Hello world!
this is the first post I wrote on our new website/blog and I’d like to share some thoughts about the challenges of developing a virtual co-driver that looks like a real co-driver.
When I started developing gRally and I needed to hear the pacenotes, so I started with an efficient and basic method: From the stage editor I simply put the notes in the place where I wanted to hear them.
So I tried to do the exact same things a real rally driver does with the pacenotes. Here is a good video where driver Hayden Paddon shows his style.
In gRally you basically need to do a ‘recce’ which consists off trying to drive the perfect line on a stage without steering corrections, in order to avoid coding errors.
There’s something I want to bring up… what kind of pacenotes do you like?
I’ll try to explain another way: looking at many rally car cameras, it seems the number of the pacenotes spoken by the co-driver is inversely proportional to the experience level and cleverness of the driver.
Some minor drivers want their co-drivers to tell them everything, and I wish understood how their brain processes all the information they hear. Other world rally co-drivers on the other hand only tell the basics of the turn few additiona notes.
At the moment gRally co-driver only tell the basics, ’cause we’re working hard to find the right solution/syncronicity to play the pacenotes. However, some other minor notes are very good to hear ’cause they give us the feeling of having a ‘good’ co-driver, yet reduce the essentiality of the note call. I’ll wait for your feedback…
I like corners devided by 1-6. With 1 being very sharp and 6 being almost flat.
Then some stuff like crests, standing water, tightens, etc.
A bit similair to Dirt Rally.
Uhm, tough choice: at the moment I’m for the “essential note calling” mode. I find myself in trouble if I have to stay focused on the road while someone is reading me the Divina Commedia. 😀 It might just be because of my inexperience, which makes me focus mainly on the road, but in general I prefer some clear and simple notes.
Pacenotes are highly individual, even for WRC-drivers. Loeb had very detailed notes, while Colin McRae had almost no info. Experienced drivers don’t necessarily have more complicated notes than an amateur, it’s down to personal preference.
The important thing is that anybody can modify and put your taste, as the pacenotas plugins RBR, personal mind I prefer 1 to 6, cut flush caution opens Etc
Hi,
First of all, thanks for the work that You are doing! I cant wait to see another rally sim, that hopefully will be much better than the over 10 y.o. RBR regarding physics and the “feel” of the car.
Pacenotes are a very personal choice. In the real life i dont like the pacenotes to give too much information, but… for example I like to have some information about the position of the car on the exit of the corner. For example… If You have a 3R 200 You dont need any info, but, When You have a sequence of corners, I wrtre sometimes, that I should keep the car inside for some reason (condition of the road, next corner etc) It is also important that the pacenotes include for example some dangers like dirt on the road, or even possible dirt (if You run as 20th on the stage and the corner can be cut) These maybe basics but for some maybe not. Another thing is to have + and – to make the info more precise. For example, 4- is a corner That is somewhat dangerous to be a 4, but also not a 3 either. Also I prefer 1 being the hardest and 6 being the fastest corner. This is still simple, but more complex than some of the drivers. The most complex i remember was the pacenotes of Carlos Sainz, but I wouldnt call him “minor” 😉
I’m a member of a Automobilclub in Poland, I’m friends with some very good rally drivers (Including Polish Rally Champions and also rally school teachers. I was also starting in rallying for several years with good success, so If You have any questions You can write me too maybe we can help (although i think You have some very good drivers too) I hope we will have soon someting for testing 😉 I cannot wait 😉
Hi,
this devblog entry sounds like you are on the right track!
From my experience, what still makes RBR shine over Dirt is the lack of pacenote editing in the latter and the little better physics of RBR (if you take NGP into account).
For me it was very frustrating to have to put down Dirt just because I could not bear with the direction before number styke of pacenotes even though it was such a good looking game with somewhat decent physics and superb SOUND. (Dear god, the sound in Dirt!)
So the best thing to provide in gRally would prolly be options to customize the pacenotes:
– increasing or decreasing numbers
– numbers or words for corner strength
– order of info ( number; direction; extrainfo; )
– position before the corner to call the note (for each note individually?)