About a week back, Stefano decided to do these live coding sessions where he fixes/implements different stuff in our favorite sim, while also having a conversation with the people watching. Today's episode (3rd one in the series) was a 'bit special, as it included a rather long Q&A session. And a Blackout . Here are a few notes on the stuff I found interesting. It's not exactly quoting word-for-word, but no modification to the message itself was made . Q: Do you have any plans for Assetto Corsa 2 ? A: No plans. We as a company, work on short term plans only. The next big thing is hitting the market with the console version by early 2016. Q: Will Assetto Corsa be supported by 2020 ? A: There isn't a fixed plan for this, it's more of an interpreted date which spread over the Internet. Maybe from an old-ish interview I did back in 2013 where I was speaking about supporting the game for the next 5 years after release. Q: Will we have added ballast option ? A: Yes, plan is to have this implemented in 1.2 update. However, it will depend if it fits the release schedule, as prior implementation and testing is required. Q: Will it only affect the CoG ? A: No, it will be "overall" added wight. No supplementary option for positioning it inside the car. Q: Any plans for reverse lights ? A: Implementing those would require quite some work from the team, and for the moment it's not high on the priority list. Q: Would switching to 64bit allow more cars on the track ? A: I don't know. If the reason for NOT having more cars is memory, then yes. Otherwise, I don't know. Q: Any improvements on MP chat system in 1.2 update ? A: No. Q: Will 1.2 bring a new UI ? A: Absolutely not. You have to understand that this kind of change would be a sensitive move for a software that's running for well over a year now. Lots of users might like the old one better, and they also payed for AC. So in the end it would mean keeping 2 interfaces running, and for a company like Kunos things like this bring a lot of work and difficult to manage in the end. Q: Do you get real data for the Ferrari F1 car ? A: We get some data; you can imagine that the level of secrecy when it comes to Formula 1 is very very high so you cannot expect a lot of things. We were lucky that during the Ferrari Virtual Academy experience we had some of their simulators guys looking at the telemetry data coming from the FVA and sort of gives us a green light on that. So we built on that experience. Q: Any sound improvements in 1.2 ? A: Luca is always working on sounds (n.r. I know he is) so probably yes Q: Setting specific tires for MP is on the wishlist ? A: Is not on the wishlist at the moment, but considering the system that I've just made to actually communicate to the server that I've just changed tires, I think we are in a good situation to have the server refusing it or accepting it ("tyre not allowed, you can only use this type"). Q: Plans for Pit Stops in SP ? Yes, it's planned before the end of the year. With some improvements as suggested on the AC forum Q: What about multiple light sources ? A: Not supported by current system; and probably we'll never see it in Assetto Corsa 1. It needs to change the entire graphic engine - it can't happen with an update; it can happen with a new game. Because it will probably mean new shaders so entire rooster of cars and tracks will also need to be updated. So this is a feature that could come in something like AC2 (not in the plans for the moment). Q: Night racing ? A: Linked to above; basically impossible for AC 1.0. It can be faked up to some point - as it was in netKar Pro for example. Q: Any chance for rolling starts ? A: No. Q: Fixed setups ? A: Yes I know it's very important for MP leagues so it's definitely on my radar. Q: Will there be a safety car ? A: No, at the moment no plans for SC Q: Even if unofficial, will gravel/dirt surface will be supported (rather than tarmac with less friction) ? A: I don't think so, no. If there would be a possibility to do a rally game, I would like to do it properly. There are already lots of things in Assetto Corsa that could be done better then they are. It's true that sometime we get too passionate and release things but then realize that probably it wasn't a good idea. Q: Any plans for letting the driver put on 1st gear before the green lights ? A: No. Q: What about getting a junior coder for summer program and let him help on less important stuff ? Unless the guy is really experienced, you'll finally loose more time explaining what needs to be done than to doing it yourself. So no, no real plans on it. Q: What about server being able to force specific apps an user should be running ? A: Yes, I thought about that. But again the first approach is to give the possibility for this check from python. Then leagues should be able to write their own app for checking. Q: Friend invite ? A: I talked with Aris but we think it's very difficult to implement with current architecture of AC. No idea when and if it will be implemented. In the end, a note from Stefano when speaking about different questions or reported issues. A very important thing when you want to get the proper attention from the devs is to explain as you would be explaining to a kid, step by step on what the problem is and how it can be reproduced. This would assure a proper understanding and more likely to have the problem looked in. Example: the multiplayer tires glued to the road. It was a known problem, and very clear on how to reproduce it. It only took 30min to fix . Looking forward to next episode. As of now, plan is to have one every Wednesday morning (Philippines Time) and every Saturday morning (European Time).
