Marco massarutto's thoughts on rain

Since not everyone is stalking the devs on Facebook and I didn't see these messages around here, I thought it would be good to let you all know. Ofcourse this is nothing official, but interesting nonetheless.



I've compiled the most important messages of Marco, ofcourse there were other answers, so no he wasn't talking to himself.

This may however indicate how much of a priority rain/dynamic weather is for AC at this stage of development. Although I'm in the group that would like to see rain/dynamic weather, I must say that I largely agree with Marco. In most games it's a feature that looks cool, but once you're racing and pushing hard it's often too hard for most people (including myself) to keep the pace. So that often results in major crashes, DNF's, and an experience that feels more like casually cruising instead of racing.

 

Well yea it's hard, but isn't that what we want? Of course in RL you would choose dry lap, but that's why we have simracing, so you can push your limits without money. Some drivers would benefit on the rain. It's not for the casual 5 lap race players, but if you have 20 and more laps and it will start to rain in last 5 laps, then it would be awesome. I understand what Marco is saying, but I kind of disagree with last post. You could say same thing about tyre degradation also etc., racing is not hot laping, but maybe I'm wrong. It's not my most wanted feature, but it would be nice.

 

I agree with him. Lots of people think they need it. Then if you have it nobody hardly ever uses it, especially online..where people would complain. Of course most people would like to have it, including me. But then again playing your favorite car in the wet on your favorite track can be extremely fun.

 

Marco is completely right, it's a feature that you try once and that you will not use again

 

I kinda agree with him. But being a realism nutter and it do rains in real life I'd like to see dynamic weather at some point. Not on my top wanted features list tho.

 

I read that as an awesome backhanded jab at Project CARS.

(90% of videos and screenshots where people show how "beautiful" Project CARS is, are taken during wet conditions. Who the heck wants to race like that? But then again, Project CARS physics leave a lot to be desired...)

Now, what I would like, however is overcast weather with colder track conditions, with slightly different grip levels (like iRacing recently introduced). The dynamic clouds are already in Assetto Corsa. We just need a bit more of them.

 

A damp track would be a nice stop gap, unless it's about the same amount of work to achieve. For all us people living in more northerly climates wet roads are a fact of life. Even if it hasn't rained during the day if you went to a track it would more than likely be at least damp from the previous days rain. It's not a top priority for me though, if I want to see rain I can just look out the window.

 

I personally relished the challenge of wet weather driving. I don't know why people don't enjoy it. It makes slides much easier (and slower) to catch, and requires a more delicate touch. I had some amazing wet races in GTR2.

 

I'm with Marco on this (once again). It's sound reason he is talking. And mind you, online many people are complaining how bad many drivers are and that less than 50% of the field finish because they shoot themselves in the foot (in the tire...) or crah into somebody else. How much worse must it get with rainy conditions... I did not miss rain in Nascar 2003, and having the option for rain in GTR2, I found to have used it on fewer opportunities over the years than i have fingers on my hands.

All that, night racing as well, is more about cosmetics. And there I would prefer to have dynamically changing clouds blocking and letting through the sunlight, adding more magic to the environment and providing the player a changing and constantly altering light environment over the race, and doing a good lightshow before his eyes. But that is what it is: cosmetics. If it can be done without killing frames, I'm for it. If it sends frames into the cellar, don't do it. The focus of AC should be where it already excels: the experience to drive a real machine on wheels, with correct physics and believable, predictable behaviour. That is where AC really shines. That virtue at no cost shall be compromised.

Granted, to race GSCE on the Nord at dawn and over thjree rounds experiencing the shifting from day to dusk to darkness, was stunning and beautiful to watch at. But it is not what lies at the focus of AC. If needing to chose between rain and shifting daylight conditions and 3D lights, I would prefer the latter any time.

 

I don't know if it is just me but the only sessions I personally prefer in GTR2 is over 60 minutes long with weather set to changeable because it adds another dimension to the experience. as I'm a huge endurance racing nutter and weather plays an important role in real life endurance races so why not have that in our sims. Although it is true many casual people who make up most of the playerbase wouldn't even bother with it after racing in the wet a few times so it is completely understandable if dynamic weather is on the bottom of the priority list and I doubt even the hardcore folk would use the feature day in day out, I would indeed prefer proper working race rules and day night cycle mechanics over weather without hesitation. But it wouldn't hurt to be an option way down the line, we are pushing for a "next-gen" sim so why omit features present in older titles.

