Assetto Corsa Competizione Won't "Support" Modding

[Paul Jeffrey]

Kunos Simulazioni reveal more on the moddability of the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione, and it probably won't make for happy reading for some...

With a brand new game engine in the form of Unreal 4 alongside what is a reasonable short development timeframe until Early Access release, Kunos Simulazioni have confirmed that the new title will not follow in the footsteps of the original Assetto Corsa and support modding right from the very beginning, no doubt leaving many content creators disappointed to miss out on the opportunities afforded by the greatly improved graphics engine in ACC.

Although not officially supported, the possibility does remain however for talented community members to work out how to bring content to the game, as has been proven by some hardy souls over in the original Project CARS - it just means that tools and ease of access to modders will not the as it was in the first AC title.

Understandable given what Kunos have to go through to get the game to market later this year, but no doubt a blow to those players who enjoy sampling what the community have to offer. You can check out the full Kunos statement below, taken from a recent FAQ article on the 505Games website...

Assetto Corsa’s structure was designed from the beginning to be moddable. Being developed with UE4, AC Competizione processes data and assets through a completely different structure and file format. Therefore, the game will not be compatible with mod contents created for Assetto Corsa. Also, our team does not have enough experience with UE4 to tackle both the development a brand-new game and the challenges of supporting an open platform in the time frame available for this project.

We are fully aware of the importance of modding and its contribution to the success of Assetto Corsa. It’s a great way for new talents to emerge, for the community to “suggest” new directions and/or simply to make a product richer. It is not a coincidence that some of the best community members are now contributing with us to the evolution of the software.

However, for ACC this element will have to be put in stand-by mode for a series of reasons. The most important one is that we have given ourselves an enormous task of rebuilding, once again our software from (almost) scratch. In a world where pretty much, every product you see on the market in simracing is an evolution of games that have been on the market 10-15 years ago, our approach is to get a big axe and reset things to (almost) zero before starting with a new project. ACC is no exception.

In this case the task is rendered more complex by the fact that we are using, for the first time a third party engine that we did not design ourselves and the truth is, given the amount of time we have available to deliver ACC to the public, we have more than enough on our hands trying to figure out how to use the engine effectively to also think about how to make the platform moddable.

As you can imagine, this has been source of endless discussions in the last year and half as every decision comes with pros and cons, there is going to be pain no matter what your final call will be. It goes without saying that we believe we made the right call even if that means losing the huge benefits of a moddable platform.

We know this might not cover everything, but over time we will continue to answer your most frequently asked questions! Once again, we want to thank our community for the outpour of support you’ve shown us since our announcement last week. We absolutely cannot wait to tell you more about Assetto Corsa Competizione in the near future!

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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Do you think modders will find a way to mod ACC? Will the lack of official modding support hurt the game in the long run, or do you think it a sensible approach by Kunos given the new technology in use? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Koen Verlinde]

As long as they dont put barriers to modding like RaceRoom people will find a way

Really, all has been said within one line of quote.

 

[Marocco2]

Read here what a track modder said few hours before Marco Massarutto words in a live radio broadcast about ACC:

With regards ACC we would like to keep on modding tracks if kunos makes it possible for acc.. i have done a little work with ue4 in the past for some work related VR projects. so i'm sort of familiar with the engine. in theory (if modding is open) tracks can be converted with some glorious results graphically

we will see... if this does happen the way we want it - i would like to do series related track packs. IMSA for example and usa tracks

Kunos needs to open mods from Their side to make them work. Otherwise it's useless for UE4

 

[delpinsky]

The Intercontinental GT Challenge, with the tracks of Bathurst, Spa, Suzuka e Laguna Seca, is part of the Blancpain GT Series, with also the Total 24h of Spa (already in game).
http://www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com/

I really hope Kunos will add that Series as well, so will have 3 more beautiful tracks!

@Marocco2
3rd party software from other UE4 games could work with ACC files... we have to wait and see.

 

[Neils on Wheels]

I think the reason is they want to stop modders bringing out a race series & potentially damaging sales for other competizione series & avoiding upsetting manufactures.
I wonder seeing as this is a test bed for the engine if modding is not built in at this stage does that mean AC2 could also be the same.

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

Reading the official ac forums it seems that they are really on time limit to get this done for summer release.

That could mean not only is physics carried over but probably FMOD.

Imo as long they don't lock things down to stop any car importing/tracks it will be fine.

There is always clever people around that will figure it out.

 

[Frietpan]

I wanna know if AC still gets new tracks and cars? (official content that is)
Mod-Edit: Deleted the xxxx Read our TERMS of SERVICE again.

 

[CC]

@chargingcar
I think for fans is always nice to hear some words from modders, don't you think?

And related to ACC, from the Community FAQ Blog:

What is going to happen to Assetto Corsa now you’re working on Competizione?
The game will not receive further updates now (It has now been 7 years since AC development started and 4 years from its 1.0 release) Our entire team is now focused on AC Competizione.

The issue is this UE4 has a lot of potential in the right hands,
in the hands of kunos the capabilities are endless,
more than anything I would love all the features that are missing inside AC more than anyone else,
but creating the full modding support capabilities if that means sacrificing track marbles or missing sparks or anything of that nature because that time was not available because they was too busy adding modding support then I agree but it needs to be missed,
I know a lot of members at Kunos and they are all really nice guys and the team is not that large,
but like I said earlier in some posts,
yes no forum support with 1 million questions a day is fine, its too time consuming,
yes its fine to not give out SDK tools we can find our own path,
but please consider giving FMOD SDK support because its the number 1 factor that makes car modding possible.

