A while back, we ran an article on how there was a race to turn sim racing into Flight Simulator with a slew of payware mods. James is completely right with his take on the absolute insanity of payware mods for Flight Simulator. A quick google search landed me on a webpage offering a Mod Boeing 747-8 for $26.68.
but at $26.68, some people may be able to simulate what would happen if it did.
Now I don’t know about you, but $25 could feed a family of five, and it did tonight. My family cooked up some flat iron steaks with green peppers and some white rice with butter and cheese. This might seem hypocritical because I have defended $10 DLC packs, and later in this article I will defend a series of payware mods released by an Assetto Corsa user. However, $25+ for a single airplane is an enormous amount of money to be sent to basically fly in a straight line for a few hours simulating a trip from New York to Orlando.
On the other hand, I found guy who is offering up some highly sought after sim cars for $6 a piece. I asked him if he was interested in being linked directly and or reviewed, and he declined. He is concerned about the legal ramifications of his payware mods, and for good reason: The cars he is replicating have been the subject of legal debate before. I will not refer to the cars by name but you can probably take a guess, or find the webpage yourself.
The email and process of getting to pay for the mods is something that makes you feel like you are doing something way more shady than playing video games in your boxers.
Accessing the cars is very similar to the mystique surrounding the actual brand itself. You have to give the modder a whole slew of information about how you sim race and your views on several different aspects of sim racing, including your views on sharing payware mods. After this process, the man is still rather suspicious of your intents. I am not sure if it is because he cannot speak English very well and doesn’t understand some of the simple vernacular associated with American English.
This man does put a great deal of work in to the physics and his model (no, they aren’t ripped from Forza and he does it in a way that’s pretty crafty but we can’t disclose that). Just watching some videos on his work, I was itching to get my hands on it and give it a try. When I was finally approved to buy his cars, I dropped them in to my Assetto Corsa folder and got myself on the Nurburgring.
First impressions? Wow.
This wasn’t your run of the mill mod, this was about as close to what I was expecting the car to feel like as you could get. Numerous articles and Chris Harris videos described what I was feeling from the two cars this car was portraying. Each one uniquely different and accurate to their real life counterparts. For $12 I had myself another addition to my sim racing heaven also known as my Assetto Corsa folder. I do wonder if this goodness can be attributed to the underlying physics and tire model that Kunos gives modders to work with.
Am I making an endorsement for all payware mods? No. URD makes some fantastic mods and my nameless friends do too, but this is certainly not the case for everything. Most Assetto Corsa users are aware of the Russian guys ripping Forza cars slapping Kunos physics in them and selling them for like $10. This is not acceptable, nor should it be.
Mods take a lot of time and work to create for the individual or team behind them. Traditionally it has been a work of passion, however reality sets in more often than not and they seek payment for their labor. From what I have been told, modders with a donate button in their profiles maybe can make $100 in an entire year. Does this mean we should be sitting here ready to throw $26.68 at modders for a single car? I don’t think so but something in the $2-6 dollar range as a “suggested donation” would be a good deal for modders.
Modding in general is a legal issue. Many modders would rather not get involved in the added notoriety of having a payware mod and choose to release their cars for free. Free mods under fair use laws are the subject of many internet debates, it is not clear how this works as I am not a lawyer nor is your average sim racer. Free mods have been the targets of corporate lawyers too, Ferrari shut down a free to play browser game several years back. There is no telling how a far a corporate lawyer looking to justify his job will go when it comes to mods.
It’s just a coincidence that the Arthur Merlin looks like the car James Bond is notorious for driving.
I know my opinion is a little bit different than what most people have, Steam recently had a ton of backlash for their payware mod system. I hope that we see a nice healthy mix of pay/donation mods, and free mods. Mods have the ability to not only extend the life of our sims, but give exposure to car manufacturers that in my opinion is free and easy. Certain brands and models are not represented properly in sim racing for a variety of reasons, but there are passionate fans who support those auto makers and would love to live out their fantasy and pretend they are driving a car they might not be able to do otherwise.
*Some* of the planes available for fxs/p3d/x-plane are pretty impressive with their level of detail. Lots of them are pretty rubbish. Either way, $25 is a steep price-tag for a single model that may or may not have much attention to detail and can easily have huge performance impacts (to the point of being relatively unplayable).
Quality mods do deserve some sort of monetary support. Really, all I personally want is the ability to demo the product. Also eventually leads to DRM if the modder believes they are missing out on income due to people actually using their mod frequently without paying for it… Hard issue to deal with.
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at least let us what cars you got….would make the search a bit easier….
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“no, they aren’t ripped from Forza and he does it in a way that’s pretty crafty but we can’t disclose that”
Ripped from the Porsche Car Configurator? Not really that crafty, and still illegal.
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found them…..can’t wait to drive….
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Yes I’d like the names of the cars as well so I can buy and try!!
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Some people just love some cars so much they’ll try the best they can do in their spare time. These modders will want to share their work with the world and want everyone to see their mods.
It’s often up to the seller of the game to decide whether they’ll allow this, it doesn’t matter much, it’s non profit and modders will always find a way.
However, there is still a desire from the buyers of Mod-based games like Assetto Corsa to have quality content. Quality takes time and therefor payware mods are a good solution, it enables modders to invest extra time they would need to feed their family. Mods will always stay relatively expensive as there is quite a small market, as the market is confined to buyers of a certain compatible game.
However, this kind of modding is still not completely legal and ok as the commercial possessions of big car brands are still used. Because of this payware can’t really get big as license holders will eventually protest.
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Ignore my previous comment. I found em as well
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They available for RF2 too, some of the best content i have in ANY of my sims, really top notch stuff, think hes doing lots of stuff too,the guy is hot shit, think hes making a new V8 supercars collection for some league.
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I ended up buying all the cars for AC. Really top notch experience and to be honest, they’re just as good as the ones Kunos puts out in my opinion.
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I think alot of it is due to the underlying Kunos physics
inb4 I am called a shill
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If you mean Sim Dream cars, the vast majority of which is sold is a rip from a different source but on rare occasion self-made. The material I have played for rF2 has been extremely subpar, would love to see how this AC ones are magic instead.
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Nope, still not convinced. Payware mods is pure cancer.
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I don’t mind paid mods as long as the price reflects such.
Buying a plane for $26…or two cars for $24, when you consider the overall price for the official AC game at $35, seems a bit steep.
That said; Buyers do have a choice.
I’ll sometimes support modders by throwing a few dollars here and there at the occasional good mod.
I won’t ever spend more than half the title cost for ANY mod…regardless of how good it is.
That’s just me.
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