Sidekick

Sidekick 1.11.1

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After spending a lot of time developing RaceEssentials, I wanted to try a different approach to see how it will work out. This time, I give you Sidekick, a discreet but powerful app. I've learned a lot about AC app development in the past several months and wanted to see how far I can take it. The goal was to make an app with essential data that won't be in your way, but it's still very useful, powerful and adaptable.

If you like this app, consider buying me a drink:



A quick overview of how the app works and what it's capable of:

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Besides the always visible stuff (gear, speed and rpm light), the app is divided into five sections, contents of which can be switched either by mouse or by keyboard (Alt + A to switch between sections, Alt + S to toggle available data in the selected section).

First section is timings. Here, you can toggle current lap time, last lap time, best lap time and personal best lap time. Of course, keeping with tradition of RaceEssentials, lap validity is monitored and personal best laps are saved accross sessions.

Second section is deltas. You're provided with advanced delta calculation using normalized spline position and interpolation for delta best and delta personal best, and a bit more simple distance and speed based deltas to car in front/behind. There's also a delta pacing indicator, showing you whether you're gaining or losing time at any particular moment (delta best and delta personal best only).

Third section is lap number and current position, along with remaining session time for applicable sessions. Pretty simple and self-explanatory.

Fourth section is handling fuel info. You're provided with current fuel amount, and after you complete a lap, you'll be able to check consumption per lap and how many laps you'll be able to complete. If you're in a race with a set number of laps, you'll also have info how much fuel you need to finish the race, and if you're short, how much you need to top up.

Fifth section is all about tyres. You can toggle between tyre wear, tyre temperatures, tyre pressures and ideal values for the compound in use. The app knows ideal temperatures and pressures for all the cars currently available in Assetto Corsa and will color them accordingly.

Besides these five sections, there are also so-called "Dominant events", where all the sections will be hidden temporarily to get your maximum attention on the message. Currently, dominant events are: major FFB clipping (the app won't bother you unless it's really significant), wheel direction detection at race start, setting a best time, setting a personal best time and "session is soon about to end" notification.

A quick FAQ (please read before posting in the support thread):

Q: How do I install this app?
A: Unpack the contents of the zip file in your AC install directory and enable it in Settings. Then, once on the track, turn it on from the vertical apps menu on the right.

Q: I've enabled the app in Settings and turned it on in the apps menu but it's not working.
A: Try one of the following:
- Disable all apps in Settings except Sidekick and see if it works (if that works, start re-enabling apps one by one to see which one was at fault)
- From Documents/Assetto Corsa/cfg folder delete python.ini file, and enable only Sidekick in settings (again, if that works, start re-enabling apps one by one to see which one was at fault)
- If none of the above worked: delete python.ini file (yes, again), delete the entire apps folder (backup it first just in case) from your AC install directory (often found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa) and run Steam integrity check. After that, reinstall Sidekick only and try if it works. If all is ok, only then start adding back one by one the apps you previously had.
- Ultimately if it's still broken, open console while in game by pressing Home key on your keyboard and paste any errors in the support thread.

Q: What can I customize?
A: If you open the Sidekick settings sub-app you'll find several customizable parameters including scaling, mph/kph toggle, opacity, tyre wear scale, rpm light thresholds... There's also a Sidekick car data sub-app with info about the car you're currently driving.

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Q: How do the new optimal shift point rpm lights work?
A: The app pulls data from the file used to draw the power/torque graph in the launcher and uses it to automatically figure out the optimal shift point for each car. On many cars, you won't notice any difference since the engines' maximum power output is very high in the rpm range. But, some cars like SF15-T, Ferrari 458 GT2 and Ferrari 488 GT3 (and many more) reach maximum power on rpms way before the engine hits the limiter. On these cars, there's a learning algorithm that triggers the first time you drive them, where the app learns the gear ratios in order to deduce optimal shift points per gear. Before all of this, the only way to know when to shift correctly on these cars was to look at their dash or steering wheel rpm lights, which can be very inconvenient due to camera choice, FOV, PP filter, steering wheel visibility settings and so on... Now, the app will detect optimal shift points and trigger the rpm lights automatically, per car, without the need to adjust anything. Also, the app detects if the optimal shift point is beyond the limiter and reverts to old behaviour in that case. If for some crazy reason you don't want any of this awesomeness, you can turn it off from the settings sub-app and also adjust the trigger tolerances (although I don't recommend this either).

Q: Mod cars don't have colored temperature, pressure and brake values?
A: I have no way of knowing the ideal values for non-Kunos cars. However, you can use the awesome Content Manager launcher by @x4fab, which can generate the necessary data for Sidekick automatically. You can also add this info yourself by making an *.ini file in compounds or brakes folder. An example (using Ferrari F2002) is provided. The *.ini file must have the same name as the car folder in content/cars and must follow the structure provided in the example.

Q: Delta is not shown?
A: You're either on an outlap, you've visited the pit in the current lap or you haven't done a valid lap yet to compare with.

Q: How does the ERS/KERS/P2P bar work?
A: For ERS, bar shows the remaining battery charge, it's green when the battery is being charged and blue when it isn't. White indicator over the bar shows the current ERS/KERS input while the red indicator shows how much more energy you're allowed to use in the current lap. For P2P, each "bullet" in the bar represents a single P2P activation. The bar is green when the P2P system is ready to activate, blue when the system is currently active and red when you're in cooldown period.

Q: Does this mean RaceEssentials is dead?
A: Yes, @Wally Masterson has kindly taken upon himself to maintain it in working order, but don't count on feature updates. Relevant thread on AC forums is here: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/raceessentials-v1-4-6.41103/

Q: Can I transfer my PB folder to/from RaceEssentials?
A: Yes!

Latest updates

  1. 1.11.1

    - Added all Ferrari Pack car data to ideal temperatures and pressures list - Several other bug...
  2. 1.11

    - Added delta to car in front/behind the player in the deltas section (not very accurate...
  3. 1.10.2

    - Added all R2R (Ready to Race) car data to ideal temperatures and pressures list - Updated the...

Latest reviews

Stunning app, can't race without it!
Powerful App, thanks a lot!
5/5 stars for me. Essential app if you want a small app to show everything you need without hogging all the space. Although i wish i could set the shift lights manually per car, the hybrid v6 f1 cars have different shiftpoints compared to NA v10s
Love it, only feature I'd like to see is the ability to NOT show live delta as I tend to get distracted by it when hotlapping. Otherwise top job
Excellent app ! All you need in a small app. I love it in VR .
Greatest app for AC ever! Would be perfect if there was a third shortcut for toggling the sections back, not only forward. Nevertheless, great app.
great app thank you
Very nice app. Thank you.
Nice
66666
Really love this app, everthing I like in one app. Works Great!
Amazing. thank you
Excellent, super useful!
Cool stuff
Just started back into sim racing after a multi-year hiatus and installed Sidekick about an hour ago. A really well-done and handy utility, for sure. It's great when people in the community put together such excellent work. PayPal donation is on its way. Cheers!
absolutely stunning, would bou you a drink if i had enough money
Superbe applications, j'ai vu une démo dans laquelle l'écran du sidekick était "collé" sur le tableau de bord est non pas fixe sur l'écran, mais je n'y arrive pas, si quelqu'un a une idée, je vous mets le lien : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Elyul9gaU
Does exatcly what it's supposed to do. Completely replaced the default essentials app so 5 stars is only fair!
Super! Now, we can install the sidekick by Topuz of dash and parameter...
Awesome!
Author
Topuz
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367.8 KB
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4.92 star(s) 222 ratings

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