Links
| Other
content and interesting things. |
|
Lots of links to more information outside of this site. The
table below is a dense view of this page.
---
You will find just about any car or track at Racer
Xtreme. All other content links are on the
download page.
Some links that relate quite directly to Racer:
- ZModeler;
a freeware modeler which can import and export Racer's DOF format (3D files)
directly.
- Racer on IRC; an IRC channel is at irc.enterthegame.com,
channel name is #racer.
- Other links (cars/tracks etc.) for Racer can be found in
the download page.
Want to see what else I'm involved with? Visit:
Here are some links to pages I have read (but not necessartily
use) in Racer:
- Thomas Suurland,
excellent site with lots of blue prints if you want to do new cars.
- Carfolio,
over 8500 specifications of cars.
- NetCarShow
features excellent and lots of car images in various angles (all kinds of
car models in all shapes & sizes and good photos to base your 3D modeling
on).
- CarTest;
contains a LOT of cars with data like gear ratios, and you can compare acceleration
times and such between cars.
- Race
Car Aerodynamics Database - some cars and aero (downforce/lift) data.
- Tower
T16; lots of hires pictures of (mostly rally) cars.
- Convert,
a unit conversion utility with lots of units built in. Indispensible.
- NASA's
FoilSim, an aerodynamic wing simulation, freeware.
- Richard
Chaney's CarDemo web page, which contains information on inertia matrices
(deals with gyroscopic precession) and quaternions to maintain the rotation
state (instead of a matrix). I use parts of his formulae.
- Physics
of Racing series, by Brian Beckman. Good introduction with quite a different
perspective from most other physics texts.
- Erik
McKenzie Lowndes thesis, uses Lagrangian equations and quite some info
on a real suspension layout. Talks about Pacejka '97 tire model and explains
them quite nicely. A complete book about the physics
and simulation methods for vehicles. It describes in short the SAE950311 method (see below) of using small steps to calculate slip ratios on page 122 onwards.
- CarSim
technical references and thesis; tutorial and reference manuals for CarSim
(a commercial car simulation pacakage which involves compilation), and 2 thesis
papers; Michael Sayers' 'Symbolic Computer Methods to Automatically Formulate
Vehicle Simulation Codes' and S.M. Riley's 'Model Reduction of Multibody
Systems by the Removal of Generalized Forces of Inertia'.
- SAE
850219: Steering Geometry and Caster Measurement; an SAE document on how
caster affects camber with quite a few equations.
- SAE 950311 - 'Tire Modeling
for Low-Speed and High-Speed Calculations' - a paper describing differential
equations to control slip ratio and angle variations at low and high speed,
get it at SAE (not free).
- SAE 980243 - 'A Robust Lumped-Parameter
Tire Model Developed for Real-Time Simulation', get it at SAE
(not free). A bit like SAE 950311, only this one sees the tire as a 3-dimensional
spring (3 spring constants) and uses quite a bit of empirical data. I like
950311 better though.
- SAE
2001 papers online; from 1999 upto 2001.
- Tire
physics (with saturation/combined slip).
- Free, open source
- Used in Racer for basic body movement and collision resolving
- Open source (zlib) and Playstation 3 SPU parallel version
(for PS3 licensed developers).
- Continuous collision detection (time of impact) and
Discrete (distance/penetration depth).
- COLLADA Physics support
- Part of Blender 3d modeler, and used in several Playstation
3 projects.
- Basic raycast vehicle built-in.
- Spring-mass-damper
formulae, with information on natural frequency, energy (potential+kinetic).
The energy formulae may help you in checking whether your suspension movements
for example will increase the energy into your system.
- Tony
Foale Designs; article on roll centers and HOW they are formed (not how
to calculate them, but WHY you must calculate them like that).
- R/C suspension
setup.
- Virtual
Labs & Simulations; an interactive learning site for getting into
the maths of physics.
- How Stuff Works;
a really invaluable site which explains basic and more complex things like
clutches, brakes, turbo etc. with interactive movies, pictures and such. Really
great stuff.
- Performance
Simulations; with an acceleration simulation package.
- Performance
trends; all kinds of calculators for suspensions, roll centers etc. etc.
- MotionSoftware.com;
also a bunch of simulation packages (that I never tested or used though).
- AvonRacing;
Technical data on tires showing tire spring rates for example at different
tire pressures, as well as aligning moment (Mz) and lateral force (Fx).
- Differentials;
House of Thud. Nice slow explanation of the open diff and LSDs.
- Differentials;
by Alison Hine. A good explanation and references for GPL's Salisbury diff.
- Physics
parameters; by Alison Hine. A nice list of what you still have to implement.
;-)
- Diffusers;
about diffusers.
- AutoZine
Technical School; lots of info on basic car components (suspension geometry
types etc.).
I used quite some books since Racer started. You can click
on the ISBN numbers to take you directly to Barnes & Noble for more information
or ordering.
