the next big steps

[joevenzon]

Here are some of the big fixes that, in my opinion, really need to get done:
1) fix the collision code by using ODE. this should speed things up and make collisions much more robust
2) change the sound library. this should fix bugs and improve sound quality
3) fix multiplayer

[rookie1]

Can we add car to car collision detection as well? AI driver will also need to be overhauled to have collision avoidance and overtaking capability.

[thelusiv]

Yes, ODE will hopefully cover car-car collisions as well.

[joevenzon]

I implemented the new sound engine, R1637.

Still to do: wave loader is probably endian dependent and needs to be fixed for mac, master volume setting isn't hooked up yet, doppler effects aren't set up yet, performance might not be fully optimized, the stereo effect is to extreme when close to an object, and I'd like to implement a high-quality re-sampling filter.

Anyway, if anyone gets a chance, please test it out and let me know how it works.

[rookie1]

It sounds much better than the old version. There is still some distortion when more than 1 car is present.

[joevenzon]

Have you noticed any impact to performance versus the old sound engine? Do you have a dual-core/multi-proc system, or a single cpu?

[pwp71]

When I've tried it seem to be better and light. I have gain some fps.

single AMD XP1600 - NVidia FX5200 -Linux OpenSuse 10.2

pwp71

[rookie1]

I'm running on Athlon XP, single core. No noticeable performance impact.

[abs1nth]

btw. we once talked about consolidating the two splashscreens into one (it's quite annoying to wait for both to finish). also since the openal dependency is removed it makes no sense to continue featuring them

i'm proposing using a single image like this:
http://homepage.mac.com/julianmayer/vdri...h-test.png

note, i said *like* because i know the image itself isn't good - i'm not an artist and completely incapable of making good in-game screenshots.

[joevenzon]

I like the idea. Your shot actually looks pretty good! Might want to photoshop it so it looks more like the right front wheel is on the ground, though....

This is all good news that there's not really any performance hit. That means we can go nuts and start adding all kinds of sound sources and ridiculous effects. ;-)

[joevenzon]

Note to self: sound sources need to increment even when not audible. Offset tire squeal sounds on load for more realism.

[thelusiv]

Yeah that's really not a bad splash screen. I don't see why we couldn't use it or one very similar if someone wants to take another shot. Also since it's a "drift" game it might be better to have a RWD car...but I guess it doesn't have to be.

Joe, don't get too carried away with the sound filters...we don't need wah-wah flange effects on the engine sound or anything

[abs1nth]

wave loader is probably endian dependent and needs to be fixed for mac

ok i added endian fixes to the wave loader, which stops the crashing on PPC, but still i hear only static instead of the desired sound...any ideas?

[abs1nth]

Yeah that's really not a bad splash screen. I don't see why we couldn't use it or one very similar if someone wants to take another shot.

we could use it now to replace the other 2 splashscreens in trunk, probably with a big fat "BETA" written over it to encourage people to make a better replacement before the next release...

[thelusiv]

abs1nth, you can go ahead and set up your new spash screen if you like. Now that you mention putting BETA on it, that reminds me, maybe we should somehow signify that the whole game is still only Alpha quality. Another idea is to put "experimental" in some places in the menu to let people know that some features are still being worked on (I meant to put this by the force feedback options before last release but didn't get around to it).