Assetto Corsa thread

[Skybird]

Beside X Rebirth, AC is the one of only two titles I am waiting for this christmas season.

It seems we are close to release of the beta, which will be available form Steam for 35 Euros, I forgot. That is a 20 or 25% money saving compared to the final price. You have access to all later updates and the final version.

This will be an early access beta, featuring the main architecture of the program and including 8 of the planned 16 vehicle classes and 11 of the planned 35 cars, so far there are 11 tracks, but I do not know if they will all be featured in the beta already. Damage model, multiplayer and AI as well as other content will be added in updates that they plan to release every two weeks. Also, once the game has been released in full 1.0, there will be (payware) expansion packs.

Beside that, community mods can be expected - AC has been designed with heavy modding friendliness in mind.

Car brands incldued are BMW, Ferrari, Abarth, Lotus, McLaren, KTM, Pagan i and Tatuu :). Among the so far confirmed tracks are Imola, Monza, Silverstone, Nurburg GP and Nurburg Nordschleife (!), Magione, Mugello, Spa Francorchamps (DLC), Vallelunga.

The sim comes with nVidia 3D vision support. It is optimised for multicore-processing. It has DirX12.

video:

- Vallellunga virtual vs. real (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obihNetDcDg)

Silverstone drifting orgy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksG-ffMfvi4)

Monza in-cockpi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF3nXzKxTsM)t

Pagani Huayr (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-NbmcWeSe0)a

McLaren MP4 at Imola (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-L2KuoeyWQ)

Slow Motion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCLH0vma0Z8)

Gems on wheels : AC Showroom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im34i45VOLE) (they do a n outstanding job in recreating the looks ands views of the cars they include).

More videos to be found at Youtube.

Steam. I hate it. The dfownload will kill me, no doubt, blockig my computer for 20 hours or so. But AC probably becomes the second exception from my rule, after Skyrim. I played the technical demo earlier this year, and imediately realised that the driving sensation here is different to other racing games I have played. It has that special something, convincing you of being subjected to correct physical handling, while featuring a tremendously joyful experience to drive. Plus: it looks gorgeous!

So, high expectations. The only thing that I am concerned about is how they do with their AI. netKart was a simulation with superior physics, but no AI, that's why it never became really widespread and well-known. Implementing an AI that convinces and does not look like pearls lined up of a rubber-line, is a first for them, and one can only hope that they are doing a good job there.

[Skybird]

Ha...! Is my timing perfect or not? :yeah: When I started typing the above, their homepage was still offline for maintenance since two days, saying they will be back soon. When I posted the above and went there, it was online, saying that the game is available now via Steam Early Access. they swiched while I typed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6_4TibyOs

Just four tracks included in the first go: Imola, Monza 60's style, Magione, Silverstone.

Cars:

PRODUCTION
- ABARTH 500 ESSEESSE
- LOTUS ELISE SC
- LOTUS EXIGE SCURA

GT
- BMW M3 E30 EVOLUZIONE
- BMW M3 E92
- BMW Z4 E89

GTR
- BMW M3 GT2

CLASSIC GP
- CLASSIC TEAM LOTUS TYPE 49

SUPERCAR
- FERRARI 458 ITALIA

TRACKDAY
- KTM X-BOW R

OPEN WHEEL
- TATUUS FA01

Specs say the installation needs 15 Gb minimum on the HD, 30 Gb recommended, that gives you an idea of how long the download will be.

30...? I am swallowing.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Firstly that 15 gig may be compressed files needing the 30 gig space. Secondly - get a wheel - during the build up to Grid 2 a group of us were playing the original, two guys got wheels and their driving improved in-game instantly.

[Skybird]

Of course a wheel - am I missing a point here?

The specs do not correspond with reality, my download just finished, 3.10 GB. Maybe the specs mentioned already represent the expected specs of the full game, once it is completed.

And now to Imola. :salute:

[Herr-Berbunch]

My point was that using a wheel is better, I didn't know if you already had one.

[Skybird]

I think a racing simulation without wheel is like a flight simulation without flying things.

Okay, first impression.

Fiurst impression is: very impressive, very good.

Five tracks are included. Monza 60s is a simple highspeed track, and the viosual presentation is indeed somehow sending you back in time a bit, you really get transported into a different racing culture and surrounding. Doiung that track in the open-cockpit Lotus 49 is - stylish.

Silverstone also is not the F1 GP version, but another track setting, more simple than the GP version. I never liked Silverstone in sims, not by the flow of the track, and not by the location which is flat and make sit very difficult to see the corners. However, whiloe this difficulty in seeing the track is present - it is one of the best representations of a racing location I have seen, meaning that the surrounding, the perimeter with all the buildings and objects beside the track, the feeling of actually being part of all what is going on there, is very convincing. The track itself I still do not like, nevertheless I at least now like the location. :)

Then there is Imola, the one track in this beginning of the AC saga that without doubt I will drive most. I simply have a soft spot for Imola, it has been the first place I have ever driven a computer race in - on the Amiga, with grand Prix 1 by Geoff Crammond, must have been 1990... The track and location again are very well done. The visuals are nice, and very convincing to the eyes - something that is true for colour palette and the light conditions in general. Very well done place.

Magione is the track I already knew from the tech demo. The tarmac's layout imo is nothing special, imo, but the hwol location again is given a treatment with great love to detail and general atmosphere of the place. I also have th impression that it has been visually upgraded, compared to the tech demo.

Vallelunga is another nice track that swings and sways and allows for surprisingly high speeds nevertheless. Driven in a fluid, soft line, it is great pleasure.

The cars - well, seeing AND HEARING is believing. Lovely, simply lovely! The models are superb, the best in car modelling I have seen so far, and that means both the exterior and interior. The sound inside and outside the cockpit is splendid, the visual realism of the cockpits unbelievable. The cars handle differently from each other, and the handling in general is very believable, very convincing when considering each car's class and size. I cannot compare to reality, I never have driven any of these cars, I do not even own a car - but to me the driving physics just feel so very damn right. No comparison to GTR-2, the last driving sim I have used - it feels like a Matchbox toy-car, compared to AC. The great thing with the handling is that you are being given the impression of handling something of size and mass and weight indeed. Also, acceleration and deceleration feel very realistic. I like the fact that most of the cars so far are more like touring cars and none of these super-agile formula types - the latter is to hectic for my taste, where as these cars feel more like what you are used to from real street life, and gives you some more mental freedom regarding your timing and reactions. To me, that adds to the enjoyment I get from the sim.

The engine sounds as well as the muffling of sounds inside cockpits also was worth to write down some exclamation marks. Sitting in the BMW 3M was a revelation, sitting in the Ferrari and hearing the gear bttons clicking, was almost extacy. Fantastic acoustic ambience, imo. Very well done.

Mind you, this is an early-access beta. some functions are not implemented, the full content is not there, no AI racing possible currently, and still - in GTR-2 I already ended up just hotlapping on the Nordschleife, I did nothing else. With my most liked racing track Spa coming as DLC next year and in this to be expected quality, AND the Nordschleife announced as well, I am already booked for a trip to heaven. With these two things added, I already got my money'S worth.

I faced no technical issues and no stability issues. Frames always were above 60.

I give it an B+ right now, due to the lacking AI being the biggest argument against an A. I expect to correct that to an A ore A+, once they are finished with the full regular version 1.0. Is it worth the 35 bucks, considering th state it is in? To me, it is, but people may have different tastes. If you just wait for a nice racing game,l then you better wait. If you have already waited for AC since long and cry every week of more delay, you cannot go wrong in spending your money now. In the end, you save money that way. All others buying later, the version 1.0, will pay 25% more.

Outlook: extremely promising. :yeah:

[Skybird]

Best. Driving. Simulator.

Spent quite some time with it this night. So much excellence, both physically and visually. I'm stunned and hooked. Just that I suck at entering drifts correctly, I just mess it up. Really need to relearn things with this baby.

Will never go back to any other racing "sim" again. Except OMSI, which is something totally different anyway.

[Lionclaw]

Wow! :huh:

Need to get this when I get money later this month.


Lotus 49, a screenshot shows a Ferrari 312T from '75 and a Lotus 98T from '86? No John Player Special sponsor logos, but TL. Ah saw the Lotus logo on the tip of the nose. :up:

I love the older F1 cars, more fun to drive than the modern stuff. I wonder if they will add cars from the ground effect era. I had much fun with the cars from 1979 in rFactor with the GP79 mod. :yeah:

[Skybird]

:/\\!! Check those freaking menues...

I did not tune physics options, there are options for ABS, traction control, assistances and such, but in another place than the options I so far used. I turned much of that off - and immediately felt like a a figure skater in a wheel chair, dogfighting his own shadow. :haha:

Don't get me wrong, it is not that bad, and not exaggarated. It just is so much fun, and feels absolutely right. From now on I will not even miss an AI opponent - like in Ferrari Academy and netKart, the challenge lies in already mastering the car.

Lionclaw, the looks are second to none, imo, and it seems that many people in the Steam and AC forums share my opinion. I first fell in love with the cars and colours, but now I also love the realization of every five of the tracks. One has to use a fixed camera that does not follow the car, to get stills and then really see the immense detail they out in, and appreciate it.

There is the inevitable debate on whether the physics in Iracing or AC are better. Surprisngly, maybe, quite some people rate the AC model BETTER. One has to take into account that AC focuses - so far - on cars that are closer to street-cars, not so much on highly specialized cars like formula cars. Same is true for the FF effects. In iRacing - which i do not know - they say they are more intense - but the cars AC simulates in reality give you less feedback from the car via the wheel anyway, and more from the meat you sit on. Visually almost everbody agrees that AC wins over iRacing. Physics-wise, the count of opinions so far seem to indicate a draw - obviously, both sims are very good in that regard. In the many replays of my faulty deeds I saw in slomo what the car was doing and how it behaved, how it feathered, swinged and swayed - it looks exactly how I would expect the thing to look when doing those things in reality.

I also tried the one formula-style car that so far is included this morning. What a difference to the BMW M3 E30! :D Not only is it faster, the whole things feels like worlds apart. I think that is how it should be! Again it also feels different than the old Lotus I tried yesterday. Point is: although the cars really feel different, they all feel very, very convincing and realistic. The differences are not artificially invented.

Fun days and months ahead. Superb simulation, really, already in the state it is in right now. Absolutely superb. To me, worth the money even if they stop development right now.

[Lionclaw]

I did not tune physics options, there are options for ABS, traction control, assistances and such, but in another place than the options I so far used. I turned much of that off - and immediately felt like a a figure skater in a wheel chair, dogfighting his own shadow. :haha:

Don't get me wrong, it is not that bad, and not exaggarated. It just is so much fun, and feels absolutely right. From now on I will not even miss an AI opponent - like in Ferrari Academy and netKart, the challenge lies in already mastering the car.

That's the part of the fun, learning each car, finding the limit.

For as long as I can remember, I've always turned off driving aids. For example in Gran Turismo, some license test have traction control and I feel like I'm fighting the car. And without TC I can balance the car through the corner with throttle and steering.

I have a driving style that leans more towards oversteer, so the back end usually steps out a bit.

Lionclaw, the looks are second to none, imo, and it seems that many people in the Steam and AC forums share my opinion. I first fell in love with the cars and colours, but now I also love the realization of every five of the tracks. One has to use a fixed camera that does not follow the car, to get stills and then really see the immense detail they out in, and appreciate it.

There is the inevitable debate on whether the physics in Iracing or AC are better. Surprisngly, maybe, quite some people rate the AC model BETTER. One has to take into account that AC focuses - so far - on cars that are closer to street-cars, not so much on highly specialized cars like formula cars. Same is true for the FF effects. In iRacing - which i do not know - they say they are more intense - but the cars AC simulates in reality give you less feedback from the car via the wheel anyway, and more from the meat you sit on. Visually almost everbody agrees that AC wins over iRacing. Physics-wise, the count of opinions so far seem to indicate a draw - obviously, both sims are very good in that regard. In the many replays of my faulty deeds I saw in slomo what the car was doing and how it behaved, how it feathered, swinged and swayed - it looks exactly how I would expect the thing to look when doing those things in reality.

I also tried the one formula-style car that so far is included this morning. What a difference to the BMW M3 E30! :D Not only is it faster, the whole things feels like worlds apart. I think that is how it should be! Again it also feels different than the old Lotus I tried yesterday. Point is: although the cars really feel different, they all feel very, very convincing and realistic. The differences are not artificially invented.

Fun days and months ahead. Superb simulation, really, already in the state it is in right now. Absolutely superb. To me, worth the money even if they stop development right now.

You're tempting me to get it now rather than later. :wah: :O:

[Herr-Berbunch]

And me!

Luckily today is the 14-days-to-payday point so I can buy it on Steam and use PayPal's 'pay after delivery' option.

:woot:

[Skybird]

Okay you two, then it is time to close in for the kill: :D

video LINK - Comparison Imola, reality versus virtual simulation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMTMO6bZxBM)

video LINK - BMW M3 E30 drifting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkDPQDv6Slg)

Don'T think the drifting in AC is arcadish. It is not. The way the tyres regain grip when leaving a drift, feels different and much more believable here than in any other game I ever played. Extremely polished physics. I read many comments over the course of this day of people who copare AC to other titles, including iRacing and rFactor 2, and say that AC blows them off the track regarding several physics details. All I can say is: it feels how imo it should feel. It convinces me of driving on real tires and real suspension.

video LINK - Comparison of all so far included cars' cockpits (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubKUgVKvpHQ)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Okay you two, then it is time to close in for the kill: :D


That was unnecessary, just after my last post I bought it and left it downloading whilst I went shopping. D/l was only 1.5 Gigs though. :hmmm:

Anyhoo, I've just spent the last 90 minutes in it. That 458 just doesn't want to turn in or stop!!! :o Even cadence braking and dropping the gears before and in the corners it's a nasty piece of work. I love it but it's an unhealthy relationship that's going to get me killed! Maybe TC off will be better for me?

What I found amazing was with the defaulted gfx settings I was seeing 170-180 fps. So I thought I'd max it out to see the difference and it dropped down to 11. :haha: A bit of compromise later and I'm now a regular 70.

Looking forward to the multiplayer side of things, as long as they can get any damage modelling and physics right, and the obvious collision boxes!

[Skybird]

That was unnecessary, just after my last post I bought it and left it downloading whilst I went shopping. D/l was only 1.5 Gigs though. :hmmm:

Check your steam folder holding AC. It should be 3.1 GB, judging by my own.


Anyhoo, I've just spent the last 90 minutes in it. That 458 just doesn't want to turn in or stop!!! :o Even cadence braking and dropping the gears before and in the corners it's a nasty piece of work. I love it but it's an unhealthy relationship that's going to get me killed! Maybe TC off will be better for me?
The controllers need to be tried for different settings, and then finetuned, that I learned yesterday. Especially rotating angle of the wheel (my wheel is not allowing two or three full rotations but just three quarters, that translates into a wheel range of 240 in the options. Also experiment with the other settings there. Finally, in the physics options, turn off ABS (is it that in English, too?), traction control and all that - avoid the mistake I made yesterday. The car becomes more unstable that way, but you cannot do some of the more advanced manouvers with leaving these driving assistants on - they are designed to avoid what yoiu want to do - enter a spin or drift, for example.

Also increase the FFB, from 100 default to something in the range of 125-150, depending on taste. I just did so at Monza - and suddenly felt every scratch in the conrete I was jumping over (in the Formula Abarth). I think they are not finished with FFB anyway.

I tried the Ferrari just once so far, and found it to be a very smooth thing. But that was before I switched off the assistants. The two modern Lotus and the BMW Z4 are very responsive and agile cars without being unfair.

The car setup in the box already functions, btw. Change tires, pressure, etc. Some cars do not allow certain settings being changed.

The F-keys during replay allow several manipulations of the viewing angles, some of the additional to what the replay menu allows. You figured out how the apps system works, yes? It's one of those ingenious design decisions of theirs.

+ and + keys on numpad move your seat forward and back.

Find documents\assetto corsa\cfg\race.cfg, and the line

[LAP_INVALIDATOR]
ALLOWED_TYRES_OUT=2

Change "2" to a number 1-4, to decide how many tires must leave the tarmac to trigger penalties. I found that very annoying, and entered "-1", switching them off completely.

Drive, drive, drive! :up:

[Lionclaw]

Okay you two, then it is time to close in for the kill: :D

No need, I got it yesterday afternoon. :O:

The sense of speed seems to be on the realistic side compared to other racing games. I'm carrying too much speed into the corners, it will take some time to get used to. :)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Handy tips there, Skybird, thanks. :up:

If either of you want to add me in Steam in preparation for mp release I'm the same name.

[Lionclaw]

That Lotus 49 is evil, a real handful to drive. :D

Managed a 1:09.5 on Silverstone.

Shortened the final gear ratio in order to get optimal speed on the longest straight.

[Skybird]

The head moves very slowly when wanting to look to the side.

Cure: document\Assetto Corsa/cfg/camera_onboard.ini

[ROTATION]
HEAD_MAX_DEGREES=60
SPEED=4

Replace 4 with higher values. Somebody reported 50 means instant change. Try 25 or so first.

[AsnF]

Go here....
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\system\c fg


Open assetto_corsa.ini file using Notepad


and set
ENABLE_DEV_APPS=1

now when in game and driving.. stop the car.. bring your mouse curser to the right of your screen and you will now see a whole bunch of icons.. look for the one that says, on board setting..:up:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Welcome aboard AsnF :salute:

Will try that later, the existing Apps system is all new to me and a novelty that I probably won't utilise very much.

[AsnF]

[QUOTE=Herr-Berbunch;2139588]Welcome aboard AsnF :salute:

Thank you Sir :salute:

So now...Lotus F1 skin for Tatuus, include driver.

Put in "SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars\tatuusf a1\skins"

www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?thr...include-driver.1588/ (http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lotus-f1-skin-for-tatuus-include-driver.1588/) :up:

[Herr-Berbunch]

That Lotus 49 is evil, a real handful to drive. :D

Managed a 1:09.5 on Silverstone.


Is that 1:09.5 in the Lotus 49? :o I'm only down to 1:20.something and that's a fight, mind you if I can keep it on the track it's going to be better. :D

I'm down to 1:07... in the Formula Abarth.

[Skybird]

Try to stay between the two white lines. :D

If you still struggle with the Ferrari - mind you, this version of it is a regular street car. Break early before turns. I find the Ferrari to be a joy to drive.

The Lotus 49 - going soft on the pedals is key, I found.

[Lionclaw]

Is that 1:09.5 in the Lotus 49? :o I'm only down to 1:20.something and that's a fight, mind you if I can keep it on the track it's going to be better. :D

I'm down to 1:07... in the Formula Abarth.

Indeed, I changed the final ratio to the lowest setting for the gearbox. Close to full revs at the longest straight.

Got it down to a 1:08.412. 1:09.5 was with the same setting.

Tried with a change of the rear camber to -0.1, but I didn't manage to set a better time.

It's possible to go a little bit faster, but it's not the easiest car to string together a perfect lap :)

[Skybird]

You two will have fun once they have opened the parts of the track containing the steep wall-turns.

Spend last night emptying one gas-load in the Ferrari at Vallelunga, and another at Imola - without making driving errors anymore. To me, this sim is about perfecting your driving technique. When you manage to make a round flawlessly and fluid, times start to drop all by itself. Driving fluid in the Ferrari is trump. I love it, it is almost a meditation.:) Some people in the forum complain about AC having street cars. But that is right what attracts me most.

I suck in the BMW GT2. That thing is brute force. I take 15 seconds longer in it than in any of the other cars. :D Sometimes I think I finished most of the round driving in reverse. :lol:

[TarJak]

The head moves very slowly when wanting to look to the side.

Cure: document\Assetto Corsa/cfg/camera_onboard.ini

[ROTATION]
HEAD_MAX_DEGREES=60
SPEED=4

Replace 4 with higher values. Somebody reported 50 means instant change. Try 25 or so first.

Is that with or without TrackIR or similar?

[Skybird]

I'll check that. I tried TrackIR early on, but found no reason to use it so far, since there is no "hostiles" on the track and the freedom of hea movement was limited. Two buttons switching viewing directions currently is fully sufficient. But they have to switch the views quickly, for Gods sake.

I have mine fixed at a value of 30 now. Works almost instantly.

Will check TrackIR again.

Possible that it is not yet fully implemented. Many things are not included so far. It's an early-access-beta.

[Skybird]

No chnages with TrackIR when altering that variable. But then, TrackIR currently is really not needed nor any useful at all in AC.

[Skybird]

Because undecided but curious people may ask: here are two lists of officially confirmed content as planned for release of full version 1.0 (at the type of writing this, the beta counts 0.1.2 ;) )

CARS:

Abarth 500 SS
BMW 1 Series M Coupé
BMW M3 (E30) EVO
BMW M3 (E30) Group A
BMW M3 (E92)
BMW M3 GT2
BMW Z4 (E89)
BMW Z4 GT3
Ferrari 312T
Ferrari F40
Ferrari 458 Italia
Ferrari 458 GT2
Ferrari 599XX EVO
Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina
KTM X-Bow R
Lotus 49
Lotus 98T
Lotus 2-Eleven
Lotus 2-Eleven GT4
Lotus Elise SC
Lotus Evora S
Lotus Evora SR
Lotus Evora GTE
Lotus Evora GTC
Lotus Exige 240R
Lotus Exige S
Lotus Exige S Roadster
Lotus Exige Scura
Lotus Exos T125
McLaren MP4-12C
McLaren MP4-12C GT3
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3
Pagani Zonda R
Pagani Huayra
Tatuus FA010


TRACKS:

ACI Vallelunga Circuit
Autodromo dell'Umbria
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Mugello Circuit
Trento-Bondone Hill Climb
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Silverstone Circuit
Nürburgring
Drift Test Circuit :Fictional 0,9 km Drift
Drag Strip : Fictional 2,0 km Drag

Note that Spa will come as a separate Premium DLC that comes for free for all early access subscribers - they save double, first the AC 1.0 verison they will have gotten 22% off, and the Spa DLC they will get for free.

