Assetto Corsa Competizione New Screenshot, Misano Launch Tomorrow

[Paul Jeffrey]

Assetto Corsa Competizione will get its first public airing after E3 at Misano tomorrow, as Kunos Simulazioni take the upcoming title to the Blancpain GT Series for the first time...

Much anticipated since the game was first revealed as in the works by successful Italian development team Kunos back in February, ACC, the official videogame of the Blancpain GT Series, will be on site at the upcoming Misano round of the real world series this coming weekend for the public to try, marking another milestone in the development of the title prior to releasing on Steam Early Access later this summer.

Utilising the Unreal 4 graphics engine, an official licence for the epic Blancpain GT Series and featuring time of day and weather conditions for the first time in a simulation developed by Kunos, ACC isn't strictly the successor to the hugely popular Assetto Corsa, but more of a branching out by Kunos as they investigate new technologies such as the Unreal engine. The end result, a rather exceptional looking new title that features a full simulation of the most exciting GT3 racing championship anywhere in the world...

With the Misano round this weekend, and a promise of plenty of access to the title for members of the public, it wouldn't be a stretch to expect ACC isn't all that far away from coming to Steam Early Access, then we'll all get the chance to give it a try for ourselves...

Assetto Corsa Competizione should be available on Steam Early Access Summer 2018.

Check out the Assetto Corsa Competizione here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding this exciting upcoming sim. We intend to host some quality League and Club Racing events as well as hosting some great community created mods (we hope!). Join in the discussion today.

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Looking forward to ACC? Do you think the new title will be a success? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[vegaguy5555]

So..I have been to Misano yesterday.
First of all Stefano and the whole team where very down to earth, very friendly and happy to talk about the new game and the new challenges (I wanted to point this out first because I think that from the forums someone pictured a wrong image of Stefano).
About the game itself..I tried 3 rounds (Assetto's guys were starting to kicking me out ), two with dry conditions, one with "strange conditions" : a slightly wet track which has nearly dried up, but still has some puddles here and there, on slick tyres.
Regarding the first situation, I choose it to try to compare ACCompetizione to ACorsa with something as similar as it gets, but honestly I'm struggling to do so, since the rig was very different from my own, the setup was pretty "safe" and so on.
A couple of things I noticed, but take them with a pinch of salt as the above disclaimer applies:
I could feel a bit more what the car was doing under braking, a lot of understeer in low speed corners and the way the car reacted as it loses grip on higher speed corners was a bit different from now, but I need to drive Assetto more to elaborate on exactly how.
As previuosly stated, all this could be simpy placebo/setup/rig based.
Regarding the second challenge...it was quite a challenge! Very tricky, it was a continuos fight between the will of doing dry lines and trying to dodge the puddles, as I guess it is in real life too. Crossing over the wet parts produced a significant loss of grip and in some cases even brief aquaplaning, when for splits of a second I had basically no control of the car.
All in all very fun and I think that this adds a degree of variability and depth which would make a race much, much more challenging and fun.
Regarding the graphics, I'll just say that looking at other people playing it really seemed like tv footage, simply awesome (expecially at night), maybe as others pointed out the colors during the day were a bit too much towards blue tints.
I also want to confirm that a lot of Blancpain's drivers were there to test it, and they all seemed pretty impressed, the biggest flaw they could find was the lack of g-forces (obviously not an ACC problem though) which made it difficult for them to predict the car beahaviour as well as they manage to do in real life.
Moreover, Stefano told me that this was a much later build than the E3's one, that now the weather is dynamic(there is wet/dry progression with less grip on wet grippy lines for example) and that they are still evolving it step by step, with the ultimate depth limit set by the time deadlines they have.
Lastly, something I found both curious and an example of the passion that drives them was the subtle excitement Stefano had when telling me that drivers explained them something they haven't heard before : in wet conditions drivers use to try to pick up the marbles with the tyres in order to increase their tread..."we are definitely going to implement that as well " plus a big smile!
All in all a very interesting and fun experience (if you can, go meet them!), thanks to all the team and..now I am even more excited for the game!
P.S. They should reveal the early access date "soon", I couldn't obtain more than that, but I tried

I notice how different people can be when driving compared to one on one. When you're in a car/forum you can't understand what the other person is thinking.
All I know for sure is the same person cutting you off on the road would most likely stand aside and hold the door open for you when face to face.

 

[Uff]

Actually that was his 2nd visit, friday he had to leave for some race in the evening

Real life priorities, just like us: you know, someone has to stop playing to go to the supermarket, others to race a car on the track!

