McLaren Esports Shadow Project Adds Assetto Corsa Competitzione, Update 1.1 Available Now - Patch Notes Here

Racing sim Assetto Corsa Competizione is now part of the McLaren Shadow Project, an official esports competition, pitting pro sim racers around the world, against each other for a coveted spot in the finals.

Assetto Corsa Competitzione also just received its version 1.1 Steam update which adds new car models from Audi, Lamborghini and McLaren, along with a new iconic racetrack and several quality of life improvements.

More information about the McLaren Shadow Project, official patch notes and new trailer can be seen below.

Free Blancpain GT Series Season Update Now Available for ‘Assetto Corsa Competizione’

Update 1.1 Offers Players Tons of Free Content and New Major Game Features; Collaboration with McLaren Shadow Project Coming Soon

Assetto Corsa Competizione update 1.1 is now available on Steam, delivering the 2019 Blancpain GT Series’ official season vehicles, teams and the Zandvoort Circuit to all players for free.

The free update delivers six brand new car models including the Audi R8 LMS EVO, Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO, AMR V8 Vantage GT3, Honda NSX GT3 EVO, Porsche 991 II GT3 R and McLaren 720S GT3 (as BONUS content).

Zandvoort Circuit is also now featured in-game, inclusive of the new tarmac for Spa Francorchamps, Barcelona and Silverstone and reflecting the reconstructed tarmac that has was completed earlier this year.

In addition to the new content, the 1.1 update also introduces several improvements and major features to Assetto Corsa Competizione. KUNOS Simulazioni has developed a custom modification to Unreal Engine 4, allowing for a dedicated triple monitor setup support that allows independent settings on the 3 screens as in previous version of Assetto Corsa. Pit Stop animations have also been implemented and show full scene pit crew operations on the car such as refueling and tire replacement. Additionally, a new showroom is available in the vehicle selection page, allowing for zoom and rotation of the car models. The 1.1 update also brings a large amount of UI upgrades and performance optimizations, check out the patch notes.

GENERAL:
– Added Audi R8 LMS Evo.
– Added Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.
– Added Honda NSX GT3 Evo.
– Added Aston Martin AMR V8 Vantage GT3.
– Added Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2).
– Added McLaren 720S GT3 bonus content as part of the McLaren Shadow Project.
NOTE: the car has its BoP set based on the 2019 season tests and is playable with the rest of the content.
– Added Zandvoort Circuit.
– Added 2019 Blancpain GT Championship entries.
– First implementation of triple screen rendering.
NOTE: supports application with Surround mode on and off. Triple rendering properties can be adjusted in the View Settings ingame.
– Reduced FMod CPU occupation over time (mainly with external cameras and chasecam).
– Performance optimizations in cloudy, rainy and night conditions.
– Barcelona 2019 surface grip (slightly slower).
– Silverstone 2019 surface grip adjustments (around 2 seconds slower).
– Paul Ricard 2019 surface grip (around 1 second faster).
– Spa 2019 surface grip (small difference).
– Brake pressure added to shared memory.
– Fixed car model name in shared memory
– FuelEstimatedLaps added in shared memory.
– TrackStatus added to shared memory.
NOTE: shared memory/API documentation is updated, please see the relevant topic on the support forum.

GAMEPLAY:
– Added 2019 Championship season.
– Added possibility to play with more AI opponents on tracks with large pitlanes (notably Spa).
NOTE: grid sizes still depend on the available pit slots for each track and the Cup type selected.
E.g.: Sprint Cup fields are still limited in size to their real-life counterpart.
– Fixed a bug when only the first session of a weekend had correct track wetness.
– Championship weekends now include 2 practice sessions.
– Fixed 3H race driver stint strategy bug.
– Fixed strategy bug for mandatory pit with irregular driver crew.
– Fixed automatic driver cycle in endurance races.
– Various fixes for replay tyre radius/wheel speed (smoke particles and disc glow were not visible in certain situations).
– Fixed valid mandatory pitstop if tyreset is not changed.
– Forced auto save replay after an MP race when the car is stopped.
– Fixed pit strategy selector update issues in the car setup page.
– Driver skills updated based on 2019 results and added skills for new drivers.
– Fixed old replay HUD shortcut overriding the new FFWD and slow motion system.
– Potential fix for SP replay autosave on quit game.
– Fixed autosave replay during the limbo page.
– Autosave replay shows a message before the saving itself.
– Potential fix for Custom Race limbo page crash.
– Pitstops are now enabled in Free Practice and Qualifying sessions.

