For those that never met Aiwhisp, it's a bloated, overcomplicated and user-hostile tool to tweak your AI in Assetto Corsa - but it works! Better AI pace, better overtakings, and overall better positioning and inputs.
You can adjust the car ai.ini data real time, and save it per track or as a global setting, that would automatically be loaded at start.
There are some cheats for the AI, such as AIgrip, to turn AI's tyres into hot glue and hopefully gain a few seconds in pace.
But mostly, it's now a behavior/extra-inputs factory, with a character creation tool to save your frankenstein builds. It is definitly made with vintage, underpowered and drifty cars in mind, but i now have a good proportion of modern cars players using the app, meaning i get new ideas and fix to make the app perfectly compatible with those cars as well.
You can edit the racestarts, the attacking behavior, the hairpin behaviors, the corner inputs, and try to achieve a competent AI. It's complicated at first, but you'll soon get the basics.
I'll post a few prepared car/tracks/fastlanes from time to time for you to test the app and see how it works once properly configured.
v0.85B :
Improved alt Overtake behavior (still super violent, avoid with powerful cars)
Fixed a situation where minimum hairpin throttle would not be triggered (a bit useless since the Corner inputs, but it is fixed).
v0.85 :
Fixed the save issues
Fixed the compatibility issues with previous aiwhisp version
Cleaned the behaviors
Added a "apply character to all cars" button for faster edits on same class cars
Deprecated some WIP logics to the unreliable section
Updated and automated some of the attack behaviors
Added the new Overtake behavior : this one is super tricky and mostly useful for slow cars at the moment, but it has a huge influence on final pace while racing, since it WILL force the gaspedal on every opportunity (mostly between corners). Works on some cars, not on others, test and see. This is gonna replace the Elasticaution as it is way more reliable and way more powerful, especially on the positioning of the AI (it's using the PID from Edd i was talking about in my previous update).
tips for powerful modern cars : either use the --AI Whispere0.8-- Character to start without any inputs tweak or use the --SAFEMODERN BASE-- one.
For everything else, the DEFAULT should be fine, although super safe and not very fast (still faster than regular AI anyway).
For Vintage users, your AIs should achieve a 2 to 3 seconds gain in pace with proper settings, sometimes more. You can switch to the AI VANILLA Character to compare the gains.
Here's a small hint helper for the corner inputs tweakers
Cars that absolutly deliver with the app : all GTC60 and TCL Bazza's packs, Clio Cup, Darche 992 GT3, Ford 34 Legends, 1959 Chevrolet Corvette C1, 1952 Hudson hornet (for the matter, anything 50s gets a huge improvment), Toyota AE86, GT3s from Kunos need specific tweaks but work fine...
You'll find some experiments in the character selection. Note that i'm using my own fastlanes and settings for each track, so they might be off on your track's version, but it's probably just a matter of little adjustments.
I wouldn't start working on something like the Nord right now, especially without a very good fastlane, but on anything with a 1-2 mins lap time the app is pretty self demonstrating on its abilities.
The racing between AIs should really shine with tweaked cars, with a lot of overtakings. the attack behaviors are important to tweak as well, as they will usually get the car at the back slightly faster - allowing for packs all along the race, without everyone drifting in a boring solo experience.
i'll let you petrolheads find your way into the app for modern cars and formula ones, i will on my end start introducing the drifting behaviors and other missing stuffs for vintage. Reach the discussion thread if you encounter any issue or if you're struggling with improving the AI - always mention CSP version and car/track combo so i can replicate your issues and find a quick fix.
UPDATE 0.84F : fastest pace, aggressive behaviors are back, added compatibility with powerful/modern cars and a few dedicated safeties/tweaks to separate drifty cars from their grippy counterparts.
Still too safe for my liking, especially with modern. I'll work on the aicaution for next update. Talking about modern/powerful cars, the app is "working" with them but i've barely run tests and you might encounter a whole new level of issues. Let me know in the discussion thread. The vintage, slow, drifty and related, however, seem to enjoy the app like candy.
AI Whisperer is pretty unaware of track grip settings, so i would use fast or optimum values until i implement a proper way to connect settings to track grip values. On a brighter note, there's no reason a Character set on 95% track grip wouldn't work in optimum conditions.
