But isn't it the same like in other sims? Just 3 examples: R3E: Some cars with latest physics and some with an older physics revision. Updated by Sector3 step by step. rFactor2: Latest cars have all new physics features like CPM, chassis flex, fuel mixture, etc., but there are still a lot of older cars without this stuff. iRacing: The same. Some cars with newest tire model, but not all cars. With ongoing progress of physics development it's almost impossible to update all cars at once because of the huge effort and amount of time needed.
Maybe, I don't have rFactor2 or iRacing. But AFAIK AC has three different tire models in game. I dig the effort/time thing, but why not rework all and then update ? In the end it is the same amount of effort and it would bring some more balance. Unless they are not planning to update the other cars anyway....In that case....
I don't know which 3 tire models you mean, but the tire model itself has different (evolving) revisions. With upcoming patch 1.8 comes tire model version 10. I would expect that updating a car to newer tire physics isn't just a copy&paste job, because of needed testing and perhaps car class balancing. I for myself have rather an updated car class in short-term, than waiting some months until all cars have been updated (even the ones which i don't drive at all). And even then it's quite possible, that the tire modell has got another improvements.
5 - 7 - and a few with 10 IIRC. But what is the worst thing is that none of them work correctly as far as tire pressure/tire temperature relation goes. Once you lower the pressure to keep the tires within working temperature, you loose so much speed that the little gain in grip is not making up for that. You can drive a car to the limit and still see the temperature going down until the app shows blue, even in 23°C ambient temperature and obviously higher track temps. Depending on your location you might/might not like the psi measuring. When asked for a possibility to switch to BAR (or have the choice), they reply that it is "as designed". But their API on the other hand seems to send the tire pressure in BAR, since it shows like that on my RS Dash (external app on tablet) !?
I got it to work!! I had accidentally changed the resolution, so it didn't match up with the DK2.. First VR sim racing impression: "WOW!!!" I do get a bit nauseous after a while, but hope I can get used to that. Not as bad as when I tried No limit roller coaster 2 the other day though, luckily! I almost fell out of the chair after the first hill and turn. felt sick for about 10 hours after that.. . But works better when I feel that it's my own actions that causes the effect of movement and speed.
Spoiler: 1.8 changelog - New Ferrari FXXK (Tripl3 Pack DLC) - New Ferrari 488 GTB (Tripl3 Pack DLC) - New Praga R1 (Tripl3 Pack DLC) - New Audi S1 (A1) - New Monza 66 Full Course (sopraelevata) - New Monza 66 Junior Course - Improved reflection quality - Improved shadow stability - Improved graphics performance - Fixed Tyre Model 10 not updating Dx and Dy value in telemetry app - Added AI traction mistakes - AI improvements on slower reaction after an impact, for more realistic collisions - Overlay Leaderboard now shows correct positions on the grid at race start - Fixed Laps app showing 0 as first lap - Fixed Race Control UI for the low resolution screens - Wrong direction penalty gets also time penalty - Added float clutch to SPageFilePhysics - Fixed turbolevel digital item showing a wrong value - Fixed various problems/timing on ghost cars - Fixed typo on sound distance attenuation for Lotus Evora GTC/GX - Fixed sample attack for BMW M3 e30 GrA/DTM limiters - Replay files will not reset anymore at session start (no need to rush out of the server anymore to save a replay) - Fixed remote cars head movements in multiplayer and multiplayer replays - Fixed typo on LaFerrari active differential lock in coast and small bumpstop stiffness changes - General improvements on V10 tyres for rolling resistance, flex, pressures and more. - Improved Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4 suspension, should improve braking without ABS - V10 tyres for Hypercars LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Pagani Huayra - V10 tyres for GT2 cars BMW M3 GT2, Ferrari 458 GT2, Corvette C7R - V10 tyres for Racing Hypercars Ferrari 599XX, Ferrari FXXK, Pagani Zonda R - Fixed ERS power output when battery is close to 0 and MGU-H is set to battery - Removed ERS cockpit controls for MGU-H and Recovery in McLaren P1 - Improvement in performance for collision detection and physics solver - Fixed clouds when switching sessions - Returning to pit during a time penalty results in a greater time penalty - Fixed possible drive through cheat - Fixed blurred objects not working if speed was negative - Fixed hotlap mode: now valid laps will be correctly registered - Removed white flag: a new message will appear the moment the race leader starts his last lap - Modding: extra animations now binded to three channels NUM 4, 5 and 6 (group animations to make them play simultaneously, otherwise each clip will be played separately) - Modding: rotating object support, useful for cooling fans [ROTATING_OBJECT_0] in extra_animations (affects in-game) - Modding: series scripts added for digital speed bars [SPEED_SERIE_0] in digital_instruments and invert option for KERS input items (add INVERT=1 line)
So far the opinions on the console release are quite negative, especially on the Xbox where framerates seem to be really low. I think Kunos might have gone a bit over their head here, this is a completely different audience, more demanding especially with racing games.
