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!)

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Stefano looks bored....how long is the interview

 

[Msportdan]

5:10 pop at pcars 2 lol

and another one at 8:00

haha

joking btw

 

[ouvert]

Thanks for Part II ..
So there will not be full Blancpaing grid/all teams/racers represented on track? due car count limitation to lower number .. I guess they try to keep all teams and scratch some drivers .. for sprint it is only few cars but for Endu it is half of field ..not saying racing 30 cars is not enough for sprint race or even for endurance in case of single class racing ...

Looks like it could be very good and focused improvement to AC .. looking forward to EA

 

[Will Mazeo]

I dont really have a problem with AI not using player physics, rF2 does that (it use rF1 player physic) rF1 itself does that I believe and they work with any car (except drift and rally I guess) and multiclass too if modders get them right.
The problem about them braking and accelerating strange is indeed true, but Reiza reduced that issue to some extent so it's possible in any sim I hope (since AC runs on a different code, obviously).
But I dont race offline anyway
I hope this is not limited to 30 cars, I was already wishing for a Nords DLC with 100 LOL and then we'd only need to find 300+ players for a 24h race

 

[Shaun Clarke]

Marco said GT4....here is my Ginetta, 2018 spec already LOL

 

[ouvert]

Yep Reiza showed that even with simplified AI physics you can make probably best AI out there .. but I understand Stefanos desire to have full physics .. another thing is that is AI is using full physics but cheats with handeling them .. is it thaN better than simplified physics set? perhaps .. for me if result is good I`m ok with both approaches

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

Wow another 45min to watch, thanks @Paul Jeffrey! You just gifted us with a football match length interview

 

[ShredatorFIN]

About things they mentioned

- Customizable player livery, with preset elements like sponsor stickers? IMO good solution, because it allows quick data transfer online. Maybe you can make some simple shapes/gradient colors as background. And then put liveries on it. Or just 1 color, still great system imo

- Mechanical damage/Punctures. I've often said I want them. But 100% agree with Stefano, now that I think about it. If they happen suddenly, without player doing anything stupid... I don't want that (and don't think anyone does after it happens to them in a long MP race), just that abusing the curbs increases the risk of puncture etc... Engine dying completely randomly is too hardcore.

- Weather coming from IRL online weather services. Agree with Simone on this. It's not realistic. You drive at winter, could be snow then. Which is completely stupid. Should imo be randomized, based on that months (where the actual race took place in 2018) and geographical locations probable/average temperatures/weathers. Or if customized date, only allow selecting months inside Blancpain calendar.

And then give pre-race weather forecast for players, based on that, with varying accuracy, as forecasts can be IRL. Then all drivers can be in same trouble, having to re-asses their strategy because of failed forecast. Problem with pCars 2 "Randomized weather" is that it seems to totally ignore the geographical location and local climate of the circuit. Should be randomized, inside realistic constraints. But without too accurate forecasts, so there's element of surprise.

Great interview overall, funny how there was 2 or 3 "last questions" Probably due to editing. Cleared lot of things I wanted to know.

Also great to hear that GT4, Blancpain Asia and other Blancpain stuff is not ruled out as DLC, if the title does well enough. I hope it will, and based on AC's quality I'm almost sure it will!

 

[Shap]

Livery design and sharing it ingame sounds awesome.

 

[melanieuk]

Stefano Casillo, one hell of a coding genius, you can tell this guy knows, what he is talking about, no other developer goes into detail about their knowledge in engine creation, as he does, no wonder he is well loved and supported on race department, and the sim racing community in general, so technical.

 

[schnipp]

Engine dying completely randomly is too hardcore.

Completely random failures would suck, but something like water/oil temps rising cause the cooler intake is blocked (i.e. after going through gravel trap or after contact with body damage) and you ignore this then loss of power and/or engine damage would be a nice touch so you would need to either drive more carefully to cool the engine or have it repaired/cleaned at a pit stop.
I like the idea of possible punctures or suspension damage for cutting curbs and similar things.

 

[lhcaetano]

Sorry, but I must say: I hate when people bring up the AI subject!! Gzus Christ, in the internet era, where multiplayer is the key point of particularly every single new game that comes out, and specially in a simulation environment, AI is totally dispensable!!!

 

[schnipp]

Not everybody always has the time to find a server and wait for the start of the race, so having a quick go against AI should still be possible.
Also, sometimes it's just very frustrating to get rammed off in a MP race in lap 1.

 

[Marko-13000]

Nobody going crazy about them becoming the only sim to simulate the rain properly with the grip levels on and off the racing line? Well I certainly am

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

It could be nice to be able to make the AI use the same setup as you if you want and get their telemetry like in some other games.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Sorry, but I must say: I hate when people bring up the AI subject!! Gzus Christ, in the internet era, where multiplayer is the key point of particularly every single new game that comes out, and specially in a simulation environment, AI is totally dispensable!!!

Good career mode without good AI? Central element. Although AC has already pretty solid AI, everything else in the career was lacking.

Also, I've never opened the multiplayer in Automobilista (200 hours), in Assetto Corsa vast majority offline (over 1000 hours). People are different

 

[MarkR]

Sorry, but I must say: I hate when people bring up the AI subject!! Gzus Christ, in the internet era, where multiplayer is the key point of particularly every single new game that comes out, and specially in a simulation environment, AI is totally dispensable!!!

Totally disagree. AC was a lovely hot lapping demo before they cracked the AI. Most of the public online multiplayer behaviour is psychotic, minorating helped but can never solve the issue.

This is a Blancpain simulator with a career mode. I want the AI (if set to a 'realistic' mode I so hope they include) to match the real abilities of the cars and drivers.

I'm lucky enough to race regularly with a group of similarly skilled human racers and I still want a good AI experience. Multiplayer is not the be all and end all.

 

[Deleted member 503495]

Random failures aren't fun to suffer with frequency but they bring interesting challenges. Nothing stops Kunos from allowing them with a modifier to reduce frequency or turn off completely. Other systemic failures due to damage or setup abuse should not even need to be discussed, they should always be present. The AI should be just as vulnerable à la Grand Prix series.

 

[tlsmikey]

I'm really happy to hear them say they want to keep the same physics for AI. The differing physics for AI in PCars2 is very apparent and really leads to a lot of strange scenarios, like being unable to brake at the same speed as the AI.

This all sounds good. These guys really seem to be thinking about the long game.