Automobilista - September Development Update

Greetings folks Here´s our customary review of the work done in Automobilista development over the past month. We´ve been hard at it, both in the development of v1.1 update as well as production of the Brit Pack, both of which are expected for release at some point next week.

V1.1 Development

The major new feature for AMS v1.1 is the inclusion of Radio Spotter as developed by @gongo . This had been a very popular addition to the sim and now with native integration Dan has been able to take it a step further with more info and better accuracy from your race engineer.

Dan has also been doing some work to improve integration with the new Logitech drivers - v1.1 should hopefully see some proper support for their latest G29 / G920 wheels.

On the graphics front, @Alex Sawczuk and @Sandro Kholodkevich have done some great work on new car shaders and materials. Below is a shot of the flashy Ultima GTR featuring these latest developments:


We also introduced a new AO mapping technique with seamless textures, which result in both optimized use of textures as well as improved cockpit details. The improvements are very noticeable on the new cars as you can see in this tasty cockpit from the Ultima GTR Race version:


Further good news is that performance not only has not been affected by these updates, but rather the continuing optimization work has led to some more previously troublesome cars to be now running smoother than ever in pretty much any respectable system (so long as you keep to the designated car count limit).

A not so positive note is that Steam Achievements unfortunately will not quite make it in yet in v1.1; we´re not far away from finalising these but unfortunately developing the system & protection for the new content has kept @Luis Miguel busy for longer than we anticipated after v1.0 release.

Brit Pack

The core focus this past month has of course been finalizing the contents of the Brit Pack, our first DLC pack for Automobilista.

This is actually a significant release for us and for those who have been with us for a while now as the Brit Pack will be the first time we´ll be charging long-time users for a new release since Game Stock Car 2013 came out back in September 2013! Fortunately we´re confident the Brit Pack (along with everything else that´s still to come for AMS) will justify that extra investment as the new content are some of the best stuff we have ever produced.

On the track front, as is known we´ll be adding 3 british classics with Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park and Oulton Park - these tracks were hand-picked due to their classic style and heritage and preserved natural flow which are so nicely suited for the rich british club racing scene we´re looking to sample in this pack. All tracks are officially licensed and extensively researched in loco (with the aid of laser scan data in the case of Brands and Oulton Park). They are also excellent venues to stretch the legs of other default cars, exception perhaps taking the more powerful cars around Cadwell unless you´re really looking for a test of reflexes and precision

The cars were produced in close collaboration with the manufacturers and we´ve also had input from several of their respective real world drivers during development - this is a claim we hear all the time of course to the point it has become a tired sim racing cliche, the proof as always will be in the pudding and we´re very satisfied with how these new cars have turned out

Beyond the data and the resulting accuracy of the models, fundamentally it all rides on the nature of what´s being simulated, and here is where we feel the Brit Pack will really shine - just glancing through some Youtube videos of these cars being driven on these tracks in anger should be enough to see the fun factor involved is off the charts These are all very different animals and tracks compared to the default content of AMS, and as such they add a whole new dimension to the sim. I´ll go out on a limb and say there will be at least one combo from this pack that will make towards the top of your list of favorite simracing experiences

Here are some fresh previes of the new content:

Ultima GTR (road & race version)


F-Trainer (Novice & Advanced versions)


MCR Sports 2000


Here you can see Niels taking the MCR out for a spin:

The Caterhams

To begin with, we´ll be offering the 270R (with a race variant for Academy series), the 360R (with Superlight Series), along with the mental road version of the 620R, as per the preview below:


There will be more variants though along with some optionals which we aim to add along with a new upgrades interface - unfortunately this feature won´t make it in time for v1.1 but the upgrades menu along with more optionals are sure additions for v1.2 within a month or so from now. In any case we´ll supply options for both left and right side driving seats for these Caterhams (also for the Ultimas).


All new tracks and series with the exception of the Caterhams are now available in fairly advanced state in AMS Beta which is now up to v1.0.8 so if you got the DLC Season Pass - if you haven´t grab it now and get on racing!

Future AMS DLCs

Of course, the Brit Pack is not the end of the road for upcoming AMS content - it is in fact just the beginning!

We have hinted before what´s coming down the road but haven´t quite gone into the specifics - in fact I can´t quite detail all the specifics for all DLC packs just yet, but for the sake of providing some relevant reference for those who have acquired or are considering buying the Season Pass, here are some preliminary info along with a few hints we can share to give you a better idea (please keep in mind the exact contents of each and the timelines may still be subject to some shuffling as we move forward):

October

• Brit Pack

November:

• Legendary Tracks Part 1: Imola (1972, 1988, 2001, 2016 versions)
• New Series - TBA (hint: big and heavy)

December:

• New series - TBA (hint: Classic content)

January 2017:

• Legendary Tracks Part 2 - TBA (hint: it´s got a long historical variant)

February 2017:

• Car pack from a major manufacturer - TBA (hint: it´s awesome)

March 2017:

• Legendary Tracks Part 3 - TBA (hint: not a permanent road course)
• Aussie Racing Car

As we progress we will naturally be detailing these packs further, but those will be topics for future dev updates - starting next month when I hope to be able to share some of the bigger things, both literally and figuratively

Keep in mind that as more stuff is confirmed, prices for both the Season Pass on Steam & Membership pack here are bound to receive another upgrade - the sooner you get onboard, the more value you´ll get for your buck.

Not forgetting that there are also a couple of free items still to be added to the base game, like Ibarra and a couple of dirt / mixed track courses before AMS development finally wraps at some point in Q1 2017.

Worth reminding also that AMS Base Game is currently selling 20% off on Steam. As usual though the best prices for both base game as well as membership packs (including the DLC Season Pass) can be found in our forum store.

That covers it for this month - now back to work to wrap that v1.1 & Brit Pack

 

Remember, things change