Adenau Free Roam for Assetto Corsa: An AC Evo Preview

Assetto Corsa Adenau.jpg
Assetto Corsa Evo will get a full free-roam map surrounding the Nürburgring this Summer, but if you cannot wait that long, this Assetto Corsa mod gives you the streets of Adenau to play with a few months early.

Last month saw the highly anticipated Early Access launch of Assetto Corsa Evo met with rough criticism over its performance and core functionality. But come this Summer, the title is set to receive a full free-roam map enabling players to explore the surrounding areas of the Nürburgring.

However, with many months to wait until then and the title's current state leaving much to be desired, OverTake user @Der_Adenauer decided to take it upon themselves to recreate Evo's potential. Using the original Assetto Corsa, they have now put together a pair of mods.

There is a lot of detail to note in this track mod.

There is a lot of detail to note in this track mod. Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

First was an extension to the existing Kunos-built Nordschleife Tourist circuit giving players access to the wider car park and a few roads around the area. But no doubt the most interesting free-roam map is their semi-fictional recreation of Adenau, bringing the ethos of Eiffel exploration to the first Assetto Corsa.

Explore Adenau in Assetto Corsa​

In its current form, the larger scratch-built map includes a series of roads forming a loop of a few kilometres. There are several distinct sections to note, but the whole thing culminates in a 200-metre blast into the town of Adenau itself.

Driving through Adenau in Assetto Corsa gives a great sense of speed.

Driving through Adenau in Assetto Corsa gives a great sense of speed. Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

Elsewhere, an uphill exit of the town leads to the main spawn point which combines a sequence of switchbacks and really highlights the elevation change present in the region. Though there may be a sense of exaggeration to the cliffs lining the road at this point. Long straights for flat-out blasts, the odd crossroad to navigate and plenty of stunning views all come together for a compact yet enjoyable free-roam map.

The whole thing is decorated with seemingly authentic signposts and barriers that should make those used to the Eiffel region feel right at home. To the rest of us dreaming of one day venturing to the iconic circuit, it provides a bit of much-needed escapism. Meanwhile, the urban backdrop of Adenau makes for fantastic photo opportunities, especially at night.

If pootling about on your lonesome in an empty world is not for you, this track mod features 32 pit boxes for large server cruises as well as a full AI Spline ready for traffic cars, just in case you wanted to liven up this miniature Eiffel.

This Assetto Corsa free roam mod still has lots on the horizon.

This Assetto Corsa free roam mod still has lots on the horizon. Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

During your time exploring, you may find blocked-off roads behind large construction-style barriers. As you will come to find out from a brief chat with the mod creators themselves, there is much more on the horizon than the current compact square route.

A Labour of Love​

Behind this passion project is @Der_Adenauer, a mod creator and OverTake user. A self-proclaimed sim racing fanatic, much like most of the community no doubt, they have always wanted to take to track building. But unlike the majority of us, actually took the leap, starting out with the Tourist free roam extension.

"Sadly, due to performance issues on my end, I cannot really enjoy it so far (AC EVO)" Tom told OverTake. "I got back to 'old' Assetto Corsa and thought maybe it would be cool to add some roads to Nordschleife track to have a bit of 'Evo-feeling' in Assetto Corsa."

Adenau free roam comes from an impatience for Assetto Corsa Evo.

Adenau's free roam comes from an impatience for Assetto Corsa Evo. Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

Limited by the existing assets of Kunos' Nürburgring and unwilling to alter pre-existing in-game files, thoughts then turned to building a new free-roam track for Assetto Corsa themed around the Nürburgring from scratch.

Putting together the Adenau map's roads using real Geo Data and decorating the landscape with buildings and trees modelled and placed by hand, the mod has taken about a month to develop to this point, according to the creator. But they are not done yet.

"I definitely plan to extend the map a lot more over the next months and years. I will try to update the map regularly with new exciting routes, which are all based on the real roads around Adenau."

