H-Racer Download

Self extracting executable

HRacer140504.exe (2,45 MB)

Windows installer

HRacerInstall140504.exe (2,92 MB)

Simple version: Stripped down version for slow/older computers. Without visual effects: no vegetation, reflections, shadows, animated textures and pilots.

HRacerSimple100504.exe

Source code download

HRacerSource140504.rar

H-Racer Documentation

Introduction

H-Racer is a hovercraft racing simulation game. The simulation is not a real time physics but an arcade style model. Game engine uses OpenGL. It was developed with Delphi6 and GLScene components. All game contents except for music was made by single person on one PC.
There are four game modes:

Training
Single race
Campaign
Ghost race

Hovercrafts

You start with a small hovercraft and a cash of 100$. The aim of the game is to go through the campaign, earn more money and buy newer hovercrafts and equipment for them in garage.

Flea: The smallest of all. Not very powerfull but with good steering capabilities.; Mounting posts: 1
Vanner: Lightweight and agile hovercraft. Three big engines provide good stability.; Mounting posts: 3
Blower: Large, well balanced hover-craft. Broad chassis holds powerfull engine.; Mounting posts: 6
Raftor: The ultimate racer. Very light construction incorporates four turbines for excellent power output.; Mounting posts: 8

Ventilator: Excelent for turning. Does not add much of a speed nor acceleration.; Acceleration: +0; Speed: +3; Steering: +8
Ventilator+: Advanced version of ventilator.; Acceleration: +3; Speed: +3; Steering: +10
Fan: Basic propulsion unit.; Acceleration: +5; Speed: +5; Steering: +0
Fan+: Advanced version of fan.; Acceleration: +8; Speed: +8; Steering: +0
Jet: Best choice when it comes to speed. Can even add more thrust when afterburn is activated (press Ctrl). Afterburn combusts jet fuel. Once depleted afterburn can't be activated.; Acceleration: +10; Speed: +10; Steering: +0
Canister: Provides more fuel for jet afterburn but reduces speed a bit.; Acceleration: +0; Speed: -5; Steering: +0; Fuel: +100

Controls

ARROW UP	Accelerate
ARROW DOWN	Decelerate
LEFT/RIGHT ARROW	Steering
CONTROL	Jet afterburn
PAGE UP	Rise camera
PAGE DOWN	Lower camera
SPACE	Turn thrust arrow on and off

Settings

Resolution - four different screen modes.
Windowed - changes fullscreen on and off.
Language - select language. If you want to see H-Racer in your language read this file.
View distance - haw far the scene will be displayed.
LOD distance - sets threshold for changing low and high poly trees.
Vegetation - enables grass (impacts performance a lot !)
Shadows - on/off.
Invert LEFT/RIGHT - for steering.
Spectator - sit back and watch computer race for you.
Show FPS - digit in the lower left corner shows frames per second.
Ghost timer interval - ghost hovercraft follows your best path. This number determines how often is the position updated. Lower number means smoother movement and higher number results in jerky movement.
Sound volume - overall sound volume.
Music volume - just for music.
Save settings - press this button to save all settings so H-Racer remembers it next time you start the game.

Maps

Every racing track in H-Racer gets randomly generated. This way you can play the game forever and never drive through the same track. It also allows the download size of the game to be very small.

Generate maps - press this button to make new racing track.
See various generated maps by selecting the drop-down menu.
Difficulty - higher difficulty means more hills, curves and trees
Generate campaign - WARNING !!! You will lose progress though current campaign and all the money by pressing this button. You will also start with flea hovercraft again.

Garage

Customize your hover here. You start with: 100$
Select hovercraft's mounting post by clicking on the picture. Left and right sides must be balanced, so selecting some mounting posts results in a pair selection.
Select desired item in the table.
Click Buy or Sell.
You can not sell your hovercraft, only items mounted on it. Sell price is allways lower than buy price.
WARNING !!! Allways think twice before buying or selling because changes can't be undone.

Opponents

Opponents can be selected only for single race. In campaign you can not choose your opponents.
Each of eight boxes contains:
READY/NOT READY button - enables and disabels opponent.
color selection - four colors to choose from.
hover type - 7 possible hover types.

Training

There is only your hovercraft on the track and you can circle around forever.

Single race

Up to eight opponents race against you. Three laps are to be completed. You can not earn any money here.

Campaign

Campaign consists of nine races each a little bit more difficult than the previous one. Every race has three laps. You have to place at least third to be allowed to continue in the campaign. Price money varies according to your result position. You can update your hovercraft in garage after succesful race. New campaing can be generated at maps tab.

Ghost race

In this mode you compete against yourself. There is no end of race. A red wireframe hovercraft represents your best lap run.

Hints and tips

Performance

1. Lower resolution.
2. Turn off vegetation.
3. Decrease view distance.
4. Lower LOD distance.

Driving

Hovercrafts do not have any brakes. Pressing DOWN ARROW only brings forward thrust engines faster to stop. Hovercraft maintains its velocity and slows down only thanks to friction.
Same with steering. Best way to use steering is to watch thrust arrow (blue arrow above hovercraft). Hovercraft catches up with the thrust arrow only as fast as its steering capabilities are.
Driving on the road is faster than off road due to friction.

Orientation

Blue arrow in lower left corner allways points to next waypoint.

Known bug

Game sometimes crashes when loading new track. If trying again does not help generate new maps. If you don't want to lose your campaign progress backup 'camp/tx.txt' file and overwrite the newly generated one with it.

Links

My email	zizajan@centrum.cz
H-Racer	h-racer.sourceforge.net
Other projects	thekeep.sourceforge.net -www.3dz.netfirms.com
H-Racer Sourceforge	sourceforge.net/projects/h-racer/
GLScene	www.glscene.org
Music from	www.www.flashkit.com

H-Racer Screenshots

Development screenshots

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