Also, Spa and Monza will have both modern and historic layouts. Silverstone will come in three modern layouts.

All tracks are laser-scanned, except the historic ones, of course.

Modded tracks can be expected, since the title is designed to be very modding-friendly, they say. New cars I do not need necessarily. But some tracks I'd be interested in.

I thought that Nordschleife was confirmed. Somebodsy reported just a rumour, I assume. We will see it nevertheless: as later DLC and/or as a modded track.

I would like to see Zandvoort and Suzuka as well.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Note that Spa will come as a separate Premium DLC that comes for free for all early access subscribers. . .


I thought that Nordschleife was confirmed. Somebodsy reported just a rumour, I assume. We will see it nevertheless: as later DLC and/or as a modded track.


Good news about Spa, and I think hardly anyone in the forum hasn't requested Nordschleife - that would make a great multiplayer, not a race but as a continuous public pay-to-drive on as they can do now.

As for the car line-up I think it's a bit pants that there are nine separately listed Elise/Exige/Evora models - shows little thought as they're all basically the same but with a tweak to bodywork and/or handling/sound here and there.

Tonight I've knocked a few more seconds off my Silverstone/Lotus 49 time but still not near enough to Lionclaw.

Then I returned to the Ferrari 458 for the first time since I posted about it on Saturday. Well with all the usual aids off it started off great, just missing the pit wall and then nicely down the pit lane to join the track.

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/6494/vm9u.jpg

Then I ran a little wide at Maggots and on my return to the track (now I've adjusted the tyre-off-track to -1) I got a little airborne. I told you this car would try and kill me, my head appears to be detached from my torso that is still gripping the wheel. :o

I slid most of the track width, and all of the inside-corner grass and hit the wall at about 25 mph.

The M3 GT2, however, I find to be a fantastic car. :rock:

[Skybird]

I realised that you can note several cars being more or less suited for the various tracks. The Ferrari does very well at Imola and Vallelunga, but I found it very difficult to use at Silverstone.

The Z4 is a great choice for Maggione.

The BMW GT2 is a killer. There at the latest you notice the difference between street cars and racing machines. I enjoy the other BMWs, the Lotus and the Ferrari more.

[Herr-Berbunch]

:D The Lotus 49 is perfect for Monza '66. I love it. :D

1:33.804 is my fastest so far

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1610/nhfr.jpg

Still struggling not to clip the armco at Lesmo though, and usually a wheel or two touching the gravel at Parabolica.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2931/3oez.jpg

[Skybird]

Yes, I did some one-mid-thirties there, too. But i do not drive it much, the Lotus 49 I mean.

Ever tried to switch off Blur? IMO the game looks much better without it. They say it also consumes quite some calculation power. Even HDR is not needed, but some lights on some cars seem to work erratical then.

This is as much BMW as BMW goes:
http://www7.pic-upload.de/13.11.13/9pxjooatz2z.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318491/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_magione_13-11-2013-1-43-16.jpg.html)

Hm. Should have posted them in this thread from all beginning on, maybe, instead of the other thread. But well, no damage done.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/9pxjooatz2z.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318491/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_magione_13-11-2013-1-43-16.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/6zjge455ppu.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318490/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_vallelunga_13-11-2013-1-39-16.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/cnbjnhu2w.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318489/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e92_silverstone-international_13-11-2013-1-46-7.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/yrsykhqp1an.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318495/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e92_silverstone-international_13-11-2013-1-51-50.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/snvli7fhzihb.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318496/Screenshot_ferrari_458_imola_13-11-2013-1-25-49.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/p7vd4hy2kmpt.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318494/Screenshot_ferrari_458_imola_13-11-2013-1-34-58.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/5fcoouuqofvg.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318499/Screenshot_ferrari_458_imola_13-11-2013-1-37-10.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/vh31x52subiz.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318497/Screenshot_ktm_xbow_r_magione_10-11-2013-1-35-47.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/eh6swtcw624.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318498/Screenshot_ktm_xbow_r_magione_10-11-2013-1-36-0.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/zxyu3zki14a.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318500/Screenshot_ktm_xbow_r_magione_10-11-2013-1-36-9.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/5aeahlhhg93g.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318501/Screenshot_lotus_49_monza66_13-11-2013-1-16-49.jpg.html)
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/13.11.13/oz87zxkxgb9a.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21318502/Screenshot_lotus_49_monza66_13-11-2013-1-18-58.jpg.html)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Jeez, do you not sleep?

I do have HDR and blur off, that was just a little p'shopped.

In the 49, at Monza, I can reach 180 mph, same track in the F. Abarth I really struggle to hit mid-150s, the cornering isn't as much fun either.

[Lionclaw]

Formula Abarth is one of the first steps for karting drivers who want to step up to the next level. So it's not really a fast car. :)

[Herr-Berbunch]

You're right! I didn't know that, I thought it was just a 'can't afford the license to run F1 cars so we'll do a generic copy'. :salute:

[Skybird]

Two comparisons in one: the track is Vallelunga, the car is the Formula Abarth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obihNetDcDg

I love the comment left by a staff member of Kunos, replying to people complaining the Formula Abarth being "arcadish" and simulating too much grip and false physics. He said in the Kunos forum:

Guys, we have "THE" formula Abarth, 20 meters under our offices several times every year. We use AC one to prepare newbies and to train veteran drivers. We had access to any kind of data that exist, and the telemetry (at vallelunga, same track) says that our DOES it on the same way: second gear, full throttle, no dangers, full grip...
Laptimes are difficult to compare. Before driving the real one, Instructors brainwash drivers on how much does cost to even scratch one, how much to bend a suspension arm ecc ecc
But you don't know how many times we could literally overlap telemetries...
You have to live with it.

:)

[Skybird]

This is a video from one year ago. It is a demonstration of the AI's state that it was in back then. I assume since then they have not started to walk backward, so - extremely promising! :yeah: :sunny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_v8h7Eldig

[Skybird]

AC has been No.2 best-selling game on Steam throughout the week just behind Call of Duty: Ghosts, and No. 1 best-seeling racing simulation/game.

Kunos Simulazioni meanwhile announced next update (they shall be released every two weeks) will be on Friday 22th, and it will include two new tracks and 3 new cars.

Some time got killed:

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/ys2btpos7u4.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337357/BMWm3e30_magione_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/wel1r7xlqny.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337356/BMWm3e92_silverstone_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/cbrxik3lufz6.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337358/Abarth500_Imola_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/caz8kopb5te9.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337361/FER458_Imola_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/sj9hvjkjiuwr.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337362/BMWm3gt2_monza66_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/zkb62awgrvz.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337360/KTMxbow_magione_1.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.11.13/p5vodhmwtcv.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21337363/Lotus49_Monza66_1.jpg.html)

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Oh boy this is a tough one for me, I've been looking at this and WRC 4. Both of these games are the same price right now, both have my favorite forms of motorsport, both have a great selection of cars and tracks. So I don't know weather or not to get both games now, or get one now and wait from the other to go on sale, or if/when both go on sale to get 'em then. Granted the price for AC will at least double when it hits v1.0, so I don't want to wait too long.

[Herr-Berbunch]

AC is currently discounted by 22% so the price won't double. I'd get one and wait for the other to be discounted but if you want and can afford both then do that.

I just did a couple of dozen laps in the Lotus 49 and the M3 GT2 then made the mistake of a quick blast in Grid 2. AC is so much better (mind you, graphics aside, Grid is also better than Grid 2). Get your lap records done before MP and AI are introduced!

[Lionclaw]

I wonder what their plans are with telemetry. As it is now, there's not really all that much information. Just speed, throttle and brake pedal position, and gear.

It would be nice to have suspension telemetry to see if the car is bottoming out, hitting the tarmac

[Herr-Berbunch]

Isn't that what FFB is for?

Anyone here know what the .DDS settings should be for saving a new skin? I stuck a police livery on the GT2 template but it's not showing in-game. :cry:

[Skybird]

Oh boy this is a tough one for me, I've been looking at this and WRC 4. Both of these games are the same price right now, both have my favorite forms of motorsport, both have a great selection of cars and tracks. So I don't know weather or not to get both games now, or get one now and wait from the other to go on sale, or if/when both go on sale to get 'em then. Granted the price for AC will at least double when it hits v1.0, so I don't want to wait too long.

I just looked up WRC4, and found three German reviews, all of them rating it mediocre only - while not directly comparing it to AC. I am pretty confident that AC sinks WRC4 both in the visual and driving department. The videos I saw on WRC also do not convince me. And I could swear the tracks are somewhat repetitive, in parts.

Last rally sim I used was Richard Burns. Now AC makes me think of RBR as tiny toy cars made by Matchbox, being thrown around on the carpet. And I once belonged to those hailing RBR's physics!

What I mean is this: you want AC first! :O:

:D

[Herr-Berbunch]

Metacritic gives WRC4 61% from the critics and 5.6/10 (surely that's 56%? Why not use the same?) from the users.

AC is still to receive a critic's review but has 9.1 from the users, and it's only early access beta at the moment.

If that helps you? :hmm2:

[Skybird]

There is a new official trailer out. By what it shows I could imagine that the steep turns (don't know how they are called in English) in Monza are to be released next. I am no Monza fan myself, I'd prefer to get Mugello and/or Nürburg first.

Since it is announced as a separate DLC (free for early access customers), I fear my beloved Spa comes last.:wah: No track there is that I have collected more rounds on.

[Lionclaw]

They're called banked turns. :)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Steady, Sky, you don't want them to rush S-F and have errors, you want it perfect - which takes time. :up:

I'd appreciate some opposition for the tracks I've already got before any more tracks.

And why do people who put videos on YouTube insist on having the view 20 feet behind the car, in Burnout it may be fine but for a sim over arcade surely it defeats the object. :/\\!!

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I just looked up WRC4, and found three German reviews, all of them rating it mediocre only - while not directly comparing it to AC. I am pretty confident that AC sinks WRC4 both in the visual and driving department. The videos I saw on WRC also do not convince me. And I could swear the tracks are somewhat repetitive, in parts.

Last rally sim I used was Richard Burns. Now AC makes me think of RBR as tiny toy cars made by Matchbox, being thrown around on the carpet. And I once belonged to those hailing RBR's physics!

What I mean is this: you want AC first! :O:

:D Ok, well here's the thing. In terms of driving, driving on a track vs driving on dirt, gravel is very different. There's things that you can do in a rally car that you couldn't do in a racing car and vice versa. Also I think that rallying is much more challenging the regular racing. With rallying you have to deal with the elements far more then in regular racing. As for looks, I really don't care that much about how a game looks.
Now as for comparing games, I own Race 07 and I am very confident that AC would trounce Race 07 in every way, in particular car handling (only yesterday I tried to drive the classic Mini Cooper S with the traction control off, bad idea!!). As for rally games I've played Sega Rally Revo and in this case WRC 4 would trounce SRR in every aspect, in particular number of tracks and cars. Trying to compare a regular racing game to that of a rally game is like trying to compare the cars of each game. Most rally cars you could take out of the mud and muck and with a few changes could use them on a track as most are toughened up street cars. Now if you tried to take most of the cars used in regular racing off the track and into the mud and muck it wouldn't totally work because most race cars are built for the track and nothing else with the exception of some cars that can make the crossover quite well like the Fiat 500 and the BMW Mini.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Now if you tried to take most of the cars used in regular racing off the track and into the mud and muck it wouldn't totally work because most race cars are built for the track and nothing else with the exception of some cars that can make the crossover quite well like the Fiat 500 and the BMW Mini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tEHQJn_hxo :D

[Skybird]

I did not compare rally and track racing, I said that in comparison to the physics in AC the cars in RBR now feel like light miniature toy-cars I used to play with as a little boy. Too little feeling of mass. Weight. G-forces.

I know only RBR, and before that, CMR 1+2, many years ago. WRC I do not know, I refered to videos and what I read. The few reviews and feedbacks I quickly flew over, were not enthusiastic.

Anyhow, everyone to his liking. Just saying that the physics and the simulation aspects as well as the visuals in AC deliver. Fully. The virtual experience is the closest to real life that I have ever sensed in any racing game and sim.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Ok now that's cool. But I don't think the Red Bull boss would of let the driver of that F1 car go full throttle on only racing slicks.

[Herr-Berbunch]

But if any team boss would, it's Red Bull's. Off road, ice floes, through the streets of Milton Keynes and New York (and obviously Austin), amongst others.

I'm only surprised they haven't tried it on Coniston Water yet! (Bluebird reference)

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

But if any team boss would, it's Red Bull's. Off road, ice floes, through the streets of Milton Keynes and New York (and obviously Austin), amongst others.

I'm only surprised they haven't tried it on Coniston Water yet! (Bluebird reference) Your probably right there. I wonder if Red Bull owns an Icelandic Buggy or a snowmobile ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oeJjzdlTuI:rock:@Skybird Its fine, you where comparing with what you've had experience with. Chances are when I get AC and WRC 4 I'll compare them to Race 07 and Sega Rally Revo.

[Skybird]

Ok now that's cool. But I don't think the Red Bull boss would of let the driver of that F1 car go full throttle on only racing slicks.
F1...?

You probably mean the Formula Abarth. That is one of the slowest and lowest class formula classes there is, or even the slowest of them all, I'm not certain. Entry level for drivers making the jump from non-formula to formula racing.

Anyhow, I trust in Kunos that they know especially that car better than most if not all others. They're working close with and to the Abarth team - in the same housing.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

F1...?

You probably mean the Formula Abarth. That is one of the slowest and lowest class formula classes there is, or even the slowest of them all, I'm not certain. Entry level for drivers making the jump from non-formula to formula racing.

Anyhow, I trust in Kunos that they know especially that car better than most if not all others. They're working close with and to the Abarth team - in the same housing. I think you got confused here, the F1 I was referring to was the Red Bull Formula 1 car that was the in video Herr-B linked, I wasn't referring to anything in AC itself.

[Skybird]

Ah! One unsolved mystery less in the world.

[Skybird]

I learned about the photo-app that you can unlock when enabling developer's tools in the config. Wowh, that is a powerful tool! Try it! Total control over angles, view, focus, colours, lights and shadows, time of day.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Well I sussed the .DDS config, and after only once saving the image upside-down which gave a whacky result I'm nearly there.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7053/ohpn.jpg

Now I've seen it in the (virtual) flesh rather than just a photoshop template I can see what needs tweaking - darken the blue lines and wording, line up the chequers and the jam sandwich on the doors. I may change it to Humberside Police as it's more in keeping with their colours.

Any other constructive criticism here would be helpful. :up:

[Skybird]

I take it that you painted it...!?

[Herr-Berbunch]

I take it that you painted it...!?

I did, or tried to. :D

[Skybird]

More achievement than just mere try, I'd say. :up: 8 or 9 years ago, somebody made a subsim-skin for Papyrus' NASCAR 2003. You are assigned to the job for AC now. :D Neal gives you the design details.

[Skybird]

There are peop0le complaining that is AC you cannot drift, or that it is so difficult to drift, and that game X, Y and Z have you drifitng already by just entering a turn, and how much fun that is. Or they complain that car A and B and C in Assetto corsa have so weak engines that they bog down immediately and loose too much revs when being in a drift.

Nonsense! Ypu guys just do not know anything about how to do it! Nor do I...:D

But this guy knows for sure. His video gives evidence for all to see in unconcealed clarity that you CAN DRIFT in AC. And that it is difficult to make the car drift, and that this is how it should be (drifting with control is not that easy at all in reality).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD9DOdX19MQ

Needless to say, when I drift myself, I do it involuntarily most of the time. :D

[Herr-Berbunch]

More achievement than just mere try, I'd say. :up: 8 or 9 years ago, somebody made a subsim-skin for Papyrus' NASCAR 2003. You are assigned to the job for AC now. :D Neal gives you the design details.

Thanks. Should be relatively easy if I stick to individual panels for logos, the problem I have is the template has a smaller door which cocks it all up.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3199/2hh2.jpg

Do you have any screenshots of the Subsim NASCAR? :hmmm:

I saw that drifting video last week, he makes it look sooooo easy. The only drifting in corners I do is straight ahead with the wheels locked up! :-?

[Skybird]

I already looked it up, both in the forum archive and my mod-DVD for the sim, but it seems that I never made any screenshot, or it got lost. It was dark blue and black, had "Subsim" and "Sonalysts" logos and names over it, and "14" (my birthday) and "Skybird" as driver's name on the sides. Maybe somebody reading this recalls it.

I did not find the thread where it got discussed, must have been 2004 or 2005 I think. Nascar 2003 and Papyrus gives results when using forum search, but not the one needed.

Anyhow, I was just kidding you. Because if you do such a skin for one car, you are in danger to start a flame war over people complaining that you made it for this car, and not for that one. I recommend to not expose yourself to that terror! :woot:

Let's wait for this Friday's presents. I hope it is not more of the modern Lotus cars. I do not like that rubber car's handling too much. Unfortunately, they seem to have made a nice licensing deal with Lotus - there will be more lotus cars in the final sim than any others, including a second historical one.

The current Lotus-49's physics are saids to be not completed so far. So that Lotus will change as well, at least perceptable to the knowing (which I am not, I avoid that thing currently).

[Skybird]

The three new cars this Friday likely will be:

Pagani Zonda R
Lotus 2-Eleven
Glickenhaus P4/5 Competitizione

No word on the two new tracks.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Great, another Lotus! Still, it should go better than those already in.

Quite looking forward to the P4/5 but I bet it's a handful. :dead:

[Skybird]

Tracks are rumored to be Mugello (great, I like that one and hoped for it) and a Drift Circus.

Download hopefully starts any minute now. :D

Herr B, I think you will find yourself in Lotus hell once the full 1.0 has been released. Plenty of Lotus models are homing in on your system. :)

[Skybird]

Not a rumor, but confirmed, I just found the official video teaser for the update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M8_GhhaDWI

Second showroom added as well. And plenty of tweaking, tuning, functionality enhancing.

[Lionclaw]

Ah Mugello, nice track. Liked it in Forza Motorsport 4. :up:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Mugello's nice, a lovely long straight. :D

I was drifting in the 458 last night, with TC off the wheels were still spinning up to 5th gear. Disappointing amount of tyre smoke though. I hadn't planned on drifting, but a 458 without TC just invites it.

[Skybird]

Mugello's nice, a lovely long straight. :D

You need the Avus in Berlin. :D

[Skybird]

"Kinners, Essen is' fertig...!" :) :sunny: :yeah:

[Skybird]

Beautifully mopdelled Mugello track! A piece of beauty and art, embedded nicely in the hills of the landscape. Very beautiful. And a nice track to drive. Lovely update!

Just that the Ferrari Italia has lost preview graphics and two of the three default colours is what itches me.

The new showroom is looking great!

[Herr-Berbunch]

Downloading now, 1 minute left. :yeah:

Edit - all looking good so far. That new Lotus needs the drift track for sure!

[Skybird]

Only little issue that angers me a bit is that they have prevented the lap-inavlaidator workaround to work. I can edit both race.cfg files in MyDocuemnts and in Steam's application folder to "-1" when checking againm after having launched the game, they both are back to "2". So they have made the penalty model that in the community'S opinion is the worst of all possibilities the mandatory one. First really bad choice of theirs.

The Lotus car - like the other two modern Lotusses, I will not become close friend with this one.

The two other real fast new cars are great, on the other hand. So are the imroved FFB effects and new paint jobs on many cars. Why they killed some of the old ones, escapes me, however. Maybe, hopefully just temporary.

The drift circus I could live without. Drift stunts just are not my cup of tea.

But Mugello - that is a darling track, really. Fantastic job they did there, absolutely outstanding. The laser scanning pays off, you feel every hole and every bump there. I compared it to videos from real time onboard footage - they marked all visual details right on target sites. I now can just dream of Spa and Nürburg.

Awesome simulation. Best driving feeling and car immersion there is. :yeah:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Only little issue that angers me a bit is that they have prevented the lap-inavlaidator workaround to work. I can edit both race.cfg files in MyDocuemnts and in Steam's application folder to "-1" when checking againm after having launched the game, they both are back to "2". So they have made the penalty model that in the community'S opinion is the worst of all possibilities the mandatory one. First really bad choice of theirs.

Alt-Tab out the game, set it to -1 and go back in. Worked for me but I didn't restart the game. I agree it's a bad choice on their part.

The Lotus car - like the other two modern Lotusses, I will not become close friend with this one.

It's perfect for the drift circuit, I know you're not a drifting fan (and not being Japanese or a Saudi nor am I) but it's what's expected in a modern car game.

The two other real fast new cars are great, on the other hand. So are the imroved FFB effects and new paint jobs on many cars. Why they killed some of the old ones, escapes me, however. Maybe, hopefully just temporary.

