GeneRally v1.2 - DISCUSSION

[Crowella]

Well the FAQ gave the answer about the source code. *tears*

[Buka]

Well the FAQ gave the answer about the source code. *tears*

Hasn't it been said before? I'm pretty sure that Burgess made it clear that he won't realease the code, because Rabinas had forbidden him. What a shame that Generally game was made by and fell in hands to such douchebags.

[Crowella]

I expected that response, admittedly frustrating but not too much to do other than port it or succeed it with a newer title.

Merged double reply from Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:26 pm:

I expected that response, admittedly frustrating but not too much to do other than port it or succeed it with a newer title.

[jefcam]

The world is too small... can we contact the Rabina Brothers. Do we have names and surnames of such people. Maybe through facebook/other methods we can contact them.

The rabina brothers gave the source code to some people to further develop right. However development seems now finished on generally.

I am not a programmer but surely among us there are people who can edit code. I believe if these people have the code some improvements on a faster pace can be done.

[TuomoH]

@jefcam: Please read this post. It touches some of the points you addressed.

[jefcam]

I just had a quick read of it.

It seems that unfortunately the source finished in the hands of the wrong people, not in the sense of know-how, as I'm sure they are bright intelligent people but maybe because of time/family constraints.

The outcome was not reached. GR2 seems a phantom project for me. At least I would have been happy to have some new features in the original GR1.

Something else that in my opinion went wrong was the 'fund-raising' part. The community did not give the full support. The fund part failed and with it the project failed as well.

[Jeeves]

This may have been suggested before, but just noticed a line in the version 1.2 changelog - controllers now support fully analogue controls.

Could this be expanded into a brake pressure slider / value? Basically setting the max brake value to something between 5-100% of the current keyboard standard? IMO this would make a huge difference in driving, and one could actually use the brakes instead of just coasting into a turn, relying on the air resistance to slow the car down.

[Alonsomania]

Sticking in on the source code subject - in which language is this written? I have some ideas in mind but ideally I'd be able to change the cars, driver files etc on the fly. I don't see any reason why it won't be possible, I just cannot find out how to decompile the files...

Anyone has a hint in the right direction? Loading the files in various tools just results in some gibberish but seeing as there's many tools available that's just down to my lack of knowledge

[Crowella]

Most of the files, bar the exe, can be read using a hex editor. If I recall, you will need to break down the files to be read as bytes to do any editing to them.

This is what I know so far of the saves, tracks, drivers, cars.

[Alonsomania]

After toying around for a bit...seems to work, thanks! I tried various hex editors but it just didn't make sense. It still really doesn't, but when I alter some values I see changed values without screwing up the file.

[Crowella]

Ah, there's a few things.

For one, majortom decoded the 1.05 track file here and describes what does what. I think 1.2 from memory hasn't got really anything too different.
http://forum.generally-racers.com/viewt ... ?f=8&t=432

I have some files on some backup somewhere that went into some more detail about the car and trk files. This was when I was working on converting/porting GR over to Unity or Unreal a while back.

[Alonsomania]

Ah, there's a few things.

For one, majortom decoded the 1.05 track file here and describes what does what. I think 1.2 from memory hasn't got really anything too different.
http://forum.generally-racers.com/viewt ... ?f=8&t=432

I have some files on some backup somewhere that went into some more detail about the car and trk files. This was when I was working on converting/porting GR over to Unity or Unreal a while back.

After some playing I have most of it figured out (changing the car, driver and option files; reading the save game).

If anyone needs some help with this, just ask

[Glen]

Hi! any resolution over 1366x768 does not work on fullscreen for me. I'm talking about the 1.2d with the current Windows 10.

