Automobilista 2 V1.4.1.0 Released - Now Updated to V1.4.1.3

I personally can very much recommend the Sprint Race. I'm having so much fun with that thing!

 

Not sure if it was mentioned earlier but do you use a wheel and pedals or a controller?

 

Your post, so much There's so much setup stuff in sim racing that just doesn't make sense on a very fundamental level and where it's not about understanding what things do and instead about guessing in what particular way your sim of choice is completely insane.

I've not seen things like that this often in AMS2, though. Setup changes _generally_ do what they're supposed to, but maybe that's just because there haven't been that many people to crack the physics.
I know the F-Ultimate Gen2 used to have broken ride height before 1.4; not sure if it still does, but that's about it.

 

Maybe you know all the theory but don't have a method to apply it all. Or maybe your theory is flawed at some point. Or, maybe, you know the theory and how to apply it, but your driving is inconsistent or simply lean.

Usually, I spend a loot of time with the default setup and try to push it to my very limit, them I begin to change it. Sometimes just made a little changing and rarely go all the way (usually, only when doing hot lapping).

The way I make it work is to apply only a small change and testing it. Rarely I change a lot of stuff at the same time and only when I already know the car and know how it uses to behave to specific setup changes. It's not rare when I try to change too much at the same time and get lost... and is not rare either to try to go after some specific car behave, make it slower because of that and have to reset it all.

Car setup is a game by itself.

If you will try only one more vehicle, do the Copa Truck... it's a one of a kind experience in sim racing.

 

I noticed sometimes it is enough to go in to "Tuning Setup" to leave it immediately without changing anything just to be sure the setup is applied. Going on track without it, there is a (small?) chance you have another setup applied

 

This. If you can't drive a car in AMS2 as it, it's either because:

1) The car is still in need of some tyre changes and no setup fiddling will help.
2) You don't know how to drive the car properly and no setup fiddling will help.
3) There's something wrong with your control settings and you should use the telemetry HUD to verify that brake/throttle are working linearly and reaching their full extents as expected.

 

While there are definitely sims where setups changes either do nothing or do the opposite of what you expect, the most common reason for understeer is entering corners too fast. This is why it is usually recommended to learn the car and track first before changing anything. But it can be difficult to know exactly what needs to be changed because "understeer" can manifest in many ways (corner entry, mid-corner, corner exit, off-throttle, on-throttle, when pushing too hard, when not pushing hard enough, in fast corners, in slow corners...) and they all have different solutions.

Thankfully AMS2 is a sim where cars actually respond really well to setup changes and their effects can be quite nicely felt in most cases.

 

I don't like false dichotomies, so here is a third alternative:

3) It's difficult to understand why the car lost control, so it's unclear what to change and how to change it. Could be due to user ignorance/incompetence, or due to inadequate feedback from the game.

Example: Overheating front brakes that cause the brake force to be transferred to the rear brakes, and the car spins out on braking/turn-in. You may see it in the HUD, but only if you know to look for it. And there might be several solutions. Sometimes the solution is opening front brake ducts, or move the brake bias backward. Or maybe the brake bias is fine, but you're applying too much brake pressure for that corner. Or maybe your trail-braking curve needs minor adjustments. Or maybe just do a straight-line brake zone for that corner before you let the car settle itself and then turn in.

 

As a 26 year old sim racer (started in 1996 with the beloved GP2), after GP4 and NR2003 I gradually lost hope in single player racing. GP4 set the bar, as we may fairly say now, at least for two decades ahead of its time. After that the only work has been dedicated to physics, graphics and multiplayer. The F1 series has a decent AI, but a solid step back compared to Crammond Games. iRacing has good AI but it requires a bank manager income to be played. AC and ACC are just wandering trains of cars. RF2 was super-promising but lost in time. The 1.4 update of AMS2 restored me hope for the first time. RANDOM FAILURES! How everybody forgot that?! It was so great when leading for 30 laps and gaining tenths after tenths you suddendly lost power and hope. That was so immersive. What I humbly think is that we are missing just two things:
1) more field spread
2) more defending
If you could fix those two features dear reiza you’re the winner (and i can imagine Geoff with a sardonic smile sayin’ “finally, somebody beat me”).

