Sim Discussion Monday - Assetto Corsa

[Paul Jeffrey]

In today’s edition of ‘Sim Discussion Monday’ we talk about all things Assetto Corsa!

Love it or loathe it Assetto Corsa has quickly become one of the most popular racing simulations of the modern sim racing landscape. Bathed in exotic licences the likes of Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini all pitched together on laserscanned tracks, with high quality graphics and physics and a vibrant modding scene, Assetto Corsa from Kunos Simulazioni has very quickly picked up the mantle once held so tightly by Image Space Incorporated and the venerable rFactor platform.

However despite the popularity of the software Assetto Corsa still lacks many of the features considered essential in a modern racing title (think day / night transition, weather and driver swops), leaving many to feel the sim is so close to the top of the mountain, yet just falling short as it scales the summit.

Now in its third year of development, let’s use this article as an opportunity to discuss the game, share tips on optimising the experience on screen and through the wheel, highlight some great content and basically just talk about anything and everything Assetto Corsa!

Mondays be like...

 

[TheSznikers]

still needs:
- Flying start in multiplayer session.
- Hotlap mode with official rankings
- Improved anti-cut system and penalties
- Pit lane speed penalty
- Built-in SRS (or equivalent)
- Night
- Rain
- Dynamic weather
- Driver change (without leaving the server)
- Pit limiter button
- Steam Workshop integration
- Ability to show servers with friends on
- Spectator mode
- Broadcaster tools for streaming control
- Modifying session while the session is running
- Ability to save replay at any moment without the need to leave the server
- Improved netcode and collisions
- Track object collisions to be calculated server-side (when someone hits a bollard
- they are driving through it on other's screens)
- Own car reflections in the mirrors
- Ability to set the skins and setups for AI
- Ability to change steering options without going back to menu
- Tyre punctures (from contact or debris)

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Little sim, nice for hotlaps...not more...

I must be hotlapping wrong.

Not sure if doing this will ever get old:

It is great for hotlapping hours on end, you are absolutely right about that.

 

[mantasisg]

I have had so many awesome online races in Assetto Corsa !

All you need is to be able to drive, to get a populated server with Minorating AB on an you'll most likely have an epic evening.

As for game, it is very well done, essentially it is perfect, a few issues which aren't really breaking the experience, actually the issues are mostly that it lacks real life issues It is just very clean in all meanings.

I hope this game expands and improves a lot in the future, would it be still AC1 or the next title.

I also hope that it would keep moding in the case of new title.

 

[Sasek]

- Broadcaster tools for streaming control

 

[Deleted member 205301]

...Normally, I don't take part of such a discussion : it's always the same : fanboys will says "it's the best sim ever, and everything is so peeeerfect!!!!", and haters, or other people will says : "I prefear that one or that else"..."I don't like it, it's less realistic than....."
So, I won't judge, for me AC is my n°3 sim in order of preferencies...
There is only one thing I really really HATE there, and I don't understand why nobody's telling a thing about it :
"WTF ABOUT CURBS ???!!!!!!!"
I mean really ..WTF ???!!!!!!
..and I'm not talking only about "curbs", that's same for "astroturf" (don't knows the word in english..)
way way too much sliding, stupidely sliding...That's more than sliding, just get a wheel on a curb, and the car spins....
Anyone who did IRL driving knows that it's ridiculous....
so, again : WTF WITH CURBS ?!!!!! and why nobody ask for that ?!
That said, this game (I says "game and not "sim", cause all these is just gaming...) is very fun
@++

 

[Rupe Wilson]

What i would like to see in this game improved
2 wheels out should mean 2 wheels out.. not in the next field (proper working track cut detection.)
or make it adjustable so it can be controlled and adjusted. The white line round the edge of the track is the boundary..
Pit speed penalty if you break it on entry.
Pit speed limiter that we can control
Put the car in gear and hold it on the clutch at a race start.(not 2 seconds before we go racing)
Be able to use a gear stick in all cars even if they are paddle cars, as you can use paddles in cars that only have a stick shift..(and yes i hate paddle shift, im old school Gas brake and clutch with a stick)
All cars have the option of a set racing slicks. give me it as a dlc if needed,
tires that work correctly with tire temps.. (it seems still a bit messed up to me)

 

[Radu Oros]

AC has a lot of good things like has been said. For me one I most appreciate is the VR implementation. I don't think there is another title that shows the interior of the cars so realistically and whith such fluent graphics.

