Opinion - Mod or Not to Mod?

If a simulator is not moddable, it is soon forgotten how beautiful ACC is, it will not have a long life as AC Developers should be grateful to modders for helping them make their product even more popular
 
For me, at launch, It was ugly, played poorly, had crap content, a fully mental system for purchase and all the mods were on RF1.

Then AC come along and crushed it. Now AC has all the mods.

Indeed. I was hugely disappointed when I got rFactor 2 (I bought it quickly after it was launched) and quickly regretted my purchase. Many years later, I've lost my original key for the game but I don't feel like buying it again, mainly because the DLCs that interest me are very expensive and I have other games to play anyway.
 
I'll give it a shot to any mod, as long as the car/track interests me, if it's total crap i'll delete it no big deal.
Can't really understand why people would say "no" to modded content altogether.
With time you become familiar with the the best modding teams, but when AC was getting started very few of the old school Rfactor names were around (and their output wasn't super high).

This is where a site like RaceDepartment is very welcome.
RaceDepartment's options of better rated first or most downloaded help a lot(plus the mod support forums) separating the good stuff from the crap... I lost my mod folder and had no trouble finding exactly the mods i wanted (and it was a fair number).

Huge improvement over the crapshoot that was Rfactor Central.
 
From wich game is the title pricture of this article from ? Looks very interesting, also great graphics. :)
The header Mustang picture is Content Manager's custom showroom, which uses its own separate graphics engine that's similar to AC with some non-realtime stuff like accumulation DOF.

Links to the mods in the article are

 
The header Mustang picture is Content Manager's custom showroom, which uses its own separate graphics engine that's similar to AC with some non-realtime stuff like accumulation DOF.

Links to the mods in the article are


Ah great, thanks. I was hoping it is some kind of a new undiscorvered driving game. :)
 
Some games would be better without modding and some better with. I think modding works well with most of the sims expect RF2. Rf2 should not be moddable to force the devs to work harder... RF2 devs should not let the community to rely on outdated mods, lots of 4 stars workshop contents , we need more 5 stars contents ( factory content ).
Nobody wants make mods for RF2, because even skins stop working after the update. :unsure:
 
I'll make a guess, that rF2 is the last popular simulation title that allows moddign and is still in development. When rF2 development is going to be stopped it is very likely that it will be the end of modding era in simulations.

Actually, I believe that end of rF2 might also be end of hardcore simulations for the future to come, perhaps only iRacing will carry on. Assetto Corsa looks like it was end of content variety of simracing. So one piece of pie is already dead (in terms of active development). Next will be hardcore physics and modding - rF2. But there probably will still be sims like iRacing and ACC to race GT3 at SPA and then to talk uneducated **** about how FFB is not as great as it could be and "no grip at all".... for the rest of etternity, for the rest of etternity, for the rest of etternity, for the rest of etternity, for the rest of etternity....
 
Mod or Not to Mod?

Before I get into the heart of this thread let me first express my admiration for those that are capable of creating a mod, put in the hours of work and provide them to the masses for little or zero financial gain. This is not intended as a shot at you rather wondering out loud what the developers do in ensuring that all mods are compatible with past, current and future versions of the game/sim. Also, how users navigate the choice of including mods or relying on the OEM and DLC content provided for their racing enjoyment.

Over the years mods have played an integral part for many wantabe racers to enjoy their favourite sim, but at what cost? Not necessarily financial but to the integrity of the sim. I remember downloading the latest real life liveries and driver names in the early nineties to the Grand Prix series which would cause occasional issues and require a re-install of the games software to get it back to level. After a few updates to mods and the whole process of hits, misses, and eventual phone calls to my smarter brother to help sort things out I decided to leave well enough alone and kept the last mod that had the classic red and white of the Marlboro McLaren and drivers the likes of Ayrton Senna Nigel Mansell and Jean Alesi.

View attachment 348334

Fast forward to the latest decade and the mods available today…WOW. There is no shortage of mods in most of the games/sims available, sans a select few. The work and quality of any individual mod is diverse as the number that are available, but how well do they work with others within the sim? What effect does it have on the developers as when a base update is made and the complaints begin to roll in that the mod that used to work, now…well doesn’t work so well anymore? Does the number of mods available provide a progression of the base software or does it retard it?

