What's still missing in AC?

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 22, 2015

Think we can all agree that we adore this sim but despite the fact the game has reached version 1.x it's far from completed.

Personally I don't understand why AC was labeled 1.0, with some very basic sim racing features missing compared to competing titles on the PC sim racing market, and not just kept early access until all work was done.

To just have an overview of what's still missing I'd like to hear your opinion in this discussion thread.

What's absolutely needed to call AC complete?

Brandon Wright · Apr 23, 2015

Radu Oros said:
Race tracks aren't that special in real life either. You've been spoiled by games that transform race tracks into carnival events.

I don't know, I've been to hundreds of races at a multitude of different race tracks from local short track ovals up to the likes of Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and they all have a certain carnival atmosphere to them. On a race weekend the track grounds almost become their own giant living organism that accompanies the racing, and that's why I love going to them. R3E does a great job of recreating this atmosphere, AC not so much. Not even close really, feels more like you and some mates broke into an abandoned facility for a personal track day. This is one area I'd really like AC to improve, but I kinda doubt it ever will progress beyond cardboard cutouts in the grandstands.

Radu Oros · Apr 23, 2015

destinationriver said:
- Lol, don't work at me. Mapped it on L3 and R3 on my T500 wheel, works fine outside the car, but not in the cockpit.

Because you have freepie or trackir/tracknoir installed, so if you have freepie, then you should use real head motion app to bind look left/right inside the cockpit, if not then uninstall freepie or similar software, because it took control of the camera over AC.

Brandon Wright said:
I don't know, I've been to hundreds of races at a multitude of different race tracks from local short track ovals up to the likes of Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and they all have a certain carnival atmosphere to them. On a race weekend the track grounds almost become their own giant living organism that accompanies the racing, and that's why I love going to them. R3E does a great job of recreating this atmosphere, AC not so much. Not even close really, feels more like you and some mates broke into an abandoned facility for a personal track day. This is one area I'd really like AC to improve, but I kinda doubt it ever will progress beyond cardboard cutouts in the grandstands.

Here are some real life GT3 races, +- from inside the car perspective. I linked GT3 races because that seems more popular in AC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUgnAIJrufU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLX62WpkMLs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4_F5KrIoE

And here a comparison between ac and raceroom at nurburgring gp. The only differences in track environment are that raceroom has more people on the stands, and more worn out grass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXdVp92PSk

Stereo · Apr 23, 2015

Falk Massmann said:
I´m not saying that kunos won´t keep improving the core of AC but I wish they would be as chatty for core improvements as they are on their content addons.
From a marketing standpoint this is very bad in my oppinion.

I'd rather the way they do it (write the feature, bug test it, then announce it) than what other games do - announce the feature, find out it has bugs, cancel it for game release, announce it's coming in the next major patch, postpone that too.

AC is hardly missing anything they announced it would have - I consider that a good thing. Only thing I can think of is the Rt35s that turned into an m235i.

Brandon Wright · Apr 23, 2015

Radu Oros said:
Here are some real life GT3 races, +- from inside the car perspective. I linked GT3 races because that seems more popular in AC.

And here a comparison between ac and raceroom at nurburgring gp. The only differences in track environment are that raceroom has more people on the stands, and more worn out grass.

And here's a video from GT cars at Mid-Ohio, with fans around the track and RV's lined up to watch the event. I've been to Mid-Ohio, the atmosphere there is fantastic. As is IMS and Montreal and pretty much every track I've been to, all the people milling about and cheering and waving their flags makes a unique atmosphere.

As for the AC/R3E comparison, I guess you didn't notice that in R3E the fans are waving their arms and their flags and taking pictures? Sometimes you can even hear them sounding their air horns and cheering, it's all fantastic and does a lot to add to the immersion and make you feel like your at a big racing event. On the hillclimb stages in R3E the fans are right at the side of the road, just like a rally stage. It's awesome. AC has nothing like that, just non-animated cardboard cutouts that you don't even notice unless you look for them. The flags around the tracks don't even move, to me the whole experience is rather bland. But that's just my opinion, nobody has to agree with it but me.

Radu Oros · Apr 23, 2015

Yes AC has less of those things, but is because it needs to save up FPS. I don't know if their track editor has support for such track animations, besides the waving vertical banners.
PCars is the other similar game to AC, especially because of directx11 while the others from the genre are still using directx9. And in PCars you get much less fps than in AC, although their track environment is more animated.

That world challenge seems like a big event, to what can that be compared in Europe?

In the end, to me, these Euro tracks host plenty of races yearly, and really a few are medium-heavily crowded/animated. There's just many more race events with even less population than in AC. To me this is also good realism because you can recreate well the normal races environment, just not of those big events.
I think that when you race in AC offline or online, you get in the mood easily because the track is more alive. When you start hot lapping, then you feel more alone. But in real life when you do practice sessions, the track environment feeling should be similar to what AC has.

