Official Assetto Corsa modding support via Skype!

[Aristotelis]

We have many people asking Luca to become testers. This is NOT what Luca can answer and it is disturbing and time wasting. I this continues we will stop this kind of support

We hope that you guys will Spread the word and take care of abusers.

Thank you

-------------------------------------------

Hey Modders, thank you for trying to enhance the AC experience!
We are now able to support you more directly and guide you better on your initial work for AC.

Here's the deal.
Our 3D vehicle lead artist has some free time (?) during the day and is dedicating this to you.
He hates writing on forums, emails, pms etc, so I will give you his skype handle and you are free to contact him for voice chat, whenever you want.

IMPORTANT
I really really ask you kindly to get organised, gather multiple relevant questions and ask them once at a time, here's a proposal on how to do this:
- Discuss your doubts, problems and projects here in the forums.
- Gather your questions.
- Decide which one of you will talk directly with Luca
- Call him on Skype for a voice chat and have fun
- Repeat and don't be afraid if he can't always reply. The actual game comes always first of course.

Also, Luca will reply as many of your questions as possible, except the ones that can't reply because of NDA, Licensing, or other professionally related reasons. I hope you understand.

Here you go, take it easy!
Luca skype handle: lucamir
skype nickname: mannaggia!

 

[betterstranger]

We have many people asking Luca to become testers. This is NOT what Luca can answer and it is disturbing and time wasting. I this continues we will stop this kind of support

We hope that you guys will Spread the word and take care of abusers.

Thank you

I guess making 2 threads with info in general AC section and mods section would be helpful.
Because it's lame to ask such a question if you are more than 18years old. It's just childish...
And it would be a great shame to the community if KS would stop this great kind of support.
I'm not a modder myself but I can understand that for modders help from creators of the game is just priceless.
So I think it's a good idea to put some info here on forum and also even on the main site. Hope great RD staff will take care of it.

 

[William Levesque]

Modedit: not needed to call people like that

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Ask 50 cent for a support call and 99,99% of the people will run away Nice and quiet

 

[XN-Sigma]

65536 vertices

hmm... I'm kinda worried about this part, while messing around with both UDK and CryEngine3 SDK, I quickly learned it was impossible to import any model that had more than that exact polycount, I don't know if it's a typical limit for modern game engines or it's an fbx limit, but it's there, and it's extremely annoying.

So I have a new question, is it possible to import the car into the car editor as separate individual parts, and then join them all into the editor? Like, an fbx for the main body, one for each wheel, and one for the interior?

And thanks for answering the previous questions, Si3v.


PS. About the clueless people asking to be beta testers, "this is why we can't have nice things."

 

[GTAce]

You mean RBR tracks??

No, I meant tracks created with Bob's Track Builder.
While I do use assets from RBR in my current, first, project, it's possible to make complete unique tracks with it.

 

[Si3v]

hmm... I'm kinda worried about this part, while messing around with both UDK and CryEngine3 SDK, I quickly learned it was impossible to import any model that had more than that exact polycount, I don't know if it's a typical limit for modern game engines or it's an fbx limit, but it's there, and it's extremely annoying.

So I have a new question, is it possible to import the car into the car editor as separate individual parts, and then join them all into the editor? Like, an fbx for the main body, one for each wheel, and one for the interior?

And thanks for answering the previous questions, Si3v.


PS. About the clueless people asking to be beta testers, "this is why we can't have nice things."

I don't see limitations with that vertices number, remember that it's "PER OBJECT". You could do an entire car with that number, in 1 object.
CatsAreTheWorstDogs it's not possible to import separate parts. 1 car = 1 import.

 

[XN-Sigma]

I don't see limitations with that vertices number, remember that it's "PER OBJECT". You could do an entire car with that number, in 1 object.
CatsAreTheWorstDogs it's not possible to import separate parts. 1 car = 1 import.

Hmm.. OK, so just to clarify, If my car has a hypothetical vertice number of 65000 and say 100000+ triangles it would be able to import still?

 

[nothke]

Hmm.. OK, so just to clarify, If my car has a hypothetical vertice number of 65000 and say 100000+ triangles it would be able to import still?

