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

Thing is, the basics for the same thing are all in AMS2, but not quite executed right (puddles, wet line) or can't be properly used due to (imo) very unhelpful design decisions on how weather is set up (extremely unflexible 1 hour slots)

IRacing has the exact system I've always dreamt AMS2 could have.

 

I did the same. I focused mainly on the physics/feel.
Surprisingly I found it very aligned with AMS2 in terms of behavior over puddles when the tires are loaded, but I found quite un-natural the continuous aquaplaning and grip/stability loss even in straight line at moderate speed (tires not loaded).
All in all, physically talking, I prefer AMS2 as for the dry driving.
Regarding graphics, the tarmac/puddles is better in iRacing for me, but the surrounding, the lighting, the sky, the spray, the "depth" feel is better in AMS2 (especially with a little reshade).

I maanged to record my first lap with rain in iR. The way I lose it at acque-minerali put me off, not much at the section entry (I lost it in braking zone) but more when I re-entered track, going uphill, it felt like snow with the car yawing around.

Afterwards I recorded another video in AMS2, same conditions. I lost it due to puddle in turn 5 (I was pushing a little harder) but I did not find it "off" or "unpredicatable".

 

Yeah, I agree with Dicra. While AMS2 weather system is excellent, Iracing has certainly raised the bar. Tried it a bit yesterday with the Toyota GR86 and the way the track evolves is extremely realistic both visually (not talking graphically) and how it drives. The AI was also very well calibrated and saw some make mistakes.

Ironically I agree with a comment from RD in that the sim now drives better in the wet than the dry, you really feel in control and can slide the car without any sudden snap oversteer, feels very intuitive and actually quite similar to AMS2, at least in the GR86.

AMS2 shortcomings in the weather system IMHO is how it handles the wet to dry transitions, the track outside the racing line dries too quickly even in low temperatures, so you barely have that stay within the dry line scenario that happens every time a track is properly wet but it stops raining. Also the AI is all over the place pace wise.

 

I totally get what you mean. I did a few laps in the wet in AMS 2 while waiting for the servers to go up. At Spielberg and Spa in heavy rain in the 963, 911 and the C9. I think in AMS 2 the wet tires still have a little too much grip. Maybe it's realistic, I can't say but, I'd like to punished a little more in general in AMS 2 in the wet. That said the C9 is just mental, it's such a handful in wet conditions, and yeah, I think iR the exact opposite is true, in the rain it's a little too wild at the moment, I do need to spend more time with it though.

I will say though, it would be a dream to have that level of control in terms of weather setup in AMS2, so hopefully with UI updates maybe we'll see some added functionality. Even just in terms of scheduling never mind forecasts etc. And the other thing that I was super impressed with is how well the AI in iR are interacting with the wet line, already they avoid the dry line in tricky situations. It's really cool.

 

Regarding having an improved control of weather in AMS2, I totally agree.
Regarding the wet physics, I still tend to lean more towards AMS2 vs iRacing implementation.
Check this rl onboard, again Imola, wet.

He avoids the biggest wet spots, but he is not too picky using the curbs, and cutting on the dry lines as well where necessary.
All in all, the car feels anyhow grippy and planted, until you reach the limit (which is much closer in the wet) and then you lose it.
A person I know was in France last week to do some invitational laps with EURONASCAR program.
It was compeltely soaked and rainy. He ended up in the gravel trap (damaging the front splitter) but he reported that the car actually has way more grip that you'd expect, until you just lose it and if you are not prepared or quick enough to react, you end up overshooting the corner or just spinning.
When it comes to sims, I think there is also a part of personal preferences and personal taste, combined with the personal driving style.
And to me AMS just feels more natural. I was expecting a much wider gap though, they both feel quite close IMO.

 

Yes, that's another thing: The system definitely supports a drying ideal line, but you somehow rarely see it because in sunny conditions the water disappears very quickly everywhere and in cloudy conditions the cars don't seem to manage to remove as much water from the ideal line as you'd expect.

(Doesn't get helped at all by the usually accelerated track state, tho)

 

Another issue the rigidity brings, is that it is very easy to game the system. You can easily compute when the transition points are, and those are basically the only time when you're interested in what the weather is doing.

If you do an 1 hour race, with 2 scaled weather slots, then if it doesn't rain at the 30minutes mark, you know it will not rain in the race.

If it starts to rain, you know it will rain for the remainder of the race. You're always sure which way the weather will go. It's boring.

 

I see it a lot because I never use accelerated anything in AMS 2. Does iRacing have accelerated options for dynamic track and weather all working and co-ordinated intelligently, or do they assume people who want to fiddle with the specifics of weather would do it for realism purposes?

