Why doesn't Assetto Corsa just absorb.....

[leerex]

..Content Manager, Sol and Custom Shaders Patch? These are well proven add-ons, though complicated to install. I've been at this for two days now and, since I can't get Sol and Shaders Patch to work, I have to assume that I am doing something wrong. Googling for help, I have run across several, and by several I mean many, videos and forums that tell me "It's easy!". Of course it's easy if you already know how to do it! Most are outdated and thus irrelevant and misleading. So I'll keep peeling this particular onion, hoping to get lucky, but wishing that AC ,CM, CSP and Sol will hold hands in the spirit of peace and friendship. It would be great if AC would just hire Peter Boese and Ilya Jusipov, at exorbitant salaries, to work their digital magic to simplify the installation at least!
BTW, I hate onions!

[lx]

and then everyone will complain, that the game is broken...
i hate onions too, its a natural thing for humans. so stop peeling this one and go toss it from the edge of the world

[onearmedbandit]

Can you detail how you are trying install both CSP and Sol? Yes it is easy but if you install incorrectly it can make it feel incredibly difficult.

[leerex]

Originally posted by onearmedbandit:

Can you detail how you are trying install both CSP and Sol? Yes it is easy but if you install incorrectly it can make it feel incredibly difficult.

As I admitted, "...I am doing something wrong". My irritations are that there seems to be several different ways of installing all of this, at least according to a couple of videos
I've watched this evening. So that complicates things even more! Who's right, whose wrong? Everybody? Nobody? I think it would be helpful to know not only WHAT to do but also WHY!
So,no, I can't give you the details since I've tried many different ways.

[onearmedbandit]

Do you have Content Manger installed? If so go to the settings>custom shaders patch>about and updates. It should show you which version of CSP is currently installed. Which version is it showing?

Sol needs to be installed manually, is this what you did (some try to drag and drop it into CM)? Any version of sol 2.1.# and above requires CSP 1.69 or higher for it to work properly.

[leerex]

CSP 1.75 Sol 2.2 Not sure how I installed it but I think I followed the directions from Race Dept. But just in case, how do I get rid of CSP & Sol so I can start over?

[onearmedbandit]

In settings>custom shaders patch>about and updates you will find a 'delete patch' button, you can remove it from here. If you want to check it has completely gone or remove it manually got to your assetto corsa root folder (...>steamapps>common>assetto corsa) and check that both dwrite.dll file and 'extension' folder are gone or manually delete them.

In the same root directory look for a file called soluninstall.bat. Run this file to remove Sol completely.

[onearmedbandit]

When installing CSP I'd recommend using the install function found at settings>custom shaders patch>about and updates. Version 1.73 and .74 are considered the most stable recent public releases, .75 has issues, I haven't played around with .76 yet but have used the patreon version and it seemed stable.

For Sol, when you unzip the compressed file using .7z you will have a MODS folder containing other files and folders. You should only use this MODS folder if you have the paid version of Content Manager. If not open up the MODS folder, open up the Sol 2.2 folder, copy the folders and files within this (apps, content, extension, etc etc) and place them into your Assetto Corsa root folder.

In game go to settings>assetto corsa>apps and make sure any Sol apps there are enabled.

Go to settings>custom shaders patch>weatherfx and check Sol is showing there in 'controller' and 'weather script'.

Go to settings>assetto corsa>video and enable post processing effects and choose your PP filter (sol provides some options but there are more available at racedepartment)


On the 'drive' tab for single player go to weather and look for Sol.

Sol can be tricky to get right but once you've done you won't need to play around with it. Read the documentation that comes with it, there are important settings explained in there.

Oh and to answer your question why doesn't AC absorb Sol and CSP? Kunos stopped development a few years back and the modding community took over. From what I understand CSP could only have been developed if Kunos did not update the game again, as this would break CSP. So Kunos giving up on AC as developers do is the only reason we have CSP etc now.

[leerex]

Thanks Bandit....You've gone above and beyond with all those details. Per your instructions, I deleted CSP and Sol. Clean slate now! I'll get to the re-install some time today.

And thanks for straightening me out regarding Kunos and AC. Sounds like the modders that are still keeping Richard Burns Rally alive. I had forgotten that AC was open source. Makes sense now.