Whilst the winding turns of the Eiffel region's more desolate routes will get driving fans enthused, the creator is also looking to give players access to Adenau itself. "There is also a route through Adenau planned (currently, you can only enter around 200 meters of the city)."

The creator points out that this is not the true-to-life road system that Kunos is hoping to replicate with its upcoming open world. Instead, Tom has decided to alter sections of the road to make for a more flowing experience whilst retaining the overall feeling of immersing oneself into the Nürburgring's surrounding roads.

City lights make this mod what it is.

City lights make this mod what it is. Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

Excitingly, the current state only represents "around 5-10% of the planned finished route" with more details on future development to come in a few weeks. The mod creator went on to give fans of the track hope: "I would definitely continue to work on the map project for the next years. For me, this is not depending on anything that happens in AC Evo, I simply love the process of creation."

Original Assetto Corsa or AC Evo?​

Whilst chatting with us, Tom was keen to point out that their track will not exactly match what AC Evo eventually gets this summer due to the semi-fictional approach they have taken during the creative process.

But with the similarities in overall themes between this mod and its supposed inspiration, there will inevitably be a comparison to be made. Though before Evo even gets its open world, there may well be an argument to suggest that this third-party creation will, at least for the foreseeable, sit above the new title to many.

Currently, no more than 40 cars are confirmed for Assetto Corsa Evo with 20 in the game at the time of writing. No doubt that list will grow into the hundreds in due course providing players with plenty of models to test out on the streets of the Eiffel.

How long will it take for Assetto Corsa Evo to get out of its predecessor's shadow?

How long will it take for Assetto Corsa Evo to get out of its predecessor's shadow? Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni

But having released over a decade ago and with the modding community very much leaving its mark on the original Assetto Corsa, that figure can no doubt be multiplied by ten or more to reach the number of models available in the 2014 release. As such, online exploration servers on this little third party map will see heaps of variety with so much more to do.

Additionally, Assetto Corsa Evo is not currently known for its performance and stability. Whilst it has only been on the market for a few weeks and has a lot of development and optimisation time ahead of it before the open world launches, the original of its name is nothing if not easy to run all whilst still presenting with pretty graphics. Unless Evo can become a simple-to-run title, this mod may well make things that little more difficult to drag players away from Assetto Corsa and into Evo.

Have you tried this recreation of Adenauer in Assetto Corsa? Let us know how you got on with it in the comments down below!
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

In my side with my VR headsets getting dust, the problem is moving to 120 rock solid fps in LAC with awesome image quality at 3x2k triple screen in surround mode at 75% power limit in a 3080 10gb to 30 fps and unfixable fov issue no matter what i do in EVO.

TBH i dont care i just try every new patch waiting for fixes, if is not fixed i close the game and go back to a happy life in AC driving around LAC while i give time to Kunos people to fix the game, take all the time you need, do your best, i know beat your hardest rival gonna be hard but you know it well, damn AC is sooooo good, and with it open to the community the improvements coming from them is insane in quantity and quality, but if someone can do it, is your team!! go for it.

I been playing AC for 10 years, dont matter to me keep playing it a couple of years more, one for the base game is fixed and another one till some of my favorite tracks are ported to EVO. I dont think devs gonna miss the oportunity to create a way to port fast as posible the content from AC to EVO keeping in mind no other sim have same amount of diferent content available and im pretty sure it help a lot with the sale numbers :D.

And while the game move from early access to final release and to really polished final release with some patches... See you in LAC guys!.

Regards.
 
In my side with my VR headsets getting dust, the problem is moving to 120 rock solid fps in LAC with awesome image quality at 3x2k triple screen in surround mode at 75% power limit in a 3080 10gb to 30 fps and unfixable fov issue no matter what i do in EVO.

TBH i dont care i just try every new patch waiting for fixes, if is not fixed i close the game and go back to a happy life in AC driving around LAC while i give time to Kunos people to fix the game, take all the time you need, do your best, i know beat your hardest rival gonna be hard but you know it well, damn AC is sooooo good, and with it open to the community the improvements coming from them is insane in quantity and quality, but if someone can do it, is your team!! go for it.

