sets: creating a custom control set file for your controller(s)
		Car focus
		On force feedback and steering wheels
		Replay generation and recording
Cars		Creating your own car (advanced, views & models)
		Car.ini fields reference (all the car's physics/graphics parameters; the definitive reference for car physics editors) - IMPORTANT
		The System - a tree of parameters & signals inside Racer
		Adding dials (views)
		Pacejka tire model constants
		Adding level of detail
		Adding wings to your car
		Adding windscreen wipers
		Exporting DOFs from ZModeler (by Ryan T)
		Adding generic models (car 3D model addons)
		Adding moving helmets & pilot bodies
		Adding a fuel tank
		Troubleshooting car physics
		Creating ghost cars
		Differentials (Viscous, LSD, Salisbury)
		Active differentials (using Onyx scripting)
		Adding backfire particles (mostly for rally cars)
		Car skinning - variations on a base car
		Shading cars
Non-cars		Faking motorbikes
Tracks		Creating your own track (advanced)
		Adding level of detail
		Adding realtime shadows to the track (and cars)
		ZModeler: lofting a track (by Ryan T)
		Adding rain to tracks
		Create waving flags
		X-tree technique for tracks
		Marshal posts
		Shading tracks
		Color grading tracks
		Creating environment maps for tracks
Gameplay		Multiplayer
		Shaders; a tutorial
		Using 3D Studio Max for Racer
		Racer.ini reference guide
Scripting		Console commands
		Onyx scripting language
		Q scripting language
		Component Entity Systems - an introduction
Distributing content		Releasing your cars/tracks to the public
		Fixing content warnings
		Changes between different Racer versions
Old cars and tracks		Upgrading content to v0.9 final
Physics		Hardcore physics tweaking
		Telemetry - logging information while driving
		Chair controllers; outputting data to drive external devices

For some more programming-oriented look at Racer, check out the technical documentation page. There is also a small book I'm writing on Racer and C++ in general; if you're into programming, this might be an interesting read. Download the 'Programming C++ in Style' here (in PDF format).

Subject	X	Tutorial
General		Profiling CPU & GPU activity
Multiview		Projector distortion editing
Physics		Battling stability issues
		Combined slip in tire models - an overview
Graphics		DDS file loading in OpenGL
		Lighting in Racer
Multiplayer		Multiplayer interpolation, prediction and latency
File formats		The DOF file format (3D geometry)
		The RTD file format (Racer Telemetry Data)

You can find more info on useful books, papers and some other internet links on the links page and more technical info (programmer stuff) on the technical page.

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(last updated December 30, 2014 )