I haven't seen all the other cars yet, just the new ones and the Lotus (no change) and black E30/92s.

The drift circus I could live without. Drift stunts just are not my cup of tea.

It suckered me in. I tried it and then got hooked on the 'I could obviously do a better score than that'. And I did. The only downside is the lack of definition of the track - there's turns everywhere but no set route. :-?

But Mugello - that is a darling track, really. Fantastic job they did there, absolutely outstanding. The laser scanning pays off, you feel every hole and every bump there. I compared it to videos from real time onboard footage - they marked all visual details right on target sites. I now can just dream of Spa and Nürburg.

Awesome simulation. Best driving feeling and car immersion there is. :yeah:

Spa and Nordshleife are the two everyone wants (and I want Circuit de la Sarthe (le Mans)). If they are making people (who don't buy now) buy Spa then Nordshleife will definitely be DLC and not bundled with original game, but a DLC well worth it I think.

[Skybird]

Different to my initial belief, the full Nordsschleife currently does not seem to be on their radar. We get the Nürburg GP. Another track I know inside out and like to race on.

And here is some very nice and competent feedback by a real race driver, retired, who has owned several Lotus models himself and still owes one, and comparing their driving characteristics and his times at Silverstone with the virtual pendants. And he says they nailed it exactly. I may not love the Lotus rubber-feeling (it is do fluffy and non-linear for my taste, I like it more direct and straight), but they seem to have replicated the Lotus physics precisely.

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lotus-2-eleven-assetto-corsa-vs-real-life.2652/

They have locked their forums again,registration needed (stupid, costs them some potentially interested customers for sure), so here it is:


I thought some people might be interested in my initial thoughts on the new AC update's Lotus 2-Eleven, as I'm a former racing driver who now owns a 2-Eleven for track days and road use here in the UK. I've just done 15 laps on the sim:

I've just tried the 2-Eleven on AC at the track I last drove in it in real life, Silverstone International, and have just compared my replay from just now in Assetto Corsa with some in-car laps from the real track in my 2-Eleven that I filmed a couple of months ago (link below). Here are my thoughts:

Initially it felt 80-85% of the way there, but with a more stable back end (see the constant mid-corner correction required in the above video, although the rear tyres were over-heating in that clip) and slightly less weight transfer effects - the slides didn't get nasty as quickly as they do in the real car and the rear seemed a bit more stable. Then I reduced the rear wing to 6 degrees (the track only version presumably modelled in the sim has an adjustable rear wing, whereas my road version doesn't) and I took the front ARB down a notch to position 2 (I actually run full stiffness at the front in real life, but I noticed the sim has 4 positions, so maybe the track car has a different front ARB?). Now with those settings it feels very similar indeed to my 2-Eleven, and in the video/replay comparison it looks spookily similar. Lap times are about a second different (normally I'm about a second quicker in real life when I've done this sort of comparison before, due to the feel element, but this time it was the other way round- best lap in real life was a 1:16, whereas just now I did a 1:15), however it was my first ever time on the layout when I drove it back then and only my second trackday in the car and on AC I've been practising a fair bit at the circuit lately, so I'd say the lap times are bang on - if I went back in my real car I think I know where I could gain time and I think a 1:15 is doable straight away, and probably down into the 14s with time (same for the sim - I just did 15 laps). The real car has fully adjustable dampers all round (rebound and comp), which sadly isn't available in Assetto Corsa (a chink in the realism there - are the development team reading this? I can provide details if necessary); I'd also like to try increasing the damping at the rear end a bit (which is what I do to mine for trackdays, as per Lotus' recommendation), and I think it'd be 100% there then. Incidentally, the geo settings are exactly as per Lotus' recommendation in real life, which is nice, although strangely by default the car in the sim was showing assymetrical front geo numbers, even though the sliders looked the same - is that a bug? Oh, and the 2-Eleven doesn't sound quite as nice with the standard road exhaust compared to my motorsport one(the video above doesn't show it well cause I am running the cameras internal mic sealed up to stop it overloading on wind noise - a home grown ext mic mod is on the way), but I think that's the same as real life too actually; many owners have changed their exhausts from standard.

We need a setting for the seating position too - I'm about 6 inches shorter in the body than the sim driver must be (I look partly through the aeroscreen in real life) and I have the seat much further back cause of my long legs.

All in all, pretty good though, I'm very impressed!

Oh, and the 3D model is also bang on, right down to the stickers and plaque etc in the cockpit - nice work!

[...]

By the way, I had an Elise for eight years before the 2-Eleven and have driven pretty much every variant of that and the Exige. Both are extremely good in the sim - a really fantastic job in terms of realism.

[Skybird]

Unbelievably well-done onboard video, a realistically looking live cam. Witness the Zonda onboard at Mugello. This is one of the best racing videos I have ever seen - it is so very easy to get tricked by its looks, you mistake this so quickly for reality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIAE0YaLOgk&feature=youtu.be

[Skybird]

Two more videos, comparing virtuality with reality.

The 2-11 at Silverstone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jQouH8oCGo

Mugello:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6lP7MMd6ho

And this one shows the fictional track, Drift Circus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkibQcrCSwg

If only I knew how they do it. I just don't get it.

[Lionclaw]

The Lotus 2-Eleven is quite a fun car to drive. Need to be careful not to be too abrupt with the controls though.

P4/5, very grippy car. At least on Mugello, turn 8 through 9 can almost be taken in full throttle in 5th gear. Pretty easy to drive, at least compared to the Zonda.

Zonda. A proper GT car. :yeah:

Lotus 49 on Mugello. Now there's a fun track to drive that car on. :rock:

[Herr-Berbunch]

P4/5, very grippy car. At least on Mugello, turn 8 through 9 can almost be taken in full throttle in 5th gear. Pretty easy to drive, at least compared to the Zonda.


It's the only thing I can take near flat out at Abbey (turn one), Silverstone. I thought it would be a very difficult car to tame, but I was wrong, fortunately. It's also quite good at Vallelunga.

[Skybird]

Do these people know no weekend or family life? X Rebirth two patches yesterday, one today - it's Sunday today, and Kunos Teams bring a 20+ MB update, too. And not even needing to hotfix some showstopping issue - nothing that could not have waited until Monday.

"Gute Männer musste haben!":salute:

[Skybird]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCYJOcKLuWk

Some modders don't loose time. :D This is the Shelby Daytona moved from netKart Pro into Assetto Corsa.

Drive with a swing, babe, always with a swing...

[Skybird]

http://www.bsimracing.com/assetto-corsa-new-shaders-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-preview/#2123

Kunos Simulazioni showed screenshots confirming that they are implementing NEW car body shaders :o As if I could have imagined the cars to be able to look any better! Car reflections in various times of day get improved. :up:

It is also confirmed they plan to release the next update, which should push it to version 0.3 then I think, on Friday, Decembre 6th.

:yeah:

Question for those who have tried the P4/5 Competizione:

(which in reality has a regular street license in the US and thus drives with a number plate from the state of New York :o ) - I do not know anything about these car classes, and this car, but I witness the virtual driver showing very little arms movement in the car even at slow speeds and in 2nd and 1st. This leads to the car having a huge turn radius, forbidding it for at least one of the tracks, Vallelunga, because it cannot manage to take the 15th turn there, which is the tightest of the whole track. Is this as designed, does this car need track with wide turns and is forbidden with others - or is it having a problem with accepting steering input from my steering wheel which works perfectly with the other cars, I point out).? I am irritated that the virtual driver has so little movement in his arms in this car. I asked in the Kunos forums, but got no consistent replies. There others reported difficulties at Mugello, and that the car does not turn well there, too, especially when being not fast enough and looses mechanical grip due to lacking downforce. However, my virtual driver should at least nevertheless turn the wheel to the maximum he can - and the the rest is understeer effect and the car not turning due to understeer. But if the driver does not turn the wheel, it is no understeer effect, obviously. - Try it yourself in an unmodified P4/5, at Vallelunga, and report what you get at the hairpin, turn 15. Your nose should bite into the grass wall almost every time. Realistic with that kind of car?

[Herr-Berbunch]

I can get round it, 1st gear - 30 mph. Then next time I can't, same gear and speed but it really must be all to do with entry - I start far right and cut in but sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. My first five or six laps were with absolutely no driving aids at all (left over from a Steam achievement) and I could get round that corner better than with with stability (but nothing else) on 100%. You're right about minimal hand movement on the wheel.

Lap times were good in this too, green after green. :yeah:

[Lionclaw]

What steering wheel do you have?


I had no problems with the P4/5 at Vallelunga. Hairpin at 2nd gear, 50-60 km/h.

Did a laptime of 1:38.280.


I have a Logitech G25. It has 900* rotation. I have to change the rotation depending on which car I'm driving.

900 for production cars.
600 for BMW GT2, and Pagani Zonda.
400 for P4/5, Lotus 49, and Formula Abarth car.

Somewhere in the options ingame you can set wheel rotation, don't know what it does really. Might want to check that out.

I set my rotation value via devices thingy in the control panel in Windows.

[Skybird]

I use a Ferrari 430 wheel with 240° hardware rotation.

I set that number manually in the options, therefore.

When trying the setup magician, it's automatic calibration led to a value of 245° also.

I use no hardware setup software for this wheel, but mapped the commands to its buttons directly from the sim. It's no HOTAS, and much more comfortable this way, since the number of key commands is very limited.

It is my understanding that you should not need to change that setting for every car, though it can (or should) be that there is a regular mechanical option for that in the box setup menu, like you have in formula 1 cars for example (what is it called like? steering lock, or something like that). In the sim'S generla menu, that setting is a principle hardware recognition value that you should need to adjust just once. The sim should over- or undercompensate hardware input according to the car's feature all by itself, depending on that value you entered.

when I turn my wheel and watch the virtual wheel moving, same hardware angle therefore translates into various virtual wheel angles indeed. In the P4/5, I have the 400° rotation that car should have only when it sits still, and when I turn the full 120° of the hardware wheel. As soon as it drives slowly, the driver turns the wheel by estimated 60° maximum, again with my hardware wheel turne3d to the maximum 120°.

I just cannot get around the corner in turn 15, even when I crawl. Some other turns the car can take - but merely so.

The Zonda or BMW-GT2 bite those tight turns and hairpins easily - at much higher speed. The P4/5 fails to take turns even at Mugello for me.

No other car gives me this problem. I m ean, some are difficult to turn, but that can be explained as obvious understeer effects.

[Skybird]

You're right about minimal hand movement on the wheel.

Something like this I wanted to hear - to learn that I am not alone. Chances are anyway that it is a design feature anyway. Maybe that car class is not meant to be run on such tight-turned tracks anyway. Only people knowing the real racing events and regulations could answer that.

Driving that car in Monaco sounds like a very bad idea to me. :)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Did a laptime of 1:38.280

I did 1:38.504 :wah:

I'm sure I could get that down with some tweaks though.

[Lionclaw]

Shaved it down to a 1:35.572 at Vallelunga. P4/5, Default setup. :oops:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Shaved it down to a 1:35.572 at Vallelunga. P4/5, Default setup. :oops:

NP - I like a challenge. :-?

:03:

[seaniam81]

blah 1:42.280. But in my defence I'm using a PS3 controller since I dont have a wheel.

[Herr-Berbunch]

360 controller here. I don't have space for a wheel set-up. :cry:

Two more years then the boy will be at uni and my master plan for taking over a room in the house for gaming, ahem - I mean studying, will come into effect.

Edit - 1:37.264 :cry::cry::cry: There's more there, but I don't know if I'll get it.

[Skybird]

I solved the steering issue. I reduced , in FFB options, speed sensitivity, from 0.1 to 0.05. And suddenly the P4/5 turns in corners as I would expect a car of that size to turn.

0.00 in that setting turns all cars into unplayable, zigzagging rubber balls. I have no idea what that thing is meant to simulate or to do to the controller. But obviously it is a very critical setting.

[Lionclaw]

Speed sensitivity basically makes the car easier to control at high speeds.

Strange that you couldn't navigate tight hairpins with that speed sensitivity. :hmmm:

The wheel ingame should turn more at low speeds. :hmm2:


At high speeds full lock with your hardware wheel won't give full lock ingame with speed sensitivity. With speed sensitivity off, full lock with wheel results in full lock ingame.


240° with no speed sensitivity, it's not surprising that the car zig zags. :03:

With a production car ingame, 120° to either side results in 450°.


Try this on the drift circuit with speed sensitivity: Drive in a circle holding the hardware wheel at the same position, go quickly and then decelerate. The wheel ingame should slowly turn more as the speed drops.


EDIT:

Tried with 240° and speed sensitivity at 0.1.. I understand what you mean about the P4/5 not able to navigate the last hairpin at Vallelunga. I even dropped to 30-40kmh, and it still couldn't handle the turn. And the wheel goes from full lock to not all that much rotation of the wheel very quickly from standstill. :S

That last hairpin can be taken in 55-60 kmh in 2nd gear with the P4/5.

EDIT2:
Just for fun I tried driving with a range of 40° with no speed sensitivity. It, was, interesting. :haha:

Letting go off the wheel, and lightly nudging it so the force feedback responds. It bounced back and forth. Lightning quick movements. :haha:

[Skybird]

As I said, everything works well now. 0.00 is madness, 0.1 does not turn, but 0.05 nicely fits in.

The limited movement range of the hardware wheel usually is no problem (even more so when you are used to it since years), most of the time the virtual wheel's and the hardware wheel's movements are very closely matched. It's only when the most extreme turns are needed and wheels get maxed in movement that the difference becomes very obvious.

I love my Ferrari 430 wheel...! :wah: Don't you ever dare to say somethign bad about it...! It'S extremely loud bang for the buck, and very good manufacturing quality with a heavy feel in buttons, and good FFB. And costs less than half only of a G27. Pedals (two oif them) also are robust and fair deal for the price.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/28.11.13/vutnrm1psn5f.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21465831/product_thumb.jpg.html)

And that mini-switch on the right, Macettino or however it is called, is just so cool... :D

[Lionclaw]

Nice looking wheel. :)

Better than the G25 in a way since it has several buttons, while the 25 has only 2 buttons + paddles on the wheel. :doh:

I used to have a Logitech Driving Force before, it was a great wheel. 200 or so degrees of rotation, but plenty of buttons. Worked great on the PS2 as well. :salute:

[Skybird]

In the past, for other racing sims, I used to plug in the CH ProThrottle of my HOTAS combo as well, as a fast and convenient way of getting blind access to more keyboard commands while driving than my wheel back then could hold. But this wheel above now holds 15 free buttons, the two paddles and the cursor keys hidden in the engine button not counted. That is sufficient for my needs, and the buttons all have a nice heavy and solid feel. And the FFB is robust, really. For the price I can recommend this wheel without restriction.

[seaniam81]

Got my times down to 1:38.181
Starting to get the hang of the track

[Skybird]

http://simhqmotorsports.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3701820/Interesting_AC_tyre_info#Post3701820

This guy found some interesting read by Kunos on their tire models.

[Skybird]

In their forums, somebody claimed you can use the telemetry analysis software by AIM, Race Studio 2, for full and detailed analysis of AC data. I know that it already worked in GTR2. But I cannot remember or newly figure out how to get lap telemetry data from AC into RS2. Ideas?

If you do not know RS, it is a professional software used by race engineers in real life. Gives you access and graphical analysis of all data that car car telemetry produces. Indispensable for the ambitioned pro AC racer, to squeeze the last tenth of a second out of his car setups! It's free to use. Also check the pdf files with manuals and explanations and examples.

http://www.me-mo-tec.de/de/Service/Software/RaceStudio-2

[Skybird]

Somebody explained it. In RS2 you chose "import netKar files", navigate to mydocuments/assetto corsa/aim/, and chose the file you want, then save it in RS2 again.

The folder I do have for sure. Now I need to find out why despite 40 hours logged it still is empty.

[Skybird]

With his usual excellence in video cutting and film-music synchronization, Stabiz has done some excellently edited videos already.

KTM X (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmuhQybFlrQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUn9M8HTW5Gb4Q1J-1VpItSA)

Zonda (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY0Ivr5N9-A&feature=c4-overview&list=UUn9M8HTW5Gb4Q1J-1VpItSA)

BMW Z4 E89 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTeDqHojcZA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUn9M8HTW5Gb4Q1J-1VpItSA)

BMW M3 E30 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T44StT1ULLw)

Always a joy to see his videos.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Shaved it down to a 1:35.572 at Vallelunga. P4/5, Default setup. :oops:

1:36.372 - that's on Time Attack tonight after 20 laps of consistant 1:37s yesterday. I'm pleased with that but it's beginning to be a pain in the rear with such a single focus! :stare:

Just for kicks I took the Zonda on a few laps and got 1:32.820 almost straight away, certainly takes that hairpin better than the 4/5.

[Lionclaw]

Nice. :)

Yeah, hotlapping becomes a bit boring after a while.

[Skybird]

It now is Thursday, which means: update day tomorrow. :yeah:

Rumours hold it that there will be the Lotus Evora and Exige Roadster, and the McLaren MP4 production.

Rumoured also is that the Silverstone International layout could be coming.

No word on AI or Nurnberg Ring, which would be my most wanted features now. I think AI is the most needed feature now, followed by MP for those interested in it.

In 30 hours we will know for sure!

And another rumour says Kunos plans to have completed the full release sometime during 1Q 2014.

[Skybird]

Kunos Simulazioni has given official confirmation of tomorrow's upgrade. There will be indeed the McLaren MP4-12C, the Lotus Evora S and the Lotus Exige S Roadster.

New tracks will be Silverstone GP and Vallelunga Club.

A third showroom theme will be "Hangar".
There also will be improved reflection shading. If that is what some screenshots earlier were about, then the cars will look EVEN BETTER.

Plus a whole big bag of fixes, improvements, fixes.

Official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq_eJAxAj6A

[Skybird]

The update arrived here at 16:00 local time. The McLaren MP4 looks nice and drives beastly, its not easy to control it, and it has quite some muscles and no patience with the driver's inabilities. It really is kind of an angry car. A real challenge. Two new Lotusses, well, all I can say is that Lotus and me will not become close friends in this life, I accept their word that they drive and behave realistically, but I take from that that I would not like the real cars as well then. track-wise, it is not so spectacular for my taste, the full Silverstone track is well done, visually, but I just do not like Silverstone but think it is one of the most boring tracks used in racing. Vallelunga Club is a short version of the full track, well-suited for slower cars, maybe the Abarth 500 and the like.

Unfortunately, the announced new reflection shader imo is a mild disaster, it looks hopelessly overdone and artificial, way too much shine and glitter and brightness in the reflections. What were they thinking what they were doing...? I really hope they reverse it, tone it down, whatever. Right now it is two steps backwards, visually. The complaints did not take long to come in, and I think Kunos cannot avoid to take note of them - too many complaints in too short time. Let'S hope they listen. I saw no need to alter the reflection shaders at all, to me they were almost perfect before.

It's beyond me how they could get to that. "Totalaussetzer", we would call that decision in German.

Else, a regular update according to their planning. Cure the reflection frenzy, and we are friends again! :yeah:

[Skybird]

I am considering to replace my Thrustmaster Ferrari 430 wheel with a Logitech G27. I feel guilty a bit, since my wheel is not broken at all and is excellent, really excellent manufacturing quality, it is well polished, all buttons and paddles have professional feeling, there are many options, and robust force feedback effects, the whole gear has a very heavy and worthy feeling and the stiffness of the pedals is better than in the G25, G27 or TS500. It's really quality for a fair price (140 Euros currently), I can recommend the 430 fullheartly and rate it as "A" for that price. But it has only that 240° rotation. I never felt that to be a limit , since years, before this wheel I had a Microsoft Sidewinder wheel, also with 240°. I'm used to it. But with this wonderful Assetto Corsa revelation, I feel for the first time ever the desire to get more wheel realism, AC just is too good. And this although I prefer the 430 to the G27 in all other regards.

Question: I could get the wheel at Amazon, and in my local stores as well, for 250 Euros. Is that a good price for German conditions? British Amazon currently has it listed as "unavailable". Logitech's business is struggling (therefore they declared earlier this year that they will no longer support console equipment). I do not expect that they will announce a new version of the wheel any time soon.

Or do I have too high hopes for the change from 240° to 900° ?

[Lionclaw]

Here they're priced from 1 990 - 2 999 SEK (€223.34 - €336.58), so that seems like a reasonable price. :)

One thing with the increased range that I've noticed is that you can drive with more precision. Instead of a smaller range where a smaller movement is required and easier to make mistakes.

And driving with a H-shifter is great, it takes time to learn heel-toe downshifting while braking though. But when you've learned the technique, it's great fun to drive right on the limit. :D

In Assetto Corsa, the cars with paddle shift, you use the paddles on the steering wheel. :)

[Skybird]

Or maybe I don't buy it. When I read that in a 250 Euro wheel the load-bearing rack wheels still are not formed of metal but plastic - then my mood drops immediately to freezing point.

But the steering wheel's front face, and the paddles, they form of full metal...?

What are they thinking?

I also read about quite some difficulties with the G25/27'S pedal potentiometers, they seem to fail not too rarely.

You take such risks for 100 or 150 Euro. But not for twice as much money. The metal in the wheel's center face is cosmetic only. Where metal really is needed instead of plastic, is the load-bearing internal parts. At least for 250 Euros.

[Skybird]

Since last fridays 0.3 update, two more hotfixes has been released. Think about early access what you want - they deliver. Every two weeks, and in between.

