Assetto Corsa Competizione, The Official Blancpain GT Series Game Announced!

[Paul Jeffrey]

Top GT3 licence, UE4 graphics, day to night cycle, dynamic weather, advanced physics with a focus on realism.. is Assetto Corsa Competizione the sim we've all been waiting for?

When Kunos Simulazioni hinted at a big announcement a few days ago, many thought it would simply be a case of confirming another licence for the already well developed Assetto Corsa software, or at the very most a potential AC2 first announcement. Not so, the team over in Italy have been hard at work behind the scenes developing a very exciting new piece of software, and what is more the new Assetto Corsa Competizione title will focus on a single racing category, the incredible Blancpain Endurance GT3 series.. a welcome hark back to the days when racing simulation developers focussed all their attention to detail on a specific racing series, something that Kunos are keen to replication with this newly announced IP.

Set to feature a pretty significant shift away from the basis of the Assetto Corsa title we all know and love, Kunos have confirmed that AC Competizione will feature what are described as "photo realistic" graphics thanks to the use of the incredibly powerful Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine, allowing Kunos to move away from the single light source solution of Assetto Corsa and finally bring both time of day and weather effects to their racing game - a must when you consider the Spa 24 Hour is a key event in the real life Blancpain championship.

As well as the obvious visual benefits brought from a move to Unreal 4 (see screenshots attached to this article), another key talking point from the simulation announcement comes by way of confirmation that Kunos are looking to build a sizable offline career mode around the new game, with driving school tutorials making a welcome return to a popular modern day simulation.

Alongside what promises to be a substantial offline element, the initial press release indicates that Kunos are also aiming to make considerable changes to the way Assetto Corsa veterans experience online play, with an eye on the emerging eSport marketplace the Italian developers are promising a well rounded ranking and matchmaking online system, potentially encouraging a much more evenly balanced online experience and less of those famous public lobby first corner crashes...

Although only initially announced this afternoon, it looks like development is well on the way with this exceptionally exciting new title. Projected for a summer Steam EA release, I'll leave you with the new trailer to get the juices flowing for now...

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

Check out the Assetto Corsa Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions regarding the sim. We host quality League and Club Racing events, have a selection of fantastic mods to download and some of the best community conversation. Join in the discussion today.

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Excited? Looking forward to the new title? Let us know below!

 

[davewilliams000]

Hum since they have a deal with Blancpain they can release several DLC and expand the main game since they have a lot of options under the same flag...
View attachment 237094

Yes that would be very cool, and a lot of those championships/series run the same cars (as blancpain/each other) so the 3D car models/physics/sounds wouldn't need to be re-done fingers crossed!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

From now on there will be more people playing the Blancpain GT Series as there are fans on the grandstands. At the Nurburgring last year it was embarrassing to see so little paying spectators for such a cool series of cars.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

So....
This isn't the AC2 that I had hoped (and asked) for.

On one hand it is kinda hard to get jacked up about a game that is only going to have a dozen or so cars and ten tracks. Even harder to get hyped when those cars are GT3 machines that I have had next to no interest in driving due to factors such as complexity of setup, paddle shift instead of H pattern, and slick racing tires that reward precision instead of bias ply tires that rewards a driver that can hang it out. I am also stupidly slow in these machines.

The tracks are among some of my least favorite in all of AC. Spa, Silverstone, Monza; all are personal nightmares for me.

Despite all that, the thought of Kunos spending their time laser focused on only one series is incredibly enticing. I can see Assetto Corsa becoming the hotlap/Chris Harris simulator that many have tagged it as already, with it being the sim that I load up to simply enjoy a nice drive. ACC looks to be the sim that I will load up when I am ready to race. I wonder which car will become my favorite and be the go-to that I will drive the majority of the time?

And that trailer.....I haven't smoked a cigarette in over four years; almost broke that streak after watching that sim-racing porn.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Chris Partridge]

Hugely pumped by this - and a hugely exciting release. It's everything I've been wanting

 

[JuanManuelFangio]

Beauty! Im so happy

 

[The Flying Hun]

Once again they surprised everybody, struck out of the blue, so to speak.

I think ACC is AC2. They probably will go beyond the Blancpain license content once that got completed and properly delivered on, I understand one or two hints in Marco Massarutto's annoncement this way. Imagining the immense work it would mean to come up with so many cars like in AC1 and then all of them having even more sophisticated physics, it borders madness to expect that so much could be done for a release of a formally so-named AC2. The way they go now is much more clever, and ergonomically managable, allowing them once again to kickstart at the beginning (Blancpain), and then later on add stuff. It really is sly. if they would have come with an AC2, just with new graphics, but reduced content, compared to what AC1 now has, the howling of the pack would have been loud and immediately been heard.

I only hope that the game gets the Nirdschleife as a later DLC. A race simulator without the Nordschleife is just a half-thing, that is the curse Kunos set into the world when releasing their first-ever laser-scanned Nordschleife , I do over 50% of my driving time on the Nordschleife, both in AC1 and in Raceroom as well. Nordschleife as a DLC - is a must for me.

The new screenshots look breathtaking.

Of course I will board this ship the day it leaves harbour.

 

[Will Mazeo]

From now on there will be more people playing the Blancpain GT Series as there are fans on the grandstands. At the Nurburgring last year it was embarrassing to see so little paying spectators for such a cool series of cars.

