Kunos Previews Version 1.5 Track Improvements

[Alex Franchini]

Kunos Simulazioni have outlined future developments for the upcoming version 1.5 of Assetto Corsa.

The announcement comes from the official Facebook page for the game, and makes a short recap of the development process during the last couple of years and what to expect for the track quality in version 1.5.

"The development of Assetto Corsa began in 2011. Since then, we have vastly improved our modelling techniques – today we have more resources (budget and manpower) and expertise, and the latest laser-scanning technology also allows us to obtain a better and wider scan, offering an opportunity to grab a higher number of objects surrounding the track. Moreover, during the development of Assetto Corsa, we have changed our approach to texturing and track modelling, creating more secondary details and trackside objects and also featuring 3D trees and camera-facing objects and crowds, something that resulted in nicer scenarios and better immersion. However, as a result there is now a visible gap in terms of graphics and details if you compare some of the first and the latest circuits created for Assetto Corsa.

Last year we made some tests with a new laser-scanning device, testing it at our HQ at Vallelunga race track, where we made our preliminary tests in early 2010 in preparation for the Ferrari Virtual Academy videogame. Since our aim is to offer our fans the best of our skills, know-how and quality, we are glad to tell you that we have started the process of optimizing and improving all our existing circuits, including Vallelunga, Nurburgring GP, Mugello, Magione, Imola, Silverstone, Monza, Spa Francorchamps, as well as the Nordschleife. The upgraded versions of these tracks will be available as a free update with build 1.5, currently in development.

Thank you very much for your great support!"
​

Update 1.5 will include the upgraded versions of all existing circuits. The update will be free, but there's no mention of an estimated release time or any other aspects of the changelog. You can check out the rest of the comparison screenshots of Vallelunga here:



Stay tuned for further information, and in the mean time lets us know what you make of this!

 

[flavio_joshua]

Some old Kunos circuits definitely need an improvement because the surroundings are too spoil.
Also, imagine how much immersion trees and spectators can give in tracks like Trento -Bondone.

have you ever driven on Trento Bordone ?? i suppose that was not use very frequently.

 

[Paul McCluskey]

Trento isn't getting a new lick of paint anytime soon

 

[Glaurung]

have you ever driven on Trento Bordone ?? i suppose that was not use very frequently.

Yes I did:
http://www.radiators-champ.com/RSRLiveTiming/index.php?page=driver_profile&id=12323

It's however true that hill climbers are a minority inside the simracers minority, so realistically I do not expect any retexturing of Trento-Bondone. Sadly

 

[Yapci]

That gravel...

 

[Qazdar Karim]

I really hope they improve the nurburgring GP road mesh, that thing feels like it was scanned with a 2 bits device ...

 

[Ben Lee]

I really hope they improve the nurburgring GP road mesh, that thing feels like it was scanned with a 2 bits device ...

Unless it was re-scanned as part of the "Nords package", I severely doubt it.

 

[Falk Massmann]

Wow, so it get´s a couple of tincans of paint ... and Hotlap Simulator 1.5 will get outlined future developments which are....??? Wait a moment ... errrm ... yeah .... none. So cool, maybe it´s a new PP Filter which gives your cars more bling?
And the people that say that they have different teams for specific tasks... remind me again who are the people that work on multiplayer experience or ingame A.I??
I believe kunos is satisfied with what they have achieved so far and pretty much that´s left is porting it to consoles. Well, my expectations were a little higher.

 

[xnorb]

When talking laser scanned it's less an issue of scanning again than it is of re-adjusting the way you're compressing the available point cloud data.

And the people that say that they have different teams for specific tasks... remind me again who are the people that work on multiplayer experience or ingame A.I??

I guess you work in a company?
Are you responsible for everything?
Do your colleagues stop working just because you're on sick leave?

