Smoke, Particles, and Broken Glass Really Need Improving

I've recently played around a bit with some graphical mods including smoke and glass retextures and have spent a couple of hours playing with the smoke config. I'm happy enough with the result which is thicker/greater volume smoke when sliding and a lower threshold for triggering so smaller slips generate smoke. It could be so much better though.

Smoke
With (I'd assume but don't know the specific implementation) very little work, smoke could be improved with a simple equation that links the opacity and amount of smoke to the speed and amount of slip. Currently the smoke seems to have the one intensity as soon as it passes the trigger threshold which makes it look really unrealistic as it feels like it toggles on rather than builds up. This change would make the current smoke look much more realistic with the addition of a single multiplier variable.

A second smoke type based on temperature would also be a great addition. It would trigger with temperature increases if the temperature is getting too hot and would give a less dense, more transparent smoke that dissipates faster and has the shimmer effect from the exhaust. This could be used for anything that is overheating such as tires, brakes, or even the radiator/engine.

Sparks and Debris
With the addition of the F1 cars it would be great to see another attempt at bringing sparks and paint/carbon fiber flakes into the game as an option for those of us with powerful PCs. It would also be awesome if we could have mirrors, glass, and the wings of the cars shatter or detach but I doubt that will happen in this engine.

Glass
This is by far the worst visual in the game in my opinion despite the awesome dirt textures you have used. The default broken glass is just ugly, looks out of place, and really makes me hate getting wiped out on the starting grid in multiplayer even more.

To improve the broken glass is pretty simple in my opinion: add multiple break states. These could include: a chip or two if you've gone off track as if gravel hit it; some light cracking like one or two lines going through the glass and meeting at the chipped weak point; heavy cracking with more lines and shattering around the chipped area; and finally fully shattered where the glass has cracks everywhere and is actually hard to see through.

Marbles and Track Side Debris
This is pretty much a standard feature of every sim like racing game at this point yet a full on simulator doesn't have them? One of the best features at launch was the variable track condition. We could really use some visual indication of this with visible rubber marbles on the outside of turns and a darkening racing line as more rubber is put down. It would also be nice to have dirt and gravel build up a bit when cars renter the track.

 

Proper subforum now. =] Guess I can agree with everything but I assume none of that has priority right now. Things like sparks will probably come sooner or later.
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lets-play-game-designer.31615/
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lets-play-game-designer.31615/page-2#post-659828

For glass there's a very good mod that makes it more bearable but it's not going to be all that realistic as long as there's no damage depending on the type of glass/polycarbonate, better distinction of the type of impact and as you say different states of damage. Btw. you can raise the damage threshold for the glass in ...\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg\assetto_corsa.ini if it really bothers you.
(Edit: forgot to link the mod: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/new-hd-windshield-damage.10965/)


The visual racing line (groove) does get darker over time already, depending on the surface grip level (dusty, etc.) you chose. That line itself just doesn't depend on where cars actually drove.

 

Thanks. Had a look for a suggestions forum but could only find the console one.

I do have a glass mod which gives just a few long arced cracks which seem to better capture the light than the default spider web looking texture. Forgot to mention support for different glass types. Its dumb getting cracks in the plastic based screens.

I noticed the darkening but I think the issue is it doesn't really contrast much. With more dirt and dust on the other parts of the track it would be much clearer.

 

YES! Please, I have been wondering for a while why smoke is such a seemingly underrated component in car based games. I have been waiting for some title to implement volumetric smoke or something else than the "same old" smoke puffs we had since GPL

+1 from me for more realistic smoke!

 

+1

Please Developer take into adequate account the above request; in fact IMHO the lack/shortage of proper modeled smoke and debris modelation is very frustrating, for this wonderful simulation that has improved very much from its birth.....;-)

 

Big yes for the tyre smoke!
It would be much more enjoyable watching the replays after a nice smokey drift

 

Something to aim for regarding smoke is Shred's smoke mod. Gonna show it when i get back home to devs. Its awesome realistic lookig and less fps hungry.


EDIT:
For reference Shred's Smoke Mod which has less FPS impact and looks realistic. I think it would be super if Kunos did something similar. Im not going to upload the mod since its forbidden so for reference i just post values and the texture that is used to make the smoke look so great. The texture is not as round as in AC stock texture which produces less "blobby" effect and more real looking smoke.I also like that going offroad doesnt produce massive amount of dust. In his mod it looks more real i think.

tyre_smoke_grass.ini (Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\system\cfg)

Code:

[SETTINGS]
EMISSIVE_BLEND=0.95
VELOCITY_BASE=0,0,0
VELOCITY_RANDOM=1,1,1
SIZE_BASE=0.4,0.4
SIZE_RANDOM=0.3,0.3
COLOR_BASE=2.65,2.25,1.6
COLOR_RANDOM=0.01,0.01,0.01
DRAG_BASE=0.15
DRAG_RANDOM=0.08
GRAVITY_BASE=0.7
GRAVITY_RANDOM=0.6
OPACITY_BASE=0.20
OPACITY_RANDOM=0.1
OPACITY_VELOCITY_BASE=-0.1
OPACITY_VELOCITY_RANDOM=0.05
SIZE_VELOCITY_BASE=0.4,0.4
SIZE_VELOCITY_RANDOM=0.4,0.4
FREQUENCY_HZ=20
VELOCITY_ROTATION_AXIS_RANDOM=0

Texture (ask permission from @ShredatorFIN if anyone reading this want to use his texture!):



Video "Shred's Smoke mod":