Sport cars racing can be very weird. For example you'd expect a race like Le Mans to be sold out by itself, it doesnt. When Audi left there was a pretty big drop in many areas because many of those people were there invited by Audi.

 

[Andy_J]

but to me saying it should run on windows 7 is almost like saying they should make it for playstation 3 - at some point things need to move on (sorry!)

Has anybody stated that it should be made for Win 7 ?
I know I stated I hoped it would be, but no where did I state it should be. Maybe someone else did?

ps, have you read this:
kunos said: ↑
I can confirm you that it won't be a DX12 (only) game as UE4 potentially supports multiple APIs.

Minimum requirements are not to be trusted at the moment, they're just there because the Steam page required us to put them in. The more we approach the release the more they'll be more realistic.

 

[Revhead_1000]

Looks like Kunos took PRC's advice. Also could they have maybe hired the supposedly reformed sector 3 studios since its a Unreal engine GT racing game?

 

[Daggerman]

I guess the fact that there is no word yet on modding either means;
A) it won’t be allowed
B) it’s being discussed internally

If there was no issue then they would have already come out and said it.

In terms of the engine being Unreal Engine 4, it says on the wiki that the engine is now free to use, but makes a mention further down about paying a licence, so I would be keen to know is it just totally open source now or do devs pay something for its use?

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Alex72]

Wow...

 

[duko]

I hope for a really good single player mode, add bit of rpg elements for immersion.

 

[Andy_J]

I hope for a really good single player mode, add bit of rpg elements for immersion.

Me too. But especially great/fantastic learning AI with the same physics as the player. I would also like proper damage modelling too. It's the Offline element that interests me the most.

 

[anton_Chez]

Few things,

I personally think that modding is going to be left out of ACC due to the official licencing and all things related to it. It's not just Kunos' property now and they have other organisations to consider. I could be wrong but I wouldn't count on modding being a sure thing, not by a long shot. Hopefully we get more series down the line, that will add the relevant tracks and help flesh out the title to something that resembles AC or the other sims in their current state regarding track count. I think being restricted in what cars can be released will actually help Kunos as they have a tendency to just belt out car packs. Understandable, when it takes considerably less work to model a car as opposed to a track.

On the topic of system specs, you guys understand that all titles are scale-able, yeah? Not everyone is going to require a 1080Ti to run their games. I am a 1080Ti user so I couldn't care less what the specs are, as I don't have any option until the new cards are released. But you can run on medium settings, lower your anti aliasing, even reduce you resolution. I have a 4K monitor as well as my triples setup and VR, and if I have to run something at 1440p instead of 2160p to get the frames I require, I do. Not that I play anything that needs me to do that, but the option is there.

 

[Helmut Skrdla]

I only hope that the game gets the Nirdschleife as a later DLC. A race simulator without the Nordschleife is just a half-thing, that is the curse Kunos set into the world when releasing their first-ever laser-scanned Nordschleife , I do over 50% of my driving time on the Nordschleife, both in AC1 and in Raceroom as well. Nordschleife as a DLC - is a must for me.

Seeing that the Nords holds the maybe second most famous 24h race after LeMans which just so happens to be a GT3 class race, and that the new engine will allow 24h races and that they have a laserscanned model to work from... I would say unless hell freezes over this is a given.

Discussing Windows versions... as far as I'm aware there's not really a big difference between 8 and 7, so I can't really see why it wouldn't run on the later. Especially since 8 and 10 still hold a comparable small market share, excluding 7 just wouldn't be clever.

 

[Alex72]

Apologies if this was talked about already.

Searched around for Unreal Engine 4 racing games and it seems system requirements are not that heavy.


Monster Energy Supercross 2018 using unreal engine 4.

From youtube review that game has 24 bikes in single player and has night/rain/dirt/mud etc.

Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame Minimum System Requirements

    OS: Windows 7 64-bit
    CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-6350 4.0 GHz
    RAM: 4GB System Memory
    GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
    GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7950 2GB
    DX: DirectX 11
    HDD: 15GB Available Hard Drive Space

Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame Recommended System Requirements

    OS: Windows 7 64-bit
    CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
    RAM: 8 GB System Memory
    GPU RAM: 2 GB Video Memory
    GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 380 2GB
    DX: DirectX 11
    HDD: 15GB Available Hard Drive Space

Tested that game on a GTX980 and it wasnt solid 60FPS around other bikes. I Think ACC will also have way more lights and reflections so... We will have to wait and see.

 

[Raig Strehlow]

Has anybody stated that it should be made for Win 7 ?
I know I stated I hoped it would be, but no where did I state it should be. Maybe someone else did?

ps, have you read this:
kunos said: ↑
I can confirm you that it won't be a DX12 (only) game as UE4 potentially supports multiple APIs.

Minimum requirements are not to be trusted at the moment, they're just there because the Steam page required us to put them in. The more we approach the release the more they'll be more realistic.

nice to see that. I hope for Vulkan, but that won't happen me thinking.

It's really great news, due the fact they can polish ACC to a really good level and release AC2 with just another content or just adding content to ACC.
Also the new sound implementation will be a huge step forward. AC1 just lacked bass, so some cars were just bad sounding sadly. I already love the eargasm hehe

After reading the comments i think my R9 285 can handle it. Until now i thought UE4 is not good optimized, but it seems that i was totally wrong. Let's see what Kunos gets done.