Our ReVolt Pub

sorry to bump this topic, don't forget to check Blender 2.5's reply (topic 1500)
_line_
Bug reported by Halogaland and CityWalker

Reporters: Halogaland CityWalker
Priority: Low
Problem: Transparency loses effect when car is reposed
Possible reason (as quoted from topic n°1217 from RVL)

KDL wrote:I believe Re-Volt used this method : (pseudo-Pascal code)
for i := 1 downto 0 step 0.01 do {[discriminate i by 0.01]}
Part[Thispart].alpha := (1 - 1/ distance(upperpart ,ThisPart)) * i
End For

thus, the exact opposite happen while fading out (from 0 to 1)

(anyone can correct me if I committed a mistake)

a car made for this purpose (click to download)

Re-Volt v1.2 has been updated. Download Beta 11.0331 here.

- Re-Volt is now optimized to use all available bandwidth (up until now, bandwidth usage was capped to 10kB/s). Note that sending more data per second can crash old versions, and so, this feature is available (automatically) only in 1.2-Only games.

- Fixed possible freezes and deadlock when re-volt is high on bandwidth usage. This bug only occurs in Windows Vista / 7, and has existed in all re-volt versions.

- The file d3drm.dll required to run the Track Editor properly in Vista / 7 will be included, starting from this release, due to a request from a user.

---

@Kay: Hmm, are we talking about Transparency or Reflection here?

@Huki
About "Transparency loses effect when car is repositioned", there is actually an issue with transparency. Re-volt devs probably didn't expect cars to have theirs own transparency.
When a car is repositioned, it uses the Ghost transparency effect for a fade-in effect, but I suspect the vertex transparency not to be properly reset after the fade-in is done. Moreover, the calculation of the alpha value during fading probably doesn't support transparency, as we can also notice that there is no fade-out / fade-in effect on transparent faces (or it so fast compared to opaque faces that it's hardly noticeable, it's more like a on/off mode).

The incriminated calculation is probably in SetModelVertsGhost().
And currently, there is no counterpart AFAIK to restore the original alpha value when car->RepositionTimer becomes ZERO.

(As you know I can't compile v1.2 for now, so I have not been able to do more tests..)

[offtopic] Bug reported by not only me, but also Halogaland before me. [/offtopic]

1. Reporter: me
Priority: Low
Problem: Commands loss/changed
DescriptionI used to use "Enter" in Numerical Pad (normal desktop keyboard, the right part is called Num Pad for people who are curious to know what is it.) in Re-Volt 1 patch 07/12/1999
it's not working anymore

The "OK" in joystick is now the "fire" button, used to be ButtonA (accelerate button) maybe it's for a purpose (joypad support) or maybe not.

2.DirectX bug: non-fixable: (or it's fixable by fps limiter, but not the time to fix it) FPS augments to more than 60 fps in Window Mode. the least effect is spinner which directly uses the timer (I believe).

I used DEV mode, just a mention not be used in normal mode
3. error message "loading model has failed". I agree it's a good alert, but once a track has a lot of these, it's annoying. (like for example, int errCnt = 0; if (error && errCnt <4 ) {errCnt += 1; showError(); } else { FinalMessage='Got a lot of errors, can be seen in Re-Volt log';} or something like this)

4. car started over finishing line (just to be sure it's not used in normal mode)

Part #3: suggestion (Priority: very low)
5. Sometimes, playing dual in race is a pain for pasting the ip. I was wondering if it's possible.
header: <window> (global header line for Windows), clipboard actions are there
1) open clipboard, get the string (if it's a string, not sure how it's done in C++, but in C++.NET/.NET : clipboard.getText() != null )
2) Replace the first char until its length = 0 or the first char is in [48 .. 57]
3) Search 3 points (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)
4) Paste into IP

Re: Re-Volt 1.2 Temporary Freezes Over LAN
I've been testing 0331 today and was unfortunately still diseased by the temporary freezes that occur frequently. However, I think I've found the source to my problem!

You see, one of the testers has never had any freezes while playing and we both have the same computer (identical hardware, same model). He was using 0329 and I was using 0331. But I didn't believe that the version was the difference as I've had freezes with 0329 as well (even though 10PPS vs. 60PPS does matter of course).

