NEWS Marco's Interview on ILVIDEOGIOCO

[assettocorsamods]

Being an Italian studio, Italians do have some advantage over the rest of the world following Assetto Corsa. One example is this interview in Italian, by Eduardo Ullo for ILVIDEOGIOCO. However, this is 2017 and thanks to online tools like Google Translate, we can get a pretty good idea about what has been discussed, even if some translations artifacts might be in there. The ones I could spot, were corrected. The ones that you spot, please let us know in comments below .

#wannabe English version:

Assetto Corsa continues to be one of those highly loved automotive titles and especially played by enthusiasts.
It is definitely one of those games made in Italy that has had the merit of relaunching the video game industry in the international arena. Thanks to the passion and dedication of Kunos Simulation, which has always been able to support it to the fullest extent and to stimulate the vast utilization by proposing an alternation of content and updates that have increasingly covered and expanded the product and its contents. By now, Assetto Corsa has 18 circuits, 19 with the future Laguna Seca (n.b. ETA Fall 2017), in over 30 different configurations with 143 cars. By the end of the year, the title will contain over 150 cars.
The release on PS4 and Xbox One has also increased the user base, with the game passing 1,5 million copies distributed across all three platforms. The data also includes bundles and is definitely remarkable.
The near future has the red Ferrari flavor as soon as a new DLC dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Maranello House will be released. But beyond the red ones there is more. And to learn more about this real phenomenon that is Assetto Corsa, we have heard Marco Massarutto, one of the key figures of Kunos Simulazioni. We talked to him about the present, the future, and some little anecdotes. Here's what he said in this interview.

Edoardo: Your success continues on consoles, what is your winning recipe, what do you think keeps the players glued to Assetto Corsa?
Marco: The first build of Assetto Corsa's development was created in 2011, we have been working on the full-time project for six years, we should have had enough, yet we Kunos also "play" with Assetto Corsa every day, curing even more details, whenever possible. I believe that the public perceives it, and can appreciate and enjoy our "creature".

E: In addition to the DLC dedicated to Ferrari's 70 years anniversary, what else are you preparing ?
Marco: The Ferrari DLC itself is no joke: we have chosen several legendary cars and we are working to reproduce them with an incredible cure. Work on the Giulia Quadrifoglio is not a secret, as well that related to Laguna Seca circuit, now that we have overcome some logistical and bureaucratic problems with the structure that took us longer than due. About the rest, it is to soon to reveal.

E: You have the merit of bringing back the Porsche brand in a video game after years and years, do you have other shots in mind, maybe even for official championships or anything else?
Marco: More than this? At the right time you will know everything .

E: Additional features?
Marco: We are in the refinement phase: the latest build has been an important step in terms of the features and behavior of AI, which has gained many approvals. Now we are working to bring these features to console. It is at this stage that everything is complicated because the approval procedures of Sony and Microsoft are not simple.

E: Could Assetto Corsa go the eSports route ?
Marco: As our platform is open to modding and not being conceived from the start for eSports, it does not fit perfectly into a discipline where it is crucial to ensure a rigorous ranking system and that everyone is in the same conditions. With this growing phenomenon, we may eventually devote ourselves with a different approach in the coming years. And with an ex-new product.

E: How and how has the game changed since you released the Early Access version ?
Marco: Referring to Early Access would not be correct: let's say rather that the degree of evolution, content and updates that Assetto Corsa has had since the launch of version 1.0 to today's 14th build, usually in other games occurs between a product and the chapter that comes out the next year, and it is usually bought again: who has trusted us in 2013 - and we are extremely grateful to it - can still enjoy a product that was again and significantly updated just 6 weeks ago. Without spending an extra euro.

E: And how much will it change again ?
Marco: That's hard to say, the set of modifications we've made to the engine has almost reached the maximum evolution level since we designed it.

E: Andy Tudor (of Slightly Mad Studios) has launched his own on Project Cars 2 stating that their title is the most technologically advanced, Yamauchi spoke about the cars in GT Sport saying they will be durable over time. Do you agree with these statements? How is Assetto Corsa positioned ?
Marco: It's normal that every developer points the attention on the features he knows best or in which he believes more about his product. The developer's challenge, including us, is to be able to make the public appreciate the aspects on which they have worked the most. PCARS2 and GT Sport are new games that will be released this year, and they will have to show if the words expended by their authors are truthful, to the test of the facts. As far as we are concerned, I think that Assetto Corsa has already answered a number of questions. The challenge for us will be reconfirmation in the future, not in the immediate future.

