Assetto Corsa: 2015 and Beyond

Chris

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Kunos Simulazioni maintain a tradition of announcing new and exciting things on the final day of the year. This year, they have taken a slightly different approach by outlining a lengthy statement on what has been achieved in 2015, and what to look forward to in 2016. It's quite lengthy, so get ready to read!


Dear Friends,

The year is almost over, and if you follow Assetto Corsa since the beginning, you may already know that we have a tradition of announcing a new brand license right before the end of the year. This year, we are going to do the same, although in a somewhat different way.

First, we would like to make a summary of what Assetto Corsa and the Assetto Corsa community, in other words YOU, have achieved throughout the year. On our part, we have done our best to keep our simulation updated and bring you new content at the best possible quality, but without YOUR inexhaustible support – your purchases, constructive feedback and suggestions – Assetto Corsa would not be the game it is today. Such as you, we also believe that there is always a margin for improvement – in any department – and for this reason this year we have released four major updates that also involved aspects of the software that have already established a reputation as the main strengths of Assetto Corsa, such as its physics model. Similar efforts have been made to improve the artificial intelligence, the holy grail of any racing game, one of those aspects that are really challenging to fine tune in order to satisfy the expectations of many different kinds of gamers and sim racers – not to mention that Assetto Corsa is the first product created by Kunos Simulazioni that includes an AI algorithm, making this challenge even harder for our team. This is not an excuse, of course, just a simple fact. We are glad that our community has shown appreciation towards the improvements for multiplayer, AI, graphics and other features brought along with our latest 1.4 build, representing a new benchmark for introducing improvements to what we have created up until today. However, any simulation is useless without good content to enjoy it at its best, and it seems that you appreciate what we have presented during 2015.

Nürburgring-Nordschleife, Zandvoort, Brands Hatch and Barcelona

For the first time in sim racing history, we have produced a fully laser-scanned version of the legendary Nordschleife, the famous Green Hell, defining a new standard in terms of fidelity and accuracy for the most iconic circuit ever to be built. Zandvoort, Barcelona and Brands Hatch completed the line-up of the additional tracks available for Assetto Corsa during 2015, representing an extensive range of challenges, variety and environments for racing.

Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Audi, and more

During this year, we have released 32 new awesome cars – some as free bonus content and others as purchasable packs. It is funny to think that when the idea was first conceived and we started the AC project back in 2011, we believed that at best the whole game would include 15–20 cars in total.

Presently, we have produced 32 additional cars in one year, indeed lining up an impressive selection of brands: Alfa Romeo, Audi, Ford, Lamborghini, Nissan and so on. We would like to emphasise that we have decided to invest in new builds, updates and content thanks to YOUR support – something that has been awarded with an up-to-date simulation and brand-new free content, which although represents us a cost in terms of production, royalties, manpower and time, also brings longevity, entertainment and increased value to the Assetto Corsa you have installed on your PC.

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On the other hand, when we started the development of Assetto Corsa in 2011, the dev team only consisted of six people in total. It is reasonable and fair to say that a production that today involves about 30 people must be sustainable, not to mention cars and licensing costs, or the fact that the production of a single circuit could cost (including the license, laser-scanning, production, logistics) up to hundreds of thousands of euros. The fact of the matter is that DLCs can help us cover costs and allow us to continue to develop and improve Assetto Corsa, and provide additional content at a reasonable price. In other words, for the price of a Happy Meal, you can enjoy new digital content for all the time you want, allowing us to continue to improve our – and your – simulation. We are glad to see that our fans understand our decisions, and we would like to thank you again for the great support you continue to give us in this regard.

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Despite the fact that Assetto Corsa 1.0 was released last year, 2015 has brought even more challenges for us. Today, we have hundreds of thousands of users, and despite the enormous amount of possible combinations of PC configurations, drivers, controllers, devices etc., each new build must guarantee stability and performance. Since AC now features a significant number of cars, each update to the physics and tyre model requires a huge amount of work to update and check every single car to ensure that you can enjoy the quality of the simulation at its best, regardless of what your favourite car might be.

