Rigs of Rods

blog moved

2010-12-19T17:36:00.002+01:00

new blog location: http://www.rigsofrods.com/blogs/

0.37 progress and looking for help

2010-07-27T20:15:00.003+02:00

We are still working on fixing the last bugs with version 0.37, like the Multiplayer name tags or the detachable parts and the camera.

In the mean time, we are looking for new team members as always

we are still alive and kicking

2010-05-05T23:54:00.005+02:00

see http://redmine.rigsofrods.org/projects/ror/activity :)

EDIT: added some feedburner features to the sidebar.

upcoming multi-core support

2010-02-18T14:36:00.001+01:00

we are testing a new threading type that enables you to use the full power of your multicore-CPU

some very early results can be seen here

Rigs of Rods 0.36.3 released

2010-01-28T16:06:00.005+01:00

finally, after lots of work we put a version number on it:
0.36.3 (codename Portland)

You can view the changelog here.
As previously, you can get the new version by using the installer.

thanks everyone who contributed on this great effort.

windows installer for 0.36.3 released

2010-01-25T00:43:00.006+01:00

we have finally released the installer to get 0.36.3: http://download.rigsofrods.com

0.36.3 has lots of new features :)

upcoming:
- creation of a changelog
- fixing major remaining bugs
- creation of offline installer
- 'freeze' a fixed version as 'stable' (in the following weeks)

MacOSX 0.36.3 Beta

2010-01-04T11:42:00.000+01:00

thanks to the awesome work of knied we have a MacOSX beta version ready: look here

Organizing the future

2009-09-21T23:48:00.002+02:00

This year RoR has reached a critical size, and my dwindling free time and interest requires a radical change of the development process of RoR.
I can not continue to manage everything and release as I did before, with the great help of Thomas.
We need experienced volunteers to continue the work done:

we need developers and build a professional developers community
we need to federate and manage contents
we need to improve documentation and user interaction

Teams have started to assemble toward these goals, but we need more fresh blood, especially people experienced with working-on and managing large OpenSource projects.

Thanks for your help.

RoR nominated for the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards

2009-06-22T21:51:00.006+02:00

Thanks to all the fans that voted in the first round, RoR managed to get in the list of the ten best projects of Sourceforge in the "Best Project for Gamers" category. Wow!
Now its time for the the second voting round, to victory!
So vote now for Rigs of Rods in the "Best Project for Gamers" category before July, 20th.
Winning will give more publicity to the project and attract more developers and artists.
Thanks for your votes.

Public presentation of RoR

2009-06-11T23:39:00.002+02:00

The organizers of the 10th "Libre Software Meeting" (or in french: Rencontre Mondiales du Logiciel Libre - RMLL) have kindly invited me to talk about Rigs of Rods at Nantes, France, on July, 10. The presentation will be in french.
See you there!

Bug fix: RoR 0.36.1

2009-02-22T19:35:00.002+01:00

There was several bugs in the original release of 0.36 that mandated a bugfix release.
The main problems were:

The Visual Studio redistribuable included in the installer was of the wrong Service Pack version.
Some compilation flags added SSE instructions to the code, which are incompatible with older AMD processors, like the Duron.
The game crashed when vegetation was enabled.
There was visual glitches in some terrains and vehicles.

All these bugs should be gone with version 0.36.1.

Enjoy!

Rigs of Rods 0.36 is out!

2009-02-16T18:37:00.002+01:00

Finally after almost 11 months!
This release was pretty hard to finish to say the least. I hope you will enjoy the hard work.
It includes many new vehicles and terrains. Some are still in beta state and I thank their authors for allowing me to include them in the release. I hope they will forgive me for the occasional bugs and broken taillights that may arise from the rushed release process. I hope these brilliant vehicles and terrains will encourage more creations for the game.

The new features are numerous, the most visible are:

Environment map effects (chrome effects)
Shader support (with damage map)
Completely new ground friction physics: now more realistic than ever
Custom sounds
Better support of flexbodies
New user interface
Files reorganization : now all the files you need to access are in your "My Documents\Rigs of Rods" directory - no more in the Program Files directory.
And much more...

Thanks to all the people that helped to the realization of this version.
Special thanks for Box5diesel, Lifter and Sneer for their prolific and very high quality work.
Thanks to Thomas for his very hard work helping me pushing this release.
Thanks to all the donators, volunteers and moderators of the forums.

Note that from now on, the releases will be hosted on sourceforge :
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=252198

Enjoy!

Rigs of Rods is going Open Source

2009-02-08T21:30:00.002+01:00

I decided to publish the source code of Rigs of Rods 0.36 under the GPLv3 licence.
Why this decision?

To attract and motivate more volunteers and contributors.
To give us some oxygen. The project is too big to maintain for just Thomas and me. Also, we have the desire to turn the page and work on new projects, possibly related to RoR, but I don't want to "kill" RoR by doing so.
To give back to all the Open Source projects that gave us the possibility to use their code under the LGPL, like Ogre3D.
To be able to use the resources offered by SourceForge for Open Source projects.
To ease the porting of RoR to the Linux platform.

This will have no influences on the release of 0.36, which is close to be finished (the code is finished, and we are selecting and testing the contents. Unfortunately my computer decided this was the right time to have a hardware malfunction, and I'm finishing with half my RAM!).

There will be a more formal Open Source announcement to build the hype once 0.36 is released.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

2009-01-31T01:05:00.003+01:00

After 10 months of gestation, we are coming close to the next release, which I estimate will be ready in about a couple of weeks. I hope the wait will be worth it, with many new features.
I would like to thank the very talented modders that help us to put the final touch to this release.

During this time, Rigs of Rods has got more and more popular, with more than 200.000 unique downloads of version 0.35. That's an incredible number for such a small project!

Thanks for your patience and dedication.

Status update

2008-09-02T22:40:00.004+02:00

It's been some time since the last update, so I think it's time to give some info on what's going on in RoR.

July was very quiet and did not see much progress. The highlight in August was the visit of Thomas in Paris, it was the first time we met in real life, and it was a great weekend, even if I forgot to select the Caelum sky during his stay.

Now the development is picking up speed with a huge reorganization of the source code, contents and build system, as well as major new features.

Thomas is helping me streamline the whole release process with his Python wizardry. The ultimate goal is to switch to an online installation and update system to simplify the maintenance of the game, and allow more frequent updates.

The focus of the new versions will be on mods and modders: I have no more time to manage contents, so I will concentrate on the code and let the mod community manage the contents with new tools for content management.

Feature-wise, there will be many goodies for modders like full flexmesh support, shaders with reflexion and damage maps, fully customizable sounds, and better friction physics!

There is still a lot of work left to finish this overhaul, and not much free time left in our busy lives, so I can't give any release date for now.

Thanks for your patience.

In the press again

2008-07-11T23:57:00.003+02:00

There was a page about RoR in the june issue of the french magazine MicroSim. The article mentions that a full test of RoR will come in a later issue!
As I'm french too, I guess we can all chant "Cororico".
About RoR 0.36, I know its coming slowly, but I hope it will be finished this summer. With this release we will try to setup a new installation system that will allow faster, easier, and more frequent updates in the future. (If all goes as planned!)

