Racetrack (conversion)

[Auria]

What about a live standings list? Would that work any better than rendering from a camera?

I'm not sure what you mean by "live standings list", can you explain?

I wonder, would there be a way to time an RTT operation, and disable it gracefully for cards where it's too slow?

Anything is possible, but it's always a matter of whether we have the manpower to do it
Also, I'm not sure it would be interesting for a user to have the first few frames go dreadfully slow; it would also be rather complex to code (what is too slow?). So that's not really considered atm

[Pixel]

I was actually thinking about an off-screen RTT test, possibly during start-up, since the game takes some time to start anyway,
though what would be too slow is a good question.

Maybe instead of "live standings list", I should say "scoreboard" or "leaderboard". Real stadiums often have one.

I apologize if I haven't calculated the lap times correctly, they're just examples.

Current Standings
Racer Current Lap Lap Time
1. Tux 2 00:22:55
2. Penny 2 00:25:00
3: Mr. Ice Block 1 00:47:55

And so on.. (The formatting doesn't look right, I know.)

These times would be displayed on an object, like a leaderboard. It's a similar idea to the live camera, but with a difference in how it's produced.
Rather than being copied from another camera, the game would take the racer/time data and place it on an object. It could either copy the needed character
data from a texture containing them, or perhaps the game's fonts could be used. I admit, I don't know if it could be done without RTT, but I would think it shouldn't
need as many resources as re-rendering a live camera shot from somewhere on the track.

[Auria]

Hi,

the idea of this board is sure an interesting one; now we only need to see if someone has time to code that ^^ Sadly this is not a given, given our very limited (wo)manpower

[hiker]

Hi,

the idea of this board is sure an interesting one; now we only need to see if someone has time to code that ^^ Sadly this is not a given, given our very limited (wo)manpower

I agree with auria, this will certainly be after 0.7. Both ideas are interesting. So just make sure to remind some time after 0.7.

Cheers,
Joerg

[acme_pjz]

the idea of this board is sure an interesting one; now we only need to see if someone has time to code that ^^ Sadly this is not a given, given our very limited (wo)manpower

If STK has script support it would be not hard and not hard-coded in source files ... All we need is a script engine (for example, Lua) and STK exposes some function interface, then the track maker write some script to call interface function to read data such as kart's rank etc. then call interface function to render something

Recently I studied some Lua and planning to integrate Lua to my own opensorce game ... So if STK can integrates Lua it's a good idea but other script languages are good to ... so now please consider that should we add a script engine to STK? If it's true, which script language?

[Auria]

Adding a script engine is a good idea for sure, to make more dynamic tracks or to make cutscenes for an hypothetic story mode. But we're not there yet So this will definitely not come for 0.7, and probably not for 0.8 neither

[hiker]

Hi,

Adding a script engine is a good idea for sure, to make more dynamic tracks or to make cutscenes for an hypothetic story mode. But we're not there yet So this will definitely not come for 0.7, and probably not for 0.8 neither

I am not actually sure that I want to add a script engine: to make a more dynamic track we can use the existing check-structures (e.g. a check-line or -sphere to trigger sfx, animations etc). Really dynamic tracks (i.e. tracks that will be deformed) need manual work on stk anyway (modifying the physics and irrlicht meshes etc). For story mode: I am not entirely sure if you would want to do this using a scripting engine. I would expect that this is easier to do with IPO and skeletal animations - design all the cut scenes in blender and just export them. The track exporter already has most of the features necessary for that.

But obviously if we have a good 'real' reason (real as opposed to a theoretical idea for a track that doesn't exist ) we will consider it.

Cheers,
Joerg

[acme_pjz]

I am not actually sure that I want to add a script engine: to make a more dynamic track we can use the existing check-structures (e.g. a check-line or -sphere to trigger sfx, animations etc).

There are two ways to achieve this: the first is export event squences when you enter a check-line to XML, and write C++ code to parse the event sequences; another way is simply triggers a script event (ie. call a user-defined function in script files), then the code in script call some STK's interface function to do something (for example, STK defines a function to play a sound, another function to trigger an animation, etc. ) ... The first way requires you to write a lot code to parse event sequence parameters and process all possible combinations; the second way just needs to write a script call statement and some callback functions, which may be less complex and fewer of code IMHO ...

[ggreenn]

When I downloaded your most rescent file I noticed that you start facing the wrong direction. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

[Auria]

ggreenn: probably the track just needs to be re-exported with the latest version of the track exporter