0.34 WIP Release of the Assetto Corsa Modding Manual 3.0 (ACMM 3.0)

- EDIT 11/12/2023: Due to a mistake I made, the default tabulation of release 0.34 rev C is completely off. This has been fixed with the revision D (the original upload of this release was revision C, now it has been changed). Sorry for the inconvenience. Damn.

- EDIT 06/02/2024: Yes, I'm still alive. Sadly there won't be new releases of the manual until the end of March. On the support forum thread I had written "until the end of February", but given the recent events in my personal life, that's the new deadline. The progress is very slow, definitely not worth a release. But I finally found some good resources (university vehicle dynamics course, tire data, etc.). It's a lot of material, and will also take time to learn and process, however as I said other stuff has the absolute priority at the moment. Life for me is getting better, but this month is really on fire 🔥🔥🔥 SOLO EXAM SPEEDRUN 200%

- EDIT 22/02/2024: Removed the download links for older releases.

Hi, welcome back!

New update released a bit later than usual, as last week I got sick. Wooooow ❄winter❄ 😩😐😏😄😁😂.

Now I'm fine, but it was kinda rough for three-four days. I took a hot shower and I felt rejuvenated.

I believe that Kunos should share some of their progress with AC2. That did happen for AC, with WIP shots and videos of the devs. To me the new title doesn't have the same level of hype otherwise. It's a "we made it, that's it" approach, like ACC, kind of emotionless. That's probably just a personal feeling, but I can see the difference. Hopefully they will start the Early Access program at some point.

If you think about it, with GTA VI, the leaked development footage greatly increased interest. It's as if it was exactly what people needed. By the way, if you are wondering why this game is so highly anticipated, it is mainly because streamers and youtubers need a reliable source of income. Well, actually that is only part of the story. The gap of more than 10 years is an indirect cause of the great excitement. With the last big bug-filled titles, people are beginning to lose faith in the video game industry, and as a result, all the sectors that depend on it are losing revenue. Other game companies are also probably waiting that R* releases, because it revitalizes the whole market. This does not surprise me at all. But the "coming 2025" eventually dashed all short-term hopes 😂😂😂

Don't get me wrong, I, too, would have liked GTA VI to come out sooner, but open-world titles take the longest to develop, and it was naive of some to think that everything was ready.

Anyway, to my knowledge GTA games do not have a tire contact patch simulation (and likely never will), so let's get back to our business.

The other day I was working a bit on my Alfa P2 mod, and I was wondering "Blender really needs a better snap system". And what did come out with Blender 4.0? A decent snap system! Finally I can do stuff like in my good old Sketchup days! This missing feature was really working against my progress along the learning curve. If I had the money I would totally support the devs of this amazing 3D software, they're honestly doing wonders with every build. Kudos to them. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

- Gud staff for car modders. Very gUd.

- For this release the focus is on quality, not on quantity. Not that the other times it wasn't, but in this instance it is very much on that side of the spectrum.

- Changed very slightly the formatting of some paragraphs to waste less paper.

- Improved definitions and explanations in car.ini for moments of inertia and their estimate. You can already make calculations for the TOTAL inertia of your cars with the formulas (I recommend to use the Best Adjusted Equations), but if you have some patience a spreadsheet for inertia estimation & conversion to SPRUNG will come in the next release(s). It's being tested at the moment.

With this addition, the manual will be one step closer to becoming helpful for immediate practical applications of the physics concepts. That's what I'm interested into. After all, I am both a creator and a user of the book.

- New explanations for altitude sensitivity of aero and engines (engine.ini), along with CSP features.

- Cleaned the paragraph dedicated to BASEY in the suspensions.ini config file and added more details.

- Small corrections in the Python documentation. There are missing functions and identifiers in the official outdated instructions.

- Updated test tracks attachments due to @Stereo's additions to the Test pad map. (A pioneer in the modding community, sometimes a bit lazy. But I can't blame him.)

- And more...

 

The ACMM 3.0 is currently a WIP (Work-In-Progress) project. These releases are early betas.

The package includes (in separate downloads):

• Useful tools (same as 0.33)
  
• Useful tracks for car debugging (NEW!)

[DOWNLOAD 0.34 RELEASE (manual only)] ~172 MB PDF:

- 700+ pages manual with lots of images, descriptions and extended coverage of topics. Optimized high quality because I can.

[DOWNLOAD TOOLS for car/track modding]  ~114 MB ZIP:

- ksEditor (vanilla)

- ksEditorAT v6 (by x4fab)

- nVidia DDS texture plugin for Adobe Photoshop (latest release, for those who don't want to create a nVidia Developer account)

- QuickBMS, with related scripts to unpack models and pack/unpack vehicle .acd data files. Be aware that this tool may not work every time, especially with UNOFFICIAL encryptions.

- Lotus SHARK v4.03c, suspension analysis tool by Lotus.

- Driver rigs for 3DsMax and Blender users + Blender exporter plugin for AC animations (by Stereo).

[DOWNLOAD TOOLS for sound modding] ~301 MB ZIP:

- FMOD Studio 1.08.12 (Windows 32 & 64 bit, Mac OS installers for those who don't want to create an FMOD account)

- FMOD Bank tools (extracts wave samples from pre-existing sound banks)

[DOWNLOAD TEST TRACKS] *NEW!* ~205 MB ZIP:

- Suspensions test track (by chuky500)

- Special Route Vmax (by Stereo)

- Test Pad 0.6 (by Stereo)

Music for when you're cold.

You can contact me with this email: assettocorsathemanual@gmail.com