RoR 0.35 for MacOSX and Linux ready

2008-03-29T21:06:00.002+01:00

Check it out at the repo!
Also, modders can start tinkering with the new feature patch to prepare the future 0.36 flexbody vehicles.

RoR 0.35

2008-03-23T21:10:00.002+01:00

I'm pretty happy with what we got with this new version.
New features:

Turbojet physics: includes a superb Mig-25 made by Adeodat to illustrate this. And checkout the optional heat haze effect if you have a good video card... Airbrakes physics are also added to tame the beast.
Large terrains: you can make terrains as big as 327 km x 327 km. A 100 km x 100 km terrain is included, which is 1:1 scale of the Grenoble region (France). Perfect for airplanes!
A new physics operator that allows to rigidify beams where trussing is difficult or impossible. Useful for landing gears and other complex and delicate structures.
Improved cameras: better chasing camera, better fixed camera for airplanes, better inside camera (btw, some modders got the wiki wrong and this breaks the new inside camera - check if your "camera" statement follows the wiki specifications). You can also specify rigidity parameters for internal camera.
Mesh wheels: the ultimate wheels graphics quality is now possible. A cool Dodge Charger beta version by Bonehead demonstrates its use. More to come later in this department...
Night maps (beta), to be used in Caelum mode, and changing the time to night time.
A new, textured character by kevinmce, with more to come later...
A monorail by Thomas, a formula one by Akoss, über cool foaming Panther firefighting vehicles by Lenni, oh my!

Optimizations:

Maps and vehicles loading cache: this will reduce loading time to almost nothing. Note that the first time you will start RoR after installing it, it will build the cache, and this will take some time, so don't panic at the black screen and let it finish. The next starts will be faster.
Texture compression: massive switch to the DXT compressed textures. This saves tons of video memory, and now RoR runs easily on a video card with 128MB of VRAM. Modders are encouraged to use this format too for their releases. See the wiki.
Simplified configurator.

Bugfixes:

Less shaking overall. Now the only shaking you will see is either in very large terrains (we are looking at it), or for vehicles that have a physics stability issues (lightly built frames or link resonance)
Various bugfixes...

About the vehicle set included in the release: I could not make a complete review of the new mods, some of which seems to be really outstanding, but my time is too limited to manage that, I can not keep up with everything. The same applies to possibly existing updates of included vehicles. I also removed some previously included vehicles to save space, as the archive becomes larger and larger. So I'm sorry if people feel bad about this, its purely due to technical constraints from my part. I will try to find a better selection process the next time.

RoR 0.35 is 88 196 757 bytes. We may have some trouble getting Repo mirrors running smoothly as the bandwidth grows to improbable levels and our hosting companies begin to complain... Of course you can also try the "classic" backup site.

In case of problem, I exceptionally uploaded the installer on file sharing websites. These two links are the only official shared files for RoR 0.35:

Enjoy!

0.34 is out!

2008-01-21T23:38:00.000+01:00

After much delay, version 0.34 is finally out, with a truckload of features and fixes.

Lots of new vehicles and new maps (thanks to the authors of all these great mods!)
Airplane autopilot, with instruments approaches
Enhanced airplane propeller model (multi-element blades)
Tropospheric modeling of the atmosphere
Enhanced keymap and joystick configuration
Custom particle effects (to make firefighters happy :-)
Enhanced map
...

Thomas helped me a lot to make this release. Thanks also to the beta testers for their help to fix the bugs. The project becomes gigantic with more than 45k lines of C++ code and a project workspace of more than 2Gigabytes!
The MacOSX and Linux port will come online in a couple of days.

Enjoy!

Biting the apple

2007-12-19T00:01:00.000+01:00

I recently acquired a MacBook Pro to port RoR to the MacOSX platform. This is also a fantastic laptop to use. Donation helped me a bit. Okay, it did not paid it all, but it helped me to go to the high end rather than a buying a poor Mini that would not be very useful to me in normal use.
The port is almost finished, and the MacBook performs like a chief (it is even faster than my main computer!). I love it. Also people of Ogre3D do a fantastic job of keeping Ogre multi platform.
You can expect the next version to be released on 3 platforms (Windows, Linux, MacOS). I will try to get it packed up before the end of the year, but I can't promise!
So thank again to all the donators for their participation. You can still continue to donate, as this will help me pay the game server invoices.

Cheers!

Stop the press!

2007-12-18T23:32:00.000+01:00

Rigs of Rods got mentioned in PC Gamer UK, Christmas 2007 edition (in kiosks since the end of November). And thats a whole page! Plus a copy of the game in the enclosed DVD.
That came as a surprise to me (thanks to PolyVox from the Ogre forums for the heads-up and scan).
I'm happy the spotlight was on the mods, as the modding community is growing out of control, and pulls more and more fantastic mods. I did not even knew the existence of some of the mods presented here (I'm too busy evolving the innards of RoR to track mods and forums).
So thanks to all modders and keep on modding!

Linux version, server source code

2007-11-10T19:11:00.000+01:00

The Linux version of RoR 0.33d has been posted by Thomas on the repository, with correct sounds now! (the cause was a strange non-portability of the doppler code of OpenAL)

Also released on the repository is the source code of the network server, released under the GPL licence.

Network fix: 0.33d

2007-11-04T23:30:00.000+01:00

Most of the network problems have now been fixed, so I re-release 0.33 in version 0.33d. This release includes some additional bugfixes to 0.33c (minor sound, graphics, map and vehicle fixes) so you are all encouraged to switch to the new version 0.33d.

No patch version of 0.33d will be available. Only the full download. As this update concerns only broadband network gamers, I don't think this will be a problem.

Enjoy!

RoR 0.33, network!

2007-10-29T21:56:00.000+01:00

The first network-able version of RoR is ready!

Apart from network, RoR 0.33 is pretty similar to 0.32, the only new feature being the new variable pressure tires (only the 6x6 DAF Paris-Dakar has it for the moment). Press the "[" and "]" keys to adjust the pressure (for non US keyboard, thats the two keys between "P" and "Enter").

About the network: you have to enable network mode into the configurator (Network tab). Click on the "Update" button to get the list of available servers. Then click on one of the server blue link. This will fill automatically the network parameters settings for you. Don't forget to choose an appropriate nickname. You are ready for network play.
Network mode is different from normal mode:

You can not leave or change your truck
There are no loads
There are no truck-to-truck collision, nor locking (but we are working on that one)
You can chat with others by pressing "Enter", typing your text, and pressing "Enter" again.

Thats pretty limited for the moment, but its already pretty fun to race. We will try to add more net game modes later...
As this is the very first real world test of the network code, which is a quite tricky code, I think it is pretty reasonable to expect many stability and availability problems. We will debug servers as you play ;-)
About bandwidth, netmode requires a good DSL line, with, depending on the number of players :

4 players : at least 240kbit/s of download 60kbit/s of upload
8 players : at least 480kbit/s of download 60kbit/s of upload
16 players : at least 960kbit/s of download 60kbit/s of upload

Regarding the servers, we host a group of differently sized servers, with different terrains. If you know what you are doing you can deploy your own servers, registered to the repository (to help us keep up the load) or not (e.g. for LAN party) . The server binary is included into the install pack, but it will be released Open Source soon, so people can inspect and compile it on whatever platform they like.

