Co Driver Replacement for RallySimFans Richard Burns Rally
This digidash has been in early access on my Discord for a few days so it's time to release it publicly.
Say hello to Atom. The tiny but mighty digidash. Fully functional in a super compact form factor. Available now from the Digidash page.
Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks to some incredible tools from Towerbrah we've cracked a way to decode and modify the internal files responsible for the digidash to an extent that has never been possible before.
I'm working with him to bring a set of modified dashes to RBR. Some of these are now available in the current RSF build. Others will be available here and on my Discord as I make them. They are incredibly fiddly and time consuming to make and the changes we can make are still limited but it's possible to get nice results with some imagination and effort. They require special support from the RSF launcher which needs to be V1.0.0.77 or newer. Any RSF build/update from today (1st May 2023) should be compatible.
A few of my users expressed a desire to have a co driver which was less verbose than the Darren default which comes with many added embellishments or 'flavour' to give a more dynamic and chatty experience.
In response this this I'm pleased to announce that I now have a number of 'flavour mods' available which you can add to your Darren co driver in order to reduce the amount of flavour by varying degrees. Choose from No Flavour, Half Flavour, Distance Only and No Distance.
Head over to the Flavour Mods page for more info and downloads.
Feel free to drop by my discord if you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi.
https://discord.gg/tAfZFCZmWM
Have Fun!
The V1.12 rollout is now fully complete and all remaining scales and downloads have been updated. Now is a great time to update if you haven't done so already.
Check out the downloads page to get the latest versions.
Next on the schedule is a 'pure' version that basically strips out all the 'flavour' calls and pairs the mod right back to core. This has been requested by a few people who prefer a more minimalist approach. It will essentially be a patch that can be applied on top of any of the current scales.
It should (hopefully) be available in a few days time.
I'm pleased to announce that V1.12 is now available for Standard Numeric. Other scales will follow over the next few days so check the download page for updates. Unlike 1.1 this doesn't contain any dramatic changes but it does have a number of refinements that are worth having.
V1.12 Changelog:
Hopefully this will provide a nice alternative to Steve or Janne for those who want something different and/or Luppis pacenote compatibility.
Be sure to read the Readme! page for extra info and installation instructions.
A huge thanks Janne and tobier for their assistance.
Please get in touch with me on discord if you have any comments or questions.
RBR ‘Darren’ Co Driver Discord
https://discord.gg/tAfZFCZmWM
Private Message
https://discord.com/channels/Darren Blythe#8502
I hope you enjoy it and most of all have fun!
Darren
V1.1 Changelog:
Hopefully this will provide a nice alternative to Steve or Janne for those who want something different and/or Luppis pacenote compatibility.
Be sure to read the Readme! page for extra info and installation instructions.
A huge thanks Janne and tobier for their assistance.
Please get in touch with me on discord if you have any comments or questions.
RBR ‘Darren’ Co Driver Discord
https://discord.gg/tAfZFCZmWM
Private Message
https://discord.com/channels/Darren Blythe#8502
I hope you enjoy it and most of all have fun!
Darren
V1.1 of my Co Driver is now available via my discord. It will get a full public blog release here along will all currently completed corner scales on Friday10th March.
For now, if you want the latest V1.1 (and you should!) head over here:
V1.1 Changelog:
Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who has downloaded and tried the mod. I've had some really great feedback and just wanted to share my future plans for 'Darren'.
The core concept of the mod will remain unchanged. I think the Luppis notes along with Janne or Darren co drivers gives the most complete 'out of the box' co driver experience in RBR.
My short term goal is to reach a point where i consider Darren to be complete. 1.0 was a massive step towards that but there's more on the horizon.
A few people struggled with the volume levels and being able to hear the calls clearly. In response to this, all future versions will have remastered audio with the balance shifted towards the mid/high end. It now has a much similar tone to other codriver mods and has gone down very well in testing. I'm quite keen to roll this out in the coming days.
I have been working on adding other pacenote systems. I am currently testing descriptive and also the porridge corner scale which will help people migrating from his mods.
The new audio and these two new systems along with some other tweaks will be version 1.1 which should be released towards the end of the week.
Following on from that, I plan to continue working on other systems with numeric swapped, numeric descending, numeric descending swapped and rbr arriving in the coming weeks. If there are other scales you are interested then let me know.
Some minor tweaks/fixes/improvements will likely occur after this but in terms of main functionality things will then stabilize until the release of Luppis/Janne V3. This will be another step up in complexity and i will start looking towards Darren V2.
If you want to keep up to date with development and help test out experimental and beta versions hop over to the Darren discord.
Thanks again for everyone that has taken the time to give feedback or just say hello. Always great to hear from you!
Darren
So after what started as a little experiment tuned into hundreds of hours recording and testing I'm happy to let the first version of my co driver out into the wild.
With literally thousands of files it's sill possible a mistake somewhere but it's been through a lot of testing and should be solid enough for now.
Hopefully this will provide a nice alternative to Steve or Janne for those who want something different and/or Luppis pacenote compatibility.
Be sure to read the Readme! page for extra info and installation instructions.
A huge thanks Janne and tobier for their assistance.
Please get in touch with me on discord if you have any comments or questions.
