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First post, by vvbee

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RallySportED, the only known publically available track editor for the cult DOS game Rally-Sport. (Only supports the game's demo version.)

Implements a 2.5d zarch-like engine to mimic the game's, though no polygonal objects. Runs in DOS and certain flavors of Linux. Target audience: creative DOS enthusiasts and the like.

http://tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/soft
rsed.png

Last edited by vvbee on 2018-06-01, 19:30. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 1 of 28, by vvbee

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Newest versions. Still in beta.

dos, v.7 pre-release: http://personal.inet.fi/muoti/eimuoti/rsed7pre_dos.zip
The dos version is best run in real dos or in dosbox. You need a fast 486 minimum, 570 kb free memory, and a 3-button mouse. Designed for square pixels (16:10 aspect ratio).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUgjmiD5DI

Last edited by vvbee on 2017-11-24, 14:04. Edited 5 times in total.

Reply 2 of 28, by vvbee

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I fixed the dos version, for the most part. Great news!!!!!!!!! The updated files are in the old zip files, so redownload and check timestamps.

CHANGELOG (DOS)
- rsed_tex: added check for empty keyboard buffer so ghost keys don't fire, which used to bog down the program
- rsedload: added checking for enough conventional memory, so there's an informative fail message for that
- rsed_geo: reverted full-screen update rate from continuous to selective, causes some depth issues especially with bridges but is faster on slow systems like a 486
- rsed_geo: added missing w key
- rsed_geo & rsed_tex: added check for the presence of a compatible mouse

Video of the editor running in dos on my k6 300 w/ l1 cache disabled (= 486/66 performance, assuming copro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUgjmiD5DI. Not as fast as the game itself, but I didn't go 100% assembly like that guy, more like 0%.

Reply 3 of 28, by vvbee

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I made a new track and called it herbmare. It stands for herb and nightmare. Break my lap record without taking shortcuts and you're doing ok.

It's my 20th track since I released rallysported last november. I made the track in two evenings, so forget spit and polish, it's just fun driving with a bit of challenge thrown in. There's floating telephone lines in the sky also, I'll remove them the day I find where in the game's executable they're handled, but for now I can't be bothered.

rsl-herbmare.png
http://personal.inet.fi/muoti/eimuoti/rsl-herbmare.zip

Last edited by vvbee on 2017-10-15, 16:23. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 28, by vvbee

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I rewrote the dos track loader in assembly, used to be in c++. Without particular optimizations it runs 4x faster, is 8x smaller, and I put in some other improvements as well. Some documented and undocumented manifesto commands were removed, so depending on how long you've been making or collecting tracks for, you may need to keep the older version of the loader handy to play them, or otherwise modify their $ft files to be compatible. The loader along with the rest of rallysported remains in beta - any bugs you encounter are part and parcel while that's the case.

I introduced a new dos tool, rsed_cpu, for creating cpu opponents. It lets you save your in-game lap as the cpu's for others to race against. There are some quirks to using it and I don't yet understand 100% of how the game deals with these data, but all told it seems to work decent. I updated the linux tool rsed_ai, which you can still use to tweak the cpu's lap once you've recorded it, but the linux version of rallysported in general may become obsolete, as did the windows version before it. My interest is shifting toward assembly over c++, which means more interest in developing for dos. For how long is a different matter.

The new dos v.7 pre-release is up, link in the second post. The linux version remains as v.6, I just updated some of the files. The track loader in the linux file is the old version.

Using rsed_cpu, I added a proper cpu opponent to the herbmare track, and updated the file. Maybe you find the cpu easier than the lap record to break.

Reply 5 of 28, by vvbee

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I updated the dos file with some important fixes and a few smaller changes.

CHANGELOG
- rsed_ldr/rsedload.bat: lap records are perhaps now saved correctly
- rsed_ldr: preview of the modified track now shown in the menu
- rsed_cpu: added an in-game message to indicate the lap is being recorded, ties it in a bit better with the feel of the game
rsed7pre_1.png rsed7pre_2.png

Gotta love comic sans in your dos games. I love it everywhere.

Reply 6 of 28, by vvbee

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I rewrote the dos texture editor in assembly. I don't own a 386, but based on testing in pcem, the rewritten rsed_tex will run well on the slowest of 386 and up. I can turn the cycles down to about 450 in dosbox before notable cursor flicker appears, so in theory a 286 could run it. But it can't, since the program uses post-286 code. Besides rewriting it, I made some improvements to it and omitted some of its previous features. Note that you run it with rsedtext.bat.
rsed7pre_3.png

I made some changes and fixes to the dos toolset overall. I updated the dos file in the second post with them. Redownload and check timestamps.
- rsed_tex: rewrote codebase from c++ to assembly.
- rsed_tex: among other things, added pixel undo with right mouse button. r to undo all, as in the previous version, not implemented for now.
- rsed_ldr: re-added manifesto command to set the number of track objects.
- rsed_ldr: fixed game crash on setting object type to regular stone arch.
- rsed_ldr: fixed failure to parse manifesto file if high bits of a register were set.
- rsed_ldr: some more informative error messages.
- rsed_cpu: the car's starting position now approximates the cpu's.

