Automobilista 2 V1.5.5.0, Le Mans & Endurance Pack Pt1 RELEASED - Now Updated to V1.5.5.6

Programs like AMS2CM can easily handle the management of .xml files to tailor various arrays of multi-class categories. Depending on the exact season(s) used to base the conversion, the 4ish-L Omega could be Division 1 whereas the 2.5L E30 & 190E could be Division 2 according to late 1980's CAMS regulations, so in this case the three cars could form a proper multi-class pairing in AMS2.

Agreed, the Omega would happily adopt the Opel banner to champion the General Motors cause in Europe. Too bad we don't have a few more Omega 99 skin packs out there ... I could easily handle the AI side of it.

 

I'm backing Marc up here, the AI physics model is/was similar/the same as the brush tyre model from PC1, which was the player physics model in that title. Seta tyres came in with PC2. In PC1 the player braking points were exactly the same as real life, I remember standing on various turns at Donington watching British GT races and they were identical to the metre to the real GT3 cars. If the AI are braking different, it's because of what's going on in their tiny robot brains.
I also remember correcting the colour of the wheelie bins around the track, which I felt was another layer of detail that was added to the whole project CARS series. I did get some funny looks while taking photos of bins when there were all these beautiful cars racing round the track though.

 

At 9:00 or so you can see another very annoying AI trait - notice how the player was boxed in, but by pulling to the left both AI drivers open up a gap and the human player can pass without any issue:

Ofc the AI is not purposely giving space so the human can make the pass, but I would guess it is related to the AI code of "at all costs don't crash the human".

 

Well I had the same thought some months ago too but I took it a little further, that's the very reason a mod exists. Not going to spam it here tough.

 

As far as I can remember Project Cars ran on Seta since the very beginning? Props on the wheelie bin work

 

Yeah, I was about to say something similar. I was a backer of the original PC1 and following the development closely until release, and I still clearly remember how different everything felt when the Seta model was finally introduced. In fact, at that point the previous brush-based model (called Beta, iirc) had been honed to - what at least I perceived as close to - perfection as well as the FFB which was very good at the time. The initial Seta versions definitely felt like at least two steps back at first - but now that I have seen how Reiza keeps making new discoveries to get even more out of the model after such a long time, I understand much better just how incredibly complex the model is.

Anyhow, as far as I can remember both Project Cars games were using the Seta tire model. A shame the old WMD forums no longer exist (I think?) or I would love to dig up and quote the corresponding line in the alpha changelog.

 

Yep, that with the fact that you almost always overtake the AI under braking (just by lengthening the braking and adjusting you get close and even overtake a lot of positions) but then they either have a hell of an acceleration and overtake you (to be fair, that only happens to me in some car classes, maybe is my issue) or they brake behind you super perfect and stick to your ass, and it makes playing against the AI usually quite "mechanical" or patterned (so to speak). And to avoid that, I have to set the AI several points higher, but then racing against that AI becomes complicated because I have to go to my limit on every lap, as if it was a qualifying lap, and I'm not racing against AI of my level, just because I want to avoid overtaking too easily in the braking xD And eventually I make mistakes and they all overtake me hahaha

But apart from that, the "melee" fights, how they close you if you want to overtake them, how they make a fake move etc, is very well done, many times it gives the feeling of racing against real people, it's even more satisfying because they are not assholes that **** up the race on the first lap xD

 

As far as I’ve tried, can’t be accessed

 

There should NOT be such a code to never ever collide with a human player because i already know how to easily exploit it. It is also just super-unrealistic for everyone else on a racetrack to give you room like you are the Protagonist or something, the AI should absolutely be able to hold their ground too. I know several racing games where the AI hold their ground and do not let the player exploit it.

 

That was more of exaggeration phrasing than anything. I've no idea how Reiza is coding the AI.

We can only workout stuff that we witness, and it seems there is some high degree of "avoid touching the human as much as possible". This leads to some jerky lateral movements and the AI opening up gaps which the human can just go by.

