Speedo in KM/h?

[reece146]

Maybe I missed it...

I saw that the speedo can be changed to digitally read out in km/h via the menus. But this doesn't change the graphic/analog portion.

Is it as simple as replacing a JPG (or similar) somewhere?

Not a big deal, just curious.

[thelusiv]

I was thinking about this over the weekend actually...

It wouldn't be hard to make a speedometer image that has km/h numbers around the outside and MPH numbers around the inside, opposite of what we have now. This one could be set up to display when the user selects km/h as their speed units.

However, since we're thinking about adding custom gauges - that is, different gauges for different cars - then we'd have to make two speed gauges for every car. This would be a little bit much, maybe, and while we could probably find the graphics for gauges for most of the cars we have, it might be harder to find two gauges for each car.

So either way, I think this is a good idea, but something that could wait until we figure out what we're going to do about custom gauges.

[reece146]

How are these graphics being created? Using GIMP or Photoshop?

Again, just curious.

[joevenzon]

The speedometer was created in The Gimp. It's just a normal 2d .png file.

[winno]

I made up a km/h speedometer image if anyone wants it. Its based on the existing one, but with gauges swapped and the inner gauge 'improved' a little. Is there a way of posting them here?

I also noticed the existing gauge doesn't read accurate at very low or very high speeds, so I drew up new ones (in the GIMP of course).

[thelusiv]

You could post up your image in our gallery: http://vdrift.net/Gallery/enroll.php

Thanks for your work

[winno]

Thanks thelusiv for providing the pointer on member galleries. I've now uploaded the speedometer images (2 mph, 2 km/h), along with some screenshots of them working in the game.

Link: http://vdrift.net/Gallery/album.php?aid=39&page=1

I did this so people can comment, criticise, mod, whatever, to make them better. Feel free to save a .png file in vdrift/data/textures/hud/speedo.png (backup first) on your machine to test them out.

Some will notice the difference in the number placement in inner gauge. I find having all numbers inside rather than out of the ring slightly better, but what do you guys think?

EDIT: The gallery converted the images to .jpg, so they don't work in the game

[thelusiv]

They look good. The gallery has a little check box on the page where you upload "do not convert originals to JPG". You need to re-upload the PNG files with this checked in so that they stay PNG.

[winno]

Ok, I got everything fixed up now. I had the "Do not convert" box checked, but for some reason, it only worked on the first image. That's why some were .jpg's.

The thumbnail is correctly coloured, but not the image after, so you'll need to click it after clicking the thumbnail (or use the download link) to get the .png. It should be usable in the game now.

[thelusiv]

Sorry I haven't gotten around to testing this out or adding it to the game yet, I've been pretty busy. I haven't forgotten!

edit: By the way, while you're playing with these...why not make some that go to much higher speeds? Like say, 300 km/h? We already have several cars that will go well over 220 km/h.

[winno]

Don't worry too much about testing or adding the textures, I can understand we're all busy at some time. Besides, this is something all of us do in our spare time.

Anyway, back to the issue of higher speeds. I thought about it, and I originally wanted to add a bit more range, particularly to the inner gauge. However, the digital readout is in the way. It wouldn't look good if the readout and the gauges are mashed together.

A possible solution is to change the needle deflection so that it turns less per unit of speed. Currently, we have 12 degrees per 10 km/h, or 19.3 degrees per 10 mph. Halving this would mean a maximum range of 440 km/h or 280 mph.

This brings me to your idea of having custom gauges. Having defaults and presets would be a good idea. TORCS does a similar sort of thing, but with only one gauge per car.

Here's my own thoughts on the extra settings/data we'd need for each car:
-use default, preset, custom or no gauge
-needle texture at 0 speed (like it is now)
-km/h and mph gauge textures
-deflection per unit of speed (individual)
-possibly a "suppressed zero" value, typically 10 km/h or 5 mph
-optionally, vertical/horizontal displacement of gauge positioning on screen
-same as above for tachometer, and maybe fuel gauge.

I had the option of no gauge so a car with no analogue speedometer in real life could have no speedometer gauge, but I would not omit the tachometer if it didn't have one. The Toyota Yaris is one example.

[joevenzon]

What do you mean by "supressed zero"?

Eventually I'm planning to add in-car instrument cluster gauges, which would be modelled in 3D in blender and would have separate objects for the needles that would be rotated based on a deflection per unit of speed value. I was also thinking that for the non-in-car, HUD-style gauges (like the gauges we have now) I could also replace that with another 3D modelled gauge system... so the artist would have complete control over the look and layout of the HUD-style gauges (and could even add some 3D fanciness to them if desired).

[winno]

The "suppressed zero" value is the speed that needle deflection starts to occur. It is meant to model real life gauge markings which often start at zero but immediately jump to 10 km/h or 5 mph with no spacing, so you can't read any speed lower than that.

I'd leave it as being optional, especially if it gets too complex.

I look forward to seeing 3D models of gauges. There's potential for effects like lighting (shadows, night-time backlights). A challenge would be getting the in-dash markings to be readable though.

[thelusiv]

winno, i like your ideas about the gauges, I think 3D models would be excellent as well. The dash and the HUD could share the same models. The in-dash ones could revert to a pre-rendered static texture when the camera is not in the car to increase performance...