I created a new track, klorofyl. It's a medium-difficulty race with a difficult to beat lap record and a tough cpu opponent. Turn the difficulty to max and get frustrated as you fail to beat the cpu in a clean race. It's possible, but not easy.
http://personal.inet.fi/muoti/eimuoti/rsl-klorofyl.zip
rsl-klorofyl.png

Reply 7 of 28, by vvbee

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It's rallysported's first anniversary. The program was first released on 3.11.2016.

I made a recap video racing one lap on each of the 17 new tracks, give or take, known to have been made with rallysported in the year's time, in mostly chronological order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMopUnlWO24.

The tracks were all made by me, generally using jukka jäkälä's original tileset. On one of them I had my girlfriend trace the road, so the one whose road you can imagine in the shape of a heart is her contribution to the game. I'd say my top 3 of this past year's tracks is suorundi, klorofyl, hiekkaaa.

Reply 8 of 28, by vvbee

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I started work on a remake of the rally-sport engine last summer, got bored with it and stopped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttKBQcKIDn4.

It's a tri- and quad-poly software engine much like in the game with much of the car physics parroted also, so technically I could make a dos version of it, fix some of the rendering errors etc. and stick it in rallysported, so rsed_geo would look pretty much like the game itself. Probably could add a mode where you pre-race the track inside the editor without having to launch the game too. Lots of work though, so I'm not doing it now. Probably wouldn't want to do it in assembly either, much too much work, but I could c++ it, up the system requirements for rsed_geo to a pentium, and there you go.

Reply 11 of 28, by vvbee

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V8 is out. A rewritten codebase with a bunch of updates, see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QEM7Nc8V8

Graphics support glide, opengl, and software. With a voodoo, a pentium 75 should be the bare minimum for the win32 version. The opengl version has the best image quality. The dos version continues to work on a 486 minimum. I don't know if the win32 versions work in more modern windows, and don't care to test. The linux version is somewhat unnecessary since the windows versions run in wine and typically faster, but nonetheless it's the developer's version and has one or two bugs less.

Reply 13 of 28, by vvbee

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V8_5b is out, source is up at https://github.com/leikareipa/rsed. Both have been the case for a few months, but better late.

Coming up to the program's second anniversary. Not a very eventful year for rally-sport, but good shit nonetheless.

Reply 14 of 28, by vvbee

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Rallysported now works in the browser, http://tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/rallysported/. See the user guide for more info, and enjoy the comic sans. Written in javascript, has a 3d software n-gon renderer, authentic texture distortion to match the game's, etc. Beta as always, and has issues of which I haven't yet compiled a public list. Also on github, https://github.com/leikareipa/rsed-js.

See a list of custom tracks at http://tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/rallysported/tracklist/. Take note of the top lap time for each, and try to beat it. In two years I've not heard of people having success with that, but it's possible.

I deprecated the previous linux/windows version of rallysported and reverted back to dos-only for the desktop.

Reply 15 of 28, by MrFlibble

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I have just discovered this, most download links are down and only a few preserved by the Wayback Machine. Are the most recent downloads available anywhere?

DOS Games Archive | Free open source games | RGB Classic Games

Reply 16 of 28, by vvbee

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MrFlibble wrote on 2020-04-04, 13:51:

I have just discovered this, most download links are down and only a few preserved by the Wayback Machine. Are the most recent downloads available anywhere?

tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com hosts all versions and will be back up later, maybe spring/summer/autumn depending on what the post-corona job market looks like. Source code for the DOS/Windows/Linux/browser versions is at https://github.com/leikareipa/rallysported. The DOS and browser versions are maintained, although the source code for the DOS track editor is in a state of rewrite and so isn't fully available. The browser version can be run on a local web server like "php -S localhost:8000". Or you can email sw@tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com to have some binaries sent over.

Reply 17 of 28, by MrFlibble

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May I add the pre-release version 0.7 of the editor that was preserved via the Wayback Machine, and the three tracks (Herbmare, Klorofyl and Talotie) to the DOS Games Archive's page of the game?

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Reply 18 of 28, by vvbee

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MrFlibble wrote on 2020-04-08, 12:09:

May I add the pre-release version 0.7 of the editor that was preserved via the Wayback Machine, and the three tracks (Herbmare, Klorofyl and Talotie) to the DOS Games Archive's page of the game?

My server, when up, hosts alpha.1 (first version) to alpha.12 (last version for Windows) for Linux and Windows, beta.1 to beta.10_1 (current version) for DOS and Linux, the browser-based editor, and a service to not only download tracks but to upload your own and view/edit copies of uploaded tracks in your browser. The version you mention, pre-release of beta.7 for DOS/Linux, is from 2017 or so and is no longer supported by the toolset, but I suppose someone can play around with it.

The modding scene for this game is super tiny, so I don't think fragmentation of hosting - especially of individual deprecated versions- does it any good, but I'm also not paying right now to keep centralized hosting up, so whatever. Maybe someone can host it where more people see it. But put a note on there to keep an eye on tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/soft/, tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/rallysported/, and tarpeeksihyvaesoft.com/rallysport-content/ for the latest versions.

Reply 19 of 28, by MrFlibble

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vvbee wrote on 2020-04-09, 02:01:

The modding scene for this game is super tiny, so I don't think fragmentation of hosting - especially of individual deprecated versions- does it any good

But at least that way, users might play the new tracks and get acquainted with the editor. But maybe you'd provide a more recent DOS version? Can youu post it as an attachment here?

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