Updates 7/8/2026

~weekly blog post.

Tracks:

Stafford Speedway is almost finished, posting to L1 in couple days if no bugs reported. This took me insane amount of time and I also decided to add pits to the track as I did "drone scan" the event and took bunch of photos of trailers and tents. To add that it took me almost a whole week creating truck and trailer and tent models and aligning textures, kinda wish i didnt do it due to insane time for no practical good, but its gonna be job already done for other tracks too with slight adjustments.

Added all flags and added/moved FD banners where they belong. Also spent a lot of time trying to figure out vao patches. And then just figured out that Optix VAO bakery newest versions dont work (at least with my tracks) and i got very dark track shadows AND car interiors. Went back to Bakery v8 and everything is good!

Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

Track is very close to finished geo wise and visually for the most part. What is not finished - layouts (to be confirmed by FD), pits area (will be easier, but probably after event), some minor visual changes. I added more visuals for dragrace area and maybe in the future i develop this part of track if dragrace ever makes a return in AC. For this track I also decided to go big texture for the asphalt, it would probably take me 2+ weeks to do it more efficiently with repeating patterns to have it look nicer. And the track itself is huge, oval is 5% bigger than Seattle, so for the first time I decided to go with 16k main texture file instead of 8k (oval taking up half 16x8). It may or may not run on older GPUs with smaller video memory, please report if you have any glitches/issues. If enough people have problems with it i will include some swappable visuals to reduce VRAM cost.

Due to efforts of using Layout 3 - FD is trying to organize paving of the corners. Which means no IRL testing days as the 2 week cutoff is approaching.

For no practical reason I also made the actual tunnel under the track lol

Made some lighting for night rides:

Layout 3 got some changes - there is a drain on OZ4 that i missed in my initial geo and we cant drive there so had to adjust the line a bit narrower. Also while nothing is confirmed i extended the finish and added another OZ on the spectator wall.

To me it makes sense, there should be enough tire left and it would produce awesome shots of finish line with grandstands in the background, for example my favorite photo angle in Seatle:

CARS

I'm still working on the tires and aero whenever I get free time. While to me they seem great, there are way too many people complaining that they are undergripped. The tire model is what it is, its not perfect. To feel the "grip" you need to increase it to unrealistic levels which make the cars run 10% faster around the course than real life. It may or may not be an issue of the tire at all as to me they seem fine (except at very low speeds i think it should catch sidebite better) as many people are just too used to VDC flat physics with overgripped tire. As one FD driver told me when he posted AC+IRL replay he had to slow down AC replay by 7% for them to match up and it's always been a known issue with those tires. But they seem to feel "better" as on simulator we can't feel the weight shift and lateral grip "bite". I'm still testing if i could add some grip while also adding more aero drag and rolling resistance. One thing I might take completely out is PRESSURE_D_GAIN which scales grip around PRESSURE_IDEAL. It makes sense when going up in pressure to remove grip, but it doesnt make sense to remove grip when going lower pressures. Currently I almost always choose to run 17PSI as going lower is losing grip due to D_GAIN but in real life we gain more contact patch and get extra grip but there is no contact patch simulation in AC tire model at all.

To help me with testing and avoid using 10 different apps with confusing (to me) labels I developed an app to test aero, suspension, tires, loads, etc. Attaching early version of the app, not sure if i should make a separate post and keep it updated? Idk how useful it would be to other people who don't mod themselves:

For some reason won't let me attach the files in public post so download is HERE (probably a good place where i can update the script)

For advanced damper telemetry you need to drop in script.lua and damper_telemetry.lua into your car's data folder. Branden Sorensen BMW latest version has it included. If there are any performance issues caused by the script in the newest version please report.

Currently on my high priority list - rebuild Brutskiy's rear suspension, finish Luis Lanz car, and get Davis and Castro cars out for L3 testing. No sleep :/

Speaking of car's and updates, im having a dilemma if i should use actual steering ratio for cars. E.g. Sorensen cars use 1080 degrees of wheel rotation which is somewhat accurate as the rack itself is 1152 degrees but rack stops are used. Most other cars in AC including mine are set at 900 degrees. When I updated tires i forgot about the 1080 thing and my wheel was set to 900 and I lost a whole day trying to debug whats wrong with the car/tire when all it was is my wheel never reached the lock and car was spinning out if it went over 52 degrees. Since 900 is quite a standard in AC maybe I should set all cars to it regardless of actual rotation to avoid confusion and frustration? I would love your input on this!

EVENTS:

Currently planning next Laughlin race. possible dates - 18 or 19 July or 8th or 19th August. Any input?

PATREON

I started modding in 2021 for fun to create Branden's car in assetto. Its gone through multiple rebuilds and iterations and collected experience and skills sparked motivation to build better cars and tracks for Assetto. 2 years ago I decided to take the risk and go "full-time" apart from working at FD events, while draining my savings hoping I can make it worth it with time. Now I have 7 tracks and I've lost count how many cars (20+). Past couple months have changed my view on Patreon and modding and I believe I can actually do this long-term or see where it takes me. Your support has already helped me cover about half of my equipment debt (3d scanners, audio recording equipment, drone). I appreciate your support, this really means a lot to me, thank you!

Valters