I've noticed than on many occasions when the AI collides with my car, whilst I'm often sent pinging off the track, the AI cars involved usually remain resolutely glued to the tarmac. And even if they do end up with tyres on grass, they have far more traction than I do. So I tried turning on stability control and lo and behold, my car seems to be far less disadvantaged in many collisions and much more likely to react much the same way as AI cars do. I also find I have better grip on grass, much like the AI. It makes racing against the AI more of a level playing field, but less fun because it mutes the cars' handling characteristics. So I'm wondering if the AI have stability control turned on and if so, can it be turned off (even as an option)? Or would that break the AI or the game?
The AI uses a simplified model for basically all it does. Don't expect AI to have the same physics fidelity. Its a trade off to save CPU use, and there is no racing Sim out there that does not use the same trick.
Yeah, I'm well aware of that. I'm asking specifically whether or not a stability control system exists within whatever simplified physics model is used by the AI and if so, can it be turned off and on? For those who are still frustrated by the AI smashing into you, firing you off the track, and you watch in frustration as the AI is barely affected by the impact whilst you go sliding across the grass into a fence, try turning on stability control and notice how in many collisions, you no longer come off much worse than the AI. Instead of being sent flying after most collisions, your tyres grip the tarmac like crazy (just like the AI's always do ) and your car remains far more stuck to the track. Even if you go onto the grass, your grip is greatly improved. It's like stability control essentially gives you the same advantages that the AI have in collisions and on the grass, resulting in much less frustration, particularly on those tracks where the AI still continuously try to overtake you on the inside by cutting across corners with all 4 wheels on the grass, and just punt you off the track. With stability control on, those same impacts now merely knock you a little but you often remain firmly on the track and lose very little time. Unfortunately, stability control also spoils the actual driving experience a little. But you can always turn it on to protect yourself when you are amongst the AI, and turn it off again when you're in a bit of space so you can enjoy the driving characteristics in full.
Yes, and even with those changes their AI still has some sort of stability control and super human reflexes to be able to stay on track, and a brick glued to the asphalt when in contact with the player. Their implementation, albeit the way to go in AI development in my opinion, is not any better than any simplified physics AI pesent on other titles as a result, so really a waste of CPU cycles.