The Big Assetto Corsa Competizione Interview (Part 2)

[Paul Jeffrey]

Catch part two of our exclusive Assetto Corsa Competizione interview with Marco Massarutto and Ste'fano Casillo of Kunos Simulazioni...

Causing a mass panic of excitement from the sim racing community following the announcement back on February 21st, it is probably fair to say plenty of people are excited for the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione racing simulation, and with a potential Early Access release coming to Steam this summer, we answered the community call and sat down with two of the men behind the simulation - Marco Massarutto and Stefano Casillo, founding members of Italian development studio Kunos Simulazioni.

If you are interested in learning more of about the official racing simulation of the Blancpain GT Series, check out part 2 of our exclusive interview at the head of this article.

If you missed it earlier, part one can be viewed HERE. Oh and please consider doing us a favour by subscribing to our YouTube channel if you enjoyed this coverage and are looking forward to more of the same in the years ahead...


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

Check out the Assetto Corsa Competizione here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding this exciting upcoming sim. We intend to host some quality League and Club Racing events as well as hosting some great community created mods (we hope!). Join in the discussion today.

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Enjoy the interview? Looking forward to ACC? Learn anything new? Leave a comment below (and subscribe to our YouTube page too!)

 

[DM2zzion]

There is also the limitation in space for the pit and grid boxes.

There are OSRW mods for the official AC tracks that allow more than the stock no. of pit/grid boxes and I've run up to 40 cars in SP on my Ryzen 5, it ran quite well at least for 60fps, just the race starts were dipping down in framerate a bit. Just started a track day session with 34 AI cars and my 3,6GHz R5 hexacore is around 85% Main_T usage at the start and went to 70% while all AI cars left the pits.

But if you have a look at that you see how 'stacked' the pit lane is.

In real racing teams share pit boxes, but maybe as a game there need to be more factors to be considered.
It worked for the OSRW mods cause cars didn't share the actual same pit box, but more pit boxes were added beside the original ones.


View attachment 239882
This is how it's done on the OSRW mod, but that isn't realistic.
We ran the old Goodwood track by Thiago Lima a while ago online, the server crashed with the full grid because cars 19 and 20 were placed on the same pit boxes as cars 1 +2, so I had to limit the server to 18 cars to work.
So there would be a need to add sharing of pit boxes for ACC for it to work and have more than 30 cars online.

But also KS has to make sure everything works withouth issues, so maybe sharing grid boxes might just be a 'hack' solution that probably is a bad idea.

At least at Spa there are two pit lanes basically so no need for any hacks and easily enough space for more than 30 cars.

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

What Paul didn't ask iirc is if the game will have full steam integration for servers, joining, adding and searching for friends or will keep the current server structure.
Thanks ks

 

[MarkR]

Apples and oranges...

AC's engine was not designed to be used on consoles later, so there needed to be so many adjustments for it to even work on console.

With a complete new design it might just be easier to bring it to console and with less problems.


And just my 2 cents:
I think console users don't need to moan too much about the port since pc gamers for many years now got a lot of crappy pc ports from games that were designed for console, yet do you hear us complaining all the time?

The AC engine suitability for console is all a consideration Kunos should have made before the decision to launch there - full price paying customers are not beta testers.

So far UE4 racing games on console such as last weeks Gravel are struggling to hit double digit FPS with a few cars on screen and arcade physics. Gears of War 4 plays gloriously though and is cross play so who knows you might be right.

As for PC players not moaning, do you read the Steam reviews for such ported games? Remember the WB Batman game that was withdrawn and refunded? They went on to fix it though, which is only partially true for AC on console. Even here on RD you only need check some of the inflammatory comments written by the fans of certain games in the threads of other titles.

Sometimes complaining and the community do good things too, like keeping EA's greedy loot box micro transactions out of Star Wars. Oculus gave users a store credit after issues this week and people, you know, complained. We know 'The Lord' doesn't like dissenting voices and uses his ban hammer to stop them where he can, luckily he's not in charge of the whole internet.

