Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.3.1 (experimental: online play)

Experimental release. Still the young online mode from 0.3.0, with one fix. If you only play locally, 0.2.2 remains the stable release.

Fixed

• Stuttering online: with VSync on, a frame finished just after the monitor's refresh had to wait for the next one — a whole refresh lost (about 33 ms on a 60 Hz screen) instead of a few milliseconds. Online play's lockstep carried that stall over to the other PC too, so either side's occasional late frame slowed both players down. VSync is now switched off for as long as online play is active (the runtime's own frame pacer still holds the correct game speed) and switched back on when it ends.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folders, settings and memory card are kept. If you set up more discs, set each one up again (Mods → Set up another disc → Play).

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.3.0 (experimental: online play)

Experimental release. The new online mode works and stays in sync, but it is young: expect rough edges. It also needs a reasonably fast PC on both sides (see below). If you only play locally, 0.2.2 remains the stable release.

Added

• Online play (experimental): two players on two PCs, each with a full-screen view of their own kart.
  • On the main menu press SELECT: Square hosts (the game waits on the two-player character select), Circle joins: a window lists the games found on your PC's networks (LAN, Radmin VPN, Hamachi...) or takes an IP address and port. Then the usual two-player character and track select, with all the tracks.
  • The host opens port 27450 (TCP and UDP) on the router, unless both players use a VPN such as Radmin VPN.
  • Both PCs need the same disc version (e.g. both USA) and the same mod options that change the game (frame rate, CPU overclock, track detail, polygon pool, music change, widescreen, instant loading, instant memory card). Otherwise the connection is refused, naming the option that differs. Picture options (resolution, aspect, HUD size...) may differ.
  • Buttons travel by UDP with the last 16 frames in every packet (plus a TCP copy), a few frames ahead; the margin adapts to the round trip and to lost packets. The game's memory is compared every two seconds to catch any split.
  • tsr_online.log next to the game records, every 10 seconds, the round trip, the waits and each PC's time per frame.
  • The option Online play (Mods → Fixes) turns the mode off.

PC requirements for online

The two games advance together, so the slower PC sets the pace for both: if one PC cannot run a two-player race at full speed, both slow down, even if the other is fast. A two-player race at 60 fps (USA version with Frame rate in races = 50 fps (also 2 players)) needs a recent CPU; in our tests an i7-3770 (2012) drops to about 45 fps in the heavy parts. The graphics card matters little (lowering the internal resolution does not help). Setting Frame rate in races to 50 fps (1 player) on both PCs (two-player races at the game's original rate) roughly halves the load.

Changed

• About a third less CPU work per frame: the game's frame wait loop is now skipped by the runtime's idle skip instead of being run at the overclocked rate (same result, same on every PC).
• Another version's disc in the launcher: picking the disc of another version with Browse For Disc now starts that version (or opens the disc setup to add it) instead of reporting a failed verification.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folders, settings and memory card are kept. If you set up more discs, set each one up again (Mods → Set up another disc → Play).

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.2.2

Changed

• HUD size in two-player races too: the race bar with the racers' faces now follows the HUD size option in split screen as well, shrinking about its line between the two views.
• Native renderer always on: its on/off option is gone; all the 3D has been drawn by the native renderer for a while, and the original pipeline is no longer a useful alternative.
• PGXP package removed: with all the 3D drawn natively it had nothing left to correct.

Fixed

• Menu characters' outlines: after returning from a race, the characters on the menu screens showed small fringes and specks along their edges (the crack filler meant for the tracks stayed on). It now only runs on the track.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folders, settings and memory card are kept. If you set up more discs, set each one up again (Mods → Set up another disc → Play).

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.2.1

Fixed

• NTSC picture no longer cropped or stretched: the American version showed only the part of its 240 lines inside a TV's picture, so the bottom was cut and the rest stretched as soon as the game's screen position moved (a save made in a European version carries its PAL position). The whole picture is now shown whatever the in-game screen position, in every version.
• PAUSA text in the bottom-right corner is no longer cut off in the NTSC version.
• End-of-race stars across the whole wide view on every track: they stayed in the 4:3 area in one-player races and on several tracks (the game loads their texture in different places per track). Stars and snow are now recognised by the game routine that draws them.
• No more popping stars and snowflakes at the sides: their wide-view copies now follow the game's own wrap-around.
• Stars no longer vanish next to the "CONTINUA" prompt, and menu prompts no longer flicker after a race.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folders, settings and memory card are kept. If you set up more discs, set each one up again (Mods → Set up another disc → Play).

