Add markers for setup-changes

While I test and adjust a cars setup it would be nice to see what kind of changes I've made.

Now you start with either a default setup or load a previous one, but I would find it helpful if there were markers for the changed setup values. Because sometimes I've mad improvements by adjusting something and in the next step change some other value which then didn't help.
Then I'd either have to reverse everything by loading default/a saved setup or try to go back to the last settings, which can sometimes be a guessing game.


With a marker you'd always now what either the default or saved value was.

It would be nice to have two markers for saved setups (one for default, one for the saved setup), but one would help a lot to begin with.
a) default setup: display the default values
b) saved setup: disregard the default data and show those of the saved setup

 

+1 and 5 stars for the idea.

 

+

 

I would love this.

 

+1

 

+1.

 

I like the idea, but I'd take a slightly different approach:
Add a button "Compare" to the setup loading screen. Once clicked, this button becomes "No Compare" or similar, so you can get the actual data again.
What it'd do is to compare the current settings to the setup that was selected, showing exactly how many clicks you are off the setup values.
If no setup was selected (the setup name field is empty), then you're comparing to the default setup.
In my opinion that would be better to use than going back and forth between the values of two setups.

To make it clear to the user, I'd add a header at the top of the setup page stating "Comparing to setup »xyz«" or "Comparing to default setup" while in comparison mode.

 

I like the idea of (de-)activating the comparison, could be easily done with a checkbox.

But if you use a marker/indicator or show a number of the steps you changed is just personal preference.

Though your approach is quite good for things that only have positive values, like tire pressure, spring rate, fuel, etc., but it could be misleading on things like toe and camber.

i.e. the basis (default or saved) is -1.2° camber, you switch it to -1.8°, what should the indicator then show? I think this could lead to some confusion for some people when I just remember how often I gave setup advice on the chat and then the drivers ask what 'adding neg. camber' means, clicking + or - in the setup...

Maybe instead of a visual marker an entry displaying the default/saved value (like 56% BB, -1.2° camber, etc.) of the compared value would be more clear.

 

Yeah, I'm aware of that. For these you could show it e.g. like this:
-1.2° (-1.0°)

It's not as intuitive as clicks, unfortunately.
Also, I'm not 100% sure that there is enough space on each slider to show it like that, e.g. for the ARB.

 

-0.6°

 

Its a nice idea. I immediatly thought of the digits being yellow which symbolise the setup before change, or put another way, yellow = setup before most recent changes.

I dont think it will happen but we can all hope.

What i tend to do when working on a set is keep saving it, then i know which i was fastest in. My setups are formatted as follows

(AC1.11.4) Nurburgring_Sprint - 1'01.556
(AC1.11.4) Brands_Hatch_GP - 1'23.456

Then if i make a change i can test it, if its better i will save with the faster lap time, it if its worse i will just load the previous setup and try again.

 

That would be highly misleading.

 

Why though?
If all the changes are showed with the same logic so basically the value user added to the previous value. So lowering negative camber even further would mean adding a negative value. For example lowering FL spring from 80->60 would show "-20", increasing RR spring from 100->120 would show "+20" and decreasing -0.5 camber to -1.0 would show "-0.5".

I personally remember all the changes made anyway so I don't need the function but I think it's a good suggestion nevertheless.

 

Of course you can apply that logic and of course I understood how you came to that idea, but if the difference of the two values looks similar to the one your trying to set, it's misleading.
Remember that not every user is a maths genius, so it would lead to confusion and questions. Thus for these values it would imo be better to show the actual and the compared value.
Not sure about the best format for that, but I think "Current (compared)" might be a good start.

The second reason why showing the plain difference might be a bad idea is that not every property is linear in its values.
Here the ARB settings come to my mind.

@ChrisR: yeah, I thought about colour coding and I think it might be a good idea as well.

 

Every step in setup values is a linear change. For example if front arb has values 0-20, 0 is the minimum in the range, 20 is the maximum and values in between are linear steps between the two extremes. That's why it's easy in AC because you're adding linear increments to the wheel rate directly, instead of adding bar thickness or changing mounting points which is very unlinear.

I get you though, it's very clear in the way you suggested as well.

 

Yeah, most of the cars specify the ARB in clicks, for those it definitely wouldn't be a problem.
For some of the newer cars (Porsche, but I don't know for sure if only) it's specified in N/mm.
I don't know why, but I think it's those cars that have brake temp simulation (3.0 RSR, 917, 962).
IIRC, the steps are still linear for these, but didn't check all of them and in general I wouldn't rely on it.
e.g. for street cars I could think that there are 2-3 configs, e.g. no ARB (0 N/mm), weak ARB (maybe 1000 N/mm) and strong ARB (maybe 3000 N/mm).
Maybe it would make sense to hide that behind clicks as its done now, but since the above cars might be some kind of template for future setup options, my guess is that in the future all ARBs will be specified in N/mm.
(It's just a guess though, haven't read anything from Aris about that.)

However the the bigger question for me actually would be the handling of the "real" values shown on the right.
Because especially for a combination of changes, it might be interesting to have comparative values there as well (especially camber, toe and height).
I guess though that that'd go too far as you would have to do the same simulation twice all the time.
Oh, and that may be misleading as well, since the pits on some tracks aren't levelled out.

 

There's no way to do that in setup.ini, the arrows in the setup screen change them +- a fixed amount.

The closest you get is having min + max not a multiple of the change.
eg. if min = 1000, max = 5000, step = 3000, then you can do 1000 (click to minimum), 4000 (+1), 5000 (click to maximum), 2000 (-1) but there's no way to set it to 3000. Generally not a good idea to do that though cause it makes it hard to access nearby values. (in this example, going from 1000 to 2000 takes 3 clicks)

 

I don't really see a restriction there. Basically you could write down any number in the ini file and thus even specify the exact strength of the ARB in N/mm.
Of course you would need to check on setup loading that the value is valid for the current car, but that needs to be done anyway.

But ok, it's of course much easier to keep equidistant values for each setting, won't argue with that.

 

+1
I had exactly the same idea, and just want to write a new thread about it, good that I searched the forum before
This markers would be really helpful

 

ouch I missed this one... me likey.