Dynamic Weather Discussion

Is the problem of the AI not pitting to change to wets or vice versa still being looked into?
Also I done a SP race the other night and it started to rain for the last half of the race, half the AI did pit for wets including me as they were needed, yet I couldn't run well on the wets as they were just burning up.

 

I agree that weather shouldn't be scripted, but I do think that it would be good idea to include an option setting that prevents thunderstorms. I love wet races, particularly races which are both wet and dry or somewhere in between but the appearance of a thunderstorm just seems to lead to so many people quitting a lobby, it's a shame.

 

It's certainly worth noting that real race teams/drivers get tyre choices wrong all the time and it's usually only 1 that gets the timing and choice 100% right bringing them victory. No matter what the sim does, what indicators and data it gives, we won't get it right all the time.

 

OK my decision process is now:

Look at 5 mins weather prediction UI element. Storm and more than 10 mins left?
YES: pit and go to rain tyres or start on rain tyres
NO: slicks

Should be called "storm tyres"

Slight modifiers:
I currently have a flatspot (pit)
Spa (endless pit straight) (don't pit)
Ferrari with annoying flashing lights behind that will rear-end me soon (pit)

 

I definitely understand your point, but you've basically just listed much of the stuff I like about racing

 

Aris is right about the sim racing mentality and it doesnt just stop at weather. Same can be said for tyre models and slip angles and all that.

@Aristotelis

Racing drivers do everything within feel and lap times Why can't sim racers be the same. Unless your In f1 then u have God knows how many cpus running your race for you. And that why I hate f1.

 

It's a fair point, because to be honest I fell into the trap of looking at the tyre HUD and seeing bright red and big middle bars and thinking I was going to die, even though I was still lapping OK.

 

I have been trying to find a dynamic weather setting that mixes things up a bit with some dry sessions and the odd rain session ideally some heavy rain but never the dreaded yellow storm icon. The settings below seem to have achieved this atm with a good variety of weather from full dry to drizzle heavy rain and even the odd white storm (which is still just raceable)

Code:

{
    "track": "nurburgring",
    "eventType": "E_6h",
    "preRaceWaitingTimeSeconds": 100,
    "postQualySeconds": 30,
    "postRaceSeconds": 30,
    "sessionOverTimeSeconds": 150,
    "ambientTemp": 17,
    "trackTemp": 22,
    "cloudLevel": 0.2,
    "rain": 0.2,
    "weatherRandomness": 2,
 "sessions": [{
   "hourOfDay": 11,
   "dayOfWeekend": 3,
   "timeMultiplier": 2,
   "sessionType": "Q",
   "sessionDurationMinutes": 10
  },
  {
   "hourOfDay": 18,
   "dayOfWeekend": 3,
   "timeMultiplier": 2,
   "sessionType": "R",
   "sessionDurationMinutes": 20
  }
 ],
 "configVersion": 1
}

Using any higher "weather randomness" tends to get the yellow storm with even these cloud settings. Raising cloud and rain much beyond this also had the same effect but so far in maybe 5 qualy and race loops it mixed things up nice. It would be good if temps were also a bit more variable as they tend to be around the same depending on cloud levels. Will test this in our 2 hour league race Monday and see what happens then.

One thing I did notice is the most requested feature from AC was night and rain, and amazingly as soon as it starts to rain most leave even the guys that have some decent pace. The rain driving is done so well in ACC too other then when it gets that yellow storm and I don't think much more then a red flag would help.

I know some people have the wiper bug where it doesnt fully clear the bottom left corner of the screen. Seems mostly people in VR but I have never actually had this running a single screen with effects on Epic. It could be a certain effects setting or VR rendering causing that bug, but if you have it then heavy rain racing really isnt much point.

 

I like driving in the rain, I just don't really race online.

 

+1, May be have the option to set up a proper weather forecast with some randomness included e.g. cloudy with 30% rain precipitation 2mm, or clear day with 10% possible thunderstorms 4mm(typical summer weather isn't it ) so the weather will not deviate from the forecast too much.

 

I like rain in sims even from the race 07 days acc I will say has done it the best so far. Rf2 is good but very bugged etc

 

Rain for the Red Bull Ring just got added to GT Sport and to be quite honest it looks really good, the movement of the spray is very believable. It could be a bit more spray maybe? But would be sweet to achieve this kind of spray behavior for ACC too.

 

The spray there actually doesnt look that special, the drops on the windscreen are done well. But the spray from cars ahead looks more like smoke for some reason and its so light its barely noticeable. Its much worse in light rain on a public road at slower speeds of 100kmh then that, at racing speeds on a track with a fair few puddles ACC does much better IMHO.

 

Looks good but the spray seems to be more like a constant small light cloud and not really changes when the cars go over puddles.

 

imho it's not so good, tbh.
Considering that it's all scripted, that nothing is dynamic (rain intensity, track wetness, ecc...), the final result is "average" to me.
Yes, it runs into a poor ps4, not an high end pc, but i'm talking about overall design, not about "pure" graphics".

My 2c

 

no fix in 1.08 for the constant wet weather races on random?

 

Unfortunately not.