Let's talk about the rain 1.6

The video is 5 minutes long, at what parts exactly is there any standing water ? I will test it again myself, i drove the track in "Storm" weather earlier and there was no puddles at all.

Okay so i did my own further testing and found multiple puddles at modern Hockenheim !
And you know what ? They all behave like they are just a fake texture and have zero effect on any car i tested them with. So the puddles do actually exist off track, but they are just fake ?

 

Because it has nothing to do with aquaplaning, but rather with parameters that deviate from the physical laws governing dry roads.

Rain is almost entirely an optical illusion. It's a highly simplified representation to make it work, just like the solution for puddles.

More romantic than predictable.

 

Just two laps... If you watch the first lap, in big straight, when I pass over a puddle with throtlle you can HEAR the car loosing traction... Not to mention in the end of first lap going to grass and in end of second going to the barrier because of the fake textures... Lol!

Traction Control does wonders! Try a formula car!

Acquaplaining is easy to simulate for practical purposes: you lost almost ALL grip.

Rain in racing games (ALL games rendering) are an optical illusion that make grip = grip -x.

No need to over complicate! Lol!

 

Try telling that to the AI.

The player's physics already differ from the AI's on dry roads; what happens with absolutely no grip?

The game has to work, and sometimes you trade one bad thing for another if it turns out to be the lesser of two evils.

 

Watch @Ernesto_171 's video. It's very clear. When he's putting it down on a puddle the rear steps out - other than in any other part of the track. You can also "hear" the puddles. I haven't tested it myself but in Ernesto's video it is like some months/years ago. I'm positively surprised. I loved the huge puddles - even though they weren't that realistic. They forced you to find an alternative line.

Unfortunately and as others have already said AI doesn't seem to be affected by puddles - at least not as strong as players.
That's a shame. But I have to admit that I haven't race in heavy rain for a few weeks.

 

AI limitations shouldn't keep the rest of the game hostage, I would rather just accept the bigger AI limitations on more extreme cases (which are unrealistic anyway, nobody races in a storm etc.)

I haven't tested a the puddles in a while, but it's clear that those still exist in more extreme weather cases at least, but I guess the puddles aren't as deep as they used to be and that's why it can feel like textures for some with some cars.

Sure rain simulation isn't as detailed as some other parts of the simulation, but neither is aero, so...

 

Exactly, i never race offline against AI so to not have proper weather and puddles in online feels like i we have a feature removed to no beneffit. And the game already has wet weather AI scaling ability in place for offline racing.

 

well, your not the only one playing AMS2, as a AMS2 league admin for over 4 years, multiplayer improvements are very welcome, personally i never play against AI, but that doesn't mean i think multiplayer should be the only area of focus, different people want/need different things. saying they should focus on one particular area just because that's what you use the most.

i could also tell you to play iRacing if you want a good AI experience, as that seems to be regarded as a good AI.

Also, the one doesn't have to exclude the other, it's very likely that the person(s) working on multiplayer aren't working on the AI and vice versa.

saying that there are other options to play for multiplayer and people should play that is not up to you to decide, people can play whatever they want to play.

 

When I look at how populated many online servers are, and Reiza mentions the million mark in the last report, it becomes clear that this is largely an offline simulation. Yes, it would be nice if the AI's physics in the rain were closer to the player's. But it looks more like we'll just get a slider for aquaplaning instead.

If anything at all.

Personally, the AI's damage model bothers me more than the rain.

 

Exactly. There are already lots of "driving games" out there like AC.

Sim racing means simulating racing, the extent to which the AI is seen to be playing by different rules should be minimized as far as possible.

 

I am not a game dev but the obvious thing would be "implement AI losing traction/speed instead of completely removing the feature that affects multiplayer that is the only thing some people play" ?

Again why would i care about AC when i do not play AC, or LMU, or any other racing sim on the market now. Do not care about their rain physics or puddles or what they got.

 

That's precisely the problem: none of us are game developers. If we were, we wouldn't even try to define it with traction. I don't believe something like traction actually exists in AI or in simulations in general. It's all just tricks and code magic to make it seem that way. If the developers actually explained how they achieve it, hardly anyone would even talk about simulations anymore.

I think they just flash the lights and let the magic work. Like David Copperfield. He never actually flew...

 

Fair enough. I mean mostly if they can't get it fixed.