VR update, and some other additions and improvements (Patreon)

Another update! Sorry it took so long, as usual I kept coming up with new ideas and finding new bugs here and there. Here are few highlights:

• Major VR update: Single Pass Stereo (drawing the whole scene in a single pass) should reduce CPU load, Variable Rate Shading (currently only available on NVIDIA GPUs) can improve visual quality and/or performance (depending on settings). Oculus got ASW 2.0 support, and controllers now can be used to interact with HUD, touchscreens and cockpit buttons (if car would have a script setting those) and adjust mirrors (also, track or online scripts can add additional interactive elements for new racing modes or something like that).

• A lot of new server options: jumping due to connection errors cars can turn ghostly and not cause crashes, servers can force extended car and track physics, require certain CSP modules to be active, disable live settings changes, automatically reset cars stuck in walls or falling through ground, set custom rain racing line parameters and more.

• WeatherFX implementation scripts now can create new original effects using their own shaders, like auroras, lightnings, dust storms, tornadoes, etc. Default WeatherFX script already got auroras, rain haze (the effect that was missing from RainFX) and fog hiding upper parts of sky scrapers in foggy conditions. Also, now it has proper rain audio, and wiper sounds are now working by default.

• Now CSP comes with few built-in Lua apps: previously mentioned mirrors configurator and controls tweaker for adjusting FFB and more live, and a new app Setup Exchange for sharing and loading setups while editing car setup (and, of course, there is new Lua API allowing to create other tools extending setup menu like that):

• New showroom mode for AC with CSP: available from updated CM, in that mode CSP disables audio, Python apps and such to try and load the game as fast as possible, automatically adding missing things to showrooms like spawn points and physics meshes:

• A bunch of new shaders: changing height water for water drains, rainbow stickers, ChromaFlair car paint, car paint and variation of “ksPerPixelMultiMap_AT_NMDetail” with stickers mapped using UV2 and more. Also, AC finally got proper PBR shaders for tracks, but they would still need more work until they’d be usable for creating whole tracks (currently only basic shaders are available). And water shader got updated, now with optional depth-aware transparency (for fitting tracks) and caustics with ExtraFX:

• And a bunch of smaller things, like stopping AC from showing other tracks with no setups in setup menu, new optimizations, various fixes (new wipers are finally fixed!), an ability to replace AC AI and control cars externally and a lot of additions to Lua API. Here is the full list of changes. Also, not mentioned there: DRM cars now will have their rain tyres replaced by new CSP rain tyres, and rain got a few more effects (that rain haze and rain drop splashes).

Thank you so much for all of the support, and, again, sorry it took so long. I’ll try to get the next update sooner, or at least get some stable and shareable preview builds. Next on my list (can’t say for sure if I’d be able to do it, but I’ll try): try to get TreesFX to work, add Leap integration and try to add local reflections for VR, finish PBR shaders for tracks and, of course, work on all the documentation.

(Public CM update will be ready a bit later, I just realized fix for fixed setups online is not entirely complete yet, so I’ll need to quickly patch it first. Here is a preview build for it so far if you’d want to try new showroom mode. Simply use original AC showroom with a new option toggled.)