Suggestion: Race line optional / toggleable

[Ragewind]

Hello,

At the moment the ideal race line is shown in most races and disabled in only a few challenges. I would like to propose to add a hotkey for turning off the race line even in races where it's normally available.

(In races with a race line it's hard to look at anything else but the raceline since it's drawing all attention. I found out that I enjoyed the challenges with disabled raceline much more, as it allowed to look at the surrounding scenery).

The code for this seems to exist already, so the effort for this should be very low.

Thanks,
Ragewind

[TOM.S]

Hello, Ragewind.
As far as I know, we can turn off the Racing Line in "OPTIONS - GAMEPLAY - RACING LINE - HIDE" menu. This works in online Multiplayer Mode too.
One problem is, there is no "OPTIONS" sub-menu in "Online Challenges" and "Online Quick Race" modes. We have to exit the room and go back to the Main Menu if we want to change some option settings.
(In my case, when I forgot to turn on my Xbox 360 Controller Wireless, I always have to go back to the Main Menu and refresh the controller manually. This is very inconvenient.)
So, I agree with your new idea to add a hotkey to toggle the Racing Line. Also if we'll be able to "Refresh Controls" with a hotkey, it will be much more convenient. It's a very nice idea and I also want it if possible.
I'd also like to wait for an answer from the dev. team.
Thank you :)

[Kammerdiener]

-> Suggestions:

• Please make the developer console accessible ingame, if one already exists
  
• The config.ini file in the \Steam\SteamApps\common\RWR\ folder only contains joystick options. Where are all the other settings stored?
  
• Can we please manually bind any key to any available function?
  Using the console or configuration file for this would be just fine.

I believe this way ensures the best customizeable experience for players at rather moderate cost for the programmers, depending on how parts of it are already implemented.

[Playstos]

As TOM.S suggests, it is possible to switch off the racing line for all races from the options menu.
There isn't an option to bind this to a key right now, but we'll look into that, thanks for the suggestion.

As for what Kammerdiener asked, there is no developer console mode in RWR, nor any further settings to be tweaked upon launch. As stated above, we will look into adding more features, such as key binding, that way for those who want to tinker under the hood.

[TOM.S]

Thanks for your reply, Playstos.
To make it possible to assign keys/buttons all in-game menu may be the most accessible and easy to understand for all users. Fortunately, RWR already has this basic feature along with the multi controllers (keyboard + controller) support.

Regarding the optional settings, we can already assign a hotkey to "Camera Mode (Fixed/Rotating)".
If you'll be able to add some more options to "OPTIONS - CONTROLS" menu, it would be nice. Such as

- Racing Line (as suggested above)
- Bend Indicators
- Refresh Controls etc.

As already discussed in other thread, currently RWR does not support "in-game" advanced controller settings (deadzone, sensitivity, FFB etc). Playstos team added ".ini" files, but this is one of the missing basic features for racing games. RWR is a new project and still in progress though, we hope to see more features in your future development.
Thank you :)

[Kammerdiener]

Originally posted by Playstos:

As TOM.S suggests, it is possible to switch off the racing line for all races from the options menu.
There isn't an option to bind this to a key right now, but we'll look into that, thanks for the suggestion.
...

And thank you for great support and community communication!

Originally posted by Playstos:

...
As for what Kammerdiener asked, there is no developer console mode in RWR, nor any further settings to be tweaked upon launch. As stated above, we will look into adding more features, such as key binding, that way for those who want to tinker under the hood.

OK, but can you please tell us where the game stores all its configurations? I can't really find it in the Windows Registry, RWR's homedirectory config.ini or Windows' user AppData folders. Thank you!

[Kammerdiener]

Update: Is it maybe the profile.dat inside the C:\Users\"USERNAME"\Documents\Real World Racing\ folder which I was looking for?

In that case I'd be unlucky because it's a binary file!

[Ragewind]

Originally posted by TOM.S:

Hello, Ragewind.
As far as I know, we can turn off the Racing Line in "OPTIONS - GAMEPLAY - RACING LINE - HIDE" menu. This works in online Multiplayer Mode too.

Hey Tom (and Playstos),

Thanks for bringing this up, it totally slipped past me in the options menu. This helps me a lot already, though of course being able to toggle it would still be sweet.

Thank you, guys!

