torcs

TORCS version 1.3.8-test1 is available for download. The reason for this test release is the upcoming 2017 championship, I will set this up soon. We are always looking for more competitors, so just have a look at it.

The most important changes are improvements in the simulation code for extreme banking and slopes, the addition of a tire wear/temperature model, improved z collision response (matters for jumps), a brand new track and various little adjustments. The TRB can now automatically generate the racemanager configuration file, and adds random number seeds for later use.

The version is denoted as a test version, because there is some more work to do for the final release, especially the tire wear/temperature model must be parametrized for the cars. Currently the trb1 cars are working great.

The tire wear/temperature model gets accessible if you race in pro mode, have a look at this video.

Downloads

• For Windows users is an executable installer available.
• For Linux/FreeBSD/OpenSolaris/Windows developers and Linux/FreeBSD/OpenSolaris users is a full source package available.

Enjoy, Bernhard.

Changes since 1.3.7

• Added isnan check in collision response calculation (type and dimension transformation could potentially lead to a normal with length 0) (Wolf-Dieter, Daniel, Bernhard).
• Z collisions reworked (car-road) (Bernhard).
• Improved wheel position calculation (Bernhard).
• Improved rideheight calculation (Bernhard).
• Fixed tiny graphical position offset when rendering car on strong banking (Bernhard).
• Adjusted parameters and shadow of car1-ow1 (Wolf-Dieter, Bernhard).
• Implemented caster, adjustable via setup structure and screen (Bernhard).
• Suspension slow/fast threshold is now adjustable (Bernhard).
• Changed 2.5D calculations to 3D (Bernhard).
• Fixed calculation of the angle of attack for spoilers (Bernhard).
• Added initial tire temperature/wear model (Bernhard).
• Made tire temperature/wear model data available for robots (Bernhard).
• Added tire temperature/wear temperature model data to dashboard (Bernhard).
• Added tire temperature/wear configuration parameter, "tire factor", see practice.xml as example. If the factor is 0, the temperature/wear model gets disabled (Bernhard).
• Just enable tire temperature/wear in pro mode (Bernhard).
• Added new track created by Andrew Sumner, Hidden Valley (Andrew, Bernhard).
• Added field to tPitCmd struct to control tire change (Bernhard).
• Updated pit stop screen to change tires or leave it on (Bernhard).
• Performance adjustment for car6-trb1, should now be more competitive (Wolf-Dieter, Bernhard).
• Tire change time can now be configured as parameter "all tires change time", the default is 16 seconds (Bernhard).
• Added track internal name field to TRB for XML generation (Bernhard).
• TRB adoptions, selecting driver optionally by name (previously only by index), added configuration option for "skill level default" in the "Drivers" section (Bernhard).
• Added race configuration generator for TRB (Bernhard).
• Integrated race configuration generator into TRB race submission page (Bernhard).
• Updated Windows installer for 1.3.8-test1 (Bernhard).

Today I have published a video featuring the upcoming tire temperature and wear model, you can watch it here. At the beginning you can see my car set up and controller settings, if you are curious.

The goal was the verification of the distance to wear down 2 tires completely, and to observe the progression of handling, temperature, wear and laptimes. My goal was to have these tires to last around 200-250km, it was a point landing with a covered distance of 199km (55 laps and a few hundred meters).

The best lap was lap 24 with a laptime of 1:12:37, in pro mode, as a little challenge you can post videos of your best pro mode lap there;-)

The TORCS Endurance World Championship 2016 is done, the winner is this time the USRobotics Team owned by Andrew Sumner. Its his second championship win in a row, last year he won with a different team. Congratulations. And again Andrew took a championship virgin car to the crown, he is the first to win a championship with a car2-trb1 car.

I congratulate all other competitors too, thank you for taking part and pushing the limits, including the limits of the simulation. Especially to mention here is Wolf-Dieter, one of his teams, the wdbee racing Team, passed this season the mark of 100 official races.