RBR ‘Darren’ Co Driver Discord
https://discord.gg/tAfZFCZmWM
Private Message
https://discord.com/channels/Darren Blythe#8502
I hope you enjoy it and most of all have fun!
Darren
I decided to open a basic Discord server for the mod..
I won't be monitoring in constantly but I will certainly check in a few times each day. Anything significant will be posted here on the blog but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have somewhere to discuss anything relating to my Co Driver without cluttering up the RSF Discord or posting tons of comments on here.
If you have just started looking at RBR co driver mods it can get confusing. Sooner or later you will hear about Steve, Janne, Luppis, Leza and Porridge Here's a brief rundown.
An effective co driver experience needs two things. Pacenotes and co driver audio. Pacenotes dictate what is said at which point on the stage by triggering a matching audio call at the right time. Pacenotes and audio are separate things but obviously need to communicate with each other. Thankfully there is a 'standard' set of commands defined by the WorkerBee pacenote plugin (included in the RSF install) that co driver audio mods such as this one can adhere to. Pacenotes need to be written (initially by the track maker) and are typically included with each stage and use these 'standard' calls.
'Steve' is popular co driver audio mod that works with these 'standard' pacenotes to provide a different voice and also has the option for numeric calls (eg. 6 right, 3 left etc) which many people prefer.
Steve's audio style is quite slow and deliberate. Very clear and easy to understand but sometimes feels a bit safe.
Janne is also a co driver audio mod but contains a lot of extra calls that are not known by the 'standard' pacenotes. However, they can be used by writing custom pacenotes (which is where Luppis comes in)
Now
Janne's co driver talks quickly and with a slight Finnish accent.
Certainly authentic, but is pretty hardcore and some people find it hard
to understand in the heat of battle.
Luppis has created a custom set of pacenotes for a large amount of tracks that does know about the extra Janne calls, so using Luppis notes in conjunction with Janne gives a really great experience. The co driver calls are more detailed and realistic. As of now, the current version of Janne is V2. V3 is due out in the future and will expand these calls even further but in order for V3 to work (without writing your own notes) we will also need to wait for V3 of Luppis. This is something for the future.
My mod is designed to give an alternative by using all the extra calls in Luppis V2 but with a little more speed and 'flavor' than Steve, but not as intense as Janne. It will still function fine with the 'standard' notes but i highly recommend getting Luppis notes for the full experience.
The latest versions of 'Steve' and Luppis notes can be found in the RSF Discord:
https://discord.gg/rbr-rallysimfans-hu-723091638951608320
You can find them both in the pinned messages of the #pacenotes channel.
Luppis also has a blog with info and downloads:
https://luppisrbr.blogspot.com/p/how-to-install-pacenotes.html
If you want to check out Janne Laahanen’s epic coDriver mod:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hVFco6uVc8
The other names you will notice a lot are Leza and Porridge. These are both co driver audio mods that use co drivers from other rally games. They both sound good and being able to have your favourite co driver from another game is nice however neither support the extended Luppis calls or claim to be 100% compatible with the pacenote plugin. As such they can not be recommended and have potential to cause issues. That said, many people use them and are happy so the choice is yours.
Download from the link on the right >>
Test export at encoding bitrate of 11050 (game default). I was expecting quite a bit of quality loss from the 44100 recordings, but it actually sounds pretty decent. The volume clipping of the samples made such a mess that any additional loss from dropping the bitrate is practically unnoticeable.
Assuming no issues with this version then it will be the base of public release 1.0 next week.
Download from the link on the right >>
Another round of balancing to equalize some calls that were too quiet
Fixed up a few samples that were trimmed incorrectly
Some more call variations added
A rework of the filter stack to take some edge out of the clipping
(volume may be slightly more marginal so increase in game if required)
For some unknown reason, the default in game volume for the CoDriver is set quite low. This means in order for any calls to be loud enough at 'default' the samples have to be boosted so much that significant amount of clipping occurs. This gives the recording a harsh edge and adds distortion.
As clipping is a destructive process, not much can be done to mitigate this. In an effort to minimize the clipping I have slightly underboosted meaning it may be required to increase the CoDriver volume a couple of notches.
If anyone would be interested in using a completely unclipped version (it does sound a lot cleaner) then I can make that available. However you will need to turn the CoDriver audio to maximum to hear it properly.
Please note when setting volume in game you must do it from the main menu to save it to your profile. If you set it from the mid game pause screen then changes are not permanent.
Download from the link on the right >>
Audio balancing on a couple of distance calls
Changed 'fakes' to 'deceptive' for extra clarity
A couple of extra call variations
More additional calls to be used in the future
Download from the link on the right >>
Some new calls added to allow Swedish corner numbering in future versions.
Significant volume boost to make it more audible at default volume levels. Sadly in order to achieve this the samples have to be boosted so much that some clipping occurs. Nothing that can be done. The in game values should be higher by default but sadly they are not.
Added a few extra calls that are not needed by default but will be used to expand functionality down the line. Users familiar with the inner workings of the pacenote plugin and running bespoke notes and custom .ini's may wish to reference them with custom ID's if desired. Doing so may break future compatibility with releases of this mod and other pacenotes. You have been warned.