MULTIPLAYER The multiplayer doors (start to) open today!

With today's new version 0.3 of the Assetto Corsa Competizione update, we will do our first step in the (huge) multiplayer effort we are planning to do. This post probably contains two big news; Let's be straight-forward and open with the not-so-good:

This version adds the part of the multiplayer system that is very similar to the pickup server system you already know from AC1. However we have to limit the usable session types to Practice sessions only (that means no quickrace or race weekend).

You already know our roadmap for ACC is very tight, which doesn't offer much space for unforseen events. Sadly we experienced a series of those while creating the multiplayer infrastructure, so we ran late and therefore do not have the confidence and tests we would like to have at this point. To be absolutely honest, we even discussed about not releasing the MP in 0.3 at all. But we defined a set of features that is quite stable and playable - and in a huge team effort with endless dedication we could go for it. One of the very important elements in Early Access is that we can run tests and receive feedback very early in the process, so I'm quite happy that we could avoid holding back even a limited version.


Now let's move to the other news, some of them are not-so-obvious, especially in contrast to the multiplayer of the Asssetto Corsa 1.

I Server infrastructure
Many consider the community servers acting as homebases the best things in the Assetto Corsa Multiplayer, the same for the easy and instant-fun pickup server system. So it was pretty clear that whatever we invent in ACC, it can only be complementary to the proven community/pickup system (and is obviously not part of "Basic" Multiplayer).

Spoiler: For server admins

We will had out the server binaries (at the moment windows only) with this release, although it could take a day or two until we can add reasonable documentation. Due to our restrictions, there are a few options you can't use - we will pass a readme.txt for the start.

The ACC server is rewritten from-scratch, but isn't that different in it's total behaviour. I'm very confident you will find what you need, and be positively surprised about the one or the other option.

II Car selection characteristics
In AC1, the server defined the available slots by car and you could connect into such a slot. In ACC, this technical requirement is no more, which means you can pick whatever car you want (except the server admin excluded certain car models). Technically, this is very tricky - it means you could have to load new cars while you are driving, which almost inevitably causes freezes. We aren't completely done here, but our current approach looks very promising. You will witness a small lag when a new car model is loaded, but only for the first time (after you joined the server). So if you are driving the M6, you won't notice that another M6 joins.
However this is what we learnt from our tests; we are curious to hear about your feedback.

III Server list
This early version already contains the server list and most of the functionality in a way it is meant to be for pickup racing - probably the biggest change in concepts you will learn about today.

If you allow me to exaggerate a bit: So far, you simply received a list of 980 empty and 20 populated servers, sorted the list by drivers descending and clicked the first one. Most of the data is ignored, and we couldn't apply much more than a few basic filters and finally sort by drivers.

In ACC, you won't plainly receive 1000 servers. Every server list is the result of a highly personalized ranking of the available servers, matching many elements to both your personal profile and your selected preferences. In the best case (and at the end of the road) you won't even start scrolling, but look at the top 5 and pick the one that looks most appealing based on your current mood.

But first let's look at the page; the server list page is pretty simple: Servers in a list, car selection, connect button - not much to explain here.


Clicking on a server selects and expands the entry, showing a bit more information and allows a by-series car selection (we will see free, sprint, endurance lineups).

The selected server will display what you expect: Servername, track, session type, duration, drivers online.
And what you maybe did not expect: (Steam)Friends online, Activity indication, "Clean server" indication, as well as optional requirements for Track Medals, Safety Rating and Racecraft Rating. The requirements can be set by the server admins, the indicators give a hint about the recent history of actual driving activity and drivers online as well as trust gained vs OBWP scored.


Below the car selection you will find an interesting button: "Advanced" opens an option page to adjust your personal preferences for the server selection/sorting. You will already find a number of options in three groups:



Weights different aspects of the quality of a driver, so you can decide on your own which one is how important to you. Do you rather go for much activity, clean racing or perfect pings?



Preferences will contain settings like the desired driver count - while most users will aim for numbers as high as possible, this can be used to seach for medium traffic servers which tend to be cleaner, and more suitable if your hardware struggles with many cars.
At this point I already prepared the options to disable the SA or RC rating - so you can easily drive (or test) without the pressure of your ratings.
When completed, this setting will obviously exclude servers where admins do not allow disabling one or both.



Here you can adjust how good a server is matching for you based on the track used.


The whole options have in-depth explanations, so make sure you have a quick read and setup the sliders to match your preferences.

Most of the parameters are implemented, but please understand that such a system a) can't be appropriately simulated in advance and b) the system needs lots of data and rating profiles in order to work well. So my expectation is that it will become better and better, but needs time to get there.


Now I will close and hope you can go out for a ride.
Despite the stressful days and the dissappointing cut of the race sessions, I have to admit any MP test turned out to be quite fun - I hope you experience the same.

 

<reserved for next updates>

 

Good remark, I didn't fully point out how it is going to work: You will of course have empty servers in this list. It's just not a thousand anymore, but the result list will make sure it also covers all kinds of combinations that currently aren't populated.
I probably can't do much against having you racing GT3s only for a while But you could reduce the Spa track preference and you will see other things on top.