GRAPHICS
I was meant to be showing more on the shaders but unfortunately some more work is required on the shader and render system before I can do this. This has therefore given me the opportunity to back to some modelling. First up is the DFV engine. I have included a couple of shots of the engine on its own...

as well as one of it in position in the old Type 49. Please ignore the flipped texture on this image :O) There is still some work to be done but I think it is getting there.

As those of you who watch the web cam are aware I have been working on the Type 49. Some people have asked why I am redoing this car. The main reason is that the original was the first thing I modelled for Racing Legends over a year ago and at the time I was still using 3ds to model. I have since moved over to Max and decided to take the opportunity to update the model. The second reason is that I thought it needed improving. Max has much more powerful tools and allows models to be built more easily and neater.

Here is a little series of images showing the construction of the new 49 tub.

There has been speculation concerning licensing for the Lotus 49. We currently do not have a license for this car but we have been in contact with Classic Team Lotus concerning the use of their cars in Racing Legends. We met and spoke to Clive Chapman at Goodwood and he seemed open to the idea. Classic Team Lotus encourage licensing of their cars so we are optimistic, if only all car manufacturers had a similar philosophy. We plan to contact them again soon to discuss the idea in the more detail and this is another reason why I have taken the time to redo the 49. Whilst on the subject of CTL may I recommend you to visit their online shop as all the proceeds go to help keep the team running.

I probably have a couple more weeks work to go on this car, textures need finishing, modelling needs refining and there still a number of components requiring construction before it is finished as far as modelling and texturing goes. After that will come the rigging and then adding shaders to it. The rigging is a very involved and fairly unchartered area. It requires every part of the car to be described and linked together, setting up hierarchies, connections, wiring and physical characteristics. Once this is done the car will be ready to be fired up and driven. I can’t wait :O)

CODE
The last couple of weeks have been spent working on the Render Pass system for the 3D engine. Now if any of you have any idea at all what I am talking about you are a better man than me. I believe it’s the system for making sure all the shaders work properly together without any unpredictable effects as well as having other benefits but I have no idea what they are! 

PHYSICS
I understand work is still progressing nicely on the tyre model. I haven’t seen anything on this in the last couple of weeks as I have been too busy with my own work but from what I have been told it’s all looking very promising. 

AUTOSPORT SHOW
We had a great visit to the Autosport Show at the Birmingham NEC earlier this month. Lots of lovely cars on display and lots of car components ready to be snapped and turned into textures. Met up briefly with the guys from BRD, who were showing their fabulous new Toyota full size cockpit, and a couple of the chaps from Team Redline. 

FORUMS
Susie is now fully installed on the forums as moderator and she would like to say a big thank you to all of you who have made feel so welcome. Typically though it seems that the forums have undergone a transformation and what I thought might be a fulltime job for her has turned not to be the case. Still its nice to know that she’s there watching.

PRIVATEER SIMS
We have been asked by Bedo Majardichian if we wouldn’t mind mentioning his Sim project ‘Type-S’. You can find it here. It is very much in its early stages but he has some very nice car models in there and it all looks very promising.

While we are on the subject of privateer sims let me mention a few others. A lot of you will already know of these but we know there are some people who are new to this world who may appreciate knowing about them.

Currently we have;

There are some more but not much seems to be happening on those at the moment.

WEBCAM
The webcam has been up and running again. We were also introduced (thank you Seamus) to some screen grabbing software which allowed us to periodically grab our desktops and show those instead. Unfortunately this software doesn’t work so well with our proxy server and firewall setup which means my desktop cannot be shown. We have been showing Chris’s but this doesn’t seem so popular, it is after all just letters and numbers most of the time.

You will also notice a new look webcam page, courtesy of Woody. We hope to have the webcam as well as grabs from both mine and Chris’s machine here eventually.

A quick note for those who prefer the webcam page as it was, I know some of you preferred to be able to scale the window, if you use this link it will take you to the old webcam page.

BASEBALL CAPS
Finally I have been assured buy our supplier that these are very nearly ready and shall be sent the very moment I receive them. 

HOLIDAY SEASON DISRUPTION.
The holiday season has been and gone and left in its wake the normal disruption. Overall December has been a month of interruptions and other duties that have made it difficult to get on with the main task of development. However some work has been achieved and we start 2003 in a very confident mood.

FORUMS
A new year and a new approach. There has been a considerable amount of complaining going on in the forums recently and now would be a good time to try and do something about it. My better half, Susie, has agreed to extend her duties from running the online shop to include moderating the forum posts and responding to questions posted. She will also assist in the preparation of these newsletters and respond to the many emails we get. This should not only keep the complaints down but also free up a lot of my time to get on with all the fun stuff.

With Susie’s introduction will be a Forum Code of Conduct to try and reduce the amount of flaming and trolling that has been prevalent recently. Hopefully these measures will make the forums a much more enjoyable place to visit. The code of conduct as well as a response to some issues that have been raised recently will appear in the general forum sometime this week.

BHMS AWARD
2003 has started very well for Racing Legends. Blackhole Motorsports has awarded Racing Legends ‘The most promising simulation for 2003’. We are delighted to get this award and it is a great motivation to make sure that we continue doing our best to make Racing Legends everything that is expected of it. A big thank you to anyone who may have voted for us and a big thank you to bhmotorsports.com.

