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!

 

[ShredatorFIN]

you forget the console players, they cant download it.
Also i am not sure if they count the DLC's on their own.

Well, Donington latest version downloaded 42,037 times. Steam sales alone over half million.

http://steamspy.com/app/244210

Same for great app like Helicorsa, 56,312 total downloads. Latest version 9,613 downloads.
Or another great app, Sidekick, 33,807 total downloads.
Outstanding quality VIR track that surpasses imo some official tracks (minus laserscan), 40,713 downloads.

It's not much compared to 600,000+ Steam users.

 

[melanieuk]

Because sims are not about graphics?
I'm a fan of AC but stop thinking AC is better in every department, cause it's not. Every game has its flaws, accept it and move on.

It is when it comes to immersion, there is a reason why a certain developer does not show their vehicle cockpits, when advertising or promoting their cars ever, and they always seem to show the back of their cars in most of their promo videos.

You don't tell ME what to accept or what not to accept, get over it, visuals are a massive thing in simracing now in 2018, it's not just about physics, physics any more, those days have long gone, and when you see that VR is the future, realistic visuals are a must, if you like cartoon visuals in your sims good for you, don't tell me what I should or shouldn't accept, I have the computer power to run the very latest sim with realistic visual, if you don't bully for you.

 

[Neilski]

Compare to what Marco said now AC sales figures are.... 1.4 million users.

Yeah, far fewer downloads of Donington than total sales of AC.
But I'd be more interested in the number of AC users who still actively use it (e.g. once per week?) after they have owned it for say 6 months. This will of course be a MUCH lower number (wild guess would be at least a factor of 10 down).
Online users will be lower still, obviously, but depending on your viewpoint online use may not matter (it's crucial for me as I can't be bothered to race the AI.)

 

[BhZ]

It is when it comes to immersion, there is a reason why a certain developer does not show their vehicle cockpits, when advertising or promoting their cars ever, and they always seem to show the back of their cars in most of their promo videos.

You don't tell ME what to accept or what not to accept, get over it, visuals are a massive thing in simracing now in 2018, it's not just about physics, physics any more, those days have long gone, and when you see that VR is the future, realistic visuals are a must, if you like cartoon visuals in your sims good for you, don't tell me what I should or shouldn't accept, I have the computer power to run the very latest sim with realistic visual, if you don't bully for you.

What you find to be a massive thing, is not for many others. Those who actually care about the racing factor, don't care that much for visuals as long as they are decent and rF2, especially now, delivers more than decent graphics.
You now put this on a personal level saying that i can't tell you what to accept...well, then you shouldn't speak for everyone when you say graphics are a massive thing, because many would not agree. You have some "sims" with great graphics, if graphics are more important than features and actual simulation, go play those.
Games are not remembered for their graphics, but you can be sure they will remember for all the rest.

 

[FeltHat]

Yeah, far fewer downloads of Donington than total sales of AC.
But I'd be more interested in the number of AC users who still actively use it (e.g. once per week?) after they have owned it for say 6 months. This will of course be a MUCH lower number (wild guess would be at least a factor of 10 down).

109,854 ± 10,374 players in last 2 weeks17.25%

 

[LilSki]

Having flashbacks to when the individual modding sections got closed on AC forums. Everyone lost their damn minds and everything worked out fine in the end. Doesn't anybody have patience anymore to see how things will play out? No amount of whining will change their decisions. "Everyone" wanted day, night, and rain. They came up with a plan to do that which made sense to them. Let them see that vision through before you throw them under the bus. AC simply got too big to allow for drastic changes such as an engine change. ACC will allow them to do that and lay the groundwork for the future. Similar to that post on GTR2. Rome wasn't built in a day. The team is still very small despite its recent growth. Give them time.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Having flashbacks to when the individual modding sections got closed on AC forums. Everyone lost their damn minds and everything worked out fine in the end. Doesn't anybody have patience anymore to see how things will play out? No amount of whining will change their decisions. "Everyone" wanted day, night, and rain. They came up with a plan to do that which made sense to them. Let them see that vision through before you throw them under the bus. AC simply got too big to allow for drastic changes such as an engine change. ACC will allow them to do that and lay the groundwork for the future. Similar to that post on GTR2. Rome wasn't built in a day. The team is still very small despite its recent growth. Give them time.