[Playstos]

Originally posted by Kammerdiener:

Update: Is it maybe the profile.dat inside the C:\Users\"USERNAME"\Documents\Real World Racing\ folder which I was looking for?

In that case I'd be unlucky because it's a binary file! :B1:

The profile.dat file contains all the save and user data, and is indeed in binary format. We don't recommend tampering with that, as you can pretty easily render it unusable and it is meant to be processed and updated in very specific ways by the game, possibly corrupting both your local and cloud save data.

We are not sure what exactly you might want to modify: Real World Racing is an "indie" effort, with limited developing resources, and most of the configuration is handled directly within the game's code. Everything else resides in the game data folders, which for now store only binary and encrypted data.

At a certain point we may come around to enabling modding by the community, but this comes with a significant effort in safely exposing game data to users, which is currently out of our scope, and to be very clear about this, at the moment is not even possible without proprietary developer side tools.

[Kammerdiener]

Originally posted by Playstos:

...
The profile.dat file contains all the save and user data, and is indeed in binary format.
...
We are not sure what exactly you might want to modify:
...

Primarily this:

Originally posted by Kammerdiener:

• Can we please manually bind any key to any available function?
  Using the console or configuration file for this would be just fine.

So what I'd like to see most is a text format config file for the key bindings and ideally all other user configurations as well. Something like the config.ini, which is currently used only for joystick / gamepad relevant variables.

Originally posted by Playstos:

...
Real World Racing is an "indie" effort, with limited developing resources, and most of the configuration is handled directly within the game's code. Everything else resides in the game data folders, which for now store only binary and encrypted data.

At a certain point we may come around to enabling modding by the community, but this comes with a significant effort in safely exposing game data to users,
...

I perfectly understand that!

I believe however that just an outsourcing of all the user defined variables , which would then include any key bindings, from the binary profile.dat into the text format config.ini may be worth a consideration? Please!

And thank you again for your serious communication with your community!

[TOM.S]

Originally posted by Ragewind:

Hey Tom (and Playstos),

Thanks for bringing this up, it totally slipped past me in the options menu. This helps me a lot already, though of course being able to toggle it would still be sweet.

Thank you, guys!

Thanks for your kind reply, Ragewind :)

[TOM.S]

Hello, Kammerdiener.
We know in some other games, sometimes we have to edit configuration files or use console command. But in most of the cases, it is "because the game does not support that in-game configuration". Stated another way, if we are able to configure that optional setting in-game, we don't have to edit configuration files or use console command.

(e.g.) I think you know in some FPS/TPS games we have to edit configuration file or use (console) command to change FOV. And many users post comments "Please make it possible to change FOV in-game !" in many cases ... and so on :)

If we are able to configure all optional settings which we need "all in-game options menu", it must be the best because it is the most accessible and easy to understand for all users.

The development team has their own plan. And I can understand Playstos team's development policy from their statement above,

Originally posted by Playstos:

... Real World Racing is an "indie" effort, with limited developing resources, and most of the configuration is handled directly within the game's code. Everything else resides in the game data folders, which for now store only binary and encrypted data.

At a certain point we may come around to enabling modding by the community, but this comes with a significant effort in safely exposing game data to users, which is currently out of our scope, and to be very clear about this, at the moment is not even possible without proprietary developer side tools.

In the game development, things got to be considered and planned carefully because this kind of problem happens actually.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/223670/discussions/0/666825524890873895/

We are here to support the development of this game. Of course, I have many personal wishes for this game. But at the same time, I/we have to respect the developer's plan and priority.
I believe you are an experienced PC gamer too and understood :)
Thank you.

[Kammerdiener]

Originally posted by TOM.S:

...
We are here to support the development of this game. Of course, I have many personal wishes for this game. But at the same time, I/we have to respect the developer's plan and priority.
I believe you are an experienced PC gamer too and understood :)
Thank you.

Yes, of course! - I edited my previous post to mark what exactly i was meaning:

Originally posted by Kammerdiener:

...
I believe however that just an outsourcing of all the user defined variables , which would then include any key bindings, from the binary profile.dat into the text format config.ini may be worth a consideration? Please!
...

Well I understand it's not that important, but I'd find this one quite handy.

Anyway, it's a nice and unique game!

[TOM.S]

Thanks for your kind reply, Kammerdiener.
I'm also glad to share ideas with you and everybody here and looking forward to the future development of this game :)