So, I cross my fingers, I hope you will enjoy this version if the servers can keep up!

*edit* servers are currently very crash prone we are looking at the issue

RoR 0.32, IGF, no network

2007-09-29T01:50:00.000+02:00

Finally the long-brewing new version of RoR is out!

Contrary to previous announcements, I had to make a strategic change of priority in order to enter the Independent Game Festival, and meet their October, 1st deadline.

That important choice has two consequence:

I had not enough time to develop and test a functional network version before the deadline. So I concentrated on finalizing a clean 0.32, "IGF edition" version of the game, and report the network feature to version 0.33. My plan is to concentrate on network right now, and release 0.33 ASAP.
I will not change the way Rigs of Rods is developed until the result of the IGF.

Features of the new version are:

New installer package
Smooth roads
Tons of new vehicles, sorted by category, thanks to all the contributors!
Different spawn points for trucks, airplanes, boats, and loads
Experimental vegetation, thanks to Thomas
Upgraded objects model, LUA scripting, and mission support capability
Update to Ogre 1.4.3
Many other features and bugfix

Enjoy!

Still here!

2007-08-23T22:55:00.000+02:00

Some people worry because of the long delay since the last version of RoR. I'm still here, busier than ever. A combination of heavy workload and lack of motivation has seriously delayed the long awaited version 0.32, network edition...

Fortunately, Thomas has kindly joined me in the development of RoR, and we are now actively forging the next version. I will never thank enough Thomas for his help and brilliant dedication. I also thank Jacob for making new buildings.

It has been more than two years since RoR was revealed to the public. Lots of things have changed since: the focus has changed from physics to gameplay, and the project is so large it becomes impossible to manage it alone (hence the now collaborative development). I think RoR has reached a threshold, and I think I will change the way RoR is developped once 0.32 is out.

Thanks for you patience, and kudos to all the modders,
Pricorde

RoR (almost) on TV

2007-06-10T22:33:00.000+02:00

Brian Beckman gave an inverview on physics in games, in which, among other topics, he talks about Rigs of Rods. Dr. Beckman is a physicist that worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, then at Microsoft research labs, where, among other things, he contributed to the physics of the racing game Forza. He is the author or one of the most comprehensive racing car physics study online.

So when he says "this is one of the best driving simulation I have ever seen", that means something must be good in RoR... :-)
He explains very well my ideas behind the physics of RoR ("overwhelming a problem with computing horsepower", "less is more"), and, as RoR proved it, the validity of such an approach given the computing horsepower available today. He then suggests this may become the future of video games, and they will look into it. Wow. I'm impressed... Time to ask for royalties to Microsoft ;-)
Anyway, thank you Dr. Beckman for your nice comments.

I extracted the part concerning Rigs of Rods from the full interview.

This interview was not broadcasted on TV, it is produced by a Microsoft video blog called Channel 9.

On the lowly development front, things are going a bit slow, I'm sorry, but the next version will feature lots of goodies and I'm working at it. Patience is your best friend.

Cheers!

Multiplayer

2007-04-25T12:53:00.000+02:00

A Multiplayer mode for RoR is under construction. We made the very first multiplay debug session last night with Thomas. You can see the result in the screenshot section and in this (historic) video he made:

There are still many details to fix, but the first results are very encouraging.
Cheers!

Linux port of RoR 0.31a ready!

2007-04-08T20:21:00.000+02:00

The Linux port of the latest version of RoR is now available.
No joystick support yet, but with the probable switch toward Ogre 1.4.0 (Eihort) in the next version of RoR, will come OIS, which I hope will enable a cross-platform joystick support (and save me some DirectInput headaches).
I changed a bit the start sequence: ./RoRconfig then ./RoR (no more ./start).
Note that RoRconfig comes with a new dependency for wxgtk 2.6 (wxWindows for GTK).

Enjoy!

New official forum

2007-04-04T21:55:00.000+02:00

Rigs of Rods has finally an official forum, it is located at http://forum.rigsofrods.com/. I hope it will become the new meeting and chatting place for the growing RoR community.
I must thank here the volunteers that will operate and moderate it, as I can not do it myself by lack of time, and I hope you will respect their work, by making the forum a convivial and fun place to chat.

Enjoy!

Bugfix

2007-03-12T23:44:00.000+01:00

I re-released version 0.31 (codename: 0.31a) to include the bugfixed RoRconfig.
That fixes the crash if no joystick installed problem, and the joystick function deselection problem.

If you have already downloaded version 0.31, just grab this patch and replace the original RoRconfig.exe with the one in the archive.

Send comments to this post if you find other major problems with 0.31a.

Cheers!

Version 0.31 is ready!

2007-03-11T20:15:00.000+01:00

Finally, the much awaited version 0.31 is ready for download.
It includes many goodies:

Boats, with a small wahoo, a Class 1 speedboat contributed by cdquicksilver, and a very large high sea tug, the Smit Rotterdam, that has a rollable platform.
A new terrain, called "island", that is still under construction but that will soon replace the two classic RoR terrains, because they are not realistic islands.
Infinite sea with waves. Take the Smit and sail far from the island: you will encounter high swells offshore. You can even configure the wave fields (see the data\wavefield.cfg file).
A separate configurator program. Now you must start the RoRconfig program first, to choose your configuration options, save them, then start RoR. This configurator adds more joystick configuration options.
An experimental shift stick mode that uses a force feedback joystick to simulate the grid of the gearbox. (see the readme)
Serious bugfixing: camera shaking has been dramatically reduced, and the "crash on plane crash" problem is mostly eliminated.
Addition of the Challenger car contributed by hemicuda.

There are still many rough edges in this version. Boat dashboard, propulsion and rudder systems are very crude, there are many things to do to complete the Island terrain, there is no joystick buttons and keys configuration yet, and some vehicles needs upgrades, not to mention some very good vehicles on the repository that should be integrated, and trucks file management needs also a general overhaul. Oh, and I forget I did not do a car ferry!!!
Remember that all this is a hobby for me, and my free time is very limited so be patient.

I'm also searching for a good, pro bono, 3D artist to help me to overhaul scenery objects (to design a master texture and model small cities and villages) contact: pricorde-at-rigsofrods.com.

Enjoy!

Edit: The RoRconfig configurator crashes when no joystick is present. You can try to replace it with this fixed version. Comment here how it works, I'll add it to the official package tomorrow (have to go to bed!).

Boats! (2)

2007-02-18T23:01:00.000+01:00

Version 0.31 is not yet finished, but it will be worth the wait!

I just finished the waves model. It looks good! When you go far from the island, you will encounter very high swells. Bad waves can even break the boat!

Stay tuned!

Edit: I just found a video of the real thing. I need to add more spray!

Boats!

2007-01-28T19:47:00.000+01:00

As you can see in the screenshots, I just added highly accurate hydrostatic/hydrodynamic physics in Rigs of Rods.

