Turbo Sliders 2.0.0 Beta

[dede]

I guess that's just because of the fact that 1ms into the game, it decreases from 80% to 79.99..% and the decimal part is truncated. So in practice you DO start with 80%, it's just rounded down and displayed as 79%.

Exactly. A different way to display it would be to show the number when it reaches exactly that value.

Examples:
80.1 = 81
80.0 = 80
79.9 = 80
79.x = 80
79.0 = 79
...

But the way it is right now is ok, also (or maybe it's better this way, because you get 1% more when it reaches 0%: it slows down at 0.0 ).

[Ande]

Some news again. OpenGL version is making progress and almost everything already works in my computer. A few more days and maybe there will be a test version and we can see how many new problems there are.

About car loading bug: yes, there was a big bug and the only odd thing is why I didn't find it earlier. Anyway, in current 2.0 versions, cars in cars/tmp folder are not loaded and will not be found. It will be fixed in the next version.

[Jazzyclub]

maybe i found some bugs...

1a) the field of nickname have a limited number of characters...
1b) if you edit your color in .da2 and save, you need to create again your profile (hash problem) i think to solve this problem its better to use RGB value during the profile creation

2) i dont remember the settings but in online cup the countdown lights are stopped on 3 lights and pause then "like a surprise" the race start

3) useless but...the background image in first window menu is scretched and in other window normal, when you back in first window it screatch again

4) i cant see anymore the shadow under the cars

5) in 1.08 the bridges putted in diagonal have no problem, but in 2.0 they have black gap inside (we all know the bridge tile is an assemble of many parts)

[Ivan Drago]

1a) the field of nickname have a limited number of characters...

The characters were limited in 1.08 too.

2) i dont remember the settings but in online cup the countdown lights are stopped on 3 lights and pause then "like a surprise" the race start

That's a feature, not a bug.

[dede]

1a) the field of nickname have a limited number of characters...

You can convert old nicknames with extra characters.

1b) if you edit your color in .da2 and save, you need to create again your profile (hash problem) i think to solve this problem its better to use RGB value during the profile creation

Wrong. It's possible to edit the color in players.da2. Color code hasn't anything to do with hash calculation. Maybe you edited the hash itself (or the player ID).

2) i dont remember the settings but in online cup the countdown lights are stopped on 3 lights and pause then "like a surprise" the race start

That's the new starting mode. If it's enabled, race starts after a random waiting. They turn on at the same time so that you can know if it's normal start or random start.

4) i cant see anymore the shadow under the cars

Shadows become invisible if the game is too slow (don't remember anymore the technical description Ande game me..). Check FPS and CPU load. If it's too high compared to TS 1.0.8, enable DirectX and/or use old SDL.dll.

5) in 1.08 the bridges putted in diagonal have no problem, but in 2.0 they have black gap inside (we all know the bridge tile is an assemble of many parts)

This might be because they weren't positioned in a accurate way. Check the features list (unique resolution/zoom when track creating/loading.. or smth like that.

[Jeffrey]

5) in 1.08 the bridges putted in diagonal have no problem, but in 2.0 they have black gap inside (we all know the bridge tile is an assemble of many parts)

Jazzy is this the problem i spoke to you about?

Diagonal bridges have a black border around them.

[slypuna]

a suggestion for 2.0 : auto-saved logs video to have a rewind and pause operation. That would be nice when we want to relook a particular frame several times in a race or puna game.

[Mouse]

a suggestion for 2.0 : auto-saved logs video to have a rewind and pause operation. That would be nice when we want to relook a particular frame several times in a race or puna game.

When watching a recording, you can press F4 and record again from that recording. So, re-record the part you want to watch and you can keep restarting how ever many times you need to.

I think Ande has said a long time ago that rewinding recordings would be a difficult feature to add.

[Jeffrey]

I have tested TS 2.0 with highest resolution possible on a 22" monitor using game resolution of: 1680 by 1050.

Using a track test of 4000 by 2415.

With Direct X ON it works very good - fps is constant at 50 and load ranges between 20 and 40.

With DIRECT X OFF i could notice that it was not smooth - i still had fps at 50 but load ranges bewteen 90 and 100.

When i replaced the SDL from TS 1.08 this solve the problem.

[Tijny]

I have tested TS 2.0 with highest resolution possible on a 22" monitor using game resolution of: 1680 by 1050.

Using a track test of 4000 by 2415.

With Direct X ON it works very good - fps is constant at 50 and load ranges between 20 and 40.

With DIRECT X OFF i could notice that it was not smooth - i still had fps at 50 but load ranges bewteen 90 and 100.

When i replaced the SDL from TS 1.08 this solve the problem.

None of that is going to matter when the OpenGL version is released: 20 bots on Minileap, 5% load! Wooo!

[Jeffrey]

Thats great news!

Something interesting to be changed in the future is the size of the hud information.

When playing with high resolution and on wide screen monitors, it becomes a bit difficult to read the hud information in a split of a second.

The text becomes to small.

[Ande]

New version has come, now with OpenGL support!

Copied from the updated first message:

Latest version is now rc4. This version is compatible with rc3 but upgrading is recommended. There are some bugfixes (car downloading, max speed bug etc.) but the main thing is OpenGL support. I hope this to fix many graphics related lag issues but unfortunately, it is also likely that some people have new problems. Please report them here and tell which computer you have (processor, amount of memory, video card) and what F10 tells during a race (especially, how many milliseconds graphics update takes). I am also happy to hear about the game being smoother, if it previously was laggy. I recommend using maximum resolution if possible.

