My Business

Did anyone notice how back in the day a lot of racing video games used to come with a track editor?

I own a good amount of newer Xbox360 and Playstation3 racing games, yet none of them has a track editor. Before I receive email from PS3 fanboys -  I don’t consider “Modnation Racer” a racing game in the sense of simulation racer. It is a lot of fun though. Gran Turismo 5 may of course change all this but we’ll have to wait until it is released to find out how useful the track editor is to create a virtual replica of  a backyard RC track.

For the time being I downloaded one of the longest running, most established and best of all “FREE” PC racing simulators available. The racing simulator is called ” Torcs” which stands for “The Open Racing Car Simulator”. As the name implies the game is Open Source and available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Initially I downloaded the Mac version, however I could not find the track editor – this may have been a user-error on my behalf. TORCS does provide some How To’s and FAQ’s, however you’ll be left to figure out a lot of stuff for yourself. The Windows version worked like a charm and all game assets are very nicely organized.

Most (if not all aspects) of the game can be very easily customized by manipulating the according XML file. My primary goal is to create a drivable version of my backyard RC track, however Torcs also offers the option to program your car to drive the track by itself, it’s like watching racing on TV just with your own robot driver behind the wheel. Don’t even think it is as easy as it sounds.

First step of building my track for the game is to take precise measurements in the backyard. Click the images for a bigger version:

I will post screenshots of the track editor and progress as it comes available. I will also make my track available for download once it is done. Download Torcs here http://sourceforge.net/projects/torcs/

Other good links to learn more about Torcs are Wikipedia and the Torcs Site

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 8:41 pm and is filed under News and Updates, Web, Games & Interactivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.