Andrew published very cool race reviews, don't miss these:

• Race 10 report, thread
• Race 9 report, thread
• Race 8 report, thread
• Race 7 report, thread
• Race 6 report, thread
• Race 5 report, thread
• Race 4 report, thread
• Race 3 report, thread
• Race 2 report, thread
• Race 1 thread

We are looking for additional competitors, if you would like to take part don't hesitate to contact us, e.g. on the championship forum. You can start from the entries of the past season, you can download them from the 2016 championship page (bottom of the page). Hope to see you next season on the track, good luck on your way to the Hall of Fame.

Enjoy, Bernhard.

TORCS version 1.3.7 "documented" is available for download. First I would like to thank the contributors which helped with patches, bug reports and feedback, especially Wolf-Dieter Beelitz for our lengthy suspension discussion.

The most important changes in version 1.3.7 are the much improved api documentation (available as separate tarball), improved handling of configuration files, improvements in the racing rules, blacklisting of input device buttons, improvements in the suspension code and as usual bugfixes and code cleanups.

Downloads

• For the Windows gamers is an executable installer available (contains the full game binary and artwork but no source code).
• For Linux/FreeBSD/OpenSolaris/Windows developers and Linux/FreeBSD/OpenSolaris gamers there is a full source package available. Please follow the installation instructions carefully, do not forget to run make datainstall.
• The new kid on the block is the API-Documentation.

Changes since 1.3.6

• Added missing pictures for Doxygen generated documentation (Bernhard).
• Fixed all Doxygen (version 1.8.2) warnings (Bernhard).
• Adjusted Doxygen configuration (Bernhard).
• Added architecture overview to documentation (Bernhard).
• Updated documentation in params.cpp (Bernhard).
• Improved some currently unused functions in params.cpp (Bernhard).
• params.cpp cleanup (Bernhard).
• Restructured/improved robottools documentation (Bernhard).
• Improved documentation of interfaces (track, graphic, robot, simu) (Bernhard).
• Improved pointer checking in RmLoadingScreenSetText (Bernhard).
• Improved race manager API documentation (Bernhard).
• Added RmGetCategoryName to race manager API, as the name suggests (Bernhard).
• Removed obsolete file confscreens.h (Bernhard).
• Enabled documentation client side (Javascript) search engine (Bernhard).
• Improved ReApplyRaceTimePenalties for cases where drivers did not complete a single lap or the car has been wrecked (Bernhard).
• Removed some outdated files from human driver (Bernhard).
• TORCS configuration and result files go now to correct place on Windows, e.g. to AppData/Local/torcs on Windows 7 (Bernhard).
• Result saving creates directory if not available, matters when creating custom racemanagers or running custom batches with -r (Bernhard).
• Improved -r on Windows, paths containing backslashes ('\') are now working (Bernhard).
• Added ShFolder.lib to VS 6 project files (required for SHGetFolderPath). For VS 6 builds you will need to install the Windows Server 2003 February Edition CORE SDK (the last one which worked with VS 6) and set the lib and include path in the VS 6 options (Bernhard).
• Fixed some gcc 4.8.1 warnings (Bernhard).
• Disabled penalties after race finish, reported by MarkP (MarkP, Bernhard).
• Added new options to trackgen for testing, see -i, -o (Bernhard).
• Added a test suite to generate a bulk of tracks ("test" directory) (Bernhard).
• Added blacklisting of button events in player preferences, needed to set up input devices which fire button and axis events on analogue buttons, e.g. L2/R2 of playstation 4 controllers. Add in the drivers section of preferences.xml e.g. <attstr name="blacklisted events" val="BTN7-0,BTN8-0"/> (Bernhard).
• Improved wheel velocity calculation (Bernhard).
• Improved suspension code to catch damping spikes in extreme conditions and setups, for TRB (Wolf-Dieter, Bernhard).
• Added comments in susp.cpp (Bernhard).
• Ensure that the third element just produces positive forces (Wolf-Dieter, Bernhard).

Enjoy, Bernhard