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[thelastword]

You must think of Assetto Corsa as a PC sim title. Any bit that it looks better than rFactor 2 is luxury and completely unnecessary. Many PC guys have triple screen setups or ultra-wide monitors and they don't want some checkerboard BS, they want native resolution and over 100fps at (resolutions like 5760x1080), v-sync delay is the devil. Some are moving to VR, which is less resource intensive, but the background of AC's main audience in "this thing needs to run well, not look good, it's a simulator!" is still there.

If shaders and 3D optimization wouldn't be a fun puzzle and chance to learn new stuff for guys like Stefano, AC wouldn't even look as good as it does now and Kunos wouldn't care about the money they left on the table.

And about the 16x Anisotropic filtering... I run AC with 16x AF on PC and cobblestone ground like on the new Highlands track looks still ugly blurry in replays when the replay camera is rotating to follow the car and I say that as someone who usually never notices bad texture filtering in games.


If you think that's all stupid and no excuse, then AC maybe is not for you. It's not GT, Forza or Project CARS. If anything, its mindset is somewhere between pCARS and iRacing, but with an even smaller team than both of those titles (Slightly Mad is almost as big as Polyphony currently I think with over 150 employees, iRacing is 40-50 guys and Kunos was little over 30 last I heard).

Well I don't consider it a PC sim, because it's now on consoles and this is the console thread if I'm not mistaken.........

I also don't think checkerboard is BS, maybe to PC players it is, but for me and my 4k set and PS4.PRO, I'd love for AC to render at 1800p checkerboarded or even 2160p checkerboarded if they can maintain the solid 60fps.

The TAA that comes ingrained with checkerboarding would do a world of good for AC's IQ on console and I'm not too perturbed by the odd low rez textures if they implement 16x AF, as it would still improve the IQ regardless....Perhaps, if they do a pro patch they may feel inclined to improve some of their foreground and background textures.......

Performance is definitely where it should be, that's great due to PRO boost, a little more love from the devs to polish the visual side is not something that's outside the title's threshold. Using the extra power to make the game look better is not a foreign or detrimental concept and nor will it impede on PC person who don't care about graphics or IQ and simply want to play at 144fps...

 

[danowat]

I very, very much doubt there will be a pro patch, I am sure there was an interview where Kunos said they were only concentrating on things for the "wider" audience.

edit

Is an upgraded PS4 of interest to you as a studio?
We're a small studio, so time is always our bottleneck. There is only so much we can physically do. We need to shoot at the bigger target first and hit that. I don't think we are going to be opening the market there, leading or something. We'll wait.

 

[Mascot]

I very, very much doubt there will be a pro patch, I am sure there was an interview where Kunos said they were only concentrating on things for the "wider" audience.

edit

The Pro boost works wonders without a dedicated patch - I think you'll be impressed. I know the base game's been patched since launch but I was legit shook seeing AC's performance in 'day one' condition before my patch had installed. Christ, it looked fucking awful. Totally unacceptable.

 

[TylerDurden4321]

I also don't think checkerboard is BS, maybe to PC players it is, but for me and my 4k set and PS4.PRO, I'd love for AC to render at 1800p checkerboarded or even 2160p checkerboarded if they can maintain the solid 60fps.

I owned a camera that had a 2MP checkerboard CMOS chip once (2001? Maybe it was CCD, not sure anymore), it's definitely sharper compared to normal upscaling (or downsampling as with my camera), so I'm with you. I just wanted to show something about the mindset and background of the devs and their original audience with Assetto Corsa. Edit: The console version is probably a result of the pCARS popularity on consoles. It showed that there is market for no-frills sims, but it was ported thinking about the few people that are interested in a PC sim without owning a PC, they never wanted to publish this as a future competitor to GT or Forza.