[Sassanid]

AC along with it's main mods, like SOL, CSP, etc, can be a little confusing for someone who's new to all of this, just like I was a few months ago. I think within the first 2 weeks, I reinstalled AC, CM, SOL, Mods, etc, like 7-8 times all from scratch because I would get errors that back then I didn't understand, so a fresh reinstall just fixed all the issues.

Now, a few months on, it all seems so simple, as long as it's all done in the right order.

Of course having everything in one package would be amazing but we forget AC is 8 years and the devs stopped supporting the game long ago so getting all the goodies now, all in one installation package doesn't seem realistic. Hopefully with AC2 this will become a thing and we get all of the weather effects, filters, adjustments, etc, from day 1.

Even the fact that we have all that we do today with AC is amazing in itself and I feel super lucky to have found a sim with such an amazing community that just keeps giving out of pure love for the game. All in all, it's worth a few days of figuring things out and getting it all to work because the end result is beautiful.

[onearmedbandit]

Originally posted by leerex:

Thanks Bandit....You've gone above and beyond with all those details. Per your instructions, I deleted CSP and Sol. Clean slate now! I'll get to the re-install some time today.

And thanks for straightening me out regarding Kunos and AC. Sounds like the modders that are still keeping Richard Burns Rally alive. I had forgotten that AC was open source. Makes sense now.

Happy to help. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

[leerex]

Originally posted by onearmedbandit:

Originally posted by leerex:

Thanks Bandit....You've gone above and beyond with all those details. Per your instructions, I deleted CSP and Sol. Clean slate now! I'll get to the re-install some time today.

And thanks for straightening me out regarding Kunos and AC. Sounds like the modders that are still keeping Richard Burns Rally alive. I had forgotten that AC was open source. Makes sense now.

Happy to help. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

OK, so I'm asking. Starting from scratch I installed a fresh copy of CM &CSP. Now the fun begins! I downloaded Sol 2.2 and dropped it in the AC root folder then deleted the four files (extension, cfg, etc.) . I fired up CM and was greeted with the error message "app file missing". So I removed the MODS folder, dove into the recycle bin and restored the four files. Same error message. Now CM was not responding at all. Thinking I'd just start over again, I wiped out CM, CSP & Sol. I then tried to download a fresh copy of CM from ACStuff.ru. I got a file called "latest". Inside was a zip that said Content Manager. but did not show the CM icon. Of course, it failed! So I tried assettocorsa.club, paid Ilya a few more bucks (that the bank gladly cashed) for the full version, got the email, clicked download and....NOTHING. Just another corrupted file. Went back to the website to check for the key and when I clicked to download it the response was "There are no keys available at this time, try again later." Apparently I am now locked out and have no idea how to get back to normal. Whaddya think?

[onearmedbandit]

Sorry I mustn’t have made it clear.

With Sol you don’t delete any files or folders once you’ve put the Sol folders into your root directory.

To install Sol with the free version of CM simply copy the files and folders inside the Sol 2.2 folder inside the MODS folder you extracted from the Sol download. Don’t delete anything.

So to clarify (from a fresh start)

Install CSP via the about and updates tab.

Extract the Sol 2.2 folder from the sol download compressed file, take the folders and files found within the Sol 2.2 folder and place them in your root AC directory.

That’s all you have to do to install CSP and Sol. Don’t delete anything.

[leerex]

Finally reversed all of my mistakes and CM, CSP and Sol 2.2 are ready for installation. I'm a little nervous to get started, fearing that I will find myself lost in the woods again but will soldier on. I've watched a few more videos but most are a bit dated. The most recent I can find has CSP set to 1.75 and Sol at 2.2.1. It refers to requiring the preview version in order to make it rain. Is that still necessary? Other thing too but I'll worry about those later. Mostly I just want the rain function to work. Thanks Bandit for setting me straight again.

[onearmedbandit]

1.75 will work fine but there are a couple minor bugs, hence why I stay on .73. Yes you won't have rain with the public release but lets get you sorted with it all first before diving into that.

Sol 2.2.1 requires CSP 1.69 at a minimum, so whichever one you choose make sure you are using at least 1.69.

Let us know how you get on.

[leerex]

As I understand it, it's just drag 'n drop the mods folder intact to the root of AC. Did that. The mods folder is in the AC root. Checking CM...(settings...AC...apps) there is no SOL! Did not delete anything. There are several Sol boxes to check off but they will not accept a check mark.