rFactor Tweaks

[noob1234]

Hi everyone!

I have promised to post some of the tweaks I use to get better framerate in rFactor. So here goes:

!!!BACKUP YOUR FILES!!!

rFactor/GameData/Vehicles/F1_champions
We will be altering two files here:

• Form.gen (for the michelin cars)
  bridgeForm.gen (for the bridgestone cars)

Don't bother with the _spinner versions since they are only used in the menu.
Each part of the car has a block of parameters in these files.
By changing / removing parameters we can alter the appearence.

Hiding objects
By altering the parameters LODIn and LODOut you can specify at what
distance range of the camera objects are drawn.
An object is visible if:

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[value of LODIn] <= [object distance to camera] <= [value of LODOut]

Consequently setting LODIn=(0.0) & LODOut=(0.0) will hide the object
at any distance. This is good for the driver body and anything else you
can be without.
*The unit is meters.

Shadows
Shadows are contraptions of evil and somewhat overrated in modern games.
To disable an object from casting shadows remove the following parameter:

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ShadowCaster=(u, v, x, y)

To disable an object from recieving shadows change:

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ShadowReceiver=True

To read:

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ShadowReceiver=False

Example
I have attached my versions of the files at the end of this post.
A few notes:
I cull very agressively only keeping parts around when I need them to
race normally. Anything remotely surperfluous is hidden.

• Car vanishes at 100m
  Tires vanish at 20m (front), 40m (rear)
  Wings vanish at 10m (front), 20m (rear)

Change these distances to suit your tolerance level.
I drive a Bridgestone car so I hide the cockpits for the Michelin cars. You may want to do the opposite if you are in a Michelin machine.

rFactor/Config.ini
Note that some changes made here will be reverted if you run rF Config.

Selecting 640 x 480
I had some problems with this.
First make the following change:

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MinimumVidRes=(400, 300)

This allows rF Config to show the low resolution modes.
Then run rF Config and select 640 x 480 x 32.

Downgrading
The idea here is to fool rFactor into thinking we have a real low-end
system so it doesn't get any silly ideas:

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CPURating=2
VideoRAM=16

*Try out my other changes before these two since I am not sure of their
actual effects.


Tracks
One very simple and effective parameter to change on a new track is the
distance of the far clipping planes. Objects beyond this value will not
be drawn.
You can change the clipping planes from the .scn file of the track.

Example
Open up:
rFactor/GameData/Locations/Montreal/MontrealGP/montrealgp.scn

Now we will change ClipPlanes to 400m mainview (front)
and 150m rearview (mirrors).

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View=mainview
{
  Clear=False
  Color=(119, 188, 200)
  Size=(1.0, 1.0) Center=(0.5, 0.5)
  FOV=(77.75, 62.50)
  ClipPlanes=(1.00, 400.00)
  View=rearview
  {
    Clear=True
    Color=(119, 188, 200)
    Size=(128.0, 64.0) Center=(64.0, 32.0)
    FOV=(62.5, 62.5)
    ClipPlanes=(1.00, 150.00)
  }
}

It's just that simple. And it will not cause a MM.

[noob1234]

I almost forgot the most important file of all...

Here are the main changes made to my .PLR file:

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Load Opponent Cockpits="0" // Whether to load gauges and LCD for opponents, don't turn off if you're planning on hot-swapping vehicles in multiplayer

To remove framedrops when passing pits:

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Garage Detail="0.01000" // LOD multiplier when vehicle is in garage (0.01-1.00)

Hehe.. updates??? what friggin updates?? (does this look like lemans??)

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Shadow Updates="0" // Static shadow updates per frame (Shadow Updates * Sky Update Frames should exceed number of static shadows on track)
Sky Update Frames="255" // Frames between sky and light updates

We don't want to spin off in a hairpin cause of some detail on the opponent car:

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Mipmap LOD Speed="1.00000" // Speed (MPH) at which maximum mipmap bias is used

Just set the bias as low as possible:

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Mipmap LOD Bias="0.01000"

Again... this isn't LeMans:

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Max Headlights="0" // Max headlights visible relative to your car.
Headlights On Cars="0" // Headlights illuminate other cars.

Remove any replay related stuff...

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Record Replays="0" // whether to record replays or not
Save All Replay Sessions="0" // whether to save the replay from each session
Compress Replay="0" // whether to compress VCR file (uses less disk space but takes more time to write)
Record Hotlaps="0" // whether to record hotlaps or not (must have replay recording on)
Replay Fidelity="0"
Super Player Replay="0" // record player at higher frequency

[Flow]

Cool, thanks. But i assume that we need to use those verry carfully to not screw anything in a bad way. Il give a close look. Thanks alot.