So I asked this guy, mpoe, to export his registry settings for Re-Volt so I could try compare them to mine and with notepad I noted all differences and applied poes settings on my computer, overwriting all my previous settings. Result was negative, I still had freezes and such.

Then I found out that "overwriting" the existing settings doesn't delete values that may not even exist in mpoe's registry settings. So I completely deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE&#092;SOFTWARE&#092;Acclaim&#092;Re-Volt&#092;1.0 and re-registered mpoe's settings. In the race after that we raced 3 tracks without any freezes at all.

To be exact, the freezes occured while I had the following two values inside the registry:

Registry wrote: "CarType"=dword:00000019
"Bandwidth"=dword:00000000

I have only been testing this once, but tomorrow we'll see if this really is the deal-breaker. I just thought I wanted to post the results of today in case these result will change anything.

Unfortunately, neither registry key can cause any problem. CarType simply stores the last selected car and Bandwidth, well, it's not used anymore in 0331.

Do you remember if you had the races with Network Compatibility on or off? With compatibility on re-volt sends 12 pps only, and otherwise 60 pps. Maybe you had it on for the last races and hence no freezes. Also, did other players notice any lag from you when you freeze up?

Anyway, I'll try to send you a new test build soon. You should run it with netcomp off (to send 60 packets per sec).

Is there any way to calculate car stats with custom cars (like with stock cars) ?

Transparency loses effect when car is reposed

So the only way for now is to have pureblack surfaces with envshine instead of windows?
<a bit later>
I tested this, and the envshine is kind of visible in corners, but not much... This requires some skinning magic beyond me, I’m afraid.

2.DirectX bug: non-fixable:

Another effect of the unlimited FPS is that on my comp (Compaq nc6400, Radeon X1300, widescreen) the game slows down and speeds up according to the rendered scene when in windowed mode. Unplayable in windowed, playable only fullscreen.

antonius @ Mar 20 2011, 07:41 PM wrote: @huki: Italian translation

Nuclei CPU

Hi everyone!
I'm still alive and come here sometimes to see how Rv 1.2 is evolving!
I think that the Italian Translation NUCLEI CPU it's quite ugly...
Cpu Cores is not really translatable. I think it's better and more clear if you leave, for this line, CORE CPU.

But I'm not here to be pedant...
I have a suggestion (maybe already treated):
Revolt.exe contains name for original tracks (Toys in the hood 1, Supermarket 2 etc etc). On ARM we work very much on mods and we think it will be very useful if these lines can be inserted in a txt or ini file EXTERNAL to revolt.exe, making them easier to be changed from people who wants to mod Rv...
I hope it's clear what I'm talking about and, of course, I hope it can be done!

I'm using the last nightly build without any problems!!! Congrats for you work!!!

nero @ Apr 5 2011, 01:02 PM wrote:Is there any way to calculate car stats with custom cars (like with stock cars) ?

There is something in DEV mode (start with -dev command line) about cars stats. Maybe you should take a look.

@Citywalker & KDL
I think the vertices transparencies are currently overwritten during the fade-out effect when repositioning the car, so the original values are probably lost. Maybe fixing this would not be too hard, but there is several other issues with car transparencies (mostly on mirror surfaces), which I have not idea about and not enough time to fix... So I'm afraid car vertices tranparencies should simply be considered as unsuported for now.

About the "DirectX bug", there is no way AFAIK to limit the FPS in windowed mode (at least with DX7). But normally it should not alter the game speed, that's weird... Anyway, now that any screen ratio is supported in fullscreen, there is no reason to play windowed anymore.

@Thefactor82
Yep, for customization's sake, it would indeed be nice to move over anything currently harwritten in re-volt (not only tracks name) to some external editable files (as with WolfR4). Unfortunately for now, I think Huki is too busy, and so am I. And I personally don't feel comfortable enough with C++ to bring v1.2 such a modification.