GAMEFACTION ARTICLE
I have been reminded to mention an article at gamefaction.com about Racing Legends. Credit for the article goes to Richard Towler.

SHOP
The online shop did quite a brisk trade since it went online and a big thank you to all of you who bought something. All the money raised will be used directly to help fund the development of Racing Legends. Orders have slowed as expected but we do still plan to introduce some new items in 2003.

AUTOSPORT SHOW
This week sees the 2003 Autosport show at the NEC in Birmingham. This is the UK’s premier motorsport show and we will be taking a day out to visit to gather reference material and attempt to make a few more contacts in the world of motor racing. These events are especially good for gathering textures for all those little bits and bobs found on racing cars, time for lots of funny looks from people as I take pictures of hoses and radiators :O)

DEVELOPMENT
So onto development. What has been done in the last month on Racing Legends itself.

TYRE MODEL
Work has moved onto the tyre model. It is a little early to comment too much on this at the moment as there is nothing to test as yet. More on this I expect in the next update.

VERTEX SHADERS
The current big task away from the physics is the work being done on the vertex shaders. The graphics engine is being tailored to make use of new graphic card technology. We are working with Matrox, Nvidia and ATI to get the best results we can.

GRAPHICS
This month has artwork has been directed mainly at the vertex shaders and what we want from them visually. I have been experimenting with effects to simulate different materials and the results are very exciting. Just by using basic techniques it is possible to get results that are remarkably similar to high end renders, and in some ways even surpass them.

The above image helps give some idea as to how close the new graphic card technology can come to high end rendering. This is not a particularly challenging object and it is a very basic shader but it does show the potential. The nice thing about the Racing Legends renders is that they use very basic lighting and so should convert to shader technology very well. The next update will include more comparison shots and hopefully the first in game shots. This next image shows some work in progress of converting the 312 from render to shader. The top image is as it will appear in Racing Legends and the lower image is the max render. Still some work to do here but its getting there.

The next update should include more comparison shots and hopefully the first proper in-game shots.

WHAT NEXT?
With the holiday season out of the way and the forum in the very capable hands of Susie there should be no interruptions for the rest of January which should mean we can make some real progress. We hope to have the basic shader system working and integrated allowing us to be able to display the cars properly in game for the first time. We are then going to work on the interaction with the car, making all the parts function and animate properly, although I expect that may take us into February. Work will also be continuing on the tyre model and I am sure some other physics dabbling will be going on.

On the graphics side I shall continue to convert my materials over to shaders whilst experimenting with different ideas. More work on modelling to hopefully complete the cars that are in progress and then onto some rigging to prepare these cars for integration into the sim. This will require some more work on our plug-in so this may have to wait for the shader code to be completed.

WEBCAM
As you are probably aware the webcam has been offline for some time. We updated our software but this update forced us to have the webcam based on one of their pages which is not acceptable for us. We are currently sourcing some new software which when found will mean the webcam will be back online. Correction the webcam is now back online.

Finally let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy, and fast, New Year.

Physics
The physics are progressing really nicely. The transmission systems seem to be all but complete and there is now the starts of a constraints system, courtesy of the invaluable Gregor. The constraint system allows us to assign a value to every link in the cars hierarchy so in the event of collisions parts of the car can become distorted, broken and separated. It is a very nice system and appears to be working extremely well straight out of the box.

The next big job on the physics side of things is the tyre model. The current version has a fairly basic model but already has a really nice feel to it. It feels totally controllable and predictable and this bodes well for when the full system is integrated.

Other Programming
A lot of work has also been done on the track management, i.e. file format, rendering systems etc. We have a nice new system for managing the track data which makes them quick to process and speedy to render. It also allows tracks to be easily imported from Max using our plug-ins.

Graphics
On the graphics side of things I have being working on the Type 49 car. The DFV engine is practically complete as is the rear suspension. This leaves me with some work to do on the front suspension and mechanicals, the cockpit (which I am currently working on) and then finally the body work and fuel system as well as the various optional extras that will come with the car.

What's next?
The nest few weeks should see, on the graphics side of things, the Type 49 complete, some more work on the 312 and hopefully a return to Westlake, whilst on the programming side more work on the tyre model and constraints systems and the completion of the track management code. With all this done we can move from test bed cars and tracks and start to work in game with proper artwork.
 

A little more info about the progress on Racing Legends.

I was able last weekend to get back to a spot of modelling. As some of you may have seen on the webcam I was busying myself with a V8 engine for use in one of the cars. The engine is practically finished and next will come the suspension set-ups for the same car followed by the cockpit.

The images this time continue from the last update. This time we have the space frame chassis and a nearly completed engine and rear suspension set. As ever these are work in progress. Some people expressed some concern over the level of detail on these images. Whilst it is true that these are quite complex models compared to some sims they are all real-time models and it is more to do with the textures and bump mapping that is applied that make them appear more complex. It is also worth remembering that a lot of the detail shown is included for specific situations and will not necessarily be visible at all times, the chassis for example will only really be fully visible during a close examination of the car and similarly for a lot of the engine components.