VR is Coming to Assetto Corsa Competizione this October..

[Paul Jeffrey]

Launching to Early Access this September 12th, Kunos Simulazioni have laid down their development release schedule for ACC over the coming months...

So that's it then, VR confirmed! With the initial release of ACC on Steam Early Access scheduled for September 12th set to contain a limited selection of content and features, Kunos have confirmed the following months will see a gradual monthly update to the simulation, adding more cars, tracks, features and content to the sim until it reaches an eventual version 1 launch sometime around the first quarter of 2019.

So back to VR then... well many people have questioned if ACC will follow on from the original Assetto Corsa and come with VR support in the new title, functionality that is natively supported in Unreal 4, and it now looks like the answer is yes.. but not for initial launch in September.. VR coming as part of the second patch on October 10th... which is good news indeed for Virtual Reality fans...

You can check out the initial release calendar below:

Assetto Corsa Competizione will release on Steam Early Access this September 12th.

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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Happy to see the proposed progress of ACC? Pleased VR will be coming sooner rather than later? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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[Mr Latte]

You have a 7.000£ rig with a single monitor?

In fairness, he does have a nice rig and a rather sweet (single screen).

Being in VR is in the car, using multi-screens, projection or a 32:9 display while rather sweet experience is still sitting in your room.

Personally, I would like both but the newer/improved 49" 1440P 32:9 monitors will cost similar to a DDW wheel and I think I know which I need to buy first.

 

[Sergio Baquero]

Yes, the first one is amazing on VR. last night made some laps at Imola with the F1 Ferrari 2004 and the experience is special. If Competizione is better.....uff greats moments ahead.

 

[Captain Geech]

gimmick.

Says guy who probably added his 6th monitor trying to get all that immersion....

 

[BP]

Very excited about ACC, but wondering if my computer is up to the task.

I run a 2009 Mac Pro (using Windows 7 through bootcamp) with 2 x Intel hex-core x5680 processors and an overclocked GTX 980 ti. Obviously the single thread speed is slow compared to today's CPUs but combined with the GPU and lots of ram (32 GB) it's doing quite well. Especially considering I run triple 1080p monitors which, when you add up total pixel count, is closer to 4K performance than 1440p (1440p single monitor: 3.6 million pixels, 1080p triple monitors: 6.1 million pixels, 4K single monitor: 8.2 million pixels)...I get a solid 60 FPS on triples on medium/high settings, 16 - 20 car field in AC, R3E, iRacing and AMS (rF2 and PC2 are a little more demanding).

I plan to upgrade soon as I figure this next generation of sims won't run well on my machine (I'll try the EA version of ACC to confirm)...but I'm wondering if I do a partial upgrade if it will handle it. By partial, I mean new machine with an i7 8700K but transplanting the GTX 980ti from my current rig. The way some people talk on the forums make me wonder if an overclocked 980ti is that much slower than a 1080ti...I'd assume Kunos isn't designing a game than can only run great (with high settings) on the fastest GPU available...will a 980ti with a current gen CPU be enough?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

as posted above, i will wait for ea and then test it and probably will not make the cut, but at this point it really is anyone's guess. minimum specs for unreal engine posted above in this thread by sb else:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  
• OS: Windows 7 64-Bit or later
  
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K; AMD FX-6350 or equivalent
  
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 with 2 GB VRAM or more; AMD Radeon HD 7950 with 2 GB VRAM or more
  
• DirectX: Version 11

 

[randMracer]

In fairness, he does have a nice rig and a rather sweet (single screen).

Being in VR is in the car, using multi-screens, projection or a 32:9 display while rather sweet experience is still sitting in your room.

Personally, I would like both but the newer/improved 49" 1440P 32:9 monitors will cost similar to a DDW wheel and I think I know which I need to buy first.

Ok, well that makes a little more sense. I was picturing something different in my mind. Like a motion rig with just a 22" monitor sitting up front.

 

[FeltHat]

Ok, well that makes a little more sense. I was picturing something different in my mind. Like a motion rig with just a 22" monitor sitting up front.

