Automobilista 2 V1.3.8.1 Oficially Released - Now Updated to V1.3.8.3

And you did not even mention that all MPRS progress can get lost. Happened zo me twice and that made me give up on it.

 

That would be a huge setback, I only once deleted my setups (Reset Time Trial records) and
I've never had the problems I read here and there in this forum.
Reverting to default in game has always been enough when I feel something strange, but that almost doesn't happen anymore

 

Are old setups in new updates esp physics wise workable.?
Since update will have ie changed the physics+ .( a continuing process atm).
I would have thought my old setups are useless to use apart from as reference to what I did before the changes.
I would not retain/use an old setup when new update is implemented. defeats the object of the devs improvement imo. Hence' reset to default' prompt. so whether its auto or current state (that not all people are doing) ?
Either way this weeks posts on the subject from bad car to good car after reseting to the extreme (reinstall) speaks volumes. (speaks for itself)
The problem is minimal for most and most are doing whatever they do with little or no issues.

 

Maybe you don't, I haven't really experience the dreaded "no grip hovercraft physics" either that some people report having after every update. But there is a non-zero number of people who maybe installed the game once years ago and never cleaned their setup folders that keep promulgating nonsense about "broken Madness Engine physics" on various forums. Reiza are frankly shooting themselves in the foot not addressing this problem.

The second self-inflicted wound is releasing the "AMS2 demo" with probably the worst cars ever made for AMS2 (do VW's made in Brazil really wash out at 50 kph in medium speed corners?), which is actively discouraging anyone who tried the demo from even bothering with the game and losing them who knows how many sales.

 

As was the case/small rant, this week I read elsewhere.

(NOT @Andy Sperber )'s glad he's sorted.

 

Hi! So which folders do you guys recommend deleting after an update to keep things clean and simple? Yesterday i drove Nordschleife with some cars, brought tears to my eyes and a kind of fear i never felt before (GTE, Group A, vintage F1), omg AMS2 got my heart back fully.

 

For just setups:
C:\Users\PC\Documents\Automobilista 2\savegame\314687350\automobilista 2\tuningsetups
For everything including keybinds,ffb and offline saves:
C:\Users\PC\Documents\Automobilista 2
I have underlined the folder to delete.
PC = your user name
Im pretty sure you can even just press reset to defaults in the setup menu.

 

In doubt the complete Automobilista 2 folder under Documents (Dokumente) in german.
You then have to set up the preferences in game completly new .But then you will have no doubts about that something is wrong on your side.

 

Note if your setups are truly messed up this won't be enough, it will just silently reset back to the broken setup when you leave the pits. Always save the default setup under a new slot before you leave the pits.

 

So "set do default" and then save that state into a new slot for every car track i drive? If so i´ll do it, worth the joy of AMS2 (at one point setup ui and other changes will come, but until then...). The setup screen let me create and save slots, but once created they´ll autosave changes ? cheers

 

I don't have the habit of restarting Steam after an update (maybe I should try it in the future) but I do close Steam every time I'm not playing games, I turn the pc off every time I'm not using it, I disabled Windows fast start-up, disabled all background processes that I could, I keep drivers up to date, and I set Windows updates to manual so that it doesn't download and install updates at bad times.

@steelreserv posted a really detailed explanation in another thread on how setup values work and why setup reset is needed sometimes. Iirc he said that deleting the setup folder was necessary after the differential update, and for a setup reset I should reset to default in the car setup screen, save it, then delete any custom setups I have through the car setup screen just to be sure.
So what I do every time I play AMS2 is pick a car & track, go to the setup screen, reset to default, save it, do a few testing laps, then make small adjustments like fuel load and such and save it. That has improved the game for me, although I think some cars have had significant handling changes in the past few months (some for the best, some for the worst), and controller support still has mostly the same issues as PCars2.

 

The issue with setups needing to be deleted is something that can be resolved and the solution, in theory, is simple. In practice, it would be require a lot of effort in different areas of the game.

First of all I think it's important to say that I have no idea how the game works under the hood, neither do I know how hard it would be to develop such a solution. So what I'm writing down here could very well be a load of BS and/or have major flaws in it. That being said, and since I don't have anything better to do right now, here comes a couple of ideas to (hopefully) solve this:

First a small glossary

Let's take a single setup setting for a single car and define some short terms for it. Assuming we focus on the Left Front Suspension Rate for a car (say a Merc GT3). From now on we define the following terms:

LFSR = Left Front Suspension Rate nominal value (the actual spring rate value in Newton Meters - NM);
Default LFSR = the default value for the suspension rate, that is the value defined in the default setup;
Max LFSR = the maximum value allowed for the suspension rate. This is as far as the user can stiffen the suspension;
Min LFSR = the minimum value allowed for the suspension rate. This is as far as the user can soften the suspension;

The problem

Scenario 1: the setup file

I assume the setup file is an issue right now because the data saved is using nominal values. So let's say I tweak my car, stiffening the suspension to Max LSFR values. Then I proceed to save the setup to a file. The nominal value LSFR will be saved.

