The renewal of Assetto Corsa is already on its way to users. It has been announced for the European spring-summer of 2024, but now with striking news for its fans: Aristotelis Vasilakos – Head of R&D for Vehicles and Handling – is stepping down from his position at Kunos Simulazioni.
Many racing simulator enthusiasts, especially fans of Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione, know Aristotelis Vasilakos as the guru of Kunos Simulazioni in the field of physics and car setups, among other things. As the Head of R&D for vehicles and handling at the studio for Assetto Corsa titles, Aris, as he is known, has frequently delved into the most subtle details of ACC in particular.
Now, the developer has announced a major change for 2024 on his YouTube channel Aris.Drives. His most recent video dates back to October 2022, and Aris has returned to his channel with a video titled “Goodbye and thanks for all the sims!” to shed some light on his radio silence.
“After 15 amazing and incredible years, I have resigned from my position at Kunos Simulazioni. I will never be able to express my feelings and gratitude towards this company. [It made my dreams come true and helped me become the professional figure that I believe I am],” states Aris in his video. “And, more importantly, I can never thank the sim racing community enough.”
Assetto Corsa 2
However, Aris has indeed worked on Assetto Corsa 2 content until recently, and he provides a comprehensive teaser of the title. “The company is in very, very good health. It is working on the most amazing racing simulation content ever seen. Believe me when I say that 2024 is going to be incredible. You are going to be blown away by what is going to be released.”
Furthermore, Aris and Kunos worked together to create guidelines and templates “to fill any kind of gap that may arise.” Where does this leave Vasilakos? Well, he also gave an answer to this question, stating that he would not join a direct competitor. After 20 years in the world of racing simulation, it was time to move on.
That means the developer is taking on another role as part of a “much larger project, which I hope will help me grow professionally.” Although he will supposedly remain connected to the automotive culture, Aris will not be involved in a sim racing title but will focus on a “very large and ambitious metaverse project.”
The Legacy
Vasilakos leaves behind a massive legacy, which will undoubtedly also shape Assetto Corsa 2. However, since racing simulation titles are subject to constant improvements even after their release, filling Aris’s shoes for these developments will be a challenging task.
Nevertheless, the studio has shown that it can and wants to commit to a title in the long term, probably more so in ACC than in the original Assetto Corsa. Not much is known about Assetto Corsa 2 yet, but the title is expected to be released in the summer of 2024. Before that, Nürburgring-Nordschleife should bring joy to the hearts of many sim racers.
See you on the track!
While it’s sad to see him go, this may actually be a blessing in disguise! One of the major flaws with ACC and Aris was their reluctantness to address the constant flaws in their physics/Tuning engine!
What makes Sim racing great is the player and driver experiencing what appears to be realistic handing! With the 1.9 update and sequential. 1.9.1.2.3.4.5 ect updates the abuses of programming flaws has never been addressed.
Many of the fastest players are running set ups that would more than likely results in a nasty death or at the very least horrific accident in real life GT3 racing!
Instead of addressing this issue they constantly ignored it! Now the top tier eSports guys are putting up ridiculously fast lap times that sre either unfathomable in real life or that 1 or 2 people in the world have achieved under perfect conditions with a vehicle set up perfectly to fit their driving style!
We know this to be the case when eSports teams tell real life drivers “You must adapt to the set up” vs adjusting the set up to the drivers style and/or to better replicate the actual driving characteristics of the vehicle.
While for some it makes life easy! Slap on some ridiculous META set up and go! For others who truly enjoy tinkering with the set up here and there to get a car feeling exactly how they like it, doing so is now pointless as they rarely come close to the same lap times as Meta setups!
It should be extremely difficult to achieve an in real life track record in a sim! Same as it’s extremely difficult in real life. When literally 20% of the player base is now destroying real life lap times the game is fundamentally flawed and what is known as a Simcade vs a simulation.
The entire concept of developing a “Simulation” style game is to closely represent the experience of being in a real car as possible! To simulate the experience of competition as one would experience if they climbed into a GT3 car on race day!
Hopefully those replacing Aris will be willing to do what’s necessary regardless if it upsets a few eSports guys to make the game feel more like a simulation vs being able to slap max min settings on sliders and being lighting fast!
Here’s a very simple answer to your “issue”. Cheaters are unavoidable. Bugged setups are banned in official events. Enjoy! Aris can’t do magic just to stop some kids from abusing the physics engine, nor has he programmed the engine in the first place.