Having recently purchased an AW11 24 Hours of Lemons car, I'm slowly attempting to replicate it in game for some testing and possible planning of upgrades. I found @dylbie 's beta conversion and am trying to get it upgraded to the newest rF2 standards. Physics wise, it still had a .pm file. I used @redapg 's rF2 Tools to convert it into a chassis.ini. But I have an issue. Looking under Ctl-U in Mod Dev, it had like 10 ft tall shocks/struts. Driving the car accurate body roll. The AI on the other hand, has massive body roll. I have a feeling it is do to this set up. The player car tends to sit with very low ride height vs the AI sitting where it should be. The question I have is where do I go to change that? Is that within the chassis.ini, or HDV? I know the AI uses different tires vs the player. But what is the difference between AI and player suspension? Tangent: It would be awesome if the physics spreadsheet allowed for the importing of current files. I'm only part way through adding in what i have manually and I feel overwhelmed. And I know I don't have everything in there exactly as not all .hdv entries match up with what is on the form or vise versa. /End Tangent.
You should really have proper length springs - I don't know if there's any reason to have them set up that way. It could very well lead to an AI mismatch as they use different spring and rubber rates generally. I presume the .pm had it set up this way as well? I very much doubt redapg's tools would have done it unless it's done its best with some very strange existing figures. I think you're better off verifying suspension component layout is correct and then use the correct spring rates and available travel, via the spreadsheet. On your tangent, the spreadsheet available has a lot more 'source' information it uses to then generate the hdv etc files. You can't back-populate all those fields from hdv & chassis, because there isn't a single solution. But a simplified spreadsheet that basically just generated those files, yes - and then what's to be gained by using the spreadsheet? (I guess some suspension editing might be easier, but you'd still at least have to define what type of suspension you're looking to emulate, and then probably help out here and there)
@Chris Lesperance If you use my Tools to generate the Flex Chassis, you have to use unedited rFactor 1 Files! That is very important. And before you do it, you can check the Suspension Geometry with the rF1 Suspension Editor from "SimFactor", that i have uploaded here, that you can see how it looks. The "Dampers" are defined in the rF1 HDV File as: PushrodSpindle=..... // spring/damper connection to spindle or axle (relative to wheel center) PushrodBody=..... // spring/damper connection to body (relative to wheel center) And if you get stuck with something, feel free to contact me directly here, by a private Conversation or by eMail, with the Adress from my Tools main Site.
That is what I am trying to figure out. What does the AI use as compared to the player. I'm still really much a noob when it comes to physics. I'm looking at the files, but am not noticing anything too far off. I'll see if I can track down where those rates and travel are, weather it be hdv or chassis.ini. I still haven't gotten everything into the sheet yet. It's a very tedious process and then I get frustrated and walk away LOL! Thanks. I had assumed with the base mod being a few years old, I knew a lot of the files including the .pm was a direct transfer from rF1. Maybe there has been some edits when dylbie converted it over. I'm not finding the original rF1 mod, so I'll have to continue the search for that or start doing the suspension from scratch. I'll see if those Pushrod numbers are the ones out of line. Once I get my real car within direct access, then I'll start to plug in some real measurements, hopefully
I had a friend who competed in one of those events. His Lemon was painted using dozens of colored rolls of duct tape. Stripe after stripe he and his crew laid out the multi-colored design using just tape. Have fun!
Blue or red valve covers? I would take some basic measurements like lower control arms etc., just to validate the chassis model. Its a day's work but if you're going to match it up will be worthwhile. The 4A-GE engine is pretty bulletproof, just keep the oil topped up. The FI system kills the engine. Swapping to sidedraft Webers alone adds about 30 HP, the FI is that restrictive FWIW. We used those engines in Formula Atlantic years ago, 9800 RPM.
Yeah that is something I'm going to do once I get the car a bit closer. The diagram helps, but doesn't quite get the "blueprint" type view. I'm sure some one that is better at physics construction would be able to take those and actually make it, but me being a Noob at it makes it a bit difficult. The car is currently at my parents garage, which is 3 hours away. Actually this car has an engine swapped JDM 3S-GE "Red Top". I guess it was used in the MR2 in 1996-1997. 2.0L, 200hp it is rated at. So that is something else I'm having to build ingame. So something else. I did get the "springs" figured out. Thanks @redapg as it was the PushRods that control that. So the next question is if I run the chassis.ini that is converted from the .PM, my car sits really low. The AI cars have extreme body roll. It works good with the the player, other than the car sitting low. If I use the .PM in the HDV, the car rides correctly and the AI doesn't have the body roll. Any reasons for that that I can look into? Converted chassis.ini from .PM (Notice front rim to fender gap) Running original .PM AI Body roll with chassis.ini
Looks like the logical lower control arm inner link axis is about 10" below the pavement Did you view it in Ptool? I've run across a few mods where a working pm file from rF1 had geometry that won't work in rF2. Don't know the rules for the class you're running, but it sounds like motor swaps are OK at least within the breed. Otherwise I think a 3 rotor would probably work rather nicely with about 3 extra fuel tanks
There are so many Things that have an effect, that it is hard to try to give Advices, without to have the Mod on the own PC. To start, i always would recommend to check and, if necessary, move the Position of the 3D Model. From my Experience, the best Position is, when the lowest Part of the Cars Body/Chassis is at Height 0 and in the HDV, the GraphicalOffset=... is set to (0.0, 0.0, 0.0). The next Thing is the Suspension Geometry. In rF1 you easily could use a lot of different Suspension Geometry Configurations, like stiff rear Axles for Example. When i did write my rF1 to rF2 Physics Conversion Tool, i did notice that some of these Configurations didn't work in rF2 anymore, because with the rF2 flex Chassis Model, they could not not stand the Forces anymore. The @Michael Borda Physics Spreadsheet is made in a Way, that you have to use a double Wishbone Configuration at both Axles. But also with that, you can not use every Geometry that you like. And the automatically, from the PM generated Chassis.ini, is a stiff one, with 1 Body only and no Subbodies. With that, you at least can drive the Car in DevMode, independent of it's used Suspension Geometry. As said, there are so many Things for that you have to care for and look at, that it is almost impossible to help, without to have the Mod. It's the same with the Tires, where you, in rF2, get the best Results, when the Sizes of the Tires and Rims of the 3D, the tbc and tgm, exactly match to each other. It would fill a Book, to list every possible Reason, for Problems, that may appear when you convert a Car from rF1 to rF2.
