Automobilista 2 V1.5 Officially RELEASED - Now updated to V1.5.0.5

But you didn’t deny that you’re a robot?

 

A chatbot?
Well programmed i must say.

 

(Robot translation) The dev team programmed Crimson to do all the work so they could enjoy beach volleyball and margaritas until sunset.

Nah, I'm just joking. I'm sure lots of stuff is going on behind the scenes.

 

Meanwhile we can enjoy 1.5, so what can go wrong XD.
If you miss the 'true' online racing with rating and official sessions, there's racecraft.online which is already a very good. All it needs is more drivers.

 

And while we enjoy the game as it is and patiently await the next update, allow me to share a track I recorded a few months back as a tribute to Reiza's dedication to delivering historic stuff for us mere mortals.



The track is in part inspired by Reiza's take on the old Spa circuit, and I guess in part what I'd imagine it would be like racing there IRL, as well as my passion for vintage/retro racing and motor racing in general.

Enjoy!

 

The damage model of the AI can probably only be solved satisfactorily if the AI is also able to overtake cars quickly. Currently, the AI sometimes lags behind slower competitors for too long. Or the AI will destroy itself if you increase the damage for it. This is probably a very sensitive point where too much can go wrong. But in the current state, this construction site would be by far the most satisfying extension for me in AMS2.

The races are great but a little too harmless and sterile.

 

I can't see or feel much wrong with any of the mechanical grip dynamics. e.g the copa cars beetle, mini, uno etc there's FWD and RWD cars to pick. Perhaps the closest to street cars than other stuff in the game. If I pick one of them, put a bunch of AI on a track and chase them around nothing feels odd to me.

Nothing fundamental seems wrong. It's not like they sat in a meeting saying "What should happen if you lift off mid corner?" "Err, understeer I think" "Ok..." oops, no, that should have been calling the oversteer function. It's not like that. They have bunch of physical car parts modelled, suspension, tyres etc, and numbers go in and numbers come out. There might be some tweaking of those numbers, but the cars behave like cars. For definite on the mechanical side. In VR it's very intuitive to drive.

If I compare with videos like Rob Wilson driving around, I'm not thinking "Well that doesn't work in AM2" - i.e Rob Wilson's Astra tyres are complaining on every corner and they're pushing the car hard, but every movement of the wheel and pedals is gently applied. My experience in AM2 is much the same, if you drive like that it becomes very easy to find time over the AI (on 100%) and control the car at the limit, but it's easy to induce lift off oversteer or unsettle the car being heavy-handed and lose time too. It's also very easy to think "drive smoothly" and end up driving slowly, because under the limit you can tootle around the track as easily as you can drive to Tesco.

Someone posted a (real life) video of a Caterham at Oulton park where he gets a wheel on the grass and the car spins - and I've done that in the game a few times.

The way you have to wrestle to keep the car on line braking hard into turn 1 of brands indy? That feels right to me.

(without wanting to resurrect a bit of a heated debate) I can easily demonstrate one of the above copa cars ploughing straight ahead if I turn the wheel too far - and then going over the grass, slowing down, back on the track the other side it'll regrip and then turn sharply.

Now, if there's problems with the aero grip or behaviour I wouldn't have much experience to say (in the game or IRL)

 

Yep,Link Wray style with a little bit of Surf!
Like it.

 

I LOVE IT! Is that you on the guitar? Its got a touch of Pulp Fiction / Portishead atmosphere going on, love the cars at the end aswell! BRAVO!!!

 

I worked out an interesting cheat last weekend. In single player race with formation lap on you can accelerate above the 120kph limit for a few seconds and then brake to get below it again and repeat the same thing over and over. By the time you get to the start of the race you are miles ahead of the rest of the pack. I hope Reiza can do something about this.

 

Theres quite a few issues with rolling starts and pace laps, on an oval for instance the inside line starts overtaking the outside and can completely screw up the order, with cras starting in positions further forward than the should be, this is in single player at least, so im forced sometimes to use Standing starts even if I want and need rolling starts, its a bit broken

 

Just tried these three cars and yup, you are correct! However must say thankyou as its the first time ive tried the Rocco since the recent updates and aside from the complete lack of visual damage... Man does that thing feel good to drive now! Massive improvement!!!