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.2.0

New

• Three discs, one game: the setup now takes any of the three discs — the European Es, It, Nl disc (SLES-03398), the American disc (SLUS-01214) or the European Fr, De disc (SLES-03397) — and builds that version. One disc is enough; every further disc you set up adds its version.
• PAL 50 Hz / NTSC 60 Hz: the new Version option (Mods, at the top of Display) plays the European or the American program. The NTSC version runs its races at 60 frames per second. Play starts the chosen version with the same launcher settings, mod options and memory cards. Choosing a version whose disc is not set up yet, or Set up another disc, opens the disc setup instead of the game.
• Every language in every version: each program carries the texts of all six languages, and the character voices of every disc you set up (English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, German) are added to the other versions. The Quick start Language option now offers English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Español and Nederlands, texts and voices, and skips the copyright notice in every version.
• One save for all versions: the versions name their save differently on the memory card; each now reads and writes the others' as its own, so a game saved in one continues in the others (the save data is identical).
• End-of-race stars fall across the whole wide view, like the snow.
• Native sky on the outdoor tracks (gas station and others): the sky dome is now drawn by the native renderer too.
• Instant voices: a voice or a piece of music starts at once instead of waiting for the emulated drive to seek.

Nothing of a disc you do not set up is ever used: every file comes from your own discs.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folder, settings and memory card are kept. To add your other discs afterwards: Mods → Set up another disc → Play.

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.1.6

New

• All the 3D drawn natively: besides the scenery, karts and characters, the native renderer now also draws the smoke, dust and sparks, the shadows, the kart aerials, the pick-up crates, the menus' 3D scenes and the title logo. The emulated PlayStation GPU is left with the 2D only (HUD, menus, videos). Native depth also fixes a kart's far wheels and aerial showing through its body.
• Smooth camera: the game moves its camera angles in whole steps, which showed as small jolts and a slight vibration, most of all in curves. The race camera is now worked out without that rounding, and the pre-race flight follows its path smoothly instead of stepping (the path was read in 1/64 steps, a dip twice a second).

Fixed

• Textures no longer slide or vibrate as the camera moves: polygons cut near the camera or split for depth keep their exact texture coordinates, and every piece of a polygon filters its texture alike (the seam on the yellow floor stripe and on the white wall is gone).
• Straight texture lines on uneven floors: four-sided polygons that are not parallelograms (the duct floor in the attic, for one) are mapped over the whole polygon, as the game's own subdivision does, instead of folding along the triangles' diagonal; the result no longer depends on where the camera is. Same speed as before.
• Crack filler: the hidden copy that closes hairline cracks between polygons could cover whole faces with its texture half a pixel off, in different places from one frame to the next. It now always stays behind.
• Objects vanishing at the sides past the 4:3 frame (crates, shadows, effects).
• Invisible karts in some two-player attract demos.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild (this version adds new hooks to the game, so the rebuild is needed). Your tsr_data folder, settings and memory card are kept.

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.1.5

New

• The disc as files: at the first start the game splits your disc image into the tsr_data folder of the install (about 250 MB): every data file as a normal file, the music, voices and videos with their full sectors. Every sector is rebuilt and compared with the image before the folder is used. From then on everything (boot, loads, music, voices, videos, and Generate & rebuild) comes from that folder: the image is not read any more and is not needed to play. tsr_data holds the game's data: never share it.
• Instant loading (Fixes, on by default): the game's file loads are answered at once from the folder instead of waiting for the emulated CD drive; the music and voices still stream in real time, as on the console. The CD Speed and Fast Loading packages are no longer part of this build.
• Instant memory card (Fixes, on by default): checking the card, loading and saving no longer wait. The console's BIOS moves one 128-byte sector every two frames, so checking the card took about 8 seconds; now only the game's own screen transitions remain. The card file (saves/card1.mcd) is written exactly as the console's BIOS writes it — checked sector by sector for saving, overwriting, formatting and cards holding other games' saves.
• Quick start (Fixes, on by default): the game starts at the language choice, without the Activision, Disney Interactive and Traveller's Tales logo videos (Logo videos: Show brings them back). Language: choose Italiano, Español or Nederlands in the launcher and the game starts straight at the title screen in that language; Ask (default) keeps the game's own choice. This replaces the old "skip the intro videos" option.

