Assetto Corsa AI Video and Massarutto Statement

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Assetto Corsa Multiclass.png

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.

If you enjoy the new AI then I'm very pleased for you, it is very good indeed. Want to know what's even better though? I'll let you in on a secret... racing against real people, online, in organised events with an emphasis on respectful driving... enter into the equation RaceDepartment Club Racing! We have the best cars and tracks from the game, great event admins and a lively and enthusiastic club of enthusiasts with some awesome teamspeak banter. Suitable for rookies right through to aliens alike, out club events are for you, the sim racing enthusiast. Get yourself involved and sign up for a race today*

*good times guaranteed

Enjoyed the video? Impressed with the new AI? Liking AC post V1.14 release? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
Last edited:
...but officially it's not a rookie-game *cough* :ninja: we all know how it is, but nobody wants to see italy and sweden crying at the same time or do we?! :laugh::roflmao:

so, to sum it up and end the useless AI-discussion here. The AI must work from A to Z.....


...you heard it, No Excuses :D
 
...but officially it's not a rookie-game *cough* :ninja: we all know how it is, but nobody wants to see italy and sweden crying at the same time or do we?! :laugh::roflmao:

so, to sum it up and end the useless AI-discussion here. The AI must work from A to Z.....


...you heard it, No Excuses :D
You should start to realize that they owe you nothing. You bought the game, they released version 1 and that's it. All it came after that is just a gift. "AI must work from A to Z"...really? Because that's impossible currently.
 
I've also been looking into this AI behaviour and I'm starting to see the pattern, there are certain corners the AI consistently crashes on. Some tracks are fine others have a consistent problem such as Hohenrain on Nordschleife as shown in the video.
I think the problem could be the ai hints file in the track data. I tend to use the drs option to pinpoint the car location and use that info to determine ai speed through several sections at a track.
So fe Nordschleife Hohenrein ai crashes because of excessive speed. Go to the ai hints file and copy paste a [HINTS_] section. Call it Hohenrein for convenience, set the correct number [HINTS_7] fe and enter the correct values which you used by drs option. START= 0.xxx
END=0.xxx VALUE=0.75 ai will use now only 75% of the (corner)speed in that section. It works for every track and one can force ai to take corners faster too by setting a value of +1 (1.2 fe). At Spa I tried this for Raidillon and some cars were 0.5-1sec faster per lap. It is however time consuming.
 
And when you 'fix' the line for some cars you break it for others. Huge PITA.

yep, that's called the 'dirty work'... dirty work barley someone wants to do these days, not just in the racing-genre. "oh no, balancing, optimizing, aeh, na, we better release a new dlc, make some facebook/twitter posts and have some fun watching how we earn our $$$ with those stupid gamers".... yeah, right :rolleyes::D

a hint -> you would need about 4 categories for AI Pathes -> stable cars, tail-happy cars, f1 cars and other cars ;)
 
The new AI and the F1, it's a nightmare!!! (take Imola / Ferrari 312T and see the spectacle)
Indeed, they are going too wide on several corners with that combo. Is because they approach the corner too fast so just run wide off track and in between hit other cars if they are on the way.
Is a tendency I've seen with this and other cars too and not just at this track, for example Nordschleife as well.

@kunos I tried with different AI settings in the game launcher and same problems at Imola with the Ferrari 312T. Not slowing down enough for the corners and since they can't turn more they end up on the sand and hitting other cars on the way.
There are also problems with GT3 cars at Nordschleife in several fast corners they can't make the corner and hit the wall or go off track because they take it too hot. Flugplatz and Schwedenkreuz.

All in all it seems a problem with AI's technique on judging corners and opponents around and then not using well the steering and the brakes. Is much more than needing a "hack" for specific corners.
 
Jeeez, what is wrong with you guy? Is it so difficult to have a decent conversation with respect towards each other and without insulting? What has happened in your life that you behave this way?
 
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.
 
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.

I think the hesitation is due to car(s) being present at right rear, off camera. At the end of the straight, two shoot by on the inside, which is what the camera car would have done if not pinned into position by overtaking cars?
 
I think the hesitation is due to car(s) being present at right rear, off camera. At the end of the straight, two shoot by on the inside, which is what the camera car would have done if not pinned into position by overtaking cars?

Quite possible yes, there did seem to be maybe too much of a delay before they shot by but it could well be the case. There was a similar pattern with the fastest V12 cars overtaking a group of much slower cars in an earlier video I made. They seem a little more hesitant to overtake on straights if the car in front moves across or there is traffic where they show no fear in the corners. It's only a minor issue and overall they are great to race against.
 

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 100 7.9%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 132 10.4%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 180 14.2%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 353 27.9%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 496 39.2%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 5 0.4%
Back
Top