Assetto Corsa Competizione, The Official Blancpain GT Series Game Announced!

[Paul Jeffrey]

Top GT3 licence, UE4 graphics, day to night cycle, dynamic weather, advanced physics with a focus on realism.. is Assetto Corsa Competizione the sim we've all been waiting for?

When Kunos Simulazioni hinted at a big announcement a few days ago, many thought it would simply be a case of confirming another licence for the already well developed Assetto Corsa software, or at the very most a potential AC2 first announcement. Not so, the team over in Italy have been hard at work behind the scenes developing a very exciting new piece of software, and what is more the new Assetto Corsa Competizione title will focus on a single racing category, the incredible Blancpain Endurance GT3 series.. a welcome hark back to the days when racing simulation developers focussed all their attention to detail on a specific racing series, something that Kunos are keen to replication with this newly announced IP.

Set to feature a pretty significant shift away from the basis of the Assetto Corsa title we all know and love, Kunos have confirmed that AC Competizione will feature what are described as "photo realistic" graphics thanks to the use of the incredibly powerful Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine, allowing Kunos to move away from the single light source solution of Assetto Corsa and finally bring both time of day and weather effects to their racing game - a must when you consider the Spa 24 Hour is a key event in the real life Blancpain championship.

As well as the obvious visual benefits brought from a move to Unreal 4 (see screenshots attached to this article), another key talking point from the simulation announcement comes by way of confirmation that Kunos are looking to build a sizable offline career mode around the new game, with driving school tutorials making a welcome return to a popular modern day simulation.

Alongside what promises to be a substantial offline element, the initial press release indicates that Kunos are also aiming to make considerable changes to the way Assetto Corsa veterans experience online play, with an eye on the emerging eSport marketplace the Italian developers are promising a well rounded ranking and matchmaking online system, potentially encouraging a much more evenly balanced online experience and less of those famous public lobby first corner crashes...

Although only initially announced this afternoon, it looks like development is well on the way with this exceptionally exciting new title. Projected for a summer Steam EA release, I'll leave you with the new trailer to get the juices flowing for now...

Assetto Corsa Competizione should be available on Steam Early Access Summer 2018.

Check out the Assetto Corsa Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding the sim. We host quality League and Club Racing events, have a selection of fantastic mods to download and some of the best community conversation. Join in the discussion today.

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Excited? Looking forward to the new title? Let us know below!

 

[BhZ]

Then I guess Stefano lied to me twenty minutes ago......

He either lied or marco lied , anyway not important...

 

[FeltHat]

21-22 is the answer Stefano gave me an hour or so ago when I asked him. (not that it really matters if it is 21 or even 30, still a very small dev team compared to most)

compared to most its giant

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

compared to most its giant

Most = Two out of the six competitors. Must be sim-racers logic/math at work.

Reiza and ISI (studio 312? I forget the official name) for certain have less. Iracing, SMS, Polyphony Digital, and Turn 10 have many many more.

Anyways, I forget why any of this is relevant to the thread topic; why are we discussing this again?

 

[ltcars]

Do you think that the cars physics and models in general will be in the same format as in AC1? Wouldn't it be too easy to just copy paste them into AC1?
(And the other way around)

 

[RMR1]

edit: wrong thread

 

[Patrik Marek]

it all depends, when I worked on Mafia1, we had team of about 30 people and we thought we are quite big,
of course it's not like EA, but how many of those teams are actually people outsourced for content? , that could really increase the number of names in your team, but doesn't trully represent the "scale "

in other words, if there are 60 cars in the game and you have 2 full time car modellers, team could appear smaller compared to when you outsource 50 of these cars to 25 people

but anyhow, doesn't really matter how big or small they are, what matters is what they put on the table, and so far from the video it does look promising

 

[Toonces]

So....
This isn't the AC2 that I had hoped (and asked) for.

On one hand it is kinda hard to get jacked up about a game that is only going to have a dozen or so cars and ten tracks. Even harder to get hyped when those cars are GT3 machines that I have had next to no interest in driving due to factors such as complexity of setup, paddle shift instead of H pattern, and slick racing tires that reward precision instead of bias ply tires that rewards a driver that can hang it out. I am also stupidly slow in these machines.

The tracks are among some of my least favorite in all of AC. Spa, Silverstone, Monza; all are personal nightmares for me.

I'm with you, Michael. Kind of. I don't like GTPs (they all look like the very latest Dyson vacuum cleaners to me) and I don't like chicanes. I don't mind GT3s but I really love DTMs and DRMs (like Dennis Matzie's promised series), but what I really would like are some classic North American tracks: LilSki's Bridgehampton, Riverside and Watkins Glen; Elkhart Lake, Road Atlanta, Mid-Ohio, Sebring or Daytona, Montreal or Mosport; and some classic European venues: the Nordschleife, the Red Bull Ring, Imola, Mugello, Tor Poznan...you know, the tracks we already have and love in the original Assetto Corse.

Since this is surely beyond Kunos' purview, what I really, really hope for is that ACC is modable!

