The Big Assetto Corsa Competizione Interview (Part 2)

[Paul Jeffrey]

Catch part two of our exclusive Assetto Corsa Competizione interview with Marco Massarutto and Ste'fano Casillo of Kunos Simulazioni...

Causing a mass panic of excitement from the sim racing community following the announcement back on February 21st, it is probably fair to say plenty of people are excited for the upcoming Assetto Corsa Competizione racing simulation, and with a potential Early Access release coming to Steam this summer, we answered the community call and sat down with two of the men behind the simulation - Marco Massarutto and Stefano Casillo, founding members of Italian development studio Kunos Simulazioni.

If you are interested in learning more of about the official racing simulation of the Blancpain GT Series, check out part 2 of our exclusive interview at the head of this article.

If you missed it earlier, part one can be viewed HERE. Oh and please consider doing us a favour by subscribing to our YouTube channel if you enjoyed this coverage and are looking forward to more of the same in the years ahead...


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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Enjoy the interview? Looking forward to ACC? Learn anything new? Leave a comment below (and subscribe to our YouTube page too!)

 

[CobraCat]

SMS couldn't even afford Suzuka, opting rather for the fantasy version of it ie; Sakitto. Which begs the question, how the heck did R3E afford Suzuka, are they pulling in that kinda money ? Wooo weee ! hahah

 

[Patrik Marek]

LOL
The license is the expensive part, not the physical scan.

if tracks comes from official series, licensing is often different, because they "HAVE TO" license it, and if scanning tracks outside of Europe was so cheap for Kunos guys, they would scan more then just Laguna, wouldn't' they ?

 

[schnipp]

I think in one of Stefano's streams where he skype called Marco they were talking about the laser scanning process and cost.
IIRC the cost of the actual scan is in part reduced by the fact that Simone can build the track from the point cloud much faster than if he would need to model everything from the ground up with making sure track limits, elevations, camber, etc. all fits.
So the scan itself is one of the lower cost factors, licence and man hours to model, texture and optimize everything are the bigger factors.

Also, some tracks already had their track scanned previously, so it's possible that KS doesn't actually need to do a new scan and use the one that's already available. I'm sure they'd have to pay something for that data, but I guess less than a new scan would cost.

 

[CobraCat]

From what I understand from some folks I know who work in the gaming industry, often times the track owners will have the scan data on hand so its not necessary for the track to be scanned in the first place.

 

[StefanoCasillo]

The only real answer to your doubts is: "it depends". Literally every single licensing deal is a story of its own.

Sometimes the license is the most expensive part, sometimes is the production, sometimes it's the laser scan.. trying to simplify the complexity of these deals with 1 answer is a ticket to end up looking ridiculous once fronted with people that do actually know.

 

[Daggerman]

But, what is the gained upside? It's not real, nor realistic, as temperatures like that might not occur during Blancpain season. At least not as often.

Why not just do it like this. For example, Barcelona circuit.

Use this: https://www.wunderground.com/histor...statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

Randomize, based on those values. How common something is, during given month. Calculate probabilities, based on that months/locations real weather records. And don't allow choosing winter months. But only months on a given circuit, where actual GT3 race could be held in.

Imo it's not a lazy solution. More work will be making those realistic weather charts for each month, each circuit, that are used for the randomizing. Than just grabbing it from web, like Content Manager.

It could be included I guess, but I prefer there to be also a system that randomizes a more realistic weather, than slapping current IRL weather on the track would be.

You could just have it set to a range based on realistic values.

For Barcelona, lows of 15C and highs of 38C
For Silverstone lows of 7C and highs of 28C

The same applies to weather, have the weather more likely to rain at Silverstone than Barcelona, however perhaps have the severity a factor too, so when it DOES rain in Barca, it’s perhaps more stormy.
It often rain at Silverstone, but it’s usually light to medium rain (if you need to give it a name).

