Apps Question for devs/modders - AI cars in multiplayer servers

MrXANA91 · Nov 4, 2023

Hi everyone,

The question : would it be technically possible to mod servers or clients to be able to add AI cars in multiplayer servers, and if so, how hard would it be?

Introduction

I have been playing and enjoying multiplayer Assetto Corsa for quite some time now. Some friends of mine discovered the game quite recently and have been playing offline. I created a private server so that they can come and play with me and I thought "We will be able to add AI to race with and all, it's gonna be great".

AI Multiplayer --> only AI traffic in Assetto Corsa

A lot of other racing games do have this functionnality, but not Assetto Corsa. I was quite disappointed discovering that including AI racing cars in a multiplayer server is currently not possible, except AI traffic for freeroam servers using mods.
There are Assetto Corsa server projects that are dedicated to freeroams, like this project, but nothing about AI racers in multiplayer sessions.

"How hard can it be lol"

I have no practical experience in mod development for Assetto Corsa, so I want to ask proper devs & modders : how hard would it be? Would it even be possible?

Having only the server executable running the AI might be too complicated (re-coding from scratch the AI behavior, no thank you), but what if the server could handle a special Assetto Corsa modified client dedicated to AI handling?
The server would handle the players spot and AI spot, with AI configuration and all, and send signals to the Assetto Corsa modified client. It would be almost like handling real players for the server, but instead this modified client (running alongside the server) would handle those AI players.

Players, what do you think?

I know that it's just ideas from a guy that has no idea about what is and what is not possible. Am I even the only one wanting this? Or is there a whole silent community that would love this? Let me know!

Cheers,
An amateur sim racer & hobbyist C# developper that very much would like to give it a shot.

Yo0601. · Nov 5, 2023

No you are not alone wanting to race AI bots online as we do on offline^^

Sadly we can t do that for the moment, u can still use racing fastlanes to get them acting as racers but they won t overtake and will always follow the splines...playin with speed and brake factor will help for a better immersion on server side.

On offline we can use both Ai behaviour and traffic plan but ai bots from the behaviour dont see those acting as traffic and crash into them, so its not usable for the moment.

Last csp patch has bring something called Custom Ai but i have no clue about this.