How to Install Sol for Assetto Corsa – Complete Setup Guide (2026)

Sol is the weather mod that turned Assetto Corsa from a daytime-only sim into something with proper day/night cycles, 3D clouds, rain, and dynamic lighting. I’ve been running it since the early versions, and the install process hasn’t changed much – but there are a few steps that trip people up if you don’t know about them. This guide covers the full process from downloading Sol to getting weatherFX running in Content Manager, including the CSP version compatibility issue that catches nearly everyone out.

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What You’ll Need Before You Start

Before touching Sol, you’ll need a few things in place.

• Assetto Corsa installed via Steam
• Content Manager (CM) – the custom launcher that handles everything. Free version works fine. Download from acstuff.ru/app
• Custom Shaders Patch (CSP) – version 0.1.76 or higher, but not 0.2.10 or later. This is the single most common cause of Sol not working.
• 7zip – Sol’s archive is a .7z file. Grab it from 7-zip.org if you don’t already have it
• Sol 2.2.9 – download from Overtake.gg (formerly RaceDepartment)

Gone are the days when you could just drag weather mods into CM. Sol needs a manual install, and for good reason – the folder structure doesn’t play nicely with CM’s drag-and-drop. More on that in a moment.

Find Your AC Root Folder

You’ll be copying files here repeatedly, so it’s worth bookmarking this location. Is it really that important? Yes – and if Content Manager is pointing to the wrong folder, nothing works properly.

1. Open Steam and go to your Library
2. Right-click on Assetto Corsa and select Properties
3. Click Local Files, then Browse
4. Create a shortcut to this folder on your desktop – you’ll be coming back to it

While you’re here, open Content Manager and check that it’s pointing to this same folder. Under the AC root folder in CM’s settings, the path should match exactly what Steam just showed you. If it doesn’t, Sol’s settings won’t save correctly and you’ll get strange behaviour.

Install Content Manager

If you’ve already got Content Manager running, skip ahead to the CSP section. For everyone else, CM is where everything comes together – it manages your tracks, cars, skins, and all the new features like Custom Shaders Patch and Sol itself.

1. Download CM from acstuff.ru/app
2. Open the downloaded archive and move Content Manager.exe to your AC root folder
3. Run Content Manager from there

That’s it. CM doesn’t need a traditional installer – it’s a single executable that sits in your AC folder. Quick and painless.

Install or Update Custom Shaders Patch (CSP)

CSP is the graphics extension that makes Sol possible. Specifically, it’s the weatherFX module inside CSP that acts as a graphics SDK, giving Assetto Corsa proper day/night cycles, volumetric clouds, and the lighting system Sol hooks into. Without CSP, Sol has nothing to work with.

Here’s the critical bit. Sol 2.2.9 needs CSP version 0.1.76 at minimum. But it does not work with CSP 0.2.10 or anything newer. There were breaking changes in the 0.2.x branch that Sol was never updated to support (and won’t be – development has moved to Pure). If you’ve been updating CSP to the latest version thinking newer is always better, you might need to roll back.

Fresh CSP install:

1. Download CSP from acstuff.ru/patch
2. Drag and drop the downloaded archive into Content Manager
3. Open the install menu and install CSP

Updating CSP to a compatible version:

1. In CM, go to Settings
2. Go to Custom Shaders Patch
3. Select the About & Updates tab
4. Choose version 0.1.76 or higher from the list – but stay below 0.2.10

If you’re getting steady crashes after a CSP update, try clearing the CSP settings. Navigate to C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg, back up the extension folder, then delete its contents. CSP will rebuild its defaults on next launch.

Uninstall Any Previous Version of Sol

Already running an older Sol version? You need to uninstall it first. This isn’t optional – leftover files from older versions cause conflicts that are a pain to debug.

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1. Open the Sol 2.2.9 .7z archive with 7zip
2. Inside the archive, go into the Sol 2.2.x folder
3. Copy soluninstall.bat to your AC root folder
4. Run soluninstall.bat

This strips out all Sol files cleanly. If the batch file throws errors about being unable to delete certain files, right-click it and select Run as administrator, then confirm. Usually that’s enough to clear everything.

Install Sol

This is the step where most people go wrong. Do not drag the Sol archive into Content Manager. It won’t work. You need to manually copy the files across, and here’s exactly how.

1. Open the Sol 2.2.9 .7z archive with 7zip
2. Go into the Sol 2.2.x folder inside the archive
3. Select the four folders: apps, content, extension, and system
4. Copy all four to your AC root folder
5. When prompted, confirm overwriting existing files

Why manual copy and not drag-and-drop to CM? Because CM’s drag-and-drop doesn’t handle Sol’s folder structure correctly. The four folders need to merge with the existing AC directory structure, and CM’s importer isn’t designed for that. Manual copy, every time.

