Assetto Corsa Competizione: Sizeable Rewrite Underway - New Hotfix Released

Paul Jeffrey

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ACC Hotfix.jpg

Kunos Simulazioni look likely to be busy in the months ahead, having already released 'build five' of the sim and a new hotfix today, the team have confirmed a sizeable rewriting is underway.


When I say rewriting, what I mean by that is Kunos are hard at work revisiting some of the code created for ACC so far, in an effort to maximise how the software will be developed going forward in order to bring new content and features to the simulation more quickly, and with greater ease than is possible at this moment in time.

Unfortunately for Kunos, that means a lot of work 'behind the scenes' will need to be undertaken to achieve this change in direction, a feat that the small Italian development team are in no way underestimating how time consuming and difficult that might be. With the simulation still at such an early stage of development, it is excellent to see Kunos are so dedicated to bringing about the best experience they can with this Unreal 4 game engine, and yet more evidence that the makers of netKar Pro and Assetto Corsa fully intend this new title to be their biggest and best creation to date.

The full Kunos statement:
Having a look at the 0.5 release patch notes, you will find that most changes are either new content or physics related. Regarding gameplay elements – including Multiplayer features – we decided to opt for a different path, which may need some explanation for non-developers.

While developing software, especially games, you constantly invent patterns and concepts. When we built the ACC gameplay during 2018, we aimed for a certain way to write the game logic, including everything from session handling, race timing, laptimes, penalties and so on. Our solution had some amazing feats and ways of working, but we also had to learn that one of the disadvantages was making the development of Multiplayer features not as efficient as we had wished for. You may have noticed that although we met our roadmap targets on time in terms of content and features, several things involving Multiplayer were late. This is not really unusual or surprising; moving a whole development team to a new engine and framework required us to learn about the new situation as the project evolved (but we didn't know where this would happen, obviously).

In December we faced the choice to either keep proceeding like that, adding as little changes as necessary to achieve a stable 1.0 Multiplayer, and then never to touch it again.

The alternative route is a rewrite of (a lot of) the code to switch to concepts that support our current needs and the things we learned. The disadvantage is obvious; we'd have to spend a lot of work to change ACC without – seemingly – adding gamplay related features and fixes for a certain amount of time, however, the gain is a much more stable environment, where we can keep adding features and also speed up future development.

I can tell it's unusual to go for a rewrite, but it expresses our approach and our plans to go on, even beyond ACC 1.0. Technically speaking, a few developers forked off the codebase and worked day and night to do the re-coding, with the goal of bringing those improvements to the main code as soon as possible. The new features on the list therefore are there, but not in this build, and we most probably will also bring them one after another even looking beyond the 1.0 release, since the development will continue to bring our audience the 2019 Season update, and more. ;)

Being myself also responsible for ACC Multiplayer development, I needed to slow down the work on the Rating System, but likely this re-work on some of the code that we use as a foundation will help the Rating System, too, to proceed even smoother.

As a bottom line: enjoy the new content, both the car and track (in my opinion) are fabulous, and see how ACC keeps developing in the future.

I'm writing this between Multiplayer tests (on the new code), we are on a very good way – but sadly we will not see this outside the test systems for the time being.


While the rewrite is a project that remains ongoing, Kunos are still working hard at the latest build of the software, and that can be further evidenced today by a very small new hotfix update for the recently released Emil Frey Jaguar G3, the car having come with a couple of issues (mainly around the audio), which has been addressed as part of the latest hotfix build, details below:

0.5.1 Changelog
  • Improved intake sound EQ (onboard view) for the Emil Frey Jaguar G3
  • Minor LOD tweaks on the Emil Frey Jaguar G3

Busy days, weeks and months are ahead at Kunos HQ!

Assetto Corsa Competizione is available on Steam Early Access now. Currently at build release 5 status.

To keep abreast of all the latest news and discussions from the world of Assetto Corsa Competizione then don't forget to check out our very own ACC sub forum here at RaceDepartment.

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The latest patch was the first time I've liked this game. I dunno what they did so far, but the cars are feeling more like cars than it ever did since the initial release.
 
better to do it now than when the game is fully released, if it improves multiplayer then it's an important job for them to do
Agreed. I make a living at writing software - not games or anywhere near games, but a lot of the principles and themes of software engineering are more or less universally applicable. The truth is, you can plan/research/analyze till you're blue in the face...you're still going to end up having many of your assumptions systematically crushed once you start committing code and your list of "things we woulda done different" starts to grow exponentially. I can pretty well guarantee that's what's happened to Kunos.

The best response is, if you have the luxury to do so, take a Mulligan and make a fresh start armed with all those hard lessons learned under your belt. More times than not, you'll deliver better software faster in the long run even if it looks alarmingly like "starting over" (which is rarely the reality) to outsiders.

With a "triple A" title, we're not privvy to all of this sausage making, but you can bet it happens a lot on those titles, too.
 
