Assetto Corsa Competizione Won't "Support" Modding

[Paul Jeffrey]

Kunos Simulazioni reveal more on the moddability of the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione, and it probably won't make for happy reading for some...

With a brand new game engine in the form of Unreal 4 alongside what is a reasonable short development timeframe until Early Access release, Kunos Simulazioni have confirmed that the new title will not follow in the footsteps of the original Assetto Corsa and support modding right from the very beginning, no doubt leaving many content creators disappointed to miss out on the opportunities afforded by the greatly improved graphics engine in ACC.

Although not officially supported, the possibility does remain however for talented community members to work out how to bring content to the game, as has been proven by some hardy souls over in the original Project CARS - it just means that tools and ease of access to modders will not the as it was in the first AC title.

Understandable given what Kunos have to go through to get the game to market later this year, but no doubt a blow to those players who enjoy sampling what the community have to offer. You can check out the full Kunos statement below, taken from a recent FAQ article on the 505Games website...

Assetto Corsa’s structure was designed from the beginning to be moddable. Being developed with UE4, AC Competizione processes data and assets through a completely different structure and file format. Therefore, the game will not be compatible with mod contents created for Assetto Corsa. Also, our team does not have enough experience with UE4 to tackle both the development a brand-new game and the challenges of supporting an open platform in the time frame available for this project.

We are fully aware of the importance of modding and its contribution to the success of Assetto Corsa. It’s a great way for new talents to emerge, for the community to “suggest” new directions and/or simply to make a product richer. It is not a coincidence that some of the best community members are now contributing with us to the evolution of the software.

However, for ACC this element will have to be put in stand-by mode for a series of reasons. The most important one is that we have given ourselves an enormous task of rebuilding, once again our software from (almost) scratch. In a world where pretty much, every product you see on the market in simracing is an evolution of games that have been on the market 10-15 years ago, our approach is to get a big axe and reset things to (almost) zero before starting with a new project. ACC is no exception.

In this case the task is rendered more complex by the fact that we are using, for the first time a third party engine that we did not design ourselves and the truth is, given the amount of time we have available to deliver ACC to the public, we have more than enough on our hands trying to figure out how to use the engine effectively to also think about how to make the platform moddable.

As you can imagine, this has been source of endless discussions in the last year and half as every decision comes with pros and cons, there is going to be pain no matter what your final call will be. It goes without saying that we believe we made the right call even if that means losing the huge benefits of a moddable platform.

We know this might not cover everything, but over time we will continue to answer your most frequently asked questions! Once again, we want to thank our community for the outpour of support you’ve shown us since our announcement last week. We absolutely cannot wait to tell you more about Assetto Corsa Competizione in the near future!

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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Do you think modders will find a way to mod ACC? Will the lack of official modding support hurt the game in the long run, or do you think it a sensible approach by Kunos given the new technology in use? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Frietpan]

Some people are obviously losing their minds on their Facebook page. Angry modders; angry AC users who wanted more support, updates, and content; and angry console players who want ACC as well and aren't going to get it (at least for initial release). As they stated though, AC has been out for 7 years, 4 years in official released form. It seems some in the gaming community keep getting higher and higher expectations for getting more hours of content for less money. I'd say AC has been out long enough to expect it's time for Kunos to start looking at their next title.

With all that said...GT3 racing is probably the most "meh" for me right now. I'm sure I will get it eventually, it just may not be an instant buy the day it comes out.

I paid for every dlc and my base pre 1.0 game wasnt as cheap as g2a or even steam sells it for now.
so much bullshit... but hey sure go this way.. im not buying it again.
This is like believing in Live For Speed again....

Like AC is finished...... HAH

 

[Mr Latte]

Got a feeling that some talented groups and modders will like the challenge to bring what they can to this awesome looking addition.

I still can't get over how bad this makes dated sim titles appear.
This title is going to help sell a heck of a lot of the shiny new Nvidia hardware thats coming.
I suspect it is also HDR for compatible monitors or TVs as this is supported in UE4 engine.


My concern at present is how or if VR is going to be supported more than it is for mods etc.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

User Szymik (author of Tor Poznań mod track) already posted this on AC official forums:

While it's "just" Tor Poznań imported somehow in UE4, already makes me think modders will find a way.

