Assetto Corsa Competizione: Marco Massarutto Interview

[Paul Jeffrey]

We sit down with Kunos Simulazioni Co-Founder, Brand & Product Manager Marco Massarutto to talk Assetto Corsa Competizione past, present and future..

At the recent SRO E-Sport GT Series event in Monza, we took the opportunity to spend some time with Marco Massarutto of Kunos Simulazioni and ask him about the Steam Early Access title Assetto Corsa Competizione - the official game of the Blancpain GT Series.

Taking part in a special media event on the Friday prior to commencement of the new SRO E-Sport GT Series, Marco takes the time to give some insight into the development of Assetto Corsa Competizione, talking about how the game is progressing following Kunos move to Unreal Engine 4, what the future holds and plenty more besides.

Enjoy!

For more about the SRO E-Sport GT Series, head over to the official forum and connect with your fellow eSport drivers!

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[MMario]

I liked how open this interview is, within reason of course. Honest question, would Codemaster's or any of the bigger developers explain their reasons and challenges like this?

Doubt it.

Thing is, you will never please everyone. Sometimes it's a thank less task, credit is due here for this interview imo. I would have that opinion if I was an RD staff member of not, I'm not blowing smoke up their backsides.

For me personally, VR is important, whilst I cannot run it at least now I understand the challenges ahead and they have set my expectations. I'll need to buy a better PC

There is no Pc that can run ACC in a decent manner.

 

[MMario]

Hopefully eyes will survive first generations of VR. Jason Mullin made some good points why tripples aren't awesome for not so hardcore simracer (I think even hardcore simracer can do without triples).

It is definitely an ultrawide era. And VR era, despite that VR is still awful.

I also would like to say that it is so awesome how much attention tripple screen topic gets, it consumes so much attention we can avoid so many good and bad discussion about all other stuff

Buy a Pimax 5k+ , run AC with Supersampling at 200 in steam Vr and you will change your mind ebaout VR.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Paul, thank you for the interview, great work.
To all my fellow ACC VR sim racer, at the end of the interview, about 25 minutes, Marco clarifies how important VR is for Kunos, that was music to my ears
With my system, I5 6600 @ 3.5 ghz, Memory 16 GB DDR4, Graphics Zotac GEFORCE GTX 1080 ti , Oculus Rift CV1, VR works very well for me in ACC, could be better but already totally enjoyable as is. It clarifies that you will need to update you rig if you are not high end already, but also that if you are, it will only get better as for Kunos VR is important and they will keep trying to make it better for us.
In conclusion, ACC offers a unique and detailed simulation with very high quality graphics, if you have the rig for it, of the Blancpain series and as an enthusiast for motor-racing, I am grateful to have access to it.

 

[Leynad777]

Paul, thank you for the interview, great work.
To all my fellow ACC VR sim racer, at the end of the interview, about 25 minutes, Marco clarifies how important VR is for Kunos, that was music to my ears
With my system, I5 6600 @ 3.5 ghz, Memory 16 GB DDR4, Graphics Zotac GEFORCE GTX 1080 ti , Oculus Rift CV1, VR works very well for me in ACC, could be better but already totally enjoyable as is. It clarifies that you will need to update you rig if you are not high end already, but also that if you are, it will only get better as for Kunos VR is important and they will keep trying to make it better for us.
In conclusion, ACC offers a unique and detailed simulation with very high quality graphics, if you have the rig for it, of the Blancpain series and as an enthusiast for motor-racing, I am grateful to have access to it.

Seems Kunos only cares for Oculus-support even the WMR-headsets have a far better resolution especially important for Sim-Racing, are lower in price (sometimes under 100 bucks in the US like the Lenovo with the same resolution than the Valve Index) and all negative aspects are more related to roomscale and support for Oculus games. In conclusion WMR-headsets have the much better bang for the buck in Sim-Racing and should be supported accordingly.
Edit: I found a workaround in the AC-forum, so i need one motion-controller to recenter the HMD while in ACC after every launch, which only works if VR Dashboard is enabled in the SteamVR-settings under the developer tab.

 

[Taranta]

Seems Kunos only cares for Oculus-support even the WMR-headsets ...

Seems???