I've walked away from the Early Access of ACC. I'm happy with the way things are progressing so far, but I feel that these incremental improvements are making me less excited for the full release. When Build 1 came out I remember being blown away by the looks, sounds and physics. But as subsequent releases came out, my own expectations are clouding my enjoyment. My mind goes to "I hope they fix the multi-player" or "I hope the FFB improves" instead of being grateful that we have the game in Early Access. I want to re-establish my excitement. I have high expectations for the full release, and I think the player feedback has been sufficiently vetted based on the first 5 releases.
 
As long as we're rewriting things, here's hoping they manage to rewrite some proper triple screen support.
one thing I stumbled across was the 2nd in car cam setting (the one in between the dash cam and the helmet cam); the side screens don't appear to be stretched out like with the dash cam, just need to add the option to turn off the in car wheel and driver. but I agree would be nice to have a triple screen setup like whats in PC2 ( I hate saying that lol)
 
As a (hobbyist) programmer that worked in a online game development environment, I totally know this feel when you have to rewrite a part of the code from scratch because it didn't work the way it was intended to work. Sometimes, things work in a private beta way better than they do in a release environment. Basically, they're not scalable, and thus, not suited to what you intend to offer on release. I suspect this is a thing with the way they programmed the MP code, and that when they tried before releasing it, it worked well. Then, they assumed it would work well with more players, but it didn't, and no matter how many band-aids you put into a flawed system, it will remain flawed. IMO, this is a great step from Kunos, just acknowledging the problem, and saying "you know what? we're going again from zero with this part of code". They will probably take a lot of heat right now, but if they manage to create a solid MP base, it will be very worth it. Good move, overall.
 
The alternative route is a rewrite of (a lot of) the code to switch to concepts that support our current needs and the things we learned. The disadvantage is obvious; we'd have to spend a lot of work to change ACC without – seemingly – adding gamplay related features and fixes for a certain amount of time, however, the gain is a much more stable environment, where we can keep adding features and also speed up future development.

I can tell it's unusual to go for a rewrite, but it expresses our approach and our plans to go on, even beyond ACC 1.0. Technically speaking, a few developers forked off the codebase and worked day and night to do the re-coding, with the goal of bringing those improvements to the main code as soon as possible. The new features on the list therefore are there, but not in this build, and we most probably will also bring them one after another even looking beyond the 1.0 release, since the development will continue to bring our audience the 2019 Season update, and more.
This, my friends, is a true sing of "hardcore simracing." Working on the "hardcore simracing" part means physics development rather than keeping physics/coding development static or almost static while just pumping out more and more cars and tracks for people to consume.

This is not the first mention Kunos has made regarding core physics development. I'm becoming more and more a fan of Kunos as this shows TRUE passion to improve and develop our racing sims. A developer/modder can mess about with car "modding" as much as they want and show all sorts of fancy charts about the numbers they are entering in for that particular car's engine power curve, suspension lengths & locations, tyre slip numbers/curves, etc. but the fundamental/basic character of the overall driving physics will not change and will always be dictated by the core physics coding which is driving all those numbers a modder / content creator puts in. Sure, the numbers a modder / content creator puts into a vehicles creation can improve a car with poor numbers but, in the end, that car will always be at the mercy of the physics engine / tyre model's general tendancies This is why actual core physics engine (including tyre model) development is so crucial - without it, your're just driving a different vehicle in the same 'ol game/physics.

Kudos to Kunos :thumbsup:
 
Many games are broken or need work and the devs continue to produce other content or DLC. :thumbsdown:
Some company, just create another game and let the old one unfinished :whistling:.

Dont want to be salty but the reality is : many company produce game only to make money and dont care about what we think or need as sim racer.

As year goes by, some of us whit experience knows that certain developers are really passionate and dedicated.

I think Kunos is one that list. The fact that they said this openly is really mature and show they are honest.:thumbsup:

I'll be the first to understand if they postpone by one month 1.0 for making this simulator we all expect :)

Cheers guy's:cool:
 
The biggest rewrite should be optimising is the AI physics / code. Firstly they are terrible and secondly have such a hit on FPS it's pointless even having them.

If RF2 and RRE can have such talented AI yet I can run over 60 car grids, then why does ACC racing 20 yield such poor FPS and AI competency in the mid day / sun.

Anyone buying the game now in the state it's in @€44 would be mashing the refund button within 10 mins.

EA or no EA, at least get the basics nailed before adding content / tweaking FFB, LOD's, sounds etc.

I understand my i5 6600k / GTX1070 might be showing it's age, but both are overclocked to the max 4.2ghz / 2000mhz and are able to easily manage the competition with ease.

Don't mean to come across as moaning, but each release my FPS seems to decrease leaving me wondering if this game is just going to be good for hot lapping / public demolition derby online racing.
 

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