Here's Volume 7 of the Assetto Corsa Multiple Track Mod Review Project or
LOTS OF LAGUNA SECA (5), LE MANS (5), MAGNY COURS (5), AND MONACO (7!) VARIANTS
Volume 1 - A is
here.
Volume 2 - B is
here.
Volume 3 - C and D is
here.
Volume 4 - E, F, and G is
here.
Volume 5 - H and I is
here.
Volume 6 - J and K is
here.
Sorry this one took so long. I had a couple other projects to complete between the last volume and this one, and then I decided to do both L and M in the same volume for some reason, which took ages, but here it is!
L
Laguna Seca
Testing Car: Ford Mustang GT 2018 (PP1) by IXAssetto-NB7
Folder Name: bs_lagunaseca
Author: Linolafett, Snoopy, Nyowa225 and Nobby76
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/laguna-seca.10675/
This is a really basic version of Laguna Seca. I'm pretty sure this came out very early in the life of Assetto Corsa and it shows. There isn't anything terrible here, but it's just pretty bland compared to modern mod tracks. Not a lot of detail, almost no road-feel. It's what you would expect from an early mod release.
Folder Name: mazdaraceway
Author: demonized
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/p7ubrti1yuy5qet/mazdaraceway.7z/file
This is a conversion from an older game and it's ok, but has some weird texture issues on the curbs and the skidmarks on the road. They cut off sharply and are also strangely dark as you approach them. Some kind of weird shadow issue. It's not worth getting.
Folder Name: laguna_seca
Author: aspec7878
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/laguna-seca.2220/
This one has some issues. When racing with a full grid I could only get 30ish FPS in VR, and the sand on the side of the track was completely transparent, so you could see into the void on all sides, even though I couldn't fall through it. It does have more trackside details than the Linolafett version but those details didn't look very nice. Not sure what's up with this one. This appears to be a conversion of the same source material as the demonized version.
Folder Name: laguna_seca_th
Author: TibuszHun
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/laguna-seca.16323/
This is an improved version of the aspec7878 version, things look a bit nicer, and the ground isn't invisible, but the performance issues are still there.
Folder Name: ks_laguna_seca
Author: Kunos
Download: Included with the game as bonus free DLC.
No performance issues here, and as expected the details are on point. This is the definitive version of this track for AC and unless you're pirating the game I'm sure you already have this.
Le Mans
Testing Car: DPi Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Folder Name: lemans_2017
Author: Tiago Lima, Jim Lloyd, Terra21
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/circuit-24h-lemans-2017.2482/
I don't know if this is a conversion from another game or if it's scratch built but this track looks great. It has excellent details throughout and I can't come up with anything negative to say about it. It comes with 4 layouts, a day and a night version of with chicane and without chicane, but in these modern times the night versions don't need to be used, you can just set the time in CM nowadays. Great AI and great night lighting.
Folder Name: lemans_2019
Author: Tiago Lima, Jim Lloyd, Terra21
Download: I have no idea where I got this but I think it was in this thread (I can't find it with the search though)
I'm not really sure what's different in this version other than advertising boards because it seems pretty much the same as the 2017 version. Nothing bad to say about this track.
Folder Name: sx_lemans
Author: nobody
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/5z1s1prx3oe6pmp/sx_lemans_1.6.7z/file
The other versions are already great but this version is phenomenally good. It is converted from Forza Motorsport 7 and it was done very well. This is incredibly detailed, super well lit at night, great AI, great feeling on the road, and at least for me it performs well. If you don't have a machine with a lot of grunt grab the 2017 or 2019 variants above, but if you do have a good machine, do yourself a favor and get this one.