Kunos are getting a lot of praise and publicity here for words about a game in very early development. I think it's important to remember not everything they touch turns to gold.

I hope RD are going to give the same platform and publicity to all games and developers, who want it, in pre-early access.

 

[Tberg]

^^

Can we just wait to discuss all the BS till after EARLY ACCESS is released?

 

[Brun]

There is also the limitation in space for the pit and grid boxes.

AC's biggest limitation in that respect was a result of not using garages for the start of sessions. By my reckoning you could fit at least 50% more cars in a pit lane when they're perpendicular to the track.

Shouldn't have been that a big deal to solve, just needed separate spawn points and pit boxes. Only issue would be allocating space for pit stops, but there are various solutions to that.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Shouldn't have been that a big deal to solve, just needed separate spawn points and pit boxes. Only issue would be allocating space for pit stops, but there are various solutions to that.

Yeah IRL people wont stop in a exact place to get their service done, especially if many people pit under a FCY, if they can make pit stalls "dynamic" would be great. Something I've requested in rF2 for a long time with no success. You can also "solve" the issue of space for pit stops by making the car get pushed to garage for repair rather than letting it get repaired in the pit stall.
Hopefully kunos is looking into these solutions

 

[melanieuk]

What Paul didn't ask iirc is if the game will have full steam integration for servers, joining, adding and searching for friends or will keep the current server structure.
Thanks ks

This is the most important Steam feature missing in Assetto Corsa, both Project CARS 1 and 2 have this feature, I have always wished Assetto corsa would have had Steam server including VAC integrated, not sure how it would work now that ACC will have Minorating built into it, great for bringing up this question, shame it wasn't included in the dev interview.

 

[Tberg]

This is the most important Steam feature missing in Assetto Corsa, both Project CARS 1 and 2 have this feature, I have always wished Assetto corsa would have had Steam server including VAC integrated, not sure how it would work now that ACC will have Minorating built into it, great for bringing up this question, shame it wasn't included in the dev interview.

It would be nice to have, as it is pain to find and befriend someone you had a good race with on public servers, or you want to funnel people to a league etc.
Apparently it isn't that important, looking at how many plays AC vs. pC on a daily basis, even though the later has the feature. In the case of ACC, I'm sure [] Kunos will try and push for a way to connect the multiplayer community, f.i. having a driverprofile ingame where you can click on people on server and view their stats, add as friend etc.
Whether it will work through Steam or Kunos's own solution doesn't matter much to me.

 

[Julius Fahlbusch]

i dont have time for the 45minutes to watch completely. can anyone give the time to the part where they talk about VR (if they talk about about it).

did they talk about peripherals or OSW wheels in particular and if they have one for their development? the feeling in all other sims got much better when i upgraded to an osw a few months ago but in AC not so much. still wonder about that and tweaked a lot but i cant make it feel as connected like i can in iracing for example. maybe i am just used to iracing by now though.

 

[Tberg]

i dont have time for the 45minutes to watch completely. can anyone give the time to the part where they talk about VR (if they talk about about it).

did they talk about peripherals or OSW wheels in particular and if they have one for their development? the feeling in all other sims got much better when i upgraded to an osw a few months ago but in AC not so much. still wonder about that and tweaked a lot but i cant make it feel as connected like i can in iracing for example. maybe i am just used to iracing by now though.

No, they did not talk about peripherals, but it will be VR ready at some point, as VR is "now at thing", quoting Stefano.
FFB would arguably improve, because the physics are said to improve, but no idea why OSW with AC can't meet your expectations.

 

[melanieuk]

@Tberg, It is a good feature to have, Steam does track the people you have played with, going back as far as the last 14 Days.

In steam just select your name, then select 'Friends', from the menu select 'Recently Played With', there now will be a list of random people that have been on a steam server, that you played on at the time, with the date, time and how long you played on the server for, this is also a good way of finding that idiot that spoilt the game for other players, obviously this will only work on servers that use steam servers for hosting, again like project cars 1, 2 and rFactor 2 have this feature integrated.