Really nice update, I like the better graphics and bug fixes.
It will be the best if I could play Re-Volt online (RV House) from Windows 7, x64 bits. It could either be my router which I know from a friend it can`t open enough ports for Re-Volt. Else it`s RV House/Re-Volt who just will not support Windows 7 x64 bits. I will anyway get a new router which is supposed to run Re-Volt Online/Multiplayer/RV House and if same problem, it`s that Revolt/RV House can NOT run properly on Windows7 x64 bits

Just wanted to give some input here: Re-Volt and RV House should run on Windows Vista/7 64-bits, I've had 64-bit myself with no issues running Re-Volt etc. except for the Chaos tools which is 16-bit (explains itself).

Out of curiosity victor, what model is your router? Perhaps there is away around things with the use of DMZ or the like.

My model is a China-Made ZTEXX where XX are two china letters
And under it there`s a model number: ZXDSL531B
It`s blue colored and umm.. hope it supports Re-Volt, but a friend found my router for me and it wrote there that this router can NOT open enough ports for re-volt to run online

For better discuss on this issue, i will tell you details..:
When somebody creates a room, I join with no problems and the game starts, Wolf runs, I join lobby and all this works itself. OK but when I go to the screen where we wait for the other players and can chat each other, I see everyone as NOT READY status except me. I type to them and they see what i type, even reply me but I don`t see what they type to me. Game starts, I still stay on that screen and says NOT READY status to everybody.

I hope you can help me, Thanks in advice.

Theory: Ports problems?
If my deductions are right, each port has its role: one for listening, the other for sending data [don't have enough time to look at the sources to check my theory]. but in case I'm right, the "listening" ports are blocked for you which is the problem.

Note to developers wrote:I'm not sure if there is a 'callback' function for Dx7 which returns false in case of ports failure: thus, it would be possible to set another "global port" for listening.

suspecting port: 47624
port '47624' is out of integer (Int16)'s bounds, this is the problem maybe? or it's only for Rv house? or it's DirectPlay lobby port?

KDL I think you are totally right (based on my Avast! firewall which creates rules based on that )

Urnemanden will actually help me with this out, he has an idea
If it fails, I got another router which is actually supposed to work with Revolt Online

Thanks for taking time to help me to both of you (KDL and Urnemanden) I really appreciate this

...KDL sorry for asking but, are you a boy or girl? (92% boy, 8% girl)

Re-Volt v1.2 has been updated. You can download Beta 11.0415 here.


Late Joining: Ability to join an already started multiplayer session. This is supported only for sessions hosted as 1.2-Only (host should have Network Compatibility: OFF). The host can also disable Late Joining, by going to Start Game -> Multiplayer -> Network Settings and turning off Allow Spectators.

Kick Player Support: In Waiting Room, use arrow keys to select the player and ctrl + K command to kick the player. When in-game, press TAB button to show the Player List pop-up menu, where you can kick players the same way. It is possible to kick players running older re-volt versions too.

Key-Press Conflict Prevention: When chat is on, all keyboard keys are locked out for car controls. There are 10 exception keys which are never locked out: the arrow keys, home, end, pgup, pgdn, left and right ctrl. Joystick and other controllers are always free even when chat is on.

- Enabled trailer camera for multiplayer. Hide HUD when waiting for all players ready.

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed all kinds of out-of-sync countdowns and bad starts. Out-of-sync player
will not be able to start, and will keep trying to get in sync with host's race
timers. When sync is successful, he gets a GO sign.
- Players who have quit are removed from the session more efficiently.
- More efficient management of available bandwidth.


With this release, Re-Volt’s multiplayer development is coming closer to an end. Remember that the game works best in 1.2-Only races, which can be easily hosted with the latest version of RV House. All feedback and bug reports are welcome.

A bug was identified in release 0415 that could crash the game. If you have already download this build, please download and install release 0416. Thanks to the beta testers for quickly reporting this issue.

something like that ;-) : see the video

Lot of bugs and inconsistencies in "1.2 Only" sessions were fixed. Download the new release here. Late Joining should now work correctly, but if anyone finds other bugs, don't forget to report them here.

Also we've decided to call these untested "unofficial beta" releases as just Alpha builds to avoid confusion with the "well tested and free for all" official Beta releases.

Ok, I've practically rewritten the late joining procedure to be more stable in all conditions (previous release cannot work when many players try to late join at the same time). You can find the new alpha build here.
Note that I had already uploaded this release to the server yesterday, but made some changes and reuploaded now. Any sneaky users who have already found it, download again!

