Why Assetto Corsa Rally’s V0.6 update was more important than first thought
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← Assetto Corsa Rally • News14 September 2026 — 5 minute read
By Ross McGregor
- AC Rally’s V0.6 update hides significant back-end change
- Unofficial mods cause host of game crashes
Supernova Games Studios has addressed community complaints following Assetto Corsa Rally’sV0.6 update.
Many players have reported game crashes after updating to the latest build, which the developer has largely pinned on the presence of mods.
Although AC Rally is not strictly open to modding yet, many players have managed to add new co-drivers, liveries and other applications via unofficial means. Although these have largely been transferable between new builds up to this point, V0.6 represents a bigger step forward for the game’s underlying technology than before.
“0.6 upgraded AC Rally to Unreal Engine 5.6 — a major engine version jump, not a small patch,” the developer said in an official statement.
“Unofficial mods are built by unpacking/repacking the game’s .pak / .ucas / .utoc files with tools like UnrealPak, FModel, and FMOD Bank Tools. Those archives aren’t engine‑agnostic — their internal format (serialization version, data layouts, asset registry) is tied to the engine version they were packed against.
“A mod packed for the pre‑0.6 build looks malformed to the 5.6 executable: it may get skipped, load with missing/mismatched data, or hit invalid data mid‑load — which shows up as a crash. This is a standard side effect of Unreal Engine upgrades, not an intentional block on mods; 0.6 added no new mod‑detection or DRM”.
As well as new cars, a photo mode and an official custom livery system, V0.6 had therefore also signalled the implementation of a new game engine, moving from Unreal Engine 5.4 to 5.6, a major back-end change with serious knock-on effects for mod packaging.
It is not, as Supernova stressed, a way to scupper third-party modding.
Why Unreal Engine 5.6?
The reason Supernova upgraded to UE 5.6 is simple:it offers much better optimised graphics and CPU performance.
On a subjective note, I found that AC Rally ran poorly on my mid-range system in the last couple of builds, but V0.6 has been a revelation in comparison. My game now maintains a silky-smooth 60fps with maximum graphics settings, whereas before it would stutter worse than a Rally1 car through a water splash. Anecdotal evidence suggests many players are having a similar experience (although there are naturally always exceptions).
A more stable graphics platform could provide developers the headroom required to add more advanced visual flourishes (like ray tracing, for example), as well as provide a solid base for official VR support in future.
In the meantime, players with unofficial mod content have been urged to remove it to reduce crashes. Likewise, mod creators should update their work to comply with UE 5.6 to ensure compatibility.
“This is exactly why we’re building official modding support: content and tooling built for that pipeline is designed to stay stable across engine upgrades,” explained Supernova, which went on to state that V0.6’s custom livery activation is the first step toward wider modding support.
And for a game that is crying out for more rally stages, modding will be extremely important to its long-term success.
Supernova Games Studios’ official statement, 11th September, 2026
Hey everyone, since 0.6 shipped, we’ve seen reports of mods made with third‑party tools no longer loading, or crashing the game. Here’s what happened and what your options are.
What changed
- 0.6 upgraded ACR to Unreal Engine 5.6 — a major engine version jump, not a small patch.
Why old mods break
- Unofficial mods are built by unpacking/repacking the game’s .pak / .ucas / .utoc files with tools like UnrealPak, FModel, and FMOD Bank Tools. Those archives aren’t engine‑agnostic — their internal format (serialization version, data layouts, asset registry) is tied to the engine version they were packed against. A mod packed for the pre‑0.6 build looks malformed to the 5.6 executable: it may get skipped, load with missing/mismatched data, or hit invalid data mid‑load — which shows up as a crash. This is a standard side effect of Unreal engine upgrades, not an intentional block on mods; 0.6 added no new mod‑detection or DRM.
What you can do
- Playing with mods: if the game crashes on startup or on loading a car/track, remove mods one at a time to find the culprit. Only re‑enable mods their creator has confirmed as updated for 0.6 — assume anything unlabeled is incompatible. Keep a backup of your old mod folder before testing.
- Making mods: re‑extract assets and regenerate mapping files against the current 0.6 build, then repack with a UnrealPak/FModel version that supports UE 5.6’s format — older tool versions will misread it. Double‑check data table/struct overrides, since a stale override is a common crash cause. Please label updated mods “0.6‑compatible” so players aren’t guessing.
What we’re doing
- This is exactly why we’re building official modding support: content and tooling built for that pipeline is designed to stay stable across engine upgrades, so a future version bump won’t silently break your work the way a raw engine version change does. The custom livery support in 0.6 is the first piece of that.
- Thanks for your patience and for everything the modding community puts into our game.