After spending a lot of time developing RaceEssentials, I wanted to try a different approach to see how it will work out. This time, I give you Sidekick, a discreet but powerful app. I've learned a lot about AC app development in the past several months and wanted to see how far I can take it. The goal was to make an app with essential data that won't be in your way, but it's still very useful, powerful and adaptable.
Download the app at RaceDepartment:
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/sidekick.11007/
A quick overview of how the app works and what it's capable of:
Besides the always visible stuff (gear, speed and rpm light), the app is divided into five sections, contents of which can be switched either by mouse or by keyboard (
Alt + A to switch between sections,
Alt + S to toggle available data in the selected section).
First section is timings. Here, you can toggle current lap time, last lap time, best lap time and personal best lap time. Of course, keeping with tradition of RaceEssentials, lap validity is monitored and personal best laps are saved accross sessions.
Second section is deltas. You're provided with advanced delta calculation using normalized spline position and interpolation, and you can toggle between delta best and delta personal best. There's also a delta pacing indicator, showing you whether you're gaining or losing time at any particular moment.
Third section is lap number and current position. Pretty simple and self-explanatory.
Fourth section is handling fuel info. You're provided with current fuel amount, and after you complete a lap, you'll be able to check consumption per lap and how many laps you'll be able to complete. If you're in a race, you'll also have info how much fuel you need to finish the race, and if you're short, how much you need to top up.
Fifth section is all about tyres. You can toggle between tyre wear, tyre temperatures, tyre pressures and ideal values for the compound in use. The app knows ideal temperatures and pressures for all the cars currently available in Assetto Corsa and will color them accordingly.
Besides these five sections, there are also so-called "Dominant events", where all the sections will be hidden temporarily to get your maximum attention on the message. Currently, dominant events are: major FFB clipping (the app won't bother you unless it's really significant), setting a best time, setting a personal best time and "session is soon about to end" notification.
A quick FAQ (please read before posting in the support thread):
Q: How do I install this app?
A: Unpack the contents of the zip file in your AC install directory and enable it in Settings. Then, once on the track, turn it on from the vertical apps menu on the right.
Q: I've enabled the app in Settings and turned it on in the apps menu but it's not working.
A: Try one of the following:
- Disable all apps in Settings except Sidekick and see if it works (if that works, start re-enabling apps one by one to see which one was at fault)
- From Documents/Assetto Corsa/cfg folder delete python.ini file, and enable only Sidekick in settings (again, if that works, start re-enabling apps one by one to see which one was at fault)
- If none of the above worked: delete python.ini file (yes, again), delete the entire apps folder (backup it first just in case) from your AC install directory (often found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa) and run Steam integrity check. After that, reinstall Sidekick only and try if it works. If all is ok, only then start adding back one by one the apps you previously had.
- Ultimately if it's still broken, open console while in game by pressing Home key on your keyboard and paste any errors in the support thread.
Q: What can I customize?
A: If you open the Sidekick settings sub-app you'll find several customizable parameters including scaling, mph/kph toggle, opacity, tyre wear scale, rpm light thresholds...
Q: How do the new optimal shift point rpm lights work?
A: The app pulls data from the file used to draw the power/torque graph in the launcher and uses it to automatically figure out the optimal shift point for each car. On many cars, you won't notice any difference since the engines' maximum power output is very high in the rpm range. But, some cars like SF15-T, Ferrari 458 GT2 and Ferrari 488 GT3 (and many more) reach maximum power on rpms way before the engine hits the limiter. On these cars, there's a learning algorithm that triggers the first time you drive them, where the app learns the gear ratios in order to deduce optimal shift points per gear. The app takes a sample of 5 gear changes (1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd... should be done in couple laps depending on the track) and saves the learned data so this only happens once. If you change the gear ratios in the setup or you feel something went wrong, you can always force the app to recalculate the gear ratios from the settings. Before all of this, the only way to know when to shift correctly on these cars was to look at their dash or steering wheel rpm lights, which can be very inconvenient due to camera choice, FOV, PP filter, steering wheel visibility settings and so on... Now, the app will detect optimal shift points and trigger the rpm lights automatically, per car, without the need to adjust anything. Also, the app detects if the optimal shift point is beyond the limiter and reverts to old behaviour in that case. If for some crazy reason you don't want any of this awesomeness, you can turn it off from the settings sub-app and also adjust the trigger tolerances (although I don't recommend this either).
Q: Mod cars don't have colored temperature and pressure values?
A: I have no way of knowing the ideal temperature and pressure values for non-Kunos cars. You can, however, add this info yourself as long as the mod car provides a tyre short name (S, M, H...) by making an *.ini file in compounds folder. An example (using RSR Formula 3) is provided. The *.ini file must have the same name as the car folder in content/cars and must follow the structure provided in the example.
Q: Delta is not shown?
A: You're either on an outlap, you've visited the pit in the current lap or you haven't done a valid lap yet to compare with.
Q: How do the ERS/KERS bars work?
A: Bottom bar shows the remaining battery charge, it's green when the energy is being consumed and blue when it isn't. Top bar only shows on cars that have limited energy consumption per lap and shows how much more energy you're allowed to use in that lap.
Q: Does this mean RaceEssentials is dead?
A: No.
Q: Can I transfer my PB folder to/from RaceEssentials?
A: Yes!
Version history:
v1.4.1
- A tiny fix for replay mode
v1.4
- All the settings are now available in game from the Sidekick settings sub-app; run it from the icon on the right or from the app sidebar
- Huge update to the way optimal shifts are calculated, the app now learns gear ratios on the fly and calculates shift points based on power in current and next gear (please read the updated info in the FAQ)
- Various small UI improvements (faster switchers, yellow shift light instead of orange, rounded plain background option, moved pin outside the app window)
- Pit lane now invalidates lap
- Several other bug fixes and tweaks
v1.3.1
- Added some more robustness to the code that loads max power data since Kunos for some reason used 3 different character encodings, seemingly randomly
v1.3
- Awesome new rpm lights! They now automatically show optimal shift points per car, check FAQ for more info
- Several other small bug fixes & tweaks
- Updated the shared memory Sim Info with the new AC 1.7.2 parameters
v.1.2
- Added early support for brake temperatures, disabled by default since so few cars have it; if enabled from config.ini, it can be monitored from the tyre section
- Added DRS indicator with DRS zone detection
- Overhauled the code behind ERS/KERS monitoring, now with a bar showing how much energy is allowed to be spent in a lap (currently only used for F138 and SF15-T)
- Updated the shared memory Sim Info with the new AC 1.7.1 parameters
v1.1
- Added all Red Pack car data to ideal temperatures and pressures list (+Maserati Levante)
- Added several more customizable parameters:
- You can now disable both rpm lights
- FFB clipping threshold (in seconds) can be set to whatever you like
- You can now use a plain background if you wish (and set its transparency)
- Timings section now shows last lap time for several seconds after crossing the start/finish line
- Tyre section can now also show ideal temperatures and pressures
- Ideal pressures and temperatures for mod cars are now easier to add and won't be overwritten by updates (check FAQ for details)
- Fixed a bug where "Session has ended" notification appeared at the start of online races
- Fixed a bug where mod cars had temperatures and pressures colored incorrectly
- Fixed a bug where KERS bar remained visible during replays
- Several other small bug fixes & tweaks
v1.0.1
- Forgot to delete some console notifications from the development phase
v1.0
- Initial release