---

A member of the Kunos development team commented on the Nordschleife yesterday. It is out of the question in the release order until v 1.0 . He said they are aware of the great public demand for it, and the team itself would also absolutely love to have it included, but the preventing factor currently is money. Apparently that is the only one. He did not mention at all legal problems due to the unclear ownership situation with the Ring.

[ In this latter context it is interesting to know that the German automobile club ADAC - quite influential and powerful an opinion-former in Germany - has offered to buy the Nordschleife. Politicians so far block the idea because they want the loss-making fancy entertainment parks and small businesses along the track's sidelines being sold with the core racing business together. Of course - which is only reasonable - the ADAC refuses to buy that crap that was introduced just by politicians' interference with the track's management company, said politicians made the tracks management to establish this misled business sideline, and sinking plenty of public money in this folly as well. ]

I understood him as that they would absolutely love to do it, and when after the release of v1.0 there is a realistic chance to realise that project, they probably would do it, as payware DLC of course. It's just that they cannot assess those chances currently not practically and not financially.

I do not give up the hope, I even think that in the long run chances to get the Green Hell from them are greater than chances that they will not do it.

Just imagine - the laserscanned Nordschleife and the physics of Assetto Corsa... But we will have to wait for it quite some time, I think.

----

On another note, another team member confirmed earlier that the next update in ten days will include mouse steering - for whatever that is worth...

---

I have started to experiment with not subtle but bigger changes in the setups of the Lotus cars. It seems that the characteristics of theirs that I do not like that much can be tamed and turned into something more suitable for my driving style (if one can call that style when you desperately try to just stay between those two white lines...). Since I am still learnign to gte used to the differences in my new wheel, speed and laptimes currently are nothing I worry about, and so I aim at increasing downforce and balancing it between front and rear so that it fits my needs. The Evora and 2-11 indeed already feel better for me.

With shifter and clutch it is all new ballgame for me. My times are horrible. The fun nevertheless is twice as big as before now. But people should be thankful that I do not race online. Praise my kindness!

And then this comment I snapped up somewhere about the McLaren MP4, or "the beauty-beast", as I call it. Somebody commented on its rear flap that moves upwards when braking somehow like this: the McLaren has that fancy flap that moves up and blocks the driver's vision to the rear when he brakes, so that he must not watch the car behind him slamming right into his rear. :D

[Lionclaw]

Here's a setup guide I used to use with rFactor. :)

http://www.christianracing.com/crgarage/images/FootySrSetupChart.png

[Skybird]

What does that sheet do more than listing by name the items you find in a setup menu?

I already thought about trying to draw some schemes myself that help to to link increasing/decreasing of values with respective effect on understeer/oversteer. I have read and learned these things often enough, but I always forget them again, and when setting up a car it is hard trying again to remember which way it was.

I need to recheck, but it is possible that the German translations in AC translating some of the setup options, in parts at least are wrong. I found the German text on camber (Sturz) not making sense the way they explained the plus and minus values. Need to switch the program back to English and check it out.

[Lionclaw]

There are coloured arrows that shows what happens when you increase or decrease a parameter, and a description at the bottom what the colours of the arrows represent.


For example: Spring rate front

Decrease:

Decrease tire wear
Increase grip
More oversteer


Increase:

Increase tire wear
Decrease grip
More understeer


If the car has a tendency to oversteer you can either stiffen up the front springs or soften the rear springs.

Or you could also add negative camber to the rear wheels, helps a bit in cornering stability.


Here's site I have bookmarked. http://www.rapid-racer.com/suspension-tuning.php

[Skybird]

Ah, thanks.

[Skybird]

Oh miracles happen. The new wheel makes a bigger difference than expected - and the Lotus cars - cursed they have been before - all of a sudden start to make fun... Actually I spend more time with the Exige Roadster and the 2-11 today than the forecast told me. I am also able to appreciate the many subtle nuances in physics much more now. The sim has been upgraded by a whole version number for me by getting another wheel.

Very nice! :yeah:

[Skybird]

It seems that - the next dawn is breaking for a freshly polished Ferrari F40...

[Skybird]

Slow news currently, so a good time to throw in some appetizer.

The Nordschleife will not be included in the v1.0 release, as is confirmed by now. But confirmed is that they will include a stage almost as good - a hillclimb race, from Italian Trento to Bondone. The track is a challenge.

That they can simulate such tracks nicely, they have shown before, in netKart Pro. This video shows that stage in full length (12 minutes, 17 km!).

Keep in mind, visually it represents netKart Pro, not Assetto Corsa. The graphics is several years old. I am certain the new one for AC, to be released probably over the course of 1st quarter next year, will be en par with the other great looking tracks we have seen in AC so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzXvsyDUm-U

If you want to compare to reality:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvQzv1tQOUs

[Lionclaw]

:o

Challenging track that. Lots of crashes expected while learning that track I think. :D


There's a link to a climb done with a Dallara GP2, insanely fast. :eek:
It's the camera angle that does it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMMppDrUOI

[Skybird]

Today I temporarily reinstalled netKar Pro and drove that track.

It will be so much fun in AC, I can promise that...

The natives said I were the fastest lawn mower they've ever seen... :D

It's nice to see this in AC because it shows that modders can - and will - supply us with so much longer tracks as well. Trento-Bondone is some 17 km.

Road America... sooner or later, no matter by whom, the Nordschleife... the classical Spa is confirmed to come as DLC... Le Mans I am certain somebody will take care of... I hope somebody will do Zaandvort.

[Lionclaw]

Yep, a lot of tracks that would be nice to have in the future. Mod or DLC.


Sebring, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Suzuka, Sonoma Raceway (f. Sears Point, Infineon).

Old Hockenheimring for the sheer speed. :D

[Skybird]

Another track from netKar that I would not complain to get in AC, is Aviano GP. I just drove it again, and it drives very accommodating, complaisant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmwpoSAD-dc

The other tracks in netKar I could not care less for, I did not find them interesting, not back then, and still not now.

For the fun and comparison, I also reinstalled and tried Richard Burns Rally and GT2 again, but no way you can ever got back to these if you got a taste of AC's physics and feeling of driving, feeling of real mass. Both sims feel like toys now, and the cars way too lite. No going back, never, not even for the Ring in GT2. Deinstalled again.

I actually already saw somebody converting netKar cars to AC. In the end, both sims are done by Kunos. I would not be surprised if somebody converts Aviano as well, sooner or later.

And you're right, Suzuka is another of those wanted tracks of mine, and maybe Laguna Seca, though I never used that often, I just like that hair-raising, steep left right combo, it gives so very dramatic pictures.

But Hockenheim I always found extremely boring - the old one as well as the new one.

[Skybird]

Just found out that there is a Nordschleife for netKar Pro. :) Okay, visually it is old, but offers a nice autumn theme for a change, but it drives well and challenging, featuring the very good physics of netKar. The Nordschleife versions I know from GTR2 I could not stand anymore, due to the inferior feeling of driving.

As long as AC does not offer it, the occasional hunger for the Nordschleife could be nicely fed with this one. !

plenty of more tracks in netKar available as well. I never noticed it. Some wanted ones in there... We will see some of them in AC soon, I'm sure.

[Skybird]

Apparently this coming Friday's Ferrari F40 will do its duty on the modern Monza track.

Also, ingame pics of new dirt shaders have been released. These are not part of upcoming 0.4 . Click the pics. In their forum a team member stressed that these pics show a feature that still is under heavy development - it may still change its looks until it gets released, that means.

http://www.virtualr.net/assetto-corsa-ferrari-f40-new-shader-previews

[Herr-Berbunch]

That's a lot better than the mirrors they have at the minute. :yep:

[Sailor Steve]

Yep, a lot of tracks that would be nice to have in the future. Mod or DLC.


Sebring, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Suzuka, Sonoma Raceway (f. Sears Point, Infineon).

Old Hockenheimring for the sheer speed. :D
Some of those have been through several incarnations over the decades. If I had Sebring or Watkins Glen or Brands Hatch, I would want to have the late '50s-early '60s versions. And the "old" Hockenheimring was actually the third version of that track.
http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/europe/germany/hockenheimring29-37.html

[Lionclaw]

Wow, great site! Thanks! :yeah:

Didn't know Hockenheim was that old, and what a different layout it had. :o

[Herr-Berbunch]

That certainly is an interesting site, thanks for the link, Steve. :yeah:

[Skybird]

Steve,

check the thread I launched on nKpro ("The steal deal for..."), it might be for you. God sim, and many of the often demanded tracks are there, Brands Hatch long, Laguna Seca, Suzuka, Donington, Le Mans, Snetterton, Nordschleife amongst them. Sim: 4 Euros, tracks: free, demanded specs: low. Perfect for the older or low end system, laptop, with superb feeling of driving something that behaves physically correct.

Online it still is active, but I cannot say to what degree there is activity. There are videos at youtube from a multiplayer series done this year. So it definitely is not dead at all. And I do not expect it to die too soon, because quite some players cannot run Assetto Corsa, due to not strong enough hardware, or sticking with WinXP (which ASdoes not support).

[Skybird]

Strong hints emerged :) that the Ferrari 599X and the BMW M1 Procar also will be part of coming Friday's 0.4 package.

[Skybird]

Action day at Steam, AC can be bought for 26.24 Euros currently! The final price for version 1.0 will be around 44 Euros or so.

It is -20% for Early Release Access, and -25% due to special sales day.

Get. It. Now. :shucks:

Tomorrow's release of 0.4 apparently will also include the Z4-GT3

[Lionclaw]

M1 Procar is nice, will be interesting to see how it compares to rFactor. :)

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Well I bit the bullet and went for it. So now I just have to wait for the download to finish and get the settings all figured out and then I'm going to give it a try.

[Skybird]

M1 Procar is nice, will be interesting to see how it compares to rFactor. :)

Thta based on a screenshot of the instrument panel which looked like the one in the procar (I searched pics via google and compared, and to me they looked the same), however, simHQ's editor has corrected his equal assessemnt to BMW E30 DTM, and whether that is more correct I have no clue, since I have no photos to compare.

So, any of the two, but probably not both.

[Skybird]

Well I bit the bullet and went for it. So now I just have to wait for the download to finish and get the settings all figured out and then I'm going to give it a try.

You will like physics and looks. However, many people complain about the physics, saying the cars are too stable and tend too much towards understeer. But there have been repeatedly now driver sin their forum who own the real cars and compared them to the sim, and who said the parallels are nothing but stunning. Whjat many people do not seem to take into account, I assume is that traction control and BS make a huge difference, also the setupos for the cars. The default setups are very much for neutrlaity and stability and towards understeering, yes. But change the tire pressure in the rear wheels then, increase negative camber and downforce - what I like about the sim very much is that such adjustments are making a real, noticable difference. For making the cars faster, you indeed have to change setups and leave the "safe" spce of values behind a bit.

TC and aBS do what they are meant to do, they prevent slippery and drifting, at leats make it very difficult to do so. On the other hand, some cars, like the MP4 especially, are designed to be driven with these assistances ON, not off. And then the car - criticized by many for being too sluggish and lame ion steering - bites the tarmac much better. In other cars, it is right the other way around, and you may want to prefer to leave both system switched OFF.

Experiment, test, change! It's really an experience to drive! And do not be surprised, missing con tent is coming every second Friday - and tomorrow it is upgrade time again, expect another download in the range of 0.7 - 1.5 GB, I estimate.

[Skybird]

Ah, look what seems to be on order:

http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.12.13/aou6g3hlfmkh.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-21677999/1526277_784679334891720_276273034_n.jpg.html)

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Ok I gave AC a try and overall I'm impressed. Most of the cars that I tried out so far are pretty good, although I don't have a lot of experience with Lotus, Ferrari, and Fiat. The Pagani Zonda R and the Formula Abarth handled exactly like I expected them to, sadly in the case of the Zonda there isn't a proper track for it yet. I must say though that I'm strangely addicted to drifting in the 500 Abarth, I've managed to get to level 6 so far before the clock ran out.


Comparison of Assetto Corsa to GTR Evo.

Graphics: AC does have much better graphics compared to GTR Evo. No lag, stutter, etc.
Control Setup: I would have to say that GTR Evo has a more streamlined and simple control setup, where as AC is a bit more complex and takes a bit more fine tuning.
Car handling: This is a really difficult one for me as the only two cars I can make a proper comparison with is the Pagani Zonda and the Formula Abarth, so I will edit this part when I've driven more similar cars.
Car Setup: Now this is one of the more important parts of these two games. In GTR Evo, there are three levels of ABS, traction control and stability help which are high, low and off. In AC it seems like the ABS and traction control can either be on or off and although I had the ABS turned off it still seemed to be on, as for stability help that can be changed at will.

As for being able to fine tune the cars that is something I need to experiment with some more, I have done some tinkering with fine tuning the gear ratio, tire pressure, roll cage weight and so on in GTR Evo but not so much yet in AC.

[Skybird]

If you deactivate TC and ABS in general options, TC will be off in session, and ABS still will be on, where available. You can switch both on and off via Ctrl-T and Ctrl-A.

Note that some cars in reality are meant to be driven with ABS on, the MP4 for example - in reality you cannot switch off ABS.

A lot of taking corners and get the car to turn, is about competent weight transfer. It is difficult, and it should be.

There are some more undocumented (so far) features and functions. F11 for back mirror. a config tweak to allow developer apps, and allow having 3 wheels off the track before penalty is called (not ion practice). Note that ghost car so far is available in Hotlap mode, not in Free Practice. You can use Race Studio 2 Software by AIM to analyse the ingame physics variables of the car, lap for lap, in graphs (ingame options are uncomplete so far for doing that).

If you want to compare AC to something, do not compare to GTR Evo, but the real things:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2140772&postcount=37

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/lotus-2-eleven-assetto-corsa-vs-real-life.2652/

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/evora-owner-feedback.3477/

[Skybird]

Download of 0.4 has just begun. 990 MB.

Changelog v0.4

- New Special Events Mode with medals and achievements implemented – Shared memory struct updated
- Drag Race mode implemented
- Camera on board :: resets far plane
- Replay :: fixed leaderboard app in replay mode
- Fixed triple screen change gear animations going too fast
- Improved all change gear animations
- Screen capture (F8) allows to select screenshot between PNG,JPG,BMP – Time Attack checkpoints hidden in replays
- Mouse steering implemented
- Fixed Triple Screen in Track cameras (F3)
- Fixed large replay loading
- Camera Random (F2) improvements
- Fixed Tyre Tester app in replay mode

Cars

- Ferrari F40
- Ferrari 599XX EVO
- BMW Z4 GT3
- BMW M3 E30 TOURING

Tracks

- Autodromo di Monza
- Drag Strip


Let's wroam!

[Skybird]

In their forum, a guy named Paul wrote this tip to tackle the exaggerated glossiness:


If you want to make the cars less shiny then go to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\assettocorsa\system\c fg

find the dx11.ini

and change the SKYBOX_REFLECTION_GAIN.

As it is now the value is 3.25, I changed it to 0 and think it looks very nice, maybe something between 0 and 1 would be perfect.


The new Monza, modern version this type, looks very good, best representaiton of it I have ever seen in any sim.

The two new BMW are driving interestiung, with the Z4GT2 like a bullet on rails, and the Ferrari 599XX is a powerhouse on wheels for sure, again with fair handling. The F40 however is no fun to drive, as agile as a heavy brick resting deep in the sand.

What this drag racing stuff should serve for the sim, I have no clue of. Boring. Simply boring. Developing that was a waste of time, imo. But I already had a feeling about it, so I am not too surprised.

[Skybird]

Finally ! I engraved a 1:49 into the tarmac at Imola in the 458.

Stage 3 458, that is. :D Stage 3 makes me 10 seconds faster over the standard model. :haha:

My official dream car in the sim now, handling: wonderful: speed: whooosh, grip: like on rails. And then the sound.

Thje glossiness tip works good, btw. Try a setting of 1.5 - 2.0, works great for me.

And the 599 seems to be equipped with kind of dirt shaders already?!

[Herr-Berbunch]

Tried the 599 last night, very nice but it's definitely a traction control 'on' car. The F40 just needs tweaking to let it turn-in well. And the addition of some more achievements is welcome - and the drag least has AI opponents! What else, ah the Z4 GT2 is what original Z4 should've been like.

A good patch.

[Lionclaw]

Finally ! I engraved a 1:49 into the tarmac at Imola in the 458.

Stage 3 458, that is. :D Stage 3 makes me 10 seconds faster over the standard model. :haha:

Challenge accepted! :D :03:

1:47.15

Lovely car to drive. :)

[Herr-Berbunch]

Bought the Scuderia edition of the F430 - this negates my need for space to attach a wheel to my desk. Collect tomorrow or the day after, then I'll be knocking on the door of your lap times. :up:

[Skybird]

That is that pad with a mini wheel, right? Santa was early this year!

Here is a leaked video that gives another example of the AI, a full lap at Mugello. It seems if all AI cars will drive like that, all is good ! :yeah: I could honestly not say that that car was not driven by a human, including those small unpredictable imperfections. Possible that they set another exclamation mark with their AI. According to the options menu, AI will be scaled via a percentage slider from X to 100.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GVdE4Z6ELA

I would not mind if frames demand me to reduce the number of competitors to 6 or 8 cars per race, after all it was like that in the first Gran Turismo game, and it still was fun. Just in case frames go headdiving once the full race gets unleashed.

I just understood that modern Spa seems to come earlier than expected, within 1.0. I thought it was DLC together with the historical track. Nürburgring and Spa and Trento-Bondone and AI - oh so good things ahead for the forseeable future! :yeah: I recently promoted AC officially to the ranks of "benchmark simulator".

[Lionclaw]

That Ferrari F40 is a monster! :doh:

Very difficult to master, couldn't even get Bronze time on the special event at Mugello.

I tried +0.1 to front camber, +1 front toe and -0.1 rear camber. I think it made some difference, but still a beast to control with that turbo. :dead:

EDIT:

With Slicks -90's it's easier to drive.

[Herr-Berbunch]

That is that pad with a mini wheel, right? Santa was early this year!

No, it's marketed as a wireless cockpit, in essence though it's just pedals, wheel and a Ferrari coloured stand - all built-in together.

http://content.costco.com/Images/Content/Product/553476.jpg

[Skybird]

Brilliant! If the wheel is like the single F430 that I know, it is quality. The pedals look slightly different though. Tell us about stability of the construction.

Tomorrow, 24th, Kunos will make some announcement they have advertised since two weeks or so. Maybe a bagatelle, maybe a fresh surprise - who knows. Be sure to check into their forum or steam forum before heading for the christmas table. :D

[Skybird]

http://www.assettocorsa.net/nurburgring-news-en/

Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!


Posted by KS-dev on Dec 24, 2013 in Blog, tracks

The Nurburgring-Nordschleife. The greatest track of all time, challenging drivers for over 60 years and now challenging you in Assetto Corsa.

The Nurburing-Nordschleife will be an official addition to Assetto Corsa, which is being heralded as one of the most appreciated racing simulations of 2013. We will be bringing you the most faithful virtual representation of the track ever to be released, based on our laser scanning technology.

This license underpins the ambition of the Assetto Corsa team and we will be shortly beholding a survey to gather your thoughts with a view to releasing the track in September 2014.

We want to go further however! We are developing a ‘Dream Pack DLC’ featuring not only the Nordschleife, but 10 cars, chosen by you, the community, to be included in the pack. So take your pick, Alfa Romeo? Nissan? McLaren and much more.

Shortly, we will be opening our 1 month pre-order phase, providing you with a 50% saving on the final package – that’s right, 10 cars and the Nordschleife.

To stay in touch with our news on when the pre-order will start, keep cheking on our website, follow us on www.facebook.com/assetto.corsa and on www.twitter.com/@ac_assettocorsa or simply check the ingame news!

We hope that with this announcement you will have an even Happier New Year.

The Assetto Corsa development team


Wowh. Just wowh.

On a side note, due to holiday week the next update is expected to come with an additional week of delay, maybe two.

I just waited for this announcement today, it turned out to be much better than hoped, and I now switch off the machine. Merry Christmas everybody!

[Herr-Berbunch]

Great news! I'm sure I won't want half the cars though, some '80s and '90s rallying and touring car gems would be my choice.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Set off at 6.20 this morning for a 250 mile round trip to pick up the wheel. Only took just over four hours and the roads weren't bad at all.

Just need the family to go to bed so I can set it up and get some practice laps in.

[Herr-Berbunch]

:D Me likey. Once configured.

In the 458 at Vallelunga I knocked 22 seconds off my 360-pad time after only 6 or 7 laps. Even before I'd configured and could only get to about 90 mph in 3rd or 4th on the long straights I'd beaten my previous record (slow and steady wins the race?). :hmmm:

In the Fomula car I wasn't so great, but it was definitely more fun. Xbow on drift was a nightmare full stop. Need moar practice. :yep:

@Sky, I think the wheel is the same, looks the same and has all the same buttons.

[Lionclaw]

Great news on the Nordschleife! :yeah:


@H-B

Slow and steady is better in the beginning, until you get comfortable.

Same with learning new cars and tracks. Something I'm not so good at sometimes, full on 100% all the time! :O:

In the end catching slides will become second nature, especially when you're in the "zone". It's a great feeling driving on the limit. :up:


EDIT:

Driving the Ferrari F40 is most about: Throttle control, throttle control and throttle control. And sometimes you almost need to powerslide it to go faster, scary in that car. I managed to knock off about 4 seconds with semi-slicks compared to my best time that didn't even get Bronze time. It takes time to learn the F40.

