Apps engine-crane 0.4.3

[Rocket455Man]

Hi!

Can I use straight automation engines or need I 1st convert them to beamng?

 

[zephyrj_15]

Hi!

Can I use straight automation engines or need I 1st convert them to beamng?

The engines need to be BeamNG mods created by Automation; you don't have to have BeamNG installed to create the mods though

 

[Rocket455Man]

I have both.

 

[GravityBeats]

Hi. I'm having an odd issue where setting my AC directory causes the app to crash. It just randomly shuts down immediately after. Is it because I used CM compression for my cars?

 

[LowRider6407]

Is there a Bug where you cant pick an engine right now? i cant open the drop down.

 

[Flingang]

Hello there! I've got an odd issue with the engine crane. Although I like the mod's concept, I can't get it working, no matter what. I've first used the mod, it was working okay, I've set the Assetto Corsa directory and stuff in there, but what happened is that it crashed when swapping the engine with another car. After that, I couldn't manage to launch the executable. I have deleted the config file in there, to see if it works, but then when I choose the game folder, it doesn't work anymore and crashes whenever it remembers of that folder's existence. And I've tried to change the location to another drive, and also tried other versions, no luck at all with them. I'm in a desperately need to fix it, but for some reason, even the changelog doesn't show anything relevant. I'll send the changelog, and I hope there is a fix for my lost cause. Thank you for the concern!

 

[Grgmx5]

same here opens shuts imediately wont open after. also not able to find the beang drive engines expoorted from automation.

 

[zephyrj_15]

Hi. I'm having an odd issue where setting my AC directory causes the app to crash. It just randomly shuts down immediately after. Is it because I used CM compression for my cars?

Hi there, apologies for my delayed response - I've not logged on here for a little while

I can't say I've ever tried CM compression - I didn't even know it was an option. engine-crane expects there to be a `content/cars/` path underneath the AC root and then expects all of the cars to be in regular folders where it can either access the data folder or data.acd file (it can read either) - if the folder structure is different to this in some way that would likel cause problems and I've certainly never tested it.

If you have some info on the compression format I can look into it further - otherwise I'll have to add it to my list of stuff to look at when I have some more time

 

[zephyrj_15]

Is there a Bug where you cant pick an engine right now? i cant open the drop down.

Hi there, apologies for my delayed response - I've not logged on here for a little while

Which drop-down is not being populated? Is it when trying to choose a beamng mod?

I noticed that Automation doen't create BeamNG mods as .zip files by default anymore - which is what it used to do. engine-crane will only recognise beamng mods that are saved in the .zip format at the moment so they must be created in Automation like this to get picked up

When exporting a car in Automation check if the "Zip pack mod" option is ticked when creating the BeamNG mod - this should ensure that engine-crane will be able to find it

Having engine-crane pick-up mods that aren't in the .zip format is on the list of things to add so hopefully you won't need to do this in future

 

[zephyrj_15]

Hello there! I've got an odd issue with the engine crane. Although I like the mod's concept, I can't get it working, no matter what. I've first used the mod, it was working okay, I've set the Assetto Corsa directory and stuff in there, but what happened is that it crashed when swapping the engine with another car. After that, I couldn't manage to launch the executable. I have deleted the config file in there, to see if it works, but then when I choose the game folder, it doesn't work anymore and crashes whenever it remembers of that folder's existence. And I've tried to change the location to another drive, and also tried other versions, no luck at all with them. I'm in a desperately need to fix it, but for some reason, even the changelog doesn't show anything relevant. I'll send the changelog, and I hope there is a fix for my lost cause. Thank you for the concern!

Hi there,

Thanks for reporting this issue - can I just try and clarify the timeline to try and help my understanding?

- engine-crane used to work
- you tried an engine-swap and it failed and the program crashed
- when you tried to open it after that engine-crane immediately crashes before opening
- you deleted the engine-crane config file and then it opened ok again
- as soon as you set the Assetto Corsa path it crashes again and doesn't open anymore

 

[Flingang]

Hi there,

Thanks for reporting this issue - can I just try and clarify the timeline to try and help my understanding?

- engine-crane used to work
- you tried an engine-swap and it failed and the program crashed
- when you tried to open it after that engine-crane immediately crashes before opening
- you deleted the engine-crane config file and then it opened ok again
- as soon as you set the Assetto Corsa path it crashes again and doesn't open anymore

Sorry for late reply, but that's about it. And also, it happens when I change the game location folder, and it's an infinite loop afterwards, the same stuff happen all over when I change the main game folder. Any help is appreciated!

Edit: The first time that crashed was when I tried to swap the engine with another car, and the car I've tried to swap it with was visible in the game menu, but it wasn't that functional, but instead just the same car before the swap without the car image.

 

[zephyrj_15]

Sorry for late reply, but that's about it. And also, it happens when I change the game location folder, and it's an infinite loop afterwards, the same stuff happen all over when I change the main game folder. Any help is appreciated!

Edit: The first time that crashed was when I tried to swap the engine with another car, and the car I've tried to swap it with was visible in the game menu, but it wasn't that functional, but instead just the same car before the swap without the car image.