Now let's say Reiza updates the car, fixes some bugs and the values Default LFSR, Min LFSR and Max LFSR are very different to account for changes in the tire carcass stiffness, making the saved LSFR in my file completely out of parameters. If I loaded this file I might be cheating my way into an unrealistic (and maybe even advantageous) setup. Or I could simply do this without warning and come here saying the car and the sim are terrible and the engine is trash, propagating some false assumptions to say the least.

Note that this issue might be relevant for cars that do not allow changes in certain settings as well. Take a car that does not allow changes in suspension rate. I might save a setup with a different wing, tire and fuel settings, but the file registers the Default LSFR as well (at that point time). Then Reiza updates the car with a different Default LSFR. I load my setup with an LSFR completely different to what's allowed for that vehicle, again interfering with my ability to judge the car's behavior and provide accurate, valid feedback.

Scenario 2: the feedback and car feel

Another, maybe even overlooked, aspect of the problem is that, even if you don't have a file with completely unrealistic parameters. Reiza has no way of knowing that, and they might recommend (focus on the word recommendation, not being an obligation) you to reset your setups so you can issue a new judgement to a car's behavior, provide proper, accurate feedback on how it drives, and tweak the car again, to your liking, based on this new perception. This scenario has little to do with any sort of engine/code limitations.

The solution

My proposed solution would, then, be focusing on the scenario 1 hypothesis. Assuming the setup file saves nominal values here's what I would do:

• Change the setup file to save diff values (steps) not nominal values. For example, instead of saving LSFR, save something like "LSFR: +1" (default suspension rate plus one step stiffer) or "LSFR: -2" (default suspension rate plus 2 steps softer), etc.;
• Change the load setup logic to always check bounds. For example, when loading a setup with a given LSFR, apply it with Min(Max(LSFR, Min LSFR), Max LSFR). This "code" would ensure you never have a value that's out of bounds;
• Change the setup screen logic to always load the default setup when starting a new session. I honestly find the behavior of loading your last saved setup a bit annoying. I think keeping your local setup changes throughout the session without saving them to a file is an old PCars 2 behavior that Reiza fixed for AMS 2 (in PCars you would be required to create a new file every time you so much as changed the fuel load, terrible UX, AMS 2 much better, although I think they save the file for you, instead of just keeping the setup temporarily in a file or even just in-memory);
• (Nice to have) Implement a popup in-game with the same change logs we see in this here forum;

Conclusion

If you read all of this jibber jabber I'm sorry. No, actually I thank you for your patience and for bearing with me. As I said, this is a wild simplification of things, focusing on a single setup setting and with a couple of hypothesis that might be completely off the mark. But it's something I wanted to share anyways and hope you find it interesting.

I do have a good amount of experience developing software for a living, but I have zero knowledge of AMS 2's codebase so I'm sorry if this is all wrong. I do want to emphasize that what I wrote might sound simple enough, but working with live, complex products, a big codebase, while being pressured in a number of different areas including having to make a living out of this (having skin in the game) are factors that should not be overlooked when questioning Reiza's backlog priorities.

A "simple" solution like this might well take a month or more to idealize, implement, write tests, QA locally, QA with beta testers, release do production, fix bugs in production and finally call it done.

 

That is an other issue, I always save my changes to a new setup and delete the old one. I don't trust the asterix setups, those aren't always created with the correct values.
for most of the cars I have one setup per circuit, sometimes a second one for special Time-Trial settings.
And setup changes made with a car never driven before are most of the time ignored. (if you don't save them to a new setup)
It would be nice if the setups would be saved in editable and readable ini or txt files

 

This end.
In setup I make a change or reset to default, I exit, the little yellow icon indicates its auto saved appears momentarily 3secs (bottom rhs screen). I never saved to a new setup (unless its so specific) , and never had a changed setup not auto save by just exiting or right click. ie I run with increased front brake bias for almost all cars and when I reselect that car (new session or return /leave pit my bias is as I set it.
(advice is sound and good to new slot! but I never needed to) are you doing this to avoid a bug? I may have not read about.
The Auto save works for all my game settings (resolution.assignments,car settings ect. just by making the change and exit .(r/click/back button
Short answer =
Reset to default , exit. the old default will be overwritten and Autosaved as default. At least that's what happens this end

Pls do this every time. Exit steam as minimum then run steam fresh, restart pc as well for good measure.= elimination of conflicts
You obviously know about windows 'fast start' storing stuff when pc is switched off, and restart clears that stored crap.

 

Just had a race with the M1 on road America (rain and Night Time) ... It was so beautifull.. with the moon reflections on the wet track when the rain stopped... Amazing on VR!!

 

MPRS rating can easily get lost in he void by ASM2 folder deletion. But I play private lobby only and as long as the Sim is in a state of flux we simply don't use it. We play rather casual once a month on sunday in a group of now only 4, replicating the NLS of the day before with AI, and the MPRS somewhat removed the fun, so we agreed to remove the MPRS. It does not work for multiclass races, which the NLS is, anyway.

 

You know, you can rename the old dir instead ....
Rename, oooo total mess, rename back .
I think..

 

Yes you can also save the folder and use it later again or used other Players folders send via e-Mail... and have even more mess.
We initially did that to share setups, it did not work out well because of the player profiles.

 

I love AMS2! Beautiful and just a masterpiece. Thank you Reiza.❤