In the same philosophy that makes RoR so different, this is not just an approximated Archimedes law that was added, but a realtime local pressure gradient computation, that is able to accurately simulate any buoyant shape, in any position, and even with uneven water surface (waves!).

With this method, making boats is also quite easy, you just have to mark cab triangles as part of the hull and that's all! The water pressure gradient will be applied to the "wet" side of the triangles, and all these pressure forces will combine to make the boat float.

As always, the physics (the fun part!) is only 10% of the code, and I have yet to integrate boats to the gameplay (making nice dashboard, sounds, special effects, port infrastructure...).

A small video:

0.30 for Linux and updated extra terrains

2007-01-06T21:22:00.000+01:00

I just released version 0.30 for Linux. It runs the same way as 0.29b for Linux (GCC 4 runtime required), has the same features as 0.30 for Windows, but it seems this version does not render fog in Caelum sky mode.

I also updated the extra terrain pack. It contains 7 terrains (the 6 from the original extraterrain pack plus Oahu). The update consists mainly in the addition of water in some terrains.

These downloads are in the backup site, and will soon be available on the repository.

Enjoy!

Wiki update

2006-12-31T16:00:00.000+01:00

The wiki has been updated to the 0.30 specs, and is now hosted on a faster site, thanks to Thomas.
The new wiki link is: http://wiki.rigsofrods.com/

Finally 0.30!

2006-12-30T00:16:00.000+01:00

After more than two month without updates, here is version 0.30!
What's new in this version:

Ultra realistic sky: thanks to the Caelum plugin, you can see the sky color changing depending on the time of the day, see sunsets and even try a new night mode (Select the Caelum sky effect at startup and use the "+" and "-" keys of your keypad to change the time of the day). Requires a good videocard.
Gorgeous water effets: splashing, ripples and dripping effects!
Mouse interaction with the trucks: click on a truck and drag him around. Usefull to put an overturned truck on its wheels.
True turntable actuactors for cranes: no more unwanted swinging.
Better physics: faster, more stable, and more light car-friendly (you can adjust the strength of groups of beam).
A new small car contributed by c--b, good for doing doughnuts and drifting.
Various fixes.

I'll release the Linux version and an updated extra terrain pack later.

Enjoy!

Back from Oahu

2006-12-13T21:52:00.000+01:00

I'm back from the tropical heat, the sun and the giant waves of Hawaii. I even got the chance to ride a 6x6 Pinzgauer in the Jungle Expedition tour at Kualoa Ranch. I got a few good texture shots of it.
I've seen plenty of good stuff in the repository. I'll try to speed up to release 0.30 in time for christmas.

Cheers!

Aloha

2006-11-28T23:40:00.000+01:00

I'm leaving soon to Oahu, Hawaii for a couple of weeks. A good opportunity to study sunset and ocean, far from the european winter.
To help you endure waiting for version 0.30, I've uploaded a basic downscaled map of Oahu on the repository :-)

Aloha

New repository

2006-11-17T22:57:00.000+01:00

Thomas has made a nice and speedy repository for Rigs of Rods. Thanks Thomas! :-)
I also got it a nice address: http://repository.rigsofrods.com/
I will post all new releases on this repository (but I will continue to post to the "classic" download page in case of problems).
There may be some downtime and bugs, as Thomas is tuning his site.

I also updated the Linux pack, which includes now its zzip library and has an updated README.

Cheers!

Linux release candidate

2006-11-11T18:56:00.000+01:00

The first public Linux release candidate is ready.
You can get it from this link (30MB).
It is highly probable that it will not work as-is on 90% of linux installs. I release it anyway, so it can be tested and I can get some feedback from linux hackers!
So expect system fiddling and frustration before playing!

The main issue is that it is compiled with a GCC 4.1.1 compiler, and there are many incompatible C++ ABI out there. So it will probably work on a gcc 4.1.1 system, and break on a gcc 3.4 or 3.6 system. I don't know if there is an easy fix to that. Be aware that upgrading your gcc may break badly your system if not done correctly, so do it at your own risk.
Also, if you see the config box, but the game crashes, check the sanity of your GLX system first (test with another GLX program) because it breaks easily. It works with NVidia drivers, but I have not tested the ATI ones.
Read the README.LINUX file for more important informations.

Good luck, and post your success/problems as comments to this post (and mention which system you run (distribution and compiler version).

Pricorde

Second patch

2006-11-10T22:51:00.000+01:00

A second patch, called 0.29b has been released for version 0.29.
It solves the bugs that appeared with patch 0.29a (manual clutch problems and sound bugs).
But there is more! Patch 0.29b adds also enhancements:

An accurate ground contact: no more strange behaviour on steep cliffs, and more life-like slidings, drifting, wheel lock-ups.
An updated sound library, that should give better hardware mode sound, and less program crashes.
Better airplane maniability, I underestimated the control surface authority (also, if you configure a joystick axis to the rudder, the front wheel turns with the rudder, instead of the ailerons).
Performance boost for water effects, expecially for the Reflection+Refraction mode.
More informative error messages in Ogre.log when RoR fails to parse a truck file.

As for previous patch, if you had previously downloaded 0.29, get the patch, or if you are new to Rigs of Rods, there is a patched 0.29b full download available at the download page.

Enjoy!

Stencil shadow patch

2006-11-01T16:37:00.000+01:00

The cause of the slow stencil shadow mode (a change of Ogre's shadowing strategy) has been found and the bug has been fixed. I got the stencil shadow framerate jump from 26 to 40fps with this fix!

As promised the patch is available (139kb). The full download has also been updated with this patch and is labelled RoR-0.29a (check it in the download page).

Thanks to the Ogre team for their quick and efficient cooperation.

Also, thanks to Thomas financial and technical contribution, the linux version is on its way but we ran into unexpected incompatibility problems between linux distributions. Thomas and me are looking into it.

Have a good drive!

RoR 0.29

2006-10-12T23:49:00.000+02:00

The new version is out!

Tons of new trucks (an Agora S bus, a huge Liebherr crane, a port crane, a police car and the Caliber contributed by mcreed).
Performance improvements (but no more replay mode)
Improvement of the airplane aerodynamics, that has a smoother handling at lower power setting. Also retractable gear (F3/F4) and automatic differencial braking to help taxiing.
Special effects on the airplane (press M to see the light show)
Enhanced fixed camera view for airplane, and the possibility to have multiple cameras aboard a vehicle (currently on the Liebherr crane you can sit in the driving cab or the crane cab, and also in the Agora L you can sit in the back of the bus and drive! Press C multiple time to switch between cameras)
Joystick configuration bonanza: you can simultaneously use a wheel for the trucks and a joystick for the plane.
Fully manual clutch mode: press Q two times, and prepare to stall! Note that you must depress clutch to shift, as in real life. You can use an analog joystick for clutch control.
Lots of bug fixes and enhancements (upgrade of Ogre version from 1.2.0 to 1.2.3).

Beware there is a bug that makes stencil shadow mode very slow. I am investigating this bug, and a patch will be released when it will be fixed. In the interim, avoid stencil shadows if you want a good framerate.

Enjoy!

