Tracks Pacific Coast 1.0

[correca]

The name of the Flat Out server shows a link where you can see the track and the car list next to its download links. Everyone is welcome

 

[Phoenix77]

No, for those of us of a certain age that's totally normal.

But I'm betting (based on what I see in the downloads section) that I'm probably the only one around here whose idea of a good weekend is digging up some suspension drawings on the web and seeing if I can put a car together with them.

That probably is a sickness then... But it's probably no worse than googling foliage native to the California region looking for decent texture resources, and looking at rock formations

 

[Jez_Hammond]

Hi Phoenix77, thanks for all of the details. Loving the update offline, it will be fantastic to get online and have a session here.

...Ah it was the Veloce car which I don't have. Yes indeed I would have joined if AC could pop up a box with the missing content highlighted. I think it would be easy for the dedicated server app to upload the required download info to the master server. Perhaps only allowing links to trusted sites like here; I don't think it would be a coding nightmare to implement at all, just compare a bunch of content from the cars directory. Perhaps they just don't want external links and also don't want to moderate an ever-changing list...so the trusted thing would work if KS teamed up with RD etc., imo.

Yeah it was awesome trying NFS cars, it reminded me of the 3DO back in the day except better still with a wheel! But tbh I only just tried for a laptime after reading about the sub 9 minute club. I was just outside of it in the MP4-12 (traffic was busy...), so upgraded to the M3 GT2 and yeah I also liked the Nismo here but it was a little heavy...perhaps I shall take it out for a patrol at the weekend haha...but the M3 mmmmmmm that will be my choice if you're all running in the 8s and the server allows it. Else it will be the Mac/Nis as I'm still learning the N/S layouts (hairpin city)... the Pagani plus Le Ferrari (other options I see on the 24/7 server) are just a bit wild when not 100% sure what radius a corner combo is.

I don't have the Japanese pack for the 118 server. I have like the Nord, Brands/Escort, Porsche III, Ferrari 70, packs...perhaps 1 other (Dream 1, 3, Tripl3).
Though I can run like 25 AI, I expect online prediction code is less taxing and that number would increase. Saying that, if the 118 server was that busy I would be on it every day if possible haha!

Ah yes the fast_lane.ai thing, I also must remember to do that when I join this weekend. (thanks for mentioning everyone is welcome @Hchiroku_88PL, is the password still PCH or are the servers now open?)

 

[correca]

On the Flat Out server there are now four police cars looking for bad guys

They are using the skin http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ford-mustang-california-highway-patrol.12451/

 

[garyjpaterson]

No, for those of us of a certain age that's totally normal.

But I'm betting (based on what I see in the downloads section) that I'm probably the only one around here whose idea of a good weekend is digging up some suspension drawings on the web and seeing if I can put a car together with them.

I'd certainly settle for that too And then get carried away 'testing' as well.

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Another great meeting

 

[Phoenix77]

Hi Phoenix77, thanks for all of the details. Loving the update offline, it will be fantastic to get online and have a session here.

No worries mate, really glad you're loving the update... Yeah it's great online, almost a whole different experience. Btw welcome back

Perhaps only allowing links to trusted sites like here; I don't think it would be a coding nightmare to implement at all, just compare a bunch of content from the cars directory. Perhaps they just don't want external links and also don't want to moderate an ever-changing list...so the trusted thing would work if KS teamed up with RD etc., imo.

Kunos and Race Department teaming up... That is a really really good idea, if possible. Maybe suggest that as a potential solution in this thread
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...s-and-the-complications-of-installing.135362/
Would be pretty awesome using just the amazing skins from RD easily online! Let alone cars and tracks

Yeah it was awesome trying NFS cars, it reminded me of the 3DO back in the day except better still with a wheel! But tbh I only just tried for a laptime after reading about the sub 9 minute club. I was just outside of it in the MP4-12 (traffic was busy...)

I originally said 9 mins as a benchmark time for the Aventador... But any run under 9 mins is really quick, for the road cars... F1 cars can get down here in around 6 minutes. So it really depends on whether you're using a road or race car. There are no race cars on the servers at the moment. Only road legal cars.

I'm still learning the N/S layouts (hairpin city)... the Pagani plus Le Ferrari (other options I see on the 24/7 server) are just a bit wild when not 100% sure what radius a corner combo is.

The individual corners have more personality on the current version, so they're a little more recognisable, this will increase Much more on the next version
and with the subtle camber / banking the corners telegraph themselves much more realistically. Hopefully you'll learn them pretty quickly

Though I can run like 25 AI, I expect online prediction code is less taxing and that number would increase. Saying that, if the 118 server was that busy I would be on it every day if possible haha!

