Rally Mode Feedback Thread

The post I sent above has a link to a forum with my “Rally USA” pack that has 20 stages. Or just download Xero Parklands off of the repository which also has 20 very similar stages and a bonus 7 school stages.

 

Would love to see some audio talking, you know like 5 right, don't cut, but overall, great feature!

 

*reads first page*

…Da heck are pacenotes

 

Hey, I've been writing up some code to convert freeform pacenotes (the kind that speak to you if you use aipacenotes mod), so I got thinking about what should be into the structured pacenote system (the current one, which only does pictures). I think these are real important and should have their own switch and picture (and samples, once you guys start implementing a talking codriver).

* late (it's not the same as 'tightens', really useful)
* over dip
* keep left / keep right, or stay left / stay right, or just simply left / right - in particular, these should combine with jump, crest, dip (e.g. "left over jump")
* stay in / stay out, or just simply in / out
* brake / slow
* sharp (it's not the same as 'short')

 

As someone diving into Rally Stage creation I can echo a lot of the sentiments from others in the thread. Specific features I'd like to see would be:

• Some kind of entity we can add in the world editor that allows us to add time penalties for overzealous cutting of corners and a message on-screen saying you've gained a penalty.... this might also help avoid the issue that @Track Broseff mentioned around people missing checkpoints without knowing about it.
  • In testing my current WIP stage I got to the end of the stage many times only to realise I'd completely missed a checkpoint way back at the start
• Voiceover for pacenotes
  • @lellolillili's suggestion of using an intermediate set of codes that allows for mapping to external audio clips would definitely make it easier to do translations or for people to use their own sound files easily.
• If I'm being cheeky, perhaps a few more prefabs for stage authors to use, but that's just because I'm not great at modelling

A massive thank you to the BeamNG devs and @dirtwheel for bringing my favourite discipline to the game. I'm hoping to churn out a bunch of levels dedicated to rally in the near future and having it baked into the main game is an awesome development!!!

 

For anyone unsure, if the new rally mod is going to use the "AI PACENOTES" mod for a codriver, many of your suggestions and concerns are already implemented and resolved.

Im sure this system will be more accessible and maybe even further simplified for the upcoming updates but with this system you can choose your own codrivers voice, male or female. You can choose how fast they say things, you can choose exactly what you want to hear from the codriver by either recording your own voice and the system doing a voice to text conversion or by typing it in manually.

There is no need to implement a set pacenotes system with this tool, if you are familiar with the 1-10 scale, you can use it. If you are more familiar with the 1-6 scale like myself you can use it. If you want to make up your own system from the ground up, you can do that.

This all being if the system is somewhat similar to the authors "ai pacenote" mod he developed.

You can already adjust where you want to hear calls, also.

Here is a video i made with the authors help. Keep in mind, this is well before he joined the beamng team officially so I'm sure the User interface will be streamlined for the official release.

Tutorial video


First stage I made using the tool

 

true, i'm not sure how that would work for copyright reasons as usually the ai voices are not free to use, so having a set of notes would make it more independent in that sense, although making the voice say whatever you want it's a really cool feature.
also i believe that having a set of given notes would make it much easier to automate things, so that they could be generated automatically just by driving a clean driveline (like assetto corsa mods do), but in that case it would be less customizable in terms of what to say...
that said, i have complete trust in the developers team and i'm sure this will go in the best direction possible

 

Perhaps just all the typical notes implemented for the users that don't know the verbiage. And there are tools for assetto corsa that allow you to do a "recce" run that you don't need to actually communicate at all, it just looks at the steering input and determines how severe the corner is. Also since this is an official release, perhaps they could use a system that uses the exact angles of the driving line path that gets created after a recce, it could just work off the angles and determine the corner severity.

 

I'd rather have recorded pacenotes, the ai voice is so lifeless, and it seems like a more future proof solution since recorded pacenotes will just work every time, even without internet connection

 

i cant imagine rally mod after tire model improvement

 

I just wanted to say, HOLY CRAP. As an avid sim racing fan these 3 stages are /chefskiss

Sure it needs some work, but developing this is easily a game on its own and a winner. I can actually feel the difference between tarmac and gravel. The weight transfer of the car is great. I can feel the back end sliding out. Skandi flicks actually work. Handbrake reacts the way it should. Even this early on, all I can say is HOLY CRAP, I WANT MOAR!!

 

i am a Richard Burns Rally fan...when i play it every stage has own story...so special to defend your car because damage expecially mechanical damage so important...Damaging the gearbox with bad driving...crashing the underside of the car. Hitting journalists, spectators or wild animals... these are scary but very enjoyable.
advanced damage system is the key part of Rally Simulator

 

if you are wheel and pedal you need enhanced interior mod.. game changer!!!!

 

Ive just had a thought actually dont know if its been said yet. Would be pretty cool if a 'stage' condition was added to rally stages, similar to drag races, where you would drive yourself up to the start line and stop on it to start the rally.
Not the most important thing ever but would be a nice feature and make it more realistic, plus I imagine its easy to add since that system already exists in the game.

 

New pacenote audio is a great addition! After trying it out for a few hours I found that I never really "flowed" with it like I did with other pacenotes, I found there were 3 main reasons:

• Pacenote timing (especially when transitioning from fast to technical). When driving fast, many notes can be queued up, and then if you enter a tight section there is a long period of silence while you catch up
• Flow and intonation - all pacenotes have the same intonation, and in fast sections they all are played with ~0.5 seconds in between, leading to a lack of contrast which is hard to engage with
• Call Details - Just looking for more corner mods - tight (not tightens or short), keep in, downhill, chicane, to name some examples

Overall, it's a great starting place and I'm excited about what it can become. I posted a youtube video going into more detail and giving examples on all of these if you're interested: video

 

A chicane call would be helpful, as well as a surface change callout (it doesn't absolutely need to specify the surface, just that there is one)

 

It'd be nice to have a brake or slow call: for example, on the new automation stage, when you go over the incline test, it says "jump" but you don't really want to jump if you don't want to go flying 100m in the air lol
Also i'm curious, how were the vocal pacenotes made? Is it recording or synthetized, using what?

 

This is a pretty awesome feature so far, but there are a couple of things I think it lacks.

• Pacenote for 'Surface change' I think would be nice.
• When merging two pacenotes (like when you put two close together, and it turns to "into"), if they're both in the same direction (left or right), then replace the 'into' with "tightens" or "opens". I think would be cool.
• The timing on pacenotes just always kinda feels off a little, it's not a huge problem, but seeing them bunched up sometimes makes it feel a little weird.

Also, I didn't really see a lot of documentation for the rally editor (and the rest of the mission editor), so I made this short document as a sort of guide. (as of writing, it's not completely finished yet, and I haven't even done a first revision yet). Should still be useful for anyone who wants to make a rally stage, but has never touched the editor before.

W.I.P rally stage guide