Assetto Corsa reaches version 1.3 with a new DLC

[Alex Franchini]

Kunos Simulazioni have updated their popular racing sim with 64-bit support and the Dream Pack 2 DLC.

The update weights almost 500MB on Steam and brings along a revised tyre model, visual and audio improvement, and new multiplayer features.

Dream Pack 2 includes the Circuit of Catalunya (2 layouts), 4 racing cars and 5 road cars.

Be sure to check out our Weekly Whip for your 1.3 racing needs, and come join us now on our Public Server to give the new GT3's a test run!

Here is the full changelog straight from the devs:

• "64bit build
• Car physics is now calculated in separate threads
• Fixed KERS disabled in pitlane
• Added soft locks (use [SOFT_LOCK] ENABLED=1 in system/cfg/assetto_corsa.ini)
• Added support for DRS zones
• acServer is now stressing much less Go' GC and should offer more stable performances
• Added FORCE_TGT to force low res timer in assetto_corsa.ini
• acServer is now using Go 1.5, faster GC
• Added server welcome message
• Fixed gear ratio appearing with a double "/" in setup screen
• Fixed acServer unable to read ini values with a "=" character (ex AUTH)
• Fixed driver name displayer not obeying to saved settings in MP
• Fixed acServer not creating "results" folder automatically
• New algorithms to calculate skid volumes and pitch, now working globally in the entire simulation
• Added grain and blister readings in the setup info screen
• Added downshift protection to gearboxes
• Lap count is now reported using 16bit unsigned integer to server plugins
• Now using triple buffer when vsync is on to reduce latency
• Exposure settings are now persistent
• Fixed audio clicks on surface events
• Tyre flat spots are now taking into account tyre softness
• Windscreens now receive shadows
• ksEditor: now it uses the same ingame engine.
• ksEditor: added project menagement
• ksEditor: added user personalizations
• ksEditor: added floating windows and layout system
• ksEditor: added Weather and PPfilter loader
• ksEditor: added recent files/project management
• ksEditor: added node filter in scene panel
• ksEditor: added Material by Texture in Materials panel
• ksEditor: added scene icons and side function buttons
• ksEditor: added texture detail on Material panel
• ksEditor: added Texture Review windows in Utilities
• ksEditor: fixed reload texture function
• ksEditor: now the default CultureInfo is en-US (number format, ect)
• ksEditor: added FOV, Near Plane Slider, Mouse sensitivity, camera angle and position under Viewport
• ksEditor: added Dashboard tab
• acServerManager: removed some upper limits on parameters
• acServerManager: preset name/description is more clear
• acServerManager: added welcome message
• acServerManager: added qualify limit
• acServerManager: added fixed setup management
• acServerManager: fixed upload on ftp. Now cfg folder is not deleted.
• Fixed driver textures on serveral cars
• Fixed circuit outline on track selection UI
• Camera Dev App now save F1 cameras' exposure and pitch, F6 cameras' exposure, fov and position and angle
• Removed background from Performance Delta App
• Redesigned and faster code for logging
• Updated Tyres V5 for GT2 and GT3 cars, should give less understeer.
• Zonda R and Ferrari 599XX and Formula Abarth now have V5 tyres.
• Less lift off oversteer for Evora S on street tyres V5
• GT3 and GT2 cars updated aero stalling for front splitter and diffuser
• GT3 slight performance balancing
• Mclaren MP4 GT3 tyre corrections
• Fixed TC digital item showing 0 based index when multiple TC level are available
• Now showing Cold and Hot pressure readings in setup status
• Added "NA" for IMO temps reading when no set has been swapped out
• Added support for track dynamic objects
• It is now possible to join a server using admin passoword and be automatically granted admin rights
• Joining a server with admin password will override the session "closed" status
• Added "ban_id" admin command to ban a user and send straight to blacklist
• Remote cars in multiplayer now generate skidmarks
• Fixed EDL wrong calculation order"

Join the discussion in our AC forums, and get racing in our Assetto Corsa Racing Club! While you're at it, why not check out some awesome videos and screenshot in our AC gallery?

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Frame rate limit and vsync are unrelated. Limiting the framerate will block rendering. Vsync is related to when the buffer flip occurs, so that a new image is only swapped in at vblank.

You can have frame rate limiter and still have tearing as swap is still not synced to vblank.

VSync also does not limit the rendering rate. Only holds the swap until vblank. Rendering is still full speed, to buffer.

However most games VSync will also limit render rate because it limits the buffer size, reducing input lag.