Cool videos

2006-09-24T18:04:00.000+02:00

I found some cool Rigs of Rods videos posted by people on Google video.
A breathtaking rock crawling sequence:

And some stunts by a guy that has clearly tampered with his engine power settings!

Thanks to the original posters!

Check out also this guy that plays too much with RoR ;-)

Version 0.29 is under construction, but don't expect a release too soon.

Cheers!

Accepting donations

2006-09-16T22:39:00.000+02:00

Today I created a Paypal account where you can make donations to the project.
My plan is not to get rich that way. And the game is still free.
The rationale is that I decided to make versions of RoR for MacOS and for Linux, and that I need more hardware to do that. From the beginning, RoR is a $0 budget hobby for me, and I intend to keep it that way. So I turn to donation to buy the appropriate hardware.
Here is what I need:

MacOS port: a Mac mini (starting at Eur 619.00)
Linux port: an external hard drive (around Eur 100.00)

So if you are interested in these ports, or if you want to help RoR anyway, donate using the button in the right of the page, that will bring you to a secure payment form from Paypal. (You must be over 18 to donate)

Thanks,
Pierre-Michel

RoR 0.28 is flying

2006-08-27T19:36:00.000+02:00

The much awaited 0.28 is ready for download.
It includes a flyable Antonov 12. The flight physics I used are state of the art in flight simulation (better than Microsoft Flight Simulator, and almost similar to X-Plane, which I highly recommend).

Flying forces (lift, drag and moment) are computed for each wing segments according to actual airfoil characteristics measured in wind tunnels. The interaction of these forces and the aircraft frame determine the aircraft trajectory and attitude. There are no cheating, no cooking, only decentralized aerodynamics!
Prop wash (the effect of accelerated air behind props on wings) is taken into account.
Induced drag accross full wingspans is taken into account.
Accurate simulation of variable pitch, constant speed turboprops.

There are still more aerodynamic features to add and enhance (like accurate fuselage drag), but this is a good start.

From the readme:

main commands are indicated on the dashboard.
Engine start/stop: click on the "ON" buttons
PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN: throtle
R: Toggle reverse thrust (there is a bug that makes reverse disengagement difficult)
UP/DOWN, LEFT/RIGHT: control aircraft (available only in keyboard only mode)
Z/X: control rudder
1: Flaps up (1 notch)
2: Flaps down (1 notch)
I: reinitialize airplane position
B: brakes
P: parking brakes
F1/F2: close/open cargo bay
O: secure cargo

Operation of the airplane: see any good flying manual.
Flaps should be put a bit down for takeoff and even more on landings.
The plane has a weird behaviour at low power settings, so be prepared, and do not fully retard throtles until on the ground.
The key for successfull landings is stabilized approaches. The key for successfull landings is stabilized approaches.
Cargo loading: only the Tatra can fit in the cargo hold. It must be parked at the back of the hold and secured there (O).
Do not park the truck at the front end of the hold or you'll have a wrong center of gravity and crash at the end of the runway.

Beware: the game will crash if you select the Airplane in the "Rig a Deal" shop.

The terrain is a bit small for this plane, so be prepared to turn a lot around. The hard stuff is to land properly. The key for successfull landings is stabilized approaches. So align with the runway far enough, and avoid banzaï-style landings. The simulation is accurate (read: hard), the plane is a bit underpowered (I suspect due to an excessive computed fuse drag), so be cautious: this is always a good suggestion when flying!

Also, the airplane hits a bit hard the performances, so I hope it will be okay for most of you. I'll try to optimize. You may also expect a program crash when crashing the plane too hard. What did you expect? ;-)

Also in this release, a superb Volvo FL6 from Aimee Walton, some bug fixes, but no progress on the editor.

Enjoy, and good flight!

Aircraft preview video

2006-08-18T18:52:00.000+02:00

Today I uploaded a preview video of the new aircraft. It's almost finished, I have just to add more cockpit instruments.

If you can't see the video here, try this link.

Happy Birthday!

2006-08-03T23:35:00.000+02:00

One year ago, I decided to make my freetime game/physics experiment (codename "Tracks") public. I gave it a nice name, opened this blog, and uploaded version 0.11, the first public release.

One year later and 16(!) releases later, Rigs of Rods is still an revolutionnary experiment, and it gains traction every month! (RoR is now downloaded about 8000 times per version!)
Now, new horizons opens with the addition of flight physics to RoR, promising another unique experience of flexible physics as never seen in the mainstream "game industry".

To celebrate the first anniversary of the public release of RoR, here is a screenshot of the very first truss ever simulated with the physics engine. It was somewhere around late march 2005.

Cheers, and thanks to all the fans!

RoR 0.27

2006-07-21T23:56:00.000+02:00

Finally the long awaited 0.27 is here. Vacations, summer heat, and other professionnal and familial activities have slowed down a bit development.

The new stuff:

Flashing lights on some trucks! Use the key 'M' to switch them on. (on AZERTY keyboards, use the key at the right of the 'N' key)
Seats in the trucks, and other accessories (air intake, spare wheels)
New bridges. They are fragile, if you overload them, they will break down!
The big ship in Helens has been upgraded, now you can board in it.
Now you can select among more than 12 trucks
Editor improvements, with rods edition capabilities. You can also load the loads (sic). Not finished yet, lots of work to do to finish it.
I included the cool rock crawling course and vehicle contributed by theafro. The course and vehicle are preliminary, and will be certainly improved. Test your nerves and try to go as high as possible with the Rockeater vehicle on the artificial trial course in the Aspen terrain.

Enjoy!

RoR 0.26

2006-05-31T22:58:00.000+02:00

Finally a new version. What's new in this one:

New funny roads to explore
Race against the clock on circuits! They are tricky, and you need to have the right mix of speed and caution to finish with a good time. After a few tries I got 8'24 on Aspen and 5'46 on Helens.
First person view in character mode. Very neat. Now you can play entirely in first person mode (press C two times)
Working truck dealer, and truck repair garage. Walk into the offices to buy or repair a truck. You can have as many trucks as you want on the level.
Beginning of the truck editor. Enter the truck design lab building to launch it. Not complete but you can easily modify existing trucks. See the README.txt file for instructions.
Optional manual transmission. Press Q to toggle auto/manual mode, and A and Z to shift in manual. For the moment, the clutch is automatic, but there will be more...
Various fixes (roads less sticky to the chassis, rear view mirror and dashboard can be disabled for slow configs, etc.)
If the long download does not work for you, you can try the multipart download.

Enjoy!

Development update

2006-05-08T22:42:00.000+02:00

Just some infos on what's going on. Since 0.25a, I'm developping a truck editor. That's not fancy stuff as usual, but wow, that's really a powerfull tool for creating trucks.

For instance I created this chassis base in a few clicks. I took me some minutes to do what I do usually in a day by the hand.

Right now, what is done is the 3 views environment, loading and saving of truck files, a 3D cursor, a powerfull node selection system, the ability to move and delete nodes, and a construction tool capable to create nodes, rods and trusses efficiently.

There are still many features to add, like nodes and rods properties edition, wheels edition, and last but not the least: skinning (cab construction and texturing). There is also some work to do to integrate the editor in the game flow.

