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!

 

[Edivad82]

Think of Assetto Corsa without mods ...
Thanks To All Modder's Community. How many official circuit release Kunos for Assetto Corsa? How many circuits are there in reality? How many circuits modders are created? Without modders now I could not drive on so many circuits (and excellent quality).
Modding is the poison of long life.
ACC is another game, not AC 2. I HOPE!

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

(Having said all that, the fact that rF2 looked like a pigs arse, played like a dogs breakfast, and had a retarded purchasing and delivery system all contributed to its failure. I have no idea how its corpse is still around)

The answer could be a simple one: day/night cycle AND dynamic/wet weather (I don't see the VEC or the RDLMS being run on pCars2). Which makes me think that once ACC comes out, the only thing that will keep rF2 alive are the mods.

 

[CC]

The answer could be a simple one: day/night cycle AND dynamic/wet weather (I don't see the VEC or the RDLMS being run on pCars2). Which makes me think that once ACC comes out, the only thing that will keep rF2 alive are the mods.

Well Marco stated in a comment,
This is the tip of the iceberg!

AC has probably some of the best physics in a sim anywhere if there not considered the best then they are up there in the top 1-2-3 in the business,

AC was lacking so much in so many areas but the foundations was still rock solid physics wise,

now Imagine this ACC with this license and UE4 , once implemented and built correctly,
this game will be an absolute eye opener in the games industry,
with the best physics , best audio and by far the best visuals,

this is the start of a global revolution in the games industry imagine the licenses they can get in the future,
F1 / Rally / WTCC anything specially considering the scanned tracks,
these other games companies better step up to the plate because in the next 2-3-4 years it will be the end for most! mark my words.

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

For those who think that racing sims can be chucked out perfect and at the same rate as a pCars or a F1 game, (re-)read this post:

A few familiar faces here

Sorry to ping an old thread, a buddy just sent a link to this my way.

I was #4 in the SimBin mod team and Art Director on GTR 1 & 2.

Just to try to super quickly recap ancient history, there were some cool mod cars and tracks for Sports Car GT that the guys wanted to bring to F1 2001's improved engine. I volunteered to rework the menus so it had a fresh feel, although I mostly did copycat stuff for FIA GT Mod v1.

We got as much permission as possible from the SCGT mod content creators to use their stuff, reskinned it in much higher resolution, put together a standalone installer, full UI package, and reworked physics and that was the FIA GT mod v1.

We released a few other versions, and the V3 mod started to really take on its own life. We added lots of talented guys from the scene and built a really amazing team of extremely passionate fans/devs/players and it's this point I want to stress that you remember.

ISI released updates to the F1 series, and we used the newest version as the base for the GTR2002 mod. By this time we had all original car models, all high res skins, a completely redone menu system (at least in visuals if not functionality), radically reworked physics, Lots of great new tracks, new audio, and plenty I'm forgetting. It was this mod that made cover discs of PC magazines all over the globe, and it was this mod that caught the eye of Henrik Roos (getting to drive as himself, lol) and it was from that experience that he contacted Ian about making a retail version of the game, which we all jumped at, and that became GTR, and was the beginning of SimBin as a pro dev team.

Now, the thing to keep in mind is that we essentially started development of GTR as a mod team in 2001. If we could have seen the full trajectory, all the mods we released would have been essentially alphas and beta test releases.

What GTR is did not come from an 18 month dev cycle, but in fact, several years of passionate dedicated mod work, continuously improved upon and further developed. We didn't have any schedules, we had no idea of the danger of feature creep, and our overhead costs were $0. I personally put in about 35 hours per week in mod work on top of my full time job (I worked 4x10 hour days doing tech support at an ISP) for years before we got the opportunity to be paid for game dev.

