Rally mode and more (Patreon)

For the past couple of months, we were primarily focused on a couple of things related to rally, to put Surfaces FX module adding off-road physics to a good use. One of those is a new app meant to function as a copilot, showing and voicing details about upcoming turns, and another is a new mode for a single rally stage (a more advanced rally mode with multiple stages is coming a bit later).

Rally Copilot app

The first main addition is a new app that can help you navigate an unfamiliar track. It shows upcoming turns on HUD, draws them in 3D space and voices them when appropriate (and, of course, you can turn off the parts you don’t need). Actual pace notes are generated automatically based on AI spline and track relief, but there is also a built-in pace notes visual editor you can use to either tweak and improve automatically generated notes, or create a new list. And, similar to the Setup Exchange app, it also allows you to share your prepared notes or download ones prepared by others.

The app comes with an English voice created using an AI voice generator Elevenlabs. There are also two alternative voices demonstrating different ways of preparing your own ones, and a tool that should help to quickly map existing audio files for creating custom voices. With it, creating new voices shouldn’t be too difficult (assuming you already have audio files containing all the phrases).

Also, if car comes with a prepared co-driver model (documentation is coming soon), the app will load it and animate accordingly, all made possible with the help of some new Lua API.

You can find the app on App Shelf, as always. Or, alternatively, CSP should suggest you to install it automatically if you’d use…

Rally Stage mode

A simple single-stage race mode that was initially created more as a proof-of-concept. Unlike regular hotlap mode, it requires you to park the car in front of the starting line and starts counting time after a countdown. Implements its own custom sector time keeping in a reliable database, as well as its own penalties logic and car restoration mechanism.

The mode can be found in the Quick Drive tab of Content Manager (click on the dropdown list on the right of the sublist of modes). Oh, and if you don’t like the way starting gates look, you can always change the style in a configuration tool available in-game when this mode is used.

New Dynamic Reset app

Just a small new tool that could help you learn difficult corners and such. Set a starting point and a finishing point, and it’ll help you to learn that section while keeping track of time and delta. You can also save a section and its results so you could return to learning it in a next session.

Other highlights

Besides the rally features and a new app, the update is mostly fixes, although there are some small new features that might be interesting:

• New physics experiment fixing missing spawn points on some tracks;

• Triple Tweaks module can match uneven sides much better, also allows to configure triple camera behavior individually for different camera modes;

• Chaser Camera module allows to use a different script for secondary camera;

• A bunch of common errors in user content no longer cause Assetto Corsa to crash;

• Replays online are now active by default;

• Grass FX got a new wind logic for a more grassy look and feel;

• Handbrake state syncs online (currently only using a single bit);

• Walking Out mode now uses gamepad for camera controls (and got a bunch of fixes too);

• Also, Android Auto got a web browser (and the YouTube app has been fixed once again).

Notable fixes

In the never-ending pursuit of a stable build, there are, as usual, a lot of fixes, such as:

• Layout of the new pause menu fixed;

• Turbo switches no longer stop working after certain hotkey combinations;

• Surfaces FX no longer messes up AIs driving off-track;

• Odometer loading works again (and if you’re using original launcher, CSP will keep track of total distance driven itself);

• System keybindings should work properly now, including Ctrl+Shift+… ones;

• IME integration fixed, now should properly support advanced input methods (but if it fails again, it can be disabled in GUI settings);

• New trees got a couple of small shading improvements;

• Extra FX’s TAA and SSLR effects work better with LCS active, no more turning sky black or failing to find any reflections;

• AIs now should properly select rain tyres in the rain;

• Visual part for deforming walls should be functional again.

Oh, and the long-standing issue with the domain zone has finally been fixed, apologies for taking so long. Now we’re moving to acstuff.club, please feel free to start updating any URLs you might be using (both domains lead to the same website to keep everything compatible). The update for Content Manager supporting new domain is currently in the untested branch (that’s why quick install link on this post still refers to the old domain), and it’s also attached to this post just in case.

Here is the full list of changes, and here is a quick install link. As usual, thank you so much for all the incredible support! For the upcoming update, among other things, I’m planning on finally rewriting the replays system, which should finally allow us to start implementing some of the more interesting new features and solve some of the current limitations.