With extra people doing most of the post release port work, they will probably look into 4K adoption rate and if it's an additional incentive to buy a game... and also what their console customers want next from them, but the vast majority of those probably just want day-and-date physics with the PC version and then more tracks (because on PC the mod tracks are kinda good, that's why the dev focus is more on cars, where the mod-cars are mostly crap) first and everything else could even be seen as "why are doing this when nobody cares, this other stuff is what's important" - not seeing that it's completely different persons on the team that are involved with those things.

Who knows, maybe it'll be different even in the near future, now that Kunos has been bought by a company that is at least as interested in the console market as they are in in PC market

 

[HF2014]

Been reading a few post up that it seem to be better for pad controls compare to PCars, but is it as good as let say Forza? I found Forza the best pad control, just wondering if its as good.

Also, i look at some videos, and one was having some slowdown, is it the video or the game run smooth on a regular ps4?

And tracks? Are there tons in it?

I really plan to pick a racer up after the disastrous feel PCars gave me, and its on special atm at BB.

 

[danowat]

Been reading a few post up that it seem to be better for pad controls compare to PCars, but is it as good as let say Forza? I found Forza the best pad control, just wondering if its as good.

Also, i look at some videos, and one was having some slowdown, is it the video or the game run smooth on a regular ps4?

And tracks? Are there tons in it?

I really plan to pick a racer up after the disastrous feel PCars gave me, and its on special atm at BB.

I feel like this is a loaded question..........

Firstly, Forza, for everything it does well, is first and foremost a console game, the caveat of that is that it MUST play as well on a pad, as it does on a wheel, the developers have made certain concessions to the game to allow this to happen.

While the physics engine and tyre model are good, their focus is on how it plays with a pad, not on getting the best possible representation of how a car performs.

AC doesn't do this, it's only goal is to simulate the car to the best possible representation they can.

The simple fact of the matter is that a pad just doesn't offer the granularity of control that a wheel does, and hence controlling a 'proper' sim on a pad will always be hard.

That's not to say it's impossible to drive AC with a pad, because it's more than possible, but if you expect it to handle like Forza, you'll be in for a shock.

As for the performance, I find it fine, with no slowdowns, it had terrible screen tear when it released, but that was patched.

Tracks are in the OP.

 

[HF2014]

I feel like this is a loaded question..........

Firstly, Forza, for everything it does well, is first and foremost a console game, the caveat of that is that it MUST play as well on a pad, as it does on a wheel, the developers have made certain concessions to the game to allow this to happen.

While the physics engine and tyre model are good, their focus is on how it plays with a pad, not on getting the best possible representation of how a car performs.

AC doesn't do this, it's only goal is to simulate the car to the best possible representation they can.

The simple fact of the matter is that a pad just doesn't offer the granularity of control that a wheel does, and hence controlling a 'proper' sim on a pad will always be hard.

That's not to say it's impossible to drive AC with a pad, because it's more than possible, but if you expect it to handle like Forza, you'll be in for a shock.

As for the performance, I find it fine, with no slowdowns, it had terrible screen tear when it released, but that was patched.

Tracks are in the OP.

Thanks for this info! I might hold on it then. I just want a good driving game with Forza like controls on PS4, i guess its not what im going to get then. I just dont want to be dissapointed like i was with PCars.

 

[danowat]

Thanks for this info! I might hold on it then. I just want a good driving game with Forza like controls on PS4, i guess its not what im going to get then. I just dont want to be dissapointed like i was with PCars.

There is only one franchise that has "forza like controls".

 

[Drastic]

There is only one franchise that has "forza like controls".

His best bet would probably be Driveclub, yeah?

 

[TylerDurden4321]

His best bet would probably be Driveclub, yeah?

Control-wise I think you're right, but maybe he wants more touring cars and stuff like that ...or maybe he wants sim physics. Driveclub's hardcore mode is somewhat sim'ish but it's not well flashed out in the "campaigns".


Great summary on the controls btw @Danowat

 

[Mascot]

Christ, I went back to pCARS last night after a week or so with Assetto Corsa and it really did make AC feel like a bare-bones demo. Actually made me appreciate pCARS in a new light.

