A digital Restomod of the racing simulator Assetto Corsa

Definitions

restomod (noun)

1 – a classic car that has been restored with modern parts and tech

2 – a digital restomod is updating Assetto Corsa with all the latest fixes and optimizations known to the modding community. All of that will ride on a brand new physics for AC.

retune (verb) – shifting the focus of Assetto Corsa from simulating real-world automobile suspension systems to a new physics system optimized for feedback and control

retuner (noun)

1- a Google Sheets application designed to retune ALL Kunos and md cars

2- the level 67 nerd who decided to Restomod Assetto Corsa

My Pandemic Project

Welcome to my pandemic project. It was a long lockdown and I did not have a girlfriend so like a true nerd, I did math.

This project should have been released a couple of years ago but I had to put this project on hold for a while. I wish I could say that it was because I got a girlfriend but instead I got cancer. The good news is after 2 years of surgeries, tests, treatments, and a lot of drugs, I should have the time to get this project finished.

Surviving lockdown with VR

A prisoner in their cell wearing a virtual reality headset — Surviving lockdown with Virtual Reality

So I settled into lockdown with my new Quest 2 VR headset and a copy of AC. Assetto Corsa has excellent VR support so I was looking forward to VR driving. The VR was great but the driving, not so much. AC has wildly inconsistent driving physics and AI. Some cars were great, many were OK and the rest were undrivable.

I also noticed that the AI seemed to have the same issues. On the good cars they were OK but with the bad, mostly mod cars, the AI had trouble staying on the road.

Now as a skilled human driver I could adapt to some of these bad cars and get around the track. However the AI would just randomly crash. It felt more like I was playing Wreckfest with expensive exotic cars.

I am a life-long gamer, starting with Pong, and love driving games. I stared when the only force feedback was your imagination. In real life I drove everything from mopeds to 18 wheelers. However I have not driven a real vehicle in over 30 years.

Sometimes Life Just Sucks

A blind man wearing a t-shirt that says Sometimes Life Sucks — Sometimes Life Just Sucks

I am legally blind. At age 36, when I was a tractor trailer driver, I was diagnosed with a rare genetic defect called Stargardt’s. This causes macular degeneration which means my central vision is badly damaged. However my peripheral vision is good so I can drive in VR. As long as I can see the sides of the road I can drive just fine. My main issue is that if a car is in my central blind spot I tend to drive into them.

That is why I play with AI and not humans. If I did play online with people I am sure my nickname would be “The Great Rearender”. Instead I just annoy the AI.

A rough approximation of driving with Macular Degeneration

So I have 20 years real world driving, 30+ years virtual driving, gaming, modding, and programming. With these skills and experience I decided to Restomod AC.

Down The Rabbit Hole

A man jumping down a rabbit hole — Jumping down the rabbit hole of Assetto Corsa physics

Originally I was using Google Sheets to analyze the AC data files looking for errors. While that did work, it became clear that just fixing typos and configuration errors was not enough. In fact “fixing” errors often made the cars and AI perform worse.

Due to the fact that not all AC cars performed equally bad I assumed that the AC physics engine and AI code were good. I suspected the problem to be the configuration of the cars. The attempt to model real-world suspensions with a game engine was not working.

I had to take the plunge down the rabbit hole of AC physics. I needed to see if a new physics system would fix the AC car issues and prove the premise that Bad Physics = Bad AI.

So with lots of time on my hands I started to develop a new physics system for AC which would NOT be constrained by modeling real-world suspensions. The focus was on consistent feedback and control.

I started by treating AC as a Black Box. I would change a parameter and see what the effect was on my driving and the AI. This was a long process but I began to understand what worked in AC and what did not. To date on my 6 most used test tracks I have driven over 80,000 kms testing and developing my new physics.

Then I used Google Sheets to deduce the various formulas and algorithms I would need for a new physics.

Now I have cars that drive like real cars and not carnival bumper cars. The AI love these new cars. I have gone from dodging AI accident scenes to chasing AI taillights. Now I can drive in a pack, bumper to bumper, for lap after lap without winding up in a massive crash.

I hope that you enjoy my little pandemic project and have fun playing with the AI.

Lorne
The Retuner