 

[FeltHat]

I wanna know if AC still gets new tracks and cars? (official content that is)

"What is going to happen to Assetto Corsa now you’re working on Competizione?
The game will continue to be available for purchase, servers for multiplayer and lobbies will be kept open and active for as long as people continue to play it. The game will not receive further updates now (It has now been 7 years since AC development started and 4 years from its 1.0 release) Our entire team is now focused on AC Competizione."

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

Mod-edit: please don't derail this thread starting an offtopic discussion about an entire other game. We have an entire forum for Gravel by Milestone here http://www.racedepartment.com/forums/gravel.466/

 

[Icky427]

ill bet tracks will come real quick, its probably no different than adding a "map" to any other UE game, its a big 3d model. cars, however, may take some time to figure out and get right because physics and such. i imagine the files wont have a bunch of numbers with descriptions next to each one explaining what it means.

 

[MarkR]

Ah just this once, I told you so, with Digital Bros/505 at the helm there is little room for mods, check their other games as a point of reference, maybe the odd voted for skin mod, other than that no mod content at all. That is all called paid DLC.

Where is the profit in mods? That is the question shareholders and IP holders ask.

I'm so glad to see this title is to be released Early Access on Steam only, Kunos showed with AC they know how to do early access right and their track record says they are likely to get this one right too on PC. On PC I wish Kunos every success with this title.

History shows one make series titles are a mixed bag in terms of sales and longevity. Blancpain GT has a limited audience. On the other hand GT3 cars seem to be the most popular with online lobby's in many racing games including AC.

I'm glad there is no word of this title on console, Gravel, released this week, using UE4 with awful performance on console including low FPS and all sorts of car handling problems in an arcade title. As one review said it is more like like seconds per frame.

 

[howitzer155mm]

To be expected.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

On the other hand GT3 cars seem to be the most popular with online lobby's in many racing games including AC.

I see this posted constantly but I would like to address that if AC had a proper touring car in it's line up (WTCC'ish, TCR'ish, BTCC'ish) it would for sure be the leading class online.

I think the GT3's are so popular because the potentially most popular genre has been absent from AC1 since the start.

 

[felippekiss]

I like the AC modding community but ACC doesn't support it is not the end of the world, the game replicate Blancpain category like F1 codemasters replicate the F1, who knows the Blancpain itself did not ask Kunos not to insert anything besides it

 

[Erg]

The concept doesn't need modding either.. It's GT series game and the cars are specific, so no need for a Mercedes C180 diesel in it eh..

 

[Ferenczy36]

Some people are obviously losing their minds on their Facebook page. Angry modders; angry AC users who wanted more support, updates, and content; and angry console players who want ACC as well and aren't going to get it (at least for initial release). As they stated though, AC has been out for 7 years, 4 years in official released form. It seems some in the gaming community keep getting higher and higher expectations for getting more hours of content for less money. I'd say AC has been out long enough to expect it's time for Kunos to start looking at their next title.

With all that said...GT3 racing is probably the most "meh" for me right now. I'm sure I will get it eventually, it just may not be an instant buy the day it comes out.

 

[delpinsky]

The issue is this UE4 has a lot of potential in the right hands,
in the hands of kunos the capabilities are endless,
more than anything I would love all the features that are missing inside AC more than anyone else,
but creating the full modding support capabilities if that means sacrificing track marbles or missing sparks or anything of that nature because that time was not available because they was too busy adding modding support then I agree but it needs to be missed,
I know a lot of members at Kunos and they are all really nice guys and the team is not that large,
but like I said earlier in some posts,
yes no forum support with 1 million questions a day is fine, its too time consuming,
yes its fine to not give out SDK tools we can find our own path,
but lease consider giving FMOD SDK support because its the number 1 factor that makes car modding possible.

I think at some point they will release something for modders. Perhaps something that doesn't require their focus on, like it was a specific Editor, so it's possible that some SDK will come out. FMOD SDK for sure would help a lot car modders!
As @Amir Vodokotlic said few posts above, a possible file structure in ACC could be similar to Gravel from Milestone, and for this game tools for unpacking are already available. Let's wait and see. It could be a start!

 

[Torcano]

My bet? First mod appears within 1 month of go live

As you say, folks will find a way, especially with the talent we have in this community

 

[k_badam]

Really not surprised about this, would take some crazy talent to get up to the LOD on Kunos' cars and not to mention, it is an officially licensed game like F1 2016...

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

I support them for going this route.

AC still exists. Nothing is stopping you from playing it or creating content for it. Did rFactor die the moment rFactor 2 came out in beta? Of course not! Some would argue rF1 is still more popular than rF2 even in 2018. I bought rF1 in middle school and at 25 I'm still running in rF1 leagues with new mods and they still have full grids.

Kunos have to put modding on the backburner for ACC because 1) it's an officially licensed game and 2) it's got an eSports element. The moment you enable modding is the moment the competitive platform is compromised because someone will undoubtedly start manipulating the default content.

This doesn't mean there won't be mods. Shift 2 has a sizeable mod community around it. The DiRT series has a health set of add-on skins, F1 2013 people found out how to use classic cars in career mode and turn it into an 80's F1 sim... Point being none of these games supported mods but people eventually figured it out and now there are a decent number of downloads for them. Maybe ACC won't have a honda lawnmower for it but how many quality mods does AC really have, versus how many are half-arsed russian rips?