Right now the editor is more than 2000 lines of C++ code, and counting. So don't worry if you don't see pretty new screenshots for a while, I'm in the bowels of the editor, and this is worth it because this will make truck creation much easier for me and for you!

RoR 0.25 bugfix => RoR 0.25a

2006-04-24T22:31:00.000+02:00

I upgraded the Ogre library used by RoR to version 1.2RC2. I hope this will fix the "crash after truck selection" problem for most of you (at least those with GeForce 3 and 4).
The upgraded version is called 0.25a because it adds no features, it's only a bugfix.
So:

If you downloaded 0.25 and the game runs on your system, you don't need to get 0.25a
If you downloaded 0.25 and the game crashes on your system, just get the 0.25a patch archive, and unpack it overwriting the .exe and .dll files in your RoR-0.25 install directory (so you won't need to download the full 0.25a archive and save bandwidth)
If you never downloaded 0.25, get the full RoR-0.25a archive, that already includes the bugfix.

Good luck!

Some problems

2006-04-24T19:57:00.000+02:00

Apparently, some have problem running the new version 0.25. It seems most have this problem because of a bug in Ogre 1.2RC1. This concerns expecially GeForce3 and GeForce4 owners. Hopefully, with some luck, Ogre 1.2RC2 will fix this problem. I will prepare soon a new RoR 0.25a package that will use Ogre 1.2RC2 instead of Ogre 1.2RC1.

See you soon!

RoR 0.25 is out

2006-04-22T17:46:00.000+02:00

This new version includes a lot of new things under the hood:

I upgraded my compiler to Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition (which is free!). This change means that you must install the vccrt.msi file that is in the RoR directory. Just double click on it and you're done. This will install the new Microsoft Visual C++ runtime.
RoR now uses the new Ogre 1.2 library, allowing me to put new cool effects.

There are of course also a lot of more visible enhancements:

New special effets: Sunburn (light overexposure), Bloom (wet eye effect) and a way more faster Motion Blur.
Functionnal rear view mirrors in cockpit mode. You can even adjust them with the Ins, Del, Home and End keys. Now you can try to lock a trailer from the inside of the cabin.
Functionnal indicators in the 3D dashboard.
An enhanced city, still under contruction, with streets and curbs.
A new animated character, under construction (not textured yet), to replace the robot, thanks to SLander.
Roadsigns!
Now there is an ignition switch on the trucks. Press X to toggle it.
The yellow RVI crane truck has been converted to a fully featured terrain editor. You can use it to place roads and objects in the scenery. I will document in the Wiki how to use it.
The wrecker hook has been slightly modified to ease turning while hooking.
Roads have more grip.

Enjoy!

Welcome RSC members!

2006-04-13T12:40:00.000+02:00

Today a new RoR subforum has been opened on Race Sim Central!
The thread is here: http://forum.rscnet.org/forumdisplay.php?f=1073
This generates a lot of hits, so welcome to all, and enjoy the drive!

RoR is also featured in the TruckPol forum here (registration required):
http://truckpol.proboards35.com/index.cgi?board=rior

Some infos for the newbies: I develop RoR alone as a hobbie, on my free time (which is sparse). I post new versions about every month, so come back to check new versions.
For the modders, there is a Wiki in construction here.
I am bad at modeling, so I would also welcome help from modelers to populate the terrains with good-looking buildings (original content only). For the character, a good samaritan is already in the process of replacing the robot with a human.

RoR 0.24 is out

2006-04-02T22:35:00.000+02:00

Another update! Now this one features:

3D cockpit! With a 3D dashboard and wheel. Right now, only the wheel is functional, no dashboard needles. I'm working on that. In internal cam mode, you can turn the head with the usual camera controls.
External rear view mirrors. The mirrors are not functional yet, but this makes the trucks looking better.
Transparent windows. Now the transparent windows are easier to design and artefact-free. So all the trucks have transparent windows now.
Lights on all the trucks.
Serious optimization that will give better framerate for slow 3D cards and in advanced water modes.

Enjoy!
And thanks to all the fans!

RoR 0.23: sounds good!

2006-03-18T19:30:00.000+01:00

A new version is available. This one features:

3D sound! I changed the audio library from Audiere to OpenAL. This was a pain, but the result is cool. The sound of each truck is positionned in space, and you can hear distance attenuation and Doppler effect (the sound is picked at the camera). Works even better with a 5.1 sound system. But see below for the catch.
Water for everybody: now there is three water rendering option. Basic has almost no overhead, Reflection is 2x slower to render, and Reflection+Refraction is 3x slower (but better if you can afford it).
A port and a new road in the North st Helens terrain, with a boat. Also in the distance a very large ship, which is a work in progress.
Several bug fixes.

Also, note that from now the trucks have their engine stopped by default (except the user-chosen truck), so you need to start them the first time you use them (press 'S').

About 3D sound: there seems to be a problem with some hardware-accelerated 3D sound card. My sound card (integrated SoundMAX) seems to have bugs in the sound attenuation function. Distance attenuation does not work properly, and some sounds are played with incorrect volume. These problems appears when the sound is hardware rendered. When the software mode is set, these problems disappears. Si I suppose the problem is in my sound card and not in my code. I am interested in your feedback, to know if on your system the hardware mode sounds as good as the software mode (e.g. does the sound level changes when the camera goes far away from the truck, in character mode), and which sound card you use.

Enjoy!

RoR, the movie

2006-03-10T10:55:00.000+01:00

I have made a movie showing RoR in action, for those that can't run it, or hesitate to try it.
You cant see it at:

Enjoy!

RoR 0.22: Let there be light!

2006-02-26T18:20:00.000+01:00

Finaly a new version. This one features:

Lights! Several trucks now have functional lights. Press "N" to activate. No night mode yet, but nice anyway...
A new interesting truck: a Scania truck carrier. With this one you can do the same thing as the carrier trailer, but with a better framerate. Use F1/F2 for the ramp. There is also a winch with "O".
Several bug fixes: the character can walk on the roads, etc. Press "space" to make him jump over obstacles.

I am also still searching for an Ogre3D-ready animated character that looks like a trucker. If you are a good modeler and know how to make an animated character, you can help me. Reuse of an existing work is also welcome, as long as it is legal. No money, only fame. To contact me about this, send me a PM on the Ogre3D.org forum.

Enjoy!

RoR 0.21

2006-02-03T14:01:00.000+01:00

A new version is available. This one features not a lot of code improvement, but adds two very interesting trucks:

A wrecker truck, and the beginning of a Rescue mission: when you are stuck, press "R" and you are teleported to the nearest wrecker truck
A truck carrier trailer. Funny, but it requires a lot of CPU power to operate with a truck on it.

I also corrected some bugs, and changed a bit the camera mode.

Enjoy!

How to mod RoR: the Wiki

2006-01-29T01:25:00.000+01:00

I have opened some Wiki pages documenting the file format used by RoR. This is a bit crude but may interest those that want to fiddle with the game. It is a little complex to create a truck, but it is quite interesting. I will add later sections about the loads and the terrains.
Thanks to his specific physics, RoR has a big potential as a construction game, since you really build piece by piece the structural chassis.
It is in my long-term plan to develop a user-friendly truck editor, but for the moment this Wiki is all you have...

