Assetto Corsa Hits €100 Million in Sales: Exclusive Interview with Kunos' Marco Massarutto

[bleeder]

The game only came out on consoles in June 2020. Patching it for next gen early 2021 isn't asking too much. Lots of last gen games are still being patched, and even older ones than ACC (Nioh comes to mind).

Bottom line is if they wanted to do it they could easily do it. I personally only have 2 issues on PS5 and that's having to lower the console res to 1080p for the game to look sharp; and the fact it crashes more often than any other PS4 game I play on PS5.

 

[TypeRDC5]

Make a ps5 version of ACC run like the original AC does on PS4 and ill be the happiest man alive!

Simply the best physics and most fun on console out there but man the frame rate hurts my eyes.

 

[Corsa]

Please Marco no more Unreal, please.

 

[Afterlife]

But the thing is I really think this is the reason you see fewer games ported from PC to console than you see ported from console to PC.
Much easier to do a port when you are going from one system to another that actually has more power to work with which allows the studio to actually improve the product.

Let's not forget that games ported from console to PC are almost always horrible. Hopefully no one ever encourages Kunos to make their game this way.

 

[mef]

Nice interview for what appears to be a great company with a level-headed, hard working leader.

A certain British individual from another sim racing company comes to mind who could learn a lesson in modesty from Kunos and their leader ship.

And a lesson in not letting a cat out of the bag before it's prime time, let the games do the talking.

I never played AC on pc beacuse I always had a console. If they think about their future on console, many things needs to be changed. AC was not bad, but ACC is one of the worst racing games on console. Of course is just my opinion, but graphic is terrible, career mode is real boring, and we had to wait months to use a wheels beacuse wer not supported. Kunos must understand that players pay the game and want to play, in 2021 a racing game cannot be without steering wheels, the games and game developpers exist because the customers pay and buy the games, they have to think about that, customers are the priority in the videogames world.

Wait, what? I'm sure ACC supports steering wheels on consoles. Edit: Re-read that you said it wasn't available at launch. If that was the case I'd say that's pretty lame too for a sim game.

Also I remember watching a few reviews about the game (haven't bought it yet) and don't recall any mentioning it having a worse career mode than AC. I can't imagine it being worse than that I mean, the AC career mode was so bare bones they didn't even celebrate wins. Gran Turismo is a great example of how to add flair to a racing game (talking about the win race screen for example or pit crew during pit stops).

 

[Whitestar]

Particularly given that the PC version is not exactly brilliantly optimized itself to start with.

I can agree with that as on PC to run the settings I wanted to run is the reason I built my new PC tower. On the highest settings with a 6700k and a 1070 GPU just struggled a bit.
I have wanted to try VR but as long as ACC is like it is I will give that a pass.

I don't know, I think at least from Kunos' side it's about as optimized as it can be. I remember a post Stefano made to answer a forum user regarding this (this was summer 2018):

"UE4 is a multimillion lines of code monster with a team of hundreds of the most talented devs in the world working on it full time. Do you really think some italian dude can simply get in there and find performances if they can't?"

Now sure, they have made a few small optimizations since then, but I think what he means is that the bulk of that work has to be done by Epic. Maybe the UE just isn't all that well suited for racing games, or maybe it's just a little heavy by nature, I don't know.

Please Marco no more Unreal, please.

For me that would depend entirely on the performance and features of UE5

 

[hrusa2]

Make a ps5 version of ACC run like the original AC does on PS4 and ill be the happiest man alive!

Simply the best physics and most fun on console out there but man the frame rate hurts my eyes.

What do you mean? ACC runs 60 fps on PS5 in both 4K and 1080p (better graphics mode).

 

[davidt33]

....but ACC is one of the worst racing games on console. Of course is just my opinion, but graphic is terrible, career mode is real boring, and we had to wait months to use a wheels beacuse wer not supported.

I bought ACC on launch for use on PS4 console. The graphics looks fine on my TV and I was able to use my (Fanatec) wheel right away.

 

[lancia delta hf]

I saw this interview a bit different to others. Reg. his comments about good optimisation, I dont think he meant the optimisation is good, but rather they did a good job. Obviously knowing the difficulties they had themselves optimising ACC on PC. Having followed their forums from the start of ACC its amazing that it's even om PS4, and that why I'm convinced it would not have been on PS4 had Kunos had complete control.

As for a PS5 version, I've come to recognise Marco's language over the years, and going by the way he's spoke in the past it sounds like they are actually working on new gen versions, if not working on it now I'd put money on them 100% actively looking into it right now.

Please Marco no more Unreal, please.

It sounded to me like they are contemplating UE5.

What do you mean? ACC runs 60 fps on PS5 in both 4K and 1080p (better graphics mode).

Well the graphics and effects have been downgraded since launch, no fov etc. So it could do with a decent patch.

Personally if I was kudos I'd release a new gen version with all the DLC included so they could have a fresh mini marketing campaign and bring in new buyers who aren't familiar with the franchise, seeing as theres not many racing games on new consoles yet.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

I don't know, I think at least from Kunos' side it's about as optimized as it can be. I remember a post Stefano made to answer a forum user regarding this (this was summer 2018):

"UE4 is a multimillion lines of code monster with a team of hundreds of the most talented devs in the world working on it full time. Do you really think some italian dude can simply get in there and find performances if they can't?"

Now sure, they have made a few small optimizations since then, but I think what he means is that the bulk of that work has to be done by Epic. Maybe the UE just isn't all that well suited for racing games, or maybe it's just a little heavy by nature, I don't know.

