Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin Setup Instructions, Known Issues and Changelog

[The Iron Wolf]

Update: CC 4.17.0.0/Plugin 2.6.0.0

Bug Fixes:
* Fix crash on loading from save if RealFeelPlugin is used.
* Fix LeMans Classics mod crash with memory optimizations enabled.
* Fix decoupled physics no busy wait race session restart via button getting stuck.

DXVK VR:
* Introduce OpenXR rendering. See the "OpenXR Rendering" section in the manual on how to configure and limitations.
* Updated DXVK is required: https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...IWF_021723.zip

Tires/Flat Spots:
* Introduce tiresFlatSpotSoftnessWeight that allows configuring how much compound softness affects flat spot severity. See "Flat Spots softness weight" for more details.

Tires:
* Expose dirt pickup settings into .cchdc file.

Graphics:
* Allow hiding individual data pages via graphicsMotecDataPagesExcludeMask setting.
* Introduce .cccar file for CCGEP specific per-car visual settings.

FFB:
* Introduce ffbRampUpSeconds setting which allows steering force to be applied gradually upon resuming driving. This is primarily helpful in avoiding strong punch or oscillation with DD wheels.

Modding:
* Fast Exit from GTR2
* Load Last Saved Race from the command line

See "Modding Enhancements" section in the manual for more info.

Miscellaneous:
* Allow disabling minidump collection on crash via disableCrashDump setting.


Thanks to:
* Immortalx for testing.
* DXVK Team for Vulkan expertise.
* ZNix for sharing his OC knowledge.
* Mbucchia for help with PimaxXR and fixes/tweaks to it.

[The Iron Wolf]

Update: CC 4.17.1.1/Plugin 2.7.0.0

Rules:
Introduce F1 2011/2013 DRS rules (player only for now). Demo: https://youtu.be/3wVC-EYBFyc

Miscellaneous:
Introduce overrideMasterVolume setting. This setting makes it easier to balance CC app and GTR2 volumes.


Thanks to:
* Sidstalker for testing and feedback
* ToniMartin for tweaking a track to include DRS zones
* Crimson_764, wormyyyxd and Power Punch for inputs on F1 DRS rules

[The Iron Wolf]

Update: CC 4.17.1.4/Plugin 2.7.1.0
OpenXR VR:
Fix UI rendering with physics decoupling disabled. Thanks to @jlafc3s for catching this and testing.

Rules:
Add new rule that will require headlights on all the time:

; Require headlights during the daytime. It is recommended to also
; enable rulesRequireHeadlightsInDark, as it will enforce the rule on the player.
rulesRequireDaytimeHeadlights = 0

DXVK Update to v2.2:
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/gtr2_dxvk_TIWF_latest.zip

Next plugin version is going to include additional gear ratios needed for modern cars, so stay tuned! Early preview: https://youtu.be/ai41F2ziWwQ

[The Iron Wolf]

Sorry folks - a lot of work is going on the Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Project Discord server, so there are many changes not listed in this thread, so things are going out of sync. I was just notified that DXVK link got broken, here's the current link:

It's based off DXVK version 2.3 currently - https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...iwf_latest.zip

[The Iron Wolf]

As Crew Chief application development has slowed down, I am sharing the major update of Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin outside of the app. In order to run this you would need to update Plugin files manually.
I suggest unchecking "Update game plugins on startup" CC app Property so that CC does not try to restore old plugin.

Plugin 3.0.0.0 (Out of Band)
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep.zip
or https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep_avx2.zip for processors with AVX2 support.

Gearbox:
* Add full support for 8th and 9th gears. Utilizing this feature requires multiple steps, see the "Extra Gears" section in the manual. Here's a demo of player using the new gear ratios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvIS9RcgwuY

Graphics:
* ReShade integration improvements - long story short all the power of ReShade is now available in GTR2, including depth buffer support in VR and with DXVK MSAA enabled. In addition to the plugin update, you would need special files to utilize ReShade stuff fully, see below.
* Improve reliabiltity of video mode configuration via the -ccvm-w/-ccvm-h command line parameters.