 

[Rodent]

SMS couldn't even afford Suzuka, opting rather for the fantasy version of it ie; Sakitto. Which begs the question, how the heck did R3E afford Suzuka, are they pulling in that kinda money ? Wooo weee ! hahah

Raceroom landed the license before they went crazy with the licensing fees.

 

[NtsParadize]

Blancpain GT Series:
Zolder, Monza, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Circuit Paul Ricard 1000kms, Misano, Total 24 Hours of Spa, Hungaroring, Nürburgring, Barcelona

Intercontinental GT Challenge:
Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Total 24 Hours of Spa, Suzuka 10 Hours, Mazda Raceway California 8 Hours

GT4 European Series:
Misano, Brands Hatch, Red Bull Ring, Slovakia Ring, Zandvoort, Nürburgring

Ultracar GTONE Sports Club:
Spa-Francorchamps, Paul Ricard Circuit

Blancpain GT Series Asia:
Sepang International Circuit, Chang International Circuit, Suzuka International Circuit, Fuji Speedway, Shanghai International Circuit, Ningbo International Speedpark

*in RED the new tracks outside the Blancpain GT Series.

The tracks is what takes the hardest time. But as Kunos has the complete access due to the SRO License, we could expect faster delivering this time.
If there's a chance to have these Series in the DLCs, I think we all gonna be very very happy
If not, OK. It's not the end of the world... but something tells me the sales are going to be huge with ACC, so.....

So basically a SRO game

 

[CobraCat]

Raceroom landed the license before they went crazy with the licensing fees.

Ohhhhhhhhhh wow that is crazy and to top it off I don't think the R3E version is scanned although they may have used LiDAR data.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

You could just have it set to a range based on realistic values.

For Barcelona, lows of 15C and highs of 38C
For Silverstone lows of 7C and highs of 28C

The same applies to weather, have the weather more likely to rain at Silverstone than Barcelona, however perhaps have the severity a factor too, so when it DOES rain in Barca, it’s perhaps more stormy.
It often rain at Silverstone, but it’s usually light to medium rain (if you need to give it a name).

Yeah basically what I meant. Just worded it maybe overly complex.

 

[Daggerman]

Yeah basically what I meant. Just worded it maybe overly complex.

Yep, in AC its often 33C at Silverstone, which is possible, but very unlikely in the UK. 33C at Barcelona is a very likely situation, although it also depends on the time of year etc.

 

[Kenny Paton]

SMS couldn't even afford Suzuka, opting rather for the fantasy version of it ie; Sakitto. Which begs the question, how the heck did R3E afford Suzuka, are they pulling in that kinda money ? Wooo weee ! hahah

They would have got it as part of the WTCC licence.

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

rF2 physics rate is at 2400hz, and with the current hardware and technology there is no way to run AI with player physics. I don't understand that obsession with Kunos and their player-like physics for AI at all. AI in AC was pretty much terrible and even more unrealsitic and other sims using different concepts are doing a much better job at handling AI with simplified physics. And the AI is actually a very important core aspect for such a game as ACC with it's career option, so I am rather sceptical how it will play out. To get it good, it has to be a big step from AC atleast in dry conditions. Now add the varying conditions and they might run into trouble pretty fast as other developers are showing. But who knows, maybe they will find a golden way

To test CPU usage with AI using player physics in RF2 you need to get into Devmode in the launcher.

Once on track hit "CTRL + I" instead of "I".

CPU usage is not that high at all with a current machine. So CPU wouldnt be a problem. Of course the game has a minimum system requirements:
2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon II x2

But AI with player physics is too slow to use it in RF2. I think theyve abandoned AI development because of the requirements but they could pick it up now again.
But then ISI switched development to "not RF3".

 

[Will Mazeo]

To test CPU usage with AI using player physics in RF2 you need to get into Devmode in the launcher.

Once on track hit "CTRL + I" instead of "I".