Regardless which side of the line Kunos or Epic the state of the games optimization is from the game consumes a lot of computing power as compared to other options apparently.

And again on the Kunos side of the board even if it is an Unreal Engine 4 issue it is the engine that Kunos chose to build its game on so they cannot just innocently absolve themselves of blame and say its all Epics fault and problem.

VR within ACC even running as much as a 10900k CPU and a 3090 GPU still is said to still be taxing the best computer hardware to and at times past its max if trying to run the highest settings with headsets that have the best resolutions. If you see one request on forums or message boards the most concerning ACC it is to optimize and make the VR feasable to run on normal hardware.

And believe me when it comes to ACC I am one of its biggest fans and love the game. I think overall it is the best game on the market on PC and even spent a chunk of money to build a new PC tower because of this 1 game as all other games I play ran fine on the higher settings on my older rig.

But when it comes to any game the actual performance of the game whether good or bad still falls back on the studio and the choices they made in creating the game and that will also include the platform and engine used for that creation. To me I think ACC has hit one out of the park and the good so far outweighs the bad it is no comparison.

Would the game be better or easier to run if a different Engine had been used while still retaining the performance that makes ACC so good? To that end I have no clue as I am not a programmer or creator. But give me a choice of the game easier to run or retaining the game performance wise as it is today I will take the easier to run hit and keep the current gameplay.

The only thing I would like to see is the VR performance issues resolved as I would love to try VR playing this game but it is something I can live without.

 

[MarcoM]

I hope the pc players have an awesome day with the DLC.

Really looking forward to the dlc on conlsole.

Hopefully they will dial in the rain effects back. Now I have to look at the weahter icons to see if it's raining.

After 2 full weeks of pc3, I fired up ACC on my ps4. Needless to say I had some adjusting to do in my driving. The AI is actually pretty good in ACC.

 

[Donnced]

Well the graphics and effects have been downgraded since launch, no fov etc. So it could do with a decent patch.

Well I doubt graphics and effects were downgraded,cause the last patch showed the dynamic blackering/rubbering on track texture surface on the Imola DLC track, the only track in the game having it now on PS4 ACC update v1.09 since PS4 ACC update v1.05, before that it was there in update 1.04 that brought FPS improvements on PS4 PRO ....so for me it's an example that those graphics/efects are broken since 1.05 together with rain efects on windshield.

It's reported, I've explained to Mike and showed him, wich asked me to send hem a zip archive with the screenshots and he would send it to the team.

That's why I said I don't agree with Marco "about good optimization / work from D3T" apart form other issues and things,some of them not fixed since launch

Here's the screenshots showing the dynamic blackering/rubbering visible on the new Imola track on PS4, only track to have it since 1.05 ACC PS4 update

- "Green" track

- "fast" track

- "optimum" track

 

[BigSarj]

With the latest successes I really hope that they can bring the next title to console natively not with the detour of a different developer.

This is exactly what I was thinking. It was nice to hear him laud the hardware and its possibilities but I would love AC2 to be actually directly from them.

 

[BigSarj]

By the way, is the writer of the article the same guy conducting the interview? Because I'm not sure he introduced himself in the video.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Can't say I agree with him saying there is no value in bringing content from other games, but I'm sure he says it just to cover himself from getting sued by other developers. Also makes me think that AC2 will not openly support modding anymore

Congrats of the numbers though. It's probably still a drop in the pond compared to what PD/T10 are raking in, but compared to other hardcore sims AC definitely feels the most popular. I know a few people who aren't into racing games, let alone sims, who have bought AC just because of its sandbox nature

 

[VFOURMAX1]

Can't say I agree with him saying there is no value in bringing content from other games,

Could very well have to do with copyrighted content and ownership and distribution rights. If one game owned exclusive rights say to a brand of cars and a modder copied that material and put it into another game would you agree the original license holder and artist that created that content had that material stolen and their rights to the property they created had been violated?
Same as a company buying a license to create a venue and investing in laser scanning a track, if that material was illegally taken and placed in a competitors game by a modder how do you justify that being allowable without legal ramifications against the game that now has content they do not own the rights too being in their game?

I can agree with what he is saying in that respect, sure modding has its place as long as the content is original and completely 100% created by the modder.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Could very well have to do with copyrighted content and ownership and distribution rights. If one game owned exclusive rights say to a brand of cars and a modder copied that material and put it into another game would you agree the original license holder and artist that created that content had that material stolen and their rights to the property they created had been violated?
Same as a company buying a license to create a venue and investing in laser scanning a track, if that material was illegally taken and placed in a competitors game by a modder how do you justify that being allowable without legal ramifications against the game that now has content they do not own the rights too being in their game?

I can agree with what he is saying in that respect, sure modding has its place as long as the content is original and completely 100% created by the modder.

Yeah I'm aware of the whole copyright stuff. In the PC Mod Discussion thread this argument has taken place many many many times. It's always going to be a grey area but I think as long as the modder doesn't profit from it, it's still within allowable limits. Even then it doesn't stop some people from selling ripped mods, like a certain Russian modding group. If Marco knows about this he's gonna have an aneurysm probably

Anyway, like someone said, they could have put an end to modding if they really want, but they didn't knowing full well this could happen. It is what it is.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

they could have put an end to modding if they really want, but they didn't knowing full well this could happen

Well as of right now they have stopped and do not allow any modding on their newest title ACC up to this point at least.
You figure AC is a pretty old title now so they probably know the only reason that game still sells any reasonably high amount of copies that they still make money off of is only because of all the mods for the title so they sort of look the other way and play dumb.