The Importance of Modding in Sim Racing

Opel Rennbahn.jpg
Why do people mod their racing games? Why go through the arduous tasks involved with creating a piece of software? And how does history fit into all this? Let’s explore the breath that keeps sim racing alive and evolving.

The Obvious: Modding Brings Content​

When talking about different sim racing games, what examples will be brought up? One definite mainstay is Assetto Corsa. Released in December 2014, it’s fair to say this piece of software is by far not the newest. But amongst sim racing titles, it keeps ranking at the top of the steam charts. How?

The simple reason is mods. If there were no metric ton of content available at one’s fingertips, Assetto Corsa would be struggling heavily for players. There are other sims with better graphics, physics, and user experience but the vast amount of content alone that dedicated modelers and programmers have provided the community is breathtaking. Almost as breathtaking as racing your 60s Formula 1 car around the Südschleife, but I digress.

The amount of available racetracks and vehicles one can race remains a top reason why people bother with the ever-aging Assetto Corsa, amongst others.

The Beautiful: Modding Improves Visuals​

The graphics of titles like Assetto Corsa Competizione or the upcoming Rennsport leave us in awe. However, staying with the example of old Assetto Corsa, did you know it can look almost as good as the newer contenders?

Just add a few mods and you can have it all! Next-gen graphics, updated textures, rain, night. All are available. All thanks to the dedicated work of a few individuals.

Mods can make the digital Nordschleife look more like the green hell it is. Driving through the night. Rain comes in. You need to pit, but you are only at Flugplatz. Sweat drops start forming on your forehead. Will I make this lap? – you ask yourself. You brake heavily for the Mutkurve.
Suddenly it clears up. Just a small shower? As you continue driving on, you decide not to pit and stay on slicks.

Currently, this exhilarating experience would only be available thanks to the modders.

The Meaningful: Modding Digitalizes History​

Have you ever heard of the Opel Rennbahn? The former German oval course which hosted racing in between the wars? If you have, that’s probably thanks to the beautiful mod available for Assetto Corsa.

But this German track is by far not the only example of a racing venue forgotten to time. There are hundreds of circuits all around the world you have never seen. Researching on various websites regarding historic race tracks even allows you to realize there are examples of which we have completely forgotten the layout already. In some cases, even the location is unknown. And judging by the fact that motorsport has only started about 130 years ago, it’s sad to see we are already forgetting about some of it.

Not only circuits may suffer this fate, but who knows how many of the early 1900s car manufacturers pioneering the sport suffer a similar fate? Not only the classics but modern vehicles too, lack digital representation! While everyone keeps talking about the Porsches, the Ferraris, and the Corvettes smaller marques are left out in the cold. In a perfect world, every circuit and every vehicle would have a digital form available.

The Powerful: What WE Can Create​

In this sense, every digital recreation of a circuit or a vehicle helps preserve the legacy of motorsports as a whole. And here’s the best thing: Everyone can become part of this.

Tools to work on modding can be 100% free to use. Meaning everyone with a computer can do their part to digitalise a more obscure part of motorsport. The only requirement is determination. It’s simple to start any project but seeing one through is admirable.

So, if you want to help the worldwide community of sim racers, get a 3D-design tool like Blender, learn it and work away on your project. And don’t forget to share!

Thanks​

Let this post be a letter of thanks to every modder out there. Thank you for doing your best to enhance the experiences of users around the globe! Thank you for enabling us to relive the history of racing! And thank you for preserving history!

Are you a modder? Have you ever tried modding for sim racing titles? Or are there any exceptional people out there you would like to thank for their mods? Feel free to let us know in the comments below!
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

G
To me, modders are vitally important to the success of virtual motorsport today, so many amazing works, some even better than the original simulator mods.

I think it's even valid for some who charge for their work when it's great.

On the other hand, unfortunately, there is a lot of poorly made content and we only find it when we install it.

It's a two-way street, but the right side has been much better in recent years.