 

Completely agree with him, same as visual damage. FFS it's more a "sim-cade" or arcade audience request then anyone elses, it's a gimmick and should never be one of the priorities...

 

I agree on having the possibility to add rain can be interesting in a endurance race. It can make your setup strategy very difficult

 

Hmm I don't know if it's a great idea to use a tragic freak accident to highlight why wet weather in a game game is not good (but I know, it's personal social media and his thoughts not Kunos, but still).
I could see where he is coming from more if they had NOT already achieved it so well in Netkar. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to just shoe horn it into Assetto with a small bit of work? It looked fantastic in Netkar (as he himself agrees) you could use the same rain effect on visor etc, and they already know how to do puddles and aqua-plaining and spray (in fact all the wet weather effects in Netkar looked easily good enough to match Assetto's gfx engine. I thought we would see it at some stage too, simply because they had done it so well in Netkar.

I don't hate the idea of driving in rain either. Some drivers like rain (especially in touring cars etc). Also I think the possibility of changeable weather during a race could be very fun, where a shower could come over and cause everyone to have to choose to either stick it out or switch tires etc. All an exiting part of motor sport for me.

I agree that it would not be used that much (I think this is obvious, it doesn't rain at every race event in real life either ) , but it is a worth while addition, especially since so much ground work was already done (Netkar).

Boris did you ever play netkar in the rain? Far, far from "simcade" . Priority? no. Pointless addition? Definitely not. It's a huge part of motor sport.

 

I hope that Kunos will add rain to AC someday because it would make Spa track even more realistic, because there is always 50/50 change of the rain..

 

I run a league that uses random weather with another sim. We use random weather every single race and the races where there's a shower are the best. There is a certain anticipation that builds before and during a race not knowing the weather to expect and this adds to the immersion and adds a small extra facet to every race- dry or wet. We don't use it once and forget about it, ours is sim racing league. Our choice of which sim to move on to after we finish with our current sim will depend primarily on the features available between AC and pCars. Weather is near the top of our decision.

IMHO you can't call a sim a sim without weather- outside of ovals. I don't consider many "sims" to be true sims because they have no weather. GSC, iRacing (again, on road courses), rF1, SRW among others- these are not sims. They do not simulate real racing conditions (how else can define sim?) Look at every road racing series in the world- they all run in the rain and rain driving is an essential skill for any real road racer. Of course it's not used much, but it has to be included because it will be used like in real life racing- most races are dry, but some of the most memorable have been wet.

 

Just a quick note, the race started 8:00 (in my time atleast), and his post was 8:36, so well before the accident. He was referring to the red flag at the start of the race.

 

Rain is part of racing, point.

Rain influences and it's part of the race itself, of course driving on rain is not as "fun" as driving on dry conditions but it's frequent in real life racing and in europe for example, unless you're racing in Africa all year long

Fact is that 80% of races are made in dry conditions but you have the chance to have 2 or 3 races in wet in a... let's say... 12 event championship. That's why rain is also important, it's decisive when it comes to driving skills or the fear to drive in very tough conditions (rare thing in simracing). Of course you're not driving all events in wet but as it's part of racing and if you're pretending to create a proper race simulation, then rain must be part of it...

Personally, if i create a 12 event series, for sure 2 or 3 will be randomly in wet conditions, definitely...

 

I understand what he's saying regarding "the perfect lap", but to me that is more mechanical, repetitive, technical driving , whereas driving in the wet is a more visceral, instinctive and dynamic experience, like I imagine rally is for a driver unfamiliar with a certain stage. Still, I admit that most wouldn't bother trying to learn racing in the wet and hence it could very well be a waste of precious dev time to implement such a feature.

 

I absolutely agree with you about the simulation part. But I agree more with Marco. I drive in a league with real time weather. But it just pisses me off if I practice like a maniac on dry condition and it rains in the race itself. My setup and my driving line is pretty much useless then.
So I'd like to have dynamic weather in AC just for the sake of being in there. ButI wouldn't drive it.

 

Geoff Crammond GP series had rain weather, this was on 90's and let's be honest, to the resources we had at the time, it was really well simulated, why a modern simulator can't have it?