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!

 

[nothke]

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

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

Hahaha, I thought somebody would say that!!! The reason why they requested us to talk on skype and not chat is SO THEY CAN WORK AND TALK SIMULTANEOUSLY!!!

I heard many clicks =) And seriously, they really work all the time.

 

[Wardez]

lolol nothke, this is awesome news! Thanks so much for transcribing the important bits of your conversation! This is all setting the foundation for the future of modding in AC, be proud.

Sounds like they've really got workflow down, can't wait to tackle the editor. Going to be fun.
I'm not gonna be able to get on Skype this week but I was going to ask if you got anything, or could ask, about the modular sound system and how that all works.

 

[2CV SUPER GT]

I heard many clicks.

How many CPS (click per second)?


Nice work!! Can't wait to read the next part!

 

[nothke]

Part 2:

Shaders:

There are only a few shaders (7-10), but that can do all the things. Having few shaders reliefs the performance A LOT!. So instead of having a million shaders as in dx9, for example you have a shader that has a lot of different maps but you basically don't need to use all of them. It's really cool that you have maps that can for example control reflection, specular level AND specular power.. You have control over everything in maps. Therefore, theoretically, you can use one material/texture on the whole car, or the whole track, but obviously you will need more to make quality work.

"why isn't the fence blurred?!?!" The problem is in the "alpha blending" method. It needs to be rendered last (on top) and excluded from motion blur. It is common problem in many games, there is no solution for this. The "alpha testing" solution works well, but doesn't give transparent gradients. But it is VERY important to how it looks to drivers, which is how you will see the game 95% of the time. Most of the compromises in AC are made to enhance the driving experience and things like replays, screenshots etc, while important, are always secondary.

Postprocess effects:

Everything about real time AO has already been said, they are not sure about it. It’s a frame killer, it has problems and it doesn't offer as much quality as they want. There will be DOF for trackside cameras. HDR will contain slight bloom, and also it is possible to put HDR textures in game =) Everything in the post can be turned on or off, and you can adjust it’s quality which directly affects performance. The philosophy behind the graphics and post is to make it look "as clean as possible"!

A lot of effort is also done on the UI so that it is very functional and gives a flow. It is very important for the player that it takes very little time from double clicking on a desktop icon to appearing on the track. =)

Surfaces:

Point to point races (hill-climb, rally..) are possible. There is a time control system for it.

Physics for gravel (if you want to make a rally stage) is "particular". You can make materials and change grip, sound, bumpiness, but not be able to simulate wheel "dig" or abrasiveness as in RBR. Bumpiness is a simple wave function (to be used ONLY on grass and gravel traps). The track surface uses a highly detailed physical model so no need for bumpiness. But of course it all depends from the artist.

Few other quick details:

Sky is a special procedural object, not changeable. Sunlight's diffuse, ambient color data is also general, for all tracks (for now). AI racing line is done IN the game by driving.. But the garage, pit, grid spots are boxes that you put in the model and assign the function in editor. There are NO special object names, except for wheels (for now). You can name objects whatever, it is important how you assign parameters in the editor. Suspension rigging is done by using the dummies in max. The hands on steering wheel/shifter will be made by animation rig that we will get in an .fbx file. Editor will only support importing .fbx because it is very flexible, able to import a lot of information including animation.

Damage model, music, multiplayer, all being discussed and worked on, so no public info on that. It is also not sure if there will be an upgrades system.

That’s it what I remember for now from the conversation, if something else my pops up in my head I will share =)

 

[DennS]

Even if I don't understand everything , thank you very much for everyone asking AND answering these questions!

 

[weimaraner]

nothke called it The all-mighty AC editor,
thanks for that!!!

I want to know, - will be the ac editor standalone or part of the simulation?

 

[Shadow Explorer]

@ nothke thanks a lot for posting this,really useful

A couple of questions:

1. Can we use more lods than those specified?
I'm thinking about five

subzero lod with Full detail (I like chamfering as well maybe way too much)
lod 0
then lods 1 to 3 according to Assetto Corsa Specs.


2
Sooner or later I will find out but
In case you have any artist working with softimage XSI,
I would like to know how to scale the model. softimage has it's own measurement units.
should I assume a grid square equals to a meter?

