Automobilista 2 April 2023 Development Update

With all this talk about rain and tires I decided to give different conditions and tires another try. In the past, the differences between and behavior of slicks, intermediates, wets and extreme wets has been sketchy at times. Now, however, I must say that I am blown away by the level of improvement these have seen!

My test track was Monza '71 in Light Rain, Rain and Storm. (I didn't test Thunderstorm conditions because these would result in a red flag in real life if they consisted for more than a minute or two.)

The cars I tested were the Brabham BT26 (all-weather tires), Porsche 911 RSR GTE (Wets) and F-Ultimate Gen 2 (Intermediate, Wet and Extreme).

The first major difference I noticed is that the car now actually feels connected to the wet track. From what I remember in the past, rain always seemed to result in a "floaty" feeling, which also translated itself into a somewhat muddled FFB. This is no longer the case!

Another thing that I found most impressive was the incredible detail of car behavior and FFB when one side of the car is passing through small, shallow puddles at high speed. I could feel how the tires on the inside of the corner would gain and lose grip many times a second, both through subtle motions of the car as well as through the steering wheel. And that was on my old G25 - I can hardly imagine the kind of detailed force feedback modern DD wheels must be able to deliver! This level of detail is something I have never, ever experienced in any other sim before - the usual kind of reaction in any other sims I can think of would either be a sudden spin or no reaction at all.

While using the F-Ultimate Gen 2 I took the opportunity to try the various wet compounds in different conditions. And interestingly enough, a softer compound with more profile isn't necessarily faster (i.e. wets in light rain, extremes in rain or even heavy rain) - but it provides a larger margin of error because it is so damn grippy! On the other hand, they still lock up easily under heavy braking (one reason I chose this track), but more importantly they have a tendency to induce understeer, so it is a trade-off between potential speed or safety.

Conversely, it is possible to drive on slicks in light to moderate rain, but instead of being slow or impossible to handle, there is a much greater risk of a sudden, unexpected loss of control when the rear end breaks free when cornering or exiting a turn.

tl;dr rain and tires actually make sense now. My next item on the wishlist would be for Reiza to find a way to make rain behave realistically when accelerated weather (or sync to race) is used; this, I fear, will require a lot of work due to the way Livetrack interacts with the time/weather multiplier. And lastly, of course, is better and more realistic AI behavior that is closer to what the player can do in various conditions, without any major advantages or disadvantages compared to human players.

 

Did you feel any difference in racing on and off the racing line?

Another thing tackled on that video was the dirt/marbles. IRL he says driving on the dirt side of the track is terrible (he gives an explanation on why), but no sim was able to reproduce that behaviour yet.

Since (I think) AMS2's livetrack is the most advanced feature compared to the other main titles, it got me questioning if both things above could be achieved in AMS2. I can try it myself, but I'm nowhere skilled enough to make a proper assessment... for sure I drive well under the limit.

 

I only did some solo practice laps, so it was only my own lines (with regards to drying, I mean), but on some occasions I moved away from the racing line because there seemed to be less puddles off-line. When I did so, I didn't notice a huge difference, though. The baseline grip seemed to be very similar to the racing line - it wasn't better, but it definitely wasn't much worse, either.

With that being said, this was with "medium rubber" preset at the start of the session, and I had only driven a few laps. The track was still getting wetter by the minute, so I can't say how doing more laps could have affected the outcome.

 

nope grip is still universal across the track (sans puddles) in the wet. Its a featue that is missing and makes wet weather racing less realistic. It should be perilous to race off the wet line.

 

Marbles are simulated in the game, if you go off line on corners with marble build up, you lose grip ln dry conditions. What's not simulated is some corners having different grip levels on the wet, as has been mentioned.

 

This is something I've had a sneaking suspicion about with wet track physics for a while. I know rubber conditions before the rain hits is probably a factor, but most of the time the normal racing line seems faster than it should. There have been a few times I've thought I've felt the rubbered line being slippery, but other times there's no difference.

I will say the drying line works like it should. I've had a few online races where it was dry enough to switch to slicks, but going off line was sketchy.

 

I would add that often simracers get a bit paranoid with wet lines: after a while that rain is falling the rubber is washed and there is no advantage to go off the dry line.
That is why often you see IRL racers on the dry line even when it is wet. The period when driving off line pays off isn't that long really (depending on how heavy is the rain)

 

Indeed, as I wrote on a previous post, of the hundreds races I have seen in the history of F1, ( the F1 app is great for all the archive footage) on wet races the drivers use the same line on the wet as in the dry, only in very few corners on some races do they use other lines.
I think the most recent one was Verstappen in Brazil a couple years ago, aside from that its not too common.

 

Don’t drivers go on the wet line to also cool down the tyres?

 

This is one of the best things in AMS2 in the wet for me... If I'm trying to stay out longer than other people to have them be the first on slicks to hit puddles... This works every time...

 

So AMS2 doesn’t simulate the less grip on the racing line in the wet, but it simulates the rest?

 

Indeed. For example, track rubber is washed away with the rain. But any type of surface oils, both on the rubbered line in the rain, as well as oil spills from accidents, is not currently there/enabled.

Would be cool to not only experience slippery oily road surfaces, but also be able to see them clearly, perhaps as polarized light on top of the road surface.

 

The way to proberly test would be IMO:

• Start a run in the dry with a heavily rubbered in racing line. If you start with rain already going, you can't be sure how much rubber is on the track at the start.
• When it begins to rain and the track becomes wet, the racing line should become more slippery compared to the rest of the track due to rubber buildup on the line.
• Once the rubber buildup has been washed away - however long that would take depends on the amount of rubber, the intensity of the rain and how many cars still use which line - the racing line should be more or less equally "grippy" compared to the rest of the track.
• Restart the session a few times, on some attempty stay on the racing line, in some go off-line and see if there is a difference.

I'm probably not consistent enough to see a meaningful difference in lap times, so I could only go be grip feel, but this wouldn't really lead to anything usable either, but maybe somebody is concerned enough to test it out.

 

This is something I have yet to try, but driving on a dry track with rain tires should cause them to overheat and deteriorate quickly. In the past this wasn't very well simulated in AMS2, based on my experience. Moreover, I also think that tires generally cool off too quickly in AMS2 - particularly when the track has any however tiny amount of wetness. I don't think I've ever had an issue with overheating tires in the sim, unless perhaps I was driving in the midst of summer of a particularly hot location.

(I realize the temps in AMS2 are tire core temps, not tire surface temps... But I still think tires should gain and retain heat more easily in general. This would probably cause a lot of headache on Reiza's part though, as this would additionally mean they would have to calibrate the tire grip/temperature curves again, so... Probably not the most important thing to deal with right now.)

 

is it rainbow road?

 

I just hope the V1.5 update might bring big changes to water physics

 

Will you be changing the slipperiness of the racing line?

 

Seems like I’m really optimistic today