rec.autos.simulators

Is there a reason why we don't have rainshowers while blasting through the
Ardenne forest or sliding around Monaco? It's not like they would have to
change much else as the cars ran on the same tyres whatever the weather
conditions were in those days.

Chris

David

--David Cook

First of all, I suggest you go check deja.com there is plenty of interesting
archives on this subject (800matches!)

The main reason was that weather effects the way they should be are simply
not available to the mainstream PC even in today's standard.  Also, the time
consideration overlooked for the lack of this option in GPL.  I am not
talking about simply weather effects but how Papyrus wants it to be.  As the
leader in the simracing industry, and especially with David Kaemmer creating
it, he simply chose to not to do instead of trying to.  Yoda said once..
"Try not.  Do, or do not. There is no try..."

Because it's just not decreasing the track grip.  You can do that by
modifying your setup if you want.  After that just repaint the track
graphics to recreate a rain-environment.  From an old message I did on
r.a.s. here is what I suggest a realistic weather effect game engine should
try to have :

- % of rain per square inch, to simulate how hard the rain falls down.
Perhaps also calculate the density of the rain and make everything else
model to those changing effects.  It also changes during the course of a
session.

- Wind speed and temperature, atmospheric pressure.  All of this can change
during the course of any session.

- Terrain model, in a way that the 3-d engine would model rain to get down
slopes, make rivers on the terrain, rivers  on the track, puddle at specific
lower parts of the track

- How the grass actually absorb, not just the grass but the track, and any
other types of surface like how sand absorbs the water (depending on the 3d
geometry of the environment of course).  All of this is related to the grip
coefficient on the tyre patch.

- Realistic clouds, in a way you have all the possible list of clouds
(cirrus, cumulus, etc..).  This affect the type and density of rain, how
fast it comes and goes, etc..  Also, with atmospheric pressure you could
model how low the clouds are, that creating the possibility of reduced
vision/fog.

- racing groove is less affected by the rain because of the tires on the
tracks.  A good thing would be to calculate this via the LP AI files.  It's
dependant to about all the things above, like the 3d geometry (the camber of
the track), how hard it's raining, etc..

- Modeling of the rain poured off the back of tires, or sliding off any
parts of the car body.  So rain falling down on the cars actually drift off
behind with real-time physics (not just canned depending on the speed only).

- All this in real-time, remember..

In conclusion, we will have to wait for a new product that I speculate will
arrive soon, that is a game card which purpose is only to calculate
mathematical physics calculation, giving the 3d graphic engine to the video
card and decreasing the CPU load.

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I'm really quite curious about this. Is this physics calculating game card
that you speak of something that is in developement for PC's somewhere or
are you gazing into a crystal ball and prophesizing (not that  theres'
anything wrong with that :) )?

David

I think I remember seeing some editorials about it, but at the moment I
haven't ever seen a company doing some research about that.  I really hope
somebody catches out on the idea.

It would be probably a very big step forward.  This and mainstream quality
VR-Goggles that would recreate a 3d-freedom of head movement in any game
engine.  Every game on the market could take advantage of this.  FPS,
flight-sims, racing sims, even simply arcade games with limited calculations
for the physics.  You just would probably need a standard coding for that,
since I doubt it could accelerate any game (kinda like a 3d card for real 3d
acceleration needs a rasterizer like Glide, D3d or OpenGL).

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- May the Downforce be with you...

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Andre

Thanks,

Dave Ewing

--
*****************************************************
David A. Ewing

*****************************************************

Saw that a few years ago - Excellent stuff!

--
Cheers!
Graeme Nash

Please!  I have enough problems staying on the track NOW...<g>

Eldred
--
Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999
Own Grand Prix Legends?  Goto  http://gpl.gamestats.com/vroc

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

And I once read a report of Jacky Steward from a race in the rain at
the Ring. I can only dream of a realistic weather option in GPL...

Andre

I think it would lead to a series of heart-attack killed sim-racers :)

:> (major snippage)
:>
:> In conclusion, we will have to wait for a new product that I speculate
: will
:> arrive soon, that is a game card which purpose is only to calculate
:> mathematical physics calculation, giving the 3d graphic engine to the
: video
:> card and decreasing the CPU load.

: I'm really quite curious about this. Is this physics calculating game card
: that you speak of something that is in developement for PC's somewhere or
: are you gazing into a crystal ball and prophesizing (not that  theres'
: anything wrong with that :) )?

  There are companys researching the "physics accelerator".  I certainly
know of one in Oxford looking into the matter.

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
    www:  http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html