But on the other hand one thing I really miss is a better FFB. In the last few weeks I've been playing more to RF2 and there's a huge difference. The better your wheel is the more you feel the difference. In AC as you increase the ffb strength the only thing you notice is more spring force to the center, while in rf2 you feel more the forces of the car.

All other things, like weather or night and day transition, can wait for a next version of ac, but force feedback should be improved, because a great sim like this dosen't deserve a ffb so poor.

So you're increasing the ffb strength past 100% gain? At this point you might be clipping hard and you lose all the information. Open the pedals app and see if the ffb bar gets to red often, then it means you're clipping and losing the ffb information. On the other hand rf2 starts with a low amount of ffb, so of course if you increase it still won't clip. But in AC you already start with the right amount of ffb, so if you go past 100% most likely the ffb is clipping hard when steering, just use the pedals app and check it during your driving.

 

[Tr3voRR]

Lets be honest and blunt, they said nothing would change... but since it came out on consoles, nothing major happened for the PC game... this game was promising, thant money is all what they want now.

The PC version was affected by going mainstream !

 

[Jim Liak]

Everything about AC says I should really enjoy it. Great cars and tracks. A decent tire model and physics / ffb. Really nice, smooth VR with super interior modeled cars.
And yet, every time I play it I'm underwhelmed and go back to rFactor 2.
Really can't put my finger on it. Maybe I'm just not giving it was enough of chance.
Someone recommend a car/track combo that I will find impossible to not like !

Try the Cobra at tanjo with traffic.

 

[Deleted member 99238]

Strangely enough, but road cars are better felt in Project Cars than in Assetto Corsa on the wheel G27.

 

[St3fan]

Since I got my Oculus Rift, I've been spending almost all my spare sim racing time in AC (sometimes in LFS too for the awesome mirrors), because now I really start to appreciate how great Kunos modeled the car interior, and the customizable HUD elements make the experience very immersive - I hope R3E can have an option to customize HUD more and remove some of the really immersion breaking stuff such as invalid lap notification. Also I do track days in real life without really intense wheel to wheel competition, and I find I can easily tune the AI to mimic real life track day experience, while in other sims I can't find such sweet spot with AI. Many of the contents are something I can relate to. I've driven many of the road legal cars and I find AC replicating most of the experience very well.

AC is also a sim that changed how I race with people online (I'm aware there is an option called iRacing, yes). Maybe sim racing is not particularly popular in the US, but when I try to play online using Race2Play or RD Club Race, it often happens that nobody signs up for a race, or people sign up but never show up or quit at the last moment (I've even had numerous times the race organizer did not show up while a few of us hot lapped for a while and decided to quit). It is not the case in AC. I can easily find a race or a track day server with people in it and just enjoy driving with real people. Although sometimes I meet sore losers, but I've had lots of great races especially with MR enabled servers.

What I wish most for now in AC are more tracks especially US tracks, better mirrors, and better penalty system.

Put the car in gear and hold it on the clutch at a race start.

Just FYI you can do that already for quite a while - except in cars that IRL come with automatic clutch because there is no clutch control in car IRL and it will automatically engage in AC and lead to a jump start.

Be able to use a gear stick in all cars even if they are paddle cars

Why do you want to do it though, considering these cars don't have stick shift IRL?
What I feel unsatisfied with AC in this regard is just one car. IIRC you should be able to use either the gear shifter or the paddles in the Pagani Huayra, but in AC it is paddle shift only.

 

[James Hall]

What's done is done. We know what Assetto Corsa is. It has a fan base now and we're happy with it.

What concerns me is what will become of Assetto Corsa 2 especially if Project Cars 2 turns out well. Having seen tons of videos, I'd say if they get the physics and FFB right, they'll basically be the king of Sim Racers and Kunos will have a challenge far bigger than any before and they had to overcome a lot of challenges being the tiny team that started out on AC dev. We know they're expanding but will it be enough for their next offering considering what SMS is doing with pCars 2.

Remember all of the hype surrounding Project Cars 1? We will see, but I am skeptical.

 

[hodge like]

It's a truly great drive, as is rf2, R3E & Dirt Rally. Spoilt for choice I must say.

 

[Lucanus69]

There's a lot cars in vanillia AC but how many do RD really use? Please consider making races with "freakky", less obvious cars.