Text bug with today's version:

I can't fix it.
It seems to use Toyeca bmp and not the text bmp.

The text bug is fixed. Download the new build here.

We've fixed a lot of minor multiplayer bugs here and about. Download release 11.0421 here.

Changelog wrote:------------------------
   &nbsp; Alpha 11.0421:
------------------------

New Features&#124;
---------------/

- Reject junk remote car / object data (avoid processing an older car position
  than the current one).

Bug Fixes&#124;
-----------/

- Fixed inconsistencies in player follow camera (F3).
- Fixed RC Bandit car displayed in loading screens when joining as spectator.
- Fixed crash after selecting Battle Tag game mode.
- Other minor bug fixes.

The movement of remote cars should also be more accurate and smooth. Since "late joining" is not supported by RV House yet, it is only possible to join an already started game by IP. Host can keep the room open in rvhouse after launching, so that new players can get in the room and copy / paste the IP in re-volt.

Re-Volt v1.2 has been updated. You can download Alpha 11.0426 here.

New Features:

- Added new multiplayer exclusive camera for race finish.
- Show difficulty, pickups and maximum connections in Waiting Room.

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed crashes when player fires a shockwave or a bomb explodes.
- Fixed frontend objects disappearing after quiting objects edit mode.
- Fixed all known bugs introduced in previous releases.

Late Joining with RVHouse:

- After updating to the latest version of RVHouse, go to Edit menu -> Settings -> Advanced tab and enable the Allow trying to join started races option. You might need to restart RVHouse after changing this setting.
- Now you’ll be able to join any started room in rvhouse, and launch yourself using the yellow lightning icon. Alternatively, you can copy the host’s IP address displayed in the room, paste it in Re-Volt Network Settings and join by TCP / IP.
- Note that late joining is supported in 1.2-Only races (host should be running latest v1.2 release with Network Compatibility off). If the room is running an “all versions” race, you’ll get a “Can’t join lobby session” error message when trying to join.

Bug Fixes:
While working on my track project, I was bored by a shadow glitch that occurs when a car is on an angular crest. You can notice on the joined screenshot that the shadow under the car is looking weird (a shadow polygon is clearly missing on the left).



It's something that could also be noticed in NHood1 when climbing out of the trench on the left just after the tunnel, the shadow on the trench tends to disappear when reaching the edge at the top.

It was not such a big deal, but it could become quite bothersome for hilly (eg. off-road) tracks, so I felt it was worth the pain fixing it, so, well, it's done.
For info, I think I unfortunately can't do the same in WolfR4, as I'm pretty sure I would lack the place to implement the modification.

Hey, maybe that bug is somehow related to the limitation of the car shadow disappearing completely when the CoM is too far below ground?

(Yes, I really have run into that limitation, this time when making an RC bike feel like a real-life bike).

Citywalker @ May 1 2011, 11:47 AM wrote:Hey, maybe that bug is somehow related to the limitation of the car shadow disappearing completely when the CoM is too far below ground?

Well, I suspected this behavior, so I checked with Bimota Tesi and it was ok. But in fact the CoM doesn't seems to be that low. Do you have an example with this shadow glitch available for testing?

For info, I think (still not thoroughly sure) that re-volt uses the CoM as the center of the car, and as the shadow vertical position is relative to this center, a too low CoM will simply makes the shadow displayed under the ground.

It is now possible to change game settings from inside a multiplayer session. This will let the host turn on, for example, random cars / random tracks in the game even when launching from lobby, which was not possible till now.
In case of Battle Tag, it is possible to change the tag time, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes.

The "waiting room" has been cleaned up a bit (for example, showing the 1.2 build numbers of all players has been disabled, as there is a consistent "compatibility: on / off" option now). The session description is also expanded to show more useful info.

A new dialog was added before the waiting room, which will allow players to either join the races or spectate, and also allows the host to manage all players. Note that some options in this dialog have not been implemented yet, hence will be greyed out.

And again, a lot of bugs have been fixed, menus have been refined, and minor annoyances sorted out. So before reporting any bug or issue, make sure you update to the new release.
This release also fixes a glitch in shadow rendering described in the post above.

