Mod Series rather than just cars

Hey,

im new to this game so i have a mod related question. Back in the days i used to play games like rfactor, and i really liked that this game had mods for all kinds of series. Like F1-mods from different eras (60's, 70's etc.) and other championships. In this game i only found track or car mods, but not a specific series mod that included all cars.

Will there ever be a whole series modded to this game? Does anybody of you know a place where you can download Series Mods? If not is there a reason there are no series-mods?

 

Yes there will be but it takes time. Please understand that with the generation change comes an increase in difficulty.

1. Cars take longer to model now, due to the better graphics its forced people into becoming perfectionist. Its seriously to the point where a lod 2,3 could suffice for an rfactor mod 8 or so years ago.
2. Skins take more time, this isnt much of an issue but when you look at what Nwrap did for the ford sierra then it can get put into perspective, some mods require a lot of skins.
3. physics have gotten harder to do, with more parameters introduced more calculations have to be done, different areas are focused on, there are areas where AC is better then another title and vice versa. This means there could be a limitation that you might need to foresee.

Generally modding takes a lot more time these days but projects are happening, DRM revival is likely making a stand this summer, URD are doing whatever they do, IER nearly have a line up for at least one car for all classes in the series they are doing and fordman is converting the 2014 BTCC car pack as we speak. So there is your answer, you just have to be a bit patient or if you cant patient then you are like me which means you should just take control and learn how to mod.

 

No one pays us to mod and with all the new things we have to take into account and 95% of the people that bother us about a button being off center by 0.001 mm .. Yeah we get tired of that. We rather just move in silence... there's so many unannounced mods that will surface this year on this forum.

 

That sounds promising. Besides, I can fully unterstand the idea of not showing wip models until they're close to release. There are just too many people asking for weekly updates putting unjustified pressure on modders. And then there are those trolls who are convinced they have a right to get a new mod within a month.
On the other hand I'm sure most people asking for updates are just curious and don't want to put pressure on the modders. That's the part where patience comes into play.

@Warag : When you're ok with paying for a mod car series, you might want to search for URD.

 

Not really, at least if the comparison is with rFactor.

I agree thought that overall it takes more time, years ago people didn't expect super accurate models due to hardware limitations but that's not the case nowadays. I would also add that many times the simracing community doesn't appreciate these kind of full series mods that much, I remember for example mods like CTDP 2006 with a level of detail that was sick (all cars+upgrades both visually and physically) and then the mp lobby was full of leagues using the typical crap f1 mod with codemasters models and random physics. I think that doesn't help to motivate modders to invest so much time, and instead they make individual cars. That is at least my perception.

 

sadly some of that hasnt changed, so many converted stuff and my brother likes drifting and i tried to get him into a few servers but no i am forced to download ripped cars. its a real shame that those get so much attention when there are fantastic scratch made drifters on this forum.

 

Adding onto that.. I'd rather make a car or track I like than to make something I don't like.

 

I can't stand hopping into a mod thread here on the official forums, the mod in question is clearly a WIP and then seeing some post along the lines of "Looks great! Umm... So, do you have a release date?" I just wanna strangle those people. It will be done when it's done. If they only knew how difficult it is to model an entire car in 3dsmax or Blender or Maya, etc. Then all the testing involved. And how about that mod builder also gets some time to just relax and play Assetto Corsa instead of just devoting his/her time to creating for the community? Or, how about that mod creator might just want to take a week or two off to do other things in life? I'm sure some people ask that question because they're genuinely excited and they don't mean to be rude, but unfortunately, there are just so many people who want something for nothing. They would never even consider tossing a couple of bucks towards a high quality modder. They just want, want, want...

 

There are people that just want to work to make other people happy. Often a modder's work can be way more time consuming and hard than an officially made content. Just think about not having any kind of info from the manufacter, using a consumer computer to run huge programs like 3dsMax, and often not having the correct "training" for what you want to do (which makes you quite slower, even if often the result is as good as a pro). And people decide to do it for free, because they like it, and like making people happy with their work.

But sometimes the ungratefulness of the community is so big that you start asking if there's a point doing so much work for them. Luckly we had not a high load of those kind of people, but other modders on this forum were not as lucky, and I feel them, because it just makes your enjoyment something you want to escape from.

 

A while back someone said my Blue Falcon wasnt realistic, its a miracle that im still alive.

 

Thanks for replying to all. I will just wait and see what comes. Im not one of those people asking every 2 days for a certain mod to be released, and for me the mods dont need to be 100% accurate. Im not obsessed with realism im more of a fungamer, but i appreciate it if modders try to make a mod as realistic as they can.