Brandon Wright · Apr 23, 2015

Radu Oros said:
Yes AC has less of those things, but is because it needs to save up FPS. I don't know if their track editor has support for such track animations, besides the waving vertical banners.
PCars is the other similar game to AC, especially because of directx11 while the others from the genre are still using directx9. And in PCars you get much less fps than in AC, although their track environment is more animated.

That world challenge seems like a big event, to what can that be compared in Europe?

In the end, to me, these Euro tracks host plenty of races yearly, and really a few are medium-heavily crowded/animated. There's just many more race events with even less population than in AC. To me this is also good realism because you can recreate well the normal races environment, just not of those big events.
I think that when you race in AC offline or online, you get in the mood easily because the track is more alive. When you start hot lapping, then you feel more alone. But in real life when you do practice sessions, the track environment feeling should be similar to what AC has.

Fair enough, it may be different over there than it is here. Often times promoters here actually try to make it a carnival type event or at least give lots of things to do away from the track. There's not as much Motorsports over here either, I'm sure Europeans have been around it so long that they're just kind of used to it and don't make a big deal out of it like we sometimes do. At Indy the infield is like its own little city, you could spend half the day walking around there being busy and never even see a car on track.

That's the Pirelli World Challenge, (usually) it's some of the best racing in North America. Pretty much GT3 cars (multi-class) in a 50 minute sprint race. There are full races on YouTube, I highly recommend it.

And yes, I wish we could scale the amount of crowd in AC, not much for practice, half full for qualifying, full for the race. I'm one that likes the animated crowd and that added feeling of being somewhere alive, and I realize R3E gets away with it because of older technology. But my monitors are only 720 so I could probably have an animated crowd and still rock a steady 60fps. They should make me my own personal build using R3E's lively crowd.

Radu Oros · Apr 23, 2015

Yep AC could have different crowd/effects for practice, qualify, race. And use better the World Detail setting, by putting more stuff in the higher settings and less on the lowest.

Melv · Apr 23, 2015

Better AI, Better AI, Better AI

xnorb · Apr 24, 2015

Americans turn every event into a carnival, they just know how to entertain

But if you for example ask F1 drivers about Hockenheim they always tell how great it is to drive into the "stadium" because of the crowd.

But to be honest - i don't even look at the audience.
That's something just for replays and youTube videos.
During practice / racing i don't even realize there's a surrounding of the track.

Kevin Knorpp · Apr 26, 2015

The more I try to make every race count the less I depend on SW to provide anything other than detailed and accurate physics and a detailed log file with race result and lap/sector times/gaps/positions.

Content-wise I'm beyond fine as I put many hundreds of laps into a single combo and my backlog of combos to master is growing not shrinking.

The only two things that I see lacking in AC (and they are a big problem) is a tendency for several vehicles to fight rotation using certain techniques (not as bad as it use to be) and a terrible sense of speed + ability to feel like you are driving on the edge often enough. Whether it's grip or just realistic I don't know but my impression is that too many turns are flat out especially with vehicles like the yellow bird that simply feels too tame.

Kingspian · May 8, 2015

I forgot to mention as I was trying out the Race Room Experience, there is one thing missing for assetto Corsa.

Rolling Start

Cristian Haba · May 9, 2015

Cant wait for the remainder of the GT3 roster. The Huracan GT3 posted 1:47.2xx at Monza, faster than any GT2 car at optimum settings on track, not so unrealistic AC now is it with its laser scanned tracks. The limit of adhesion that's where sh1t gets real. (Also R8 LMS Ultra, maybe the 650s GT3 too)

brooptss · May 12, 2015

Kevin Knorpp said:
The more I try to make every race count the less I depend on SW to provide anything other than detailed and accurate physics and a detailed log file with race result and lap/sector times/gaps/positions.

Content-wise I'm beyond fine as I put many hundreds of laps into a single combo and my backlog of combos to master is growing not shrinking.

The only two things that I see lacking in AC (and they are a big problem) is a tendency for several vehicles to fight rotation using certain techniques (not as bad as it use to be) and a terrible sense of speed + ability to feel like you are driving on the edge often enough. Whether it's grip or just realistic I don't know but my impression is that too many turns are flat out especially with vehicles like the yellow bird that simply feels too tame.

Hmm. I'm a novice at this stuff so don't mind my opinion. But have you set your FOV to the correct setting for your real life monitor and driving position? If your FOV is too high or too low you will absolutely feel unconnected to the car and have poor sense of speed and the car's limits on the edge. This is more true when using a view other than cockpit, as the FOV setting in Onboard Settings is for the cockpit view. Are you driving with track grip level settings lower than 100%? And have you tweaked the car's setup to make it more "oversteerey" and how you want it to feel? Can't fathom how you find the Yellowbird too tame, it's an untamed, unhinged, oversteering beast to me with stock setup, or how many so turns are easy flat out.