I think that you confuse "file" with "object". You can have more objects in one .fbx file. With AC editor you must make ONE FILE import, and in that one imported file you can have several objects, dummies, animation rigs...

It sounds to me like a plain term confusion =) but I'll wait for them to confirm this =) I had enough time talking with those cool guys today.. phew can't wait to share more details with you, as soon as I put all on paper =)

 

[XN-Sigma]

Yeah I was kind of confused about that. If it's 65k vertices for each object in the file then it's ok.

 

[Carracerptp]

We will provide a template scene to understand file structure.
digital gauges are supported, animated textures not supported.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Petros Mak]

Just a few questions I have.

1. I noticed you said you guys use 60k for LOD A. I presume you mean Triangles and not Polygon correct? The reason I ask this is because Tri and Poly in that size is completely different which you guys will no doubt know, but many modders do not.

2. Is it 60k inclusive of the HD Interior (for interior/cockpit cam view)? or is there a separate higher quality interior model?

The reason I ask this because while rf2 shied away from this, the original rFactor loaded a higher poly interior model for interior/cockpit cam views. I presume if it is in the 60k limit, that would mean there is no low poly interior at all in LOD A? (Just wondering if you guys used a similar method, that's all).

3. What is the grid size limit? Will support for 57 car grids be possible? (Le Mans 24 hour 2013 grid is 57 cars).

4. When does AC plan to provide support to hardware developers and what's the best way to get such support?

 

[Kevin Leu]

Just a few questions I have.

3. What is the grid size limit? Will support for 57 car grids be possible? (Le Mans 24 hour 2013 grid is 57 cars).

This one was mentioned somewhere already, there will be no hard limit on the grid, if your server can handle it you can race with 100+ cars.

 

[radome]

Just a few questions I have.

1. I noticed you said you guys use 60k for LOD A. I presume you mean Triangles and not Polygon correct? The reason I ask this is because Tri and Poly in that size is completely different which you guys will no doubt know, but many modders do not.

2. Is it 60k inclusive of the HD Interior (for interior/cockpit cam view)? or is there a separate higher quality interior model?

The reason I ask this because while rf2 shied away from this, the original rFactor loaded a higher poly interior model for interior/cockpit cam views. I presume if it is in the 60k limit, that would mean there is no low poly interior at all in LOD A? (Just wondering if you guys used a similar method, that's all).

3. What is the grid size limit? Will support for 57 car grids be possible? (Le Mans 24 hour 2013 grid is 57 cars).

4. When does AC plan to provide support to hardware developers and what's the best way to get such support?

Discussion about item 2 in third post by Aristotelis of the
Car models for Assetto Corsa

thread. Also covers item 1. - "Ok so AC models use around 55 to 65 thousand polygons"....
Excellent point btw. Could be 130K tris

 

[Si3v]

It's triangles but it's not Aris fault don't blame him. Artists talk eachothers about numbers without units, we forgot to mention triangles with him.

Just to answer to the previous questions:
60k TRI = exterior with wheels (and rims ecc)
60k TRI for HD interior
5k TRI for LD interior (used in external cameras and for other cars on track)

edit: these numbers are not A MUST. If a car needed more... we used more (some like 10k more not 100k), same thing with interior. Numbers are intended as "more or less".

There's no grid limit. Track maker decides how many grid slots.

4. When does AC plan to provide support to hardware developers and what's the best way to get such support?

I don't understand the question. Could you be more specific?

 

[juniordee]

I don't understand the question. Could you be more specific?

I think he means support for hardware like home built button boxes, hand brakes, the kind of hardware you can't really buy in store but that hardcore simracers like to use.

 

[Petros Mak]

It's triangles but it's not Aris fault don't blame him. Artists talk eachothers about numbers without units, we forgot to mention triangles with him.

Just to answer to the previous questions:
60k TRI = exterior with wheels (and rims ecc)
60k TRI for HD interior
5k TRI for LD interior (used in external cameras and for other cars on track)

edit: these numbers are not A MUST. If a car needed more... we used more (some like 10k more not 100k), same thing with interior. Numbers are intended as "more or less".