Rain is absolutly out of the equation for now - use a Character with 0 inputs or make a dedicated one for those conditions.
As mentioned in the update thread, i used the PID (Proportional Integral Derivative, go and shine on your next family reunion)
from Edd 's Full Send AI :
github.com
Could have written something similar, but Edd's version was already available under github license and perfectly functionnal, so all credits to him (used with his permission). That PID is used as a smoother for the positioning after aiwhisp behaviors (which has been a personnal hell to resolve) and i added a small collider distance calculation to avoid contacts ingame.
It seems to work well so far. You can also turn off all aiwhisp positioning behaviors with the dedicated checkbox, if they don't fit your AI needs.
The save system for the Characters is fully working, for track & global settings.
As for the new tweaks, they're just a few helpers for different types of cars. The drift sensitivity allows you to pick how low on grip a car is allowed to keep throttling, and there's a second mode for hairpin caution for slow cars (it might work with modern as well, but safety first).
The delayed brakings are now safety free, so you can have AI diving on each corner if you're more on the Derby side of things. For some reason it is not as powerful as it used to be, i'd blame caution calculations issues that i'mm need to figure out.
The app is still as awful at first sight as usual, but you have so many ways of dealing with the AI i'm sure anyone with a little training can gain 2 to 4 seconds pace, with no downside on the overall experience.
As a reminder, follow this little protocol :
-Edit the main values first, using the --AC VANILLA AI-- character, to ensure your AI has proper braking points and behavior. Tyrehint seems to be more important than i thought, allowing for lots of sliding, so don't forget to play with it a bit.
-Edit your character : pick the tweaks that fit the car you're setting up. Make tests, see what's really usefull and what can be left off. Then edit the Corner Inputs (CET and else) until you gain 1-2 secs a lap.
-Edit the Attack, Chase/Full throttle in a test race to make sure your AIs are properly racing and attacking, and also check for specific zones like heavy brakings and long corners, ensuring they don't overshoot their way out of track.
And then, you can start adding AIgrip to improve lap times by another second or 2 if needed.
The endgame would be to manage to reach competent laptimes having a grip similar to humans - but the app needs a few more sliders to achieve that.
0.84D :
This is a test version. If you feel overwhelmed or if the app doesn't deliver, bugs out, makes the AI drive like crap... just reverse to the previous version (in every case, always back up you settings.ini file).
Also, and i can't stress this enough, this is a tool to tweak the AI, not a keys-in-hand solution. Don't expect AIwhisp to dradtically improve the AI without some self investment (apart, maybe, from turning up the AIgrip which is a super fast way of upping up ac's ai game).
The new "inputs" and "positioning" scripts might give weird results, there's no way i can predict how ac's 10 000 mods will react to them. You can turn them on/off real time anyway to see if they fit your needs or improve the experience.
I would always recommend to start with a car you know well, on a track with a competent AI already (fastlane+hints), so you can spot the benefits - or the downsizes - of aiwhisp checkboxes and sliders.
With recent CSP AI issues it's a bit harder to debug things. I'm using CSP 0.3.212 for my tests, so until next recommended CSP i'll stick to it to avoid mixing CSP and aiwhisp issues.
It works with CSP from version 0.2.11+
Last CSP version (CSP 0.3.preview 361) makes the AI a few seconds slower for some reason, so i would avoid it until Ilja fixed it (or until i figure out what might be wrong). Still works though, so it's up to you.
CSP 0.3.preview212 seems to give the best results, although 2.11 sometimes gets better lap times.
Sadly CSP 0.2.11 lacks the "ai is going to pits" call, meaning some AI might overshoot the pits entry in very specific conditions - that's on AIwhisp, where the AI will engage a corner power exit instead of going to pits at 80 km/h. Using CSP 0.3+ versions fixes this , so it's up to you, and you might not notice the issue on your favourite combo.
