How to set up an Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server

You can create your own Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server with the Steam library and JSON con­fig­ur­a­tion files in the server directory of the game. To provide the best possible avail­ab­il­ity and per­form­ance, it’s best to rent the hosting hardware from a pro­fes­sion­al provider.

Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione: rent a server or host on your own?

If you want to compete online with other players in Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione, the public lobbies offer lots of options. However, the game’s dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion is re­com­men­ded for tailored playing sessions with friends. It is possible to run it on your personal computer as long as it has enough power to run the game at the same time. However, when you shut down your computer, the server will shut down too. Keep in mind though that the internet con­nec­tion in many house­holds is often too unstable to offer a smooth gaming ex­per­i­ence for a game server.

By out­sourcing computing power for your Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server, you can ensure that you always have a quality gaming ex­per­i­ence. Using a hosting provider gives you access to powerful hardware that is regularly main­tained, allows your server to be online con­tinu­ously and offers high-per­form­ance broadband ca­pa­cit­ies.

What are the system re­quire­ments for an Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server?

The hardware you need to create and host an Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server depends on the number of players that will be using the server at the same time. If you use a lot of mods, you’ll need to plan for ad­di­tion­al resources as well. The minimum re­quire­ments for a basic ACC server are as follows:

• CPU (Processor): AMD or Intel from 2.4 gigahertz, strong single-core power preferred
• RAM (Memory): 4 gigabytes of RAM for up to 4 players, more RAM as the number of players increases
• Hard disk space: 10 gigabytes for dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion, mods etc.

Typically, Microsoft’s Windows server operating systems are used for ACC servers. Native support for Linux dis­tri­bu­tions is not offered by Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione’s server ap­plic­a­tion. With Ubuntu, the in­stall­a­tion and setup only work with the ad­di­tion­al software program Wine.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to plan for ad­di­tion­al resources depending on the operating system you choose. For example, if you want to use Windows Server 2022, you’ll need:

• 1.4-GHz-Processor (64-Bit)
• 512 MB or 2 GB memory (without or with graphical user interface)
• 32 or 36 GB hard disk space (without or with graphical user interface)

What game server options are available at IONOS?

At IONOS, you have the choice between three different types of servers. The options vary in terms of computing power, pricing model and range of services.

• vServer (VPS): IONOS vServer or Virtual Private Server (VPS) grants access to dedicated resources that are fully vir­tu­al­ised. Packages provide a set amount of resources for a fixed monthly price.
• Cloud Server: IONOS’ cloud servers also use fully vir­tu­al­ised hardware resources, but in this model, you have the flex­ib­il­ity to scale per­form­ance as needed. Billing is done on a per-minute basis.
• Dedicated Server: with IONOS’ dedicated servers, you rent a fixed hardware setup with high single-core power that is ex­clus­ively reserved for you. With this model, billing is also done on a per-minute basis.

3 Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server scenarios and suitable IONOS hosting solutions

Your gaming setup de­term­ines how much computing power you’ll need to host your own ACC server. In the following table, we have listed three different scenarios along with a suitable IONOS server option for each one.

How to set up an Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server: a step-by-step guide

Once you have chosen a server, you can make your dream of having your own ACC server a reality. In­stall­a­tion and setup are simple thanks to the official dedicated server tool. In the following tutorial, we’ll create an Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server using an IONOS server (vServer, Cloud Server, Dedicated Server). We’ll use Windows Server 2022 as the operating system.

Step 1: create a remote con­nec­tion to the server

To access your rented hardware, establish a remote con­nec­tion to the server. To set up the required remote desktop con­nec­tion, you need the IP address as well as the in­di­vidu­al login data for the server. IONOS customers can set up the con­nec­tion con­veni­ently via the Customer Centre:

1. Log in with your in­di­vidu­al ID on the official login page in the IONOS Customer Centre.
2. After suc­cess­ful login, click on the Server & Cloud section.
3. Select the in­fra­struc­ture that you want to create your Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server on.
4. Under Access data, you’ll find all the important data for remote access to your server. For a quick setup, click on the download link next to the Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion entry.
5. Run the down­loaded .rdp file and keep the suggested option Open with Remote Desktop Con­nec­tion.
6. Click the Connect button.
7. Enter the unique login cre­den­tials for the server, which you can find in the login data (user and initial password) in the customer centre.

