Livery files?

I know it's (Very) early days yet, and the liveries are still to be completed, tweaked, updated etc. But is there any news on when any of the base/outline files will be available? I'm guessing those are near complete? Just the actual skinning that's not?
Itching to get my hands on em!

 

Last I heard there wasn't going to be any official support for modding in AMS 2, so I wouldn't hold your breath for official templates. Just unpack the skin archives and make your own, like I did.

Careful where you post any info on how it's done though. I've already had a guide in another community removed because modding involves "decrypting files", and have had no answer from Reiza to my enquiry about whether or not they're ok with us doing it.

 

Really, am I missing something here?

 

Yeah, I saw that too. Can't wait!!!! One of my pleasures of sim racing is custom liveries. I like having my own livery. I don't like pretending I'm someone else.

 

And these liveries won't work online, only SP correct?

 

I'm really, really hoping they will, although at the least I'd just love for us to be able to create some for single player, and replays etc. The dream would be to have them online though! Fingers crossed!
Would be fantastic if I could create a full set for the Superkarts for example.

 

Don't know how that would be done for MP, the skins needs to be on the players machine so it would require d/l'ing skins before entering a server to play. At least for them to be seen.

But that was 20 years ago, so maybe things have changed.

 

I guess not. I haven't read that post because I'm not particularly interested in "road maps". Good news then I guess.

Nope, that's pretty much how it still works. Some games automatically send people's custom skins to everyone in the same lobby, though it's usually an option each user can enable/disable to save bandwidth.

 

There are options/ways it could be done. As you say, it could be a part of the server hosting, although I'm not sure how that would affect server latency/loading etc.

Then there's the other route of something like https://www.tradingpaints.com/

 

I actually thought I read that in one of the RD interviews but couldn't find it earlier.
That option is the best in my opinion, far less hassle.

 

Depends how it was done, but as of right now one car livery weighs in at about 10mb. That doesn't sound like a lot, but a whole grid of custom liveries would be 200 - 300mb. Still not a massive amount I suppose, but could slow things down considerably if just one person in the lobby has a crappy connection.

Perhaps the better option would be downloading the skins required before the lobby stage, so that it doesn't affect everyone else.

 

Yeah, I'd imagine downloading skins as soon as possible is best, perhaps before/during the lobby as you suggest. There's also the late joiners to consider, during practice/quali.
Maybe skins could be saved as multiple file sizes, initially a compressed version loaded until connectivity is at 'x'. Just thinking out loud really...

Either way, can't wait to get my hands on the files, even the templates for the standard liveries.

 

there are many ways to handle that.
Minimum, if you don't have the right skin, the game must use one of the standards like AC works
Downloads could be handled via steam workshop like in RF2
Generate skinpacks for leagues like was possible in pCARS1 ( custom livery editor ) or with pCARS2 by custom hacks.

 

True, but the issue with the options you've given is that it isn't as intuitive as the skins being automatically downloaded. I know that isn't a problem for many of us, especially those who are used to modding their sims. But we live in an age where increasing numbers of people want everything on a silver platter, without having to do anything themselves. That's why I think an automatic skin sharing feature would be helpful, even if it's only activated for the host.

 

As long as it's not anything like rF2 I'll be happy.
Provided it works as intended of course.

 

Just to add, hopefully they will be in a format usable in Photoshop!

 

Setting up a skin in rF2 by creating a custom car etc is a bit of a hassle but the actual downloading is pretty seamless in my experience? I don’t race rF2 much though so there might be issues I’m unfamiliar with.

LFS did automatic skin downloads almost 20 years ago.

 

I'm talking more from a league admin perspective and not only about skins, also for the frequent subscribing and unsubscribing of content to remedy the "package not available" nonsense.
The fact that users have the ability to cheat and not create a custom car/driver which is then problematic for others, even issues with S397 skins for example.
The method of setting up a single skin isn't very well implemented either tbh.

To be fair, creating a skin pack and publishing it on steam works well, it's just a bit laborious.

 

The liveries are currently dds files. There's a plugin for Photoshop to export in that format, and GIMP supports it natively.

 

Good stuff, I've worked with .dds before