Is there a best practice to address the integrity of the mods available, or more importantly how they make it onto ones PC and eventually in the game/sim? I know there is at least one developer that have shared their blueprint to the modders, but what is the vetting process for these mods to be offered and added to a game/sim by the user?

View attachment 348333

Tell us what you think are mods a must have, or is it keep them away from my sim? Or do you fall somewhere in the middle? And what is your vetting process as to what mod you add?

View attachment 348335


Well as someone who STILL can't get a decent copy of his own personal car into ANY game modded OR not in spite of multiple versions available I'm still quite for them. The chance to operate such niceties as the Tipo pictured above or the DRM revival for AC with the fire breathing monsters from Group 5- I don't "care" whether or not they are note perfect realistic, we're looking for an amalgam here first. Do the sounds agree with what the car is doing, do I feel connected to an analog machine from in the '60's or '70's if that is the era being simulated? By that what I mean is a bit harder to nail down precisely- in X Plane I think of the 172 as fatter digitally than in FSX or P3D, again what I mean is richer and generally more fulfilling to operate.

In simulator analogy let's take poor old pCars 1 and compare it to let's say Assetto Corsa. Or even better yet GT Sport and the little Type II GTI they just released for it. As someone whose last experience of a GTI of that vintage was when they were new I can say Kaz NAILED it. That car is a spot-on digital replica of the GTI I had for a driver in '83. By which I mean that when I took it to the Nordschleiffe it behaved precisely how I felt the real car felt back in '83 right down to the way it slid when I threw it around a certain way. Not once, not twice but every time until the tires went away. Just like the real car within limits of an admittedly canned physics routine.

Now we've got mod teams who have poured YEARS of themselves into it, bringing us content that frankly wouldn't get into our games the conventional way due to all the licensing crap that gets in the way let alone the actual acquisition of data that is so all-important. I was just mentioning this very thing on the Codies Steam Forum- VOTE with your wallets. We don't buy they won't make it's true but it seems that with all the quality payware everyone gets so heated up about we get some great content.

I happen to KNOW that one of the lead developers for "one" of these modern racing sims moonlights as a modder and I imagine MORE than one does. I know because the Paypal shows who it is and their name is pretty prominently displayed on the credits for that game. I also know it was their moonlight endeavor that released my favorite C6 ride as Freeware and the ONLY Corvette of that gen to even "closely" match my own car's handling although down a couple of ponies due to regs at the time. Actual ZR-1 has 638 HP with 605 TQ, mine is an earlier vintage before '11 equipped with what became the MH3 transmission code. The GT2 they chose to replicate has 525HP and iron brakes for homologization purposes. But the salient thing is that tranny, it whines and scoots out in all six gears, just like mine. And UNLIKE the C6 modded in or not in any game available for PC right now so what will it be? Additionally I find the supposedly validated and approved by GM C6 stuff from ISI to be questionable and I always have so saying the factory approved it is a little like saying they approved the Chinese key chain I may or may not possess.
A dude from Sales and a dude from Legal looked at a sample, said 'yep, it "looks" like a Corvette" and "what kinda numbers ya runnin' there buddy?" at someone who looked like he could crunch g pad data at it.

Suspiciously bereft of decent content it has beautiful but non-functional Chevrolet cars with lifeless guys with hairy forearms to drive them. Just TRY emulating Jim Mero during the Blue Devil tests at the Nordy with what ISI gave us- a freaking uncontrollable joke that will go into unprovoked wheelspin in almost ANY variant. And a top gear that ONLY has an overdrive which is wrong for the ZR-1 and any of the Z-O6's so equipped.

I'm not really trying to ISI bash here so I'm sorry if it appeared that way. My point was that a MOD TEAM made a car that is much more reflective of the real thing than the officially licensed entity was able to "validate" for all of us prospective buyers at the time, a woeful trick.