Can't get enough of those AC feels, though.

 

[danowat]

Christ, I went back to pCARS last night after a week or so with Assetto Corsa and it really did make AC feel like a bare-bones demo. Actually made me appreciate pCARS in a new light.

Can't get enough of those AC feels, though.

Funnily enough, I did the same, two things shocked me, it doesn't look anywhere near as good as I remembered it did, playing AC and PCars back to back just reinfornces that AC isn't as bad looking as people make out, the texture of the road is one thing that looks miles better in AC.

The second thing was the suspension and tyre model, PCars just doesn't feel anywhere near as nuanced as AC, you just don't get the same amount of tyre feel or feel the compliance in the suspension.

Still a decent game though.

 

[terrible]

I really wish AC had a rivals system like in Forza. It's bad enough that I can't make an online lobby to play with my friend but we can't even race against each other's hot lap times. For a sim that really appears to just focus on being amazing for hot lapping that seems like a huge oversight to me. I can understand it not being there on PC since there are plugins that can do that but it's a bit inexcusable for a console game where mods/plugins aren't an option IMO.

 

[danowat]

This one is for Mascot, as I know he love's his external apps

Apparently, UDP for AC on PS4 works > http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/udp-app-working-with-assetto-on-ps4.43366/

Whether it works on all apps, I don't know, but it's a start.

 

[Mascot]

This one is for Mascot, as I know he love's his external apps

Apparently, UDP for AC on PS4 works > http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/udp-app-working-with-assetto-on-ps4.43366/

Whether it works on all apps, I don't know, but it's a start.

Oooh. Interesting..!

I've still got a problem with UDP telemetry apps only updating once every second at the moment. I *think* I've narrowed it down to a router problem.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

If you are on PC and want to use MoTec Pro, you can (probably "need", don't think there is another solution), you can use this app:
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/acti-assetto-corsa-telemetry-interface.3948

I had trouble starting the app automatically from in-game, just to be sure, start the external part before Assetto Corsa, the rest is explained in the read me.







I'd assume that the Comfort Medium can take similar cornering forces, but won't let you brake or accelerate as well.

Could you maybe do a quick acceleration and braking test as well? Longitudinal g-forces aren't as important at Brands Hatch, but on other tracks with very tight corners it could lead to huge differences.

Would love to know what you found out.

Thanks, I'll have a dabble with this at the weekend.

In the meantime I've been hooked running your BMW / Brands GP test combo in both games, I must have done 100plus laps between the two going back and forth trying to beat the lap time 😂

AC M4 (ST / no ABS, TCS ) is just edging GT6 (CM / no ABS, TCS) by 0.027. I don't think I can go any faster than 1:42.709 in AC, the car is on an absolute knife edge - is the street tyre model 10 less grippy than 7?

 

[TylerDurden4321]

Thanks, I'll have a dabble with this at the weekend.

In the meantime I've been hooked running your BMW / Brands GP test combo in both games, I must have done 100plus laps between the two going back and forth trying to beat the lap time 😂

AC M4 (ST / no ABS, TCS ) is just edging GT6 (CM / no ABS, TCS) by 0.027. I don't think I can go any faster than 1:42.709 in AC, the car is on an absolute knife edge - is the street tyre model 10 less grippy than 7?

1:42.7 is a really nice time! That would be super hard to do for me to achieve even on semi-slicks, which should be 1 1/2 seconds slower at least.
But what are you doing about the rev limiter in GT6? That's added power not based in reality. I would pick a different car for a comparison knowing about that issue now.


About the Tire model 7 vs. 10 grip:
The new values in the car data are for v10 are

FALLOFF_LEVEL=0.89
FALLOFF_SPEED=1.9
CX_MULT=1.1
RADIUS_ANGULAR_K=0.02

It's mostly tire degradation, last one is how the tire radius grows with speed/centrifugal force.

