Assetto Corsa AI Video and Massarutto Statement

[Paul Jeffrey]

Following the big Assetto Corsa PC update from Kunos Simulazioni, Aristotelis Vasilakos has released a nice video of the new AI code - with some interesting words from Marco Massarutto.

The main thrust of the 1.14 build update released last week focussed around the single player artificial intelligence, an area of the game lacking behind its main sim racing rivals in recent years. Now following considerable work from all involved with Kunos Simulazioni, the current generation build of Assetto Corsa has moved on leaps and bounds since its early days to arguably move very close to the top of the AI pile. With passing and defending from the AI cars and human like behaviour, the new build really is a substantial step forward from the development team.

To mark the new build release and in something of celebration of the new AI physics engineer Aristotelis Vasilakos has released this excellent video of a multiclass AI field racing around the Spanish Barcelona Grand Prix Circuit in Assetto Corsa:

By way of his own personal Facebook page, Marco Massarutto added the following words with regards to the responsibility structure at Kunos:

"I would like to take advantage of this gameplay video to say something. We are a team of crazy, genuine people who love their job, showing some talent but, even more, a genuine devotion for what they do. This makes Assetto Corsa what it is today. But I can't forget to mention that, most of AI&physics algorithms, as well as the tyre model, the netcode and the graphics engine of our game has been programmed by one single person, my teammate in business Stefano "Kunos" Casillo. .

All the tracks (except for one) have been modeled by one guy, Simone Trevisiol, who takes care also about shaders, post processing effects and gfx fine tuning. Most of the sound environment and effects has been managed by one guy (with some programming support), Luca Sodano.

Only one guy, Aristotelis Vasilakos, is behind the car handling, vehicle dynamics and tyre data (that means this lazy guy updated all the hundreds of cars included in the game each time Stefano updated the code behind physics and tyre model). And Gianluca Miragoli is behind the 3D modeling of at least half of the car models and most of the interiors. I should mention all the others that made Assetto Corsa what is today and I thank all of them. But the people mentioned above are with us by the beginning. I'm proud to be part of this team.

Oh, btw: the video shows the new AI algorithms in action: the Toyota TS040 is driven by AI (aggression set at 45%) and it has been placed in the last position in order to show its capability to overtake slower cars at Barcelona circuit , where overtaking sometime is not an easy matter, and it was pretty difficult to see before this update. Sorry to be late, but good things need time.

Assetto Corsa is a racing simulation available to purchase on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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Enjoyed the video? Impressed with the new AI? Liking AC post V1.14 release? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[protonv5]

Back on topic have you seen just how well the AI race each other even in the identical cars? This was a discussion over on the AMS thread so I thought I'd share the videos here too. We've probably all seen and by now experienced the superb videos of the LMP1 cars overtaking GT2/3 cars but what about the AI ability to overtake when they are in identical cars. Well, I've got to say I'm blown away by the brilliant battles the AI have so I thought I'd capture some action.

Assetto Corsa identical cars with the AI driving and racing each other.

To me, this looks and feels like skilled humans driving the cars and I can give no higher praise. The AI battle and make realistic mistakes and the faster lapping cars make their way realistically through the field.

AMS AI racing identical cars

As a comparison, I also did a similar video for AMS and the updated AI is good. The AMS AI make more contact but nothing unrealistic just a little more robust in their approach. There is also a strange hesitation in overtaking on straights in AMS, you'll see it at 2.35, yet the same car makes a clean straight line overtake at 3.30 so it's a tricky one to figure out. The AMS AI are good at overtaking in the corners though.

Both sims are great to race in single player but Assetto Corsa is now my favourite for short to medium races with the AI (longer races have some strategy issues) and I never thought I'd say that. The right cars on the right tracks are really something especially in VR, easily as good as racing with skilled friends and superb for practising racing in the pack.

Thanks for the vids/post. I agree. Assetto really is coming along very nicely. The AI are great to race against since the latest update. Huge improvement.

