AC Modding Questions Thread

mantasisg · Aug 1, 2017

Yeah, I see, thats a bit more like it, but I guess that those big hills kicks in somewhere in about 7-10km. Also it looks like it's sunset. I wonder if in this case fog got thicker, because of dropping temps in the evening.

Today I have driven a car a bit, and was paying attention to this natural effect. In the morning it seemed to be more intense, then during the day it seemed like it got clearier. Few hours ago i have been driving a little, and this effect was noticeable, in something like 4-5km distance, but not too much.

Pretty difficult stuff. Any meteorologists here ?

Willy Wale · Aug 1, 2017

mantasisg said:
How could I make distant background look like this ?

Don't forget that Goodwood is in England. That photo is of a particularly good summer's day. The last two weeks we've had rain most days so the fog effect might be closer to real

aphidgod · Aug 1, 2017

It's not really due to "fog" as such, it's the air itself that makes it that way. Extra moisture (fog)/pollution/dust strengthens the effect, but it would be exceedingly rare to see pure clear colors on distant terrain virtually anywhere on Earth. Still, it shouldn't be too visible at 2-4km on a clear dry day.

I happened to be about 10km from Goodwood Circuit today (some horse racing is happening there this week, traffic was hell) and I got a couple of decent photos of the distant hills in the area. This was a pretty sunny day, but the effect was quite strong even with high skies in the afternoon. Can't upload anything major on this connection, but I'll send them to Mantas when I'm back home for reference.

Either way the track textures shouldn't be responsible for implementing the effect, that's the job of the weather settings. A good clear sunny preset with minimal distant fog like the one in gbw or papa's suggested fix ought to look more or less like the photo in question.

mantasisg · Aug 2, 2017

Yes, I agree that this effect is always there. But those particular hills are rather visible in most of the images I saw. This is one of the stronger ones on a clear day. But it is still colourful, and visible. By default values (actually not default, with graphics mod) I had it got so desaturated and fogish, that there were almost only silhouette, and almost blending in with the sky.

Willy Wale · Aug 2, 2017

mantasisg said:
Yes, I agree that this effect is always there. But those particular hills are rather visible in most of the images I saw. This is one of the stronger ones on a clear day. But it is still colourful, and visible. By default values (actually not default, with graphics mod) I had it got so desaturated and fogish, that there were almost only silhouette, and almost blending in with the sky.

I was being a little facetious with my last post. We should treat the weather settings the same as the shader settings and adjust until we get the look we're after. There will also be some effect with distance and it depends on the weather on the day and the angle of the light. It's your version of the track so make it look how you imagine it.

Stereo · Aug 2, 2017

Really for distant scenery if you're using realistic distances I'd leave it at natural colours and let the weather settings affect how foggy it gets, it's just if you're using billboarded farther stuff that you need to worry about it.

mantasisg · Aug 2, 2017

Those hills are really important, very very. I wish we could have weather settings in track data folder. So I'd make sure people will see, how I think it should look. I would make this fog effect really soft for it.

Anyways... this topic was really nicely disussed, and I also have NEW dumb question, coming up soon™.

Bonus detail, recent Marco fb post, I have no idea what is about, but check the pic:

http://www.repubblica.it/ambiente/2...di_rispettare_il_limite_di_2_gradi-172057909/

@Stereo No it does make difference for ambient impression. If they gets extremely foggy it feels wrong. They becomes very unnoticeable, maybe more details would help, such as tree lines and things, we'll see.

Ben O'Bro · Aug 3, 2017

meanwhile we kindly wait for Manta's new ™ question, i'll give it a go.

Let's say i want to make another version of a car (let's say it's a caterham) and it's higher from the ground by few centimeters. (let's say it's a small 165 version).
I have animated suspensions already, the idea is to keep as many things as possible... so i'm basically starting with the current one, turning it into a 165, saving me ton of work.
What is the best way to proceed :

i rise every objects on the scene BUT the wheels (that way all the rigged suspensions will adjust in 3dsmax)
i change only values in some .ini files
i update the animated nodes
all of the above
none of the above XD

mantasisg · Aug 3, 2017

I still have 0 experience with animations, W125 someday will teach me....

So I don't know possible issues regarding the animations, but maybe you should be able just to rise ride height by ini files IDK if it would brake suspension animations. You may have to readjust animations a little. IDK, but if you'll lift stuff up in 3D software, you'll have to readjust driver animations for sure. Though you work with 3Ds, so maybe thats not the problem for you.

So perhaps only 2nd, or 4th.

Stereo · Aug 3, 2017

Just change ini files.
Showroom automatically rises the car so the lowest objects are on the floor, so if it has bigger radius tires or something it'll compensate ok.

Probably rod_length is the way to go if you just want it higher on the same suspension/tires.

garyjpaterson · Aug 6, 2017

Thanks to @chargingcars massive patience, I've managed to get the front suspension animated properly, but having a problem with the tierods using the DIR system. In 3ds as you can see they look and work fine, but in game, well... not so much.

Not sure what else to try, I've checked the hierarchy and pivots, all seem fine. Any ideas?

mclarenf1papa · Aug 6, 2017

garyjpaterson said:
Thanks to @chargingcars massive patience, I've managed to get the front suspension animated properly, but having a problem with the tierods using the DIR system. In 3ds as you can see they look and work fine, but in game, well... not so much.

Not sure what else to try, I've checked the hierarchy and pivots, all seem fine. Any ideas?

@Stereo may know

Stereo · Aug 6, 2017

It looks like it's set up right to me, although can't see what they're children of in the screenshot. Sorta looks like DIR_dummy_... are children of the hubs on the opposite side or something.

garyjpaterson · Aug 6, 2017

Stereo said:
It looks like it's set up right to me, although can't see what they're children of in the screenshot. Sorta looks like DIR_dummy_... are children of the hubs on the opposite side or something.

Hopefully this shows it a bit better

Stereo · Aug 6, 2017

Hmm, it all looks correct to me... I dunno.

garyjpaterson · Aug 6, 2017

Stereo said:
Hmm, it all looks correct to me... I dunno.

Haha, yup thats what I thought. I'll leave it and come back to it later, maybe start it from scratch.

Vallelongo · Aug 10, 2017

I have a dumb question. when I'm skinning a car and want to change more than just the main paint dds file I unpack a kn5 file and inside are all the other parts, I've had some success with pulling other dds files out of the kn5 file and dropping it into the skin folder, wheels for example. However when I try to do it with a png file I have modified the showroom no longer works, car with changes works fine to drive. I have come across cars to download that have this same problem, no showroom, start deleting png files out of the skin folders and it'll eventually work. What am I doing wrong? is there a specific format of png that I need to save as? is it conflicting with the identically named png in the kn5 file? Or am trying to do something that it just doesn't want me to do.... (changing the livery png works fine for me if that helps..)