Disclaimer : This version is specifically designed for slow or drifty or vintage cars. It works perfectly fine with grippy GT3, but the approach is a little different and the DEFAULT character might give weird results. Modern (and Formula 1s) will require different tweaks and a much MUCH safer approach when tweaking, but i still manage to gain 2+ seconds on all the attempts i made using those cars. I think it's time for aero tweaks/scripts
If you wanna test already optimised car/track combos, this is gonna be on the aiwhisperer patreon (once it's up). Way easier to share, way easier to discuss and debug there. A few examples : Toyota AE86 running Magione in 1.24s, Porsche 911 GT3 cup running 1.40 on Hockenheim, all in racing conditions with 24 cars on the track overtaking eachother while drifting and actually fighting. It's cool.
Anyway, about the app and its new stuffs:
You can now edit, tweak, create and save your own Character, with its own behaviors, corner inputs, attacking inputs, etc.. Everything is detailed in the beautiful ai generated manual that is in the app folder (the manual design is prettier than the actual app UI, as expected)
There's a lot to unpack with the new version, so before ending in the discussion thread with shaky hands, let's have a tour of what's new compared to previous version :
-New attacking, chasing, cornering etc behaviors. The listing is a bit long, nothing's completely finalised, but it's working in most conditions. report car/track combos where it absolutly sucks.
-inputs tweaks : Racestarts are... different now. I'm working on the throttle scripts at start - where you could select a proper throttle managment for each car type - and right now it's just a "Hold gaspedal at x % for x seconds". It still changes everything at start. You can combine aiwhisp with the Streched Grid app, it's awesome.
-Corner inputs : you choose when the gaspedal inputs starts, to which extent, for how long, there's a rotation kick (that can actually trigger a gear change) and i'm waiting for the clutch to be able to start the drifting scripts. Otherwise, there's a corner exit throttle value for power exits - or just to make sure your AIs use their throttle properly on exits.
-Attacking and chase inputs : allows diving, positionning and other things that were missing from AC's original AI.
-Characters : found a perfect set of behaviors and inputs for a particular car? Save it for the track or save it for the car, and let the app load it at start without thinking about it. The characters files are a few kb and can be shared with any aiwhisp user.
-You can apply one character per car type, so all settings and behaviors are now car related. I've run multiple multiclass races without issues - the fast cars being able to overtake in a snap with the new behaviors.
0.84B update : UI update, you can now collapse sections.
Manual has been updated with the new stuff (it's aigenerated, i'll check it later cause as usual it's probably filled with a few nonsense)
Added the Drifter mode for power exits. Turning it off allows grippy cars to avoid spinning out with high steering in first gear
Added the pre hairpin overtaking trigger
Added the brake delayer for the attack behavior
Fixed a bug where the car's outside in defense position would launch a power exit while already on the edge of the track limits
Added tyrehint tweaks depending on corner entries and exits
Fixed caution issues where cars would ram eachother in heavy brakings without switching line
Deprecated a few behaviors to the "unreliable" bin
Edited some behaviors' description for clarity
The positioning now takes 40 seconds to completely act, avoiding the mess at start on some tracks where a fast corner would show up and turn half the grid into Kerbal Space Program when all cars are packed.
Added a few safety nets for more powerful cars - although, honestly, they're still not the main objective
And still all the car ai.ini and zone tweaks that were available with the previous version.
Also, everything is compatible with previous versions, which means all your settings are still working here. On this matter : i didn't include a settings.ini file to avoid overwriting your global one when updating.
What else? Well, it's a WIP, it's flawed, could be heavy on perfs, and barely working on specific oddities, which i'm sure i'd hear about in the discussion thread.
Also, this version is filled with securities and safety nets for the AI not to go completely rogue, but if the AI with AIwhisp is not faster than AC's original AI, there's something wrong in the settings.
The player's car using ctrl-c uses the positioning tweaks but gets no throttle inputs. It 's a control subject to compare how much gain you got from the tweaks.
I also have the app without the safety nets where the gains are another second faster, for another update.
About my Formula ones users : it's gonna take a while to perfectly tweak the code for your favourite cars. Watch out for the DEFAULT character that is not a good fit : race start duration is too long, shouldn't be 80% of throttle, the CET is way too high for those cars... It's tweakable and you can get results, but you should definitly save another DEFAULT character for those cars. Tips for starting with F1s : reduce ai aggressivity to 0.5, reduce chase pressure to 0.5, turn straight push off, turn collision brake release off, reduce all racestart sliders to 0, reduce CET to 15%...