Because honestly, I’m tired of 20 years of hotlapping.

 

cool comment, couldn t hardly pack it better. MP is the one since years, and than I switch to ACC to the boys and girls with their 5k € rigs to mess. Not wondering why I m 3 sec behind. “…. and nothing else matters“

 

I'd add to that
3) More AI awareness (and the ability to adapt to dynamic situations)

Because, quite frankly, I am fed up with the AI plowing right through me as if that was their only goal. Not happening for all cars, not happening on all tracks... But when it does, it kills the desire to race until it has been fixed.

But yeah, when/if we get more reasonable, more human-like (yes, I know, those two don't always go hand in hand...) behavior we'll have a real winner, indeed.

 

Well said about Crammond . I grew up with his GP series and fondly remember the damage and failure model. There is indeed still work to be done to AI, but I'm glad to read that our vision and delivery already hits the spot for you.

 

I agree with you that default setups should be decent. Some of the cars I tried have some weird setup values and slide all over the place with default setup but handle fine after I figured out a good setup. Unfortunately not everybody has time or patience to create a good setup (and then do it all over again every time there's an update that requires setup reset).
The thing is that it's highly unlikely that developers will be able to implement a default setup that will please everyone regardless of which handling direction they choose (imo default setup that focuses on stability is the way to go). So, even though I'm not the type of person who enjoys spending a lot of time tinkering with setups, and I think defaults should be decent and stable I think it's a good idea to have a basic understanding of setups and making a few changes often can make cars more enjoyable to drive.

The playlist below was created by @steelreserv the guy from the AMS2 development team who works on car setups. There's some very useful tips in there:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKABgBfKhWNd-xEzZwvkr6N0Gt1nONnMp

 

Project Cars 2 solved this by having a stable setup, a loose setup and a high speed setup for Le Mans for some cars.

 

The big issue with other Sims and one of the reasons I enjoy Automoblista is much as I do Is that the tire model and physics does not support the ability to drive aggressively to counteract a less than optimal set up.

In iracing, if you touch the throttle mid corner, you blow the rear tires off in a fit of uncontrollable, unrecoverable wheelspin and then you die. Therefore, setup is everything. Its all about eliminating instabilities with the car while also making the car completely unstable so it's fast. Its so stupid.

In AMS, AMS 2 and Live For Speed meanwhile, the car simply rotates a little in a controllable 4 wheel slide. You can balance the car's handling (as I imagine someone could IRL) with the controls of the car. Thus having a optimized set up designed to abuse the physics of the game is less important and often detrimental because driving cars like that is extremely difficult, especially in a game that punishes aggressive driving!

Thats why I'm growing to hate Iracing. They've proved they can make proper driving physics with the 87 cup cars and the Skip Barber. They just choose to be willfully ignorant so they don't have to admit they've borked the physics of every other car on that service.

The Skippies are light, slide a lot and feel extremely fun to drive. They feel like a AMS 2 open wheeler with a hint of the old Iracing death wiggle. The 87 cup car drive exactly as you would expect they would too, and they don't feel on edge and on the verge of murdering you for the entire race. No, they feel like a barge on squishy tires and 750 horsepower. It only took Dale Jr. Stepping in and saying...

"This doesn't fell fundamentally right."

 

thanls
I bet it’s due a fix

 

Speaking of the AI plowing through you... I hope we can get rid of all ghosting at some point, or make it optional to be precise. I still find it partially inconsistent and scary. Doesn't have to be soon, I imagine it would take a fair bit of work with the AI.

 

Tried to run each o my three custom championships tonight and the start button was broken for all of them, it just would not launch any of them but single race and test day worked fine. Has anyone else had this issue?

Instead I ran a single race with the Super v8s at Monza and found the car to still be a little off, the front of the car seemed to be a bit floaty and meandered around a little. I know there was previously issues with this car, does anyone else still find it a bit strange?