REQUEST Assetto Corsa rally timing framework - Patrick Brunner's co-driver mod 2.0

[wimdes]

Today there's lots of amazing rally mods available (as can be found here), but to make Assetto Corsa truly immortal as a rally sim platform we need better timing and competitive options. After all, rallying is all about beating those stage times!

Now imagine a version 2.0 of Patrick Brunner's co-driver mod with the kind of timing features we take for granted in "native" rally sims. Patrick has reached the age of 75 and has retired from active programming but is willing to make his source code available under the MIT open license agreement, and to take an advisory role in further development. The main programme is built in C# (.NET/Visual Studio), with a small component written in Python.

As my own programming skills are futile we're looking for some people with the right skills to step up. If you are experienced in C# and Python, and willing to put some development time in this project (or know someone who does) PM me! Just to be clear, this is not in any way a commercial undertaking and resulting software should stay open source.

The idea is to split development in 3 phases:

1. Reliable and precise system for personal stagetimes, with splits and differential timing.
   Improvements might be made to the pacenote system.
2. Online stagetime leaderboards, with replays.
3. Online system for organising multi-stage rallies.

While the first phase shouldn't be too complicated, steps 2 and 3 will be more substantial and require additional skills. How far we can go will depend on who's willing to join the project but also the amount of interest in the community.

Some ideas about features to be explored in the first development phase:

• reliable detection of start/finish line & car position (what exactly is required in a track mod?)
• save personal best times per car/track combo including replay
• split times and differential timing: choice of visual indicators or co-driver calls
• choice to run against another car best time
• perhaps unlikely, but if the game engine allows this:
  • reset car to road/wheels (incurring time penalty)
  • teleport car to the starting line to start a new run
• integration in content manager?
• improvements in pacenote recording: detection of jumps, junctions,...
• making pacenote editing more user-friendly

 

[luchian]

Sounds like a great initiative. Hopefully some skilled coders can give a hand, good luck!

 

[JoeK]

I'm thinking about the same, but to time traffic light signals though.
I haven't done the research nor the 'deep digging' yet, but Assetto Corsa 'should' have a hook into the computer system to be able to pull out computer time instance at any particular point in time. Then, it would be a matter of just calling for a time points and then subtracting one instance from another to get the elapsed time.

...So many ideas... so little time...