Edit:
Regardless of that, like someone mentioned earlier, an easy AI exploit is to abuse their high tendency of staying on the racing line even if it is open to overtakes. This usually allows the human to overtake 5 or more bots in one go in the first lap. Given that one AI seem to slow down other AIs when racing closely and bunched up, by the end of the first lap you can gain like 10 spots just abusing it.

After the first lap then you will start noticing a pattern every single bot adhere to, regardless of their skill, both "Senna" and "Inoue" will behave the same way. So you learn which corners the bots can be easily overtaken.

However there are also the issues with massive braking power and acceleration the AI shows in some places, while they are awfully slow on other places. The proper AI feedback thread has proper detailed reports.

Like Reiza stated countless times, it is all about fine tuning the AI parameters. Maybe one day they will get properly tuned, the question is when - how many years until mine and yours preferred combos get its fine tune.

 

"AI have unfair weight and are not disturbed as much when hit by the player car as the player car is when hit by an AI"

"AI are too aggressive in traffic and hit me"

"AI can brake later than player can and hit me from the rear"

Innumerable of these reports from "us" (are they true?) led to Reiza erring on the side of caution for the time being by setting the AI avoid player levels to the higher end of the spectrum. You can imagine the comments had they not or done the opposite....

 

This seems to have been fixed with some recent update and AI can be hit and spun in a realistic way.

Too many times i have seen people actually not give space and hit the AI, not the other way around and people automatically say "The AI hit me". Just look at any videos in sim racing groups / discords where people share videos of "the other dude crashed into me" when they literally take someone out by not giving space. I would need videos that actually show if the AI is aggressive or not because the AI in AMS2 is absurdly passive overal and give the player space they do not deserve.

 

I also agree that the AI can be easily exploited as you can "push" them off the track without even touching them since they're doing everything to avoid the player.
A good middle ground would be to tie this behaviour to their aggression attribute.

 

But they have to make it so that the AI cannot brake later than a pro driver or they should not have a different effect when they get hit.
Also they should not have more grip when going round the outside and repass and such things.
They have worked very hard on the AI but there is still a ton left to make them believable imo.

 

On the other hand, if a driver was leaning into me with not a care in the world, I would move to avoid contact as well. Real life drivers don't grind wheels to hold their lane, nor do they physically shove other drivers out of the way with reckless abandon. There has to be a middle ground indeed, but until players stop exploiting the AI in ways they wouldn't do in real life, the AI should reasonably avoid contact.

 

Driver outfits / race suits for more cars:
Can we expect more cars to have customizable driver outfits and helmets ? There are currently a lot of cars that leave the driver with just a generic grey overal and especially in VR it looks really bad.

 

Well I have to say I am loving the new update. Just like last time, I ended up downloading the new cars and spending far too much time just learning about Formula 1 from the 90s. Then we get the Endurance pack and now I'm with 8 hours left to go on watching the 2023 24 hours at Daytona on youtube and looking forward to following it this next weekend. Anybody else gotten into IMSA since getting the new cars? I hadn't even heard of IMSA til three weeks ago and now, what a surprise, I can replicate almost all of this past year's season in tracks already in the game! AMS2 is just amazing! can't wait for what comes next!

 

Michelin Pilot Challenge is always worth a watch too, they have some incredible battles during their races!

 

@wegreenall The IMSA YouTube channel has playlists of races from past seasons - there are hundreds of hours to enjoy.

I recommend IMSA.tv. It offers free, live and uninterrupted (no adverts!) coverage of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship races and sister series, to viewers outside the United States (NBC/USA Network), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Iceland, Poland and the Baltics. There is no registration or sign-in. It's fun to watch the races and compare AMS2 to real life.

 

Don't forget about MX-5 cup, it is astonishig how the drivers almost slways put on a great show.

Sadly I don't think it's the case for New Zealand anymore, atleast for the Daytona 24. There youll have to watch it on Sky Sports. Though I heard it this on the r/WEC discord so take it with a small grain of salt.