 

[Graham Botha]

Very disappointed in the update. The performance is really poor. I run a triple screen setup with 2x gtx980 in sli, 16GB ram and an I7 - 2600k at 4GHz on Windows 10 64-bit. If I scale shadows, and AA down then the performance gets even worse. If I gave a look at the version 1.2 fps average vs version 1.3, the performance is down by 22fps!!! And this is on an I7 running 2x GTX 980 in SLI. WTF!!!

64-bit Fps: Min: 35, Max: 59, Avg: 48.535
32-bit Fps: Min: 40, Max: 85, Avg: 70.626

I may have found the cause of the FPS problem. I also started having issues with sound where all but the front left channel would stop working when AC initialises the sound card. It looks like it may be the drivers for the creative audigy fx sound card on Windows 10 64-bit. After changing the driver to the generic hd audio driver that comes with Windows, the problem seems to have gone away. Much to my surprise, i discovered that my FPS looks like it is back to similar performance than what I had with the 32-bit build as well. So the 64-bit build looks to be less tolerable of drivers that may have not been written very well.

 

[Graham Botha]

I have a single 980 that runs my surround setup with over 100 fps at all times. You have to turn some post processing effects down and it still looks pretty nice. I don't know why you would play with those frame rates!

Hi, an average of 70fps is actually very playable with everything maxed. I found that the reflection settings can bring your fps down significantly. So it seems that my sound card driver was the issue. With that sorted out and running with vsync, everything is butter smooth now.

 

[Paul Brennan]

After selling wheel thought i would try this with a gamepad and just about got comfy with the z4..after this update the driving has changed for the worse..now is it settings..setup..and if any other gamepadder is happy with his settings can u please share thx

 

[Graham Botha]

Spoke too soon. Tried it again on multiple high end systems... With AI and without. High settings or low. No difference. The jittery motion is still there. Sat down with a friend to measure frame times AGAIN on two different machines. Evidently micro-stutter still present. Frame times are ridicolously uneven still.

Turns out i didn't see it before due to just going mostly straight. As soon as you turn the car and look at the surroundings it is evident the problem is still very much there.

...

Uninstalling again... Shame. But loading times improved, and yes, jittering is LESS but not smooth.

I also found the stutter issue has improved but is not 100% gone as yet. Have a look at Nvidia Inspector if you are running Nvidia cards. Once I associated the AC executable and loaded the AC profile + applied its settings, I found that it smoothed things out very well. The pain in the @ss is that you have to load and apply the profile every time before you run AC, but the effort is well worth the end result.

 

[Robin]

This is why I didn't explore the idea more for a long time. I really don't understand why it works, somehow it's managing to both reduce input lag, while maintaing vsync stability and lack of tearing. Maybe it's just discarding unneeded frames more evenly. If it was just AC, I wouldn't think too much of it. Now, I do this with most games, as it's it almost always improves the output even with vsync already on.

I had a go and set the Frame Limiter to 59 and enabled VSync. No change for me. Then I set the limiter to 61 and VSync on and the jitters are completely gone!
Golden tip,e345spd! Thank you.

I tested a replay and a single car practise.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

After being able to enjoy AC again without getting dizzy from the stutters i can now begin to try all the cars i missed out on.

Still not 100% smooth but i doubt it will ever be since issues seem kan linked to engine code...

Still i feel the same as when Dream Pack 1 was released, that apart from the technical issues (which there are still many) the title is still lacking.

No Race Weekend or feel of racing like you get from RRE or rF2. Also, AI is sometimes really really bad still. Watch AI negotiate T1 at Monza for a laugh.

Not enough RACE cars or series. Lots of Alfa Romeo road cars and the like.

Physics wise, with this new tyre model, it's excellent, but FFB road feel is dull and center forced (much like GT).

Still AC is too much of a road car hotlap sim to me. Like a more serious approach to Forza or GT... For racing immersion it lacks a bit still.

So apart from tech issues it still has a way to go before it is a "racing sim".

But the car models and the detailed tracks, together with that "enhanced gran turismo" feel makes it a great road car sim.

Also, probably the only road car sim on with a decent physics model.

The licenses are also top notch for a car buff. That GT40. That Countach. Wow!

 

[Jeroen Zonneveld]

This might help Adrian

Just that after update same settings, same setup same track on witch i did quite a lot of laps in this week , i find my self 10 seconds slower per lap at SPA, tyres sqeerk non stop (i did make a mistake in my original post it is huge understeer not oversteer-my mistake sry) and the brakes lock up at every touch of the brakes. (and same xbox 360 wired controller)

Check if AC is still using the correct track grip conditions in your session options, even if you haven't changed them. The first one in the list is "Dusty" which can indeed be 10 sec/lap slower than "Optimum", and my AC defaulted back to Dusty without telling me (there are reasons, long story). At first I thought it was the new tire model, but it wasn't. What you describe sounds exactly like a dusty track.
-------------------------------


About 1.3 and 64-bit not working

I have Windows 7 64bit
I have to tick the Force 32bit checkbox in order to make AC work at all !

yep, same here, I opened a post on their forum to report it.

