Documentation for damage model used in rFactor

LesiU

I'm looking for a documentation about damage model for rFactor 1.
What parameters are available, what do they mean, how to use them. What are possibilities and limitations.

I also have two questions:
1. Is it possible to somehow get "soft" collisions in rFactor? So that to some point collision forces are damped, like in real world situations?
2. Is it possible to damage things like cooling radiator (that means, changing engine cooling parameters because of damage taken by a specified object defined in damage file).
 
ISI usually does not answer a lot of these kinds of questions. rFactor was released with little to no documentation and the reason is it was designed to be modded. I think I can speak for most modders that have been doing this for a while now, We are the kind of people that like to figure things out on our own. That has pretty much been the way modding has been for a long time. The reason is that most sims that have been modded were never intended to be changed. We usually like to try and dissemble things to see how they work and then see what we can do to change things.

That being said, The damage modeling in rFactor is somewhat a black art and some guys understand it fully and some don't. The good thing is that you really don't have to know a lot about it to build a good mod and still have some damage modeling work. Rfactor has the basic stuff like parts flying off and that is controlled by the Damage.ini file. You would use the Debris# in the gen file to designate what parts fall off. It would look like this in your gen file:

Instance=DEBRIS4
{
Moveable=True
MeshFile=YOUR PART.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False ShadowCaster=(True, Solid, 64, 64) LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(350.0) ShadowReceiver=True

}

The Debris # is referenced in the YOUR_CAR_Damage.ini file


If you look in the original Damage.ini file you will see there is a limited amount of documentation in there.

rF also has vertex damage that is much more complex, most guys just leave the stock settings which does give you dents and simple (non flying off parts) damage. You can actually have dented wheels and things like that but it comes at a cost in FPS.

I have been saving text files from different locations for a long time now. When I find some new information that can help me I save it off to a text file. I have a folder full of files from different sources and I try to document who the author was. This is one of the files that I saved and it has the credits listed at the top.

I claim no credit for this file at all, it is just something I have collected along the way.
 
Thanks! Will look into that definatelly.
Yes, I know the basics fo the damage system but I was curious what we can get, besides from what we already know.
 
Hi, Im looking for some info on rf damage, to be precise I want to know is it possible to have front wing made of multiple objects. What I mean is after the impact wing would break into smaller pieces. I know there is a way with debris# instances, but I cant use them, because they cant be repaired in the pits. I think I saw that kind of damage in F1C, but maybe Im wrong. Thanks in advance.
 
rFactor was released with little to no documentation and the reason is it was designed to be modded.
I don't know what others think, but I definitely feel this is very counter-productive if it is true. If ISI wants the game to shine to its fullest, proper documentation is a must. Especially since there are literally thousands of parameters which take forever to explore by trial and error.
 
I've have never saw an rfactor mod yet with realistic damage, hopefully it improves in rfactor 2.
 
Depends on what do you mean by realistic.
I think there will be no realistic damage for a lot years yet.
 
Well what i mean is the cars bend or dent in unrealistic manner, strange deformations of parts after a crash, windows don't crack parts dont break of in pieces the list goes on.

Look at the likes of Grid or Dirt the damage on the cars looks much more realistic.
 
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True. I'd like to see much better visual damage model in rF 2 (and of course, physical too but that's obvious ;-) ).
 
Aha, that is my file that Bob posted, currently you can find damage information on my website at http://finnsontrack.weebly.com/ and you can send questions there too, so I can try to answer those.

I'm looking forward of what rF2 damage might be revealed to be, with rF1 it is quite limited, also one thing to remember is that bend wing can be perfectly fine by physics, visual damage and physical damage are completely separated in rF1.

Mostly damage is bending wheels, detaching wheels and chosen parts, engine stopping and of course bending of body and parts.

When making 3d model you can put more polygons to areas that you need to get finer level of detail in dents, damage looks better that way, also with creative use of restriction spheres you can get stronger areas made to the car, but you have only three levels, one without restrictions, one with restriction set by restriction limit and one completely indestructible, then it is up to how you set up those spheres.

Bit old thread for sure, but I did stumble up to this when searching other things and thought that info here might serve someone in future when someone is searching information from damage.
 

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