 

[natedogg1867]

as posted above, i will wait for ea and then test it and probably will not make the cut, but at this point it really is anyone's guess. minimum specs for unreal engine posted above in this thread by sb else:

Those specs listed mean absolutely nothing and dont, in any way, represent the min specs needed to run a UE4 game.

Since people are still somehow unfamiliar with what it takes...

Check the specs listed for this UE4 game.

Not only are the specs incredibly low, but this game looks better than 95% of all games available. UE4 does not inherently require a super computer to function adequately.

Pure speculation on the specs it will take to play AC are completely fruitless until Kunos comes out with the lowest specs they will officially support, or until the game releases.

 

[Motowntom]

Anyone using a rift or vive I can't speak to, but if you buy a Samsung Odyssey, and take the time to get it tweeked right, you will never look at a flat screen again EVER for sim racing.
Cheers

 

[Tberg]

Anyone using a rift or vive I can't speak to, but if you buy a Samsung Odyssey, and take the time to get it tweeked right, you will never look at a flat screen again EVER for sim racing.
Cheers

Same goes for Rift. You no longer have to imagine that you're on track, racing, because you simply ARE. I'm still trying to get the old man convinced, but he said VR is not for him as he gets nausea. He's not buying that it takes more than his 10 minutes testing to get comfortable, still afraid of getting that hurl feel when I ask him to do some laps

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Not related to VR, but an interesting post by Aristotelis from Facebook:

Aristotelis Vasilakos :
"The tyre model has been heavily reworked. 3 dimensional flex of footprint and sidewalls with specific rates for each axis that are also influenced by the pressure and temperature. Temperatures now have even more layers and even get affected by brakes heating. Pressure heat and wear do not only change a simple grip variation but also the actual behaviour of the tyre, affecting values of slipangle, slipratio, and the grip curve as a whole. You're not only feeling a different grip but a different response too. Tyre also has a different response depending on the different surfaces it touches.

The weather simulation is not a simple lower grip, but an actual water film layer with different depth. The tyres have algorithms that simulate the drainage of the water from the tyre, in order to keep the contact patch in..."contact" with the surface. If it succeeds, you get good grip, if not, the tyre "raises" over the water film and you get aquaplaning. That is what it makes wet driving so unpredictable. You don't have to deal just with a lower grip and that's it. You might think you got grip, push a bit more and instantly get a different behaviour on the same turn a lap before.
Many more big and smaller details got implemented and this obviously makes the fine tuning of the whole system, extremely delicate, considering that the rules predict just one compound for all cars/tracks combinations.

On top of that we have a brand new aero model coordinated by Stefano Casillo and created by Fernando Barbarossa our new physics developer. Much more complex, doesn't take into account different wings as single entities anymore, but a single aerodynamic object that gets affected by flow, and becomes very sensitive in pitch and yaw situations. 1-2mm ride height difference can be felt by good drivers and makes the setup a very complicated matter.

Because of that, we had to improve our suspension model. It now includes variable rate bumpstops that I can set with extreme precision to keep the car from pitching too much. Also new dampers with proper graph curves and not just 4 values. The bumpstops are quite complex so we're trying to figure out a way to make the setup screens better designed for the users.

We also have brand new TC and ABS algorithms, again more complicated than the original AC ones which by the way were an industry first at the time. Now we control slip and slide differently and even how much the engine cuts instead of on/off situations. Those maps alone can change quite a lot the behaviour of the car.

On top of that, add all the different dynamic grip and weather simulation and you can imagine that the possible combinations and situations where something can go wrong are quite a bit. We are also working in a condition that everything can change from a week to the other because of new features added and this means we might need to re do the physics of the cars.
Even BoP is different for each car and each track, and this is getting updated by SRO as we move from one track to the other...

So, I don't know where the 1.5 months per car comes from, as we keep working on all cars at the same time, so I can't really give an accurate estimation of how much time we spent on each car, surely Marco has this under control. But I can tell you that it has become extremely complex..."