Research and development
As you may know, since 2009, our R&D Studio has been located inside the racing circuit of Vallelunga, near Rome. The location is a key to our development work, allowing our company to meet and cooperate directly with teams, professional drivers and racing engineers. Now that Assetto Corsa is a highly popular simulation, teams prove to be even more cooperative when they come to “our” racing track, offering their support and allowing us to collect data, and make videos and recordings. On our side, we still want to improve our knowledge and technology in any aspect of the simulation, and this approach involves all areas, including the sound environment: thanks to the kind cooperation of Akrapovic, during 2015 we have worked to improve our sound recording process involving the use of new techniques of recording and advanced technologies. All new cars produced during 2015 took advantage of this improvement, and we also have plans to reprocess the cars that had been released earlier.

Talking about R&D, we would like to say a few words about Oculus VR: in 2016, this incredible device will finally be available with a definitive and standard SDK. It is in our intention to fully support the device in Assetto Corsa when it is finally available for public purchase with a proper and final library, since while still in beta version we need to redo the code support from scratch each time a new SDK is released, which understandably cannot be a sustainable – long term – strategy.

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PC, PS4 and Xbox One
Last but not least, we are also working on porting Assetto Corsa to consoles, which is completely based on the code designed and developed for PC, but instead of freezing the development of the PC version, we brought forward the overall process in parallel, creating a symbiosis that takes advantages from each platform. This has guaranteed a successful process of optimization and a different and improved approach in development that will be beneficial for everyone in future. Therefore, those fans who believe that the porting Assetto Corsa on console has the capacity to ruin the “magic” of the PC version can rest easy, as we can assure you that this is something that will definitely not happen.

Let’s talk briefly about the console port. It is true that to this day we have not revealed a lot of information about the console version of Assetto Corsa apart from confirming that we are indeed working on bringing the game to PS4 and Xbox One to offer the same driving experience as you get on the PC.

Some people do not seem to believe it and say – for reasons we do not entirely understand – that we are going to change the Assetto Corsa physics model also on PC to worsen the driving experience because of the console porting.

We can assure you that this is not going to happen. Actually, when we announced and showed Assetto Corsa on PC for the first time, the same people said that a game boasting top-tier brand licenses and graphics was never going to be a sim because no developer would agree to take a big risk with a genuine simulation. All we can say is that it was the wrong assumption back then, and it still is.

Firstly, we are not going to ruin the driving experience on PC. The good reputation of Assetto Corsa is mainly thanks to the driving experience and natural feeling that it provides with cars that are usually included in so-called arcade – or sim-cade – games. Frankly, it would be a suicide move to make worse one of the key selling points of our product.

Secondly, on the consoles we are going face-to-face with the goliaths of sim-racing, big names that boast sublime graphics, tons of cars and content and the direct support of their respective platform manufacturers. Assetto Corsa has been produced by a team of six, 12, and lately about 30. Our only chance to compete with those giants is to push forward its strong point, the driving experience it can achieve, because that is the factor that depends solely on our know-how, experience and will and not on the budget at hand. Driving experience means laser-scanned tracks, advanced tyre and dynamic modelling as well as all the attention and care we have reserved to any car present in Assetto Corsa. The good news is that 505Games supports us in this journey and we are in complete agreement – it is ready to focus on the realism aspect, instead of pushing our team to lower the simulation bar to an average level. The final judge, who will determine whether there is place for a realistic driving experience on consoles – in the present and in future – is YOU, our community, and no one else. What we can promise you is that we are not going to lower the level of simulation just so that we can please a wider audience.

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2016
We are approaching the final phase of development on the console, something that includes a very different release schedule from the PC. We are also working on the 1.5 build of Assetto Corsa, which will introduce pit-stop feature for single player and continue the process of fine-tuning all the other features already included in the game. In the meantime, the team involved in production is working on the content expected for release during the next year. Assetto Corsa still has a lot to say, and we are working towards making you an even bigger enthusiast than before.