E: In all these years, what was the most difficult time ?
Marco: If I were to isolate one, the launch of netKar PRO, our first title, in 2006. It was not an easy time, but we got absolute determination. And it served us because we did not commit any kind of mistakes anymore. We could write a book on difficult moments, but they allowed us to appreciate even more the escalation we have experienced since 2012, and that has not stopped. 2016 has been an exciting year, but we have been for a long period of time under pressure due to the launch of the console version and parallel development on PC. I'm glad we went out well, even as a team.

E: And in what did you feel accomplished ?
Marco: I can not speak to others, perhaps except for Stefano Casillo, with whom I have shared every moment of my work life in the last 14 years. Stefano can only be proud of the work he has done on Assetto Corsa: he has written by him self a big part of source code, graphic and physical engine, artificial intelligence and multiplayer. As far as I'm concerned, I'm proud to have run a war machine from a team of 5 people and an initial budget of 70,000 Euros. Today we are in 25, and we are still an eighth of people working on pCARS and a 20th of those working on Turn10. And of course the results obtained in terms of licenses - Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, the Nordschleife for the first time in Laserscan, all in an independent racing production, I'll always bring them with me.

E: The criticism and compliment that you most appreciated ?
Marco: When they write "You make me feel proud to be Italian". It always excites me.

E: Have you ever thought of a Nintendo Switch version ? If yes, let's talk about it, we are curious, if not, tell us the reasons ?
Marco: No, and I explain why: to bring Assetto Corsa on 3 platforms we went far beyond our posibilities. We are proud of being successful, but you also need to be realistic about the workload you can sustain. Posting a game on consoles is much more than just a simple porting job. The workload to be managed globally, in logistical, commercial, legal terms, can be exhausting.

E: What were the compromises in developing the console issue ?
Marco: Mostly in the graphic field, as the physical engine and the AI use a lot of processors, we have had to work hard to ensure the best possible compromise between graphic impact and fluidity, looking for the best balance in the use of hardware resources.

E: Quiet and inexhaustible question: are you thinking about Assetto Corsa 2 ?
Marco: Assetto Corsa was released in 2014, we are in 2017. If I said we were not thinking, I would not be credible. But any other consideration is still premature.

E: Well, what else should the sequel from the first chapter be different and what would be the difficulties to make it better than the title you have made and support ?
Marco: I am convinced that with Assetto Corsa we have offered a truly unique driving experience: in the future, we will have to confirm how good we have done on the front of the driving model, focusing more on the "experience" as a whole, at the balancing level of the championships , the career, the AI, and using a more user friendly approach to the UI, which for Assetto Corsa was designed in 2012, when we had no idea that the game would come to include more than 150 cars of all kinds.

E: What are the jobs on the new headquarters ?
Marco: They are finished in March, now we are totally operational.

E: Thank you very much for the availability.
Marco: It's always a pleasure, thanks to you for the attention you keep on dedicating.

And from us, thank you ilvideogioco for this interesting interview.​

 

[Willy Wale]

Only 25 people. Very impressive output for so few heads.

 

[luchian]

Indeed, no ?

I have a personal theory about it, but it's probably just mind looking for some plausible explanation . I've worked in a big company and a big team. A LOT of time is actually spent on meetings, group decisions, and basically "present & convince" the other about what you want to do and what the best way about it would be.

Kunos' secret, imo, is the simple communication and decision making. With few people and friendly-ish atmosphere people can spend the time actually working instead of talking about it . And a second factor might be their cold-blooded prioritizing list. With a small team, you are forced to skip on the details, until you would (if ever) have time for it. It's true that this might affect the user experience, but on the grand scheme, it definitely helped the game to gain momentum and build a name.