Now: I'm hoping for:
1. Day to night transition - Endurance events
2. Better pit stop setups/control - Allow mandatory pit stops.
3. Force tire requirements/car setups on AI cars.
4. Force fuel settings on AI (Set fuel level pre-race for AI cars)
5. Make AI susceptible to fuel usage/tire wear that is somewhat predictable.
6. Pace car - Full cautions/slow zones. This will allow further pit stategy etc.
7. Formation lap - Rolling starts if desired.
8. Random failures - Requiring your or AI cars to pit due to no lights, engine failures etc.
9. More ambiance: Team boss chatter over the radio. More fanfare. Podium ceremony etc. Will add to the immersion overall.

Just my ideas/hopes.

Thanks!

 

[Joseph Maxx]

Thanks for the vids/post. I agree. Assetto really is coming along very nicely. The AI are great to race against since the latest update. Huge improvement.

Now: I'm hoping for:
1. Day to night transition - Endurance events
2. Better pit stop setups/control - Allow mandatory pit stops.
3. Force tire requirements/car setups on AI cars.
4. Force fuel settings on AI (Set fuel level pre-race for AI cars)
5. Make AI susceptible to fuel usage/tire wear that is somewhat predictable.
6. Pace car - Full cautions/slow zones. This will allow further pit stategy etc.
7. Formation lap - Rolling starts if desired.
8. Random failures - Requiring your or AI cars to pit due to no lights, engine failures etc.
9. More ambiance: Team boss chatter over the radio. More fanfare. Podium ceremony etc. Will add to the immersion overall.

Just my ideas/hopes.

Thanks!

Well, number 3 and number 4 are already possible. Just create a setup for the car with whatever fuel and tires compound and pressure you want and save it as AI_default and the AI will load those settings.

 

[ouvert]

Public server or AI ?

 

[protonv5]

Well, number 3 and number 4 are already possible. Just create a setup for the car with whatever fuel and tires compound and pressure you want and save it as AI_default and the AI will load those settings.

Totally news to me. Thanks for the info. But does it "really" work? I've heard of other settings like accelerating fuel/tire wear. When I tried that the AI just keep driving and run out of fuel on track, so I had to revert settings back.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I thought fuel and tires were two things we couldn't control on the AI?

 

[MarkR]

I thought fuel and tires were two things we couldn't control on the AI?

I tried saving the AI_default setup as suggested above at it didn't work for me. I just set the fuel to maximum and tyres to soft and started a 60 lap race. All the cars started on medium tyres and with varying fuel loads. Unless I misunderstood the save the AI_default setting instruction and I'm meant to be changing some game file?

Audi R18 running high fuel at the start of a 60 lap race at Barcelona

Same race, identical car but this time running low fuel at the start of the race.

The AI is definitely adapting in some way to the track as they run different fuel strategies even in the same car. For example, an all LMP1 car race, 60 laps at Barcelona sees the AI cars all running medium tyres but with widely varying fuel loads even in the same cars. These fuel loads vary from a full tank to just enough fuel for 5/6 laps. The very low fuel cars run unrealistic 5-6 stop strategies (they almost always wake up at some point and put a realistic fuel load in around half race distance though I have seen a 919 run 11 pit stops). The higher fuel load cars run realistic strategies and make a good race of it. The low fuel cars don't make much sense for the LMP1 or GT classes but surprisingly the strategy seems to work for the Ferrari F1 cars where they also run the soft tyres with the low fuel. Now at Le Mans (100 lap race), the AI all run an initial full fuel load but as this is a mod track maybe the track designer made some changes to the AI strategy? Having looked at the pTracker data for some longer races with the AI my conclusion is the strategy the AI runs is a bit more complicated than just changing the default setup - I could be wrong though of course. At this point, both AMS and rFactor 2 AI run more realistic and challenging long races.

If we can adjust the tyres and fuel that would be great but I think we might have to wait for Kunos to update the AI for longer races before this will really provide a realistic race.