Here Here and very well said @LilSki

 

[wombat999]

Considering the mediocre quality of some of the free mods available from various groups on Facebook I can understand why a newly licensed sim such as ACC would not want that content to be readily available.
The same applies to the 'Commercial' mods that do not appear to be affiliated with AC, granted, some are very good but most look to have their DNA borrowed from assorted mainstream commercial sims, not the sort of content that should be condoned in a sim that is licensed and promoted by a 'Real World' series.
Perhaps this seems harsh but in all fairness, why would a 'single series' sim need additional modded content? If Kunos do the Blancpain Series justice there should be no need of outside interference.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@wombat999 Firstly, I am glad you said "Some" and "Facebook" as IMHO no Quality mods would appear on there.

Secondly - Outside Interference, that's a little harsh, considering your first statement. I would say that us, people that do it for free and share on the most reputable site, HERE would not consider we are interfering, we are "enhancing" or adding diversity?

Shaun

 

[Brad D]

Note that when Stefano posted much the same text on the AC forum, he also made this remark at the end:

Quite encouraging, I'd say.
And yes, I imagine mods will happen at some point.

 

[Brad D]

So, why would I buy this sim? What does it offer over Project cars 2 ? Less actually !!! Even if at some point someone does figure out how to MOD the game, it will only hurt initial sales. Modding and the community made this game great, and gave it the life it had.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

So, why would I buy this sim? What does it offer over Project cars 2 ? Less actually !!! Even if at some point someone does figure out how to MOD the game, it will only hurt initial sales. Modding and the community made this game great, and gave it the life it had.

What does it offer over PC2...nothing yet, as it's not out nor have final details been announced, and also, lets not start a Sim War here. Lets keep this all nice and friendly

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

So, why would I buy this sim? What does it offer over Project cars 2

Realistic physics.

 

[Brad D]

What does it offer over PC2...nothing yet, as it's not out nor have final details been announced, and also, lets not start a Sim War here. Lets keep this all nice and friendly

Haha !!! Believe me, I am not Project Cars fan. But without modding and the community these sims are all the same pretty much. My point is this sim is now like all the others, How can it be a war ?

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Realistic physics.

 

[Brad D]

Realistic physics.

Really ?!?! This is a computer driven car ? How real can it be ? That is why people need to spend thousands of dollars, on wheels, and racing rigs to try and make even seem close to driving a REAL race car. Haha.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@Brad D I was trying to stop the can of worms, this sim, that sim, that @Michael Hornbuckle is not helping.

At the end of the day (its night, I know) but every Sim has it's own merits, that suit anybody. You might see this as no different, where somebody else see's it totally different.

I just wanted to keep it on topic before it turned in to a Sim War, as most posts do on here

Shaun

 

[Brad D]

@Brad D I was trying to stop the can of worms, this sim, that sim, that @Michael Hornbuckle is not helping.

At the end of the day (its night, I know) but every Sim has it's own merits, that suit anybody. You might see this as no different, where somebody else see's it totally different.

I just wanted to keep it on topic before it turned in to a Sim War, as most posts do on here

Shaun

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!

No offence Shaun, but I think I Was keeping it on topic. I wasn't trying to start a sim war, just saying that I think not having modding will hurt this game, and makes it the same as all the others

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@Brad D I guess we will have to wait and see, there is nothing more than speculation at the moment.

I mean, they cannot even say the Recommended Specs for PC yet?

Waiting Game..............

Shaun

 

[aka2k]

I could imagine their fanboys are sitting their over at the 397 forums, hoping AC modders will switch to rFactor 2, what a mistake it would be, it'll be like going back to windows xp, with all the knowledge modders have learnt using the assetto corsa 'true dx11' graphics engine, why would they want to switch back to a engine that still uses directx7 and 8 shader models.

Yes, ma'am. I do still like to go back to rF1 every now and then for nostalgia sake. And, oh well, it's still a better game than rF2. I wouldn't really call AC true Dx11 though, although I might be completely wrong, but it feels more like a Dx10 ported to Dx11 for me. Still good stuff anyway.