RoR is one of the featured Ogre3D project

2006-01-16T10:37:00.000+01:00

Today Rigs of Rods has the honor to be presented in the Featured Projects of the Ogre3D graphics engine, with lots of good screenshots. We appreciate this, and we owe a lot to the great work of the Ogre team, so thanks Ogre!

Finally RoR 0.20

2006-01-15T18:13:00.000+01:00

Here comes the long awaited 0.20 version. This one is a major technical step toward a scenarized game.

Now you can have several trucks simultaneously in the scenery. The loads have been "detached" from their truck, and can be manipulated by any truck. Trucks and loads are declared in the terrain file, and the user chooses one extra truck at startup.
To go from truck to truck, an animated character has been added (as in Grand Theft Auto). A typical trucker character is under construction, but is not yet ready, so I had to resolve to use a scary robot that is given with Ogre3D as an interim character.
Major 3D optimizations has been made. Framerate should be up! (but if several trucks are interacting, the physics simulation is slower)
Hyper realist water, with reflection, refraction and fresnel effect. The same technique as in Half Life 2! Requires a recent video card. The water physics is also implemented, see the trucks sinking or floating, and watch out for engine stalling.
Easyest and more reliable locking.

Note that this version has still some problems with truck-truck collision, and does not adds new trucks that could uses these new features (like truck carriers and rescue trucks) : this will come later. You can try to tow most trucks with the chains of the multibennes truck.
Beware: this version requires DirectX 9c so if it does not start, update your DirectX.

Enjoy!

RoR secrets...

2006-01-02T20:40:00.000+01:00

Since I am not yet finished with the 0.20 (that will feature beautiful water (the same as in HL2!) and a multi-truck environment) I will tell you a little secret...

How to build a road in RoR (works with any version):

Place your truck at the begining of what will be a road
Press the key 'B' to enter the road building mode
You will see a temporary road segment. Press 'T' to change the road type, "Ins" and "Home" to rotate and "Suppr" and "End" to pitch.
Once you are happy with the road segment, put your truck out of it and press "Space".
The road segment becomes solid (you can drive on it) and it is followed by a new temporary road segment. Proceed to step 3 with this one and so on...

The roads you build will not be saved to disk, and will disappear the next time you start RoR.

To make you roads permanent you need to :

Launch RoR, build road, exit RoR.
Open the file "ogre.log" with a good text editor
Locate in this file a zone where you have lines like:

21:00:06: 1217.52, 35.2712, 943.524, 0, 6, -2, road
21:00:11: 1227.22, 34.9222, 942.511, 0, 9, -0.5, roadborderleft
21:00:14: 1236.52, 34.8349, 941.076, 0, 16.5, -0.5, roadborderleft
21:00:17: 1246.11, 34.7477, 938.236, 0, 16.5, -3, roadborderright
21:00:21: 1255.69, 34.2243, 935.4, 0, 16.5, 0, roadborderboth

Take this part and use a text editor with a column mode to suppress the column of this block containing the hours (like 21:00:06:)
You will have:

1217.52, 35.2712, 943.524, 0, 6, -2, road
1227.22, 34.9222, 942.511, 0, 9, -0.5, roadborderleft
1236.52, 34.8349, 941.076, 0, 16.5, -0.5, roadborderleft
1246.11, 34.7477, 938.236, 0, 16.5, -3, roadborderright
1255.69, 34.2243, 935.4, 0, 16.5, 0, roadborderboth

Paste this text at the end of the corresponding ".terrn" file in the data/terrain directory (these are text files), just before the "end" line.

Happy building!

RoR 0.19 is out

2005-12-18T19:15:00.000+01:00

A new update before christmas...
This one features:

A new semi-truck, in a classic european configuration (2x4 plus 6 wheels trailer).
Plastic deformations: in case of a crash, the chassis structure deforms.
Stencil shadows done right! I solved most of the bugs that made this shadow mode unusable. Give it a try, they are gorgeous! But they requires a lot of power from the GPU.
Optimized collision system. Now the green crane truck is faster.
A better internal camera. In internal view you are placed at the driver's position, and on some trucks (the blue and the yellow) you can even see the beginning of what will be a 3D cockpit.
And last but not the least, a multithreaded mode that makes a 30% performance gain on a Hyperthreading CPU (like a P4 HT) and possibly doubles the performances of a dual-core CPU!!!

Enjoy!

Extra terrains

2005-12-11T17:41:00.000+01:00

I put online 6 extra terrains that you can add to your RoR install. Theses terrains are preliminary and does not include roads or buildings, but are fun to discover anyway. You can find them in the download section.
The next version of RoR is in progress, but not yet ready. It will feature a semi truck, and several optimization, including a multithreaded mode for Hyperthreaded (HT) and dual core CPUs!

RoR 0.18 update

2005-11-22T23:44:00.000+01:00

Cool new things in this version:

Diesel engines are now equipped with an audible intercooled turbocharger
Engine sounds are completely reworked and greatly improved
Two new self-loading trucks:

Multibennes: a loading system commonly used in europe, in which two pivoting arms moves a chained container. With this one you pull a 10 tons load!
Ampliroll: another popular loading system, very smart balancing. With this one you can pull a 15 tons container with a 15 tons truck without legs!

Automatic load strapping : just press 'O' to secure the load
Hydrolic power coupled to the engine
New indicators on the dashboard, plus more keyboard help

Enjoy!

New version : RoR 0.17

2005-11-08T23:43:00.000+01:00

Finally a new version.
The new feature is a beginning of a self-collision system. What does that mean? With the green crane truck you can pick crates and put then on the back of the truck and roam "loaded".
From the readme:

Special instructions for the "6x6 crane flatbed with crates" green truck:
This truck has a knuckleboom crane, controlled by function keys F1...F10.
To unfold the crane, use F4, then F6 and F8.
Use F1 and F2 to rotate the crane. Rotation can be tricky, use momentum and waddle to go in the right direction.
To load a crate, first deploy the crane legs with F12 until it reaches the ground.
Then, put the extremity of the crane in close contact with the center of the cross on top of a crate.
Press "L" to lock the crate. The cross center should be gripped to the crane. If not, move closer and try again (change the point of view to be sure where you are).
Pull the arm up (F4 and F6).
Place the crate on the back of the truck. Avoid balancing movements. You must be sure you cleared the sides of the truck.
Once the crate positionned, press "L" again to unlock the crane.
Stow the crane (F4, F7+F5+F1, F3).
Stow the crane legs (F11).
Now you can roam with the crate loaded.
Trick : press "L" while the crane and the legs are stowed to lock the crane on the leg. This avoids breaking the crane in case of accident.

Note that the collision system is still in development, so :
-expect slowdown while using this truck
-only the back of the truck is collisionnable with the crate
-Only point-polygon collision are implemented. This means that objects will interpenetrate in case of edge-polygon or edge-edge collision.

This is just the beginning, more goodies to come...

