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lellolillili / rallymodemod

rally mode for BeamNG
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Beta testing / bugs found in version 5bbf17c #4

Open Technologicat opened 6 months ago

Technologicat commented 6 months ago

Hi!

General feedback

First of all, wonderful mod, and great pacenotes! Having BeamNG as the engine for sim rallying takes the experience to a whole another level.

The number of stages included in this mod is impressive, given that this is essentially a small fan project. Great job including rallies for almost all base game maps where having a rally stage makes sense. Laying down the routes must have taken a lot of work, both in planning as well as in execution. So I'd like to say thanks for organizing this sim rally!

That said, while I like sim rallying, I'm not that good at it, so I've mostly concentrated on practicing on the shakedowns for now. The Jungle Rock Island shakedown was surprising - just the right balance between serious WRC and something completely insane like the Motorstorm PS3 games back in the day. While I liked also the easier routes, that one was a nice touch in a "final boss" kind of way. (Especially if you run it with a regular rally car, such as the Cherrier.)

Bug report

Then, speaking as a user of the experimental version of the mod, in case you're still developing the mod later, here are some bugs I found.

All tests were done with commit 5bbf17c, in BeamNG 0.31 (DirectX11 variant), on Linux Mint 21.1 via Proton. Running on Linux shouldn't affect anything here, except that the filesystem has case-sensitive filenames.

Below are my notes, with screenshots, organized by stage.

East Coast gravel

20240306235740_1 Around checkpoint 55: NO Material on the barriers.

Italy shakedown Castelletto

20240307234310_1 After checkpoint 99: Incorrect barrier. The correct route is to turn left. The right turn should be blocked.

20240307234329_1 After checkpoint 102: Missing barrier, not visually obvious which way to go.

Jungle Rock Island shakedown

20240310010020_1 After checkpoint 43: NO Mesh. Also, the path on the right should be blocked. The correct route is on the left (climbing up the small hill, through the "NO Mesh" sign), but the path on the right (downhill) looks more obviously inviting.

20240307172712_1 After checkpoint 53: NO Mesh. This is on the intended route; the player is expected to drive through the "NO Mesh" sign.

Small Island USA special stage

20240310010814_1 Barriers floating in midair at the start line. The ground is bumpy, so fair enough; just mentioning this too.

20240310010849_1 After checkpoint 6: The road straight ahead and the acute right turn should be blocked.

20240310010932_1 After checkpoint 19: The road straight ahead and the right turn should be blocked.

20240310011136_1 After checkpoint 70: The road straight ahead and the left turn should be blocked.

20240310011222_1 After checkpoint 85: The road straight ahead should be blocked. The correct route is the left turn onto gravel, just before the bushes.

20240310011424_1 After checkpoint 125: NO Mesh. Should be a barrier?

Utah shakedown, gravel

20240310012005_1 After checkpoint 11: The road to the left should be blocked.

20240310012014_1 After checkpoint 14: The road straight ahead should be blocked. The tire tracks are a hint (suggesting that the road on the right is used more), but IMHO too subtle while concentrating on rallying. Even on the correct route, it takes a while before the next pacenote comes, so it's important to make the route obvious here.

Utah shakedown, tarmac Utah special stage, tarmac

Unable to start the race.

In both stages, the spawn point is below the ground. May have been broken by updates to the Utah map in one of the recent BeamNG updates?

Carvalho de Rei (mod)

The mod no longer works in BeamNG 0.31. Missing textures in trees, not fixable using the workaround in the BeamNG forum thread. As of February 2024, the mod seems abandoned.

Ideas for future expansion

lellolillili commented 3 months ago

This is amazing, thank you so much! I was checking the notification as I recently have some time to work on this. Let's see what I can fix. Installing 0.32 right now.

I'll be checking this stuff one-by-one, but I'll say that some of the missing road blockings are actually intentional, just like in real WRC. Hard road blocks are a nono for obvious safety reasons. I'll also say that I suspect that some of the seemingly contradictions between road blocks and instructions might actually be timing issues. Hopefully not, since that's harder to fix.

The problem with small island is that it's, well, a small island, so I had to reuse a lot of roads and can't put barriers on them, otherwise you'll find yourself blocked out when you reapproach the junctions later on in the stage.

Not sure if after the fixes I'll have time to make new courses, but I kind of want to, so I'll try my best.

Thank you so much, sorry for late reply, and keep the corrections coming, they are much appreciated!

