First of all, I LOVED this mod. I can't stop racing with these cars! I had two helluva races at Jacarepagua 2005 and Interlagos!
+ AI is awesome, on par with the best AI cars from Reiza (e.g: Boxer Cup)
+ The graphics are very lightweight (a must for not-so-powerful notebooks like mine)
- I have to agree to everyone, the engine is gougeous, but it is too loud. You could lower the volume a little, in order to be in the same levels as Reiza engine sounds.
As a AMS painter and modder myself, I have some considerations you may find useful:
1) You have duplicate liveries for ALL cars.
For example, in "Automobilista\GameData\Vehicles\VHR\CTS\Chevy\01" folder, you have the following structure:
skins\01.dds
01.dds
01.veh
the VEH file uses the dds in the same folder as it, so the 'Skins' folder is not used. So, you can delete all these 'skins' folders and cut the size of your mod by half! Nice, isn't it?
2) Speaking of VEH.... AMS may me based on rFactor1 in the past, but it isn't rFactor anymore.
In all your VEH files, you have the following line:
Classes="reiza5,VHRCTS"
It happens thought that, in AMS, you can't use that comma-separated structure in 'Classes'. Instead, it have to match the "Vehicle Filter" parameter in SRS file.
So, to wrap it up, edit all your VEH files and change from
Classes="reiza5,VHRCTS"
to
Classes="VHRCTS"
By doing this, you're gonna fix the series name in car selection screen (OPPONENTS section), which shows two blank options.
3) I don't know it people had troubles with their FFB (I use a loystick, so I can't tell). Generally, the 'Description' parameter in a VEH file has a preffix which points to the FFB setting in file RealFeelPlugin.ini, located in AMS root folder. Take that line below for instance, copied from a VEH file of Copa Petrobras de Marcas.
Description="Marcas: Gustavo Martins"
See the 'Marcas: ' in front of driver's name? That maps with [Marca] FFB definition in RealFeelPlugin.ini, (excerpt shown below) and all cars in AMS have this:
[Marca]
MaxForceAtSteeringRack=3600.000000
SteeringDamper=11500.000000
FFBMixerRealFeelPercent=100.000000
FrontGripEffect=0.000000
SmoothingLevel=2
Kf=6000.000000
Ks=5.000000
A=1.000000
Kr=7.000000
The ini file uses 5 letters inside square brackets to create a code for each FFB setting, and those 5 letters must match the first 5 letters that preffix the Description VEH parameter. So, you should consider taking a look at this parameter in your VEH files, as well as write down the FFB settings for people copy and paste into their local RealFeelPlugin.ini file. I suggest using [VHRCT] in FFB file and VHRCTS: in VEH file.
4) About the 'Category' parameter in VEH: There's nothing wrong with it actually but, since it is used to show the vehicle tree in VEHICLES screen, I would suggest that you change from
Category="NASCAR, Toyota" (or Chevy, or Ford)
to
Category="NASCAR Truck Series, Toyota" (or Chevy, or Ford)
This way, when you click in 'All Cars, All Tracks', you're gonna see "NASCAR Truck Series" instead of just "NASCAR" in Vehicles selection screen, making it ready for future new NASCAR mods.
5) All cars are VERY shiny. Inside the cockpit and out. I did a test, and change the alpha layer in one DDS file, making it darker. It didn't help, which means that annoying shiny look is somewhere in the car modelling itself.
6) Oh, the breaklights are not working in any car. This makes hard to me not to hit the AI in corners, since I didn't know if they were braking or not.
If you have any question about VEH and SRS files, feel free to ask. I'm glad to help!