Historic Le Mans (80s)
Testing Car: Mercedes-Benz C9 1989 LM
Folder Name: lemans_1989
Author: Terra21, Jim Lloyd, KJRacing 81, Teddie
Download:
There's a really nice amount of detail here. There is a weird texture right under the dunlop bridge near the start of the track but that might just be a bug in my installation or something. It seems like it could also use a grassfx config, since the 3d grass that's in there now isn't that great. Other than that stuff, it's excellent. The AI also doesn't seem to know how to drive this track, they all freak out on the long straight right where the first chicane would be. GrassFX and and an AI fix would probably make this great. Also, there's no night lighting at all, so adding that would be pretty cool too.
Folder Name: le_mans_85
Author: Legion
Download:
Now this is beautiful. It's a new release from Legion but it's actually something that he worked on a long time ago and just got around to releasing. It's already really good but I'm sure the community is going to make it even better. It has an excellent feel to it both visually and in the driving, and it brings back a lot of memories from when I was a kid. I highly recommend this one for this particular era of Le Mans. Missing is lighting at night and grassfx but hopefully those can be added soon. This is the one to get.
Lienz
Testing Car: Seat Leon Cupra RS
Folder Name: lienz
Author: Gilles75
Download: Pay Mod -
https://celletson.wixsite.com/acclassics/modern-tracks
This is one of the better looking Gilles tracks that I've tried. It's not great by any means, but it looks better than most. It's got some issues though. Low poly road mesh makes elevation changes really rough, the textures are all pretty low resolution, and biggest of all for me anyway is the lack of visible barriers or signs telling you where to go on roads that aren't actually the track. It's easy to get lost here, which just seems really weird. Don't spend money on this.
Folder Name: lienz_reworked
Author: Sliderman, nobody, Fanapryde, Mascot, norms, Mike08
Download: https://sharemods.com/um5fqtk9kghl/lienz_reworked_v1.75.7z.html
The grass is so much better in this version, and it overall looks a lot nicer and I really appreciate the barriers. The road mesh is still a bit bumpy on hills from it being so low-poly, but overall it's much better. There are a couple of sections where the grass is growing in the middle of the road, mostly where 2 roads join each other. Probably an easy fix in the ini. Definitely get this one.
Update: after testing, the material "RDCPZBASE01" should be added to OCCLUDING_MATERIALS to get rid of the grass in the road. The problem is worse with the M8-Retexture skin active, but it's still there to some extent (there's some gray grass poking through, just not much) without the skin active as well.
Londrina
Testing Car: Super Aguri SA08
Folder Name: londrina
Author: thestrobe8
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8ox11wg2u6dxvzx/londrina_alt.zip/file
Everything in this version is very harshly bright, and with the road so bright sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the run-off areas on the side of the road and the road itself. Perhaps this wouldn't be so much of an issue if I weren't using VR.
Folder Name: vhe_londrina
Author: VheEth
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/dj8tzn5shzud60m/vhe_londrina_2.0.rar/file
This is fantastic. Everything is color corrected, the road feels better, the lighting is perfect, and it's overall so much better. This is the one to get.
Long Beach
Testing Car: Indycar 1995 Penske
Folder Name: t21_longbeach
Author: Terra21
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/j9v9yel2kvuynk9/longbeach.rar/file
I love this place, and this track looks amazing. Very colorful, really cool at night too. Unfortunately performance is really low even on a high end machine. Still, it's much better than any other available version so if you have to turn settings down to make this track work, do it! (I really hope some optimizations come to this)
Folder Name: long_beach_2012
Author: Hexor & T1Mok
Download: http://assetto-db.com/track/long_beach_2012/long_beach_2012
Very bright, super-low-poly road mesh and track surroundings, very sloppy. And the AI can't even do a lap around the track. Half of the grid couldn't even start their lap. Awful.
