The rFactor 2 Blog | Cars (Part 2 of 2)

Discussion in 'News & Notifications' started by Paul Jeffrey, Dec 1, 2021.

  1. pilAUTO

    pilAUTO Registered

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    I strongly regret that the blog dedicated to the physics engine, and also that of the graphics engine (in order to discuss performance in particular) are not given priority to some other blogs.

    But hey, the tastes and the colors!
     
  2. I_Bellett

    I_Bellett Registered

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    Q1
    I want you to be able to display the vehicle model in the viewer (gMotor 2.5 Scene Viewer) stored in ModDev.
    It's a hassle to restart rFactor 2 many times to check materials and objects.

    Q2
    Five years ago there was a blog summarizing the process of making physics through BT44. I hope it will be accessible from the DevGuide.
    https://www.studio-397.com/2016/05/hello-and-welcome-to-our-new-physics-development-blog/
    https://www.studio-397.com/2016/05/updating-hdv-and-tbc-files/
    https://www.studio-397.com/2016/06/engine-model-and-gear-ratio-restrictions/
    https://www.studio-397.com/2016/06/ultrachassis-chassis-flex/
    https://www.studio-397.com/2016/07/steering-system-forcetorque-distributions-and-some-little-bits/

    Q3
    I would like to add camber specials and anti-roll bar specials to the official contents GT-R GT500 and 370Z GT4. What kind of cooperation can I get in this case?
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2021
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  3. Alex Sawczuk

    Alex Sawczuk Administrator Staff Member

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    This is already possible, just create a "scn" file for your car from the "gen" file, just removing gen strings and <detail> tags etc.
     
  4. I_Bellett

    I_Bellett Registered

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    Thank you for the information.
    Currently, when I try to open a circuit with Viewerx64Release DX11.exe, it causes a CTD at the end of the load. Therefore, I cannot try the method taught.
     
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  5. Alex Sawczuk

    Alex Sawczuk Administrator Staff Member

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    try this setup file, and edit the file manually to add new locations
     

    Attached Files:

  6. I_Bellett

    I_Bellett Registered

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    Thank you for the file. I'll give it a try.
     
  7. Javibeza

    Javibeza Registered

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    I've got some questions noted in my language but most of them could be described like suggestions or ideas, so I don't know if they would be suitable to this Q&A format.
    Anyway, I'll try to translate and post them later.
     
  8. Bastian Paisler

    Bastian Paisler Registered

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    Modding question for next Q&A:

    Will there be an opportunity to open up the .mas files with sponsor-boards of s397 tracks? Because there are many leagues i know which would lose out on their own sponsor deals if they used s397 tracks...so in the end they won't use your tracks because of that, which is a shame.
     
  9. mixer61

    mixer61 Registered

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    Why not go back to the "T3PA", it was very useful.
     
  10. Alexandr Meshkov

    Alexandr Meshkov Registered

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    Questions
    • Can we have more documentation on cars and plugins modding in dev guide? Right now tracks documentation way better than cars and everything else. There some old modding resources still available with good workflow and step by step tutorials but it is hidden from new users. Current Dev Guide do not contains any basic info for modders about how to start, how to launch car in devmode. Please bring back old ISI tutorials to legacy documentation section or make new.
    • Can you share info on how to implement electric engines? On this feature we don't have any info for modders.
    • What about new car example for devmode use? Skip Barber is quite old now.
    • Can we have some filtering options for materials editor? I mean to filter list of material with different names or shaders and filter track materials from car materials. Some times there couple hundreds materials in the list and it takes time to find something.
    • Can we have track example section for Max 2021 with most common assets to use? Like marshals, digiflags, pit exit and starting lights. Maybe some billboard trees and spectators can be shared with community to use.
     
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  11. I_Bellett

    I_Bellett Registered

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    Q4)
    In the process of making a Car Mod, setting Chassis Flex (Spring, Bending, Yaw twist) feels very difficult.
    Do you have any plans to publish tools, generators, or formulas in DevGuid to help you configure Chassis Flex?

    Q5)
    There are several parameters that are not used in ptool (to be used in Chassis.ini in the future?).
    Do you have any plans to publish reference guides or documentation to take advantage of them?
     
  12. Manfredk2

    Manfredk2 Guest

    Question for the mod blog: is it possible to explain the functions of the AIW editor? Most of them are self-explanatory but some are not - especially the newer ones. Would be great to get some help, optimally with an illustrated example
     
  13. pilAUTO

    pilAUTO Registered

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    Question to the blog :

    Regarding the track "Targa Florio", taken up by different modders over time :

    This track has specificities that make it fantastic, unique and even necessary on rFactor 2.

