Yesterday marked the big Early Access debut of Assetto Corsa EVO on Steam, taking the beloved racing franchise to new heights with both flatscreen and PC VR headset support. Although the excitement was palpable, the response from the gaming community has been mixed. VR enthusiasts, in particular, are advising fellow racers to hold off until crucial patches roll out, aiming to improve the game’s current optimization troubles.
KUNOS Simulazioni, the brains behind both Assetto Corsa (2014) and Assetto Corsa Competizione (2018), has finally unveiled their eagerly anticipated follow-up, Assetto Corsa EVO. The initial Early Access package offers five tracks, a selection of 20 vehicles, a single-player mode, and compatibility with SteamVR headsets, along with support for triple-screen setups.
While the team assures fans that a full roster of content, featuring 100 cars, 25 tracks, an open-world map, and both career and multiplayer modes, will be rolled out over time, VR users are expressing dissatisfaction with the game’s current performance.
In the early wave of reviews, the game has amassed over 2,700 individual critiques, leading to a ‘Mixed’ rating. Critics have acknowledged the absence of certain features promised by KUNOS Simulazioni, but a major point of contention remains the less-than-ideal VR optimization, which many users claim renders the game nearly unplayable in a virtual reality setting.
Steam user Poloman candidly shares, “I’m not going to dwell on the performance issues, being early access and all, but VR is just not playable right now. I get 150 fps on 3440×1440, yet in VR, I can’t push past 30 FPS.”
Another user, Mattios, reports, “Even with an RTX 4090 and an i9 13900k on the lowest settings, aiming for just 80hz, VR is unplayable due to constant latency spikes. The flatscreen version performs fine, with max settings barely pushing 80% GPU and 10% CPU usage without upscaling.”
Dan chimes in with his experience: “I can’t recommend its current form. There’s a severe lack of performance optimization for VR. With a Radeon setup of 7600X + 7900 XT, I’m getting 50 fps on a Quest 3 using Link and OpenXR, even with just one car and all graphics set to minimum.” Dan also notes that visual glitches primarily occur in menus and criticizes the default force feedback settings, advising players to wait for future patches.
KUNOS Simulazioni’s approach to launching their Assetto Corsa titles through Early Access phases isn’t novel, and the gradual release of new features has been a consistent practice. Although VR wasn’t initially standard, it has become a vital aspect of the series over time.
The original Assetto Corsa made early strides in VR, featuring experimental Rift headset support as far back as 2013, with broader support for additional headsets following in 2017 thanks to OpenVR integration. Assetto Corsa Competizione later embraced full VR functionality a month after launching for traditional monitors.
KUNOS Simulazioni commits to a complete 1.0 release “within less than one year from the start of Early Access,” instilling hope for significant VR optimizations before the final launch, making the $32 pricing more compelling for VR users.
