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!

 

[mclarenf1papa]

snip

3D models shouldn't be a problem to deal with in ACC. The hurdles I see remaining are threefold: sounds, physics, and in-game implementation. If we don't have an FMOD project file (or if they change to another sound engine) it's likely going to be incredibly difficult to make our own sounds. As for the physics, if the files are more thoroughly encrypted than in AC, we likely won't be able to produce unique cars (decrypting AC's .acd files was done long before the Formula K was released, but only because the encryption used was rather simple).

Even if both of the aforementioned difficulties are dealt with, Kunos may not design the game in a way that allows content to be added at all (so we may be left with replacing cars instead of adding new ones - very much not ideal). The same would apply for tracks.

 

[Metla]

you cant read.

I can read and I (and I'm guessing many others) have no idea what it is you were trying to say.

 

[Metla]

well, That clears that up, Dribble it is indeed.

 

[Eugene Abramoff]

Not at all surprised, makes perfect sense for this particular title, but like you guys say officially or not, it will be done anyway.

 

[aka2k]

As long the game is good, I don't really care. There are others game that can be modded. Like the almost dead - modding-wise, at least - rF2.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

I just want to do what do best and that is skinning.

 

[Patrik Marek]

Understandable, sure, but I do belive that this will be one of the reason why most poepl will play it for some time and then move on, unlike AC to which they keep returning everything there's something new out

if AC2 will come some time after and will support modding again, I'll be happy, becasue I don't want to necessarily transitioning into something entirely different for my stuff

out of the 700 hours I have in my AC ( AC + SDK) , maybe only 20 hours I spend actually driving for fun/competition , so it's not a surprise!!

this all btw doesn't mean I won't buy it, I think I will, just to see how it turns out in UE4 and to support Kunos, but I would be very surprised if I spend more then 50 hours in it, .. unless they make absolutely fantastic career more - ala F1 codemaster serires

 

[Metla]

Understandable, sure, but I do belive that this will be one of the reason why most poepl will play it for some time and then move on, unlike AC to which they keep returning everything there's something new out

I believe there is an argument to be made that gong from a mod platform directly to another mod platform could be a death knell. Prime example is rF to rF2...the customer base wanted mod content, the mod content was already in rF so it still outsold rF2. And then without the player base required no one bothered to mod rF2.

Makes sense to me,build a new game with a much tighter focus, allow the player base of AC to tire of the platform and when they do...BANG AC2 in all its glory.

(Having said all that, the fact that rF2 looked like a pigs arse, played like a dogs breakfast, and had a retarded purchasing and delivery system all contributed to its failure. I have no idea how its corpse is still around)

 

[motoliser]

Thanks Kunos but I prefer to wait for AC2!

 

[NASCRAP]

you cant read.

You can't spell or punctuate.

 

[carlos quintao]

Dam Blancpain GT are very good but all sims has GT im still waiting a release of an official Classic BTCC from the 90s that would be wonderfull
Anyway is just my beautifull dream !!!!

 

[Tbear]

I would think that modders would be very happy that there would be no more updates to AC.

 

[AnklaX]

Blancpain is not in the games title. So, hopefully they'll get other licenses. In that case, not having mods may be less of an issue that what it seems now.
The small content will allow Kunos develop in more areas in the game that are missing in AC which I think can only help AC2 (which hopefully will be made in the future) giving the possibility for large content with more features. Whatever engine they use, they really need to hire someone who can program various racing rules properly as this has been a weakness with AC.
All this can happen only if ACC succeeds IMO. So I'll be supporting it by getting it in early access.
I think ACC and AC will live alongside.
I wonder why no one made a game which has cooked official content while also supporting mods.

 

[Patrik Marek]

I believe there is an argument to be made that gong from a mod platform directly to another mod platform could be a death knell. Prime example is rF to rF2...the customer base wanted mod content, the mod content was already in rF so it still outsold rF2. And then without the player base required no one bothered to mod rF2.

Makes sense to me,build a new game with a much tighter focus, allow the player base of AC to tire of the platform and when they do...BANG AC2 in all its glory.

(Having said all that, the fact that rF2 looked like a pigs arse, played like a dogs breakfast, and had a retarded purchasing and delivery system all contributed to its failure. I have no idea how its corpse is still around)

that's very good argument, sir!

 

[Durge Driven]

Which year/s thanks ?

What would be nice instead of DLC cars official DLC skinpacks released ahead of each round
No one has done this

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Blancpain is not in the games title. So, hopefully they'll get other licenses. In that case, not having mods may be less of an issue that what it seems now.
The small content will allow Kunos develop in more areas in the game that are missing in AC which I think can only help AC2 (which hopefully will be made in the future) giving the possibility for large content with more features. Whatever engine they use, they really need to hire someone who can program various racing rules properly as this has been a weakness with AC.
All this can happen only if ACC succeeds IMO. So I'll be supporting it by getting it in early access.
I think ACC and AC will live alongside.
I wonder why no one made a game which has cooked official content while also supporting mods.

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/acc-content.49146/page-3#post-962613

 

[Jake Fangio]

Project cars has quite a few car mods also, but they all use ingame audio, simply because of FMOD,
Kunos provide SDK tools for cars and tracks and also FMOD SDK tools to save the audio,
this is why the older mods in AC do not work because kunos changed the FMOD features,
so in ACC although yes we could in theory get to the files and add cars and physics,
without the FMOD SDK its impossible to add audio thats why the files are called .bank

You guys alone could keep AC going for years,so i'm not worried.I have all your superb content,so i'm happy to stick with AC.I will get ACC and in early access,Kunos have provided me with years of entertainment,so i'm happy to keep supporting them.

 

[darkelf1]

Well, i don't care, AC is already a big mod monster, i'll continue playing it,that's enough,and new mods will continue coming for it

ACC is another game, not AC 2...

 

[Vincent.C]

Ahahahaha. Kunos, please release AC2, not this game !

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

As long as it helps getting rid of all the drifting "mods" and the sub-community around it, I'll support whatever they decide to do.

I wouldn't mind Asia GT3 and SGT300 skins though. Those championships have the best liveries in the GT3 class.