Re: the other comments: If you have look at the config files, there's a lot of documentation on how to add your own. The RBR community has made a bunch, just look for "RBR voice pack" on youtube and look at the comments under the videos. LeZa, the author of the largest voice pack (which features female voices), did not authorize me to port them to my mod. Fair enough. However, the mod is has all you need so that it is just a matter of downloading whatever sample set you like, rename the sampe with some batch renaming tool, specify replacements for missing samples, etcetera. It even randomizes the sample if you have multiple ones, and allow you to specify different corner conventions. This is all done through config files, where you can also find the documentation.

It's crazy that you're doing the jungle rally, it's straight up silly haha. I wonder whether people might need to use a monster truck for that.

Oh, and I'm also on linus, I never even tested on windows.

Lello

On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 11:28 AM Juha Jeronen @.***> wrote:

Hi!

General feedback

First of all, wonderful mod, and great pacenotes! Having BeamNG as the engine for sim rallying takes the experience to a whole another level.

The number of stages included in this mod is impressive, given that this is essentially a small fan project. Great job including rallies for almost all base game maps where having a rally stage makes sense. Laying down the routes must have taken a lot of work, both in planning as well as in execution. So I'd like to say thanks for organizing this sim rally!

That said, while I like sim rallying, I'm not that good at it, so I've mostly concentrated on practicing on the shakedowns for now. The Jungle Rock Island shakedown was surprising - just the right balance between serious WRC and something completely insane like the Motorstorm PS3 games back in the day. While I liked also the easier routes, that one was a nice touch in a "final boss" kind of way. (Especially if you run it with a regular rally car, such as the Cherrier.)

Bug report

Then, speaking as a user of the experimental version of the mod, in case you're still developing the mod later, here are some bugs I found.

All tests were done with commit 5bbf17c https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/commit/5bbf17cfe9ccb6c166eb05fb8e3b80d26d8b2fce, in BeamNG 0.31 (DirectX11 variant), on Linux Mint 21.1 via Proton. Running on Linux shouldn't affect anything here, except that the filesystem has case-sensitive filenames.

Below are my notes, with screenshots, organized by stage.

East Coast gravel

20240306235740_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/959936b0-8cf2-468e-88b0-438ee0dd4619 Around checkpoint 55: NO Material on the barriers.

Italy shakedown Castelletto

20240307234310_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/789ee744-3a19-45ef-8bc7-02be61f69efc After checkpoint 99: Incorrect barrier. The correct route is to turn left. The right turn should be blocked.

20240307234329_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/eb1a0f61-cb97-4a96-ba8b-e54643b33da3 After checkpoint 102: Missing barrier, not visually obvious which way to go.

Jungle Rock Island shakedown

20240310010020_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/73c46b82-8776-4eb1-bc69-1f9644a2eed3 After checkpoint 43: NO Mesh. Also, the path on the right should be blocked. The correct route is on the left (climbing up the small hill, through the "NO Mesh" sign), but the path on the right (downhill) looks more obviously inviting.

20240307172712_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/b267aaba-8abe-458b-b062-f7eddb33d0d6 After checkpoint 53: NO Mesh. This is on the intended route; the player is expected to drive through the "NO Mesh" sign.

Small Island USA special stage

20240310010814_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/0a3a6921-545f-4917-a996-ece756241b04 Barriers floating in midair at the start line. The ground is bumpy, so fair enough; just mentioning this too.

20240310010849_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/50dfe2fb-7a61-4369-bd72-5bcb08b00db5 After checkpoint 6: The road straight ahead and the acute right turn should be blocked.

20240310010932_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/649da77c-9d01-48e7-9076-0b6b74fbe630 After checkpoint 19: The road straight ahead and the right turn should be blocked.

20240310011136_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/ad12e745-c906-4b8a-954d-468ac7657095 After checkpoint 70: The road straight ahead and the left turn should be blocked.

20240310011222_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/fa803bf3-0441-4365-8fca-6f06ed5cbea9 After checkpoint 85: The road straight ahead should be blocked. The correct route is the left turn onto gravel, just before the bushes.

20240310011424_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/aa644e40-2649-40eb-b5c8-cab4db18b1e7 After checkpoint 125: NO Mesh. Should be a barrier?

Utah shakedown, gravel

20240310012005_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/92facd4c-3e54-481b-a015-455055f517a7 After checkpoint 11: The road to the left should be blocked.

20240310012014_1.jpg (view on web) https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/assets/16972251/952cc52a-7beb-410d-abea-2c51df66405c After checkpoint 14: The road straight ahead should be blocked. The tire tracks are a hint (suggesting that the road on the right is used more), but IMHO too subtle while concentrating on rallying. Even on the correct route, it takes a while before the next pacenote comes, so it's important to make the route obvious here.

Utah shakedown, tarmac Utah special stage, tarmac

Unable to start the race.