I been playing AC for 10 years, dont matter to me keep playing it a couple of years more, one for the base game is fixed and another one till some of my favorite tracks are ported to EVO. I dont think devs gonna miss the oportunity to create a way to port fast as posible the content from AC to EVO keeping in mind no other sim have same amount of diferent content available and im pretty sure it help a lot with the sale numbers :D.

And while the game move from early access to final release and to really polished final release with some patches... See you in LAC guys!.

Regards.
Keep in mind that you get rock solid 120 FPS with one of the most powerful GPUs released in late 2020 for a late 2013 AC EA release. Would it be reasonable to achieve that for a 11 years newer game? I am not saying ACE doesn't need a LOT of optimization, just look at it from an outside perspective for a bit.
 
People are so conditioned to complain about everything here that they don't even read anymore.
No. I don't complain about everything, but I do complain about this issue massively. First I had the disappointment of ACC, it was unplayable in VR so I waited many years for the next title. Now Kunos made Evo, after roughly 6 years of development and its even worse in VR. This while they promised that VR will be good because they switched game engine. It's simply unplayable in VR at a proper resolution(example: AMS2/LMU both run ~300% better at the same resolution, so we're talking about massive differences here, not a small issue) so anything AC Evo related is to me an reminder of an unplayable title(even with a 4090 and probably 5090 too) that I waited so many years for. That's the subject I complain about, this news title suggests that this AC mod is an preview for the free roam in Evo, well I'm not interested in the free roam of Evo at all if the VR performance issues aren't fixed. Yes I can play this in AC1; nice, but I'm not seeing it as a Evo preview at all because Evo won't be playable on my 4090/5090 sadly enough.
 
Keep in mind that you get rock solid 120 FPS with one of the most powerful GPUs released in late 2020 for a late 2013 AC EA release. Would it be reasonable to achieve that for a 11 years newer game? I am not saying ACE doesn't need a LOT of optimization, just look at it from an outside perspective for a bit.
90hz/fps is sufficient, but it's not possible with a 4090 at just near Pimax Crystal rendering resolution. Not even with everything on low. This while I run AMS/LMU with 4xMSAA high game settings near Crystal's render resolution with zero fps drops.

Nobody is expecting AC1 performance of course. But this is on the other side of the spectrum, it's even worse than ACC and that was the worst running and looking sim racing title in VR for many years. So they simply ruined it for high resolution VR users again this while they created high expectations.
 
@guidofoc Checking AC at home, these is no double precision physics and it seems like it's been gone from the settings for some time according to some threads I found. (I am using 0.2.7 preview)

I do correct myself that origin shift no longer seems to throw off in-car GPS. I tried origin shift and origin shift with extended physics for all cars/tracks settings, extended doesn't seem to effect shaking issues.

On the topic of tracks, at both Fonteny and this Adenau mod there is slight shaking/movement with origin shift enabled. Some people might be less sensitive to it, but it is there. It's visible from exterior the moment I load into the game, and it's also visible when in the cockpit. I don't have any giant free roam installed, but according to my experiences the larger map, the worse shaking, even with origin shift.

Of course, I am open to suggestions to try, but that Google information seems to be outdated.

Adenau itself... is a very long way to go, the environment details and consistency is simply not something that I accept in my install. But that's me and my preferences.
 
90hz/fps is sufficient, but it's not possible with a 4090 at just near Pimax Crystal rendering resolution. Not even with everything on low. This while I run AMS/LMU with 4xMSAA high game settings near Crystal's render resolution with zero fps drops.

Nobody is expecting AC1 performance of course. But this is on the other side of the spectrum, it's even worse than ACC and that was the worst running and looking sim racing title in VR for many years. So they simply ruined it for high resolution VR users again this while they created high expectations.
I was approaching this issue from the perspective that there isn't "optimized for VR", there's optimized or not. VR is just a giant resolution leap and thus even more demanding. ACE performance is quite bad even for non-VR users, some extensive general optimization is needed. I think it's only fair if we give them time, AC1 also wasn't too great at the beginning either (CPU Occupation >99% anyone?).

