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#41
Competition 2025 / Re: Cars and rules for 2026
Last post by Frieshansen - September 01, 2025, 04:58:15 PM
First of all: I joined here in 2021 because I had been observing the competition for quite some time and found it to be just right, and I still do. Apart from a few minor changes, the basic pillars have remained the same, and as far as I'm concerned, that's fine. I particularly like the car podiums as an addition.

When it comes to car selection, I was reminded of RidgeRacer on the PS1. There is a small overview of the most important features for each car:
You cannot view this attachment.

I would love to do something like that for Stunts, but unfortunately I don't have the time. We could perhaps overlay several of these diagrams to see which characteristics a car would need to have to make it a balanced choice. Here's a video showing what it looks like in RidgeRacer, but I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrY2eOG-N5g
#42
Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: New mod: extended line of ...
Last post by HerrNove - September 01, 2025, 02:59:46 PM
Thanks to both of you for testing!

@KyLiE Happy to hear my small surprise was found by someone :) Not sure if the new track of the month in R4K is meant as stress test for my mod but I'm going to try it out soon. Interesting that the author is the founder of Pixelmusement, I guess retrogaming is a small world after all.

@Matei Feel free to adjust to your liking the params of the two fast modes. If you send me back the results in the next days I can bake your preferred numbers in the release.

New volunteers are welcome!
#43
Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: New mod: extended line of ...
Last post by Matei - September 01, 2025, 07:11:43 AM
Quote from: HerrNove on September 01, 2025, 01:43:58 AM* FAST:  80 tiles, should work well with Matei's machines

It's not how I set it, it's a little slower and the low detail models should be used at high distances for the artistic impression.

Quote* VFAST: 50 tiles, for your dear 286

I think the previous version is still a little faster. [edit] Probably not, but I would put 60 tiles and fewer high detail models. [/edit]

QuoteOne bug I noticed is that the Display Options menu does not work when looking at a replay on a crowded scene.

Idea: remove the detail options from the menu and make a "SETUP.EXE" program with more options. The interface doesn't have to look like in the original program.
#44
Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: New mod: extended line of ...
Last post by KyLiE - September 01, 2025, 04:28:11 AM
Nice work pulling that off!  I just tested it and it works as intended.  As for the mysterious 6th graphics mode: Good one! ;)
#45
Live Races / Re: September Live race (Onlin...
Last post by Duplode - September 01, 2025, 04:26:42 AM
Live racing is back on the menu -- thanks for setting it up, @Erik Barros !

The 21st or any other Sunday should be okay for me to join. Saturdays might work too, but in that case I can't commit in advance.

Quote from: Overdrijf on August 29, 2025, 03:17:21 PMSunday September 14 should work just fine for me.

I think Erik meant that September 14 is the only weekend day in which he won't be able to host it.
#46
Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: New mod: extended line of ...
Last post by HerrNove - September 01, 2025, 01:43:58 AM
Here a refined version:
* 5 graphic modes with different detail/speed balance.
    * FULL: 180 tiles, slowest but most detailed algorithm. A fast 486 or DOSBox with cpu=dynamic are recommended
    * GOOD: 110 tiles, similar to current official release
    * FAST:  80 tiles, should work well with @Matei's machines
    * VFAST: 50 tiles, for your dear 286
    * BLIND:  1 tile, the one you're in. You think you could drive on Default with your eyes closed? Time to prove that!
* The graphic level is autosaved in a file called `STUNTS.INI`, and auto-loaded at startup (curious people might want to edit that file and set the parameter to 5 to activate the mysterious 6th graphics mode)
* Small miscellaneous improvements (e.g. F5 only prints the camera coords when the F3 camera is active)

One bug I noticed is that the Display Options menu does not work when looking at a replay on a crowded scene. A likely symptom that I am using 101% of some available resources. However, as long as all the commonly used functions work, I think this is acceptable. The Display Options can be entered in the main menu anyway.

#47
Competition and Website / Re: Plaidoyer: Maintaining Fai...
Last post by Mark Nailwood - September 01, 2025, 12:19:25 AM
I'd also like to share some of my ideas with the community.

