Vamos Automotive Simulator / News: Recent posts

I recently switched from Gentoo to Debian. (Gentoo's great, it's just more hands-on than I want to be sometimes.) Well, I ran into some trouble trying to build Vamos. This release should make the configure script more portable. Even so, there are a few things that may not be automatic on some systems. So I'll show the steps I went through to get everything building and running.

I installed wheezy and then switched to the testing distribution. I installed
- libsdl-dev
- libopenal-dev
- libalut-dev
- freeglut3-dev
- libboost-all-dev
- python3-dev... read more

The main application is now a Python 3 program. The C++ simulation code is wrapped into modules by Boost.Python, so there's no loss of performance. This is intended to be a first step toward a friendlier game-like interface.

Other changes include better robot behavior, especially when passing; the ability to qualify and race against robot cars; tire heating; and improved randomly-generated tracks.

Functionality has been added to make the main program more like a racing game. The computer-controlled cars can now pass and be passed reasonably gracefully. Sets of F1 and GT cars are provided with varying appearance and performance characteristics. The running order, time intervals, and lap count shown on screen. Performance of the robot cars can be adjusted from the command line to match your opponents to your skill level.... read more

The official code repository is now in Git. You can get it with
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/vamos/git vamos-git

The CVS repository is no longer maintained. It'll remain stuck a some point after the 0.7.0 release.

The latest release includes improvements to the computer-controlled cars. They handle just about any track without tweaking. They even account for humps, dips, and banking when deciding how fast to go and when to brake. They can be pretty stiff competition. The control algorithms are documented in detail.

Robot drivers now try to avoid collisions. Heavily used vector functions were inlined to improve performance. Bumpy surfaces are more realistic. Timing inaccuracies have been fixed. A sound for riding kerbs has been added. The map view now has keys for zooming and panning. Several new tracks have been added: Yas Marnia, Monza with banked oval, Valencia, Singapore, Jerez, and the new Silverstone layout.

The performance of robot cars is greatly improved in this release. I wouldn't say they're unbeatable, but I can't keep up on most tracks. Added "--demo" or "-d" option in case you want to ride along with a robot. Try "vamos -d -c F1 -t Spa" for a fun ride.

Aerodynamic forces are now reduced when driving in another car's slipstream. The density of the air is reduced, resulting in decreased drag and downforce, when a car is where another car has recently been.... read more

A new release of Vamos Automotive Simulator is available. Vamos is an automotive simulation framework with an emphasis on thorough physical
modeling and good C++ design. Vamos includes a real-time, first-person, 3D driving application.

Support for pit lanes is now provided. Collisions with the ends of the pit wall are detected. Bugs in the general handling of collisions have been fixed. Another bug that caused the wheels to stop spinning when they leave the ground was also fixed. One symptom of this problem was loss of control when hitting the kerbs in the F1 car.... read more

This version uses SDL for graphics and input handling and OpenAL for audio. The user-visible changes are an optional full-screen mode and audio effects like doppler shift and distance attenuation.

If you're using the code, please note that the locations of some files have changed.

Version 0.5.6 has a few bug fixes and some progress on pit lanes. Silverstone, Imola, Albert Park, Interlagos, Laguna Seca, Bahrain, and Spa tracks have been updated.

This release is a checkpoint before I start doing some maintenance of the design.

Handling has been improved by changing the way that lateral and longitudinal forces are combined. Camber forces are now handled correctly. Cars can be set to shift to neutral instead of stalling. Engine torque curves may be specified by a set of control points.
Preliminary support for pit lanes has been added. Skew calculations have been fixed and documented.

Rendering of sharp turns can be improved by providing a "skew" parameter in the track definition file. Rear views are now rendered while panning. Cars are reloaded without losing textures or affecting frame rate. Multiple cameras can be specified in the track definition files. Definition files outside of the installation directories can be specified on the command line by giving full path names.

This release includes optimizations for faster startup and, when multiple cars are used, higher frame rates. The Istanbul grand prix curcuit has been added. Support for CppUnit tests has been added.

If you have CppUnit on your system the tests will be built and run unless you disable them at configure time. Right now there are only a few tests, but there will be more in future releases.

Support for multiple independent cars was added. Project files were added and minor code changes were made for compiling with Visual C++. Windows binaries are now available.

The Spa and Shanghai tracks have been updated. The 1967 Formula One car has been rebuilt. Changes were made for compiling with CygWin.

I've done all I plan to do with the car model for a while. That's the reason for upping the middle number. Here are the most recent changes. Moving suspension parts can now be rendered. A problem with the mirror views not be drawn correctly after resizing the window has been fixed. Rendering of 3D models has been speeded up. Minor changes were made to allow compiling with GCC 3.4.

Cars can now be controlled by the mouse. Surfaces of the cars are now properly culled. The frictional force from a tire is now tangent to the road regardless of the tire's orientation. Several other bug fixes and refinements were made.

The depenency on SimGear has been removed now that Vamos has its own XML parser. Error messages for malformed XML files have been improved. Errors have been fixed in the torque and tire friction calculations.

Vamos is an automotive simulation framework with an emphasis on thorough physical modeling and good C++ design. Vamos includes a real-time, first-person, 3D driving application.

Multiple independent rear-view mirrors can be specified in the car
definition files. Support for 3D car interiors has been added. The
car definition can now be reloaded while the simulation is running.
The old Kyalami track has been added.

A steering wheel, gear shift, analog or digital tachometer, speedometer, and fuel gauge can be shown in the driver's view. These controls and readouts are completely configurable in the car definition file. The driver's view can be panned right and left. Preliminary rear-view mirror support has been added. Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta tracks have been added.

Version 0.4.2 includes 10 new tracks. We now have all of the tracks on next year's Formula One calendar, including the new circuits in Bahrain and Shanghai. AC3D models for trackside objects can be specified in track files. Braking torque is now coupled to the suspension. This, along with better speed-sensitive steering and some other suspension fixes improve stability at high speed and under hard braking, although some stability problems remain.

AC3D files can now be used for car bodies and wheels. The correct version of SigC++ is now checked by the configure program. Speed-sensitive steering is now available. Plus, a few minor problems were fixed.

The main reason for incrementing the middle number is that all of the XML definition files are now in place. In addition, the Silverstone, Magny-Cours, and Nurbergring tracks were updated, and Monza was added. Braking markers (signs that show the distance to a curve) were added. Wing behavior was improved. The main branch of LibSigC++ is now used. A customizable system was put in place to handle keyboard and joystick input. Documentation was updated.

Support for kerbs has been added. Texture images are now in PNG format. Several bugs have been fixed.

The new version has better texture images, better texture handling and a sky box. The combined effect of these improvements can be seen in screenshot on the web page. I've also included a program for making seamless sky boxes.