Pretty sure I've also read something about changed temperature dissipation within the rubber, pressure growth depending on air volume and all kinds of changes.


Beyond that, they changed the load sensitivity in the last patch for all cars (even the ones that were on v10 already). Load sensitivity is the grip-loss curve when more weight is put on the tire. Think of it like this:

Fr(maximum sideforce) = µ (friction constant rubber on road) * Fn (current weight/downforce on the tire)

If you put 50% more load/downforce on a tire, you should theoretically have 50% more grip, but in reality a tire is load sensitive and you end up with a lowered friction constant with higher load, meaning you might have only something like 40% more grip.
Should make a difference in Turn 1 @Brands but especially under breaking in cars that aren't super low and hard from the setup.

 

[Mascot]

AC is £15.99 on PSN right now. Sold my disc for £18 and went digital. Good price with Beast Mode.

Season pass still £24.99.

 

[Mobius 1]

AC is £15.99 on PSN right now. Sold my disc for £18 and went digital. Good price with Beast Mode.

Season pass still £24.99.

Time to jump in! Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[TylerDurden4321]

A 7 car DLC celebrating 70 years of Ferrari will be out for Assetto Corsa and the cars to be included will be voted for (wondering if this is 7+1 since they seem to already have modeled the 250 GTO).

I know there are a lot of Ferrari haters within the group of motorsport fans, but personally I love Ferrari. Still, even for me... naming 7 Ferraris not counting a 250 GTO, F40, 312T or a La Ferrari...? Not an easy task. Usually I'd count the Dino and 250 California, but driving-wise I don't think there is anything special to the feel of a Dino and the California is too close to the 250 GTO (as many other amazing Ferraris from that era like the 250 GT Lusso or 250 GT Berlinetta).

I'd say

- 330 P4

- 512 BB LM

- 288 GTO (out there on PC as a good mod, gif-credits to SunhiLegend of GAF)

- Ferrari 640 (the 641 has a said-to-be good mod out, but I never tried it)

- 246 Dino F1

- 166 MM Barchetta

- 365 GTB (Daytona)

I'd also like the Ferrari 712 Can Am car, but I think it wasn't all that great of a success (was only doing a few races I think)

What are your thoughts (except if you want an Enzo)?

 

[Mascot]

This Scottish track seems to be taking its sweet time coming to consoles.

 

[danowat]

This Scottish track seems to be taking its sweet time coming to consoles.

Everything takes it's sweet time where Kunos and consoles are concerned.......

 

[Mascot]

Everything takes it's sweet time where Kunos and consoles are concerned.......

How are you finding AC with Beast Mode now - worth the wait?

Tried pCARS yet?

 

[danowat]

How are you finding AC with Beast Mode now - worth the wait?

Tried pCARS yet?

I'll be honest, in terms of AC, I can't notice the difference, not tried PC yet.

 

[Mascot]

I'll be honest, in terms of AC, I can't notice the difference, not tried PC yet.

Play AC with the Beast unleashed for a while then cage it and play it again.

Night and day to my eyes..!

 

[danowat]

Play AC with the Beast unleashed for a while then cage it and play it again.

Night and day to my eyes..!

I'll give it a try, but I'll be the first to admit that I am not particularly sensitive to performance issues!

 

[Mascot]

I'll give it a try, but I'll be the first to admit that I am not particularly sensitive to performance issues!

And you did have a car drive into your head recently...

 

[danowat]

Yeah, it does explain a lot!

 

[xrnzaaas]

To hell with my backlog, bought the PS4 version after fiding a good sale in one of my local stores. I've played a few hours and I have to say it's much easier to get into while playing with a gamepad than Project CARS. I don't know if it was fixed in one of the patches (the 1.13 update weighed 10GB's!) or if I'm lucky. Now I really have to find some time to play it.

PS. The Season Pass only adds new cars, right? No new events etc.?

