Assetto Corsa Competizione Early Access – first impressions Leave a comment

Finally, it is here. The new Assetto Corsa Competizione Early Access is out! We have driven the new generation racing simulator using a high end Direct Drive sim racing wheel. Our impressions are summarised in the next few paragraphs. We will be very short, because we value your time and strive to give you the most useful and most precise information. Gentlemen, please start the engines!

Lets start with the ACC graphics first

Assetto Corsa graphics was already very good – not ultra realistic, but it was one of the nicest looking games out there. Even more when the game came out in 2014. Assetto Corsa Competizione was able to make a big improvement in terms of overall graphics quality. It uses the new Unreal 4 engine (If you want to know more about, you can get all the info you need on The official Unreal 4 engine website.

But even more important is that there is much more realistic look and immersion. The visual presentation gives you the impression you are doing real racing – with a real car on a real track.

And if you want to be really impressed – try the replay and outside TV camera, while driving on the Nurbürgring GP straight full throttle. I can guarantee you, if someone doesnt know you are playing a game, you would have a hard time to convince them that this isn’t a TV stream from a Blancpain race.

The game can be easily mistaken with real Blancpain race footage, especially from the outside.

Graphics rating:

• Assetto Corsa 8/10
• Assetto Corsa Competizione 10/10

Graphics effects

Lets do a quick summary.

The positive:

• ultra realistic track lightning depending on the time/sun position
• soft shadows in car/on track
• sparks flying if going over curbs and scratching the underbody
• ultra realistic reflections on tarmack while raining
• tire marbles off racing line

Negative:

• rain looks silly

Graphics performance estimation: about 30% less framerate at similar settings (same hardware) as AC1. Can be improved till final release.

Graphics effects rating:

• Assetto Corsa 7/10
• Assetto Corsa Competizione 10/10

Sound

One of the weakest points of Assetto Corsa. Assetto Corsa Competizione made made huge improvements – the developers made here an extremely good job. What you get is a ultra realistic deep engine sound, gearbox sound, brake squeak, suspension sound effects, underbody hits. I will repeat myself, but if you use high quality speakers with a subwoofer, you will really feel like driving the real thing. What was hugely improved compared to Assetto Corsa are the tire sound effects. Much more realistic, before it was like an arcade sound.

Sound rating:

• Assetto Corsa 5/10
• Assetto Corsa Competizione 10/10

Vehicle dynamics

While Asseto Corsa felt like a good sim game, Assetto Corsa Competizione feels like driving a real racecar. You can feel the weight transfer and tire slip angles. The car has realistic weight and inertia while driving. Good feel of balance and grip. Realistic car movement in the incar footage.

For realistic driving experience turn all the assistance off – stabilisation and traction control and ABS – or play with the settings until happy.

Vehicle Dynamics rating:

• Assetto Corsa 7/10
• Assetto Corsa Competizione 10/10

Force Feedback

A big dissapointment. After driving the game with a professional Direct Drive wheel (Augury Direct Drive Wheel), I can say that this is the weak point of Assetto Corsa Competizione and needs to be adressed till the final release. It is a improvement over Assetto Corsa, but only a slight one.

The positive:

• while cornering, there is a increase of steering effort, at a certain front wheel slip angle the feedback decreases.
• less kicking while crash compared to Assetto Corsa
• going over curbs and touching the underbody can easily upset the car until a crash is unaviodable

Negative:

• no force feedback while standing – no simulation of the mechanical trail and tire friction while wheels not moving.
• too much kicking of the wheel while driving over curbs and in non controlled slide

For the game to be really realistic, the above issues need to be adressed and there need to be further work on the positives as well, as there are not perfect.

Force feedback rating:

• Assetto Corsa 5/10
• Assetto Corsa Competizione 6/10

That were our first impressions. There will be more detailed articles comming out for you. Keep in touch!

Tested with:

• Augury Direct Drive Wheel
• SRC GT-1 PRO steering wheel
• Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Ultimate
• Sim-Lab P1 Sim Racing Rig

Laptop:

• Intel Core i7 7700k
• 32 GB RAM
• NVidia GeForce GTX 1060m