It's a shame they don't focus so much on offline content when it comes to tracks, the rF2 ones myself I have to redo the AIW of all the tracks I download to race offline
 
Patrik Marek
my personal opinion is that modding makes almost always the game better, because modders can dedicate a lot more time into something they enjoy than developers ever can.
developers have to release the product to pay bills

there are countless of games where mods realyl changed the experience for me personally, even games where I wouldn't really think about modding - like the Emergency4 where someone made a version of the cars for my home country, rather then the default german style etc.
similar can be said about any other game really, Flight simulators, rail simulators etc.

in extreme scenarios ( if I'm not wrong), even making a stand alone game based on mods like PubG , or something like LCPDFR mod for GTA5 that pretty much makes a new game out of it as well.

but yep, the big enemy is that with the more and more detailed based games, more and more detailed physics / sounds, it gets more and more difficult and time consuming and that's what makes it really hard to do this in free time

so perhaps the future of mods will be more similar to what Flight Simulators have been doing for a while now, having a team of modders that make official team, producing officially licenses products , but these being payware of course

to me this isn't really problem though, as I believe that if you want quality consent, you don't mind paying for it
but it can of course mean that there will be fewer mods in total , which could be a good thing too
 
T
Ghoults said:
Your assumption is wrong.

It is huge difference actually. I would not even say rfactor is open to modding. For example you can't do sound mods at all and making any kind of additional content to existing content is almost impossible without few cumbersome exceptions. Not to mention in ac you have a totally new ui, new physics addons created by community and all kinds of totally undoable things in rf2. Where ac modding shines is not its better marketing at all. That is just typical rf speak.

Difficulty is a weird concept anyways. You probably mean difficulty with physics and driving but difficulty is not even a good measure of realism. Iracing is super difficult compared to rf2 for example? More realistic? Don't think so. And I'm not claiming ac is better than rf2 at physics. But I'm claiming a ton of other things.

With modding difficulty is a non-desirable trait. Gpl was difficult to mod but it wasn't even meant to be moddable. It was not difficult to mod by design. It was unmoddable by design. But people reverse engineered it to make it moddable. And there were tons and tons of mods made for it. Thousands and thousands.

What makes modding easy then? Good tools, good documentation, quick and fast workflow from 3d editor or excel into the game, good error handling and well designed framework with good folder structures, naming conventions and file associations. All that allows for fast iterative development, fast concept to in-game progression and linear learning curve that doesn't try to kill you at every step. And all that and more makes it just plain convenient for high skilled professional artists to put their art into the game without having spend years getting a phd in game modding for one game.

And here is where ac shines and rf2 fails hard. Not with marketing or physics quality.... It is always sad how people who know nothing of modding at all think that ac is better modding platform just because of its simpler physics. That's not the reason at all.

Ac is an easy game to mod because it supports modding really well. It supports modding proactively. It has amazing excellent documentation. No, the documentation doesn't teach how to 3d model or how to texture or uvmap a car or track. The guide is pretty much 3d-software agnostic. But it gives the absolutely necessary information about how you make a tach, what are the tris targets for the car, how to set up damage or make animations. Ac also has tools for creating fonts for car lcd displays and an sdk to import 3d models into the game using ANY 3d program you want, including blender, 3dsmax, maya, zmodeller whatever.

I suggest everyone who owns ac to go to their steam folder:
...\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\sdk\dev\car_pipeline_2.0rev
And read that pdf. Rf2 has nothing like that. This is all rf2 has:
(There are couple more but the dev page gives service unavailable error currently)

95% of all that information in that ac document is something that in rf2 you need to reverse engineer like in a 24 year old game that was not meant to be moddable. In rf2 you have no idea at all about file types and rf2 uses all kinds of new and old file types including dds bc1-7, tga and bmp. Just blindly try things until it works, maybe. Because of huge number of unknowns it can take weeks to figure out even the simplest things. For example the only source in rf2 for the upgrade file for a car is a 15 years old rf1 (could have been f1c) document which is partially not up to date with rf2. Which parts are up to date.... blindly try things.