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Step 2: install ACC Dedicated Server via Steam Client

Once the remote con­nec­tion to the server is es­tab­lished, you can start the in­stall­a­tion of the gaming server. You can get the dedicated server ap­plic­a­tion for Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione directly from the Steam library after pur­chas­ing the game. Install the Steam client on your rented server and then proceed as follows:

1. Launch the Steam client and log in with the user account that you purchased Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione with.
2. Click on the Library tab to open the library.
3. Open the drop-down menu (arrow-down icon) in the left menu bar.
4. Place a check mark next to the Tools entry.
5. Enter ‘Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione dedicated server’ in the search box.
6. Click the cor­res­pond­ing result
7. Press Install to install the ACC server ap­plic­a­tion.

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Step 3: configure the server

After you create the Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server via the Steam client, you will find the related files in the following directory:

…\Steam\steamapps\common\Assetto Corsa Competizione Dedicated Server\

The server\cfg sub­dir­ect­ory contains the four JSON documents for con­fig­ur­ing your ACC server:

• as­sistRules.json: in this document, set which ‘helps’ should be allowed. Changes to this file are optional.

• con­fig­ur­a­tion.json: in con­fig­ur­a­tion.json, you can make changes to the network settings.

• event.json: the event.json file sets the timing of the race weekend and the weather con­di­tions.

• settings.json: in the settings file, you can set all the important settings like the server name, a password for joining, and the maximum number of par­ti­cipants.

First, open settings.json and add the following entries for a basic server setup without rating re­quire­ments (add a suitable server name and passwords for your server):

{
 "serverName": "ACC Server by IONOS",
 "adminPassword": "admin123",
 "trackMedalsRequirement": -1,
 "safetyRatingRequirement": -1,
 "racecraftRatingRequirement": -1,
 "password": "test123",
 "maxCarSlots": 10,
 "spectatorPassword": "spec123",
 "configVersion": 1
}

Then open event.json and copy the following markup into the file to create a race weekend for the Monza circuit. This includes a 120-minute practice session and qual­i­fy­ing laps followed by a short 20-minute race:

{
 "track": "monza_2019",
 "preRaceWaitingTimeSeconds": 80,
 "sessionOverTimeSeconds": 120,
 "ambientTemp": 22,
 "cloudLevel": 0.1,
 "rain": 0.0,
 "weatherRandomness": 0,
 "sessions": [
  {
   "hourOfDay": 6,
   "dayOfWeekend": 2,
   "timeMultiplier": 1,
   "sessionType": "P",
   "sessionDurationMinutes": 120
  },
  {
   "hourOfDay": 12,
   "dayOfWeekend": 2,
   "timeMultiplier": 1,
   "sessionType": "Q",
   "sessionDurationMinutes": 120
  },
  {
   "hourOfDay": 18,
   "dayOfWeekend": 3,
   "timeMultiplier": 2,
   "sessionType": "R",
   "sessionDurationMinutes": 20
  }
 ],
 "configVersion": 1
}

Of course, you can also customise the con­fig­ur­a­tion for your Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server and the hosted races. In the server’s directory, you’ll find a detailed listing of the different options you have for this in the PDF document ServerAd­min­Hand­book.pdf.

Step 4: open server ports

For your ACC server to be available online, UDP port 9231 and TCP port 9232 must be enabled. Al­tern­at­ively, you can define other ports in the con­fig­ur­a­tion.json file for com­mu­nic­a­tion with the server.

As an IONOS customer, you can easily enable server ports via the firewall settings in the Customer Centre. To do this, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the IONOS customer centre.
2. Go to the Server & Cloud menu.
3. Select your rented server hardware.
4. In the left side menu, click Network and then Firewall Policies.
5. Under Inbound, add the rules for UDP port 9231 and TCP port 9232.

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Step 5: start the Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server

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Step 6: connect to the ACC Server

So that you and your fellow drivers can connect to the server and compete in con­figured races, start Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione on your computer. Then complete these steps:

1. Select Mul­ti­play­er.
2. Click on the Server list button.
3. Use the search function to search for your ACC server.
4. Type the server password in the cor­res­pond­ing field and press Connect.

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After this short setup, start the game on your Assetto Corsa Com­pet­iz­ione server.

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