In both stages, the spawn point is below the ground. May have been broken by updates to the Utah map in one of the recent BeamNG updates?

Carvalho de Rei (mod)

The mod no longer works in BeamNG 0.31. Missing textures in trees, not fixable using the workaround in the BeamNG forum thread. As of February 2024, the mod seems abandoned.

Ideas for future expansion

  • Option to have a female codriver.
    • WRC10 and Dirt 4 both have one. And I just happen to prefer female characters.
  • As you mentioned on the BeamNG forums, the codriver doesn't currently call out "Finish". Would be a nice addition.
  • Separate shakedowns for those parts of the full special stages currently not available as a shakedown.
    • E.g., I'd like to practice the second half of Jungle Rock Island separately, before tackling both halves in one go. This habit I've picked up playing WRC9 and WRC10. :)
  • Also possibly something to look into: RVC (realtime voice cloning) AI technology.
    • Given just a short clip of someone speaking, RVC will produce arbitrary voice samples, using that voice, that work seamlessly together. What I don't know is whether or not the result will sound like a rally codriver.
  • The West Coast USA builtin map could use a rally stage or two.
  • The BeamNG SEGA Rally https://www.beamng.com/resources/beamng-sega-rally.27581/ mod could use pacenotes for its time trials.
  • There are a couple other high-quality map mods that could benefit from rally pacenotes. If interested, I can dig up a current list of maps based on what I've tested. (I don't have the time to develop the pacenotes myself, though.)

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/lellolillili/rallymodemod/issues/4, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A6RSLDTR7UMJ6ZTRK7A4LGDYXOSMLAVCNFSM6AAAAABEOP7BGGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ASLTON2WKOZSGE3TONBWGA4DQNY . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>

Technologicat commented 1 month ago

Ah, I missed your reply. Thanks again for making this mod!

I'm occasionally playing BeamNG, but haven't had a lot of time for it lately. I might post more comments when/if I find issues.

Regarding the missing road blockings, I see! Thanks for explaining it. My experience comes from playing rally sim games rather than watching the real WRC - specifically, WRC 9, WRC 10, and Dirt Rally 2.0. These games tend to have fully marked routes.

Solid barriers, I agree on the safety aspect. Relevant in BeamNG, too, as it's easy to crash the car. I was thinking of a tape barrier that wouldn't block the car from going through, but would mark which way is the wrong one, making it easier to see at a glance where to go.

Obviously, I'll leave it to you whether you want your mod to have fully marked routes, or to feel more like the real WRC. :)

At least the Italy shakedown Castelletto checkpoint 99 has a genuinely incorrect barrier. The pacenotes are correct: the right 3 (visible in my screenshot) is the turn just before the T junction, and at the T junction, the route makes a square left. Turning left through the barrier, the pacenotes continue normally, and that's indeed the way to the finish line.

Small island, I see. I haven't thought about how the route looks on the map, as I'm dealing with one corner at a time when rallying. My mental representation of a rally stage is more of a 1D list of pacenotes rather than an actual path on a 2D map. Maybe the ambiguity could be solved by some arrow signs, oriented to be easily readable from the direction the car approaches the junction from? That way, the player would know which signs to read.

Thanks for the pointers on the voice pack! I don't know if I'll have the time to build a custom solution (figuring out which samples are missing and mapping the replacements is the slow part), that's precisely why a premade one would be useful. But I understand. Anyway, it makes no functional difference, the included codriver works fine.

Jungle rally... well, speaking as a gamer: Must. Take. Down. Final. Boss. :)

So far, I can sometimes finish the shakedown (with the Cherrier). The full stage is still a no-go. That's why I suggested that being able to practice the second half separately would help a lot. Granted, this would be less like the real WRC, but I think the increase in video game UX friendliness would be worth it.

The level is also so silly hard, that splitting it into two shorter levels could be preferable. But I'm sure some other sim rally enthusiast would complain about a lack of challenge if the full level wasn't there.

By the way, I noticed that in BeamNG 0.32, it's no longer possible to Ctrl+drag nodes in time trial mode. Previously, if you fell off the road, partially broke some aero parts, or managed to end up upside down, you could sometimes fix that with Ctrl+drag (simulating manually pushing the car back to the road or tearing off broken aero parts), and continue rallying.

Since this is no longer possible in 0.32, it would be nice to have a "restart from last checkpoint" option in the rally mod. I don't mind a time penalty (e.g. 5 or even 10 seconds per restart, like the WRC games do) - if the car is still drivable, that would be preferable to fully restarting the stage. If the car breaks, then I think restarting the full stage is fine. Driving with a full damage model is part of the challenge, and an important part of the appeal of BeamNG.