[Skybird]

:D Me likey. Once configured.

In the 458 at Vallelunga I knocked 22 seconds off my 360-pad time after only 6 or 7 laps. Even before I'd configured and could only get to about 90 mph in 3rd or 4th on the long straights I'd beaten my previous record (slow and steady wins the race?). :hmmm:

In the Fomula car I wasn't so great, but it was definitely more fun. Xbow on drift was a nightmare full stop. Need moar practice. :yep:

@Sky, I think the wheel is the same, looks the same and has all the same buttons.
Almost. The two buttons that on mine were on the left and right side of the wheels axis connecting it to the box, seem to have moved to the round's upper left and right corner, where you reach them with the thumbs. If the inner life is the same, beside this minor detail it looks to be same, yes.

Remember my problem with not getting the P4/5 to turn. Experiment with settings for filter and speed gain at 0.1, and for the P4/5 reducue it to 0.05. Steering rotation angle is always the maximum the hardware allows, so 240-250° in case of the F430. You do not need to adjust it to match different steerings in different cars - let the sim handle such things. That is the advice Kunos gives, too, if the steering in a car is limited in angles, the sim should limit effect of higher angle rotations by the hardware all by itself. If the car has a 300° steering, and your hardware for example 900°, the sim makes sure that after 150° rotation off centre by hardware wheel the maximum steering ingame already has been reached. I must object Lionclaw there, sorry. But he drives much faster than me, so maybe he does it for other reasons (manually reducing steering angle for some cars, I mean).

Make sure to have a small neutral zone at the wheel's centre.

For pedals the same: reduce the brake especially, so that the first centimeter of pedal movement has no effect at all. Allows much more sensitive braking. Try a setting of brake gamma 2.4 - 2.8. Its a matter of taste and personal driving style of course, but the default settings definitely were too sensitive for me, with both wheels.

[Lionclaw]

No problem, it's become a habit of mine to change steering ratio since rFactor days. :)

[Skybird]

Yes, but I wonder why you do it? I mean AC does it for you if you change cars. If the sim does not adapt automatically, than I see why to do it manually - but here...?

[Lionclaw]

Ahh, it seems I had set it up wrong in the settings in AC. :oops:

Tried driving the Ferrari 458 S3, it was drivable but I needed lots of steering input to do what I wanted. AC settings was around 4xx something degrees. I set it as close to 900 I could, now it behaves much better.

The wheel ingame follows the hardware wheel but stops where the car has its full lock ingame. Like 400 ingame is 400 on wheel, but I can still turn the wheel more but nothing happens.

That saves a bit of time going back and forth changing the settings.

Thanks Skybird! :salute:

[Skybird]

I'm an idiot. Now you leave me in the dust by even more seconds. :/\\!! Every good deed sees its revenge the very same day.

[Lionclaw]

With time you get better and better, just keep at it. :up: :sunny:


I've been simracing now for, almost 10 years or so. Not so much in the beginning, but since 2005 with GT Legends and some time later GTR2. And 2007 with rFactor when my simracing interest really took off, playing several times a week.
Did one season (about a month) of iRacing two years ago, too expensive to play regurlary though. :)

[Skybird]

Started myself to simrace with Geoff Crammond's GP1 - 1991. You see, if time and age would translate into experience, I should be able to plow you ten inches deep under the tarmac! :D

But its okay, I enjoy it the way I use it. And online play never was my thing anyway. Currently I make sure I log 2 x 15-20 rounds per day. It makes me a safer, less accident-haunted driver - but no faster driver.

[Skybird]

I repost a thread first posted by Kunos' Producer and Licensing Manager, that currently makes the round at Kunos' forums, and Racedepartment. The announcement of the Nordschleife strangely has made some crybabies complain about it being announced, being done, and how much Kunos owe to them anyway. :doh: Some people really are strange.


Hello everybody

I'm Marco Massarutto, Producer and Licensing Manager of Assetto Corsa. First of all, let me thank you for your kind support, that is the fuel that allows us to continue to do the job we love. Assetto Corsa has been welcomed in a way that exceeded our best expectations, and we'll thank you for this in the best way we can. If you will have a bit of patience.

Here I've read everything and its opposite. When I start to feel disappointed or sad for some comments, I force me to remember how I was at the times of Grand Prix 3, F1 Racing Simulation and so on when, being a gamer, I wasn't directly involved in this business. Therefore I can't get angry with you, because I understand that sometime it's easy to jump to conclusions when you can't know the facts but you can just imagine how they could be.

Therefore, for the first time, let me bring you behind the scenes. Would you like to follow me for few minutes? Let's go.

I'll go straight to the point, so please don't get me wrong, I will try just to explain our point of view in the simplest way.

- Lot of complains about additional contents are not so reasonable, for a simple reason: Assetto Corsa is moddable, and people who don't like to purchase additional contents, can make their favorite tracks and cars or wait that someone else produce a mod that they like to download. For free. Simple, clear, FAIR.

- Assetto Corsa 1.0 will include all the elements needed for a good and complete racing/gaming experience. We'll not force anyone to buy an additional feature or content that is needed to use the game. Nordschleife is not "needed", nor it has never been mentioned or scheduled as part of Assetto Corsa 1.0. I don't understand why to complain about DLC preorder before the availability of the full game, because this is just an unfair lie, not the truth: if I'm wrong please show me the pre-order button for Nordschleife.

- We must collect new licenses before the end of the year, in order to allocate the budget to pay the licensing rights and produce the contents, BEFORE THE TAXES. MORE TAXES, LESS CONTENTS. Simple, clair (not fair, but not depending by us). In addition, each car needs 8-10 weeks to be produced, an average track requires 3-5 months to be produced. That's why we program our production and communication activities (I'll be back on this matter later) with so much advance.

- "Kunos might use the resources needed for Nordschleife for other 2-3 tracks".

Now, just a short digression: I read something like "I'm bored to race on the same tracks in all games, I would prefer to race to some good, unknown and new tracks".

Let me ask you: if you were a developer, and you need to PAY a lot of money IN ADVANCE to create tracks for your game, would you choose those tracks that people knows and - you are sure enough- they will like, or would you bet to invest for contents that are unknown for 80% of your potential audience? Because the matter isn't "In a perfect world I would like to", but "ok, I will risk a LOT of money here: what I will do?"

Yes, because the truth that a lot of people don't know, is that when we talk about licensing rights, royalties and fee to pay, all this money is required to be paid in ADVANCE, BEFORE the game is released, and it doesn't matter if the game sells or not. Money paid, is gone. Even if a licensing agreement is based on a royalty on sales, you must pay an advance minimum guarantee that usually already covers large part of the total royalties forecasted. Now, let's multiply this operation for 36 cars (mmh wait, 36? I knew cars of 1.0 were 35... ) and you get the same money that you might use to buy a mansion in the Pacific Coast: and I'm talking just about rights: after you paid for the rights, you still have to cover the production costs.

Said that:

1. We asked to people about the track they would like to have in AC, Nordschleife has been the most voted track: easy, clear, fair. If you voted for something else, I'm sorry but as developer I must keep my company on the market and I must hear the masses: considering that we make simulations and not arcade games, we have already showed to love the simracing community and we don't have to demonstrate it again each time we do something new. So: 90% voted for Nordschleife and 1% for your favorite one? Sorry pal, see you next time.

"Kunos might use the resources needed for Nordschleife for other 2-3 tracks"

2. People who say the statement above does know the REAL costs involved? Or it's just an estimation based on Kms? Let me tell you that some track companies asked for their license 3 times the amount needed for Nordschleife. If I tell you which tracks I'm talking about, you will never believe me, or you will and you start to laugh for hours.

3. WIth other tracks, the cost asked to rent the circuit for the survey is bigger than how we'll spend for Nordschleife. I can continue for hours, if you like.

Said that, Why a so big announcement about the Nordschleife? Well, where to start..some thousands of people who were at Nordschleife last saturday to save the Ring might answer you. Our answer is: for thousands of race enthusiasts all around the world, this is THE track: maybe YOU who are reading don't like the Nordschleife and no one can criticize you for that. Does everyone like Ferrari? Lamborghini? Monza? No.

But our huge announcement about Nordschleife is for all THOSE thousands of people in the world WHO love it, for all those people who, since when we announced Assetto Corsa in 2011 showing that the tracks included were based on LS technology, started to ask to us about the inclusion of Nordschleife every day.

For all of them, the Nordschleife laserscan based IN Assetto Corsa, is THE news. And that's enough for us.

It's like when we announced the Ferrari license and some commented "Ferrari license? Meh, who cares, I like "X"". Well, let me reveal you a secret: the announce isn't for YOU: is for all those people who like Ferraris.

About our marketing strategy and communication:

We don't have a publisher: we are our publisher. Usually, for each Eur spent for the game production, a publisher invests 5 Eur in advertsing. During that development of AC we could not do it. Why? Because if we had spent 5 times in advertising rather than in contents, there would be no contents.

And, as surely you understand, you can make the best product in the world (in general, I'm not talking about AC), but if nobody knows it, you will sell some items to your parents, you uncles, friends, then you close, buy a newspaper and look for job announcements.

How an indipendent company with low resources can make a game like AC and let people to know it without advertising? In 2 words: quality (as best as we can) and communication. At international Auto Expos, Car brands present and show models that will be available 1 or 2 years later. We are not more or less smart the BMW, Mercedes-Benz or any other.

Communication is our strategy, to keep our resources to develop contents instead of banners: you can't find Assetto Corsa advertsing on the internet but a lot of people talk about it. On Facebook, Youtube, and so on. You find videos that compare a game made by 10 people with Gran Turismo 6 and Forza 5, made by companies with budget and resources hundreds of times bigger than KUNOS. Yes, it looks to me that our strategy works fine.

Now, tell me: do you prefer that in 2014, after 1.0 release, KUNOS invests in new contents or in advertsing? Advertsing might be much better for us, let me tell you why:

1. we pay and other people make the job: the game is done, we advertise and enjoy our earnings

2. spending the same money, we reach much more people than with the Nordschleife and 10 additional cars

3. I don't have to spend for production of contents, releases, nor I have to invest money and time in betatesting, manpower and so on

4. Crossed arms, we enjoy our earnings and let the modders do their job.

5. I spend in advertsing today, I will see results in 10 days instead of in 10 weeks or more (contents)

Please note: it's not a threat nor a blackmail. It's a list of available and realistic options.

Now, let me tell you why we want to stay focused on contents rather than in advertsing: because AC is our life. We have done it for ourself and to share what we love with as much as people as possible, and not JUST to make money: if we just wanted to make money, you wouldn't have Ferraris in the game and we'll keep much money in our pockets. AC is AC with or without Ferraris, exactly how iRacing doesn't need Ferrari to be a value sim.

But, and now probably I will shock someone, we need money. YES: I MUST CONFESS and I apologise for that but, as well as 7 other billions of people, we need money for living.

The concept is very simple: without netKar PRO, FVA wouldn't exist. Without FVA, AC wouldn't exist. And, without the mistakes made with netKar PRO, Assetto Corsa wouldn't be so appreciated. And the best is yet to come.

So, at the end: when you don't like a news, an announcement, a feature, a drag race, a car brand, you are absolutely welcome. We are already happy for the simple fact that you might take Assetto Corsa in consideration: but, when you don't like or understand a feature or a content, don't waste too much time to complain for that, because that feature or content maybe is not for you: but for other thousands of people out there.


On our side, we can only continue to do our best: sometime we'll get right, sometime we'll get wrong. But I leave you with these clues:

2011 - "Featuring that kind of graphics, no way for AC to be a simulation"

2012 - "Featuring that kind of licenses, no way for AC to be a simulation" (2012)

2012 - "Featuring the Ferrari license, they must sell milions copies, so let's forget that AC will be a simulation"

2013 - "What I said? AC is an arcade, now it's clear".(after the release of the 458 GT2 video)

2013 - "They will not release nothing this year, typical italian style"

2013 - "They don't release official footage because their screenshots are photoshopped"

2013 - "They had released just the 458, the other Ferrari will be released as DLC, I'm pretty sure about it"

2013 - "No way that they will get the Nordschleife license and that it will be laserscanned"


Now I'm ready to collect other funny stuff on December 31.

Thank you guys, your support is very, very appreciated: we would like to organize a party when we'll go to Nordschleife next Spring and we would love to meet you there, having fun, some laps and then (but only then ) lot of beer together.

HAVE FUN!


On the same issue, I had posted the following text over at Kunos' forum, just before somebody linked to Marco's post and later even copied the full text in the Kunos forum. It's not just Assetto Corsa, me thjnks, but the problem is one of attitude and never satisfied claims people think to have. I do not like this attitude. Not one bit.


I have not waded through all comments in here, just some - but sometimes I just ask myself what's the matter with some people.

Some facts. Kunos is about to release the finest piece of racing sim I have ever seen, with full content, in the forseeable future. It will offer AI, MP, a dozen or more tracks of extraordinary quality, and three or four dozen cars. That equals and surpasses full priced releases there have been in the past. And they price their baby less than some other sims out there already. right now it is early release, and it is to be known for everybody, and never was anything about the status hidden from the paying early customers.

But there is an attitude in some people these days to always want more, and for all time to come, and always for free, claiming this expectancy to be their "right". Some people want more than just all, and they want it eternally for free. If you cannot imagine what I mean, head over to any android or apple appstore, and check comments for apps, and just count how often people complain that although some app is good and nice, they rate it 1 star only because it costs money, promising to rate it max if they get it for free. There you have the attitude I criticise, in extremis. But you have it on the PC market as well.

STUFF MUST COST MONEY. Else the producer of that stuff cannot live, and will disappear. That simple it is. In case of Kunos, that would be a huge loss for the market segment they are busy in: racing sims. Quality must cost more. I expect that, I am willing to pay that higher price, and I demand that. AC so far is anything but a rip-off - the price is not just fair, it is sensationally low, when taking into account the benchmark quality.

They have asked for wishes ion tracks and cars. It is easy to see that while some names pop up again and again, Nordschleife no doubt was the most mentioned. Maybe they also had plans for it already before that poll, absolutely possible. They will do it with their usual quality standard, no doubt, and it will cost the customer y price. What is the problem here? That a developer does not produce for years to come without making money? That he does not answer the demand of "I want it all, for years to come, and free"? They will release version 1.0 soon. And then they have delivered for the price all and everything you can reasonably ask of them. Everything going beyond that, is not part of that already very generous package.

I am a follower of Steel Beasts Pro, since the version 1 end of the 90s, and the Pro PE version released in April 2006. I wrote a long review of it back then. I love it, it is expensive, but has tons on longevity, benchmark quality, and support. The company doing it, eSim, is not focused on the consumer market, but military customers. Still, they care for their private customers as well, with an absolute benchmark service and care for people and forum. Patching goes free, but after the release of the first two major upgrades, they started to charge for additional upgrades. And they said from beginning on, that after one or two ways they would go that way. I have no problem with that policy at all as long as fixing and repairing obvious bugs in the original product comes for free, because that I see as the responsibility of the producer. Patching broken things, and adding new stuff (=upgrades) are two totally different things.

And if you do not want some upgrade, then don't buy it. But do not yell and demand it to come for free, because by that you indicate that you nevertheless want it very well - but you want to be fed without charge, you want a free ride. And that is not okay. Maybe some people have little m oney, and think that gives them the right to expect that they are given stuff for free. Sorry man, no way, such a right doe snot exist. If you cannot afford something, you have to pass on it, or save money or raise it other ways until you can afford it. The other does not owe you to throw his pearls before the swines for free.

Sorry, I am a bit upset, because this attitude is something I see haunting not just the gaming markets, but our societies in general, and I see it causing havoc and bringing our nations down, and it makes me sick, it is a very general attitude, and it is a plague. That's why I am getting angry about it.

To come to an end. They say they do the Nords, and ten cars of our choice. Maybe the track is not your favourite choice, and maybe you are disappointed that what you hoped for is not being done - not being done THIS TIME. There will be more DLC, until 2018 they say, there will be mods, and not all but some of them will be great, I'm sure. Now take the 24th-message as what it is: a a great announcement and expression of dedication to a much wanted project that unites probably more desire by the community behind it, than any other track. You must not submissively fall to your knees - but not to complain and attack, not making demands for things of great scale being done for you for free, and maybe even saying "thank you, Kunos, you have my support for your course plotting" - I think that is not too much asked for from everybody here.

Thank you, Kunos, for a great sim, and for daring the Nords project. By the exaple of what we already can see in 0.41, I have good trust in your skill to complete that task, and that is why you have my support, for sure. It is support well earned. And I will pay you the justified price for it. I refuse to get it as a present for free. To me, that is a question of fairness, and honesty.

[Skybird]

There is another announcement by Kunos rumoured to come on December 31st, referring to it as "a gift". Possible it will be a new car brand license. Another often repeated rumour holds it that it could be Lamborghini. Unconfirmed.

[Skybird]

Kunos Simulazioni have released the announcement promised for the 31st - today. It says as a gift celebrating the huge success of AC Early Access, the brandnew LaFerrari supercar will be included for free in the final release of v1.0.

Well. Nice. But by the looks I like the 458 better. :O:

[Skybird]

This car is the star of the pack so far, imo. Throwing it round the corners brings me into trance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5aNcHzX4rY

[NeonSamurai]

It's got the nice lines and curves of a Ferrari, but man is that paint scheme ugly. Trust Hot Wheels to deck out such a nice car in such a hideous way.

[Skybird]

I prefer my Ferraris red, may it be Scuderia Red or Rossa Corsa or Dark Red, no matter - red.

But the 458, stage 3, it flies like a dream. Drives like a high performance sailplane soars in the sky. A dream! No wonder that the 458 became the iconic title emblem of AC. Its the only car were I can reliably slide within limits, hunting the limits - but never slipping beyond the limits.

The KTM is fun, also. Ugly, but a powerpack. Reminds me of a pitbull on springs. :D

------------

While I'm here: due to the holiday season, the next update gets delayed as predicted. 0.5 will come on Friday 17th. Their focus for that release currently is on AI, if not for all the game, then at least for some of the special events.

[Skybird]

Devs have released a video illustrating status of the AI. Rest assured, it's all in good hands! ;)

Mass start at Monza, lining up, first chicane, some laps: - it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw9Zj8j-9Xc

:yeah: Bald is Butter bei die Fische! :shucks:

[Skybird]

Another one! Dev release, from Saturday. Looks so promising!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNH1THfVY0w

[Skybird]

This is a great table for quick overview on effects of setup options.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbarnett/SetupMatrix.pdf

After having driven the 458 S3 excessively, I am now in fixed engagement with the KTM X-Bow, all aids off as in reality. So much different,m and so uch fun. I like these two cars best in AC, with the Tatuu Formula Abarth in third place (though I wish it could go even faster, but is drives like on rails).

The most difficult and even annoying cars to me are the McLaren, the F40, and the BMW M3 E30. I wonder if their characteristics even are realistic. I cannot imagine that cars are allowed to drive in public traffic with such unpredictable turning behavior understeer. An underpowered minivan seems agile, compared to them.

[Skybird]

Another wonderful address by and interview with Marco Massarutto from earlier last year, about design decisions an business needs. I really appreciate his attitude in which he does these kinds of addresses.

http://www.simnewsdaily.com/assetto-corsa-exclusive-developer-statement-interview/

Especially noteworthy is the remark on the empiric realities behind forum demands and priorities by forum members, and that as a matter of fact they do not represent the realistic majority of customers who all buy the title and play it. For example MP. Much demanded, and causing a lot of forum debates: but actually AT BEST 15% of customers only play MP races. Probably even significantly less. This puts some of the excessively loud voices out there back into relation, I think. Online racers - are a tiny minority, as a matter of fact, and it can be proven by comparing the user lists of online servers with sale numbers.

Just an exmaple.


Assetto Corsa – Exclusive Developer Statement & Interview

A few weeks back Sim News Daily was given an excellent opportunity to conduct a community driven interview with Kunos Simulazioni surrounding their current title Assetto Corsa which is one of the main titles currently being discussed in the sim racing community.

First off i would like to thank Marco Massarutto for taking the time to answer the questions we chose from those submitted by a large number of community members. Not only did we receive a great reply to all our comments but also Marco takes the opportunity to give everyone an insight into the development decisions regarding Assetto Corsa.

Please take time to read both the statement by Marco Massarutto regarding the development decisions regarding Assetto Corsa which certainly is an insight you don’t get everyday and the interview questions, answering the questions you the community submitted to us.

A word from Marco Massarutto about development decisions regarding Assetto Corsa.

I would like talk a bit about development decisions regarding Assetto Corsa, before answering to some of your questions.

First of all, we really appreciate your comments and we thank you for all your interest in Assetto Corsa. This provides a strong motivation for our team to work at its best. We would also like to thank all the people that continue to support us, and the AC project, by purchasing our existing products. Please, continue to do so.

Reading comments on blogs, forums and your questions here, it seems that people think of us as a big software studio with unlimited resources. We feel proud because it seems that people think we are doing top quality work. Nevertheless we would like to underline that Kunos Simulazioni is a small, independent software house that is not funded by any external investment. We don’t work with, or on behalf of, any financial company and therefore our budget and resources are limited.

Because the community seems to be very kind on our regards, the least we can do is to be honest towards the community. Before discussing features, cars and tracks or how our title will be the “sim to end all sims” as maybe other marketing departments of other software studios do, we would like to explain the reasons behind some decisions, so here it goes.

