MTM2 Beta Patch 0.44 - Sonic Trucks go vroom!

[Fila]

First and foremost, this is an evolution from Patch 0.41/0.42 and 0.43. So you have to have the other ones installed. Then simply copy monster.exe and voilla, 0.44 is now installed.
For convenience, I'm leaving the 0.43 thread as a sticky for now, to make searching easier.
https://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=7319

So... yeah, first time I have touched the code in 8 years. Funny thing, I have not been able to get the code to run in Win 11 using Visual Studio 2015 nor 2022. Some stupid dependencies/standards have changed again and I gotta figure out how to set it up. But I HAVE been able to install Visual Studio 6 (you know, the Win98 version) and have it open and compile the original code just fine... in Win11... so yeah. lol

Anyway, this is a relatively minor update but hopefully it lays the groundwork for more to come... fingers crossed.

Changes:
The physics engine has been partially decoupled from the visual renderer. What this means is that the physics are not tied to the FPS anymore. You can have 1000fps and your own truck + computer trucks will behave the same way as when you have 20fps. The easiest to notice is when the fps has a massive drop yet the truck control remains the same, unlike how it used to be.
The reason I am saying partial is because I have implemented half of it. The other half I'm still trying to figure out. The other half consists of interpolating frames so that the trucks don't jitter. Right now you will notice that the computer trucks and your own have like a micro stutter. This IS expected due to the internal physics now being run at 25fps and not more. The part that I have not been able to implement yet is interpolating the excess visual frames to smoothen the movement and do away with the micro stutter. With the spaghetti that is the mtm code, I have not been able to figure which function handles the rendering of the moving objects... if there is one. (it might be the one that handles all the objects). Anyway, this is definitely on the TODO list for the future.

The other change, if you go into the Options>>>Game tab, you will see next to the number of computer opponents a new button called Sonic Trucks. TRI had a code to help the trucks cheat to move faster but they never enabled it. I played around with it for a bit. There is a significant difference in the AI trucks now. With that being said, this will require further toying to find the right balance. The trucks will now work great on tracks where the track maker has taken great care to try and optimize the AI course but for tracks where no such care was given, the behaviour can be unpredictable. Since they take turns faster, sudden turns with massive bumps might end up tipping them over, lol.

Anyway that is for now. I don't think there will be another update for a few months but I will try to get back to it more often. Once I can afford to subscribe to some of these AI models, it will be helpful to see if one can help me make sense of some of the stuff that is in there.

Note: For now, Sonic Trucks will only work if you use PROFESSIONAL skill level.

http://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/misc/Beta0.44.zip (900kb, it's just the exe file)

[Ford-chan]

8 years ago... Bloody hell! I thought I was going to end up with a walking stick one day before anything else happens to this patch

Anyways... Here are my impressions...

The AI, although not perfect, it's better than what they are previously when they're forced to comply with 60FPS, which often results in them driving like they just drank too much beforehand. The only downside, it's all on 25FPS now, therefore it's not smooth, nor is it pleasant to look at, but at least I can still drive like how I normally would before this patch.

Turning on Sonic Mode, I can happily say... I finally lost a race after so many years continuesly finishing 1st at every track I drive, this race in particular... Crazy 98, in which the first place truck had some couple second advantage over me, though I still had faster lap times than that truck in front anyhow. Basically it's probably because I had some crash with some other AI trucks being dirty as always.

Tried it on the MTM1 drags, basically, on Sonic Mode, you can't win on the straight drags no matter what transmission or garage settings you have on, the AI will always have some steroid like speed everytime you go up against them. This is not so much of a problem on the J drags because they're always speed capped on the outside part of the course before making the turn (same thing happens on MTM1 as well), therefore you'll always beat them almost every single time, still, at least it's refreshing to see them actually make the full turn without constantly crossing the center line everytime.

Whatever comes next, I'll definitely be waiting with anticipation!

[Fila]

Tried it on the MTM1 drags, basically, on Sonic Mode, you can't win on the straight drags no matter what transmission or garage settings you have on, the AI will always have some steroid like speed everytime you go up against them. This is not so much of a problem on the J drags because they're always speed capped on the outside part of the course before making the turn (same thing happens on MTM1 as well), therefore you'll always beat them almost every single time, still, at least it's refreshing to see them actually make the full turn without constantly crossing the center line everytime.