I'm not entirely sure what could be causing this but I have a theory that the car that you tried to create and failed that first time (which sounds like it may have set this all off) could be malformed in some way that is causing engine-crane to crash whenever it scans the Assetto Corsa cars directory

I'll keep looking into it some more but the time being I have a couple of things you can try out:

• I've just released a new version which may contain a fix (there are many fixes but nothing specifically aimed at this issue) - you can try it and see if that resolves the issue: https://github.com/zephyrj/engine-crane/releases/tag/v0.3.1-alpha
• You could try deleting the folder of the car that got created when it crashed the first time and see if that helps things. It will be present in the Assetto Corsa install directory inside content/cars

 

[zephyrj_15]

zephyrj_15 updated engine-crane with a new update entry:

0.3.2 Release

- Add option to manually set the Automation data folder
- Add option to revert settings to default values
- bunch of fixes and stability improvements

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Djadania]

Is throttle response (or similar) taken into account when exporting/importing?
Btw, you got your goal of not finishing last in the CCC

 

[zephyrj_15]

Is throttle response (or similar) taken into account when exporting/importing?
Btw, you got your goal of not finishing last in the CCC

Sorry - I've not been keeping track on here lately

I guess throttle response is related to engine inertia - currently this is taken directly from the BeamNG mod. I'm not entirely sure if this maps from Beam to AC directly but it's the only data I have to work with.

Woohoo! I have no idea how some of you guys managed to get the toque curves you got without any Race parts - you're clearly on another level. Thanks for arranging it and letting me take part - perhaps I can do a bit better next time

 

[zephyrj_15]

zephyrj_15 updated engine-crane with a new update entry:

0.4.0 Release

A new version of engine-crane is now available. There are 2 significant changes:

• No longer asks to run as admin by default. You can still run as admin manually if needed
• A new custom exporter for Automation is included in the download. This allows you to export engines from Automation directly without needing to make a BeamNG mod first

More details on how to set up the new exporter are in the release video:

Happy modding!

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Djadania]

zephyrj_15 updated engine-crane with a new update entry:

0.4.0 Release



Read the rest of this update entry...

Hey, this is really cool to see, well done! I'm probably going to sound stupid here recommending some stuff, but i'm hoping to host CCC4 later this year, and some of these could be useful/interesting things to have.

First, would it be a possibility to have the option of taking the weight from the original automation car, and applying that to the full Assetto Corsa car? This could be very, very useful and a first step to racing that isn't spec racing. Don't know how easy this is, but I imagine it's easier with Automation data than Beam data.

Second, would it be a possibility to take the gear ratios from the automation car and apply it to the gearbox automatically? This seems quite difficult if I had to guess, but could be quite useful for when trying to make a gearbox that makes sense and fits immediately. Of course you can forget about CVTs, but I could imagine you could change shift time based on gearbox selected too.

Third, as you now have access to automation data, could it be possible to now actually take throttle response from the engines? I don't know exactly how you are taking the data, but I'm curious if this is possible.

Those are all the ideas I have for today.
Oh yeah, if you ever need help with art, 3d modelling, or anything like that, send me a message. I'm always willing to help!

 

[zephyrj_15]

Hey, this is really cool to see, well done! I'm probably going to sound stupid here recommending some stuff, but i'm hoping to host CCC4 later this year, and some of these could be useful/interesting things to have.

Thank you, I appreciate it. It's not stupid at all - very happy to hear ideas and suggestions.

First, would it be a possibility to have the option of taking the weight from the original automation car, and applying that to the full Assetto Corsa car? This could be very, very useful and a first step to racing that isn't spec racing. Don't know how easy this is, but I imagine it's easier with Automation data than Beam data.

Yeah, this is possible. Not certain how it fits in with the theme of engine-crane but that's a minor issue; I could add it in as an "advanced" option or similar.

Second, would it be a possibility to take the gear ratios from the automation car and apply it to the gearbox automatically? This seems quite difficult if I had to guess, but could be quite useful for when trying to make a gearbox that makes sense and fits immediately. Of course you can forget about CVTs, but I could imagine you could change shift time based on gearbox selected too.

I've not looked at how to do this yet but I had a similar idea and I suspect it will be very possible. As you say CVTs aren't possible (unless I can find a mod that implements something similar in AC) but all the manual gearboxes should be simple enough.
I'm aware that someone made a "Crown Vic" (The old school American police car) mod which implements some sort of automatic gearbox so that would be something to look into for automatic gearbox side too; though after I've worked out how to get the manual ones working.

Third, as you now have access to automation data, could it be possible to now actually take throttle response from the engines? I don't know exactly how you are taking the data, but I'm curious if this is possible.

I'm using the Responsiveness parameter in the Exporter to derive an engine inertia value in the AC car. I'm not entirely sure how the BeamNG exporter comes up with an inertia value but the approach I've gone with for now is here in the code:

engine-crane/src/fabricator/assetto_corsa.rs at main · zephyrj/engine-crane

A tool to put engines created in Automation into Assetto Corsa. - zephyrj/engine-crane

github.com

It scales the 0-100 responsiveness value to a range of inerita values between 0.07 and 0.32. These min and max values come from looking at the values used in other road cars in Assetto Corsa; the Audi Quattro is 0.32 I think. It's weighted so that you have to have an extreme responsiveness value to get to the upper or lower end of that inertia scale; hopefully this is "good enough" for now but I'm always looking for ways to improve it.
Once I've sorted out the UI of engine-crane a bit I plan to make this configurable by the user so they can change it if needed - there's a little bit of work to do to get to that point though.
Turbo threshold and lag are other things I need to refine too but I haven't looked into it that much.

Those are all the ideas I have for today.
Oh yeah, if you ever need help with art, 3d modelling, or anything like that, send me a message. I'm always willing to help!

Cool - if I come up with some ideas I'll let you know. I have zero art skill so that could be very useful

 

[zephyrj_15]

zephyrj_15 updated engine-crane with a new update entry:

Support for Assetto Corsa Car Tuner App

The 0.4.2 release of engine-crane now includes support for the AC Car Tuner App

Here's an update video showing how it works:

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Magonei_]

I can't add the engine to the car, I receive an error "missing data section engine [a lot of numbers]" help please