Official General AI Comments & Discussion Topic

Nice video, yeah the AI is not perfect, but I am still hopeful of the potential it has once Reiza are able to focus more on their behaviours and features than their overall pace in the dry/wet/damp. I had an excellent race with the F-VintageG1 yesterday at Kyalami and the overall results was pretty accurate with a real period race.

I led most of it until it got soaked when the tires drop in temperature caught me by surprise on the first corner and dropped to third and then retired due to a mistake when downshifting to second on Sunset Bend. The cool thing was how Jim Clark climbed from 4 to win when it got really soaked, all the Model 1 cars were faster on the wet on the virtue of them being more nimble. The AI managed to overtake without issues and saw some very realistic crashes and mistakes with 7 cars retiring.

Really the only fault I could find was the AI boost causing the pack racing, such as when Clark got by Rodriguez, he couldn't lose him despite being 1 second faster before, due to Rodriguez getting that artificial boost when behind Clark.

Race results
Those gaps are bugged, not the real ones

Ended pretty much like this time gap wise.

 

A couple of small observations:

1) Spa 1993, at least in Formula cars from a standing start, the AI are backing up so much they're actually just stopping still, and not always predictably.

2) Interlagos, I never really see the AI use the space going into turn 8 (Laranja?), they nearly always just back up behind each other. I know it's maybe more of a 'player' overtaking zone, but there's space that they don't seem to move into.

Only a couple of things I noticed, I could be wrong

 

Ai that have spun out or had an accident still not covered under a yellow flag which at this point in development makes me think they either can’t or aren’t bothered about it .
So frustrating that once again a race at Bathurst ruined by not knowing a car is stopped on track.

 

Raceroom is pretty good with yellows, although they tend to be triggered non-stop with a large grid for any off track / AI losing control etc "Sector 3 is yellow...sector 3 is green / sector 2 is yellow.. sector 2 is green"

Tricky balance TBH - if you have FCY on in AMS2 I find it 'works' but then you are stuck doing 1.5 crawl laps with incidents.

 

I noticed that with fixed parameters in the Custom Driver files, the AI behavior is significantly better and more consistent. I'm currently working on some of these files for myself, based on the real performances of the 2024 IMSA season, as well as generic ones for GTE, GT3 Gen1, LMP2, and DPi. Once I've fine-tuned and balanced everything, I might share them with you.

 

I have FCY turned on , it’s just frustrating especially when you look back at a replay and see they was stuck there 5-10 seconds before you come across the accident and then have an hours worth of racing ruined. There’s a few sims that do it well AMS2 unfortunately doesn’t at the moment. Maybe they will eventually but who knows

 

Something just occurred to me, and it's only relevant at LeMans, I think, but if a FCY comes out, if the timing is bad, at x2 fuel rate, it might make some cars run out of fuel on the next lap when the green comes back.

Maybe it has to do with the custom AI file fuel management rating... 'cuz some AIs were more mindful of their fuel and did pit as one would expect... I'm gonna do a test with rating 1 for fuel management and see what happens...

 

New update, same bad behaviour in Daytona. Slightly better video than before, gotta find better settings but after Alt+Tab I couldn't get back to rerecord.

Some other notes:

• LMDhs are even more crash prone into the bus stop battling each other. (High aggression tested)
  
• Damaged and lapped (probably repaired) LMDh refused to overtake a GT3 and take back its lap. Just sitting behind on the straights riding the back of the GT3...
• Weird white smokes all around Daytona, often without a source.

 

that's just mistakes by the AI. it adds flavor, and it's own version of realism. More realistic than your average multiplayer lobby. bigger fish to fry, imo

 

So after the update I think they raced harder against me or with me present, but if I retire and go to monitor they seem they still like to bunch in small 2/3 car trains. Max aggression and 100 strength too.

 

If those were one off interactions, I wouldn't report them.

I don't want the realism of a multiplayer lobby, I want something that imitates real racing.

With AI like this there's no point running a serious, longer race with this combination.

 

The AI has trouble dealing with fast chicanes, Hockenheim 88 Bremskurve is another one were it's mayhem. Seems to be an issue with the AI paths/corridor and confusion of where to go/what to do when behind and trying to overtake another AI.

 

The AI behaves much more natural and assertive when racing against the player, one of the best in the business. AI vs. AI it's different, Renato mentioned why in a post a while ago in the beta forum, but unfortunately I don't remember the reason.

 

As in "currently" or an "always will be" ? Because i would hope eventually it will be the same in AI vs AI as is AI vs player.

 

I was just running Formula Junior in the WET.....
The AI were lapping almost like in the dry (as we know) and I had to turn them down to 55% to be sensible lap times for the wet - this was during PRACTICE!!
But then in the RACE they ran the same super fast lap times as if they were back at "100% in the wet"!!! But it was still set at 55%....

If you are ONLY going to do the race - well I guess you could just alter the AI strength main value after checking them running the race. Just so you can tune it to be suitable. But the "in the wet" slider was supposed to be a fix for the AI. It seems there needs to be an (in the wet) slider for ALL race session types. Practice, Qualify, Race....

And.... there should be an AI racing line EDITOR available, so people who choose to make the effort could produce track/car specific GOOD AI sets!

 

Currently when the post was made and it was a while ago, there were some improvements to come, but I dunno how many have been already implemented. AI's got to be one of the if not the most difficult and time consuming aspect of videogame development, so there's definitely more improvements to come.

 

F-Junior AI is too fast (even in the dry), it has been reported.

 

Yes, but even when the WET skill multiplier is turned down and you get them to sensible speeds in PRACTICE, they are back at full speed in the Race. As if the Wet Skill reduction did nothing then.

 

This... I think this is the best approach for AI as it allows dedicated people with more time to create and test AI lines if they find the ones shipped with the game dissatisfying

 

I've just noticed a major discrepancy in AI skill between qualifying and the race.
I was very surprised, started the whole session again and took notes:

Car: Formula Junior
Track: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya GP (without Chicane)

AI:
Same Class
19 opponents
AI-Strength: 100
Wet-Skill: 1.00x
AI-Agression: Medium
AI-Mistakes: x5

Qualifying:
Session length: 10 min
Date/Time: 22.05.2022 13:00
Weather: 1 Slot | Cloudy
Livetrack: Standard
Privat: True

Race:
Session length: 20 min
Date/Time: 22.05.2022 16:00 - Realtime
Weather: 2 Slots | Cloudy, Light Rain - Sync to Race
Livetrack: True

No Mods, no custom AI

Qualifying:
My best time: 2:13.288
AI best times: 2:14.680 - 2:18.982

Race:
My best time: 2:13.201
AI best times: 2:08.963 - 2:11.234

In comparison between qualifying and race the AI is several seconds faster in race. It's like the AI-Skill is increased by 10 in race.
Unfortunately, I have currently no time to test it a bit more to see if this issue only appears for this class, the track, or a combination in some way. It was the first time I drove Formula Junior btw.
Am I the only one who noticed this?