- Real-Time Rendering
Tomas Möller, Eric Haines
ISBN 1-56881-101-2
An excellent book on today's (speaking 29-12-2000) methods and internals of
realtime rendering. Is targeted a bit more to OpenGL than Direct3D, it seems.
Contains a lot of information on algorithms, most of which though are not
very detailed, but lost of code and links can be found on their homepage,
www.realtimerendering.com.
- Race Car Vehicle Dynamics
Milliken & Milliken
ISBN
1-56091-526-9
A small bible containing a lot of information on how the car works in the
physical sense. Can be found at www.sae.org.
- Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics
Gillespie
ISBN
1-56091-199-9
- Motor Vehicle Dynamics - Modeling and Simulation
Giancarlo Genta
ISBN
981-02-2911-9
Targeted at computer simulations, this contains a lot of ready-to-use formulas.
I learned and used Pacejka's Magic Formula from this book. It also contains
5 vehicle type descriptions with appropriate Pacejka and other constants (although
some Pacejka values may not be totally right; the Ferrari for example has
no load sensitivity in its Pacejka constants).
Click here
for Giancarlo Genta's homepage.
- Tires, Suspension and Handling
John C. Dixon
ISBN
1-56091-831-4
Describes tires. Just received it, quite a lot of handy realistic figures
and formulae. Good when diving into suspension theory.
- Chassis Design: Principles and Analysis
Milliken & Milliken
ISBN
?
An analysis of Olley's work from the 30's. Haven't read it yet, but also ordered
it. Deals with suspension geometry for instance; how to calculate what the
suspension parts are doing.
- Tyre Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics
Hans B. Pacejka
ISBN
0-75065-141-5
Pacejka became known for his 'Magic Formula', which is a complex formula that
can match the shape of most tire force generation curves.
This book explains a lot about tire models (haven't read it yet, but ordered
it 5-4-02 from the Internet Bookstore in the UK). Will go in print somewhere
near the end of 2002.
Amongst the software that is used is this:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 (8.0) / gcc4.x on Linux and Mac
- VRL2VRML (exporting SCGT model files to VRML) available at
the US Pits.
- MASpuce (extracting SCGT .mas files)
- Dreamweaver (used for creating this site)
- 3D Studio Max, for importing/exporting and modifying models
- Adobe Photoshop (for creating texture maps for the speedometer
etc.)
- and ofcourse and endless stream of my own applications to
aid in development. :-)
- Netkar
- by Stefan Casillo. Excellent stuff!
- Gregor
Veble's vehicle simulation, multi link suspensions simulation, smooth
surfaces and great physics. Download the demo here.
- Live
for speed; from the reviews, it's awesome. :) Seems to want to go commercial,
but a demo is up that's free for download.
- Motorsport
- Open Source Driving Simulator
- Vamos;
free GPL racing sim.
- Ashley's
Sirroco Racing Sim project, with a physics demo and some physics graphs
(Pacejka).
- Type S - driving
skills required. Realistic car sim with big cities (huge worlds), car
models, weather and more...
- TORCS from
France (for Linux). Targeted at AI it seems.
- RARS.
It's physics methods were the base for Racer v0.1 actually, with its great
slip velocity force model (excellent for first attempts at car simulation).
- Richard Chaney's CarDemo;
with some rigid body source and very good (but he goes fast) documentation
about using quaternions and inertia tensors in controlling rigid body linear/rotational
accelerations (lots of useful formulas).
- PAKOON!
Driving on an island jumping over a bridge.
- Carworld.
Loopings.
- T1
Car Racing Simulation - on SourceForge
- Monstrous
Software - lots of driving and car demos. Also has car physics documentation
(relatively simple physics for those with that in mind)
- Rally
Driver - rally game by Richard Neal (written in DarkBasic)
- Top10;
a Go-Kart simulator for Linux with force feedback implemented (!).
- Indianapolis
500 Racing Simulation - on SourceForge.
- StuntMania
- reprogramming 4D Sports Driving in OpenGL. Abandoned.
- Ultimate
Stunts - remake van Stunts, still active at april 2005.
- HD2002;
a stunt racing game. Uses ODE, Plib, trimesh collider etc.
- Stunts/4D Sports
Driving; the old game in its original form.
- Car
Arena Demo. Physics code done in association with Havoc. Requires no programming
(not that THAT makes it more interesting IMHO).
- Mainax.
Virtual Engineering company; simulating multibody systems, integrating multiple
simulation environment and human interfacing. Located in Holland. See also
FCS-CS below.
- FCS - CS.
This company creates high-end movable platforms (control loading systems),
force-feedback systems and more. See also Mainax
above.
- Force
Dynamics, an American company which is creating a fully moving simulation
cockpit for vehicle simulations (mostly high-end at the time, but with low-end
in mind).
- F1 Simulator;
a Dutch company which is making high-end force feedback wheel/chair/pedal
systems for use in entertainment or more serious simulation environments,
in close cooperation with FCS-CS (see above).
(last
updated
July 31, 2009
)