Earlier today, Sony and Polyphony Digital announced Gran Turismo Sport will be delayed until 2017. It was a huge blow to GT fans, but it's not the end of the world. It's far from it – the PC benchmark Assetto Corsa has finally arrived to PS4 and Xbox One.
The Italian developers Kunos Simulazioni tapped on 505 Games to port the Steam game to consoles, but it wasn't easy:
“From a technical point of view, the very first time we launched Assetto Corsa on PS4, the game performed about 15 to 25 fps, with most of the post-processing effects off. Then we started a deep optimisation process, re-designing the rendering engine and working with a very different approach based on multithread. We got 60fps, finding a great balance also in terms of graphics details. The track surfaces, track details and car details are exactly the same you get on PC, without any kind of downgrade,” said Executive and Licensing Manager at Kunos Simulazioni, Marco Massarutto, in an interview with NDTV.
“Then, we brought the new code on Xbox One, and we got 35 fps, at 900p. Today, Assetto Corsa on Xbox One performs 60 fps at 1080p,” he claims. “The two versions [Xbox One and PS4] look the same and both versions perform 60 fps at 1080p. Also the graphics assets - I mean 3D models, tracks, textures - are exactly the same.”
The efforts payed off and the game certainly looks gorgeous. But stunning rendering and a sophisticated physics engine is nothing revolutionary – it's just the status quo. It's all about what Assetto Corsa is planning to continue building after its console title release.
An Assetto Corsa Season Pass is already available on the PlayStation Store for $29.99. The Season Pass promises to deliver a slew of additional content, including new cars from the JAPANESE PACK DLC, RED PACK DLC and the upcoming PORSCHE DLC packs.
Have you begun playing Assetto Corsa? Let us know in the comments below.
