Bug Chase cam and Ford GT (GT3)

For some reasons in Ford GT GT3 (from both GTR3 and ADAC classes) you can't move the chase cam away as far as you can in other cars (including Ford GT from GTR1). In .uvm files this parameter is called UVM_SWINGMAN_ZOOM and for Ford GT GT3 it is maxxed out at 5.5 while for other cars it's 8.0.

With the default game setting it's not an issue, but it becomes one when you reduce FOV. This is how it looks like with FOV 0.6x, you can't move the camera away any more and it's still way too close:

- Since this is the only car I know with this issue, I think it's a bug; something that was probably overlooked at one point and went unnoticed.

But I also want to notice that even for other cars, this limit of 8.0 is a bit too tight when you reduce FOV further to 0.5x. This is what the car will look like; and what it looks like with the default settings, in comparison:


- I think increasing the limit to something like 10.0 or 11.0 would be enough and the chase cam will work as intended with all settings.

P.S. By the way the same limits are applied to the chase cam in replay mode. What's also strange in replay mode is that the camera distance is reset to default (I guess it's 5.0?) every time you switch from one AI car to another, while other camera parameters, like pitch and yaw angles are preserved (but only for each car model, not for each car)...

 

Thanks to this hint from another thread I was able to find a way to fix this problem for me, but I still think it would be nice to fix it for everyone.

And since all the camera files are accessible I looked further and found a number of inconsistencies or outliers in values that don't seem to make much sense.

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First, this max distance, called maxRaduis in swingman_mid.xml camera files. There are 6 cars that have this parameter set lower than 8.0 for no apparent reason, it's not only for Ford GT. These are:
- Audi RS5 DTM (the oldest one) - 7.0;
- BMW M3 DTM - 7.0;
- Ford GT GT3 - 5.5;
- Honda Civic WTCC 2015 - 7.3;
- AMG-Mercedes CLK DTM 2003 - 6.3;
- Ruf RT12r GTM - 5.5 (this car isn't used in the game, apparently).

If you also look at triple screen settings, swingman_mid_triple.xml files, maxRadius is all over the place. Most cars have it at 5.5, others at 8.0 and there are three cars that have other values (Honda Civic WTCC 2015, McLaren-Mercedes SLR, MB CLK DTM 2003). But maybe this won't be a problem since with triple screen you don't need to set FOV as low as with single screen.

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Second, I looked at orientationSpeed parameters, they consist of three values. First one I assume is for vertical movement of the camera; the second one is definitely for horizontal movement; the third one doesn't seem to be used at all.

This third value is set to 0.0 for all cars except these 3 that have it at 10.0 but it doesn't seem to make any difference compared to similar cars:
- Audi RS5 DTM (the oldest one);
- FR US;
- FR2.

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Third, in the same parameters, orientationSpeed, the second value defines how fast the camera follows the car horizontally (yaw angle). Most cars have this value at around 8.0-8.5; some cars have it lower, some higher: Silhouette - 6.5-7.75; Hillclimb - 9.0; DTM - 11.0; open wheelers - from 8.0 to 9.5, with FRX-17 at 20.0. (BTW, triple screen settings have much less variety; it basically goes 11.0 for DTM, 20.0 for FRX-17, 8.0/8.5 for everything else, plus a few exceptions.)

Then there's a number of outliers. Although I'm not sure how exactly "wrong" it is because I don't know what exactly is the concept behind choosing a higher number over a lower one and vice versa. Generally it looks like the more cornering speed the car has, the higher this value is set. So anyway I assume similar cars should have similar values. Most noticable outliers are these:

- Alpina B6 - 6.5 - while all the other GT3 car have it at 8.0-8.5;
- Zakspeed Capri - 6.5 - while all the other Gr5 cars have it at 8.0;
(Both felt better, more precise and easier to drive fast when I changed it to 8.0 and I even went further and changed Zakspeed to 9.0.)

- FR3 - 8.0;
- FR90 - 8.0;
- Tatuus F4 - 8.0;
(Compare to other open wheelers: FRJr - 9.5; FR2 - 9.0; FRUS - 9.0; FRX17 - 20.0. But in triple screen settings all of these cars have this value set to 8.0, except FR X17 at 20.0 again.)

- VW i.d.r - 7.5.

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And the more you look at all the different settings, the less consistent it gets.

@devs I understand that only a few people use chase cam so this is of the lowest priority. I use it all the time and I'd be glad to hear what you think about all of that.

 

So I parsed all chase cam files and put the values in one table. Now it's much easier to see what's going on, spot errors, compare values between different cars, etc. Both single and triple screen (there are errors in triple screen settings too).

Also I was wrong about that one:

The third value in orienationSpeed does what I expected it to do - it sets the speed for camera roll, but it was hard to notice because 10 is already a quite high value and on top of that those three car have very limited body roll.

It actually looks nice and I'd say more immersive to have it set to something like 2-5 in GT3 cars, but at the same time I found that it makes driving with chase cam harder and I felt less "connected" with the car, because I'm so used to how it looks with the default 0.

 

Another bug? There are these two folders for camera files:
porsche_gt3cup
porsche_gt3cup_enduro

I'd assume that the first one should be used by the Carrera Deutschland car, while the second one should be used by the GT3 Cup car. But no, both these cars use the first folder. The second one isn't used by any of the 11 Porsches we have in the store, and isn't used by the previous 911 GT3 R car that was removed from the store.

Now let me perform this awkward robot dance while no one watches.
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