You can download Alpha release 11.0501 here.

@Jig:
Here you go. [Edited link for zip, not rar]
https://www.yousendit.com/download/VnBw ... MHp2Wmc9PQ
As far as I see, there's no shadow underground, either.

OTOH, the point of shadow disappearing is also a good limiter to have, because anything below that causes the vehicle to glitch with some AI nodes in most custom tracks, and also on Toytanic...
So it’s worth investigating, but maybe not too practical to fix.

[Edited for link and second thought.]

@City: Well, the shadow has indeed gone underground in that car.. err, bike. You don't actually see it under the ground as re-volt only draws shadows that are above the ground.
It is true that re-volt uses the car's center point to calculate the shadow position, but all the stock cars use a table of values to modify this calculated position according to the needs. When we are supporting custom shadows for each car, we will make this table editable through the parameters file.
FYI, all the stock car shadows and the custom square shadow use a height modifier of -8, and i was able to bring your bike's shadow above ground by changing it to -20.

About the glitchy AIs with low CoM vehicles (if i understand right), I should write it to the todo list so we can look into it sometime.

Huki @ May 2 2011, 07:17 PM wrote:About the glitchy AIs with low CoM vehicles (if i understand right), I should write it to the todo list so we can look into it sometime.

Just want to add that anyhow, using CoM as the center of the vehicle and as the height of the shadow is very logical, as for a regular car, the CoM is necessarily inside the car body.
What has no real sense here is using low CoM for a bike effect... Of course I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, I just mean that it has no sense as far as physics are concerned (which can be mostly noticed when hitting a wall with a low CoM vehicle).
So, I don't kow, maybe the proper option would be to keep the real CoM for what it is, and to try to find a way to set up an external force to keep the vehicle upright, or maybe something like a low "virtual CoM"... But in both cases that sounds a bit complex.

> the custom square shadow use a height modifier of -8
A-ha! So that’s why it disappears – the CoM is sunk more than 8 points below ground. That makes sense, when remembering my car-tweaking experience.

> When we are supporting custom shadows for each car, we will make this table editable through the parameters file.
Good, because currently a rear-sitting CoM means a rear-displaced shadow.

> About the glitchy AIs with low CoM vehicles
Just take that same Vespa with the disappearing shadow, and let it run on Toytanic. There are two points when it seems like “the track AI node just doesn’t reach as far below the floor as the CoM of the scooter”, or something.

> What has no real sense here is using low CoM for a bike effect
The sense is in providing an exact opposite vector for/of momentum in turns. That’s what a rider does instinctively, and a CoM below ground (negative considering the ground zero) does mathem-automatically.

> using CoM as the center of the vehicle and as the height of the shadow is very logical
For real world, yes. For virtual world there are no such constraints. OTOH, I did initially think that the bike-type leaning effect comes from some clever spring-work, e.g. left-to-right crossed springs or something. Might still investigate it, but I suspect that it doesn't matter, momentum affects directly CoM and not springs. I’ll see, though

> to keep the real CoM for what it is, and to try to find a way to set up an external force to keep the vehicle upright, or maybe something like a low "virtual CoM"... But in both cases that sounds a bit complex.
Smells like a re-write (or at least supplementing) of the physics engine. Harsh XD Maybe the inquiring minds <looking at herself, at least > will find that the 0 to -8 window of underground CoM is quite enough. I did re-edit the scooter in the meantime and found that it leans fairly enough with the maximum of -8 below ground, too.
OTOH, relating this with the track AI glitch - looks like the track part of the game would need an overhaul as well, and that’s maybe even harsher...

Bottom line: when developers provide an open way of customisation, based of first principles of physics, like in Re-Volt, it is impossible to account for everything that some crazy minds can cook up. I’m sure that someone will eventually run into some other limits, again, when ver. 1.2 is mature and well-aged

And this means – all the more kudos to you, Jig and Huki, for catering to those crazy minds!! I’m personally calling you my heroes of customisation
(Yes, I know, I know, it sounds cheesy, but I just had to let it out <smiles>)

You're welcome, CW. Always a pleasure to have ones own ego stroked...