UI/HUD:
– UI car selection no longer jumps around when selecting different game modes.
NOTE: if there’s an unavailable entry when changing game modes, a new selection is made to match the previous selection as close as possible.
– Default single player selections and settings revised.
– All-new track selection screen.
– Added pit animation toggle in General settings.
– Interactive showroom in car selection screen: zoom, pan, rotate, remember last position.
– Initial implementation of gamepad/keyboard control of showroom camera:
default controls for gamepad: right thumbstick view control, triggers zoom
default controls for keyboard: comma/period/a/z, left/right/up/down
hide UI: scroll button.
– Warning popup when selecting more than 29 opponents.
NOTE: playing with a high number of AI cars requires significant computing power and is not recommended/supported on low and mid-range configurations.
– Default showroom angle changed to spotter guide view in the car selection screen.
– Increased PP gamma for car preview images to match showroom brightness.
– Fixed Special Event season and car selection overwriting single-player page selection history.
– Added FPS cap to the menu screens to limit GPU load.
– Added option in Video Settings to enable/disable the UI FPS cap.
– Messages for manual and automatic replay saving.
– Added option to disable the flashing pit markers when pit animations are enabled for added immersion.
– FFB frequency option exposed in the Controls settings.
– Triple screen mode added to Video Options.
– Triple screen parameters added to View Settings.
– Added gaining/losing time split messages.
– Standings and realtime widgets (HUD, broadcast, pit page) now have a “mandatory pitstop(s) left” indicator for each car.
– Timetable laps are now accessible for the current and previous sessions, both in SP and MP.
– Distance, Height and Pitch parameters can now be set at 0.5 intervals in View Settings.
– Adjustable HUD boundaries exposed in HUD Options.
GENERAL NOTE: due to the significant restructuring of the user interface, it is recommended to delete your docs/ACC/Config/menuSettings.json file after installing the latest update.

GRAPHICS:
– All-new pitstop animation.
– Disabled advanced sharpen filter in TV/F7/Heli cameras.
– Sharpness set to 0 and sharpen filter disabled if antialiasing type is set to FXAA.
– Revised wiper animation system – particularly to fix the abrupt jump when the player stopped the wiper while any vibration or g-force movement was active.
– Added Car LOD setting to Video options.
NOTE: higher value – delayed LOD switch, lower value – more aggressive LOD switch. 70% equals the old default.
– Fixed nameplate bloom at night.
– Brake pressure/temperature added to car displays.

PHYSICS:
– Brand new aerodynamic slipstream simulation. Vortices created by leading car affect airflow that influences both leading and following car in drag and downforce. Leading car will experience slightly lower drag and downforce, and the following car will experience less dynamic pressure that results in lower drag and lower downforce. Results are affected by conformity of diffuser and rear wing angle.
– Circuits have now different surface grip and tyre degradation for different seasons (2018 – 2019)
– Improvements on OOW (out of world) scenarios and AI collision box activation upon impact and tyre deflation.
NOTE: potential performance gain with high number of AI cars.
– Bentley 2019 homologation.
– Ferrari 2019 improvements. More wheel rates available for front and rear.
NOTE: you’ll need to add 4-5 clicks at the front wheel rates of your old setups to have the same results
– Improvements in BoP and balance of Nissan GTR 2018, BMW M6.
– Fixed Audi R8 Monza and Paul Ricard wet presets lacking wet tyres.
– Tyre graining and blistering fine tuning.
– Brake temperature influence on tyres fine tuning.
– Improvements in FFB forces calculation.
– Sand traps FFB enhancement.
– Kerbs FFB enhancement.
– Fixes in setup strategy page.
– Fixes in setup automatic functionality in issues occurring from very stiff dampers and bumpstop gaps.
– Improved collisions to the ground.
– Fixed automatic gearbox not shifting in 1st with pit limiter.
– Fixed Mercedes-AMG occasionally starting session with broken suspension.

AUDIO:
– Added performance sector audio message compared to the personal best in qualifying sessions.
– Enabled audio messages about time gain/loss.
– Positional hit audio for track objects.
– Hit sound for destructible objects.
– Hit sound for small objects.
– Updated all tracks with hit sounds for track objects.
– Added starting comms to audio options.
– Fixed backfire audio.
– Added another car spotter filter (should be more quiet during continuous two-wide).

MULTIPLAYER/RATINGS:
– Adjusted the TR Rating to scale to 33 track medals.
– Added pitstop rules for non-public MP servers: mandatory pitstop count, pit window, max stint times, minimum driving time for swap situations.
– Fixed issue in Racecraft Rating on MP servers.
– Added (general) options to turn off Ratings and/or Statistic tracking in Singleplayer.
– Fix for remote cars collision object left on the track and causing crashes in MP.
– Potential fix for car sparks in replay and bottoming audio effect.
– Updated car selection in MP, now allows all entries of all seasons (“Free-for-all” mode).
– Added 2019 cars & tracks to backend, rating and statistics.
– Added 2019 tracks to server definitions. Using “nurburgring” as track will run in the BoP and track settings for 2018, “nurburgring_2019” will use the 2019 BoP and track data context.
– Drive button is now disabled until the last 30 seconds before session start, and a countdown progress bar is displayed.
– Driver Statistics can now be viewed in “Combined”, “Singleplayer”, “Multiplayer” modes.
– Increased stability to driver swap situations.

McLaren Shadow Project:

KUNOS Simulazioni is proud to announce a further collaboration with McLaren Racing that will bring the McLaren Shadow esports project to Assetto Corsa Competizione players around the globe.

McLaren Shadow allows talented and lucky sim racers to compete for a professional e-sports player seat at the McLaren Shadow project. Players competing in the Assetto Corsa Competizione qualifying round will race for the first position on the leaderboard, winning the access to the final event in Woking (UK), at the McLaren Technology Center where the final winner will be determined. The new update prepares Assetto Corsa Competizione for hosting one of McLaren Shadow’s online qualifiers, which will open on Oct. 27th and close on Nov. 7th.

This event grants the addition of the McLaren 720S GT3 as a permanent gift within the game from KUNOS Simulazioni, in partnership with McLaren Racing.

More info about McLaren Shadow here: https://www.mclaren.com/racing/2019/mclaren-shadow-project.