There is still some kind of AC engine limitation... above 50 - 55 cars... frames will apparently start dropping. Someone who knows far more than me tested out various car number configurations. If you have a medium strong system the 118 car server should work fine, I had no problem running it

is the password still PCH or are the servers now open?

The servers aren't managed by myself and are open to everyone... no passwords
The "pch" password is only if I host a test server anytime

Will be cool driving with you one day, sounds like you're already pretty quick

 

[Phoenix77]

On the Flat Out server there are now four police cars looking for bad guys

They are using the skin http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ford-mustang-california-highway-patrol.12451/

A very nice idea mate, hope having another downloadable item doesn't complicate people connecting though
Officer Phoenix will have to sign up for duty soon lol Will be interesting seeing who can outrun the law
If you get any cool screenshots feel free to share them... Especially as you now have the extra cameras

 

[Phoenix77]

Another great meeting

Another shame that I couldn't make it mate, glad you're all having great meets...
It sounds like a Pacific Coast Cars & Coffee meet up place... Nice one!
From those screenshots... It also looks like a bit of racing occured... and a few incidents

 

[AccAkut]

Would be pretty awesome using just the amazing skins from RD easily online! Let alone cars and tracks

Live For Speed gives every user a number of "skin slots" to upload to, so that your own selfmade skins appeared on every other racers screen. Granted the file structure was way different than AC, every skin was a single 1024x1024 jpeg texture.

 

[guidofoc]

I found out the guys at SimRacingSystem have devised a way to have players upload their own customized skin before a race on their servers, through an app and some other sorcery..
http://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=736
If i understand correctly you upload your skin to the server while outside the server, and then the other players running the app are able to see it (it gets downloaded automatically to their PCs). I think it could theoretically be possible for someone to use the same principle they used and write an app that a server admin could use for that purpose. Maybe even only the part where the server sends the skin to the clients (so the server admin could decide to have police cars skins, assign them and then the skins would automatically be downloaded to the players PCs and be seen). Wishful thinking..

 

[Jez_Hammond]

Thanks Phoenix77

(quotes left out)
I do have a habit of denting the car a lot around here still, but hopefully online will help with the taking it easy mindset.

I haven't really used car skins unless all opponents look the same in spec races. Go ahead and suggest in the 'install complications' thread yourself if you like. I can imagine it being a great feature too and would want to design one myself if that solution was possible.

Yet to try the Aventador here but I did try the Mustang with the Highway Patrol skin. That was fun and for sure I shall check it out online, as well as the mentioned road cars.

Yes your road cambers, I can only imagine your process but here's what I was wondering... Once I tried a negative crown (mild half-pipe) for an American style road (rain drainage down the center). Does PCH have a crown? For British roads I was using a positive crown, both are fun to me and help in their own ways around corners. I mention this because you say about the road camber in PCH, and that suggests that there is instead a race-track style banking camber with no crown? It's no biggy I just wondered about a subtle feel of oversteer perhaps more often than I expect, perhaps I'm imagining it and my right foot is too heavy...plus disabling TC/ABS on these road cars along with the extremely constrained setup options, I'm overdriving perhaps...

Cool the servers are open, should be fine with any number connected ideal. Yeah cool I will keep an eye on the server and make some time to join in the fun!

 

[Jez_Hammond]

Watched the servers busy Friday night (around 7 clients). I went to join all day on Saturday and nobody was there! Now I see this happen with game development, but I didn't think people took weekends off from sim racing lol ironic!

 

[Phoenix77]

Live For Speed gives every user a number of "skin slots" to upload to, so that your own selfmade skins appeared on every other racers screen. Granted the file structure was way different than AC, every skin was a single 1024x1024 jpeg texture.

That was a great idea, even if it was a 1k texture... It's making an allowance for personalising your car, and that's a great thing.

I found out the guys at SimRacingSystem have devised a way to have players upload their own customized skin before a race on their servers, through an app and some other sorcery..
http://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=736
If i understand correctly you upload your skin to the server while outside the server, and then the other players running the app are able to see it (it gets downloaded automatically to their PCs). I think it could theoretically be possible for someone to use the same principle they used and write an app that a server admin could use for that purpose. Maybe even only the part where the server sends the skin to the clients (so the server admin could decide to have police cars skins, assign them and then the skins would automatically be downloaded to the players PCs and be seen). Wishful thinking..

That sounds pretty clever however they've managed to do that, sorcery indeed.
Thanks for the info, good to know something could be possible

 

[Phoenix77]

Thanks Phoenix77

(quotes left out)
I do have a habit of denting the car a lot around here still, but hopefully online will help with the taking it easy mindset.