CPU usage is not that high at all with a current machine. So CPU wouldnt be a problem. Of course the game has a minimum system requirements:
2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon II x2

But AI with player physics is too slow to use it in RF2. I think theyve abandoned AI development because of the requirements but they could pick it up now again.
But then ISI switched development to "not RF3".

Even when you let the AI drive the player car it does not look like it is using the same tire model as the player (that is the heaviest part of the physic) you can see how the cpu use drops a lot when you make it happen. It was once said by ISI that if AI used player tire model you'd be able to run around 4 AI max. (only the tire model runs at 2400hz, the rest of the phisic, ffb, etc is at 400hz like all other sims)
And let's be honest... most people dont even know what physic an AI run, as long as it runs well they wont care. This seems to be more a dev thing than a customer thing.
It's same thing with physic stuff, as long as it works people dont care how it happens under the hood, if they did things would be very different in the simracing world.

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

Even when you let the AI drive the player car it does not look like it is using the same tire model as the player (that is the heaviest part of the physic) you can see how the cpu use drops a lot when you make it happen. It was once said by ISI that if AI used player tire model you'd be able to run around 4 AI max. (only the tire model runs at 2400hz, the rest of the phisic, ffb, etc is at 400hz like all other sims)
And let's be honest... most people dont even know what physic an AI run, as long as it runs well they wont care. This seems to be more a dev thing than a customer thing.
It's same thing with physic stuff, as long as it works people dont care how it happens under the hood, if they did things would be very different in the simracing world.

"HDV special control" AI is different from "AI control"
"CTRL + I", not "I".
Devmode only.
Do the test and check your CPU usage (CTRL + C) and Vehicle status (Z).

Edit: Also check the laptimes. AI special control should be at least 5 seconds slower than AI control.

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

It's something similar at what we had in netKar Pro and its "hardcore mode" that was initially implemented and then out in the last releases....

I still remember a F1800 Race in Brno (I think it was for the RSR Championship). During the first qualification session I crashed my car on the last corner before having a valid time. I came back to the box (you was not allowed to press esc, but my car was still driveable). My car was repaired just a couple of minutes before the end of the second and final session so that I was forced to start in last position without time.
In the following races I used always a different and realistic startegy: try immediately to make a good, but "conservative", lap to be at least in a middle grid position and only then push on (or over ) the limit to attack the pole....
It was really immersive for an hardcore simmer like me, but I have also to say that very few servers and championships were run with "hardcore mode" enabled...

If you want my opinion I think quite difficult we see an "hardcore mode" in ACC (I would say 0,01%), but at least we know that Stefano had already studied and implemented something similar and in my opinion the result was very immersive and well balanced between realism and simulation. So, if they should decide to implement it, it will be for sure well done!

that hardcore mode really added the "fear" effect to the simulation. The few time I used it, you coudn't even spin because if you hit a guardrail with those FF1600/1800 that was the end of the ride most of the times. It should definitely be back in the future as an option at least, for league use or whatever, it's like hardcore mode on COD4. You have ARMA III , man, you receive a hit you're gone for good.
We're playing sim games as we would be the T-1000

 

[Patrik Marek]

Ohhhhhhhhhh wow that is crazy and to top it off I don't think the R3E version is scanned although they may have used LiDAR data.

lidar is laser scan, confused

 

[schnipp]

Lidar is usually done from planes or drones.

Laser scans as done by the companies KS hire work from a car that drives around the track. This is usually more accurate than Lidar.

 

[Patrik Marek]

that might be photogrammetry, you are talking about, or aerial lidar, but lidar is just the terminology and when we get laser scans, they are reffered to as lidars

 

[Peter Kerényi]

So we are over 200 comments, where is part 3?
My questions to the team would be whether they are planning to rescan Barcelona since it was resurfaced and if we will have extra layouts like Brands Indy, Silverstone International, Paul Ricard layout #32164681, etc. in the game for some fun, or only the official layouts?