M
Magny Cours
Testing Car: McLaren MP4/6 by ASR
Folder Name: magny_cours
Author: Terra21
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/2uyvk7q09eiof7v/magny_cours.rar/file
This one looks good but it has some bugs. The trees seem very dark, but everything else looks the right color. Also the spectators and the trees flash in and out when in VR, especially while turning my head. I spent about an hour messing with CSP settings, trying different versions, disabling extensions one by one to see what was causing it and the only way to make the problem go away was to just disable CSP completely. This had the side effect of making the trees look normal again. I re-enabled CSP and deleted the extension ini for this track and that made the trees look their normal color but they still flashed in and out. I tried CSP 0.1.61 (my regular version), 0.1.52, and 0.1.46 and none of those fixed the flashing trees and spectators. It's a shame too because aside from the older method of 3d grass, this track looks great.
Folder Name: magny-cours
Author: rainmaker
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/o2ibmz5j699qw1o/Magny-Cours_v1.4_by_Rainmaker.7z/file
This one is your typical Rainmaker conversion. It looks mostly fine, but a lot of the lighting is harshly bright and the textures are pretty low resolution. Not a lot wrong with this, but it's just pretty bland.
Folder Name: magny_cours_0_1
Author: vinny37
Download: https://mega.nz/file/lcs0FCpR#x23ekg4-6RWnzTFK7NsAZ7pZ2TtEDCys3AaX0OKjFqU
I don't remember where I got this but it appears to be identical to the Rainmaker version, just with missing spectators.
Folder Name: magny_cours_1993
Author: @marc_13000
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bq50fr67mmtj19y/magny_cours_1993.zip/file
This one is a little strange. It looks nice and the 1993 setting is cool, but the track layout isn't the 1993 layout. The ACF version of the 2001 layout might have been a better candidate for this skin.
Folder Name: magny_cours
Author: @jk0011
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/n2au28q18p07zhn/magny_cours_fix4_3.7z/file
This is what I wanted. It's a fixed version of the Terra21 version. All of the good stuff without the problems present there. Unfortunately it was named the same as the Terra21 version so it overwrites it, and I get that it's an update to it, but then CM thinks it's the original, downloads the configs for the original version, which are significantly different to the configs included with this track and then you get conflicts. It's always best to rename the track to avoid this kind of conflict. That aside, this is the best version of this particular layout of this track and the one to get.
Mallory Park
Testing Car: Dodge Viper GTS ACR
Folder Name: acf_mallory_park_r1
Author: ACF
Download: https://mega.nz/folder/d8RmGIDa#eNn1zMIK-Y9gAukU5zxsvg/folder/5hIW3KDS
This must be a work in progress because it's not up to ACF's standards. The track surface is really rough, the grass texture is nearly flourescent green, the trees are really repetetive, and the road texture appears to be mapped globally instead of being mapped to the road, so the lines that are supposed to follow the road just repeat over and over. It needs a lot of work.
Folder Name: mallory_park
Author: @pk3r72owns
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mallory-park.34224/
This one is fantastic. 7 different layouts, the road feels good, the grass looks amazing, great variety in the trees, and there are a few included skin options. This is definitely the one to get.
Martinsville Speedway
Testing Car: NASCAR Circa 1990 (Legion)
Folder Name: martinsville
Author: llamafett
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/martinsville-speedway.22077/
This one is alright, but a lot of textures are mapped sloppily, the grandstands, the road, and the crowds are overexposed, and if you look closely at the crowd you will see a lot of people are just floating pairs of jeans with no bodies attached. The grass is just another flat overexposed texture. When racing the AI I got 8 laps in and then all of the AI cars disappeared and reappeared on pit lane, then went back out to the track. Not sure what's up with that.
Folder Name: aa_martinsville
Author: @damone13x
Download: https://mega.nz/?fbclid=IwAR3Emx9YA...S!Z71GI9LH1LIfcPOAbRC9RPA1pZW4eTcWwZKw--Aftiw
I'll be honest, I couldn't tell the difference between these two. They were exactly the same to my eye, right down to the weird AI cars disappearing on lap 8 again. Very strange.
Update: I tried a different car and didn't have the disappearing AI so maybe the car is the problem.