Set Up WeatherFX in Content Manager

With Sol’s files in place, you now need to tell Content Manager to actually use it. The exact steps depend on which version of CM and CSP you’re running, because the UI changed in newer builds (which caught me out when I first updated CM past 0.8.25).

Older CM / CSP 0.1.79 to 0.1.80p115:

1. In CM, go to the weatherFX settings
2. Set the weather script to Sol
3. For the controller, you’ve got two options:
   • “Sol” controller – uses text file-based weather plans and works with the Sol Plan Selector app
   • “Sol 2.4” controller – uses the newer Sol Planner app with a graphical interface

Newer CM (0.8.25+) / CSP 0.1.80p218 and newer:

1. In CM, the weatherFX settings now call it weather style instead of weather script
2. Select Sol as the weather style
3. The Sol 2.5 controller now has its own submenu in the Drive menu
4. If you drive Challenges, you can set the Sol 2.5 controller there as well

One thing to keep an eye on – there’s a known bug where the weather controller resets to the default when you restart the game. If Sol’s weather suddenly looks wrong after relaunching AC, check the controller setting first. It’s probably flipped back.

Activate the Sol Apps

Sol comes with several in-game apps that you’ll want to enable. In Content Manager, go to Settings and find the Ingame Apps section. Enable these:

• Sol Config – your main configuration panel for Sol. A full manual is included in the install package if you want to dig into the settings.
• Sol Planner – creates dynamic weather without messing about with text files. Graphical interface, much easier than the old method. Only works with the Sol 2.4 or Sol 2.5 controller.
• Sol Weather App (by leBluem) – primarily a debug tool that shows all Sol/weatherFX errors, but it also has time and date controls, track-specific options, and works as the main control panel if you’re using the older text-based weather plans.
• Sol Custom Weather – a developer tool for composing custom weather. Overrides the controller’s data, including replay weather. Most people won’t need this.

Recommended Settings for Sol

Before you jump into a session, there are a few settings worth configuring.

PP Filters: Set your post-processing filter to __Sol. This is the neutral filter designed for Sol’s lighting. There’s also __Sol_Extra if you prefer something more vibrant – it includes an advanced auto-exposure control that some people prefer for screenshots and general eye candy.

Reflections: I’d recommend using “Two faces per frame” for reflections. Sol’s lighting model works best with this setting.

Track configs and VAO patches: In Content Manager, enable autoload for both track configs and VAO patches. These auto-install optimised settings for each track. If a specific track has colour issues or visual glitches, try manually reinstalling its config by right-clicking the track in CM.

CM Drive settings: With Sol 2.1 onwards and the CSP rainFX development, the old Content Manager extended weather functions aren’t needed any more. You can leave those disabled.

Troubleshooting

If something’s not right, work through this checklist before posting on Discord or forums. Saves everyone time, including yours.

1. Set the PP filter to __Sol – rules out filter conflicts
2. Try a default session with Kunos content – rules out mod conflicts
3. Reset Sol config to defaults – rules out a broken configuration
4. Check your CSP version – if you’re on 0.2.10 or newer, that’s your problem. Roll back to 0.1.79 or 0.1.80
5. Check the Sol Weather App in-game – it displays all weatherFX errors. Take a screenshot of it if you need to report a bug

If you’ve tried all of that and Sol still isn’t behaving, take your issue to Sol’s Discord server at discord.gg/m2Vbsgz. You can also try beta builds there at discord.gg/fM8zVzP. For problems that seem more CSP-related than Sol-related, the CSP Discord is at discord.gg/QwXVEF.

Windows 7 users or seeing strange folders in your AC root: Open AC root\extension\weather\sol\__Win7__DocumentsFolderFix.lua in a text editor and manually set your Documents folder path. If that doesn’t fix it, use a folder that isn’t inside your user directory.

What About Pure?

You’ll see Pure mentioned a lot in the Assetto Corsa community. Built by the same developer (Peter Boese), Pure is essentially Sol’s successor – a complete rewrite with better performance and more advanced weather simulation. Available through Patreon as a paid mod.

Sol 2.2.9 is the final version and won’t receive further updates. It still works well and it’s free, which is why plenty of people stick with it. If you’re happy with what Sol gives you, there’s no rush to switch. If you want the latest lighting, rain effects, and active development, Pure is where things are heading.

Optional: Texture Colour Corrections Pack

Worth installing alongside Sol. This pack corrects vegetation textures on several Kunos tracks where the colours look off under Sol’s lighting. Grab it from Sol’s Discord at discord.gg/XEFpq7g.

Unlike Sol itself, this one you can drag and drop into Content Manager. It installs the corrected textures into each track’s /skins/default folder automatically. Zandvoort in particular looks noticeably better with the corrected vegetation colours.

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That covers the full Sol install and setup. Once weatherFX is running and you’ve got Sol’s apps enabled, you should see the difference immediately – proper cloud formations, dynamic lighting, and weather that actually changes during a session. If you’re after more Assetto Corsa setup guides or want to get into the car-specific side of things, have a look around the site.