Automobilista 2 V1.3.6.2 Officially RELEASED

Came to the same conclusions with the FFB settings. Dead smooth now, at times. A little track dependent too. If you were referring to the gt4 Camaro, have you noticed the lovely startup sounds and stuff? Can't remember reading about it anywhere, but that could just be me. On a side note.

 

Nope in PC2 and AMS2 it's the steering lock which means the maximum amount of rotation the front wheels of the virtual car can get through the fixed range of angle for the virtual wheel (and your wheelbase assuming they are sync'd). So higher the number the more direct will be the car. Lower the number the less direct.

 

As soon as the RC dropped I was eager to try it out. While I did spend several fun hours of my Sunday putting some of the updated vehicles through their paces, it is only now that I get to post about my findings (thanks to my 10-year old screen suddenly going belly up last night!).

Most of my time was spent hotlapping various cars around Brands Hatch GP, which has firmly cemented itself as my go-to choice as a test track. The vehicles covered some but not all class entries from these classes: F-Ultimate Gen 1 & 2, F-Reiza, Stock Car 2019, Porsche Cup, Super V8, GT3, GTE, P1, GT1.

The first ones were the F-Ultimates, and oh boy are these a blast now! I mean they were already a blast before, but they feel so much better now - very planted, still able to do incredible cornering speeds, and braking in particular feels much better now. Moreover, and this is something that seems to extend to all cars I tried, there are no more sudden unexpected snaps into oversteer when the car breaks or regains traction, i.e. when trailbraking. Everything feels much more organic now, with more moving and flexible parts that do exactly what they were designed for.

Both Cup Porsches feel good as well. Similar to a GT3, but with less aero and no TC, obviously. Not the most exciting cars IMHO, but a solid experience nonetheless.

Out of the GT3 class I drove the 911 as well as the Mercedes. Overall I think these feel more organic, and much heavier but also more controllable and predictable than before; in a way, they are now more similar to their ACC counterparts than ever before, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO.
Heck, I even managed a quick night race* in the rain on the 24h Nordschleife using the AMG - without trashing it, no less! (Mostly thanks to ABS and TC, I'll admit.)

The 2019 Stock Car feels less capable than before now especially in terms of downforce and overall cornering ability, and it's actually not hard to see the relation to the latest generation now. Especially on cold tires the 2019 is very sensitive to throttle inputs on corner exit, but not overly so. The handling gap between the old and new stock cars is much smaller now, which feels good to me (and is probably closer to reality than it was before).

The Super V8 is... still not great. Better than before, but it retains is tendency to 'wander' from side to side under acceleration in a straight line. On the upside, the car is more predictable and forgivable than it used to be, so that's definitely a step in the right direction.

Out of the GTEs I could only give the Corvette C8R a try - and immediately fell in love. Whereas it used to exhibit issues that felt like it was off-balance it is now nimble, light-footed and well-balanced - exactly what you would expect from a mid-engined car. That being said, I still hope to see a modern 'vette with the classic FR-layout in AMS2 some day, maybe a C6 or C7 - or even a C5!

As for the GT1s, the Porsche and Mercedes are a blast to drive. They feel way faster than I expected, even knowing how quick these actually were. This is especially true for the CLK GTR - what a beast!
They demand good reflexes due to their fast nature but are otherwise straightforward to drive. I love them!

P1 - so far I only did a few laps in the Chevrolet-powered Metalmoro and was surprised. Maybe I had been spoiled by something obscenely fast like the F-Ultimates, but the prototype, while planted, suddenly felt so... understeery through most corners. Not sure if that was actually the car or just me. Other than that it's fine, although I can't shake the feeling it feels way slower than it was before.

F-Reiza: Was something changed about the steering ratio? Because, for some reason, I felt as if the default maximum steering lock of 20 was waaay to low. Even bumping it up all the way to 28 didn't entirely alleviate my issues with what appeared to me as understeering. Then again, a part of me may still have been high on the drug that is the F-Ultimate - and those can obviously take corners way faster than anything else.

All in all, I am impressed. The changes to the tire carcass and other things like suspension, etc. propel AMS2 further forward as the best and most promising racing sim of the era - in my opinion, at least. The more organic feel of most vehicles is both more forgiving of small mistakes, yet it also appropriately serves to slow down those cars that were too fast previously. Not an easy balance to get right IMHO, but we're right on track it seems!


*With regards to night races, my long-standing main gripe about night races in AMS2 is still the same: Headlights aren't bright enough, and even with their range increased it's still too short. Both of these issues IMHO take away from the amazing immersion of the night racing experience in the sim, and make it harder than it should be. That's not to say that night racing is easy - because it's not - but the brightness and range of various light sources should be looked at again, I think. Oh, and it's a little strange that water spray completely blocks sight when illuminated, yet disappears almost completely if you turn your headlights off... Seems weird to me.

Anyway, just my two cents. And all things considered this is really just me nitpicking.

 

I stil tend to delete the whole AMS2 folder liewk in the older days . MPRS does not do anything usefull for me anyway.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Although now that I've looked into it, the supercup version uses Michelin tyres vs the Pirellis used in GT4. I'm guessing these will need to be worked on separately

 

agree on most of your car feedback, especially the Porsche GT3. It doesn't feel much different and I was hoping for a bit more.
The Super V8 I am very pleased with. A bit wild on the power, but at least now the car responds to some countersteer as opposed to being a floaty mess.

 

True, but the description at the bottom of the page is misleading and should be fixed (it describes steering ratio instead of steering lock).

 

Ah, thanks for clarifying that. I wasn't completely sure (after all, that was a BIG changelog!) and hadn't driven the F-Reiza in a while.

 

Other than those cars listed in the RC notes, does anyone have a list of previous cars in AMS2 with the updated tire model, driveline, etc. I would prefer to keep most of my driving time in the RC confined to the entire corp of updated vehicles while withholding judgment on those cars awaiting promotion.

 

Some livery ideas for the C8R Corvette. Sebring 2021 liveries:






Chevrolet Corvette C8.R #3 12h Sebring 2021 Corvette Racing 1:43 TrueScale
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R #4 12h Sebring 2021 Corvette Racing 1:43 TrueScale

 

Tire carcass was implemented only on F Ultimates (G1 and G2) and on Stock Cars Brazil before this RC.

 

That must've been part of my problem then - I think the automatic tire choice by weather option put me on hard slicks by default, and I didn't bother to change to softs during my quick test run.

Setup was reset to default, though, as I deleted the tuningsetups folder prior to running the RC.