 

[Qazdar Karim]

Wow, so it get´s a couple of tincans of paint ... and Hotlap Simulator 1.5 will get outlined future developments which are....??? Wait a moment ... errrm ... yeah .... none. So cool, maybe it´s a new PP Filter which gives your cars more bling?
And the people that say that they have different teams for specific tasks... remind me again who are the people that work on multiplayer experience or ingame A.I??
I believe kunos is satisfied with what they have achieved so far and pretty much that´s left is porting it to consoles. Well, my expectations were a little higher.

Kunos being satisfied with their product is not the problem, but the majority of community being happy with unfinished product that has DLCs is a bigger problem.

 

[Chris Kennedy]

I PM'd si3v about it and he said he has re-done the mesh, very pleasant surprise!. the old one was indeed quite poor and wasnt disimillar to the bad conversions like rainmaker's tracks.

 

[Falk Massmann]

How many people are working at kunos simulazioni? As far as I can remember they had a pretty small team, cannot say the exact number but would be sure that it´s not over 50 people. And as I know small companies I can tell you they don´t have the ressources to split work packages exactly for a couple of developers. That´s how small companies work, everyone has to cover a broader range of tasks because it otherwise wouldn´t work.

And I will stop buying DLC´s for AC just because I´m not getting any fun out of it anymore.

 

[Vojko Music]

This game was really fun when it came out but now it's just a hotlap simulator and nothing more unfortunately

 

[Ben Lee]

How many people are working at kunos simulazioni? As far as I can remember they had a pretty small team, cannot say the exact number but would be sure that it´s not over 50 people. And as I know small companies I can tell you they don´t have the ressources to split work packages exactly for a couple of developers. That´s how small companies work, everyone has to cover a broader range of tasks because it otherwise wouldn´t work.

And I will stop buying DLC´s for AC just because I´m not getting any fun out of it anymore.

I believe they are now 30 people, but that includes externals. Stefano has also mentioned that if they hired another coder they would need to get them trained up, have them share the same workflow, make sure the code is clean enough to fit in and so forth, which I can all agree with, however does that mean they shouldn't hire someone else? I don't know. They have multiple people working on cars I guess because they are each separate entities. However I guess they could hire another track designer since largely it’s similar to working on the cars, there is no real coding involved etc. Part of me does think they perhaps should hire another coder, I think originally there were two (Giovanni?) but he left some time last year.

 

[RippedXFuel]

It should be obvious for everyone, that KUNOS is producing new content only in order to raise additional money to keep their company running! That's perfectly OK for me (and should be for everyone else as well). I'll even buy DLC's which I'm not interested in, only to support that project!
Nobody can expect a company to continue upgrading and improving their already sold product forever on end ... either they do it this way or they start something completely new, discontinuing their last product!
So the discussion should not circle around wether they should throw DLC's on the market before they finish key fetaures (e.g. multiplayer leagues) or not. They should, because they simply have to!!
The question we should ask ourselves is: Are they willing/planning to make AC an online simulation for the simracing community or are they up to something completely different?!
I'm afraid they are not after the former! This quote from the dev-blog made it quite obvious what's on their mind "...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 ..."
Well, I'm not interested in offline gaming (be it FPS or racing or whatever) since the late 1990's. I wouldn't have expected any serious software company to consider wasting money for the improvement of AI in a racing simulation! Honestly, I'm not overly optimistic regarding the improvement of multiplayer features in the future!
If there's someone with better/different information, PLEASE step forward and make me look stupid

 

[-Alf-]

That new gravel...

 

[Tomas Torasen]

Yeah wth did they think when replacing the gravel???

 

[David Dominguez]

So basically they improved the main asphalt texture and added a new one from Saturn's Sega Rally for the gravel.

 

[Marius Jonikas]

Why do you need a better AI if you have the internet. If the multiplayer experience was smoother and worked out more you wouldn't need AI. Since you can connect to so many people.

 

[SexualChocolate]

....because when testing a new setup, sometimes you need to race in offline mode with AI before going online with a tweaked setup.

 

[Qazdar Karim]

....because when testing a new setup, sometimes you need to race in offline mode with AI before going online with a tweaked setup.

Wut ?