Well the problem is, the majority of console gamers expects a finished product for the price , and from what I see they are not getting it (this is a completely different market and they don't care about the difficulties of sim development). The Xbox version has terrible frames, just watch some videos of the console version - it's really bad.
Lets face it, the XBox release is a terrible mess. Period. From all I read, at least. I wonder what they were thinking. The PS4 version suffers from more tearing than is to be expected in the year 2016, but there is hope that it will be healed. Still, as was said: on consoles you expect a product that at least in its technical aspects is finished. What is usually admitted, though, is the driving experience on PS4 beign as good as on PC, physics-wise I mean. the question is whether this will take the console audience's taste. I took Flak some time ago when indicating that the console crowd maybe is not ready for what is coming at them with AC-style of driving. We will see. But the XBox release is a mess. Stupid. That costs sympathies, good will, and reputation - all of which are needed to hold your ground against the Forza fanpire. That it would be tehcncially infeiror a bit, compared to PS4, was to be expected, and that it would have lower resolution, was known. But this...? Lets see what they can save. On PC, they used to patch incredibly fast. But if on XBox it takes them longer time, people will go amiss and never come back. Regarding the PC, today's releases are fine and got me rid of some issues I had. On the PC version's new candies, I had to say this in their forum:
Sad for the consoleros! But, I think I can remember pcars also had problems after release on consoles. Hope should not be lost. I'm having some mess with my clutch pedal, too since this update. It happens only in cars with paddleshifters, not in h- or seq-shifting cars and no matter if I'm using paddle, h or seq controller (Fanatec CSW V2, Clubsport shifter V1.5 Clubsport pedals V3). As said, just with cars paddle shifted. Entering the car, clutch pedal is applied. Using throttle, clutch is released automatically and the car starts driving, when shifted to 1. gear. As long throttle is used, clutch cannot be used. No settings had been changed and autoclutch is off. Anyone with similar issues? Edit: It tseems they did it as irl. It's at those cars without clutch.
As someone who is not a console gamer, this still irritates me. So much dev time went into this console release and it seem that it's going to be a failure. Even if they patch it, the console crowd is already asking for refunds and spilling hate, comparing it to Project CARS (which I can say over a year after release is a very good game that I enjoy no matter what anyone says, though light on the physics side). They can patch it, but patch deployment on consoles takes longer, since it's more of a hustle to get the update approved and so on. Before Assetto gets fixed, console players will leave the whole simulation hype with a bad taste in their mouths. AC just cannot even try to compete with stuff like Forza at it's current state. And you know what bothers me the most in this? All that dev time... They could have worked on improving the game on the PC. But, but, patch 1.8! Oh yeah, I played 1.8. Here are my few thoughts. Stuff that I mostly drive is still on the V7 tire model, so it's not like handling has changed (though it does feel easier, or maybe I just got better after that bottle of wine I had). What interested me the most though were the new shaders and performance improvements. Unfortunatelly, I still get framerate drops on occasion and now it's even worse than it was, since they started to happen with post processing off. I used to have some drops in replays, not it's just during a test session with one car on the Nord. And that is without those half-baked effects like the DOF filter (this really needs to go from gaming permanently). As for the other stuff... Well the menus are still the same as is the interface (at least we get the pedal app, unlike the console players). Force Feedback is still the same, that means no soft lock and the wheel is still loose and numb in the center, the lag when slipping occurs is also there. All things aside this is probably my biggest issue - in each game (Project CARS included), when I start to go sideways, the wheel tells me that instantly. In Assetto, I have to see that the cars is going to slide, give a little nudge to the wheel and only then I feel the wheel is turning and telling me I'm going sideways. Same goes for regaining grip - visual cues come first then the wheel gets stiffer and doing anything only on FFB cues is always a split second too late. After an hour of driving, I did not even want to try racing the AI. I know it's the same as before. Even Project CARS has fairly good AI now, but with Assetto Corsa it's a festival of frustration. They are too fast in some cars with their stability assist and they still do not try to avoid collisions if you are in their way. I don't want to sound like a hater, though I probably do, but the fact that it's been 2 years since release and some issues are still unresolved and now that the console release is anything but stellar, I think Assetto Corsa is going to take a big hit. I have been playing it often for the past few weeks and I with what the update has introduced (or hasn't) I feel like I have been wasting my time, when I could have been playing Raceroom or Automibilista... Or even Project CARS - at least I can play it maxed out at a solid 60 FPS. TL;DR I was hoping that the console release will kick things into gear, be a polished release, certain to secure funding to make this game better for everyone and we will get that polish on the PC at the same time. That is not the case. What were they thinking? They actually told people in June that they are delaying the game because of the Euro Championship.
