20210911-190018.txt

- Dynamic weather conditions online with either a server plugin (documentation is coming soon) or custom acServer implementation;
- FSR: 
  - Whole thing reworked with officially released SDK:
    - Quality presets are different now;
    - Recommended level of sharpening is used now;
    - Option for adjusting MIP bias according to recommendations;
  - Option to set lower quality setting for left and right sides in triple screen mode;
- Smoke fully reworked (apart from tyres heating and spawning logic):
  - New improved shading;
  - Improved smoke-cars collisions;
  - Better support for open-wheelers;
  - Tyre smoke spawns below car with extreme drifting angles;
  - Dust and splashes spawns around car, not just from wheels;
  - Dust flies off dusty wheels;
  - A bit of dust appears for some F1 cars with wooden skidpads when those touch the ground (and can be configured on per-collider basis, similar to sparks);
  - Clouds of dust spawn on collisions;
  - Smaller particles for bits of dirt and smaller splashes spawn in contact points;
  - Long-lasting smoke and dust (lasts for several minutes);
  - When on grass, instead of dust clouds, more subtle soil particles are used (color is set in track config);
  - New look for smoke from exhaust, heated brakes and damaged engine;
  - Smoke won’t show up inside a cockpit;
  - Colored smoke and dust lose saturation with expansion, with new config parameters to adjust the rate;
  - Smoke culling improved for further optimization and smoother transitions;
  - New options to adjust density and on-screen size, to balance between visuals and performance;
  - Extra effect with smoke covering whole screen, to get effect of camera stuck in smoke much cheaper;
- Pieces particles update:
  - Adjusted types chances, size and shading;
  - Collision detection now uses car heightmaps instead of depth buffer for more accurate results;
- Size of sparks particles fixed, sparks no longer spawn with head-on collisions;
- TyresFX: 
  - Grass and dirt on tyres reworked, textures and rendering both;
  - Soil color is taken into account;
- GrassFX:
  - Active ExtraFX pass option now properly supports fake car shadows reprojection;
  - Grass deformation updated, now takes into account grass height;
- New rendering modes: 360°, fisheye, split screen (new Content Manager supports custom modes for AC video settings);
- Specify joypad index for joypads input mode;
- Support for VAO patches v5 with spatial AO samples for dynamic objects;
- New sky mesh with more evenly distributed triangles for better reflections and mirrors;
- Option to hide console;
- Option to create portals to other servers online for freeroam servers;
- Scene tweaks from new photo mode app remain active in replay with app hidden;
- If VR failed to initialize, there’ll be a warning on loading screen (especially helpful if you accidentally chose wrong render mode);
- Semi-transparent shadows from smoke, flames, semi-transparent objects and such improved with Bayer dithering.

Fixes:

- FSR:
  - Oculus Rift integration fixed;
  - Virtual mirror incorrectly positioned in triple screen fixed;
- Pieces particles occasionally breaking motion blur fixed;
- New photo mode app: setting DOF or changing camera FOV doesn’t reset to free camera anymore;
- Origin shift compatibility:
  - AI recording tool fixed (didn’t render spline correctly);
  - ExtraFX bounced light clip plane fixed;
  - Issue with VR with post-processing disabled fixed;
  - Custom triple splits: misplaced driver names fixed;
  - Dynamic lights shadows fixed;
- Accumulation DOF works better with real mirrors;
- AC shutting down when making screenshots and such with certain mods fixed;
- Memory leak with SMAA fixed;
- Possible performance issues with some PP AA modes fixed;
- AC stuck in setup check with cars with extended physics fixed;
- Monitor mirrors showing headlights as red and blue fixed;
- Issue with saving and loading selected PP-filter fixed;
- Option to draw track AO samples removed to stop people from activating it accidentally;
- VAO patches for cars no longer affect windscreen brightness;
- Switching VAO sets (with driver/without driver) fixed;
- Fur material changing scale randomly fixed;
- Disabling windscreen dirt not always working fixed;
- FidelityFX CAS now works with FXAA and FXAA 3.11 (fixed) as well as with SMAA;
- Half-resolution smoke now works with triple screen mode;
- Shader `stPerPixelNM_UVflow` with alpha-test now casts shadows properly;
- Low beams not working properly in replays fixed;
- Issue with windscreen meshes drawn over driver visor (with something like F6 camera) fixed;
- Shaking chase cameras fixed;
- Tessellation shaders (flags, bending pieces): fog, shadows and ExtraFX effects are fixed;
- Issue with randomized wind component getting too large fixed;
- Crash with downshift protection on older mods without audio event fixed;
- Issue with car wheels jittering back and forth in rare cases when moving slowly fixed;
- Shadowed wheels and VAO fade out when car tilts too much;
- Collision depth is stored in replays now, for deforming walls to work correctly;
- Fake Shadows generation for cars like McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 fixed (now ignores seatbelts);
- Issue with cached car data growing too large with repeated entries fixed;
- Issue with car heightmap not working correctly with some cars (and resulting in, for example, sparks flying inside) fixed;
- WeatherFX:
  - PP-filter adjustments are reset when current filter is changed;
  - Default WeatherFX implementation updated and fixed (improved clouds, definitions for cold and hot weather types were missing);
- Per-pixel fog used in some shaders fixed;
- Replay clips saving is more stable now;
- FPS limiter deactivation in new performance stats app fixed;
- Loading of extra CSP data for older replay versions fixed;
- Pieces of grass and dirt not really working with car driving backwards fixed;
- Broken shading (especially shadows) of some skinned meshes fixed;
- Fake shadows from front wheels sometimes being rendered above everything else in first persion view fixed;
- Smaller fixes and stability improvements.

