Symracing.

net
2012

[RFE WEATHER PLUGIN DEVELOPMENT]

Installation guide, user manual and developer guide for RFE Weather plug-in (build 0.122)
About RFE Plug-in series................................................................................................................ 3
RFE WEATHER PLUGIN .............................................................................................................. 3
Installing RFE Weather Plug-in ...................................................................................................... 3
RFE Weather Plug-in configuration ............................................................................................... 4
RFE Weather Real Time weather .................................................................................................. 4
RFE Weather Real-time options ................................................................................................ 5
Real Time mode tips .................................................................................................................. 6
RFE Weather broadcast output ..................................................................................................... 7
RFE Weather Plug-in configuration ........................................................................................... 7
RFE Weather Network Packet Structure ................................................................................... 7
Suggested Packet Parsing Process ............................................................................................ 8
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 9
LICENCE ..................................................................................................................................... 9
COPYRIGHT NOTICE ................................................................................................................... 9
DISCLAIMER ............................................................................................................................... 9
TRADEMARKS ............................................................................................................................ 9

RFE Plugin Series – RFE Weather Plugin 2

About RFE Plug-in series

RFE Plug-in Series is a set of plug-ins created to enhance the realism and game play of ISI’s
rFactor 1, developed and licensed by Symracing.net. We all know what rFactor is, and most of
the times such a complex engine (simple enough to run on a home laptop) has been be
tweaked to create the most amazing and realistic games. However, not all the possibilities
have been explored yet. There is a lot of work to do, and the only way we can do (as long as
the game code has not been publicly released, will it ever be?) is using plug-ins that provide
the missing functionalities we all love to see in a game.

RFE WEATHER PLUGIN

Symracing is releasing this special package “RFE WEATHER Plug-in”, intended to allow
interaction between the RFE WEATHER component and other rfactor applications. Please read
carefully this documentation if you want to use RFE Weather information in your plug-in.

Installing RFE Weather Plug-in

“Microsoft Common Runtime Library” package is no longer required when installing RFE Plug-
in Series version 1.2 or above. The plug-in is known to work on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and
Windows Server 2012 (both 32 and 64 bits versions).

Note: The build version shown in these images may be different from the one provided.

Important note: Although RFE components can work separately, it is recommended to install
the whole RFE Plug-in Series package to enjoy the most of the available features. Sometimes a
functionality of a single component is triggered by other elements of the package.

Additional documentation or support/help on how to use this tool for specific purpose may be
found at RFE Plug-in Series forum site: http://symracing.net/rfeseries/forum

RFE Plugin Series – RFE Weather Plugin 3

RFE Weather Plug-in configuration

The plug-in is preinstalled with a default configuration file that enables all the features.
Additional changes to this default configuration should be included in the configuration file
located at:

[Rfactor Folder]/Plugins/RFE/Config/RFEWeather.ini

RFE Weather Real Time weather

RFE Weather Plug-in comes with the real-time weather feature enabled from build 0.119. This
interface allows external applications to change the ambient/weather conditions on a hosted
game:

- Change ambient and track temperatures.

- Change ambient conditions.
- Change track wetness.

Important note: RFE Weather plug-in allows Real Time weather changes only on hosted
sessions that mean that clients connected to a network game can’t make straight use of this
feature as they must obey the server’s weather conditions.

To make use of this ‘real-time’ feature, an external application can create a special purpose file
located at: [Rfactor Folder]/Plugins/RFE/Scripts/Weather/RealTime.ini

The presence of this file is checked two times per second. If the file exists, the contents are
translated as new weather information and after that, the file is deleted. The contents of this
file are explained in more detail in the options section.

Applications creating this special file must only include the options that must change. If you
want to keep current ambient temperature as it is in-game, then do not include this parameter
in the .ini file.

Make sure all parameters in the realtime.ini file are included in the ‘[GENERAL]’ section.

Important note: It does not matter the weather mode used to create the session. An external
application can make the RFE Weather plug-in operate in ‘Real time’ mode by using a special
attribute in the realtime.ini file.

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RFE Weather Real-time options

The following options can be included in the special realtime.ini file to control the game
ambient/weather conditions:

RealTimeWeather : Enables or disable the real time weather feature.

Use 1 or 0 to enable or disable this feature as in the following example.

[GENERAL]
RealTimeWeather= 1

When the external tool stops serving real time weather remember to put this attribute
to 0 again, to disable this feature, or the plug-in will expect external control for the
ambient information and wait for updates.

From now on, any of these parameters must be considered as in the ‘scripted’ mode.

OnPathWetness : Control the amount of wetness on the racing line of the track.
OffPathWetness : Control the amount of wetness on the rest of the track.

OnPath and OffPath wetness control the amount of wetness on the track. They can be any
value from 0.000 to 100.0.

The following example will dry the racing line (leaving the rest of the track wetness untouched.

[GENERAL]
OnPathWetness= 0.0

AmbientTemp : Control the ambient temperature

TrackTemp: Control the temperature of the track.

These two parameters control the temperatures of the session. Temperatures can be ranged
from 0.0 to 100.0.

The following example sets the track’s temperature to a custom value.