I figured that would be the case

Eventually I can toy with the AI and give them a special ruleset for drags where they can have a bit more of randomized speed, so that one time they can dunk you and another time they can lose etc.

[Ford-chan]

I figured that would be the case

Eventually I can toy with the AI and give them a special ruleset for drags where they can have a bit more of randomized speed, so that one time they can dunk you and another time they can lose etc.

And hopefully on rare occasions... Red light!

[Ford-chan]

I just did a little experiment with this patch, or rather, a stress test of the game's engine in it's current state.

Alpine's Certifiably Crazy, with all 8 Cale's HD Trucks, along with the 120 tile draw distance maxed out.

Let's just say, although the lag is still there, the partially decoupled FPS's micro stutter effect is acting like a compensation to sort of blend in at it's laggiest moments, to a point where you either notice it, or you don't. Haven't tried it with the more detailed trucks just yet, at some point, I may give Rep Fan's trucks a run and see what results I come up with.

I'll keep playing with these sort of settings until if I ever come across a scenario where it's just simply not doable anymore, but I'd figured I'd share this out in case if you hadn't noticed it already.

[Fila]

Yeah I did actually test Alpine's track too, and yeah noticed the same thing. It reduces the drastic stutter spikes the track had.

[Kmaster]

Q: do i need to have community patch 2 installed to install this patch?

btw, I managed to run mtm2 on directx (full screen) on my ARM mac (Windows 11 ARM vm) thanks to the community patch. but i had no luck with other resolutions than 640x480. i get the lovely "Unable to switch to fullscreen mode" error.

tried also dgvoodoo & 3dfx resolutions with no luck.

i also found a interesting trick to increase draw distance in software mode: in graphics options just turn on "hardware rendering" and set the distance to the maximum in the advanced options, then turn off "automatic full screen".

[Shockwave_S08]

One side-effect of the physics-framerate decoupling, is that the horn, Yee-Haw, and tire screeches now sound absolutely unhinged if the game's framerate is uncapped. Manually locking to 25FPS through external software fixes this.

[Fila]

Q: do i need to have community patch 2 installed to install this patch?

btw, I managed to run mtm2 on directx (full screen) on my ARM mac (Windows 11 ARM vm) thanks to the community patch. but i had no luck with other resolutions than 640x480. i get the lovely "Unable to switch to fullscreen mode" error.

tried also dgvoodoo & 3dfx resolutions with no luck.

i also found a interesting trick to increase draw distance in software mode: in graphics options just turn on "hardware rendering" and set the distance to the maximum in the advanced options, then turn off "automatic full screen".

"Installed" is relatively speaking. You do need the other files the community patch 2 comes with yeah.

You need community patch 2, then beta 0.42 and then beta 0.43. Each of them have some additional files that might or might not break 0.44.

https://mtm2.com/%7Emtmg/commpatch/MTM2_CommPatch2.zip
http://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/misc/Beta0.42.zip
http://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/misc/Beta0.43.zip

[Fila]

One side-effect of the physics-framerate decoupling, is that the horn, Yee-Haw, and tire screeches now sound absolutely unhinged if the game's framerate is uncapped. Manually locking to 25FPS through external software fixes this.

Good spot. That's actually pretty intriguing from a coding point of view. Gonna look into it to see if I can figure it out.

[Ford-chan]

Alpine's Certifiably Crazy, with all 8 Cale's HD Trucks, along with the 120 tile draw distance maxed out.

Let's just say, although the lag is still there, the partially decoupled FPS's micro stutter effect is acting like a compensation to sort of blend in at it's laggiest moments, to a point where you either notice it, or you don't. Haven't tried it with the more detailed trucks just yet, at some point, I may give Rep Fan's trucks a run and see what results I come up with.

I'm afraid I might just have to change my mind about this.

Just tried dRod, DkriderGZ, Kmaster's Californication, with both 8 Cale's HD Trucks and the 120 tile draw distance all running at once, like I did with Alpine's Certifiably Crazy. Unfortunately, what I said previously cannot be said with this track. It is an absolute nightmare just to try and hold on to the truck as the game starts bawling it's eyes out over the primitive renderer that just cannot keep up with such high detail and max draw distance all at once. Back to 20 tiles I go, at least the MTM1 tracks hold up reasonably well running under such settings without too much problem.