Mid Ohio
Testing Car: Ford Mustang Boss 302R
Folder Name: mid_ohio
Author: Terra21
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/fl83fbq85unv3ye/mid_ohio.rar/file
This place looks fantastic! The grass, the textures, the trackside surroundings, the visual detail of the road surface, the trees, everything looks great. I've heard complaints that it's too bumpy but it seems fine to me. I don't know what this was originally converted from but Terra21 did an excellent job. For me, this is the one to get. I understand that some people hate the bumpy surface though.
Folder Name: nagp_mid_ohio
Author: NAGP
Download: https://sharemods.com/7tpw1zte35gn/nagp_mid_ohio.7z.html
So this is the Terra21 version with the road smoothed out a bit and a lot of details removed. I've never driven there but I've seen videos and it seems like a pretty bumpy place to me, so I'm not entirely certain why they smoothed it out. Also the lack of trackside details and the removal of the rubber on the road really makes this one look less good. For those that hate the bumpy surface of the Terra21 version I suppose this one is fine, but the loss of detail really keeps this one from being my choice.
Folder Name: midohio
Author: ACCC/Virtua-LM
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/hn11kk1dhdco0hs/midohio_accc.7z/file
This one is an older conversion and it shows. Textures are overexposed and not color corrected and it's overall lower in detail, it's not bad, it's just not as good as the Terra21 version
Milan
Testing Car: Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
Folder Name: milan
Author: Gilles75
Download: Pay Mod -
https://celletson.wixsite.com/acclassics/modern-tracks
This one was a surprise to me, given Gilles75's reputation. It's not a mess. It still has flaws, like the rumble strips don't rumble and you can just drive through tires, but all the concrete barriers work as you'd expect, all of the colors look right, and there was some attention to detail with bumpiness of the road surface on the sections of road with embedded train track. This might be the best Gilles75 conversion I've tried and if there were no alternative it would certainly be worth the pound he charges for it (if it hadn't been ripped without permission and then sold with no input from the original designer, in this case codemasters.)
Folder Name: acf_milan_castello_circuit
Author: ACF
Download: https://mega.nz/folder/d8RmGIDa#eNn1zMIK-Y9gAukU5zxsvg/folder/5hIW3KDS
And then ACF came along and provided us with this conversion of the same source material that looks much better, functions properly where the Gilles75 version fails, and doesn't cost anything. Definitely get this version. It shines in the same places the Gilles75 version does, and then some.
Monaco
Testing Car: 2012 Lotus F1 Car
Folder Name: monaco
Author: ACU
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bvrijfg4m7al770/ac_monaco_v.1.1.rar/file
This one is a codemasters conversion so it's got a lot of detail in it. That being said, textures are pretty basic here and the trees are not that nice looking. Overall, it's a good version of the track but there's room for improvement.
Folder Name: monaco 1.5v
Author: King777
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/monaco-1-5v.10444/
This one has slightly less detail than the ACU version, and blockier, dirtier looking textures. It's main downfall is an extemely bumpy road due to a low poly road mesh so it's a bit too bumpy for my tastes.
Folder Name: monaco_osrw_1.1
Author: OSRW? (ACU?)
Download:
This one looks and feels exactly the same as the ACU version. The only difference I could notice was the pit slots was 24 instead of 22.
Folder Name: monaco
Author: Terra21
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/uunbd0a9aamtia1/monaco.zip/file
I like this one a lot. The colors look good, the textures look more detailed than the ACU version which looks a little bit cartoony in comparison. It's a really solid version of modern monaco.
Folder Name: monaco
Author: Mitja Bonca
Download: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/monaco.3340/
I think this must have been one of Mitja Bonca's earlier track conversions because it does not have the attention to detail I've come to expect from his tracks. This one has a very low poly road mesh and it's quite bumpy. some textures are stretched to the wrong aspect ratio and the trees look downright ugly. It's not terrible and I imagine some of the sacrifices in quality were to keep performance reasonable, but it just isn't a very good version.
