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)

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.

GENERIC TUTORIALS

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
		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
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
Cars		Creating your own car (advanced, views & models)
		Car.ini fields reference (all the car's physics; the definitive reference for car physics editors)
		Pacejka tire model constants
		Adding level of detail
		Adding wings to your car
		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)
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
Gameplay		Multiplayer
		Shaders; a tutorial
		Using 3D Studio Max for Racer
		Script/console commands
		Racer.ini reference guide
Distributing		Releasing your cars/tracks to the public
		Fixing content warnings
		Changes between different Racer versions
Old content		Upgrading content to v0.9 final
Physics		Hardcore physics tweaking
		Telemetry - logging information while driving
		Chair controllers; outputting data to drive simple chairs

For some more programming-oriented look at Racer, check out the technical documentation page.

Subject	X	Tutorial
Multiview		Projector distortion editing
Physics		Battling stability issues
Graphics		DDS file loading in OpenGL

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 June 24, 2010 )