Edit: same issue with the 1.2c

[medal89]

Salve, ho installato il gioco, mi si apre ma praticamente non mi esce nessuna pista nel gioco, nonostante i file delle piste ci sono... Come dovrei fare? Grazie

Hi, I installed the game, it opens but practically no track comes out in the game, despite the tracks' files there are ... How should I do? Thanks

[RudyOosterndijk]

If it's an older and customized version of the game (e.g. PGR F1 CLASSICS - version 1.2c) tracks wouldn't be displayed if track names were longer than 12 or 13 characters. If that's the case, just shorten the name of all track files.

If that's not your problem, you might want to check out the drop down menu on the top left corner of where the tracks are supposed to be in the main menu of the game. It should be correct by default, but who knows...

However, if your version of the game is an unmodified copy of 1.2d, then I just don't know.

[Crowella]

I couldn't think of starting a new topic for this, but I do have a question more specifically to the developers and those that host websites for the community.

Has there been any looking into ways for the official GeneRally site to promote or make people more directly aware of tracks/cars available? I bring this up after seeing a YouTube video come up with GR featured and it appeared that a lot of people have previously played GR, want to return but blankly assumed there is no content and whilst looking at the website, it's ambiguous in how to get extra content, it's more ambiguous to even recognise there as being a community, especially where the wording says there's no central community.

I'm aware many many years ago, there was an official track database, there was a bit more of an official forum in RSC. Those days are definitely a bit gone but I feel like without any active promotion of the current community, it kind of stifles the current game even more so and potentially the future of GR.

EDIT: I'll add examples

To find tracks or cars for additional content, the main page of the site says the words "Tens of thousands of community creations await." with no call to action or way to find more information.

The next best place to look is Community, where the first paragraph immediately throws the point that content is dispersed and difficult to find. The next paragraph gets a bit closer by linking to the forum, in which, unless you are familiar (or on mobile) won't see the small button for the track database. At least on the bright side, the forum's categories are simple to understand.

The next paragraph in Community doesn't explain about getting tracks, just rather competitions about content (other than Joint Effort). Many might be unaware how to get tracks from the ToM and CoM pages, (for reference, select the detailed results for the month you want and download the trackpack link at the bottom of the results).

A lot of this is trivial to someone that's been in this community for *checks calendar* about 17 years, but does nothing to someone new to the game.

[RudyOosterndijk]

Has there been any looking into ways for the official GeneRally site to promote or make people more directly aware of tracks/cars available?

When GeneRally got its new website in 2018 they turned the community section into a continuous text with links. In these days of the interwebs, though, I would highly doubt that links on websites still contribute to the active promotion of anything.

Another thing that completely went under the radar (at least for me) is their new updates page:

Dev Day #1
March 2021

Today marked the first GR2 Dev Day: a day where all the members of our five-strong team came together to both relax and work in parallel. Of course, due to the current Coronavirus situation, we had to do this one remotely - but, regardless, it was a fun and productive day and something we’ll definitely be repeating sooner rather than later.

Whilst today wasn’t about preparing things to show off here, we thought we’d take the opportunity to post an update in our shiny new Updates section

Stay tuned and stay healthy

[James]

I couldn't think of starting a new topic for this, but I do have a question more specifically to the developers and those that host websites for the community.

Has there been any looking into ways for the official GeneRally site to promote or make people more directly aware of tracks/cars available? I bring this up after seeing a YouTube video come up with GR featured and it appeared that a lot of people have previously played GR, want to return but blankly assumed there is no content and whilst looking at the website, it's ambiguous in how to get extra content, it's more ambiguous to even recognise there as being a community, especially where the wording says there's no central community.

*snip*

I'm all ears - any ideas that don't require extensive amounts of maintenance? This has bothered me a few times, too, I'm just not entirely sure what to do about it - I'm open to suggestions

[Crowella]

Maybe one suggestion I can think of (not sure how difficult the implementation) is maybe to get an automatic feed to either this forums car and track feeds and/or the track database with the 3-5 most recent uploads and maybe another section of most downloaded over a specific period (such as a month).

I'll ponder this further.

[James]

Just by way of an update: we came to a decision - together with Tuomo and Crono - about how we'll do this. Expect to see something "at some point" on the website