You can adjust the car ai.ini data real time, and save it per track or as a global setting, that would automatically be loaded at start.
There are some cheats for the AI, such as AIgrip, to turn AI's tyres into hot glue and hopefully gain a few seconds in pace.
But mostly, it's now a behavior/extra-inputs factory, with a character creation tool to save your frankenstein builds. It is definitly made with vintage, underpowered and drifty cars in mind, but i now have a good proportion of modern cars players using the app, meaning i get new ideas and fix to make the app perfectly compatible with those cars as well.
You can edit the racestarts, the attacking behavior, the hairpin behaviors, the corner inputs, and try to achieve a competent AI. It's complicated at first, but you'll soon get the basics.
I'll post a few prepared car/tracks/fastlanes from time to time for you to test the app and see how it works once properly configured.
v0.85B :
Improved alt Overtake behavior (still super violent, avoid with powerful cars)
Fixed a situation where minimum hairpin throttle would not be triggered (a bit useless since the Corner inputs, but it is fixed).
v0.85 :
Fixed the save issues
Fixed the compatibility issues with previous aiwhisp version
Cleaned the behaviors
Added a "apply character to all cars" button for faster edits on same class cars
Deprecated some WIP logics to the unreliable section
Updated and automated some of the attack behaviors
Added the new Overtake behavior : this one is super tricky and mostly useful for slow cars at the moment, but it has a huge influence on final pace while racing, since it WILL force the gaspedal on every opportunity (mostly between corners). Works on some cars, not on others, test and see. This is gonna replace the Elasticaution as it is way more reliable and way more powerful, especially on the positioning of the AI (it's using the PID from Edd i was talking about in my previous update).
tips for powerful modern cars : either use the --AI Whispere0.8-- Character to start without any inputs tweak or use the --SAFEMODERN BASE-- one.
For everything else, the DEFAULT should be fine, although super safe and not very fast (still faster than regular AI anyway).
For Vintage users, your AIs should achieve a 2 to 3 seconds gain in pace with proper settings, sometimes more. You can switch to the AI VANILLA Character to compare the gains.
Here's a small hint helper for the corner inputs tweakers
Cars that absolutly deliver with the app : all GTC60 and TCL Bazza's packs, Clio Cup, Darche 992 GT3, Ford 34 Legends, 1959 Chevrolet Corvette C1, 1952 Hudson hornet (for the matter, anything 50s gets a huge improvment), Toyota AE86, GT3s from Kunos need specific tweaks but work fine...
You'll find some experiments in the character selection. Note that i'm using my own fastlanes and settings for each track, so they might be off on your track's version, but it's probably just a matter of little adjustments.
I wouldn't start working on something like the Nord right now, especially without a very good fastlane, but on anything with a 1-2 mins lap time the app is pretty self demonstrating on its abilities.
The racing between AIs should really shine with tweaked cars, with a lot of overtakings. the attack behaviors are important to tweak as well, as they will usually get the car at the back slightly faster - allowing for packs all along the race, without everyone drifting in a boring solo experience.
i'll let you petrolheads find your way into the app for modern cars and formula ones, i will on my end start introducing the drifting behaviors and other missing stuffs for vintage. Reach the discussion thread if you encounter any issue or if you're struggling with improving the AI - always mention CSP version and car/track combo so i can replicate your issues and find a quick fix.
UPDATE 0.84F : fastest pace, aggressive behaviors are back, added compatibility with powerful/modern cars and a few dedicated safeties/tweaks to separate drifty cars from their grippy counterparts.
Still too safe for my liking, especially with modern. I'll work on the aicaution for next update. Talking about modern/powerful cars, the app is "working" with them but i've barely run tests and you might encounter a whole new level of issues. Let me know in the discussion thread. The vintage, slow, drifty and related, however, seem to enjoy the app like candy.
AI Whisperer is pretty unaware of track grip settings, so i would use fast or optimum values until i implement a proper way to connect settings to track grip values. On a brighter note, there's no reason a Character set on 95% track grip wouldn't work in optimum conditions.
Rain is absolutly out of the equation for now - use a Character with 0 inputs or make a dedicated one for those conditions.
