So I've been doing a lot of reading about making "tuned" versions of cars in Assetto Corsa, and decided to tackle one of the major gaps in the car selection: the Ferrari 488 GTLM (or GTE for all you European fans). This mod is the result of staying up way too late reading a lot of technical documents.
The result here is an initial version that I give to the community for testing.
I don't expect this to be finished yet; I'd love your help in refining it!
HOW DO I INSTALL THIS THING?
If you have Content Manager, you should be able to just drag the .zip file into CM and it will figure out where to put stuff. OK everyone, settle down; it turns out I was wrong. You can't actually install it by dragging it onto Content Manager. If you drag the .zip file into CM, it seems to be putting the data in the wrong place. I'll work on fixing this for a future update. Thanks to @rjwylie for the tip. And apologies to everyone who tried installing this way. I assumed it would work. And you know what they say about when you assume things.
So, open the .zip file yourself, and drag the content directory over to your Assetto Corsa installation.
But you're not done yet. There's one more step, described below.
OK, I DID THAT, BUT I CAN'T PLAY WITH THE CAR.
Yeah, that's because the Ferrari 488 GT3 is paid DLC from the "Red Pack", and I am not interested in getting into a copyright fight with Kunos. So my mod includes only exactly enough stuff to make the tune work, and doesn't give you the base car for free. So now that you followed my instructions above, go to the car's directory and double click on the script copy_and_install_files.bat. If you have bought the GT3 car from Kunos, then this script will copy those files over as the "base car", then install my tuning modifications on top of it, making it a complete car. Windows might warn you that files you download from the Internet might be horrible viruses. This script is not a virus. I promise. (Unless someone has hacked RaceDepartment and replaced it. I mean, it's always possible, right? But I digress.)
If everything worked out, then you should now see the car has been installed, and CM recognizes it.
Again, you must have previously installed the base car, the Ferrari 488 GT3, from "Red Pack" DLC, in order to use this tuning mod
When you've successfully installed the mod, delete the .bat file from the directory. Thanks to a tip from @Hoksu, we've discovered that leaving the .bat file in place can cause problems with the Content Manager showroom. The .bat file is there only as a convenience for assembling the mod; it can be safely deleted once everything is in place.
GREAT. SO WHAT IS IT?
In real life, the Ferrari 488 race car was designed, from the beginning, to be configurable for either GT3 or GTE/GTLM specifications, so the body remains the same, and only the go-fast bits are different. This allows us to effectively "tune" the GT3 version from Kunos up to the level of the GTE/GTLM specification, simply by changing the physics parameters of the car. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading through the FIA GT homologation rules, IMSA technical bulletins describing balance of performance, and all sorts of other documents that had any sort of technical data about the GTE version and how it compared to its GT3 counterpart. This is the result of that research.
I've run some test races with this car against a field of other GTLM cars, and it seems to be on approximately even footing. That is to say, I spent a lot of time door-to-door with the other cars and never felt like I was blowing past them or falling behind.
I've also raced a group of the GTE spec cars against the GT3 spec cars from Kunos, and the faster class cars were indeed able to slowly open a gap at the front. This is appropriate for the two classes and is also in line with the closer-than-real-life BoP between the two classes with the other Kunos cars.
The mod comes with a selection of basic liveries badged for the IMSA GTLM class, but not representing any actual car running in the series. (They're actually based on liveries from other teams in ELMS and WEC, as well as any "thank you" gifts for contributors to the mod.)
Hey, if you're such an IMSA fanboy, why is there no Risi Competizione livery?
Because other really talented people have already been there, done that, and since this car uses exactly the same 3D model, all of those will work on this car, too.
And speaking of great GTE/GTLM liveries...
Check these out! They were made for the base car, but that means they'll work for this mod as well!
Any alternative sound packs?
Why yes there is at least one.
OK, SO NOW WHAT?
This is only version 0.5! I'd love for the community to test this out and tell me what you think. Drive against other GTLM cars, drive against GT3 cars, run it in short races, run it in long races. If it's great, then I'll advance it toward being a v1.0. If it sucks, give me specific details of why you think it sucks, and I'll tweak it to be better. And if your contribution makes it a lot better, then I'll make a livery with your name on it as part of the next mod update.
And most importantly of all, enjoy!
CREDITS
The mod includes the Ferrari 488 GT3 sound bank from Fonsecker Sound Pack Part 3 by @Fonsecker, because, I mean, come on, it's amazing.
The tire textures are from the OPMP Tyre Pack for URD EGT & C6R by @OPMP.
COOL! UH, HOW DO I INSTALL THIS AGAIN?
You must have the Ferrari 488 GT3 from the Kunos "Red Pack" DLC to use this mod.
The result here is an initial version that I give to the community for testing.
I don't expect this to be finished yet; I'd love your help in refining it!
HOW DO I INSTALL THIS THING?
So, open the .zip file yourself, and drag the content directory over to your Assetto Corsa installation.
But you're not done yet. There's one more step, described below.