W_Akira · May 12, 2015

Better AI, and Online Leaderboards in the models of Pcars (locked setup and conditions).
The perfect experience would be RF2 physics and AI (or from GSCE), iRacing online model, Pcars time/weather setup, R3E sounds, AC ffb, a mix of AC and Pcars graphics and mod open

.

Kevin Knorpp · May 14, 2015

brooptss said:
Hmm. I'm a novice at this stuff so don't mind my opinion. But have you set your FOV to the correct setting for your real life monitor and driving position? If your FOV is too high or too low you will absolutely feel unconnected to the car and have poor sense of speed and the car's limits on the edge. This is more true when using a view other than cockpit, as the FOV setting in Onboard Settings is for the cockpit view. Are you driving with track grip level settings lower than 100%? And have you tweaked the car's setup to make it more "oversteerey" and how you want it to feel? Can't fathom how you find the Yellowbird too tame, it's an untamed, unhinged, oversteering beast to me with stock setup, or how many so turns are easy flat out.

Bonnet view @ FOV = 50 (same as other sims). Track grip set to "Slow". Are you able to get 2nd gear wheelspin in YellowBird?

Connor Caple · May 17, 2015

BMW Mini Challenge!

You knew it was coming again, didn't you?

thewarmer · May 17, 2015

Chris Stacey said:
More server side functionality.

Flags*

Proper penalty system*

More stable netcode.

Brake temperature and brake fade.

Live timing

Spectator / Broadcaster mode

GPCOS support

Dynamic Time of day in MP*

Greater number of pit boxes for official tracks (24 ain't enough for Spa! Come on!)

* Confirmed as under development.

I agree with all the above.
I am very happy with AC & its nice to know that there will be more content to look forwards to.
I have to yet to try the online mode maybe when I have more time.

Kimmo Kokkonen · May 17, 2015

W_Akira said:
Better AI, and Online Leaderboards in the models of Pcars (locked setup and conditions).
The perfect experience would be RF2 physics and AI (or from GSCE), iRacing online model, Pcars time/weather setup, R3E sounds, AC ffb, a mix of AC and Pcars graphics and mod open.

This all can be found from the one sim, it's Project CARS. That's just my opinion, it's just how it feels and how fun it is to drive, it's fun, PC simulates fast cars and great tracks just the way I like, that's all I need from simulator, I can drive like a Crazy Monkey, flat out and it's still not too easy like need for speed is, you will lost control if you have too much speed etc. Please try them all at the same day, compare and found your own favourite, mine is Project CARS, only thing I need more is more and faster cars (+1000 bhp) and longer road tracks, there's much but more is better...and I don't hate AC I just don't like it so much and that's why I don't drive AC anymore, it's almost good but it's too clean like hospital, they tried to do something perfect but life is never perfect

Andy_J · May 17, 2015

Kimmo Kokkonen said:
This all can be found from the one sim, it's Project CARS.

And the Iracing online bit? I don't think for one microsecond that Pcars is as good as that.

Radu Oros · May 17, 2015

Kimmo Kokkonen said:
This all can be found from the one sim, it's Project CARS. That's just my opinion, it's just how it feels and how fun it is to drive, it's fun, PC simulates fast cars and great tracks just the way I like, that's all I need from simulator, I can drive like a Crazy Monkey, flat out and it's still not too easy like need for speed is, you will lost control if you have too much speed etc. Please try them all at the same day, compare and found your own favourite, mine is Project CARS, only thing I need more is more and faster cars (+1000 bhp) and longer road tracks, there's much but more is better...and I don't hate AC I just don't like it so much and that's why I don't drive AC anymore, it's almost good but it's too clean like hospital, they tried to do something perfect but life is never perfect

Well you just described the next iteration in the nfs shift series, and that is shift3 (pcars). The simulation is more advanced than in shift2, but the driving realism is still too gamey.
You say AC is too clean/perfect, and how is that a bad thing? To me, is just natural. And that natural experience will depend on the driver and how he drives the car.
Are you saying that in real life racing you don't see drivers race more or less perfectly lap after lap? Occasionally they will get out of their best pace, and that will happen more if in that race he is surrounded by opposing race drivers because are fighting for positions. If you don't drive well, you'll be out of pace and you might even go off track, screw up braking zones and turn-ins etc. All that is a natural event in AC, like in real life.

I think you aren't racing much, but you're just doing hotlaps with optimum track (+extra grip from surface files), 26ºc, and formula 1 cars.
At one point it gets boring doesn't it?
Well, sign up for a league or just race online, or against the A.I. Of course you'll drive perfectly if you just do hotlaps, but then in a race the stress is different. See here leagues you can join: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?forums/online-leagues-championships-room.46/