 

[MarkR]

@Marco Massarutto thanks for your honesty about the importance of the console version of the game sales numbers and the revenue generated by AC1 on consoles. As both a PC and console gaming family we want you to get the console version of ACC right this time. I'm saying this as politely as possible - please don't milk the console players this time for the ongoing development of the PC product. Without opening up old wounds the console version of AC was a severe disappointment, effectively an early PC beta version that initially didn't work at all (single digit framerate), tracks had no limits, online was a real mess and updates were glacially slow. Subsequent releases often lacked the stated content and event the ability to assign controls to certain cars - the F1/Hybrid/variable boost cars in particular. Testing your AC console game on dev kit PC's and then having full price paying players find out and having to tell your developers it doesn't work on our commercial consoles is unacceptable. The Metacritic score is a clear indication of the differences between the PC and console versions.

All that is now forgotten and not for another discussion. If you really value the revenue and sales you get from the console versions getting ACC on console right from launch is essential. Treat the console version as a valued equal and all will be well. Seeing console players as a cash cow with a second rate product will see a significant backlash. Hiring some decent console developers is a must this time. After AC there are many console racing gamers who will never buy your games again. I will only buy on consoles once I've experienced the game actually running well on the real consoles we can buy and own.

I'm also assuming you are actually talking about a release on next-gen consoles because I can't see how ACC is going to work on even the best of the current gen consoles - ACC to working on the OG Xbox One or PS4, as it would have to, seems implausible.

I've enjoyed the development of ACC so far and look forward to the full PC game. I'm equally suspicious that the console release announcement is more a publisher demand for sales than what your team is actually committed to.

Oh and like it or not what you are making is a racing game, a good one and all the same a game.

 

[Karamuy]

VR works very well for me in ACC, could be better but already totally enjoyable as is.

Are u joking or are u blind?? ACC in VR is a lot worse than AC with shader and sol.. that is a big shame..

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

Did I hear this bit right? "V1.1 will have a championship"

Therefore by default, V1.0 wont have a championship? So 1.0 isnt the full g̶a̶m̶e̶ sim?

 

[Stelios]

Did I hear this bit right? "V1.1 will have a championship"

Therefore by default, V1.0 wont have a championship? So 1.0 isnt the full g̶a̶m̶e̶ sim?

The 2019 season is coming with 1.1, 2018 season will ship with 1.0 ... i hope

 

[A.K.Racing]

Great interview asked all the right questions.
So I gathered...
ACC will be coming to console
It is a simulation not a game
No to triples
If you want VR you must buy a 2080ti
A surprise is looming
Unreal engine is a pain in the arse to work with
It's pronounced Stefaino not Stephaaano

This is what I love about Kunos, they are transparent, honest, and real.

well yeah no match making can't called transparent at all

 

[Toonces]

The American market seems very insular to me, the same as its racing series are - like a self-contained unit. Cater for USA vs the rest of the World

Yes, we are insular, which is not so say provincial. However, the U.S. is the biggest market for both autos and auto racing sims. Kunos ignores us at its peril (or, perhaps, only profits).

 

[luxxx797]

There is no Pc that can run ACC in a decent manner.

you're totally wrong

 

[Lino Carreira]

Seems Kunos only cares for Oculus-support even the WMR-headsets have a far better resolution especially important for Sim-Racing, are lower in price (sometimes under 100 bucks in the US like the Lenovo with the same resolution than the Valve Index) and all negative aspects are more related to roomscale and support for Oculus games. In conclusion WMR-headsets have the much better bang for the buck in Sim-Racing and should be supported accordingly.
Edit: I found a workaround in the AC-forum, so i need one motion-controller to recenter the HMD while in ACC after every launch, which only works if VR Dashboard is enabled in the SteamVR-settings under the developer tab.

Not Kunos Fault, only after Unreal Engine 4.22 they have proper WMR support.

 

[randomcallsign]

Not Kunos Fault, only after Unreal Engine 4.22 they have proper WMR support.

Sam issue with triple screens. Lots of third-party limitations.

 

[Lino Carreira]

Sam issue with triple screens. Lots of third-party limitations.

Maybe true, but also maybe future third party upgrades that with luck will keep the sim up to standards in future while development is ongoing, and the idea behind my comment is just to the "Kunos doesnt care" comment....