New circuits

We are glad to announce that we have signed a licence agreement to bring you the popular – laser-scanned – RedBull Ring, that for some of you might also be known as the “A1 Ring”, the Austrian circuit that welcomed back the F1 Championship this year. We are also working on the historic version of Silverstone, and the 10km and Junior versions of the iconic Monza circuit, giving you the chance to enter the speed ring and race the historic F1 cars of Assetto Corsa. At the same time, we are also updating our first tracks created for the simulation, bringing them up to a similar level of detail and appearance as the latest releases. Other new track additions might follow during the year.

(At least) forty-new cars!

And here we go: Kunos Simulazioni welcomes Maserati Automobili, introducing the world-famous manufacturer to Assetto Corsa in 2016 with some of its most iconic cars and most recent models. Any clue? Here you go: have you ever wondered how Fangio felt driving F1 cars in the ‘50s?

Thanks to the success of the Audi R8 Ultra 2014, and as a response to the requests of our fans, we are going to replicate the brand new R8 Ultra 2016. The new amazing Audi car will not come alone, since we are also working on the Audi R18 E-Tron, TT VLN 2014, TT CUP 2015, A1 S1, Sport quattro S1 E2 and TT 2015 models.

Assetto- san!

It seems that AC fans never have enough of Japan: then, they might be glad to know that we are bringing you the Toyota Celica, Supra, AE86 and TS040 Hybrid, as well as the Nissan GT-R 34 Skyline and 350Z Nismo 2015! And the list might not be over, just let us work…

Italians do it ... red

Yes, in Italy red is for Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. We can’t unveil now all details, just wait and see, we will not disappoint you.

British Style

The 650 GT3 was the first car unveiled of the recent line-up of McLaren – but not the last: the new 570LS and P1 GTR™ will further expand the grid of supercar and hypercar races in Assetto Corsa!

A pleasant surprise

During 2015, we had the pleasure to meet Praga Cars. Let us introduce you this car manufacturer and its awesome Praga R1R! Soon™ in Assetto Corsa.

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Our community
All of this would not be possible without your support. Support means purchasing original products, and we are really grateful to all of you who have purchased Assetto Corsa and its additional DLCs. Your support also allowed us to hire developers, improve our software and guarantee high-quality and constant support for your favourite simulation. It is our intention to continue to bring you new, high-quality content and features, as well as free bonus content even in the year to come.

Support also means modding. What the modding community has achieved with Assetto Corsa is just incredible – and also very important. The tools released along with Assetto Corsa allowed many enthusiast and skilled fans to show their great talent, and during 2015 some of them were even hired to take part in the creation of official content, working closely with the core team of Kunos Simulazioni. A ton of additional skins, cars, tracks, apps and tools have been created as well, allowing gamers to enjoy Assetto Corsa and its features even more. We would like to thank the entire modding community for the time, passion and attention you dedicate to your projects every single day.

Support also means feedback, criticism and suggestions. With more than 115,000 members, the official Assetto Corsa forums offer a platform for discussion, tips and threads that strive to help people enjoy AC the best they can, while also providing valuable feedback to the developers. We wish to thank all those people who have given feedback and support for our work – and other games – with their reports, tips and suggestions on our forums.

Our gift to you (if you have a little patience ..)
“OK Kunos team, everything is jolly great, now tell us what’s new for us!”

You are right…and you have been asking for some iconic cars for a long time. At the moment we are completing the development of Corvette C7 Stingray 2015 and Ford Mustang 2015, expected to be the first bonus content released in 2016. There is also another “small” surprise. Stay tuned, while we work on an extensive update for the official Assetto Corsa website, which will bring you more information about all the new content, updates, the Assetto Corsa PRO and Formula SAE programmes, and much more.

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When? “Soon™.” When else?
Thank you so much for your valuable support, help and passion! We will keep working hard to deserve it.

With our warmest regards

Marco Massarutto
Co-founder, Executive Producer

KUNOS Simulazioni

 
I bought Assetto Corsa when they announced the Toyota license. LMP1 was cool but the AE86 was the "instant buy" moment. Legit non-mod content for my car. I have been waiting oh so patiently...