Anyway, whatever they are doing, I hope they will continue to develop Assetto Corsa (1, 2, ...n) for as long as Kunos will exist as a studio. Plus, when a small team like wins enough wight to count in the eyes of the big fishes out-there, it will generally raise the bar higher. Hence all win for the user base .

 

[Mr Whippy]

KS are a funny one to judge.

On the one hand they've done awesome things, but on the other it's frustrating where they are in some parts of the game.

It sounds like Stefano wrote most of the game... but really areas like graphics could have been shopped out to a skilled graphics guy and been better.
Ie, look at AAA titles with PBR, fancy procedural shaders for grass (rather than scattering it like it's 2004), stuff like that is stuff a mid-level graphics programmer should be able to do.

Same AI.

Same maybe physics to the point of helping iron out bugs and expanding features.


The actual content (tracks and cars) are great. But if you threw £££ at content then any group of dedicated modellers and texture guys could do the same.


I bought one DLC.

I'm not buying any more until AC2. Or until AC1 is finished to where I'd like to see it.

AC2 will likely sell you it all again, and be a better core game, so I'll wait.


I just hope for AC2 they spend decent money on the core and Stefano gets help there, because a one man show does show through a lot on the core. One man can only be so good at a wide range of things.

Stefano clearly did an excellent job for one guy, more than most mere mortals, but it should be way more than just one man for AC2 (fingers crossed!)

 

[Pixelchaser]

kind of off topic here.

wow. no idea what to make of the fact that you bought 1 dlc package my whippy. I wonder just how much of the brilliance of AC you have experienced. because factually all these breakthroughs the game has had in updates were partly for the content included in order to make it happen as content. and the fact that many of this new technology doesn't appear in any other sims in anything quite like the kunos way.

there will be an Ac3 if there is an Ac2. I'm on the journey, I'm not sleeping till the bus stops. of all the teams that need the support its these guys, and they supported us in the most financially applicable way. no greed whatsoever and with ruthless attention to the cause. sim-racing for us. but make no mistakes, there is no such thing as the ultimate simulator and there never will be but the journey through your favourite sim is what it is about in todays age of early access and for that every dlc must be owned imo.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Maybe it was 2 DLC. I bought the Japanese cars pack and one other one.

As soon as the Porsches became THREE packs I decided not to go there.

I've not checked, but I'm led to believe that the DLC are required to even see the games in game, and not even use them (ie, multiplayer), which grates with my sensibilities. At least have an LOD A model present or something so others can see the cars, but not have the full interiors/HD photomode models?!


Yes updates to AC core to enable **proper** car feature support is good.


But it still doesn't forgive weird behaviours like no throttle cut on up-shift in automatic road cars (MP4 12C, F458), and the fact these cars also stall when you come to a stop in 1st (no auto-clutch)

I'm sure the LaFerrari had some issues with it's e-motor implement when I first tried it.

MP412C and P1 don't use hydraulic suspension, they just use springs/damper fudges.

F458 doesn't use an e-diff or even a rough implement of it, it's just multi-mode TCS like all the other cars.


So yes, core has been expanded, but how well?

Yes core now does some great stuff, but significantly better than nkPro or rF did all those years back?


I might fire AC up again and try things out.


I've nothing against AC generally, I think it's a good achievement. I bought it at green light to support it, and bought DLC to support it.
BUT, I think when the Porsche packs arrived with bugs still present for road cars (what most of the Porsches are!), I didn't want to support them any more.

If AC 2 fixes all these things I'll buy it and buy the DLC.

But to pay money for DLC for a game I don't like to drive because of the bugs in the cars I like to drive, to support the devs who ignore bugs I raise, seems a bit wrong of me surely?


Dave

 

[Pixelchaser]

everyone got their own take on it. I don't see it as buggy. for AC rules the roost of sims because its generally does everything very well, whilst other sims may excel here and there. they suffer more so in other areas they don't offer the best of the world in. AC just balanced the whole thing and made a commercial success whilst allowing there to be an Ac2 and a continuation of sim racing with some new ideas, a coder at the top of the development company. and a new engine not based on tech built for a previous generation. and that's why it was all possible. you can apply that notion of crudely updated ageing game engines to every other single game out there, from formula 1 games to iracing and onto pcars. AC is the black sheep and it won. I also find the idea of credibility strong with AC more than the others. lets take rain for instance. the only reason it doesn't feature in AC is because it cant be done credibly. and that's not something any other sim was founded by regards the notion of sim. you know what you get with AC , you don't with any of the others. remarkable artists they are at kunos in all respects.