(Link removed since a newer version was released)

I will release the Linux version later.

[Janne]

I have the same unsmoothness issue with OpenGL than I had with new SDL. Whole scenery is shaking when car moves around the track and if screen is not moving, then only the moving car is shaking.

OpenGL, Res. 1024x768 full screen, FPS 50-52 (19-21ms) @ 0-5%

Computer specs:
1024 x 768
Intel Celeron CPU 2.4 GHz
ASUS A9250 Series - 256 MB
512 MB RAM
Windows XP Pro SP2
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

[Ande]

I have the same unsmoothness issue with OpenGL than I had with new SDL. Whole scenery is shaking when car moves around the track and if screen is not moving, then only the moving car is shaking.

I think what you see is caused by the fact that TS uses fixed 50 frames per second update rate and most LCD monitors these days have 60 FPS refresh rate. Thus, in every sixth frame, the image stays the same which can cause the symptoms you described.

This is one thing I still plan to fix somehow even though I think most people don't mind. I would not like to change the 50 FPS game logic update rate so I may have to build a system that always shows frames that are between two actual frames.

[Janne]

The problem disappears when using SDL 1.2.9.0 but in rc4 it means a load of 30-40% instead of rc3's 5-10%. It doesn't seem to cause problems though.

[Ande]

The problem disappears when using SDL 1.2.9.0 but in rc4 it means a load of 30-40% instead of rc3's 5-10%. It doesn't seem to cause problems though.

That sounds very odd since I really don't know what could cause such a difference if you are using OpenGL with both SDL versions. The only thing I can think of is if the older SDL is using a different screen refresh rate. What monitor do you have and which refresh rates does it support in your screen mode? (You can probably see them in control panel -> monitor settings) Some monitors can tell which refresh rate they are using during a game, you could check that if it is possible somehow.

[Janne]

ViewSonic VE150 and refresh rate seems to be 75 Hz. I didn't find any specific information, only "highest reported refresh rate" which was also 75 Hz.

[dede]

75 Hz as well, my monitor is a Dell Trinitron 21''. Probably it's the same problem Janne has

[Hengari]

75 Hz as well, my monitor is a Dell Trinitron 21''. Probably it's the same problem Janne has

On CRT-monitors the movement is always way smoother than on LCD-displays and the high/low refresh rates doesn't affect the same way as on CRT-monitors. Usually LCD-displays have Ande's mentioned 60Hz and CRT-monitors have higher refresh rates like 75Hz or 85Hz. As I understand it, LCD-displays don't need higher refresh rates but they need couple of other good characteristics to make the car fly smooth.

ViewSonic VE150 and refresh rate seems to be 75 Hz

Hah, that's why Janne is always faster than others. I have only 60Hz refresh rate and Janne is 15Hz faster by default

[Ande]

With 75 Hz, every 3rd screen update is skipped by TS. With 60 Hz, every 6th screen update is skipped. I read changelog for SDL, and SDL 1.2.10 actually changed screen refresh rate so it may very well explain why the game seems smoother with older SDL versions (which probably use lower refresh rate). If it was possible to force the monitor refresh rate to 50 Hz or 100 Hz, that would probably make the game much smoother.

But like I said, I would still like to make TS smooth with any refresh rate by interpolating those in-between frames. It is a bit tricky though and I must be careful not to break network game, but I will probably give it a try in coming days.

[Janne]

If it was possible to force the monitor refresh rate to 50 Hz or 100 Hz, that would probably make the game much smoother.

I'm actually able to change it to 100 Hz and changing that made the game run smoother with new SDL. With OpenGL it's still like before.

[Ande]

I'm actually able to change it to 100 Hz and changing that made the game run smoother with new SDL. With OpenGL it's still like before.

Ok, so OpenGL mode probably uses some other refresh rate anyway.

[Scud]

Someone has told that track editor does not have object limit but i cant add any objects anymore on my new track (Huge city track 1960x1800). I have used only default tiles... So is this some kind of bug or is there really object limit? I use rc4 version.

[Ande]

Someone has told that track editor does not have object limit but i cant add any objects anymore on my new track (Huge city track 1960x1800). I have used only default tiles... So is this some kind of bug or is there really object limit? I use rc4 version.

This has not changed in years but there is a limit of 10000 ground tiles and 128 objects per height level (all default bridges probably use the same height level). I don't remember now for sure but one default bridge may consist of several subtiles so that is probably the limiting factor. By the way, it would be possible to make super bridges that go over other bridges (using different height) but I don't think anyone has done that yet, it would require some nasty terrain tweaking .

UPDATE: Oh there is a different limit in editor, I didn't remember that. But those limits I mentioned are hard hard limits in the game. You can use command line option -mo 100 to get more objects in editor. And it seems there is a hard limit for total objects using different heights, too. I'm afraid I have never really documented that -mo option, I was perhaps too afraid of people making tracks full of bridges that would slow down the game too much .

[Tijny]

If by objects you mean bridges and stuff, then yes, you can only have 10 of them per track. However, you can get around that by opening the .trk file in a text editor and adding the objects manually.