Why does it seem like all of the software I use for racing stuff is so shitty? The AiM software suite looks like it was developed for Windows 95. Optimum Lap has a crazy interface and crashes a lot. Updating the firmware on my (Russian) Racebox is bizarre. But so far, one of the worst things I’ve run into is nawmal. This is video animation software from the people who created ultranormal. There’s a very famous video “flat out” that was done with that. Part of the charm is how low-tech everything is.
I thought it might be fun to do a talk show based on You Suck at Racing. My first episode is below. I haven’t decided how many of these I’m going to do. The light version of nawmal is pretty limited and crashes constantly. And you have to pay a monthly subscription to use it. I have some ideas I want to try but on the other hand I feel like my patience is already running out. Let me know what you think.
you suck at racing 
Too bad that the nawmal software is so buggy. The video was fun, I’d like to see some more.
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“Should count for more because I’ve done the bypass….” Awesome!
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Point your arm out the window….” Priceless
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Automotive/racing software usually sucks because it is small volume software being produced by “hardware companies”. Consumers generally won’t pay for software, they see the value as being in the hardware and this attitude is often reflected by management at those companies. Software departments are small, poorly funded, given unrealistic schedules, and little attention is paid to things like maintenance.
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Makes sense. Probably the only thing worse than software from a hardware company is software from academia.
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I don’t buy this. I know when I first got into AiM products I tried really hard to get ahold of an SDK so that I could write (for free) some more usable software – not interested.
I wouldn’t care if they’d actually invest some real resources into their products, but like so many “enterprise” companies they seem that believe that what they have is perfect and in fact a competitive advantage that they don’t want anyone else to work around.
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As an embedded Linux developer I don’t have windows boxes around. I asked the AIM people for the protocol and format of the old Solo. The totally blew me off.
So I built something better. Screw them. I’ll never buy another product of theirs.
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It should surprise absolutely nobody that AiM software is garbage. They’re probably using this back-assward computer to compile as test it: https://aim-sportline.com/bitmap/products/solo2/back_visual_4.jpg
Frankly we should be grateful it’s as good as it is.
I think the content of the video is funny, and the CG graphics are good for a chuckle, but god damn does that text-to-speech drive me crazy. If you did these with your own goofy voice-over I think they’d be a lot more enjoyable.
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