What is ai.gar and where does it go?

[bdford]

Or in part answer to my own question, ai.gar is obviously a garage file or setup file, but

1) How is it made - or is it simply a copy of a player made garage file?
2) Where does it go - is it imbedded in the .trk file?
3) What does it do? I assume it forces the AI use the setups contained in the file for a specific track

I have been tinkering with altering some tracks .val files to have versions that specifically match certain mods - starting with the old STCC mod. I have tweaked the merge, moveout and linebias figures and added a mod specific .gcf file then repacked the track and renamed it with the suffix _TC (for touring car) and it makes the racing quite interesting.
That just leaves the ai.gar question - would having this help things, OR does the AI just look to the existing .gar file I used to make the .gcf (in this case, one called BTC.gar)

Since I mostly run offline I want good competitive AI and dont mind having multiple tracks - next is to tweak tracks for the truly wonderful SCGT mod

Bubba

[raybee1970]

Yes...it is just a setup for the AI to run.If you have a certain setup you've made, that you want the AI to use...just copy it, then rename it to AI.gar and place it in the track file.

Then the AI should use the setup you've made for them....while you can still tweak yours and run something different.

[DaveO]

@raybee. Kind of a dumb question. But is this what Blaxman is doing to create better AI's for his mod?

[DaveO]

Nevermind. I get it now. Just read an old pm from Blaxman that explains it all.

[bdford]

okay so thats what I thought, thanks for the confirmation.

Yes daveo it pays to have customised ai for each track for each mod, even if it means duplicate tracks, if you want close competitive and challenging offline racing.

I am basically a touring car driver more than anything so am planning a set of six tracks for each TC mod I want to play with, so the 2.0 litre cars have tracks like Brands_TC, Silverstone _TC etc, and those for my V8 supercars are like, Adelaide_V8, Bathurst_V8 etc.

I plan to make SCGTS mod specific versions too, using the tracks we have that match the original tracks from SCGT (we have most of them!)

To get the best it seems you should unpack the track, add a customised .gcf file, (which determines what line and braking points the cars run)
add a customised ai.gar file (which determines what setup the AI cars use, made using the setup you used to make the .gcf file)
and adjust the AI values in the track.val file to get the kind of racing you want (determines their aggression in passing and blocking, how tight they follow the racing line, how fast they get away at the start etc etc) then pack it back up, and I make a copy so I still have the original track, giving the copy a suffix for identification.

Do all this and Heat can't be beat when it comes to great single player off line racing! I am having some knock down drag out door to door clashes with the STCC mod the likes of which I haven't had since the days of TOCA Touring Cars

Bubba

[reg126]

Just to add to the fun and confusion regarding heat and ai.
We run a Uk banger type mod with reactive physics settings based on more realistic car values eg roll centres and centre of mass at real world type settings than the impossible ones used in some mods and in the original heat game. We run a wide variety of car sizes in the mod. It is very apparent that the ai cars reactions change depending on the car you are using and the set up you are using.