Ladies, Gentlemen and Photographers: Start your engines!After reviewing HalfLife 2 with some QTVR panoramas (3D shots), and due to the success of the article, we decided to step into our sponsored 360 Ferrari Modena and take some shots inside a great racing simulator: FIA GTR, created by SimBin and published by 10Tacle.
I’ll use the same technique I took with HalfLife 2, employing strategies to set myself up as a photographer, take screen shots and stitch them together with Realviz Stitcher 4.0 into a 360-degree QTVR panorama.
Well, in the racing simulators history there are just a few games that have won the title of "real simulators", as Grand Prix Legend (Sierra), SGT, F1 99-00, Nascar 2003, and GTR is one of the future titles that we are sure will enter the history of racing simulators games.
click here to view siteThe main features of the game are the high-detailed tracks, the cars physics that are real, and some others real racing features (tires blowing, weather changing, physics depending on weather, etc.). As well, another crazy feature is that you can even drive 24-hour events, like the well known Spa 24 Hours. This means you start the game on Friday at 8.pm, and you finish at 8 pm on Saturday while during night driving in the dark! Remember to bring a Coke and snack to your desk before beginning, as the pit stops don’t allow enough time to head to your fridge.
We bought the German Version of the game, where you can read in the first page: "Während des Spielens von Computer-und Videospielen sollte man darauf achten, jede Stunde eine etwa 15-minütige Pause einzulegen", meaning you should take a 15 minute break each hour...and the 24h event? Legal questions...
The game is singleplayer and multiplayer mode, so you can find European people and Americans or Asians racing around European famous tracks like: Monza, Spa, Barcelona, Andrestorp and, more recently, even on some oval USA tracks thanks to GTR Kings of Ovals
free add on.
SimBin won the hearts of cars fanatics by considering three vital facts for a racer: engine sound, realism and physics. This cocktail in GTR is impressive.
To take those QTVR shots we used the replay mode feature inside the game, changing the camera files that come with the tracks. We noticed that there are two typologies in the GTR Track Camera file: the StaticCam and TrackingCam. Here is how the default staticCamera file looks:
StaticCam=STATIC001
{
Position=(-465.285767, -19.303246, 72.257019)
Orientation=(-0.123362, 0.720619, 0.000000)
Fov=(45.000000, 33.750000)
Clear=FALSE
Color=(0, 0, 0)
ClipPlanes=(3.000000, 950.000000)
LODMultiplier=(8.000000)
Size=(1.000000, 1.000000)
Center=(0.500000, 0.500000)
MipmapLODBias=(0.000000)
Flags1=(4)
Flags2=(0)
ActivationLocation=(-375.039978, -21.628679, 50.103729)
ActivationRadius=(97.000000)
}
We modified the GTR Track Camera file allowing the Gmotor engine (the rendering engine used by GTR)displaying just StaticCam for taking our shots. With the replay feature we could choose the locations of the shots, and even the 360 rotation of the camera.
Waiting on the new title GT Legends that comes out soon, we leave 'cause we have to prepare our drinks and food for the next 24h event starting in 22 minutes...cya there!Credits:
Official game site: http://www.10tacle.com/gtr-game/
Developers site: http://www.simbin.se/index_simbin.html
Publisher site: http://www.10tacle.com
Buying the game: http://www.bhmotorsports.com/shop/item/19139
Special thanks:
Race Sim Central forums for the great simracing modders forum
Andrea Stefanoni for stitching and photoshopping
...and thanks to SimBin for developing such fantastic racing game!