Same here. Acs.exe crashes immediately, before it can even write an error log file. I reported it at Kunos' forums too, and we are not alone. Kunos made 64bit the default as soon as 1.3 was downloaded through Steam and that meant after the update, it was impossible to start any session before searching for and finding the solution, trying different things to find the culprit - not the greatest customer experience ever.

Bugs galore
After I worked around that bug by forcing the launcher to use the 32-bit acs.exe, in a league race I encountered a bug with Kunos' race position UI app, showing the wrong position (not matching server's session results log). It displayed P1 when I was P3, so I assumed P1 and P2 had crashed. Later when the actual leader lapped me, the UI app went from P1 to P2. I reported this bug too of course. It's not a new bug and it had been reported before. A Kunos employee said they still don't know what causes it. That crap basically ruined my league race (long story), together with not being able to downshift when I needed to (and no I am not over revving - it's just far too restrictive in its implementation) + the physics changes meant I lost about 200 laps of practice, my setup didn't work that well anymore and my race pace was terrible. I'm about fed up with Kunos and AC at this point.

There is even still the problem that laptimes are inaccurately logged server side, and I don't mean just a little bit off, they can be seconds off. This was reported by someone in may this year, and this bug thread still has the status "being worked on" at Kunos' support forums. So if you thought you had the fastest lap in a league race based on the server's stats, think again. You actually can't tell.

Still, Kunos decided it was time to introduce new bugs by doing a huge feature update with lots of code changed and file changes, that even includes 64bit. And made it the default. Insanity. Every programmer knows new code always comes with new bugs.

What happened to finishing a game? Back in the day, before digital distribution, dev teams had to learn when to call each aspect of their game "done". They would stop making changes (e.g. to the physics) and stop adding features so that they could focus on fixing the bugs before it was too late and the CDs had to go to press. (This used to be a highly valued skill, and looked for when hiring team members - how many physically shipped games the applicant's resume said they had worked on.) Before adding new stuff and making changes you have to fix the existing bugs. Nowadays devs don't seem to care because a new patch is just an upload away, and the result is never having a finished, fully working product.

Imagine having that experience with a refrigerator you bought... 6 months later the manufacturer changes its shape and colour, and occasionally it makes stuff the wrong temperature. They don't fix that, they instead add a feature that makes it run more efficiently, but that causes one of the shelves to fall down at random intervals. That's the kind of product a game will be, and forever will be, if you give a dev your money too early by buying into early access.

Instead of fixing the bugs, improving the server software, and actually showing the driver the correct race position, someone at Kunos must have thought "Hey, I know what we can do today - let's stop people from downshifting!"

 

[Chris]

Here's hoping it's a truck load of Multiplayer features and better netcode

 

[Jeroen Zonneveld]

Cars, because no one pays extra for "multiplayer features and netcode" DLC.

 

[Rami]

Cars, because no one pays extra for "multiplayer features and netcode" DLC.

Actually I think I would...

 

[Stereo]

Hmm, I wonder what McLaren keeps in their "GT" truck... 650S GT3?



64-bit worked out of the box on my 64-bit Windows, sounds like certain hardware/drivers has problems and none of the beta testers were on that hardware, that sort of thing can happen in any game. For that matter, one of my apps crashes for a bunch of people on 64-bit but since none of them has really identified how their system is different from mine, nothing I can do right now to implement a fix.

 

[Ghanja]

So here we are with 1.3.2 and TrackIR is still not working (64-Bit) - guess it is not considered "important" - I don't even want to image the screeming if triple-screens would not work ... :-/

 

[Tommi Saari]

Walter Wolf skins on Lambo Countach, Nice!

 

[e345spd]

I had a go and set the Frame Limiter to 59 and enabled VSync. No change for me. Then I set the limiter to 61 and VSync on and the jitters are completely gone!
Golden tip,e345spd! Thank you.

I tested a replay and a single car practise.

Excellent!

Frame rate limit and vsync are unrelated. Limiting the framerate will block rendering. Vsync is related to when the buffer flip occurs, so that a new image is only swapped in at vblank.

You can have frame rate limiter and still have tearing as swap is still not synced to vblank.

VSync also does not limit the rendering rate. Only holds the swap until vblank. Rendering is still full speed, to buffer.

However most games VSync will also limit render rate because it limits the buffer size, reducing input lag.

