Assetto Corsa Competizione: Cool Stuff About Marbles...

[Paul Jeffrey]

Just in case you didn't already know, I recently found a very illuminating social media post from Aris of Kunos Simulazioni, referring to the behaviour of marbles in ACC...

For those of us that don't know (and forgive me if you do), marbles are the little discarded bits of rubber that inevitably relieve themselves from the tyres of racing cars following prolonged lapping of a racing circuit. Often found on the edges of the racing line, these little pieces of rubber build up during track action and over time form something of a visible carpet of darker tyre shreds that can add a very noticeable effect on the driving dynamics of cars that find themselves straying away from the traditional racing line.

The original Assetto Corsa didn't simulate the visual or physical effect of marble build up on the circuit, and often I find it strange that the topic isn't really spoken about much from the sim racing community of any modern racing title. However, in the quest for further realism with the new Assetto Corsa Competizione racing sim, Kunos sound like they have really gone to town with this feature.. not only adding the visual aspect of marble build up, but simulating its effects in both wet and dry conditions.

When speaking via the comments section on social media, Assetto Corsa Competizione physics guru @Aristotelis gave some really, really cool insight into how this works in ACC...

The quote from Aris:

Ah we're pretty proud and enthusiastic about marbles. Not only if you pass over them they accumulate on your tyres and make the lose a bit of grip on the dry and vibrate.

But if it starts raining and you go over them and you accumulate, they will add a bit of tread on your tyres that might help you with aquaplaning in the initial raining conditions until it either dries up or you go in for tyre change. Obviously we're talking small influences, but every little helps.
So if it starts rain and you're on slicks, go the outside line and pickup marbles!

We wouldn't be able to simulate such a thing if it wasn't from the help of Blancpain drivers that so much supported us and gave us amazing feedback...

...It doesn't improve grip, but it gives the tyres a "tread" so the water (simulated as an actual film of water with depth) has some way to drain through and improves the aquaplaning risk.
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Again my apologies if you already knew all about this, but I for one certainly didn't, and I don't mind admitting - this is one incredibly cool feature, and one of the many reasons I firmly believe Assetto Corsa Competizione is set to be a very, very good racing simulation.

For more Assetto Corsa Competizione news and discussion, head over to the ACC Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment. If you enjoy online racing yourself, you might enjoy our ACC League and Club Racing forum, a place to take in clean, fair and competitive online racing in this sim.

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[Alex Townsend]

You are a true fanboy. From a tech point you have no idea how things work or who is top atm. ACC will NOT add fundamental new tech at this point, they will release soon, the fundaments are done and it is NOT exceeding Project CARS 2! PC2 did overtake rF2 in terms of physics, not catch up.

Who is the fanboy in here really?
You like Michael Jackson? Man in the mirror is a good one for you to listen to.

 

[Chazz Ranger]

Project CARS 2 has by far the most advanced physics model, get your facts straight and less fanboyism

 

[LibranRabbit]

What's happened to Live Weather in PC2 while we're talking about it...

 

[Deleted member 113561]

That's flat-out wrong. While I do agree that rF2, in general, exceeds AC with its physics handling as well as features, PC2 is *heavily* car-dependant. Some cars in PC2 are great while others make absolutely no sense regardless of the setup (not to mention that PC2 freaks out whenever the tires are pushed over the limit.) What good are all those "features" if PC2 rarely does any of them well? Plus, that's not even getting into racing against the AI...

Also, if you're suggesting that PC2's weather, physics, and even visuals are better than ACC at this point then you need to take a long look in the mirror the next time you call someone a "true fanboy."

I'll admit that PC2 has a great UI despite lacking a custom championship feature or custom grids, and the car & track list is phenomenal.

You are flat out wrong, but I guess you haven't looked into tech under the hood.
PC2 physics are more complex and more sophisticated and that is for every car, fact (again, it is not about how realistic the car in the end handles, which is up for debate).

Visuals I would say better for ACC, but not that much (especially compared to other sims).

No, PC2 tires do not freak out when pushed over the limit, that is simply not true.

No sim has good AI, you can find that out really quickly doing a multiclass race and observe lap 1. I think AI behavior is decent in PC2, sometimes great, sometimes bad, but rF2, AC etc. are all on the same level, some of them exceed the others in certain areas ; actually for me F1 has the best AI, but it is no sim.

They have too many cars tbh, more polish (hence why the perception of so different car handling) and better class balance would be nice.

I like the driving UIs of iRacing, AC and PC2, especially because they are customizable.
You can do a custom online championship in PC2, idk why it is not available offline ...

You need to get your facts straight and inform yourself before claiming stuff.

What's happened to Live Weather in PC2 while we're talking about it...

It was a big fail, but no other sim offers it natively, so that's that. Openweather API (lower tiers) is also terrible, mostly updating every hour ... unusable.
I am more pissed about unfulfilled Driver Swap promise tbh and the still existing bugs.

 

[Torcano]

Will there ever be an ACC thread that isn't derailed within 10 replies, will the commenters discuss the subject that is presented by the author... lets find out on the next episode of DragonBall Z.