>> What has no real sense here is using low CoM for a bike effect
> The sense is in providing an exact opposite vector for/of momentum in turns. [...]
Yep, I totally agree and I'm not arguing about that. What I was meaning is that I suspect it can make the vehicle reacts very strangely in some cases, mostly when the "rotary inertia" is involved. For example after being hitten in the air, the vehicle will probably start spinning around a CoM that is outside its body, and that's the pysical artifact I was talking about...
But you're right, maybe the low CoM is a sufficient trick, mostly as other solutions sound a bit challenging.

I have a problem/I found a bug.

Yesterday, I played online, and whatever I tried, I just couldn't chat. Every time I pressed F12, it wouldn't let me write anything. All I could do was to press either ESC or ENTER. Same happened today. What's wrong? I saw that others could talk, and we all had the newest version of Re-Volt 1.2.

Edit: Never mind, I heard from kajeuter that I should make my name longer. Problem solved - waiting for the fix in the new build.

Spectating Support: Players can now either join the races or choose to spectate. Spectators can cycle between players using the Page Up / Page Down keys. It is also possible to jump into spectator mode or join the game in the middle of the session, from the in-game pause menu.

When host starts the game, players who are not ready will not be added to the start grid, if late-join is supported. These players can join once they are ready.

Host Migration: When the current host quits, the game will not terminate. Someone else will become host and the game can continue.

Hide HUD / Menu: In TVTIME mode, press shift + F6 to hide game HUD and, shift + Space to hide in-game menu. MAKEITGOOD and TVTIME cheats are automatically enabled in dev mode (see note below).

Note: Below given options are available only in Dev Mode. To access this mode, run a shortcut to re-volt with the -dev command line applied. We are currently dumping all kinds of junk in this area, so just ignore any ugliness you might come across.

Refresh Car Info:
Press Alt + C in-game to reload all car parameters and also refresh the changes in current car. It is also possible to use this command at the frontend car preview screen, where the camera now pauses indefinitely.

As usual we’ve fixed a lot of bugs in the previous release including the ones reported above, and as usual, old releases are not supported for 1.2-only races!

Download the new release 11.0509 here.

I did initially think that the bike-type leaning effect comes from some clever spring-work, e.g. left-to-right crossed springs or something. Might still investigate it, but I suspect that it doesn't matter, momentum affects directly CoM and not springs. I’ll see, though

Nope. Still leans outwards, even with crossed springs.

Amazing progress huki! All this new stuff makes me eager to start Re-Volting again.

First off, I'd like to thank you for making the "Hide HUD" option.
The "Refresh Car Info" is extremely helpful for car makers. And, of course, the other additions are great - I especially love that you are now able to spectate a race.

Excellent work, guys!

Thanks, guys.

A few minor glitches in the last release (out of place menus, etc) were fixed.

Other than that, the new shortcuts in the last release have been changed:
- Shift + F5 for hiding the HUD
- Shift + F10 for refreshing car info

Download release 11.0510 here.

Thanks, guys!

I was rounding there and just decided to come and greet you all
Such a good work. I'm glad to see some old friends here working hard to keep this alive.

Keep up the good job dudes!

Regards,
ADX

1.2 has definitely rekindled my interest in Re-volt. I did some testing and found that Re-volt crashes every time it gets to loading the .w file on the Stunt Arena. I have a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 and got my copy of Re-volt from Abandonia.com. Does any know what I should do to fix this problem?

Thanks,
pawer126

@pawer: Download Re-Volt from here instead of Abandonia, and then install the latest v1.2 patch. Then get back to us if you still have the same problem.

Thank you Huki! Works just fine now.

First, I'd like to thank you for the continous updates to Revolt. I downloaded the latest alpha build and how can I change the battle tag time. When I get to that menu the options are grayed out. Thanks.

Hi nyknicks8,

If you want to adjust the Battle Tag settings you have to turn compatibility with older Re-Volt versions off.

In the multi-player menu, go to Network Settings and inside this menu you can turn off compatibility.

I hope this fixed your problem.

Thanks urnemanden. It worked perfectly.

Re-Volt 1.2 is cool. Very cool.

Yeah 1.2 has all the features I wished for 10 years ago. I just wish I had more time to play now.