 

[danowat]

To hell with my backlog, bought the PS4 version after fiding a good sale in one of my local stores. I've played a few hours and I have to say it's much easier to get into while playing with a gamepad than Project CARS. I don't know if it was fixed in one of the patches (the 1.13 update weighed 10GB's!) or if I'm lucky. Now I really have to find some time to play it.

PS. The Season Pass only adds new cars, right? No new events etc.?

DLC packs add special events too

 

[xrnzaaas]

Good to know. I'll wait until the next digital sale. Anyway the base list of special & campaign events looks huge and I bet I'll have my hands full.

 

[Mascot]

To hell with my backlog, bought the PS4 version after fiding a good sale in one of my local stores. I've played a few hours and I have to say it's much easier to get into while playing with a gamepad than Project CARS. I don't know if it was fixed in one of the patches (the 1.13 update weighed 10GB's!) or if I'm lucky. Now I really have to find some time to play it.

PS. The Season Pass only adds new cars, right? No new events etc.?

It adds the Red Bull Ring too.

I'm also waiting for the season pass to hit £11 again. Dan is checking four times a day for me.

The free McTrack is long overdue too, but I did hear it's coming in April.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Played a bit more and sadly there are some things that bother me. The framerate on my standard PS4 can become unstable when I have a couple of other cars in front of me or when I hit someone (I have set mechanical damage to 100%). The cockpit camera seems to be positioned too high and I feel like I'm sitting much higher than the drivers in other identical cars. This become even more noticeable when I push the button for looking behind me. If I have another car on my rear bumper it appears tiny compared to mine. Oh, and one more thing - the differences between AI difficulty levels seem too big. I can witness 2-3 other cars disappear from me despite me doing my best to keep up and if I switch one difficulty level lower I can have a very comfortable win. Project CARS did it much better by giving you a 1-100 scale.

Other than that I'm really enjoying how the cars handle and each vehicle is pretty much unique. The sounds are superb and I really enjoy watching replays because of them (despite framerate drops and the game not always recording the entire race). Drifting looks okay, but I only made a few test runs to see how it's simulated and how the points scoring system works. The career mode looks interesting, I certainly don't mind that there are more you vs. the timer events and the time attack events are very engaging when you drive like a maniac to hit the checkpoint before the timer expires.

 

[danowat]

The career has some really wonky requirements, some are a piece of cake, others are literally impossible (there is a BMW one that is unwinnable, not sure if they fixed it)

And the way the drifting and time attack score systems work is bizarre.

It's a great hotlapping simulator, but a (very) lacking "game"

 

[Mascot]

It's a great hotlapping simulator, but a (very) lacking "game"

Races against the AI can be OK. I've had some good battles racing the 458 GT2 (or do I mean the 488 GT3?) around Monza with a full grid over ten laps.

I must give the 'career' a proper go some time. I lost interest early on driving the Abarth 500 in some daft event and never went back.

 

[danowat]

Races against the AI can be OK. I've had some good battles racing the 458 GT2 (or do I mean the 488 GT3?) around Monza with a full grid over ten laps.

I must give the 'career' a proper go some time. I lost interest early on driving the Abarth 500 in some daft event and never went back.

It's hit and miss, sometimes it's decent enough, other times it's not good, the AI in PCars gives a better race.

Unless you have DLC, it would be the 458 GT2

 

[Mascot]

It's hit and miss, sometimes it's decent enough, other times it's not good, the AI in PCars gives a better race.

Unless you have DLC, it would be the 458 GT2

That's the one!

Agree that the AI in pCARS is much, much better (maybe the best in racing games?) but races in AC are a possibility.

 

[danowat]

maybe the best in racing games?

I couldn't argue against that, I don't think I've ever experienced better AI than PCars.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Obviously I didn't play AC at launch, but I've seen a review done by ACG (or some other youtuber, don't remember exactly) and he was moaning about poor AI running you off the road. I didn't spend that much time with the game yet, but the AI on the medium and hard settings isn't that aggressive imo. Maybe it was improved over time. You can have some nice fights, win some, lose some (if you miss the apex ). The AI cars even tend to make you room when you go down aggressive on the inside of the corner.