It’s important to understand what limited resources means. We need to decide very carefully on which aspects of the software we have to focus our production: graphics, physics, licensing, features, the offline and/or online experience, weather effects, and so on. Obviously we can’t put the same attention in all of these aspects together. Gran Turismo 5 is a game that proves that 5 years work and budgets in the range of several tenths of millions of dollars, are not by themselves a guarantee that you can include every feature in existence into a racing game, and create the perfection.

We have a maxim in our office: “everyone wants to race a 24 hour race, driving at night, under heavy rain, with broken suspension and a puncture. But just one time for a try“.

What we have learned, over the years, is that feedback on forums and simracing blogs represents just a minor percentage of the total amount of users and it doesn’t always tell you the truth about what people want to see in a game. We pay great attention and listen to our customers, but when we see how people are using our software, we see various patterns -often vastly different- from what blogs and forums would suggest as normal usage. Here’s a couple of examples that are significative.

As you probably know, Kunos have released, for free, for all registered members – all the add-ons produced for netKar PRO: cars, tracks, features, etc. And a lot of people who didn’t purchase netkar PRO before, during these years decided to buy it to get these add-ons, when a certain car or track as piqued their interest. Well, you would probably be surprised, but the slowest add-on car has sold much-much more copies of the game than the version that introduced weather conditions with aquaplaning, even if that feature was highly demanded from communities and the implementation was not bad at all when it was released, in 2009.

If you are not involved in the simracing community and you read the biggest simracing forums, blogs, and so on, you could think that Grand Prix Legends, Richard Burns Rally and a few other games are the most successful racing games ever. And that -for instance- some modern famous F1 or rally titles are a total sales disaster because people hate them. Well, you already know the truth, don’t you?

Many people think that that the multiplayer and online experience is dramatically important to every racing game. We love online racing too and we participate in various leagues with netKar pro or even other sims occasionally! Still if you count the number of users that play online at any time of the day/week with all the available simulators on the market, and then you also count the sales numbers of all the simulators available, you will notice that the online active users are a tiny fraction of the whole sales, even on purely online dedicated sims. So we’re troubled… where are all these people? Why we can’t see more online active users, than 15-20% of the whole sales of all sims even by the most pessimistic sales projections? Obviously because only a small part of the customers have the time and energy to race online regularly.

For all above reasons, and much more that we haven’t expressed but one can easily imagine, an independent developer needs to determine a strategy, in order to stay alive and be able to produce a new product in a busy marketplace. Our strategy, at Kunos, is not to create what people would ideally like to see in Assetto Corsa, but what Assetto Corsa should include in order to be an enjoyable product that simracers and, why not, normal gamers, would love to use. Because if you think about it, fast driving and racing is fun, so why simulators are not used by more people?

The development of Assetto Corsa is the present and future of our software house and an offer to the simracing community that surely thrives if more simulations are available in the market. We need to give priority to the features that make the driving experience with Assetto Corsa, worth for a larger audience of customers, without compromising and producing an arcade or sim/arcade game. Therefore we need contents, official cars and tracks, hi-quality graphics, a cool entertainment experience and a moddable structure to the software design. All powered by the most realistic physics engine we are able to develop, because that is our trademark and most praised characteristic. We believe that those features will make everybody happy, while having whatever extra feature at the expense of stability or mediocre experience while playing would make probably some people happy and angry everybody else.

So for example, multiplayer? Sure, but it will be one of the features of Assetto Corsa. AC will not have only a multiplayer structure as its core function, like its predecessor. Our original wish list, when we defined the concept of AC more than 2 years ago, included a lot of interesting and cool features. Realistically, today we need to set priorities and give you a great, stable racing experience. We are investing so much, we decided to bet on the simracing community. When AC is released, you will decide whether to bet on us. What will happen after the first release of AC, will also depend on the community stance. If the community stops the religion wars of “my sim is better than yours” and embraces the small number of simulations that exist in the market, then the same market will grow and become healthier. If we are not up to the realistic expectations of the community or the community asks the impossible, then in the future we will see even more arcade driving games.

The community can support Assetto Corsa’s development in the long term, by buying our previous products now, and purchasing AC when it becomes available.

We really hope we’ve been able to transmit you the positive spirit that drives us to write these honest words and hopefully you will read our answers to your questions, from a different perspective than the usual “we want everything and we want it now”.

-------------

Assetto Corsa Interview Questions

Will there be any kind of campaign/progression featured in Assetto Corsa or will this be limited to single events against the AI/multiplayer events only?

I can say that there will not be a career mode: all the contents included in each version will be available without the need to unlock them. We schedule to include a championship mode, but I can’t confirm this as yet.

Will there be a system that discourages wrecking? Such as the equivalent of iRacing’s iRating/SR?

There are going to be penalties for various driving behaviours. We are well aware of the iRacing rating system and we think it’s a great implementation and feature. We also noticed though that you can’t make everybody happy with such systems. Considering that we are an indie software house with small budget and resources, we must be very careful on where we spent those resources. That’s why we think it is better to give communities and users the ability to create the rating system that they prefer. Assetto Corsa will be moddable even for such advanced features, and so maybe with a bit of luck, some talented user might come out with the perfect rating system for everybody, or quite more probably, every league will create a personalized system that better fit their necessities.

Do you have any new features planned for Assetto Corsa in the multiplayer area? How many cars will be supported in Multiplayer?

Feedback was positive from the latest netKar Pro v1.3 version, and we aim to get better in Assetto Corsa, both in the actual multiplayer experience and most importantly in the management of the server and classifications after a race. We are still working on the feature list and actual multiplayer code; therefore I prefer to answer specific questions related to multiplayer when these features are completed.

The addition of laser-scanned tracks to the title brings a huge emphasis on realism to the title. What features do you have planned for circuits such as dynamic surfaces/drying lines localized weather etc?

We do have the code in place and we have created the graphic engine and physics engine in a way that dynamic weather and drying track can be implemented. I’m afraid though that we won’t be able to include it at v1.0 of Assetto Corsa, simply of time constraints. We learned the hard way some lessons in the past with netKar Pro. We tried back in the days to include as much features in the game as possible. The end result was that the sim was buggy at release and people couldn’t enjoy it.

This time around we want to create a software that has a very strong and stable core that people can enjoy and then start building and adding extra features on it. If you don’t make an enjoyable software for the community, then the community will abandon you and no matter what you do later, you won’t be able to win them back.

So yes we are working on it, we already going to have better grip on the ideal line and different grip on various asphalt patches for version 1, and we definitely want to include dynamic drying line and weather for future versions.

What’s the hardest part to make in AC, what features they want to have are giving them the biggest challenge to overcome and what are they the most proud of because they got it “just right”?

Programming the AI is an interesting challenge, because it is the first time we have done this. Being a small development team, each single aspect of AC is a challenge, considering the kind of contents and features we are developing with such a low budget. The involvement of real car manufacturers and race tracks makes every task much complicated and takes much more time. We are proud because the AC project is our most ambitious and most expensive project yet. But we will not betray our philosophy to make it as realistic as possible, even if we know that realistic simulations are not as potentially lucrative as arcade and sim/arcade games.

When Assetto Corsa was released you mentioned it would feature an open architecture allowing the title to be easier to access for modders. What features and tools can modders expect with the open architecture of Assetto Corsa

We think community input is very important for a niche market product. Nevertheless watching forums and blog comments is not always enough, because you can’t be sure as to how many people will eventually use a feature, a car or a track, everybody talks about. Modding gives the power to the community to express its creativity but also its preferences to whatever they like best. It makes a product more interesting to everybody and it gives developers the time to work on core features while the modders take care of “content”.

So yes, Assetto Corsa is going to be totally open and user will be able to create new content, new UI’s even new features if capable. The tools are not yet fully defined and we need far more time and space to explain how modding works on Assetto Corsa, but we are trying to keep everything as simple as possible and document every line we write on the various open files.

More information and documentation, about the tools will be available when the tools are going to be ready for release.

What other features are planned/already present in Assetto Corsa that you can share with us? Any plans for such things as driver swaps or dynamic day/night cycles?

We prefer to not talk about future plans and features, because we don’t want to raise expectations. We want and hope that people will drive and have fun with Assetto Corsa as it is. If Assetto Corsa is a hit with simracing fans then hopefully the sales will be good too and this will permit us to keep on expanding it. We have plenty of ideas on what to do next, but we must remain focused on version 1.0

Will triple-screens be fully supported? By that i mean rendering every screen independently so everything is in proportion on the side screens.

As you can see by the screenshots released so far, that are 100% in-game, our new graphics engine supports DirectX 11 natively with plenty of rendering passes. This means that it requires a considerable amount of hardware resources. Currently, it already runs fine on mid-level PCs, but before thinking of separate rendering onto triple screens, we want to optimize it for standard configurations, which as per official statistics, are more than 85% of total. AC will be compatible – it already is- with triple monitor solutions, while the kind of implementation you ask for has been scheduled for future release as we have to follow other priorities and scheduling.

We have all seen from the screenshots you continue to tease us with that Assetto Corsa has some stunning graphics to present a more realistic feel to the game. With this at mind do you know yet what the minimum PC specs to run the game will be?

We develop and run Assetto Corsa, currently, on several kinds of PC, including some entry-level configurations. One of the PCs I personally use is equipped with a Dual-core Intel processor, and an ATI 4800 Series GPU, bought in early 2009. Several screenshots we have released have been captured using that hardware. The graphics optimization process has yet to come, but I think we can consider this as the minimum hardware configuration needed to run AC.

Any plans on releasing a pre-release version to the public for testing before release? When can we expect to see the title available?

We’ll announce our plans by the end of August. Our intention is to release a “technology preview”, a one car-one track executable version of Assetto Corsa that will allow us to test hardware and compatibility issues on a very large number of PCs and OS configurations. Assetto Corsa doesn’t share anything with our previous products, so we want to test the code accurately well before we complete the development. This version will probably be good enough for having a first look of how Assetto Corsa drives, looks and sounds, and will also give the opportunity to modders to explore AC’s modding possibilities.

The “technology preview” is not a demo version of Assetto Corsa though. This will come later, after the initial testing and bug hunting of the “technology preview” is done. With the demo, users will be able to have a good test of the final version of Assetto Corsa, before making a buying decision.

[Skybird]

The recently announced LaFerrari gets a worthy opponent, Kunos just confirmed. The McLaren P1, a 916 HP hybrid supercar, is coming.

[Skybird]

Today, Friday 17th, is judgment day for Assetto Corsa. Today they will release v0.5, and it is expected that not only it will bring the BMW M1 series and probably a couple of other surprise items, but at least for some tracks and/or special events the one thing that decides about whether Assetto Corsa indeed is doomed to become a smacking market success, or will fail and stay to be a small niche product like nKpro has always remained to be:

Artificial Intelligence.

Latest video evidence of fields of AI cars in action looked extremely promising. I have only good hopes and optimistic expectations.

Judgment Day! :cool: Today we will see what stuff this thing is really made of. If they got this one thing right, then we have a new king on the hill. And he will rule for a long time to come, me thinks.

:shucks:

---------------------

Edit:

Official announcement by Aris, team member of Kunos Simulazioni:


"As you've probably have guessed by now, tomorrow update of Assetto Corsa will include the first taste of AI. In order to contain the hype and lower expectations, let's focus on the word "taste".

For this first AI update, we won't give you the complete grid AI enabled. There will only be some special events quick races, with some cars on some tracks that will give you a taste as I said of Ai races.
I know that everybody wants the full monty, but I'm also sure that you understand that we need to test the performance of the AI on various systems, check for bugs, improve it and so on. It is far easier for us to do so on some specific scenarios, than having to control the whole Assetto Corsa grid at once.

We're pretty satisfied with how AI is coming along, but we also want to make it better and that's exactly what we're going to do once the update is out. We will collect your impressions and reports and work our asses for the next update to make them even better and offer you as soon as possible the whole AI functionality. I'm pretty confident you're going to like what you will experience tomorrow and I'm sure you will be hungry for more. Tiny bit of patience and we will deliver, you know already that we are listening and working constantly on this.

As a side note, of course you're going to get a couple of new cars and some new upgrades too, plus a complete rework of our tyre model (yikes!)... it's subtle, nothing too drastic, but we think you'll like it even more.

Ok back to work to put the final touches on tomorrows update, thanks for listening"

[Skybird]

I have kind of a sore throat and a dry mouth - so much fun was had from racing a 12 car field of supercars at Silverstone and 12 BMW at Mugello! :D they did it, the AI is a good, really solid start. No obvious rubberband attached to your neck, no superhumans, occasionally a bad breaking and smoke here, a short stray into the dirt offside the track there, and plenty of body-to-body duelling. No kamikaze AI drivers that suicidally crash into my rear because the only know one ideal line, instead the aI sometimes even "scaring" away from a turn when it realised that I already was too far inside... From my side I can only say: I was a wide happy grin on wheels bumping its way through the competition... :D The AI will be finetuned, no doubt, this still is a basic first shot, but for that it is a promising start. Unbelievable!

Best racing experience I have had since many, many years. Last time it felt so nice must have been Gran Turismo 1-days - just that those had more frustration. Today, with AC it all is always fair.

And it is true - for some idiotic reason I had to laugh loud for all ten rounds in my first two races. I had tears in my eyes from laughing, you can believe that.

I should really see a psychologist, maybe. :hmmm:

Worth to note that I had not to lower my graphics settings at all, which are a mix of medium and high settings. Frames remained above 100 for 98% of the time with twelve cars on track. I am not concerned at all for any 20 or 30 cars field now. :yeah:

And finally, the new tire model makes a difference for sure. More fun, since less driving on rails. Even supercars lose traction easier now, it seems, and swing and sway more nicely, and slightly more unpredictably, which i like in this case - it feels more dynamic.


Early Access 0.5

- End Race simulation
- New Race special events
- Session Ranking app fixes
- Driver Names displayer
- Proximity Indicator & damage displayer follow GUI
- Small GUI fixes
- Special events have pre-determinate parameters such as Temperature
- Warning for high CPU occupancy
- Real time position
- Steam Achievement fixes
- fixed suspension animator in replay
- chase camera shake parameters exposed in launcher
- Modifications on tyre model combined forces grip. Tyres more sensitive in combined forces, cars more sensitive under braking and acceleration. Resulting in use of traction control more interesting even on racing cars
- Modifications on tyres heating modelling.
- BMW Z4 35is drift upgrade
- BMW M3 E30 group.A is now the early model with less power and no ABS plus chassis modifications and 5 speed gearbox
- BMW M3 E30 DTM version is now an upgrade to the early model and retains only the 6 speed gearboxes.
- BMW 1M series
- Lotus Evora GTE
- Modifications on Ferrari F40 suspension toe links
- Modifications on Tatuus FA01 aerodynamic drag.
- BMW Z4 35is toe fixes and tyre compound fixes
- Pagani Zonda R ABS levels
- Laptimes have now 1ms resolutions
- Ferrari 599XX Evo default alignment setup modified to cure over-sensitive steering.

[Skybird]

A second look at the AI, what I previously labelled as car-to-car duels seem to be cars colliding in turns in front of me, currently real duels of the kind I described seem to not take place. The AI crashes into my rear when I do something silly like braking too hard unexpectedly or moving from the offside onto the track again with the AI not having time or space to react to that. I do not agree with people saying in the the forums the SA has no awareness of human player being there,, it is aware and tries to not to slam into you when you are in the inside of its turn, but if you jump to that position too surprisingly, it may oversee that you are there and then touches you. All in all this still is a good and promising start for an AI, a basis from which they can improve.

The duel in the 456 against those two MP4s in one of the events, is in teresting, due to those cars high acceleration they blitz away, but due to the AI I can coimpensate for that in turns. It'S always a very open duel that is attractive due to the very different characterists of McLaren's AI- and my 458-driving.

It seems amongst other cars the Nissan GT3 is confirmed to be released in autumn, with the Schleife.

[Skybird]

An illustrated, superb, comprehensive in-depth guide (PDF) to the Nordschleife, by a BMW test driver.

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?attachments/bmwm_nordschleife-pdf.6870/

The new tyre model in AC is awesome, and the physics are shining brighter than ever. Can't wait to take the beauties in AC out on the Schleife for a ride. Counting the months...:D

Indeed the tyres have changed things so fundamentally that I have come to love with the various Lotus cars - and even the F40. Only the McLaren is my nemesis. I have put it aside now - too much anger and too many curses from driving it. My steering input just gets distorted too much by the car's own electronic will. Not my cup of tea.

After 3 hotfixes following the release of first AI races in 0.5, you can indeed have good fun with the AI already. Looks promising.

And if you have not realised that it arrived: try the BMW DTM. By its appearance that thing is an understatement - but it is a real "Pistensau". Fast as hell, powerfull as a pitbull, and driving very linear and predictable, a very very superior car. A monster.

[Skybird]

Here is what the chief physicist of the AC said about the different methods of shifting, it is quite useful to know this stuff:


"Hi, indeed you can't have autoblip and autoclutch with an H-Shifter enabled. You need to either learn to change gear properly, or use the clutch, or use the paddles

There are multiple reasons behind this but I'll state just the most obvious. While driving with paddles the program depending on what button is pressed, can understand perfectly what next gear to put and can calculate accordingly how much clutch to press and if a blip or cut is required. When driving with a H-Shifter there is no way the program can predict what gear you're going to put once you've got out of a gear. For example, you could do a 4th-3rd, a 4th-2nd, a 4th-1st, a 4th-5th, or a 4th-6th... all very valid choices. To make the assist work, it would be needed to wait until you've selected your final gear, and then start all the gearchange operation, so press clutch, blip or cut the necessary amount of time, insert gear, release clutch.

We did some try outs and the driving experience was terrible, not to mention the complexity and bugs it created, so we simply abandoned it, because in the end it is also a bad habbit. Don't like H-Shifters? You can use assists and paddles (being a bit slower). Like H-Shifters? Learn to drive them

Sorry, no way around it.

(...)

"If you use paddles on an H-shift manual car, the gearchange is slower than what you could achieved with a totally manual H-Shifter.

If you use autoclutch and blip on a car with a sequential box like the Z4 GT3, the clutch engages just a tiny bit slower than without the assists. "

(...)

"We have explained this before, but I'll explain it again as probably it is somewhere hidden in the older posts.

If you want to be real fast with gearchange, you need to touch the clutch to make a successful change. You can do without, but it is a tiny bit slower gearchange. Also, the faster you try to change, the more you risk to hear the grinding noise of gears. You might even make it but you hear the noise.

Now, when mechanical damage will be enabled, the more grinding noises you hear, the more the "accepted rpm range for gear change" will get narrower. Let me make an example to make this easier to understand.

Right now a specific car might be able to accept a gear in a 1000rpm range. So say that the gear should enter at 4500rpm. You will be succesful if you rev match at 4000 to 5000rpm.

Now, everytime you revmatch badly and hear the noise, this range will get narrower. So 800,700,500 and so on until you will arrive at a point that you will need to press the clutch totally to change a gear and even at that point it might get risky and the gearbox might not accept a different gear. So you might need to let a single gear in and finish a race with that.

So why didn't we opted right away for a more severe simulation? Simply put, there is no specific hardware that simulates an actual gear lever connected to a gearbox (force feedback shifter), nor a properly clutch in consumer pedal sets, and most importantly gearchanging has a lot to do with feel and g forces too. All of those features are heavily lacking in sims. So a very severe simulation would be simply frustrating. We think our system works very good, and "teaches" the player to properly use a clutch in order to be safer and faster. The more risks you get, the more it punishes you, until it breaks down. "



:)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/25.01.14/iwhng1gj3nl.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22059830/Screenshot_ferrari_458_silverstone_23-1-2014-16-33-12.png.html)

[Skybird]

Version 0.6 released. Update is 53 MB.

- All cars AI enabled
- All tracks AI enabled
- Improvements on track AI lines
- UI quickraces enabled
- Added theme module management interface (see Options/General)
- Fixed position indicator changing in proximity to the finish line
- First lap time in races starts when the starting lights are off
- On screen time difference : (On/Off switch)
- mesh collider system and terrain collision boxes
- Reworked collision stiffness
- Penalty system On/Off switch
- Hide steer option
- Smoke rendering in mirrors improved (also On/Off switch)
- Look back buttons implemented
- fixed some gui issues in endrace mode
- Winning an achievement in special events unlocks the lower achievements
- Fixed ambience sound volume
- Improved positional audio for opponents when driving in cockpit or F1 cameras
- Fixed opponents overall engine volume
- Fixed distance scale volume for opponents engines and related extra sounds (skids, backfires etc...)
- Fixed backfires exterior volume
- Maximum exterior engine volume is 1.0 to prevent sample clipping and/or distorsion
- Lotus Evora GTE physics bug fixes and updates
- KTM X-Bow R aero modifications and setup fixes

[Skybird]

v0.61 got released yesterday, a 30+ MB download. Say what you want, they really mean when they say "we deliver".

With 0.61, we really start to talk racing now. Free race setups possible, youdefione tracks, cars, rounds 1-10. The AI still needs plenty of finetuning, but has made a huge jump forwards since 0.53. I have very good races with full fields of up to 24 cars, and if staying out of the initial onslaught in the first turns :D, then I really can get some duelling for my money. SA of AI has been improved, but still needs to go a bit.

