Ok, I'll admit it: I'm an audiophile. My love for cars is not only related to the driving but rather to the driving experience as a whole, which includes audio and engine noise. With the last couple of updates, AMS 2 has made its way to the top of my sim racing list, even surpassing its predecessor. The driving feels spot on, the car and track selection is almost perfect (only missing Long Beach 98, Vancouver, Portland, Surfers Paradise, Toronto, Mid Ohio, Miami), and the features the sim offers are ever-expanding and also almost perfect (missing formation lap + standing start, safety car for formation laps, and offline session log generation). The only part where AMS2 really isn't up there yet is in the sound department - and maybe modding. Overall, it feels like most car sounds lack depth. Small bangs and crackles between shifts here and there, more reverb when driving by, and cleaner gear transitions would probably make a huge difference. I'm talking about external sounds, by the way; the internal ones are very good for most cars. If we look at cars like the GTE Porsche or the GT3 Ginetta, we can see what is possible in terms of sound. They sound awesome from the inside, but where they truly outshine other cars in AMS2 is in their external sound depth. They sound phenomenal! Unfortunately, my favourite cars - CART - do not sound great at all. I think they do sound good on the inside, even though the sound is not realistic at all. The V8 of these cars had a way deeper base tone to it, and you could really hear the transmission when they were driving slowly, but where they really do not sound great is... you guessed it, on the outside. They are completely missing depth; if you listen to their real-life counterpart, there are pops and bangs and just an audible transition between gears. The sim that does this best is Assetto Corsa. I'm really hoping that Reiza will put in the effort so we can have a sim that is as close as it gets to being perfect!
I agree with some of the things you pointed out as being in need of attention however, my views regarding what games have the best sounds available will differ. Either way, I think it's only fair to consider a few points regarding the current state of AMS2 audio. In terms of the ultimate Racing-sim audio experience, it has yet to be created, imo. Much like real car physics, the gap between reality and simulation leaves a lot of room for improvement. The ultimate "sound engine" built specifically for processing realistic racing environmental audio does not exist. Reiza did improve audio in AMS1 significantly albeit, near the end of its development. There is a sequence to the process that we don't likely fully understand as onlookers, and AMS2 is more complex and detailed. Source material quality varies greatly, if available at all. In any case, a lot of time is needed to research / source / record / develop accurate quality audio. Even large studios with abundant resources and expertise still sometimes struggle to provide quality audio results in certain cases, despite having the best audio engineers in the business. Reiza understands the challenges and limitations far better than we do. We only need to look to the work they have done before to have better understanding of where they are headed.
I would love to experience racing sims moving away from sample-based audio and into modeled impulse responses. Engine sounds are rhythmic bangs in a resonating chassis, after all -- you'll get more optimal results if you work in the time domain rather than in the frequency domain. But, I fear the hurdles are too big and too many for that to happen in my lifetime.
Some cars have an acceptable over-rev sound effect, and some are less than acceptable, in fact quite annoying.
Hehe we can all dream. Conserning game audio I would dream of socalled binaural sound. Because most of us are driving with headphones and the most amazing positional "surround" sound in HPs is binaural sound. Lots of years ago I recorded part of the GB Silverstone F1 GP with a binaural recording set. If I today listen to this with HPs Im completely teleported back to the grandstands. Even the coughing by my girlfriend to the right is reproduced. Shyy woman now concentrate on these cars
