Cars Mazda MX-3 0.6
- Thread starter stankinator
- Start date
Not sure if this mod is still being worked on currently. Judging by number of posts in the discussion, there are interested people around. I finally downloaded the 0.3 version and here are some thoughts.
I have only tested it on Laguna Seca today for a few short session to get a taste of the handling but I was impressed. The car feels stable and the force feedback at the wheel feels very .. good, responsive. The car has good grip even with the ST tires. Feels firm (or say stiff) . The downloaded file lacks an ai.ini thus one needs to be copied in. But I was only able to get the ai to get out of the pit but not able to make it through a lap.
Curious about the suspension geometry/setup. I thought the rear suspension is supposed to be strut. Is it strut or DWB or ML?
The enclosed setup.ini binds the suspension. (front camber and rear toe setting max value was too small.) Found more than a degree of toe in rear and a positive camber in front before adjusted the max camber and toe. After the change, the car has positive camber on both front and rear but the car still grips, to my surprise. The ARB: 17500/12000 seems pretty high. For a tuned car, I think that is fine, though personally, I prefer something lower. I also think the CG height or basey is too low. The ML type suspension is a pain, because the setup screen won't show the correct toe value.. (I would swap in a strut.)
At this point, I wish the 3D model can be completed somehow. As for the suspension, I am contemplating whether to fix it or .. just delete the mod entirely. But I would like to figure out how to tune a car to drive like this one.
I have only tested it on Laguna Seca today for a few short session to get a taste of the handling but I was impressed. The car feels stable and the force feedback at the wheel feels very .. good, responsive. The car has good grip even with the ST tires. Feels firm (or say stiff) . The downloaded file lacks an ai.ini thus one needs to be copied in. But I was only able to get the ai to get out of the pit but not able to make it through a lap.
Curious about the suspension geometry/setup. I thought the rear suspension is supposed to be strut. Is it strut or DWB or ML?
The enclosed setup.ini binds the suspension. (front camber and rear toe setting max value was too small.) Found more than a degree of toe in rear and a positive camber in front before adjusted the max camber and toe. After the change, the car has positive camber on both front and rear but the car still grips, to my surprise. The ARB: 17500/12000 seems pretty high. For a tuned car, I think that is fine, though personally, I prefer something lower. I also think the CG height or basey is too low. The ML type suspension is a pain, because the setup screen won't show the correct toe value.. (I would swap in a strut.)
At this point, I wish the 3D model can be completed somehow. As for the suspension, I am contemplating whether to fix it or .. just delete the mod entirely. But I would like to figure out how to tune a car to drive like this one.
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Thanks for the feedback. This is very much on the backburner now. I'd love to polish it up but I just don't consistently have time to devote to it and I am bad at 3D modeling. I'm not sure the model will get any better unless I can get my hands on a good 3D scanner. I never got around to looking into what the ARB numbers should be so I wouldn't be shocked if they're way off anything appropriate. Someday I'm hoping to get some scales to measure the CG height of my MX-3 and correct it; I don't remember where the value in there came from, but again I wouldn't be surprised if it's way off.
The ML suspension is really a compromise; in reality it has a trailing arm design that AC just doesn't have the ability to properly model. Strut may be more appropriate but then you lose the trailing arm entirely. I don't know much about suspension design or how AC handles it so I'm not sure how much of a difference that would really make. I made a YouTube video describing my thought process in the design here.
I've been tinkering with the suspension a bit lately, but I'm still not sure what you're talking about with respect the setup.ini "binding" it. The toe and camber both seem to have appropriate adjustment ranges in the setup screen (if a bit exaggerated), and using the suspension app while driving the car also shows the alignment in a reasonable range given the starting values. That said, it's been a long time since I released an update so it's entirely possible I fixed something between then and now and forgot about it.
A few weeks ago I took my MX-3 to Road America for the 24 Hours of Lemons race there with a datalogger. I used the telemetry to update the power and drag numbers, and the subjective feel of the car (along with data from the shop manual) to tweak the brakes and suspension. I may have moved the brake balance a bit too far rearward, but the rear does feel quite unsettled in the real car under hard braking as well - though that may entirely be because I swapped in disc brakes from an Escort GT and removed a bunch of weight from the car, mostly at and behind the center of gravity. Adjustable brake bias is near the top of the list of upcoming upgrades (though fixing the occasional oil starvation we were having beats it).
I'll release another update tomorrow. If you want the most up-to-date files, you can also get them from GitHub.
stankinator updated Mazda MX-3 with a new update entry:
Physics adjustments based on real-world telemetry
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Physics adjustments based on real-world telemetry
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stankinator updated Mazda MX-3 with a new update entry:
Rear Suspension Redesign
Read the rest of this update entry...
Rear Suspension Redesign
Read the rest of this update entry...
I just read that you are struggling to find a way to simulate a trailink arm.
Best way is to use DWB.
McPherson is really different from trailing link in which the strut is fixed to the wheel with a ball joint while on trailing is simply fixed.
You can collaps the chassis points of the upper and lower arms of the DWB to get your trailink link.
Best way is to use DWB.
McPherson is really different from trailing link in which the strut is fixed to the wheel with a ball joint while on trailing is simply fixed.
You can collaps the chassis points of the upper and lower arms of the DWB to get your trailink link.
I did a bunch of messing around with Blender and ksEditor this week to model the display I make for my real MX-3.
As far as I can tell, Assetto Corsa has no support for sweeping rotary digital displays like this or color-changing shift lights, so it took a bit of hackery to make it work. The sweeping bar uses three [RPM_SERIE] elements (one green, one yellow, and one red) and renders in 45 degree increments. The leading edge is covered by an analog “needle”, which is a 90 degree black wedge that blends into the display background to reveal the correct portion of the sweeping dial. The yellow and red elements are offset in the display’s Z axis by 0.1mm to cover the green elements.
The shift lights involve similar hackery; the mesh for the LED is rendered when it is off, and if the mesh is transparent the lights lose all their brightness, so stacking multiple transparent lights isn’t an option. Instead, the meshes for the red and blinking cyan lights are also treated as [RPM_SERIE] elements, and don’t render until the appropriate engine speed. This makes it work exactly as it does in the real car.
I also corrected the position of the seat, steering wheel, and mirror based on a 3D scan I was able to take. I did not update the driver position, which is why it no longer lines up in the video.
Real car
Assetto Corsa
As far as I can tell, Assetto Corsa has no support for sweeping rotary digital displays like this or color-changing shift lights, so it took a bit of hackery to make it work. The sweeping bar uses three [RPM_SERIE] elements (one green, one yellow, and one red) and renders in 45 degree increments. The leading edge is covered by an analog “needle”, which is a 90 degree black wedge that blends into the display background to reveal the correct portion of the sweeping dial. The yellow and red elements are offset in the display’s Z axis by 0.1mm to cover the green elements.
The shift lights involve similar hackery; the mesh for the LED is rendered when it is off, and if the mesh is transparent the lights lose all their brightness, so stacking multiple transparent lights isn’t an option. Instead, the meshes for the red and blinking cyan lights are also treated as [RPM_SERIE] elements, and don’t render until the appropriate engine speed. This makes it work exactly as it does in the real car.
I also corrected the position of the seat, steering wheel, and mirror based on a 3D scan I was able to take. I did not update the driver position, which is why it no longer lines up in the video.
Real car
Assetto Corsa
I cant wait for the full release
stankinator updated Mazda MX-3 with a new update entry:
Visual refinements
Read the rest of this update entry...
Visual refinements
Read the rest of this update entry...