But even that's not the whole lot of it. Gjon and his team at ISI spent years developing that engine before we got on the scene. Locutus and others spent their time developing tools to allow us to mod the engine. And all the SCGT modders built a base for us to learn from. Although SBDT / SimBin put in a ton of work, we were adding layers to untold gobs of work that was already there. We had the easy part. We had the fun part. Make it as pretty as possible, make it feel as good as possible, make it sound as good as possible, add all the stuff to really make it an accurate representation of the sport.

And that's the point I want to make.

A standard 18 month dev cycle can only incrementally make things better, even with a huge team. Many of the features the article is talking about that made GTR2 a complete package were present in ISI's F1 games that we got to improve upon (pit boards, animated pit crew, etc.). Yes, we added a lot of features as well (nobody has mentioned the actual MoTeC telemetry system which is amazing), but again, many features had their start in GTR or GT Legends, so were developed over years.

So, think about that for a sec. If you wanted to recreate a race series exactly, you'll have a huge list of features that need to be built, and if you need to build all of that from scratch, you'd have to have an immense team to do it in 18 months, or you'd need years to develop it over time, but you can't financially support a studio to do that without ongoing revenue.

What you have to do is say "I want to build the modern GTR2. A perfect multiclass simulation with every feature important to the experience. And we can do that by 2025." So you have to build this huge project plan to get you all those features and start adding them incrementally into your products that you can sell to generate revenue while working towards this one dream product. And if that vision is ever compromised along the way, the project will never come to be.

We really hit it at a sweet spot for simming / development that allowed us to build what we did. And like the pyramids it was built with essentially slave labor (I wonder if the pyramid builders were as passionate as we were XD ), but the foundation was laid by many others before us.

in: GTR2: Why are Modern Sims Still Not as Good?

 

[Celestiale]

I am quite happy with that direction. ACC should really be nailing the weather/night stuff and a dynamic track. In addition they should be nailing the AI for the single player career and the online matchmaking system for multiplayer. That's already quite a bit.

In addition i am very happy seeing AC be used for many years to come (until AC2 will be released). AC still has so much to give. So many great mods out there already. In addition blockbuster like DRM mod or the RSS GT mod are just being released. Then there are those online Rallys with procedural generated stages (i am participating in one right now)...in addition the Drift workshops and cars (think of them what you want, but it's also a part of motorsport). Then there are tons of great road cars and mod streets to just go for a (sporty) sunday drive.

Why should we just abandon all that just because a sequel (is it even one?) is coming out? As i see it, ACC just further perfects the AC eco-system, giving the GT-, online- and career- enthusiasts further playground.

I for one will definitely purchase it once it's in early access and if they get the matchmaking right i'll probably spend the majority of my online racing there but i for sure will use AC for years to come as well.

 

[Alex72]

Isnt ACC just a springboard to see if AC2 can be made with this? In that case just enjoy Blancpain as it is.

 

[Edivad82]

I think ACC is the first reply to Project Cars2, I hope more simulative.
AC is "old", ok, but the only "enemy" for him will be AC2.

 

[Neils on Wheels]

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

I don't know much about the in & outs of modding but what about the physics? Could it be an issue the way that is integrated into the new gfx engine especially if they are not creating the game with modding in mind.

 

[paracletus]

Pretty obvious that this concise series is not about modders.
Not surprised at all, and not concerned.

 

[The-IC]

@neil rosson ah, i only meant it in the context of Szymik importing Poznan into the engine and setting up shaders etc to make that preview., which will all be standard UE4 workflow...how Kunos does their particular bit is a separate issue, as mclarenf1papa described

 

[Bela Valko]

I just hope they made at least a few games in Unreal before they start to work on ACC so the game won't be buggy.

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

Let's see the AC fanboys getting triggered

 

[SunBro]

(until AC2 maybe someday!)

