Assetto Corsa Rally Is Here For The Long Run, Says Developer

Assetto Corsa Rally arrived out of the blue, sideways over a crest, showering everyone in virtual gravel, at the Sim Racing Expo in October this year. Only ever hinted at very vaguely and cryptically before, this fourth entry in the Assetto Corsa franchise sees it head away from the wide, open race circuits it’s known for and into the punishing world of stage rallying.

Our first reaction upon finding out that there was yet another Assetto Corsa title on the go was one of trepidation, considering that series creator Kunos Simulazioni already seemed to have its hands full with the rocky and much-delayed rollout of AC Evo, but these worries were quickly assuaged when we found out that it was being developed by an entirely separate developer, Supernova Games Studios.

“Supernova was created in 2021 with three people in the team,” explains the studio’s creative and game director, Irvin Zonca. “In four years we have built a team, technology, workflows, and the game… we can say that the game has been in development for about three years, even if not with the full team working on it.”

Unequivocally AC Rally’s biggest selling point is its laser-scanned stages. This is a pretty common practice in circuit-based sim racing these days, but AC Rally marks the first time it’s been done in an off-road racer. 

It allows real-life rally stages to be recreated in utmost virtual detail, but it’s a time-consuming process, and this has led to quite vocal concerns that it’s going to leave AC Rally feeling a little shallow in terms of content – not unreasonably, given that in the first Early Access version, there’s only a total of 20-ish miles of driveable road across two locations. Even the eventual v1.0 will have only 80 miles at launch.

But, says Zonca, the level of authenticity this process allows for will keep people coming back for more, and Supernova is only just getting started with AC Rally: 

“We believe that releasing fewer but high-quality content allows for attention to detail that makes our simulation more realistic and enables players to experience rally driving with greater authenticity. We still trust that AC Rally can be long-lasting and thus have the opportunity to release many quality content pieces over time, offering players a good level of depth.”

Zonca also gave us an insight into the laser-scanning process itself, which is outsourced to an external company called VIGEA. “To perform a laser scan of a stage, it takes between three to five days depending on the length of the stage and the complexity of the environment surrounding the road in terms of vegetation, rocks, or small urban areas. The point cloud is then converted into 3D assets and integrated into the game by Supernova. 

“There is a cleaning phase for the scan, a phase for converting the road data into a mesh, a merging phase between the road mesh and satellite map, and a polygon adjustment phase for intersections and points of interest. Once this is completed, the asset is finalized by adding textures, materials, and dressing.”

All this naturally means that, yes, AC Rally will grow gradually, although the next location has already been teased. It’ll be a while before it even leaves Early Access: “We designed ACR as a project that will evolve over time, expanding with new content and gameplay modes,” says Zonca. 

“We’re very eager to see players’ feedback so we can grow the product together, combining their suggestions with our current internal development roadmap. The early access period is expected to last around 12 to 18 months. A console version is also in our plan but there is not yet an ETA.”

First impressions of the game suggest it’ll be worth the wait – AC Rally is one of the most satisfying and, when things go wrong, brutally punishing rally sims in years. Even in its nascent state, it’s being quietly hailed as the game to unseat the now 21-year-old Richard Burns Rally as the rally sim for ultra-hardcore. In the meantime, though, you’ll find us trying our hardest not to stuff the Lancia 037 into a tree around Hafren South.