I am also surprised that people keep expressing surprise that when they set time to be accelerated everything in the game cycles more quickly.

 

It's even worse when race organizers way too often are making relatively short races and force those weather slots there, so if if there ends up being rain, it starts always really quickly (you race can be screwed if you just started the lap when it starts to pour) and also ends the same way and that is like throwing the dice and breaks the immersion.

AMS2 has had best rain implementation I have tried this far (for sure it's been better than in rF2 that is my other main sim). The puddles don't feel that unrealistic to me, as it doesn't require that much IRL even in normal road car to those feel scary, just a bit of speed and proper puddle.

But yeah, can't really disagree in any other others points you raised. (also forgot that curbs aren't really slippery on rain in AMS2).

I don't play iRacing, but from what I have read / seen now about the rain, they seemed to really raise the bar a lot on their rain implementation compared to all others.

 

There are random time differentiators in the system. The slots start and stop within a range of the slot boundaries, not exactly on the moment of them (in my experience and based on the documentation). So, if you pick four random slots in an hour, the second slot could start quite quickly, or close to a half hour in to the session. Etc. You get metronomical slots?

 

One major flaw in sandbox-style games is that hosts can pick ridiculous and stupid combinations or settings...and often do just that.

Perhaps we should ask for the "Authentic" gameplay option to extend to other features in the game like weather. For example, weather that cannot occur in a real race because the race would be red flagged get eliminated out of the pool of random choices or the options allowed to be selected by the user/host?

Of course, even if that existed, it wouldn't mean online hosts would choose it...

 

I don't like Rally-X water spray in Iracing.

https://youtube.com/shorts/2oCe_75zV-E?si=f3MNUPdunxOXnKlR

But the reflections are really nice.

 

. When I was testing the AI wet pace on a soaked track with heavy clouds, the whole track (the runoff and outside track limits does stay properly wet) would dry bar the puddles within 15 minutes, there never is a proper dry line on the track. A soaked track with heavy clouds would stay wet/damp for a good hour outside the racing line.

That was using 1 weather slot on a 60 minute session with time scaled weather, which should have no effect on that setting.

 

This would be because forcing weather slots to be one hour long each doesn't make sense from a POV of chasing realism. With this design decision you _have_ to accelerate the weather if you wish to do shorter races or if you wish to have only short periods of rain.

If the only way for a user who doesn't have the time for a four hour race to use all weather slots is to accelerate time, it's quite surprising that this also accelerates the track state.

While someone might want to have short periods of rain, there's a very low (read: almost zero) chance anyone ever wants to set up changeable conditions, use a very sophisticated engine that is able to simulate the gradual changes that make racing in the rain so cool and dynamic and then have all these changes happen in an instant because they get "accelerated into invisibility".

If you didn't have the 1 hour slots the user has to get around, it would make sense for weather acceleration to also encompass the track, but the way it is it makes the weather system severely undermine its own potential.

 

You forgot to add snow

 

The track state definitely should not evolve in accelerated pace, that just doesn't work, we are still driving around the track at the same pace. The acceleration is problematic even with that as things tend to happen just too quickly, within a single lap.

I remember doing some "for fun" races in some community, rain started when I had started the lap at Laguna Seca and by half way on the lap, it was impossible to stay on track on the dry tires.

The accelerated pace IMO only works we'll with day/night transitions, not so much with weather and definitely not what comes to track evolution.

I haven't got familiar with the new iRacing weather system, but what I would like to see is a system where when you set up a race, you could say give some parameters on how the weather you would want it to be, with some parameters of those being optional (what comes to probability or timing) AND I would like the game to give me seed that I could use later if I want to replicate the conditions / randomization exactly. I wouldn't mind for the game to limit how many transitions there could even be depending on the length of the race (that ignores the acceleration and just user real length).

 

I recall some reports saying wet track states in AMS2 are desynced for players in some races, as in there is a puddle in T1 for player A, but not for player B. Has this been fixed?

Any reports on iRacing having the same issue?

 

I have no idea what version of AMS 2 you are using that has only one hour weather cycles? I get as many weather cycles as I choose (up to 4) jammed in to whatever session length session I choose. So, if I have a 1 hour P session, with four slots, each cycle will last approximately 15 minutes (because the boundary is not exact as I said earlier). With no acceleration of any kind selected... Are you not able to do this?

Second, you have so many issues with AMS 2 acceleration features, but you didn't answer how iRacing solved these problems... Can you tell us how exactly their acceleration system works to your satisfaction?

 

The F-V10 Gen 2 is based on the FW23 so we already have it Sound isn't 100% the scream of the BMW motor but it gets pretty close