With 18 cars, frames dropped from over 100 to 55-85. With 24 cars, frames now count between 30 and 45. I have gfx settings at max and high medium.

They definitely are on track, everything goes fine! :yeah:

For the time being, the AI seems to benefit from needing to care for slower car classes, it produces less heavy metal then, possibly due to having more reaction time.

ISI cannot believe the pace AC is setting, rumour says. :D

[Skybird]

And here comes v0.62, 10 MB.

:up:

Yes. It still is Sunday today.

[Skybird]

Duels at sunset.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.02.14/powosu6ekw9c.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22156689/Screenshot_lotus_evora_gte_imola_3-2-2014-16-49-6.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.02.14/6ghgjxavh74.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22156699/Screenshot_lotus_evora_gte_imola_3-2-2014-16-50-11.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.02.14/pogbsgrhuxbw.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22156714/Screenshot_lotus_evora_gte_imola_3-2-2014-16-52-42.jpg.html)

Racing candies.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.02.14/g2hbgbl2rxsb.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22156722/Screenshot_ktm_xbow_r_mugello_3-2-2014-17-25-1.jpg.html)

No apples, one orange.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/03.02.14/kktcf8qlevd.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22156729/Screenshot_lotus_evora_gte_imola_3-2-2014-16-53-48.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

http://www7.pic-upload.de/05.02.14/jr8sgqk3s2ju.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22171405/Screenshot_bmw_z4_s1_magione_4-2-2014-17-27-6.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/05.02.14/ltsroohivcvs.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22171406/Screenshot_bmw_z4_s1_magione_4-2-2014-17-25-22.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/05.02.14/k8815vd8je8t.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22171407/Screenshot_mclaren_mp412c_silverstone-international_4-2-2014-17-36-50.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/05.02.14/1xd3tbz5l134.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22171408/Screenshot_ferrari_458_vallelunga_16-11-2013-1-53-22.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Porsche more or less...

Kunos staff started a rumour/gave an indication that the next upgrade will bring the RUF Yellowbird, which is based on a Porsche 911.

I'm a Porsche guy. Why going to foreign countries and their car brands, when we have Porsche right here in Germany?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/t1/q71/s720x720/1234575_10201552608011019_2025927894_n.jpg

[Skybird]

simHQ's motorsports editor Darren Blythe informed of this interview content:


On a side note, Kunos recently gave an interview (in Italian) with some hints to Fridays build and the roadmap for the following weeks. Read into this what you will but bear in mind some things could be lost in translation. Thanks to Stefano Pinchetti from the AC forums for translating this. http://simhqmotorsports.com/forum/images/graemlins/default/thumbs_up.gif

--------------------------------------------------------------------

E vai Marco! Sei un mito!

I think I could provide a translation, but it's more than 20 min, so nope...
Just a quick recap of the interview!
Note: my recap is totally unofficial!

Damages? Yep! Visual and mechanical. Cars won't be totally destructible. Bust that mith, licensing has nothing to do with limited or no damages, it's a developer choice. Priority for the AC development team is the simulation of driving experience from the driver's perspective, thus specifically what means to drive a dameged car. But modelling a fully destructible car would use too much time/resources, without adding to the driving experience.

Kunos on consoles? Is being evaluated if AC is going to be ported, considering that XBoxOne and PS4 have an architecture closer to PC than previous generation (esp. PS3). Thus porting should be feasible by the team. But it is unlikely that this could be done while Kunos remains independent. So the question is both technical and commercial, the technical part is being explored, the other...

Multiplayer? Working on internal tests already. To iRacing lovers, AC will not be iR. iR is based on online racing from the outset and is supported by an excellent and costly platform. The aim of the team is to release stable, as much as possible, versions even for early access, including for MP, avoiding buggy releases. That is beacuse the aim/meaning of early access is having a valuable feed back, not complains for already-known bugs (it does not please the players and does not help the developer). Skins for communities, also via Steam Workshop, which capacity is being explored (e.g. it is asked by the interviewer if skins will be automatically downloaded across MP partecipants).
Pit lane, box, etc. is also part of the race week-end branch. Large amount of parameters available for the server manager (penalties, helps, views, etc.). Lobbies, list with available rooms (races), that could be booked. E.g. a race starting in X min, book Your place, then, while waiting, drive another session. This is helpful to mitigate the join-lag for the server (and of course for the players). Also, avoids the pressure to enter the first available slot.

When the MP release? The idea is to have MP released before the end of march, if there's no unforeseen issue. Damages could be released together with MP, yet damages are developed by a different part of the team than MP so they could as well be released earlier in a "light" release.

Damages and MP are not in the next release.
The next update (they mentioned the 0.6 as released, thus the next appears to be 0.7) will be about bug fixing and general optimization and new content. It will include McLaren GT3.

Will there be an official (by Kunos) F1 from 2014? It is not planned, or looked into, at the moment. There are limitations from licensing.

By the way the shout in the background is Stefano working on the AI!

[Lionclaw]

Ruf Yellowbird! Wow! Hope it's true. :yeah:

Just going to drop this link here, Ruf CTR "Yellowbird" on Nordschleife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSMCfPASImQ

[Skybird]

The new update is out, version 0.6.5.

- Oculus Rift improvements
- High fov on single screen (>80 degrees) rendering fix
- Car physics & apps fixes
- Balanced opponents volume
- Some ranking fixes
- fixed closing AC while a replay was playing after a race
- Replay performance improvements
- Fixed real time position on restart
- Best lap is kept when restarting session
- Fixed look back on replay
- Engine smoke when damaged
- Engine damage (not balanced yet)
- McLaren MP4-12C GT3
- Upgrade BMW 1M Stage 3
- Upgrade Lotus Evora Stage 2
- Ferrari 599XX Aero center of pressure adjusted
- Ferrari 599XX improved cockpit view and adjusted bonnet cam
- Small aero improvements on BMW Z4 GT3, M3 GT2 and P4/5 Competizione
- New overboost function BMW Z4 Drift (keys 1-0 for 10% to 100% turbo boost. 80% default)
- Engine damage when turbo overboost is over 80% on cars that support it
- Engine damage from overreving the enging (i.e. downshifts)
- Steam friends leaderboard & Friends Leaderboard app for hotlap, drift & time attack

Slow, but steady.

[Skybird]

Drives better than the default Mp4-12C: the GTR3-version.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/14.02.14/44zg24jxv1v4.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22269483/Screenshot_mclaren_mp412c_gt3_monza_14-2-2014-22-0-21.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/14.02.14/w5i2mkopiv94.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22269502/Screenshot_mclaren_mp412c_gt3_monza_14-2-2014-22-4-42.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Hotfix delivered. That was fast!

[Hitman]

Sorry if I skipped some pages of the thread :doh:

What steering wheel/pedals are you using Skybird?

[Skybird]

G27.

[Skybird]

0.6.6 out, minor fixes, 12 MB.

One can have some interesting mixed races now, the Ferrari 599XX, BMW Z4-GT3, McLaren MP4-12C GTR3 and Pagani P4 Competizione seem to not dominate each other when racing, I had three 5-lap races at Silverstone now with a field of 20 (5 per car), and had the results tables always wildly mixed from top to bottom - only the Zonda should not be thrown into this, for it leaves the others in the dust, always, first four ranks always the Zonda, and then a gap to fifth place.

No landmine events so far, but then: no noticable improvements with the AI this time. If there is change to it, then it is very subtle this time. There still is much work on the AI to do.

I love the new upgraded BMW M1, it has a really biting FFB and the steering is one of the most vivid, living ones now, it is pure pleasure to throw this beast into the corners. Superb.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.02.14/69avpoi8jmi.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22275695/Screenshot_pagani_zonda_r_silverstone_15-2-2014-15-10-46.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.02.14/zrg5ny3774nt.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22275705/Screenshot_pagani_zonda_r_silverstone_15-2-2014-15-15-42.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.02.14/6791manv2dt.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22275715/Screenshot_pagani_zonda_r_silverstone_15-2-2014-15-5-17.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

This video gives evidence that the AI already can deliver good races despite the constant nagging by some people who condemn it from A to Z and state it can never be good (because they do not care for Kunos' announcement that MP will come last only).

It's a 10 rounds GT3-race at Mugello, with MP4s and Z4s.

Currently, it is better to have reduced field sizes, to avoid the messy first turn with plenty of pileups and kamikaze manouvers. Instead of 24, currently 16 cars at max or so work better. They are constantly improving the AI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8ER1w3FuI

I would also add that it is better to have slower racing classes currently, its as if the AI is thankful for having more calculation time for reacting that way. I did several races and Maggione now, with Fiat 500 Abarth (S1) or Lotus cars, and it was a blast.

BTW, if anyone has good links for Abarth 500 skins, I would be thankful, I currently have those collected that I found at NoGrip, but that makes only 7 skins and hardly is enough to fill one roster of 16 cars or so. And the default colours I leave out of the stage 1 Abarth, their colour schemes cause me depressions.

[Skybird]

A combo that matches perfectly: 16 Abarth 500s1 @ Magione. No metal nemesis in any turn. Not in five races. But good, well-feeling racing instead. And yes, as you can see, I have started to collect skins. Huge amounts of them. :D

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/3vny7uz18.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302128/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-21-59-55.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/8m5oc8l4uzi.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302139/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-22-2-30.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/1kjeblpsi85w.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302149/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-22-4-0.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/1oifsftlzsdy.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302165/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-22-5-2.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/kdf9pozhc4d9.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302171/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-22-6-16.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.02.14/32ck6ntfcnvj.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22302172/Screenshot_abarth500_s1_magione_17-2-2014-22-16-24.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

That's me. :D

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/276rg87c3ujf.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304697/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e92_s1_mugello_6-2-2014-2-1-44.jpg.html)

That is my most favourite colour in real life: warm, friendly egg yolk yellow. :)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/oy1mhvm1lsp.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304704/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e92_s1_mugello_6-2-2014-1-59-31.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/ti9385lgy3n.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304707/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e92_s1_mugello_6-2-2014-1-56-44.jpg.html)

Bavarian impatience.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/27l9oups6ehr.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304712/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_vallelunga_17-2-2014-23-44-56.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/ffpubxygw36u.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304713/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_vallelunga_17-2-2014-23-47-42.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/8rw3cnsy51f.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22304715/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_vallelunga_17-2-2014-23-49-43.jpg.html)

[Lionclaw]

Took a break from AC. And coming back, I'm loving it. :yeah:

Challenging AI, at least on higher levels. :up:

[Skybird]

Took a break from AC.
Heresy...! You shall burn in eternal hellfire! Get out of my thread, sinner! :arrgh!:

Me, its the other way around for me - for the sake of AC, I took a break from everything else.

[Lionclaw]

:O:

Hotlapping became a bit repetitive, so I decided to put it down for a while. Played in late December previously.

Looking at the template for the cars.. Umm, a bit tricky to paint cars. :o

[Skybird]

I did not care for any goals and accomplishments, I just logged 20 rounds in one rush, just for the mere joy to drive. And I cannot get enough of it, I just cannot. The new evolution for the M1 is - aber Hallo!

The often complained about messy AI behavior definitely has something to do with CPU load. Today I tried at Monza a maximum field (26), and got a CPU warning (95% load) from beginning on - my first time I ever saw that flag. At the first chicane, that sharp right-left, the sim stuttered terribly for some seconds (the first time ever I had that, and the only such event in the whole 5 round race), and there was a lot of crappy metal being made everywhere. It were relatively fast moving M3-E30 DTMs.

I do not have that claimed crappy AI problem at that chicane after start when running just 16 cars, not even with the fastest there are. On other tracks, Imola, the 458 also delivers a non-forgiving first round performance, even with just 16 cars. At the same track, with slower cars like the street version of the E29 or E30 or the Abarth 500 or slow Lotus cars, no such problems show up.

After observing the AI and the correlation between AI behaviour and CPU load (may it be in form of fast cars or high number of cars) I am quite certain that when people complain about the AI doing Kamikazes in first rounds, it is not so much the AI algorithm per se, but the people not being aware that they have pushed their CPU beyond its limitations. It does not matter what you think or claim how hit your system is in stellar specs - the performance of the AI is a better indicator than personal opinion for whether or not the CPU can handle the sim in the individual way people has set it up in options and racing conditions.

There are three remedies for the time being: reduce number of cars on track. Use cars of slower speed. Reduce options.

Many car textures or using two or three car models in a race I so far have not noticed to have an effect regarding the CPU warning or the AI failing.

I am happy to report that with not more than 24 cars in any race, I never experience stuttering and have fully playable, fluid frames all the time, even with three car classes in race and every car having individual textures. Technically, my system can handle the sim perfectly with settings at high medium and high, but no HDR (i52500@3.3GHz, 8 GB RAM, GTX660 2 GB-314.xx driver)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/4syyymzuzusr.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22311229/Screenshot_p4-5_2011_monza_18-2-2014-13-1-52.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/65aycmzlru.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22311236/Screenshot_p4-5_2011_monza_18-2-2014-13-3-9.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/2gfk8qnpuhgq.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22311241/Screenshot_p4-5_2011_monza_18-2-2014-13-8-27.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.02.14/7krbdahs6bla.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22311247/Screenshot_p4-5_2011_monza_18-2-2014-13-10-19.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Scenes from the BMW race at Monza:

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/vil3mb6zr9a6.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314875/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-22-35.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/96ytk4o2c4j2.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314879/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-24-34.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/33o7547x5wm.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314886/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-41-27.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/emeaaneoya3.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314891/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-41-59.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/litdmvvgjjn.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314895/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-43-44.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/phc35lalmndu.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314902/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-44-44.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/ciakqqrft8uf.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314907/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-44-58.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/fp8lm8q3nvu.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314915/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-47-9.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/3kqnse24dbos.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314929/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-47-31.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/19.02.14/g9miw84hbwwc.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22314938/Screenshot_bmw_m3_e30_dtm_monza_18-2-2014-13-47-33.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Something the AI currently cannot handle well, is a crowd of racing Lotus-49. There is contact all over the place, often with nasty results, due top the open tires.

I do not have it that bad with the Tatuu Formula Abarth.

But it looks cool to have two dozen Lotus 49 at historic Monza track from 1966 . :sunny:

http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/gwfgpwi81nh2.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22322796/Screenshot_lotus_49_monza66_19-2-2014-18-6-28.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/454aq8g1snyz.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22322792/Screenshot_lotus_49_monza66_19-2-2014-18-13-48.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/13gxyd3f21u.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22322798/Screenshot_lotus_49_monza66_19-2-2014-18-10-30.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Clearing out further my screenshot gallery:


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/pw7wzik6rh.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332299/Screenshot_bmw_m3_gt2_mugello_17-2-2014-23-5-3.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/plun9mzfl4b.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332306/Screenshot_bmw_m3_gt2_mugello_17-2-2014-23-3-30.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/xtb3auxbtyuy.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332312/Screenshot_ferrari_458_s3_imola_18-2-2014-0-8-8.jpg.html)


What has not been mentioned so much in here so far, is the awesome sound of AC. The single car already is a digitized beauty of sound, but on race day, the intimidating noise all around the track, the vibrating of the air and the too-good-to-be-believed cacophony to be heard when standing beside the track, is second to none, I believe. Listening to this with headphones, is hair-raising. In-car, you do not experience it that much, because own car noise is dominating. - Last update brought a broken volume balance when using hood-camera, though, own car is too low then, and sounds very distant. Hope they fix that one. But trackside cameras on racing day - awesome!


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/jofcyvipwaik.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332372/Screenshot_ferrari_458_s3_imola_18-2-2014-0-7-16.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/d94z69gti9q6.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332387/Screenshot_ferrari_458_s3_imola_18-2-2014-0-10-16.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/20.02.14/bz8f9txuo3sl.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22332396/Screenshot_ferrari_458_s3_imola_18-2-2014-0-12-22.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

A nice drifting tutorial video for complete drifting newbies and dummies like me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpAs6IEjuSQ

I still suck at it. :) Its against intuition of the race driver and the design of the race car to drive a race car like this. Faster lap times you are not rewarded with with this technique. I call that justice. :D

One more week until next update.

[Lionclaw]

A nice drifting tutorial video for complete drifting newbies and dummies like me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpAs6IEjuSQ

I still suck at it. :) Its against intuition of the race driver and the design of the race car to drive a race car like this. Faster lap times you are not rewarded with with this technique. I call that justice. :D

One more week until next update.

Ooh, thanks for that link. :up:

Yeah, I'm not that good at it either. Learned a bit now though by that tutorial. :)

[Skybird]

Learned a bit now though by that tutorial. :)
Same here, I just had the first two sessions where the number of intended drifts clearly exceeded the number of involuntary drifts. :)

I had some racing with the F599XX and the F40, but would recommend to currently not use them for AI races, these cars are so overpowered and unstabile that the AI cannot handle them well currently, with a result of plenty of contacts, carambolages, and picknics in the green. The AI also slams into my rear often - I assume it just cannot react fast enough with the brakes since the cars are too fast and especially on the F40 the brakes are quite weak.

But seeing a flock of F40s is a sight to see.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/seyt9ssmc1.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340001/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_mugello_20-2-2014-23-54-7.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/4ypjj8vqp8o.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340009/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_mugello_20-2-2014-23-56-17.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/smcd7qcdhgp3.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340042/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_mugello_20-2-2014-23-57-36.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/d7wfib6vucip.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340046/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_mugello_20-2-2014-23-58-32.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/q2c5ikf335xk.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340057/Screenshot_ferrari_599xxevo_mugello_20-2-2014-14-31-33.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/uz2jeijuwhgx.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340067/Screenshot_ferrari_599xxevo_mugello_20-2-2014-14-23-1.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/tdyiret59i8h.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340071/Screenshot_ferrari_599xxevo_mugello_20-2-2014-14-25-39.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/8s7v28t9b6t.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340077/Screenshot_ferrari_599xxevo_mugello_20-2-2014-14-26-34.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.02.14/ev6f3luerxa.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22340089/Screenshot_ferrari_599xxevo_mugello_20-2-2014-14-33-59.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk1PUVpXgBg

That video found me when I was in exactly the corresponding mood. Beautiful in sight and sound. Just too short. Isn't it always like that in life?

[Skybird]

Something was missing so far - modern formula cars. Here they are.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/lkivaefk1us.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347584/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-15-47.jpg.html)


Actually the Tatuu Formula Abarth cars drive well, AI-wise. That probably is because they look fast, but are not the fastest.


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/kxu14fci69lh.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347594/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-20-3.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/nu49mttephh.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347611/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-7-30.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/b1lrxq1izj1w.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347619/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-10-38.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/97yp6z9cnlf9.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347642/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-8-35.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/xhjxew735s2w.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347669/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-11-38.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/iwinsd4wj8x7.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347658/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-4-10.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/22.02.14/h2bz6m5xowww.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22347665/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_20-2-2014-15-2-45.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Tomorrow is update day again. :yeah:

Teasers indicate they release the Nürburgring and the Lotus 125 along with it.

Finally a new track! I was craving for that. I do not need a plethora of cars. But tracks!

I like the Nürburgring track, and its one of those tracks I am more familiar with racing on than with others.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Update 0.7 is now live!

0.7
- New car Lotus Exos 125
- New upgrade Lotus Exos 125 S1
- New track Nürburgring GP
- Less noisy bodywork sound for GT cars
- Fixed hotlap penalties always on
- Friends Leaderboard :: filters lap for hotlap mode
- Some performance improvements
- Replay size reduced by 25%
- Gui now restoring hidden apps on exit
- Fixed Gui issues on apps
- Fixed smoke issues on replay
- Tuned low-level settings for smoke
- Fixed time attack start
- Some texture update for Autodromo di Monza
- Anticipated pit limiter when entering pitlane for Silverstone and Silverstone International race circuits
- "New" badge in UI cars thumbnails
- New "special tags" filtering. When you select a player car, the AI opponents selection is now suggesting similar cars. You can of course dismiss the special tag and choose more
- New "add visible" and "clear grid" buttons in custom opponents panel UI
- Launcher theme optimizations.
- Personal best lap is now recorded if penalties are off - steam achievements and online leaderboard times are not.

I was hoping that it would be the true Nürburgring and not the GP version but it's a start.

[Skybird]

Hammertime...! :D


@Helmut,

the Nordschleife is the second DLC and will come in autumn. ;) And yes - they will laserscan it. AFAIK they are the first to laserscan it for a sim.

P.S. From simHQ: Kunos confirms there is an issue with Exos' AI at race start.

I wonder if and what AI work hs been done since 0.66, since AI no more is listed in the patch readme.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

@Helmut,

the Nordschleife is the second DLC and will come in autumn. ;) And yes - they will laserscan it. AFAIK they are the first to laserscan it for a sim.
Yeah I know, it will be awesome when it's released. I somewhat curious if they will add the endurance version of the Nürburgring too? :hmmm: That would be nice to have the whole set of Nürburgring tracks to use.

[Skybird]

For thew time being, I once again recommend Reiza Studios Game stock Car 2013 and the rFactor conversion of the Nordschleife mod. It really is very very good version of the Nord both in looks and driving environment. For 19 Euros it was all mine.

Nürburgring in AC feels great to race, visually I was a bit disappointed for a reason I do not know (I never was there), it is well done but a bit lifeless for my taste, but the track surface is such that it is far more detailed, uneasy and uneven than in any version of the track I knew before, which makes for a real vivid, intense driving. Laserscanning here really shows the difference to traditional track building. I love it!