 

[townnet]

So..I have been to Misano yesterday.
First of all Stefano and the whole team where very down to earth, very friendly and happy to talk about the new game and the new challenges (I wanted to point this out first because I think that from the forums someone pictured a wrong image of Stefano).
About the game itself..I tried 3 rounds (Assetto's guys were starting to kicking me out ), two with dry conditions, one with "strange conditions" : a slightly wet track which has nearly dried up, but still has some puddles here and there, on slick tyres.
Regarding the first situation, I choose it to try to compare ACCompetizione to ACorsa with something as similar as it gets, but honestly I'm struggling to do so, since the rig was very different from my own, the setup was pretty "safe" and so on.
A couple of things I noticed, but take them with a pinch of salt as the above disclaimer applies:
I could feel a bit more what the car was doing under braking, a lot of understeer in low speed corners and the way the car reacted as it loses grip on higher speed corners was a bit different from now, but I need to drive Assetto more to elaborate on exactly how.
As previuosly stated, all this could be simpy placebo/setup/rig based.
Regarding the second challenge...it was quite a challenge! Very tricky, it was a continuos fight between the will of doing dry lines and trying to dodge the puddles, as I guess it is in real life too. Crossing over the wet parts produced a significant loss of grip and in some cases even brief aquaplaning, when for splits of a second I had basically no control of the car.
All in all very fun and I think that this adds a degree of variability and depth which would make a race much, much more challenging and fun.
Regarding the graphics, I'll just say that looking at other people playing it really seemed like tv footage, simply awesome (expecially at night), maybe as others pointed out the colors during the day were a bit too much towards blue tints.
I also want to confirm that a lot of Blancpain's drivers were there to test it, and they all seemed pretty impressed, the biggest flaw they could find was the lack of g-forces (obviously not an ACC problem though) which made it difficult for them to predict the car beahaviour as well as they manage to do in real life.
Moreover, Stefano told me that this was a much later build than the E3's one, that now the weather is dynamic(there is wet/dry progression with less grip on wet grippy lines for example) and that they are still evolving it step by step, with the ultimate depth limit set by the time deadlines they have.
Lastly, something I found both curious and an example of the passion that drives them was the subtle excitement Stefano had when telling me that drivers explained them something they haven't heard before : in wet conditions drivers use to try to pick up the marbles with the tyres in order to increase their tread..."we are definitely going to implement that as well " plus a big smile!
All in all a very interesting and fun experience (if you can, go meet them!), thanks to all the team and..now I am even more excited for the game!
P.S. They should reveal the early access date "soon", I couldn't obtain more than that, but I tried

Did they mean this??

 

[Tberg]

Did they mean this??

That looked kindda crappy, I would think Kunos would do a more gradual approach with better textures, including more visible layer of marbles on the track:

 

[Matteo Pagin]

The marble effect he wanted to implement was first of all physics wise, we didn't talk about the graphical effect so I don't know whether It will be there or not...secondly the drivers try to do that when it's wet, as when it's dry having those marbles on the tyre would be the exact opposite of beneficial. Plus he just discovered It so the depth of the implementetion is still unkown ( I guess we can't even say It will be there 100% since he didn't make It yet) as like I said this time they have some strict deadlines.
(AFAIK)
Basically all I know is he wanted to implement this, I don't want to create false expectations/promises which he didn't make

 

[traind]

http://davidperel.net/assetto-corsa-competizione-alpha-a-racing-drivers-take/

A real world GT3 driver's impressions of ACC at Misano.

 

[Jason Mullin]

http://davidperel.net/assetto-corsa-competizione-alpha-a-racing-drivers-take/

A real world GT3 driver's impressions of ACC at Misano.

A self proclaimed massive sim racing fan with a PS4 that says Gran Turismo is the undisputed king. Hmm.

I read his entire article, it was good and I appreciate the fact he races real gt3 cars, but the GT references about the most accurate track recreations throw me off.

His talk of ambient noises in car the camera doesn't pick up is very interesting, however.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

He probably meant visual accuracy, same as with cockpits.

 

[felippekiss]

that's what I understood too, he's talking about visual of the track and interior cockpit details

 

[traind]

If you go back to his post a few people challenge his statements about GT in the comments and he responds. I like his arguments, even if I don't think GT is on par with the best pc sims.

I think part of the difference lies with what he is looking for vs what many of us are. He gets to race in the real GT3 series, so he doesn't perhaps care as much about feel, ffb etc. He seems to be looking for accuracy in track representation... particularly in trackside objects he uses for braking points. He claims that GT does that really well... who am I to argue?

I also read that he uses sims to do long stints to improve his concentration. He is not looking so much at improving car handling skills but his ability to focus without mistakes over a long stint. That makes sense for a race car driver.

In the end, he and I seem to want something different from a sim so we will value titles differently. I appreciate his comments on GT. But that doesn't mean it will be replacing my PC sims anytime soon.

 

[Jason Mullin]

In the end, he and I seem to want something different from a sim so we will value titles differently. I appreciate his comments on GT. But that doesn't mean it will be replacing my PC sims anytime soon.

I agree.
These real life drivers that give impressions are great and I think do make a difference.
But, I think what really needs to happen is for Stephano, Marco and other key members of the dev team to strap in and run 10 laps themselves.
That way the creators have their own perspectives that would be very influential when working the keyboard later.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

When looking at his comments under the blog, he indeed meant visual accuracy.

He said he used GT Sport to learn Nords and Silverstone, and every visual reference point, curb marking, grass etc. matched. Said that laser scanning is just one thing, it's not enough alone to make it good learning tool (for learning a track) if visual details outside the track are not on-point and up-to-date too.

He has played iRacing and rFactor (says in comments), currently console player but not earlier.

 

[vegaguy5555]

Grand Turismo reference from a real race car driver is interesting.