There's no grid limit. Track maker decides how many grid slots.



I don't understand the question. Could you be more specific?

So the HD interior is separate model?

As to the question you didn't understand. We develop Data Display units that connect via USB to PC and display speed, gear, fuel, rev lights, and more info. I've been trying to get in contact with Kunos so we can make our units compatible with the game.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.533576330006493.117062.348282301869231&type=1

You can view there the screenshots of our new software for our units and new units are released soon too for sale. We would like to make Netkar Pro and AC compatible and require plugin data to do that.

This is a video of our old units

 

[2CV SUPER GT]

There's no grid limit. Track maker decides how many grid slots.

This is really nice!

But as I only focuse to build track for online, I would like to know how many players (max) can play together on a track?

I know it's maybe too much ask, feel free to do not reply

 

[William Levesque]

My bet is that it depends on the strength of your server...

 

[nothke]

Part 1:

Ok, after an exhilarating, and incredibly enjoyable 4+ hour conversation with the artists themselves, Luca and Simone, I have managed to find out "a bit" about AC. Mostly about the technical details that I, and I presume, you, were confused or not clear about. As Simone has already answered most of the peoples questions while we were beginning our conversation (and is still answering them), I won’t focus on those.

EDIT+ (ATTENTION: The reason why they requested us to talk on skype and not chat is SO THEY CAN WORK AND TALK SIMULTANEOUSLY!!! So those 4+ hours were not wasted!!)

Now they made me sure to tell you that everything is WIP and things might change in the final release. So don't read this as a bible (as we usually do)

Modelling:

The tracks specifically can have separate graphical and physical models (just reminding).

Potentially for the physical model you can go up to centimeter precision, but for modders there are compromises to be done in terms of memory. It is suggested to go under 30-40cm between the vertices. The system is similar to NetkarPro. The bumps are sharp, physical model is not smoothed between normals, so you can feel the bump very very precise. Therefore you need to be careful about bumps not to make big sharp transitions or it'll make the car jump around. But of course it all takes testing to refine.

The all-mighty AC editor:

What you see in it, is what you will get in the game! You can assign shaders, tag objects and assign parameters (similar to 3dsimed), and you can assign cameras (amazing!) ..and probably more WIP stuff.

So the finished 3d graphical and physical models can be imported (IN ONE FILE!) to the AC Editor. where you set shaders and tags. When you are finished, it then extracts the model and automatically encrypts/packs it into a single file, so you CANNOT open or modify the file after you extracted it!! There is no "asset" system (like in rf) that you can add single objects to the track/car later. Everything needs to be imported to editor TOGETHER, and exported that way. It is not problem for modders of course cause we have original models and when we improve, modify them we just import them together again to AC editor and extract to game. It is also possible to do a batch, so you can assign same parameters if you have eg. 20 models that start with the same phrase.

Now you must be thinking “What, I need to assign stuff every time I modify the model and import again?!?!” Well.. There is one other awesome thing about the editor and that's that when you assign shaders, parameters etc. once, the AC editor SAVES all them and assigns them in an .ini file, as long as the names of objects/materials are the same. So no need to assign shaders EVERY time you import a modified model =) =) As Simone said "Ah!! We would already be dead if there was no such thing!" xD The whole process is designed so it takes basically as little time (as your system allows) to get the track in game and get it driving!

In short: If you download the mod, you cannot open it's files, you can only drive it! (with the exception of car skins which you can add in a separate folder beside others and if you also copy the folder hierarcy it will automatically appear in game UI)

Since all the original content is encrypted, we will receive an unpacked "little track" and a "little car" so modders can see how the process is done. They also assure us that the whole process is going to be SUPER EASY (Luca, sic), and that THAT will be the thing modding community will appreciate a lot.. Who says we will not appreciate other stuff as much?? =)


The grass is NOT procedurally generated, it has been planted on the surface in max.

more about cars, shaders, effects, in next part =)

 

[BanjoMaster]

Part 1:

4+ hour conversation

You realise you just delayed the tech demo, and maybe even game release by 4 hours!?!1?!??

Where's my pitchfork?? GET HIM!!!