Assetto Corsa thread

[Lionclaw]

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

Challenging AI, at least on higher levels.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

Took a break from AC.

Heresy...! You shall burn in eternal hellfire! Get out of my thread, sinner!

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

[Lionclaw]

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.

[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)

[Skybird]

Scenes from the BMW race at Monza:

[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 .

[Skybird]

Clearing out further my screenshot gallery:











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!

[Skybird]

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



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.

One more week until next update.

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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



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.

One more week until next update.

Ooh, thanks for that link.

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

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

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.

[Skybird]

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.




Actually the Tatuu Formula Abarth cars drive well, AI-wise. That probably is because they look fast, but are not the fastest.

[Skybird]

Tomorrow is update day again.

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...!


@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.