—

We take Assetto Corsa, the new sim racer with native Oculus Rift support, for a spin. Is it VR racing heaven or hell?

Oculus Drift

First things first, I’m not a Sim Racer. Don’t get me wrong, I love cars and the driving of them, but my all-time favourite driving games would include such lightweight examples as Ridge Racer or Project Gotham Racing. That’s me, but there are plenty out there who love nothing more than tinkering with the minutiae of engine tweaking, suspension setups and telemetry data.

Assetto Corsa, the in-development driving game from the Kunos Simulazioni team, probably sits somewhere between iRacing and PGR, think Gran Turismo with a proper physics engine. The game engine has evolved over several iterations with the guts of the apparently excellent physics engine primed from netKar and the Ferrari Racing Academy. Assetto Corsa (“Racing Setup” in Italian apparently)

The reason why a Sim Racing noob like myself is writing about this? Assetto Corsa pledged Oculus Rift support from the beginning. After a shaky start with version 0.2 (plagued with z-Buffering issues in the right eye) 0.3 has just been released and promises to fix these issues.

I was pleasantly surprised as you’ll hear in the video  and in terms of offering an accessible and fun VR experience, despite the serious slant of the gameplay, Assetto Corsa gets it just right. Tearing down straights with your virtual head strapped to the bonnet of a car is a great experience and with the exception of the in-car view suffering from a scaling issue (everything is a little too small) it all works beautifully. Only one major gripe: killer drift, in the head tracking that is. After 10 minutes of racing I found myself rotated 90 degrees on my swivel chair, craning my neck to the left in order to keep my car in view.  Hopefully magnetometer and drift correction will arrive soon, as it seems the developers update fairly rapidly

SEE ALSO
'Bounce Arcade' is Like VR Pinball for Your Fists—And Exactly the Kind of Creativity VR Needs to Thrive

Check the video out and let me know what you think. Also, all you Petrolheads out there who own the game, how does it drive? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

You can get early access to the Assetto Corsa beta via Steam here.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Oliver

    It had a lot of other issues aswell when i tested it about two weeks ago. Especially GForce cards seem to have problems. I’ll check it out again tonight.

  • PsychShaman

    If anyone’s interested in this game, it’s on the Steam Holiday sale today for $30. You should be able to buy it until 12/21 at noon I believe.