 

[Albert McSaltens]

ACC looks interesting
But not sure how one is gonna reprouce to detail the blancpain experience with only half the grid.
Kunos why don't you put the cars inside the garage rather than in the pitlane, and you'll be able to fit at least 50 cars on the track

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

Great interview just finished both parts.

@kunos

Few takeaways.

1. Stefano looks excited by the challenge, good sign. Marco seems like very calculated bloke, no wonder he got the licenses he did.

2. Further improvements on ac physics code is great. Imo if they had started from scratch that would be worrying. I am sure with the power of various physics controllers aris can add in fuel maps etc.

3. AI part sounds interesting (I am probably reading between the lines but it does sound like maybe there will be more than one spline for AI now that they are only dealing with one particular set of cars)

I wonder if that will lead to possibility of having say in qualifying AI on different spline so it doesn't block other AI cars on qualifying lap?

AI on blue flag moving out of the way?

4. Multiplayer rewrite could mean lot of good things, if it comes with helicorsa out of box thats win win already. Plus if they build some sort of sim racing system copy that already 95% of multiplayer complete.

5. The part about having possibility to spectate online race kinda wasn't answered with 'yes' which is bit sad if its overlooked, especially how popular twitch gaming, esports is.

6. Limit on number of cars in single player at around 30 is not big deal, they are releasing game on pc that has to work on tons of different cpu/gpu and they want to leave door open for console.
Hopefully on multiplayer side they can open up the count to more cars.

If there is driver swaps in multiplayer wonder how will that work will one person have to leave the server? so other one takes over.


7. One question that nobody asked is what can we expect in early access?

Are we getting like one car and track as in AC1 or is ACC a lot more forward than original AC.

 

[LeSunTzu]

They can allow more than 30 cars in multi but what impact would it really have? A race actually finishing with more than 30 players is like a total eclipse of the sun. It may happen once in a while and perhaps you will see it with your own eyes once in a lifetime ^^

 

[Tberg]

They can allow more than 30 cars in multi but what impact would it really have? A race actually finishing with more than 30 players is like a total eclipse of the sun. It may happen once in a while and perhaps you will see it with your own eyes once in a lifetime ^^

Amen. Show me the league where everyone finish the season even, I'll be joining now.

 

[Patrik Marek]

ACC looks interesting
But not sure how one is gonna reprouce to detail the blancpain experience with only half the grid.
Kunos why don't you put the cars inside the garage rather than in the pitlane, and you'll be able to fit at least 50 cars on the track

ai cpu usage it's the main problem, not number of stalls

 

[MarkR]

^^

Can we just wait to discuss all the BS till after EARLY ACCESS is released?

It seems not as RD have decided it's worth giving an early work in progress so much airtime. I agree on one point though, none of these words mean much until we see something in early access.

Kunos certrainly don't like being reminded of their unfinished work and broken promises and it does upset their fans so.

 

[DM2zzion]

Amen. Show me the league where everyone finish the season even, I'll be joining now.

The GTC league for GT3s over at virtualracing.org has over 100 participants splitted in three grids. Even at the end of the season there are still 80+. Furthermore I'm organizing a Porsche Cup league there by myself and it has 50 regular participants.

So yes, there is demand for something like this.

 

[Albert McSaltens]

ai cpu usage it's the main problem, not number of stalls

cpu for offline not online, plus Stefano said it's gonna be determined by how many cars they can put in the pits, that would be the limit, but actually that is because they put the cars in the pitlane not in the garages, as it should.

Also in order to replicate the blancpain rules, you need to have cars inside the garage in order to do some of the repairs

 

[Will Mazeo]

Amen. Show me the league where everyone finish the season even, I'll be joining now.

VEC has plenty of people (and by that I mean 200+) that not only finish races but runs all the league. Expecting everyone to be there till the end is unrealistic for various reasons (and in any game) but there are people to do that. And anyway a real life Spa24h event has 60+ cars, some of the normal rounds like Silverstone and Monza can have 50+ as well so you need that many AI if you want an actual game of the series