[GENERAL]
TrackTemp = 33.1

Conditions : Control the humidity ambient conditions.

The Conditions represent the ambient humidity and thus creates the different rain or overcast
conditions. The value must be within 0.000 to 100.0.

From 0.00 to 33.0 represent the best conditions at all. No clouds, clear sky, sunny day.
From 0.33 to 65.0 represent chances of get some clouds in the sky.

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From 0.65 to 0.71 represent chances of storm conditions.
From 0.71 to 1.00 represent rainy conditions. The bigger the value the more rain will appear.

The following example will set light rain conditions on the session.

[GENERAL]
Conditions=77.0

Real Time mode tips

The RFE Weather plug-in will check the presence of the realtime.ini file twice per second. That
does not mean the file must be updated so many times. Write the file only when you want to
change any (one or many) of the current weather conditions.

If the realtime.ini file does not exist, the plug-in will keep working and using the current values
it has in memory. If the Randomizer is enabled, the weather information might change slightly
from those written in the realtime.ini file.

Once the file is read and interpreted by the plug-in, it is deleted automatically. Do not expect
to find the file and use it because the plug-in destroys it to avoid re-reading its contents.

If you need to know the current in-game weather status before writing the realtime.ini (to
make sure you apply smooth changes to the ambient parameters) then you might need to use
the weather broadcast network feature.

If you write a tool to control the weather in real time mode, remember to disable the real time
mode of the plug-in when exiting the application usage, by creating the realtime.ini file and the
including “RealTimeWeather=0“. This will make rfactor to continue in regular mode.

Note: reverting back from real time weather mode to regular weather mode may leave rfactor
internal’s ambient structure incomplete. This also happens when the application controlling
the real time weather mode stops without informing the plug-in about it. In these cases it is
recommended to restart rfactor or rfactor dedicated again.

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RFE Weather broadcast output

RFE Weather Plug-in comes with the ability to send through the network some data about the
current session including the current ambient weather information.

RFE Weather Plug-in configuration

In order to make use of the RFE Weather plug-in information you will have to enable
broadcast options in the RFEWeather configuration file located at:

[Rfactor Folder]/Plugins/RFE/Config/RFEWeather.ini

Read carefully the available options and focus on those related to ‘broadcast information’
under the ‘GENERAL’ section of the settings file.

Enabling this option will make the plug-in to inform twice per second about the current session
status and weather information. To make use of this information you will have to create your
custom network handler waiting to receive information on this channel first.

Important note: RFE Weather plug-in submits information ONLY once when the session is
started (if there are no any players) and twice per second when there is at least a driver on the
track and the session is running.

RFE Weather Network Packet Structure

Currently the plug-in submits a very specific structure for the session information packet;
however it includes enough information to understand the current session status. It is
important that before processing the packet you first check packet signature and version,
because they will define the internal structure used in the submitted packet.

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Currently only version 0x00000000 is being supported by the plug-in. This is the C structure of
the network packet version 00.

Suggested Packet Parsing Process

First, make sure that packet signature matches the “RFEWeath” signature and ignore any other
packet to avoid unwanted packets arriving to the same network port of the broadcast channel
being parsed.

Make sure packet version is 0x00000000 before continuing. Future versions might change the
overall packet structure. The presented structure is for version 00, and must be ignored for
other versions.

The mDarkCloud and and mRaining represents the percentage of clouds and rain presents in
the session, and thus its values range from 0% to 100%. The OnPathWetness and
OffPathWetness values also represent percentage of track wetness from 0% to 100%.

Due to memory copying operations, the track name might include some garbage, however the
string can safely read using any string-z function because it is terminated using the 0x00
character.

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Appendix

LICENCE
The Software refers to the RFE Plug-in Series. The Authors refers to the group of creators of the Software,
represented by Iñaki López.

This is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or an entity), the end user, and the Authors, regarding
use of the software accompanying this Agreement ("Software"). By installing, copying, or otherwise using the
Software, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this
Agreement, do not install or use the Software.

The Software is provided to you free of charge. Should you accept the terms of this agreement, Authors will grant
you the personal and non-exclusive right to install and use the software.

The Software may NOT be redistributed in any way without the written permission of Authors. You may NOT
upload the software to a freeware or shareware site without first receiving written permission from the Authors.
No parts of The Software or other files provided in this package may be reproduced in part or in whole. The
Software or any other materials provided in this package may not be modified in any way. You may not remove any
copyright or other proprietary notice from the software. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble
the software.

You may install and/or use the Software as long as you get no profit from that. Otherwise you have to sign an
agreement with the Authors.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The Software is Copyrighted ©2012 by the Authors. The Software is protected by international copyright treaty
provisions. Any content published by community using the Software is a property of their authors and cannot be
redistributed or use to get profits without their permission.

DISCLAIMER
The Software is provided "AS IS". You agree that by accepting this license, you are expressly acknowledging that the
use of the software is AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHORS MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE AND ANY ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION. IN NO
EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS,
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE
USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.

TRADEMARKS
Any product or brand names mentioned in the software and associated manuals and files are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS
TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT IT IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE
AGREEMENT BETWEEN US THAT SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT

RFE Plugin Series – RFE Weather Plugin 9