From this point onward, it's either DirectX9/12, OpenGL, or we will continue to suffer with these things as we speak. Like I've said previously, whoever Striker finds with the help of modern rendering coding for TerminalFury, can also be that bloke to help us out with MTM2 as well, unless some AI program can assist with such a task if that's even possible with game programming?

[Cale]

Alpine's Certifiably Crazy, with all 8 Cale's HD Trucks, along with the 120 tile draw distance maxed out.

Let's just say, although the lag is still there, the partially decoupled FPS's micro stutter effect is acting like a compensation to sort of blend in at it's laggiest moments, to a point where you either notice it, or you don't. Haven't tried it with the more detailed trucks just yet, at some point, I may give Rep Fan's trucks a run and see what results I come up with.

I'm afraid I might just have to change my mind about this.

Just tried dRod, DkriderGZ, Kmaster's Californication, with both 8 Cale's HD Trucks and the 120 tile draw distance all running at once, like I did with Alpine's Certifiably Crazy. Unfortunately, what I said previously cannot be said with this track. It is an absolute nightmare just to try and hold on to the truck as the game starts bawling it's eyes out over the primitive renderer that just cannot keep up with such high detail and max draw distance all at once. Back to 20 tiles I go, at least the MTM1 tracks hold up reasonably well running under such settings without too much problem.

From this point onward, it's either DirectX9/12, OpenGL, or we will continue to suffer with these things as we speak. Like I've said previously, whoever Striker finds with the help of modern rendering coding for TerminalFury, can also be that bloke to help us out with MTM2 as well, unless some AI program can assist with such a task if that's even possible with game programming?

This is a well known issue with higher amounts of 256x256 textures, and nothing Fila has yet fixed will address this. Something changed in the game engine pretty significantly between MTM1 and MTM2 because MTM1 trucks use 10-12 high-res textures with no issues, but my HD trucks use only 3 a piece (2 for the body, 1 for the undercarriage) and, on tracks with lots of 256x256 textures used for scenery, it will lag badly off the starting line with all the trucks in one frame. I initially wasn't going to do LOD models for the HD trucks because the gain for lower poly counts is nil to negligible on modern hardware, but I decided to do them with 64x64 textures after experiencing how bad it is.

I don't know what the actual count of the 256x256 textures is that the game starts to bug out, but on some tracks, like Enocell's city tracks, it will lag badly with increased draw distances even when driving alone without any CPU trucks. It's why ground textures are all 64x64 even though the game "supports" 256x256 (a group of our esteemed leaders here made a 256x256 track at some point, but I can't remember who it was or what the track name is). That's the big limiting factor right now, but what's causing it is probably buried deep in memory management somewhere.

[Ford-chan]

This is a well known issue with higher amounts of 256x256 textures, and nothing Fila has yet fixed will address this. Something changed in the game engine pretty significantly between MTM1 and MTM2 because MTM1 trucks use 10-12 high-res textures with no issues, but my HD trucks use only 3 a piece (2 for the body, 1 for the undercarriage) and, on tracks with lots of 256x256 textures used for scenery, it will lag badly off the starting line with all the trucks in one frame. I initially wasn't going to do LOD models for the HD trucks because the gain for lower poly counts is nil to negligible on modern hardware, but I decided to do them with 64x64 textures after experiencing how bad it is.

I don't know what the actual count of the 256x256 textures is that the game starts to bug out, but on some tracks, like Enocell's city tracks, it will lag badly with increased draw distances even when driving alone without any CPU trucks. It's why ground textures are all 64x64 even though the game "supports" 256x256 (a group of our esteemed leaders here made a 256x256 track at some point, but I can't remember who it was or what the track name is). That's the big limiting factor right now, but what's causing it is probably buried deep in memory management somewhere.

Speaking of Enocell's tracks, one of them I was trying out 6 years ago (which was Get On), I basically ran that track with 120 tiles set along with just purely the 8 TRI stock trucks just to see what happens, and whaddya know, it also lags like crazy, you can't even get away with running TRI's stock trucks with the maxed out draw distance either.