Yes, and very few games and/or driver profiles choose ideal values in terms of buffering for each particular combination of hardware, either way.

 

[paracletus]

NOW LIVE!
1.3.3
- Fixed wrong timing in brake disc glow effect
- Improved AI spline road sides at Spa
- AI spline sides now accept CSV with both "," or " " as delimiters
- Fixed tyre collision not using rims at super low tyre pressure
- Added downshift protection parameters to drivetrain.ini to allow individual car tune up
- Tuned up downshift protection (experimental) for the following cars
BMW Z4 GT3
Audi R8 LMS Ultra GT3
Glickenhaus SCG003
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Nissan GT-R GT3
McLaren MP4 12C GT3
Mercedes SLS GT3
BMW M3 GT2
Ferrari 458 GT2
Corvette C7R
- Force Feedback frequency is now controlled using a more precise setting in assetto_corsa.ini (FF_SKIP_STEPS instead of the old MAX_FF_RATE_HZ)
- Direct Input devices are not initialized with a BACKGROUND flag instead of FOREGROUND
- Set audio channels to 128 instead of 64 in audio.ini
- Added turbo boost information to shared memory
- Fixed tyre vertical stiffness pressure dependency wrongly using ideal pressure instead of reference pressure
- Fixed upshift audio sample not correctly triggered
- Fixed Ruf RT12R limiter audio clicks
- Minor EQ tweaks
- Rebalanced heat distribution as function of camber
- Experimental heat/grip ratio for BMW M3 E30 Drift, BMW M3 E92 Drift, BMW Z4 Drift
- Ford GT40 ui description added
- Ford GT40 corrected setup screen with proper values
- Ford GT40 adjustable engine limiter added
- Audi Quattro dash texture bug fixed
- Huracán GT3 light script fixed
- Huracán GT3 LEDs fixed
- Ford GT40 windscreen frame mesh bug fixed
- BMW M4 tyre 3D model fixed
- Nismo GTR glass transparency issue fixed
- Nismo GTR digital instruments not being visible fixed
- BMW M4 dash lights being inverted fixed
- Audi R8 window transparency issue fixed

- Tuned up downshift protection (experimental) for the following cars
" "
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Lamborghini Huracan GT3

^It's great. Seems much better now. Chuffed.

 

[e345spd]

Good! Very happy to see that Kunos does not consider the transmission protection finished.
I don't see anything about head tracking support, hopefully they slipped it in anyways.

Hi, an average of 70fps is actually very playable with everything maxed. I found that the reflection settings can bring your fps down significantly. So it seems that my sound card driver was the issue. With that sorted out and running with vsync, everything is butter smooth now.

I actually have had a bit of trouble with my m-audio ft ultra interface and windows 10. The device is listed as legacy by Avid now and it seems like I will not be receiving an updated driver...

It is okay with AC, but other games such as dirt:rally still have unplayable latency and jitter if I use the external interface.
Lots of changes to the windows 10 audio kernel, so your post is a good reminder for everyone to make sure their audio drivers aren't causing issues, particularly if they are on windows 10.

 

[Graham Botha]

I actually have had a bit of trouble with my m-audio ft ultra interface and windows 10. The device is listed as legacy by Avid now and it seems like I will not be receiving an updated driver...

It is okay with AC, but other games such as dirt:rally still have unplayable latency and jitter if I use the external interface.
Lots of changes to the windows 10 audio kernel, so your post is a good reminder for everyone to make sure their audio drivers aren't causing issues, particularly if they are on windows 10.

Yup, sound seems to be an issue on windows 10. What I did to resolve my audio problem (Soundblaster audigy FX), was to "update the driver" to using the generic Windows 10 Audio driver. I run SimVibe and was using the onboard RealTek sound card to drive that. The SB would intermittently drop all but the front left side channel when the game initialized the sound - Intermittently but every time I would play the game. Strange thing is that it only happened in AC 64-bit. All my other games like Project Cars etc worked perfectly. Initially I thought that the two sound cards were clashing somehow, but that would also cause issues in other games. Culprit = latest (and only) creative Windows 10 Driver... so after changing the driver, all seems to be working well.

Have a look if that doesn't help with your problem. The creative software still works perfectly and I can configure quadraphonic sound which i couldn't do before but is a requirement for SimVibe. The SB has better amplification, so I decided use that to drive SimVibe instead of the Realtek at the cost of some sound quality.

 

[e345spd]

That's a good idea, unfortunately m-audio/avid devices do not have generic windows drivers available.

It's okay though. For the few games that act weird, I just switch to the integrated realtek. At least avid software still works correctly (for now...)