Driving Modes: Brainstorming

That's a nice feature that can be very useful

I have a few:
Tire pressure
Color
Steering/FFB (like city steering mode or so) or just hydro's in general
Diff/transfercase etc

 

I heard that in some modern cars interior lighting changes of color when using Sport Modes (Like for example changing the gauges lighting from white to red). It may be interesting to see in moder cars.

Other cars can also display turbo boost pressure and other performance statistics while in Sport/Track mode.


In this Peugeot 308GTI you can see both features (Change of mode happens at 0:17)



Talking about driving modes, an Eco mode, Offroad mode and Track mode would be cool. And maybe an Individual mode (In wich each subsystem can be adjusted individually, but that seems very difficult to program )

 

So essentially we are talking about implementing something along the lines of this?

I think this would be a great idea! implementation might be a little difficult not only from a coding standpoint (I feel like you guys can handle ourselves on that front) but in a JBeam implementation standpoint... so I am going to make a suggestion as to how I would do it. Will it work? Who knows.

Anyways, right now most of the JBeams make use of variables that have the ability to be adjusted (spring rate, damping, so on and so forth) and then have their standard base values defined somewhere else in the JBeam (usually in the same file... but technically it doesn't have to be I guess... or maybe it does... I don't know) Well... using what you have set up there.

Code:

"driveModes": {
     "modes": {
          "comfort": {
               "name": "Comfort",
               "order: 1,
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["esc", {"mode": "Regular"}],
                    ["exhaust", {"name": "mainEngine", "mufflingOffset": 0}],
                    ["gearbox", {"name": "gearbox", "mode": "D"}],
                    ["suspension", {"mode": "soft"}],
                    ["ui", {"mode": "Comfort"}],
               ]
          },
          "sport": {
               "name": "Sport",
               "order: 2,
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["esc", {"mode": "Sport"}],
                    ["exhaust", {"name": "mainEngine", "mufflingOffset": -0.2}],
                    ["gearbox", {"name": "gearbox", "mode": "S"}],
                    ["suspension", {"mode": "hard"}],
                    ["ui", {"mode": "Sport"}],
               ]
          },

I propose that we actually have the settings for suspension right in this area using a variable name or something (shoddy made up code incoming)

Code:

"driveModes": {
     "modes": {
          "comfort": {
               "name": "Comfort",
               "order: 1,
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["esc", {"mode": "Regular"}],
                    ["exhaust", {"name": "mainEngine", "mufflingOffset": 0}],
                    ["gearbox", {"name": "gearbox", "mode": "D"}],
                    ["suspension", {"mode": "soft", "springRate":670000, "shockDamp":12000}],
                    ["ui", {"mode": "Comfort"}],
               ]
          },
          "sport": {
               "name": "Sport",
               "order: 2,
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["esc", {"mode": "Sport"}],
                    ["exhaust", {"name": "mainEngine", "mufflingOffset": -0.2}],
                    ["gearbox", {"name": "gearbox", "mode": "S"}],
                    ["suspension", {"mode": "hard", "springRate":952500, "shockDamp":18000}],
                    ["ui", {"mode": "Sport"}],
               ]
          },

This way, rather than making multiple suspension setups (I don't know if that's actually how this would work, but that's what it sounded like in my head) when we switch drive modes, all it does is grab a different value for the same variable.

OR

lets say we stick with just ["suspension", {"mode": "hard"}], then I guess we could define a section in the suspension JBeam that would work similar to this... like we define "modes" here, so in the suspension (or respective) JBeams we could have something short per section like...

Code:

"driveModes": {
     "modes": {
          "soft": {
               "name": "Soft",
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["suspension", {"springRate":670000, "shockDamp":12000}],
               ]
          },
          "hard": {
               "name": "Hard",
               "order: 2,
               "settings": [
                    ["type"],
                    ["suspension", {"springRate":952500, "shockDamp":18000}],
               ]
          },

And this snippet would show up in the suspension only... which would then be read by the code in the ESC that controls everything. Then you could just call to that from the master "drive mode" code and select whichever you wish.

 

Perhaps for the more sporty cars a "wet mode" with less stiff suspension and a slight lift?

 

This is a bit off topic, but I think throttle maps should be avalible for all vehicles. That way we can have stuff like secondaries for carburetors, so if you have the four barrel equipped on the barstow, you suddenly gain more power past 50% throttle when the secondaries open.

 

i usually stick out of the spam of replies of the developer mini showcase forum but i dont get this one. Is this a "group" of options that incluide exhaust noise, engine power, ECS, ride height, and so on to change in-game?

I do like the idea, i guess, but i find it somewhat redundant. As nice as it is as a discovery project for the ingame options, nobody is gonna want less power, or a less noisy exhaust, or a softer suspension (unless they need it to spin out less). IRL the reasoning behind these is improved fuel mileage, less engine wear, that your ass feels the car roll and the G forces and playing beamng you dont, and that IRL you cannot change the volume of your computer on the fly.

 

Yes, we all know that red cars are faster.
So (powerglow) cars should change colors to reflect their driving mode

 

Does launch control count as a driving mode. If not nevermind. But if so that would be a cool driving feature for race or sport mode. However if the car was a single clutch setup clutch wear with launch control would be cool. e.g. Ferrari Enzo needs a new clutch ever couple launch control runs.

 

It will be interesting to see if it can be done and added into the game, it could work, who knows

 

Most vehicles lack the ability to change tire pressure on the fly, however some military vehicles can... probably worth having around anyway.

Throttle mapping? Does this mean ridiculous DBW throttle lag will finally be simulated? Because I for one just love it when I step on the gas and the car takes ages to actually go!

 

I have been pretty quiet about the dashboard that I am developing for the sports car that I am working on. I wasn't planning on showing it until all of the apps were functional, but it's kinda relevant so I will show it here. To my knowledge its the most advanced one in the game, but I would love to be proven wrong





Video shows:

• Throttle maps (constant throttle applied on the controller, you can see how changing drive modes affects the engine output based on the throttle maps [numerically in bottom left of screen])
• Different drive modes
• Drive modes can select tcs/esc profiles (and throttle map)
  
• App selection
• Changing app settings (zoom level on map)
  
• Timer running in background

To be clear, everything in the above video is proprietary Lua to the dashboard cluster. Its not a slot based system as proposed above.

Long story short, I wanted to chime in to say that a lot is already possible. Throttle maps can already be done, and they are quite easy to implement as long as you know some basic Lua. I haven't looked into adjustable suspension (beyond using hydro's to adjust ride height [which totally works]), so I don't fully understand what is currently possible, being able to set spring and damp values on the fly would be really great.

So this new system could be really cool (and is probably for the best), but I am also a little concerned about it adding another spiders web of weird syntax to jbeam files.

 

I guess for the system described it could work for the electric cars if any are coming which I know theres an SBR4E model coming out, so I could see it implemented there

 

That is already possible. Its a great idea too, so I might be tempted to add it to the above car.

Essentially you would do the same thing as the dashboard, except make it only 1 pixel in size (or more if you want to animate the lighting). Then the Lua can fire off a JS function to change the colour of that Pixel. Then map that texture to anywhere you want to light up.

 

Since the game also supports force feedback, why not make it more difficult to turn the wheel?
Active exhausts would also be nice, maybe even implement a "sound generator" for those 4 cylinder eco turbos?
Another idea is to make it so the car only backfires or pops and bangs on upshifts in sport mode. This is something that's done in real life as well.