Assetto Corsa Competizione: does the 'next-gen' patch fulfill the dream of 4K60 gameplay? - comparative analysis
– Reviews News
Known for its purist approach to simulation racing with extensive customization possibilities, Assetto Corsa Competizione is a world apart from the accessible and fun arcade racing Forza Horizon, but also the "simarcade" experience offered by Gran Turismo . It's also a PC-centric experience, and while a console port premiered in 2020, the resulting experience was heavily castrated in content and performance. We now have a new upgrade for next-gen consoles that promises 60fps, busier racing, and other improvements. At this point, the question arises: do we have a smoother and more refined racing experience, or have we solved one problem by creating others?
Graphically, Assetto Corsa has always focused on creating an attractive yet functional racing experience. The GT3 class cars are the real stars, reproduced with well-made exteriors and interiors, excellent material work and very accurate reflections. The bodies are high polygons and look just real. However, there are a few remarks to make: the image returned by the mirrors is poor in detail. The environments surrounding the track aren't up to par with the quality of the vehicles, even if you don't pay much attention to them while racing. Track surfaces and grass look rather flat, buildings and structures are poorly detailed, and spectators and scoreboards are brutally rendered in 2D. These are typical compromises of last-gen racing games, but they particularly stand out here, especially at higher resolutions.
This situation applies to all versions of the game, so what's new on PS5 and Xbox Series? According to publisher 505 Games, AC Competizione on new consoles supports racing with 30 cars, 60fps gameplay, 4K resolution and faster load times. A pretty meager upgrade list for a next-gen release but there are a few surprises. For example, a new depth of field bokeh that kicks in before running, which improves the Gaussian filter of the Xbox One X version. Trees and bushes are laid out differently and are more numerous on new consoles; shadows have improved, especially on PS5.
Assetto Corsa Competizione: Everything you need to know about upgrading for PS5 and Xbox Series.
The Xbox Series S receives most available upgrades, with a few exceptions. Grass density is reduced, as is texture filtering, which is most evident on road surfaces and in the details of car roofs. However, this degradation could simply be attributable to the lower rendering resolution. Quite interesting is the fact that the quality of shadows is identical to that of the Series X version, thus placing itself in the middle between Xbox One X and PS5. Overall, however, the general quality of the graphics is very similar, but perhaps the biggest problem with the last-gen versions remains: the mirrors don't offer the same quality of lighting as in the game, and screen space reflections as well. leave artifacts on the trail. . When the shot changes in replays, scenes sometimes drop an opening frame or two, causing issues. These aren't huge issues, but they are certainly noticeable and indicate a lack of refinement.
Speaking of image quality, the Series X aims for full 4K, which it achieves most often. Dynamic resolution seems to work between 1440p and 2160p on Microsoft's flagship, although Assetto Corsa still sticks to around 4K. Even in the most intense scenes, we see on-screen resolutions of 2160p or at least 2016p. The PS5, on the other hand, manages to maintain this goal less well, with more frequent variations and a theoretical minimum of 1152p. Many screenshots are still 2160p, and even on wet tracks with lots of cars we got resolutions in the 1800p range. Only one particularly heavy scene was rendered at the lower limit of 1152p, but this is a more unique than rare case. Ultimately, games for both high-end consoles run well on 4K displays. And the S-series? On paper, there's vibrant 1440p, but most of the time the game runs at around 1080p, with the cockpit view anomaly running at full 4K, with obvious performance drops.
When it comes to performance, the 505 promises 60fps gameplay, which feels like a great upgrade from the choppy, unlocked experience of last-gen. But the truth is that on the next-gen we have anything but a stable experience locked at 60fps. The PS5 leads the console pack in performance, with an almost locked-in 60fps experience with only a few rare drops. In stressful situations with 26 or more vehicles on the track and pouring rain, we experienced minimum frame rates of 55fps. But this is a critical and atypical situation, and the game generally delivers a very stable 60fps experience on PS5.
A flashback to 2020 and our first look at the game. To be fair, there had already been improvements with backwards compatibility mode, with better performance at the cost of low resolution.
The Xbox Series X almost always runs at 60fps with few cars and sunny weather conditions, with occasional frame rate drops. But with the scene getting more complex with pouring rain and more cars, the frame rate suffers and still falls into the 50fps sphere with lows even down to 40fps. In replays, it can even drop to 30 frames per second. Enabling all possible effects to increase the complexity of the scene may result in a further reduction in frame rate. The Series S offers comparable overall performance to the Series X, but less stable. In small-scale runs, we almost always got 60fps, but underperformed the Series X in the same scenarios. Replays perform particularly poorly, with many sections running in the 30fps sphere. Essentially, neither the Series S nor the Series X offer a particularly solid experience, but the budget console fares less well.
In the end, the last generation consoles improved the performance in AC Competizione compared to the last generation game. The PS5 offers firmer performance, perhaps due to more aggressive dynamic scaling or other factors, and feels very stable.
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There are also a few controller-side differences worth mentioning. Assetto Corsa drives best with a steering wheel, although the gamepad can be played easily, especially with various driving aids active. The Xbox Series controller works well but it's the DualSense that makes the difference: it provides precise tactile feedback that comes into play with each gear change, when going up the sidewalks and in the chicanes, with effects each time different. Trigger resistance is used sporadically but seems a good choice, although the left one offers more resistance when braking at high speeds. The implementation is well calibrated and helps to increase the feeling of control and involvement in driving the vehicle.
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Finally, a few words about downloads. These were a pain on the Series X, with an AI race at Circuit Zandvoort taking 31 seconds to load. Every time a race started, you had to wait so long, and in the long run, it became frustrating. The next-gen versions after the patch reduce the times a lot, with around 8 seconds on the Series X/S and curiously a little more on the PS5. A big improvement that makes the experience much more enjoyable.
In conclusion, Assetto Corsa Competizione is an excellent driving simulator for next-gen consoles, which has as its key point a new gameplay locked at 60 fps that looks best on PS5. Both Xbox Series consoles fail to deliver the same performance as Sony's next-gen console. All share the same upgrades and a nice resolution boost on the Series X and PS5. The performance drops on Xbox are problematic and hopefully will be mitigated with some fixes soon.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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