The Lotus is a beast, as close as it gets to F1 in AC. What acceleration, and more: what breaking power! Brutal.

Nice pack, all together.

[Skybird]

0.7.1 out, 13 MB.

Judging by the very short reaction time, which counts in hours only, they certainly are in full alarm mode every time they release a major update.

What remains to be done for the remaining updates until release of full version 1.0? Full damage implementation. Multiplayer. Polishing of full functionality of the menu options. Trento-Bondone. I think a variation of Silverstone. Modern Spa. A couple of cars. General finetuning, and AI tweaking, which will probably go on even beyond 1.0.

I think we definitely are closer to the finishing than the starting line. Good - the earlier they are done, the earlier they can start with the Schleife. :D

[Skybird]

Their official forum reports 20,000 members now. Since you can only read and sign in to that forum when you confirm your steam account during registering, this means, that AT LEAST 20,000 people have bought into the Early Access project alone. Not counted those - possibly even more? - customers who bought it and just do not care to visit forums. That is not rare. I for myself for example have never cared for the forums of some of my most popular games. Most racers do not care for online racing, Kunos own research showed that at maximum one in five races online only.

Conclusion of it all? I guess their sales numbers do way much better than I would have hoped in even my best dreams. Congratulations, Kunos! Well deserved. :yeah:

iRacing, you better get a thick warm coat soon. :sunny: :D In 2011, I found numbers claiming they had 11-14 thousand customers then, and I believe I read some month ago that in 2013 it were about 20 thousand. I would not be surprised to learn that AC in its unfinished state already has overtaken iR in customer numbers.

[Skybird]

A video comparing the new track with reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTmqrwczeI8

[Skybird]

The AI definitely has been improved further (though there are one or two critical spots on the new track where it fails), but in general it has done a big jump forward in awareness of the player'S position, and avoiding to needlessly slam into him. I have had several sharp dogfights now with laps-long give-and-take, and two long duels with three cars wide , and turning - and no collision even in chicanes, but seeing the AI in the mirror or the side window to just pull back in the last second before contact. Have not tried the superfast cars, however. Will see how it is with the F599 and F40 tomorrow. In some turns, however, the aI still breaks too lame, and is too hesitent. That will be ironed out, too, I'm sure.

The new Lotus 125 stage 1 is like riding a firefly, and gives real F1 flavour to the sim. Great joy to use it, fast, agile, and while aggressive in acceleration and breaking, still fair in handling, with nice physical feedback to the driver. It also looks nice. There now is the need for around 20 F1 skins. :D

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I gave the Lotus Exos 125 S1 and the McLaren MP4-12C a test run, and they both are amazing. The 125 will take a little bit of getting used to as it is a wee bit fidgety, as for the MP4-12C it's just beyond belief, it is very stable, great grip, and best of all the ABS and traction control aren't annoying at all. What came as a bit of a surprise is that when I looked at the hotlap times they where exactly the same in spite of the fact that I drove the cars on two different tracks ( the 125 on the new Nürburgring GP and the McLaren at Mugello) and I managed to get times of 2:07.7 for both cars!!!:o Anyways enough chit chat, its screenshot time!:D

The McLaren MP4-12C at the Mugello circuit.
http://imageshack.com/a/img43/5243/x5yc.jpg
Honest question: Why does McLaren name their cars after fax machines?
http://imageshack.com/a/img824/7474/0sin.jpg
And here I thought the Zonda was a ground hugger!
http://imageshack.com/a/img36/7273/5qm2.jpg
Did nearly the entire track in either 3rd or 4th gear with the exception of the straight.
http://imageshack.com/a/img69/137/cbnk.jpg
I might of made the tires squeal a bit but I never crashed it.
http://imageshack.com/a/img839/359/w2it.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img850/3963/fwjvg.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img829/2918/a2b6.jpg
The Lotus Exos 125 Stage 1 at the Nürburgring Grand Prix.
http://imageshack.com/a/img547/1351/calh.jpg
Like I said it is a little fidgety but overall it is a great F1 racer.
http://imageshack.com/a/img801/6181/8dzi.jpg
Storming down the straight.
http://imageshack.com/a/img37/4274/47v3.jpg
The Lotus is a fun F1 car, careful though if you mess up it will bite your head off.
http://imageshack.com/a/img43/9688/5c62.jpg
Naturally, AC wouldn't be AC without in-game developer advertising.:O:
http://imageshack.com/a/img716/5449/3w66.jpg
If I had to pick a screen that I took of the Lotus to use as a wallpaper, it would be this one. Maybe without the text ofc.
http://imageshack.com/a/img844/7065/dwr7.jpg

[Skybird]

What came as a bit of a surprise is that when I looked at the hotlap times they where exactly the same in spite of the fact that I drove the cars on two different tracks ( the 125 on the new Nürburgring GP and the McLaren at Mugello) and I managed to get times of 2:07.7 for both cars!!!:o

With default setups and in second laps each:

Lotus 125s1 at Nürburgring 1:49.125

:O:

MP4 GT3 at Mugello 1:51.907


:O: :O: :O:

But space for improvements, when tires are hotter.

And now we are waiting for the appearance of Lionclaw to push me into my next depression. :hmph: :dead:

[Lionclaw]

And now we are waiting for the appearance of Lionclaw to push me into my next depression. :hmph: :dead:

Sorry about that, I didn't intend to cause problems for anyone. :-?

All I can say about the 125 S1 is that the final gear ratio on the default setting is too wide. Set it to the lowest setting, and the rpm should be close to the limiter on the long straights on Nürburgring.
And add more fuel, it's a real thirsty beast, the fuel lasts for 3-4 laps or so on default.

It's a very slippery car at first, but with warmed up tires it's pretty fun to drive. :)

[Skybird]

Don'T remind me of the AI fuelling the Lotus on the Nürburgring. :har: Just did a race with 125s1 exclusively. In last round 5, all of them came to a standstill in the last left-right chicane before pitlane. :D :dead: Looked like a cemetery for wrecked cars.

The new track in general is not yet optimized for AI traffic. Slow car classes work best, but in turn one they will usually get very strange ideas about what to do in that turn. Usually they sit still for a while and think about it. :haha:

[Skybird]

For the time being, the Lotus 125 AI is such that the car currently is useless in races, like the F599 and F40 it causes too many crashes and collisions.

With high speed cars, the AI still has problems. With slower ones it works such that I would say I have seen far worse AIs in other sims over the years.

The quest for artificial intelligent life goes on. :salute:

[Skybird]

Lotus T-125. This thing is fast. Really fast.


http://www7.pic-upload.de/04.03.14/ym1dvzzno1q.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22454479/Showroom_lotus_exos_125_s1_4-3-2014-23-35-49.png.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/04.03.14/1k5nr3slusq.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22454487/Showroom_lotus_exos_125_s1_4-3-2014-23-37-24.png.html)


Modders already skin away, as one can see. Soon we will do Formula-1 races at Monza, Silverstone, Imola, Nürburgring and Spa! :yeah: The AI however still needs to improve for this beast and currently is inapt to handle this sensible, super-speed, hyper-acceleration car.


http://www7.pic-upload.de/04.03.14/69yfvnoyeupo.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22454518/Showroom_lotus_exos_125_s1_4-3-2014-23-38-28.png.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/04.03.14/7neyzc9jcqsp.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22454523/Showroom_lotus_exos_125_s1_4-3-2014-23-40-41.png.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/04.03.14/ovr2uflx1akl.png (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22454531/Showroom_lotus_exos_125_s1_4-3-2014-23-41-58.png.html)

[Skybird]

Some love for American race drivers:

a licensing deal for Corvette has been announced.

http://www.virtualr.net/assetto-corsa-corvette-license-announced

They say the fact that surprisingly many early access buyers came from North America, has helped in this decision.

These twins are coming:

http://simhqmotorsports.com/forum/files/usergals/2014/03/full-12746-48624-1796751_834124996613820_651007733_o.jpg

[Skybird]

Steam Special Sale this weekend: -33%. AC can be had for 23.30 Euros.


Also, new update v0.7.2 is out:

- Default Exos setup now has maximum fuel for longer AI races.
- Some minor improvements in Lotus Exos AI
- Improvements on Nurburgring GP AI line for all cars
- Lotus Exos 125 hand gearshift animations
- Traction Control steps for Lotus Exos 125
- Improved downshift revs matching
- Fixed setup differential step on Lotus Exos 125
- Slight modifications on the range of the Lotus Exos 125' rebound dampers
- Default launcher theme: Fixed an issue with personal best times not being saved under certain conditions
- Default launcher theme: Control post-configuration check for required assists (e.g. activate autoclutch when no clutch assigned, etc)
- Added rotation limit option for in-game steering wheel.

[NeonSamurai]

They may be assuming though, that many people in North America actually like Corvettes. For me none of their cars even break into my top 100 cars I would want to drive.

[Skybird]

They may be assuming though, that many people in North America actually like Corvettes. For me none of their cars even break into my top 100 cars I would want to drive.

The message lies in that they get an American manufacturer - just any - on board, after all. Kunos said themselves that so far the collection of tracks and cars is quite "Europhile", because of the distances being short between their HQ and the chosen tracks, and European manufacturers being closer located than Asian and American as well. They do quite some extensive research on location. Not needing to travel all the globe, is a plus for them.

Personally, I do not care so much for this or that brand being represented in AC, if I would need to make some pick it would be Porsche. If a car drives well or interesting, than it drives well or interesting, no matter who made it. I'm interested more in tracks. And The Vipers and Corvettes I have had in past games, I all did not like too much by their driving characteristics in that games, including GTR-2.

0.7.2 did some magic with Nürburgring, with GT3 class cars for example it is a pleasant racing there now (with no more total AI failures in first turn).

T minus 6 days until next major update. :yeah: Possible - but not certain - that they start to introduce MP. Not that I care for MP, but some people do. I think chances are 50:50. But that is only my guess. Getting Spa (modern) would be the big hit for me, I'm waiting for that one.

[Skybird]

Racetime charts:

http://www.radiators-champ.com/RSRLiveTiming/index.php?page=rank&track=2&car=62&rank_type=all&tyre_type=all&controller_type=all&community=all&friends=all

Frustrating. :D No matter which car and track, it seems I always trail 5-7 seconds behind the elite.

On the other hand, I am using default setups so far, only tweak the tyre pressure, usually lowering it.

[Skybird]

It seems its coming this Friday! :shucks:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/Weaponz390th/Assetto%20Corsa/1025765_836572389702414_1628577450_o.jpg

Pagani Huayra. Superfast. Flaps in rear and in front. And a cockpit looking like how people from the rennaissance imagined the future to be. Jules Verne would have loved it, I assume. Unfortunately they did not recreate the cockjpit versions in titan-silver and light-brown leather finish that Pagani offers, but did a more conventional black-dark-grey colour scheme. At least when judging it by a 6 months old video.

Fährst Du noch oder fliegst du schon? :D

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

It seems its coming this Friday! :shucks:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/Weaponz390th/Assetto%20Corsa/1025765_836572389702414_1628577450_o.jpg

Pagani Huayra. Superfast. Flaps in rear and in front. And a cockpit looking like how people from the rennaissance imagined the future to be. Jules Verne would have loved it, I assume. Unfortunately they did not recreate the cockjpit versions in titan-silver and light-brown leather finish that Pagani offers, but did a more conventional black-dark-grey colour scheme. At least when judging it by a 6 months old video.

Fährst Du noch oder fliegst du schon? :D I remember watching the episode of Top Gear when Hammond tested it, the Huayra is one of the fastest hypercars out there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_bakHYcD9o All I know is I can't wait till Friday :D.

[Skybird]

230 miles/h = 367 km/h. :o

But the really stunner in this car is the cockpit. Beautiful and insane at the same time.



http://storage.pagani.com/view/1024/pagani_Huayra_interiors-1.jpg

http://storage.pagani.com/view/1024/pagani-Huayra-interni_PRESS-4.jpg


Unfortunately, AC will probably feature the less beautiful, black-grey colour scheme, which is a crying SHAME...!!!


http://www.forcegt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/2011-Geneva-Pagani-Huayra-31.jpg



And look at this - that is childish, and utmost infantile - I love it!

http://www7.pic-upload.de/11.03.14/o14qe2lkfw1k.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22522095/17746-pagani-huayra-gauges-1280x800-car-wallpaper.jpg.html)

[zachanscom]

nice. i like how it has a hole for your pee on the seat so you don't have to stop.

[Skybird]

Kunos have received an award by the Italian gaming industry for best technical achievment of the year.

At that opportunity their managing director revealed that their coding goes extremely well and that the release of full version 1.0 will be in April, most likely.

:yeah:

[Skybird]

Impact...!

0.75, ~350 MB


- Pagani Huayra new car (turbo related sounds still wip)
- TC now does not engadge until a car specific speed when launching from stand still
- Aero fixes for Lotus Exos T125, corrects nose up excessive top speed
- Option for player selective collisions. A small workaround until we properly fix the AI. Collisions only occur around a small distance from the player. All other cars do not collide, limiting CPU occupation
- Fixed replay audio bug
- Fixed GUI on some apps
- Fixed race output
- New APP :: Track Description
- New APP :: Real Time X360 car controls debug
- Damage OFF option
- Fixed some glitches in mirror rendering
- Improved CPU performance on Monza
- Reduced launcher RAM and VRAM consumption while the simulator is active.
- Added French translation.
- Collision fixes at Monza and Silverstone gp
- Physical mesh at Silverstone gp more detailed.
- Fixed Concrete size at S-Schumacher, Nurburgring GP
- The launcher now keeps a rotating backup store of the local database (found in Documents\Assetto Corsa\launcherdata\backups)

[Skybird]

The Huayra is a great thing they did. The sound environment is the most attractive I have heard in any of AC's cars so far, intimidatingly powerful and subtle in details, especially the spinning down of something that is not the turbo (don't know what it is) electrifies me every time I ease the gas. The front and aft flaps work great and provide fully animated and truly perceivable asymmetrical aerodynamic support. The thing is hilariously fast, and although it has 7 gears, there seems to be no track where I would not start to break again in fifth, if not even just fourth gear. At the same time this tamed track missile handles better than the F40, indeed is great fun to be used, and the FFB the wheel provides is the best beside the M1 in AC. As usual, the visual attention to detail is stunning.

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.03.14/pkmku6q6kjuu.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22561258/Showroom_pagani_huayra_15-3-2014-14-20-12.jpg.html)

http://www7.pic-upload.de/15.03.14/r9skmyt7kqy5.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22561267/Screenshot_pagani_huayra_mugello_14-3-2014-20-6-34.jpg.html)

Also good to see is that they indeed constantly work on the AI. By tendency, faster cars still are more critical and more likely to do silly things than slower cars, but the AI in general has been improved on apparently all tracks, and I tried them almost all now. I had many smooth races without any unfair events at all when using the abarth 500 s2, M3E92 s2, Elise s2, and cars like that. Several critical spots on several tracks have been improved in the way the AI handles them. In 458 s3 and MP4 GT3, races become a bit more robust at times, but still lack the Kamikaze events that I have with especially the F599 and F40, which both currently are totally unsuitable for the AI, imo. I wonder if they even tailor their AI for race duty. Maybe they are only meant for hotlapping and single practice?!

So the message worth to focus on is: AI is again improved, and is apparently constantly worked on. By trend and in many details you see that things constantly get better.

This update is more pleasing and has more under the hood than one would imagine after first glance. And I was wrong on the Huayra cockpits, two car skins (night blue and persian blue) have a beige leather interior. :D

[zachanscom]

nothing here that hasn't been already done, and with better skill, technique, and quality, in project cars.

[Skybird]

Visually, maybe, PC has day-night cycles and weather, and there are amazingly looking track videos for PC at youtube. But physics-wise: forget it, AC leads by a lightyear or two. I tried PC with a friend's rig some time ago, and got maybe two hours logged in. Made me think of NFS4. :D Even netKart Pro 1.3 - also made by Kunos - is more realistic in driving physics - and that is several years older than PC. Not one second I would care to compare AC and PC in driving realism and physics. PC is more like Forza, Gran Turismo - and AC camps with iRacing and rFactor 2. The feeling of driving and the realistic feedback from FFB is what sets AC apart from PC. In PC, FFB was exaggerated, to make it more sensational in feeling. But that is exactly what makes it feel unrealistic.

However, different strokes for different folks. And weather and night-day-cycles can come later with AC. It is only ruled out for 1.0

[Skybird]

http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.03.14/xr146uk52jk.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22581706/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_nurburgring_16-3-2014-17-57-52.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.03.14/x74wftzxnn1u.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22581716/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_s3_nurburgring_16-3-2014-18-3-33.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/17.03.14/qxgk2o6qjf65.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22581725/Screenshot_bmw_1m_s3_silverstone-international_16-3-2014-17-36-32.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

If I interpret recent postings in their forum correctly, then it seems Kunos not just licensed the Yellowbird, but just signed a deal for a RUF license leading beyond just that single car. A German racing sitw reports that at least two more RUF cars will come, as a consequence of the poll for 10 most wanted cars in the Nordschleife dream pack.

[Skybird]

A small update released today. Version 0.76 brings this:

- Further reductions to the launcher's physical RAM usage while the simulator is active.
- Huayra steering wheel lock to lock modification
- Huayra collision boxes adjustments
- Updates and fixes on new skins of BMW 1M S3 and BMW M3 E30 Drift
- Huayra fixed rims orientation


http://www7.pic-upload.de/18.03.14/gfx7r58ll7.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22596548/Screenshot_tatuusfa1_imola_18-3-2014-0-43-3.jpg.html)

[Skybird]

Quickfix released:

0.7.7
- Fixed Drag race starting issue
- Added debouncing MS delay for paddle shifter
- Added custom starting position



http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.03.14/9y9j4x7jgsla.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22616736/Screenshot_mclaren_mp412c_gt3_imola_10-3-2014-3-9-3.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.03.14/pyqzo2tsqvdf.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22616742/Screenshot_mclaren_mp412c_gt3_imola_10-3-2014-3-10-55.jpg.html)

[Lionclaw]

If I interpret recent postings in their forum correctly, then it seems Kunos not just licensed the Yellowbird, but just signed a deal for a RUF license leading beyond just that single car. A German racing sitw reports that at least two more RUF cars will come, as a consequence of the poll for 10 most wanted cars in the Nordschleife dream pack.

http://www.virtualr.net/assetto-corsa-first-ruf-yellowbird-previews

:rock::yeah::rock:

[Skybird]

Schlag auf Schlag - another quickfix released:

0.7.8
- Default launcher theme: Fixed an issue with assist level naming defaulting to "custom"
- Default launcher theme: Added option for toggling the setting of assists based on controller settings
- Default launcher theme: Added the option to clear the car preview cache and reload the UI



http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.03.14/ldn1iv7ld72.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22621251/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_imola_21-3-2014-1-46-27.jpg.html)


http://www7.pic-upload.de/21.03.14/6o5cewmh9k9u.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-22621260/Screenshot_ferrari_f40_imola_21-3-2014-1-52-3.jpg.html)

[Lionclaw]

Tackling the curbs at Mugello a bit aggressively, resulting in 2 wheel action. :rock:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/Lionclaw30/AsCo01_zpse0a2224e.jpg~original

Whoops! Came out sliding out of Ascari. :D

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/Lionclaw30/AsCo02_zpsadb4d8fd.jpg~original

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/Lionclaw30/AsCo03_zps269ffe31.jpg~original

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/Lionclaw30/AsCo04_zps33d28b8c.jpg~original

[Skybird]

This picture is making the round - is the 98T coming this Friday?

Track looks like Monza. Initially I hoped for Spa (modern).

http://simhqmotorsports.com/forum/files/usergals/2014/03/full-19230-48808-1795833_843090019050651_1540840179_o.jpg

[Lionclaw]

:huh: :rock::yeah:

Taming that beast should be awesome!

[Skybird]

And this gets teased as well - the Ferrari 312T2.


https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t31.0-8/1890566_845486852144301_842847814_o.jpg



:hmph: THIS IS NOT SPA ! :shifty:
http://www.moviepilot.de/files/images/0584/6906/11_article.jpg

[Skybird]

Still not SPArta, but improved clouds, sky, lighting, AI and collisions in 0.8. Improved sky and cloud already could be seen in the screenie above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5gVc85gwC4

If they stick to their announcement on releasing 1.0 in April and their 2-weeks-scheduling, after this Friday they will have time for two more updates before releasing 1.0 at the end of April indeed. I think it is a reasonable guess that in two and a half weeks they will bring 0.9 with MP, and then 0.95 with MP optimizations two weeks later, and then 1.0 .

We are closing in on the end of Early Access and basic development phase.

And then I will finally have my Spa and Trento-Bondone. To me that are the two highlights that still are missing, MP and even more cars is not my interest.

Close to the final release date will come the release of historic Spa - and then its waiting until autumn, for the Nordschleife and the new cars. Life will miss something without these opportunities every two weeks to jump up and yell in childish enjoyment. How to live through this damn long summer?

[Herr-Berbunch]

Just played for the first time in a few somethings. :oops:

Wow that Lotus is on rails!!! :o

[Skybird]

http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?attachments/pic-1-jpg.13074/


http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?attachments/pic-2-jpg.13075/

[Skybird]

^ Now what has happened here?

Anyway, more teasing:

http://simhqmotorsports.com/forum/files/usergals/2014/03/full-12746-48854-1960897_846949451998041_1409395161_o.jpg