Had an idea for a plugin and wondered if it was possible. Would like a plugin that could be applied to a league season or weekly race server where a user would only have one car all week from Practice to Qualify to Race. Then starting over with a fresh car next week. Consider it an ultra realism restriction... Possible? Difficult to make? Likelihood of use? Where does the accumulation of damage and wear accrue?
The game doesn't offer such control to a plugin. Not 'even' with tyres, which actually are probably quite troublesome because of the sheer amount of data to fully reproduce the state of a tyre (rubber wear at however many spots around the tyre, and rubber ageing, possibly at different depths...) especially when, for example, rejoining a multiplayer server. Whether a plugin or program could be made to 'hack' such a feature, well, anything's possible, but I can't imagine it would be easy to do. On the other hand, I expect ISI to deal with this sort of thing in future, especially tyres but many aspects of a car's condition, and then probably also with more control over how damage occurs, the effect it has, etc. But this sort of stuff seemed a long way off back in 2012, and actually after 3 years it nearly seems further away because what we do have probably isn't as finished as we might have hoped.
I was hoping this info was create locally for the client and could be copied or saved to the server and reinstated at the next session...
Like I said, anything's possible Assuming the game itself can't help, you'd need a plugin/program to monitor the current car damage/state, probably periodically send that data to the server in case of dropout and send at key moments (end of session, leaving server, etc), then when entering the server (or perhaps at the start of a new session) query the server to ask what the current state is, get that info, and re-apply it to the client. That leaves you needing to find the various damage states/values, the connection status so you know when the server has been connected to, a server-side program to receive the ongoing damage data from clients and send when requested, and the game letting you apply damage/other state to the car without being rejected as a potential cheat because a lot of those same values could be cheat targets. It seems plausible, but that last bit could cause issues. To answer the question in your first post more directly, 'damage' isn't accessible at all by plugins. You've got stuff like dent severity around the car, last impact position, time, magnitude, but nothing to do with engine/brake wear, suspension damage, or that kind of thing. Basic tyre condition is available but not in any manner that would be worth trying to apply to the game. So everything would need to be found in memory, and applied in memory. Very similar (if not identical) to an exploit. *Just so I don't give the wrong impression, I personally wouldn't pursue this. For me it's a lot of hassle to end up with something that ISI would probably frown on anyway, would probably need very frequent maintenance for similar reasons, and eventually (hopefully) would be surpassed by improvements ISI makes. But it's a free world
I didn't think about the same avenue as cheats aspect, but figured a plugin would be for specific server installs not on the main system. I think that realistically engine wear would be sufficient and reflect reality best. The goal is to make for more realistic practicing in sessions and greater respect for the cars, being able to throw away car after car leads to a different form of practice I think... Something akin to only getting one life a day in a game like battlefield. You'd take much more care in your actions. External damage made in practice would and could be fixed before the race. Wear on an engine I don't think would or could be... And of course people could practice offline or in another server.
It is possible. In fact there was software in RF1 that using the accumulative tyres wear for meeting and/or number engines for period. The problem of these developments is that are very complex, take a lot of time and do not have the wished recognition and use.
Yeah, I was thinking it wouldn't be very popular... But I also thought it would even out competition and slower drivers would like it.
I agree with the goal, I'd like (for example) crashes in qualifying to at least mean you can't go out again (unless the damage is minor and repairable, but that should take the appropriate time), I'd like to force people to drive around to the pits instead of escaping to set another time, I think a lot of us would like limited tyre sets across a weekend, even the (optional) reinstatement of rF1's ability to carry tyre wear over from qualifying into the race when in parc ferme conditions. I just don't think a plugin/program is the most practical way to do it. Tracking and trying to control practice over a longer period (not just a practice session or two before qualifying, for example) adds more complications regarding mod control that are probably at least as difficult to achieve, and again would have to do things very much like a cheat program would (and any of this has to be applied client side, just like a cheat would... so not easy for ISI to allow)
We've been tlaking about some of the exact things you mentioned. Garry said limiting the tires on a weekend would be easiest. ... Well, if something pops into your mind where you think of a work around of some kind. I run in two leagues, I know they would be interested. I've never built a plugin and don't know the first thing about it, but I do like learning new things. But I don't think any of us are interested in giving cheaters an avenue to do their dirty deeds...