Fischhaltefolie, I cannot set gear 1 at start, like I should be able to do. For a short while after they allowed that function it worked, than no more. mmaruda, first patch for XBox they say is coming early next week. The console interface they just recently once again have confirmed to not be converted for the PC version. On you FFB problems, I can only wonder - for me and most others it works exactly the other way around: first we feel the car is doing something, and then we see it. Maybe your FFB settings are not as they should, I don't know. On PC, they are known to ripple-fire patches and hotfixes quite quickly, if needed. Hotfixes come in very fast on PC, usually. This day one has been more rough than expected, okay, Lets give it some time and see what they make of it. The first one or two patches will show where the journey is going. And btw: amongst PS4 players, the title already gets love as well, not just Flak. That AC cannot compete with Forza or Gran Turismo by content size, was clear. In the end, the driving is what makes people flock to it, or not. Kunos' calculation is that if they bring this - by console standards atypically complex and realistic - physics suite to console, this could win them customers in return that simply appreciate that they were the first doing so. If this formula works, than it will all be a success in the long run. If their estimation that this formula could do the trick for them was wrong, and console crowd prefers to stick with console-typical driving, then this will reduce AC's outlook on consoles. Already now many PS4 players also admit that the driving is so unique that it runs beyond competition so far. That is not the problem then, obviously. Its like the landing in Normandy. The first battle was tough. But the war lasted on. And in the end got won. I still think that AC can bite quite a bit off Gran Turismo country. Now Polyphony has this rival with his foot on their beach, and it still is not decided whether he really cannot hold his ground. We talk again in some days, and then some weeks. Then we know more.
@Skybird You are an optimist. As someone who has been a console gamer for some time, who has been a Forza addict, I can say this, the week they will take to patch the game is a week too late. They would have been better off just delaying the release. Did they not test the game at all? Surely they must have known about performance issue, yet they still decided to release in that state? The game appears to be broken and console gamers will just not accept this. They will just refund it and go on with their lives and the bad opinions will linger even after it's patched. I've seen posts on the Assetto forums where people were dissatisfied and said they were going to get a refund. Fanboys jumped on them and told them to wait till it's patched to give Kunos a chance... The response was - I'll refund it anyway, and maybe buy it again later, when it's good. IMHO Assetto has got nothing on Forza and GT - the audience of those games cares for nice graphics, tons of cars, customisation and much more. I used to play Forza for a few years and apart from the handling, no PC racing sim can offer anything close. But in order to appreciate that handling you need to have a wheel and know how to tune it, and most console gamers do not have wheels and even if they do, they have no idea how to set them up (they just crank FFB all the way to the max and think clipping is good). Take away the handling and FFB feel and any PC racing sim falls short. Kunos had a chance to at least convince a wider audience that there is more to racing games than just tons of cars, but they dropped the ball here, and in a few months, when everything is fixed and polished, nobody will care. I am not really mad at this whole situation, just disappointed. I was hoping that Assetto Corsa will bring the sim genre to a wider audience, bring in some money, possible investments and further development for the bettering of the sim racing genre as a whole, but they screwed up, and in the console market, you don't really get second chances. Already on Reddit the word "simulation" is being associated with something broken and unfinished when Assetto for consoles is talked about. This is very bad news for us.
