Intro Camera Routes

Intro Camera Routes 🧪

Development build. Before a race starts, the camera can fly once around the track as a preview. The flight path comes from a route file shipped with the map.

File name and location

intro_routes/<map>_tl<track-length>_rev<0|1>.route

For example intro_routes/q3r_valley_tl1_rev0.route. The server picks the file that matches the current map and track variant. No matching file means no intro for that variant.

Format

A plain text file:

Q3RALLY_INTRO_ROUTE 1
map q3r_valley
track_length 1
track_reversed 0
frames 1234
0 1024.0 -512.0 96.0 10.0 90.0 0.0
30 1030.5 -498.2 96.4 10.0 89.5 0.0
...

Each frame line is: <time-ms> <x> <y> <z> <pitch> <yaw> <roll>

• Frame times must increase from 0 to the end of the route.
• The route contains only camera positions: no player name, car, lap time or inputs.

How routes are made

Routes are derived from a clean ghost lap (see Ghosts and Ghost Race). The ghost's positions and angles become the camera path, lowered by 24 units. Because the format is plain text, you can convert a .ghost recording with a small script of your own.

Timing

You don't have to match the real lap time. The server measures the lap length from the map's checkpoints and re-times the route at 30 ms per metre, clamped to 10–30 seconds. The camera also collision-checks its chase position, so it won't clip through walls.

Server setting

g_rallyIntroCamClients 1 (default) also shows the intro to drivers on the grid. Drivers can skip their own intro with Fire. See Server Configuration.

Shipped routes

The game ships routes for several variants of q3r_country01, q3r_dirtyfun, q3r_downtown, q3r_lavafalls, q3r_nightcity, q3r_ridgeracer, q3r_sk1 and q3r_valley. Sprint (A-to-B) tracks don't have intro routes yet.