 

[Phoenix77]

I can't say I'm surprised that the new engine doesn't make modding easy or maybe even possible....
But the 20,000 people who asked for rain and night... Kind of forced Kunos's hand.
In a nutshell... Enjoy whatever you have... Don't lust after what you don't have.

If you want Night and Rain... Play ACC.... If you want mod support... Play AC

Someone extremely talented, needs to write some scripts to convert current content to UE4

 

[Jdizzy42]

Not surprising.

1) This is a fully licensed game, I'm sure they are restricted on what they can officially do to allow other series/licenses to be put I to the game.

2) This game doesn't seem to me like their full follow up to AC. Seems more like a smaller side project while they wrap their heads around a new engine. This happens quite often in game development. When Microsoft changed the engine for Halo, they made their remaster collection to get used to the new engine, then followed up with their true sequel. So hopefully after ACC there will be an AC2 with all the features we are used to and more.

Until then I am happy to conti he to support them. They have earned it this far.

 

[Epistolarius]

Wrote my opinion on the official forum already, excuse the repost:

I respect the decision to focus on the core game over modding support - I rather have a solid game first instead of one that needs to be patched up with modding. I'm less bothered for mod content for now, AC and other games still exist too. But then I do hope such valued additions like Crew Chief or Real Head Motion can be made to work with the new game - unless that sort of functionality is going to be part of the game itself.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Guys all they have said is "not yet" they have not said NO FULL STOP

A bit like a house, let them get the foundations in place first, and then we all build on that

I for sure, will be sitting here waiting

Shaun

 

[Epistolarius]

I paid for every dlc and my base pre 1.0 game wasnt as cheap as g2a or even steam sells it for now.
so much bullshit... but hey sure go this way.. im not buying it again.
This is like believing in Live For Speed again....

Like AC is finished...... HAH

What are you even on about... the base game and DLC aren't expensive at all, not compared to games in general or direct competitors. The game also got patches and free content updates after Early Access for almost four years. Buying one game doesn't entitle you to get another, newer game as well. And AC and ACC are not the same exact game. So...

 

[Fineraft]

Well, then start making mods for Rfactor 2. A good game with enough potential. We need more stuff in that game. And for the ones who think the modders will find a way, I will have to disappoint them, because we're not talking of GTA. This game will offer official series. Another reason is that they don't want that some people will gain an unfair advantage online because they "modded" the game, so they will completely shut the door for modders, like Project Cars 2. I know that we all wanted to see those beautiful mods return, but I had from the start the feeling that this wouldn't be the case

 

[Emerson Meyer]

I paid for every dlc and my base pre 1.0 game wasnt as cheap as g2a or even steam sells it for now.
so much bullshit... but hey sure go this way.. im not buying it again.
This is like believing in Live For Speed again....

Like AC is finished...... HAH

Humm, so there is this kind of people in AC as well... looks like those PCars2 owners (haters) whose lives were destroyed... that felt fooled, and blah, blah, blah.

 

[Jordan Dion]

Note that when Stefano posted much the same text on the AC forum, he also made this remark at the end:

Quite encouraging, I'd say.
And yes, I imagine mods will happen at some point.

I think its clear now whit that said..
I would like to thanks each guys here that do mods.
AC is the best racing game in the world BECAUSE these lots of mods that make it almost perfect

 

[LEDzZzEPP]

As it should be, if a game/simulator pretends to be a solid platform of online competition

I will continue to enjoy mods in AC, but in ACC I want content based on quality and compete online without problems of compatibility and performance

(we'll see later how that works)

 

[TylerDurden4321]

I bet it'll be a short early access and they will have a good online structure and the missingmod support will garantee the focus on the competizione component(not splitting the user base between too many options).

There will be a fun year for all of us and then Kunos is going zo announce AC2 with full mod support. In the meantime the community will stay close to the devs, giving input on physics, bugs and structure of ACC that will carry over or at least influence AC2 development in the background.

I wouldn't say that I'm hyped for ACC, but I'm very onboard with this.

However, Kunos should be aware that modding is a huge part of AC's success and if AC2 takes too long, they could lose modders to rF2 or whtaever Reiza is doing currently.