 

[Mr Whippy]

It's mainly their ignorance on basic bugs that got me.
If the ignore the stuff that impacts my enjoyment I'm not gonna support them.

I can overlook lots of stuff though, I've been using Free Racer over 15 years haha!


But AC for me was cruising in road cars on roads and not 'racing'

The gearbox fails on road cars just broke the illusion instantly for me.

Games from NFS3,4,5,6 GT1,2,3,4,5,6, GTR1,2, rF1,2, etc etc, all got this right.
AC is I think, the only game that gets it wrong AND they ignore it as a bug.

Now, GT4 had arb's backwards, fwd butnouts caused oversteer, BUT you could go cruise on R246 and have fun!
NFS5 had wanky physics, but Autobahn cruising was fun.

AC, drop a gear at full throttle in an F458 and it doesn't do what the real F458 does.
Insta-fail of the most obvious and simple feature of a gearbox that everyone else, ever, got right.


As much as it might be forgivable, it's still bad.

I'm assuming it's still not fixed, I haven't run it for 6 months.

 

[Pixelchaser]

6 months. for me its only since.... was it February, cant remember ? ....in that AC became anything like what my expectation was initially. so get yo ass back in there , every car became fundamentally different. so I don't know if your particular bug was fixed.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I'm making a car right now so might have a bash at putting it in AC and learning the car ropes.

Physics will be fun, elec motor at each wheel and only battery power

 

[garyjpaterson]

I'm making a car right now so might have a bash at putting it in AC and learning the car ropes.

Physics will be fun, elec motor at each wheel and only battery power

Doing the same thing, a lot of fudging to get reasonable behaviour. AC really isn't designed for electric only vehicles.

There is code for proper front motors, but not for rear - you have to use the ERS code which works off the crank, so no torque vectoring, works through a diff etc. Plus you can't (to my knowledge) have any counter-torque for the front motors, only the rear 'engine'. On the plus side you can use ERS controllers to control the behaviour of the front/rear axle independently, which is great.

I also had a lot of AI issues, as they didn't seem to understand the super high fuel efficiency (since it uses no fuel), and were pitting on lap 1 every time. I had to give it actual fuel consumption to allow them to race properly, which is a bit annoying.

You could instead just forget about the electric motor code and just use the standard engine code, implemented 'in the style of' electric motors, but again that limits the behaviour between the front/rear with the AWD code.

Can't really blame Kunos, as they implement features as and when needed by official content, but its mildly annoying.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah it'll just have to 'feel' close in AC.

It'll mostly be going into Free Racer where I can code the awd/regen and torque splits/yaw control etc fully.
But no one drives that any more haha.


A few good modded e-vehicles might get KS motivated to do proper support which would be cool.


I dare not ask what car you're doing in case it's the same as me haha.

EP9 here...

 

[garyjpaterson]

FSAE car for me:

http://imgur.com/a/EPPPI

 

[Mr Whippy]

Ah looks like you rebuilt with mesh sub-d with cad reference?

Mesh looks smooth.

Did you consider retopo over cad? It can be quite quick especially on a model like that.


Either way it's a really cool looking project and I get it's a hoot to drive IRL.

KS should get ahead on emotors and systems as no one else has.
With a few great e-cars it'd make AC stand out a bit more too, and we could get FE cars in there too!

And FE cars == excuse for more city tracks

 

[garyjpaterson]

Ah looks like you rebuilt with mesh sub-d with cad reference?

Mesh looks smooth.

Did you consider retopo over cad? It can be quite quick especially on a model like that.


Either way it's a really cool looking project and I get it's a hoot to drive IRL.

KS should get ahead on emotors and systems as no one else has.
With a few great e-cars it'd make AC stand out a bit more too, and we could get FE cars in there too!

And FE cars == excuse for more city tracks

Yeah just used the CAD as reference, I have to admit I was not aware of any other way regarding retopology tools or anything, will have to look into it for future.