VR:
IMPORTANT: if you run DXVK VR, make sure to update DXVK to the latest version below.

* Fix sky rendering corruption with some content running SRPL/SSTR shaders.

* As ReShade got added into the mix it became apparent that GTR2 Sun Lens Flare effect has severe rendering problems in VR. While I couldn't make it perfect (visibility logic is still glitchy), I believe I managed to improve it a lot and made it faster. For that purpose I added alternative Sun Lens Flare rendering modes, see lensRenderMode setting in CrewChief.ini.

Rules:
* Fix crash in DRS rules processing caused by the race condition in the plugin.

Physics:
* Decoupled inputs: improve handling of Esc, Ins, Home, PgDn, PgUp keys.
* Fix AI not respecting speed limit at boosted physics speeds. Thanks @Menrva for catching this. Please note that boosted AI physics rate is purely experimental feature, there are no proven benefits to bumping the AI physics rate currently.

Modding:
* Make Fast Exit feautre optional via moddingEnableFastExit setting

Misc:
* Internal cleanup, minor bug fixes etc.


Satellite file updates:

DXVK Update to v2.3:
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...iwf_latest.zip

This update includes the important new feature from DXVK team - d3d9.clampNegativeLodBias. In my opinion, Enabling this setting further improves GTR2 image quality on Nvidia GPUs (and maybe on other GPUs as well) in both VR and 2D modes for free - there's no perf impact.
Also, I noticed d3d9.maxFrameLatency setting, this setting may have significant impact on VR experience, so you may want to experiment with it.


CCGEP ReShade tools:
* https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...ols_latest.zip

Includes:
- Full ReShade effect support for GTR2 OpenXR DXVK VR
- MSAA depth effects enabled (DXVK only, DX9 already works via Nvidia control panel override)
- GTR2 VR depth based effects for ReShade (Both OpenXR and OpenVR but via DXVK only)
- GTR2 custom depth detection - faster than "Generic Depth"
- my personal preset to get you started in VR ReShade and more. See the readme inside tiw-vr-preset for details.

CCGEP Monitor update:
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...tor_latest.zip

Next up: gonna try making pit stops more configurable for better F1 experience.

[The Iron Wolf]

CCGEP ReShade tools updated:
Official ReShade 6.0 accepted all my additions (Vulkan MSAA depth access and OpenXR) so there's no need to patch ReShade32.dll anymore. Just use official ReShade 6.0 to setup GTR2 in Vulkan/OpenXR modes.

Nothing changed for 2D use, this update just removes custom ReShade32.dll and updates instructions. I still recommend using CCGEP ReShade addon for faster depth buffer access as it uses custom code designed specificlally for GTR2+CCGEP.

For VR use, things changed a bit:

* VR runtime now uses ReShadeVR.ini (previously it was ReShade2.ini, so rename is needed)
* Do not use Disable setting to disable 2D runtime. Instead, set NoReloadOnInit to 1 in ReShade.ini

https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...ols_latest.zip


CCGEP Monitor update: improve AI pit stop detection reliability
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...tor_latest.zip

[The Iron Wolf]

Shovas is working on Wiki page for this plugin: https://www.simwiki.net/wiki/Moderni...cements_Plugin and might be easier to get started. Thank You, Shovas!

[The Iron Wolf]

Plugin 3.1.0.0 (Out of Band, not currently included with CC app)
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep.zip
or https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep_avx2.zip for processors with AVX2 support.

Graphics:
* Add additional method of configuring game resolution via graphicsVideoModeWindowWidth and graphicsVideoModeWindowHeight settings. Using those settings (or command line switches) instead of GTR2Config.exe is highly recommended as GTR2Config.exe is pretty broken.