Yes that it me in my avatar. Yes it is me going sideways. It is my favorite car. Period. I fear when this gets released I wont see the sun for days. I may lose my job too. Such is the Assetto Corsa life.
 
Haha funny funny guy, clearly it would be a little less crap maybe if fixed hmm,postpone a couple DLC's fire a couple of 3d modelers and bring in more nerds,someone like Niels Heusinkveld, to sort it all out.

Since you brought it up,I cant get in my Kunos account to respond to last comments in camber-effects-in-ac issues for some odd reason, the results someone posted with heat results after testing (to try prove me wrong) again proved everything I've been saying, despite it being touted as desirable result, the differences are tiny between camber changes (big and small),also even different types of tyres (different cars) show same silly temps like there's no difference at all between tyres\cars, and all sit in a perfect scenario range of heat, as others have mentioned in this very thread,but wont bang on because results there and speak for themselves for anyone that cares,good luck using temps for any kind of decent setup data.

Strange you'd bring it up as a "joke", here of all places,like I said many times, if you think these things are so minor why even comment on it, if you ever want a good example try broaden your horizons and try playing other sims where heating\camber\setups far far closer to how it should, in game and in engine.
It's a joke there's nothing in there. Noticed there's a tyre hanging on the side of the boat?

Since you're so hung up on why people treated your posts like you were an idiot in the official forum I would take a closer look at all those other stupid "issues" you brought up. (Remember motec shows 100% grip all the time so camber is broken? Duh. Seriously?)

It's a minor thing because it's a fine tuning thing. Everyone knew the effects of camber on surface temps were there but drowned under other stuff. No one tries to use the surface temps to make setups in AC and it doesn't affect the driving.

You seriously think people run these tests to prove YOU wrong? That's funny
 
As an open-minded driving enthusiast without ties to any particular IRL cars or tracks, I guess I'm most anticipating any core physics improvements and content by modders ; especially fun fictional rally-type circuits or public road that really keep me on my toes as I lose interest quickly otherwise.

Machwerk would be great unless already available?
 
(Remember motec shows 100% grip all the time so camber is broken? Duh. Seriously?)

pfft, that initial joke seems very targeted for "nothing in there".

remember?
remember AC doesnt even have a tele output for I\M\O, just a average overall? what eva use that is, yet non of you even question it.

remember the pages and pages and links trying to explain the important link between tyre temps and setups and car behaviour,debating with me basic principles without addressing the obvious evidence of something being wrong.

remember, then you all said I was stupid for bringing up before 1.4, itd be fixed, and its not at all, all it was was a very slight adjustment to overall temp gain\hold in gt3\2's and more DLC

remember when all else failed to "correct" me you lot simply turned it around, called me a winger, then said had long been reported, and Lord kunos was always working on it.

remember when enougher certain user after debating me on it came back a after "study" and then basically reiterated exactly what I was saying (and the links I posted to back it, some almost to his wording) about temps etc, like I never said it.

One moment AC wants to be the ultimate sim, the next its all about the "feel", when the simulation is questioned, overall the AC community dont wanna hear it,to busy eating up the DLC, instead of pushing devs hard, its even still far far away from a "satisfactory AI",let alone good, never mind the frikken tyre temps and all the rest missing features, just decent AI would be a good start.

RRE is very limited in that respect, but at least it simulates motorsport,with good ai, and decent MP, therefore contents worth it, Id be happy if Kunos did not develop any cars at all this year and concentrated on making a up to standard,full feature race sim,I see no reason at all why they shouldn't be able too, maybe then they can sort their tyre model out , Then a year of DLC releases will be welcomed by me.
 
RRE is very limited in that respect, but at least it simulates motorsport,with good ai, and decent MP, therefore contents worth it, Id be happy if Kunos did not develop any cars at all this year and concentrated on making a up to standard,full feature race sim,I see no reason at all why they shouldn't be able too, maybe then they can sort their tyre model out , Then a year of DLC releases will be welcomed by me.
Yet another armchair sim racing game developer who hasn't figured out that the guys doing the 3D modeling are not the same guys doing the game code. I'm sure you'd be happy with no new content for a few years, but the rest of us, dare I say the majority of us, that actually like the way AC looks and feels, would rather they work on the whole game just like every other developer. I'm quite certain they are capable of managing more than one task at a time.
 