Rf2 has no sdk, gjed was half baked and totally undocumented. Well, they posted screenshots about it, maybe that counts. No tools for any of the rf2 specific stuff. Only things that exists are barebone guide to make a lowpoly car and couple of really well made tutorials for setting up your windscreen wipers. And basically rf2 modding expects you to pirate 3dsmax because their plugin only works on that. All that and more is what makes rf2 HARD to mod and that is what makes ac easy to mod.

So the modding in ac is just looking up that document and seeing how to name things, how to set up your object structures, uvmaps and object names and you're done. This is what allows professional 3d modellers to make high quality content for ac relatively quickly for example. They have a technical document they can look up to see how the game wants things set up. They are after all 3d modellers creating content for a racing sim. Not some data hackers who enjoy figuring out computer puzzles.
Click to expand...
Once again you talk complete nonesense about rF2 modding. You should atleast make the effort search for the right page in in the dev section before you blindly accuse a software for being hard to mod. It's a matter of five minutes to see that there is alot more documentation, obviously enough to get wheels moving. And sounds aren't moddable in rF2? What the hell are you smoking? There are modding teams who adjusted their car sounds for the new sound engine allready, without any documentation. How is that possible when it is impossible? :rolleyes: There are enough people in the rF2 community who showcase that it's very well possible to create fantastic content. But only a few people will admit that the hard part is learning to model using a 3D software. And as allready mentioned, getting to grips with the physics side of things within rF2 is propably a bit more time consuming than within AC as you simply have alot more options. As for AC, there are people who provide help for using alternative solutions for 3DSmax, so why shove that aside? You don't start modding simply due to knowing how a few folder and file structures are set up. Where the hell are you pulling this stuff from? There are tons of tools available, but you simply have to learn how to use them. And no knowledge about any file structure in the world will help you to move vertices and polygons in 3D space. It's never gonna work.

Anyway, I think the original comment that you replied to was about rF1 wich still blows everything away when it comes to mods and support for them. The big difference between rF2 and rF1 is that rF1 development stopped relatively soon while rF2 is still updated after allmost ten years and is still a moving target. Kunos broke a few mods along the AC journey aswell. Missing sounds, does this ring a bell for you?
 
THK84
Durge Driven said:
Why not charge, when barely a few % that download something say thank you


Ungrateful *********
Click to expand...

Hey, I barely say thank you, I'm not ungrateful. Maybe you are the *****?

No I don't pay for mods. I've only done a few liveries here and a few more skins for other games. And a **** ton of artwork restoration and redrawing from scratch (years in the emulator front-end scene). Nice when people do say thank you. I don't care if they don't, I just hope they'll enjoy them like I will.

Am I against payed mod? no! Doesn't mean I'll be forking out the cash. If a game would require mods to be payed so they can take a cut, that would be a different matter.
 
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Durge Driven
Was not directed at you personally or I would have quoted you
Hands up who says please and thanks or similar expression when buying something at shops ?

Thanks has power for you and receiver ;)

As example showing your gratitude to a new painter or modder can give them positivity to keep going
 
Ryno917
There's another aspect to it: creativity.

For me it's always been a creative outlet. Mostly with liveries, but I've also gotten back into 3D with AC for the first time since the heyday of SCGT. Designing my own stuff and then driving it (or competing against it) is the best feeling. Making it my own.
 
THK84
Durge Driven said:
Was not directed at you personally or I would have quoted you
Hands up who says please and thanks or similar expression when buying something at shops ?

Thanks has power for you and receiver ;)

As example showing your gratitude to a new painter or modder can give them positivity to keep going
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't feel personally attacked, should've put a smiley face behind the "maybe you are the *****?"

Just meant to say that was a very broad brush/blanket statement thing.

Yes, saying thanks is positive, but that does not mean everyone who doesn't is ungrateful or a *****.

Also analogies don't always work. Especially comparing the internet to real life. Have you been on the internet? xD
 
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D
THK84 said:
Also analogies don't always work. Especially comparing the internet to real life. Have you been on the internet? xD
Click to expand...
I think the analogy actually works really well in this case. In this internet age, hardly anyone uses the word "thanks" when they download something, so I think it carries much more weight when it is used.
 