Other minor updates:

Transition to Ogre 1.0.5 (some bugfixes)
Needles are now correctly displayed whatever the display and camera mode

Enjoy!

Disk crash!

2005-10-23T22:03:00.000+02:00

My hard drive failed last week. No data lost, thanks to backups, but my computer was unavailable for a full week, the time to install a new hard drive and the development environment.
So, no update this weekend, but check out one of the upcoming goodie under development for the next release (probaly next week) : a crane-loadable crate!

Version 0.16: feel the Force

2005-10-09T22:48:00.000+02:00

New features of this version:

Full Joystick support (via Direct Input). If your joystick has a "Chinese Hat" button you can also use it to turn the camera.
Force Feedback support!!! The force function is basic, but effective : you feel the movements as if you were inside the truck.
A cool new camera mode (use 'C' to change camera mode).
A new crane truck (work in progress).
More sound effects (starter, horn, parking brake, ...).
Minor enhancements in the transmission, hydraulics, trucks and road system.

Enjoy!

DAF Turbotwin

2005-09-25T18:44:00.000+02:00

This is the ultimate race truck. Seen in the Paris-Dakar 1986, the Turbotwin used two 500hp engines, one for each axle! It was so fast it overtook cars. Unfortunately, the next year a deadly accident imposed a ban on these high-powered monsters. It's oversized wheels makes it sturdy and easy to handle in difficult high-speed situations.

Agora L articulated bus

2005-09-25T18:43:00.000+02:00

This is a Paris RATP articulated bus. I made it just for fun, because I ride it every day to go to work. The handling is horrible offroad, because of the low ground clearance and the rear propulsion. It's a challenge to haul this up on a hill without jack-knife it, so you'd better stay on the road with this one!

Tatra T813

2005-09-25T18:42:00.000+02:00

A famous 8x8, with independent articulated half axles. Good for rough terrain, keeping a good traction whatever the situation is, but hard to handle at high speeds.

Renault flatbed with crane

2005-09-25T18:41:00.000+02:00

It is based on a Renault Premium. Lightweight, sturdy, a little wobbly, but it goes everywhere (it is a 4x4). This is the first truck ever build for RoR. The crane is funny to play with, but a little useless for the moment. You can use it to go upright in case of overturn.

Paris-Dakar DAF De Rooy

2005-09-25T18:40:00.000+02:00

A heavy 6x6, my favourite. From an assistance truck of team De Rooy at the Paris-Dakar 2005 (texture is from G. Rutka). You just feel the flex of the 28 tons (13 tons dry weight plus a 15 tons load). The rear axles are specially balanced to fit complex terrain. Plus it has an active suspension to avoid overturning. In case of overturning you can use two hydrolic arms to put it upright.

Truck description posts

2005-09-25T18:38:00.000+02:00

From now on, I will post a serie of posts describing each truck in the game.

RoR 0.15 update

2005-09-25T14:24:00.000+02:00

The version 0.15 is out with the following improvements:

Performance: some textures have been resized to decrease VRAM requirements, and a more efficient collision detection engine.
Roads! It is easiest to drive on roads with some vehicles (like the bus), but it is not the shortest path, and it may be dangerous to cross at high speed offroad.
A new truck. A Paris Dakar legend : the DAF Turbotwin. The original had two 500hp engines and was fast enough to compete with cars!

RoR 0.14 update

2005-09-04T22:44:00.000+02:00

A new version is out!
What's new:

A gorgeous dust effect: the wheels and other truck parts kicks dust realistically! But it steals some frames per seconds, so use this effect only if RoR runs fast on your computer.
Better collision handling and buildings reshaping. Also in one scenery you have a stairs stand to play with.
A terrain map! Press TAB.
Better handling: the direction is smoother and self-centers, there is a real shifter with Rear, Neutral, Drive, 2 and 1.
You can see the pedals! This is usefull for me to debug the autoshifter.

You can get this new version in the download section.

RoR 0.13 - Performance Release

2005-08-20T00:05:00.000+02:00

A big progress has been made on the performance front. This release runs about 2x faster than the previous one! Also at startup more rendering options are available to fine-tune performances to your video card.
You can adjust:

Shadow techniques: None/Texture/Stencil. Texture shadows is the best compromise. Stencil shadows are slower, and are still buggy.
Texture filtering: None/Bilinear/Trilinear/Anisotropic. Anisotropic are really the best looking, and the performance is good on recent cards.
Motion Blur: This is just for fun. Motion blur is... well... blurry!

Now with a 3GHz processor you can expect around 40fps. And slower processor can run the game too!

Version 0.12 is out!

2005-08-15T23:11:00.000+02:00

This weed-end was good for updates. What's new in 0.12:

Shadows! Texture shadows works relatively well now, so I included them in this release. There are still some visual glitches, and the VRAM use is up. I am still looking to make stencil shadows work, man they are gorgeous! In a future version there will be a way to choose the shadow technique.
Collisions! Now you can crash in some objects of the scene. That was easy to do. This physics engine is full of surprises: its soft-body nature makes robust collisions easy.
Better Scenery: I have placed buildings all around the two scenes. Drive around and find them. Soon there will be a map. This is the beginning of a game logic.

You will find this release in the download section.
As always, to file a suggestion or a bug report regarding this release, post a comment here.

RoR 0.11 ready for download!

2005-08-11T20:38:00.000+02:00

The first public version of RoR is now available in our download section. Please be advised that :

This is a work in progress
You will need AT LEAST a 3GHz P4 or equivalent AMD to run it!!!

The physics engine uses a slow integrator and you need a lot of horsepower to make it run properly. If your CPU is too slow, the game may crash, the truck may move un-naturaly or the game may run in slow motion.
There is no goal for the moment in the game. The phantom buildings are here just for testing and the engine/transmission is still being trimmed.
Known bug of version 0.11: the dashboard needles are in the wrong place if the screen resolution is not 1280x1024.
Feel free to comment this post if you want to report bugs or give suggestions...

Origins of RoR

2005-08-05T15:04:00.000+02:00

Some previous games related to RoR, and sources of inspiration for me:

1nsane by Codemasters: the same feeling of complete off-road freedom in a natural landscape. Also the cars are flexible objects, but not the wheels.
Pontifex (also known as BCS) by ChronicLogic: similar physics engine, but for bridge building. RoR is a kind of "Pontifex on wheels", but lacks for the moment a truck editor.
Hard Truck 2 by softlab-NSK: because of trucks of course! Interesting game logic based on economics that may be integrated in RoR one day...

What is Rigs of Rods?

2005-08-05T09:34:00.000+02:00

Rigs of Rods is an off-road truck simulation game. It is based on a specific physics engine called Beam.
Beam simulates a network of interconnected nodes (forming the chassis and the wheels) and gives the ability to simulate deformable objects.
With this engine, trucks flex and wheels deform as you ride the terrain, which is based on real terrain elevation data.
A closed-source, free beta version will be available soon.

Template images post

2005-08-04T21:33:00.000+02:00

This post is used as a placeholder for the template images, please ignore...

First post!

2005-08-04T14:02:00.000+02:00

Today we are opening the game's blog.