Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
John_Cillis

Infineon Raceway - For Robains

Recommended Posts

I was asked to take some screenshots of this raceway near the wine country in Sonoma county.  When I lived in the Napa Valley, it was known as Sears Point raceway.  When I worked at a hotel there, we'd often get racers staying with us.  I got a chance to meet the Andretti family--they were a great bunch of people, especially Michael.  Anyway, thought I'd share these screenshots for Robains.

 

John

 

1-2_zpsc5a0b1cf.jpg

 

2-2_zps03506e3b.jpg

 

3-2_zps042da504.jpg

 

4-2_zpsf7c43165.jpg

 

5-2_zpsb3a15c02.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

Thanks for posting John, looks really good, it's summer time in that shot ... the track is VERY "pretty" during the winter/spring months, lots and lots of green.

 

Here is a winter time ground perspective from a practice session last year in my race car ... lots of elevation changes, but TileProxy did a pretty good job at representing it.  But as you can see "green" makes the place look so much nicer :)

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great video.  I have Nascar Racing 3 from eons ago--it includes Sears Point and I still race in the sim there from time to time.  I always come in last place.....I'm one of those middle aged guys that just cruise along....

 

I loved the wine country in the spring time.  When the mustard flowers bloomed it was just a splash of green and yellow everywhere as I would drive to and from my work in St. Helena.

 

John

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Blimey! You just brought iRacing flooding back. Nice lap by the looks of it.


Eva Vlaardingerbroek, an inspiratiom.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

Define "middle age"? ;)  I'm hitting the big 50 soon but still like to pretend I'm a big kid.  I'm still racing, just not as much as I used to.

 

As far as TileProxy and/or photo Scenery ... I've always thought that "seasons" could be implemented in a more dynamic fashion rather than having "sets" of seasonal scenery textures.  It's definitely not a trivial task to implement season granularity but I still feel it's doable with current hardware using tessellation, alpha (scalar displacement), and shaders.  The basic idea being:

 

Application is by object type (i.e. a tree will have different method applied to it vs. a building).

 

Tessellation of a basic poly to produce many smaller triangles that can be set to a transparency/alpha -- for example giving the appearance a tree has lost it's leaves (they are still there, just transparent).  Tessellation is currently used mostly to just round out coarse polys but I think the potential is more than just that.

 

So objects would need to be created with appropriate geometry as to accommodate weather/seasons ... meaning a building that is in a region where "snow falls" would have the basic building geometry and then a "snow accumulation" geometry which on a sunny warm day is not visible (100% alpha or 0% pending how look at it).  As snow accumulates the "weather geometry" of the building could have Tessellation to produce much finer set of polys where their alphas and shaders could be updated real time to show an accumulation of snow (or whatever weather affect you want to present ... accumulation of leaves).

 

Of course polys aren't free (even with hardware tessellation support), but video cards keep improving significantly every year so I believe real time dynamic weather is doable and eventually will be "the next step" in any type of simulation, not just flight.  However, it does require a ground up approach to building of objects, including land polys.  The downside is that poly count will increase considerably ... but in the same token, it would be relatively easy to turn On/Off real time dynamic weather.  In today's terms, I'm guessing SLi Titan or Tri-SLi Titans would be able to implement at reasonable frame rates.  

 

If I can make time, I really should test out my theory and see if it's viable ... implementation and theory don't always agree ;)

 

Oh, I think I got side tracked by the summer TileProxy, sorry!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

Did a quick tour of Infineon/Sonoma tonight ... these are using MSE/REX ... trees are sorta "big" but again, summer shots.

 

6a39565f18fbb4ee937b61e4da0db6fc.jpg

 

71118e57b49bc91f27415b9fdebd22dc.jpg

 

cc5ba54b03703a18231c26e42aec3e14.jpg

 

e69b6f85307bea18912f9239f8fa1c4b.jpg

 

fdf7414a5eaa560e02df8a0aae618264.jpg

 

47186b93657a1ce503f72a73dbb66df7.jpg

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice shots :)

 

I used to volunteer there as a turnworker for AFM Motorcycle races, even got to do an AMA race once. It is a great track, my favorite races there are the vintage races they have occasionally.

 

Cheers

TJ

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is a winter time ground perspective from a practice session last year in my race car

Excuse the short thread hijack, but what kind of lap speeds are we seeing?? Impressive video, and although I must say that after some study I find that tileproxy is not for me I remain impressed by what it does.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a rule about appending images in the Screen Shot Forum, and there's probably a rule somewhere about videos being appended in the forum, but I am going to exercise (for the first time) my awesome power and let this one slide, because that video is freakin awesome.


Dennis Trawick

 

Screen Shot Forum Rules

 

AVSIMSignature_zpsed110b13.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

Software engineer, flight simmer and racer, snap! :P

 

You notice the Karting track at Infineon?  It's to the left of my 3rd image.  I used to race 125cc Shifter Karts also, mostly to stay fit, but as I got older it was just too hard on my body (ribs) and had to stop :(

 

 

but I am going to exercise (for the first time) my awesome power and let this one slide,

 

Sorry Dennis, wasn't trying to cause trouble.  I just think it's nice to see how FSX portraits it from the air and how it really looks from the ground.  That's what I enjoy about Photo Scenery ... being able to identify where I've been, it's kinda cool/enjoyable.  I don't know about others but it's one reason why I like photo scenery so much.

 

I don't actually have TileProxy, but it sure seems to do a great job looking at those shots John posted, very nice!

 

 

Excuse the short thread hijack, but what kind of lap speeds are we seeing??

 

Hopefully I can show this as just a link so as not to violate any rules ... here is a quick short with telemetry overlay (oversteer moment). 

  and here is a full session 
 -- keep in mind that it's open practice so that street cars are in the mix.  Getting a clear lap is difficult, but my PLAP data shows a potential of about 1:41.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

my awesome power and let this one slide, because that video is freakin awesome.

I don't care what these other guys say Dennis, you're Ok in my book!! LOL

Getting a clear lap is difficult, but my PLAP data shows a potential of about 1:41.

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

John,

 

Would you be so kind as to show some screenshots of how TileProxy does in more remote places, like Anchorage Alaska -- or any area that typically isn't covered by 3rd party photo scenery?

 

Cheers, Rob.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

John,

 

Would you be so kind as to show some screenshots of how TileProxy does in more remote places, like Anchorage Alaska -- or any area that typically isn't covered by 3rd party photo scenery?

 

Cheers, Rob.

Yes,

 

I've never tried out Anchorage, so it will be a new experience for me. Generally the service I use maps the States very well, but doesn't map outside of the US well, except for the vicinity of Innsbruck, Austria and some parts of Mexico.

 

John

 

Edit: Just tried Anchorage but I'm afraid the Tileproxy coverage is much too grainy. One of the other services might work, but I will have to try that later.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for posting John, looks really good, it's summer time in that shot ... the track is VERY "pretty" during the winter/spring months, lots and lots of green.

 

Here is a winter time ground perspective from a practice session last year in my race car ... lots of elevation changes, but TileProxy did a pretty good job at representing it.  But as you can see "green" makes the place look so much nicer :)

 

 

Right, I have just watched that video (couldn't earlier as work internet proxy blocks all streaming videos). You are now officially my hero  :lol: Not only are you a software engineer, flight simmer and racer I now find out you have a Lotus as well and you know how to drive it. I used to have an Exige - is that what you have or is it an Elise of some sort? Judging by the whine it's supercharged, right? :wub:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...