I haven't really used car skins unless all opponents look the same in spec races. Go ahead and suggest in the 'install complications' thread yourself if you like. I can imagine it being a great feature too and would want to design one myself if that solution was possible.

Yet to try the Aventador here but I did try the Mustang with the Highway Patrol skin. That was fun and for sure I shall check it out online, as well as the mentioned road cars.

Yes your road cambers, I can only imagine your process but here's what I was wondering... Once I tried a negative crown (mild half-pipe) for an American style road (rain drainage down the center). Does PCH have a crown? For British roads I was using a positive crown, both are fun to me and help in their own ways around corners. I mention this because you say about the road camber in PCH, and that suggests that there is instead a race-track style banking camber with no crown? It's no biggy I just wondered about a subtle feel of oversteer perhaps more often than I expect, perhaps I'm imagining it and my right foot is too heavy...plus disabling TC/ABS on these road cars along with the extremely constrained setup options, I'm overdriving perhaps...

Cool the servers are open, should be fine with any number connected ideal. Yeah cool I will keep an eye on the server and make some time to join in the fun!

Online might help with you taking it easy... Though sometimes it starts off as a cruise then someone puts their foot down... and before you know it... everyone's racing

PCH doesn't really have a strict crown as such, but due to the 20 displacement maps (black and white images) used on the physical mesh, I made the track edges black... with an extremely slight grey gradient towards the centre, and four slightly brighter lines for the double yellows and outer white lines. Then added random darker / lighter areas for dips / bumps. Basically modelling with images.
It's partly due to your right foot being a little heavy, especially if your car ends up getting dented But I was aiming to give it an extremely slight positive crown, so if you get the lines right and get the car planted on the apex you get a very very slight assist. It has to be extremely subtle otherwise the visual and physical meshes would be too far out of sync. There is no crown on the visual, only a very subtle banking, put the 2 together and it does pretty much exactly what I was aiming for

 

[Phoenix77]

Watched the servers busy Friday night (around 7 clients). I went to join all day on Saturday and nobody was there! Now I see this happen with game development, but I didn't think people took weekends off from sim racing lol ironic!

Maybe people are too scared to be on their own in there... I thought Sim Racers would be tougher than that
I've gone in there when it's been empty... To use it as a place to hotlap... and get a time laid down... And then most times, reasonably shortly after people start joining.
It is what it is I suppose, it's there if people want to use it... who knows... If Sim Racers are scared to drive alone for a little while... Maybe the servers wont catch on, and they'll disappear.
I just missed this on Friday night... But there were slightly more than 7 clients

Probably around 20 drivers... Think RC used the mansion free roam to start with... and everyone is spread around the map... intentional design on my part, so that there is instant online traffic (Probably best with 30-40 cars)... If you want everyone together to start with it's best to use Southbound (for around 20 cars) or Northbound (for around 50)

Shame I missed it, looked like fun (Some chilled music was needed though)

 

[Jez_Hammond]

Looks like a placid place to be, I shall stay up later tonight

Yes that reminds me, I was thinking of joining anyway to see if the server had any laptimes cached.

 

[Phoenix77]

Looks like a placid place to be, I shall stay up later tonight

Yes that reminds me, I was thinking of joining anyway to see if the server had any laptimes cached.

Yeah there are sometimes a few guys in there later on... If not the servers run for 10 hours... I don't think it's possible for a server to cache the times between sessions though... But then again if SRS can automatically install skins.. There probably is a way.

I quickly went in the 50 slot server earlier and did a cagey 9:32 in a 458... Go gently until the tyres get up to temp....None of the servers uses blankets, so it can take a few km's to get them warm... When they're up to temp then you can push... you also can't ease up and risk them cooling off. Great fun though.

 

[Jez_Hammond]

I literally fell asleep two nights straight watching that server empty for what seemed like > 10 hours each day! But hey. I don't see the point setting a time that isn't stored by a dedicated server for that session. It would be easy if KS allowed AI online, even if it just sat in the pit.

I did however keep jumping in to AI races with the faster cars which were available online. That was great fun and I really wanted to see others around. Maybe my rep here didn't help as I stuck up for another modder and was biasly suspended.

 

[Jez_Hammond]

<snip>

It seems the other threads have left a <bleep> feeling so I shall voluntarily just get my coat this time. Like someone in PM said "enjoy your ban". Yep auto-bleeping is not charming enough compared with trolling something they haven't even downloaded. Anyway non related to this but I do give up with the forum hostility.

Love PCH maybe see some around some time.