Further improvements to LCS and SurfacesFX, online replays, radio app and a bunch of fixes (Patreon)

As always, it took a bit longer than I hoped, but it’s not only the fixes, there are some new quality-of-life improvements as well. And, of course, a lot of fixes, since it’s going to be the next public update too.

Linear color space and default WeatherFX style updates

Of course, there were quite a few bugs with linear color space implementation, but now most of them should be fixed: that includes issues with nePBR shaders, lights range, rendering breaking on reloads, heating materials being broken and more. SSLR should also look a bit better with LCS on, although it might need more work still.

Default WeatherFX style got a few updates and fixes as well. Main change is new cloud layers for clouds up above. Also, there is now a small chance to see a falling star at night. Other than that, fog above (on tracks with tall buildings) and exposure in tunnels should be fixed and working properly now. Oh, and all the extra effects are optional now.

SurfacesFX

Getting closer and closer to a final version, now we’ve added surface type modifiers and rally tyres. A proper rally mode with a functional copilot is coming soon, but for now you can test current progress with these two cars: Toyota Yaris and a rally version of Kunos Celica (updated suspension and tyres). Most tracks should work out of the box, but to be sure simply open “data/surfaces.ini” and add “_EXT_SURFACE_TYPE=GRAVEL” to sections with gravel.

Please note, SurfacesFX is still a subject to change and is not yet available in public build, but it will be soon.

Radio

If you ever looked at Assetto Corsa and thought: “That’s cool and all, but why is there no music?,” I have some great news for you. The whole internet radio thing previously only available in Android Auto has been revisited. Instead, now CSP itself keeps track of the list of stations and manages playback, while other scripts can interact with it and control the state. This way, Android Auto app remains functional, but there is also a new Internet Radio app on the App Shelf seamlessly integrating with it, which is a lot more usable if you want to add your own stations or something. Not only that, the updated system uses API provided by radio.co and laut.fm to show some details for the currently playing track. And the list of stations has been updated as well, with dead ones removed and cool stations like badradio added.

Apps switcher

Sometimes even I’m losing open in-game windows, be it outside of view or just hidden in piles of other windows. Well, now it should be easier to find a missing window with the help of the new Ctrl+Tab shortcut, which works very similar to Alt+Tab in Windows (to keep things familiar), but also moves apps in the view (optional and can be disabled in taskbar settings). It might not be a huge change, but I think it might save some time (definitely saved me some time already).

Replays online

There is a new super-experimental option in General/Developer (at the bottom) allowing you to actually use instant replays right in online races (as long as the car has stopped moving). Not going to hide it, it’s a bit broken, some aspects of CSP weren’t designed for both simultaneous replay playback and recording (because, of course, this way AC should both replay things while continuing simulation and recording new stuff), but it seems to be mostly functional.

Rain FX

Turns out, for quite a long time there was this silly bug in rain physics where AI or remote cars driving far away from the main car in places the player hasn’t visited before would create areas without any puddles at all (which would then remain puddleless for the rest of the session). Recently, due to a change in some visual aspects, that zero got replaced with something like “pretty deep puddles”, so in some races you could see your car suddenly lose all grip in some cursed areas. Well, that one should be fixed now, sorry about that mishap. Apart from that, AIs should be wiser when changing tyres and no longer change tyres on the last lap.

Other notable changes

• Shadows stabilization actually works now, shadows are a lot less shifty.

• New AI Spline Editor app on the App Shelf for tweaking trajectories and sides.

• Web Browser should perform better on Windows 11 with HAGS enabled.

• New option to disable loading of interior and other redundant samples for remote cars that might help with performance and memory consumption.

• WeatherFX got an option allowing conditions outside of their usual range.

Here is the full list of changes. Not a whole lot of new stuff, but now with the public v0.2.3 update and linear color space finished I hope I’ll be able to get back into adding new exciting visual features.

As always, thank you immensely for all the support! Here is a link for a quick update install.