 

[The-IC]

While it's "just" Tor Poznań imported somehow in UE4, already makes me think modders will find a way.

UE4 is incredibly easy to import and setup content in, Epic has purposely developed it for ease of use, there's no mythical "somehow" barrier in the way

 

[Fineraft]

I go against this stream of lovers. I (and this is my opinion) like AC, but I sure as hell don't think it's the best around. There are so many other options and I can't say there is one THE best. For me, not having a day/night cycle but releasing endurance cars, is a bit half of a game. And those who say that Project Cars 2 players are haters, which game doesn't have those? You have fanatics in every simulator. Take for example iRacing, great game, but really expensive. Those people say THEY play the best simulator. Well, to be honest none is the best. Rfactor 2 lacks mods, AC is half done (I don't care if their own engine was the problem, it's just that they have a lot of Endurance cars, but you can't use them in a 24h race because there is no option for that and don't let me start about the dynamic weather. That is what a simulator can give a headache and can make a difference in how good a simulator actually is. It's not uncommon to royally f**k this up.), Pc2 is an improved version but is still not good enough and iRacing is a bit too expensive and sometimes a bit too hard to increase rank (but the biggest issue is that they expect full price -not only pay a subscription, but we also want your money for tracks and cars, otherwise you can't participate and increase your license)

 

[Fineraft]

I bet it'll be a short early access and they will have a good online structure and the missingmod support will garantee the focus on the competizione component(not splitting the user base between too many options).

There will be a fun year for all of us and then Kunos is going zo announce AC2 with full mod support. In the meantime the community will stay close to the devs, giving input on physics, bugs and structure of ACC that will carry over or at least influence AC2 development in the background.

I wouldn't say that I'm hyped for ACC, but I'm very onboard with this.

However, Kunos should be aware that modding is a huge part of AC's success and if AC2 takes too long, they could lose modders to rF2 or whtaever Reiza is doing currently.

I hope Rf2 gets more modders. We need them because there are way too few mods in the Rf2 community

 

[SockyNoob]

So in a nutshell, Kunos is saying "If you can figure out how to mod UE4, go for it. We aren't going to stop you and by the time AC2 does come out, we'll probably have some tools out there. So it's a waiting game right now."

 

[SockyNoob]

History shows one make series titles are a mixed bag in terms of sales and longevity. Blancpain GT has a limited audience. On the other hand GT3 cars seem to be the most popular with online lobby's in many racing games including AC.

I guess history completely missed GTR2. Lol

 

[Charles Amyouni]

1. In terms of Assetto Corsa will no longer receive an update - I would like Kunos to fix v1.16.3's biggest issue though - the vanilla launcher, not that matters to most (heck since Content Manager) still that thing is just dead broken.

2. Not entirely new - cause as long as it is in PC, modding (official support or not) is possible. That has been true since Grand Prix 4.

3. But I would stay away from modding AC Competizione for the time being - due to a few reasons...

A. Its Early Access

B. System changes on how physics and functions are interpreted by the game will definitely change - we all saw this in the case of Assetto Corsa, how many times we've seen many mods become outdated as new updates were released?

What is more safe to do is observe how the game works and do some mods meant for learning purposes first, and by the time we know that everything in-game in terms of functions and physics are final - then yeah.

Begin modding with the Pedal to the Metal.

With all that said though - hopefully the game will not require internet connection all the time, at least with that - we can assure that modding will be possible.

 

[SockyNoob]

Not surprising.

1) This is a fully licensed game, I'm sure they are restricted on what they can officially do to allow other series/licenses to be put I to the game.

2) This game doesn't seem to me like their full follow up to AC. Seems more like a smaller side project while they wrap their heads around a new engine. This happens quite often in game development. When Microsoft changed the engine for Halo, they made their remaster collection to get used to the new engine, then followed up with their true sequel. So hopefully after ACC there will be an AC2 with all the features we are used to and more.

Until then I am happy to conti he to support them. They have earned it this far.

I definitely see that as the case here. It's not like they're magic or something. Notice how it's taken ISI 5 years or so to get weather affects in rFactor 2 and make the game support DX11. I'd say the bits of content they've released is them fully embracing it and learning how to make it better. Or it's a result of years of learning. Either way, AC2 is yet to come imo.