Look What The Cat Hacked In - S2E04 - Let's race Is it Sunday yet? If so, it's Look What The Cat Hacked In time! This time 'round, Stefano shows us the new Barcelona by racing against the AI (and it looks very good indeed!) and talks about the updated tyre model, latest AI improvements and the upcoming 1.3 version of the game. Wednesday's stream depends on how work will go. If Stefano finds something that he could hack/build in one hour or so, the stream will happen. Next Sunday Stefano will have a look at programming languages in general and how you can get into this kind of things if you're a beginner - so not strictly Assetto Corsa related, altough he promised to also race one of the Dream Pack 2 cars. As usual, if you don't have the time to watch the entire clip, you can find a comprehensive breakdown of all the things discussed below the video: Tyre model Work ongoing on the updated tyre model for 1.3, called "Version 5". Final "specifications" of the new tyre model aren't set. Not all cars will receive the new tyre model, but they will try to update all the cars in a category at a time. Stefano says the general feeling is that the car is now more stable, less violent to driver inputs. The anti-roll bars now have a much bigger influence on the car balance. AI AI is heavily influenced by the new tyre model. The final AI strategy will be finalised when Kunos will decide what will and what will not get into the new tyre model in 1.3. The AI gas pedal application is now more relaxed. On stiff cars such as the Exos, the transition from understeer to oversteer or viceversa was too fast for the AI to react, but now the AI is more precise. AI will now use DRS where allowed (and with cars that have the feature). 1.3 release (Re)confirmed stuff: 64-bit build, DLC with cars an track (singular), multithreaded physics Stefano showcased the Barcelona circuit in a quick race against the AI. Stefano will show some cars next Sunday, as soon as I get confirmation from Aris that the cars are OK. Graphics Camera-facing spectators in the new Barcelona tracks - the 2D people textures are now always facing the camera now. The effect is that it now looks like more people are in the stands. Q&A Q: Can you add a helicam for the replay? A: One of the reasons we don't do that is that the trees don't look that good from above so we don't want to expose something like that. Q: Do you think laptimes on GT cars will get better or worse with the new tyre model? A: I think they will be slower, especially on tracks with fast corners. Q: Why are certain parts of the telemetry missing from the replay? A: The reason is simple: to lower the size of the replay. Q: Single player pit-stop? A: It will be very difficult. I don't think it will make it in 1.3; it's possible, but improbable. Q: Are there multiple layouts for Barcelona? A: There are two layouts - the GP layout and the MotoGP layout without the last chicane. Q: Are fixed setups coming? A: Yes, fixed setups are coming in 1.3. And they are done the right way: you will put your setup file on the server and it will lock all the values in that setup file. If you want to lock only some settings, you will include only those in your file. Q: Further SLI/Crossfire optimizations? A: No. There is nothing in DirectX10 about SLI or Crossfire and it's all done in the driver. There is nothing we can do within DirectX. Plus, as soon as you implement advance features such as automatic luminance, you will lose a big part of the theoretical advantage of SLI/Crossfire. Q: Any plans to add an option to change car detail level? A: Yeah, I would like that. Q: Will there be any improvements in the driver movement animations? A: No, no way we will do something so small and modify tens of cars to implement it. Q: If you were a butterfly and could fly anywhere in the world, where would you go? A: I've been a fan of Tokyo, but I've seen Santa Monica when I was at E3 and that is a fantastic place, so that is where I would go. Q: Is there a chance for active suspension? A: You know what? It is not that difficult on a computer. Active suspensions are more difficult in real-life, on the computer the only problem is what algorithm you are using. In early days of active suspension in F1 it was distance-based - in one part of the track the suspension was harder, in others softer, etc. So who is going to do these maps? Which player is going to spend all the time to do something like this? We'd spend a lot of time to implement the user interface for something like this and there would be a small number of players using this. Q: Will there be a system where a collision will add camber to a wheel? A: Currently a collision adds toe, but there is no reason it can't add camber as well. Q: Any chance of getting cars from 1950s? A: I would love to. They are my favorite cars, but very difficult - not many players would drive them. Q: Is it still enjoyable working on the game? Do you want to punch someone sometimes? A: Yes, when things don't work. But I think I'm lucky, because when I get up I'm looking forward to do things that day. Also I'm lucky that I've managed to put the company in a situation where I can focus on the things that I like and let someone else handle the things I don't like doing. Q: Is this a sim or a simcade game? A: This is a game that tries to allow as many people as possible to experience the cars in the game as realistic as possible. If you want a sim, go to a company that builds simulators, pay millions of dollars and enjoy the sim. You don't get to choose which people use the game. Q: Did you get the chance to drive any race cars on Vallelunga? A: I think the closest thing was the Lotus 2-Eleven. It's so stiff... but it's amazing how you forget about that after two corners and just drive. And all the things you learn from the simulator immediately apply. I'm sure that, like the "Huttu Experience" shows, if you get into cars that are too extreme as far as G and vibration, then things become complicated physically. But if you get into a car that is not that extreme, you just forget about it and drive and all the things that you learned from the game immediately apply.