As mentioned in the update thread, i used the PID (Proportional Integral Derivative, go and shine on your next family reunion)
from Edd 's Full Send AI :
GitHub - Eddlm/Full-Send-AI: Assetto Corsa script to give the AI a fighting chance against you.
Assetto Corsa script to give the AI a fighting chance against you. - Eddlm/Full-Send-AIgithub.com
Eddlm
Share your videos with friends, family, and the worldCould have written something similar, but Edd's version was already available under github license and perfectly functionnal, so all credits to him (used with his permission). That PID is used as a smoother for the positioning after aiwhisp behaviors (which has been a personnal hell to resolve) and i added a small collider distance calculation to avoid contacts ingame.
It seems to work well so far. You can also turn off all aiwhisp positioning behaviors with the dedicated checkbox, if they don't fit your AI needs.
The save system for the Characters is fully working, for track & global settings.
As for the new tweaks, they're just a few helpers for different types of cars. The drift sensitivity allows you to pick how low on grip a car is allowed to keep throttling, and there's a second mode for hairpin caution for slow cars (it might work with modern as well, but safety first).
The delayed brakings are now safety free, so you can have AI diving on each corner if you're more on the Derby side of things. For some reason it is not as powerful as it used to be, i'd blame caution calculations issues that i'mm need to figure out.
The app is still as awful at first sight as usual, but you have so many ways of dealing with the AI i'm sure anyone with a little training can gain 2 to 4 seconds pace, with no downside on the overall experience.
As a reminder, follow this little protocol :
-Edit the main values first, using the --AC VANILLA AI-- character, to ensure your AI has proper braking points and behavior. Tyrehint seems to be more important than i thought, allowing for lots of sliding, so don't forget to play with it a bit.
-Edit your character : pick the tweaks that fit the car you're setting up. Make tests, see what's really usefull and what can be left off. Then edit the Corner Inputs (CET and else) until you gain 1-2 secs a lap.
-Edit the Attack, Chase/Full throttle in a test race to make sure your AIs are properly racing and attacking, and also check for specific zones like heavy brakings and long corners, ensuring they don't overshoot their way out of track.
And then, you can start adding AIgrip to improve lap times by another second or 2 if needed.
The endgame would be to manage to reach competent laptimes having a grip similar to humans - but the app needs a few more sliders to achieve that.
0.84D :
This is a test version. If you feel overwhelmed or if the app doesn't deliver, bugs out, makes the AI drive like crap... just reverse to the previous version (in every case, always back up you settings.ini file).
Also, and i can't stress this enough, this is a tool to tweak the AI, not a keys-in-hand solution. Don't expect AIwhisp to dradtically improve the AI without some self investment (apart, maybe, from turning up the AIgrip which is a super fast way of upping up ac's ai game).
The new "inputs" and "positioning" scripts might give weird results, there's no way i can predict how ac's 10 000 mods will react to them. You can turn them on/off real time anyway to see if they fit your needs or improve the experience.
I would always recommend to start with a car you know well, on a track with a competent AI already (fastlane+hints), so you can spot the benefits - or the downsizes - of aiwhisp checkboxes and sliders.
With recent CSP AI issues it's a bit harder to debug things. I'm using CSP 0.3.212 for my tests, so until next recommended CSP i'll stick to it to avoid mixing CSP and aiwhisp issues.
It works with CSP from version 0.2.11+
Last CSP version (CSP 0.3.preview 361) makes the AI a few seconds slower for some reason, so i would avoid it until Ilja fixed it (or until i figure out what might be wrong). Still works though, so it's up to you.
CSP 0.3.preview212 seems to give the best results, although 2.11 sometimes gets better lap times.
Sadly CSP 0.2.11 lacks the "ai is going to pits" call, meaning some AI might overshoot the pits entry in very specific conditions - that's on AIwhisp, where the AI will engage a corner power exit instead of going to pits at 80 km/h. Using CSP 0.3+ versions fixes this , so it's up to you, and you might not notice the issue on your favourite combo.