For new content and configs:

- Override car data files related to visuals, such as “lods.ini” or “lights.ini”, by creating new files in “extension/data_override” folder;
- Colorful shadowing: overall look improved, new parameters;
- Masking pass shading improved, doesn’t look as messy with darker textures, new parameters;
- Custom car physics:
  - Create hidden car setup items linked to some AC physics controller (for example, to create a suspension with ride height adapting to car speed);
  - Link clutch damage to exceedingly high torque;
- Custom track physics:
  - Soft walls fixed, with new `MAX_DEPTH` option to limit softness for collisions that are too deep (docs are coming);
  - Cars spawned aligned to track surface (optional, controlled by track’s physics config surfaces.ini, enabled by default with custom track physics);
- Deformable track walls for deep collisions (with soft colliders), for tyre walls and such;
- WeatherFX:
  - API to create and manipulate dynamic lights for more advanced visual effects;
  - New `ac.setSkyV2SunSaturation(number)` to adjust sun saturation;
  - Functions to adjust VAO and extra AO samples parameters;
  - New sky-covering clouds using panorama textures as an alternative way to render clouds;
  - Option to load textures asynchonously, new function to unload textures;
  - New cloud material parameter `normalFacingExponent` for adjusting normal calculation (default value is 0.5);
  - New cloud parameter `normalYExponent` for shifting whole cloud shape, to get it to look more as if camera is below;
  - New cloud parameter `topFogBoost` for boosting fog at the top of the cloud;
- TyresFX:
  - New `DIRT_OFFSET_K` parameter, similar to `DAMAGE_OFFSET_K`;
  - Option to set custom meshes for different tyres;
- `[MESH_SPLIT_...]`: 
  - Set split name or material directly, or use existing material;
  - New mode `COPY_FLIPPED` to fix missing interior windows;
  - New `INSERT_TO` option to specify new parent for new meshes;
- Parameter `[BOUNCED_LIGHT] AMBIENT_MULT=0.2` for reducing ambient effect on bounced light now that new VAO patches for tracks have light bounces;
- Parameter `[REFLECTIONS_FX] INTERIOR_NODES=…` for cars without properly set `COCKPIT_HR` now works better, affecting more CSP features;
- Scriptable displays now can reference a file with a script (`SCRIPT=script.lua`, same as LUTs);
- New values for car state for Lua scripts: KERS state, number of gears, number of turbos, H-shifter state for user controls and for specific cars;
- New car instrument inputs for KERS;
- Adjustable wings now can affect several nodes at once (easier to get LODs to work);
- New `ColoredBlackSpecular` parameter for car paint shader improving look of multi-colored skins, enables automatically with fourth version;
- Set soil color for tracks along with dirt and grass color;
- Option to set soil, dirt and grass colors for different types of surfaces;
- New track inputs: 
  - `CAR_DAMAGE_N` for amount of damage of Nth car;
  - `CAR_DAMAGE` for maximum amount of damage of all cars (could be tied to roof lights of ambulances?);
  - `ONLINE_RACE` switching to 1 for online races;
  - `TIME_SMOOTH`: time of day in seconds without rounding;
- In condition expressions, writing “condition:” prefix when referencing a different condition is no longer needed;
- In places where previously track parameters could either be a number or reference a condition, now expressions are fully supported as well;
- `CONDITION` for track lights and material adjustments now can use expressions too (although, without color support for now);
- Issue with parameters `MOVE_MESH_BEHIND` and `MOVE_MESH_IN_FRONT_OF` unable to reorder elements within same parent fixed;
- Track configs now can set flame emitters;
- Issue with change in configs related to semi-transparent shadows not applying live fixed;
- New `common/particles_track.ini` with some presets for particles (bonfire, stove, flare);
- CSP configs can add extra comments about car features on loading screen;
- New Python functions: `ac.ext_getWeatherTimeMult()`, `ac.ext_setWeatherTimeMult(value)`.