There are some who don't like PG racing because it has been confirmed as a bug - but I think they would also not like it if it had been confirmed as a feature, or let's say, an easter egg.  ::)
And yeah, I really see it as an "unintended easter egg". There are ways to restrict PG usage on a track by flooding certain sections, by placing blocking elements outside the track, or by specifying a high negative coefficient for PG cars.

In addition, there are also so many other bugs we are all used to. For example, the grass bug in chicanes, and I would never say that is unfair to use it when racing, because it allows some clever track design with diagonal paths.
Also the speedup jumps that can happen on start/end segments of banked roads, corkscrews, split roads, and so on, are clearly bugs, but I would never think that it is unfair to use them.

While I really like driving skillfully "as intended by the creators of Stunts", I also like unlimited freestyle driving and finding tricks and shortcuts on a specific track - as (in most cases) also intended by the creator of the track. Since my return to the Stunts racing world in January 2023, I have seen so many tracks with skillfully crafted shortcut sections, and it was fun discovering them during the racing attempts (and learning from public replays and team mates).  8)

If I were asked about my personal opinion for some additional restriction rules in this contest I'd just vote for this:
- Exploiting the collision bug is forbidden when driving directly through solid objects (except scenery objects), like road blocks, the ride side of loops, bridge railings.
But the main reason for this opinion might just be that I'm still very bad at these specific tricks.  ;D
#48
Competition and Website / Re: Savestates
Last post by dreadnaut - August 31, 2025, 10:28:39 PM
I suppose it's an unwritten rule (which mean maybe we should write it down) that ZakStunts allows (almost) anything that can be done within the game.

There's a number of external techniques that are considered cheating, e.g., modifying car dashboard to see details the car doesn't normally show, messing with the executable to highlight tile boundaries, etc. On the other hand, they would only help in niche cases: folks driving at that level already enjoy the challenge more than winning.

#49
Competition 2025 / Re: Cars and rules for 2026
Last post by Matei - August 31, 2025, 08:53:07 PM
Another thing. From the messages here I come up with ideas.

https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=4482.msg98413#msg98413

QuoteLike in Stunts, but not in my game.

Because the framerate is not fixed, but I fixed it to n frames/second and in the new version the replay is now like in Stunts, i.e. the input controls are saved at each frame, instead of the positions. I tested, it works, the replays will be saved in files and I'll post the version here when it's ready. I will keep the replays like they are now in the main version though, but I will use the new type of replays in Skunks, because the replay feature available in previous versions is currently missing there. The same kind of things happen with Wayland, btw. Wayland is a very good protocol for graphics and who knows? Maybe 50...60 years from now it will become usable.
#50
Competition 2025 / Re: Cars and rules for 2026
Last post by Matei - August 31, 2025, 07:11:37 PM
Quote from: Duplode on August 31, 2025, 06:06:17 PMDo consider posting replays at ZakStunts just for fun;

Read the end of message here... from which I should have actually translated more, but I can give some of my other messages as example. Anyway:

QuoteYou don't have to care about scoreboard position or the car bonuses;

I don't care about scoreboard position or the car bonuses, I don't even care about the "races". Do I have to put links to the messages where I already wrote that?

Quotejust pick your favourite car out of the 16 and enjoy the ride.

I only have ~4 pairs of skates, but the rides are not very enjoyable because there's cars everywhere.

https://matei.one/osub.html

QuoteClearly, these killing machines have no business being used anywhere there are people around,

If we're referring to favorite games, Stunts is on the second place, here:

https://matei.one/idxscr.html

And it's not actually Stunts. Stunts is not interesting as a game, but has some other things made around it, especially by Cas. Otherwise I wouln't pay any attention to it.

https://wiki.stunts.hu/wiki/Cas

QuoteCas' most significant software contribution to the Stunts community is Bliss Track Editor,

No, his most significant software contribution is R5K_engine, which should be obvious. Besides, there was Track Blaster already and I hate "mouse-driven interfaces" anyway.