Folder Name: monaco_2017
Author: Patrikpat
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/24ld1trvidybkul/monaco_2017_2.0.zip/file
This is (I think) ACU's version with a fresh coat of paint. This cleans up a lot of the problems with the ACU version like some weird textures on buildings that looked a bit flat, better trees, and a better road texture. This also adds lighting in the tunnel and it overall looks a lot better. It's also the first version I've tested that has a functional DRS zone. Performance is a bit lower, but it's a good tradeoff for all the extra detail.
Folder Name: monaco_2019
Author: Patrikpat
Download: https://sharemods.com/7776lc7o2sgv/monaco_2019.7z.html
This one is the same as the 2017 version with updated sponsors and much better performance. It's a beautiful version and it's the one I prefer. The lighting ini for the 2017 version mostly translates over (might need a few tweaks) by just copying it to monaco_2019.ini.
Mondello Park
Testing Car: Dodge Stealth Turbo
Folder Name: mondello
Author: Gilles75
Download: Pay Mod -
https://celletson.wixsite.com/acclassics/modern-tracks
Not much to nit-pick here. It's not bad, it's not great. The textures could be more vibrant, everything seems a bit muted, but the road surface is fine, and this version is overall inoffensive.
Folder Name: mondello_park
Author: Tomcul
Download: https://mega.nz/#!VuYxxYJK!XCTmLW4Q-Qp_ykGfNHJgHkWCcx-8dRTrJEYa6ZzsuVg
This one adds some nice grass and makes the colors more vibrant. Best of all it's free and you won't be supporting someone that sells other people's work. Definitely get this one.
Addendum
Cascavel
Testing Car: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
Folder Name: cascavel
Author: NieXS
Download: https://mega.co.nz/#!yJhXXLCb!D9Uz4-JbSNm-VfVdbOUuBcStG7sRXeXn-fKcou8rvqo
This track has some issues. Very harsh textures, the trees are super dark, there are areas where the ground is transparent so you just see floating road and trees, and the road is smooth as glass. Not recommended in it's current state. Also, the AI can't get off the starting grid.
Folder Name: erl_ascavel
Author: ERL
Download: Private ERL Track
Lots of trackside details in this one and it looks quite good. The trees are a bit dark in this version too, and there are spots where it's obvious that they are flat planes but overall this one looks nice. The road surface also feels good. The AI isn't very competitive.
Folder Name: vhe_cascavel
Author: @VheEth
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/vxrb8cs3jt0xrua/vhe_cascavel_0.9.rar/file
This takes everything from the ERL release and makes it better. The trees aren't dark, the grass is fantastic, and the trackside details look even better. This is an excellent mod track and definitely the best version of Cascavel
Curitiba
Testing Car: BMW M5 (E34)
Folder Name: curitiba
Author: HemiR
Download: https://mega.nz/#!CB9lWKjR!vDnwo3i08q2SNYR0PtJA36jcZgjkgaKmGazvStzREFg
The trees on this track are almost glowing, and the road surface is very smooth, but I have no other complaints about this track.
Folder Name: vhe_curitiba
Author: @VheEth
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/0s1kr5v19b39eqa/vhe_curitiba_1.0.rar/file
The level of detail here is excellent. The trees don't glow, the road has feel, and the surroundings look incredibly real. I love it! This is the one to get.
Goiania
Testing Car: Ferrari 512 TR
Folder Name: erl_goiania
Author: ERL
Download: Private ERL track
Not much to say about this track other than that the grass texture is very flat looking and the palm trees to the left of the track after turn 1 are turned in such a way that they are perpendicular to your car, and they look very strange.
Folder Name: vhe_goiania
Author: @VheEth
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/0xzh4kefcmindq3/vhe_goiania_2.0.rar/file
The weird looking trees are gone, the grass looks great, everything looks fantastic. You can't go wrong getting this version.