 

[Patrick S.]

The AI cars in Assetto Corsa will sooooo often slam into you and ruin your races. OK, shit happens. But then, instead of "whoopsie Daisy, I hit the human, ease off the gas!", as it should be, it's "keep fishtailing through that motherfucker til I come out on the other side of his fucking car! Push push push!" That sucks in this game, and always has. It's either that, or they don't dare overtake you even if you slow down to a halt. Not a lot in between.

 

[TylerDurden4321]

Ai is really good at not running you over(complete opposite experience from Patrick above, in my opinion even Gran Turismo Ai is more aggressive against the player) , but still absolutely pathetic at overtaking cars that are significantly slower. Should lead to direct overtake, but no they drive a full lap behind the slower car without even trying to overtake.

pCARS' Ai just has bumped me too often on all sides of the car for me too like it.


Automobilista and rFactor 2 have the best Ai for me. They are really fast and if you set them slower, they don't just get less hp, worse tires or brake too often, they take some less ideal lines in Automobilista. It's also fantastic to do multi-class races in that game, they aggressively overtake slower cars, know how much fuel to take and have tire wear that isn't too different from the player. Only crap thing is some bug where cars coming from the pit just don't see other cars and side bump them, seen that quite a few times.

 

[xrnzaaas]

The career has some really wonky requirements, some are a piece of cake, others are literally impossible (there is a BMW one that is unwinnable, not sure if they fixed it)

Just a small bump. Did you mean the one where you're driving the E30 on Nurburgring Sprint and you have to win against much faster, newer BMW models? The best I could do in that one was finish third after lowering the AI level and being very aggressive at the start. Not fun. What's worse is that other BMW races in the same series don't have such crazy requirements and they offer pretty much equal chances for everyone.

 

[danowat]

Just a small bump. Did you mean the one where you're driving the E30 on Nurburgring Sprint and you have to win against much faster, newer BMW models? The best I could do in that one was finish third after lowering the AI level and being very aggressive at the start. Not fun. What's worse is that other BMW races in the same series don't have such crazy requirements and they offer pretty much equal chances for everyone.

Yes, there are others like that to!

 

[Mascot]

Dammit! I thought the McTrack was out and/or a £4.99 season pass!

 

[danowat]

Dammit! I thought the McTrack was out and/or a £4.99 season pass!

Nope, unfortunately not!

 

[Mascot]

Nope, unfortunately not!

I desperately want to drive those Porkers but not to the tune of 25 green queens.

 

[danowat]

I desperately want to drive those Porkers but not to the tune of 25 green queens.

Especially when you know that they have been at a reduced price in the past.

TBH, I am not a huge Porsche fan, I think the cars in the deluxe, or whatever it was, pack are the best in the game.

 

[xrnzaaas]

(still no Season Pass sale Mascot )

Hm, so is being slow on the first lap in Time Attack events an "official" tactic or an exploit that was never fixed? Kinda takes away the pleasure of driving on the limit the entire time.

 

[danowat]

(still no Season Pass sale Mascot )

Hm, so is being slow on the first lap in Time Attack events an "official" tactic or an exploit that was never fixed? Kinda takes away the pleasure of driving on the limit the entire time.

No idea, but I agree!

 

[xrnzaaas]

Yo, the season pass is on sale

Spoiler

for Xbox One

I advanced to Super Trofeo series in the career (sadly taking it slow due to overall lack of free time) and I find the 458 Italia Stage 3 much harder to control than the standard model (probably because it's lighter). Far from undriveable, just more fun to try and stay in control. What's funny is that the AI is uberpowerful in this car. I had a race on Monza in the previous tier and it was another of the impossible ones. The AI used lightspeed on the (long Monza) straights and won easily.