Don't worry. It'll come. There are still some nonbelievers out there who think this is the real sh*t (AC2)

No. This is a learning ground for kunos. They'll mature UE4 with ACC and give us the greatest sim ever with AC2 in 2020(with full blown modding support because they're very well aware of how important modding is)

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: THE ABOVE WORDS ARE JUST MY OPINIONS. NOT FACTS.
Sorry for all caps. Some people over at og forums seem to get butthurt about my opinions is all.

 

[Gergo Panker]

What the developer announces: new game featuring a specific GT racing series, no immediate modding support due to the steep learning curve required to get back to basics using a new, non-proprietary engine, all this explained in a sincere and rather open manner.

What (some of) the community understands: no modding because licensing and publisher orders, AC2 in 2020 will full-blown modding and 500+ cars.

The decade of 2010s in a nutshell.

 

[Davebrave]

No mods in ACC... well, I can live with that... as long as the game includes a good set of tracks.
AC has already tons of mods but not all of them share the same quality, so with time I prefer quality rather than quantity.
I think that ACC tries to solve one of the main flaws of AC: the latter is not focused on true competition. The main criticism for AC has always been "it's only good for hotlapping" and that has been the case until recently when Kunos did improve the IA, although there are still few key elements missing for considerting AC a true "racing simulator" rather than a "driving simulator". Don't get me wrong, I still consider AC my favourite, but other simulators have more to offer on that matter.

I will purchase ACC straight away, although I know it's going to be rather different to AC: no modding so that leads to DLCs as the only way to increase the car/track roster, however Kunos has done a good job so far and they have achieved good reputation. So I'm genuinely quite excited!

 

[melanieuk]

As long the game is good, I don't really care. There are others game that can be modded. Like the almost dead - modding-wise, at least - rF2.

I could imagine their fanboys are sitting their over at the 397 forums, hoping AC modders will switch to rFactor 2, what a mistake it would be, it'll be like going back to windows xp, with all the knowledge modders have learnt using the assetto corsa 'true dx11' graphics engine, why would they want to switch back to a engine that still uses directx7 and 8 shader models.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Seriously, I cannot see / understand what all the fuss is about.

1. Kunos announced ACC with Day/Night/Weather - Something the community have been shouting about since day one?
2. Kunos announced no more development of AC - Something we all knew would happen one day
3. Kunos announced no modding support TO BEGIN WITH as moving to a new development tool - Something we knew HAD TO HAPPEN as the AC Engine has reached its end of life?
4. Kunos HAVE NOT SOLD to a major publisher, keeping everything in house - Happy Days
5. Kunos have said that AC will still run as normal, people can still make mods and the servers will still be up, and this could go on for at least a good couple of years - Again Happy Days

I see this as a very positive change of direction, that at the end of the day (Point 3) is required. OK so no modding support yet, good, lets me get back behind my wheel and remind me of why I started Sim Racing.....to actually race

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Think people often over-estimate the amount of people who use mods.

Just compare to most downloaded mod in RD, Donington. 161,223 downloads (this includes all the updated versions too. The latest 1.15 version is downloaded only 42,037 times).

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/donington-park.3031/history

Compare to what Marco said now AC sales figures are.... 1.4 million users.

 

[BhZ]

I could imagine their fanboys are sitting their over at the 397 forums, hoping AC modders will switch to rFactor 2, what a mistake it would be, it'll be like going back to windows xp, with all the knowledge modders have learnt using the assetto corsa 'true dx11' graphics engine, why would they want to switch back to a engine that still uses directx7 and 8 shader models.

Because sims are not about graphics?
I'm a fan of AC but stop thinking AC is better in every department, cause it's not. Every game has its flaws, accept it and move on.

 

[Steve Lorenz]

Just compare to most downloaded mod in RD, Donington. 161,223 downloads (this includes all the updated versions too. The latest 1.15 version is downloaded only 42,037 times).

http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/donington-park.3031/history

Compare to what Marco said now AC sales figures are.... 1.4 million users.

you forget the console players, they cant download it.
Also i am not sure if they count the DLC's on their own.