That said, it is about damn time we saw a good old classic sim racing title willy-waving contest in a Kunos related thread, the monotonous triples support boys were getting a bit boring lately anyway. Who says the salt mines cannot use spicing up every now and then.

 

[Corey Rogers]

Nice to read.. but I am waiting on the Porsche and the AMG GT3

And the Audi.

 

[Fernando Zart]

And the Audi.

Nah. TrackIR.
(Yes, I know it maybe never come true in ACC)

 

[Kenny Paton]

Yes let’s get back on topic, but before we do can I just point out that GTR 2 had day night cycle, live track build up, weather changes including rain (oops they forgot the wipers) and pit crews. It may not have been as sophisticated but I think it led the way.
Now let’s discuss ACC.

 

[guidofoc]

Yes the sound of the tires picking up the marbles when you go outside the ideal line is nice, I like all these details. Very cool also the low pressure alerts and the new brake ducts settings that affect brakes and tire temps. There's also a nice post from Aris on how to read the tire temps/pressure indicator, tires deflating due to kerbs etc.
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/...cts-and-tyre-damage.55903/page-2#post-1036745
Really in-depth simulation of tires, cool stuff.

 

[Boby Kim]

Project CARS 2 already had it, they are basically catching up.

...this is about ACC, Pcars is another forum

 

[MarcG]

The attention to these little details is what's taking ACC to the next level, every little thing that adds to the Simulation aspect is great in my eyes. Learning how and when to to use Marbles to your advantage is something that real drivers face all the time, now we have the chance to do that ourselves, to actually dive deeper into a Dynamic Track environment and push the limits of our knowledge.

For me the most important aspect of Sim Racing is Tire relation to the Surface, everything else comes second, so this feature in ACC is fantastic for me.

 

[Jonathan Young]

This was news to me too. Love how ACC is obsessing about the details. They’re simulating absolutely everything about the Blancpain series and I for one love it, such a cool sim.

 

[Oldzeb]

as usual very good on paper, but after that...

 

[callumjtc]

You are a true fanboy. From a tech point you have no idea how things work or who is top atm. ACC will NOT add fundamental new tech at this point, they will release soon, the fundaments are done and it is NOT exceeding Project CARS 2! PC2 did overtake rF2 in terms of physics, not catch up.

It's a bit ironic that you're accusing someone of being a fanboy...

 

[callumjtc]

Will there ever be an ACC thread that isn't derailed within 10 replies, will the commenters discuss the subject that is presented by the author... lets find out on the next episode of DragonBall Z.

That said, it is about damn time we saw a good old classic sim racing title willy-waving contest in a Kunos related thread, the monotonous triples support boys were getting a bit boring lately anyway. Who says the salt mines cannot use spicing up every now and then.

...No triples no buy

 

[callumjtc]

ACC is looking uber cool at the moment with all these details that hopefully will be implemented as promised, and if they are I think this title will be the next GTR2 (moving the simulator genre onwards). I think the focus on a single series is really helping them, as at the moment the amount of work that goes into getting a sim to be the jack of all trades at release with a wide range of different cars makes the task impossible for smaller dev teams.

I'm hoping this will lead to more series focused simulation games (IMSA WeatherTech, WEC, Touring Cars) as simulating a championship is really exciting to me.

 

[callumjtc]

[QUOTE = "lucuan, post: 2950712, member: 427502"] acc is a nice game, it comes very close to rf2 and iracing as ffb, maybe even better, it has more details in feeling the tire, and we don't talk in the wet, and very nice, very realistic graphics, a very advanced engine, and also the audio sector. One thing I ask kunos to improve IA, because at the end of a 2 or 3 hour race I have what AI remains on the track at indian line.Then it would also be nice to see the elbows you make after so many laps always remain on the track, and no they disappear [/ QUOTE]
Interesting, you believe that strength feedback is so good, it goes against most opinions, but I agree! I also think you're right about the tires, they feel very good. My biggest problem with the game is the large amount of understeer I'm getting, but yes the AI could do with an update.

 

[RasmusP]

@Paul Jeffrey
It deserved a separate news though as it was pretty well hidden and only shortly noted in the tyres blog post:
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/assetto-corsa-competizione-blog-post-2-tyres.159095/
I quote from that article:

Marbles.
Did you know that real drivers will go over the marbles to collect them on their slick tyres so that they gain a kind of “tread” which lowers a tiny bit the risk of aquaplaning? Of course you’ll have to deal with less grip and vibrations, but nothing is worse than aquaplaning and it might help you until you go in for your pitstop… or the rain might go away and you’re f***ed… ops!

 

[lucuan]

Mod Edit: this is an English speaking forum please use it in future.

 

[RasmusP]

English forum guys. First the usual fanboys derailing the thread, now a private conversation in Spanish (or Portuguese?)...
Lasst mal stecken Jungs und lernt bitte Englisch. Ist nicht so schwer, zur Not gibt's Google Übersetzer
You see.. It sucks if we all write ihr native languages ..
No idea how people even get the idea to do this? Everyone writes in English, let's do it differently.
Probably like the people who step into a calm train where everyone speaks quietly English or German and they start to make a call where they almost shout into their phones in whatever language while everyone can listen although being 20m away.

Rant over.