Automobilista 2 V1.4.3.3 & Racin´ USA Pt3 Officially Released!

I do believe it's WIP and will arrive in the not so far future....

 

Confirmed. And i had problems to drive this car because i need to "hear" the speed!

 

Do you recall the Project Cars mod tools that were released recently? Not all of them work with AMS2 but IIRC it makes the bootfile process a lot easier on AMS2, so that might be less of a headache going forward.

 

@Lucifer_sam and @Scar666... I feel I was taken out of context.

I'm not saying the on-track action is bad, actually, I believe the racing is just as good if not better than their ICE-powered counterparts. The point I was getting across is that series popularity from a spectator standpoint is different from what works in the sim. I believe these series should be embracing sim-racing as a means to bring in new fans.

I'm not the biggest follower of Formula E, but I can speak for Nitro RX and WRX because I've followed them for years. While I like the concept of Formula E, I haven't really watched it that much outside of the Monaco GP.

A bit of history on RX...

Nitro basically picked up the mantle of Red Bull GRC and later ARX in being a "US-based/international RX series." They even poached some WRX teams for their first full US championship last year. While they haven't promoted as heavily on network or streaming (their Peacock/NBC deal is reminiscent of GRC's NBC coverage back in the day), you can freely watch all the races live on YouTube, and it's been that way for years. Looking at their view stats, last year was the peak of Nitro RX, while there is an almost 75% plunge in viewership this year. While I personally enjoy the new Group E category, a very vocal part of the community clearly did not. This is in the year when the series went fully international and should be taking some viewership off of WRX (more on them later).

While I love the current racing product with the FC1X, Nitro RX effectively made the same mistake that Red Bull GRC did: going spec when manufacturer and team interests didn't want it. While spec racing will always provide a more fair, closer product, it limits outside investment from any brand looking to actually compete. The 1000hp monster that is the FC1X is a fantastic replacement for the supercars on paper, less than half the cost, more power, and similar to sometimes better laptimes than the outgoing 600+hp monsters, but what kept GRC, ARX, and even early Nitro RX alive was the Subaru vs. VW vs M-Sport/Osbergs Ford battle.

GRC died from forcing its top class to run the Osbergs RX Lite, effectively killing what was a moderately successful series overnight. The teams effectively revolted and ARX popped up in its place running alongside WRX for a few rounds with old GRC competitors. While the move to spec (more likely the move to a slower spec) killed GRC, Nitro RX has done well enough to survive, even with the Group E haters moaning at every chance. Funnily enough, the FC1X is manufactured by Osbergs, the same people who make the RX Lite.

What is effectively on it's deathbed is WRX, which absolutely will die from the switch to EV if changes aren't made. WRX was massive about 8-10 years ago. While it was in a slump before the switch to EV, the current state of the series is just depressing. The cars cost double or more of the FC1X, are slower than their ICE-Powered European championship counterparts, and are noticeably heavier. Almost every discussion you can find online of the RXe cars is just filled with jaded fans who are done with the series.

The fans are voting with their views. WRX can barely scrape 15k views on a video, meanwhile, Nitro RX is getting about 11-80k on their current Group E streams. Contrast that to 500k+ just in YouTube viewership on their final last year in the old Supercars and 250k-400k in average viewership last year. While advertising and promotion could play a large part in statistics, the numbers are undeniable. While I love the current product from a racing standpoint, the dip in series interest is too big to ignore.

Nitro and Osbergs should be putting the FC1X into sims to show how fun the cars can be. There are several series that I started following because the cars were fun to drive in a sim. If the average fan doesn't see the appeal, at least draw in the motorsport fanatics with the one area where the cars shine.

Edit: My issues with Formula E actually have nothing to do with being electric. My problem with Formula E is it trying to be a premier open-wheel series while having less downforce than many regional series. While I absolutely adore the smaller, tight tracks, and the racing I've seen looks good, I haven't seen the same push for the series as 3-4 years ago.

 

I can't really say much, i do not know very much about RX, and I do understand the larger point with Nitro and especially WRX. My main problem is with Formula E, it isn't getting that push because electric racing isn't a gimmick now, FE is now just another racing series with unique rules. And I do think that them not having much downforce is a strength, means closer and more exciting racing while keeping the weight as low as possible making the cars look as fast as possible. Infact I'm sure that the main factor, saving weight to make them look as fast as they can. As much as I would watch, everyone would've been mocking and trashing them even more if it was something closer to a traditional touring car.

Also I didn't take you out of context, just gaps in my knowledge and me not acknowledging that you think simracing is of great benefit to electric cars (which I 100% agree with)

 

Oh I completely agree that electric series should be fully embracing sim racing as a whole... Formula E needs to get out of it's exclusive relationship with rF2... Hopefully the crash of MSGS leads to FE having multiple licensing deals with major sim racing titles...

Thanks for the history as I had very little idea of WRX outside of the DIRT Rally series...

For me what I see as the biggest issue with all of those series isn't the EV side, but the spec side...

They've essentially taken away one of the biggest drawcards... Rivalries... Get rid of Ford vs Holden in the V8 Supercars and there's going to be a downturn... Ford vs Chevrolet is going to take a downturn in interest from the last season of Ford vs Holdens... At least in it's major market, Australia...

It seems like WRX and other series went spec and took away the rivalries that the fans loved and came for...

Those who love the sounds of the old cars and can't gel with the EVs still exist, but are probably a minor reason for the downturn in interest in comparison to the issues that come with going from multiple manufacturers to a spec series...

Downforce is highly overrated for racing, great for grip but terrible for racing... Just look at F1... Where they spent decades chasing air over the car because they banned ground effects only to invent DRS to create fake overtakes... And then they were forced to allow ground effects because the DRS wasn't powerful enough anymore, which on some tracks this year still wasn't enough to provide racing... Put a FE car on those tracks and there's overtaking without the Attack mode or fan boost...

3-4 years ago was when the gen 2 car was new... The gen 3 car with it's 4WD, higher power and shared regen front and rear will give it a very different feel and look on track... Thus there should be another boon period as the new cars gather fresh interest from the new technology and faster cars... It has however as Lucifer_sam says lost it's novelty status as many other electric series exist now...

Now that I'm thinking about it more I'd really love for Reiza to add the FE gen 3 to AMS2... Not before a LMPH or 2... But I'd still love to see what Reiza would come up with...

 

Formula E and LMPH and LMDH cars would be good together with the Le Mans Track and Yas Marina set.

 

Thanks, I'll look into it. My only stopover so far mods-wise is the ProjectCarsModdingTeam site, so to them fell the ungrateful task of keeping up with Reiza's release schedule.

 

it's not the formula E cars themselves, (even though they sound boring), it's mostly the garbage tracks you are forced to race in them

 

If they raced on actual tracks, everyone would notice how slow and reliant on lifting and coasting they really are

 

I'd rather have Group 5 or olden days IMSA GTOs than electric cars, but that's just my personal preference. Old & loud > new & quiet.

 

electric cars are a blasphemy and spawn of the devil.

 

Me too, any day.

 

Ah so they are good things then

 

I want to get my fingers on it all... Anything that provides great racing is good for me...

But in terms of sim racing I'd take something that we won't be able to see at a race track pushed to it's absolute limits over something that races today...

 

ok so i just tried to go from release candidate back to normal release and now the game won't start, CTD every time

 

turns out it's the controller profiles, where i selected simucube in RC going back to normal version CTD on startup as simucube doesn't exist in it

 

Sorry but I completely disagree