Time to Burn Rubber: Rev Up for Early Access Assetto Corsa Rally

The flag dropped on November 13^th, and Assetto Corsa Rally roars into pole position, fulfilling gamers’ need for speed … and mud, rain, and challenging terrain. It’s an Early Access release with a specially discounted price reflecting the fact that the game is still in development, which not only gives gamers a great deal, but a chance to shape the title as it goes full throttle toward completion. Mauro Notarberardino, studio director at Supernova Games Studios, tookhis pick from the ten officially licensed cars on offer—including the 1972 Alfa Romeo GTA 1300, the 1964 Mini Cooper, and the 1976 Lancia Stratos—and tackled the switchback track leading to Intel Gaming Access’s secret location to bring us up to speed on this highly anticipated rally sim.

“At Supernova, we are lovers of sim racing and motorsport, especially rally,” Notarberardino says. “We felt the lack of an authentic simulator and knew that the only way to create one was to include realistic physics in the game. Meanwhile, fans kept asking KUNOS Simulazioni, the creators of the brand Assetto Corsa to develop a rally simulator, but Kunos were already working on Assetto Corsa Evo. From here came the idea of Assetto Corsa Rally, independently developed by Supernova Games Studios with access to the Kunos Physics Engine (Supernova Games Studios and KUNOS Simulazioni are both part of the Digital Bros group).” The perfect place for the game to begin, in other words—in a world of petrolheads. “The inspiration for Assetto Corsa Rally comes from our passion,” Notarberardino confirms. “AC Rally stands out from other rally games on the market because it is the only simulator running on the Kunos Physics engine, duly modified to adapt it to this discipline. We are enthusiasts who grew up during one of the golden ages of rally, that of Group A and the early WRC, and spent our weekends camping with friends to watch special stages at night, hearing the roar of the rally cars through the woods and seeing the headlights appear among the trees.”

The team’s bonafides established, it’s not hard to trace a direct line from these formative experiences to the authentic feel of the game. “Assetto Corsa Rally is dedicated to enthusiasts and aspiring ones,” Notarberardino explains. “Players put themselves in the shoes of a real rally driver, driving cars from the 1960s to today on real laser-scanned roads with fully variable weather and time-of-day conditions. The game is designed to perfectly support steering wheels and driving peripherals, but we also paid attention to implementing assists that allow less experienced players to have fun playing with a controller. Players can find realistic physics based on manufacturers’ data, engine sounds recorded from real cars, and game modes designed to deeply replicate the rally experience, such as where you manage the car’s setup and repairs between special stages, which adds a lot of strategy. We personally inspected every single car in the game and drove some on circuits, in the Welsh woods, or on snowy Alpine tracks. There were some very exciting moments, such as when we could access legendary cars with which iconic drivers like Henri Toivonen, Miki Biasion, or Colin McRae had won races.”

Steeped in the atmosphere and history of the rally, the game has earned its name—literally. “When we started working on the game, it was not yet certain that it would be called Assetto Corsa,” Notarberardino tells us. “Our game had to boast all the series’ characteristics, including authenticity, realistic physics, and laser-scanned cars and tracks to achieve this. At a point in development, the co-founder of KUNOS Simulazioni, Marco Massarutto, was so satisfied with the title that he gave his approval to officially make it part of the brand.” With internal standards so high, you sense not only the passion but the rigor and workmanship that has gone into this sim. The creation of an authentic environment that utilizes classic models known to rally enthusiasts across the world doesn’t leave room for mistakes, and that wasn’t the only challenge.

“One of the most significant challenges we faced was redesigning the Unreal Engine 5 grass and ambient occlusion systems to accommodate the high-speed nature of rally racing,” Notarberardino explains. “Traditional implementations weren’t suitable for a game where players move at such velocity through diverse environments. We had to completely revise these systems to ensure they could maintain visual quality while handling the rapid pace of gameplay, optimizing both rendering techniques and LOD transitions to keep performance stable without sacrificing the immersive experience players expect.”

Rest assured, no sacrifice has been made. AC Rally has been optimized to deliver excellence across a wide range of PC configurations, and carefully tuned to balance visual fidelity with smooth performance; whether your hardware is high end or a more modest setup, the intensity and precision is there. “Scalability was a very important requirement for us,” Notarberardino says. And Intel was there to assist, as ever. “This is actually our first time working with Intel, and the experience has been very positive. The integration of Intel X^e Super Sampling into AC Rally was remarkably smooth! The technology was straightforward to implement and the support from Intel’s team made the process seamless, [they were] consistently responsive throughout the development process. Their team was readily available to answer questions and provide guidance whenever we needed it, which helped ensure a smooth integration of their technologies into our workflow.”

Well, that’s our passion (but if you ever need volunteers to drive a circuit or two…), but what’s next for Supernova Games Studio after the Early Access release? “In the coming months, Supernova will continue to add content following both the internal work plan and player feedback,” Notarberardino affirms. For your chance to be truly in the driving seat, wishlist Assetto Corsa Rally now.

Wishlist Assetto Corsa Rally on Steam now.