Yet another armchair sim racing game developer who hasn't figured out that the guys doing the 3D modeling are not the same guys doing the game code. I'm sure you'd be happy with no new content for a few years, but the rest of us, dare I say the majority of us, that actually like the way AC looks and feels, would rather they work on the whole game just like every other developer. I'm quite certain they are capable of managing more than one task at a time.

Ive heard that excuse a million times, If I took a building contract and showed up with 10 painters and 1 builder, and when things got behind,and had painters painting unfinished building work,Id be told to get rid of the painters and hire more builders to finish teh building,when I refused id be shown the door.

Im sure they are capable of doing more than one thing, but this year has been very disappointing and telling, I kept telling myself after 1.0 its gonna get better flags, rules AI etc it'll all be there, so I bought every other sim available and played them hoping AC might one day be up to scratch,a year later they not even talking about it,just DLC, thats becoming apparently easy to push out in short terms(but cant get pit stops right in a year?) and have a horde of protectors telling us "wingers" to shut up and be happy, ppl that appear to think AC is a acceptable state for a race sim after a year from full release and parrot the same old tired excuse, do not help the situation at all IMO.
 
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Guys, ease up and enjoy the new year. It's just a computer game. For any conversation to progress in a healthy way, everybody has to be calm and respectful. Otherwise it just turns into a name calling and put-downs.

Again, happy new year.
 
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Ive heard that excuse a million times, If I took a building contract and showed up with 10 painters and 1 builder, and when things got behind,and had painters painting unfinished building work,Id be told to get rid of the painters and hire more builders to finish teh building,when I refused id be shown the door.

Im sure they are capable of doing more than one thing, but this year has been very disappointing and telling, I kept telling myself after 1.0 its gonna get better flags, rules AI etc it'll all be there, so I bought every other sim available and played them hoping AC might one day be up to scratch,a year later they not even talking about it,just DLC, thats becoming apparently easy to push out in short terms(but cant get pit stops right in a year?) and have a horde of protectors telling us "wingers" to shut up and be happy, ppl that appear to think AC is a acceptable state for a race sim after a year from full release and parrot the same old tired excuse, do not help the situation at all IMO.
I don't see why you care so much quite frankly...there are plenty of other sims available that have the features you want. Use those.

AC never promised, and was never really meant to have any of the features you're seemingly dying for (there's a reason there's only one light source, and believe it or not, it's not because Kunos wants to spite you, it's simply because AC was originally planned to be a very small game (GSCE-esque, but from scratch), the fact that they've added so many new and unplanned things is actually very impressive.

If anything, the people that can accept AC for what it is, welcoming any new improvements but not discrediting the work that has already been done or getting annoyed that things that were never promised haven't been added, are the best example of the outlook everyone else should have. Because, at the end of the day, it is just a video game, and you really shouldn't care that much about it.

And for the record, you can see a full surface temperature map for each tire in the suspension app...
 
I don't see why you care so much quite frankly...there are plenty of other sims available that have the features you want. Use those.

I dont, in grand scheme of things, but considering this is a sim site, thought be good place to discuss,it would be a boring 9 pages if all were nodding in agreement.

Id wouldnt of posted either tbh, had someone not made a smart arse joke about the exact issue, I had personally talked about with him and others about recently,in a private forum, I cant get in for some reason now.

And for the record, you can see a full surface temperature map for each tire in the suspension app..

Just for the record, thats surface temps, not the temps taken in pit readings and besides even that app shows the same odd (too perfect)temps when settled for few secs, and still doesnt explain odd exclusion from output data for tele.
 
Guys, ease up and enjoy the new year. It's just a computer game. For any conversation to progress in a healthy way, everybody has to be calm and respectful. Otherwise it just turns into a name calling and put-downs.

Again, happy new year.
Indeed.

RaceDepartment is a place where sim racers should feel they can express their feelings about a sim without the fear of being banned for having something negative to say about a particular sim.