Disclaimer : This version is specifically designed for slow or drifty or vintage cars. It works perfectly fine with grippy GT3, but the approach is a little different and the DEFAULT character might give weird results. Modern (and Formula 1s) will require different tweaks and a much MUCH safer approach when tweaking, but i still manage to gain 2+ seconds on all the attempts i made using those cars. I think it's time for aero tweaks/scripts
If you wanna test already optimised car/track combos, this is gonna be on the aiwhisperer patreon (once it's up). Way easier to share, way easier to discuss and debug there. A few examples : Toyota AE86 running Magione in 1.24s, Porsche 911 GT3 cup running 1.40 on Hockenheim, all in racing conditions with 24 cars on the track overtaking eachother while drifting and actually fighting. It's cool.
Anyway, about the app and its new stuffs:
You can now edit, tweak, create and save your own Character, with its own behaviors, corner inputs, attacking inputs, etc.. Everything is detailed in the beautiful ai generated manual that is in the app folder (the manual design is prettier than the actual app UI, as expected)
There's a lot to unpack with the new version, so before ending in the discussion thread with shaky hands, let's have a tour of what's new compared to previous version :
-New attacking, chasing, cornering etc behaviors. The listing is a bit long, nothing's completely finalised, but it's working in most conditions. report car/track combos where it absolutly sucks.
-inputs tweaks : Racestarts are... different now. I'm working on the throttle scripts at start - where you could select a proper throttle managment for each car type - and right now it's just a "Hold gaspedal at x % for x seconds". It still changes everything at start. You can combine aiwhisp with the Streched Grid app, it's awesome.
-Corner inputs : you choose when the gaspedal inputs starts, to which extent, for how long, there's a rotation kick (that can actually trigger a gear change) and i'm waiting for the clutch to be able to start the drifting scripts. Otherwise, there's a corner exit throttle value for power exits - or just to make sure your AIs use their throttle properly on exits.
-Attacking and chase inputs : allows diving, positionning and other things that were missing from AC's original AI.
-Characters : found a perfect set of behaviors and inputs for a particular car? Save it for the track or save it for the car, and let the app load it at start without thinking about it. The characters files are a few kb and can be shared with any aiwhisp user.
-You can apply one character per car type, so all settings and behaviors are now car related. I've run multiple multiclass races without issues - the fast cars being able to overtake in a snap with the new behaviors.
0.84B update : UI update, you can now collapse sections.
Manual has been updated with the new stuff (it's aigenerated, i'll check it later cause as usual it's probably filled with a few nonsense)
Added the Drifter mode for power exits. Turning it off allows grippy cars to avoid spinning out with high steering in first gear
Added the pre hairpin overtaking trigger
Added the brake delayer for the attack behavior
Fixed a bug where the car's outside in defense position would launch a power exit while already on the edge of the track limits
Added tyrehint tweaks depending on corner entries and exits
Fixed caution issues where cars would ram eachother in heavy brakings without switching line
Deprecated a few behaviors to the "unreliable" bin
Edited some behaviors' description for clarity
The positioning now takes 40 seconds to completely act, avoiding the mess at start on some tracks where a fast corner would show up and turn half the grid into Kerbal Space Program when all cars are packed.
Added a few safety nets for more powerful cars - although, honestly, they're still not the main objective
And still all the car ai.ini and zone tweaks that were available with the previous version.
Also, everything is compatible with previous versions, which means all your settings are still working here. On this matter : i didn't include a settings.ini file to avoid overwriting your global one when updating.
What else? Well, it's a WIP, it's flawed, could be heavy on perfs, and barely working on specific oddities, which i'm sure i'd hear about in the discussion thread.
Also, this version is filled with securities and safety nets for the AI not to go completely rogue, but if the AI with AIwhisp is not faster than AC's original AI, there's something wrong in the settings.
The player's car using ctrl-c uses the positioning tweaks but gets no throttle inputs. It 's a control subject to compare how much gain you got from the tweaks.
I also have the app without the safety nets where the gains are another second faster, for another update.
About my Formula ones users : it's gonna take a while to perfectly tweak the code for your favourite cars. Watch out for the DEFAULT character that is not a good fit : race start duration is too long, shouldn't be 80% of throttle, the CET is way too high for those cars... It's tweakable and you can get results, but you should definitly save another DEFAULT character for those cars. Tips for starting with F1s : reduce ai aggressivity to 0.5, reduce chase pressure to 0.5, turn straight push off, turn collision brake release off, reduce all racestart sliders to 0, reduce CET to 15%...