How rain in AC could look like...

[LeGeNd-1]

For those who don't know, Kunos made a game long before AC called netKar Pro. It's so old, Kunos have decided to make it freeware. I'm not sure what the AUP rules are so I won't post links to it, but it should be easy enough to find on the internet.

Anyway, I like digging through old sims so I gave this a try and lo and behold, NKP features rain! It looks pretty amazing too (keep in mind this game is from 2006). There's lightning flashes and thunder sounds and it just feels very atmospheric. You also get water droplets on the screen (I'm not sure ANY game from that era had this feature - all of ISImotor sims certainly didn't). All this with quite low system requirements I might add. Very impressive.



The rain physics however sucked It just feels like driving completely on ice. The driver in that video is an alien. Trust me, it's so much harder than it looks.

Now I did some research and apparently the reason why Kunos didn't put rain in AC is because people weren't that excited about it when NKP first came out. Then Kunos added the Fiat Abarth to NKP (it's first licensed car) and people went crazy. So in Kunos' view having licensed cars is more a priority than a weather system, and that's what we get in AC.

Physics and FFB wise NKP is pretty good (aside from rain driving mentioned earlier). Outdated obviously, but still solid. I'd say the best comparison is to vanilla rFactor without RealFeel. What I notice quite strongly is lift off oversteer is VERY pronounced in the Abarth, maybe too exaggerated even (this is something that I feel is missing from AC).

Content wise, it's a pretty barebones game. All the tracks are fictional, and you get several open wheel cars (from the slowest non-downforce 1600cc to a GP2 look alike), an Abarth, a Shelby Cobra Daytona replica and a Radical look alike.

The menu structures feel quite similar to AC. What I find neat is in the tuning screen you can see the center of pressure changing as you change front/rear downforce (again, something missing in AC). Another feature I find neat is each car has their own startup/ignition procedure, which can get quite complicated with the Open Wheel cars. There's a toggle in the options to make this automatic so you can skip the hassle (which I did lol).

Kunos have certainly come a long way since NKP, but if you have the time, do give this old sim a try. It's worth it for the rain effects and just to see how the grandaddy of AC looks like 👍

 

[mister dog]

With their perfectionist attitude to pretty much everything they develop, i can't wait until they start doing weather or dynamic time of day and night racing for AC 2.

Didn't really like PCARS rain physics, felt like there was way too much traction.

 

[ALB123]

Weather doesn't matter to me one bit. It is hard enough to produce physics that are remotely close to "real life" on a dry surface. On a wet surface? Pffft. No chance. Night racing would be really good, I guess. I probably wouldn't do it too often, but at least I could have the option. Dusk or Dawn Nordschleife runs in AC sounds pretty sweet.

 

[Johnnypenso]

I've always felt that both night and rain racing were niche features. Much talked about on the discussion boards but rarely used by the majority of players. Do hope it comes with AC2 though, even if it's static ala GTSport.

 

[BrandonW77]

I've always felt that both night and rain racing were niche features. Much talked about on the discussion boards but rarely used by the majority of players. Do hope it comes with AC2 though, even if it's static ala GTSport.

I loved night racing in GT5/6, the Alfa TZ2 race we did at Le Mans with the full (accelerated) time cycle is still one of my all-time favorite sim racing memories. If AC had it I'd certainly use it. Rain could be cool but only if it's done right with forecasts and true randomness.

 

[Aphelion]

I absolutely love the atmosphere in that video. the sounds, the fog, and even the graphics are absolutely spot on. I would prefer to be driving in that rain than Drivelclubs rain any day of the week.

 

[ALB123]

I've always felt that both night and rain racing were niche features. Much talked about on the discussion boards but rarely used by the majority of players. Do hope it comes with AC2 though, even if it's static ala GTSport.

This. So much... I'm sure it will appear in AC2, which I hope is many, many years away...

 

[Johnnypenso]

I loved night racing in GT5/6, the Alfa TZ2 race we did at Le Mans with the full (accelerated) time cycle is still one of my all-time favorite sim racing memories. If AC had it I'd certainly use it. Rain could be cool but only if it's done right with forecasts and true randomness.

The irony is, that's the only race I can recall ever running at night.

 

[BrandonW77]

The irony is, that's the only race I can recall ever running at night.

Well, IIRC in GT there were only a few tracks that could do night racing so it wasn't always an option. I can still remember whole segments of that race though, and it was like 4-5 years ago (I believe that was the race when my G27 started to die). I know we did one at Daytona Road Course too in a BMW race car. But yeah, it's not something to use on every race but it's nice to have on occasion.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I've always felt that both night and rain racing were niche features. Much talked about on the discussion boards but rarely used by the majority of players. Do hope it comes with AC2 though, even if it's static ala GTSport.

It can be more of a game seller (graphics look better if everything's wet - see Driveclub and NFS 2015) than an actual used feature. But it does add a lot more variety to the races. Even on a same track the addition of weather/night can make it look and drive totally different. And that's what AC needs more than anything - more variety.

I'm a bit biased though because I love driving in the rain You can be more creative with your racing lines and once you master wet driving, dry races are a cinch.

 

[Skython]

Couldn't adding rain make track modding more complex than before? I mean, back in the GTR2 and rFactor days, it was simply some spray, and reduced grip, but I'd imagine if Kunos were going to add rain, they'd go the full mile and maybe some puddles (but not the psycho crazy ones like in Forza). And that would just be more work for modders.

Though that's not to say it wouldn't be great to have, I mean modders do some pretty amazing stuff. They'd probably figure it out. Rain and night racing are two of those ultimate game changers that the game would really benefit from.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Couldn't adding rain make track modding more complex than before? I mean, back in the GTR2 and rFactor days, it was simply some spray, and reduced grip, but I'd imagine if Kunos were going to add rain, they'd go the full mile and maybe some puddles (but not the psycho crazy ones like in Forza). And that would just be more work for modders.

Though that's not to say it wouldn't be great to have, I mean modders do some pretty amazing stuff. They'd probably figure it out. Rain and night racing are two of those ultimate game changers that the game would really benefit from.

I don't think they're gonna add in OTT puddles like Forza. Knowing Kunos, if they decide to do rain they will make the puddle formation physics based. If the terrain and road topography creates puddles IRL, then it will be present in game. If not then there won't be anything there. So it's not really any extra work for modders because they just create the track like the always do, and let the rain physics sort out the rest.