    Due to these characteristics, would you think that you could help the community to make it a "must have", or even take over the work of the community where it is, and finalize it according to the quality criteria that you deem fit to attribute to it.

    It would be a great way to promote the community work that has already been done on this project.
     
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  14. Ralph_Raccoon

    Ralph_Raccoon Registered

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    I´m not such as deep in modding as toher guys around, but the question i always asking myself by listening to conversations about carmodding, if there is any chance to get a GTish plain physicsbasic for the standard drivetrain types like frontmount- rwd; frontmid - rwd, rearmid rwd and rearengined rwd, so it would be easier to fit modded cars to original content in terms of physiccally behaviour?
     
  15. Javibeza

    Javibeza Registered

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    First let me point out that I'm an amateur simracer, still learning how to mod, but with a many years of experience in league management. Sorry if some of my doubts, questions or suggestions are already explained or don't make sense.

    These are some questions:

    1. What does the tyre wear bar and number exactly represent on the HUD display and telemetry? As we asked in this post:

    https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/remaining-tyre-in-hud-telemetry.64775/#post-1016994

    We saw that last step of "DegradationPerWearFraction" grip level was not being applied where the hud showed 3% (the last 1/32 of the total wear), and it was when HUD shows ~33% on the front and ~50% on the rear tyres.

    The question could be... What is this number representing exactly?

    2. Is TrackLivery="[track], [texture]" option in .veh still broken? In this case, is it planned to be fixed?

    3. What does the negative (left) half of the AbrasionVolumePerUnitEnergy curve represent? I can't understand why half part of the WLF is negative value, and other half positive. This is one of the questions in wich I may be a little lost in engineering terms. We can still just increment or decrement these values to modify wear rates, but without fully understand its implications. Could we get a more in depth explanation of how tyre abrasion gets calculated?

    4. Why cant replays be loaded if rfcmps are installed, but rfmod is not? Could this be modified, so rfmod is no longer needed, as sometimes it can't be downloaded again because it's been used for an event and deleted later. In this case, the replay is lost forever.

    5. Is SafetyCarSpeed variable not working correctly, or is there a specific method to make it work when programming a plugin? Asked in this post:
    https://forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/setting-sc-speed-from-plugin-is-not-working.69096/

    6. Is there any plan of updating or improving plugin support? Adding new variables like enabling or disabling DRS by command so we can disable it under safety car, or ability to log the reason of a penalty given to a driver, so we can disable or change some types of penalties? Those are two examples of what would we need to improve our league plugin, but must be a lot more features to add.
     
  16. Peter Munkholm

    Peter Munkholm Registered

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    - Can you make a simple and easy to understand graphic tool for creating custom tire physics files, with various templates and links to an explanation of what each attribute does?

    - Can you make a simple to understand graphic suspension, engine, and car physics creation tool with links to explanations of what each attribute does (drag and drop suspension anchor points and hinge points, graphic illustration of wing placements, graphic illustration of body and diffuser downforce (perhaps with basic templates included)?

    - Can you make the package tool free of bugs?

    - Can you make it simple to build packages for servers and make it impossible to make packages with random errors?

    - Can you make automatic skin transfer work (garbage collection when leaving servers and validation of file formats)?

    - Can you make the in-game creation of custom skin cars into a simple step-by-step wizard (not just random titled buttons hidden in sub-screens)?

    - Can you add buttons inside the game, that link to a relevant wiki or online information about how specific steps in modding work?

    - Can you make the loading of custom skin cars and any car for that matter, into a smooth non-intrusive, no stutter inducing experience when players join or leave a server (maybe into a separate low-priority thread) and completely remove the yellow cheese placeholder cars?

    I know the answer is yes. But the question is rather: Will you?

    I know this is a big ask and a huge workload. But these are the main points of annoyance picked up from drivers, league managers, and modders during the last 9 years of working with RF2.

    From a league racing standpoint, setting up servers should be as simple as selecting which classes are allowed, and which cars are allowed in each class, and enable auto skin transfer. Now everyone should be able to join the server with their own custom skin car and everyone should be able to see the car displayed properly on track, all the time. There shouldn't be any bugs, white cars, yellow box placeholders, or people not being able to join the server, or any other people being disconnected because of a custom skin car. And no driver should ever need to open Windows Explorer and delete obsolete custom skin cars. It should work by automation and be stable. The game itself should validate custom skin cars and tell the driver that this car is not made properly and which files are not to standard.