 

[MarkR]

Great game on PC, Early Access done right and grew from a hot lapper to a great racing game with the AI update. Steering feel remains the closest to the real track for me. VR is the perfect partner and especially the race car interiors are works of art. Mods complete the game but I'm on the fence about mods being a good or bad thing. Seems to me they are good when they add something a developer is never likely to (evo triangle track). Not so good where I have to go looking for a 3rd party mod to complete what ought to be a basic game function - eg RSR Live timing for lap times. Where I really question mods is where they recreate 'IP' (circuits) or well-known brands (cars) I'm not comfortable with that as it seems like a way to avoid licencing. I've enjoyed a lot of Asetto on PC and I still recommend it to anyone as a good place to make the transition from racing games to more of a simulation.

Unfortunately, the console version started out as awful (single digit FPS on Xbox One at launch) and has just about reached average after a year of development. Players who pay full price for a disc copy of a game have been treated as extended beta testers which is shameful. Game Preview (Early Acces on X1) is there for this exact purpose and is how this game should have been released. The glacial updates and lack of Kunos interaction and feedback with the community have been the biggest disappointments. At least we now have custom online lobbies and can race cleanly away from the open lobby crashfest. The framerate is stable enough though there are issues with inconsistent ping rates each time a new lobby is created, anything from 16ms to 400ms with no discernable pattern. The fact custom championships don't save and how this was denied for weeks by the devs and publisher (who provide 'official' tech support) shows the same attitude remains in place toward the console game. The console version still lags the update cycle on PC so no latest AI for example.

I mentioned mods above and it is those same factors that mean the console game is unlikely to rise above a 5/10 game. Where the PC player can plug the gaps such as no leaderboards or ability to share tuning setups with mods these aspects are simply missing from the console version. In 2017 the omission of saving personal lap times, leaderboards and the kind of rivals competition we see in almost every other racing title shows a lack of understanding of the console market - from a developer who claims 20 years of experience in the field these seem like basic mistakes. Custom lobbies have meant we finally got some value from the game so that is the main positive I can finish with.

Deserves the PC accolades, shameless cash grab on the consoles.

 

[St3fan]

There's a lot cars in vanillia AC but how many do RD really use? Please consider making races with "freakky", less obvious cars.

One of my best memories of RD club races was in AC with Abarth500S1 + Lambo Miura at Barcelona Moto. Reminds me of the David vs Goliath race in GTL

 

[Patrik Marek]

my biggest problem with AC is that it's so good in some areas, that I would expect it to be good in all the other ones, some of the things i'm missing shouldn't be a hardedst thing to implement, yet we will probably never seen them , and then there are some things that I call " lack of focus on details"

to start with simple things,
lights.ini, headlights/brakelights, .. it took a while to get brakelights sorted but they have, so now the same light can be used for brake lights and rear lights, so that's all good, by why hasn't reverse been added to this point? especially since there's so many road cars in the game ??

digital instruments, again, great, lot of functionality possible, yet, not all cars have it done correctly (m235i comes to my mind) , and again .. would it be that hard to add another line that could flip from page1 to page2 ? so that multipurpose LCD's would be possible ?

from the overall package, what I would like to see addion of these "small" things
I like seeing LED screens around of tracks, but they are dead and that's sad, it woudl be great if they would display stuff, and the ones for flags would work as Flags,
would be nice to have instead of dead marshals, havign marshals as assets ( like the lollypop guy/pitcrew), and once ( and IF) live marhalls were implemeneted, each track would get these for "free"

as much as people might think it's not important, rain is part of real racing and even in real life, some racers don't like it, but that doesn't mean that it should be always sunny in the game, period , the only worse thing is running a 24h race and it's always dusk ( like iRacing)
and in general, I would like to see more life on tracks, if there are pit lights, make them working, if there are visible camera operators, these should move and follow action,
*cough* Safety car *cough*

yes, I'm sure that Kunos didn't inted AC to become this big, but I think the problem is - now that it is big - it needs to be more focused and more features needs to be implemented
perhaps doesn't make sense to redo it for AC1, so maybe it can all come in AC2

it has many of the things better then rFactor1 did, but rFactor1 still did offer many of the things I mentioned, so to become true successor, I think Ac needs these things as well
I wouldn't go as far as calling any of these essential, but they are essentual if AC is to become a king of sim racing on PC

 

[Peter Klawitter]

any title going across platforms, will become essentially less of a product in the long run, since consoles have limitations. and that's what happened with AC, less development on PC platform due to console development.

 

[Jim Liak]

Little sim, nice for hotlaps...not more...

 

[Trezoitao38]

Best sim in my opinion.