 

FWIW I think I'm the person they're referring to in that post. Basically, I feel like the GT3s (and to an extent the GTEs) tend to be pretty pitch and weight transfer insensitive compared to what I see in other sims. Combined with the fact that the grip doesn't seem to fall off as sharply over the limit as I'd expect, it makes them feel a bit more forgiving around and over the edge than they should, IMO.

The 1.5.0.4 and 1.5.0.5 tire changes definitely made them feel FAR better than they ever have, and I'm super happy that the cars can be made to understeer more and don't laterally slide as much now, but I definitely do notice that they don't seem to be as snappy and sensitive to weight transfer/pitch as I'd expect, even with softer suspension setups and cars that are notoriously hard to drive like the 991 generation GT3 RS

I can drive that car in Rf2, AC, ACC, and Raceroom (And the 991.ii and 992 in some of those) and in all of those sims it's very easy to upset the Porsche(s) if you're not on top of controlling the balance using the throttle, brake modulation, etc., and from what I hear and see from IRL Porsche drivers it's like that in real life as well due to how heavily rear-biased the weight balance is, especially in quali trim, so it feels like an area where AMS2 is an outlier for whatever reason.

I'm not sure if it's just another Madness Engine quirk to be overcome like the issues you guys found with the pMotor/SETA bug or just something with the aero/tire models that might need more fine tuning, but either way it's something I and others have noticed, and with the coming of Le Mans and GT3s going to be the top class of GT racing next year it would be awesome to have cars like these (more or less) fully fine tuned and showing their full potential.

 

I understand that the tire work etc. isn't done and I also do agree that the cars can definitely be upset (Especially after the last couple of post-1.5 updates), it's just that even with setups that by all accounts should be extremely pitch sensitive and unstable, I find it easier to save the car when it begins to rotate too much, as well as being noticeably harder than other sims to unsettle it in the first place. Not a colossal difference, but big enough that it does affect the way I treat the car to a noteworthy extent. I can be a fair bit less precise with my trail braking and control of weight transfer, use more aggressive steering inputs, etc. But I also assume this is something you guys are aware of, given how things have been progressing.

I only assume it's potentially in part due to some quirk with Madness Engine because thus far Madness Engine sims are the only ones that I've experienced this behavior and similar characteristics on, between AMS2 and both PC1 and PC2, albeit obviously even between those 3 there are major differences.

I agree that it's most most likely primarily due to not yet getting to fine tune of tire parameters (which is honestly my initial assumption) or something with the way pitch sensitivity/aero balance is modeled. AMS2 is a sim with a huge amount of content and it's understandable that after a huge physics rework a lot of cars are not going to be able to have been delved into in extreme depth at this point.

My primary point when talking to Emir_de_Passy prior to their post on this thread was moreso that the GT3s are finally showing their true potential with 1.5.0.5, just not finished yet. Not that I think they're completely broken or unrealistic, but that they would need those finer touches to both get their general behavior more precisely dialed and also bring out the more nuanced per-car behavior.

 

I agree, to some extent, for the porsche cup 911.2 and gt3r.
My impression is that the sim now behaves in a very believable way (I dare to say the most believable) when those cars are driven slightly below the limit. For those who know iRacing... If you drive iRacing style, then my feeling is that here in AMS2 we now are in a equally realistic/believable situation. Even more I'd say.
But when I remember I am in a videogame, and overdrive on purpose, big-time missing corner entry or flooring it on corner exit stepping out the rear end, then my feeling is that things become a bit too easy and quite not pinishing enough.
Of course you lose time. Of course you lose position, but that feeling of danger for losing a 1Ton car at the edge of grip is not there.
I saw a video yesterday, gt3 real race, lambo and bmw side by side in a right turn, high speed, edge of grip. Bmw touches lambo and lambo starts spinning, slowly but in non-controllable way, because grip limit was definitely exceeded.
I was not able to recreate it in AMS2 yet. Lateral bumps upset the car, you go sliding, lose time, bit simple steering corrections get you back straight on track.
Just my experience, and maybe some feedback for the team.

 

Oh man looking forward to that.
Because maybe I can again feel that physics in AMS2 does feel better than the competition

 

Just take your time, I trust your assessment as update after update you're proving that with significant updates.

Spoiler

Especially when I have no time to play AMS2 in the coming days