Assetto Corsa Competizione comes with a powerful replay system and a plethora of customization options to choose from, yet few know how to take full advantage of it, or even how powerful it really is.
Let us walk you through the process of making an amazing looking screenshot, with the help of The Sim Grid’s photographer, DJankovic.
Step 1: Graphical Settings
The graphical settings that you run is a large component of making a screenshot look as good as possible. Your aim should be to max out your quality – framerate isn’t going to be important for screenshots. After much testing, here are the settings we find to be just perfect for ACC:
| Setting | Recommendation |
| Scaling | 200% creates higher quality models and smooths out edges, however, can be very taxing on your PC |
| View Distance | Max |
| Shadows | Max (important) |
| Antialiasing | Max |
| Antialiasing type | FXAA at 200% scaling |
| Post Processing | Epic (gives the game a darker look with deeper shadows) |
| Foliage | Epic |
| Textures | Epic |
| Mirrors | Turn to low to improve performance unless mirrors are an important part of your shot |
| Advanced options (LODs etc) | The highest available |
| Motion blur | On (you can also set it to only external cams if you don’t want this while you’re driving) |
Running the game at a lower framerate actually gives better motion blur in game, so don’t fret too much if your PC is struggling, as long as the camera controls are usable you shouldn’t worry about framerate.
Step 2: Camera Controls
When choreographing your shot, the camera type and position is ultimately what will make or break your shot. We recommended using free-moving cameras as that will allow you to shoot from whatever angle you would like – sort of like a drone. Outside of the TV, chase and onboard cameras, there are two free-cam modes:
- Tap F7 for a free camera that moves around as your car moves and keeps it in focus. This is the best camera for finding the perfect shot of your car without having to move your camera every time you move the replay forward or backwards.
- Double-tap Ctrl + F7 for a true free-camera detached from any object in the game that therefore will not focus on any cars.
It’s recommended to use the first free camera that’s attached to your car as it makes it much easier to get in-focus shots of your car, whereas the true free-camera may be more difficult to get good shots as the motion blur may ruin your shot.
To control the camera itself in free-cam:
- Arrows keys up and down to move the camera forward and backwards
- Arrows keys left and right to move the camera left and right
- To Pan and Tilt, click the left or right mouse button and move around
Step 3: Cinema HUD
To open the Cinema Hud, press the middle mouse button. Here, you can control the camera to a greater amount of detail.
Controls Tab:
| Setting | Effect |
| FOV | Decrease or increase the field of view |
| Follow Car | Change between the two different free camera modes mentioned above |
Depth of Field Tab:
| Setting | Effect |
| Focal Distance | The distance from the focal point the blur shows around the car (the effect is relative to Near Size and Far Size) |
| Near Transition | Smoothes the edge of the near blur edge |
| Far Transition | Smoothes the edge of the far blur edge |
| Near Size | The size of the blur in front of the focused object |
| Far Size | The size of the blur behind the focused object |
| Focus Area | The range of the image that’s in focus |
Important Notes
Assetto Corsa Competizione comes with the option of taking screenshots with the F8 key, however, we don’t recommend you use this and instead take advantage of Steam’s built-in high-quality screenshot software. This is because using the F8 shortcut eliminates all motion blur – a crucial setting in making sure your screenshots are pristine. On the note of motion blur, be wary that it is disabled whenever it is raining and can’t be turned on.
Another important setting is Antialiasing. This too is crucial for getting sharp screenshots, but it can have some side effects. In particular, KTAA and Temporal Antialiasing settings can cause a ghosting effect on some liveries, however, using the FXAA format reduces this risk. To make sure you keep these settings saved, remember that you can create multiple profiles of your settings.
Tying everything together
With that information on how to set up your graphical settings and how to use ACC’s replay mode, let’s take you step-by-step on how to tie these aspects together and create your perfect shot.
- Open the replay mode in either the session you’re spectating or the replay you’ve saved after the session.
- Press the middle mouse button to open the CINEMA HUD.
- Choose your FOV – 45 is a good place to start.
- Enable background blur.
- Switch to the free camera with F7 and find the shot you want to take.
- Once you’ve found your shot, wind the replay back 5-10 seconds, giving the UI time to tuck away, and take the screenshot where you wanted it while the replay is playing, meaning the car and everything around it is in motion, giving a nice blur in the background.
For screenshot tools, there are several to choose from. It’s all personal preference as long as your screenshot saves in a PNG format as “.png” images will be of higher quality.
- Steam screenshot – (F12 by default)
- Snipping tool – CTRL + SHIFT + S.
- Printscreen – (for your entire desktop) or “alt-printscreen” (for a single application) on your keyboard, which will copy a screenshot to your keyboard that you can paste into any other program such as paint or your friends on discord.
- Lightshot – a free screenshot software for windows
- Nvidia Shadowplay – Only compatible with Nvidia graphics cards
Now that you have all the tips and tricks to taking screenshots in ACC, take to the replays and see what you can do!
