ClearGT: Transparent Car Previews 1.07

ClearGT: Transparent Car Previews

On the quest to modernise Assetto Corsa, one of the biggest changes I've made is to re-work the car previews into a more modern approach.

The backgrounds of the car previews are now the same colour as Content Manager's Light, Dark and Black themes respectively. They're not actually transparent, they're just the same shade, giving them the look of transparency. These also include custom reflection maps to remove the messy and unncessary reflective lines in the standard previews, showing off the car's natural curves without the complications.







Option '02' is a more side-on view.





There's also a Light version, for those wanting a crisp GT4 vibe.





And the same in black.




There's also matching Showrooms, with a lovely pre-rendered look due to their anti-aliasing settings.






Updating Previews

Note: The full paid version of CM is required.

1. Double click the preview files to install them into Content Manager.
   
   
2. Change your theme to Light, Dark or Black. Navigate to: Settings > Content Manager > Appearance. Do not use any background image or any transparency effects.
   
   
3. Now to update the previews. Navigate to 'Content', then 'Cars'.
   
   
4. Click on any car on the left.
   
   
5. Click the tiny arrow next to 'Update Previews' at the bottom of the window, then click 'Options'.
   
   
6. Select the new preview you'd like to use at the bottom of the preference window, then click the 'Update Selected Skin (without confirmation)' button (box with a + in it). This tells Content Manager that this is the default skin to use.
   
   
7. Quit the preview, and select all cars in the left list (click one, then CTRL+A).
   
   
8. Click the drop-down at the bottom and select Look > Update Previews.
   
   
9. Click 'Update XXX cars' when you're ready. This may take a few hours depending on the number of cars

Updating encrypted cars

It's now possible as of the latest Custom Shader Patch (CSP 0.1.80-preview218) to generate previews for encrypted cars. I've included an 'Encrypted' version of each light, dark and black previews, both front and side on, for encrypted cars.

To update encrypted cars, perform the following:

1. Ensure you have CSP 0.1.80-preview218 installed, or the following option will not be visible
2. Navigate to Settings > Content Manager > Custom Showroom, and enable the 'Use CSP for final previews render' option.
3. Using the 'Encrypted' version of the ClearGT previews, update the encrypted car's preview.
4. Return to the previous menu and disable the option.

Note: The previews look slightly different in terms of reflections and lighting, as the 'Use USP for final previews render' is very limited in options. It uses the in-game engine to capture the car's screenshot, so naturally this will look different to the original showroom. It's not recommended to use this for all cars as the end result isn't as desirable, so be sure to disable the option once you've finished, and use the regular previews for non-encrypted cars.

Troubleshooting

• If, when attempting to update all previews, you're finding that it's updating to a different/old preview and not the new one, re-read step 5 and 6.
  
  
• If your open wheel cars are having Halo issues, open the preview again (step 5), click on 'Car' in the preference pane, and select/de-select 'Halo'. Save this as a temporary preview.