FFB:
* Introduce scaled steering force FFB multiplier for adjusting FFB in rain: ffbWetSteeringForceMultiplier. See "Wet steering FFB force multiplier" section in the manual for more details.
* Additional safety setting for DD wheel users: ffbDisableOnTimeAcceleration

Rules:
* Add rulesEnableSameLapRollingStartFix feature. It attempts to fix incorrect "You are ahead of SC" message during the rolling start. This happens on tracks where grid starts ahead of s/f line.

VR:
* Add experimental right eye rendering optimizations. Disabled by default and can be enabled via enableVRRightEyeOptimizations setting. Please let me know if enabling this causes issues.

Modding:
* Add ability to trace per material texture loads.
* Add ability to subsititute missing texture with a dummy texture.
* Add ability to save some minimal player telemetry to a file. If you are working on some tool and need additional data, let me know.

See "Resource Creation Tracing" and "Player Lap Info logging" sections in the manual.

Misc:
* Add ability to print warnings for known content authoring issues. See "Authoring Fixes" in the manual.

Thanks to @shovas and IMC67 for their inputs on FFB in rain and to @shovas for testing.

CCGEP Monitor update:
Add some safety car information (requires plugin v3.1.0.0).
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...tor_latest.zip

[The Iron Wolf]

Plugin 3.2.0.0 (Out of Band, not currently included with CC app)
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep.zip
or https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep_avx2.zip for processors with AVX2 support.

Tires:
* Fix some dirt pickup feature bugs.

Graphics:
Introduce additional LOD configuration settings. Important: those could cause significant FPS drops and sometimes visual weirdness, so use at your own risk.

* Introduce graphicsRearViewLODMultiplier setting which allows applying LODMultiplier to mirror/rear view.
* Introduce graphicsForceTrackLODOut setting which overrides track geometry LODOut value. This allows working around track authoring issues with objects popping into view without affecting cars and is generally much faster than forced LODMultiplier.
* Introduce graphicsCockpitLODMultiplier setting. This is identical to LODMultiplier value in defviews.cam, but it can be set per track in .ccgdb file.

See "LOD Configuration Options" in the manual for more details on what this is about. Huge Thanks to sunalp2 for his inputs allowing me to finally improve this part of GTR2, as objects popping in/out of the view annoyed me for years.

* Backfires now work in Replay and Monitor.

FFB:
* Add support for RealFeelPlugin v0.938 by TechAde. DD users be careful - Your defaults may kick in because this version uses different text to identify a car (class string) so settings may need to be reaplied.
v0.938 can be found at https://www.overtake.gg/downloads/re...techade.68428/ Thanks to @Juim1j for bringing this up.

* Introduce very simple ability to add more steering friction as car speed increases via ffbSteeringFrictionSpeedWeightMaxKMH setting. See "Speed Sensitive Steering Friction" in the manual.

* Rate of CCGEP DirectInput effects in decoupled mode can now be configured via: ffbDirectInputDecoupledUpdateFrequencyHz See "DirectInput Effects Decoupled Update Rate" in the manual.

CCGEP ReShade AddOn:
* Don't disable ReShade in Replay and Monitor.

Satellite file updates:

CCGEP ReShade tools:
* Update instructions to match ReShade 6.1.1 or later.
* Update TIW-VR-iMMERSE-Pro preset.

https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/g...ols_latest.zip

[The Iron Wolf]

Plugin 3.3.0.0 (Out of Band, not currently included with CC app)
https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep.zip
or https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/ccgep_avx2.zip for processors with AVX2 support.

VR:
* New right eye rendering optimizations. Those are disabled by default, to enable, set enableVRRightEyeOptimizations = 1.

Misc:
* In cooperation with @shovas, CCGEP now supports custom weather files. In short, it is weather based on real location historical data. So each track and each month of a year has different weather. See "Custom Weather Modes" in the manual and get files here: https://www.simwiki.net/wiki/Moderni...n#Real_Weather .
- Bonus feature: if custom weather files are used, session weather is not getting lost on load from save.

CCGEP ReShade AddOn:
* Fix ReShade effects and squeeze mode broken in rain.