There are many aspects to look at this problem... new GPUs have lackluster raster improvements, instead focusing on quality degrading tech like reconstruction and frame gen. At the same time games should be optimized for what is available. While ACE is not optimized for what is available, comparing it to the performance of an old game using contemporary hardware is also not too fair, as that old game was also heavy for the GPUs of its time. I honestly think most of the graphics option don't even work today with ACE, I hope they can pull off some great optimization work. It's new & internal tech after all.

ACC was also heavy and blurry and ghosty at the beginning, from my perspective ACE is in a slightly better state, from a visual perspective not even comparable to ACC EA.
 
I was approaching this issue from the perspective that there isn't "optimized for VR", there's optimized or not. VR is just a giant resolution leap and thus even more demanding. ACE performance is quite bad even for non-VR users, some extensive general optimization is needed. I think it's only fair if we give them time, AC1 also wasn't too great at the beginning either (CPU Occupation >99% anyone?).

There are many aspects to look at this problem... new GPUs have lackluster raster improvements, instead focusing on quality degrading tech like reconstruction and frame gen. At the same time games should be optimized for what is available. While ACE is not optimized for what is available, comparing it to the performance of an old game using contemporary hardware is also not too fair, as that old game was also heavy for the GPUs of its time. I honestly think most of the graphics option don't even work today with ACE, I hope they can pull off some great optimization work. It's new & internal tech after all.

ACC was also heavy and blurry and ghosty at the beginning, from my perspective ACE is in a slightly better state, from a visual perspective not even comparable to ACC EA.
Lets hope that they can optimize it. I am concerned because the title has already been for 6 years in development. And the graphics aren't that special compared to AMS2 but it runs 300% better. Yes the engine is newer but it feels a lot less optimized than previous engines. They didn't tell us yet how much optimization is possible. A 5090 wouldn't even be able to run ACE at a high PPD, maybe a 6090 also couldn't. So we'll see.
 
Immersiveness is dependant on many factors, if sound is mediocre, it kills the experience a bit in my opinion, that's why I am dedicated to make the best soundmods possible

I've recently got back into doing sounds myself... It's definitely a huge part of the immersion factor for me...

VR in itself has always been less immersive for me for being strapped into a race car... Much better for role playing games or driving a street car... But I shouldn't be able to move my head that much in a race car...
 
No. I don't complain about everything, but I do complain about this issue massively. First I had the disappointment of ACC, it was unplayable in VR so I waited many years for the next title. Now Kunos made Evo, after roughly 6 years of development and its even worse in VR. This while they promised that VR will be good because they switched game engine. It's simply unplayable in VR at a proper resolution(example: AMS2/LMU both run ~300% better at the same resolution, so we're talking about massive differences here, not a small issue) so anything AC Evo related is to me an reminder of an unplayable title(even with a 4090 and probably 5090 too) that I waited so many years for. That's the subject I complain about, this news title suggests that this AC mod is an preview for the free roam in Evo, well I'm not interested in the free roam of Evo at all if the VR performance issues aren't fixed. Yes I can play this in AC1; nice, but I'm not seeing it as a Evo preview at all because Evo won't be playable on my 4090/5090 sadly enough.
This comment just confims what i'm saying. This post is about the original Assetto Corsa which have a really good VR quality and you're talking about Evo that is just an 0.1 early acess build. Stupid not to say anything worse.
 
This comment just confims what i'm saying. This post is about the original Assetto Corsa which have a really good VR quality and you're talking about Evo that is just an 0.1 early acess build. Stupid not to say anything worse.
This post refers to Evo even in the title. It's saying that it's an Evo preview, well for VR users it isn't because of what I already explained. If Evo wasn't mentioned, then it was a different story.
 
This post refers to Evo even in the title. It's saying that it's an Evo preview, well for VR users it isn't because of what I already explained. If Evo wasn't mentioned, then it was a different story.
Yet, it continues to confirm what i was saying...
 

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