 

[CobraCat]

It is what it is, why some of you keep crying the blues is beyond me. Deal with it and move on. It's just a game. SMH.

Regardless of how much I love ACC, I will continue driving AC, nothing changes that and mods will continue to be made for AC. Mods are still being made for GPL and it's almost 20 years old.

Best to just lay back, go with the flow and enjoy all that ACC will bring. I'm not a the biggest fan of GT3 cars or Spa although I'm open to what ACC could be and I still have AC for the times I want to rip a Porsche street car around a circuit.

 

[throughalens83]

I'm sure there's more than that now. There were 30 to complete AC, more have been hired for ACC.
Edit: they started with 10

I'm telling you that they are 25 because in this interview
https://www.spreaker.com/user/motorsportrepublic/lintervista-a-marco-massarutto-per-parla
Marco Massarutto says that now they are 25!

 

[Piotr]

I hope this announement will make some long awaited mods to finally hit the market...

 

[Krzysztof Lipczynski]

I see green light for mods

Poznan track created by @Szymik

 

[ltcars]

I see green light for mods

Poznan track created by @Szymik

Isn't this a joke? (I hope not)

 

[Patrik Marek]

that's hardly proof, even if it was legit, they could have bought it, but yeah, I don't think that vid has anything to do with Kunos

 

[dud]

From what I saw most sims are struggling with AI and wet weather, especially when it comes to tire strategy and realistic lap times compared with the player. Will be interesting how they manage.

They should let us make our own AI. The Python modules already get all the input we need. We would just like to control the car directly through an API and not through a fake HID windows driver or whatever.

This would stop a lot of whining. Not so much because the AI gets instantly better, but now it is partially in the user's hands and they can bash each other.

From my observation the requirement to provide controlled opponents is a huge and costly distraction for game developing companies.

 

[Patrik Marek]

They should let us make our own AI. The Python modules already get all the input we need. We would just like to control the car directly through an API and not through a fake HID windows driver or whatever.

This would stop a lot of whining. Not so much because the AI gets instantly better, but now it is partially in the user's hands and they can bash each other.

From my observation the requirement to provide controlled opponents is a huge and costly distraction for game developing companies.

or maybe people would realize that its actually quite complicated to make good ai and they would stop whining

 

[Epistolarius]

that's hardly proof, even if it was legit, they could have bought it, but yeah, I don't think that vid has anything to do with Kunos

I don't think it is. Just implies to me that someone already works towards implementing their mod into UE4 - and by extent ACC, unless Kunos actively make it near impossible to mod the game (which I can't believe).

 

[Patrik Marek]

well I installed UE4 too, so that I can experiement, but I guess I will wait before diving too deep into it, since nobody really knows

as I said, personally I find it unlikely for official racing title to support modding, eventhough the good old GTR2/Race07 did
time will tell

 

[Lachlan B]

So I thought I would do some very basic digging and work out what circuits their SRO license might actually get them. Turns out the results are quite surprising and diverse! At a current count there is roughly THIRTY circuits that they could well be planning to include in the game at some point under the Blancpain banners! There is also the soon to be unveiled European GT4 Central Europe and GT4 Belgium series that might give us even more circuits like Zandvoort, Hockenheim or Oschersleben. I would like to admit that the GT4 Nordic series may not be included in the game, but you just never know! I think they would be some cool and unique circuits to see in a game and from the SRO point of view, would help promote a series that I'm not sure would be overly mainstream.

Below is the list of all circuits, in some championships I have removed double ups to make for easy reading! Let me know if I have missed one.

Blancpain GT Series:
Zolder
Monza
Brands Hatch
Silverstone
Paul Ricard
Misano
Spa
Hungaroring
Nurburgring
Barcelona

Blancpain GT Asia:
Sepang
Chang International Circuit (Buriram)
Suzuka
Fuji
Shanghai
Zhejiang circuit (If you are not familiar with this track, it looks to have a crazy first 2 sectors)

British GT:
Oulton Park
Rockingham
Snetterton
Donington Park

Intercontinental GT Challenge:
Bathurst
Laguna Seca

FFSA GT4 Europeen Southern Championship:
Nogaro
Pau
Dijon
Magny-Cours

GT4 Nordic Series:
Falkenbergs Motorbana
Rudskogen Circuit
Tierp Arena
Mantorp Park
Karlskoga Motorstadion

To me, with even most of those tracks covered I personally think I'd be a very happy chappy!

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Kunos can produce two-three tracks a year, period. There are ten tracks on the schedule and six of them are already in AC. (almost like this has been some kind of plan all along)
I would have to imagine that the six current tracks will still be in the process of conversion at the start of Early Access, so it will likely take the full year or so of EA to have a finished product with all ten.
That track list would take 7-8 years after the 1.0 version of the game to complete. Don't hold your breath.

 

[Emery]

Kunos can produce two-three tracks a year, period.

Unless they do to their track-making capabilities what they've done for producing cars. Otherwise, I totally agree with you!