 

[thebackgroundman]

How much room do you triple monitor guys have in your homes? I live in a big enough house with more than enough room, but isn't having 3 screens permanently set up a tad unsightly?
A major advantage of VR sim racing is the amount of space it saves - nobody ever seems to mention this! Of course the immersion is second to none and yes you will never go back to flat screen racing once you race in VR - period.
I have another more important question though - AC supports the Next Level V3 motion platform and I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of one of these (the whole sensation of VR and physical motion is as you can imagine, IMMENSE!). Will AC Competizione also support this motion platform?

 

[xx-Tim-xx]

thain at the point of build 4 its a game that is worth the money

 

[justfdl]

He's not buying that it takes more than his 10 minutes testing to get comfortable, still afraid of getting that hurl feel when I ask him to do some laps

Looks like you obviously never got real motion sickness. I have. It's simply overwhelming, and it doesn't stop for hours even after taking off your HMD. I can totally understand that some people don't want to fight that feeling. Then again, after getting over it I'm glad I did. Next time you force him to use VR, get him to consume some ginger products like ginger ale oder ginger candy 10min before starting, that helped me a lot.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

How much room do you triple monitor guys have in your homes? I live in a big enough house with more than enough room, but isn't having 3 screens permanently set up a tad unsightly??

It is. One reason why I considered VR, but the resolution needs to go up. Doesn't bother many, bothered me so I returned mine. Also kind of glad, since I wouldn't be able to play great racing games I later discovered (AMS, Wreckfest) with it (I would have sold my triples, if I kept it)

 

[Tberg]

Looks like you obviously never got real motion sickness. I have. It's simply overwhelming, and it doesn't stop for hours even after taking off your HMD. I can totally understand that some people don't want to fight that feeling. Then again, after getting over it I'm glad I did. Next time you force him to use VR, get him to consume some ginger products like ginger ale oder ginger candy 10min before starting, that helped me a lot.

Yeah, I did get nausea at first, I had to wait till next day to try again. Took me at least 3-4 days before I could drive for more than 20min.
Thanks for the ginger advice

 

[Zoltan76]

Nausea...
Boys. Don't drink and drive!

 

[whip]

the first times in vr can be rough with sickness, but like anything else your body adapts

never underestimate the bodies ability to adapt, just give it time

 

[bgil66]

Yep can't wait till October to give ACC a go in VR, just hope the rig will be ok.
So glad I bought the rift as a bday present to myself loved the setup procedure in Oculus and just looking at the environments and the free games and movies is impressive. But when put on the rift for first time at the track alot of WOW's and HOLY SH!TS came out of my mouth. Was in the Tattus@ SPA and did feel a little qweezy so went to Monza and ahhh much better. Then hopped in the Cobra and nice nice nice. The F2004 is a dream anywhere. The qweeziness has stopped Also bought prescription lenses for the rift but need a thicker vr cover as when on the existing lenses they are way too close to my eyeballs
And when at my girlfriends home I still play with a screen and a wheel which she bought for me as I get cranky sometimes so she locks me in the office and I get happy again

 

[FeltHat]

Yep can't wait till October to give ACC a go in VR, just hope the rig will be ok.
So glad I bought the rift as a bday present to myself loved the setup procedure in Oculus and just looking at the environments and the free games and movies is impressive. But when put on the rift for first time at the track alot of WOW's and HOLY SH!TS came out of my mouth. Was in the Tattus@ SPA and did feel a little qweezy so went to Monza and ahhh much better. Then hopped in the Cobra and nice nice nice. The F2004 is a dream anywhere. The qweeziness has stopped Also bought prescription lenses for the rift but need a thicker vr cover as when on the existing lenses they are way too close to my eyeballs
And when at my girlfriends home I still play with a screen and a wheel which she bought for me as I get cranky sometimes so she locks me in the office and I get happy again

oh snap, you reminded me of my first time in vr, raceroom, zakspeed capri, falkenberg
tears of happiness