THK84
justwannadl said:
I think the analogy actually works really well in this case. In this internet age, hardly anyone uses the word "thanks" when they download something, so I think it carries much more weight when it is used.
Click to expand...

Exactly, so the analogy doesn't work, as IRL, it's a lot just formality, habit, etc. It has more weight here on this corner of the internet. And if you really say thanks, leave a positive comment or review then I guess, as the equivalent of an obviously well meant thank you IRL in stead of just a thank you/clicking a button respectively.

But in general I do agree with him. Just the calling people names as a blanket statement was a bit off imo.

I commented kinda jokingly as my 1st reply, but didn't do enough to make it come across as such. My bad. I have no hard feelings. Just different view maybe, not even that different.
Then again I understand it the way people sometime respond to each other on this forum, made it look like I meant it differently.
 
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Kryztov
Premium
I have enjoyed mods , but there are so many bad ones, I nowadays enjoy the experience of driving more on games like ACC, Raceroom and AMS2 , more stable without (the need for) mods.
 
mopro
I think mods are important both for the users and makers. For users, mods let us enjoy the game for years and in a way, preserving some of the most fantastic and memorable cars and tracks in the history of cars and motor racing. For modders, if done properly, sharing their creations will let them recognized by the community and industries, and this could serves as an entry point for the modders to get into the industries.
 
emasar
Without mods AC will never be the same.
I just wanted to thank @Pyyer & @Daniel Paez, the Reboot Modding Team, the ASR Formula team, all the people have posted something on Race Department and many others for their work...Thanks to you I love every day a bit more this game. Just thank you.
 
Cote Dazur
I would still drive AC the most even if it had zero mod, I have all the other games and today AC is still my favorite one to drive. I see post from people stating game x or game Y have better physic, as if it was a fact, those are just opinions. At one point a lot were claiming PCars2 had better physic, Really?.
One might prefer a game physic over an other, all good, my favorite is AC.

Now the fact that content wise and graphic wise, because it has been embraced by the modding community, AC is in a league of its own, is to me, a demonstration of the power of a game being modable. it can rise a game, like AC, from a masterpiece to a legend.
I sincerely hope a game will top AC, but looking at the actual contenders and what is in the pipe, makes me doubt it will ever happen.

So THANK YOU, to all of you out there, big and small contributors, that are adding content or features to AC, you are all part of the legend in my book.
 
HF2000
Staff
Premium
Cote Dazur said:
I would still drive AC the most even if it had zero mod, I have all the other games and today AC is still my favorite one to drive. I see post from people stating game x or game Y have better physic, as if it was a fact, those are just opinions. At one point a lot were claiming PCars2 had better physic, Really?.
One might prefer a game physic over an other, all good, my favorite is AC.

Now the fact that content wise and graphic wise, because it has been embraced by the modding community, AC is in a league of its own, is to me, a demonstration of the power of a game being modable. it can rise a game, like AC, from a masterpiece to a legend.
I sincerely hope a game will top AC, but looking at the actual contenders and what is in the pipe, makes me doubt it will ever happen.

So THANK YOU, to all of you out there, big and small contributors, that are adding content or features to AC, you are all part of the legend in my book.
Click to expand...
Totally agree on the love for AC. This week we're having:
  • a multiclass LMP1/GT3 race
  • a Mazda 787B race on LeMans with 24h multiplier
  • a multiclass Abarth 500/Mazda MX5 on Kemora
  • a Ligier JS8 on a karttrack version of Montreal.
  • a race with RSS GT1 cars on Road Atlanta.
What a great diversity thanks to all the possibilities provided by AC!
 
Stereo
R Soul said:
They seem to have done a better job with their version of the gMotor2 engine and the people who own the original gMotor2 engine.
Click to expand...
I don't know if you're phrasing it wrong, but AC has zero relation in sourcecode to any sim that came before it, it's not "rf1 with improvements" or something, it's a blank sheet of paper design by the people who built netkar and fva. (which are also not "based on gmotor2") AMS is the one that uses a heavily modified version of RF1.
 
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