    Another thing in regard to testing day servers. Could you make it an option to hide lap times, for competitors? Personally, we like to host public practice servers and have scheduled practice events. But drivers will not participate if they make their pace public. It is a very big wich from many high profile teams to be able to hide lap times in testing day sessions.
     
  17. Chris Lesperance

    Chris Lesperance Registered

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    A few questions, I'm sure as I'll have some more eventually

    Car Painting:
    - It difficult when brining a new car ingame of having to create the .json for the WCCARBODY. I end up having to go ingame, create a new skin, do the settings and then use that as my basemat.json. It is very tedious. Any plans for having this out of game or making it a bit more clear?
    - I've always felt the way of having the skin editing ingame was "destructive". Meaning that if you make changes to a car that came packaged in a mod, there was no way to go back to what it was originally. That could be my opinion on the feeling of that.
    - As I_Bellett mentioned previously with the gMotor 2.5 Scene Viewer. I have not tried the the file that Alex posted yet, but it would make things a lot better and more fluid for that program to be able to open up any "Installed" folder, weather it be vehicles or tracks.

    Mod Dev:
    - Debugging with in Mod Dev is very difficult. When attempting to load a new car and the game CTD or car doesn't load, the log file doesn't always show what the cause it. Two examples: Say you package up a main.mas with the .GEN files, HDV, ini etc. If you have that in your car folder with the files loose in the folder, the game with CTD with nothing listed in the .log. The other example is if the .gen file has a Search Path that is different. I always have to change when ever putting a car in Mod Dev. Some additional debugging of knowing what file is being loaded, knowing if it works or not or what physics line in the .hdv is causing a crash or missing would really help.

    Physics:
    - Is there any plans of making the physics spread sheet more GUI based?
    - I'm not sure if pTools is still used. There was no real instructions on how to use it. I see how it is supposed to work, but wasn't able to work within it. Having the ability to load in .gmt to be able to accurately measure the components and get the suspension joints in an accurate location.
    - Control - U in Mod dev - It would be helpful if there was a way to click on the "x" or one of the items displayed and have it show exactly what that point is within the .hdv or chassis.ini. I'm going through a project now where I can see what I need to change, but the numbers I'm changing isn't what is happening.
    - Tires database - Please more tires :) . More that can be modified to fit the needs of modders
    - Physics Sheet - Would it be possible to have an import function to import existing physics files for editing?

    Getting in game:
    - Is there a possibility of some kind of program or tool that could take a .scn or .gen of a car or track, and then be able to do a one click or very quickly export it into an rF2 format with some kind of default IBL textures applied? There would always be tweaking to be done, but just a quick way to get things initially set up. I think that is a barrier for some people on getting into modding.

    - Is there any plans for unencrypted content? Using existing content to be able to copy settings from helps getting cars in game a lot easier.

    - As mentioned earlier, but an updated Mod Dev car would be great. One with updated IBL. Also having an HDV with all available entries. Things with ABS and TC settings in. Electric motor regen settings. Everything that we could enter in.

    I know there is a barrier with modding, even though there actually isn't too much different than rF1. I think getting a few things to get things more acceptable, and easier to get items in game will help some casual players into the modding scene. That will add more content to the game, which will get more people to play the game.

    I think that is it for now. But I'm sure I'll have more later.
     
  18. Frederick Alonso

    Frederick Alonso Registered

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    Not sure it was posted before: I would love to see ABS and TC indicators on the DashboardElementShader and LED so we as modders can update the RSR, GT3 and future GT4 cars. Thanks upfront.

    Also it would be cool if modders can submit an article to the official Dev corner, S397 could do some validation and give a credit to a modder. It will generate a longterm database with nice tricks and tips for beginners/semi and pro modders. A holy bible for modders :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2021
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  19. juninho tilambucano

    juninho tilambucano Registered

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    the kartsim will be fixed anytime soon (some tracks have weird cut points, the start lights dont behave properly, some karts have DRS enabled)
     
  20. Paul Jeffrey

    Paul Jeffrey

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    Thanks for the questions folks - I'm going to take what we have so far, but no further new submissions will be added past this point.

    Again, thanks for the continued engagement in these blogs, and your responses !
     

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