I asked because i was curious about how things work in this game and i didnt find any topic related to this stuff. I didnt want to look impatient. I just like full series mods because of the immersion.

@David Dominguez Yes i can understand that modders are demotivated by that, but stuff like CTDP 2006 is what made this game great for me.

 

There are F1 mods with all or most of recent cars : ACFL, F1SR, probably others too.

 

Thanks for the plug @Brownninja97 and hopefully an update will be very soon. Had surgery on the top of my leg today, so a little sore and tender. My wife has just added extra padding to my seat, so at least I can now sit down LOL

Shaun

 

walk it off lad

 

Where's the magic sponge

 

Great discussion so far!

I'm for one so enjoying quite a few scratch made mods and have donated and paid for some payware mods. It has been said already that mods for this generation of mods are at a much higher level and take a considerable amount more time to complete. I'm looking forward to the new DRM revival mod!

I think a lot of the issues with the community has to do with the wide range of people who play the game. Kids don't much care and a lot of people are into the car collecting instead of the story and quality of the car. I'm hoping somebody does an art book about their mod that shows the process and sells it to gain some income. I've just purchased the xcom 2 and total war art books and am really enjoying them.

 

I am in modding busines for more than 15 years and things have changed that much in tha past few years. Back in Rfactor days, it was much easier to creat a mod. But it also took very uich time. I release few very good mods for RF and even if it was much easier than now, a single car mod took at least one year of developement.
So nothing new in sapects of time.

But what i can say, the modders have changed! back in the days, the usual modder was more motivated and had more time than the modders from now. Today you have tons of announcements, some first renders of the 3D model but most of the mods dissapear because the modders realize lat, that it needs more than just a great 3d model.

Ans most of the old and well known moddrs and modding teams dissapeared. They grow up, got private life, family, children and so there is no longer that time, we had 10 years ago.

Anyway, one of the problems, we have that less good mods is also, that there is not that interest in the community in mods in the long therm. Look at the public servers: there are few servers with mods. There are some servers running Nordschleife and random cars, some GT3 servers and thats all. So where are the fans which are begging the modders to release stuff, but not racing it?

On the other hand, most of the mods where released in an early beta stage for unknown reason. I got bored from being a beta tester...

the question is, how can we improve this situation? How can we motivate the modders to finish their projects, to focus on the models and things?

 

I don't think you can make such a general statement about lack of interest in mods. In the league in which I am a member we use mods a lot and for the last six months there were open and championship races with cars like the RSR F3, Nissan Primera, FR3.5 and tracks like Modena, Bridgehampton, Donington, Barbagallo, Mills Metropark, Hockenheim, Portimao, etc. In the German ACR BMW 235i open championship I entered last year, more than half of races were on modded tracks.

Public servers use GT2 and GT3 because that's the "lowest common denominator" between casual and less casual players, just like discussing football at the pub with strangers.

 

apart from group c there isnt much which isnt covered yet

 

THAT is the million dollar question. I think some people jump into this with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, I also think that many don't truly know just how involved the process is. Not only is it involved, but it's also incredibly difficult. Modelling a car, for instance, is incredibly complex -- especially modelling it to be exactly the same as the real life version. Oh, and nowadays the interior also needs to be modeled! Unless you already have 3dsmax/Blender/Maya/XSI experience, it is going to be a VERY steep learning curve. Of course it is possible, but it's going to be very difficult. Put it this way, I started using 3dsmax back when it was called 3D Studio Max, version 2.5 to be precise. I kept up with it for several years and then gave it up, for the most part. I still know it very well, but even I balk at creating a car or track because I know just how difficult it is...and time consuming!

And then the modelling is only part of it. Heck, unless you're just planning on making it a solid color, unwrapping the model for texturing can be incredibly complex if the car has a lot of various shapes, like most race cars. The physics and testing to make the car behave like the real world version of the car is a tremendous amount of work too. I'm sure most people reading this already know all this stuff, but I think there are also quite a few people who don't fully know just how much work goes into creating a single vehicle and/or a single race track. At least with the race tracks you don't have to worry about duplicating physics.

I think sometimes people think of a car that they want in the game, get excited and make a post announcing the beginning of the project. They might even have some screenshots of a very early WIP of the mesh. Unless that person is a seasoned modeler or whatever, I think that person should actually message a few people before doing anything and put together a small team before anything else. At least a tester or two, maybe a sound guy or a physics guy. Even if it's only a two man team, I think that increases the odds of the project seeing completion. You have someone motivating you and helping as well.

I agree...A few more Group C cars would be wonderful! The Minolta Toyota 88C-V and the Nissan R92CP would make excellent additions to the Mazda 787 and Sauber Benz C9 that we currently have.