But, please remember that this is our forum and we have our own rules here. This is not the official forums and this is not that blog, and right now this thread is starting to edge towards breaking our rules. Be warned, if this turns into a public excrement-throwing contest and personal insults, then I'll quite happily throw a padlock on this thread and the offenders will be dealt with appropriately.

By all means, have a civilized discussion and debate, it's a good thing! But leave the backhanded and personal jibes out of it.


And again, happy new year. :)
 
Yet another armchair sim racing game developer who hasn't figured out that the guys doing the 3D modeling are not the same guys doing the game code. I'm sure you'd be happy with no new content for a few years, but the rest of us, dare I say the majority of us, that actually like the way AC looks and feels, would rather they work on the whole game just like every other developer. I'm quite certain they are capable of managing more than one task at a time.

Indeed, 3D Modeling are not the same guys doing the game code. But ask yourself how many 3D modelers they contracted to get this amount of cars? Yet they didn't get anyone for game code, physics or features because they clearly don't care.

Remember how Stefano keeps complaining about Aris that cannot keep up with the physics of the cars (he has to copy paste old cars physics to the new dlc ones...) while he is alone developing MP and AI, and apparently the guy who did the physics engine is gone so they are lost.

It's quite clear for me that their focus is to sell DLC with cars and tracks because they cannot sell a DLC with features, this is a bussiness afterall and average joe doesn't care about physics, features or online, just pretty graphics and good models to cruise around Nordschleife during a Sunday morning.
 
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Ive heard that excuse a million times, If I took a building contract and showed up with 10 painters and 1 builder, and when things got behind,and had painters painting unfinished building work,Id be told to get rid of the painters and hire more builders to finish teh building,when I refused id be shown the door.

Im sure they are capable of doing more than one thing, but this year has been very disappointing and telling, I kept telling myself after 1.0 its gonna get better flags, rules AI etc it'll all be there, so I bought every other sim available and played them hoping AC might one day be up to scratch,a year later they not even talking about it,just DLC, thats becoming apparently easy to push out in short terms(but cant get pit stops right in a year?) and have a horde of protectors telling us "wingers" to shut up and be happy, ppl that appear to think AC is a acceptable state for a race sim after a year from full release and parrot the same old tired excuse, do not help the situation at all IMO.

All you're doing here is confirming what he was saying about your comments being armchair development. You can't simply hire more people to get the job done, hell that's not even a game development issue but real life issue that anyone who has taken a basic business course would know.

It's great to have high aspirations for a game, but the majority of the issue with people with such high standards for games is that they literally have no clue what goes on in the development of these games yet talk like they have it all figured out. If you want a game to get better then offer improvement suggestions and inform the developers of issues you have with the game. But keep the blind assumptions as to how they develop their game out of it because it only makes you look foolish when you come across as thinking you know more about how to improve the game than the developers of said game.

This is literally the biggest damn issue the majority of developers have when they're open with the community about their development process and request feedback. People like yourself who have no freakin' clue.
 
To see some people debating about tiny details just for the sake to annoy the other side it's just a proof that Assetto corsa is achieving some serious level of realism, this sim is not successful for nothing.

Can't wait to see all the stuff for 2016.
lol

what is this "PRC" we speak of? People's Republic of China?
Close enough :D
 
and apparently the guy who did the physics engine is gone so they are lost.

can we please cut with this bullcrap already? I wrote the physics engine for AC just like any other core engine wrote in KS since its creation and I am here an alive.. got to hate internet really, some idiot comes with an idiotic "theory" and it gets automatically promoted to fact.. for frak sake it's not called KUNOS simulazioni for nothing!
No fact checking, no introspection, no doubts.. really, mind blowing.

get a grip seriously and happy new year
 
All you're doing here is confirming what he was saying about your comments being armchair development. You can't simply hire more people to get the job done, hell that's not even a game development issue but real life issue that anyone who has taken a basic business course would know.
So why on earth does Turn 10 Studios for example have over 300 employees? They certainly seem to get the job done faster.
 

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