But it did earn said Mod Team my Patronage and support. I purchase mods of theirs that are available across different platforms and it pleases me that we have options. I have what passes for the new Ford now , which I note is available from a variety of vendors now and for a variety of purposes, this can only lead to good things even if "some" modders have muddied it up so badly. I hate to bring up Flight Sims again but over there there is NO talk of free Vs. not, not really.
Ladies and Gents who want quality will pay, witness Carenado- and I've got more than a few from them in both fsx/p3d flavor AND now in X Plane as well. The payware bug in the flightsim community can be a powerful thing. I have thousands spent in FSX now after all the years, and all of that will become "as tears, like rain" as Roy Baty said at the end of Blade Runner once MSFS 2020 releases.

I find modders with their mostly modest pricing schemes and largely done "for the love of an under represented facet" ethos to be consistent with the very best of that long ago late 90's, early 2000's spirit of sharing for the love of the sport, when great mods could be had for the price of your game and a download. But you see MANY of those old files contained copyrighted materials themselves, eh? Which were further then modified to show correct ads, tobacco signage, etc. Some of those people are gainfully employed elsewhere now but they did acquire their initial talent and skills in the modding community, and especially modding ISI's stuff as it was easy to write for and readily available everywhere via a nascent EA.

The rest as they say is History. I still have a Pentium III 1 Ghz FCPGA running 98se with 768Mb of RAM and a VooDoo 5500 which could probably RUN those old games and mods. And said games and MODS on discs somewhere on spindles that are long since corroded-story of my life.

My point was that it would be a very dull place, especially here in Motorsportsville without the damned modders and I for one will vote for the reputable ones with my wallet. I've chewed one or two of them out, especially with some of the rinky-dink payment schema they have in place, but as for the modders themselves I have found them to be a passionate lot who really don't appear to be making what could in any way be conceived of as Bank. They mostly just do it to hear that snap of a vintage Alpha's exhaust the way they want to, and at what seems to be the right time in the shift point for them. And if a few more of us lot agree because we are really "feeling it" there in VR after having done a few laps, where's the harm? I mean unless you actually have let us say, a P2 Monoposto laying about? No? So much like I do not bash on other people for enjoying the ISI Corvettes in whatever form they choose to enjoy them in spite of my finding the handling to be horribly wrong in every form I keep it to myself.

But quickly reading this over here I seem a lot more snarky than I am meaning to seem. I just don't think Codies automatically deserves all the F1 action for a decade just because they paid to have the console license trade. I don't see why they don't just actually "learn 2 code" as they have with such titles as Dirt Rally and it's slightly more glitzy and opportunistic sequel and then just farm out the console conversion as EA/ISI did when they had the license. Kill two birds with not quite one stone but cuts your aftermarket bitching down and slays two distinctly different dragons at the same time.
 
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Surely the Dev Studios look to Modders, some must get jobs at Studios using their mods as a resume!?!?

I bootcamp my Mac to play Assetto Corsa, and plan to buy a PC for this game exclusively , i may buy and play others games, but the reason to buy a PC is for AC.

Thank you to the people out there that create the Mod content.

PS Buy AC, don't pirate. Give kunos reason to open up ACC and keep updating AC.
 
Mods rule! Always been so appreciative of modders. People who have the skills and who create things they would love to have and then also share it with the rest of us. Thats an awesome attitude spreading the joy around to those who cant and even inspiring others to have a go at modding. Mods will always be greatly appreciated.
 
Surely the Dev Studios look to Modders, some must get jobs at Studios using their mods as a resume!?!?

Yes.

Kunos' Stefano began as a modder with NetKar and Aris worked on well known mods for GTR2 such as Power & Glory. At least one of P&Gs mod team modelers went to work for Kunos at least on a sub-contract basis.

Slightly Mad Studios began as a mod team producing the FIA GT 2002 mod which went on to become GTR. They also recruited modders such as the GPLEAs Gustavo Oliviera and Ducfreak well known for his GT Legends sound mods.

Reiza's Head of Studio Renato started as a modder on the F1 1979 mod back in rFactor1 days. Niels also started a an rFactor modder. At least one of their track makers Alex Sawczuk was a modder.

In Sector3 at least one track maker (com8) began as a modder and their current physics guy, Alex, began as part of the VLM team. Georg was also involved in modding I believe.

I'm not really up to speed on Studio397 staff, but didn't sound modder Fonsecker go to work for them?
 

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