I always think Kunos had been taking too much work than they can actually cope as they felt like they are trying to catch up to T10 or Polyphony by making huge and risky steps. Like trying to wear the big boys pants when it obviously does not fit, then, when you walk out the door, the pants fall off. Even looking at the licensing side, they really have way too many cars to produce to the point a lot of cars "promised" in the early days are probably cancelled or low priority. This applies to almost everything they do now where a studio with slightly more people than S3 managing 3 different platforms is a huge task. Considering that the console builds are quite buggy, they need more time and resource to sort out the issues which in turn, PC owners will be neglected. I think there is a space for "sims" on console (the reason i used "sim" because every racing game is a sim, what differentiates them is the depth of simulation) but I doubt pcars or AC are remotely close to what console audience wants due to different expectations. Console players want polish and a wealth of content, in either numbers or unique content that they can't find in GT or Forza. AC delivers neither of them with a small track list and a messy car list with random cars licensed. The only thing they are successful is they managed to bring one of the best driving physics on consoles and it ends there. Pcars is better in that regard, SMS really still need a lot more work to appeal more console owners. Ideally, I think a Race 07-like for consoles with the depth in simulation, ease of access and laser focused on racing do have a massive gap in the console market. Heck, I think a good port of R3E to consoles has more chance of success than AC. Largely due to the unique content R3E has over other games in the market. AC's content in comparison is just generic compared to even R3E as R3E has the diversity and also the cohesion in it's content. This brings me to the point that, even having Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche won't help much if the content doesn't integrate well into the game. I'll still happily drive a Chevy Greenwood in R3E, a Ford Mustang Gt4 in pcars or a Commodore knockoff in AMS than Ferrari, Porsche or Lamborghini in AC. Racing in AC feels dull in comparison to other games as most of the content doesn't have any cohesion with cars tossed into random classes that don't compete well. Just imagine R3E Group A with no extensive BoP by S3, the Skyline R32 will dominate the entire grid while the older cars, like BMW 635 and Volvo S40 would be completely useless due to their age. That's exactly how I felt racing in many classes in AC , there is absolutely no BoP at all in that game with one specific car in almost each class dominating the grid. It is definitely fun to drive the cars in AC, usually, I just hotlap a few laps, then quit the game for pcars, R3E or AMS for some real racing.
In terms of polish and content GT and Forza set the bar insanely high and that was back in the PS1 era. I remember when I was in high school and this one guy in my class had a Playstation. Everyone was playing Need for Speed 3 back then and he just came one day and said, that our game is laughable, since GT's disk 1 has heaps more cars and tracks than the whole NSF series since part one, and the game actually comes on two disks. To anyone who loved racing games back in those times, you would buy a console for just that one game (or for Tekken 3) and that purchase was considered a great deal, even if you never bought any more games. It was considered justifiable and completely reasonable to buy the Playstation for just Gran Turismo - it was THE killer app for that system. So when MS launched the Xbox they needed their version of GT to be competitive and after pouring insane amounts of money into Turn 10 Forza was born. And now it's 2016, the simcade drive-all, race-all, tune-all, paint-all console games have been killer apps for over a decade and Kunos is just trying to get the chunk of that market. I mean, it's a small team from Italy without the financial backing of a major publisher and they want to compete with the big boys... The handling and physics appear to be a selling point here, but the average console Joe, even if he's a car and racing enthusiast does not go that deep into that stuff. We look at those games through the prism of tire model, brake temperatures, apex accuracies on Spa or the fact that the Nordschleife is laser-scanned and all that means very little to the gigantic community of something like Forza. I am not sure if you guys were ever deep into the console racing scene, but 7 years ago Forza forums was a huge deal - tuning sections, setup sections, the whole drift community within the community and all that was integrated, people hosted events for drift trains on the Kaido, shared replays, commented on them. Even without the whole tons of cars and tracks and the polish level, the multiplayer component was a whole new ball game. And Kunos did not even give console gamers the opportunity to host their own games. Unless they add that real fast, in a month Assetto on consoles will be just a memory. It's worth mentioning that getting a sim to consoles is possible and there is a market potential for it, but if you are starting small, you need a polished launch and something else that the other games don't have and that is not the physics. The simulation approach has been tried before with stuff like Race Pro and wasn't very successful and that was one hell of a polished game and SimBin did an awesome job with it.
mmaruda, I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I try to be a reasonable realist and pragmatist. When PC came out on PC over one year ago, I tested it on somebody else's system and after ten minutes thought "uah." Terrible AI, terrible physics, evertyhing driving- and race-related was terrible. A mess. With wheel. Now I got it cheap for PS4, cannot even say why I did it, a fallback line if my main system stumbles, maybe. And to my surprise I saw that they had obviousl done tremednous work on the AI, which is still not the bets out there, but acceptable, and with gamepad the driving is surprisngly managable, if you tune the gamepad settings accordingly. So improvements can happen, even after a totally porked release. RR also would be an example. I do not know to what degree technical issues like to be seen on XBox can be cured, the near future patching will show. So far I do not even have seen the PS4 or XBox version with my own eyes - the drama the one guy sees, maybe leaves me clueless on what the drama should be about. Who knows!? The videos of PS4 content on YT show some tearing and frame drops, yes - but not the sky falling that many comments seem to imply. I am only surprised that they seem to have repeated the mistakes so many others fall to, too: premature release at least on XBox, it seems. because they handled the PC release and Early access so incredibly well. Maybe it is because they now have a foreign company aboard, 505Games, which played no role in the PC release.