OK, I DID THAT, BUT I CAN'T PLAY WITH THE CAR.
Yeah, that's because the Ferrari 488 GT3 is paid DLC from the "Red Pack", and I am not interested in getting into a copyright fight with Kunos. So my mod includes only exactly enough stuff to make the tune work, and doesn't give you the base car for free. So now that you followed my instructions above, go to the car's directory and double click on the script copy_and_install_files.bat. If you have bought the GT3 car from Kunos, then this script will copy those files over as the "base car", then install my tuning modifications on top of it, making it a complete car. Windows might warn you that files you download from the Internet might be horrible viruses. This script is not a virus. I promise. (Unless someone has hacked RaceDepartment and replaced it. I mean, it's always possible, right? But I digress.)
If everything worked out, then you should now see the car has been installed, and CM recognizes it.
Again, you must have previously installed the base car, the Ferrari 488 GT3, from "Red Pack" DLC, in order to use this tuning mod
When you've successfully installed the mod, delete the .bat file from the directory. Thanks to a tip from @Hoksu, we've discovered that leaving the .bat file in place can cause problems with the Content Manager showroom. The .bat file is there only as a convenience for assembling the mod; it can be safely deleted once everything is in place.
GREAT. SO WHAT IS IT?
In real life, the Ferrari 488 race car was designed, from the beginning, to be configurable for either GT3 or GTE/GTLM specifications, so the body remains the same, and only the go-fast bits are different. This allows us to effectively "tune" the GT3 version from Kunos up to the level of the GTE/GTLM specification, simply by changing the physics parameters of the car. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading through the FIA GT homologation rules, IMSA technical bulletins describing balance of performance, and all sorts of other documents that had any sort of technical data about the GTE version and how it compared to its GT3 counterpart. This is the result of that research.
I've run some test races with this car against a field of other GTLM cars, and it seems to be on approximately even footing. That is to say, I spent a lot of time door-to-door with the other cars and never felt like I was blowing past them or falling behind.
I've also raced a group of the GTE spec cars against the GT3 spec cars from Kunos, and the faster class cars were indeed able to slowly open a gap at the front. This is appropriate for the two classes and is also in line with the closer-than-real-life BoP between the two classes with the other Kunos cars.
The mod comes with a selection of basic liveries badged for the IMSA GTLM class, but not representing any actual car running in the series. (They're actually based on liveries from other teams in ELMS and WEC, as well as any "thank you" gifts for contributors to the mod.)
Hey, if you're such an IMSA fanboy, why is there no Risi Competizione livery?
Because other really talented people have already been there, done that, and since this car uses exactly the same 3D model, all of those will work on this car, too.
- by Isaac Chavira
- by Thierry Warrin
- by NCIS
- by Baron3105 (also includes the #82 GTD entry!)
And speaking of great GTE/GTLM liveries...
Check these out! They were made for the base car, but that means they'll work for this mod as well!
- WEC Ferrari AM Pack by @enkay74 — This even includes some real-world liveries that inspired the stock ones I made.
- ELMS 2020 Ferrari 488 GTE #55 Spirit of Race by @Hi321ih
- WEC GTE Pack 2018-2020 by @SamtheStupid
- Car Guy Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Le Mans 2019 by @Mahardhika Putra Baliwa — This is the real car that inspired my #57 basic livery.
- 2018 Le Mans #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 by @susanthedeath2
- AF Corse #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Le Mans 2018 by @Oscurr
- JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 by @Chris 576
- ELMS - Spirit of Race no. 51 & 55 by @Bozz.gee
- Risi Competizione #89 - 2019 Le Mans 24h by @ZL1
- AF Corse #83 - WEC/LeMans 2021 by @GuiihRamos
- #51 #52 AF Corse WEC & Le Mans 2021 by @Luca Badin
- #47 Cetilar Racing WEC & Le Mans 2021 by @Luca Badin
Any alternative sound packs?
Why yes there is at least one.
OK, SO NOW WHAT?
This is only version 0.5! I'd love for the community to test this out and tell me what you think. Drive against other GTLM cars, drive against GT3 cars, run it in short races, run it in long races. If it's great, then I'll advance it toward being a v1.0. If it sucks, give me specific details of why you think it sucks, and I'll tweak it to be better. And if your contribution makes it a lot better, then I'll make a livery with your name on it as part of the next mod update.
And most importantly of all, enjoy!
CREDITS
The mod includes the Ferrari 488 GT3 sound bank from Fonsecker Sound Pack Part 3 by @Fonsecker, because, I mean, come on, it's amazing.
The tire textures are from the OPMP Tyre Pack for URD EGT & C6R by @OPMP.
COOL! UH, HOW DO I INSTALL THIS AGAIN?
- Open the .zip file and drag the content folder into your AC installation. (For now, do not try to drag the file into Content Manager.)
- Go to the content/cars/zbw_ferrari_488_gte folder that was created.
- Double-click on the copy_and_install_files.bat script to run it.
You must have the Ferrari 488 GT3 from the Kunos "Red Pack" DLC to use this mod.
