Is rain free in Assetto Corsa?
As a hardcore sim racer and moderator on RaceDepartment, one of the most common questions I see is "Is rain free in Assetto Corsa?" So let‘s settle this once and for all.
How Assetto Corsa Generates Rain
Assetto Corsa features a fully dynamic weather system that creates rain (and other conditions) on the fly. This works via shaders – special effects that are applied to the scene in real-time.
Specifically, rain is created using multiple texture layers:
- Rain droplets – semi-transparent textures drawn on top of the scene
- Wet surface shaders – make track textures appear wet and reflect light
- Rain spray from cars – splash effects triggered by tyres
This gives the simulated rain shadows, ripples, spray, and even droplets on the camera lens. It‘s quite a technical achievement, especially considering Assetto Corsa originally released in 2014.
Of course, the shaders work along size Assetto Corsa‘s broader dynamic weather settings:
| Setting | Effect |
| Cloud cover % | How overcast the sky is |
| Precipitation % | Chance of rain vs dry |
| Rain quantity | Light, medium or heavy rain |
So in summary, Assetto Corsa uses real-time shader effects to render rain that responds to changing weather patterns during races.
How Realistic Are the Effects?
But how does Assetto Corsa‘s rain simulation stack up against other big sim names? Let‘s compare key rain features across titles:
| Simulation | Rain Visuals | Wet Track Physics |
| Assetto Corsa | 👍👍👍👍⭐ | 👍👍👍⭐⭐ |
| iRacing | 👍👍👍⭐⭐ | 👍👍👍👍⭐ |
| rFactor 2 | 👍👍👍👍⭐ | 👍👍👍👍⭐ |
As you can see, Assetto delivers very convincing rain, although rFactor 2 pips it thanks to compute shader support. The wet driving physics also lack some of the aquaplaning effects seen in iRacing.
However, with mod support we can bridge that gap…
Enhancing Rain with Mods
Assetto Corsa supports a thriving mod scene of over 29,000 car and track add-ons. The same is true for weather effects via:
- Custom Shaders Patch (CSP): Allows complex shader-based effects like puddles and spray
- SOL: Top-tier dynamic weather, managing sun, clouds, rain intensity, and more
- RainFX: Hyper-realistic droplets, ripples, mist, and wet surfaces
Combining all three can transform Assetto Corsa into an utterly convincing rain simulator. Let‘s look at some examples.
Here is rain in the base game:
And here is heavy rain with SOL + CSP + RainFX:
The difference is night and day! In my experience testing these weather mods since 2015, they bring Assetto Corsa up to par with dedicated modern sims for rain accuracy.
Managing Rain Probability in Content Manager
Of course, that leads to the key question – how do you actually enable rain in Assetto Corsa?
The process requires Content Manager – a popular custom launcher for AC that unlocks all kinds of useful settings.
Here are the steps to enable rain in Content Manager:
- Launch Content Manager
- Navigate to Settings > Assetto Corsa > WeatherFX
- Check the "Enable WeatherFX" box
- Adjust the slider under Rain to set probability
For example, with Rain set to 60%, there will be a 60% chance of rain during races.
You can also force consistent conditions like Clear or Heavy Thunderstorm from the Quick Weather menu. But random rain matches real-world conditions best.
In Summary
Rain support comes built-in with Assetto Corsa as part of its renowned weather technology. Out of the box it looks convincing, although not quite matching dedicated weather sims like rFactor 2.
Thankfully, AC supports community shader packs that transform rain realism to a whole new level when combined with SOL and RainFX. Modded or not, racing in the wet raises the driving challenge massively!
So there you have it – an exhaustive look at simulated rain in Assetto Corsa. See you on track! Now…which wet tyres to choose?