Fixed

• Race results: the position numbers, arrows and trophy are placed where they belong in widescreen.
• Winner screen: the army man and the winner icon are shrunk like the rest of the HUD, and the army man stands by his shadow in the bottom-right corner.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild. The first start of the game creates tsr_data from your disc image; after that the image can be moved away.

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.1.4

New

• Ready on first start: a new install starts with widescreen and the native renderer on, the window in the shape of your monitor (Fit to window), 960-line internal resolution with bilinear filtering, and CD Speed, Fast Loading (uncapped) and PGXP on. All of it can be changed in the launcher; an existing install keeps its own settings.
• Track preview camera: while the camera flies over the track before a race, Select holds it in place; L1 / R1 then move it back and forth along its path, L2 / R2 four times as fast. Select again lets it fly on. Handy for looking at (and reporting) any spot of a track.

Fixed

• Toy Store finish: the track seen through a doorway at the sides of a wide view stayed black until the camera reached it. It is now drawn at once.
• Car Park: with the camera high (jumps, the track preview) a pillar, a barrier and a wall vanished; whole rooms were dropped when their doorway was above or below the view.
• House: rooms seen through a doorway lost the scenery above and below it (the far wall of the upstairs corridor).
• Car Park landings: a piece of track ahead no longer disappears for one frame.
• Character select: pressing X or Triangle no longer shows one frame with the picture cut to 4:3.
• Snow falls across the whole wide view, at the original density.

Faster

• Widescreen margins are drawn in one pass per frame instead of switching surfaces for every batch of polygons, and the native scenery's transparent faces are drawn in batches instead of one at a time.
• Toy Store worst case at 32:9, 6x internal resolution on an RTX 4070: GPU load about 77% (peaks at 100%, dropped frames) -> about 32% (peak 56%), steady 50 fps.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild.

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.1.3

Fixed

• Black screen after the first intro movie: games built without a Sony BIOS (with the bundled OpenBIOS, the default) hung at the end of the Disney logo movie. The game's movie player hands its buffers to the BIOS free(), which they never came from. The Sony BIOS tolerates this; OpenBIOS looped forever. The call is now skipped, and the game reaches the menus and races with OpenBIOS. All earlier releases are affected: please update.
• Rebuild failing on Windows with NotImplementedError: utime: follow_symlinks unavailable on this platform when some extracted files carry a timestamp in the future.
• "Disc verification failed: disc digests not in prepare_disc.known_*": the clean dump of the European disc (SLES-03398, MD5 7db3b977777ed5541869d0a4c780ec18) is now accepted. Until now only the dump the project was first built from was listed.
• No Python install needed: the launcher never required one. On first use it downloads its portable toolchain, which includes CMake, Clang and Python. The README and setup notes said otherwise; they are corrected.

About the "damaged European disc"

The track damage repaired by the Track data fix was not on the European release. It came from read errors in the project's original dump: 78 sectors whose error-detection codes do not match their data. A clean dump does not have them, and the fix changes nothing on it. The fix stays for anyone whose dump has the same errors. If your dump is rejected, make a fresh one with redumper.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild.

Toy Story Racer Recompiled 0.1.2

Widescreen fixes, mostly visible in 32:9.

Fixed

• Sky on outdoor tracks: the sky now reaches the edges of a 32:9 view and no longer leaves black wedges at the sides or at the top when the camera tilts (track previews). The dome's missing top is filled in and its widest cells are split so the GPU's polygon size limit no longer drops them.
• Pick-up crates floating in mid-air (Pier and other tracks): the game's own 32-bit position maths overflowed with the wider view matrix and drew objects on the wrong side of the screen. Fixed in the four object renderers that share the calculation.
• Scenery vanishing during jumps and falls (Skate Park) and at long range (fences and roofs in the Neighbourhood): in widescreen the game no longer drops track pieces by its vertical and distance tests while they are still on screen. Two-player races still hold 50 fps.
• Star transition: the star-shaped wipe between scenes now covers the whole 32:9 view (it was sized for 4:3 and left the sides uncovered).
• Lamp halos: the second lamp type (cellar) had a faint square around its glow, like the attic lamp before; both are now round and smooth, and their glow no longer shows through walls.
• End-of-race camera in two-player mode: on every camera cut the game rebuilds the frame it had started; for that one frame the button prompts shrank and the widescreen margins showed stale or black areas. Both are handled now.

How to update

Extract the zip over your existing folder (or into a new one), run ToyStoryRacer_Recompiled.exe and follow Generate & rebuild again: these fixes change the compiled game code.

See the 0.1.0 notes for everything the mod adds and 0.1.1 for the track data repair.