 

[nothke]

@ nothke thanks a lot for posting this,really useful

no prob man

1. Can we use more lods than those specified?
I'm thinking about five

I've asked that and yes, you can use how many lods you want. You specify the lodin and lodout for each object in the editor. Stock AC cars have 5 lods (if I remember correctly)

2. In case you have any artist working with softimage XSI,
I would like to know how to scale the model. softimage has it's own measurement units.
should I assume a grid square equals to a meter?

Luca is working in xsi =)

 

[2CV SUPER GT]

About cars, is there a way to let user choose various optionnal rims or others car manufacturer options?

 

[Si3v]

Car lods are maximum 3.
Editor is standalone
no optional rims at the moment (I think this is one the purposes of car upgrades)

 

[nothke]

Car lods are maximum 3.

Ah sorry, didn't know it's only 3 for cars.

 

[William Levesque]

So we can't tweak the files ? Does that mean for example that you cannot change the camera position ? Or is it in-game ?

Because it is really annoying when the camera just looks down... Y U NO LOOKIN' STRAIGHT AHEAD !?!?!?!

 

[2CV SUPER GT]

About package file from editor, is the entire mod into an only one package file? Or is there many package files into a folder wich content the entire mod?
So, is the sound files separated from 3D package?
Can we separate some textures from 3D package files (not only livery skin)?

Thanks for all these answer, the time you're spending to reply modder's question is really very good point for AC, important as a Ferrari licence.

 

[Djey]

Hi there,

my first question : will there be an easy way to get data from the game in real time
e.g : instant speed i'm running at ? tire temperatures ? wipers activated ? (if any ...)

And if you are allowed to tell more about it :
- is there an exhaustive list of metrics to get ?
- which ones for sure won't be ever visible from outside ?

The goal would be to collect / process this data by a third part software on the machine the game runs on.


Thanks in advance for answering and good luck

 

[CCX]

Hi,
I just have one small question, which I don't know whether you'll be able to answer yet. Is there going to be any way of testing the car you're making, like running a benchmark test? It would be useful if the AC could tell modders the lateral G the car produces, what its max top speed is and what the acceleration times are. I would really appreciate you answering this question, as I think it's a feature that would go hand in hand with the modelling editor. Thanks in advance.

I just want to say thank you to everyone at Kunos for being so open with the community and offering us an opportunity like this. It is really appreciated by everyone. Massive respect to you for answering our questions and having such passion for your work. THANK YOU!

 

[Aristotelis]

There are plenty of "apps" for that kind of car performance measuring, in game.
Can't tell much more about it as we haven't yet decided what to include and what not.

Obviously you can also create your own apps with C++ and Python

 

[CCX]

There are plenty of "apps" for that kind of car performance measuring, in game.
Can't tell much more about it as we haven't yet decided what to include and what not.

Obviously you can also create your own apps with C++ and Python

Great to hear that Aris, many thanks for answering.

 

[Shadow Explorer]

another one I just though,

Can a single piece of mesh use different shader\texture?
Or they should be separated?

 

[Si3v]

separated.
If you use multimaterials with material id, they'll be separated once imported

 

[Aristotelis]

About package file from editor, is the entire mod into an only one package file? Or is there many package files into a folder wich content the entire mod?
So, is the sound files separated from 3D package?
Can we separate some textures from 3D package files (not only livery skin)?

Thanks for all these answer, the time you're spending to reply modder's question is really very good point for AC, important as a Ferrari licence.

The editor creates a single package of all the graphics (3D meshes and Textures) of a single car or a single track, not a group of cars&tracks.
Then you need the physics files folder, the sound files folder and the Ui files folder.

Here's the general hierarchy for a car:
[car folder name]
|- [physics folder] (all the files relative to physics)
|- [sound folder] (all the files relative to sounds)
|- [animation folder] (all the files relative to driver animations)
|- [skin folder] (subfolders for skins and previews for the UI)
|- [ui folder] (files needed for the UI to automatically get information regarding the car)
|- [graphics file generated by the editor]
|- [some extra car related accessory files]

Similar hierarchy is needed for tracks.
If you add a car or a track like this, it will appear automatically in the UI. We have also included "tags" in the UI related files so that the modder can tag its contents and the user can "search" between big numbers of cars and tracks, easier.

If you have created a bigger type of mod, that includes different cars and tracks maybe, then you can create a new UI (more info on this later) that connects all of your mod assets (various cars and tracks). The user can select what UI to use seamlessly at any time.